Richard Smith (bishop)

The Right Reverend Richard Smith
Vicar Apostolic of England
Appointed	29 November 1624
Term ended	1632
Predecessor	William Bishop
Successor	John Leyburn
Other post(s)	Titular Bishop of Chalcedon
Orders
Ordination	7 May 1592
Consecration	12 January 1625 by Bernardino Spada
Personal details
Born	November 1568 Hamworth, England
Died	18 March 1655(1655-03-18) (aged 86)
Nationality	English
Denomination	Roman Catholic
Alma mater	Trinity College, Oxford English College

Richard Smith (Hanworth, England, November 1568 – Paris, 18 March 1655), (officially the Bishop in partibus of Chalcedon). Having studied at the English College in Rome, he taught at Valladolid and Seville. He succeeded William Bishop, as the second Catholic Vicar apostolic for England, Wales and Scotland.

Life

Richard Smith was born in Lincolnshire, England in 1568. He studied at Trinity College, Oxford University where he became a Catholic and in 1586 was admitted to the English College where he studied under Robert Bellarmine.

Smith was ordained in Rome as a priest in 1592. He obtained his doctorate in theology at the English College, Valladolid, where he also taught philosophy. In 1598 became a professor of controversies at the English College of St Gregory in Seville.

In 1603 he went on the English mission at a time when Catholicism was officially banned, and could have faced death if caught and tried. He served as chaplain to Viscountess Montague, wife of Anthony-Maria Browne, 2nd Viscount Montagu, at Battle Abbey in Sussex, England. He was well known at the Holy See, not only as a student, but as an agent on behalf of the English clergy. Smith left Sussex in 1613 he become superior of the small body of English secular priests who had rented the Benedictine house in Paris called Arras College, where they devoted themselves to writing controversy.

Vicar apostolic

In Paris, in January 1625, Smith was consecrated Titular bishop of Chalcedon. and Apostolic Vicar for the whole of England, Wales and Scotland in 1625. He followed William Bishop, who had held the post for less than a year. He arrived in England in April 1625, and stayed in Turvey, Bedfordshire, at the house of Lord Montagu.

In 1628 a warrant was issued for his arrest. He resigned his post in 1631, when he fled to Paris.

Death

In Paris Smith lived at first with Cardinal Richelieu until the latter's death in 1642. He held the title of commendatory abbot of Charroux Abbey, resigning that title in 1648. He died at the Paris priory of English Canonesses Regular of the Lateran, whose founding, under Mother Lettice Mary Tredway, C.R.L. (formally called Lady Treadway), he had supported.

Works

Smith authored:

• "An answer to T. Bel's late Challenge" (1605), against Thomas Bell;
• "The Prudentiall Ballance of Religion", (1609);
• "Vita Dominae Magdalenae Montis-Acuti" i.e., Viscountess Montagu (1609);
• "De auctore et essentia Protestanticae Religionis" (1619), English translation, 1621;
• "Collatio doctrinae Catholicorum et Protestantium" (1622), tr. (1631);
• "Of the distinction of fundamental and not fundamental points of faith" (1645);
• "Monita quaedam utilia pro Sacerdotibus, Seminaristis, Missionariis Angliae" (1647);
• "A Treatise of the best kinde of Confessors" (1651);
• "Of the all-sufficient Eternal Proposer of Matters of Faith" (1653);
• "Florum Historiae Ecclesiasticae gentis Anglorum libri septem" (1654).

See also

• James I of England

Sources

• Leys, M. D. R., Catholics in England 1559-1829: A social history (London : Camelot Press Ltd., 1961)
• Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Richard Smith (1)" . Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.

Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Richard Smith (1)". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.