wrote to the Rev. Henry More that he had vacated his place 'through the damps' of Oxford, and through his love of private life, but he had been promised other preferment; and Humphry Prideaux says that he sold the headship of the college (Letters, Camd. Soc. p. 137).
On 16 June 1662 he had been appointed to the lectureship at Carfax. During 1661 and 1662 many famous sermons were preached by him in London, including one delivered on 1 Feb. 1662-3 before the king at Whitehall against the Roman catholic church. This pronouncement produced a furious controversy. Within a year it ran through at least eight editions, and it was translated and printed in several foreign languages. Two replies by J. S., usually attributed to John Sergeant, were published in 1663, and it was also answered by S. C., i.e. Serenus Cressy. The Rev. Daniel Whitby, fellow of Trinity College, Oxford, Meric Casaubon in 1665, and John Dobson defended Pierce, who himself retorted in 'A Specimen of Mr. Cressy's Misadventures,' which was prefixed to Dr. John Sherman's 'Infallibility of the Holy Scriptures.' Pepys heard Pierce preach on 8 April 1663, and described him as having 'as much of natural eloquence as most men that ever I heard in my life, mixed with so much learning.' Many years later Evelyn complained of a sermon by him at Whitehall 'against our late schismatics,' that it was 'a rational discourse, but a little oversharp, and not at all proper for the auditory there.'
On 4 May 1675 Pierce was admitted and installed as dean of Salisbury. But his past troubles had not taught him the art of living in peace with his neighbours. He quarrelled with his chapter, and its members appealed to the archbishop. He invited a quarrel with his bishop, Seth Ward, by ranging himself with the choir against episcopal monition (Jones, Salisbury Diocese, pp. 246-8). A more serious trouble arose between his diocesan and himself about 1683, when his only surviving son, Robert Pierce, was denied a prebendal stall in the cathedral. The dean much resented this refusal, and in revenge entangled the bishop in controversy, through 'black and dismal malice.' He asserted that the dignities connected with the cathedral church of Salisbury were in the gift of the crown, and communicated this view to the ecclesiastical commissioners. By their command he wrote a 'Narrative' in the king's interest, and the bishop answered it with a similar 'Narrative.' These circulated in manuscript, and the dean followed up his action by printing anonymously and for private circulation in 1683 'A Vindication of the King's Sovereign Right.' This was also printed as an appendix to the 'History and Antiquities of Cathedral of Salisbury and Abbey of Bath,' 1723. Through this controversy the hapless Bishop Ward was forced to visit London several times 'in unseasonable time and weather,' and the exertion hastened his death (Wood, Athenæ, iv. 250-1; Disraeli, Quarrels of Authors, 1814 edit., iii. 307-9; see also Report of the Cathedral Commission, 1854, pp. 412-14; and Tanner MSS. Bodleian Library).
The dean had purchased an estate in the parish of North Tidworth, a few miles north of Amesbury in Wiltshire. He died there on 28 March 1691, and was buried in the churchyard of Tidworth. At his funeral there was given to every mourner a copy of his book entitled 'Death considered as a Door to a Life of Glory [anon.] Printed for the Author's private use,' n.d. [1690 ?] There was erected over his grave 'a fabric or roof, supported by four pillars of freestone, representing a little banquetting house,' with a plain stone, and simple inscription under it. A more elaborate inscription, made by himself a little before his death, was engraved on a brass plate fastened to the roof of the church, and is now on the north wall inside the building. A fragment of the external monument still remains, but the canopy has disappeared, the stones having been used for some repair of the church (Stratford, Wiltshire Worthies, pp. 126-7). Pierce's wife Susanna died in June 1696, and was also buried in the churchyard of North Tidworth. An infant son, Paul, died in February 1657, and was buried in the chancel of Brington church, where an epitaph commemorated his memory. The son, Robert, became rector of North Tidworth in 1680, and through the favour of Anne, then princess of Denmark, was appointed prebendary of Chardstock in Salisbury Cathedral in 1689. He retained both these preferments until his death in 1707.
Pierce was an executor to Bishop Warner of Rochester, who left him a legacy of 200l., and the Latin verses on the bishop's tomb at Rochester were probably by him. He himself gave books and money to the library of Magdalen College, and 70l. for rebuilding St. Paul's Cathedral. He encouraged by his patronage William Walker the grammarian, Dr. Thomas Smith, and John Rogers the musician. The learning and controversial abilities of Pierce are undoubted, and he was a stout champion of the doctrines of his church; but his fierce temper provoked the rancour of his opponents, and his works did more harm
