Who are 'the people' in Milton's writing? They figure prominently in his texts; they are invoked as the sovereign power in the state and have the right to overthrow tyrants; they are also, as God's chosen people, the guardians of the true Protestant path against those who would corrupt or destroy the Reformation. This book traces the twists and turns of Milton's terminology and rhetoric across the whole range of his writings as he grapples with the problem that 'the people' have a calling to which they seem not to be adequate.