Paradise Lost and Heresy

Heresy: "Theological or religious opinion or doctrine maintained in opposition, or held to be contrary, ... to that of any church, creed, or religious system." (Oxford English Dictionary)

Heresy: "Opinion or doctrine characterizing particular individuals or parties; a school of thought; a sect." (Oxford English Dictionary)

"For there must bee also heresies among you." (1611 Bible)

"Are Lutherans, Calvinists, Anabaptists, Socinians, Arminians, no Hereticks? I answer, all these may have some errors, but are no Hereticks. Heresie is in the Will and choice profestly against Scripture; error is against the Will, in misunderstanding the Scripture after all sincere endeavours to understand it rightly ..." (Milton, Of True Religion)

During Milton's lifetime, a variety of Protestant opinions proliferated despite opposition first from the Anglican church and then from the Presbyterian.  In his prose and in poetry (especially in Paradise Lost, here abbreviated PL), Milton shows an awareness of this religious diversity, sometimes in evident agreement or sympathy with a "heretical" doctrine or practice.  Independent in spirit if not in name, he not only believed but also practiced the free play of ideas that he defended in Areopagitica.

  1. Adamites practiced public nudity. According to Poole, this sect was invented by conservative contemporaries to mock sectarians, although some individuals may have made a symbolic gesture.  Seventeenth-century Ranter Abinezer or Abiezer Coppe may have preached naked; in the 1650s and 1660s some Quakers went naked to protest worldly vanity or as a prophetic gesture.  Poole argues that in Paradise Lost Milton frequently draws attention to the prelapsarian nakedness of Adam and Eve (174): e.g., PL 4.290, 4.312, 4.319, 4.496, 4.713, 4.772, 5.382, 9.1057, 9.1074, 9.1115, 9.1117, 9.1139, 10.117, 10.121, 10.212, 10.217, 10.221. Reason of Church Government 216-17.
  2. Anabaptists believed in the baptism of adult believers (as opposed to infants); most also advocated a life of holiness, simplicity and non-resistance, economic and social reform, and the separation of church and state. Anabaptism ("re-baptism," originally derogatory) began in early-16th-century Germany, based on the teachings of Thomas Muntzer; most of its Early Modern adherents called themselves "Baptists," while others, including Milton, called them "dippers." Roger Williams and John Bunyan were the most famous 17th-century Baptists. PL 12.441-44, 12.500.  Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce 426; Of True Religion 168-69.
  3. Antinomians believed that Christians are free from the laws (Greek nomos) of morality by virtue of God's grace. Critics charged antinomians with licentious living (see "Ranters"). Apparently popular among Gnostic sects, antinomianism was revived among the Anabaptists and by Johann Agricola, a one-time student of Martin Luther who retracted his position after arguments with Luther and Luther's associate Philip Melanchthon. Antinomianism was held by members of various sects during the British Commonwealth. The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce 426.
  4. Arians believed in the doctrine, originally taught by a Christian priest named Arius (4th century) and experiencing a revival in the 16th century, that the Son is not the same substance as the Father; condemned as heresy by Trinitarian Christians, who held to a belief in the consubstantiality, coeternity, and coequality of Christ, as expressed in the Nicene Creed.  Of Reformation 10; Of True Religion 168-69. Also see "Socinians."
  5. Arminians adopted the beliefs of 16th-century Dutch Protestant theologian Jacobus Arminius (Jacob Harmensen), especially his radical version of free will: that salvation was possible for all, not just for the elect. This concept runs counter to the Calvinist doctrine of predestination: that certain people (the "Elect" or "the saints") are chosen by God from eternity for salvation; for stricter Calvinists, God has chosen others for damnation. Arminianism was condemned by Scottish Presbyterians, but spread rapidly in many reformed churches and possibly in Archbishop Laud's Church of England; during the 17th century it became associated with Socinianism. E.g., PL 3.114, 4.71, 5.235-37, 5.526, 5.535-40, 4.549, 7.171, 8.636, 8.641, 9.351, 9.1174. Areopagitica 313; Of True Religion 168.
  6. Atheists were dissenters, in the vocabulary of some.  In the 1640s, Puritan Ephraim Pagitt condemned Milton as an atheist for his divorce tracts and mortalism (see "Mortalists"); he also used the label for Roger Williams for advocating religious toleration.
  7. Baptists: see "Anabaptists."
  8. Brownists were influenced by the ideas of Robert Browne, a contentious Puritan separatist who established one of the first separatist congregations, in Norwich. Brownists argued against a national church government on the basis of the doctrine of a priesthood of all believers. They contributed greatly to the Parliamentarian Army, and then argued strongly against institutionalizing the Presbyterianism Church and against using civil authority to punish heresy.  Of Church Government 216-17.
  9. Diggers, a subgroup of Levellers, called themselves "True Levellers." Their founder, Gerrard Winstanley, believed that because God was in every person, the individual's rights and merits outweighed all rank and hierarchy. The Diggers began cultivating unowned land in 1649; they were repressed the same year. In PL Milton seems to avoid using any form of the word "dig" — e.g., PL 11.261, 11.430, 12.18. Also see "Levellers."
  10. Familists were members of the Family of Love founded by Henry Nicholas (Hendrik Niclaes), a 16th-century cloth merchant who believed divine revelation had told him that Christians should rely on Inner Light and God’s love rather than on rites and sacraments. The sect disappeared on the continent around 1600, but remained active in Britain through the end of the 17th century; Nicholas’s books were read by Quakers and other dissenters. Of Church Government 216-17; Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce 426.
  11. Fifth Monarchists believed that Christ would soon return to reign on earth as a literal monarch; they rejected all earthly authority but that of King Jesus, and intended to help usher his kingdom in by violence if necessary. Fifth Monarchist ideas were influential in the parliamentarian army; the sect disappeared after unsuccessful uprisings in 1657 and 1661. PL 12.325-30; Tetrachordon 70.
  12. Grindletonians were followers of Edmund Grindal, a moderate Puritan who served as a chaplain to Edward VI and, after exile during the reign of Mary I, became Bishop of London and helped revise the Book of Common Prayer. In 1575 he was named Archbishop of Canterbury. Of Reformation 13.
  13. Levellers are usually treated as a political group, but based their political ideas (the equality of all men, which required the abolition of hierarchy) on religious beliefs — for instance, Calvin's ideas about the individual conscience as "inward integrity of the heart" (Achinstein 52). John Lilburne, the leading and most prolific Leveller, was imprisoned for writing against the Church of England, released when Cromwell interceded for him in the House of Commons, served as a lieutenant in the parliamentarian army, but resigned in protest when Presbyterianism was made the state religion. Developing his "Leveller" ideas in speeches and print (1640s-50s), he was ordered into exile for criticizing Parliament, and imprisoned until his death after his unauthorized return. While in prison, he became a Quaker. Milton was friendly with at least one Leveller, Richard Overton. PL 3.195-97, 11.347-48, 12.64-71, 12.520-24; "To Mr. Cyriack Skinner upon His Blindness"; "On the New Forcers of Conscience under the Long Parliament." Also see "Diggers."
  14. Lollards were followers of Wycliffe, who emphasized a personal faith and the individual’s right to read and interpret the Bible, and opposed mandatory celibacy and confession, indulgences, pilgrimages, the papacy and the church hierarchy. Underground after 14th- and 15th-century persecution, Lollardy is thought to have influenced Lutheranism (see "Lutherans") and congregational dissenters of 17th-century Britain. Of Church Government 216-17.
  15. Lutherans emphasized salvation through a personal faith rather than through good deeds, and believed in the individual’s right to read and interpret the Bible. These ideas and others began to filter into Britain soon after their first expression by Martin Luther in the 16th century; in the 17th century, there were also communities of German Lutherans in London and other port cities. Of True Religion 168.
  16. Mortalists or thnetopsychists were those who believe that the soul dies or "sleeps" with the body until the resurrection at the end of the world; this doctrine was also known as the "sleeper heresy." PL 3.245-49, 10.789-92, 12.433-35.
  17. Pelagians followed Pelagius, a 4th century English monk who lived in Rome, in denying original sin and asserting that the human will was free. Pelagianism was condemned in the 5th century by St. Augustine (and by several church councils and popes); it experienced a revival in the 16th century. Of Reformation 10. Also see "Arminians."
  18. Quakers called themselves "Children of the Light," "Friends in the Truth," and "Friends of the Truth." Relying on Inner Light or conscience, Quakers rejected earthly authority, including oaths, tithes, titles, and "hat honour." Founded by George (and Margaret) Fox in mid-17th century Britain, the group included many who were on good terms with Milton, including William Penn, Thomas Ellwood, and Isaac Penington. PL 3.1-55, 12.270-74.
  19. Ranters were probably never a coherent movement. Because they rejected all laws on the grounds that "to the pure, all things are pure," Ranters were widely condemned in mid-17th-century Britain for sexual licentiousness and public swearing and blasphemy. They were said to rely on an inner experience of Christ to deny the authority of Scripture, creeds, and ordination; as a result, they were often confused with Quakers.
  20. Seekers were a 16th- and 17th-century group of dissenters from Anglicanism and Puritanism, followers of three brothers named Legate and thus also known as Legatine-Arians. Seekers believed that the spirit of the Antichrist was controlling all organized churches, and that they should wait passively for God to establish a new, true church through new apostles or prophets. The term "seeker" was sometimes used loosely to describe anyone dissatisfied with existing sects, and Seekers were often confused with Quakers.
  21. Shakers: see "Quakers." (The two terms were equivalent in the 17th century, and the group later known as "Shakers" was founded in the late 18th-century USA.
  22. Socinians: This group, founded in 16th-century Italy, followed the moderate unitarian teachings of Fausto Paolo Sozzini (and his uncle Lelio Francisco Maria Sozini): they rejected the preexistence and divinity of Christ, denied that the crucifixion atoned for human sin, and believed that humans are not naturally immortal. Their ideas reached Britain in the 17th century, partly through Milton, who (according to Dutch ambassador Leo de Aitzema) in 1652 licensed the anonymous Racovian Catechism, translated into English by John Biddle. This edition was publicly burned as heretical in 1654, while the Latin edition (dedicated to James I) had been burned in 1614. Of True Religion 168-69, 178; Tetrachordon 95. Also see "Arians."

For further reference:

Achinstein, Sharon. Milton and the Revolutionary Reader. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1994.

"Arminianism." Wesley Center for Applied Theology. http://wesley.nnu.edu/Arminianism.htm

"The Arminian Nunnery." [Puritan pamphlet], 1641. English Literature and Religion. Ed. William S. Peterson. http://www.inform.umd.edu/ENGL/englfac/WPeterson/ELR/elr.htm

Campbell, Donna M. "The Arminian Controversy." http://guweb2.gonzaga.edu/faculty/campbell/enl310/armin.htm

Coppe, Abiezer. "A Fiery Flying Roll" [1649]. Ed. Jeremy M. Downes. http://www.auburn.edu/~downejm/coppe.htm

Cross, F. L., and E. A. Livingstone, ed. The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. 3rd ed. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1997.

Dobranski, Stephen B., and John P. Rumrich, ed. Milton and Heresy. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1998.

"English Dissenters." ExLibris. http://www.exlibris.org/nonconform/engdis/index.html. 23 July 2000.

Lewalski, Barbara Kiefer. The Life of John Milton: A Critical Biography. Rev. ed. Oxford: Blackwell, 2003.

Loewenstein, David. "The Radical Religious Politics of Paradise Lost." A Companion to Milton. Ed. Thomas N. Corns. Oxford: Blackwell, 2001. 348-62.

Milton, John. The Works of John Milton. Ed. Frank A Patterson. New York: Columbia UP, 1931-38.

Nelson, Russell. Religious Society of Friends. http://www.quaker.org/

"Pelagius and Pelagianism." The Catholic Encyclopedia. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11604a.htm

Poole, Kristen. Radical Religion from Shakespeare to Milton: Figures of Nonconformity in Early Modern England. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2000.

Roth, Mark. "What is an Anabaptist?" http://www.anabaptists.org/history/what.html

Rumrich, John. "Radical Heterodoxy and Heresy." A Companion to Milton. Ed. Thomas N. Corns. Oxford: Blackwell, 2001. 141-56.

"Selected Works of the Levellers." The Constitution Society. http://www.constitution.org/lev/levellers.htm

Sippel, Peter. Quaker Writings Home Page. http://www.qhpress.org/quakerpages/qwhp/qwhp.htm

Tuttle, Elizabeth. "Biblical Reference in the Political Pamphlets of the Levellers and Milton, 1638-1654." Milton and Republicanism. Ed. David Armitage, Armand Himy, and Quentin Skinner. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1995. 63-81.

Warfield, B. B. "Introductory Essay on Augustin and the Pelagian Controversy." Christian Classics Ethereal Library. http://www.cel.org/fathers2/NPNF1-05/npnf1-05-04.htm#P106_10241

"Paradise Lost and Heresy" was created by Jean E. Graham and last updated . The contents, opinions and views expressed herein are provided for the purpose of beginning or continuing discussion on the topic presented. The College of New Jersey does not endorse and is not to be held responsible for the contents, opinions and views expressed herein.