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21 pages 42 minutes read

John Milton

On the Late Massacre in Piedmont

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1673

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Themes

Justice: Retribution Versus Restoration

As noted in the Analysis section, the sonnet moves from a more visceral, passionate tone to one of righteous reflection and prophecy. The movement reflects the poem’s prominent theme of vengeance—or, more specifically, the tension between retributive and restorative justice, and the conundrum in striking a balance between the two. At first, the speaker exhorts God to “avenge” (Line 1) the massacre of the Waldensians, the injunction carrying echoes from both Old and New Testaments, where God is an absolutist, or a harsh dispenser of justice. The speaker appeals to this God at the outset because he is carried away by rage. The massacre of innocents has ignited a fire in the speaker, and his utterances bristle with a raw hunger for retribution. Tellingly, the first few lines of the poem echo the Biblical style of imperative, with the speaker now urging God to “Forget not” (Line 5) and “record” (Line 5). The lines burn with power, but their imagery is chilly—old bones strewn over the cold Alps (Lines 1-2)—evoking the horror of the massacre.

However, what complicates the sonnet and gives it its characteristic turn is that the speaker must somehow relinquish his idea of retribution. Once he has transformed and translated the agony of the Waldensians through his words, he begins to realize that divine justice is always perfectly and naturally apportioned: the speaker need not urge God to strike the Piemontese or the papacy, as they will be defeated through the everlasting ideals of the Waldensians, whose martyrdom will restore the divine kingdom. The bodies of the French Waldensians may have been desecrated, but their faith and thoughts will persist, coming to cover the Holy Roman empire. Here, Milton is referencing the common Christian idea of his time that the blood of martyrs is fertile and breeds more saints. By the sonnet’s end, the speaker has distanced himself somewhat from invoking divine wrath to accepting a righteous sovereignty. Politically, this shift echoes the poet’s ambivalence about Protestant factions fighting Catholic factions. For Milton, the spiritual war is more important than corporeal warfare; and resorting to violence may pit man’s will against that of God. Come Judgement Day, God will anyway punish the sinners, so humans need not battle sinners. Instead, they should fight the evil within. Thus, the sonnet ultimately upholds the idea of justice—and the divine promise of restoration and redemption—over that of vengeance.

Freedom Versus Oppression

More directly about religious freedom, the sonnet also explores the theme of individual and political agency at a higher level. The Waldensians—a group of proto-Protestants—were excommunicated from the Catholic Church and were largely confined to isolated pockets in Europe. However, before the massacre, the Waldensians of the French Alps had begun to grow in numbers, expanding their footprint into the Piedmont valley. Threatened, the Duke of Savoy ordered the community back up the mountains and had them massacred. Illustrating the episode, the poet uses such particular phrases as “triple tyrant” (Line 12) for the Catholic pope, and “martyr[s]” (Line 10) for the slain Waldensians, thus setting up a dichotomy between oppression and independence. The Waldensians are described as practicing a faith “pure of old” (Line 3) despite their persecution by the Catholic Church. Later in the sonnet, Milton compares the Waldensians with Israelites fleeing the torture of the Babylonian king, again invoking the image of righteous freedom punished by tyranny. Though Milton by no means advocated absolute freedom in the contemporary sense of the word, he strongly believed in proto-democratic principles as well as the freedom of thought. The metaphor of the fertile blood of the Waldensians can also be interpreted as the idea that though bodies may be broken, thoughts roam free, gaining an existence of their own.

Because the sonnet is political and religious in its concerns, it must be interpreted in light of Milton’s political beliefs. Not only did the poet support republican rather than monarchical government, but he was also one of the early defenders of the freedom of the press. Additionally, he recognized the importance of individual freedom in matters of divorce, which he considered to be "private." In the context of Milton’s personal and political beliefs, the sonnet’s Waldensians are a stand-in for the righteous, rational individual tyrannized by an oppressive, irrational institution.

The True Nature of Christianity

Exploring the true nature of Christianity is at the heart of “Sonnet 18,” For Milton, this was a lifelong search. Though he is associated with the Protestant Reformation, Milton’s religious views were also aligned with Puritan strains. Above everything, his theology involved a constant questioning of the status quo, which makes him an independent thinker. In “Sonnet 18,” the Waldensians are held as a Christian ideal since they kept a faith not just pure but “so pure” (Line 3). The modifier “so” underscores the authenticity of the Waldensians’s religion. Interestingly, this religion is “old” (Line 3) and predates the official Protestant reformation.

The aspects of the Waldensian ethos that perhaps appealed to Milton were their stripped down, strict Christian beliefs and their championing of the universal priesthood of men. In other words, Waldensians believed all men were potentially God’s priests, thus undercutting the authority of the institutionalized church. This was partly why the sect was declared heretical by the Catholic Church in the 12th century. Milton, with his belief in (responsible) individual agency and his distaste for the corruption of the Holy Roman Empire, was deeply attracted to the ideals of the Waldensians. In “Sonnet 18,” the massacre of the Waldensians drives Milton to appeal to an angry, autocratic God quite different from the forgiving God he admired. However, as a believer in Christian mercy, by the end of the sonnet Milton moves on to the idea that the killing of the Waldensians is not their defeat but only the next step to their victory. He also shows some discomfort with the idea of organized attack against the Catholic Church, believing true wars are of the mind and spirit. Milton’s evolving theological stance in the poem shows that his religion involved constant questioning of the self, as well as the simplicity of faith.

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