Turning a Prison into a Desk
In 1661 and again between 1668-1672, Bunyan’s twelve year incarceration met with recurring interruptions, often lasting from only hours to a few weeks, but offering him sufficient time to visit his family and preach in the surrounding area. Even the jail afforded him captive audiences of up to fifty men with whom Bunyan regularly shared the gospel and to whom He preached on Sundays. In Bunyan’s day, inmates were entirely dependent on the kindness of family and friends for essentials. Visitors kept him supplied with books, among them, Foxe’s Book of Martyrs and his Bible. In addition, Bunyan took up the Elstow industry of lace-making in an effort to financially support his family.
Bunyan was released from prison in March of 1672 under Charles II’s Declaration of Indulgence to Nonconformists, an act only proffered to nonconformists so that Charles could disguise the same kindness toward Roman Catholics. Strangely, it was John Owen, the Independent minister of Leadenhall Street in London who had influenced the Bishop of Lincoln, Thomas Barlow, to secure Bunyan’s freedom. On the twelfth day of the first month of that same year, the Bedford congregation had appointed Bunyan as their pastor. In May of the same year, Bunyan received a royal license to preach. He was then officially installed as the Pastor of the same Bedford church which had nurtured him in spiritual infancy and began his long and illustrious career as the Bedford pastor. “He had been the first to suffer under Charles II and was the last to be released.”[1] While in prison, the Bedford congregation had lost their church building to the royally approved Episcopalian church. Thus, Bunyan’s faithful flock gathered in a barn which regularly held great crowds of people who longed to hear the tinker preach, many, as far away as London.
His imprisonment and the resulting books created a popular atmosphere for Bedford’s pastor and his fame continued to grow with each of the passing three years until 1675. Then, as before, the tides of England’s religious sea swept over nonAnglicans in an effort to drown out any nonconformity. A warrant was issued for Bunyan’s arrest in March of 1676 and he was once again imprisoned for six months, this time in a one-room jail on the bridge over the River Ouse. It was most probably during this time frame that Bunyan wrote, The Pilgrim’s Progress, originally published in 1678. In its first decade, the book sold more than 100,000 copies. Since its original publication, the book has never since been out of print, enjoying an increasing popularity that has grown to more than 1,500 editions in over two hundred languages. The Pilgrim’s Progress alone launched Bunyan’s fame as the most well-read, most well-known nonconformist minister in all of the British Empire.