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 Unghsf) liqprmtg. 
 
 JOHN MILTON. 
 AREOPAGITICA. 
 
 [24 November] 1644. 
 
 PRECEDED BY ILLUSTRATIVE DOCUMENTS. 
 
 Carefully Edited by 
 EDWARD ARBER, 
 
 Affociate, King's College, London, F.R.C.S., &>c. 
 
 Lauge Paper Edition. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 ALEX. MURRAY & SON, 30, QUEEN SQUARE, W.C. 
 
 Ent. Stat. Hall.} \ March, 1869. [All Rights referved.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 > ■ 
 
 ol ihc 1 loufc of < !ommoiu, 
 
 •I Mi: i | ' ( ollimo'is, 
 
 14 Job . 1 unmons, 
 
 
 
 -•i 
 
 •'i 
 
 AREOPAG11 
 
 \\ NT. Ill .... 
 
 1. The origin, ik licen 
 
 . 
 
 j. What is to be thought in general of readin \~ 
 
 rder [of 14 June 1643] conduces nothing 
 to the end for which it was framed, . . 4'j 
 
 4. The manifeft hurt it cam 
 
 (i) I: is the greateft ment and affront 
 
 that can be offered to learning and to learned 
 
 nun, ...... 55 
 
 on undervaluing and vilifying of the 
 
 i» . . . . S5 
 
 It brings difrepute upon the Minifl . 59 
 
 1 1 ■(. — The (civile condition of learning in Italy, 
 
 the home of licencing, . . . .60 
 
 5. It may prove a nurfing mother to feels, . . 61 
 
 6. It will be the ftep-dame to Truth : — 
 
 (1) By disenabling u» in the maintenance of what 
 
 beady known, . . . .62 
 
 (2) By the incredible lofs it entails in hindering 
 
 the fearch after new Truth, . . . 66 
 
 Defcription of the Englifh nation, . . .68 
 
 The power ol Truth, . . . .74 
 
 An appeal fur toleration, fpilitual unity ami peace, 75 
 
 , . . . . .bo 
 
 -' I
 
 AREOPAGITICA. 1 
 
 INTRODUCTION. / "g 
 
 ]HAT half-living thing — a book : may be re- 
 garded in many ways. It may be confidered 
 in connection with the circumftances which 
 led to its conception and creation ; and in 
 the midft of which it appeared. It may be ftudied, 
 as exhibiting the moral intent, the mental power of 
 its author. Its contents may be analyfed as to their 
 intrinfic truthfulnefs or falfity. We may trace and 
 identify its influence upon its own age and on fucceed- 
 ing generations. This is an apprehenfion of the mind 
 of a book. 
 
 More than this. We may examine its flyle, its 
 power and manner of expreffing that mind. The 
 ringing collocation of its words, the harmonious 
 cadence of its fentences, the flaming gem-like beauty 
 of ifolated paffages, the juft mapping out of the 
 general argument, the due fubordination of its feveral 
 parts, their final inweaving into one overpowering 
 conclufion : thefe are the features, difcovering, illumi- 
 nating, enforcing the mind of a book. 
 
 Much of what is in books is falfe, much only half 
 true, much true. It is impoffible to feparate the tares 
 from the wheat. Every one, therefore — of neceffity — 
 muft read difcriminatively ; often lifting and fearching 
 for firft principles, often tefting the catenation of an 
 argument, often treafuring up incidental truths for 
 future ufe ; enjoying — as delights by the Avay — what- 
 ever felicity of expreffion, gorgeoufnefs of imagination, 
 vividnefs of defcription, or aptnefs of illuftration may 
 glance, like funfhine, athwart the path : the journey's 
 end being Truth. 
 
 The purpofe through thefe Englifh Reprints is to 
 bring this modern age face to face with the works of 
 our forefathers. The Editor and his clumfy framework
 
 4 Introduction. 
 
 are unimportant and may be forgotten : if but that 
 the attention may be riveted upon the picture. The 
 thought of thefe Englifh Writers ia not dead. It 
 (lumbers. Underfland and then fubtract from it. the 
 colouring of time and circumftance, and it is 
 indincl with life: either the noxious life of foul 
 delufive error, or the ethereal life of Truth. We 
 have not, as vet, in all things attained to the height 
 of our Predeceffors' far-feeing conception: and even 
 the juft meafuring of their many millakes and errors 
 may not he time anil effort thrown away. 
 
 While there is very mu< h for us to learn from our 
 Ancients, both in what they faid and their manner of 
 faying it: there bids fair to be an increafing number 
 of learners among the Moderns. England is on the 
 eve of a great Education, in the which the unlettered 
 will become readers, the readers fludents, the fludents 
 fcholars. With this wider variety and increafed 
 ] lower of the Englifh mind, the diligent fludy of the 
 national Literature and Language can hardly fail 
 both to fpread and to deepen. The number of fuch 
 learners tends therefore to multiply, until it (hall be 
 reputed a difgrace to be ignorant of our mother tongue 
 and of that which it enfhrines. 
 
 There is alfo no better or more effential preparative 
 for the outcome of a glorious literature in the Future, 
 than the careful fludy and accurate appreciation of 
 the treafures of the Pafl. The prefent Merchant- 
 Adventurer will efleem the ' Englifh Reprints' to be 
 crowned with a happy fuccefsj if — bringing thofe 
 treafures, as from afar, to every one's home, and there 
 difplaying them to a more public gaze — they (hall, in 
 however infignificant a degree, tend to that happy End. 
 
 The Printing Prefe, among many advantages, brought 
 
 to its early poffeffors one con (Ian t perplexity, which, 
 
 :ver, affumed different forms to different minds. 
 
 The power of every man, of every educated man, was 
 
 by it immenfely increafed for good or for evil. The
 
 Introduction. 5 
 
 true-hearted grieved over the facility the prefs gave 
 to the fpread of error. The high-bred defpot chafed 
 at the new power ceafeleffly exercifed by the low-bred 
 intellect in queftioning and adjufting his prerogative, 
 in deftroying his would-be almightinefs in the mind of 
 the people, in bringing him under Law. The minifters 
 of the religions then extant were alarmed at the ready 
 promulgation of those reftlefs inquiries into the ulti- 
 mate nature of all things, left they fhould undermine 
 the foundations of civil fociety and ecclefiaftical polity, 
 and fo reduce the world to chaotic confufion. Thus 
 fome from confcientious duty, others with a wicked 
 fatisfaction, all unitedly or in turn, joined in clogging 
 the Prefs, in curtailing the new power that God in His 
 Providence had bellowed upon mankind. 
 
 Dr. Johnfon, in his Life of Milton — which, either 
 for wilful mifreprefentation or crafs incapacity to ap- 
 preciate his fubject, is to his perpetual difcredit — fairly 
 reprefents the views of one fide on the Liberty of the 
 Prefs, and through that the boundlefs liberty of 
 human thought. 
 
 "The danger of fuch unbounded liberty, and the danger of 
 bounding it, have produced a problem in the fcience of Govern- 
 ment which human underftanding feems hitherto unable to folve. 
 If nothing may be publifhed but what civil authority fhall have 
 previoufly approved, power muft always be the ftandard of 
 truth ; if every dreamer of innovations may propagate his pro- 
 jects, there can be no fettlement ; if every murmurer at govern- 
 ment may diffufe difcontent, there can be no peace ; and if every 
 fceptick in theology may teach his follies, there can be no reli- 
 gion. The remedy againft thefe evils is to punifh the authors ; 
 for it is yet allowed that every fociety may punifh, though not 
 prevent, the publication of opinions, which that fociety fhall 
 think pernicious ; but this punifhirent, though it may crufli the 
 author, promotes the book ; and it feems not more reafonable to 
 leave the right of printing unreftrained, becaufe writers may be 
 afterwards cenfured, than it would be to deep with doors unbolted, 
 becaufe by our laws we can hang a thief." * 
 
 Milton's anfwer to this had been already written : — 
 
 " Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely 
 according to confciencc above all liberties, t • • • Though all 
 
 • Lives of English Poets, I., 153, 154. London, 17X1. t p. 73
 
 (, III.'/ 
 
 ■ play upon the earth, 
 lb be in ihe field, we do injurioufly by licencing and pro- 
 ;h. Lei her and Falfhood grapplej 
 and open en- 
 El ifuting is the belt and su reft fuprefling 
 
 Who knows not that Truth i-. ltr..i..' oext to the Almighty j Ihe 
 
 ■us. id licencings to make her vie- 
 
 the Drifts and the defences that error ufes 
 
 \ we learn from his Second Defence — written ten 
 after the prefentwork- -the Angularly conceptive 
 mind of Milton had grouped into one cycle fubjects 
 ■ apparent immediate connection. Epifcopacy, 
 Divorce, Education, Freedom of the Individual, Free- 
 dom of the Prefe, had, to his mind, one point of iden- 
 tity and contact, one connecting link, — Liberty. 
 This, a cardinal thought of his entire life, feems to 
 have almofl overpowered him, as he faw the break-up 
 of the fyftem of the Thorough^ the nation uprifingagainfl. 
 the tyranny of a few, and laying — for all coming ages 
 
 the foundations of that religious, civil, and domeflic 
 Liberty, which it is our happinefs to enjoy. 
 
 ( >f that great cycle, the ' Areopagitica' occupies but 
 a fubordinate part, Milton claffifying it under domeflic 
 liberty with divorce and education. He there alfo 
 tells us, his purpofe in writing it : — 
 
 " I wrote my Areopagitica, in order to deliver the prefs from 
 the reftraints with which it was encumbered ; that the power of 
 determining what was true and what was falfe, what ought to be 
 publifhed anil what to be fuppreffed, might no longer be en- 
 trufted to a few illiterate and illiberal individuals, who refufed 
 their fanction to any work which contained views or fentiments 
 at all above the level of the vulgar fuperftition."f 
 
 The following Orders, &c, have been reprinted; 
 partly to give the groundwork of fact to Milton's argu- 
 ment ; partly to (how the flrong hand and the blunt 
 mind of our Anceilors in refpect to the Prefs ; and 
 partly to aflift to a more perfect realization of the an- 
 iflic ideas and circumflances, in the midft of 
 which, Milton conceived the ' Areopagitica,' and so to 
 render more apparent its beauty and originality. 
 
 t Pro/e Works, I., 25^: St. John's Ed., 1848.
 
 DECREE 
 
 OF 
 
 Starre-Chamber, 
 
 CONCERNING 
 
 Printing, 
 
 Made the eleuenth day of July 
 laft paft. 1637. 
 
 *[ Imprinted at London by Robert Barker 
 Printer to the Kings moft Excellent 
 Maieflie : And by the Affignes 
 of Iohn Bill. 1637.
 
 In Camera Stellata coram Con- 
 
 io ibidem, vndecimo die 
 Iulij, Anno decimo teriio 
 Caroli h 
 
 ! ■ lolm Bankes Knight^ His Ma- 
 iejlies Attourney General?, produced in Court 
 a Decree drawn and penned by the aduice of 
 the Right Honourable tin- 1 .onl Keeper of the 
 ■t Scale of England^ the mojl Reuerend Fa- 
 ther in God the Lord An h-Bifhop of Canterbury his 
 Grace, the Right Honorable and Right Reuerend Father 
 in God the Lord Difhop of London Lord high Treafurer 
 of England, the Lord chicle [ufiices, and the Lord chiefe 
 Baron, touching the regulating of Printers and Founders 
 of letters, whereof the Court hauing confederation, the said 
 Decree was di reeled and ordered to be here Recorded, and 
 to the end the fame may be publique, and that euery one 
 whom it may concerne may take notice thereof, The Court 
 hath noic a/fo ordered, That the said Decree f hall fpeedily 
 '/ted, and that the same be fen t to J lis Maieflies 
 Printer for that purpofe. Jl 'hereas the three and twentieth 
 day of June in the eight ana twentieth yere of the reigne 
 of the late Queene Elizabeth, ana before, diners Decrees 
 and Ordinances haue bee/n made fot the better gouemment 
 and regulating of Printers ana Printing, which Orders 
 and Decrees haue beenefouna by experience to be defccliue 
 in fome particulars ; Ana diners abufes have jit hence 
 arifen, and ' beene praclifed 'by the craft and 'malice of wicked 
 and euill difpofed perfons, to thepreiudice of the publike; 
 And diners libellous, seditious, and mutinous bookes haue 
 beene vnduly printed, and other bookes and papers 'with- 
 out licence, to the disturbance of the peace of the Church and 
 State: For preuention whereof in time to come, It is now 
 d and Decreed, That the faid former Decrees and 
 Ordinances fhallfland in force with these Additions, Ex- 
 planations, and Alterations following^ viz.
 
 In Camera Stellata coram Con- 
 
 cilio ibidem, vndecimo die Iulii, 
 Anno decimo tertio Caroli 
 Regis. 
 
 Mprimis, That no perfon or perfons what 
 foeuer (hall prefume to print, or caufe to 
 bee printed, either in the parts beyond 
 the Seas, or in this Realme, or other his 
 Maiefties Dominions, any feditious, fcifma- 
 ticall, or offenfive Bookes or Pamphlets, to the fcandall 
 of Religion, or the Church, or the Government, or 
 Governours of the Church or State, or Commonwealth, 
 or of any Corporation, or particular perfon or perfons 
 whatfoeuer, nor (hall import any fuch Booke or Bookes, 
 nor fell or difpofe of them, or any of them, nor caufe 
 any fuch to be bound, ftitched, or fowed, vpon paine 
 that he or they fo offending, fhall loofe all fuch Bookes 
 and Pamphlets, and alfo haue, and fuffer fuch correction, 
 and fevere punifhment, either by Fine, imprifonment, 
 or other corporall punifhment, or otherwife, as by this 
 Court, or by His Maiefties Commifsioners for caufes 
 Ecclefiafticall in the high Commifsion Court, refpec- 
 tiuely, as the feveral caufes fhall require, fhall be 
 thought fit to be inflicted upon him, or them, for fuch 
 their offence and contempt. 
 
 II. Item, That no perfon or perfons whatfoeuer, 
 fhall at any time print or caufe to be imprinted, any 
 Booke or Pamphlet whatfoever, vnleffe the fame Booke
 
 ro A I 
 
 nd alfo all and euery the Titles, Epiftles, 
 Prefaces, Proems, Preambles, Introductions, Tables 
 Dedications, and other matters and things whatfoeuer 
 thereunto annexed, or therewith imprinted, fhall be 
 lirtl lawfully licenced ami authorized onely by fuch 
 perfon and perfons as arc hereafter expreffed, and by 
 no other, and (hall be also firft entred into the Regiflers 
 Booke of the Company of Stationers ; vpon paine thai 
 euery Printer offending therein, fhall be for euer here- 
 after difabled to ufe or exercife the Art or Myflerie of 
 Printing, and receiue fuch further punifhment, as bythis 
 Court or the high Commifsion Court refpectiuely, as 
 the feverall caufes fhall require, fhall be thought fitting 
 
 III. Item, That all Bookes concerning the common 
 I. awes of this Reahne fhall be printed by the efpeciall 
 allowance of the Lords (hide Indices, and the Lord 
 chiefe Baron for the time being, or one or more of 
 them, or by their appointment ; And that all Looks of 
 Hiflory, belonging to this State, and prefent times, or 
 any other Booke of State affaires, fhall be licenced by 
 the principal! Secretaries of State, or one of them, or 
 by their appointment ; And that all Lookes concerning 
 Heraldry, Titles of Honour and Armes, or otherwife 
 concerning the Office of Earle Marfhall, fhall be licen- 
 ced by the Earle Marfhall, or by his appointment; 
 And further, that all other Books, whether of Diuinitie, 
 Phificke, Philofophie, Poetry, or whatfoeuer, fliall be 
 allowed by the Lord Arch -Bifliop of Canterbury, or 
 Bifliop of London for the time being, or by their appoint- 
 ment, or the Chancellours, or Vice Chancellors of either 
 of the Vinuerfities of this Realme for the time being. 
 
 Alwayes prouided, that the Chancellour or Vice- 
 Chancellour, of either of the Vniuerfities, fhall Licence 
 onely fuch Booke or Bookes that are to be Printed 
 within the limits of the Vniuerfities refpectiuely, but 
 not in London, or elfewhere, not medling either with 
 the common Law, or matters of State. 
 
 IV. Ttem y That euery perfon and perfons, which by 
 any Decree of this Court are, or fliall be appointed 01
 
 of Star re- Chamber. 1 1 
 
 authorized to Licence Bookes, or giue Warrant for im- 
 printing thereof, as is aforefaid, fhall haue two feuerall 
 written Copies of the fame Booke or Bookes with the 
 Titles, Epiftles, Prefaces, Proems, Preambles, Intro- 
 ductions, Tables, Dedications, and other things what- 
 foeuer thereunto annexed. One of which faid Copies 
 (hall be kept in the publike Regiftries of the faid Lord 
 Arch-Bifhop, and Bifhop of London refpectiuely, or 
 in the Office of the Chancellour, or Vice-Chancellour 
 of either of the Vniuerfities, or with the Earle Marfhall, 
 or principall Secretaries of State, or with the Lords 
 chiefe Iuflices, or chiefe Baron, of all fuch Bookes as 
 (hall be licenfed by them refpectiuely, to the end that 
 he or they may be fecure, that the Copy fo licenfed by 
 him or them fhall not bee altered without his or their 
 priuitie, and the other fhall remain with him whofe 
 Copy it is, and vpon both the faid Copies, he or they 
 that fhall allow the faid Booke, (hall teftifie vnder his 
 or their hand or hands, that there is nothing in that 
 Booke or Books contained, that is contrary to Chris- 
 tian Faith, and the Doctrine and Difcipline of the 
 Church of England, nor againft the State or Gouern- 
 ment, nor contrary to good life, or good manners, or 
 otherwife, as the nature and fubiect of the work (hall 
 require, which licenfe or approbation fhall be im- 
 printed in the beginning of the fame Booke, with the 
 name, or names of him or them that fhall authorize or 
 licenfe the fame, for a teftimonie of the allowance thereof. 
 V. Item, That every Merchant of bookes, and per- 
 fon and perfons whatfoeuer, which doth, or hereafter 
 fhall buy, or import, or bring any booke or bookes 
 into this Realme, from any parts beyond the Seas, 
 fhall before fuch time as the fame book or books, or 
 any of them be deliuered forth, or out of his, or their 
 hand or hands, or expofed to fale, giue, and prefent 
 a true Catalogue in writing of all and euery fuch booke 
 and bookes vnto the Lord Arch-Bifhop of Canterbury, 
 or Lord Bifhop of London for the time being, vpon 
 paine to haue and fuffer fuch punifhment for offending
 
 i _• ./ Decret 
 
 herein, .1- bj this Court, or by the (aid high Com- 
 DiUsion Court refpectiuely, as the feueral caufes fhaU 
 require, ihall be thought fitting. 
 
 \ I. Item, That ii" Merchant, or other perfon or 
 perfons whatfoeuer, which fhall import or bring any 
 Look or books into the kingdome, from any parts 
 beyond the Seas, fhall prefume to open any Dry-fats, 
 Bales, Maunds, or other Fardals of books, or 
 
 wherein books are ; nor fhall any Sear* her, Wayter, or 
 other Officer belonging to the Cuflome-houfe, vpon 
 
 pain of looting his or their place or places, hitter the 
 lame to paffe, or to be deliuered out of their hands or 
 cuflody, before fuch time as the Lord Arch-Bifhop of 
 Canterbury, or Lord Bifliop of London, or one of them 
 
 for the time being, haue appointed one of their Chap- 
 lains, or fome other learned man, with the Mailer and 
 Wardens- of the Company of Stationers, or one of 
 them, and fuch others as they fhall call to their afsift- 
 an< e, to he prefent at the opening thereof, and to view 
 the fame : And if there fhall happen to be found 
 any feditious, fchifmaticall or offenfiue booke or 
 bookes, they fhall forthwith be brought vnto the faid 
 Lord Arch-bifhop of Canterbury, Lord Bifliop of London 
 for the time being, or one of them, or to the High 
 Commifsion Office, to the end that as well the offendor 
 or offendors may be punifhed by the Court of Star 
 Chamber, or the high Commifsion Court refpectiuely, 
 as the feuerall caufes fliall require, according to his or 
 their demerit; as alfo that fuch further courfe and 
 order ma}- be taken concerning the fame booke or 
 bookes, as fliall bee thought fitting. 
 
 VII. Ltem, That no perfon or perfons fliall within 
 this Kingdome, or elfewhere imprint, or caufe to be im- 
 printed, nor fliall import or bring in, or caufe to be 
 imported or brought into this Kingdome, from, or out 
 of any other J I i-, Maiefties Dominions, nor from other, 
 or any parts beyond the Seas, any Copy, book or 
 books, or part of any booke or bookes, printed beyond 
 the feas, or elfewhere, which the faid Company of
 
 of Starre-Chamber. 13 
 
 Stationers, or any other perfon or perfons haue, or 
 fhall by any Letters Patents, Order, or Entrance in 
 their Regifler book, or otherwife, haue the right, 
 priuiledge, authoritie, or allowance foly to print, nor 
 (hall bind, flitch, or put to fale, any fuch booke or 
 bookes, vpon paine of" loffe and forfeiture of all the 
 faid bookes, and of fuch Fine, or other punifhment, 
 for euery booke or part of a booke fo imprinted or 
 imported, bound, ftitched, or put to fale, to be leuyed 
 of the party fo offending, as by the power of this 
 Court, or the high Commifsion Court refpectiuely, as 
 the feverall caufes fhall require, fhall be thought fit. 
 
 VIII. Item, Euery perfon and perfons that fhall 
 hereafter Print, or caufe to be Printed, any Bookes, 
 Ballads, Charts, Portraiture, or any other thing or 
 things whatfoeuer, fhall thereunto or thereon Print and 
 fet his and their owne name or names, as alfo the 
 name or names of the Author or Authors, Maker or 
 Makers of the fame, and by, or for whom any fuch 
 booke, or other thing is, or fhall be printed, vpon pain 
 of forfiture of all fuch Books, Ballads, Chartes, Por- 
 traitures, and other thing or things, printed contrary 
 to this Article ; And the preffes, Letters and other 
 inflruments for Printing, wherewith fuch Books, bal- 
 lads, Chartes, Portraitures, and other thing or things 
 fhall be printed, to be defaced and made vnferuiceable, 
 and the party and parties fo offending, to be fined, 
 imprifoned and haue fuch other corporall punifhment, 
 or otherwife, as by this Honourable Court, or the faid 
 high Commifsion refpectiuely, as the feuerall caufes 
 fhall require, fhall be thought fit. 
 
 IX. Item, That no perfon or perfons whatfoeuer, 
 fhall hereafter print, or caufe to be printed, or fhall 
 forge, put, or counterfeit in, or vpon any booke or 
 books, the name, title, marke or vinnet of the Com- 
 pany or Society of Stationers, or of any particular 
 perfon or perfons, which hath or fhall haue lawfull 
 priuiledge, authoritie, or allowance to print the fame, 
 without the confent of the faid Company, or party or
 
 14 .7 / 
 
 parties that are or thai] be fo priuiledged, authorized, 
 or allowed to print the lame booke or books, thing or 
 things, t'iril had and obtained, vpon paine that euery 
 perfon or perfons fo offending, (hall not onelyloofe all 
 
 hn.li books and other things, but fhall alfo haue, and 
 fuffer fuch punifhment, by imprifonment of his body, 
 fine, orotherwife, as by this Honourable Court, or high 
 I mifeionCourtrefpe«Sliuely,asthefeuerallcaufesfhall 
 
 require, it lhall be to him or them limited or adiudged. 
 
 \ //<///, that no Haberdafher of fmall wares, 
 Ironmonger, Chandler, Shop-keeper, or any other 
 perfon or perfons whatsoeuer, not hauing beene feuen 
 yeeres apprentice to the trade of a Book-feller, Printer, 
 or Book-binder, fhall within the citie or fuburbs of 
 London, or in any other Corporation, Market-towne, 
 or elfsvhere, receive, take or buy, to barter, fell againe, 
 change or do away any Bibles, Teflaments, Pfalm- 
 books, Primers, Abcees, Almanackes, or other booke 
 or books whatfoeuer, vpon pain of forfeiture of all fuch 
 books fo receiued, bought or taken as aforefaid,and fuch 
 other punifhment of the parties fo offending, as by this 
 Court, or the laid high Commifsion Court refpecliuely, 
 as the feverall caufes fhall require, (hall be thought meet. 
 
 XI. Item, for that Printing is, and for many yeers 
 hath been an Art and manufacture of this kingdome, 
 for the better incouraging of Printers in their honefl, 
 and iuft endeauours in their profession, and preuention 
 of diuers libels, pamphlets, and feditious books 
 printed beyond the feas in Englifh, and thence trans- 
 ported hither; 
 
 It is further Ordered and Decreed, that no Mer- 
 chant, Bookfeller, or other perfon or perfons whatfoeuer, 
 fhall imprint, or caufe to be imprinted, in the parts 
 beyond the feas or elfwhere, nor (hall import or bring, 
 nor willingly afsifl or content to the importation or 
 bringing from beyond the feas into this Realme, any 
 Englifh bookes, or part of bookes, or bookes what- 
 foeuer, which are or (hall be, or the greater or more 
 part whereof is or fhall be Englifh, or of the Englifh
 
 of Siarre- Chamber. 1 5 
 
 tongue, whether the fame book or bookes haue been 
 here formerly printed or not, vpon pain of the for- 
 feiture of all fuch Englifh bookes fo imprinted or im- 
 ported, and fuch further cenfure and punifhment, as 
 by this Court, or the faid high Commifsion Court re- 
 fpecliuely, as the feuerall caufes (hall require, fhall be 
 thought meet. 
 
 XII. Item, That no ftranger or forreigner whatfoeuer, 
 be fuffered to bring in, or vent here, any booke or 
 bookes printed beyond the feas, in any language what- 
 foeuer, either by themfelues or their fecret Factors, 
 except fuch onely as bee free Stationers of London, an^ 
 fuch as haue beene brought vp in that profefsion, and 
 haue their whole meanes of fubfiftance, and liuelihood 
 depending thereupon, vpon paine of confifcation of all 
 fuch Books fo imported, and fuch further penalties, as 
 by this Court, or the high Commifsion Court refpect- 
 iuely, as the feuerall caufes fhall require, fhall be 
 thought fit to be impofed. 
 
 XIII. Item, That no perfon or perfons within the 
 Citie of London, or the liberties thereof, or elfewhere, 
 fhall erect or caufe to be erected any Preffe or Print- 
 ing-houfe, nor fhall demife, or let, or fuffer to be held 
 or vfed, any houfe, vault, feller, or other roome what- 
 foeuer, to, or by any perfon or perfons, for a Printing- 
 houfe, or place to print in, vnlefse he or they which 
 (hall fo demife or let the fame, or fuffer the fame to be 
 fo vfed, (hall firft giue notice to the faid Matter and 
 Wardens of the Company of Stationers for the time 
 being, of fuch demife, or fuffering to worke or print 
 there, vpon paine of imprisonment, and fuch other 
 punifhment as by this Court, or the faid high Com- 
 mifsion Court refpectiuely, as the feuerall Caufes fhall 
 require, (hall bee thought fit. 
 
 XIV. Item, That no Ioyner, or Carpenter, or other 
 perfon, (hall make any printing-Preffe, no Smith (hall 
 forge any Iron-worke for a printing-Preffe, and no 
 Founder fhall caft any Letters for any perfon or per- 
 fons whatfoeuer, neither fhall any perfon or perfons 
 bring, or caufe to be brought in from any parts beyond
 
 i AD 
 
 the Seas, any 1 i Call, nor buy any 
 
 fuch Letters tor Printing, Vnleffe he or they refpect- 
 iuely (hall firfl acquaint the laid Mailer and Wardens, 
 or fome of them, for whom the fame Prefle, Iron works, 
 
 or Letters, are to be made, forged, or call, vpon paine 
 of fuch fine and punifhment, as this Court, or the high 
 Commission Court refpedliuely, as the feuerall caufes 
 lhall require, fliall thinke fit. 
 
 XV. //em, 'J'hc Court doth declare, that as formerly, 
 fo now, there fliall be but Twentie Mailer Printers 
 allowed to haue the vfe of one Prefle or more, as is 
 after fpecified, and doth hereby nominate, allow, and 
 admit thefe perfons whofe names hereafter follow, to 
 !he number of Twentie, to have the vfe of a Prefle, or 
 Preffes and Printing-houfe, for the time being, viz. Felix 
 King/lone, Adam I/lip, Thomas Purfoot, Miles FUJher i 
 Thomas Harper, Iohn Beale, John Legal, Robert Youngs 
 Iohn //aviland, George Miller, Richard Badger, Thomas 
 Cotes, Bernard A If op, Richard Bijhop, Edward Griffin, 
 Thomas Purflow, Richard Hodgkinfonne, Iohn Dawfon, 
 Iohn Raworth, Marmaduke Parfons. And further, the 
 Court doth order and decree, That it fliall be lawfull for 
 the Lord Arch-Bifhop of Canterbury, or the Lord 
 Bifhop of London, for the time being, taking to him or 
 them fix other high Commifsioners, to fupply the place 
 or places of thofe which are now already Printers by this 
 Court, as they fliall fall void by death, or Cenfure, or 
 otherwife : Prouided that they exceed not the number 
 of Twentie, befides His Maiefties Printers, and the 
 Printers allowed for the Vniuerfities. 
 
 XVI. Item, That euery perfon or perfons, now al- 
 lowed or admitted to have the vfe of a Preffe, and 
 Printing-houfe, fhall within Ten dayes after the date 
 hereof, become bound with fureties to His Maieftie in 
 the high Commifsion Court, in the fum of three hun- 
 dred pounds, not to print or fuffer to be printed in his 
 houfe or Prefle, any booke, or bookes whatfoeuer, but 
 fuch as fhall from time to time be lawfully licenfed, 
 and that the like Bond fhall be entred into by all, and 
 euery perfon and perfons, that hereafter fliall be admit-
 
 of Starve- Chamber. 1 7 
 
 ted, or allowed to print, before he or they be fuffered 
 to haue the vfe of a Preffe. 
 
 XVII. Item, That no allowed Printer fliall keep aboue 
 two Preffes, vnleffe he hath been Matter or vpper War- 
 den 2 of his Company, who are thereby allowed to keep 
 three Preffes and no more, vnder paine of being dis- 
 abled for euer after to keepe or vfe any Preffe at all, 
 vnleffe for fome great and fpecial occafion for the pub- 
 lique, he or they haue for a time leaue of the Lord Arch- 
 Bifhop of Canterbury, or Lord Bifhop of London for the 
 time being, to have or vfe one, or more aboue the fore- 
 faid number, as their Lordfhips, or either of them fliall 
 thinke fit. And whereas there are fome Matter Printers 
 that haue at this prefent one, or more Preffes allowed 
 them by this Decree, the Court doth further order and 
 declare, That the Matter and Wardens of the Company 
 of Stationers, doe foorthwith certifie the Lord Arch- 
 Bifhop of Canterbury, or the Lord Bifhop of London, 
 what number of Preffes each Matter Printer hath, that 
 their Lordfhips or either of them, taking vnto them fix 
 other high Commiffioners, may take fuch prefent order 
 for the fupprefsing of the fupernumerarie Preffes, as 
 to their Lordfhips, or to either of them mail feem bett. 
 
 XVIII. Item, That no perfon or perfons, do hereafter 
 reprint, or caufe to be reprinted, any booke or bookes 
 whatfoeuer (though formerly printed with licence) with- 
 out being reuiewed, and a new Licence obtained lor 
 the reprinting thereof. Alwayes provided, that the Sta- 
 tioner or Printer be put to no other charge hereby, but 
 the bringing and leauing ot two printed copies of the 
 book to be printed, as is before expreffed of written 
 Copies, with all fuch additions as the Author hath made. 
 
 XIX. Item, The Court doth declare, as formerly, fo 
 now, That no Apprentices be taken into any printing- 
 houfe, otherwife then according to this proportion fol- 
 lowing, (7^'s.)euery Matter-Printer that is, or hath beene 
 Matter or vpper Warden of his Company, may haue 
 three Apprentices at one time and no more, and euery 
 Matter-printer that is of the Liuerie of his Company 
 
 B
 
 A D 
 
 may have two Apprentices at one lime and no more. 
 and euery Mafter-printer of the Yeomanry of the 
 any may haue one Apprentice at one time and 
 no more, neither by Copartnerfhip, binding at the 
 Scriueners, nor any other way whatfoeuer; neither 
 (hall it be lawful! for any Mafler-Printer when any 
 Apprentice or Apprentices, (hall run or be put away, 
 to take another Apprentice, or other Apprentices in 
 his or their place or pla es. vnleffe the name or names 
 of him or them fo gone away, be raced out of the Hall- 
 booke, and never admitted again, vpon paine of be- 
 ir euer difabled of the vfe of a Preffe or printing- 
 . and of fuch further punifhment, as by this < 
 < >r the high Commifsion Court refpectiuely, as the feuerall 
 caufes fhall require, fhall lie thought fit to be impofed. 
 XX. Item, The Court doth likewife declare, that 
 becaufe a great part of the fecret printing in corners 
 hath been caufed for want of orderly imployment for 
 Iourneymen printers, Therefore the Court doth hereby 
 require the Mailer and Wardens of the Company of 
 Stationers, to take efpeciall care that all Iourneymen- 
 printers, who are free of the Company of Stationers, 
 fhall be fet to worke, and imployed within their owne 
 Company of Stationers ; for which purpofe the Court 
 doth alfo order and declare, that if any Iourneyman- 
 Printer, and free of the Company of Stationers, who is 
 of honeft, and good behauiour, and able in his trade, 
 do want imployment, he fliall repairetothe Mafler and 
 Wardens of the Companie of Stationers, and they or 
 one of them, taking with him or them one or two of 
 the Mafler Printers, fliall go along with the faid 
 Iourneyman-Printer, and fliall offer his feruice in the 
 firft place to the Mafter Printer vnder whom he 
 ferued his Apprentifhip, if he be liuing, and do con- 
 tinue an allowed Printer, or otherwife to any other 
 .Mafter Printer, whom the Mafter and Wardens of the 
 faid Company fliall thinke fit. And euery Mailer Printer 
 mall bee bound to imploy one Iourneyman, being fo 
 offered to him, and more, if need fliall fo require.
 
 of Starre-Chamber. 19 
 
 and it fhall be fo adiudged to come to his fhare, ac- 
 cording to the proportion of his Apprentices and im- 
 ployments, by the Mailer and Wardens of the Company 
 of Stationers, although he the faid Mailer Printer with 
 his Apprentice or Apprentices be able without the helpe 
 of the faid Iourneyman or Iourneymen to difcharge 
 his owne worke, vpon paine of fuch punifliment, as by 
 this Court, or the high Commifsion Court refpectiuely, 
 as the feuerall caufes fliall require, fliall be thought fit. 
 
 XXI. Item, The Court doth declare, That if the 
 Mailer and Wardens of the Companie of Stationers, or 
 any of them, fhall refufe or neglect to go along with 
 any honed and fufficient Iourney-man Printer, fo 
 deliring their afsiflance, to finde him imployment, vpon 
 complaint and proofe made thereof, he, or they fo 
 offending, fliall fuffer imprifonment, and fuch other 
 punifliment, as by this court, or the high Commifsion 
 Court refpectiuely, as the feuerall caufes (hall require, 
 fhall be thought fit to be impofed. But in cafe any 
 Mailer Printer hath more imployment then he is able 
 to difcharge with helpe of his Apprentice or Appren- 
 tices, it fhall be lawful for him to require the helpe of 
 any Iourney-man or Iourney-men-Printers, who are 
 not imployed, and if the said Iourneyman, or Iourney- 
 men-Printers so required, fliall refufe imployment, or 
 neglect it when hee or they haue vndertaken it, he, or 
 they fhall fuffer imprifonment, and vndergo fuch 
 punifliment, as this Court fliall thinke fit. 
 
 XXII. Item, The Court doth hereby declare, that 
 it doth not hereby reftraine the Printers of either of 
 the Vniuerfities from taking what number of Ap- 
 prentices for their feruice in printing there, they them- 
 felues fliall thinke fit. Prouided alvvayes, that the faid 
 Printers in the Vniuerfities fliall imploy all their owne 
 Iourney-men within themfelues, and not fuffer any of 
 their (aid Iourney-men to go abroad for imployment 
 to the Printers of london (vnlcffe vpon occafion fome 
 Printers of london defire to imploy fome extraordinary 
 Workman or Workmen amongft them, without pre-
 
 . / / 
 
 iudice to their owne [ourneymen, who are Freemen) 
 vpon fuch penalty as the Chancellor of cither of the 
 Vniuerfities for the time being, fhall thinkefit to inflict 
 vpon the delinquents herein. 
 
 XXIII. Item, That no Mafler-printer fhall imploy 
 either toworke at the Cafe, or the Preffe, or otherwife 
 about his printing, any other perfon or perfons, then 
 fuch onelj men, or Apprentices to the 
 Trade or myftery of Printing, vnder paine of being 
 difabled for euer after to keep or vfe any Preffe 
 or Printing houfe, and fuch further punifhment as by 
 this Court, or the high Commifsion Court refpectiuely, 
 as the feuerall caufes fhall require, fhall bee thought 
 tit to be impofed. 
 
 XXIV. Item, The Court doth hereby declare their 
 firme refolution, that if any perfon or perfons, that is 
 not allowed Printer, fhall hereafter prefume to fet vp 
 any Preffe for printing, or fhall worke at any fuch 
 Preffe. or Set, or Compofe any Letters to bee wrought 
 by any fuch Preffe: hee, or they fo offending, fhall from 
 time to time, by the ( hder of this Court, bee fet in the 
 Pillorie, and Whipt through the Citie of London, and 
 fuffer fuch other punifhment, as this Court fhall Order 
 or thinke fit to inflict vpon them, vpon Complaint or 
 proofe of fuch offence or offences, or fhalbe otherwife 
 punifhed, as the Court of High Commifsion fliall thinke 
 tit, and is agreeable to their Commifsion. 
 
 X XV. Item, That for the better difcouery of printing 
 in Corners without licence ; The Mafter and Wardens 
 of the Company of Stationers for the time being, 
 or any two licenfed Maflcr -Printers, which fliall be 
 appointed by the Lord Arch-Bifhop of Canterbury, or 
 Lord B. of London for the time being, fliall haue 
 power and authority, to take vnto themfelues fuch 
 afflftance as they fliall think needfull, and to fearch 
 what houfes and (hops (and at what time they fhall 
 think fit) efpecially Printing houfes, and to view what 
 is in printing, and to call for the licenfe to fee 
 whether it be licen< ed or no, and if not, to feize vpon
 
 of Starre-Chamber. 21 
 
 fo much as is printed, together with the feuerall 
 offenders, and to bring them before the Lord Arch- 
 Bifhop of Canterbury, or the Lord Bifhop of London for 
 the time being, that they or either of them may take 
 fuch further order therein as fhall appertaine to Iuflice. 
 
 XXVI. Item, The Court doth declare, that it fhall 
 be lawfull alfo for the faid Searchers, if vpon fearch 
 they find any book or bookes, or part of booke or 
 books which they fuspecl to containe matter in it 
 or them, contrary to the doctrine and difcipline of the 
 Church of England, or againft the State and Gouern- 
 ment, vpon fuch fuspition to feize upon fuch book 
 or books, or part of booke or books, and to bring it, 
 or them, to the Lord Arch-Bifhop of Canterbury, or 
 the Lord Bifhop of London for the time being, who 
 fhall take fuch further courfe therein, as to their Lord- 
 fhips, or either of them fhall feeme fit. 
 
 XXVII. Item, The Court doth order and declare, 
 that there fhall be foure Founders of letters for print- 
 ing allowed, and no more, and doth hereby nominate, 
 allow, and admit thefe perfons, whofe names here- 
 after follow, to the number of foure, to be letter- 
 Founders for the time being, (viz) John Grismand, 
 Tlwmas Wright, Arthur Nichols, Alexander Fifeild. 
 And further, the Court doth Order and Decree, that it 
 fhall be lawfull for the Lord Arch-bifhop of Canter- 
 bury, or the Lord Bifhop of London for the time being, 
 taking unto him or them, fix other high Commifsioners, 
 to fupply the place or places of thefe who are now 
 allowed Founders of letters by this Court, as they fhall 
 fall void by death, cenfure, or otherwife. 
 
 Prouided, that they exceede not the number of 
 foure, fet downe by this Court. And if any perfon or 
 perfons, not being an allowed Founder, fhall notwith- 
 flanding take vpon him, or them, to Found, or caft 
 letters for printing, vpon complaint and proofe made 
 of such offence, or offences, he, or they fo offending, 
 fhal fufter fuch punifliment, as this Court, or the 
 high Commifsion court respecliuely, as the feuerall
 
 ./ D 
 
 caufes ih. ill require, (hall think fit to inflii I 
 them. 
 
 XXVIII. //<■'//, That no Matter Founder whatfoeuer 
 (hall keepe aboue two Apprentices at one time, neither 
 
 partnerfhip, binding at the Scriueners, nor any 
 other way whatfoeuer, neither (hall it be lawfull for any 
 Matter Founder, when any Apprentice, or Apprentices 
 (hall run, or be put away, to take another Apprentice, 
 or other Apprentices in his, or their place or pi 
 vnlelYe the name or names of him, or them fo gone 
 away, be rafed out of the Hall-booke of the Company, 
 where of the Mailer-Founder is free, and neveradmitted 
 
 . vpon pain of fuch punifhment, as by this Court, 
 or the high Commifsion refpectiuely, as the feuerall 
 caufes (hall require, tliall be thought tit to bee impofed. 
 
 XXIX. Item, That all Iourney-men-Founders be 
 imployed by the Matter- Founders of the laid trade, 
 and that idle Iourney-men be compelled to worke after 
 the fame manner, and vpon the fame penalties, as in 
 cafe of the lourney men-Printers is before specified. 
 
 XXX. Item, That no Matter-Founder of letters, 
 (hall imploy any other perfon or perfons in any worke 
 belonging to the catting or founding of letters, then 
 fuch only as are freemen or apprentices to the tra 
 founding letters, fane onely in the pulling off the knots 
 of mettle hanging at the ends of the letters when they 
 are tirtt catt, in which work it (hall be lawfull for 
 euery Mailer- Founder, to imploy one boy only that is 
 
 nor hath beene bound to the trade of Founding 
 letters, but not otherwife, upon pain of being for euer 
 difabled to vfe or exercise that art, and fuch further 
 punifhment, as by this Court, or the high Commifsion 
 < !ourt refpeetiuely, as the feuerall caufes (hall require, 
 be thought fit to be impofed. 
 
 XXXI. Item, That euery perfon or perfons whatfo- 
 euer, which fhall at any time or times hereafter, by his 
 or their confefsion, or otherwife by proof be conuicted 
 of any of the offences, by this, or any other Decree of 
 this Court made, dial before fuch time as he or they
 
 of Starre-Chamber. 23 
 
 (hall be difcharged, and ouer and aboue their fine and 
 punifhment, as aforefaid, be bound with good fureties, 
 never after to tranfgreffe, or offend in that or the like 
 kinde, for which he, or they fhalbe fo conuicted and 
 punifhed, as aforefaid ; And that all and euery the 
 forfeitures aforefaid (excepting all feditious fchifma- 
 ticall Bookes, or Pamphlets, which this Court doth 
 hereby Order to bee presently burnt) And except fuch 
 Bookes, as the forfeitures are already granted by 
 Letters Patents, (hall be diuided and difpofed of, as 
 the high Commifsion Court (hall find fit. Alwaies 
 prouiding that one moitie be to the King. 
 
 XXXII. Item, That no Merchant, Mailer, or Owner 
 of any Ship or Veffell, or any other perfon or perfons 
 whatfoeuer (hall hereafter prefume to land, or put on 
 fhore any Booke or Bookes, or the part of any Booke 
 or Books, to be imported from beyond the feas, in any 
 Port, Hauen, Creek, or other place whatfoeuer within 
 the Realme of England, but only in the Port of the City 
 of London, to the end the faid Bookes may there be 
 viewed, as aforefaid : And the seuerall Officers of His 
 Maiefties Ports are hereby required to take notice thereof. 
 
 XXXIII. Item, That whereas there is an agreement 
 betwixt Sir Thomas Bodley Knight, Founder of the 
 Vniuerfity Library at Oxford, and the Mafter, Wardens, 
 and Afsiftants of the Company of Stationers (viz.) That 
 one Booke of euery fort that is new printed, or reprinted 
 with additions, be fent to the Vniuerfitie of Oxford for 
 the vfe of the publique Librarie there ; The Court doth 
 hereby Order, and declare, That euery Printer (hall 
 referue one Book new printed, or reprinted by him, with 
 additions, and (hall before any publique venting of the 
 faid book, bring it to the Common Hall of the Com- 
 panie of Stationers, and deliuer it to the Officer thereof 
 to be fent to the Librarie at Oxford accordingly, vpon 
 paine of imprifonment, and fuch further Order and Di- 
 rection therein, as to this Court, or the high Commifsion 
 Court refpecliuely, as the leuerall caufes (hall require, 
 (hall be thought fit. 
 
 FINIS
 
 der made by the 1 [onourable Houfe of < lommons. 
 / '. • Sabbaiti, 20. Januarii. \ <> 1 1 [1642]. 
 
 Id that the Matter and Wardens of the Company 
 Stmtioners (hall be required to take efpeciaU Order, thai 
 the Printers doe neither print, nor reprint any thing without the 
 name and confent of the Author: And that if any Printer (hall 
 notwithftanding print or reprint any thing without the 1 
 and name of the Author, that he fliall then be proceeded againft, 
 th Printer and Author thereof, and their names to be 
 certified to this Houfe. //. Elftnge Cler. Pari. do. Com. 
 
 I lie [o> is 9. Martii 1642 ( [643]. 
 
 An ( )rdcr of the Commons affembled in Par- 
 liament For regulating Printing. 
 IT i- this day < Ordered by the Commons Houfe of Parliament, 
 That the Committee for Examinations, or any foure of them, 
 have power to appoint fuel) perfons as they thinke fit, to fearcfa 
 in any houfe or place where there is iuft caufe of sufpition, That 
 Preffes are kept and employed in the printing of fcandalous and 
 lying Pamphlets, and that they do demollifh and take away fuch 
 Preffes and their materials, and the PrintersNutsandSpindleswhich 
 they find fo employed, and bring the Mailer- Printers, and Work- 
 men Printers before the faid Committee ; and that the Committee 
 or any four of them, have power to commit to prifon any of the 
 faid Printers, or any other oerfons that do contrive, or publikely 
 or privately vend fell, or publifh any Pamphlet fcandalous to his 
 Majefty or the proceedings of both or either I loufes of Parliament, 
 or that fliall refufe to fuller any I loufes or Shops to be fearched, 
 where fuch preffes or pamphlets as aforefaid are kept : And that 
 the perfons imployed by the faid Committee fliall have power to 
 seize fuch fcandalous and lying pamphlets as they find uppon fearch, 
 to be in any fliopp or warhoufe, fold, or difperfed by any perfon 
 whomfoever, and to bring the perfons (that fo kept publiflied, or 
 fold the fame,) before the Committee ; And that fuch perfons as 
 the Committee fliall commit for any offences aforefaid, fliall not 
 be releafed till the parties imployed for the apprehending of the 
 faid perfons, and feizing their preffes and materialls, be fatisfied 
 for their paines and charges. And all Iuftices of the Peace, Cap- 
 tains, Officers, and Conftables, are required to be afifting in the 
 apprehend ng of any the perfons aforefaid, And in fearching of 
 their fhopps, Houfes, and Warehoufes ; And likewife all Iuftices 
 of peace, Officers, and Conftables, arc hereby required from time 
 to time to apprehend fuch perfons as fhall publifh, vend, or fell 
 the faid pamphlets. And it is further ordered, That this Order 
 be forthwith printed and publiflied, to the end that notice may be 
 taken thereof, that the contemners of this Order may be left in- 
 excufable for their offence. [A Collection of all the publicise Orders 
 Ordinances and Declarations) &»c. by Edward Husband, p 1. 
 London. 1646.
 
 AN 
 
 R D E R 
 
 LORDS and COMMONS 
 
 Affembled in Parliament. 
 
 For the 
 
 Regulating of Printing, 
 
 And 
 
 For fuppreffing- the great late abufes 
 
 and frequent diforders in Printing many falfe, 
 
 Scandalous, Seditious, Libellous, and unlicenfed 
 
 Pamphlets, to the great defamation of 
 
 Religion and Government. 
 
 Also, authorizing the Mailers & Wardens of 
 the Company of Stationers to make diligent fearch, feize 
 
 and carry away all fuch Books as they fliall finde Printed, or 
 
 reprinted by any man having no lawfull intereft in 
 
 them, being entred into the Hall Book to 
 
 any other man as his proper Copies. 
 
 Die Mercurii. 14 June. 1643. 
 f~\Rderedby the Lords and Commons affenibledin Parliament, 
 ^^ that this Order jliall be forthzvith printed and published. 
 
 J. Brown Cler. Parliamentorum : 
 Hen. Elsing Cler. D. Com. 
 
 LONDON, Printed for /. Wright in the Old-baily, Tune 16, 1643.
 
 
 Dt Afercurii, \.\Junu. 1643. 
 
 HEREAS divers good Orders have I » i t . 
 lately made- by both Houfes of Parlia- 
 ment, for fuppreffing the great late al 
 and frequent diforders in Printing many, 
 laliV forged, fcandalous, (editions, libellous, 
 and unlicenfed Papers, Pamphlets, and Books to the 
 great defamation of Religion and government. Which 
 orders (notwith (landing the diligence of the Company 
 •■'. Wters, to put them in full execution) have taken 
 little or no effecl : By reafon the bill in preparation, 
 for redreffe of the faid diforders, hath hitherto bin 
 retarded through the prefent dillractions, and very 
 many, aswell Stationers and Printers, as otlu 
 fundry other profeffions not free of the Stationers ( Com- 
 pany, have taken upon them to fet up fundry private 
 Printing Preffes in corners, and to print, vend, publifh 
 and difperfe Books, pamphlets and papers, in fuch 
 multitudes, that no induflry could be sufficient to dif- 
 cover or bring to punifhment, all the feverall abound- 
 ing delinquents ; And by reafon that divers of the 
 Stationers Company and others being Delinquents 
 (contrary to former orders and the conflant cuflome 
 ufed among the faid Company) have taken liberty to 
 Print, Vend and publifh, the moft profitable vendible 
 Copies of Books, belonging to the Company and other 
 Stationers, efpecially of fucli Agents as areimployed in 
 putting the faid Orders in Execution, and that by way 
 of revenge for giveing information againft them to the 
 Houfes for their Delinquences in Printing, to the great 
 prejudice of the faid Company of Stationers and 
 Agents, and to their difcouragement in this publik 
 fcrvice. 
 
 It is therefore Ordered by the Lords and Commons 
 in Parliament, That no Order or Declaration of both, 
 or either Houfe of Parliament fhall be printed by any, 
 but by order of one or both the faid Houfes: Nor
 
 other Book, Pamphlet, paper, nor part of any fuch 
 Book, Pamphlet, or paper, fhall from henceforth be 
 printed, bound, ftitched or put to fale by any perfon 
 or perfons whatfoever, unleffe the fame be firft ap- 
 proved of and licenfed under the hands of fuch per- 
 fon or perfons as both, or either of the faid Houfes 
 fhall appoint for the licenfmg of the fame, and entred 
 in the Regifler Book of the Company of Stationers, 
 according to Ancient cuflom, and the Printer thereof 
 to put his name thereto. And that no perfon or per- 
 fons fhall hereafter print, or caufe to be reprinted any 
 Book or Books, or part of Book, or Books hereto- 
 fore allowed of and granted to the faid Company of 
 Stationers for their relief and maintenance of their 
 poore, without the licence or confent of the Mafter, 
 Wardens and Affiftants of the faid Company ; Nor any 
 Book or Books lawfully licenced and entred in the 
 Regifler of the faid Company for any particular mem- 
 ber thereof, without the licence and confent of the owner 
 or owners thereof. Nor yet import any such Book or 
 Books, or part of Book or Books formerly Printed 
 here, from beyond the Seas, upon paine of forfeiting 
 the fame to the Owner, or Owners of the Copies of the 
 faid Books, and fuch further punifhment as fhall be 
 thought fit. 
 
 And the Master and Wardens of the faid Company, 
 the Gentleman Ufher of the Houfe of Peers, the Ser- 
 geant of the Commons Houfe and their deputies, 
 together with the perfons formerly appointed by the 
 Committee of the Houfe of Commons for Examina- 
 tions, are hereby Authorized and required, from time 
 to time, to make diligent fearch in all places, where 
 they fhall think meete, for all unlicenfed Printing 
 Preffes, and all Preffes any way imployed in the print- 
 ing of fcandalous or unlicenfed Papers, Pamphlets, 
 Books, or any Copies of Books belonging to the faid 
 Company, or any member thereof, without their appro- 
 bation and confents, and to feize and carry away fuch 
 Printing Preffes Letters, together with the Nut, Spindle,
 
 and other materialls of every fuch irregular Printer, 
 which they find fo mifimployed, unto the Common 
 Hall of the faid Company, there to be defaced and 
 made unserviceable according to Ancient Cuftom; 
 And likewife to make diligent fearch in all fufpi 
 Printing-houfes, Ware-houfes, Shops and other places 
 for fuch fcandalous and unlicenfed Books, papers. 
 Pamphlets, and. all other ot entred, nor Qgned 
 
 with the Printers name as aforefaid, being printed, or 
 reprinted by fuch as have no lawful! intereft in them, 
 or any way contrary to this ( >rder, and the fame to 
 sei/.e and carry away to the faid common hall, there to 
 remain till both or either Houfe of Parliament (hall 
 difpofe thereof, And likewife to apprehend all Authors, 
 Printers, and other perfons whatsoever implored in 
 compiling, printing, ditching, binding, publishing and 
 difperfing of the faid fcandalous, unlicenfed, and un- 
 warrantable papers, books and pamphlets as aforefaid, 
 and all thofe who fhall refifl the faid Parties in fear< h- 
 ing after them, and to bring them afore either of the 
 Houfes or the Committee of Examinations, that fo they 
 may receive fuch further punifhments, as their Offences 
 fhall demerit, and not to be releafed untill they have 
 given fatisfaction to the Parties imployed in their ap- 
 prehenfion for their paines and charges, and given 
 sufficient caution not to offend in like fort for the 
 future. And all Juflices of the Peace, Captaines, Con- 
 flables and other officers, are hereby ordered and 
 required to be aiding, and affifting to the forefaid per- 
 fons in the due execution of all, and lingular the prem- 
 iffes and in the apprehenfion of all Offenders againfl 
 the fame. And in cafe of oppofition to break open 
 Doores and Locks. 
 
 A iid it is further ordered, that this Order be forth- 
 with Printed and Publifhed, to the end that notice 
 may be taken thereof, and all Contemners of it left 
 inexcufable. 
 
 FINIS.
 
 A REOPAGITICA; 
 
 A 
 
 SPEECH 
 
 OF 
 
 M'- JOHN MILTON 
 
 For the Liberty of Vnlicenc'd 
 
 PRINTING, 
 
 To the Parlament of ENGLAND. 
 
 TsAf'i/Oepoi/ S'&ceiio, ei nt WXfi 7r6Aei 
 Xptjaov ri fitsAc-vn' el? fi^aov rptpetv, exw- 
 Kui tui^' 6 XP'j£<*>i' f Au/i7rp6v' e f ff&', 6 m'/ ^t\ojr f 
 "Zil<Z, Ti TttTun' tern* taaljtpav iruXft ; 
 
 Euripid. Hicctid. 
 
 77mV is true Liberty when free born men 
 Having to advife the public may J peak free, 
 li 'hick he -who can, and will, defer-js high ptaife, 
 Who neither can nor will, may hold his peace; 
 What can bejufter in a State tJten this ? 
 
 Euripid. Hicetid. 
 
 LONDON, 
 Printed in the Yeare, 1644.
 
 jFor tjje Hibcrtu of tmliccnc'tj printing. 
 
 T 
 
 "^ Hey who to States and Govemours of the 
 Commonwealth direct their Speech, High 
 Court of Parlament, or wanting fuch acceffe 
 in a private condition, write that which they 
 forefee may advance the publick good ; I fuppofe them 
 as at the beginning of no meane endeavour, not a little 
 alter'd and mov'd inwardly in their mindes : Some 
 with doubt of what will be the fucceffe, others with 
 feare of what will be the cenfure ; fome with hope, 
 others with confidence of what they have to fpeake. 
 And me perhaps each of thefe difpofitions, as the fub- 
 jecl was whereon I enter'd, may have at other times 
 varioufly affecled ; and likely might in thefe foremoft 
 expreflions now alfo difclofe which of them fway'd mod, 
 but that the very attempt of this addreffe thus made, 
 and the thought of whom it hath recourfe to, hath got 
 the power within me to a pafilon, farre more welcome 
 then incidentall to a Preface. Which though I ftay 
 not to confeffe ere any afke, I fhall be blameleffe, 
 if it be no other, then the joy and gratulation which 
 it brings to all who wifh and promote their Countries 
 liberty ; whereof this whole Difcourfe propof'd will be 
 a certaine teflimony, if not a Trophey. For this is not 
 the liberty which wee can hope, that no grievance ever 
 mould arife in the Commonwealth, that let no man in 
 IhisWorld expect ; but when complaints are freelyheard, 
 deeply confider'd, and fpeedily reform'd, then is the 
 utmoft bound of civill liberty attain'd. that wife men
 
 AREOPAGIT. 
 
 looke for. To which if I now manifefl bj the very found 
 of this which 1 fhall utter, that wee are already in 
 part arriv'd,and yet from fu< I) a (leepe difad vantage of 
 tyranny and fuperflition grounded into our prim iples 
 s beyond the manhood of a Roman recovery, it 
 will bee attributed firfl, as is moft due, to the strong 
 afliflance of God our deliverer, next to your faithful) 
 guidance and undaunted Wifdome, I -ords and ( !ommons 
 of England, Neither is it in Gods efteeme the diminu- 
 tion of his glory, when honourable things arc fpoken of 
 good men and worthy Magiflratesj which if I now firfl 
 lhould begin to doc. after to fair a progrefTe of your 
 laudable deeds, and fuch a long obligement upon the 
 whole Rcalme to your indefatigable vertues, 1 might 
 be juftly reckn'd among the tar.diifl, and the unwilling- 
 ell of them that praife yee. Neverthelefle there being 
 three principall things, withoutwhich all praifing is but 
 Courttliip and flattery, Firfl, when that only is prais'd 
 which is folidly worth praife: next, when greater! like- 
 lihoods are brought that fuch things are truly and really 
 in thofe perfons to whom they are afcrib'd, the other, 
 when he who praifes, by (hewing that fuch his aetuall 
 perfwafion is of whom he writes, can demonflrate that 
 lie Hatters not; the former two of thefe I have hereto 
 fore endeavour'd, refcuing the employment from him 
 who went about to impaire your merits with a trivial! and 
 malignant Encomium; the latter as belonging chiefly to 
 mine owne acquittall, that whom I fo extoll'd I did not 
 flatter, hath been referv'd opportunely to this occafion. 
 For he who freely magnifies what hath been nobly done, 
 and fears not to declare as freely what might be done 
 better, gives ye the bell cov'nant of his fidelity ; and 
 that his loyaleft affection and his hope waits on your 
 proceedings. His higheft praifing is not flattery, and 
 his plainetl advice is a kinde of praifing; for though 1 
 fhould affirme and hold by argument, that it would fare 
 better with truth, with learning,and the Commonwealth, 
 if one of your publifht Orders which I fhould name, were 
 call'd in, yet at the fame time it could not but much
 
 AREOPAGITICA. 33 
 
 redound to the luftre of your milde and equall Govern- 
 ment, when as private perfons are hereby animated to 
 thinke ye better pleas'd with publick advice, then other 
 ftatifls have been delighted heretofore with publicke 
 flattery. And men will then fee what difference there 
 is between the magnanimity of a trienniall Parlament, 
 and that jealous hautineffe of Prelates and cabin Coun- 
 fellours that ufurpt of late, when as they fhall obferve 
 yee in the midd'ft of your Victories and fucceffes more 
 gently brooking writt'n exceptions againft a voted Order, 
 then other Courts, which had product nothing worth 
 memory but the weake oftentation of wealth, would have 
 endur'd the lead fignifi'd diflike at any fudden Procla- 
 mation. If I fhould thus farre prefume upon the meek 
 demeanour of your civill and gentle greatneffe, Lords 
 and Commons, as what your publifht Order hathdiredtly 
 faid, that to gainfay, I might defend my felfe with eafe, 
 if any fhould accufe me of being new or infolent, did 
 thev but know how much better I find ye efteem it to 
 imitate the old and elegant humanity of Greece, then 
 the barbarick pride of a Hunnijh and Norwegian date- 
 lines. And out of thofe ages, to whofe polite wifdom 
 and letters we ow that we are not yet Gothes and Jut- 
 landers, I could name him who from his private houfe 
 wrote that difcourfe to the Parlament of Athens, that 
 perfwades them to change the forme of Democraty which 
 was then edablifht. Such honour was done in thofe 
 dayes to men who profed the fludy of wifdome and elo- 
 quence, not only in their own Country, but in other 
 Lands, that Cities and Siniories heard them gladly, and 
 with great refpecl, if they had ought in publick to 
 admonifh the State. Thus did Dion Prufaus a stranger 
 and a privat Orator counfell the Rhodians againft a 
 former Edict : and I abound with other like examples, 
 which to fet heer would be fuperfluous. But if from 
 the indudryof a life wholly dedicated to d, idious labours, 
 and thofe naturall endowments haply not the word for 
 two and fifty degrees of northern latitude, fo much mufl 
 be derogated, as to count me not equall to any of thjfe 
 c
 
 34 AREOPACITICA. 
 
 who had this priviledge, 1 would obtain to be thought 
 oot fo inferior, as your feh es are fuperior to the moft of 
 them who receiv'd their counfell: and how farre you 
 excell them, be aflWd, Lords and Commons, there i an 
 ater teftimony appear, then when your prudent 
 fpirit acknowledges and obeyes the voice of reafon from 
 what quarter foever it be heard fpeaking; and renders 
 ye as willing to repeal any \< t of your own letting forth, 
 as any let forth by your Predeceffors. 
 
 It ye be thus refolv'd, as it were injury to thinke ye 
 were not, I know not what mould withhold me from 
 prefenting ye with a fit inflame wherein to Ihew both 
 that love of truth which ye eminently profeffe, and that 
 uprightneffe of your judgement which is not wont to be 
 partial! toyourielves ; by judging over again that Order 
 which ye have ordain'd to regulate Printing} Thai no 
 Book, pamphlet, or paper Jkall be henceforth Printed, un- 
 leffe the fame be firjt approved and licendt byfuch, or at 
 lead one offuch as mall be thereto appointed. For that 
 part which preferves juilly every mans Copy to himfelfe, 
 or provides for the poor, I touch not, only wilh they be 
 not made pretenfes to abufe and perfecute honefl and 
 painfull Men, who offend not in either of thefe particu- 
 lars. But that other claufe of Licencing Books, which 
 we thought had dy'd with his brother quadragefimal and 
 matrimonial when the Prelats expired, I mall now attend 
 with fuch a Homily, as fliall lay before ye, firft the in- 
 ventors of it to bee thofe whom ye will be loath to own ; 
 next what is to be thought in generall of reading, what 
 ever fort the Books be ; and that this Order avails no- 
 thing to the fupprefling of fcandalous, feditious, and 
 libellous Books, which were mainly intended to be fup- 
 preft. Laft, that it will be primely to the difcourage- 
 mentof all learning, and the flop of Truth, not only by 
 che difexercifmg and blunting our abilities in what we 
 know already, but by hindring and cropping the dif- 
 < i Aery that might bee yet further made both in religious 
 and civill Wifdome. 
 
 I deny rot, but that it is of greatefl concernment in
 
 ARE0PAGIT1CA. 35 
 
 the Church and Commonwealth, to have a vigilant eye 
 how Bookes demean e themfelves as well as men ; and 
 thereafter to confine, imprifon, and do (harped juflice 
 on them as malefactors : For Books are not abfolutely 
 dead things, but doe contain a potencie of life in them 
 to be as active as that foule was whofe progeny they are ; 
 nay they do preferve as in a violl the pure ft efhcacie 
 and extraction of that living intellect that bred them. 
 I know they are as lively, and as vigoroufly productive, 
 as thofe fabulous Dragons teeth ; and being fown up 
 and down, may chance to fpring up armed men. And 
 yet on the other hand unleffe warineffe be us'd, as good 
 almoft kill a Man as kill a good Book ; who kills a Man 
 kills a reafonable creature, Gods Image ; but hee who 
 deflroyes a good Booke, kills reafon it felfe, kills the 
 Image of God, as it were in the eye. Many a man lives 
 a burden to the Earth ; but a good Booke is the pretious 
 life-blood of a mafter fpirit, imbalm'd and treafur'd up 
 on purpofe to a life beyond life. 'Tis true, no age can 
 reftore a life, whereof perhaps there is no great loffe ; 
 and revolutions of ages doe not oft recover the loffe ot 
 a rejected truth, for the want of which whole Nations 
 fare the worfe. We fhould be wary therefore what per- 
 fection we raife againft the living labours of publick 
 men, how we fpill that feafon'd life of man preferv'd 
 and ftor'd up in Books ; fince we fee a kinde of homicide 
 may be thus committed, fometimes a martyrdome, and 
 if it extend to the whole impreffion, a kinde of maffacre, 
 whereof the execution ends not in the flaying of an ele- 
 mentall life, but ftrikes at that ethereall and fift effence, 
 the breath of reafon it felfe, flaies an immortality rather 
 then a life. But left I fhould be condemn'd of intro- 
 ducing licence, while I oppofe Licencing, I refufe not 
 the paines to be fo much Hiftoricall, as will ferve to 
 (hew what hath been done by ancient and famous Com- 
 monwealths, againft this diforder, till the very time that 
 this project of licencing crept out of the Inquisition^ was 
 catcht up by our Prelates, and hath caught fome of our 
 Prefbyters.
 
 ARE0PAGIT1CA. 
 
 In A them wh :s and Wits were ever bufier 
 
 then in any other part of Greece ; 1 find but onl) two 
 sorts of writings which the Magiftrate car'd to tal 
 
 ither blafphemous and Atheifticall, or 
 Libellous. Thus the Books of Protagoras were by the 
 Judges of Areopagus < ommanded to be burnt, and him- 
 felfe banifht the territory for a difcourfe begun with his 
 confefling not to know whether there were gods, or 
 whether not : And again ft defaming, it was de< reed that 
 none mould be tradue'd by name, as was the manner 
 of Vetus Comosdia, whereby we may guefle how they 
 cenfur'd libelling: And this courfe was quick enough, 
 as Cicero write-,, to quell both the defperate wits of 
 other Atheifts, and the open way of defaming, as the 
 event fhew'd. Of other fec~ts and opinions though 
 tending to voluptuoufneffej and the denying of divine 
 providence theytooke no heed. Therefore we do not 
 read that either Epicurus, or that libertine fchool of 
 Cyrene, or what the Cynick impudence utter'd, was ever 
 queflion'd by the Laws. Neither is it recorded that the 
 writings of thofe old Comedians were fupprefl, though 
 the acting of them were forbid ; and that Plato com- 
 mended the reading of Ariflophanes the loofeft of them 
 all, to his royall fcholler Dionyfius, is commonly known, 
 and may be excus'd, if holy Chrysojlome, as is reported, 
 nightly ftudied fo much the fame Author and had the 
 art to cleanfe a fcurrilous vehemence into the ftill of a 
 roufmg Sermon. That other leading City of Greece, 
 Lacedcemon, confidering that Lycurgus their Law-giver 
 was fo addicted to elegant learning, as to have been 
 the firft that brought out cf Imia the fcatter'd workes 
 of Homer, and fent the Poet Thales from Creet to pre- 
 pare and mollifie the Spartan furlineffe with his fmooth 
 
 . the better to plant among them law 
 and civility, it is to be wonder'd how* mufeiefs and un- 
 bookifh they were, minding nought but the feats of 
 Warre. There needed no licencing of Books among 
 them for they diflik'd all, but their owne Laconich Apo- 
 thegms, and took a flight occafion to chafe Archilochus
 
 AREOPAGITICA. 37 
 
 out of their City, perhaps for compofing in a higher 
 ftraine then their ovvne souldierly ballats and roundels 
 could reach to : Or if it were for his broad verfes, they 
 were not therein fo cautious, but they were as diffolute 
 in their promifcuous converfing ; whence Euripides 
 affirmes in Andromache, that their women were all un- 
 chafle. Thus much may give us light after what fort 
 Bookes were prohibited among the Greeks. The Ro- 
 mans alfo for many ages train'd up only to a military 
 roughnes, refembling mod of the Lacedaemonian guife, 
 knew of learning little but what their twelve Tables, 
 and the Pontifick College with their Augurs and Flamins 
 taught them in Religion and Law, fo unacquainted with 
 other learning, that when Carneades and Critolaus, with 
 the Stoick Diogenes comming Embafiadors to Rome, 
 tooke thereby occafion to give the City a tail of their 
 Philofophy, they were fufpecled for feducers by no leffe 
 a man then Cato the Cenfor, who mov'd it in the Senat 
 to difmiffe them fpeedily, and to banifli all fuch Attich 
 bablers out of Italy. But Scipio and others of the 
 nobleft Senators withftood him and his old Sabin auf- 
 terity ; honour'd and admir'd the men ; and the Cenfor 
 himfelf at last in his old age fell to the fludy of that 
 whereof before hee was fo fcrupulous. And yet at the 
 fame time Ncevius and Plautus the firft Latine come- 
 dians had fill'd the City with all the borrow'd Scenes of 
 Me/ia/ider and Philemon . Then began to be confider'd 
 there alfo what was to be don to libellous books and 
 Authors ; for Ncevius was quickly cafl into prifon for 
 his unbridl'd pen, and releas'd by the Tribunes upon his 
 recantation : We read alfo that libels were burnt, and 
 the makers punifht by AuguQus. The like severity no 
 doubt was us'd if ought were impioufly writt'n againft 
 their efleemed gods. Except in thefe two points, how 
 the world went in Books, the Magiftrat kept no reck- 
 ning. And therefore Lucretius without impeachment 
 verfifies his Epicurifm to Memmius, and had the honour 
 to be fet forth the fecond time by Cicero fo great a father 
 of the Commonwealth ; although himfelfe difputes
 
 s ARE0PAGIT1CA. 
 
 againfi that opinion in his own writings. Nor was the 
 Satyricall fharpneffe, or naked plainnes of Luci/ius, 01 
 CatuL i cus, by anj order prohibited. And for 
 
 matters of State, the flory of Titius Livius, though ii 
 extoll'd that part which Pompey held, was nol therefore 
 fuppreft by Oftavius Ccesar of the other Faction. But 
 that Nafo was by him banifht in his old age, for the 
 wanton Poems of his youth, was but a nicer covert of 
 
 State over fome fecret caufe: ami befides, the Hooks 
 were neither banifht norcall'd in. From hence we (hall 
 meet with little e'fe hut tyranny in the Roman Empire, 
 
 that we may not marvell, if not fo often bad. as g I 
 
 Books were fllenc't. I fhall therefore deem to have 
 bin large anough in producing what among the ancients 
 was punifhable to write, fave only which, all other argu- 
 ments were free to treat on. 
 
 By this time the Emperours were become Chriftians, 
 whole difcipline in this point I doe not finde to have 
 bin more fevere then what was formerly in pradlice. 
 The books of thofe whom they took to be grand He- 
 reticks were examin'd, refuted, and condemn'd in the 
 generall Councels ; and not till then were prohibited, 
 or burnt by autority of the Emperor. As for the 
 writings of Heathen authors, unlefle they were plaine 
 invectives againfl Chriftianity, as thofe of Porphyrins 
 and Produs, they met with no interdict that can be 
 ( ited,till about the year 400, in a Car thaginian Councel, 
 wherein Bifhops themfelves were forbid to read the 
 Hooks of Gentiles, but Herefies they might read : while 
 others long before them on the contrary fcrupl'd more 
 the books of Hereticks, then of Gentiles. And that 
 the primitive Councels and Bifhops were wont only to 
 declare what Books were not commendable, paffing no 
 furder, but leaving it to each ones conference to read 
 or to lay by, till after the year 800 is obferv'd already by 
 Padre Paolo the great unmafker of the Trentine Councel. 
 After which time the Popes of Rome engroffing what 
 they pleas'd of Politic all rule into their owne hands, 
 extended their dominion over mens eyes, as they had
 
 AREOPAGITICA. 39 
 
 before over their judgements, burning and prohibiting 
 to be read, what they fanned not ; yet fparing in their 
 cenfures, and the Books not many which they fo dealt 
 with : till Martin the 5. by his Bull not only prohibited, 
 but was the firft that excommunicated the reading of 
 hereticall Books ; for about that time Wicklef and 
 Huffe growing terrible, were they who firft drove the 
 Papall Court to a ftricler policy of prohibiting. Which 
 cours Leo the 10, and his fucceffors follow'd, untill the 
 Councell of Trent, and the Spanifh Inquifition engen- 
 dring together brought forth, or perfeted thofe Cata- 
 logues, and expurging Indexes that rake through the 
 entrails of many an old good Author, with a violation 
 wors then any could be offer'd to his tomb. Nor did 
 they ftay in matters Hereticall, but any fubjecl that was 
 not to their palat, they either condemn'd in a prohibi- 
 tion, or had it ftrait into the new Purgatory of an Index. 
 To fill up the meafure of encroachment, their laft inven- 
 tion was to ordain that no Book, pamphlet, or paper 
 fhould be Printed (as if S. Peter had bequeath'd them 
 the keys of the Preffe alfo out of Paradife) unleffe it 
 were approv'd and licenc't under the hands of 2 or 3 
 glutton Friers. For example : 
 
 Let the Chancellor Ci/ii be pleas'd to fee if in this 
 prefent work be contain'd ought that may withftand the 
 Printing, 
 
 Vincent Rabatta Vicar of Florence. 
 
 I have feen this prefent work, and finde nothing 
 athwart the Catholick faith and good manners : In 
 witneffe whereof I have given, &c. 
 
 Nicolb Cini, Chancellor of Florence. 
 
 Attending the precedent relation, it is allow'd that 
 this prefent work of Davanzati i may be Printed, 
 
 Vincent Rabatta, &c. 
 
 It may be Printed, July 15. 
 
 Friar Simon Mompci if Amelia Chancellor of 
 the holy office in Florence. 
 
 Sure they have a conceit, if he of the bottomleffe
 
 AREOPAGITICA. 
 
 pit h.id not long Dnce broke prifon, that this quadruple 
 exorcifm would barre him down. 1 feare their next 
 rlefigne will betoget into their cuftody the licencing of 
 that which they fay * Claudius intended, . ,, 
 
 • . . Quo veniam 
 
 1 nit went not through with. Voutfafe to fee daret tui 
 
 another of their forms the Roman flamp : CTT^Z 
 
 Imprimatur, If it feem good to the reve- in'ctaudio!" 
 
 rend Mailer of tin- holy Palace, 
 
 Belcastro, Vicegerent. 
 
 Imprimatur, 
 
 Friar Nicolb Rodolphi Mafler of the holy Palace. 
 Sometimes 5 Imprimaturs are feen together dialogue- 
 wife in the l'iat/a of one Title page, complementing 
 and ducking each to other with their shav'n reverences, 
 whether the Author, who (lands by in perplexity at the 
 foot of his Epiflle, fhall to the Preffe or to the fpunge. 
 Thefe are the prety refponfories, thefe are the deare 
 Antiphonies that fo bewitcht of late our Prelats. and 
 their Chaplaines with the goodly Eccho they made ; 
 and befotted us to the gay imitation of a lordly Impri- 
 matur, one from Lambeth houfe, another from the. Well 
 end of Pauls; fo apifhly Romanizing, that the word of 
 command flill was fet downe in Latine ; as if the 
 learned Cirammaticall pen that wrote it, would cafl no 
 ink without Latine ; or perhaps, as they thought, be- 
 caufe no vulgar tongue was worthy to expreffe the pure 
 conceit of an Imprimatur : but rather, as I hope, for 
 that our Englifh, the language of men ever famous, and 
 formofl in the achievements of liberty, will not eafily 
 finde fervile letters anow to fpell fuch a dictatorie pre- 
 fumption Englifh. And thus ye have the Inventors 
 and the originall of Book-licencing ript up, and drawn as 
 lineally as any pedigree. We have it not, that can be 
 heard of, from any ancient State, or politie, or Church, 
 nor by any Statute left us by our Anceflors, elder or 
 later ; nor from the moderne cuflom of any reformed 
 Citty, or Church abroad: but from the moll. Antichris- 
 tian Councel, and the mofl tyrannous Inquifition that
 
 A RE OP A GITICA. 4 1 
 
 ever inquir'd. Till then Books were ever as freely ad- 
 mitted into the World as any other birth; the iffue of 
 the brain was no more ftifTd then the iffue of the womb: 
 no envious Juno sate crofs-leg'd over the nativity of any 
 mans intellectual off spring ; but if it prov'd a Monfter, 
 who denies, but that it was juftly burnt, or funk in the 
 Sea. But that a Book in wors condition then a peccant 
 foul, fhould be to ftand before a Jury ere it be borne 
 to the World, and undergo yet in darkneffe the judge- 
 ment of Radamanth and his Colleagues, ere it can paffe 
 the ferry backward into light, was never heard before, 
 till that myfterious iniquity provokt and troubl'd at the 
 firft entrance of Reformation, fought out new limbo's 
 and new hells wherein they might include our Books 
 alfo within the number of their damned. And this was 
 the rare morfell fo officioufly fnatcht up, and fo ilfa- 
 vourdly imitated by our inquifiturient Bifhops, and the 
 attendant minorites their Chaplains. That ye like not 
 now thefe moft certain Authors of this licencing order, 
 and that all sinifter intention was farre diftant from 
 your thoughts, when ye were importun'd the paffing it, 
 all men who know the integrity of your actions, and 
 how ye honour Truth, will clear yee readily. 
 
 But fome will fay, what though the Inventors were 
 bad, the thing for all that may be good ? It may fo : 
 yet if that thing be no fuch deep invention, but obvious, 
 and eafie for any man to light on, and yet beft and 
 wifeft Commonwealths through all ages, and occafions 
 have forborne to ufe it, and falfeft feducers, and op- 
 preffors of men were the firft who tooke it up, and to 
 no other purpofe but to obftrucl and hinder the firft 
 approach of Reformation ; I am of thofe who beleeve, 
 it will be a harder alchymy then Lullius ever knew, 
 to sublimat any good ufe out of fuch an invention. 
 Yet this only is what I requeft to gain from this reafon, 
 that it may be held a dangerous and fufpicious fruit, 
 as certainly it deferves, for the tree that bore it, until I 
 I can diffect one by one the properties it has. But I 
 have firft to finifii, as was propounded, what is to be
 
 4-- ARE0PAG1TICA. 
 
 thought in general] of reading Books, what ever fort 
 they be. and whether be more the benefit, or the harm 
 that thence proceeds? 
 
 \ : to infill upon the examples of Mofes, Daniel 
 
 and Paul, who were Skilful! in all the learning of the 
 itians, Caldeans, and Greeks, which could nol 
 
 probably be without reading their Books of all forts, in 
 Paul especially, who thought it no defilement to infert 
 into holy Scripture the fentences of three Greek Poets, 
 and one of them a Tragedian, the queflion was, 
 notwithstanding fornetimes controverted among the 
 Primitive Doctors, but with great odds on that fide 
 which atiirm'd it both lawful! and profitable, as was 
 then evidently perceiv'd, whenju/ian the Apoftat, and 
 kittled enemy to our faith, made a decree forbidding 
 Christians the ftudy of heathen learning: for, faid he, 
 they wound us with our own weapons, and with our 
 owne arts and fciences they overcome us. And indeed 
 the Christians were put fo to their fhifts by this crafty 
 means, and fo much in danger to decline into all igno- 
 rance, that the two Apollinarii were fain as a man may 
 fay, to coin all the feven liberal! Sciences out of the 
 Bible, reducing it into divers forms of Orations, Poems, 
 Dialogues, ev'n to the calculating of a new Christian 
 ( Grammar. But faith the Historian Socrates, The provi- 
 dence of God provided better then the industry of 
 Apollinarius and his Son, by taking away that illiterat 
 law with the life of him who devis'd it. So great an in- 
 jury they then held it to be depriv'd of Hellenick learn- 
 ing; and thought it a perfecution more undermining, 
 and Secretly decaying the Church then the open 
 cruelty of Decius or Diodefian. And perhaps it was 
 the fame politick drift that the Divell whipt St. Jerom 
 in a lenten dream, for reading Cicero; or elfe it was a 
 fantafm bred by the feaver which had then feis'd him. 
 For had an Angel bin his difeipliner, unleffe it were 
 for dwelling too much upon Ciceronianifms, and had 
 chatiz'd the reading, not the vanity, it had bin plainly 
 partiall; firft to correct him for grave Cicero, and not
 
 ARE0PAGIT1CA. 43 
 
 for fcurrill Plautus whom he confeiTes to have bin 
 reading not long before ; next to correct him only, 
 and let fo many more ancient Fathers wax old in thofe 
 pleafant and florid (ladies without the lafli of fuch a 
 tutoring apparition ; infomuch that BajU teaches how 
 fome good ufe may be made of Margites a fportfull 
 Poem, not now extant, writ by Homer; and why not 
 then of Morgante an Italian Romanze much to the 
 fame purpofe. But if it be agreed we fhall be try'd by 
 vifions, there is a vifion recorded by Eufebius far anci- 
 enter then this tale oi Jerom to the nun Eujlochiuni, 
 and befides has nothing of a feavor in it. Dionyftus 
 Alexandrinus was about the year 240, a perfon of great 
 name in the Church for piety and learning, who had 
 wont to avail himfelf much againft hereticks by being 
 converfant in their Books ; untill a certain Presbyter 
 laid it fcrupuloully to his confcience, how he durft 
 venture himfelfe among thofe defiling volumes. The 
 worthy man loath to give offence fell into a new de- 
 bate with himfelfe what was to be thought ; when fud- 
 denly a vifion fent from God, it is his own Epiftle 
 that fo averrs it, confirm'd him in thefe words : Read 
 any books what ever come to thy hands, for thou art 
 fufficient both to judge aright, and to examine each 
 matter. To this revelation he affented the fooner, as 
 he confeffes, becaufe it was anfwerable to that of the 
 Apoftle to the Theffalonians, Prove all things, hold 
 faft that which is good. And he might have added 
 another remarkable faying of the fame Author; To the 
 pure all things are pure, not only meats and drinks, but 
 all kinde of knowledge whether of good or evill ; the 
 knowledge cannot defile, nor confequently the books, 
 if the will and confcience be not defil'd. For books 
 are as meats and viands are, fome of good, fome of 
 evill fubilance ; and yet God in that unapocryphall 
 vifion, faid without exception, Rife Peter, kill and eat, 
 leaving the choice to each mans difcretion. Whole- 
 fome meats to a vitiated ftomack differ little or nothing 
 from unwholefome ; and bed books to a naughty mind
 
 44 AREOPAGITICA. 
 
 are not unappliable n> occafions of evill. Bad n 
 will feme breed good nourifhment in the healthiefl 
 ( oncoction ; but herein the difference i> of bad 1 «< >< >k s. 
 that they to a difcreet and judicious Reader ferve in 
 many refpects to difi over, to confute, to forewarn, and 
 to illuftrate. Whereof what better witnes < an ye< 
 I (hould produce, then one of \ our own now fitting in 
 Parlament, the chief of learned men reputed in this 
 Land, Mr. Selden, whofe volume of natural! and 
 national laws prows, not only by great autorities 
 brought together, but byexquifite reafonsand theorems 
 almoft mathematically demonftrative, that all opinions, 
 yea errors, known, read, and collated, are of main fer- 
 vice and affiflance toward the fpeedy attainment of 
 what is trueft, I conceive therefore, that when God 
 did enlarge the univerfall diet of mans bod}-, faving 
 ever the rules of temperance, he then alfo, as before, 
 left arbitrary the dyeting and repafting of our minds; 
 as wherein every mature man might have to exercife his 
 owne leading capacity. How great a vertue is tem- 
 perance, how much of moment through the whole life 
 of man ? yet God committs the managing fo great a 
 truft, without particular Law or prefcription, wholly to 
 the demeanour of every grown man. And therefore 
 when he himfelf tabl'd the Jews from heaven, that 
 ( )mer which was every mans daily portion of Manna, is 
 computed to have bin more then might have well fufhe'd 
 the heartieft feeder thrice as many meals. For thofe 
 actions which enter into a man, rather then iffue out 
 of him, and therefore defile not, God ufes not to cap 
 tivat under a perpetuall childhood of prefcription, but 
 trulls him with the gift of reafon to be his own choofer ; 
 there were but little work left for preaching, if law and 
 compulfion fhow grow fo fall upon those things \vhi< h 
 hertofore were govern'd only by exhortation. Salo- 
 mon informs us that much reading is a wearines to the 
 flefh ; but neither he, nor other infpir'd author tells us 
 that fuch, or fuch reading is unlawful! : yet certainly had 
 God thought good to limit us herein, it had bin much
 
 AREOPAGITICA. 45 
 
 more expedient to have told us what was unlawfull, 
 then what was wearifome. As for the burning of thofe 
 Ephefian books by St. Pauls converts, tis reply'd the 
 books were magick, the Syriack fo renders them. It 
 was a privat act, a voluntary a6t, and leaves us to 
 a voluntary imitation : the men in remorfe burnt thofe 
 books which were their own ; the Magiftrat by this ex- 
 ample is not appointed : thefe men practiz'd the books, 
 another might perhaps have read them in fome fort ufe- 
 fully. Good and evill we know in the field of this World 
 growuptogetheralmoft infeparably; and the knowledge 
 of good is fo involv'd and interwoven with the know- 
 ledge of evill, and in fo many cunning refemblances 
 hardly to be difcern'd, that thofe confufed feeds which 
 were impos'd on Pfyche as an inceffant labour to cull 
 out, and fort afunder, were not more intermixt. It 
 was from out the rinde of one apple tailed, that the 
 knowledge of good and evill as two twins cleaving to- 
 gether leapt forth into the World. And perhaps this is 
 that doom which Adam fell into of knowing good and 
 evill, that is to fay of knowing good by evill. As 
 therefore the ftate of man now is ; what wifdome can 
 there be to choofe, what continence to forbeare with- 
 out the knowledge of evill ? He that can apprehend 
 and confider vice with all her baits and seeming plea- 
 fures, and yet abftain, and yet diftinguifh, and yet pre- 
 fer that which is truly better, he is the true warfaring 
 Chriftian. I cannot praife a fugitive and cloifter'd 
 vertue, unexercis'd and unbreath'd, that never fallies 
 out and fees her adverfary, but (links out of the race, 
 where that immortall garland is to be run for, not 
 without duft and heat. Affuredly we bring not inno- 
 cence into the world, we bring impurity much rather : 
 that which purifies us is triad, and trial! is by what is 
 contrary. That vertue therefore which is but a young- 
 ling in the contemplation of evill, and knows not the 
 utmoft that vice promifes to her followers, and rejects 
 it, is but a blank vertue, not a pure ; her whiteneffe is 
 but an excrementall whiteneffe ; Which was the reafon
 
 AREOPAGITIC I. 
 
 our fage and ferious Poet Spewer, whom I dare 
 be known to think a better teacher then Scotus or 
 Aquinas^ defcribing true temperance under the perfon 
 of Guion y brings hi m in with his palmer through the 
 cave "( Mammon, and the bowr of earthly bliffe that 
 he might fee and know, ami yet abftain. Since there- 
 tore the knowledge and furvay of vice is in this world 
 to neceffary to the conftituting of human vertue, and 
 the fcanning of error to the confirmation of truth, how- 
 tan we more lately, and with leffe danger fcout into 
 the regions of fin and falfity then by reading all man 
 ner of tractats, and hearing all manner of reafon ? And 
 this is the benefit which may be had of books promif- 
 cuoufly read. But of the harm that may refult hence 
 three kinds are ufually reckn'd. Firfl, is fear'd the 
 infection that may fpread ; but then all human learning 
 and controverfie in religious points must remove out 
 of the world, yea the Bible it felfe ; for that oftimes 
 relates blafphemy not nicely, it def< ribes the carnal! 
 fenfe of wicked men not unelegantly, it brings in 
 holiefl men paffionately murmuring againfl providence 
 through all the arguments oiJSpicurus: in other great 
 difputes it anfwers dubioufly and darkly to the com- 
 mon reader: And afk a Talmudefl what ails the 
 modefly of his marginall Keri, that Mofes and all the 
 Prophets cannot perfwade him to pronounce the tex- 
 tuall Chetiv. For thefe caufes we all know the Bible 
 it felfe put by the Papifl into the firfl rank of prohi- 
 bited books. The ancientefl Fathers mufl be next 
 remov'd, as Clement of Alexandria, and that Eufebian 
 book of Evangelick preparation, tranfmitting our ears 
 through a hoard of heathenifh obfeenities to receive 
 the Gofpel. Who finds not that Irenceus, Epiphanius, 
 Jerom, and others difcover more herefies then they 
 well confute, and that oft for herefie which is the truer 
 opinion. Nor boots it to fay for thefe, and all the 
 heathen W liters of greateil infection, if it mufl be 
 thought fo, with whom is bound up the life of human 
 learning, that they writ in an unknown tongue, fo long
 
 AREOPAGITICA. 47 
 
 as we are fure thofe languages are known as well 
 to the worfl of men, who are both mod able, 
 and moil diligent to inftill the poifon they fuck, 
 firfl into the Courts of Princes, acquainting them with 
 the choicefl delights, and criticifms of fin. As perhaps 
 did that Petronius whom Nero call'd his Arbiter, the 
 Mailer of his revels; and that notorious ribald of 
 Arezzo, dreaded, and yet dear to the Italian Courtiers. 
 I name not him for poflerities fake, whom Barry the 
 8. nam'd in merriment his Vicar of hell. By which 
 compendious way all the contagion that foreine books 
 can infufe, will finde a paffage to the people farre 
 eafier and fhorter then an Indian voyage, though it 
 could be fail'd either by the North of Cataio Eaflward, 
 or of Canada Weflward, while our Spanifh licencing 
 gags the Englifh preffe never fo feverely. But on the 
 other fide that infection which is from books of con- 
 troverfie in Religion, is more doubtfull and dangerous 
 to the learned, then to the ignorant ; and yet thofe 
 books mufl be permitted untoucht by the licencer. It 
 will be hard to inflance where any ignorant man hath 
 bin ever feduc't by Papifticall book in Englifh, unleffe 
 it were commended and expounded to him by fome of 
 that Clergy : and indeed all fuch tractats whether 
 falfe or true are as the Prophefie of Ifaiah was to the 
 Eunuch, not to be under/food without a guide. But of 
 our Priefts and Doctors how many have bin corrupted 
 by fludying the comments of Jefuits and Sorbonijis, 
 and how fafl they could transfufe that corruption into 
 the people, our experience is both late and fad. It is 
 not forgot, fince the acute and diftinct Arminius was 
 perverted meerly by the perufing of a nameleffe dif- 
 cours writt'n at Delf, which at firfl he took in hand to 
 confute. Seeing therefore that thofe bcoks, and thofe 
 m great abundance which are likeliefl to taint both 
 life and doctrine, cannot be suppreft without the ^all 
 of learning, and of all ability in difputation, and tha'. 
 thefe books of either fort are moft and foonefl catch- 
 ing to the learned, from whom to the common people
 
 AREOPACITJCA. 
 
 wh u ever is heretical! or diffolute may quickl) be con- 
 vey'd, and that evil! manners are as perfei tl) learnt 
 without books a thoufand other ways whi< h cannot be 
 ftopt, and evil! doctrine not with hooks < an propagate, 
 except a teacher guide, which he might alfo doe with 
 out writing, and fo beyond prohibiting, I am not able 
 to unfold, how this cautelous enterprife of licencing 
 can be exempted from the number ofvain and impos- 
 Qble attempts. And he who were pleafantly difpos'd, 
 could not well avoid to lik'n it to the exploit of that 
 gallant man who thought to pound up the crows by 
 (hutting his Parkgate. Befides another inconvenience, 
 if learned men he the firfl receivers out of hooks and 
 difpredders both of vice and error, how lhall the 
 licencers themfelves be confided in, unleffe we can 
 conferr upon them, or they affume to themfelves above 
 all others in the Land, the grace of infallibility, and un- 
 corruptedneffe ( And again if it be true, that a wife man 
 like a good refiner can gather gold outofthedroflieft vo- 
 lume, and that a fool will be a fool with the befl book, 
 yea or without book, there is no reafon that we fhould 
 deprive a wife man of any advantage to his wifdome, 
 while we feek to reflrain from a fool, that which being 
 reftrain'd will be no hindrance to his folly. For if 
 there fhould be fo much exactneffe always us'd to 
 keep that from him which is unfit for his reading, we 
 fhould in the judgement of Aristotle not only, but of 
 Salomon, and of our Saviour, not voutfafe him good 
 precepts, and by confequence not willingly admit him 
 to good books, as being certain that a wile man will 
 make better ufe of an idle pamphlet, then a fool will 
 do of facred Scripture. Tis next alleg'd we muft not 
 expofe our felves to temptations without neceffity, and 
 next to that, not imploy our time in vain things. 
 To both thefe objections one anfwer will ferve, out 
 of the grounds already laid, that to all men fuch books 
 are not temptations, nor vanities ; but ufefull drugs and 
 nvaterialls wherewith to temper and compote effective 
 and flrong med'eins, which mans life cannot want The
 
 ARE0PAGIT1CA. 49 
 
 reft, as children and childifh men, who have not the art 
 to qualifie and prepare thefe working mineralls, well 
 may be exhorted to forbear, but hinder' d forcibly they 
 cannot be by all the licencing that Sainted Inquifition 
 could ever yet contrive ; which is what I promis'd to 
 deliver next, That this order of licencing conduces 
 nothing to the end for which it was fram'd ; and hath 
 almoft prevented me by being clear already while thus 
 much hath bin explaining. See the ingenuity of Truth, 
 who when fhe gets a free and willing hand, opens her 
 felf fafter, then the pace of method and difcours can 
 overtake her. It was the tafk which I began with, To 
 fhew that no Nation, or well inftituted State, if they 
 valu'd books at all, did ever ufe this way of licencing ; 
 and it might be anfwer'd, that this is a piece of pru- 
 dence lately difcover'd, To which I return, that as it was 
 a thing flight and obvious to think on, for if it had bin 
 difficult to finde out, there wanted not among them long 
 fmce, who fuggefled fuch a cours ; which they not fol- 
 lowing, leave us a pattern of their judgement, that it 
 was not the not knowing, but the not approving, which 
 was the caufe of their not ufing it. Plato, a man of 
 high autority indeed, but lead of all for his Common- 
 wealth, in the book of his laws, which no City ever yet 
 receiv'd, fed his fancie with making many edicts to his 
 ayrie Burgomaflers, which they who otherwife admire 
 him, wifh had bin rather buried and excus'd in the 
 genial cups of an Academick night-fitting. By which 
 laws he feems to tolerat no kind of learning, but by 
 unalterable decree, confiding moft of practicall tradi- 
 tions, to the attainment whereof a Library of fmaller 
 bulk then his own dialogues would be abundant. And 
 there alfo enacts that no Poet fhould fo much as read 
 to any privat man, what he had writt'n, untill the Judges 
 and Law-keepers had feen it, and allow'd it : But that 
 Flato meant this Law peculiarly to that Commonwealth 
 which he had imagin'd, and to no other, is evident. 
 Why was he not elfe a Law-giver to himfelf, but a 
 tranfgreffor, and to be expell'd by his own Magiftrats 
 
 D
 
 ARE0PAGI1 
 
 both for the wanton epigrams and dialogues which he 
 made, and his perpetual] reading of Sophron Mimus t 
 and AriJlophancS) books of groffeft infamy, and alfo 
 immending the latter of them though he were 
 the malicious libeller of his chief friends, to be read 
 by the Tyrant Dionyfius, who had little need of fuch 
 traih to fpend his time on? But that he knew this 
 li< em ing of Poems had reference and dependence to 
 many Other provifo's there fet down in his fancied 
 republic, which in this world could have no place : and 
 \o neither he himfelf, nor any Magiflrat, or City ever 
 imitated that cours, which tak'n apart from thofe 
 other collaterall injunctions mufl needs be vain and 
 fruitleffe. For if they fell upon one kind of ftxictneffe, 
 unlefle their care were equal! to regulat all other things 
 of like aptnes to corrupt the mind, that Qngle endea- 
 vour they knew would be but a fond labour; to fhut 
 and fortifie one gate againft corruption, and be necef- 
 Gtatcd to leave others round about wide open. If we 
 think to regulat Printing, thereby to rectifie manners, 
 we mufl regulat all recreations and pailimes, all that is 
 delightful] to man. No mufick mufl be heard, no fong 
 be fet or fung, but what is grave and Dorick. There 
 mufl be licencing dancers, that no geflure, motion, or 
 deportment be taught our youth but what by their al- 
 lowance mail be thought honefl ; for fuch Plato was 
 provided of; It will afk more then the work of twenty 
 licencers to examin all the lutes, the violins, and the 
 ghittarrs in every houfe ; they mud not be fuffer'd to 
 prattle as they doe, but mufl be licene'd what they may 
 fay. And who fhall filence all the airs and madrigalls, 
 that whifperfoftnes in chambers? The Windows alfo, 
 and the Bakonis mufl be thought on, there are fhrewd 
 books, with dangerous Frontifpices fet to fale ; who 
 fhall prohibit them, fhall twenty licencers ? The vil- 
 lages alfo mufl have their vifitors to enquire what lec- 
 tures the bagpipe and the rebbeck reads ev'n to the 
 ballatry, and the gammuth of ever)' municipal fidler, 
 for thefe are the Countrymans Arcadia's and his Mould
 
 AREOPAGITICA. 51 
 
 Mayors. Next, what more Nationall corruption, for 
 which England hears ill abroad, then houfhold gluttony; 
 who mall be the rectors of our daily rioting? and what 
 (hall be done to inhibit the multitudes that frequent 
 thofe houfes where drunk'nes is fold and harbour'd ? 
 Our garments alfo fhould be referr'd to the licencing of 
 fome more fober work-mafters to fee them cut into a 
 leffe wanton garb. Whoihall regulat all the mixt con- 
 verfation of our youth, male and female together, as is 
 the falhion of this Country, who mall ftill appoint what 
 fhall be difcours'd, what prefum'd, and no furder ? 
 Laftly, who fliall forbid and feparat all idle refort, all 
 evill company? Thefe things will be, and muft be; 
 but how they fliall be left hurtfull, how left enticing, 
 herein confifts the grave and governing wifdom of a 
 State. To fequefler out of the world into Atlantick and 
 Eutopian polities, which never can be drawn into ufe, 
 will not mend our condition ; but to ordain wifely as 
 in this world of evill, in the midd'ft whereof God hath 
 plac't us unavoidably. Nor is \X.Platds licencing of books 
 will doe this, which neceffarily pulls along with it fo 
 many other kinds of licencing, as will make us all both 
 ridiculous and weary, and yet fuftrat ; but thofe unwrit- 
 t'n, orat leafl unconftraining laws of vertuous education, 
 religious and civill nurture, which Plato there mentions, 
 as the bonds and ligaments of the Commonwealth, the 
 pillars and the fuftainers of every writt'n Statute ; thefe 
 they be which will bear chief fway in fuch matters as 
 thefe, when all licencing will be eafily eluded. Impu- 
 nity and remiffenes, for certain are the bane of a Com- 
 monwealth, but here the great art lyes to difcern in what 
 the law is to bid reftraint and punifhment, and in what 
 things perfvvafion only is to work. If every action 
 which is good, or evill in man at ripe years, were to be 
 under pittance, and prefcription, and compulfion, what 
 were vertue but a name, what praife could be then due 
 to well-doing, what grammercy to be fober, juft, or 
 continent? many there b^ that complain of divin 
 Providence for fuffering Adam to tranfgreffe, foolifh
 
 AREOPACITICA. 
 
 jave him reafon, he gave him five- 
 i is but choofing ; he had bin 
 nicer artificial] ./</<?///, fuch an Adam as he is in 
 the motions. We our felves efleem not of that obedi- 
 , or gift, which is of force : God therefore 
 left him free, fet before him a provoking object, ever 
 almofl in his eyes herein confided his merit, herein the 
 right of his reward, the praife of his abftinence. Where- 
 at paffions within us, pleafures round 
 about us, but that thefe rightly temper'd are the very 
 ingredients of vertu ? They are not Ikilfull confiderers 
 of human things, who imagin to remo\e fin by remov- 
 ing the matter of fin ; for, befides that it is a huge heap 
 increafing under the very act of diminiihing t! 
 fome part of it may for a time lie withdrawn from fome 
 perfons, it cannot from all, in fuch a univerfall thing as 
 books are ; and when this is done, yet the fin remains 
 entire. Though ye take from a covetous man all his 
 treafure, he has yet one Jewell left, ye cannot bereave 
 him of his covetoufneffe. Banifh all objects of luff, 
 fhut up all youth into the fevered difcipline that can 
 be exercis'd in any hermitage, ye cannot make them 
 chafle, that came not thither fo ; fuch great care and 
 wifdom is requir'd to the right managing of this point. 
 Suppofe we could expell fin by this means ; look how 
 much we thus expell of fin, fo much we expeli of ver- 
 tue : for the matter of them both is the fame ; remove 
 that, and ye remove them both alike. This juflifies 
 the high providence of God, who though he command 
 us temperance, juftice,continence, yet powrs out before 
 us ev'n to a profufenes all defirable things, and gives 
 us minds that can wander beyond all limit and fatiety. 
 Why mould we then affect a rigor contrary to the man- 
 ner of God and of nature, by abridging or fcanting 
 thofe means, which books freely permitted are, both 
 to the triall of vertue, and the exercife of truth. It 
 would be better done to learn that the law mufl needs 
 be frivolous which goes to reftrain things, uncertainly 
 and yet equally working to good, and to evill. And
 
 AREOPAGITICA. 53 
 
 were I the choofer, a dram of well-doing fhould be pre- 
 ferr'd before many times as much the forcible hindrance 
 of evill-doing. For God fure efteems the growth and 
 compleating of one vertuous perfon, more then the 
 reftraint of ten vitious. And albeit what ever thing we 
 hear or fee, fitting, walking, travelling, or converfmg 
 may be fitly call'd our book, and is of the fame effect 
 that writings are, yet grant the thing to be prohibited 
 were only books, it appears that this order hitherto is 
 far infufficient to the end which it intends. Do we not 
 fee, not once or oftner, but weekly that continu'd Court- 
 libell again ft the Parlament and City, Printed, as the 
 wet fheets can witnes, and difpers't among us for all 
 that licencing can doe ? yet this is the prime fervice a 
 man would think, wherein this order fhould give proof 
 of it felf. If it were executed, you'l fay. But certain, if 
 execution be remiffe or blindfold now, and in this par- 
 ticular, what will it be hereafter, and in other books. 
 If then the order fhall not be vain and fruftrat, behold 
 a new labour, Lords and Commons, ye muft repeal and 
 profcribe all fcandalous and unlicenc't books already 
 printed and divulg'd; after ye have drawn them up into 
 a lift, that all may know which are condemn'd, and 
 which not ; and ordain that no forrein books be deli- 
 ver'd out of cuftody, till they have bin read over. This 
 office will require the whole time of not a few overfeers, 
 and thofe no vulgar men. There be alfo books which 
 are partly ufefull and excellent, partly culpable and 
 pernicious ; this work will afk as many more officials 
 to make expurgations and expunclions, that the Com- 
 monwealth of learning be not damnify'd. In fine, when 
 the multitude of books encreafe upon their hands, ye 
 muft be fain to catalogue all thofe Printers who are 
 found frequently offending, and forbidd the importation 
 of their whole fufpected typography. In a word, that 
 this your order may be exact, and not deficient, ye muft 
 reform it perfectly according to the model of Trent and 
 Sevil, which I know ye abhorre to doe. Yet though 
 ye fhould condifcend to this, which God forbid, the
 
 54 AREOPAGIT* 
 
 flill would be but fruitleffe and defective to 
 that end whereto ye meant it. [f to prevenl fe< I 
 fchifms, who is fo unread or fo uncatechis'd in ftory, 
 that hath not heard of many feels refufmg books as a 
 hindrance, and preferving their dot trine unmixt foi 
 many ages, only by unwritt'n traditions. The Chriftian 
 faith, for that was once a fchifm, is not unknown to have 
 fpread all o\ er. \fi<u ere any Gofpel or Epiftlewas fcen in 
 writing. If the amendment of manners be aym'd at, look 
 into Italy and Spain, whether thole places be one fcruple 
 the better, the honefter, the wifer, the duller. Gnce all the 
 inquifitionall rigor that hath bin executed upon books. 
 Another reafon, whereby to make it plain that this 
 order will miffe the end it feeks, confider by the quality 
 which ought to be in every licencer. It cannot be den} 'd 
 but that he who is made judge to fit upon the birth, or 
 death of books whether they may be wafted into this 
 world, or not, had need to lie a man above the common 
 meafure, both ftudious, learned, and judicious; there 
 may be elfe no mean miftakes in the cenfure of what 
 is paffable or not; which is alfo no mean injury. If 
 he be of fuch worth as behoovs him, there cannot be 
 a more tedious and unpleafing journey-work, a greater 
 1. 'Ill- of time levied upon his head, then to be made the 
 perpetuall reader of unchofen books and pamphlets, 
 oftimes huge volumes. There is no book that is accept- 
 able unleffe at certain feafons ; but to be enjoyn'd the 
 reading of that at all times, and in a hand fears legible, 
 whereof three pages would not down at any time in the 
 faireft Print, is an impofition which I cannot beleeve 
 how he that values time, and his own fludies, oris but 
 of a fenfible noflrill fhould be able to endure. In this 
 one thing I crave leave of the prefent licencers to be 
 pardon'd for fo thinking : who doubleffe took this office 
 up, looking on it through their obedience to the Par- 
 lament, whofe command perhaps made all things feem 
 eafie and unlaborious to them ; but that this fliort trial! 
 hath wearied them out already, their own expreffions and 
 excufes to them who make fo many journeys to follicit
 
 ARE0PAGIT1CA. 55 
 
 their licence, are teflimony anough. Seeing therefore 
 thofe who now poffeffe the imployment, by all evident 
 figrts with themfelves well ridd of it, and that no man 
 of worth, none that is not a plain unthrift of his own 
 hours is ever likely to fucceed them, except he mean 
 to put himfelf to the lalary of a Preffe-correclor, we may 
 eafily forefee what kind of licencers we are to expert 
 hereafter, either ignorant, imperious, and remiffe, or 
 bafely pecuniary. This is what I had to fhew wherein 
 this order cannot conduce to that end, whereof it bears 
 the intention. 
 
 I laftly proceed from the no good it can do, to the mani- 
 fefthurtitcaufes, inbeingnrftthegreateftdifcouragement 
 and affront that can be offer'd to learning and to learned 
 men. It was the complaint and lamentation of Prelats, 
 upon every leafl breath of a motion to remove pluralities, 
 and diftribute more equally Church revennu's, that then 
 all learning would be for ever dafht and difcourag'd. 
 But as for that opinion, I never found caufe to think 
 that the tenth part of learning" flood or fell with the 
 Clergy : nor could I ever but hold it for a fordid and 
 unworthy fpeech of any Churchman who had a com- 
 petency left him. If therefore ye be loath to difhearten 
 utterly and difcontent, not the mercenary crew of falfe 
 pretenders to learning, but the free and ingenuous fort 
 of fuch as evidently were born to ftudy, and love lerning 
 for it felf, not for lucre, or any other end, but the fervice 
 of God and of truth, and perhaps that Lifting fame and 
 perpetuity of praife which God and good men have con- 
 tented fhall be the reward of thofe whofe publifht labours 
 advance the good of mankind, then know, that fo far 
 to diflruft the judgement and the honefty of one who 
 hath but a common repute in learning, and never yet 
 offended, as not to count him fit to print his mind with- 
 out a tutor and examiner, left he fhould drop a fcifm, 
 or fomething of corruption, is the greateft difpleafure 
 and indignity to a free and knowing fpirit that can be 
 put upon him. What advantage is it to be a man over 
 it is to be a boy at fchool, if we have only fcapt the
 
 ARE0PAG1TICA. 
 
 ferular, to come under the fef< u of an Imprimatur) if 
 ferious and elaborat writings, as if they were no more 
 then the theam of a ( Grammar lad under his Pedagogue 
 mull not be utter*d without the curfory eyes of a tem- 
 porizing and extemporizing licencer. He who is not 
 trailed with his own actions, his drift not being known 
 to be e\ ill. and (landing to the hazard oflaw and penalty, 
 lias no great argument to think himfelf reputed in the 
 Commonwealth wherein he was born, for other then a 
 fool or a foreiner. When a man writes to the world, 
 he fummons up all his reafon and deliberation to affift 
 him ; he fearches, meditats, is induflrious, and likely 
 confults and conferrs with his judicious friends ; after 
 all which done he takes himfelf to be inform'd in what 
 he writes, as well as any that writ before him ; if in this 
 the moll confummat act of his fidelity and ripeneffe, no 
 years, no induflry, no former proof of his abilities can 
 bring him to that ftate of maturity, as not to be flill 
 miftrufted and fufpecled, unleffe he carry all his con- 
 Gderat diligence,all his midnight watchings, and expence 
 of Palladia)! oyl, to the hafty view of an unleafur'd 
 licencer, perhaps much his younger, perhaps far his in- 
 feriour in judgement, perhaps one who never knew the 
 labour of book-writing, and if he be not repulft, or 
 (lighted, muft appear in Print like a punie with his 
 guardian, and his cenfors hand on the back of his title- 
 to be his bay] and furety, that he is no idiot, or feducer, 
 it cannot be but a difhonor and derogation to the author, 
 to the book, to the priviledge and dignity of Learning. 
 And what if the author fliall be one fo copious of fancie, 
 as to have many things well worth the adding, come 
 into his mind after licencing, while the book is yet under 
 the Preffe, which not feldom happ'ns to the befl and 
 diligenteft writers; and that perhaps a dozen times in 
 one book. The Printer dares not go beyond his licenc't 
 copy ; fo often then muff the author trudge to his leav- 
 giver, that thofe his new infertions may be viewd ; and 
 many a jaunt will be made, ere that licencer, for it muft 
 be the fame man, can either be found, or found atleifure;
 
 AREOPAGITICA. 57 
 
 mean while either the Preffe mud Hand flill, which is 
 no fmall damage, or the author loofe his accuratefl 
 thoughts, and fend the book forth wors then he had 
 made it, which to a diligent writer is the greatefl melan- 
 choly and vexation that can befall. And how can a 
 man teach with autority, which is the life of teaching, 
 how can he be a Doctor in his book as he ought to be, 
 or elfe had better be filent, whenas all he teaches, all he 
 delivers, is but under the tuition, under the correction 
 of his patriarchal licencer to blot or alter what precifely 
 accords not with the hidebound humor which he calls 
 his judgement. When every acute reader upon the firft 
 fight of a pedantick licence, will be ready with thefe like 
 words to ding the book a coits diflance from him, I hate 
 a pupil teacher, I endure not an inflructer that comes 
 to me under the wardfhip of an overfeeing fift. I know 
 nothing of the licencer, but that I have his own hand 
 here for his arrogance ; who fhall warrant me his judge- 
 ment? The State Sir, replies the Stationer, but has a 
 quick return, The State fhall be my governours, but not 
 my criticks ; they may be miftak'n in the choice of a 
 licencer, as ealily as this licencer may be miftak'n in an 
 author : This is fome common fluff e ; and he might 
 adde from Sir Francis Bacon, ThaXfuch authorized books 
 are but the language of the times. For though a licencer 
 fhould happ'n to be judicious more then ordnary, which 
 will be a great jeopardy of the next fucceflion, yet his 
 very office, and his commiflion enjoyns him to let paffe 
 nothing but what is vulgarly receiv'd already. Nay, which 
 is more lamentable, if the work of any deceafed author, 
 though never fo famous in his life time, and even to this 
 day, come to their hands for licence to be Printed, or 
 Reprinted, if there be found in his book one fentence 
 of a ventrous edge, utter' d in the height of zeal, and who 
 knows whether it might not be the dictat of a divine 
 Spirit, yet not fuiting with every low decrepit humor of 
 their own, though it were Knox himfelf, the Reformer 
 of a Kingdom thatfpake it, they will not pardon him their 
 dafh : the fenfe of that great man fhall to all poflerity be
 
 AREOPAGITICA. 
 
 loft, for the fearfulneffe, or the prefumptuous rafhneffe 
 ot"a perfunctory licencer. And to what an author this 
 violence hath bin lately done, and in what book of great- 
 eft confequence to be faithfully publifht, I could now 
 inftance, but ilia 11 forbear till a more convenient feafon. 
 Yet ifthefe things Ik- not relented serioufly and timely 
 by them who have the remedy in their power, but that 
 fuch iron moulds as thefe Ihall have autority to knaw 
 out the choifeft periods of exquifiteft books, and to com- 
 mit fuch a treacherous fraud againft the orphan remain- 
 ders of worthier! men after death, the more forrow will 
 belong to that haples race of men, whofe misfortune it 
 is to have underftanding. Henceforth let no man care 
 to learn, or care to be more then worldly wife : for cer- 
 tainly in higher matters to be ignorant and flothfull, to 
 be a common fledfaft dunce will be the only pleafant 
 life, and only in requeft, 
 
 i as it is a particular difefleem of every knowing 
 perfon alive, and mod injurious to the writt'n labours 
 and monuments of the dead, fo to me it feems an un- 
 dervaluing and vilifying of the whole Nation. I cannot 
 fet fo light by all the invention, the art, the. wit, the 
 grave and folid judgement which is in England, as that 
 it can be comprehended in any twenty capacities how 
 good foever, much leffe that it mould not paffe except 
 their fuperintendence be over it, except it be fifted and 
 flrain'd with their drainers, that it fhould be uncurrant 
 without their manuall damp. Truth and underftanding 
 are not fuch wares as to be monopoliz'd and traded in 
 by tickets and datutes, and dandards. We mud not 
 think to make a daple commodity of all the knowledge 
 in the Land, to mark and licence it like our broad 
 cloath, and our wooll packs. What is it but a fervi- 
 tude like that impos'd by the Philidims, not to be 
 allow'd the fharpning of our own axes and coulters, 
 but we mud repair from all quarters to twenty licencing 
 forges. Had any one writt'n and divulg'd erroneous 
 
 3 and fcandalous to honed life, mifufing and for- 
 feiting the efteem had of his reafon among men, if
 
 AREOPAGiriCA. 59 
 
 after conviction this only cenfure were adjudg'd him, 
 that he fliould never henceforth write, but what were 
 firft examin'd by an appointed officer, whofe hand 
 fliould be annext to paffe his credit for him, that now 
 he might be fafely read, it could not be apprehend 
 leffe then a difgracefull punifhment. Whence to include 
 the whole Nation, and thofe that neveryetthusoffended, 
 under fuch a diffident and fufpeclfull prohibition, may 
 plainly be underllood what a difparagement it is. So 
 much the more, when as dettors and delinquents may 
 walk abroad without a keeper, but unoffenfive books 
 mint not ftirre forth without a vifible jaylor in thir title. 
 Nor is it to the common people leffe then a reproach ; 
 -for if we fo jealous over them, as that we dare not truft 
 them with an Englifh pamphlet, what doe we but cen- 
 fure them for a giddy, vitious, and ungrounded people ; 
 in fuch a fick and weak eftate of faith and difcretion, as 
 to be able to take nothing down but through the pipe 
 of a licencer. That this is care or love of them, we 
 cannot pretend, whenas in thofe Popifh places where 
 the Laity are moft hated and defpis'd the fame ftrictnes 
 is us'd over them. Wifdom we cannot call it, becaufe 
 it flops but one breach of licence, nor that neither ; 
 whenas thofe corruptions which it feeks to prevent, 
 break in fafler at other dores which cannot be fhut. 
 
 And in conclufion it reflects to the difrepute of our 
 Minifters alio, of whofe labours we fliould hope better, 
 and of the proficiencie which thir flock reaps by them, 
 then that after all this light of the Gofpel which is, and 
 is to be, and all this continuall preaching, they fliould 
 be till frequented with fuch an unprincipl'd, unedi- 
 fy'd, and laick rabble, as that the whiffe of every new 
 pamphlet fliould tagger them out of their catechifm, 
 and Chritian walking. This may have much reafon 
 to difcourage the Milliters when fuch a low conceit is 
 had of all their exhortations, and the benefiting of 
 their hearers, as that they are not thought fit to be 
 turn'd loofe to three tieets of paper without a licencer, 
 that all the Sermons,, all the Lectures preacht, printed,
 
 60 AREOPAGITICA. 
 
 vented in fuch numbers, and fuch volumes, as have 
 now wellnigh made all other books unfalable, fhould 
 not be armor anough againft one Qngle enchiridion, 
 without the caftle ol Si Angelo of an Imprimatur. 
 
 Ami left fora fhould perfwade ye, Lords and Com 
 mons, that thefe arguments of lerned mens difcourage 
 
 ment at this your order, are meer tlourilhes, and not 
 reall, 1 could recount what I have fven and heard in 
 other Countries, where this kind of inquifition tyran- 
 nizes ; when I have fat among their lerned men, for 
 that honor I had. and bin counted happy to be born 
 in fuch a place of Philqfophic freedom, as they fuppos'd 
 England was, while themfelvs did nothing but bemoan 
 the fervil condition into which lerning amongft them 
 was brought ; that this was it which had dampt the 
 glory of Italian wits; that nothing had bin there writt'n 
 now thefe many years but flattery and fuftian. There 
 it was that I found and vifited the famous Galileo 
 grown old, a primer to the Inquifition, for thinking in 
 Aflronomy otherwife then the Francifcan and Domin- 
 ican licencers thought. And though I knew that 
 England then was groaning loudefl under the Prelati- 
 call yoak. nevertheleffe I tooke it as a pledge of future 
 ha] pines, that other Nations were fo perfwaded of her 
 liberty. Yet was it beyond my hope that thofe Worthies 
 were then breathing in her air, who fhould be her 
 leaders to fuch a deliverance, as fhall never be forgott'n 
 by any revolution of time that this world hath to finifh. 
 When that was once begun, it was as little in my fear, 
 that what words of complaint I heard among lerned 
 men of other parts utter'd againft the Inquifition, the 
 fame I fhould hear by as lerned men at home utterd 
 in time of Parlament againft an order of licencing ; 
 and that fo generally, that when I difclos'd my felf a 
 companion of their difcontent, I might fay, if without 
 envy, that he whom an honeft quaflorjhip h;-.d indear'd 
 to the Sicilians, was not more by them importun'd 
 againft Verves, then the favourable opinion which I 
 had among many who honour ye, and are known and
 
 AREOPA GIT1CA. 6 1 
 
 refpe6led by ye, loaded me with entreaties and per- 
 fvvafions, that I would not defpair to lay together that 
 which jufl reafon mould bring into my mind, toward 
 the removal of an undeferved thraldom upon lerning. 
 That this is not therefore the disburdning of a partic- 
 ular fancie, but the common grievance of all thofe 
 who had prepar'd their minds and fludies above the 
 vulgar pitch to advance truth in others, and from others 
 to entertain it, thus much may fatisfie. And in their 
 name I fhall for neither friend nor foe conceal what 
 the generall murmur is ; that if it come to inquifitioning 
 again, and licencing, and that we are fo timorous of 
 our felvs, and fo fufpicious of all men, as to fear each 
 book, and the making of every leaf, before we know 
 what the contents are, if fome who but of late were 
 little better then filenc't from preaching, fhall come 
 now to filence us from reading, except what they pleafe, 
 it cannot be gueft what is intended by fom but a fecond 
 tyranny over learning : and will foon put it out of con- 
 troverfie that Bifhops and Prefbyters are the fame to 
 us both name and thing. That thofe evills of Prelaty 
 which before from five or fix and twenty Sees were dif- 
 tributivly charg'd upon the whole people, will now light 
 wholly upon learning, is not obfcure to us : whenas 
 now the Paftor of a fmall unlearned Parifli, on the hid- 
 den fhall be exalted Archbifhop over a large dioces of 
 books, and yet not remove, but keep his other cure 
 too, a myfticall pluralift. He who but of late cry'd 
 down the fole ordination of every novice Batchelor of 
 Art, and deny'd fole jurifdiclion over the fimpleft Pa- 
 rifhioner, fhall now at home in his privat chair affume 
 both thefe over worthieft and excellentefl books and 
 ablefl authors that write them. This is not, Yee 
 Covenants and Proteflations that we have made, this 
 is not to put down Prelaty, this is but to chop an 
 Epifcopacy, this is but to tranflate the Palace Metro- 
 politan from one kind of dominion into another, this 
 is but an old cannonicall flight of committing our 
 penance. To ftartle thus betimes at a meer unlicenc't
 
 ARE0PAG1TICA. 
 
 pamphlet will after a while be afraid ol every conven- 
 ticle, and a while after will make a conventi< 
 every Chriflian meeting. But I am certain that a State 
 govem'd by the rales of juflice and fortitude, or a 
 
 Church built and founded upon the rock of faith and 
 true knowledge, cannot be fo pufillanimous. While 
 things are yet not conflituted in Religion, that freedom 
 
 of writing lhould be rellrain'd by a discipline imitated 
 from the Prelats, and learnt by them from the tnquifi- 
 tion to lhut us up all again into the breflofa licencer, 
 mull needs give caufe of doubt and difcouragement to 
 all learned and religious men. Who cannot but difcern 
 the finenes of this politic drift, and who are the con- 
 trivers : that while Bifhops were to be baited down, then 
 all Preffes might be open; it was the people's birthright 
 and pri\ iledge in time of Parlament, it was the breaking 
 forth of light But now the Bifhops abrogated and 
 voided out of the Church, as if our Reformation fought 
 no more, but to make room for others into their feats 
 under another name, the Epifcopall arts begin to bud 
 again, the crufe of truth mufl run no more oyle, liberty 
 of Printing mufl be enthrall'd again under a Prela'ticall 
 commiflion of twenty, the privilege of the people nulli- 
 fy\\. and which is wors, the freedom of learning mufl 
 groan again, and to her old fetters; all this the Parla- 
 ment yet fitting. Although their own late arguments and 
 defences againft the Prelats might remember them that 
 this obftru cling violence meets for the mofl part with 
 an event utterly oppofite to the end which it drives at : 
 inflead offupprefling feels and fchifms.itraifesthem and 
 invefts them with a reputation : The punijhing of wits 
 enhaunces their autority, faith the Vicount St. Albans, 
 and a forbidden writing is thought to be a certain fpark 
 of truth that flies up in the faces of them who feeke to 
 tread it out. This order therefore may prove a nurfmg 
 mother to feels, but I fhall eafily fhew how it will be 
 a ftep-dame to Truth : and firfl by difinabling us to 
 the maintenance of what is known already. 
 
 Well knows he who ufes to confider, that our faith
 
 AREOPAGITICA. 63 
 
 and knowledge thrives by exercife, as well as our limbs 
 and complexion. Truth is compar'd in Scripture to a 
 dreaming fountain ; if her waters flow not in a perpet- 
 uall progreffion, they fick'n into a muddy pool of con- 
 formity and tradition. A man may be a heretick in 
 the truth ; and if he beleeve things only becaufe his 
 Paftor fayes fo, or the Affembly fo determins, without 
 knowing other reafon, though his belief be true, yet the 
 very truth he holds, becomes his herefie. There is not 
 any burden that fom would gladier poft off to another, 
 then the charge and care of their Religion. There be, 
 whoknowsnotthat there beof Proteflants and profeffors 
 who live and dye in as arrant an implicit faith, as any 
 lay Papift of Loretto. A wealthy man addicted to his 
 pleafure and to his profits, finds Religion to be a traffick 
 fo entangl'd, and of fo many piddling accounts, that of 
 all myfteries he cannot fkill to keep a flock going upon 
 that trade. What fhoulde he doe ? fain he would have 
 the name to be religous, fain he would bear up with 
 his neighbours in that. What does he therefore, but 
 refolvs to give over toyling, and to find himfelf out 
 fom factor, to whofe care and credit he may commit 
 the whole managing of his religous affairs; fom Divine 
 of note and eftimation that mufl be. To him he ad- 
 heres, refigns the whole ware-houfe of his religion, with 
 all the locks and keyes into his cuftody; and indeed 
 makes the very perfon of that man his religion ; efteems 
 his affociating with him a fufficient evidence and com- 
 mendatory of his own piety. So that a man may fay 
 his religion is now no more within himfelf, but is be- 
 com a dividuall movable, and goes and comes neer 
 him, according as that good man frequents the houfe. 
 He entertains him, gives him gifts, feafts him, lodges 
 him; his religion comes home at night, praies, is libe- 
 rally fupt, and fumptuoufly laid to fleep, nfes, is faluted, 
 and after the malmfey, or fome well fpic't bruage, and 
 better breakfafted then he whofe morning appetite 
 would have gladly fed on green figs between Bethany 
 and Icrufakm, his Religion walks abroad at eight, and
 
 IG/T/CA. 
 
 his kind entertainer in the (hop trading all day 
 without his religion. 
 
 Another fori there be who when they hear that all 
 things lhall ho order'd, all things regulated and fetl'dj 
 nothing writt'n but what pa lies through the cuflom- 
 houfe of certain Publicans that have the tun aging and 
 the poundaging of all free fpok'n truth, will ftrait give 
 themfelvs up into your hands, mak'em and cut'em out 
 what religion ye pleafe; there be delights, there be 
 recreations and jolly paflimes that will fetch the dav 
 about from fun to fun, and rock the tedious year as 
 in a delightful! dream. What need they torture their 
 heads with that which others have tak'n lb flrictly, and 
 fo unalterably into their own pourveying. Thefe are 
 the fruits which a dull eafe and ceffation of our know- 
 ledge will bring forth among the people. How goodly, 
 and how to be wifht were fuch an obedient unanimity 
 as this, what a fine conformity would it (larch us all 
 into? doublles a Ranch and folid peece of frame- 
 work, as any January could freeze together. 
 
 Nor much better will be the confequence ev'n among 
 the Clergy themfelvs; it is no new thing never" heard 
 of before, for a. parocfiiallMmiRjeT, who has his reward, 
 and is at his Hercules pillars in a warm benefice, to be 
 eafily inclinable, if he have nothing elfe that may roufe 
 up his fludies, to finifh his circuit in an Englifh con- 
 cordance and a topic folio, the gatherings ami favings 
 of a fober graduatfhip, a Harmony and a Catena, 
 treading the conflant round of certain common doc- 
 trinall heads, attended with their ufes, motives, marks 
 and means, out of which as out of an alphabet or fol 
 fa by forming and transforming, joyning and dif- 
 joyning varioufly a little book-craft, and two hours 
 meditation might furnifh him unspeakably to the per- 
 formance of more then a weekly charge of fermoning : 
 not to reck'n up the infinit helps of interlinearies, 
 breviaries, fynopfes, and other loitering gear. But as 
 for the multitude of Sermons ready printed and pil'd 
 up, on every text that is not difficult, our London
 
 A RE OTA G I TIC A . 65 
 
 trading St Thomas in his veftry, and adde to boot St. 
 Martin, and St Hugh, have not within their hallow'd 
 limits more vendible ware of all forts ready made : 
 fo that penury he never need fear of Pulpit pro- 
 vifion, having where fo plenteoufly to refrefh his ma- 
 gazin. But if his rear and flanks be not impal'd, it 
 his back dore be not secur'd by the rigid licencer, but 
 that a bold book may now and then iffue forth, ana 
 give the affault to fome of his old collections in their 
 trenches, it will concern him then to keep waking, to 
 fland in watch, to fet good guards and fentinells about 
 his receiv'd opinions, to walk the round and counter- 
 round with his fellow infpectors, fearing left any of his 
 flock be feduc't, who alfo then would be better in- 
 ftructed, better exercis'd and difciplin'd. And God 
 fend that the fear of this diligence which muff then 
 be us'd, doe not make us affect the lazines of a li- 
 cencing Church. 
 
 For if we be fure we are in the right, and doe not 
 hold the truth guiltily, which becomes not, if we our- 
 felves condemn not our own weak and frivolous teach- 
 ing, and the people for an untaught and irreligious 
 gadding rout, what can be more fair, then when a man 
 judicious, learned, and of a confcience, for ought we 
 know, as good as theirs that taught us what we know, 
 mail not privily from houfe to houfe, which is more 
 dangerous, but openly by writing publifh to the world 
 what his opinion is, what his reafons, and wherefore 
 that which is now thought cannot be found. Chrift 
 urg'd it as wherewith to juflifie himfelf, that he preacht 
 in publick; yet writing is more publick then preaching; 
 and more eafie to refutation, if need be, there being fo 
 many whofe bufineffe and profeflion meerly it is, to be 
 the champions of Truth ; which if they neglecl, what 
 can be imputed but their (loth, or inabilty? 
 
 Thus much we are hinder'd and dif-inur'd by this 
 cours of licencing towards the true knowledge of what 
 we feem to know. For how much it hurts and hinders 
 the licencers themfelves in the calling of their Min- 
 
 E
 
 iilcry. more then any fecular employment, if they will 
 difcharge that office as thej ought, fo that ofneceffity 
 they muft negledl cither the one duty or the other, 1 
 infill not, becaufe it is a particular, but leave it to their 
 own conscience, how they will decide it there. 
 
 There is yet behind of what I purpos'd to lay open, 
 the incredible loffe, and detriment that this plot of 
 licencing puts us to, more then if fom enemy at fea 
 fhould flop up all our l.av'ns and ports, and creeks, it 
 hinders and retards the importation of our richell 
 Marchandize, Truth ; nay it was firft eftablifht and put 
 in practice by Antichriflian malice and myftery on let 
 purpofe to extinguifh, if it were poffible, the light of 
 Reformation, and to fettle falfhood ; little differing from 
 that policie wherewith the Turk upholds his Alcoran^ 
 by the prohibition of Printing. 'Tis not deny'd, but 
 gladly confeft, we are to fend our thanks and vows to 
 heav'n, louder then moft of Nations, for that great mea- 
 fure of truth which we enjoy, efpecially in thofe main 
 points between us and the Pope, with his appertinences 
 the Prelats : but he who thinks we are to pitch our tent 
 here, and haveattain'd the utmofl prospect of reforma- 
 tion, that the mortalle glaffe wherein we contemplate, 
 can fhew us, till we come to beatific vifion, that man by 
 this very opinion declares, that he is yet farre fliort of 
 Truth. 
 
 Truth indeed came once into the world with her 
 divine Mailer, and was a perfect fhape moft glorious 
 to look on : but when he afcended, and his Apoflles 
 after him were laid afleep, then flrait arofe a wicked 
 race of deceivers, who as that flory goes of the ^Egyptian 
 Typhon with his confpirators, how they dealt with the 
 good Ofiris, took the virgin Truth, hewd her lovely 
 torm into a thoufand peeces, and fcatter'd them to the 
 four winds. From that time ever fince, the fad friends 
 of Truth, fuch as durft appear, imitating the carefull 
 fearch that Ifis made for the mangl'd body of Oj/ris, 
 went up and down gathering up limb by limb Mill as 
 f .hey could find them. We have not yet found them
 
 ARE0PAGIT1CA. 67 
 
 all, Lords and Commons, nor ever fhall doe, till her 
 Mailers fecond comming ; he fhall bring together every 
 joynt and member, and fhall mould them into an im- 
 mortall feature of lovelinefs and perfection. Suffer not 
 thefe licencing prohibitions to (land at every place of 
 opportunity forbidding and difturbing them that con- 
 tinue feeking, that continue to do our obfequies to 
 the torn body of our martyr'd Saint. We boaft our 
 light ; but if we look not wifely on the Sun it felf, it 
 unites us into darknes. Who can difcern thole planets 
 that are oft Combuft, and thofe ftars of brighteft mag- 
 nitude that rife and fet with the Sun, untill the oppofite 
 motion of their orbs bring them to fuch a place in the 
 firmament, where they may be feen evning or morning. 
 The light which we have gain'd, was giv'n us, not to 
 be ever flaring on, but by it to difcover onward things 
 more remote from our knowledge. It is not the un- 
 frocking of a Prieft,the unmitring of a Bifhop,and the re- 
 moving him from off the Prefbyterian moulders that will 
 make us a happy Nation, no, if other things as great in 
 the Church, and in the rule of life both economicall 
 and politicall be not lookt into and reform'd, we have 
 lookt fo long upon the blaze that Zuinglius and Calvin 
 hath beacon'd up to us, that we are Hark blind. There 
 be who perpetually complain of fchifms and feels, and 
 make it fuch a calamity that any man diffents from their 
 maxims. 'Tis their own pride and ignorance which 
 caufes the difturbing, who neither will hear with meek- 
 nes, nor can convince, yet all muft be fuppreft which 
 is not found in their Syntagma. They are the troublers, 
 they are the dividers of unity, who neglect and permit 
 not others to unite thofe diffever'd peeces which 
 are yet wanting to the body of Truth. To be ftill 
 fearching what we know not, by what we know, ftill 
 clofing up truth to truth as we find it (for all her body 
 is homogeneal, and proportionall) this is the golden rule 
 in Theology as well as in Arithmetick, and makes up the 
 beft harmony in a Church ; not the forc't and outward 
 union of cold, and neutrall,and inwardly divided minds.
 
 AREOPAGITIC f. 
 
 ommons of England, confider what 
 Nation it is wherof ye are, and wherof ye are the 
 Nation nol (low and dull, but of a quick, 
 ingenious, and piercing fpirit, acute to invent, futtle 
 and finewy to difcours, not beneath the rea< h of any 
 point the higheft that human capacity can foar to. 
 Therefore the fludies of learning in her deepeft Sci- 
 ences have bin To ancient, and fo eminent among us, 
 that Writers of g( tod antiquity, and ableft judgement have 
 bin perfwaded that ev'n the fchool of Pythagoras, and 
 the Perfian wifdom took beginning from the old Philo- 
 fophyofthis Hand. And that wife and civil! Roman, 
 Julius Agricola, who govern'd once here for Coefar, pre 
 ferr'd the naturall wits of Britain, before the labour'd 
 ftudies of the French. Nor is it for nothing that the 
 grave and frugal Tranfdvanian fends out yearly from 
 as farre as the mountanous borders of A' u/jia, and be- 
 yond the Hercynian wildernes, not their youth, but 
 their flay'd men, to learn our language, and our theo- 
 logic arts. Yet that which is above all this, the favour 
 and the love of heav'n we have great argument to think 
 in a peculiar manner propitious and propending towards 
 us. Why elfe was this Nation chos'n before any other, 
 that out of her as out of Sion fhould be proclam'd and 
 founded forth the rirft tidings and trumpet of Reforma- 
 tion to all Europ. And had it not bin the obflinat per- 
 verfnes of our Prelats againft the divine and admirable 
 fpirit of Wicklef, to fuppreffe him as a fchifmatic and 
 innovator, perha ] >s neither the Bohemian Ii T tt //?a.ndJerom, 
 no nor the name of Luther, or of Calvin had bin ever 
 known : the glory of reforming all our neighbours had bin 
 compleatly ours. But now, as our obdurat Clergy have 
 with violence demean'd the matter, we are become 
 hitherto the lateft and the back warded Schollers, of whom 
 God offer'd to have made us the teachers. Now once 
 again by all concurrence of figns,and by the generall in- 
 flinctof holy and devout men, as they dailyand folemnly 
 expreffe their thoughts, God is decreeing to begin fome 
 new and great period in his Church, ev'n to the reform-
 
 A RE OP A GITICA . 69 
 
 ing of Reformation it felf: what does he then but 
 reveal Himfelf to his fervants, and as his manner is, 
 firft to his Englifh-men ; I fay as his manner is, firft 
 to us, though we mark not the method of his counfels, 
 and are unworthy. Behold now this vaft City; a City 
 of refuge, the manfion houfe of liberty, encompaft and 
 fiirrounded with his pioteclion ; the fhop of warre hath 
 not there more anvils and hammers waking, to fafhion 
 out the plates and inftruments of armed Juftice in 
 defence of beleaguer' d Truth, then there be pens and 
 heads there, fitting by their ftudious lamps, mufing, 
 fearching, revolving new notions and idea's wherewith 
 to prefent, as with their homage and their fealty the 
 approaching Reformation : others as fall reading, trying 
 all things, affenting to the force of reafon and convince- 
 ment. What could a man require more from a Nation 
 fo pliant and fo prone to feek after knowledge. What 
 wants there to fuch a toward ly and pregnant foile, but 
 wife and faithfull labourers, to make a knowing people, 
 a Nation of Prophets, of Sages, and of Worthies. We 
 reck'n more then five months yet to harveft ; there need 
 not be five weeks, had we but eyes to lift up, the fields 
 are white already. Where there is much defire to learn, 
 there of neceffity will be much arguing, much writing, 
 many opinions ; for opinion in good men is but know- 
 ledge in the making. Under thefe fantaftic terrors of 
 sect and fchifm, we wrong the earneft and zealous thirfl 
 after knowledge and underftanding which God hath 
 ftirr'd up in this City. What fome lament of, we rather 
 fhould rejoyce at, fhould rather praife this pious for- 
 wardnes among men, to reaffume the ill deputed care 
 of their Religion into their own hands again. A little 
 generous prudence, a little forbearance of one another, 
 and fom grain of charity might win all thefe diligences 
 to joyn, and unite in one generall and brotherly lean h 
 after Truth ; could we but forgoe this Prelaticall tradi- 
 tion of crowding free confciences and Chriftian liberties 
 into canons and precepts of men. I doubt not, if fome 
 great and worthy ftranger fhould come among us, wife
 
 7o ARE0PAGJT1CA. 
 
 to diC <-'ni the mould and temper of a people, and how 
 to govern it, obferving the high hopes and aims, the 
 diligent alacrity of our extended thoughts and n 
 ings in the pursuance of truth and freedom, but that he 
 would cry out as Pirrhus did, admiring the Roman 
 docility and courage, iffuch wire my Epirots, I would 
 not defpair the greateft defign that could be attempted 
 to make a Church or Kingdom happy. Yet thefe are 
 the men cry'd out againft for fchifmaticks and fectaries; 
 as if, while the Temple of the Lord was building, fome 
 cutting, fome fquaring the marble, others hewing the 
 cedars, therefhould be a fortof irrational] men who could 
 not confider there mull be many fchifms and many dif- 
 feclions made in the quarry and in the timber, ere the 
 houfe of God can be built. And when every (lone is laid 
 artfully together, it cannot be united into a continuity, it 
 can but be contiguous in this world : neither can every 
 peece of the building be of one form ; nay rather the 
 perfection confifts in this, that out of many moderat 
 varieties and brotherly diffimilitudes that are not 
 vafUy difproportionall arifes the goodly and the grace- 
 full fymmetry that commends the whole pile and flruc- 
 ture. Let us therefore be more confiderat builders, 
 more wife in fpirituall architecture, when great refor- 
 mation is expected. For now the time feems come, 
 wherein Mofes the great Prophet may fit in heav'n re- 
 joycing to fee that memorable and glorious wifh of his 
 fulfill'd, when not only our fev'nty Elders, but all the 
 Lords people are become Prophets. No marvell then 
 though fome men, and fome good men too perhaps, 
 but young in goodneffe, z.% Jojhua then Mas, envy them. 
 They fret, and out of their own weaknes are in agony, 
 left thofe divifions and fubdivifions will undoe us. The 
 adverfarie again applauds, and waits the hour, when 
 they have brancht themfelves out, faith he, final 1 anough 
 into parties and partitions, then will be our time. Fool! 
 he fees not the firm root, out of which we all grow, 
 though into branches : nor will beware untill hee fee 
 our fmall divided maniples cutting through at every angle
 
 AREOPA GITICA. 7 1 
 
 of his ill united and unweildy brigade. And that we 
 are to hope better of all thefefuppofed feds and fchifms, 
 and that wefhall not need that folicitude honeft perhaps 
 though over timorous of them that vex in his behalf, 
 but (hall laugh in the end, at thofe malicious applauders 
 of our differences, I have thefe reafons to perfwade me. 
 Firft, when a City (hall be as it were befieg'd and 
 blockt about, her navigable river infefled, inrodes and 
 incurfions round, defiance and battell oft rumor'd to 
 be marching up ev'n to her walls, and fuburb trenches, 
 that then the people, or the greater part, more then 
 at other times, wholly tak'n up with the (ludy o( 
 higheft and mod important matters to be reform'd, 
 fliould be difputing, reafoning, reading, inventing, dif- 
 courfmg, ev'n to a rarity, and admiration, things not 
 before difcourft or writt'n of, argues firft a fingular 
 good will, contentedneffe and confidence in your pru- 
 dent forefight, and fafe government, Lords and Com- 
 mons ; and from thence derives it felf to a gallant 
 bravery and well grounded contempt of their enemies, 
 as if there were no fmall number of as great fpirits 
 among us, as his was, who when Rome was nigh be- 
 fieg'd by Haiiibal, being in the City, bought that peece 
 of ground at no cheap rate, whereon Haiiibal himfelf 
 encampt his own regiment. Next it is a lively and 
 cherfull prefage of our happy fucceffe and victory. 
 For as in a body, when the blood is frefh, the fpirits 
 pure and vigorous, not only to vital, but to rationall 
 faculties, and thofe in the acuteft, and the perteft 
 operations of wit and futtlety, it argues in what good 
 plight and conflitution the body is, fo when the cheer- 
 fulneffe of the people is fo fp rightly up, as that it has, 
 not only wherewith to guard well its own freedom and 
 fafety, but to fpare, and to bellow upon the folideft 
 and fublimefl points of controverfie, and new inven- 
 tion, it betok'n us not degenerated, nor drooping to a 
 fatall decay, but cafting off the old and wrincl'd (kin 
 of corruption to outlive thefe pangs and wax young 
 again, entring the glorious waies of Truth and profpe-
 
 72 AREOPAGITICA. 
 
 roua vertue deflin'd to become great and honourable 
 in thefe latter ages. Methinks 1 fee in my mind a 
 noble and puiffant Nation roufing herfelflike a ftrong 
 man at'tcr deep, and making her invincible lot ks : 
 Methinks I fee her as an Eagle muing her mighty 
 youth, and kindling her undazl'd eyes at the full mid- 
 day beam; purging and unfcaling her long abufeel 
 fight at the fountain it fell" of heav'nly radiance, while 
 the whole noife of timorous and flocking birds, with 
 thofe alio that love the twilight, flutter about, amaz'd 
 at what the means, and in their envious gabble would 
 prognofticat a year of feets and fehifms. 
 
 What fhould ye doe then, fhould ye fuppreffe all 
 this flowry crop of knowledge and new light fprungup 
 and yet fpringing daily in this City, fhould ye fet an 
 Oligarchy of twenty ingroffers over it, to bring a famin 
 upon our minds again, when we fhall know nothing 
 but what is meafur'd to us by their bufhel? Beleeve 
 it, Lords and Commons, they who counfell ye to fucli 
 a fapprefling, doe as good as bid ye fuppreffe your- 
 felvesj and I will foon (hew how. If it be delir'd to 
 know the immediat caufe of all this free writing and 
 free fpeaking, there cannot be affign'd a truer then 
 your own mild, and free, and human government ; it 
 is the liberty, Lords and Commons, which your own 
 valorous and happy counfels have purchaft us, liberty 
 which is the nurfe of all great wits ; this is that which 
 hath rarify'd and enlightn'd our fpirits like the influence 
 of heav'n ; this is that which hath enfranchis'd, enlarged 
 and lifted up our apprehenfions degrees above them- 
 felves. Ye cannot make us now leffe capable, leffe 
 knowing, leffe eagarly punning of the truth, unleffe 
 ye firfl make your felves, that made us fo, leffe the 
 lovers, leffe the founders of our true liberty. We can 
 grow ignorant again, brutifh, formall, and flavifh, as ye 
 found us ; but you then muft firfl become that which 
 ye cannot be, oppreffive, arbitrary, and tyrannous, as 
 they were from whom ye have free'd us. That our 
 hearts are now more capacious, our thoughts more
 
 AREOPAGITICA. 73 
 
 erected to the fearch and expectation of greateft and 
 exacted things, is the iffue of your owne vertu propa- 
 gated in us ; ye cannot fuppreffe that unleffe ye rein- 
 force an abrogated and mercileffe law, that fathers may 
 difpatch at will their own children. And who mail then 
 fticke clofeft to ye, and excite others ? not he who takes 
 up armes for cote and conduct, and his four nobles of 
 Danegelt. Although I difpraife not the defence of jufl. 
 immunities, yet love my peace better, if that were all. 
 Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue 
 freely according to confcience, above all liberties. 
 
 What would be best advis'd then, if it be found fo 
 hurtfull and fo unequall to fuppreffe opinions for the 
 newnes, or the unfutablenes to a cuflomary acceptance, 
 will not be my talk to fay ; I only (hall repeat what I 
 have learnt from one of your own honourable number, 
 a right noble and pious lord, who had he not facrific'd 
 his life and fortunes to the Church and Commonwealth, 
 we had not now mift and bewayl'd a worthy and un- 
 doubted patron of this argument. Ye know him I am 
 fure ; yet I for honours fake, and may it be eternall to 
 him, mail name him, the Lord Brook. 5 He writing of 
 Epifcopacy, and by the way treating of feels and 
 fchifms, left Ye his vote, or rather now the laft words 
 of his dying charge, which I know will ever be of dear 
 and honour'd regard with Ye, fo full of meeknes and 
 breathing charity, that next to his laft teftament, who 
 bequeathed love and peace to his Difciples, I cannot 
 call to mind where I have read or heard words more 
 mild and peacefull. He there exhorts us to hear with 
 patience and humility thofe, however they be mif- 
 call'd, that defire to live purely, in fuch a ufe of Gods 
 Ordinances, as the beft guidance of their confcience 
 gives them, and to tolerat them, though in fome dif- 
 conformity to our felves. The book it felf will tell us 
 more at large being publifht to the world, and dedica- 
 ted to the Parlament by him who both for his life and 
 for his death deferves, that what advice he left be not 
 laid by without perufall.
 
 ARE0PAG1TICA. 
 
 And now the time in fpeciall is, by priviledge to 
 wrtie and fpeak what may help io the furder difcus- 
 Qng ft' matters in agitation. The Temple of /anus with 
 his two controverfal faces might now not unfignifi- 
 cantly be fet open. And though all the windes <>f 
 do£trin were let loofe to play upon the earth, fo Truth 
 be in the field, we do injurioufly by licencing and 
 prohibiting to mifdoubt her ftrength. Let her and 
 Falfhood grapple \ who ever knew Truth put to the 
 wors, in a tree and open encounter. Her confuting 
 is the bed and hired fupprefling. He who hears what 
 ] uaying there is for light and clearer knowledge to be 
 lent down among us, would think of other matters to 
 be conflituted beyond the difcipline of Geneva, fram'd 
 and fabric't already to our hands. Yet when the new 
 light which we beg for fhines in upon us, there be who 
 envy, and oppofe, if it come not firil in at their cafe- 
 ments. What a collufion is this, whenas we are ex- 
 horted by the wife man to ufe diligence, io feek for 
 wifdom as for hiddn treafures early and late, that 
 another order fhall enjoyn us to know nothing but by 
 ftatute. When a man hath bin labouring the hardeft 
 labour in the deep mines of knowledge, hath fumifht 
 out his findings in all their equipage, drawn forth his 
 reafons as it were a battell raung'd, fcatter'd and 
 defeated all objections in his way, calls out his adver- 
 fary into the plain, offers him the advantage of wind 
 and fun, if he pleafe ; only that he may try the matter 
 by dint of argument, for his opponents then to fculk, 
 to lay ambufhments, to keep a narrow bridge of licen- 
 cing where the challenger fhould paffe, though it be 
 valour anough in fhouldierfhip, is but weaknes and 
 cowardife in the wars of Truth. For who knows not 
 that Truth is ftrong next to the Almighty ; fhe needs 
 no policies, no ftrategems, no licencings to make her 
 victorious, thofe are the fhifts and the defences that 
 error ufes again ft her power : give her but room, and 
 do not bind her when die fleeps, for then die fpeaks 
 not true, as the old Prcteus did, who fpake oracles
 
 ARE0PAG1T1CA. 75 
 
 only when he was caught and bound, but then rather 
 fhe turns herlelf into all fhapes, except her own, and 
 perhaps tunes her voice according to the time, as 
 Micaiah did before Ahab, untill fhe be adjur'd into 
 her own likenes. Yet is it not impofiible that fhe may 
 have more fhapes then one. What elfe is all that rank 
 of things indifferent, wherein Truth may be on this fide, 
 or on the other, without being unlike her felf. What 
 but a vain fhadow elfe is the abolition of thofe ordi- 
 nances, that hand ion/ting nayVd to the crojfe, what 
 great purchafe is this Chriftian liberty which Paul fo 
 often boafts of. His doctrine is, that he who eats or 
 eats not, regards a day, or regards it not, may doe 
 either to the Lord. How many other things might be 
 tolerated in peace, and left to confeience, had we but 
 charity, and were it not the chiefflrong hold of our 
 hypocrifie to be ever judging one another. I fear yet 
 this iron yoke of outward conformity hath left a flavifh 
 print upon our necks ; the ghofl of a linnen decency 
 yet haunts us. We flumble and are impatient at the 
 leafl dividing of onevifible congregation from another, 
 though it be not in fundamentalls ; and through our 
 forwardnes to fupprefle, and our backwardnes to re- 
 cover any enthrall'd peece of truth out of the gripe of 
 cuftom, we care not to keep truth feparated from 
 truth, which is the fiercefl rent and difunion of all. 
 We doe not fee that while we flill affect by all means 
 a rigid externall formality, we may as foon fall again 
 into a grofle conforming ftupidity, a ftark and dead 
 congealment of wood and hay and Jlubble forc't and 
 frozen together, which is more to the hidden degene- 
 rating of a Church then many fiibdichotomies of petty 
 fchifms. Not that I can think well of every light repa- 
 ration, or that all in a Church is to be expected gold 
 and filver and preticus Jloncs : it is not pofiible for man 
 to fever the wheat from the tares, the good fifli from 
 the other frie ; that muft be the Angels Miniftery at the 
 end of mortall things. Yet if all cannot be of one mind, 
 as who looks they mould be ? this doubtles is more
 
 76 AREOPAGITICA. 
 
 wholfome, more prudent, and more Chriflian thai 
 many be tolerated, rather then all compell'd. I mean 
 not tolerated Popery, and open fuperllition, which as 
 it extirpats all religions and civil! fupremacies, fo it 
 Pelf mould be extirpat, provided firft that all charitable 
 and compaflional means he us'd to win and regain 
 the weak and milled: that alfo which is impious or evil 
 abfolutely either againfl faith or rnaners no law can 
 poffibly permit, that intends not to unlaw it felf: hut 
 thofe neighboring differences, or rather indifferences, 
 are what I fpeak of, whether in fome point of doctrine 
 or of difcipline, which though they may be many, yet 
 need not interrupt the unity of Spirit^ if we could hut 
 find among us the bond of peace. In the mean while if 
 any one would write, and bring his helpfull hand to 
 the flow-moving Reformation we labour under, if 
 Truth have fpok'n to him before others, or but feem'd 
 at leall to fpeak, who hath fo bejefuited us that we 
 fhould trouble that man with afking licence to doe fo 
 worthy a deed ? and not confider this, that if it come 
 to prohibiting, there is not ought more likely to be 
 prohibited then truth it felf; whofe firfl appearance to 
 our eyes blear'd and dimm'd with prejudice and cuftom, 
 is more unfightly and unplaufible then many errors, 
 ev'n as the perfon is of many a great man flight and 
 contemptible to fee to. And what doe they tell us 
 vainly of new opinions, when this very opinion of 
 theirs, that none mufl be heard, but whom they like, 
 is the worft and neweft opinion of all others ; and 
 is the chief cause why fects and fchifms doe fo much 
 abound, and true knowledge is kept at diftance from 
 us ; befides yet a greater danger which is in it. For 
 when God fhakes a Kingdome with flrong and health- 
 full commotions to a generall reforming, 'tis not untrue 
 that many fectaries and falfe teachers are then bufieft 
 in feducing; but yet more true it is, that God then 
 raifes to his own work men of rare abilities, and more 
 then common induflry not only to look back and revife 
 what hath bin taught heretofore, but to gain furder and
 
 AKEOPAGITICA. 77 
 
 goe on, fome new enlightn'd Heps in the difcovery of 
 truth. For fuch is the order of Gods enlightning his 
 Church, to difpenfe and deal out by degrees his beam, 
 fo as our earthly eyes may befl fuflain it. Neither 
 is God appointed and coniin'd, where and out of what 
 place thefe his chofen fliall be firfl heard to fpeak ; for 
 he fees not as man fees, choofes not as man choofes, 
 left we fhould devote our felves again to fet places, and 
 affemblies, and outward callings of men ; planting our 
 faith one while in the old Convocation houfe, and 
 another while in the Chappell at Weftminfter ; when 
 all the faith and religion that fliall be there canoniz'd, 
 is not fufficient without plain convincement, and the 
 charity of patient inftruclion to fupple the leafl bruift 
 of confcience, to edifie the meaneft Chriflian, who de- 
 fires to walk in the Spirit, and not in the letter of 
 human trufl, for all the number of voices that can be 
 there made, no though Harry the 7. himfelf there, 
 with all his leige tombs about him, fhould lend 
 them voices from the dead, to fwell their number. 
 And if the men be erroneous who appear to be 
 the leading fchiimaticks, what witholds us but our 
 floth, our felf-will, and diftruft in the right caufe, that 
 we doe not give them gentle meetings and gentle dif- 
 miflions, that we debate not and examin the matter 
 throughly with liberall and frequent audience ; if not 
 for their fakes, yet for our own ? feeing no man who 
 hath tafted learning, but will confeffe the many waies of 
 profiting by thofe who not contented with ftale receits 
 are able to manage, and fet forth new pofitions to the 
 world. And were they but as the duft and cinders of 
 our feet, fo long as in that notion they may ferve to 
 polifh and brighten the armoury of Truth, ev'n for that 
 refpect they were not utterly to be cafl away. But if 
 they be of thofe whom God hath fitted for the fpeciall 
 ufe of thefe times with eminent and ample gifts, and 
 thofe perhaps neither among the Priefts, nor among 
 the Phariiees, and we in the haft of a precipitant zeal 
 fliall makenodiflinclion,but refolve to flop their mouths,
 
 ARE0PAG17 
 
 becaufe we fear they come with new and dangerous 
 opinions, as we commonly fore-judge them ere we un- 
 
 derfland them, no leffe then woe to us, while thinking 
 
 thus to defend the t rofpel, we are found the perfecutors. 
 
 'There have bin not a few Qnce the beginning of this 
 
 Parlament, both of the Prefbytery and others who by 
 
 their unlieen't hooks to the contempt of an Imprimatur 
 firll broke that triple ice (lung about our hearts, and 
 taught the people to fee day : I hope that none of thofe 
 weretheperfwadersto renew upon us this bondage which 
 they themfelves have wrought fo much good by con- 
 temning. But if neither the check that Mofes gave to 
 yowagjq/ftua, nor the countermand which our Saviour 
 gave to young John, who was fo ready to prohibit thofe 
 whom he thought unlicenc't, be not anough to admonifh 
 our Klders how unacceptable to God their tefly mood 
 of prohibiting is, if neither their own remembrance what 
 evill hath abounded in the Church by this lett of licenc- 
 ing, and what good they themfelves have begun by tranf- 
 greffing it. be not anough, but that they will perfwade, 
 and execute the mofl Dominican part of the Inquifition 
 over us, and are already with one foot in the flirrup fo 
 active at luppreffing, it would be no unequall diftribu- 
 tion in the lull place to fuppreffe the fuppreffors them- 
 felves ; whom the change of their condition hath puft 
 up, more then their late experience of harder times hath 
 made wife. 
 
 And as for regulating the Preffe, let no man think to 
 have the honour of advifing ye better then your felves 
 have done in that Order publifht next before this, that 
 no book be Printed, un leffe the Printers and the Authors 
 name, or at leaft the Printers be regifter'd. 6 Thofe which 
 otherwife come forth, if they be found mifchievous and 
 libellous, the fire and the executioner will be the time- 
 lieftand the mofl effectual! remedy, thatmans prevention 
 can life. For this authentic Spanifh policy of licencing 
 books, if I have faid ought, will prove the mofl unlicenc't 
 book it felf within a fhort while ; and was the immediat 
 image of a Star-chamber decree 7 to that purpofe made
 
 ARE0PAG1TICA. 79 
 
 in thofe very times when that Court did the reft of thofe 
 her pious works, for which fhe is now fall'n from the 
 Starres withZucifer. Whereby ye may gueffe what kinde 
 of State prudence, what love of the people, what care 
 of Religion, or good manners there was at the contriv- 
 ing, although with fingular hypocrifie it pretended to 
 bind books to their good behaviour. And how it got 
 the upper hand of your precedent Order fo well con- 
 ftituted before, if we may beleeve thofe men whofe pro- 
 feflion gives them caufe to enquire moil, it may be 
 doubted there was in it the fraud of fome old patentees 
 and monopolizers in the trade of book-felling ; who under 
 pretence of the poor in their Company not to be de- 
 frauded, and the juft retaining of each man his feverall 
 copy, which God forbid mould be gainfaid, brought 
 divers glofing colours to the Houfe, which were indeed 
 but colours, and ferving to no end except it be to exer- 
 cife a fuperiority over their neighbours, men who doe 
 not therefore labour in an honeft profeffion to which 
 [earning is indetted, that they fhould be made other 
 mens vaffals. Another end is thought was aym'd at by 
 fome of them in procuring by petition this Order, that 
 having power in their hands, malignant books might the 
 eafier fcape abroad, as the event thews. But of thefe 
 Sophifnis and Elenchs of marchandize I fkill not : This 
 I know, that errors in a good government and in a bad 
 are equally almoft incident ; for what Magiftrate may 
 not be mif-inform'd, and much the fooner, if liberty of 
 Printing be reduc't into the power of a few ; but to 
 redreffe willingly and fpeedily what hath bin err'd, and 
 in higheft autority to efteem a plain advertifement more 
 then others have done a fumptuous bribe, is a vertue 
 (honour'd Lords and Commons) anfwerable to Your 
 higheft actions, and whereof none can participat but 
 greateft and wifeft men. 8 
 
 The End
 
 .V.'/'/A-. 
 
 i. \i ior\ ,nii \ thai which appertains to the Areopagus. 
 There is at Athens a hill, formerly called A'Apttoc irdyot,*, 'the 
 hill (>t Ares,' the 'Mar's Hill 1 of Acts Kvii. 22, whereon ufed to 
 affemble a Council, called 'The Council of the Areiopagus.' 
 Befiues fupreme judicial authority in cafes of wilful m 
 tlii- Council pofleffed very large focial influence; having the 
 general undel ntend ace of religion, morals, education, 
 
 and the like. It was held in veneration by 'lie whole people. 
 It appears to have been ftrongly confervative. in tone, and feems 
 to have occupied a fomewhat fimilar pofition in the Athenian 
 republic to that of the Houfe of Lords in the Bn'tifb cohftitution. 
 
 2. There were two Wardens in the Stationers' Company. 
 
 3. Reprinted at page 25. 
 
 4. Bernardo Da vanzati Bostichi [b. 30 Augufl 1529-d. 
 20 March 1006]. A Florentine author of confiderable repute. 
 lie wrote feveral works. I have not, as yet, been able to 
 identify the particular d to by Milton. 
 
 5. Robert Grevil, Lord Brooke— The title of this book is, 
 A difcovrfe opening the nature of that Epifcopacie, which is 
 e.xerafed in England. Wherein, with all Humility, are repre- 
 fented /'owe Confederations tending to tlie "inttch-defired Peace, and 
 Ion -j- expected Reformation, of This our Mother Church. By the 
 Right Honourable ROBERT Lord BROOKE. — London, Printed 
 by R. C. for Samuel Cartwright, and are to be fold at the figneof 
 the Hand and bible in Ducke-Lane 1641. This Lord Brooke was 
 horn in 1607, and was the fon of the celebrated Fulk Grevil, Lord 
 Brooke of Beauchamps-court, the friend of Sir Philip Sidney. lie 
 was killed on 2 March 1^42, while commanding the parlia- 
 mentary forces attacking the Church-clofe at Litchfield. ' It fell 
 'out, that behaving planted his great guns againft the South- 
 ' Eaft-gate of the Clofe, he was, tho' harneffed with plate-armour 
 'cap-a-pe, fhot from the chinch in the eye by one Diot, a 
 ' Clergy-man's fon, (who could neither hear or fpeak) as he flood 
 ' in a door (whither he came to fee the occafion of a fuddeii 
 4 fhoul made by the foldiers) of which he inftantly died.' — A. si- 
 Wood. Athena Oxonienfes, II. 433, Ed: by Blifs, 1815. 
 
 6. Reprinted at page 24. 
 
 7. Reprinted at page 7. 
 
 8. Gii.ukut MabbOTT, gentleman, was licenfer of j)amphlets. 
 He refigned on 22nd May, 1649, giving as his reafons argu- 
 ments fimilar to those in the ' Areopagitica.' 
 
 IV. Rider, Printers, London.
 
 University of California. Los Angeles 
 
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