ABSTRACT
Born in London in 1608, John Milton lived and worked at a time in which great social and political changes were sweeping through Europe and overwhelming England. This time was marked by a fearful clash between the political order of Christendom that had held sway across Europe for several hundred years and a loose movement of new Christian-based ideologies (collectively forming Protestantism) and potential new political orders which were struggling to take its place. In retrospect, we can see how this loose movement initiated new ways of thinking which, in the centuries following, were to mature into a secular, scientific rationalist way of life. However, any dip into the politics of the seventeenth century shows that the motivations and understanding of participants in the great clash were far removed from those of secular modern-day society, and it is quite a task to perceive the connecting threads between seventeenth-century English Protestantism and modern Western politics. Milton’s political writings are a particular help when trying to address this task; while not noted for their originality, they do present one of the clearest expressions of the political ideas and concerns of English Protestantism during the period of the English civil war – the time in which the earliest forms of liberal parliamentarianism came into being.
