SMITH, Miles (c.1552-1624)

A native of Hereford, Smith arrived at Corpus Christi College, Oxford in about 1568 on a scholarship from Hereford Cathedral; he transferred to Christ Church before proceeding BA, in 1573. In 1580 he secured a prebend at Hereford Cathedral, and subsequently held three parish livings in his native shire, but he probably continued to spend much of his time at Oxford, where he was noted for his expertise in ancient languages, particularly Hebrew: he was probably the ‘Mr Smith’ who participated in a disputation before the queen in 1592, and proceeded BD from Brasenose College in 1594.20 Ath. Ox. ii. 359; Stowe 76, f. 249; Fasti, xiii. 61, 71; CCEd; Reg. Univ. Oxf. vol. ii. pt. 1 ed. A. Clark (Oxf. Hist. Soc. x), 229.

In the early 1590s Smith attracted the patronage of Gervase Babington^* (later bishop of Worcester), who was confirmed as bishop of Exeter in 1595. Smith is not known to have been one of Babington’s chaplains, but the latter presumably helped to secure his appointment to a Devonshire benefice and a prebend at Exeter Cathedral. Moreover, in 1599, after the bishop’s remove to Worcester, Smith was collated as rector of Hartlebury, Worcestershire, the parish in which the bishop’s own country residence lay. Five years later Smith was appointed to another Worcestershire rectory, that of Upton-upon-Severn.21 M. Smith, A Learned and Godly Sermon (Oxf. 1602), preface by Robert Burghill, sig. *5; CCEd. As a mark of gratitude, he published a sermon he had preached at the Worcester assizes in 1602 with a dedication to his patron. In 1615 he also saw an edition of Babington’s notes on the book of Genesis to press, completing a project begun by the bishop in his final years.22 M. Smith, A Learned and Godly Sermon Preached at Worcester (1602), sig. *2; Workes of the Right Reverend Father in God, Gervase Babington ed. M. Smith (1615), sigs. A5v-A6v.

For all his ecclesiastical preferments, Smith, a life-long friend of the antiquary William Camden,23 V[iri] Cl[arissimi] Gulielmi Camdeni et illustrium virorum ad G. Camdenum Epistolae, 189. was primarily a scholar: in his preface to Babington’s works, he insisted that ‘a man’s life will [scarce] suffice to read the books that are already written upon the Scripture in the 3 chief tongues’; his own biographer recalled that his library contained many classical and Hebrew texts, all minutely noted, and insisted that ‘so conversant he was, and expert in the Chald[a]ic, Syriac and Arabic, that he made them as familiar to him almost as his own native tongue’. This facility with ancient languages doubtless explains his selection in 1604 as one of the translators of the King James Bible; having initially worked on the prophets, he joined Thomas Bilson^*, bishop of Winchester in editing the complete text. He also wrote the preface to the first edition, insisting ‘it hath been vouched that the Scriptures are plain’ in justifying the translators’ decision to confine marginal references to variants in translation, not doctrinal points. He also explained the equally controversial editorial decision not to insist upon a literal translation from the original where a synonym might work better, ‘that the Scripture may speak like itself, as in the language of Canaan, that it may be understood even of the very vulgar’.24 Works of …. Babington, sig. A6; Smith, Sermons, sigs. ¶¶1v-2; D. Norton, King James Bible, 57, 111-17.

As an academic with little administrative experience, Smith was not an obvious choice as bishop of Gloucester in 1612, but the editor of his sermons plausibly claimed that the appointment was procured by George Abbot^*, archbishop of Canterbury, as a reward for his labours as a translator. Valued at only £284 p.a., Gloucester was a poor living, but Smith’s income was bolstered by a licence to hold his Worcestershire livings and his Hereford prebend in commendam. Gloucester’s remoteness from London also made the diocese less attractive to ambitious court preachers, which is unlikely to have been a significant concern for Smith, who is known to have preached only once in the Chapel Royal, shortly after his consecration.25 Trans. Congregational Hist. Soc. (1913-15), vi. 56; CCEd; P.E. McCullough, Sermons at Ct. (suppl. cal. 185).

The diocesan records suggest that Smith was not an active administrator: his chancellor, John Seaman, or his son-in-law, William Sutton, generally chaired his consistory court, although Smith did sometimes attend the proceedings of his visitation court; one initiative he enthusiastically promoted was the purchase of the new translation of the bible in the parishes of his diocese.26 Glos. RO, GDR/117, f.89v onwards; GDR 120 (a ref. we owe to Ken Fincham); K, Fincham, Prelate as Pastor, 54, 134n, 164, 170, 273. The editor of his published sermons praised his maintenance of the Tuesday lecture at Gloucester Cathedral, but he was not a regular preacher, even when riding the circuit of his diocese on visitation. However, most of his published sermons (citing from the new translation of the bible) appear to date from his time as bishop.27 Sermons of … Miles Smith, sig. ¶4v; Fincham, 90, 120. We owe the point about the text of his sermons to Ken Fincham. He did, however, attend Parliament almost every day during the 1614 session, although he left little trace on its deliberations, being named to a single bill committee, for the preservation of timber. He was present in the Lords for the vote of 24 May on whether to accept a conference with the Commons to hear MPs’ objections to the crown’s right to levy impositions, a motion dashed when the privy councillors and all the bishops present, except for Tobie Matthew^*, archbishop of York, voted against revisiting this divisive debate.28 LJ, ii. 697b, 706b-7a; Chamberlain Letters ed. N.E. McClure, i. 533. In the aftermath of the dissolution, Smith’s diocese raised almost £269 towards the benevolence inaugurated by Archbishop Abbot, a modest contribution when compared to the £512 yield of the 1621 clerical subsidy.29 E351/1950; SP14/133/13.

A resident in his diocese, Smith was said to have attended divine service at the cathedral regularly, at least until January 1617, when the new dean, William Laud^* (later archbishop of Canterbury) provoked a dispute. Immediately after his installation at Gloucester, Laud ordered that the communion table be moved to the east end of the cathedral quire and placed altar-wise, ‘as it is used in the king’s Majesty’s chapel, and in [all] or the most part of the cathedral churches of [the] realm’. This provoked a response from one of Smith’s chaplains, who asked Chancellor Seaman why the prebends had failed ‘to tell him [Laud] what harm this example might do, and how much hereby the secret papists would be stirred up to rejoice’. A copy of this letter was left in the pulpit of St Michael’s church on a morning the subdean, Thomas Prior, was due to preach, and its contents became the talk of the city. The ensuing scandal was investigated by the local magistrate and diocesan registrar, Alderman John Jones^‡.30 Sermons of … Miles Smith, sig. ¶4v; Gloucester Cathedral Chapter Act Bk. ed. S. Eward (Glos. Rec. Ser. xxi), 3; W. Prynne, Canterburies Doome (1644), 75-6. Laud, clearly anticipating trouble, asked Richard Neile^*, then bishop of Lincoln and clerk of the Closet, to put his version of events to the king. He also informed Smith that he had acted under royal instructions, having been told by James at Christmas 1616 ‘that there was scarce ever a church in England so ill governed, and so much out of order’. He advised Smith that ‘his Majesty will be well pleased to hear that your lordship, as in other things, so in this, is careful to preserve order, and peace … in the Church’, and concluded by urging the bishop to rectify the situation while he accompanied the king to Scotland, a reminder of his own influence at court.31 Works of Abp. Laud ed. J. Bliss, vi. 239-41.

The tensions arising from this quarrel may explain why Smith supported the replacement of Subdean Prior as city preacher in 1620, but the corporation’s nominee for the vacancy, John Workman, proved factious, and was eventually suspended by High Commission; Prior was certainly on good enough terms with Smith to preach his funeral sermon.32 Ibid. iv. 233-4; Glos. RO, GBR/B/3/1, ff. 466-9; Sermons of … Miles Smith, 289-305. At Laud’s trial, it was claimed that Smith had refused to enter his own cathedral after the quarrel over the altar; but he is known to have held ordinations there towards the end of Laud’s tenure, and in any case, the dean’s responsibilities at Oxford and at court left him with little time for Gloucester.33 Prynne, 75; GDR/142A, pp. 7, 11-12, 16. By the time Laud left for the bishopric of St Davids in the autumn of 1621, Smith was in poor health: he only attended 13 days of the parliamentary session in that year, most of them before Easter, and subsequently left his proxy with four other bishops.34 LJ, iii. 3b, 26b, 29b.

Smith’s health apparently recovered in 1622, when he collected £330 towards the Palatine benevolence raised after the dissolution of the Parliament, a modest improvement over his performance in 1614. The sum would have been greater, he explained to Lord Treasurer Lionel Cranfield^*, Lord Cranfield (later 1st earl of Middlesex), if tithe yields had not been so poor, ‘by reason of two late unprosperous [sic] harvests, and the great fall of wool (a special commodity of this country) by the means of laying down of clothing’.35 Kent Hist. and Lib. Cent., U269/1/OE290; E401/1908, unfol. (4 Apr. 1622), 401/2435, unfol. (13 Dec. 1622). In the following year, he backed a petition from his brother-in-law (then bailiff of Cardiff) to Lord Treasurer Middlesex to lift a ban on shipment of Gloucester malt. On the death of Chancellor Seaman, Smith installed his son-in-law William Sutton as his successor, despite the latter’s lack of a qualification in civil law, an appointment which was later reversed.36 Kent Hist. and Lib. Cent., U269/1/OE1599; B.P. Levack, Civil Lawyers in Eng. 64-5, 268.

Smith did not attend the 1624 Parliament, awarding his proxy to Thomas Morton^*, bishop of Coventry and Lichfield and Lewes Bayly^*, bishop of Bangor at the start of the session.37 LJ, iii. 212a; CSP Dom. 1623-5, p. 161. ‘Somewhat weak in body’ when he drafted his will on 7 Mar., he left lands in Herefordshire to his eldest son Gervase Smith, £500 apiece to three younger sons, and many books of Hebrew and Arabic grammar to the cathedral library at Hereford. He signed his will on 12 Oct., eight days before his death, but forgot to name an executor; administration of his estate was awarded to his eldest son.38 PROB 11/144, ff.294v-5; Oxford DNB, li. 260.