John Milton was an English poet and political thinker. Best known for his epic poem Paradise Lost, a retelling of the story of creation and Adam and Eve’s expulsion from paradise, he was also a political revolutionary. His life spanned an extraordinarily unstable period in British history. In 1642, Parliament and the monarchy went to war. Milton sided with Parliament, and even defended the execution of the king. In 1651, Parliament won, and instituted the only non-monarchist government in British history, led by the radical Puritan Oliver Cromwell.
“Areopagitica” is an address to that Parliamentarian government. It was written in 1644, when the civil war was still ongoing. Parliament, however, already controlled London, where Milton lived and worked. They had not overturned censorship laws dating from the time of Henry VIII. The essay was particularly inspired by the arrest of the political agitator John Liliburne in 1638 for importing subversive books. Milton argues that censorship of dangerous material is both impossible to achieve and undesirable. He entreats Parliament to embrace a new Englishness where people are trusted to judge for themselves between good and bad ideas, and where the quest for truth can thrive.
At the time, “Areopagitica” had little impact. Although illegal printing thrived throughout the civil war, censorship laws were not relaxed until 1695, more than two decades after Milton’s death. However, the essay is perhaps the first defense of free speech, an idea that would become foundational to liberal democracies including the United States. Milton’s essay remains one of the most powerful defenses of free speech and intellectual pluralism ever penned.
Along with “Areopagitica,” Milton authored many other influential works of prose, including “Of True Religion,” “The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce,” and “The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates.” Many of these are religious works are governed by Milton’s Puritan values, especially his conviction that the Bible should be the basis of all religious belief. However, they are also politically radical. Milton defends the execution of the king, and advocates for legal divorce in a time when such a thing was almost unthinkable. In this sense, Milton’s writing is fundamentally shaped by the instability of his period, which made new ideas suddenly seem possible.
