Holy Living and Holy Dying
Encyclopedia
Holy Living and Holy Dying is the collective title of two books of Christian
devotion by Jeremy Taylor
. They were originally published as The Rules and Exercises of Holy Living, 1650 and The Rules and Exercises of Holy Dying, 1651.
The two books represent one of the high points of English
prose during the period of the early Stuarts. According to historian Nancy Lee Beaty (1970, The Craft of Dying: A Study in the Literary Tradition of the Ars Moriendi in England), Holy Dying was the "artistic climax" of a consolatory death literature tradition that had begun with Ars moriendi
in the 15th century. Other works in this tradition include The Waye of Dying Well and The Sick Mannes Salve.
Holy Living is designed to instruct the reader in living a virtuous life, increasing personal piety, and avoiding temptations. Holy Dying is meant to instruct the reader in the "means and instruments" of preparing for a blessed death. Each book contains discussions of theology
, moral
instruction, often prefaced as "The Consideration reduc'd to practise," and model prayer
s requesting divine assistance in achieving them.
Holy Living is largely concerned with questions of practical morality, of a type that have hardly changed from the 17th century to today. The companion volume, Holy Dying was occasioned by the death of the wife of Taylor's patron and employer, the Earl of Carbery. That book is half Christian instruction and half memorial sermon, with Taylor displaying his gift for poetic prose. Coupled with the 17th century cult of melancholia
, the result is prose that is simultaneously stately and rapturous, "half in love with easeful death
", and reads like prose poetry
:
Taylor's work was much admired by John Wesley
, the founder of Methodism
, for its devotional quality; and by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
, Thomas de Quincey
, and Edmund Gosse
for its literary qualities.
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
devotion by Jeremy Taylor
Jeremy Taylor
Jeremy Taylor was a clergyman 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 was often presented as a model of prose writing...
. They were originally published as The Rules and Exercises of Holy Living, 1650 and The Rules and Exercises of Holy Dying, 1651.
The two books represent one of the high points of English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
prose during the period of the early Stuarts. According to historian Nancy Lee Beaty (1970, The Craft of Dying: A Study in the Literary Tradition of the Ars Moriendi in England), Holy Dying was the "artistic climax" of a consolatory death literature tradition that had begun with Ars moriendi
Ars moriendi
The Ars moriendi are two related Latin texts dating from about 1415 and 1450 which offer advice on the protocols and procedures of a good death, explaining how to "die well" according to Christian precepts of the late Middle Ages...
in the 15th century. Other works in this tradition include The Waye of Dying Well and The Sick Mannes Salve.
Holy Living is designed to instruct the reader in living a virtuous life, increasing personal piety, and avoiding temptations. Holy Dying is meant to instruct the reader in the "means and instruments" of preparing for a blessed death. Each book contains discussions of theology
Theology
Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...
, moral
Morality
Morality is the differentiation among intentions, decisions, and actions between those that are good and bad . A moral code is a system of morality and a moral is any one practice or teaching within a moral code...
instruction, often prefaced as "The Consideration reduc'd to practise," and model prayer
Prayer
Prayer is a form of religious practice that seeks to activate a volitional rapport to a deity through deliberate practice. Prayer may be either individual or communal and take place in public or in private. It may involve the use of words or song. When language is used, prayer may take the form of...
s requesting divine assistance in achieving them.
Holy Living is largely concerned with questions of practical morality, of a type that have hardly changed from the 17th century to today. The companion volume, Holy Dying was occasioned by the death of the wife of Taylor's patron and employer, the Earl of Carbery. That book is half Christian instruction and half memorial sermon, with Taylor displaying his gift for poetic prose. Coupled with the 17th century cult of melancholia
Melancholia
Melancholia , also lugubriousness, from the Latin lugere, to mourn; moroseness, from the Latin morosus, self-willed, fastidious habit; wistfulness, from old English wist: intent, or saturnine, , in contemporary usage, is a mood disorder of non-specific depression,...
, the result is prose that is simultaneously stately and rapturous, "half in love with easeful death
John Keats
John Keats was an English Romantic poet. Along with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley, he was one of the key figures in the second generation of the Romantic movement, despite the fact that his work had been in publication for only four years before his death.Although his poems were not...
", and reads like prose poetry
Prose poetry
Prose poetry is poetry written in prose instead of using verse but preserving poetic qualities such as heightened imagery and emotional effects.-Characteristics:Prose poetry can be considered either primarily poetry or prose, or a separate genre altogether...
:
- But so have I seen a Rose newly springing from the clefts of its hood, and at first it was fair as the Morning, and full with the dew of HeavenHeavenHeaven, the Heavens or Seven Heavens, is a common religious cosmological or metaphysical term for the physical or transcendent place from which heavenly beings originate, are enthroned or inhabit...
, as a Lambs fleece; but when a ruder breath had forced open its virgin modesty, and dismantled its too youthful and unripe retirements, it began to put on a darknesse, and to decline its softnesse, and the symptomes of a sickly age; it bowed the head, and broke its stalk, and at night having lost some of its leaves, and all of its beauty, it fell into the portion of weeds and outworn faces. (See also period (rhetoric)).
Taylor's work was much admired by John Wesley
John Wesley
John Wesley was a Church of England cleric and Christian theologian. Wesley is largely credited, along with his brother Charles Wesley, as founding the Methodist movement which began when he took to open-air preaching in a similar manner to George Whitefield...
, the founder of Methodism
Methodism
Methodism is a movement of Protestant Christianity represented by a number of denominations and organizations, claiming a total of approximately seventy million adherents worldwide. The movement traces its roots to John Wesley's evangelistic revival movement within Anglicanism. His younger brother...
, for its devotional quality; and by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Samuel Taylor Coleridge was an English poet, Romantic, literary critic and philosopher who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake Poets. He is probably best known for his poems The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla...
, Thomas de Quincey
Thomas de Quincey
Thomas Penson de Quincey was an English esssayist, best known for his Confessions of an English Opium-Eater .-Child and student:...
, and Edmund Gosse
Edmund Gosse
Sir Edmund William Gosse CB was an English poet, author and critic; the son of Philip Henry Gosse and Emily Bowes.-Early life:...
for its literary qualities.