Jeremy Taylor


Jeremy Taylor
Bishop of Down and Connor
Taylor in a posthumous portrait by Eden Upton Eddis at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge
ChurchChurch of Ireland
DioceseDown and Connor
In office1661–1667
PredecessorHenry Leslie
SuccessorRoger Boyle
Orders
Ordination1633
Consecration27 January 1661
by John Bramhall
Personal details
Bornbefore 15 August 1613
Died13 August 1667(1667-08-13) (aged 53–54)
NationalityEnglish
DenominationAnglicanism
EducationThe Perse School
Alma materGonville and Caius College, Cambridge
Sainthood
Feast day13 August
Venerated inAnglican Communion

Jeremy Taylor (1613–1667) was a cleric in the Church of England who achieved fame as an author during the Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell. He is sometimes known as the "Shakespeare of Divines" for his poetic style of expression, and he is frequently cited as one of the greatest prose writers in the English language.[1][2]

Taylor was under the patronage of William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury. He went on to become chaplain in ordinary to King Charles I as a result of Laud's sponsorship. This made him politically suspect when Laud was tried by Parliament and executed in January 1644/5 during the English Civil War. After the parliamentary victory over the King, he was briefly imprisoned several times.

Eventually, he was allowed to live quietly in Wales, where he became the private chaplain of the Earl of Carbery. After the Restoration, he was made Bishop of Down and Connor in Ireland. He also became Vice-Chancellor of the University of Dublin.

He is remembered in the liturgical calendars of the Church of England and other Anglican churches.

  1. ^ Saintsbury, George (1919). A First Book of English Literature. London: Macmillan. p. 121.
  2. ^ Gosse, Edmund (1903). Jeremy Taylor. London: Macmillan. p. 218.