SOURCE: Kirk, Rudolf. “A Seventeenth-Century Controversy: Extremism vs. Moderation.” Texas Studies in Literature and Language 9, no. 1 (spring 1967): 5-35.

In this essay, Kirk suggests that Hall's public battle with Henry Burton anticipated his confrontation with Milton and the writers of Smectymnuus. The critic emphasizes Hall's moderation in both conflicts, noting that while it did not serve Hall well in the short term, it may have benefited the Church of England in the end.

The controversy over episcopacy between Bishop Joseph Hall and John Milton is well known to all students of the poet and to others concerned with the politics leading up to the English Civil War. In this struggle, extreme views held sway, and moderation was swept aside. After the blasts of Smectymnuus, supported by Milton, against Bishop Hall, the advocate of the via media, moderation played little part in affairs. Shortly after this contest Hall was sent...