XVI.
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s Secretary for Foreign Tongues to the Council of State of theCommonwealth, Milton saw much of Cromwell, and came under the influenceof his voice and manner. Whether the great general had ever taken note ofthe poems written by the secretary who turned his despatches into Latin,or whether he gave any special heed to the man himself, with whom he musthave come into some sort of personal relation, we have no means ofknowing. We know, however, perfectly well what the poet thought of thevictorious general. Though by no means always approving his state policy,Milton retained to the end the warm personal admiration for Cromwellwhich he expresses in this sonnet. 7-9. Darwen stream, usually spoken of as the battle of Preston, wasfought Aug. 17, 1648; Dunbar, Sept. 3, 1650; Worcester, Sept. 3, 1651. 12. to bind our souls with secular chains: to fetter our religiousfreedom with laws made by the civil power. 14. hireling wolves. Milton applies this degrading appellation toclergymen who received pay from the state. His appeal to Cromwell was notsuccessful. Cromwell was to become the chief supporter of a churchestablishment. XVII (1652). Sir Henry Vane was member of a committee of the Council of Stateappointed in 1649 to consider alliances and relations with the Europeanpowers. Milton, as Secretary of the Council, had abundant opportunity toobserve Vane's skill in diplomacy, his ability to "unfold the drift ofhollow states hard to be spelled." Both Vane and Milton held to thedoctrine, preeminently associated with the name of Roger Williams, ofuniversal toleration, based on the refusal to the civil magistrate of anyauthority in spiritual matters.
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