(water trickling) (footsteps) - [Voiceover] John Bunyan, you will be taken back
to jail for three months and if then you should not submit to cease preaching the Gospel, you will be banished from the realm. (door slamming) - I am pulling down my house upon my wife and children, but I must do it. I must do it. To stand for truth in Christ. I cannot be silent. As I walked through the
wilderness of this world, I lighted upon a certain
place where there was a den, and I laid me down to sleep, and as I slept I dreamed a dream. I dreamed and behold, I saw a man clothed with rags. - These are the opening words of The Pilgrim's Progress, one of the most famous and influential literary works in English history. Since its first publication in 1678 it's never been out of print. It's been translated
into over 200 languages and has sold more copies
than any other book except the Bible. Famous authors like Charles
Dickens and C.S. Lewis have been influenced by
The Pilgrim's Progress. The author, John Bunyan, was put in Bedford
County Jail for preaching the Gospel during religious persecution. He started to write The Pilgrim's Progress while in jail. The story is an allegory about the trials of Christian's journey from
the City of Destruction to the Celestial City. Bunyan brings to life pilgrim's journey through places like the Slough of Despond, the Hill of Difficulty, and
the town of Vanity Fair. He introduces us to
characters like Hopeful, Pliable, and Mr. Worldly Wise. How did the son of a tinker
with little education come to write such a historic book? (serene music) In 1628, John Bunyan was born in the parish of Elstow near Bedford. He was baptized in Elstow Abbey behind me. The cottage where he was
born is now long gone. Bunyan was born into a poor family. His father Thomas was a tinker, a maker and mender of pots and kettles. Bunyan described his
childhood as a happy one. He learned to read and write a little, then traveled with his father, helping him and learning the trade. John Bunyan was born
into a turbulent England where religious freedoms
were being oppressed. Less than a hundred years
before Bunyan was born, William Tindale was burnt at the stake for translating the New
Testament into English. Henry VIII had separated
from the Catholic Church and established the Church of England. The King James Bible had
been published in 1611. Puritanism was growing rapidly. They were reformed Protestants placing a great emphasis on biblical
teaching and morality. They wanted a more simple form of church and sought to purify
the Church of England. Decades of religious
and political tensions were strained and divides were deepening. Storm clouds were
gathering on the horizon. England was about to erupt
into bloody civil war. Members of Parliament were at odds with King Charles I as to how England should be governed. In 1642 Charles I sent
soldiers to Parliament to arrest a number of his biggest critics. I've come to Westminster
to talk with historian Peter Morden, where this titanic
struggle was taking place between the king and
members of Parliament. I asked him why did civil war break out. - It was tensions between
parliaments and the king and really different
visions about how Britain was going to be ruled. The king had tremendous
power, unlike today, and he believed in the divine
right of kings to rule. So Charles I believed that he should have the final say and he should make policy, but parliaments had a very different view. The king tried to rule without Parliament, but then he wanted to fight
against some of the Scots. He needed to raise taxes to raise an army. He recalled Parliament and
they said no new taxes. They weren't happy. And that was really a key issue. But as well as the politics, there was a spiritual dimension. The king, Charles I, was
married to a Roman Catholic, Henrietta Maria, and he himself had sympathies
with Catholic worship. Parliaments, on the other hands, were much more sympathetic
to the Puritan side, so a much simpler worship. And the story goes that
the king was trying to impose a more Roman
Catholic-type prayer book on the church in Scotland, and a woman in St. Charles Cathedral, Jenny Geddes, picked up the
stool that she was sitting on, threw it at the presiding minister, and said, "Din er say Mass in my lug?" In my ear? So this Roman Catholic
service that was being imposed on them, that she was objecting to, and so there were political issues, but there was a real spiritual dimension to what was happening as well. (drumming) - Civil War broke out in 1642. The Battle of Edgehill
was the first major battle that took place near
Kineton in Warwickshire. The Parliamentarian forces
clashed with the King's Army. The battle had no decisive victor. (guns firing) This would be the first of many battles that would lead to a
long, drawn out conflict. (screaming) (drumming) In 1644 at the age of 16, Bunyan joined the Parliamentary Army. He spent most of his military service here in Newport Pagnell
doing garrison duty. And he later spoke about a narrow escape during this period. - When I was a soldier, I with others, was drawn to go and besiege a place, and when I was ready to go, one of the company
desired to go in my place. And coming to the siege, as he stood sentinel, he was shot in the head with
a musket bullet and died. - [Voiceover] Fire! (gun shots) - And how did Oliver Cromwell change the landscape of England at the time? - After the Parliament side won, after a few years he
became the Lord Protector, so England is a republic. There's no king, but Cromwell himself has tremendous power, so he's almost like a king. So it's a republic and
it ushered in a period of real religious freedom, actually. So Baptists, Congregationalists,
Presbyterians, they could meet quite openly and there were other groups as well, more radical groups, who were meeting. So for a time there was
actual real religious freedom. Certainly for dissenters
for non-conformists. - [Andrew] Bunyan
returned to Elstow in 1647 and continued working as a tinker. He married a local girl
who bore him four children. The first, Mary, was born blind. It made Bunyan reflect
seriously on his life. One Sunday after hearing
a sermon in Elstow Abbey, on the evil of breaking the Sabbath, Bunyan was playing a
game on the village green when he heard a voice within. - I heard it as clear as day. Won't thou leave thy
sins and go to Heaven? Or have thy sins and go to Hell? - I'm meeting up with Peter Morden here in Elstow to talk
about Bunyan's early experiences of faith. Bunyan's wife was a Christian, so what Christian influence
did she have on him? - I think she had quite a big influence. She came from a Christian family and when she married him, very, very poor. Didn't bring anything
as a dowery apart from two Puritan books. The books talked about
the way to connect to God. One of the books was
called The Plain Man's Pathway to Heaven. And as Bunyan got more
proficient in reading, he read these books. They read them together, and it would really have
helped him to understand more about God and His ways. - Bunyan talks about going through an appearance of change. Now what's going on there? - Well, what happens is that he begins to go to church more regularly. He begins to get involved in stuff. But he still carries on
with his same behavior. He's cursing and swearing and so on. And then once he's overheard
by a woman in a shop, and she challenges him about his language and about his behavior. He actually decides he's going to change, and because he's a strong-willed man, he seems to be able to manage it. So he stops swearing. He seems to be a different person. And everybody's talking about it. But he knows it's only
an outward reformation. (serene music) - One day when Bunyan was
walking through Bedford he overheard some women talking. They were talking about the mercy of God visiting their souls with the love of the Lord Jesus and the
new birth in Christ. - (sighs) They were to me as if they
had found a new world, and at this my own heart began to shake. The new birth did never
enter into my mind. And their words went with me, and I began to look into
the Bible with new eyes. Hmm. - Bunyan had found the truth, but he went through a
period of great torment, searching the Scriptures for
the assurance of salvation. His mind questioned and doubted for weeks and months on end. - I thought I was outside His grace. My sins were the worst. For they were against Jesus. Surely unpardonable. I tried to pray to God, but I would hear it's too late. You are lost. - Bunyan found stability when he attended the church of the women he'd come across in Bedford. Their pastor was John Gifford. He had established ann
Inpendent church that met at St. John's in Bedford. Bunyan would come to refer
to his beloved pastor as Holy Mr. Gifford. So Peter, what was this new
kind of Independent church that was meeting here at St. John's? - One of the main features is that here were people who had
a real and living faith. They wanted to know Jesus personally. They gave their testimonies when they joined the church, so everybody, if they
were going to be a member, had to have a real testimony of salvation, how God had worked in their life. They talked a lot about Jesus. And for Bunyan himself, this was a very new thing. This is something that he
hadn't come across before and he found it very attractive. John Gifford was the pastor. Gifford's own conversion
is really interesting. He was a Royalist officer. So on the other side of
the civil war to Bunyan, and he was captured as an officer. He was going to be killed. His sister visited him in the small jail that they'd set up. She found that the guards were drunk and was able to get him released. So quite a dramatic story. Gifford was a bit of a wild person in terms of his living. He used to gamble a lot. But he came across some Puritan books and God worked in his heart, and he was converted. And in terms of his
relationship with Bunyan, it was very strong. Bunyan was not only helped
by Gifford's preaching, but also Gifford met with him one-to-one and spoke to him. So he was a significant
figure in Bunyan's life. - But we know that Bunyan himself struggled quite a lot with
the assurance of salvation. - He did. It seems that he came to faith following one of Gifford's sermons
about the love of Christ, and Bunyan was full of joy. He talked about how he could tell the news to the crows as he walked
home across the fields. So he was so excited by the fact that he had come to know Jesus. But then fairly quickly
he began to struggle with real doubts. He didn't doubt the Gospel itself, but he doubted whether God really loved him personally. - And I believe he
wrote a book about that. - Yes, it was entitled Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, which is a wonderful title, speaking of the love of God. But he details in it
his real struggles as he searched after assurance of salvation. And I find it quite a difficult read. He reaches resolution in the end, so he pushes through to a greater assurance of salvation, but it happens over many years. - [Andrew] By 1655, Bunyan and his family were living in St.
Cuthbert's Street in Bedford. Bunyan's church asked him to preach and bring encouragement to them. - I consented to their request. At first it was beyond
my ability to believe that God could speak through me. I cried out to the Lord
to make my words effectual and I did not meddle in
the things of controversy, but adhere to only speak of faith and the remission of sins
through Christ Jesus. - [Andrew] Bunyan's prayer
was clearly answered. - The truths I know best I
have learned on my knees. I never know a thing
well 'til it is burned into my heart by prayer. - John Bunyan was soon preaching in fields, woods, barns,
houses, and churches. It wasn't long before his
reputation as a preacher was spreading. In 1656 he became involved in disputes with local Quakers, and these led him to write his first book, Some Gospel Truths Opened. Peter, why did Bunyan write his first book Some Gospel Truths Opened? - Well Bunyan passionately
believed in the deity of Christ, that Jesus was God's son, and there was someone else who was saying that's not the case. Bunyan heard about this, so Bunyan went into print with his view that Jesus was God, that it's through belief in Him that we receive salvation. - And was Bunyan regarded as something of an authority on Scripture now? Where his books being bought? - To begin with maybe they
didn't sell quite so well, but gradually as he wrote more, people began to hear about them and began to buy them and read them. He wrote one book entitled
I Will Pray with the Spirit, where he wrote about biblical prayer and he talked about prayer from the heart and said it's not just
your mouth that needs to be engaged in prayer, it's your heart, as well, and our prayers need to be
shaped by the Scriptures. And that book became quite popular. People were really picking up on him now and learning to like
John Bunyan the writer. - In 1658 his first wife died. In the following year he
married his second wife, Elizabeth, with whom he had two children. The tide was changing in England. The hard fought freedoms of the civil war were ebbing away. (gunfire and screaming) Bunyan's drive to preach the Gospel would be halted in 1660 when Cromwell's protectorate came to an end. The monarchy was restored with Charles II. The state wanted to stop
independent churches from developing by making it illegal for non-sanctioned people
to preach the Gospel. Religious freedoms were
once again under attack. And with the restoration of Charles II, what happened to religious freedom? - It became very, very
difficult for those who wanted to meet outside
of the Church of England. And so what happened was
that people were truly persecuted for their faith, and often the authorities would go for the pastors or the key church leaders. They would find themselves
arrested, imprisoned. It may be that their
property would be confiscated so things would be taken away, and meetings always ran the
risk of being disrupted, so people started meeting in secret. So a hugely difficult time for them. In English religious history
there is real persecution of Bible Christians who want to meet and want to share God's word. - [Andrew] Conformity to
Anglicanism was stricly enforced across the country. All had to attend their
local parish church. - Afflictions make the heart more deep, more experimental, more knowing, and more profound. And so more able to hold, to contain, to beat more. - [Andrew] John Bunyan refused to attend his local Anglican parish
church and continued unlawfully preaching at illegal meetings. - It is dangerous for you to preach now. John? They will arrest you, John. Please don't go to the
meeting this morning. - I cannot fear what man may do to me. - I worry for our family. How will we survive if you are in prison? Or worse? - I have fears, too. But we must trust God with our fears. The people are hungry for Christ. I am His servant. I must go. - The Bunyan oak, where John Bunyan would preach
to people in the fields. Bunyan left his home in
Bedford to travel here to the hamlet of Lower Samsell. An anxious group of believers
was waiting at a farm for Bunyan to arrive. It was the beginning of winter, so the group was meeting inside at a farm. They usually met outside in the woods. They were also being careful now and didn't want to draw
attention to themselves, as meetings like this were illegal. As Bunyan arrived, he was greeted by an anxious group who were relieved to see him. - Good morning. - [Crowd] (murmuring) Oh, good morning. - Good to see you. - Good to see you, as well. (crowd murmurs) Are you all right? - John, I've heard that
the authorities know that we're meeting. - Yes, John, I heard
there's an arrest warrant out for you, as well. - Where did you hear this? - I heard it in the market today. - All will be well, John. - I think the Lord would have us pray. Lord, help us to trust you with our lives, with our families, and with this church. We know the struggle of meeting, Lord, but we know that with you with us, who can be against us? - [Voiceover] John Bunyan? - I have a warrant for your arrest. - [Crowd] No, no. (murrmurs) - After the local constables arrested him, they took him to nearby Harlington Manor, where he was held overnight. He appeared the next morning before the local justice, ex-Royalist Sir Francis Wingate. He was then sent to Bedford
Jail to await trial. (dramatic music) The trial of John Bunyan
took place in January 1661 in Bedford before a group of magistrates under Sir John Kelynge. Bunyan pleaded his case,
but it was in vain. His plea fell on deaf ears. Judgment was passed. (footsteps) - [Voiceover] John Bunyan, you will be taken back
to jail for three months and if then should you not submit to cease preaching the Gospel, you will be banished from the realm. (door slams) - Despite the threat of
such a harsh sentence, Bunyan refused to give an
assurance not to preach. But instead of being banished, he remained in Bedford Jail for 12 years. - I will stay in prison until
moss grows on my eyelids rather than disobey my God. - The county jail was demolished in 1801. One of its jail doors was saved. It's on display here at
the John Bunyan Museum. We asked the museum
curator, Nicola Sherhod, about this difficult
period of Bunyan's life. Nicola, what was Bunyan facing in prison? How would he survive? - 17th century prisons
were completely different to the prisons we know today. So it would have been dank and dreary. It would've been lots of men, women, and children all crammed
into a quite small space with maybe just straw to sleep on. They would've had to pay their own way to actually stay in the
jail and to feed themselves, so Bunyan would've been
producing boot laces and later some of the
money from the book sales would help to go towards
basically the costs of him being in prison. But during those 12 years we know that he wrote at least nine books, including his spiritual
biography Grace Abounding, which was published in 1666. And then there's obviously
The Pilgrim's Progress, the famous one where
we believe he actually spent the most of the time writing that in his second period of being in prison. - And what about his wife
Elizabeth and the family? How did they survive? - Poor Elizabeth had
only been married to him a couple of years and she was pregnant with their first child, and unfortunately when he was imprisoned, she miscarried. She also had his four children
from a previous marriage to look after, so she had the support of the church and obviously some of the
money from the boot laces could support them, but she was quite a fiery woman and she went down to London and met with the Lords to try
and get Bunyan released. - Would other members of
his church be imprisoned? - Being a non-conformist, you were very restricted
in what you could do. Certainly you couldn't
have unauthorized worship, so the church that Bunyan was at on several occasions
they were sort of raided. Basically the church had to go underground and meet secretly. And we know from the church minute book that a lot of the members
would have been fined, possessions repossessed for
the payment of the fine, and a lot of them would have ended up in prison with Bunyan. - John? - Elizabeth? So good to see you. - How are you today, John? - Oh, I've been better. - I'm sorry to hear that. - How are you? How are the children? - We're fine. Mary misses you the most. - Ah, dear Mary. Will she see me tomorrow? - We will try and make some soup for you tomorrow, John. I'll send her along. The church came 'round
with some bread yesterday. - You must feed yourselves first. I will, I will be fine. - I miss you, John. - I miss you, too, dear. Did you bring the books? - Yes. - [John] Wonderful. I made these for you. If you take them to the market today you'll have food for the evening. - Thank you. I love you, John. - [John] I love you, my dear. Take care. I'll pray for you. - And I, you. - In 1672 King Charles II issued the Declaration of Religious Indulgence and Bunyan was released from prison. That same year Bunyan was appointed pastor of the Independent church in Bedford. The Independent church in Bedford bought a barn and an
orchard here in Mill Street as its first place of meeting. The minister of Bunyan
Meeting is Chris Damp. So Chris, can you tell
us a little bit about the history of the church site here? - Yes, the church site
was purchased in 1672 by one of our members, a chap called Rufford. Non-conformists were allowed to worship under the Act of Indulgence of 1672 and so the possibility then arose to have a meeting house and
this site was an orchard with a barn in the middle of it, and the barn was converted
into a meeting house for the congregation. And so the church brought with them the communion table that
sat in front of us here. That was originally about 14, 15 feet long and was sawn down by
the Victorians in 1850 when the present meeting house was built. - And are there records
relating to the original history of the church? - There are. Our first church minute
book goes back to the 1650s. It's one of the earliest
church minute books. The minute book records Bunyan's death in 1688 and is open on that page in our museum. The church minute book records all the church meetings. It's a congregationally organized church. - Do members of today's congregation have a strong sense of connection with the history of the church? - Bunyan Meeting is very
conscious of its history. It was the church where Bunyan was one of our previous ministers and so it gives us a huge opportunity to reach out into the community and the wider world through things such as our museum. - And Nicola, can you tell us a bit about the visitors who come
to the museum each year? - Yes, we get thousands
of visitors from around the world visiting the museum. Some of them come with a great knowledge of John Bunyan, The
Pilgrim's Progress, already. And others, they just know the name. So we had an Indian gentleman that came and he'd been named John Bunyan and he wanted to come to England to find out who this person was that he'd actually been named after. - And I guess you get people visiting from all over the world? - We have lots of visitors
from America and Holland. Africa, Korea, ah, North and South. - [Andrew] North Korea, too? - Yes, yup. And China and Japan. - As I walk through the
wilderness of this world, I lighted upon a certain
place where there was a den, and I laid me down to sleep, and as I slept I dreamed a dream. I dreamed and behold, I saw a man clothed with rags, standing in a certain place with his face from his own house, a book in his hand, and a great burden upon his back. I looked and saw him open the book and read therein, and as he read, he wept and trembled. And not being able longer to contain, he break out with a lamentable cry saying, "What shall I do?" (serene music) - These doors here at the entrance of the Bunyan Meeting House depicts scenes from The Pilgrim's Progress. It was an instant publishing success. It sold 100,000 copies
in Bunyan's lifetime. A bestseller. The first edition was published in London by Nathanial Ponder in 1678. The second part of The Pilgrim's Progress was published in 1684. Along with the Bible, it was considered essential reading. Peter, The Pilgrim's Progress, tell us something about the storyline and some of the main characters. - Bunyan's pilgrim who's
simply called Christian sets off from the City of Destruction on a journey to the Celestial City, and it's an allegory
of the Christian life. And he goes through various
trials and tribulations along the way. He plows through the Slough of Despond, he struggles up Hill of Difficulty and he meets various
characters along the way who help him. For example, Faithful,
and also Evangelist, who we can see in the window over here who is pointing the way to Christian. He's pointing the way. He's showing him the way
to the Celestial City. So it's a very exciting
book that describes the Christian life. - When he wrote the book, was he writing about his own life? - To a degree I think he was. For example, he and
Faithful arrive in a place called Vanity Fair where
they are persecuted for their faith. They are clapped in irons. Faithful is actually
martyred for his faith. He loses his life, and I think that mirrors
Bunyan's own experience of imprisonment and the
way that he was persecuted. - Was it dangerous for
him to write such a book? - It was. He was in prison when he wrote most of it. And there's stuff here
that the authorities wouldn't really have liked, so he's taking a significant risk. But also and interestingly, he's taking a significant
risk in the Christian world as well because this is
a new type of literature, and a number of his Christian friends, a number of Puritan writers, could have been forgiven for thinking this is just a little
bit too cutting edge. This is a little bit too daring, and we're not sure that we
like this new type of writing. So in many ways on two fronts, on the Christian front and
as far as the authorities were concerned, he's taking
a bit of a risk here. - Pilgrim's Progress Part Two, can you tell us a little bit about that? - In many ways it's my
favorite and it tells the story of Christiana, Christian's wife, who initially doesn't accompany him on his journey, but in the sequel she sets
off on her own journey towards the Celestial City. So it's the same
landscape, the same places, but different things happen
to her along the way. And one of the reasons
that I really like it is that there is a community of people who are traveling. The Pilgrim's Progress
Part One is more about Christian's individual journey, whereas Christiana gathers
around her other pilgrims, her children, her friends called Mercy. We're introduced to Mr. Great Heart, Mr. Valiant for Truth. So really vivid, wonderful characters who are journeying together,
encouraging each other, and helping each other. - [Andrew] In 1673 the
King was forced to withdraw his Declaration of Religious Indulgence and in 1675 an arrest warrant was issued for John Bunyan. It wasn't until early 1677 that Bunyan returned to prison for a brief period when he wrote most of
The Pilgrim's Progress. - [John] What a fool I
have been to lie like this in a stinking dungeon when I could have just as well walked free. In my chest pocket I
have a key called Promise that will, I am thoroughly persuaded, open any lock in Doubting Castle. Then, said Hopeful, that
is good news, my brother. Do immediately take it
out of your chest pocket and try it. Then Christian took the key from his chest and began to try the
lock of the dungeon door, and as he turned the key, the bolt unlocked and the
door flew open with ease so that Christian and
Hopeful immediately came out. (inspirational music) - Nicola Sherhod is going to show me some of Bunyan's early
editions and translations of The Pilgrim's Progress. Hello, Nicola. - Hello. - Thank you for letting us see the library here at the Bunyan Museum. - No, that's fine. - I believe you've got some early editions of The Pilgrim's Progress to show us. - Yes, we have. So this is our third edition
of The Pilgrim's Progress. - Wow. - So there were 10
editions published within Bunyan's lifetime, and of those 10 we have a fifth, a third, and an eighth. There is very few first editions still available in the world. First editions and third
editions are incredibly rare, so we're very lucky to have this one, and this is straight
from the conservatist. Has come back, so it's been-- - [Andrew] It's beautiful. - Newly bound. They would have been
very cheaply produced. They would have just been read and loved until they fell apart
and then thrown away, so that's why there are so few of the early editions still around. There was this sort of
growth of interest in it which sort of peaked
during the Victorian times. It's said that more people had a copy of The Pilgrim's Progress than the Bible. - [Andrew] Goodness. - In their house. - So in the 19th century
when there was a lot of evangelism going on
throughout the world, I guess people used copies of
The Pilgrim's Progress then? - it was a very popular book used by the missionaries to go out. So this is Canton version from 1871. - Wow, it's beautiful. Yes. - [Nicola] And with-- - [Andrew] With illustrations.
- [Nicola] Yep. - There they are. That's beautiful. - This is in 1881. Turkish version. - [Andrew] Right, oh wow. Look at that. That's wonderful print and writing. - So we have a lot of African versions in various different dialects. Sort of initially the
translations would be sort of straight forward translation, and then there'd be European illustrations that would then go out to
all the different countries. And then after awhile you'd be seeing those countries adopting the story and reimagining it and re-illustrating it in their own style. This is sort of the
Western idea of the burden on the back has changed to the African way of carrying things. So the burden is very much on the head. - [Andrew] Yes, there it is on his head. - [Nicola] Yes. - Oh, interesting. Yes, the subtle changes
in the illustrations, yes. - So this is a Bengali version and you can see the front cover. The illustration is very much the Western, it's in English, but inside it's been obviously
translated into Bengali, and you've also got the
wonderful illustrations, that's painting characters. - [Andrew] Represent that culture. Beautiful, yes. - See, this is modern
Greek version from 1824. - [Andrew] There he is. You can recognize him there. - [Nicola] Yes. - But it's a lovely edition. You've really got an amazing collection. Priceless, I should think. - It's fantastic. It's such a sort of
significant collection, the fact that it's constantly growing, and we've got over 216 different languages and dialects that it's
been translated into. - So we know The Pilgrim's
Progress has been beautifully illustrated. Have you got an example of something you could show us? - Yes, I do, so if you just... - Wow. - So this is, um, you can
kind of see that difference between those early editions
of The Pilgrim's Progress, which were very sort of cheap and cheerful to this during the
Victorian Age that it was such a part of their life, and it was almost a status
symbol to have this. So you've got these
fantastically, ornately covered gold leaf books. - [Andrew] Almost like a Bible, isn't it? - Yes, it is. It would have been, it sat next to the Bible
in the home, as it where. - [Andrew] Revered. - And we've also got some, a few color illustrations
in this one as well. So this is an 1862, this book, so. - Beautiful, beautiful illustrations, yes. John Bunyan's The Holy
War was another book written in the style of an allegory, and it was published in 1682. - The captains went out
as they were commanded against the enemies. Captain Good Hope, Captain Charity, and those that were with them is Captain Innocent and Captain Experience went out against the doubters. And Captain Credence and Captain Patience with Captain Self Denial, and the rest that were to join with them went out against the Blood Men. - Peter, Bunyan's book The Holy War, what was that about? And can you tell us about
some of the main characters? - The Holy War was a significant book that Bunyan wrote. It's an allegory. There's the town of Mansoul representing the human soul and it is stormed by the devil Diabolus and his forces, and it falls. One of the characters
is a character called Captain Resistance and they, the devil and his forces, enter through the Ear-gate
after Captain Resistance has been shot. So it's vivid pictures of people just depicting the human soul and the battle over it between the devil and God. And the relieving forces come, so after Mansoul has fallen, the forces come of God's
and Prince Emmanuel representing Jesus, and they win back the town. So it was popular because
by the time it was written, everybody was into John Bunyan, but not quite as popular
as The Pilgrim's Progress. - And how many books did Bunyan write? - Some of them were
published after he died, but if you take those into account, it's about 60. So a tremendous number of books. Some of them sermons that were written up into book form, but some of them specially written books like The Pilgrim's
Progress and The Holy War. - The statue of John Bunyan in Bedford stands tall at the top of the High Street, emblematical of his Christian influence. Bunyan spent the years from 1672 onwards preaching, directing
the affairs of churches, and visiting churches and congregations in outlying counties as well as in London, and it was during this
period that he earned the nickname Bishop Bunyan. - And when you pray, rather let your heart be without words than your words without heart. - John Bunyan made a deed
of gift of his property to his wife, probably to avoid
confiscation during a period of renewed persecution. The will is on display
in the John Bunyan Museum and is dated 1685. John Bunyan would often
travel around preaching, and on one of his trips to London he rode through a great storm and got soaked to the skin. (thunder) When arriving at his friend's
house, John Strudwick, he became sick and died
a number of days later on the 31st of August, 1688. Bunyan was buried here in Bunhill Fields in City Road in London. Bunhill Fields is the
resting place of many famous people from history, including William Blake,
the poet and artist, Daniel Defoe, author of Robinson Crusoe, Susanna Wesley, and many famous dissenters and non-conformists. Peter, what would you say is the extent of Bunyan's influence
on the literary world? - The influence has been huge. In his own lifetime he was well-known. His books were translated into a number of European languages, but it was after his death that things really exploded in
terms of his popularity. So his works went around the world, the so-called modern missionary movement took his books out to every continent and they were translated
into a variety of languages, and people who were understanding about Jesus and who were
converting to Christianity read The Pilgrim's Progress and identified with the wonderful,
vivid characters in it. In the 20th century his
influence began to wane, certainly in popular consciousness, but in universities his
work began to be studied, his literary importance was recognized as a purveyor of popular Christianity, someone who could use words really well to communicate important concepts. But what I would say is that he should be recognized most of all as a man of faith. As someone who was a
deep Christian thinker, who loved God, who loved people, and wanted to communicate
Christianity to people. And just the very idea of journey that's in The Pilgrim's Progress. The idea of moving through life, a journey of discipleship. I think that connects really, really well with people today, so there is lots to appreciate. - The Pilgrim's Progress
continues to inspire Christians as it has done for centuries. Preachers like Charles
Wesley, George Whitfield, Charles Spurgeon, all
read Bunyan thoroughly. Charles Spurgeon has
this to say about Bunyan: "He had studied the Bible
'til his whole being "was saturated with scripture, "and through his writings he continually "makes us feel and say, "why, this man is a living Bible. "Prick him anywhere and you will find "that his blood is Bibline. "The very essence of the
Bible flows from him." Since its first
publication there have been well over 1000 editions
of The Pilgrim's Progress. Music, plays, and films
have told the story of Christian's pilgrimage
to the heavenly city. John Bunyan has left the literary world and the Christian world richer for his uncompromising faith and commitment through adversity to tell the world about the Biblical truths of God's word. Bunyan's works are still shining brightly, helping Christian pilgrims
find their way to Heaven. - God will not likely or
easily lose his people. He has provided well for us. Blood to wash us. A priest to pray for us, that we might be made to persevere, and if we foully fall, an advocate to plead our cause. His name is Jesus. (serene music)
