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Dog
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In Paradise Lost, Milton depicts a Heavenly rebellion borne from pride against what is deemed to be an unjust decree from God, that his Son should be worshipped by the angels just as God himself is, when Satan feels that he is more worthy of this honour because he was first amongst the angels, “great in power, in favor and pre-eminence” (5. 660-661). An Homily Against Disobedience and Willful Rebellion presents rebellion as the greatest sin against God that man can commit. Rebellion is not a single affront, such as murder or theft, but it is all sins as one, the embodiment of sin as a whole. Satan’s rebellion, assuming it can be viewed as a rebellion and not as the enactment of a plan forged by God, reflects the description of rebellion in the Homily and this biblical rebellion seems to be the very basis of comparison that Thomas Cranmar had in mind for those who would read the sermon. The Homily states that those who engage in rebellion “compel others that would gladly be well occupied to do the same”. Rebellion is, in this way, a far more reaching sin than any single act against man or God, in that it does not effect a small group of people, but many, perhaps an entire nation, when it happens. “Rebels are the cause of infinite robberies and murders of great multitudes...and, as rebels are many in number, so doth their wickedness and damnation spread itself unto many” the Homily says. This is evident in Paradise Lost when Satan first organizes his rebellion and “with lies, drew after him the third part of Heav’n’s host”(5. 709-710), taking those previously good angels and bending them to his rebellious plan of war against God. Though angels cannot die, the war does, for a time, create casualties of “great multitudes” on both sides. This is especially prevalent on the second day of battle when the rebels lay waste to the first legions of God’s armies with cannon fire, knocking them down “by thousands” (6.594). Compelling others to turn against God is, of course, the plan proposed by Beelzebub at Satan’s urging in Hell. Satan’s next in command proposes to venture to the realm called earth and corrupt the inhabitants of that world, to “seduce them to our party, that their God may prove their foe” (2. 368-369) and thus perhaps force God to “abolish his own works” (2. 370). However, the problem with how this “compelling others to act against God” is “to be reconciled with God's grin”, as Wooten puts it, needs to be addressed. God is smiling when he speaks to his son and tells him a “foe is rising” (5. 724-725). The weight of Cranmar’s argument then, in this instance, is lessened, for this rebellion is not such a crime against God. God does not seem to be disturbed at all, if he is smiling, which most likely is due to God’s foreknowledge of events and this not coming as a surprise to him, rather as an opportunity to showcase his son. Just as the Homily condemns rebels for bending others to their cause, it condemns them for compelling “good men that would gladly serve the Lord . . . to assemble and meet armed in the field to resist the fury of such rebels” which seems to be much of the reason that rebellion is so disdained, as it forces all men to participate, whether for or against it. Just as Satan has a legion of rebels, God has his defenders in Paradise Lost ready to meet the rebels. “The troops who fight to expel the rebel angels cannot relax their rigor” as Boesky says, exemplifying Cranmar’s point. When the angel Abdiel, the only faithful angel amongst the fallen, returns from the North to tell what Satan has planned, he finds “thick embattled squadrons bright, chariots and flaming arms, and fiery steeds reflecting blaze on blaze”(6. 16-18); an army at the ready, well aware of Satan’s plan. God sends an army “equal in number” (6.49) to meet Satan, thus occupying a full two thirds of Heaven’s numbers in the battle, as well as God’s son. “Heaven is organized as a military regime” (Boesky) with God at the head, set to fight off the rebels. Where this differs from Cranmar’s analysis, however, is that in Heaven, these angels are not being taken away from some other task to fight the rebels. Rather, the angels who wage war against the rebels are fulfilling their tasks, for it is in service to God that they fight the rebels, and at the command of God. “For the angels, military preparation is required not because their force is necessary, but because their capacity to wage battle with evil is assured only by constant drill” (Boesky), which means that the angels must always be at the ready for this, and it is this that God must want, for he has no actual need of an army, which is made clear by the actions of his son expelling the rebels from Heaven alone, but he keeps one at the ready anyway.
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Paper Information
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Title: Dog
Words: 4044
Rating: None
Pages: 16.2
submitted by: Kinnard
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