fought and suffered. Charles II.
cared as little for liberty as his father or his brother, but he
wished to set free the Catholics, and as a step towards it he conceded
a general toleration to the Protestant Dissenters. Within two years of
the passing of the Conventicle Act of 1670, this and every other penal
law against Nonconformists was suspended. They were allowed to open
their 'meeting houses' for 'worship and devotion,' subject only to a
few easy conditions. The localities were to be specified in which
chapels were required, and the ministers were to receive their
licenses from the Crown. To prevent suspicions, the Roman Catholics
were for the present excluded from the benefit of the concession. Mass
could be said, as before, only in private houses. A year later the
Proclamation was confirmed by Act of Parliament.

Thus Bunyan's long imprisonment was ended. The cause was won. He had
been its foremost representative and champion, and was one of the
first persons to receive the benefit of the change of policy. He was
now forty-four years old. The order for his release was signed on May
8, 1672. His license as pastor of the Baptist chapel at Bedford was
issued on the 9th. He established himself in a small house in the
town. 'When he came abroad,' says one, 'he found his temporal affairs
were gone to wreck, and he had as to them to begin again as if he had
newly come into the world. But yet he was not destitute of friends who
had all along supported him with necessaries, and had been very good
to his family: so that by their assistance, getting things a little
about him again, he resolved, as much as possible, to decline worldly
business, and give himself wholly up to the service of God.' As much
as possible; but not entirely. In 1685, being afraid of a return of
persecution, he made over, as a precaution, his whole estate to his
wife; 'All and singular his goods, chattels, debts, ready money,
plate, rings, household stuff, apparel, utensils, brass, pewter,
bedding, and all his other substance.' In this deed he still describes
himself as a brazier. The language is that of a man in easy, if not
ample circumstances. 'Though by reason of losses which he sustained by
imprisonment,' says another biographer, 'his treasures swelled not to
excess, he always had sufficient to live decently and creditably.' His
writings and his sufferings had made him famous throughout England. He
became the actual head of the Baptist community