[Milton-L] puritan & other protestants

[Carol Barton]

As Dr. Lares points out, Michele, Hill was the "fair-haired boy" of his era, 
but he often gets it wrong (or makes claims that are disputable, anyway). 
For example: he says that Milton wrote DDD because Mary walked out on him, 
which scholars of the divorce tracts will tell you is not the case--and that 
Satan the rebel = Milton the Parliamentarian. If you want something more 
authoritative on the sects and what they believed, try something like _The 
Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church_, or even _The Catholic 
Encyclopedia_ (the latter is available online). But beware of labels: just 
as a "democrat" or a "republican" or a "liberal" are nearly meaningless 
terms today (because there are so many shades within those colors), so the 
general description of what a Leveller or a Muggletonian was is just that--a 
general description. Something that waddles like a duck on webbed feet may 
be a platypus.

Best to all,

Carol Barton