Milton’s Tutelary Angels

This article explores Milton’s representations of the tutelary angel. While patristic tradition envisaged separate angels watching over each believer, John Calvin instead conceived them as a ubiquitous army, any of whom might be called upon to execute God’s will. As poet and theologian, Milton introduces Raphael and Michael as guardians with distinct identities at the same time that he declines to assign Adam’s or Eve’s care to any single angel. This pluralized vision of heavenly protection creates an affective theodicy, furnishing a social world about Eden that nevertheless skirts the characteristic Satanic error of interposing hierarchies between God and his creatures.