“Uniform in Virtue”: Discipline and Reform in Milton's Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce (1643 and 1644)

Abstract

Though John Milton would claim retrospectively that his divorce tracts were written in defense of domestic liberty, they often justify their conclusions in terms of national discipline. This essay proposes that the disciplinary rhetoric used in the first and second editions of The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce (1643, 1644) is indicative of Milton's close engagement with contemporary London-based discussions over the settlement of ecclesiastical discipline. Each edition considers and contends with the issues being debated by the divines of the Westminster Assembly and the “Presbyterian” and “Independent” party lines emerging in contemporary printed polemic. This essay argues that Milton's first divorce tract – both versions – articulates its case in a manner acceptable to those for whom national and ecclesiastical discipline was indispensible; yet, at the same time it subtly redefines discipline's meaning by repudiating legal coercion and lauding the virtue of self-restraint as the true basis of disciplined people.