Londini_, _Typis Newcomianis_, 1655 ("The English, John Milton's Defence for Himself, in reply to Alexander Morus, Churchman, rightly called the author of the notorious book entitled 'Cry of the King's Blood to Heaven against the English Parricides,' London, from Newcome's Press, 1655").

This is perhaps the least known now of all Milton's writings.
It has never been translated, even in the wretched fashion in which his _Defensio Prima_ and _Defensio Secunda_ have been; and it is omitted altogether in some professed editions of Milton's whole works.[1] [Footnote 1: The date of publication is from the Thomason copy in the British Museum.] After a brief Introduction, in which Milton remarks that the quarrel, which was originally for Liberty and the English People, has now dwindled into a poor personal one, he discusses afresh, as the first real point in dispute, the question of the authorship of the _Regii Sanguinis Clamor_.

Morus's denials, or seeming denials, go for nothing.

Any man may deny anything; there are various ways of denial; and he still maintains that Morus is, to all legal intents and purposes, responsible for the book.

"Unless I show this." he says, "unless I make it plain either that you are the author of that most notorious book against us, or that you have given sufficient occasion for justly regarding you as the author, I do not object to the conclusion that I have been beaten by you in this controversy, and come out of it ignominiously, with disgrace and shame." How is this strong statement supported?
In the first place, there is reproduced the evidence of original, universal, and persistent rumour.