Editing John Milton (section)

== Civil war, prose tracts, and marriage ==
{{Main|Milton's antiprelatical tracts}}
[[File:Areopagitica bridwell.jpg|thumb|upright=0.9|Title page of the 1644 edition of ''[[Areopagitica]]'']]

On returning to England where the [[Bishops' Wars]] presaged further armed conflict, Milton began to write prose [[tract (literature)|tracts]] against [[episcopacy]], in the service of the [[Puritans|Puritan]] and [[Long Parliament|Parliamentary]] cause. Milton's first foray into polemics was ''Of Reformation touching Church Discipline in England'' (1641), followed by ''Of Prelatical Episcopacy'', the two defences of [[Smectymnuus]] (a group of Presbyterian divines named from their initials; the "TY" belonged to Milton's old tutor Thomas Young), and ''[[The Reason of Church-Government Urged against Prelaty]]''. He vigorously attacked the High-church party of the Church of England and their leader [[William Laud]], [[Archbishop of Canterbury]], with frequent passages of real eloquence lighting up the rough controversial style of the period, and deploying a wide knowledge of church history.

He was supported by his father's investments, but Milton became a private schoolmaster at this time, educating his nephews and other children of the well-to-do. This experience and discussions with educational reformer [[Samuel Hartlib]] led him to write his short tract ''[[Of Education]]'' in 1644, urging a reform of the national universities.

In June 1642, Milton paid a visit to the manor house at [[Forest Hill, Oxfordshire]], and, aged 34, married the 17-year-old Mary Powell.<ref name="ODNB Milton">{{cite ODNB|first=Gordon|last=Campbell|title=Milton, John (1608–1674)|volume=1|year=2004|edition=Online|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/18800|access-date=25 October 2013|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/18800}}</ref><ref>Lobel 1957 pp. 122–134.</ref> The marriage got off to a poor start as Mary did not adapt to Milton's austere lifestyle or get along with his nephews. Milton found her intellectually unsatisfying and disliked the royalist views she had absorbed from her family. It is also speculated that she refused to consummate the marriage. Mary soon returned home to her parents and did not come back until 1645, partly because of the outbreak of the [[First English Civil War|Civil War]].<ref name="ODNB Milton"/>

In the meantime, her desertion prompted Milton to publish [[Milton's divorce tracts|a series of pamphlets]] over the next three years arguing for the legality and morality of divorce beyond grounds of adultery. ([[Anna Beer]], author of a 2008 biography of Milton, points to a lack of evidence and the dangers of cynicism in urging that it was not necessarily the case that the private life so animated the public polemicising.) In 1643, Milton had a brush with the authorities over these writings, in parallel with [[Hezekiah Woodward]], who had more trouble.<ref>Lewalski 2003 pp. 181–182, 600.</ref> It was the hostile response accorded the divorce tracts that spurred Milton to write ''[[Areopagitica|Areopagitica; A speech of Mr. John Milton for the Liberty of Unlicenc'd Printing, to the Parlament of England]]'', his celebrated attack on pre-printing censorship. In ''Areopagitica'', Milton aligns himself with the [[Roundhead|parliamentary cause]], and he also begins to synthesize the ideal of neo-Roman liberty with that of Christian liberty. Milton also courted another woman during this time; we know nothing of her except that her name was Davis and she turned him down. However, it was enough to induce Mary Powell into returning to him which she did unexpectedly by begging him to take her back. They had two daughters in quick succession following their reconciliation.<ref>Ann Hughes, 'Milton, Areopagitica, and the Parliamentary Cause', ''The Oxford Handbook of Milton'', ed. Nicholas McDowell and Nigel Smith, Oxford University Press, 2009</ref><ref>Blair Hoxby, 'Areopagitica and Liberty', ''The Oxford Handbook of Milton'', ed. Nicholas McDowell and Nigel Smith, Oxford University Press, 2009</ref>