John Wycliffe

The first hand-written English language Bible manuscripts were produced in 1380's AD by John Wycliffe, an Oxford professor, scholar, and theologian. Wycliffe, (also spelled “Wycliff” & “Wyclif”), was well-known throughout Europe for his opposition to the teaching of the organized Church, which he believed to be contrary to the Bible. With the help of his followers, called the Lollards, and his assistant Purvey, and many other faithful scribes, Wycliffe produced dozens of English language manuscript copies of the scriptures. They were translated out of the Latin Vulgate, which was the only source text available to Wycliffe. The Pope was so infuriated by his teachings and his translation of the Bible into English, that 44 years after Wycliffe had died, he ordered the bones to be dug-up, crushed, and scattered in the river!

John Wycliffe (1320-1384) was a theologian and early proponent of reform in the Roman Catholic Church during the 14th century. He initiated the first translation of the Bible into the English language and is considered the main precursor of the Protestant Reformation. Wycliffe was born at Ipreswell (modern Hipswell), Yorkshire, England, between 1320 and 1330; and he died at Lutterworth (near Leicester) December 31, 1384.

The Early Life of John Wycliffe

His family was of early Saxon origin, long settled in Yorkshire. In his day the family was a large one, covering a considerable territory, and its principal seat was Wycliffe-on-Tees, of which Ipreswell was an outlying hamlet. 1324 is the year usually given for Wycliffe's birth. Wycliffe probably received his early education close to home. It is not known when he first went to Oxford, with which he was so closely connected till the end of his life. He was at Oxford in about 1345, when a series of illustrious names was adding glory to the fame of the university--such as those of Roger Bacon, Robert Grosseteste, Thomas Bradwardine, William of Occam, and Richard Fitzralph.

Wycliffe owed much to Occam; he showed an interest in natural science and mathematics, but applied himself to the study of theology, ecclesiastical law, and philosophy. Even his opponents acknowledged the keenness of his dialectic. His writings prove that he was well grounded in Roman and English law, as well as in native history. A family whose seat was in the neighborhood of Wycliffe's home-- Bernard Castle-- had founded Balliol College, Oxford to which Wycliffe belonged, first as scholar, then as master. He attained the headship no later than 1360.

The Early Career of John Wycliffe

When he was presented by the college (1361) with the parish of Fylingham in Lincolnshire, he had to give up the leadership of Balliol, though he could continue to live at Oxford. His university career followed the usual course. While as baccalaureate he busied himself with natural science and mathematics, as master he had the right to read in philosophy. More significant was his interest in Bible study, which he pursued after becoming bachelor in theology. His performance led Simon Islip, Archbishop of Canterbury, to place him at the head of Canterbury Hall in 1365.

Between 1366 and 1372 he became a doctor of theology; as such he had the right to lecture upon systematic divinity, which he did. In 1368 he gave up his living at Fylingham and took over the rectory of Ludgershall in Buckinghamshire, not far from Oxford, which enabled him to retain his connection with the university.

Roots of Wycliffe's Reformation Activities

It was not as a teacher or preacher that Wycliffe gained his position in history; this came from his activities in ecclesiastical politics, in which he engaged about the mid-1370s, when his reformatory work also began. In 1374 he was among the English delegates at a peace congress at Bruges. He may have been given this position because of the spirited and patriotic behavior with which in the year 1366 he sought the interests of his country against the demands of the papacy. It seems he had a reputation as a patriot and reformer; this suggests the answer to the question how he came to his reformatory ideas. Even if older evangelical parties did not exist in England before Wycliffe, he might easily have been influenced by continental evangelicals who abounded. It is highly probable that the older type of doctrine and practice represented by the Iro-Scottish Christians of the pre-Roman time persisted till the time of Wycliffe and reappeared in Lollardism.

The root of the Wycliffe’s reformation movement must be traced to his Bible study and to the ecclesiastical-political lawmaking of his times. He was well acquainted with the tendencies of the ecclesiastical politics to which England owed its position. He had studied the proceedings of King Edward I of England, and had attributed to them the basis of parliamentary opposition to papal usurpations. He found them a model for methods of procedure in matters connected with the questions of worldly possessions and the Church. Many sentences in his book on the Church recall the institution of the commission of 1274, which caused problems for the English clergy. He considered that the example of Edward I should be borne in mind by the government of his time; but that the aim should be a reformation of the entire ecclesiastical establishment. Similar was his position on the enactments induced by the ecclesiastical politics of Edward III, with which he was well acquainted, which are fully reflected in his political tracts.

Political Career of John Wycliffe

The Reformer's entrance upon the stage of ecclesiastical politics is usually related to the question of feudal tribute to which England had been rendered liable by King John, which had remained unpaid for thirty-three years until Pope Urban V in 1365 demanded it. Parliament declared that neither John nor any other had the right to subject England to any foreign power. Should the pope attempt to enforce his claim by arms, he would be met with united resistance. Urban apparently recognized his mistake and dropped his claim. But there was no talk of a patriotic uprising. The tone of the pope was, in fact, not threatening, and he did not wish to draw England into the maelstrom of politics of western and southern Europe. Sharp words were bound to be heard in England, because of the close relations of the papacy with France. It is said that on this occasion Wycliffe served as theological counsel to the government, composed a polemical tract dealing with the tribute, and defended an unnamed monk over against the conduct of the government and parliament. This would place the entrance of Wycliffe into politics about 1365-66. But Wycliffe's more important participation began with the Peace Congress at Bruges. There in 1374 negotiations were carried on between France and England, while at the same time commissioners from England dealt with papal delegates respecting the removal of ecclesiastical annoyances. Wycliffe was among these, under a decree dated July 26, 1374. The choice of a harsh opponent of the Avignon system would have broken up rather than furthered the peace negotiations. It seems he was designated purely as a theologian, and so considered himself, since a noted Scripture scholar was required alongside of those learned in civil and canon law. There was no need for a man of renown, or a pure advocate of state interests. His predecessor in a like case was John Owtred, a monk who formulated the statement that St. Peter had united in his hands spiritual and temporal power--the opposite of what Wycliffe taught. In the days of the mission to Bruges Owtred still belonged in Wycliffe's circle of friends.

Wycliffe was still regarded by the Roman Catholic Church as trustworthy; his opposition to the ruling conduct of the Church may have escaped notice. It was difficult to recognize him as a heretic. The controversies in which men engaged at Oxford were philosophical rather than purely theological or ecclesiastical-political, and the method of discussion was academic and scholastic. The kind of men with whom Wycliffe dealt included the Carmelite monk John Kyningham over theological questions (utrum Christus esset humanitas), or ecclesiastical-political ones (De dominatione civili; De dotatione ecclesiae).Wycliffe regarded it as a sin to incite the pope to excommunicate laymen who had deprived wicked clergy of their temporalities, his dictum being that a man in a state of sin had no claim upon government.

Wycliffe blamed the Benedictine and professor of theology at Oxford, William Wynham of St. Albans (where the anti-Wycliffe trend was considerable) for making public controversies which had previously been confined to the academic arena. Wycliffe himself tells (Sermones, iii. 199) how he concluded that there was a great contrast between what the Church was and what it ought to be, and saw the necessity for reform. His ideas stress the perniciousness of the temporal rule of the clergy and its incompatibility with the teaching of Christ and the apostles, and make note of the tendencies which were evident in the measures of the "Good Parliament”.

Wycliffe’s Public Declaration of his Ideas

Wycliffe was among those to whom the thought of the secularization of ecclesiastical properties in England was welcome. His patron was John of Gaunt. He was no longer satisfied with his chair as the means of propagating his ideas, and soon after his return from Bruges he began to express them in tracts and longer works--his great work, the Summa theologiae, was written in support of them. In the first book, concerned with the government of God and the ten commandments, he attacked the temporal rule of the clergy--in temporal things the king is above the pope, and the collection of annates and indulgences is simony. But he entered the politics of the day with his great work De civili dominio. Here he introduced those ideas by which the good parliament was governed-- which involved the renunciation by the Church of temporal dominion. The items of the "long bill" appear to have been derived from his work. In this book are the strongest outcries against the Avignon system with its commissions, exactions, squandering of charities by unfit priests, and the like. To change this is the business of the State. If the clergy misuses ecclesiastical property, it must be taken away; if the king does not do this, he is remiss. The work contains 18 strongly stated theses, opposing the governing methods of the rule of the Church and the straightening out of its temporal possessions. Wycliffe had set these ideas before his students at Oxford in 1376, after becoming involved in controversy with William Wadeford and others. Rather than restricting these matters to the classroom, he wanted them proclaimed more widely and wanted temporal and spiritual lords to take note. While the latter attacked him and sought ecclesiastical censure, he recommended himself to the former by his criticism of the worldly possessions of the clergy.

Wycliffe’s Conflict with the Church

Wycliffe wanted to see his ideas actualized--his fundamental belief was that the Church should be poor, as in the days of the apostles. He had not yet broken with the mendicant friars, and from these John of Gaunt chose Wycliffe's defenders. While the Reformer later claimed that it was not his purpose to incite temporal lords to confiscation of the property of the Church, the real tendencies of the propositions remained unconcealed. The result of the same doctrines in Bohemia--that land which was richest in ecclesiastical foundations--was that in a short time the entire church estate was taken over and a revolution brought about in the relations of temporal holdings. It was in keeping with the plans of Gaunt to have a personality like Wycliffe on his side. Especially in London the Reformer's views won support; partisans of the nobility attached themselves to him, and the lower orders gladly heard his sermons. He preached in city churches, and London rang with his praises.

The first to oppose his theses were monks of those orders which held possessions, to whom his theories were dangerous. Oxford and the episcopate were later blamed by the Curia, which charged them with so neglecting their duty that the breaking of the evil fiend into the English sheepfold could be noticed in Rome before it was in England. Wycliffe was summoned before William Courtenay, bishop of London, on Feb. 19, 1377, in order "to explain the wonderful things which had streamed forth from his mouth." The exact charges are not known, as the matter did not get as far as a definite examination. Gaunt, the earl marshal Henry Percy, and a number of other friends accompanied Wycliffe, and four begging friars were his advocates. A crowd gathered at the church, and at the entrance of the party animosities began to show, especially in an angry exchange between the bishop and the Reformer's protectors. Gaunt declared that he would humble the pride of the English clergy and their partisans, hinting at the intent to secularize the possessions of the Church.

Most of the English clergy were irritated by this encounter, and attacks upon Wycliffe began, finding their response in the second and third books of his work dealing with civil government. These books carry a sharp polemic, hardly surprising when it is recalled that his opponents charged Wycliffe with blasphemy and scandal, pride and heresy. He appeared to have openly advised the secularization of English church property, and the dominant parties shared his conviction that the monks could better be controlled if they were relieved from the care of secular affairs.

The bitterness occasioned by this advice will be better understood when it is remembered that at that time the papacy was at war with the Florentines and was in dire straits. The demand of the Minorites that the Church should live in poverty as it did in the days of the apostles was not pleasing in such a crisis. It was under these conditions that Pope Gregory XI, who in January, 1377, had gone from Avignon to Rome, sent, on May 22 five copies of his bull against Wycliffe, despatching one to the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the others to the bishop of London, Edward III, the chancellor, and the university; among the enclosures were 18 theses of his, which were denounced as erroneous and dangerous to Church and State.

The reformatory activities of Wycliffe effectively began here: all the great works, especially his Summa theologiae, are closely connected with the condemnation of his 18 theses, while the entire literary energies of his later years rest upon this foundation. The next aim of his opponents--to make him out a revolutionary in politics--failed. The situation in England resulted in damage to them; on June 21, 1377, Edward III died. His successor was Richard II, a boy, who was under the influence of John of Gaunt, his uncle. So it resulted that the bull against Wycliffe did not become public till Dec. 18. Parliament, which met in October, came into sharp conflict with the Curia. Among the propositions which Wycliffe, at the direction of the government, worked out for parliament was one which speaks out distinctly against the exhaustion of England by the Curia.

Wycliffe tried to gain public favour by laying his theses before parliament, and then made them public in a tract, accompanied by explanations, limitations, and interpretations. After the session of parliament was over, he was called upon to answer, and in March, 1378, he appeared at the episcopal palace at Lambeth to defend himself. The preliminaries were not yet finished when a noisy mob gathered with the purpose of saving him; the king's mother, Joan of Kent, also took up his cause. The bishops, who were divided, satisfied themselves with forbidding him to speak further on the controversy. At Oxford the vice chancellor, following papal directions, confined the Reformer for some time in Black Hall, from which Wycliffe was released on threats from his friends; the vice-chancellor was himself confined in the same place because of his treatment of Wycliffe. The latter then took up the usage according to which one who remained for 44 days under excommunication came under the penalties executed by the State, and wrote his De incarcerandis fedelibus, in which he demanded that it should be legal for the excommunicated to appeal to the king and his council against the excommunication; in this writing he laid open the entire case and in such a way that it was understood by the laity. He wrote his 33 conclusions, in Latin and English. The masses, some of the nobility, and his former protector, John of Gaunt, rallied to him.

Before any further steps could be taken at Rome, Gregory XI died (1378). But Wycliffe was already engaged in one of his most important works, that dealing with the truth of Holy Scripture. The sharper the strife became, the more Wycliffe had recourse to Scripture as the basis of all Christian doctrinal opinion, and expressly proved this to be the only norm for Christian faith. In order to refute his opponents, he wrote the book in which he showed that Holy Scripture contains all truth and, being from God, is the only authority. He referred to the conditions under which the condemnation of his 18 theses was brought about; and the same may be said of his books dealing with the Church, the office of king, and the power of the pope--all completed within the space of two years (1378-79).

Wycliffe wrote, “The Church is the totality of those who are predestined to blessedness. It includes the Church triumphant in heaven… and the Church militant or men on earth. No one who is eternally lost has part in it. There is one universal Church, and outside of it there is no salvation. Its head is Christ. No pope may say that he is the head, for he can not say that he is elect or even a member of the Church.”

Statement Regarding Royal Power

It would be a mistake to assume that Wycliffe's doctrine of the Church--which made so great an impression upon John Hus, who adopted it literally and fully--was occasioned by the great schism (1378-1429). The principles of the doctrine were already embodied in his De civili dominio. The contents of the book dealing with the Church are closely connected with the decision respecting the 18 theses. The attacks on Pope Gregory XI grow ever more extreme. Wycliffe's stand with respect to the ideal of poverty became continually firmer, as well as his position with regard to the temporal rule of the clergy. Closely related to this attitude was his book De officio regis, the content of which was foreshadowed in his 33 conclusions: One should be instructed with reference to the obligations which lie in regard to the kingdom in order to see how the two powers, royal and ecclesiastical, may support each other in harmony in the body corporate of the Church.

The royal power, Wycliffe taught, is consecrated through the testimony of Holy Scripture and the Fathers. Christ and the apostles rendered tribute to the emperor. It is a sin to oppose the power of the king, which is derived immediately from God. Subjects, above all the clergy, should pay him dutiful tribute. The honours which attach to temporal power hark back to the king; those which belong to precedence in the priestly office, to the priest. The king must apply his power with wisdom, his laws are to be in unison with those of God. From God laws derive their authority, including those which royalty has over against the clergy. If one of the clergy neglects his office, he is a traitor to the king who calls him to answer for it. It follows from this that the king has an "evangelical" control. Those in the service of the Church must have regard for the laws of the State. In confirmation of this fundamental principle the archbishops in England make sworn submission to the king and receive their temporalities. The king is to protect his vassals against damage to their possessions; in case the clergy through their misuse of the temporalities cause injury, the king must offer protection. When the king turns over temporalities to the clergy, he places them under his jurisdiction, from which later pronouncements of the popes can not release them. If the clergy relies on papal pronouncements, it must be subjected to obedience to the king.

This book, like those that preceded and followed, had to do with the reform of the Church, in which the temporal arm was to have an influential part. Especially interesting is the teaching which Wycliffe addressed to the king on the protection of his theologians. This did not mean theology in its modern sense, but knowledge of the Bible. Since the law must be in agreement with Scripture, knowledge of theology is necessary to the strengthening of the kingdom; therefore the king has theologians in his entourage to stand at his side as he exercises power. It is their duty to explain Scripture according to the rule of reason and in conformity with the witness of the saints; also to proclaim the law of the king and to protect his welfare and that of his kingdom.

Wycliffe and the Pope

The books and tracts of Wycliffe's last six years include continual attacks upon the papacy and the entire hierarchy of his times. Each year they focus more and more, and at the last pope and Antichrist seem to him practically equivalent concepts. Yet there are passages which are moderate in tone; Lechler identifies three stages in Wycliffe's relations with the papacy. The first step, which carried him to the outbreak of the schism, involves moderate recognition of the papal primacy; the second, which carried him to 1381, is marked by an estrangement from the papacy; and the third shows him in sharp contest. However, Wycliffe reached no valuation of the papacy before the outbreak of the schism different from his later appraisal. If in his last years he identified the papacy with antichristianity, the dispensability of this papacy was strong in his mind before the schism.

Wycliffe's influence was never greater than at the moment when pope and antipope sent their ambassadors to England in order to gain recognition for themselves. In the ambassadors' presence, he delivered an opinion before parliament that showed, in an important ecclesiastical political question (the matter of the right of asylum in Westminster Abbey), a position that was to the liking of the State. How Wycliffe came to be active in the interest of Urban is seen in passages in his latest writings, in which he expressed himself in regard to the papacy in a favorable sense. On the other hand he states that “it is not necessary to go either to Rome or to Avignon in order to seek a decision from the pope, since the triune God is everywhere. Our pope is Christ.” It seems clear that Wycliffe was an opponent of that papacy which had developed since Constantine. He taught that the Church can continue to exist even though it have no visible leader; but there can be no damage when the Church possesses a leader of the right kind. To distinguish between what the pope should be, if one is necessary, and the pope as he appeared in Wycliffe's day was the purpose of his book on the power of the pope. The Church militant, Wycliffe taught, needs a head--but one whom God gives the Church. The elector [cardinal] can only make someone a pope if the choice relates to one who is elect [of God]. But that is not always the case. It may be that the elector is himself not predestined and chooses one who is in the same case--a veritable Antichrist. One must regard as a true pope one who in teaching and life most nearly follows Jesus Christ and Saint Peter.

Wycliffe distinguished the true from the false papacy. Since all signs indicated that Urban VI was a reforming and consequently a "true" pope, the enthusiasm which Wycliffe manifested for him is easily understood. These views concerning the Church and church government are those which are brought forward in the last books of his Summa, "De simonia, de apostasia, de blasphemia." The battle which over the theses was less significant than the one he waged against the monastic orders when he saw the hopes quenched which had gathered around the "reform pope;" and when he was withdrawn from the scene as an ecclesiastical politician and occupied himself exclusively with the question of the reform of the Church.

Wycliffe’s Relation to the English Bible

The Bible ought to be the common possession of all Christians, and needed to be made available for common use in the language of the people. National honour seemed to require this, since members of the nobility possessed the Bible in French. Wycliffe set himself to the task. While it is not possible exactly to define his part in the translation--which was based on the Vulgate--there is no doubt that it was his initiative, and that the success of the project was due to his leadership. From him comes the translation of the New Testament, which was smoother, clearer, and more readable than the rendering of the Old Testament by his friend Nicholas of Hereford. The whole was revised by Wycliffe's younger contemporary John Purvey in 1388. Thus the mass of the people came into possession of the Bible; even as the misguided cry of Wycliffe’s opponents stated: "The jewel of the clergy has become the toy of the laity."

In spite of the zeal with which the hierarchy sought to destroy it, there still exist about 150 manuscripts, complete or partial, containing the translation in its revised form. From this one may easily infer how widely diffused it was in the fifteenth century. For this reason the Wycliffeites in England were often designated by their opponents as "Bible men." Just as Luther's version had great influence upon the German language, so Wycliffe's, by reason of its clarity, beauty, and strength, influenced English.

Wycliffe’s Activity as a Preacher

Wycliffe aimed to do away with the existing hierarchy and replace it with the "poor priests" who lived in poverty, were bound by no vows, had received no formal consecration, and preached the Gospel to the people. These itinerant preachers spread the teachings of Wycliffe. Two by two they went, barefoot, wearing long dark-red robes and carrying a staff in the hand, the latter having symbolic reference to their pastoral calling, and passed from place to place preaching the sovereignty of God. The bull of Gregory XI. impressed upon them the name of Lollards, intended as an opprobrious epithet, but it became a name of honour. Even in Wycliffe's time the "Lollards" had reached wide circles in England and preached "God's law, without which no one could be justified."

The Anti-Wycliffe Movement

In the summer of 1381 Wycliffe formulated his doctrine of the Lord's Supper in twelve short sentences,and made it a duty to advocate it everywhere. Then the English hierarchy proceeded against him. The chancellor of the University of Oxford had some of the declarations pronounced heretical. When this fact was announced to Wycliffe, he declared that no one could change his convictions. He then appealed--not to the pope nor to the ecclesiastical authorities of the land, but to the king. He published his great confession upon the subject and also a second writing in English intended for the common people. His pronouncements were no longer limited to the classroom, they spread to the masses. The followers of John Wycliffe, the Lollards, grew greatly in number throughout the land.

"Every second man that you meet," writes a contemporary, "is a Lollard!" In the midst of this commotion came the Peasants' Revolt of 1381. Although Wycliffe disapproved of the revolt, he was blamed. Yet his friend and protector John of Gaunt was the most hated by the rebels, and where Wycliffe's influence was greatest the uprising found the least support. While in general the aim of the revolt was against the spiritual nobility, this came about because they were nobles, not because they were churchmen. Wycliffe's old enemy, Courtenay, now Archbishop of Canterbury, called (1382) an ecclesiastical assembly of notables at London. During the consultations an earthquake occurred (May 21); the participants were terrified and wished to break up the assembly, but Courtenay declared the earthquake a favorable sign which meant the purification of the earth from erroneous doctrine.

Of the 24 propositions attributed to Wycliffe without mentioning his name, ten were declared heretical and fourteen erroneous. The former had reference to the transformation in the sacrament, the latter to matters of church order and institutions. It was forbidden from that time to hold these opinions or to advance them in sermons or in academic discussions. All persons disregarding this order were to be subject to prosecution. To accomplish this the help of the State was necessary; but the commons rejected the bill. The king, however, had a decree issued which permitted the arrest of those in error. The citadel of the reformatory movement was Oxford, where Wycliffe's most active helpers were; these were laid under the ban and summoned to recant, and Nicholas of Hereford went to Rome to appeal. In similar fashion the poor priests were hindered in their work.

On Nov. 18, 1382, Wycliffe was summoned before a synod at Oxford; he appeared, though apparently broken in body in consequence of a stroke, but nevertheless determined. He still commanded the favour of the court and of parliament, to which he addressed a memorial. He was neither excommunicated then, nor deprived of his position.

Last Days of John Wycliffe

Wycliffe returned to Lutterworth, and sent out tracts against the monks and Urban VI, since the latter, contrary to the hopes of Wycliffe, had not turned out to be a reforming or "true" pope, but had involved in mischievous conflicts. The crusade in Flanders aroused the Reformer's biting scorn, while his sermons became fuller-voiced and dealt with the imperfections of the Church. The literary achievements of Wycliffe's last days, such as the Trialogus, stand at the peak of the knowledge of his day. His last work, the Opus evangelicum, the last part of which he named in characteristic fashion "Of Antichrist," remained uncompleted.

While Wycliffe was in the parish church on Holy Innocents' Day, Dec. 28, 1384, he again suffered a stroke, and was carried out the side-door of his church, in his chair. John Wycliffe died on the last day of the year, three days later. The Council of Constance declared Wycliffe (on May 4, 1415) a stiff-necked heretic and under the ban of the Church. It was decreed that his books be burned and his remains be exhumed. This last did not happen till twelve more years later, when at the command of Pope Martin V they were dug up, burned, and the ashes cast into the river Swift which flows through Lutterworth.

None of Wycliffe's contemporaries left a complete picture of his person, his life, and his activities. The pictures representing him are from a later period. One must be content with certain scattered expressions found in the history of the trial by William Thorpe (1407). It appears that Wycliffe was spare of body, indeed of wasted appearance, and not strong physically. He was of unblemished walk in life, says Thorpe, and was regarded affectionately by people of rank, who often consorted with him, took down his sayings, and clung to him. Thorpe continued, "I indeed clove to none closer than to him, the wisest and most blessed of all men whom I have ever found. From him one could learn in truth what the Church of Christ is and how it should be ruled and led." John Hus wished that his soul might be wherever that of Wycliffe was found.

One may not say that Wycliffe was a comfortable opponent to meet. Thomas Netter of Walden highly esteemed the old Carmelite monk John Kynyngham in that he "so bravely offered himself to the biting speech of the heretic and to words that stung as being without the religion of Christ." But this example of Netter is not well chosen, since the tone of Wycliffe toward Kynyngham is that of a junior toward an elder whom one respects, and he handled other opponentsin similar fashion. But when he turned upon them his roughest side, as for example in his sermons, polemical writings and tracts, he met the attacks with a tone that could not be styled friendly.

Wycliffe's Doctrines

Wycliffe's first encounter with the official Church of his time was prompted by his zeal in the interests of the State, his first tracts and greater works of ecclesiastical-political content defended the privileges of the State, and from these sources developed a strife out of which the next phases could hardly be determined. One who studies these books in the order of their production with reference to their inner content finds a direct development with a strong reformatory tendency. This was not originally doctrinal; when it later took up matters of dogma, as in the teaching concerning transubstantiation, the purpose was the return to original simplicity in the government of the Church. But it would have been against the diplomatic practice of the time to have sent to the peace congress at Bruges, in which the Curia had an essential part, a participant who had become known at home by heretical teaching.

Wycliffe earned his great repute as a philosopher at an early date. Henry Knighton says that in philosophy, Wycliffe was second to none, and in scholastic discipline incomparable. If this pronouncement seems hard to justify, now that Wycliffe's writings are in print, it must be borne in mind that not all his philosophical works are extant. If Wycliffe was in philosophy the superior of his contemporaries and had no equal in scholastic discipline, he belongs with the series of great scholastic philosophers and theologians in which England in the Middle Ages was so rich--with Alexander of Hales, Roger Bacon, Duns Scotus, Occam and Bradwardine. There was a period in his life when he devoted himself exclusively to scholastic philosophy: "when I was still a logician," he used later to say. The first "heresy" which "he cast forth into the world" rests as much upon philosophical as upon theological grounds.

Wycliffe on Philosophy

Wycliffe's fundamental principle of the preexistence in thought of all reality involves the most serious obstacle to freedom of the will; the philosopher could assist himself only by the formula that the free will of man was something predetermined of God. He demanded strict dialectical training as the means of distinguishing the true from the false, and asserted that logic (or the syllogism)furthered the knowledge of catholic verities; ignorance of logic was the reason why men misunderstood Scripture, since men overlooked the connection--the distinction between idea and appearance. Wycliffe was not merely conscious of the distinction between theology and philosophy, but his sense of reality led him to pass by scholastic questions. He left aside philosophical discussions which seemed to have no significance for the religious consciousness and those which pertained purely to scholasticism: "we concern ourselves with the verities that are, and leave asidethe errors which arise from speculation on matters which are not."

Wycliffe on Scripture

The Bible alone was authoritative and, according to his own conviction and that of his disciples, was fully sufficient for the government of this world (De sufficientia legis Christi). Out of it he drew his comprehensive statements in support of his reformatory views--after intense study and many spiritual conflicts. He tells that as a beginner he was desperate to comprehend the passages dealing with the activities of the divine Word, until by the grace of God he was able to gather the right sense of Scripture, which he then understood. But that was not a light task. Without knowledge of the Bible there can be no peace in the life of the Church or of society, and outside of it there is no real and abiding good; it is the one authority for the faith.

These teachings Wycliffe promulgated in his great work on the truth of Scripture, and in other greater and lesser writings. For him the Bible was the fundamental source of Christianity which is binding on all men. From this one can easily see how the next step came about: the furnishing of the Bible to the people in their mother tongue. Wycliffe was called "Doctor evangelicus" by his English and Bohemian followers. Of all the reformers who preceded Martin Luther, Wycliffe put most emphasis on Scripture: "Even though there were a hundred popes and though every mendicant monk were a cardinal, they would be entitled to confidence only in so far as they accorded with the Bible." Therefore in this early period it was Wycliffe who recognized and formulated the formal principle of the Reformation-- the unique authority of the Bible for the belief and life of the Christian.

Source : http://www.greatsite.com/timeline-english-bible-history/john-wycliffe.html

The Pilgrim's Progress: A Review

by George W. Latham

Before Bunyan's death ten editions of The Pilgrim's Progress¹ had been published, and it was said by one of his intimate acquaintances that a hundred thousand copies had been sold, an extraordinary number when we take into account the comparative smallness of the reading class in those times. Although so many editions of The Pilgrim's Progress were called for, including an American edition published in Boston in 1681, yet of few books of the period are early editions so rare. Only five copies of the first edition are known to be in existence. The reason for this is that the people who bought copies of The Pilgrim's Progress bought them to read, and literally read them to pieces. At the same time the more cultivated readers seem to have been long inclined to look on the book askance. Addison spoke of Bunyan rather contemptuously, and Cowper thought it necessary to apologize for referring to him. Yet there is plenty of evidence on the other side , as is shown by Dr. Johnson's statement that The Pilgrim's Progress was one of the few books that were not too long for him.

In Bunyan's own time it was a cause for amazement that an uneducated tinker could have written such a book as The Pilgrim's Progress, and he felt obliged to defend himself from the charge of plagiarism. At the end of his Holy War we find these lines referring to the more famous book:

"It came from my own heart, so to my head,
And thence into my fingers trickled;
Then to my pen, from whence immediately
On paper I did dribble it daintily.
Matter and manner too was all mine own,
Nor was it unto any mortal known,
Till I had done it. Nor, did any then,
By books, by wits, by tongues, or hand or pen
Add five words to it, or write half a line
Thereof; the whole and every whit is mine."

This would seem to settle the question. Yet from the time when the book became a subject of interest to scholars, there has been considerable speculation as to the sources of the allegory. Dr. Johnson first called attention to the similarity between the opening of The Pilgrim's Progress and the first lines of Dante's Inferno; and he thought that Bunyan might have read Spenser's Faerie Queene. The resemblance to Dante must be purely accidental, for, as Johnson adds, there was no translation of the Divine Comedy when Bunyan wrote; and the passages from the Faerie Queenecited by recent critics in support of Johnson's conjecture do not convince the unprejudiced reader that Bunyan made any use of Spenser's poem. Many other books have been suggested as possible sources, but no single passage in The Pilgrim's Progress has been pointed out which seems clearly indebted to anything other than Bunyan's own inventiveness or his knowledge of the Bible. The conception of human life as a pilgrimage is one that might occur to any contemplative person, and long before Bunyan's time an enormous literature had grown up in which this notion is treated from numberless points of view. It had become a literary convention; yet it is improbable that Bunyan had read or even heard of any of these books. Certainly time spent in reading them he would have considered wasted. The fact is that Bunyan cared nothing for literature as literature. He had the poet's mind and feeling, but for all that, he felt that the only concern of importance for a man was the saving of his soul. And he reached this conclusion early in life. It would be possible, with a fair degree of certainty, to make a list of all the books that Bunyan ever read. Almost the only one not distinctly religious in character would be Sir Bevis of Southampton, already mentioned as the only book we know him to have read as a child.

There was one book, however, that he knew as hardly any other man in any age has known it — the Bible. His knowledge of it was not the scholar's knowledge, for he knew nothing of Greek and Hebrew or even of such Biblical criticism as existed in his own day. What he had was a verbal knowledge of the English versions that was never at fault. Many stories are told of the readiness with which he could produce apposite scriptural quotations, often to the confusion of much more learned men than himself. This intimacy with the Bible, combined with one other element, is enough to account for the substance of The Pilgrim's Progress. That other element is his profound acquaintance with the rustic and provincial life about him, and with the heart of the average man.

From these sources come also two characteristics of Bunyan's style that even the most cursory reader cannot fail to notice, — his constant use of the phraseology and the imagery of the Bible and the frequent occurrence of provincial and colloquial expressions. Bunyan wrote the language as he heard it, and there is surprisingly little that is unfamiliar to a modern ear. Many of his expressions still survive in colloquial and illiterate usage; "drownded," "would a done it," "there is no turnings," have not yet disappeared from the language of daily life. Many other expressions and usages in The Pilgrim's Progress that have apparently become unknown in England are still familiar in parts of America. There were readers who felt that this homeliness of diction involved a loss of dignity; but there can be little doubt that to most modern readers it is this very characteristic that gives The Pilgrim's Progressone of its greatest charms.

But a racy and colloquial diction alone would not have made Bunyan a great writer. His real achievement is that he makes the reader see the thing that he describes. The vividness of the descriptive passages (they are usually sentences or merely phrases) in The Pilgrim's Progress has often been pointed out. It is the vividness that absolute sincerity combined with imagination is sure to effect. A study of these passages will show that they reproduce scenes from the Bible, as Bunyan understood them, or scenes from provincial and rural England. It was not necessary for him to go outside of his own experience for the Slough of Despond, the Palace Beautiful, and Vanity Fair. None of them was far away from Bedford. In many respects Christian's journey was just such as any Bedfordshire countryman might have taken. The characters, too, are drawn from the life. Worldly Wiseman, By-Ends, Lord Hategood, and Christian himself would be recognized as faithful portraits. This does not mean, of course, that definite places and actual persons are represented in the book. Probably they are not. But both persons and places are typical of what Bunyan's readers were familiar with. This realism, this closeness to everyday life, undoubtedly has much to do with the immense vitality of the book.

In addition to this power of representing vividly persons and places, Bunyan possessed to a high degree the ability to tell a story effectively. No prose writer who preceded him in English literature, unless it be Malory, is to be compared with him in this respect, and he anticipated Defoe and Swift in many of the devices which a generation later they adopted to give reality to their tales. We find in all three the same minuteness of detail, the same unconcerned colloquialism, and the same apparent absence of straining for effect. For these reasons, some critics have calledThe Pilgrim's Progress the first English novel, and many persons have read it solely as a story of adventure.

It should not be forgotten, however, that The Pilgrim's Progress is primarily a religious allegory, and that in intention it is an exposition of the Protestant theory of the plan of salvation. As such, it is entirely successful for from no other book is it possible to obtain so lucid an account of Puritan theology. Yet it is entirely free from narrow sectarianism, and there is nothing whatever about it that makes it the peculiar possession of any one Christian denomination. With the exception of half a dozen lines in regard to Giant Pope, there is nothing in The Pilgrim's Progress to which a Roman Catholic would take exception, and only the most extreme Anglicans have found it necessary to make alterations to adapt it to their purposes. When we take into account Bunyan's antecedents and surroundings, this total absence of fanaticism seems one of the most extraordinary things about the book.

Another extraordinary feature is that the reader finds very little difficulty in the interpretation of the often rather intricate allegory. It is true that certain places in the book are not easy reading, but they are usually places where the allegory is dropped altogether. Doubtless, many readers have hurried over the long conversation with which Christian and Hopeful tried to enliven the passage through the Enchanted Ground. Sometimes, the allegory does become hopelessly obscure, especially in the few instances where there is an allegory within the allegory, as in the account of the Bond Woman and Mount Sinai. It is possible, too, as it is in the case of any allegorical work of considerable length, to discover inconsistencies. For example, Macaulay has pointed out that according to the plan of the allegory every mortal must cross the River of Death, yet Faithful is transported directly from Vanity Fair to the Celestial City. These are matters of small account. "If you were to polish it," said Coleridge, "you would destroy at once the reality of the vision."

It is easy to find flaws in any work. More significant is it to remember that The Pilgrim's Progress is a book which can be read with genuine interest long after the state of society of which it was the expression has passed away. The number of books of which this can be said with any degree of truth is indeed small. Modern opinion would agree with Macaulay: "Though there were many clever men in England during the latter half of the seventeenth century, there were only two minds which possessed the imaginative faculty in a very eminent degree. One of these minds produced the Paradise Lost, the other The Pilgrim's Progress."

¹The Pilgrim's Progress consists of two parts. The first part and more widely known was published in 1678. The second, published in 1684, describes the journey of Christian's wife and children from the City of Destruction to the Celestial City. They travel under the guidance of Mr. Great-Heart, one of the best drawn of all the characters of the book, who with his ability to fight or to pray, as circumstances demand, might have been copied from almost any one of the commanders of Cromwell's army. In regard to this second part critical opinions differ. Froude called it "but a feeble reverberation of the first." Other critics, however, have considered it that rara avis, a successful sequel.

Copied by Stephen Ross for WholesomeWords.org from The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan. Edited for school use by George W. Latham. Chicago: Scott, Foresman and Company, 1906.

source: http://www.wholesomewords.org/biography/bbunyan5.html

Conversion of John Bunyan: The Immortal Dreamer

compiled by Hy. Pickering

John Bunyan, the Bedford tinker, author of the immortal allegory, "Pilgrim's Progress," was awakened through a conversation which he heard among three women. Here are his words:

"This morning as I went through Bedford, intent upon my calling, it was my lot that I should pass through one of the streets that are nigh the High Street. There sat three poor women in the sun, and as they talked in the doorway I heard some of their speech. I drew nigh to listen; but alas! 'twas such talk as I never dreamed of ever before! They spoke of a new birth, of how God had worked in their hearts to show them their lost state, of how they were once under the curse of God for their guilt and iniquity; and then they spoke comfortably of the loving-kindness of God in giving His dear Son to die for them, and how they had been led to trust Christ, and found in Him peace and rest for their souls. Methought that is what I much want, yet how to obtain it I knew not.

Then they talked of how God had visited them and refreshed them; and said one (Mary Fenne, by name), 'I mind how now once when I was sore grieved and vexed, for that the Sheriff's man seized my kettle and lace-pillow for a church rate, I walked in darkness by the river bank, and, as I watched the dark waters that swept under the bridge nigh the black prison, I remembered the river that Ezekiel saw, and methought its healing waters came even to my marshy and barren heart. It rose upon me, the sweet mercy and comfort of Jesus, until I felt that it mattered little what men took from me, so that they left me Christ and His Divine grace and mercy. Oh, but I was strong in Him, and I felt His sweet comfort down in my poor heart, and I felt as if I must shout to the clouds and trees of the gladness that burned like fire in my bones. Talk of mirth! there was never such light-heartedness round the Maypole as filled me then.'

"'Aye,' said a wrinkled and worn ancient woman they termed Norton, ''tis even so. I have known depths of sorrow, but they have been times of deep delight to my soul. When my husband died of the wounds he received in battle, my soul was stayed upon God, and I felt my faith grasp His sweet, strong promise; and look ye, gossips, though I have but a penny per week to call my own, I would not give it up with the love of God to be the great Earl of Bedford himself!

"It seemed to me as if they were in another world far above me; but when they talked about their temptations, methought I knew what they meant, at least in some degree. Yet they declared that they had oftentimes gotten the victory and all through the Word of God. Methought this is indeed news to me.

"I was struck all a-dumb at their wisdom, yet it was sweet to me, like the droppings of the honeycomb. And when I opened my mind to them they made no mock of my distress, nor did they make light of it, but bade me come the next day to talk to their teacher, one Dr. Gifford, and by God's grace I went to him."

Bunyan procured a Bible, but read only the historical books, avoiding with a strange perversity the Epistles of Paul. He set the Commandments before him as his way to Heaven, and for a year lived a reformed life externally. He was looked upon as a prodigy of piety. His neighbours, who had been shocked by his daring wickedness, were much pleased with the change, and Bunyan, ever eager for the sympathy of others, rejoiced greatly in their esteem and commendations; yet was inwardly conscious that they were not fully deserved; "for" he writes, "had I then died, my state had been most fearful."

"Wife," said Bunyan one day in course of conversation at home, "is there such a Scripture as 'I must go to Jesus?'" She replied, "I cannot tell;" therefore he stood musing to see if he could remember it. In the course of a few minutes he recalled what is written in the twelfth chapter of Hebrews: "Ye are come unto Mount Sion ... to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling." Then with joy he told his wife, "Oh, now I know, I know!"

He writes, "That night was a good night to me; I have had but few better; I longed for the company of some of God's people, that I might have imparted unto them what God had showed to me. I could scarcely lie in my bed for joy, and peace, and triumph through Christ. All my former darkness had fled away, and the blessed things of Heaven were set in my view. These words have oft since that time been great refreshment to my spirit. Blessed be God for having had mercy on me!"

source: http://www.wholesomewords.org/biography/bbunyan7.html

John Bunyan's Conversion

Hitherto, Bunyan was, at best, only "a brisk talker" about religion, as he calls himself; and that only as it bore upon opinion and a few practical duties. Nothing he knew of religion had humbled him at all, either before God or man; and all that he practiced only made him proud before both. Like many who turn over a new leaf in morals, he never looked at the old leaf, which was still uppermost in his heart.

In his case, this can hardly be wondered at. He had met with none who knew "the plague of their own hearts;" and his reading had not turned at all upon the necessity of a new heart, or of a right spirit, before God. His wife, also, although well disposed, was not well informed on this subject. He remembered all this when his attention was drawn to the state of his heart; and gratefully recorded the means of it. Hence he says, "Upon a day, the good providence of God called me to Bedford, to work at my Calling: and in one of the streets of that town (would we knew whichstreet!) I came where there were three or four women sitting at a door in the sun, talking about the things of God. And being now willing to hear what they said, I drew near, to hear their discourse -- for I was now a brisk talker of myself in the matters of religion -- but I may say, I heard, but understood not; for they were far above, out of my reach.

"Their talk was about a new birth — the work of God in their hearts; as also, how they were convinced of their miserable state by nature. They talked how God had visited their souls with his love in the Lord Jesus, and with what Promises they had been refreshed, comforted, and supported against the temptations of the devil."

All this was new to Bunyan; and especially that part of it which related to the devil. Of him he had never thought before, as a Tempter to anything but wickedness or crime: — as a Tempter to despair, distrust, impatience, or unbelief, he had never heard or dreamt. Accordingly, he paid unusual attention to what the poor women said on this subject. "Moreover," he says, "they reasoned of the suggestions and temptations of Satan, in particular; and told to each other, by what means they had been afflicted, and how they were borne up under his assaults. They also discoursed of their own wretchedness of heart, and of their unbelief; and did contemn, slight, and abhor their own righteousness as filthy, and insufficient to do them any good."

All this perplexed him, and compelled him to feel that these new things were strangethings to him. And yet, he seems to have asked for no explanation of any of them; not even of Satan's temptations, which were an utter mystery to him. This is the more remarkable, as he evidently had a fair opportunity; for the women were communicative, and he was either sitting or standing close by them. This is certain. Accordingly, when they had finished their conversation, "I left them," he says, "and went about my employment again." Thus, he did not overhear them, as he was mending kettles; but was in their company. He might, therefore, have asked questions; for the speakers evidently wished to draw him out. They were talking athim, although not in a wrong spirit. They knew their man; and gladly set themselves, like Priscilla with Apollos, to teach him "the way of the Lord more perfectly."

This is the true reason of their conduct. They were not religious gossips, who would have told their experience to any one. They were "holy women," who knew what Bunyan had been; and what he had become by the reproof of a bad woman; and what he was likely to turn out if left in the hands of his canting companion, the masked Ranter, who could talk "pleasantly" about religion. They knew this, and took care that he should not have all the talk to himself.

I am not ascribing to these poor women more knowledge of Bunyan and his companion, nor more zeal for Bunyan's welfare, than they really possessed: for they were accredited Members of the Baptist Church in Bedford; which was then too young, too small, and too pure, for any of its members to overlook or neglect anyreturning Prodigal, however far off from his Fattier's house; or to mistake any wolf in sheep's clothing, however woolly. The honor of religion was too dear to the truly godly of' these times, for that. And this will be equally intelligible and credible, to all who know any thing of the regular Dissenting Churches of that day, or of our own times. All spiritual Churches episcopize in this way. Bunyan did not know this at the time: perhaps he never suspected it afterwards, in his own case. But the poor women certainly talked of themselves, that they might teach him.

How well they spoke of experimental religion, will be best seen from his own account. "Methought, they spake as if joy did make them speak. They spake with such pleasantness of Scripture language, and with such appearance of grace in all they said, that they were to me, as if I had found a new world; as if they were 'people that dwelt alone, and were not to be reckoned among their neighbors.' At this, I felt my own heart began to shake, and mistrust my condition to be naught: for I saw that in all my thoughts about religion and salvation, the new birth did never enter in my mind; (Nicodemus-like!) neither knew I the comfort of the word and promise, nor the deceitfulness of my own wicked heart. As for secret thoughts, I took no notice of them; neither did I understand what Satan's temptations were, nor how they were to be withstood and resisted."

The last part of this confession, although not the most interesting, had most to do afterwards with Bunyan's strange fears and fancies; and I mark it out, as another of those lights which we shall soon need, when he is "led into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil." He did not understand Satanic temptation when he first heard of it, nor when it began to harass his mind. The Enemy came in upon him "as a flood;" but be saw only the flood itself, and not the Enemy who poured it around and over him.

His ignorance on this point, however, did not hinder his profiting by what he had heard about the religion of the heart. That arrested and humbled him. It followed him to his work like his shadow; nor did he try to shake it off. "I left," he says; "but their talk and discourse went with me: also my heart would tarry with them; for I was greatly affected by their words; both because by them I was convinced that I wanted the tokens of a truly godly man, and also, because by them I was convinced of' the happy and blessed condition of him that was such a one. Therefore, I would often make it my business to, be going again and again into the company of these poor people; for I could not stay away. And the more I went among them, the more I did question my condition: and, as I still remember, presently, I found two things within me, at which I did sometimes marvel: the one was, a very great softness and tenderness of' heart, which caused me to fall under conviction of what, by Scripture, they asserted; and the other was, a great bending in my mind to a continual meditating on it, and on all other good things, which at any time I heard or read of'.

"By these things, my mind was now so turned, that it lay like a horse-leech at the vein; still crying out, "Give, give;' and was so fixed on eternity, and on the things of the kingdom of heaven (that is, so far as I knew; though as yet, God knows, I knew but little), that neither pleasures, nor profits, nor persuasions, nor threats, couldloose it, or make it let go its hold. And, though I speak it with shame, yet it is in very deed, a certain truth, that it would have been as difficult for me to have taken my mind from heaven to earth, as I have found it often since, to get it again from earth to heaven."

Bunyan himself marveled, as he well might, at this child-like and angel-like turn of spirit; "especially," as he says, "considering what a blind, ignorant, sordid, and ungodly wretch, but just before, I was." It hardly requires spiritual discernment, in order to see beauty in this change. Mere Philosophy, either moral or mental, must admire it. It is, indeed, the Lion become a lamb! How Mrs. Bunyan must have enjoyed it! Her husband was now more gentle and humble than her father seems to have been. Even those who attach no importance to the religion of the heart, must wonder at the change of the Tinker's heart; it was so sudden and great, and yet so simple withal. His spirit softened like furrows under spring showers; and, like them, soon sent forth "the tender blade." And all this was produced, not by visions nor dreams, but by words which dropped as the rain, and distilled as the dew, from the lips of simple-hearted women, who used no direct persuasion. Christians see, of course, the hand of God in the effect: and even a mere philosopher must confess, that he never sees the same effect produced by the most eloquent maxims or appeals of his ethics, although he tries their force upon more cultivated minds. True; there was latent genius in the Tinker, to work upon. What then? Neither the Tinker himself, nor his Teachers, knew of it. They had never heard of genius. It was not the less there, I grant. Where was it, however, in the women who sat

"Knitting in the sun?"

They had not minds of Bunyan's order: and yet, the truths of the Bible had the same sweet influence upon them. Besides, what is philosophy worth, as a Reformer of the world, if it require genius, as the soil for its seed to root or ripen in?

One of the first-fruits of Bunyan's conversion was, a tender concern for those whom his former example had misled or hardened ...

source: http://www.wholesomewords.org/biography/bbunyan2.html

John Bunyan

by John Frost

[John Bunyan] was born in the village of Elstow, near Bedford, in 1628. His father was a poor tinker; but he managed to place his son at the village school, where he learned to read and write. When quite young, he was thrown among the vulgar and profane, and soon, as he himself informs us in his Grace Abounding, became the ringleader in all manner of lying, vice, and ungodliness. Yet, at the early age of ten or twelve years, an inward monitor warned him of the consequences of sin: "I was often much cast down and afflicted; yea, I was often then so overcome with despair of life and heaven, that I should often wish either that there had been no hell, or that I had been a devil, supposing that they were only tormentors; that if it must needs be that I went thither, I might be rather a tormentor than tormented myself." Here we see the germ of that powerful imagination, excited by the first workings of conscience, which Bunyan subsequently personified by the man with a heavy burden on his back, crying, "What shall I do?" As he became older, his conscience hardened, and he found more peace. The desire of heaven and fear of hell left him; he mingled in wicked company; he was wild, boisterous, reckless. Yet it would be unfair to consider his subsequent denunciations of his life at this early period as proof that he was indeed the worst youth in his neighbourhood, or of his age. In proportion as Bunyan became humbled by the grace of God, he magnified his early crimes; and he must be ignorant of true Christian feeling while under conviction for sin, to suppose that Bunyan's confessions in the Grace Aboundingare to be taken literally as a comparison of himself with others. He was no drunkard, nor did his worst acts at that time bring him under cognisance of the magistrate.

When seventeen, Bunyan entered the parliamentary army. When he was about marching to the siege of Leicester, one of the company volunteered to go in his stead. Bunyan consented. The man was shot as he stood sentinel; and long after, Banyan delighted to dwell upon this interposition of Providence in his behalf. Soon after he left the army; and at the early age of nineteen, he married. The financial condition of the tinker at this time may be inferred from his assertion, that they had not a dish or a spoon between them. Yet the marriage was undoubtedly a blessing. His wife's dowry was two religious books; these Bunyan sometimes read to her, and the impression upon his feelings was favourable. He became regular in his attendance at church, and learned to adore the "high place, priest, clerk, and vestment;" but he did not abandon the practice of swearing, until reproved by a woman, herself bad, who protested that his oaths, which made her tremble, were capable of spoiling all the youth in the town. Bunyan was put to shame, and swore no more. About the same time, he was influenced by a poor, but pious man, to read the Bible, the result of which was an outward conversion, which astonished all who knew him. It was only outward. "I thought," he says, "no man in England could serve God better than I."

From this self-righteous delusion, Bunyan was awakened by overhearing a conversation, on the power of real religion, among some poor women, who belonged to a Baptist denomination at Bedford. He also formed acquaintance with John Gifford, whose conversation was "sweet and pleasant to him." He now became alarmed as to his condition; he earnestly besought God for a new heart; he read the Bible with "new eyes;" and at last he was led to abandon his outward religion and cast himself upon the mercy of God. But he had long and terrible conflicts to pass through. For more than a year, he was "tossed between the devil and his own ignorance," harassed with doubts about Scripture, conjectures concerning practical religion, and horrible phantoms of his imagination. An interview with the village pastor brought no relief; and for a long period Bunyan was subject to those fearful temptations, which made him believe that he saw both worlds revealed before him—one of which, the beautiful one, he was never to enjoy, while to the other he was rushing headlong. Just as he was beginning to emerge from this condition, an old translation of Luther's Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians fell into his hands. In this he found his religious experience so "largely and profoundly handled." that it seemed as though the book had been "written out of his own heart." He ever prized it next to the Bible, and for a while his spirit received consolation. Then came a dark and terrible temptation. During a whole year, he was haunted with a desire to sell Christ—"to exchange him for the things of this life—for any thing." It haunted him day and night; it was whispered to him, as he walked through the streets, or sat at table; he trembled and wrestled, and cried out under it, as his own Christian did, during the conflict with Apollyon. Bunyan attributes this temptation to the immediate agency of the devil, and describes the assaults to which he was exposed from the enemy of souls, with a vividness of language which sometimes causes the reader to shudder. This state of mind led him to search the Scriptures with more diligence, to "see more into the nature of the promises." But so violent had been the struggle, that, on escaping from it, his health was impaired, and he began to exhibit symptoms bordering on consumption. But peace was gradually restored to his mind; and with it health returned.

In 1653, Bunyan became a member of the Baptist church in Bedford. He had already attracted attention; so that on joining the congregation, he was employed occasionally in exhorting or teaching, and in a short time was appointed itinerant preacher. In 1657, he was indicted for preaching at Eaton; but the proceedings against him appear to have been arrested. The character of Bunyan's preaching, we may gather from his own words: "It pleased me much, to contend with great earnestness for the word of faith, and the remission of sins by the death and sufferings of Jesus; but as to other things, I would let them alone, because I saw they engendered strife." How admirably, in these words, is foreshadowed the spirit which pervades the Pilgrim's Progress. His Christian meekness could not screen him, however, from persecution. In that age of bigotry and of wickedness, John Bunyan was regarded as a witch, a Jesuit, a highwayman, a libertine. In 1660, a warrant was issued against him, and after being brought before a justice in Bedfordshire, he was offered a discharge on condition of leaving off preaching.   On refusing, he was committed to jail. Seven weeks after, he was brought before judges for examination; accused of neglecting the true church, and being possessed with the devil; and, without either trial or verdict from jury, sentenced to three months' imprisonment, "and at the three months' end," said the judge, "if you do not submit to go to church to hear divine service, and leave your preaching, you must be banished the realm; and if you be found to come over again, without special license from the king, you must be stretched by the neck for it, I tell you plainly." Bunyan answered, that if he were out of prison to-day, he would preach the gospel again to-morrow, by the help of God. On the king's coronation, in 1661, a general pardon was proclaimed; but in this Bunyan was not included. His wife made efforts to obtain his release before Judges Hale, Twisden, and others; but though the former was disposed to clemency, he was overruled by his hardened associates, and Bunyan remained in jail. The jailer was, however, a compassionate man, and allowed his prisoner to depart occasionally through the day, on promise of returning at night. These opportunities he employed in preaching ; but of this his persecutors soon obtained information, and the jailer was notified to keep him close, or to leave his situation. It is believed that he remained a close prisoner from 1661 to 1668. During this time, he laboured at making little articles for the support of his family. By the Act of Indulgence to Dissenters, he was liberated for a short time; but again incurring the persecution of the hierarchy, he was remanded to prison, where he remained until 1672. It was during this long period of confinement, that he wrote some of his most celebrated works—"Of Prayer by the Spirit," "The Holy City's Resurrection,"  "Grace Abounding,"   "A Defence of the Doctrine of Justification,"—and one other, "The Pilgrim's Progress, Part I."

Of this great work—one which has no superior, and few equals in our language—so much is known by every class of readers, that it were superfluous to describe or analyze it. It is dated from prison, November 21, 1671, but the date of the first edition is unknown. The second edition was issued in 1678, after which one edition after another was rapidly called for. At the same time counterfeit ones appeared, and imitations, purporting to be continuations. It was probably from these, that Bunyan received the idea of writing his second part, which appeared in 1684. Long before this, Bunyan had obtained his release, and entered upon the enjoyment of that long season of almost uninterrupted happiness with which his latter days were blessed. In 1672, his congregation observed a day of thanksgiving on account of his release. Shortly after, the voluntary contributions of his friends enabled him to build a meeting-house. Here he preached to large congregations with but little interruption. Scholars from college and conceited churchmen often came to argue with him, supposing that he was but an ignorant rustic; but they generally went away with far different opinions. In London, his reputation was so great, that, says one, "if but a day's notice were given, the meeting-house in Southwark, where he generally preached, would not hold half the people that attended. Three thousand persons have been gathered together for the purpose, in a remote part of the town; and no fewer than twelve hundred on a dark winter's morning, at seven o'clock, even on week days." The Baptist congregation at Hitchin, in Hertfordshire, is supposed to have been founded by him. In a wood, near Preston, he frequently preached to a thousand people; and five miles from Hitchin was a malt-house, in which he sometimes addressed large congregations, and whose pulpit was carefully removed as an honoured relic, when, in 1787, the meeting was transferred to Coleman's Green. So eager was he to dispense the word of life, that it is affirmed, on good authority, he sometimes passed at midnight through the town of Reading, disguised as a carter, with whip in hand, until he arrived at the secret meetings of his friends. The house in which the Baptists met for worship stood in a lane; a bridge was thrown from the back door across a branch of the Kennett, by which, in case of alarm, they might escape. It was while visiting this place, that Bunyan contracted the disease which terminated his life. A young man, having incurred his father's displeasure, was threatened with loss of his inheritance. He implored Bunyan to act as his mediator. Bunyan complied, and was successful; but his kindness to another proved fatal to himself. While returning to London on horseback, he was overtaken with heavy rains, which brought on cold, and a fever. The violence of the attack baffled his physician's skill; and ten days after, August 12, 1688, he died at the house of Mr. Stradwick, a grocer on Snowhill. He was buried at Bunhill Fields, where a tomb has since been erected to his memory.

Bunyan is described as being in "countenance of a stern and rough temper," but in his conversation mild and affable, "not given to loquacity or much discourse in company, unless some urgent occasion required it; observing never to boast of himself or his parts, but rather to seem low in his own eyes, and submit himself to the judgment of others, loving to reconcile differences and make friendship with all. He had a sharp, quick eye, accompanied with an excellent discerning of persons, being of good judgment and quick wit. As for his person, he was tall of stature, strong boned, though not corpulent; somewhat of a ruddy face, with sparkling eyes; wearing his hair on his upper lip, after the old British fashion; his hair reddish, but, in his latter days, time had sprinkled it with gray; his nose well set, but not declining or bending, and his mouth moderately large; his forehead somewhat high; and his habit always plain and modest." Bunyan married twice, and had many children, only four of whom survived him. His works are numerous, and as an instructor of the people he deserves to rank among the most powerful writers of his age. Perhaps, his most important work, next to the Pilgrim's Progress and Grace Abounding, is The Holy War, an allegory in which he describes the conflict between God and Satan for the town of Mansoul. His great allegory has been translated into nearly all the languages of Europe, and of countries much frequented by Europeans, and is adopted as a standard church-book by the various denominations of Protestants, as well as by Roman Catholics. It is in an especial degree the book of the common people; and, with the Bible, and a volume of Hymns or the Prayer Book, forms a fountain of pure English, for which it were vain to look elsewhere in the same number of pages.

source: http://www.wholesomewords.org/biography/bbunyan14.html

A Baptist Page Portrait

A Baptist Page Portrait

John Bunyan

John Bunyan was born in Bedfordshire, England in 1628. Like Andrew Fuller, Bunyan came from the working class and understood poverty early in life. His early life included a good deal of degradation as well as a stint in the army. Even after he had married, Bunyan was what we would call today a wayward Christian. He later realized he was no Christian at all. The story is oft told of how Bunyan heard a sermon one Sunday morning against the evils of Sunday sports. That afternoon, while playing "cats", Bunyan heard a voice in his heart which said, "Wilt thou leave thy sins and go to Heaven, or have thy sins and go to hell?" Those words would not leave him over the next few months. In one of God’s divine encounters, John Bunyan began to turn from religion in form to Christ in fact. One day Bunyan tried to join in on a conversation about religion with several poor women he heard talking as he walked down the street. He thought himself to be quite knowledgeable about such things so he attempted to reason along with these godly women. Instead, Bunyan had no idea what they were speaking of. He wrote:

"Their talk ... was about a new birth, the work of God on their hearts, also how they were convinced of their miserable state by nature. They talked how God had visited their souls with His love in the Lord Jesus, and with what words and promises they had been refreshed, comforted, and supported against the temptations of the devil." 1

Later those same women introduced Bunyan to their pastor, John Gifford. While not Baptist, Gifford and the church he pastored were definitely congregational and definitely not "high church." The church was comprised of both Congregational and Baptist believers. It was under Gifford’s preaching and teaching that Bunyan at last came to Christ. Bunyan's, Grace Abounding is his own spiritual biography. In it he tells how the verse, "He hath made peace by the blood of His cross" (Colossians 1:20), finally broke through to his heart and he was truly saved.

Several years (1656) after coming to Christ, Bunyan began to preach at the same church which Gifford had pastored. He was above all a preacher who would proclaim God's Word anywhere and everywhere:

"He himself ... went out to preach the Word in the open air on village greens, in barns, in private houses, and sometimes even in parish churches. Bedfordshire and neighboring shires are full of traditions of his preaching, and several Congregational and Baptist churches claimed to have been founded through his preaching." 2

It was not long before Bunyan’s willingness and drive to preach the gospel everywhere got him into trouble. By 1660, Anglican royalists had stepped up their attacks on non-conformist preachers (Baptists, Congregationalists, and Puritans in general). It became illegal to preach in non-sanctioned places. So on Nov. 12, 1660, John Bunyan was arrested for preaching in a field near a farmhouse. Upon his arrest, Bunyan was informed that if he would apologize to the magistrates and refrain from preaching, he would be released. Bunyan replied that such a promise was not possible and thus began a twelve year imprisonment. His refusal to cease preaching reminds one of Peter and John's reply to the Jewish leaders when they were instructed to refrain from preaching:

Acts 4:18-20—"And they called them, and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered and said unto them, Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard."

During those 12 years of imprisonment, Bunyan wrote Grace Abounding,Confessions of Faith, and A Defense of the Doctrine of Justification by Faith. Ernest Bacon speculates that it was in the last part of his imprisonment that Bunyan began to formulate his greatest work, Pilgrim's Progress. 3 Finally, King Charles II released most religious prisoners including John Bunyan. Bunyan emerged a leader among non-conformist and the pastor of the church at Bedford. He wouldn't have long to spend with his wife and seven children, however. On Feb. 1675, Charles II changed his mind and Bunyan along with others was arrested again. This time more legally minded friends accomplished the release of Bunyan after a short time. On leaving prison this second time, Bunyan released for publication part one of his monumentalThe Pilgrims Progress in 1678.

What may seem like a question for church historians and no one else is whether Bunyan was really a Baptist at all. The answer is important to modern Christians as you will see. There can be no doubt that Bunyan had little use for denominational titles. He once said:

As for those titles of Anabaptists, Independents, Presbyterians, or the like, I conclude that they come neither from Jerusalem nor from Antioch, but rather from hell and Babylon, for they naturally tend to division." 4

In fact, it would probably be safer to call Bunyan a baptist rather than a Baptist. He was baptized as a believing adult and often taught that baptism should be administered only to those who had heard and embraced the gospel. At the same time, Bunyan did not believe that either baptism or the Lord's Supper should divide true Christians. "Instead of accenting the differences … he emphasized the fundamentals of the faith which all true believers shared. He defended the gospel as the basis of Christian unity … When he involved himself in controversy, he did so because he saw a challenge to the gospel itself." 5 Bunyan was a baptist in the sense that he held to what became the foundational tenets of Baptists. He was committed to God's Word first and foremost; he held to a congregational form of church government; and he strongly emphasized justification by faith alone.

Bunyan certainly was in sympathy with the Particular Baptists in his firm grip on the Doctrines of Grace. We, of what is sometimes called the Reformed Faith, could learn much from John Bunyan. He was far more interested in God's glory and man's salvation than he was in restrictive denominational tags.

By the time of Bunyan’s death in 1688, eleven editions of The Pilgrim’s Progress had been published with over 100,000 copies in print. He left a legacy of many other great books and poems. None of these, however, are his greatest legacy to us. Bunyan’s greatest gift to the church was his demonstration that the Doctrines of Grace are not static or cold. The gospel is not predestination—it is Christ! Grace is how God brings us to Christ. Above all Bunyan loved Christ. He preached Christ and exalted Christ.

"There was first and foremost in John Bunyan a deep personal love for his Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ ... Bunyan's books are full of Christ - His welcome, His unshakable truth, His advocacy for sinners... His preaching and writing were Christ-centered, and it was this that carried men's hearts captive to Christ. If our present day preachers and theologians had the same emphasis a very different spirit would prevail in both the Church and the State." 6

source: http://www.wholesomewords.org/biography/bbunyan13.html