The New International Encyclopædia/Ellwood, Thomas

ELL'WOOD, Thomas (1639-1714). An English writer. He joined the Quakers, and his zeal for the sect and denunciation of the Established Church brought upon him much persecution. He himself was equally intolerant of any division in the Quaker ranks. He was an intimate friend of Milton, and his comment upon reading the manuscript of Paradise Lost suggested to the poet the idea of Paradise Regained. Ellwood was the author of a number of polemical works, among them Forgery no Christianity (1674); two tracts attacking Thomas Hicks the Baptist; The Foundation of Tithes Shaken (1678); Sacred Histories of the Old and New Testaments; and an Autobiography (1714).