Jeremy Taylor (1613-1667) is a familiar figure to most Anglicans as the author of the devotionals, Holy Living and Holy Dying. He is commemorated in the Episcopal Church and also in a number of other Anglican Churches.

In addition to those well-known devotionals, he also wrote many other works, among them a Collection of Offices containing revisions of many of the services in the Book of Common Prayer, including an order for Holy Communion, presented here. This work was occasioned by the Commonwealth, which outlawed use of the Book of Common Prayer. So the intent of these offices was for the use of congregations which wanted to make use of the Book of Common Prayer but could not. This Collection of Offices was published in 1658, but may have been in use earlier. It is not clear what, if any, practical use was made of these services, but the need for them ceased in 1660 at the Restoration of the monarchy.

Although Taylor's Collection of Offices may function better as a literary work than as practical liturgy, it is important as it claims to be strongly influenced by ancient Eastern (Greek) forms, and also the Spanish Mozarabic Rite. Taylor was thus one of the first Anglicans to attempt to look to these ancient forms for renewal of the Liturgy, which practice has continued right up to the present day.

Three sources were used for the text presented here, all reprints of the original. These are: The Whole Works of Jeremy Taylor, Vol. 15 (1822) and Vol. 8 ("Revised and Corrected", 1883); and Anglican Liturgies of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, by W Jardine Grisbrooke, SPCK, 1958. The texts in these sources differed slightly, primarily in capitalization, etc.; in choosing which to follow, we have attempted, as much as possible, to discern what was in the original.

Thanks are due to Gary Carson, who transcribed the text.