FOR HIS MATERIALS, Milton relied overwhelmingly on biblical citation, and pervasively on Wollebius. And yet, despite his avowed independence of theologians and their systems, he often moved beyond findings accumulated from the first two sorts of material, into discussion with named theologians. For our present inquiry these are like interlocutors, people whom he engages with, in ways which range from a bare mention or quiet agreement to animated disagreement. We consider them as a group, mostly of those who are named, but also two who are unnamed but presupposed. The gathering up is timely: the theologians in De Doctrina amount to something more than a bunch of theologi to be lumped and dismissed by Milton. They merit appraisal in our own terms, thinking beyond the sobriety of Kelley's invaluable glossing into relationships that may be dialectical.

The bare fact of naming deserves attention. By identifying persons, it moves beyond category thinking and broad impression to particular books which Milton used, whether reading while he had his sight or hearing them read out to him, and whether met in original or secondary works. All were in Latin. Most were professional divines, writing from a university—hence trailing the clouds of Milton's general disapproval, but nonetheless voices heard speaking in De Doctrina.

My gathering must dwell on variety, the variety within the European professionals, and likewise within the reading Milton gave to them, and in the uses he makes in response. The engagements, if we imagine a thermometer registering animation, range from cool to hot, and from tiny to large if we measure words quoted and words of reply, from oncers to ten or more allusions if we count up, from unknowns to big names like Seldenus, and so on. And since “variety” as a theme may look vague or useless, we address it at the close, after setting out the evidence.

The Listing

I list and assess the individual interlocutors, A– Z, in the hope of gathering them all for inspection, because otherwise they tend to become lost in the length of De Doctrina, or diluted among the names listed in the index of an edition. The list gives name and place(s) of occurrence in De Doctrina, with references to page in the MS and in the Oxford text.