Milton and the Terms of Liberty

Essays on Milton's developing ideas on liberty, and his republicanism, as expressed in his writings over his lifetime. In his Second Defence of the English People (1654) , reflecting on his career as a prose writer, prior to embarking on the composition of Paradise Lost , John Milton identified 'three varieties of liberty without which civilized life is scarcely possible, namely ecclesiastical liberty, domestic or personal liberty, and civil liberty'. In retrospect he was able to find in his ear