The Censure of the Rota upon Mr Miltons book, entituled, The ready and easie way to establish a free common-wealth die lunæ 26, Martij, 1660 / ordered by the Rota that M. Harrington be desired to draw up a narrative of this dayes proceeding upon Mr. Miltons book, called, The ready and easie way, &c., and to cause the same to be forthwith printed and pu[b]lished, and a copy thereof to be sent to Mr. Milton, Trundle Wheeler, Clerk to the Rota.

The Censure of the Rota upon Mr Miltons book, entituled, The ready and easie way to establish a free common-wealth die lunæ 26, Martij, 1660 / ordered by the Rota that M. Harrington be desired to draw up a narrative of this dayes proceeding upon Mr. Miltons book, called, The ready and easie way, &c., and to cause the same to be forthwith printed and pu[b]lished, and a copy thereof to be sent to Mr. Milton, Trundle Wheeler, Clerk to the Rota.

Table of contents

Title page

The Censure of the ROTA Upon Mr. Milton's Book, ENTITULED, A Ready and Easie way to Establish a Free COMMON-WEALTH.

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The Censure of the ROTA Upon Mr. Milton's Book, ENTITULED, A Ready and Easie way to Establish a Free COMMON-WEALTH.

SIR,

I Am commanded by this ingenious Convention of the Rota, to give you an account of some Reflections that they have lately made upon a Treatise of yours, which you call, The ready and easie way to establish a Free Commonwealth; in which I must first bespeak your pardon, for being forced to say something, not onely against mine own sense, but the Interesse which both you and I carry on; for it is enjoyn'd me to acquaint you with all that was said, although I take as little pleasure to repeat it, as you will do to hear it. For whereas it is our usuall custom to dispute every thing, how plain or obscure soever, by knocking Argument against Argument, and tilting at one another with our heads (as Rams fight) untill we are out of breath, and then refer it to our wooden Oracle the Box; and seldom any thing, how slight soever, hath appear'd, without some Patron or other to defend it. I must confesse, I never saw Bowling-stones run so unluckily against any Boy, when his hand has been out, as the Ballots did against you, when anything was put to the question, from the beginning of your Book to the end. [Page] for it was no sooner read over, but a Gentleman of your acquaintance said, he wish'd for your own sake, as well as the Cause you contend for, that you had given your Book no name (like an Anabaptist's child) untill it had come to years of discretion, or else that you had got some friend to be Gossip, that has a luckier hand at giving Titles to Books than you have: For it is observ'd, you have always been very unfortunate that way, as if it were fatall to you to prefix Bulls and Nonsense to the very fronts of your learned Works, as when you call Salmasius, Claudius Anonymus, in the very Title of that admired piece, which you writ to confute his Wife and his Maid. As also in that other learned Labor of yours, which you style Tetrachordon, that is to say, a Fiddle with four strings; but, as you render it, a Four-fold Cord, with which you undertake (worse then Captain Ottor, and Cuthbert the Barber) not to bind, but (most ridiculously) to unty Matrimony. But in this Book, he said, you were more insufferable; for you do not onely style your Declamation, The ready and easie way, as if it were the best or onely way, to the disparagement of this most ingenuous Assembly, who are confident, they have propos'd others much more considerable; but do very indiscreetly profess in the same place, to compare the Excellencies of a Common-wealth with the inconveniences and dangers of Kingship; this, he said, was foul play, and worse Logick: For, as all conveniences in this world carry their inconveniences with them, to compare the Best of one thing with that Worst of another, is a very unequall way of comparison. He had observ'd, that Comparisons were commonly made on the wrong side, and so was this of yours, by your owne confession. To this, another added, He wondred you did not give over writing, since you have always done it to little or no purpose; for though you have scribled your eyes out, your works have never been printed but for the Company of Chandlers and Tobacco-men, who are your Stationers, and the onely men that vend your Labors. He said, that he himself reprieved the Whole Defence of the People of England for a groat, that was sentenced to vile Mundungus, and had suffer'd inevitably (but for him) though it cost you [Page] much Oyle and Labor, and the Rump 300 I. a year, to whose service it was more properly intended; although in the close, you pronounce them to be as very Rascalls as Salmasius, and all the Christian world calls them, if ever they suffered any of their fellow-Members to invade the Government (as O. Cromwell and others have since doue) and confesse your self fool'd and mistaken, and all you have written to be false, howsoever you give your self the second lye in writing for them again. After this, a grave Gentleman of the long Roab, said, You had broken the heads of all the Sages of the Law, and plaid false in the very first word of your Treatise. For the Parliament of England (as you call the Rump) never consisted of a pack'd Party of one House, that by fraud and covin had disseaz'd the major part of their Fellows, and forfeited their own right, by abetting the ejectment of the whole House of Peers, and the greater part of their own (which was always understood to be the whole House) with whom they had but a joynt Right. That they had been severall times justly dissolv'd by the Army, from whom they really deriv'd their Authority; and the generall Voices of the People, in whom they had declar'd the supream Power to reside; and their own confession upon Record in their Journall-Book. But this, he said, you stole from Patriot Whitlock, who began his Declaration for a Free State with the same words; and he wondred you would filch and pilfer Nonsense and Fallasies, that have such plentifull store of your own grouth. Yet this was as true as that which follows, That a great number of the faithfullest of the People assisted them in throwing off King ship; for they were a very sleight number in respect of the whole, and none of the faithfullest that forswore themselves, to maintain and defend that which they judg'd dangerous, and resolv'd to abolish. And therefore they turn'd Regall Bondage (as you word it) into a Free Common-wealth, no more justly and magnanimously, than other Knights of the Post do their feats, by plain down-right perjury. And the Nation had little reason to trust such men with their Liberty or Propriety, that had no right to their own ears, but, among the rest of [Page] their Cheats, had defrauded the very Pillory of its due. This being put to the Ballot was immediately carried on in the Affirmative, without a diffenting Pellet. When presently a Gentleman, that hath been some years beyond-Seas, said, He wonder'd you would say any thing so false and ridiculous, as that this Common-wealth was the terrour and admiration of France it self; for if that were true, the Cardinall and Councell were very imprudent to become the chief Promoters of it, and strive by all means to uphold that, which they judg'd to be dangerous to themselves, and for the Interesse of a Nation, which they hate and fear so much as they do us; for if this Free State be so terrible to them, they have been very unwise in assisting it to keep out the King all this while; especially if they saw the people of Paris and Burdeaux disposed (as you say) to imitate us, which appears very strange; for by their history, any man would judge we had catch'd the disease of them. As for our actions abroad, (which you brag of) he said, he never heard of any where he was, untill O. Cromwel reduc'd us to an absolute Monarchy under the name of a Free state; and then we beat the Potent and flourishing Republique of the United Provinces. But for our actions at home, he had heard abroad, that they savoured much of Goth and Vandall barbarism, if pulling down of Churches, and demolishing the noblest Monuments in the Land, both Publick and Privat, (beside Religion and all Laws, Human and Divine) may amount to so much. And yet, he said, he granted what you affirm, That they were not unbecomming the rising of a glorious Common-wealth, for such are usually founded in Faction, Sedition, Rebellion, Rapine, and Murther. And how much soever you admire the Romans,—ab infami gentem deducis Asylo, if you remember, they were at first but a Refuge for Thieves and Murtherers. In all Asia, Africa, and the New World, there is no such thing as a Republick, nor ever was; but onely that of Carthage, and some paltry Greek Colonies upon the skirts of Asia minor; and [...] [...] Common-wealth there have been a hundred King [...] world, which argues, they should be the more [Page] agreeable to Mankind. He added, Commonly Republicks arise from unworthy causes, not fit to be mention'd in History; and that he had heard many Persons of Honor in Flanders affirm, That it was not the Tyranny of Spain, nor the cruelty of Duke D' Alva, nor the blood of their Nobility, nor Religion, nor Liberty, that made the Dutch cast off their obedience to their Prince; but one penny Excise laid upon a pound of Butter, that made them implacably declare for a Common-wealth. That the Venetians were banish'd into a Free State by Atila, and their glorious Liberty was at first no other, then he may be said to have that is turn'd out of his house. That the Romans were Cookolded into their Freedom, and the Pisans Trepand into theirs by Charls the eighth. That as Common-wealths sprung from base Originalls, so they have ruin'd upon as slight occasions. That the same Pisans, after they had spent all they had upon a Freak of Liberty, were sold (like Cattle) by Lewis the 12 th. The Venetians Hector'd, and almost ruin'd by Maximilian the first, a poor Prince, for refusing to lend him mony, as they were not long before by Francesco Sforza about a Bastard. The Florentines utterly enslav'd for spoyling an Embossador's Speech, and disparaging Petro de' Medici's fine Livereys. The Genoeses—But as he was going on, he was interrupted by a Gentleman that came in and told us, that Sir Arthur Hazlerig, the Brutus of our Republique, was in danger to be torn in pieces (like a Shrovetuesday Bawd) by the Boys in Westminster-Hall; and if he had not shewn himself as able a Foot-man as he that cudgell'd him, he had gone the way of Doctor Lamb infallibly. This set all the company a laughing, and made the Traveller forget what he was saying. After a little pause, a learned Gentleman of this Society stood up, and said, He could not but take notice of one absurdity in your Discourse, and that is, where you speak of Liberty gloriously fough for, and Kingly Thraldome abjur'd by the people, &c. for if by liberty, you mean Common-wealth, (as you do) There was never any such thing, as either the one, or the other; unlesse you will state the Quarrell at the end of the Warre, which is very senselesse, and directly contrary to all Oaths and Engagements: [Page] or can prove that Hanging, Drawing, and Quartering of some of the People, and selling others as Slaves, for taking up Arms in all parts of the Nation for the King, are abjurations of his Authority; and he wonder'd, you could be so weak, or impudent to play foul in matters of Fact, of which there are so many thousands witnesses to disprove you. But he was of opinion, that you did not believe your selfe, nor those reasons you give in defence of Common-wealth, but that you are sway'd by something else, as either by a Stork-like Fate, (as a modern Protector-Poet calls it, because that Foul is observ'd to live no where but in Common-wealths) or because, you have unadvisedly scribled your selfe obnoxious, or else you fear such admirable eloquence as yours, would be thrown away under a Monarchy, (as it would be) though of admirable use in a Popular Government, where Orators carry all the Rabble before them: For who knows to how Cheap a rate this goodly Eloquence of yours, (if well manadg'd) might bring the price of Sprats, as no wiser Orators then your selfe have done heretofore, in the petty factions, Greek Republiques, whom you chiefly imitate; for all your Politiques are derived from the works of Declamers, with which sort of Writers, the Ancient Common-wealths had the fortune to abound, who left many things behind them in favour, or flattery of the Governments they liv'd under, and disparagement of others, to whom they were in opposition, of whom we can affirm nothing certain, but that they were partiall, and never meant to give a true account of things, but to make them finer or worse then they really are; Of which men, one of their owne Common-wealth Poets, gives a just Character, by sorting them among the worst of men.

— [...],

[...]—

All which you have out-gone, (according to your Talent) in their severall waves, for you have done your feeble endeavour to Rob the Church, of the little which the Rapine of the most sacrilegious Persons hath left, in your learned [Page] work against Tithes; You have slandered the Dead, worse then envy it selfe, and thrown your dirty out-rage, on the memory of a Murther'd Prince, as if the Hangman were but your Usher. These have been the attempts of your stiffe formall Eloquence, which you arme accordingly, with any thing that lies in your way, right, or wrong, not onely begging, but stealing questions, and taking every thing for granted, that will serve your turn; For you are not asham'd to rob O. Cromwell himselfe, and make use of his Canting with signall Assistances from Heaven, and answering Condescensions: The most impious Mahometan Docttrine, that ever was vented among Christians, and such as will serve as well to justifie any prosperous villany amongst men. He said, when God punishes a Nation for sin, The Executiones of his Judgments, are commonly but M [...]lefactors reprieved, as they are usually among men; For when he punish'd the Israelites for Idolatry, he made use of greater Idolaters then themselves: And when he afflicts a people for their disobedience, to a just Government, and fantastique longing after imaginary Liberty, it is with infallible Slavery, for their deliverers alwaies prove their Tyrants. This the Romans found true, for they had no sooner banish'd their Kings, but they were in few years glad to banish themselves, from the Tyranny and oppression of their Patriots, the Assertors of their Liberty, and that very Contest furnish'd their Free-State with Sedition, and Civill War for 500 years, and never ended, untill they were reduc'd to an absolute Tyranny, under the power of that faction, that took upon it to vindicate their Liberty; He added, that he could not but smile at one thing you sayd, and that is, That King and Bishops will encroach upon our Consciences, untill we are forc'd to spend over again all that we have spent, and fight over again all that we have fought, &c. For if you did not look very like a Cunning man, no body would believe you, nor trust your predictions of the future, that give so ill an account of things past. But he held you very unwise to blab any such thing, For that party you call, We have gain'd so abundantly much more then they have spent, that they desire nothing more, then to fight over the same [Page] fights again, at the same rate; and if you could but make your words good, he would undertake, they should be the first men that should set Bishops about your Consciences: for how vile soever you make the Blood of faithfull English men, they have made such good markets of it, that they would be glad at any time to broach the whole Nation at the same price, and affor'd the treasure of Miraculous deliverances, (as you call it) into the Bargin. This he added, was easier to be understood then your Brand of Gentilism, upon King-ship, for which you rest Scripture most unmercifully, to prove, that though Christ said, His Kingdome was not of this world, yet his Common-wealth is. For if, the Text which you quote, The Kings of the Gentiles exercise Lordship over them, and they that exercise authority over them, are called Benefactors: But it shall not be so among you, &c. be to be understood of Civill Government, (and to infer Common-wealth (as you will have it right or wrong) and not to be meant of his spirituall Reigne, of which he was then speaking, and expressely calls so; You must prove that he erected a Republique of his Apostles, and that notwithstanding the Scripture, every where calls his Government the Kingdome of Heaven, it ought to be Corrected, and Rendred the Common-wealth of Heaven, or rather the Common-wealth of this World; and yet the Text, does as well prove Benefactors heathenish as Kings, for if our Saviour had meant to brand Kingship with any evill Character, He would never have styld himselfe King of the Jewes, King of Heaven, King of Righteousnesse, &c. as he frequently do's, but no where a State-holder, or Keeper of the Liberties.

To this, a young Gentleman made answer, that your writings are best interpreted by themselves, and that he remembred in that Book, wherein you fight with the King's Picture, you call Sir Phillip Sydnes, Princes Pamela, who was born and bred of Christian Parents in England; A Heathen woman, and therefore, he thought that by Heathonish, you meant English, and that in calling Kingship, Heathenish, you inferd, it was the only proper and naturall Government of the English Nation, as it hath been proved in all Ages. [Page] To which another objected, that such a sense was quite Contrary to your purpose, to which he immediately repli'd; That it was no new thing, with you to write that, which is as well against us for your purpose: after much debate, they agreed to put it to the Ballot, and the young Gentleman carried it without any Contradiction. That done, a Gentleman of good credit here, taking occasion from the former discourse, said, you had shown your selfe as able a Divine, as a Statesman; For you had made as politique provision for spirituall, as civill Liberty in those pious and Orthodox, (though seeming absurd and Contradictory) grounds you have laid down in order thereunto, which being rightly interpreted, do say, or by consequence inferre thus much. That the Church of Christ ought to have no Head upon Earth, but the Monster of many heads, the multitude, who are the onely supream Judges of all matters that concern him; a Priviledge they claim'd, when he was upon Earth, when they took upon them to condemn him, and cri'd Crucifige: That all Christian Lawes and Ordinances have a Co-ercive power, to see themselves put in Execution, and yet they ought to be subject to every Man's will and humor, (which you call his best light) and no man to them but in his own sense. That the Scripture onely ought to interpret it selfe, (just as it can read it selfe) and every man is to take the interpretation in such a sense, as best suites with his owne capacity, or his occasions; That every man may do what he pleases in matters of Religion, but onely those that are in Authority, who ought not to meddle in such matters, as being of so different a nature from their Cognizance, (or any other) that if it be their will to Command the onely true Religion to be observ'd, it presently becomes inchristian inhuman, and Barbarous. That no man can serve God, nor save his owne Soul, but in a Common-wealth, in this certainty, you go after your owne invention, for no man ever heard it before: But if it should be true, it is a sad thing to think, what is become of the Apostles themselves, and all the Saints in the Primitive times, when there was never a Christian Common-wealth in the World? That any man may turn away his Wife, and take another as oft as [Page] he pleases, as you have most learnedly prov'd upon the Fiddle, and practic'd in your Life and Conversation, for which you have atchieved the honour to be Styld the Founder of a Sect. All this you call Liberty of Conscience, and Christian Liberty, which you conclude no Government is more inclinable, not onely to favour, but protect, then a Free Common-wealth. In this, (he said) you say right; For it is notorious enough, that since we have been but call'd a Common-wealth, such pious Doctrines as these, have been so wonderfully propagated, that England does now abound with new Christians, no lesse then Spain did of late years, and of the same mungrell breed; all which agree in nothing, but the extripation of Christian Religion, and subversion of Government, to which your Discipline does naturally conduce. For certainly, the most ready and easie way to root out Religion, is to render it contemptible, and ridiculous, which cannot be sooner done then by giving Licence, and encouragement to all manner of Frenzies, that pretend to new discoveries in matters of Faith, these will quickly make it become a sport and mockery to the People, untill it be utterly extinct; And this, some of the Church of Rome found true, who give a greater check to the growth of Reformation, by cloathing some of the new professers in Fools Coats, and exposing them to the derision of the multitude, then by persecuting, and putting thousands to death. And this is the way you goe which will never fail you, as long as there are Fooles and mad men to carry on the work. And with this if you could but introduce the wholsome Cannons of the Councill of Munster it would make an admirable Model for the Ecclesiasticall part of the Republique, if it were not for one unlucky Circumstance, and that is that Knipper Dolling Proclaimed John of Leyden King, and not State-holder. This (he said) was an unhappy mistake and no lesse out of your way then that of the Fift Monarchy Men, who would have been admirable for your purpose if they had but dream't of a fift Free-State.

By this time they began to grow weary of your perpeuall falshoods and mistakes, and a Worthy Knight of this [Page] Assembly stood up and said that if we meant to examin all the particular fallacies and flawes in your writing we should never have done, he would therefore (with leave) deliver his judgement upon the whole, which in briese was thus. That it is all windy foppery from the beginning to the end, written to the eleuation of that Rabble and meant to cheat the Ignorant. That you fight alwayes with the flat of your hand like a Retorician, and never Contract the Logicall fist. That you trade altogether in universals the Region of Deceits and falacie, but never come so near particulars, as to let us know which among diuerse things of the same kind you would be at. For you admire Commonwealths in generall, and cry down Kingship as much at large, without any regard to the particular Constitutions which onely make either the one or the other good or bad, vainly supposing all flavery to be in the Gouernment of a single Person, and nothing but liberty in that of many, which is so false that some Kingdomes have had the most perfect form of Common wealths as ours had, and some Republiques haue proved the greatest Tirannies, as all have done at one time or other. For many if they combine have more Latitude to abuse power then a single Person, and lesse sence of shame, conscience, or honour to restrain them, for what is wickedly done by many is own'd by none, where no Man knowes upon whom in particular to fix it. And this we have found true by experience in your Patriots and Assertors (as you call them) for no one person could ever have done halfe the mischief they have done, nor outliv'd the infamy they have suffered without any sence of shame. Beside this, as all your politiques reach but the outside and circumstances of things and never touch at realties, so you are very solicitous about weeds as if they were charmes, or had more in them then what they fignifie: For no Conjurer's Devill is more concerned in a spell, then you are in a meer word, but never regard the things which it serves to expresse. For you believe liberty is safer under an Arbitrary unlimited power by vertue of the name Commonwealth, then under any other Government how just or restrain'd soever if it be but cal'd Kingship. And therefore very prudently you [Page] would have the Name Parliament abolished, because it signifies a Parly of our Commons with their Norman Kings. But in this you are too severe a Draco to punish one word for holding correspondence with another, when all the liberty you talk so much of consists in nothing else but meer words. For though you bragge much of the Peoples Manageing their own affaires, you allow them no more share of that in your Utopia (as you have ordered it) then only to set up their throates and Baul (instead of every three yeares, which they might have done before) once in an Age, or oftner, as an old Member drops away, and anew one is to succed, not for his merit or knowledge in State affaires, but because he is able to bring the greatest and most deep mouth'd Pack of the Rabble into the field; a more wise and equall way (in your opinion) of choosing Counsellors, then any King is capable of. But he added, you had done worst of all, where you are most like your self, and that is in that false and malitious aspersion of Popish & Spanish Councels which you cast on the present King. For it is well known to all the world, he hath prefer'd h sConscience before three Crowns, and patiently endured to live so many years in exile, rather then change his Religion; which if he would have done, or been mov'd with such Councels, he might long since have procured all the Forces of the Catholique world upon us, whereas it cannot be denied of his greatest opposers, That they are so jealous of their ill-gotten Purchases bought with their Crimes, that rather be in danger of loosing a Pigge, they would (with the Gergosens) defire Christ to depart out of their Coasts. After this said, he mov'd the Assembly that I might be desired to deliver my judgment upon the Book, as he and others had done, which being immediatlypast; I knew not (though unwilling) how to avoyd it; and therefore I told them as briefly as I could, That that which I disliked most in your Treatise was, That there is not one word of the ballance of Propriety, nor the Agrarian, nor Rotation in it, from the beginning to the end: without which (together with a Lord Archon) I thought I had sufficiently demonstrated, not only in my writings but publique exercises in that Coffee-house, that there is no possible foundation of a Free [Page] Common-wealth. To the first and second of these (that is the Ballance and the Agrarian) you made no objection, and therefore I should not need to make any answer. But for the third (I mean Rotation) which you implicitly reject in your defigne to perpetuate the present Members, I shall only adde this to what I have already said and written on that subject, That a Common-wealth is like a great Top, that must be kept up by being whipt round, and held in perpetuall circulation, for if you discontinue the Rotation, and suffer the Senate to settle, and stand still, down it falls immediately. And if you had studied this poynt as carefully as I have done, you could not but know, there is no such way under Heaven of disposing the Vicissitudes of Command and Obedience, and of distributing equall Right and Liberty among all men, as this of Wheeling, by which (as Chauser writes) a single Fart hath been equally divided among a whole Covent of Friers, and every one hath had his just share of the favour. I told then, I could not but be sorry to find so learned a man so ignorant in the nature of Government, as to make disproportionate Parallels of Councills as you do, where you compare the Senate of Rome with the Grand Councell of Venice, between which there is no Analogy at all: for the Senate of Rome was never the supream Power of the People, as the Grand Councill of Venice is, but meerly a Councill of State. But I wondred most of all at what politique Crack in any mans Scull the imagination could enter of securing Libery under an Oligarchy, Seized of the Government for tearm of life, which was never yet seen in the world. The Metropolitan of all Common-wealthes the Roman did but once adventure to trust its whole Power and Authority in the hands of one Councill, and that but for two yeares, and yet they had like to have lost their Liberty for ever; whereas they had frequently in all ages left it wholy in the power of a single Person, and found it so far from danger or inconvenience, that the only Refuge they had in their greatest extremity was, to create a Dictator. But I could not but laugh (as they all had done) at the pleasantnesse of your fancy who suppose our noble Patriots, when they are invested [Page] for tearm of life, will serve their Country at their own charge: This (I said) was very improbable, unlesse you meant as they do, that all we have is their own, and that to prey and devour is to serve, in which they have appeared so able and industrious, as if they had been made to no other purpose, but, like Lobsters, were all Clawes and Belly. For though many laugh at me for accounting 300000l. in wooden ware toward the erecting of a Free-State (in my Oceana) but a trifle to the whole Nation,) because I am most certain that these little Pills the Ballots are the only Physick that can keep the Body Politique soluble, and not suffer the humors to settle) I'le undertake that if the present Members had but a lease of the Government during life (notwithstanding whatsoever impeachment of Waste) they would raise more out of it to themselves in one year, then that amounts to; beside the charge we must be at in maintaining of gaurds to keep the boys of them, and before halfe the term be expired, they would have it untenantable. To conclude, I told them, you had made good your title in a contrary sence; For you have really proposed the most ready and easie way to establish downright slavery upon the Nation that can possibly be contrived, which will clearly appear to any Man that doe's but understand this plain Truth. That wheresoever the Power of Proposing and Debating, together with the Power of Ratifying, and Enacting Lawes, is entrusted in the hands of any one Person, or any one Councill (as you would have it) That Governnent is inevitable Arbitrary and Tyrannicall, because they may make whatsoever they please lawfull or unlawfull. And that Tyranny hath the advantage of all other that hath Law and Liberty among the Instruments of Servitude.

J. H.

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The Censure of the ROTA Upon Mr MILTONS Book, ENTITULED, The Ready and Easie way to Establish A Free Common-wealth.

Die Lunae 26. Martij, 1660. Ordered by the Rota, that M. Harrington be desired to draw up a Narrative of this dayes proceeding upon Mr. Miltons Book, called, The Ready and Easie way, &c. And to cause the same to be forthwith Printed and Pulished, and a Copy thereof to be sent to Mr. Milton.

Trundle Wheeler, Clerk to the ROTA.

LONDON, Printed by Paul Giddy, Printer to the Rota, at the sign of the Windmill in Turne-againe Lane.

1660.

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Title statement

The Censure of the Rota upon Mr Miltons book, entituled, The ready and easie way to establish a free common-wealth die lunæ 26, Martij, 1660 / ordered by the Rota that M. Harrington be desired to draw up a narrative of this dayes proceeding upon Mr. Miltons book, called, The ready and easie way, &c., and to cause the same to be forthwith printed and pu[b]lished, and a copy thereof to be sent to Mr. Milton, Trundle Wheeler, Clerk to the Rota.

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1660

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2003-01 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1).

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A45612

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Wing H808

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ESTC R16594

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12165055

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ocm 12165055

ID [VID]

55278

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(EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A45612)

Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 55278)

Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 101:10)

Source

— The Censure of the Rota upon Mr Miltons book, entituled, The ready and easie way to establish a free common-wealth die lunæ 26, Martij, 1660 / ordered by the Rota that M. Harrington be desired to draw up a narrative of this dayes proceeding upon Mr. Miltons book, called, The ready and easie way, &c., and to cause the same to be forthwith printed and pu[b]lished, and a copy thereof to be sent to Mr. Milton, Trundle Wheeler, Clerk to the Rota., Harrington, James, 1611-1677..

Extent

16 p.

Printed by Paul Giddy ...,. London :: 1660.. ("Though it has been mistaken by careless people as actually a production of [James] Harrington's, [this] is in reality a clever burlesque by some Royalist, in which, under the guise of an imaginary debate in the Rota over Milton's pamphlet, Milton and the Rota-men are turned into ridicule together. The mock-names on the title-page ... are part of the burlesque; and it is well kept up in the tract itself, which takes the form of a letter gravely addressed to Milton and signed with Harrington's initials, 'J.H.'"--Masson, D. The life of John Milton, 1859-1894, v. 5, p. 660.) (Reproduction of original in Huntington Library.)

Creation

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