Background
Milton married in Spring 1642, and shortly after, his wife Marie Powell, left him and returned to live with her mother. The legal statutes of England did not allow for Milton to apply for a divorce and he resorted to promoting the lawfulness of divorce. Although the laws did not change, he wrote four tracts on the topic of divorce, with Judgement of Martin Bucer Concerning Divorce as his second tract. The hostile response by clergymen to the first tract, The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce, prompted Milton to defend himself by translating Mart Bucer's De Regno Christi and his arguments concerning the legitimacy of divorce. Bucer was a Protestant Reformer and close to the Protestant movement in England, and Milton felt that he would serve as a means to convince Parliament to change their views on divorce. The work was published on 13 August 1644, a week before Milton was attacked in a sermon preached before Parliament by Herbert Palmer.
Read more about this topic: Judgement Of Martin Bucer Concerning Divorce
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