Taylor, Jeremy [Bishop Of Down And Connor] (1613-1667)

Ductor Dubitantium: Or, the Rule of Conscience in All Her General Measures; Serving as a Great Instrument for the Determination of Cases of Conscience

      1660. Very Good London: Printed by James Flesher, for Richard Royston, 1660. 2 volumes bound in 1. 1st Printing. [6]+xl+[2]+559+[1; [2]+558+[2]pp. + frontis copper engraving and handsome engraved portrait opposite page 1 of the first volume. Copper engraving to the title-page of the second volume. With a number of copper-engraved devices and historiated initials. Signatures: A3-A4, a-b6, B-Z6, Aa-Zz6, Aaa-Aaa6, Bbb-Bbb4, Aa-Zz6 (Aa2 misfolioed Aa3), Aaa-Aaa4. Folio. Contemporary paneled calf with dark brown morocco spine label, edges sprinkled red. Boards detached, leather erose in the top panel of the spine above the label, blank front leaf [A1] lacking, minor marginal smudging to a few leaves and sheets lightly browned, internally very good. Both title-pages ruled in red. Integral last leaf of the second volume with corrigenda for the first volume (top half) and catalogue of books available from Royston (bottom half). Imprint to volume two reads "Printed for R. Roiston". Vol. 1, Book I. Of Conscience in General, II. Of Laws Divine. Vol. 2, Book III. Of Humane Laws, (with special t.p. ) IV. Of the Nature and Causes of Good and Evil, (with special t.p. ) Wing T324. 6 pounds 9.9 ounces = 3.0 kg. 12.4 x 8.2 x 2.6 inches = 31 x 20.5 x 6.5cm. Chapter 6, pages 158-166 deal with scruple. "A scruple as Taylor defined it is in psychiatric terminology today called an irrational fear or obsessional phobia. He recognized that the patient 'knows not what or why' he fears, in other words that his anxiety is unconsciously determined. He also made the valid observation that the mood of the obsessional is fundamentally sad even though he does not appear so, because an obsessive-compulsive neurosis is a means of warding off expected or dreaded evil or punishment. In the account of William Oseney [quoted later], the illness began with overscrupulosity in religious matters, sometimes an early symptom of impending mental breakdown with which priests are more familiar than psychiatrists. This typical c