We cannot doubt that one in whom loyalty was so deep and fixed a
principle as Bunyan, would welcome with sincere thankfulness the
termination of the miserable interval of anarchy which followed the death
of the Protector and the abdication of his indolent and feeble son, by
the restoration of monarchy in the person of Charles the Second. Even if
some forebodings might have arisen that with the restoration of the old
monarchy the old persecuting laws might be revived, which made it
criminal for a man to think for himself in the matters which most nearly
concerned his eternal interests, and to worship in the way which he found
most helpful to his spiritual life, they would have been silenced by the
promise, contained in Charles's "Declaration from Breda," of liberty to
tender consciences, and the assurance that no one should be disquieted
for differences of opinion in religion, so long as such differences did
not endanger the peace and well-being of the realm. If this declaration
meant anything, it meant a breadth of toleration larger and more liberal
than had been ever granted by Cromwell. Any fears of the renewal of
persecution must be groundless.
But if such dreams of religious liberty were entertained they were
speedily and rudely dispelled, and Bunyan was one of the first to feel
the shock of the awakening. The promise was coupled with a reference to
the "mature deliberation of Parliament." With such a promise Charles's
easy conscience was relieved of all responsibility. Whatever he might
promise, the nation, and Parliament which was its mouthpiece, might set
his promise aside. And if he knew anything of the temper of the people
he was returning to govern, he must have felt assured that any scheme of
comprehension was certain to be rejected by them. As Mr. Froude has
said, "before toleration is possible, men must have learnt to tolerate
toleration," and this was a lesson the English nation was very far from
having learnt; at no time, perhaps, were they further from it. Puritanism
had had its day, and had made itself generally detested. Deeply
enshrined as it was in many earnest and devout hearts, such as Bunyan's,
it was necessarily the religion not of the many, but of the few; it was
the religion not of the common herd, but of a spiritual aristocracy. Its
stern condemnation of all mirth and pastime, as things in their nature
sinful, of which we have so many evidences in Bunyan's own writings; its
repression of all that makes life brighter and more joyous, and the sour
sanctimoniousness which frowned upon innocent relaxation, had rendered
its yoke unbearable to ordinary human nature, and men took the earliest
opportunity of throwing the yoke off and trampling it under foot. They
hailed with rude and boisterous rejoicings the restoration of the
Monarchy which they felt, with a true instinct, involved the restoration
of the old Church of England, the church of their fathers and of the
older among themselves, with its larger indulgence for the instincts of
humanity, its wider comprehensiveness, and its more dignified and
decorous ritual.
The reaction from Puritanism pervaded all ranks. In no class, however,
was its influence more powerful than among the country gentry. Most of
them had been severe sufferers both in purse and person during the
Protectorate. Fines and sequestrations had fallen heavily upon them, and
they were eager to retaliate on their oppressors. Their turn had come;
can we wonder that they were eager to use it? As Mr. J. R. Green has
said: "The Puritan, the Presbyterian, the Commonwealthsman, all were at
their feet. . . Their whole policy appeared to be dictated by a
passionate spirit of reaction. . . The oppressors of the parson had been
the oppressors of the squire. The sequestrator who had driven the one
from his parsonage had driven the other from his manor-house. Both had
been branded with the same charge of malignity. Both had suffered
together, and the new Parliament was resolved that both should triumph
together."
The feeling thus eloquently expressed goes far to explain the harshness
which Bunyan experienced at the hands of the administrators of justice at
the crisis of his life at which we have now arrived. Those before whom
he was successively arraigned belonged to this very class, which, having
suffered most severely during the Puritan usurpation, was least likely to
show consideration to a leading teacher of the Puritan body. Nor were
reasons wanting to justify their severity. The circumstances of the
times were critical. The public mind was still in an excitable state,
agitated by the wild schemes of political and religious enthusiasts
plotting to destroy the whole existing framework both of Church and
State, and set up their own chimerical fabric. We cannot be surprised
that, as Southey has said, after all the nation had suffered from
fanatical zeal, "The government, rendered suspicious by the constant
sense of danger, was led as much by fear as by resentment to seventies
which are explained by the necessities of self-defence," and which the
nervous apprehensions of the nation not only condoned, but incited.
Already Churchmen in Wales had been taking the law into their own hands,
and manifesting their orthodoxy by harrying Quakers and Nonconformists.
In the May and June of this year, we hear of sectaries being taken from
their beds and haled to prison, and brought manacled to the Quarter
Sessions and committed to loathsome dungeons. Matters had advanced since
then. The Church had returned in its full power and privileges together
with the monarchy, and everything went back into its old groove. Every
Act passed for the disestablishment and disendowment of the Church was
declared a dead letter. Those of the ejected incumbents who remained
alive entered again into their parsonages, and occupied their pulpits as
of old; the surviving bishops returned to their sees; and the whole
existing statute law regarding the Church revived from its suspended
animation. No new enactment was required to punish Nonconformists and to
silence their ministers; though, to the disgrace of the nation and its
parliament, many new ones were subsequently passed, with ever-increasing
disabilities. The various Acts of Elizabeth supplied all that was
needed. Under these Acts all who refused to attend public worship in
their parish churches were subject to fines; while those who resorted to
conventicles were to be imprisoned till they made their submissions; if
at the end of three months they refused to submit they were to be
banished the realm, and if they returned from banishment, without
permission of the Crown, they were liable to execution as felons. This
long-disused sword was now drawn from its rusty sheath to strike terror
into the hearts of Nonconformists. It did not prove very effectual. All
the true-hearted men preferred to suffer rather than yield in so sacred a
cause. Bunyan was one of the earliest of these, as he proved one of the
staunchest.
Early in October, 1660, the country magistrates meeting in Bedford issued
an order for the public reading of the Liturgy of the Church of England.
Such an order Bunyan would not regard as concerning him. Anyhow he would
not give obeying it a thought. One of the things we least like in Bunyan
is the feeling he exhibits towards the Book of Common Prayer. To him it
was an accursed thing, the badge and token of a persecuting party, a
relic of popery which he exhorted his adherents to "take heed that they
touched not" if they would be "steadfast in the faith of Jesus Christ."
Nothing could be further from his thoughts than to give any heed to the
magistrates' order to go to church and pray "after the form of men's
inventions."
The time for testing Bunyan's resolution was now near at hand. Within
six months of the king's landing, within little more than a month of the
issue of the magistrate's order for the use of the Common Prayer Book,
his sturdy determination to yield obedience to no authority in spiritual
matters but that of his own conscience was put to the proof. Bunyan may
safely be regarded as at that time the most conspicuous of the
Nonconformists of the neighbourhood. He had now preached for five or six
years with ever-growing popularity. No name was so rife in men's mouths
as his. At him, therefore, as the representative of his brother
sectaries, the first blow was levelled. It is no cause of surprise that
in the measures taken against him he recognized the direct agency of
Satan to stop the course of the truth: "That old enemy of man's
salvation," he says, "took his opportunity to inflame the hearts of his
vassals against me, insomuch that at the last I was laid out for the
warrant of a justice." The circumstances were these, on November 12,
1660, Bunyan had engaged to go to the little hamlet of Lower Samsell near
Harlington, to hold a religious service. His purpose becoming known, a
neighbouring magistrate, Mr. Francis Wingate, of Harlington House, was
instructed to issue a warrant for his apprehension under the Act of
Elizabeth. The meeting being represented to him as one of seditious
persons bringing arms, with a view to the disturbance of the public
peace, he ordered that a strong watch should be kept about the house, "as
if," Bunyan says, "we did intend to do some fearful business to the
destruction of the country." The intention to arrest him oozed out, and
on Bunyan's arrival the whisperings of his friends warned him of his
danger. He might have easily escaped if he "had been minded to play the
coward." Some advised it, especially the brother at whose house the
meeting was to take place. He, "living by them," knew "what spirit" the
magistrates "were of," before whom Bunyan would be taken if arrested, and
the small hope there would be of his avoiding being committed to gaol.
The man himself, as a "harbourer of a conventicle," would also run no
small danger of the same fate, but Bunyan generously acquits him of any
selfish object in his warning: "he was, I think, more afraid of (for) me,
than of (for) himself." The matter was clear enough to Bunyan. At the
same time it was not to be decided in a hurry. The time fixed for the
service not being yet come, Bunyan went into the meadow by the house, and
pacing up and down thought the question well out. "If he who had up to
this time showed himself hearty and courageous in his preaching, and had
made it his business to encourage others, were now to run and make an
escape, it would be of an ill savour in the country. If he were now to
flee because there was a warrant out for him, would not the weak and
newly-converted brethren be afraid to stand when great words only were
spoken to them. God had, in His mercy, chosen him to go on the forlorn
hope; to be the first to be opposed for the gospel; what a discouragement
it must be to the whole body if he were to fly. No, he would never by
any cowardliness of his give occasion to the enemy to blaspheme the
gospel." So back to the house he came with his mind made up. He had
come to hold the meeting, and hold the meeting he would. He was not
conscious of saying or doing any evil. If he had to suffer it was the
Lord's will, and he was prepared for it. He had a full hour before him
to escape if he had been so minded, but he was resolved "not to go away."
He calmly waited for the time fixed for the brethren to assemble, and
then, without hurry or any show of alarm, he opened the meeting in the
usual manner, with prayer for God's blessing. He had given out his text,
the brethren had just opened their Bibles and Bunyan was beginning to
preach, when the arrival of the constable with the warrant put an end to
the exercise. Bunyan requested to be allowed to say a few parting words
of encouragement to the terrified flock. This was granted, and he
comforted the little company with the reflection that it was a mercy to
suffer in so good a cause; and that it was better to be the persecuted
than the persecutors; better to suffer as Christians than as thieves or
murderers. The constable and the justice's servant soon growing weary of
listening to Bunyan's exhortations, interrupted him and "would not be
quiet till they had him away" from the house.
The justice who had issued the warrant, Mr. Wingate, not being at home
that day, a friend of Bunyan's residing on the spot offered to house him
for the night, undertaking that he should be forthcoming the next day.
The following morning this friend took him to the constable's house, and
they then proceeded together to Mr. Wingate's. A few inquiries showed
the magistrate that he had entirely mistaken the character of the Samsell
meeting and its object. Instead of a gathering of "Fifth Monarchy men,"
or other turbulent fanatics as he had supposed, for the disturbance of
the public peace, he learnt from the constable that they were only a few
peaceable, harmless people, met together "to preach and hear the word,"
without any political meaning. Wingate was now at a nonplus, and "could
not well tell what to say." For the credit of his magisterial character,
however, he must do something to show that he had not made a mistake in
issuing the warrant. So he asked Bunyan what business he had there, and
why it was not enough for him to follow his own calling instead of
breaking the law by preaching. Bunyan replied that his only object in
coming there was to exhort his hearers for their souls' sake to forsake
their sinful courses and close in with Christ, and this he could do and
follow his calling as well. Wingate, now feeling himself in the wrong,
lost his temper, and declared angrily that he would "break the neck of
these unlawful meetings," and that Bunyan must find securities for his
good behaviour or go to gaol. There was no difficulty in obtaining the
security. Bail was at once forthcoming. The real difficulty lay with
Bunyan himself. No bond was strong enough to keep him from preaching. If
his friends gave them, their bonds would be forfeited, for he "would not
leave speaking the word of God." Wingate told him that this being so, he
must be sent to gaol to be tried at the next Quarter Sessions, and left
the room to make out his mittimus. While the committal was preparing,
one whom Bunyan bitterly styles "an old enemy to the truth," Dr. Lindall,
Vicar of Harlington, Wingate's father-in-law, came in and began "taunting
at him with many reviling terms," demanding what right he had to preach
and meddle with that for which he had no warrant, charging him with
making long prayers to devour widows houses, and likening him to "one
Alexander the Coppersmith he had read of," "aiming, 'tis like," says
Bunyan, "at me because I was a tinker." The mittimus was now made out,
and Bunyan in the constable's charge was on his way to Bedford, when he
was met by two of his friends, who begged the constable to wait a little
while that they might use their interest with the magistrate to get
Bunyan released. After a somewhat lengthened interview with Wingate,
they returned with the message that if Bunyan would wait on the
magistrate and "say certain words" to him, he might go free. To satisfy
his friends, Bunyan returned with them, though not with any expectation
that the engagement proposed to him would be such as he could lawfully
take. "If the words were such as he could say with a good conscience he
would say them, or else he would not."
After all this coming and going, by the time Bunyan and his friends got
back to Harlington House, night had come on. As he entered the hall,
one, he tells us, came out of an inner room with a lighted candle in his
hand, whom Bunyan recognized as one William Foster, a lawyer of Bedford,
Wingate's brother-in-law, afterwards a fierce persecutor of the
Nonconformists of the district. With a simulated affection, "as if he
would have leapt on my neck and kissed me," which put Bunyan on his
guard, as he had ever known him for "a close opposer of the ways of God,"
he adopted the tone of one who had Bunyan's interest at heart, and begged
him as a friend to yield a little from his stubbornness. His brother-in-
law, he said, was very loath to send him to gaol. All he had to do was
only to promise that he would not call people together, and he should be
set at liberty and might go back to his home. Such meetings were plainly
unlawful and must be stopped. Bunyan had better follow his calling and
leave off preaching, especially on week-days, which made other people
neglect their calling too. God commanded men to work six days and serve
Him on the seventh. It was vain for Bunyan to reply that he never
summoned people to hear him, but that if they came he could not but use
the best of his skill and wisdom to counsel them for their soul's
salvation; that he could preach and the people could come to hear without
neglecting their callings, and that men were bound to look out for their
souls' welfare on week-days as well as Sundays. Neither could convince
the other. Bunyan's stubbornness was not a little provoking to Foster,
and was equally disappointing to Wingate. They both evidently wished to
dismiss the case, and intentionally provided a loophole for Bunyan's
escape. The promise put into his mouth--"that he would not call the
people together"--was purposely devised to meet his scrupulous
conscience. But even if he could keep the promise in the letter, Bunyan
knew that he was fully purposed to violate its spirit. He was the last
man to forfeit self-respect by playing fast and loose with his
conscience. All evasion was foreign to his nature. The long interview
came to an end at last. Once again Wingate and Foster endeavoured to
break down Bunyan's resolution; but when they saw he was "at a point, and
would not be moved or persuaded," the mittimus was again put into the
constable's hands, and he and his prisoner were started on the walk to
Bedford gaol. It was dark, as we have seen, when this protracted
interview began. It must have now been deep in the night. Bunyan gives
no hint whether the walk was taken in the dark or in the daylight. There
was however no need for haste. Bedford was thirteen miles away, and the
constable would probably wait till the morning to set out for the prison
which was to be Bunyan's home for twelve long years, to which he went
carrying, he says, the "peace of God along with me, and His comfort in my
poor soul."