These imputations on character, mixed with insinuations of
unorthodoxy, such as are ever rife in clerical controversy, Milton
invests with the moral indignation of a prophet denouncing the enemies
of Jehovah. He expends a wealth of vituperative Latin which makes us
tremble, till we remember that it is put in motion to crush an insect.
This _Pro se defensio_ (Defence for himself), appeared in August,
1656. Morus met it by a supplementary _Fides Publica_, and Milton,
resolved to have the last word, met him by a _Supplement to the
Defence_. The reader will be glad to hear that this is the end of the
Morus controversy. We leave Milton's victim buried under the mountains
of opprobrious Latin here heaped upon him--this "circumforanens
pharmacopola, vanissimus circulator, propudium hominis et
prostibulum."
CHAPTER XI.
LATIN SECRETARYSHIP COMES TO AN END--MILTON'S FRIENDS.
It is no part of Milton's biography to relate the course of public
events in these momentous years, merely because as Latin secretary
he formulated the despatches of the Protector or of his Council, and
because these Latin letters are incorporated in Milton's works.
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