The Tinker Who Chose the Cell Over Silence

In 1661, a Bedford tinker named John Bunyan stood before English magistrates who offered him a simple bargain: stop preaching and go home to your family. Bunyan was not ordained. He had no university credentials. The authorities considered his open-air sermons a nuisance and a violation of the Conventicle Act, which forbade unlicensed religious gatherings. Bunyan had a blind daughter, Mary, who depended on him.…