1671 JOHN BUNYAN. Original "Peter Lely" School Painted Year He was Imprisoned. Superb.

A moodily preserved 1671 painting of John Bunyan, created the year Bunyan was elected as Pastor of the Bedford Meetinghouse while in prison.  Noted on the rear in early black letter sepia ink as having been painted when he was 43 years of age [1671], this would have been during the period he was in prison either just before or after his election to become the Pastor of the Bedford Meeting House. He was elected to the position prior to his release in 1672, while he was still in prison for non-conformity.  At the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, non-conformists of all kinds, including Baptists, found their right of assembly drastically curtailed by application of the rarely-applied Conventicle Act of 1593. It forbade people from attending a religious gathering other than their parish church that included more than five persons not related to the person leading the worship. It carried of a 3 month sentence to be accompanied by banishment from England or execution if the perso