Show pilgrims progress key to fame of john bunyan john bunyan was born in novem ber 1628 at elstow Bedford shire england the son of a tinker ac cording to his own account his early youth was notoriously ly judged by his contemporary puritan standards he was guilty of such crimes as dancing ringing the bells of the parish church playing at and reading the history of sir bevis of Sout hamp ton however states a writer in the indianapolis news although he fought for a few months as a soldier in the parliamentary army his mar nage to a young woman of religions reli giotis character when he was nineteen his subsequent baptism and adais sion to church privileges and the fact that his sighs from hell a record of spiritual struggle ap feared when he was twenty two all point to his having abandoned his so called evil ways he began to preach in 1655 in 1656 he wrote his gospels of truth opened and A vindication of it in 1657 both directed against quakers he was indicted for preaching and al though he escaped punishment for some time he was convicted in november 1660 as a common up holder of several unlawful meetings and conventi cles I 1 and was commit ted to bedford jail ail where he re bained until 1672 it has been said that he wrote the first part of his pilgrim pilgrims s ress during that imprisonment al though some have it that the work was done during a second period of incarceration which lasted six months in 1671 the year before his re lease he was elected pastor of the baptist church at bedford he died in 1688 at snow hill holborn and was buried at bonhill fields lon don so great had his fame become principally through pilgrim s ress that many deeply religious folk sought to be buried near him |