When Bunyan was 16 years old, he served in the parliamentary army at Newport Pagnell (1644 - 1647). After that, he started to work as a tinker, and in 1649, he married. His wife had two books, both of which were religious books. Bunyan started to be influenced by religion. He became very frightened because he realized he had done things which were wrong, and he wondered whether God would forgive him, so that he would go to heaven when he died, or whether he would be punished and go to hell. The kind of things he did which at that time were thought to be wrong (sins) were not things which would worry many people nowadays: ringing church bells, dancing, playing games on Sundays and, perhaps the worst of all, swearing. Other wrongs he had done in the past included disrespecting his parents, and very likely causing, or at least unremorsefully (unsorrowfully) helping along the early death of his mother and sister - which he did by refusing to take any of the burden or workload at home. It was only for lack of money that he did not spend his time with prostitutes, though he longed to join the gambling and "painted women" who attended fairs and other public events. In his book "Grace Abounding" Bunyan describes himself as the “Chief of Sinners”. He tells how one day he was walking along when he heard a group of women talking to one another about salvation. This made him think about these things.