Jeremy Taylor Biography Quotes 25 Report mistakes

Early life and education
Jeremy Taylor was born in Cambridge in 1613 and educated there from an early age. He showed unusual command of language and memory, and he advanced quickly at the university, taking his degrees in the early 1630s. Ordained in his early twenties, he entered the ranks of the clergy with a reputation for eloquence that soon brought him into circles where scholarship, ceremonial piety, and loyalty to the Church of England were closely linked.

Patronage of William Laud and service to Charles I
Taylor first came to wide notice when a London sermon before a discerning audience reached the ears of William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury. Laud, impressed by the young preacher's learning and style, drew him to Oxford and secured for him preferment that included a fellowship at All Souls and, not long after, the living of Uppingham in Rutland. Taylor also served as chaplain to King Charles I, preaching in royal and university settings and aligning himself with the Laudian vision of a learned and ordered church. These years formed the cadence of his theology: patristic in sources, richly rhetorical, and deeply sacramental.

Civil War, captivity, and retreat to Wales
The outbreak of the English Civil War disrupted his rising career. Loyal to the king and the episcopal church, Taylor attached himself to the royalist cause and ministered as a chaplain in royalist strongholds. The fighting and its aftermath led to hardship, including episodes of arrest and brief imprisonment under parliamentary authority. After the royalist collapse he found refuge in Carmarthenshire under the protection of Richard Vaughan, the Earl of Carbery, at Golden Grove (Gelli Aur). There he taught, ministered discreetly, and entered the most creative period of his authorship.

Writings and theological outlook
At Golden Grove he wrote The Rule and Exercises of Holy Living (1650) and The Rule and Exercises of Holy Dying (1651), companion books whose meditative prose, moral counsel, and liturgical imagination set the standard for Anglican devotion. He had already published The Liberty of Prophesying (1647), a bold plea for restrained judgment and tolerance in disputes of doctrine, arguing that fallible interpreters ought to treat one another with charity. Other works followed: The Great Exemplar (a life of Christ), essays and sermons later collected in the Eniautos volumes, and treatises on the Eucharist including The Real Presence of Christ in the Holy Sacrament. He engaged opponents on several fronts, arguing against both rigid Puritanism and Roman Catholic claims as he understood them, while holding fast to a generous moral theology shaped by the Fathers.

Friends, patrons, and trials during the Interregnum
Taylor's fortunes during the Commonwealth were precarious. He endured further confinement for short periods, and friends helped him navigate these risks. Among them was the diarist John Evelyn, who admired Taylor's preaching and corresponded with him, offering assistance when he could. Patronage at Golden Grove provided shelter and an audience for his pastoral work, and the household there gave its name to his manual of prayers and meditations, often called the Golden Grove.

Restoration, Irish episcopate, and university leadership
The Restoration of Charles II brought Taylor back into public life. With strong support from the crown and the Irish administration led by James Butler, Duke of Ormonde, he was appointed Bishop of Down and Connor, and he also exercised authority in Dromore. He was named vice-chancellor of the University of Dublin, a recognition of his learning and his usefulness to the reconstituted Church of Ireland. In Ulster he faced a predominantly Presbyterian population. Charged with restoring episcopal order and the Book of Common Prayer, he proceeded with firmness that sometimes sat uneasily beside the irenic language of his earlier writings, suspending or depriving ministers who would not conform. From this period came major publications such as Ductor Dubitantium, a substantial work on conscience and casuistry, The Worthy Communicant on sacramental preparation, and A Dissuasive from Popery, reflecting the mixed confessional context of Ireland and his pastoral concern to instruct those wavering between churches. He relied on capable clergy, among them his friend and chaplain George Rust, who later became Bishop of Dromore.

Style, character, and influence
Taylor's prose is richly figurative, drawing on Scripture, the Fathers, classical literature, and the texture of ordinary life. He is often grouped with the Caroline divines and has been celebrated as the Shakespeare of divines for the amplitude of his imagery and rhythm. His Holy Living and Holy Dying became enduring guides for personal devotion well beyond Anglican circles, prized for their humane moral vision, their counsel on prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, and their frank but consoling meditations on mortality. The Liberty of Prophesying influenced later arguments for religious toleration, while Ductor Dubitantium gave generations of pastors a handbook for the cure of souls amid complex moral questions.

Personal life and final years
Taylor married and was widowed, and he later married again; like many of his contemporaries, he knew private grief as well as public reversals. He carried his household with him into the shifting landscapes of war, refuge, and restoration, and in Ireland he shouldered the heavy demands of episcopal visitation, controversy, and rebuilding after years of disruption. He died in 1667, reportedly at Lisburn, and was buried in his Irish diocese. His reputation long outlived the political storms that shaped his career, standing as a witness to learning joined to pastoral care, and to a piety at once disciplined and generous.

Our collection contains 25 quotes who is written by Jeremy, under the main topics: Ethics & Morality - Wisdom - Truth - Friendship - Love.