MILTON, John

  • Era: 1608 - 1674
  • Location: England
  • Categories: LITERATURE

 

Versatile poet and dramatist (in both English and Latin), he used his pen to expound a Protestant ethical and theological underpinning of a civic society freed from the arbitrariness of rule by royalty. Though mainly based in England, hence his defence of the Parliamentarians against the Royalists in the Civil War, on a visit to France and Italy he met with Grotius and Galileo. He challenges episcopy and defends regicides with equal passion. On religious grounds he advocates the freedom of the press and the right to divorce (the notion of marriage as a sacrament is the fictional creation of clergy).

Life

Writings