Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 55.djvu/431

 cope with the difficulties of the problem embittered his life and shortened his days. The see of Down and Connor was held by Henry Leslie [q. v.], now eighty years of age, one of the few bishops who had maintained a connection with his diocese throughout the troubles, and who, in a sermon printed in 1660 and prefaced by Taylor, claimed to be, ‘maugre all anti-christian opposition, bishop of Down and Connor.’ Leslie was designed for Meath, perhaps as early as 1656, if he be the person mentioned by Evelyn on 7 May of that year as ‘bishop of Meath’ (the see had been vacant since 1650). But he was not translated till 18 Jan. 1661; Taylor was appointed his successor by patent of 19 Jan. The long delay is insufficiently accounted for by Mant's suggestion of the ‘want of a new great seal.’ Meanwhile, by warrant of the privy council of 6 Aug. 1660, under the royal signet, Taylor was nominated to Down and Connor. Before the formalities were completed he was actively engaged in settling the affairs of the diocese. He was in Dublin on 3 Oct. 1660 acting as ‘procancellarius’ of Trinity College, though not sworn in till the following year. Shortly afterwards we find him in Down, having his abode at the residence of Arthur Hill [q. v.] at Hillsborough. The rectory of Uppingham was not filled till 1661.

The presbyterian settlers in the north of Ireland, of Scottish birth or descent, true to the monarchical terms of their solemn covenant, had synodically protested against the trial and execution of Charles I, in the unmeasured language which earned them Milton's derision as ‘blockish presbyters of Claneboye.’ Refusing the ‘engagement,’ their ministers were replaced for the most part under the Cromwellian rule by independents of various types. They had heartily promoted the Irish ‘general convention’ of February 1660, the harbinger of the Restoration; and from the convention they had received what was deemed in existing circumstances ‘a legal right to the tithe’ (, p. 235). Returning to Down, Taylor found them in possession, animated by a sense of grievances akin to his own, and persuaded that they were claiming no more than their due. In his dealings with the presbyterian gentry Taylor showed great judgment; his eloquence, his hospitality, his urbanity won them to the episcopal cause. His treatment of the ministers exhibited neither tact nor forbearance; and he greatly underrated their hold upon the robust middle classes, both in town and country. On 19 Dec. 1660 he writes to Ormonde, signing ‘Jer. Dunensis Elect.’ (a wrong style, the election of Irish bishops was abolished by Elizabeth); he had invited the presbyterian ministers to a ‘friendly conference,’ but they would ‘speak with no bishop.’ Their leaders in fact were laying their case before the privy council in Dublin. Taylor further complains that a committee of ‘Scotch spiders’ had examined his publications to find ‘poison,’ meaning probably Arminianism. He tells Ormonde he would rather ‘be a poor curate in a village church than a bishop over such intolerable persons;’ adding, ‘I will petition your excellency to give me some parsonage in Munster, that I may end my days in peace.’

On 27 Jan. 1661 Taylor was consecrated in St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, with eleven other prelates. The whole Irish hierarchy seems to have been present; but Henry Jones, D.D. [q. v.], who had drawn blood with Cromwell's army in his republican days, was not permitted to join in the imposition of hands. Taylor preached the consecration sermon, containing an able patristic argument for the divine authority of the episcopal office. In February he was sworn of the Irish privy council; he returned to Hillsborough before 17 Feb. (Rawdon Papers, p. 125). Writing to Ormonde on 28 March, he describes himself as ‘perpetually contending with the worst of the Scotch ministers,’ and asks to be translated to Meath, likely soon to fall vacant; in a postscript he suggests the arrangement afterwards carried out in regard to Dromore, a diocese consisting chiefly of the south-western part of co. Down. Henry Leslie died on 7 April; on 30 April Taylor was nominated for Dromore by warrant under the privy seal, specifying his ‘virtue, wisdom, and industry’ as grounds for the additional preferment; Meath was given (25 May) to Henry Jones; Robert Leslie was translated from Dromore to Raphoe on 20 June; and on 21 June Taylor was appointed by patent ‘administrator’ of Dromore diocese. On the ruins of the cathedral he built the present structure, consecrated 1661. Meanwhile he had preached (8 May) at the opening of the Irish parliament. His sermon on civil authority treats ‘the biggest part of dissenters’ as ‘criminally disobedient,’ maintains that ‘he that obeys his superior can never be a heretic in the estimate of law and he can never be a schismatic in the point of conscience,’ affirms that ‘for a private spirit to oppose the public is a disorder greater than is in hell itself;’ yet pleads strongly for justice, ‘the simplest thing in the world,’ due ‘alike to Jew and Christian, Lutheran and Calvinist,’ and ‘the way to win them.’