ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with the print controversy between Eikon Basilike and Eikonoklastes, reading both texts as devotional works in which Charles I and John Milton, respectively, unfold their vision of authentic prayer. It examines how Eikon Basilike mirrors the practice of public prayer as captured in the Book of Common Prayer, studying both the liturgical text and Charles's book as creating a sense of community and inviting the readers to adopt and imitate the devotional model on offer. Eikon Basilike is shown to share with the Book of Common Prayer the power to invest individuals with feelings of inclusion, empowerment, and proximity to God via the Christian community. The chapter explores how Milton's Eikonoklastes targets those attributes that Eikon Basilike shares with liturgical prayer, i.e. communality, visibility, and set forms. It also explores how Milton uses his Chapter 16, "Upon the Ordinance against the Common-prayer Book", to articulate his theory of devotion and the role of the body in it.
