John Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress" - "The monster was hideous to behold...scales...wings like a (TR)

American Minute ^ | August 31, 2019 | Bill Federer

[Perseverando]

John Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress" - "The monster was hideous to behold...scales...wings like a dragon, feet like a bear...out of his belly came fire & smoke"

What would it be like to be imprisoned for 12 years just for preaching the Gospel without a license from the government?

This was the fate of John Bunyan, author of the world renown book Pilgrim's Progress.

John Bunyan was born in Bedford, England, in 1628, nearly a century before the Europe's Age of Enlightenment.

He worked as a poor, unskilled tinker by trade.

In 1644, at the age of 16, Bunyan joined the Puritan Parliamentary Army and fought under Oliver Cromwell during the English Civil War.

After three years, having escaped death several times, Bunyan returned to his cottage in Elstow, where he learned from his father the trade of a tinker and got married.

In 1657, at age 29, Bunyan became a Baptist minister.

When Puritan leader Oliver Cromwell died in 1558, it led to royalists restoring the monarchy in 1660, with King Charles II.

This began a new wave of persecution of non-conformists.

Puritans, Separatists, Baptists, and other dissenters were spied upon, censored, and arrested for holding illegal religious meetings or for preaching politically incorrect views.

In 1662, Parliament passed the Act of Uniformity, which required all preachers to believe exactly what the government told them to believe in order to be ordained by an Anglican bishop, It required them to use the revised Book of Common Prayer.

In 1664, Parliament passed the Act of Conventicles, which made it illegal five or more people to have a religious meeting apart from the Church of England.

In 1665, Parliament passed the Five Mile Act where a dissenting preacher was

[Perseverando]

Time for another great American history lesson from American Minute.

[sauropod]

bkmk

[Rumplemeyer]

Bump

[freedomson]

Such a great book, I’m on my third reading of it.

[gattaca]

Thanks for posting.

[Southside_Chicago_Republican]

Bookmark

[edwinland]

“When Puritan leader Oliver Cromwell died in 1558, it led to royalists restoring the monarchy in 1660, with King Charles II.

This began a new wave of persecution of non-conformists.”

The article skips over the wave of outright murder (not merely persecution) of non-conformists by Cromwell and his pals.

https://www.historyireland.com/cromwell/how-many-died-during-cromwells-campaign/

“The figures are even more horrific for Ireland, however: a total of 618,000 deaths from fighting and disease out of a total pre-war population of c. 1.5 million, or 41 per cent of the population. No figures are given for transportation to Barbados. Further confirmation of the above figures can be obtained from The Civil War 1642–1651 by Michael St John Parker (ISBN 0853726477).
A 41 per cent loss of population must surely represent one of the greatest tragedies of any people for any period of European history, not excluding the worst excesses of the twentieth century. We can take as an example the death rate from enemy action and war-related disease for Britain during the Second World War, which represents 0.6 per cent of the population.”

[Verginius Rufus]

Of course that should be 1658.

A previously unknown treatise by John Locke from the 1660s was recently discovered and published, on the question of whether Catholics ("Papists") should receive religious toleration. A later treatise by Locke is well-known in which he argues for toleration for Protestant dissenters but excludes Catholics and atheists.

[MayflowerMadam]

I recall reading this in high school, and then again in college/seminary. It is great.

I’ve named my house (which I hate) “The Slough Of Despond”.