a short time a prisoner at Chepstow. Evelyn heard him again in London on 14 March 1655; from May to October of that year he was again a prisoner at Chepstow; on 17 Nov. he writes from Mandinam, parish of Llangadock, Carmarthenshire, his second wife's estate. In 1656–8 there are glimpses of him in Evelyn's ‘Diary:’ meeting Boyle and Wilkins at Sayes Court; obtaining orders for ‘a young Frenchman’ from an Irish bishop; and baptising Evelyn's fourth son. His own letter of 22 Feb. 1656–7 (Sloane MS. 4274, No. 127) refers to the death, apparently in Wales, of his ‘two sweet hopeful boys,’ and of his intention to bring his remaining son to London ‘before Easter;’ it is probable that from that date he severed his connection with Wales. The loss of his sons affected him deeply; nor did he ever completely regain the tranquil serenity of spirit which had carried him through his former troubles, and is reflected in the rich literary products of his retirement, unsurpassed for nobility of tone as well as for the marvellous and varied beauty of the pictorial vesture of his thought. His ‘Ductor Dubitantium,’ though finally recast at Portmore, was shown to Evelyn, as already ‘fitted for the presse,’ on 25 March 1657. The ‘moral demonstration’ of Christianity in this work was called forth by his intercourse at this period with Edward Herbert, first lord Herbert of Cherbury [q. v.]
In July and August 1657 Taylor was drawn into a controversial correspondence with Henry Jeanes [q. v.] Jeanes, a keen and eager disputant, undertook to show that Taylor had tripped in his argument on original sin; Taylor rather fenced with the objection, which evidently annoyed him. As Taylor had as yet no connection with Ireland, it is singular that Jeanes, in declining to accept Taylor's position as free from unsoundness, says he shall ‘never think that you sit upon a chair made of Irish timber, that cannot endure a venomous spider to hang his web thereon.’ In publishing the correspondence he bears remarkable testimony to Taylor's ‘admirable wit, great parts, quick and elegant pen, his abilites [sic] in criticall learning, and his profound skil in antiquity.’
From March 1657 to June 1658 Taylor officiated in London to a small congregation of episcopalians; Evelyn mentions his celebration of the eucharist on 7 March 1658. Overtures were made to him, through Evelyn, by Edward Conway, second viscount Conway, to accept a weekly stipendiary lectureship at Lisburn, co. Antrim. He at first (14 May 1658) declined it; the stipend was ‘inconsiderable’ and the position ‘arbitrary,’ for the triers might ‘overthrow it,’ or the vicar forbid it, or the subscribers fall off. Conway persisted in his application, and in June 1658 Taylor removed to Portmore in the parish of Ballinderry, eight miles from Lisburn. Cromwell furnished him with ‘a pass and a protection for himself and his family under his sign manual and privy signet’ (Rawdon Papers, p. 189). His residence was near Conway's splendid mansion at Portmore; he had also a study (‘amœnissimus recessus’) on Sallagh Island in Portmore Lough (Lough Beg). A somewhat uncertain tradition affirms that he often officiated in the old parish church of Ballinderry, of which the ruins still stand in the marshes west of Portmore Lough; the rebuilding of this church on another site is ascribed to him, but incorrectly, for the date of the new erection is 1668.
Patrick Adair [q. v.], a hostile witness, bears testimony to Taylor's ‘courteous carriage’ in his new situation. His anticipations of the insecurity of his position were realised in less than a year. At the end of May or beginning of June 1659 articles were exhibited against him by ‘a presbyterian and a madman’ (anabaptist?); the former was Tandy, apparently a government official. The main charge was using the sign of the cross in baptism. The commissioners in Dublin issued orders (11 Aug.) directing Lieutenant-colonel Bryan Smyth, governor of Carrickfergus, to send Taylor up to them for examination. The minutes of council contain no record of his appearance. On 5 Oct. he was in his study at Portmore, putting the finishing touch to his ‘Ductor Dubitantium.’ His letter (10 Feb. 1660) tells Evelyn that, some time after 2 Dec., he ‘had beene, in the worst of our winter weather, sent for to Dublin by our late anabaptist commissioners’ (they were ousted on 13 Dec. 1659) and had suffered in his health.
In April 1660 Taylor repaired to London. He signed the royalist ‘declaration’ of 24 April, and dedicated to Charles II his ‘Ductor Dubitantium,’ now put to press, and issued in June. His promotion to the episcopate naturally followed on the restoration of the hierarchy; among the ranks of the deprived clergy there was no more illustrious name. But the preferment assigned to him was not for his peace. Considering the temper of the times, it was an ill-judged step to set him over a diocese where his experience of the contentions of parties must have left some soreness of personal feeling. His strenuous endeavour to
