BUNYAN SUFFERS PERSECUTION, AND A LONG AND DANGEROUS IMPRISONMENT, FOR REFUSING TO ATTEND THE COMMON PRAYER SERVICE, AND FOR PREACHING.
After having lain in prison for about seven weeks, the session was held at Bedford, for the county; and Bunyan was placed at the bar, indicted for devilishly and perniciously abstaining from coming to church to hear Divine service, and as a common upholder of several unlawful meetings and conventicles, to the great disturbance and distraction of the good subjects of this kingdom, contrary to the laws of our sovereign lord the king. In this indictment, Bunyan is not described as 'of Elstow' but 'of Bedford.' Probably he had removed to Bedford soon after he joined Gifford's church. The bench was numerous and presided over by Justice Keelin.
If this was Sergeant Kelynge who, the following year, was made Lord Chief-Justice, he was a most arbitrary tyrant, equaled or excelled only by Judge Jeffreys. It was before him that some persons were indicted for attending a conventicle, but it is only proved that they had assembled on the Lord's-day with Bibles in their hands without prayer books, and there is no proof that their meeting was only under color or pretense of religion, the jury acquitted them. Upon this, he fined each of the jurymen one hundred marks and imprisoned them till the fines were paid.
Again, on a trial for murder, the prisoner being under suspicion of Dissent, was one whom the judge had a great desire to hang, he fined and imprisoned the jury because, contrary to his direction, they brought in a verdict of manslaughter! Well was it said, that he was fitter to charge the Roundheads under Prince Rupert than to charge a jury. After a short career, he fell into utter contempt. He entered into a long argument with the poor tinker, about using the liturgy of the Church of England, first warning him of his danger if he spake lightly of it. Bunyan argued that prayer was purely spiritual, the offering of the heart, and not the reading of a form. The justice declared—' We know the Common Prayer-book hath been ever since the apostles' time and is lawful to be used in the church!!' It is surprising that such a dialogue was ever entered upon; either Keling was desirous of triumphing over the celebrated tinker, or his countenance and personal appearance commanded respect.
For some cause he was treated with great liberality for those times; the extent of it may be seen by one justice asking him, 'Is your God Beelzebub?' and another declaring that he was possessed with the devil! 'All which,' says Bunyan, 'I passed over, the Lord forgive them!' When, however, the justice was worsted in argument, and acknowledged that he was not well versed in Scripture, he demanded the prisoner's plea, saying, 'Then you confess the indictment?' 'Now,' says Bunyan, 'and not till now, I saw I was indicted; and said—"This I confess, we have had many meetings together, both to pray to God, and to exhort one another; and that we had the sweet comforting presence of the Lord among us for our encouragement (blessed be his name!); therefore I confess myself guilty, and no otherwise."'
This was recorded as a plea of guilty, and Keling resumed his natural ferocity. 'Then,' said he, 'hear your judgment. You must be had back again to prison, and there lie for three months following; and then, if you do not submit to go to church to hear Divine service, and leave your preaching, you must be banished the realm; and after that, if you shall be found in this realm without special license from the king, you must stretch by the neck for it. I tell you plainly'; 'and so he bid my jailer have me away.' The hero answered—' I am at a point with you: if I were out of prison today, I would preach the gospel again tomorrow, with the help of God.'
The statutes, by virtue of which this awful sentence was pronounced, together with the legal form of recantation used by those who were terrified into conformity, are set forth in a note to the Grace Abounding. Bunyan was, if not the first, one of the first Dissenters who were proceeded against after the restoration of Charles II; and his trial, if such it may be called, was followed by wholesale persecution. The king, as head of the Church of England, wreaked his vengeance upon all classes of Dissenters, except Roman Catholics and Jews.
The reign of Charles II was most disgraceful and disastrous to the nation, even the king being a pensioner in the French court. The Dutch swept the seas, and threatened to burn London; a dreadful plague depopulated the metropolis—the principal part of which was, in the following year, with its cathedral, churches, and public buildings, destroyed by fire; plots and conspiracies alarmed the people; tyranny was triumphant; even the bodies of the illustrious dead were exhumed, and treated with worse than savage ferocity; while fierce persecution raged throughout the kingdom, which filled the jails with Dissenters.
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