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XXIX: A Pseudonymous Reply to Milton's of Prelatical Episcopacy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

George W. Whiting*
Affiliation:
The Rice Institute

Extract

Unquestionably, early references to Milton and his work are valuable. Doubly valuable is the following hitherto unnoticed reply to his Of Prelatical Episcopacy; for it not only proves that Milton's pamphlet, on its merits and not because of personalities, was deemed worthy of a rejoinder, but it also serves to fix the date of Of Prelatical Episcopacy, and, incidentally, of his first pamphlet, Of Reformation Touching Church Discipline in England. The full title of the reply is A Compendious Discourse, Proving Episcopacy To Be Of Apostolicall, And Consequently Of Divine Institution: By A cleare and weighty testimony of St. Irenœus a glorious Martyr, and renowned Bishop of Lyons in France, upon the yeere of our Lord, 184. The said Testimony being so declared, pressed, and vindicated from all exceptions, that thereby an intelligent, and conscionable Reader may receive abundant satisfaction in this behalfe. Isaiah 39. 8. Let there be peace and truth in my daies. By Peloni Almoni, Cosmopolites. London, Printed by E. G. for Richard Whitaker at the Kings Armes in Pauls Church-yeard, 1641.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1936

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References

1 This pamphlet, including the address to the reader, extends to fourteen pages. The pages are not numbered in the Huntington Library copy, which I used.

2 Almoni also mentions Milton's Of Reformation, which, according to evidence that I have recently discovered and hope soon to publish, is in part a reply to Lord Digby's Speech of February 9, 1641.

3 The Works of John Milton (New York: Columbia University Press, 1931), iii, Part i, 20–21.

4 This seems to refer to Of Prelatical Episcopacy (pp. 88 ff.). Milton admits that only five of some dozen Epistles of Ignatius are spurious.

5 Op. cit., iii, 95.

6 Op. cit., iii, 84.

7 Op. cit., iii, 92.

8 Op. cit., iii, 91–92.

9 Op. cit., iii, 95–96.

10 Op. cit., iii, 92.

11 Op. cit., iii, 93.

12 Op. cit., iii. 94.