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The Organizational Response of Nonconformity to Repression and Indulgence: The Case of Bedfordshire

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

Richard L. Greaves
Richard L. Greaves
Affiliation:
Professor of history in The Florida State University, Tallahassee.
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Extract

In the 1670s John Bunyan and his Nonconformist colleagues put into effect an organizational plan developed during the imprisonment years prior to 1672. The purpose of the plan was to provide a network of preachers and teachers in the local villages throughout northern Bedfordshire and contiguous areas that would be strong enough to withstand further persecution. As the plan was put into effect, it brought Bunyan into closer contact with other Nonconformists to the south and east, as far away as London. Ironically the plan was formulated when Bunyan and others were imprisoned together at Bedford for their Nonconformity. Their success vividly illustrates the failure of the Stuart government to suppress these men of faith.

Type
Research Article
Information
Church History , Volume 44 , Issue 4 , December 1975 , pp. 472 - 484
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1975

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