John Bunyan's court case
The Breedlove Papers
One of the most significant finds related to the
legal history of England in the years immediately following the Commonwealth
Period was the discovery among the papers of Thomas Breedlove, of nearly a
thousand verbatim accounts of primarily minor trials conducted between 1660
and 1675.
Among the sheaves found were those recording the
proceedings of His Majesty, King Charles II, against John Bunyan, the author
of Pilgrim's Progress, who spent 10 years in an English prison for his
religious convictions.
PROCEEDINGS, being a true account of the trial of
John Bunyan, Tinker, of Bedfordshire, His Lordship, Judge Wingate presiding at
the Courthouse in Bedfordshire on October 3, in the Year of our Lord, 1660.
The Accused is charged with willful and deliberate Violation of various and
sundry Royal and Parliamentary Edicts. His Trial this Day, however, respects a
single Charge:
namely, Violation of the Conventicle Act, first
proposed by Her Most High and Mighty Majesty, our Late Beloved Queen
Elizabeth, and reinstated by His Beneficent Highness, King Charles II. All
Parties being in Place, and the Witnesses having been sworn, the trial
proceeds.
Judge Wingate: Mr. Bunyan, you stand before
this Court accused of persistent and willful transgression of the Conventicle
Act, which prohibits all British subjects from absenting themselves from
worship in the Church of England, and from conducting worship services apart
from our Church. You come, presumably, with no legal training, and yet without
counsel. I must warn you, sir, of the gravity of the charge, the harshness of
the penalty, in the event of your conviction, and the foolhardiness of acting
as your own counsel in so serious a matter. Are you cognizant of these facts,
and do you understand the charge?
Bunyan: I am, and I do,
M'lord.
Judge Wingate: In truth, I hope you do. Now,
I hold in my hand the depositions of the witnesses against you. In each case,
they have testified that, to their knowledge, you have never, in your adult
life, attended services in the church of this parish. Each further testifies
that he has observed you, on numerous occasions, conducting religious
exercises in and near Bedford. These depositions have been read to you, have
they not?
Bunyan: They have M'lord.
Judge Wingate: In that case, then, this Court
would be profoundly interested in your response to them.
Bunyan: Thank you, M'lord. And may I say
,that I am grateful for the opportunity to respond. Firstly, the depositions
speak the truth. I have never attended services in the Church of England, nor
do I intend ever to do so. Secondly, it is no secret that I preach the word of
God whenever, wherever, and to whomever He pleases to grant me opportunity to
do so. Having said that, M'lord, there is a weightier issue that I am
constrained to address, I have no choice but to acknowledge my awareness of
the law which I am accused of transgressing. Likewise, I have no choice but to
confess my guilt in my transgression of it. As true as these things are, I
must affirm that I neither regret breaking the law, nor repent of having
broken it. Further, I must warn you that I have no intention in future of
conforming to it. It is, on its face, an unjust law, a law against which
honorable men cannot shrink from protesting. In truth, M'lord, it violates an
infinitely higher law - the right of every man to seek God in his own way,
unhindered by any temporal power, That, M'lord, is my
response.
Judge Wingate: This Court would remind you,
sir, that we are not here to debate the merits of the law. We are here to
determine if you are, in fact, guilty of violating it.
Bunyan: Perhaps, M'lord, that is why you are
here, but it is most certainly not why I am here. I am here because you compel
me to be here. All I ask is to be left alone to preach and to teach as God
directs me. As, however, I must be here, I cannot fail to use these
circumstances to speak against what I know to be an unjust and odious
edict.
Judge Wingate: Let me understand you. You are
arguing that every man has a right, given him by Almighty God, to seek the
Deity in his own way, even if he chooses, without benefit of the English
Church?
Bunyan: That is precisely what I am arguing
M'lord. Or without benefit of any church.
Judge Wingate: Do you know what you are
saying? What of Papists and Quakers? What of pagan Muhammadans? Have these the
right to seek God in their own misguided way?
Bunyan: Even these M'lord.
Judge Wingate: May I ask if you are
particularly sympathetic to the views of these or other such deviant religious
societies?
Bunyan: I am not, M'lord.
Judge Wingate: Yet, you affirm a God given
right to hold any alien religious doctrine that appeals to the warped minds of
men?
Bunyan: I do, M'lord.
Judge Wingate: I find your views impossible
of belief. And what of those who, if left to their own devices, would have no
interest in things heavenly? Have they the right to be allowed to continue
unmolested in their error?
Bunyan: It is my fervent belief that they do
M'lord.
Judge Wingate: And on what basis, might I
ask, can you make such a rash affirmation?
Bunyan: On the basis, M'lord, that a man's
religious views - or lack of them - are matters between his conscience and his
God, and are not the business of the Crown, the Parliament, or even, with all
due respect, M'lord, of this Court. However much I may be in disagreement with
another man's sincerely held religious beliefs, neither I nor any other may
disallow his right to hold those beliefs. No man's rights in these affairs are
secure if every other which you speak, M'lord, are symbols not of a right, but
of a privilege. Implied therein is the principle that a mere man can extend or
withhold them according to his whim. I speak not of privileges, but of rights.
Privileges granted by men may be denied by men. Rights are granted by
God, and can be legitimately denied by no man. I must therefore, refuse to
comply.
Judge Wingate: Very well, Mr. Bunyan. Since
you persist in your intractability, and since you reject this Court's honest
effort at compromise, you leave us no choice but to commit you to Bedford jail
for a period of six years. If you manage to survive, I should think that your
experience will correct your thinking. If you fail to survive, that will be
unfortunate. In any event, I strongly suspect that we have heard the last we
shall ever hear from Mr. John Bunyan. Now, may we hear the next
case.
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Last Updated October 31, 1999 by Douglas
McKay