John Milton 
John Milton Prose 
Major Writings on Liberty, Politics, Religion, and Education

Regarded by many as the equal of Shakespeare in poetic imagination
and expression, Milton was also a prolific writer of prose,
applying his potent genius to major issues of domestic, religious
and political liberty. This superbly annotated new
publication is the most authoritative single-volume anthology yet
of Milton’s major prose works.

* Uses Milton’s original language, spelling and
punctuation

* Freshly and extensively annotated

* Notes provide unrivalled contextual analysis as well as
illuminating the wealth of Milton’s allusions and references

* Will appeal to a general readership as well as to scholars
across the humanities

Table of Content

Note on This Edition and Abbreviations viii

Acknowledgements ix

List of Illustrations x

Chronology xi

Introduction xvi

MILTON’S PROSE TEXTS

1. Prolusions: 1

Prolusion VI 3

Prolusion VII 13

2. Of Reformation 22

3. The Reason of Church-Government Urg’d against Prelaty
(selections) 61

4. An Apology Against a Pamphlet (selections) 92

5. The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce 103

6. Of Education 170

7. Areopagitica; A Speech of Mr. John Milton 181

8. Tetrachordon (selections) 214

9. The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates 243

10. Eikonoklastes (selections) 275

11. A Second Defence of the English People 319

12. A Treatise of Civil Power in Ecclesiastical Causes
377

13. Considerations Touching the Likeliest Means to Remove
Hirelings out of the Church 398

14. The Readie and Easie Way to Establish a Free
Commonwealth 426

15. Of True Religion, Hæresie, Schism, and
Toleration 448

16. Selections from Milton’s Private Letters 459

17. De Doctrina Christiana (selections) 470

18. The Life of Mr. John Milton by Edward Phillips
558

Select Bibliography 573

About the author

David Loewenstein is Helen C. White Professor of English
and the Humanities at the University of Wisconsin-Madison,
USA. His books include Representing Revolution in Milton
and his Contemporaries: Religion, Politics, and Polemics in Radical
Puritanism (2001), which received the Milton Society of
America’s James Holly Hanford Award for Distinguished
Book. He is the author of Treacherous Faith: The Specter of
Heresy in Early Modern English Literature and Culture (2013).
He has co-edited The Cambridge History of Early Modern English
Literature (2002), Early Modern Nationalism and
Milton’s England (2008), and The Complete Works of
Gerrard Winstanley (2009). He is an Honored Scholar of the
Milton Society of America.