under the government of Cromwell, Bunyan was persecuted for his
religious opinions and practices. Mr. Jukes, in his interesting
History of Bunyan's Church, thus refers to it: 'Soon after he had
resigned the office of deacon in 1657, the hand of persecution was
raised against him; for at a meeting of the church, held on the
25th day of the twelfth month, in the same year (Feb. 1658), it
was agreed that the 3d day of the next month be set apart to seek
God in the behalf of our brother Wheeler, who hath been long ill in
body, whereby his ministry hath been hindered; and also about the
church affairs, and the affairs of the nation; and for our brother
Whitbread, who has long been ill; and also for counsel what to do
with respect to the indictment of brother Bunyan at the assizes,
for preaching at Eaton.'[188]

Although persecution for religious opinions assumed a milder form
under the Commonwealth, the great principles of religious freedom
and equality were neither known nor practiced. The savage barbarities
perpetrated upon Prynne, Bastwick, Burton, Leighton, and others,
by Charles I and his archbishop, Laud, were calculated to open the
eyes of the nation to the wickedness and inutility of sanguinary
or even any laws to govern the conscience, or interfere with Divine
worship. Alas! even those who suffered and survived became, in
their turn, persecutors. The great object of persecution was the
book of Common Prayer, the use of which was rigorously prohibited.
The clergy were placed in an extremely awkward predicament. No
sooner was the Act of Parliament passed ordering the Directory to
be used and the Prayer-book to be laid aside, than the king, by his
royal proclamation, issued from Oxford, November 13, 1645, ordered
the Directory to be set aside, and the Common Prayer to be used
in all the churches and chapels. Both these orders were under very