The
only suggestions of those disastrous latter years of the reign of
Charles the Second, are some doubtful allusions to the rise and fall of
persecution, few of which can be clearly identified with any particular
events.
There are several interesting indications that Bunyan made use of recent
and contemporary secular literature. The demonology of the _Pilgrim's
Progress_ is quite different from that of the _Holy War_. It used to be
suggested that Bunyan had altered his views in consequence of the
publication of Milton's _Paradise Regained_, which appeared in 1671.
That was when it was generally supposed that he had written the
_Pilgrim's Progress_ in his earlier imprisonment. If, as is now
conceded, it was in the later imprisonment that he wrote the book, this
theory loses much of its plausibility, for Milton published his
_Paradise Regained_ before the first edition of the _Pilgrim's Progress_
was penned. It is, of course, always possible that between the
_Pilgrim's Progress_ and the _Holy War_ Bunyan may have seen Milton's
work, or may have been told about it, for he certainly changed his
demonology and made it more like Milton's.
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