There are more ways than ever to listen to History Daily ad-free. Listen with Wondry Plus in the Wondry app. As a member of NoisorPlus at noisor.com or in Apple Podcasts, or you can get all of History Daily plus other fantastic history podcasts at IntoHistory.com. Thank you. It's November 12th, 1660, in Samson, a tiny hamlet in central England.

31-year-old John Bunyan wraps on the door of a farmhouse. There's a chill to the early winter air.

John rubs his arms to keep from shivering.

He's visited this home to preach before,

but he's never had to wait like this to be invited in.

He knocks again, and for a brief moment,

John wonders if he's gotten himself mixed up

and arrived on the wrong day.

But then the door suddenly swings open,

and an arm reaches out and pulls John roughly inside. John takes a moment to straighten his jacket,

while the homeowner apologizes. He says he wasn't sure who it was, and he thinks his house is

being watched. He's heard there's a warrant out for John's arrest, too.

In recent months, many nonconformists like them have been arrested for practicing any faith other than that approved by the Anglican Church. So John knows that by continuing to preach,

he is breaking the law, but he believes it's God's will. And despite his host's fears, he insists that

they go ahead as planned. The host leads John down a narrow hall to the meeting room. A small

group of worshippers waits there in silence. Like John, they're all dressed in simple and somber

clothes, clutching Bibles in their hands. John looks from face to face and smiles.

He's just about to begin when there's another knock on the door. John exchanges glances with his

host. Everyone grips their bibles a little tighter because they have uninvited guests and

they've not come to hear John preach.

The men at the door are from the local magistrate, and they arrest John Bunyan before he can preach one word. At first, being jailed will seem like a catastrophe to John, but soon he will

come to see his imprisonment as part of God's plan, because within the

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