Richard Smyth (theologian)

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Richard Smyth also Smith (* around 1499/1500 Worcestershire , England ; † July 9, 1563 Douai , (France)) was an English professor and first Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford and first Chancellor of the University of Douai .

Live and act

He received his first academic training at Merton College , Oxford (Fellow of Merton College). He graduated with a master's degree in 1530. He became Registrar of the University of Oxford in 1532. He was awarded a doctorate in theology on July 10, 1536. He was then at Whittington College, London, then Rector of St Dunstan-in-the-East and then Cuxham , Oxfordshire, Head of St Alban's Hall, Principal of St Alban's Hall . He also lectured at Magdalen College .

Smyth was the first Regius Professor of Divinity appointed by Henry VIII in 1542 at Oxford University . His first term of office was from 1536 to 1548, followed by a replacement in his position by Peter Martyr Vermigli , then for a short time in 1554 a second term of office under Maria I , then followed by Juan de Villagarcía († 1564), then a third term until on his escape from 1556 to 1559.

At the accession to the throne of nine-year-old Edward VI. , the successor to Henry VIII. Smyth joined the Anglican Church , but then revoked and declared that the rightful rule of Rome had been wrongly abolished. He was then removed from office by Archbishop Thomas Cranmer and replaced in 1548 by Peter Martyr Vermigli, who immigrated from Italy. Smyth initially continued to live in Oxford and held a public discussion with Vermigli.

He was arrested shortly afterwards and fled to Leuven in Flanders (then part of the Spanish Netherlands ) when the opportunity arose . He later followed a call to the University of Douai, which was founded in 1562 on the model of the University of Leuven and became its first chancellor. The establishment of the University of Douai is related to a general academic consolidation in the Spanish Netherlands. In the years between 1560 and 1562, the college was founded on the instructions of Philip II of Spain. In a way, it represented the sister university in Leuven . Approved by a papal bull by Pope Paul IV and confirmed by Pope Pius IV on July 31, 1559 , Philip II approved five faculties on January 19, 1561 , so the Theology, canon law, civil law, medicine and the arts. The formal inauguration took place on October 5, 1562, by a public procession of the Blessed Sacrament and a sermon in the market square by François Richardot , Bishop of Arras .

Works (selection)

  • Assertion and Defense of the Sacrament of the Altar (1546)
  • Defense of the Sacrifice of the Mass (1547)
  • Defensio celibatus sacerdotum (1550)
  • Diatriba de hominis justificatione (1550)
  • Buckler of the Catholic Faith (1555-1556)
  • De Missa Sacrificio (1562)

literature

  • J. Andreas Löwe: Richard Smyth and the Language of Orthodoxy: Re-imagining Tudor Catholic Polemicism. .Studies in Medieval and Reformation Traditions: History, Culture, Religion, Ideas, 96; Brill, Leiden 2003

Web links

  • British history, online [3]

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Thompson Cooper, Smith, Richard (1500-1563) (DNB00) in the Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 53 on Wikisource. [1]
  2. ^ Gary W. Jenkins: John Jewel and the English National Church: The Dilemmas of an Erastian Reformer Ashgate Publishing; 2013, p. 9.
  3. ^ Edwin Burton: Richard Smith in the Catholic Encyclopedia. (www.catholi.com/encyclopedia) [2] .
personal data
SURNAME Smyth, Richard
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Smith, Richard; Smytheus, Richardus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English university professor, theologian
DATE OF BIRTH around 1500
PLACE OF BIRTH Worcestershire
DATE OF DEATH July 9, 1563
Place of death Douai