e. he is a commonwealth's
man. Arrived at this point, would Milton take his stand upon
doctrinaire republicanism, and lose sight of liberty in the attempt
to secure equality, as his friends Vane, Overton, Bradshaw would have
done? Or would his idealist exaltation sweep him on into some one of
the current fanaticisms, Leveller, Fifth Monarchy, or Muggletonian?
Unpractical as he was, he was close enough to State affairs as Latin
Secretary, to see that personal government by the Protector was,
at the moment, the only solution. If the liberties that had been
conquered by the sword were to be maintained, between levelling chaos
on the one hand, and royalist reaction on the other, it was the
Protector alone to whom those who prized liberty above party names
could look. Accordingly Milton may be regarded from the year 1654
onwards as an Oliverian, though with particular reservations. He
saw--it was impossible for a man in his situation not to see--the
unavoidable necessity which forced Cromwell, at this moment, to
undertake to govern without a representative assembly. The political
necessity of the situation was absolute, and all reasonable men who
were embarked in the cause felt it to be so.
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