John Bunyan

John Bunyan was born into a working-class family and was not highly educated. He described himself as having been a rebellious child who particularly enjoyed swearing. At 16, Bunyan joined Oliver Cromwell’s New Model Army to fight in the English Civil War. A narrow escape from death caused Bunyan to begin shedding his rebelliousness. After marrying a pious young woman, Bunyan increasingly mourned for his sins. Under the influence of a local nonconformist preacher (who rejected the established Church of England) and his reading of Martin Luther’s works, Bunyan eventually had a profound conversion experience. Within a few years, he had become a popular preacher in his own right and to publish religious writings. In 1660, however, he was thrown in jail for preaching without the king’s permission. He remained in jail for over 12 years (despite never being formally charged or sentenced), spending his time writing and earning a modest income for his family by making shoelaces. Occasionally, sympathetic jailers released him briefly to preach to Baptist audiences in Bedfordshire. He said that he would remain imprisoned “even till the moss shall grow upon my eyebrows, rather than violate my faith and principles.” He began work on Pilgrim’s Progress, by far his most famous book, during his imprisonment. After another spell of imprisonment in the 1670s, Bunyan spent his last years writing and ministering; he published nearly 60 works during his lifetime. He died suddenly of a fever while traveling, at age 59.