The Breedlove Papers concerning John Bunyan’s Trial (see here) is a salutary reminder of what took place leading to John Bunyan (author of Pilgrim’s Progress) being convicted and thrown into jail for NOT agreeing to refrain from preaching the gospel.

John Bunyan is one of my all time heroes, and his book, Pilgrim’s Progress, my favourite of all time. This story is a salutary reminder of what once took place and may happen again and does. The sobering fact is we are seeing opposition to authentic religion play out in our day. The blessed fact is no-one knows or cares about players in Bunyan’s trial, but countless numbers have been blessed by his work and witness.

“Thomas Breedlove was an English legal scribe whose job it was to record court proceedings. Breedlove passed from the scene around 1675 leaving nearly one-thousand verbatim accounts of primarily minor trials from the period of 1660 to 1675, this during the time of King Charles II. What follows is the transcript of the trial of His Majesty, King Charles II, against John Bunyan, tinker and sometime preacher of a relatively new and strange–as well as illegal cult–known as Baptists. (For purposes of readability, Breedlove’s language and spelling has been modernized. The substance of the record remains unchanged, however, the necessity of copious footnotes to explain archaic language has been eliminated.) …” Click on the link above to read on.