A Defence of the People of England
For For readers of the English Revolution; Milton's Latin answer, for the Commonwealth, to Salmasius's defence of the king.
Pro Populo Anglicano Defensio, the First Defence of the English People, is John Milton's Latin answer to Claudius Salmasius, the Leiden scholar whom Charles II's circle had commissioned to write the Defensio Regia pro Carolo I (1649) against the regicide. The English Council of State, having executed Charles I in January 1649 and abolished the monarchy, needed a reply that would reach the learned courts of Europe, and Milton, already serving as Secretary for Foreign Tongues, was asked to write it. Published in 1651 and written in Latin so that its audience would be continental rather than domestic, the treatise cost Milton his eyesight; he was blind by early 1652, and he attributed the loss in part to the labor of composing it.
Milton's argument is political and biblical at once. Against Salmasius's claim that kings answer to God alone, he contends that royal authority originates in the consent of the people and that a ruler who becomes a tyrant forfeits his office and may be judged by those who conferred it. He draws on Scripture, on Roman and Greek precedent, and on the laws and history of England to show that the nation had always held its kings accountable. He reads the story of Israel's demand for a king in 1 Samuel as God's rebuke of monarchy rather than His endorsement of it, and he rejects the notion that Paul's call to obey the governing authorities requires submission to a tyrant. Much of the book is also a personal assault on Salmasius, mocking his learning, his grammar, and his motives in the abusive style that was ordinary in scholarly controversy of the period. The work is therefore both a serious case for popular sovereignty and a period piece of polemical combat.
The Defensio made Milton famous across Europe in his own lifetime and established the language of consent, accountability, and the right of resistance that later shaped English and Atlantic political thought. It remains valuable for anyone tracing how a Reformed Christian understanding of conscience, covenant, and civil authority could be turned toward revolution. It also shows the young poet of Paradise Lost in the role of public controversialist, whose convictions about liberty were formed in this argument long before his epic.
Who should read this: readers interested in Christian political theology, the English Revolution, or the theological roots of resistance to tyranny will find it rewarding, especially those willing to engage seventeenth-century argument from Scripture and classical authority. It is not for those seeking devotional or contemplative writing, and readers uncomfortable with extended personal invective will find much of it hard going.
Editions
External off-site sources
Free downloads
- OTHER Pro Populo Anglicano Defensio (Dartmouth Milton Reading Room (ed. Thomas H. Luxon))Ed. Thomas H. LuxonRead free online at the Dartmouth Milton Reading Room, edited by Thomas H. Luxon, with notes linked from the text. Copyrighted by Dartmouth and offered for personal reading, so it is a link only.
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E.1EK1SW.SReport - PDF Pro Populo Anglicano Defensio (Internet Archive (Pro Populo Anglicano Defensio, London, 1650/51; EEBO Huntington copy)) PD Latin1650The first printing of the Defensio (London: Du Gardianis, 1650, dated 1651), in Milton's Latin. A page scan of the Huntington Library copy from the Early English Books microfilm.Much harder than the work: Milton's Latin, with no translation.
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E.33NBA1.XReport - PDF Pro Populo Anglicano Defensio (Internet Archive (Pro Populo Anglicano Defensio, London: Du Gardianis, 1651; EEBO microfilm)) PD Latin1651A 1651 London printing of the Defensio in Milton's Latin, a page scan from the Early English Books microfilm.Much harder than the work: Milton's Latin, with no translation.
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E.25ENWE.2Report - PDF Pro Populo Anglicano Defensio (Internet Archive (A Defence of the People of England, London, 1692; EEBO microfilm)) PD1692A Defence of the People of England (London, 1692), the first English translation of the Defensio, a page scan from the Early English Books microfilm.Harder than the work: Seventeenth-century printing read from microfilm: long s, old spelling, and the scan is hard to read in places.
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E.5TBVVQ.KReport - PDF Pro Populo Anglicano Defensio (Internet Archive (Works, Pickering 1851, Prose vol. IV)) PD LatinEd. John Mitford (ed.) · 1851The Works of John Milton in Verse and Prose, edited by John Mitford (London: William Pickering, 1851), Prose, vol. IV, printed from the original editions; this work is one part of the volume. A page scan. This volume prints the Defensio in Milton's Latin.Much harder than the work: Milton's Latin, with no translation.
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E.G0YHX6.AReport - PDF Pro Populo Anglicano Defensio (Internet Archive (Works, Pickering 1851, Prose vol. VI)) PDEd. John Mitford (ed.) · 1851The Works of John Milton in Verse and Prose, edited by John Mitford (London: William Pickering, 1851), Prose, vol. VI, printed from the original editions; this work is one part of the volume. A page scan. This volume gives the Latin prose in English translation.
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E.G20MVW.JReport - PDF Pro Populo Anglicano Defensio (Internet Archive (Prose Works, Bohn 1848, vol. 1, ed. J. A. St. John)) PDEd. J. A. St. John (ed.) · 1848The Prose Works of John Milton, edited by J. A. St. John (London: Henry G. Bohn, Bohn's Standard Library, 1848), vol. 1, with the editor's prefaces; this work is one part of the volume. A page scan of the University of Toronto copy. The Defensio is given in English translation.
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E.SXK7C3.QReport
Catalog IDW.2ME7EJ.C