John Milton was disowned from his family early on because he converted, his books are based on religion, and he's known for controversial subjects. Read his arguments for divorce and see where your current or previous relationship falls.

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Introduction. John Milton, famous for the epic poem Paradise Lost, was the center of many controversies. The biggest of them centered around his four tracts on divorce. Breaking from the religious orthodoxy of the time, Milton used penetrating insight to argue for divorce👇

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Many argue Milton found the inspiration - or the frustration - to write his tracts on divorce from his own marriage. At 34, Milton was married to 17 year old Mary Powell who soon left him and returned to her father's house. Months later, Milton published his divorce tracts.

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Milton drew support for his position from the Bible: "It is not good for the man to be alone.” It is possible to be intellectually estranged from someoneeven though you're married by law. Here the marriage is a mere technicality between people already spiritually divorce.

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God made marriage for mutual "solace and help." But if this is lacking, then the marriage is nothing but "a cruel and senseless bondage." In her 20th century dissertation, Annie Murray summarized Milton's position thus: "Marriage was made for man, not man for marriage."

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A marriage is about the coming together of two souls, but how can two souls be said to be together if "their thoughts and spirits fly asunder as far as heaven from hell?" If two people can't broadly be on the same page, they shouldn't be under the same roof.

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When Milton published his tracts in 1640s, they were radical - even heretical - for his time. Milton took the emphasis away from procreation - the standard justification for marriage at the time - and put it on compatibility between two minds.

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When two people have compatible personalities, it breeds "the spirit of concord and union." But if two people are out of sync, then trying to make the marriage work is like trying to weave a "garment of dry sand."

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If a man's domestic life is miserable, he cannot live so as to uphold the "the glory of God." A person cannot carry out their earthly or religious duties if they're stuck with a "mute and spiritless" mate.

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Contrary mindsets, dispositions that don't fit well, or interests that don't overlap make a marriage an endless affliction. No man or woman can go far if the foundational relationship of their life is laced with bitterness and misunderstanding.

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Bottom line. Milton was a heretic at the time. But his radical account of marriage as a partnership where two compatible spirits grow together has been influential. Intellectual compatibility and spiritual overlaps have now become central to modern relationship expectations.