The Life of John Milton, Volume 5 (of 7), 1654-1660: Narrated in Connexion with the Political, Ecclesiastical, and Literary History of His TimeMasson, David
History
The Life of John Milton, Volume 5 (of 7), 1654-1660: Narrated in Connexion with the Political, Ecclesiastical, and Literary History of His Time
Masson, David
Milton, John, 1608-1674; Poets, English -- Early modern, 1500-1700 -- Biography
The last occasion had been just before the opening of the present
Parliament, when he was arrested with Vane, Rich, and others, and had
the distinction of being sent as far off as Pendennis Castle in
Cornwall, while Vane was sent only to the Isle of Wight, and Rich
only to Windsor. The imprisonments, however, being merely
precautionary, had been but short; and, at the time of the proposal
of the Kingship to Cromwell, Harrison, as well as the others, was
again at liberty.
That Harrison had ever practically implicated himself in any attempt
to upset the Protectorate by force hardly appears from the evidence.
He was an experienced soldier, and, with all his fervid notions of a
Fifth Monarchy, too massive a man to stir without calculation. All
that can be said is that he was an avowed enemy of Cromwell's rule,
that he was looked up to by all the Fifth-Monarchy Republicans, and
that he held himself free to act should there be fit opportunity. But
there were Harrisonians of a lower grade than Harrison. Especially in
London, since the winter of 1655, there had been a kind of society of
Fifth-Monarchy Men, holding small meetings in five places, only one
man in each meeting knowing who belonged to the others, but the five
connecting links forming a central Committee for management and
propagandism. It must have been from this Committee, I suppose, that
there emanated, in Sept. 1656, a pamphlet called "_The Banner of
Truth displayed, or a Testimony for Christ and against Antichrist:
being the substance of several consultations holden and kept by a
certain number of Christians who are waiting for the visible
appearance of Christ's Kingdom in and over the World, and residing in
and about the City of London_." Probably as yet these humble
Fifth-Monarchy Men had not gone beyond private aspirations. At all
events, Thurloe, though aware of their existence, had not thought
them worth notice. But Sindercombe's Plot of Feb. 1656-7, and the
subsequent proposal of the Kingship for Cromwell, had excited them
prodigiously, and they had been longing for action, and looking about
for leaders. Harrison was their chief hope, and they had applied to
him, but also to other Republicans who were not specially
Fifth-Monarchy Men, such as Rich, Lawson, and Okey. What
encouragement they had or thought they had from such men one does not
know; but they had fixed Thursday, April 9, the very day of the
appointment of the great Committee of Ninety-nine to deal with
Cromwell about the Kingship, for an experimental rendezvous and
standard-raising on Mile-End-Green. This being known to Thurloe, a
horse-troop or two finished the affair by the capture of about twenty
of them at Shoreditch, ready to ride to Mile-End-Green, and also by
the capture at Mile-End-Green itself of their intended standard, some
arms, and a quantity of Fifth-Monarchy books and manifestos. Five or
six of the captured, among whom was Thomas Venner, a wine-cooper, the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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