A Treatise of Civil Power was published by John Milton

John Milton

John Milton was an English poet, polemicist, a scholarly man of letters, and a civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under Oliver Cromwell...

 in February 1659. The work argues over the definition and nature of heresy and free thought, and Milton tries to convince the new English Parliament to further his cause.

Background

A Treatise of Civil Power in Ecclesiastical Causes was published in February 1659 after Richard Cromwell

Richard Cromwell

At the same time, the officers of the New Model Army became increasingly wary about the government's commitment to the military cause. The fact that Richard Cromwell lacked military credentials grated with men who had fought on the battlefields of the English Civil War to secure their nation's...

 established a new Parliament. Milton addresses the tract to Cromwell and Parliament because he was afraid of the various positions of the Interregnum

Interregnum

An interregnum is a period of discontinuity or "gap" in a government, organization, or social order...

government that promoted intolerance and limited the free speech of individuals (like Milton himself).

Tract

Although Milton knew that the word "heresy" was used as a pejorative, Milton believed that the term was properly defined as "only the choise or following of any opinion good or bad in religion or any other learning". Furthermore, he argues that a man is only moved "by the inward perswasive motions of his spirit".

The text is primarily concerned about the covenants formed between men and of agreements: "Let who so will interpret or determine, so it be according to true church; which is exercis'd on them only who have willingly joined themselves in that covnant of union".

Themes

Milton believed that an individual's conscience was more important than any external factors or forces. He uses heresy in a neutral manner in order to place the concept as an obligation of true Christians. The work, according to John Shawcross, is like other of his later works in that it contains "A fusion of submission and revolution". Thomas Corns believes the language of the text is subdued compared and contains little of the powers of language found within Milton's earlier prose.