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Milton is regarded as one of the preeminent writers in the English language and as a thinker of world importance.

Milton wrote seminal political and religious essays


and pamphlets that were not only highly influential in their time, but remain significant contributions to the canon of libertarian thought. Contentious in his day,
during which he was principal propagandist of the ruling Protectorate established by Oliver Cromwell, Milton also became known as the supreme champion in
England of the then-embryonic concept of political self-determination. An early proponent of individual rights, Milton promoted such causes as freedom of the press
against government censorship, the right of the people to overthrow tyrannical rulers

Milton began to write prose tracts against episcopacy, in the service of the Puritan and Parliamentary cause , on his return to England where the Bishops'
Wars presaged further armed conflict,. Milton's first foray into polemics was Of Reformation touching Church Discipline in England (1641), followed by Of Prelatical
Episcopacy, the two defenses of Smectymnuus (a group of Presbyterian divines named from their initials; the "TY" belonged to Milton's old tutor Thomas Young),
and The Reason of Church-Government Urged against Prelaty. He vigorously attacked the High-church party of the Church of England and their leader William
Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury, with frequent passages of real eloquence lighting up the rough controversial style of the period, and deploying a wide knowledge of
church history.

It was after the abolition of the Star Chamber in 1640 , that Milton, who had been educated for the ministry but had since devoted himself to poetry, put down the
poet's pen and began pamphleteering. He wrote several works against episcopacy, on church-state relationships, and on Reformation. Milton was seen as a radical,
and was definitely not within the mainstream of his contemporaries in theology or politics. Indeed, despite the negative views of him held by many in public office
and at the pulpit, Milton was in many ways a picture of Protestant virtue and work ethic

Areopagitica, was written in 1644, in support of returning power to the Council of Areopagus. Milton advocated removal of government imprimaturs, licensing laws
which forced all published works to be funneled through a small set of government officials for approval.

Cromwell's death in 1658 caused the English Republic to collapse into feuding military and political factions. Milton, however, stubbornly clung to the beliefs that had
originally inspired him to write for the Commonwealth. In 1659, he published A Treatise of Civil Power, attacking the concept of a state-dominated church (the
position known as Erastianism), as well as Considerations touching the likeliest means to remove hirelings, denouncing corrupt practises in church governance. As the
Republic disintegrated, Milton wrote several proposals to retain a non-monarchical government against the wishes of parliament, soldiers, and the people. The Ready
and Easy Way to Establishing a Free Commonwealth, in two editions, responded to General Monck's march towards London to restore the Long Parliament (which led
to the restoration of the monarchy). The work is an impassioned, bitter, and futile jeremiad damning the English people for backsliding from the cause of liberty and
advocating the establishment of an authoritarian rule by an oligarchy set up by unelected parliament.

With the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, Milton was out in the cold: as a staunch republican, a supporter of Cromwell and an apologist for the regicide, he was
lucky to escape execution for treason. His unorthodox views on various sensitive subjects, including divorce (he was in favour) were well known: Milton was an active
writer of political pamphlets as well as a poet, and he had many influential enemies. England in 1667 was reeling from the events of the previous year, when plague
and fire had swept the capital, causing a devastation many people thought was divinely inspired; a biblical epic from a blind, grim old controversialist was by no
means certain of being sympathetically received, as the poet's wish that his poem might 'fit audience find, though few' (VII.31) perhaps recognises. In spite of this
unwelcoming climate, when Paradise Lost appeared, it was hailed as a work of genius, even by Milton's political opponents.

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