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A movement within Christianity in which the Roman Catholic Church splintered and Protestantism was born. Protestants reject several of the accepted beliefs of Catholicism, such as that of the sacraments and papal authority, and they wished to be separate and independent of the Catholic Church to have the freedom to worship as they wished. The Protestant Reformation is generally accepted to have begun in 1517 with Martin Luther’s writing of the Ninety-five Theses, but Milton also mentions important figures prior to Luther who greatly influenced the reformation, such as John Wyclif and Jan Huss. Milton also implies that the reformation is not yet over, and that the reformation itself is in need of “reforming,” which he indeed attempts to accomplish with Areopagitica.
The Protestant Reformation Quotes in Areopagitica
The Areopagitica quotes below are all either spoken by The Protestant Reformation or refer to The Protestant Reformation. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Areopagitica
Quotes
Which though I stay not to confess ere any ask, I shall be blameless, if it be no other than the joy and gratulation which it brings to all who wish and promote their country’s liberty; whereof this whole discourse proposed will be a certain testimony, if not a trophy. For this is not the liberty which we can hope, that no grievance ever should arise in the commonwealth, that let no man in this world expect; but when complaints are freely heard, deeply considered and speedily reformed, then is the utmost bound of civil liberty attained, that wise men look for. To which if I now manifest by the very sound of this which I shall utter, that we are already in good part arrived, and yet from such a steep disadvantage of tyranny and superstition grounded into our principles as was beyond the manhood of a Roman recovery, it will be attributed first, as is most due, to the strong assistance of God our deliverer, next to your faithful guidance and undaunted wisdom. Lords and Commons of England.
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Get LitCharts A+There is yet behind of what I purposed to lay open, the incredible loss and detriment that this plot of licensing puts us to, more than if some enemy at sea should stop up all our havens and ports and creeks, it hinders and retards the importation of our richest merchandise, truth: nay, it was first established and put in practice by antichristian malice and mystery on set purpose to extinguish, if it were possible, the light of reformation, and to settle falsehood; little differing from that policy wherewith the Turk upholds his Alcoran, by the prohibition of printing.
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The Protestant Reformation Term Timeline in Areopagitica
The timeline below shows where the term The Protestant Reformation appears in Areopagitica. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Areopagitica
...men were the first who took it up” for the expressed purpose of hindering the Protestant Reformation . Finding “good use out of such an invention” will surely be impossible, and it...
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...by antichristian malice” “set on purpose to extinguish, if it were possible, the light of reformation.” However, those who believe “we are to pitch our tent here, and have attained the...
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...begin some new and great period in his church, even to the reforming of the reformation itself.”
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...and structure.” Therefore, Milton contends, we should be “more wise in spiritual architecture, when great reformation is expected.”
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When God “shakes a kingdom” and prompts a reformation, Milton says, “tis not untrue that many sectaries and false teachers are then busiest in...
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