The author of The Pilgrim’s Progress, John Bunyan, died on this day 321 years ago. Born in a poor family in 1628, Bunyan had only a few years of schooling before following his father into trade as a tinker, and then at the age of 16 after his mother’s death joining the parliamentary army which was then engaged in the English civil war. When the war ended, he returned to his trade as a tinker and in 1649 he married Mary.
Mary’s dowry consisted of two books, Plain Man’s Pathway to Heaven by Arthur Dent and The Practice of Piety by Lewis Bayly. These had a profound effect on him, leading to his baptism in the River Great Ouse in 1653. Mary died in 1655, but later that year he started preaching, with great success. As his popularity grew, so did the number of his enemies, and in 1660 he was imprisoned for preaching without a licence.
Bunyan’s imprisonment continued for 11 years because of his refusal to stop preaching, and during that time he devised his allegorical novel, The Pilgrim’s Progress. He was finally released in 1672 when the religious laws were relaxed, and he proceeded to plant more than 30 new congregations. He was imprisoned again for six months in 1675, but thereafter remained free until he died of a fever in 1688.