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Milton, John 175
For Further Reading:
Edmonson, Munro S. “The Mayan Faith.” In Gary
H. Gossen, ed. South and Meso-American Native
Spirituality. New York: Crossroad, 1993, 65–85.
Eliade, Mircea, ed. Encyclopedia of Religion. New
York: Macmillan, 1987.
Hultkrantz, Ake. The Religions of the American
Indians. 1967. Berkeley: University of California
Press, 1979.
Leon-Portilla, Miguel. “Those Made Worthy by
Divine Sacrifice: The Faith of Ancient Mexico.”
In Gary H. Gossen, ed. South and Meso-
American Native Spirituality. New York:
Crossroad, 1993, 41–64.
Miller, Mary, and Karl Taube. An Illustrated
Dictionary of the Gods and Symbols of Ancient
Mexico and the Maya. London: Thames and
Hudson, 1993.
Popul Vuh. Trans. Dennis Tedlock. 2nd ed. New
York: Touchstone, 1996.
Milton, John
Angels and demons (portrayed traditionally as
fallen angels) are at the very center of John Milton’s
(1608–1674) cosmic scenario, dwelling in the
Empyrean, a boundless region of light and
freedom, and living dispersed throughout it in
organized ranks. By using the old Ptolemaic
astronomy, Milton was able to build a magnificent
literary atlas of comparative maps, showing the
arrangements before and after the fall of the angels.
The oldest son of a London scrivener, John
Milton was born in London on 9 December 1608.
As a boy he was very studious, and was supplied
with the best teachers by his father. He entered
Christ’s College, Cambridge, where he developed a
deep interest in classical literature. Among his
favorite poets were the Italians, through whom he
improved his knowledge of medieval romance.
Besides classical literature, the source of Milton’s
poetic inspiration was the biblical Christianity of
Puritan England.
Milton left the University in 1632 without
taking orders, and spent the next six years of his
life at Horton, where he pursued his studies in
classical literature, history, mathematics, and
music, with occasional visits to London. His earliest
Italian verses were inspired by his love for a
young Italian girl, about whom is known only her
first name, Emilia. The experience is referred to in
the seventh of his Latin elegies. In this period he
also developed his knowledge of English poetry
from Chaucer to Shakespeare, Jonson, and the
later Elizabethans, who considerably influenced all
the poems written during these years.
In 1638 he went abroad. In Paris he met Hugo
Grotius, whose Adamus Exul was one of the
sources of Paradise Lost. He spent two months in
Florence, and proceeded to Rome and Naples,
then made his way back to England via Venice and
Geneva. Once he’d returned to England, he
became involved in a long course of controversy,
ecclesiastical and political, which determined the
choice of themes, the doctrinal framework, and
the spirit of Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained, and
Samson Agonistes.
From 1649 to 1659 he was a servant of the state
as Latin secretary to the Council of State. In 1653
his wife died, and in 1656 he married Catharine
Woodcock, whose early death in 1658 inspired the
most touching of his sonnets. His marriage with
Elizabeth Minshull in 1663 was a convenient
arrangement. The only English poems Milton
wrote during these years were some sonnets on
public events or persons and private incidents in
Italian form. In 1658 Paradise Lost was resumed. It
was then composed to dictation, corrected, and
completed by 1665, and finally it was published in
1667. It was followed in 1671 by Paradise Regained,
an epic on “the brief model” of the Book of Job,
and by Samson Agonistes in 1671. Paradise Lost,
like Dante’s Commedia, is primarily a didactic
exposition of Milton’s theological creed. His
conception of God, of Christ, and of the angels
and devils presented in Paradise Lost is the same as
the one presented in De Doctrina Christiana
(Christian Doctrine), which contains Milton’s
disdainful opinion of conventional dogmatisms
about questions for which no sure answer is possible.
Paradise Lost can be considered a restatement
in poetic form of the doctrines that will finally
justify God and indict man, whereas Paradise
Regained constitutes a presentation of Milton’s
ideal of Christian virtues, obedience, temperance,
and the scorn of worldly glory.
Paradise Lost has many points in common
with the Christian Doctrine. For instance, in both
the treatise and the epic Milton says that angels