Jeremy Taylor

Jeremy Taylor 1613-67, English bishop and theological and devotional writer. He was distinguished as a preacher and as the author of some of the most noted religious works in English. After completing his studies at Cambridge and taking (1633) holy orders, he was nominated (1635) by Archbishop Laud to a fellowship at All Souls College, Oxford. He became chaplain to Laud and rector (1638) of Uppingham, Rutlandshire, but as a chaplain-in-ordinary to Charles I, Taylor left his country church to serve the king at the outbreak (1642) of the civil war. After a royalist defeat (1645) before Cardigan Castle, in Wales, he was briefly imprisoned. In 1645 he became principal of a school in Caermarthenshire, Wales, and served as private chaplain to the 2d earl of Carbery, at whose home, Golden Grove, Taylor wrote some of his most distinguished works. His period of greatest literary production was between 1646 and 1660. The Liberty of Prophesying (1647) was a noteworthy call for toleration. His Great Exemplar … the Life and Death of Jesus Christ (1649) was followed by other books of devotion— Holy Living (1650), Holy Dying (1651), The Golden Grove (1655), and The Worthy Communicant (1660). His learned Ductor Dubitantium ; or, The Rule of Conscience (1660) was dedicated to Charles II. After the Restoration (1660) he was given the bishopric of Down and Connor, in Ireland, and appointed vice-chancellor of Trinity College, Dublin. At Dromore, which was added to his see, Taylor built (1661) the church in which he is buried. His tenure (1660-67) as bishop was a period of turbulent dispute with the Presbyterian ministers who refused to acknowledge episcopal jurisdiction. Taylor has been called the Shakespeare and the Spenser of the pulpit. A number of his sermons were published; many critics consider that in them his mastery of fine metaphor and his poetic imagination are best revealed. Taylor's Whole Works (ed. with an admirable biography by Reginald Heber, 15 vol., 1822) was edited and revised by C. P. Eden (10 vol., 1847-52). The Golden Grove, with selected passages from Taylor's sermons and writings, was edited in 1930 by Logan Pearsall Smith and contains a bibliography of Taylor's works by Robert Gathorne-Hardy.

Bibliography: See biographies by E. Gosse (1904, repr. 1968) and C. J. Stranks (1952); studies by H. T. Hughes (1960) and F. L. Huntley (1970).

Taylor, Jeremy (1613–67), Church of Ireland bishop and noted devotional writer, theologian, and preacher. Born and educated at Cambridge (BA 1631, MA 1634), Taylor was closely associated with the high church regime of Archbishop William Laud of Canterbury and with the royalist cause in the English civil wars. In 1658 he accepted a lectureship near Lisburn, Co. Antrim, and after the Restoration was made bishop of Down and Connor (consecrated 27 Jan. 1661), to which was added the responsibility for administering the diocese of Dromore. Down and Connor were a stronghold of Irish Presbyterianism, and Taylor repeatedly clashed with Presbyterian ministers in his efforts to impose uniformity. Unhappy in Ireland, he sought translation to England, but was unsuccessful and died at Lisburn on 13 August 1667. His main achievements were his stylish prose works, which include A Dissuasive from Popery (1664), The Rule and Exercises of Holy Living (1651), The Rule and Exercises of Holy Dying (1668), and Doctor Dubitantium, or the Rule of Conscience (1660).

Alan Ford

Taylor, Jeremy (1613–67). Bishop of Down and Connor. Born in Cambridge, and educated at Gonville and Caius College, he was successively fellow of All Souls, Oxford (1635), rector of Uppingham (1638), and chaplain to Charles I. After joining the royalist army he was captured (1645), but after release lived in Carmarthenshire as chaplain to Lord Carberry where he wrote Liberty of Prophesying and the devotional works Holy Living and Holy Dying. After a spell in London ministering to episcopalians (1653–8) and as lecturer at Lisburn (Ireland) (1658), he became bishop of Down and Connor (1661). The presbyterians there would ‘talk with no bishop’ and Taylor ejected 36 ministers. His severity ensured the establishment of presbyterians as a separate ecclesiastical community. His plea to Sheldon for a move to England (1664) was unheeded and he died at Lisburn.

Revd Dr William M. Marshall