Editing Areopagitica (section)

==Background==
[[File:Areopagus hill.jpg|thumb|The [[Areopagus]], viewed from the [[Acropolis]]]]
''Areopagitica'' was published on 23 November 1644 at the height of the [[English Civil War]]. It takes its title in part from ''Areopagitikós'' ({{langx|el|Ἀρεοπαγιτικός}}), a speech written by [[Athens|Athenian]] orator [[Isocrates]] in the 4th century BC. (The [[Areopagus]] is a hill in [[Athens]], the site of real and legendary tribunals, and was the name of a council whose power Isocrates hoped to restore.) Some argue that it is more importantly also a reference to [[Areopagus sermon|the defence]] that [[St Paul]] made before the Areopagus in [[Athens]] against charges of promulgating foreign gods and strange teachings, as recorded in {{Bibleverse|Acts|17:18–34|NASB}}.<ref>Stephen Burt, "To The Unknown God": St Paul and Athens in Milton's "Areopagitica", ''Milton Quarterly'', Vol. 32, No. 1 (March 1998), pp. 23–31.</ref>

Like Isocrates, Milton (who was not a [[member of parliament]]) did not mean his work to be an oral speech to that assembly. Instead, it was distributed via pamphlet, thus defying the same publication censorship which he argued against. As a radical, Milton had supported the [[Presbyterianism|Presbyterians]] in [[Parliament of England|Parliament]], and would later work as a civil servant for the new republic,<ref>C. Sullivan, 'Milton and the Beginning of Civil Service', in ''Literature in the Public Service'' (2013), Ch. 2.</ref> but in this work he argued forcefully against Parliament's 1643 ''Ordinance for the Regulating of Printing'', also known as the [[Licensing Order of 1643]], in which Parliament required authors to have a licence approved by the government before their work could be published.

According to the British Library, "State control of printing was introduced by Henry VIII and continued into the 17th century. In April 1638, political agitator [[John Lilburne]] was arrested for importing subversive books. He was fined £500 and flogged for the two miles between the Fleet Prison and the pillory. Milton wrote his pamphlet as a protest against Lilburne's treatment."<ref>{{Cite web |title=British Library |url=https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/areopagitica-by-john-milton-1644 |access-date=2022-05-26 |website=www.bl.uk}}</ref> This issue was personal for Milton, as he had suffered censorship himself in his efforts to publish [[Milton's divorce tracts|several tracts defending divorce]] (a radical stance which met with no favour from the censors). In particular, ''[[Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce|The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce]]'' (1643), which he published anonymously and unlicensed, was condemned by the [[Puritans|Puritan]] clergy as being heretical and intending to foster sexual [[Libertine|libertinism]], and it was cited in petitions to parliament as evidence of the need to reinstall a system of prepublication licensing.<ref name="Milton versus the mob">{{Cite web|url=https://aeon.co/essays/reading-john-miltons-areopagitica-in-the-information-age|title=Milton versus the mob|access-date=13 June 2021}}</ref> ''Areopagitica'' is full of Biblical and classical references which Milton uses to strengthen his argument. This is particularly fitting because it was being addressed to the [[Calvinist]] Presbyterians who composed Parliament at that time.<ref>St. Lawrence Institute of Advanced Learning [http://www.stlawrenceinstitute.org/vol14mit.html Retrieved 10 September 2016.] This includes the text of the polemic.</ref>

According to [[George H. Sabine]], the ''Areopagitica'' presumed and was written for an engaged public:
{{blockquote|Its basic principle was the right and also the duty of every intelligent man as a rational being, to know the grounds and take responsibility for his beliefs and actions. Its corollary was a society and a state in which decisions are reached by open discussion, in which the sources of information are not contaminated by authority in the interest of party, and in which political unity is secured not by force but by a consensus that respects variety of opinion.<ref>[[George H. Sabine]] (1951), Introduction to ''Areopagitica'' and ''On Education'', page ix, [[Appleton-Century-Crofts]]</ref>}}