was held in Rome in 313, and a decision was rendered against the Donatists (q.v.).
MIL′TITZ, Karl von (c.1490-1529). A German ecclesiastic of the Roman Catholic Church, the son of a Saxon noble. He was canon at Mainz, Treves, and Meissen before he became Papal notary in 1515. Three years afterwards he was sent by Pope Leo X. to Saxony on the mission to confer with Martin Luther and his protector, the Elector Frederick the Wise, in the matter of indulgences. An able and politic advocate for a compromise, Miltitz so far succeeded that Luther promised future submission, if not recantation; but though later meetings took place between the two at Altenburg, Liebenwerda, and Lichtenberg, the hope of reconciliation was definitely abandoned on the arrival of a denunciatory Papal bull. Miltitz was charged also with an investigation into the conduct of Tetzel, whom he condemned absolutely. According to some authorities, the delegate was accidentally drowned while on his way to Rome.
MIL′TON. A town and the county-seat of Santa Rosa County, Fla., 20 miles northeast of Pensacola; at the head of Blackwater Bay, and on the Louisville and Nashville Railroad (Map: Florida, A 1). It is in the lumbering section of the State, and has ship-building interests and a flourishing trade. There is a public library (Santa Rosa Academy) with 5000 volumes. Population, in 1890, 1455; in 1900, 1204.
MILTON. A town, including the villages of Blue Hill, East Milton, Lower Mills, and Mattapan, in Norfolk County, Mass., seven miles south of Boston; on the Neponset River and on the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad (Map: Massachusetts, E 3). It is an attractive residential suburb of Boston, and has a public library, Milton Academy, Leopold Morse Home, and the Milton Convalescent Home. The crest of the highest hill of the Blue Hills is the site of an observatory and a station of the United States Meteorological Bureau. A fine view is afforded. The town has a trade in garden stuff and ice, and there are granite quarries, paper mills, chocolate and cracker factories, rubber cement works, etc. The government is administered by town meetings. Population, in 1890, 4278; in 1909, 6578. Settled in 1637, Milton was a part of Dorchester until, in 1662, it was incorporated as a separate township. It was the home for many years of Jonathan Belcher, a colonial Governor of both Massachusetts and New Jersey, and of Thomas Hutchinson, the historian and colonial Governor of Massachusetts. Consult Teele (editor), History of Milton, Mass. (Milton, 1887).
MILTON. A borough in Northumberland County, Pa., 67 miles north of Harrisburg; on the Susquehanna River, on the Pennsylvania Canal, and on the Pennsylvania and the Philadelphia and Reading railroads (Map: Pennsylvania, E 2). Its extensive manufacturing plants include car and wood-working machinery works; rolling, flour, knitting, planing, and saw mills; washer, nut, and bolt works; and bamboo furniture, nail, fly net, and paper box factories. The borough has a public park with picturesque scenery; and a fine bridge spans the Susquehanna at this point. Settled in 1770, Milton was incorporated first in 1817. It is governed, under a revised charter of 1890, by a chief burgess, elected every three years, and a unicameral council. Population, in 1890, 5317; in 1900, 6175.
MILTON, John (1608-74). An English poet. He was born in Bread Street, London, December 9, 1608. His father, also named John Milton, belonged to a Roman Catholic family of yeomen living in Oxfordshire. The elder John Milton was converted to Protestantism while a student at Oxford, and as a result was promptly disinherited by his father, Richard Milton. The poet's father settled in London, where he prospered as a scrivener. The younger John Milton received instruction from his father in music; was taught by a private tutor; and was sent to Saint Paul's School (about 1620), where he learned Latin, Greek, French, Italian, and some Hebrew, and read English literature. Spenser's Faerie Queene and Sylvester's translation of Du Bartas, which came into his hands at this time, exerted much influence on the formation of his style. In February, 1625, he proceeded to Christ's College, Cambridge. He was of less than the middle height, yet well made, with light brown or auburn hair. In bearing he was courteous and stately, though sometimes sarcastic. Owing to a misunderstanding with his first tutor, he was rusticated for a short time in 1626, but he returned and completed the course, graduating B.A. in 1629 and M.A. in 1632. From childhood Milton had been destined for the Church, but the policy of Laud led him first to postpone taking orders and then to abandon all thought of it. He retired to his father's estate at Horton, Buckinghamshire, where he passed nearly six years (1632-38) in reading the classics and writing at intervals his choicest poems. Believing that he had it in him to write something that would live, he set out for Italy in April, 1638, wishing to fit himself still more for his future work. Probably at Bologna, which he visited in 1639, Milton wrote in excellent Italian five sonnets and a canzone wherein he expresses love for a beautiful lady of Bologna. For some time he stayed in Florence, where he visited in prison the blind Galileo. Thence he went on to Rome and Naples. As he was about to pass over to Sicily and from there to Greece, news reached him of ‘the civil commotions in England.’ He turned homeward, reaching England toward the end of July, 1639. He took a house in Aldersgate Street, London, where he received as pupils two nephews, children of an elder sister, and occupied his leisure with plans for future poems. From these pursuits he was drawn into ecclesiastical controversies, writing pamphlet after pamphlet. In June, 1643, he married, after a brief courtship, Mary Powell, then only seventeen years old, the daughter of an Oxfordshire squire and Royalist. After a month the bride returned to her father's house. In the summer of 1645 they were reconciled, and he moved to the Barbican, a more commodious house for the increasing number of his pupils. She died in 1652, after bearing four children, of whom the one son died in infancy. A fortnight after the execution of Charles I. (January 30, 1649), Milton issued a memorable defense of the deed, and this led to other pamphlets which gave him European fame as controversialist. On the establishment of the Commonwealth Milton was appointed Latin secretary to the Council of State (March 15, 1649). For this office, involving the duty of turning into Latin all foreign dispatches,
