[Milton-L] Knowledge, free will, etc.

[Michael Gillum]

The Christian Doctrine (chapter 12) interprets the sentence of immediate
death by expanding the concept of death to include all forms of evil and
decay that affect the human person once disordered by sin. Eve and Adam
enter the condition of mortality not just ³in the day,² but at the very
moment of disobedience. PL dramatizes their immediate ³death² in this larger
sense as their idolatry, selfishness, lust, ³disordered passions,² and
spiteful quarreling. Death in our narrower sense makes its appearance in
book 11 as the consequence of Cain¹s malice, and Michael attributes deadly
illness to ³ungoverned appetite² (11.515). These are further illustrations
of the point that Milton tends to show the consequences of the Fall as
occurring mostly through natural and lawful processes rather than divine
fiat.

Michael


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