Randall Peterson on Smith

Henry Smith (1560-1591) was one of the most influential and prolific Puritan divines during Elizabeth’s reign in England. He was known as “silver-tongued Smith” to his contemporaries, and, according to Thomas Fuller, he was “but one metal below Chrysostom.” Smith’s practical and experiential sermons were used for family devotions for over a century after his death, and went through numerous editions. He combined the force of language with the force of thought and preached the gospel in its primitive power and simplicity. Thompson Cooper, Oxford historian and editor of Athenae Cantabrigienses, wrote: “We are disposed to think that no English preacher has since excelled [Smith] in the proper attributes of pulpit eloquence.

”John L. Libesay, in his article, “‘Silver-tongued Smith,’ Paragon of Elizabethan Preachers,” wrote: “Here and there amidst the confusion of pulpit oratory and denunciation the patient reader [of Elizabethan literature] will discover an occasional bright rift in the fog of dullness. When he does, the sense of grateful relief may easily lead him to exaggerate the excellence of the particular sermon or preacher responsible for the unwonted gleam. In such circumstances he must look for the corroborative testimony of other readers before he feels free to trust his own benumbed judgment. But when the radiance persists through two fact octavo volumes, he may well spare the other witnesses, however numerous and competent.”

Born in Withcote, Leicestershire, in 1560 (or thereabouts), Henry Smith was the eldest son and heir of Erasmus Smith. He was descended from an honorable line of Smiths in Leicestershire, and was heir to a considerable estate. On July 17, 1573, he was admitted Fellow Commoner to Queens College, Cambridge, but did not stay long at the college. In 1575, when Smith was fifteen years old, he was admitted to Lincoln College, Oxford. It is uncertain whether or not Smith earned his Bachelor of Arts at Lincoln. Historian Anthony á Wood noted that Smith was absent from the college for quite some time, “having some ecclesiastical employment conferred upon him.” Cooper also noted that “for some reason with which we are not acquainted, [Smith’s] father refused to allow him to spend much time in the university.” Cooper, however, wrote that Smith earned his Bachelor of Arts from Lincoln on February 16, 1578-9.

After leaving the college, Smith lived and followed his studies with Richard Greenham, rector of Dry Drayton, Cambridgeshire, and sometime fellow of Pembroke Hall. Historians disagree whether or not Smith earned a Master of Arts, though it is probable that he did not. In either case, it is certain that Smith for a time sat under the tutelage of Greenham, the famous Puritan casuist, and was “imbued” with firm puritanical principles.

Some historians have conjectured that Smith was torn between the ministry and a large inheritance from his father, but Thomas Smith, editor of the 1866 edition of Smith’s sermons, noted that Smith was not torn at all—he simply predeceased his father. Had he lived he would have inherited his father’s estate, which, no doubt, would have been an asset in his ministry. Thomas Fuller, Smith’s first biographer, observed that several of Smith’s relatives encouraged him to study law, a profession suited to one with a large inheritance. He also had the option of poetry, which he practiced for some time, though none of his poems survive. Smith was also proficient in Latin and turned Microcosmographia into Latin Sapphics, which was translated into English by Joshua Sylvester.

Forsaking all other occupations, Smith devoted himself to the ministry of the Church of England, but upon considering his disagreement with various practices and ceremonies, he contented himself with the lectureship, a common Puritan practice.

For some time Smith was affiliated with the Husbands Bosworth Church, which was in his father’s patronage, though it is uncertain whether he became rector there.

In continuing his studies with Greenham, Smith’s anti-Episcopal leanings were strengthened. Both individuals shared, however, a strict stance in regards to church division; thus Smith, like Greenham, believed that sectarians, such as the Brownists and Barrowists , were enemies of the true church and liable to just persecution. Consequently, Smith sought to reform the English church from within, believing that it was utterly unlawful to make a separation.

At some point in 1582 Smith’s uncle, Bryant Cave, High Sheriff of Leicestershire, became acquainted with the deluded youth Robert Dickons, an apprentice at Mansell in Nottinghamshire. Dickons, though intelligent and knowledgeable, believed that he was the prophet Elijah, and that he had been visited by angels in a series of visions. Presumably, Cave arranged for his Puritan nephew to counsel Dickons. Smith opened the Scriptures to Dickons and was able to persuade Dickons of his error. Concerning this event, Fuller noted that Dickons “was reclaimed, renouncing his blasphemies by subscription under his own hand.” Upon the occasion, Smith preached the sermon “The Lost Sheep Is Found,” on 1 John 4:1, “Try the spirits whether they are of God.”

Subsequently, Smith preached in and about London with great success, and in 1587, upon Greenham’s recommendation, was elected lecturer at St. Clement Danes, London, by the rector and congregation. Smith’s sermons were highly blessed to his hearers; in fact, Fuller noted that “persons of good quality brought their own pews with them I mean their legs to stand there upon in the aisles, [and] their ears did so attend his lips, their hearts to their ears, that he held the rudder of their affections in his hand, so that he could steer them whether he pleased, and he was pleased to steer them only to God’s glory and their own good.”

Smith’s popularity as a preacher increased so much that he was called “the prime preacher of the nation.” Wood said that he was “esteemed the miracle and wonder of his age, for his prodigious memory, and for his fluent, eloquent, and practical way of preaching.” His character was such that he feared dissention among his brethren; he sought to maintain peace as much as plausible, thus the Nonconformist historian, Benjamin Brook, noted: “It may be truly said of him, that he was a man peaceable in Israel.”

The relative freedom of the Puritan lectures in the 1570s came to a dramatic decline in 1577, when Archbishop Grindal, a man somewhat sympathetic to the Puritan cause, fell into disfavor with the Queen. Consequently, the Bishop of London, John Aylmer made a series of investigations to ensure that “proper” conformity was being adhered to by its preachers. Furthermore, in 1583 the Puritans suffered greatly from Grindal’s death, as he was replaced by the vigorous and determined Archbishop John Whitgift, an opposer of Puritanism in all its forms.

In 1588 Bishop Aylmer was informed, though erroneously, that Smith had slandered the Book of Common Prayer in one of his sermons, and that he had not subscribed to Whitgift’s articles, which insisted on the supreme authority, under God, of the monarchy, the use and promotion of the prayer-book, and subscription to the Thirty Nine Articles of religion. Moreover, Smith was not licensed by Aylmer, his diocesan. Accordingly, Smith was suspended from preaching. He made a brief vindication of himself to Lord Treasurer Burghley, Elizabeth’s most trusted advisor and some time uncle of Smith himself, in which he stated that Aylmer had personally called him to preach at St. Paul’s Cross. Furthermore, Smith denied the accusation that he spoke against the prayer-book; he said that he had subscribed to all the articles of “faith and doctrine,” but had avoided the issue of discipline. The parishioners of Clement Danes also sent a testimonial and supplication on his behalf; thus combined with Burghley’s influence at court, Smith, in due course, was restored to the lectureship.

In the closing years of the 1580s, the rector of St. Clement Danes, William Harward, grew increasingly ill until his death some time in 1589. Strenuous efforts were made by the parishioners of St. Clement Danes to obtain Smith as their rector, but he refused the preferment and subsequently resigned his lectureship in 1590, due to failing health. He retired to Husbands Bosworth, Leicestershire, and busied himself in preparing his works for the press and in revising his sermons. He dedicated his collected sermons to Lord Burghley, but died before the collection was published. According to Thompson Cooper, Smith was buried at Husbands Bosworth on July 4, 1591. He was universally lamented by both the Anglican and Puritan parties; in fact, even Thomas Nashe, the “hard bitten sinner,” and hater of the Puritans, saw in Smith’s death an occasion for “the general tears of the muses.”

So popular were the sermons of Henry Smith that they won for him not only the respect of the commoner, but also the admiration of the greatest literary geniuses of his age; in fact, by the early seventeenth-century Smith’s sermons had gone through more than eighty-five editions, and his fame as a preacher was known throughout the British Isles.

While many of Smith’s sermons were published in his lifetime (and a few of them without his consent), a complete collection was not printed until 1675 under Thomas Fuller’s editorship. In fact, Fuller supplied the first written biography of Smith in three and a half pages, drawing from Wood’s history and his correspondence with individuals who still remembered the “silver-tongued” Smith. Thomas Smith reissued Fuller’s edition in 1866 with minor linguistic changes and added several pages of commentary to Fuller’s account. The 1866 edition, printed in James Nichol’s Series of Standard Divines in two volumes, remains “the fullest, the most accurate, and the most elegant,” edition ever published.

A similar edition was likewise published in 1866 by William Tegg, which purports to be “an exact reprint of the edition which was printed according to the Author’s corrected copies in his lifetime,” though since it was not under Thomas Smith’s editorship it does not contain his extensive commentary on Fuller’s short biography. The editor of the Tegg edition, Edwin Davies, made minor linguistic changes in the text (for instance, “thorow” was changed to “thorough”), but left Fuller’s archaisms alone. That two London publishers would issue Smith’s sermons in the same year, under different editorships, is interesting, to say the least, though it does affirm the popularity that Smith had even in the nineteenth-century.

Nichol’s two volume set contains all of Smith’s extant works: 56 sermons with their original prefaces; Smith’s account to the Lord Justices concerning Robert Dickons; Smith’s treatise God’s Arrow Against Atheism and Irreligion; eight prayers for various occasions; “A Comfortable Speech, taken from a Godly Preacher lying upon his Deathbed; Written for the Sick;” “A Letter to One’s Friend in Sickness;” eight epigrams; the poem Microcosmographia: The Little World’s Description; or, The Map of Man, from the Latin Sapphics of Henry Smith, translated by Joshua Sylvester; the original biography of Smith by Fuller; eleven pages of notes by Thomas Smith; extensive indices and textual references.

It is impossible to ascertain the exact dates or chronological order for all of Smith’s sermons, though R B Jenkins, relying somewhat on the work of Thomas Ehret, attempts to do this. The following dates are a breviary of Jenkins’s work:

1. “The Lost Sheep Is Found,” is dated some time in 1582, shortly after Smith’s examination of Robert Dickons, and deals directly with that event.

2. The two sermons on “The Art of Hearing” are dated 1587 by Ehret, though Jenkins notes that it “is impossible to ascertain the year in which these sermons were preached, but certainly one followed the other.”

3. “The Sinful Man’s Search,” is dated on January 1, 1588 by Ehret, with Jenkins’s affirmation.

4. “Satan’s Compassing the Earth,” and “The Trial of the Righteous,” are both dated some time in 1588 because of their seeming reference to the Spanish Armada.

5. “The Dialogue between Paul and King Agrippa,” was preached, presumably, after July 29, 1588, the defeat of the Armada. Both Ehret and Jenkins place “The Ladder of Peace,” in the same time period as it too refers to the defeat of the Armada.

6. “The Godly Man’s Request,” a New Year’s sermon, is dated 1589.

7. The series of sermons on Nebuchadnezzar are dated in close proximity to the Armada incident.

8. The four sermons on Jonah are dated some time after July 1588, for Smith writes: “As surely as Jonah thought to arrive at Tarshish, so surely the Spaniards thought to arrive in England; but as Jonah’s company wondered at this tempest, so at these Spaniards’ destruction their fellows at home wondered, yea, were astonished, how their invincible power could be destroyed.”

9. “The Christian’s Sacrifice,” which Smith called the sum of “all the lessons together which ye have heard since I came [to St. Clement Danes],” is dated some time before Smith’s retirement, though its first printing was in 1589, after his retirement.

10. “The Petition of Moses to God,” is classified as Smith’s last sermon at St. Clement Danes, though it scarcely bears the mark of a farewell sermon. Near the end of the sermon, however, Smith states plainly enough: “Now it resteth that I should encourage Joshua, which succeedeth me.”The remaining 39 sermons are impossible to date, and neither Ehret nor Jenkins attempt to do so, though it is fairly certain they were preached during Smith’s lectureship at Clement Danes, with the possible exception of “The Trumpet of the Soul Sounding to Judgment.”

Thomas Fuller on Smith

What is true of the River Nile that its fountain is hid and obscure but its fall or influx into the mid land sea eminently known is applicable to many learned men the places of whose birth generally are either wholly concealed or at the best uncertain, whilst the place of their death is made remarkable. For as few did take notice of their coming out of their attiring house so their well acting upon the stage commanded all eyes to observe their returning thereunto. But this general rule takes not place in the present subject of our pen. Mr Henry Smith was born at Withcock in Leicestershire of gentile extraction which however shall not be insisted on, seeing that he who is rich of himself needs not to borrow any lustre from another, yet were it the more allowable for us to dwell awhile on the honour of his parentage seeing he himself would not sojourn there declining all notice of such accidental advantages.

He was bred in the famous University of Oxford where he was condus before he was promus that is he filled himself so that he might in due time pour out to others. Nor did he proceed to a divine per saltum as so many do nowadays, I mean leaping over all humane arts and sciences, but furnished himself plentifully therewith. On the other side he was none of those who in the university wither on the stalk they grow on and out of idleness, bury their talents in the ground putting them out because they will not put them out that is extinguishing their abilities because they will not employ them. But he was resolved to improve to his utmost in the ministerial calling for the glory of God and the converting of souls. There he triumphed over the temptation wherewith many had been overcome.

Plentiful was his estate for the present and for the future he was heir apparent to a large patrimony. (Sir Roger Smith of Emundsthorpe in the County of Leicester lately deceased was his younger brother). Preaching was presented unto him by some as fit for the refuge of a younger brother not for the choice of an heir and his rich relations might better advantage him in the lucrative profession of the law. But he was so far from falling or stumbling that he did not stop at these carnal considerations but easily trampled on them all. But a greater scruple troubled him as unsatisfied on the point of subscription and the lawfulness of some ceremonies. He was loth to make a rent either in his own conscience or in the church wherefore he resolved on this expedient not to undertake a pastoral charge but contented himself with a lectureship at St Clement's Danes without the Temple bar. It may truly be said of him "He was a peaceable man in Israel" for not withstanding his aforesaid scrupling at conformity and distasting the violent pressing thereof as by some passages in this book will appear he could unite with them in affection from whom he dissented in judgment. He disdained party and invectives, the symptoms of a sick wit, and if he chanced to fall upon a sharp reproof, he wrapped it up in such pleasing expressions that the persons concerned therein had their souls divided betwixt love and anger at the hearing thereof.

William Cecil, Lord Burleigh and Treasurer of England, to whom he dedicated his sermons, very favourably reflected upon him and he was often the screen who saved him from the scorching, interposing his greatnesse betwixt him and the anger of some episcopal officers. And it is an argument to prove the eminency of Mr Smith that so great a statesman as this Lord Treasurer set a character of such peculiar respect on him. Indeed, that lord was as thoroughpaced as any in England for the body of episcopal government but not for the wens thereof when some quiet Nonconformists were prosecuted to persecution by vexatious informers. In which cases, he often endeavoured to qualify the matter and rescued them from their violent adversaries.

To return to Mr Smith, he was commonly called the silver tongued Smith and that was but one metal below Chrysostom himself. His church was so crowded with auditors that persons of good quality brought their own pews with them, I mean their legs, to stand thereupon in the alleys. Their ears did so attend his lips, their hearts on their ears that he held the rudder of their affections in his hand so that he could steer them whither he pleased and he was pleased to steer them only for God's glory and their own good.

Take one instance of many, of the great prevalency he had with his auditory. He preached a Sermon on Sarah's nursing of Isaac and therupon grounded the general doctrine that it was the duty of all mothers to nurse their own children allowing dispensation to such who were unsufficienced by weaknéss, want of milk or any avouchable impediment. He pressed the application without respect of persons high and low, rich and poor, one with another taxing them for pride or laziness or both who would not do that office to the fruit of their own womb.

It is almost incredible how many persons of honour and worship, ladies and great gentlewomen, with whom his congregation was constantly crowded, were affected herewith so that I have been informed from such whose credit I count it a sin to suspect that they presently remanded their children from the vicinage round about London and endeavoured to discharge the second moiety of a mother and to nurse them whom they had brought into the world. I confess some conceived Mr Smith, because a bachelor, an incompetent judge hereof as unacquainted with feminine infirmities so that as St Augustine on another account was called durus pater infantum so Mr Smith might be termed durus doctor matrum. However, if all things be impartially considered, no just cause of exception can be found either with the doctrine or application. 

The words of the wise, saith Solomon, are as nails fastened in a sure place and certainly this Smith had as great dexterity as any in fastening them in the judgments of his hearers by his solid reasons, in their fancies by his proper similitudes, in their memories by his orderly method and in their consciences by his home application.

Some fifteen years since I consulted the Jesses, I mean such who were counted old men in the parish of St Clement's Danes but could recover very little from them either of the time or the manner of his death save that they conceived it to be of consumption. I perused also the church register and found it silent concerning the date of his death but by exactest proportion of the time, his death may be conjectured to have been about the year 1600.

Benjamin Brook on Smith

Henry Smith, A. M.—This zealous and eloquent divine was born at Withcock in Leicestershire, in the year 1550, and educated in Lincoln college, Oxford; where he became well furnished with useful learning. He was descended from a wealthy and honourable family, was possessed of a plentiful estate, and was heir to a large patrimony. But he resolved to employ his talents to the utmost of his power, by labouring for the glory of God and the conversion of souls, in the work of the ministry; and therefore he left the rich patrimony to a younger brother. (This younger brother was Sir Roger Smith of Edmondthorp in Leicestershire, who died about the restoration.)

Upon his removal from Oxford, he pursued his studies under the care of Mr. Greenham, whose principles and piety he appeared afterwards to have imbibed. When the Lord Treasurer Burleigh applied to Mr. Greenham for a testimonial of Mr. Smith's character, this excellent divine observed, that he was well versed in the holy scriptures, religions and devout in his character, moderate and sober in his opinions, discreet and temperate in his behaviour, industrious in his studies and pursuits, and of a humble spirit and upright heart, joined with a fervent zeal for the glory of God and the welfare of souls."

Though Mr. Smith was eminently qualified for the sacred function, he was dissatisfied with the subscription imposed upon ministers, and the lawfulness of certain ceremonies. He was loath to make a rent, either in the church or in his own conscience. But, during this perplexity, he resolved not to undertake any pastoral charge, but to content himself with a lecturer's situation. Accordingly, in the year 1587, he became lecturer at St. Clement Danes, near Temple-bar, London. He was chosen to this public situation by the parishioners, and by the favour of the Lord Treasurer, who lived in the parish, and assisted in raising the contribution for his support. Here he set himself to do the work of the Lord faithfully. He was greatly beloved, and his ministry highly admired by his numerous hearers. But the year following, complaint being made to Bishop Aylmer, that he had spoken in his sermon some words derogatory to the Common Prayer, viz that he had not subscribed to Whitgift's three articles, his grace suspended him from preaching. The reasons alleged by the bishop, with Mr. Smith's answers, were the following:

1. That he was chosen by a popular election; that is, by the minister and congregation, without his lordship's license.

"I was recommended to the parish by certain godly ministers," says Mr. Smith, " who had heard me preach in other places in this city, and thereupon accepted by the parish, and entertained with a stipend raised by voluntary contribution. In which sort they had heretofore entertained others, without any such question or exception. And his lordship calling me to preach at Paul's cross, never moved any such question to me. Nevertheless, if any error have been committed by me or the parish, through ignorance, our joint desire is to have his lordship's good allowance and approbation, for the said exercise of my function in his lordship's diocese."

2. "That he hath preached against the Book of Common Prayer."

"However his lordship may have been informed against me," observes Mr. Smith, " I never used a speech in any of my sermons, against the Book of Common Prayer; whereof the parish doth bear me witness in this my supplication to your lordship."

3. "That he hath not yielded his subscription to certain articles which his lordship required at his hands."

"Concerning the third," says he, " I refuse not to subscribe to any articles, which the law of the realm doth require of men in my calling; acknowledging, with all humbleness and loyalty, her majesty's sovereignty in all causes, and over all persons, within her highness's dominions; and yielding my full consent to all articles of faith and doctrine, taught and ratified in this church, according to a statute in that behalf provided, the 13th year of her majesty's reign. And therefore I beseech his lordship, not to urge upon me any other subscription than the law of God and the laws positive of this realm do require." (Strype's Aylmer, p 155, 156)

The above charges, with the answers subjoined, Mr. Smith presented to the treasurer, accompanied with a supplication to his lordship, humbly requesting his favour and influence at this painful juncture. This great statesman had the highest respect for him; and, as Mr. Smith was not long deprived of his lecture, he most probably espoused his cause, applied to the bishop, and procured his restoration. It is, indeed, observed, " that the lord treasurer looked very favourably upon Mr. Smith ; and that he was often the screen to save him from scorching, by interposing his greatness betwixt him and the anger of certain episcopal officers." (Fuller's Life of Mr. Smith prefixed to his sermons)

In the year 1589, upon the death of Mr. Harewood, the incumbent of Clement Danes, the churchwardens and parishioners petitioned the treasurer to bestow the living upon our pious divine. In their petition, they observe, "that by his excellent preaching, his exemplary life, and his sound doctrine, more good had been done among them, than by any other who had gone before, or, as they feared, would follow him." But Mr. Smith, for the reasons already mentioned, was most probably unwilling to accept the benefit, if it was offered him. He does not appear ever to have enjoyed any greater preferment than that of his lectureship.

Mr. Smith was a preacher uncommonly followed by persons of piety, especially those of the puritanical party. He was generally esteemed the first preacher in the nation; and, on account of his prodigious memory, and bis fluent, eloquent, and practical way of preaching, he was looked upon as the very miracle and wonder of the age. (Strype's Aylmer, p 157). It may be truly said of him, that he was a man peaceable in Israel. For though he scrupled conformity himself, and utterly disapproved the imposition of it on others; still he could live on terms of intimacy with those from whom he dissented. His fame was so great, that he was usually called the silver-tongued preacher, as if he was second even to Chrysostom. His church was so crowded with hearers, that persons of quality, as well as others, were frequently obliged to stand in the aisles; and his wonderful dexterity in preaching was such, that, by his solid reasons, he fastened conviction upon the judgements of his auditory; by his apt similitudes, upon their fancies; by his orderly method, upon their memories; and by his close applications, upon their consciences. He died apparently of a consumption, about the year 1600, aged fifty years. Mr. Smith was author of many Sermons and Treatises, published at various times. They passed through many editions, and some of them were carried abroad and translated into Latin. His sermons were so universally admired, that they were for many years used as a family book in all parts of the kingdom. They are so solid, says Fuller, that the learned may partly admire them; yet so plain, that the unlearned may perfectly understand them. His "Sermons, with other his learned Treatises," and his Life by Fuller, were collected and published in one volume quarto, in 1675.

Smith as described on Wikipedia

Henry Smith (ca. 1560 – 1591?) was an English clergyman, widely regarded as "the most popular Puritan preacher of Elizabethan London." His sermons at St Clement Danes drew enormous crowds, and earned him a reputation as "Silver Tongued" Smith. The collected editions of his sermons, and especially his tract, "God's Arrow Against Atheists" were among the most frequently reprinted religious writings of the Elizabethan age.

Despite his popularity in the Elizabethan period, considerable uncertainty surrounds Smith's biography. Probably born in Leicestershire around 1560, Smith may have enrolled during the 1570s in colleges at both Cambridge and Oxford, but seems not to have taken a degree. He was in any case by 1589 among London's most popular preachers; however in that year, Smith seems to have contracted an illness which according to Charles Henry Cooper's Athenae Cantabrigienses caused him to devote his remaining time to preparing his writings for publication:

During his sickness, being desirous to do good by writing, he occupied himself in revising his sermons and other works for the press. his collected sermons he dedicated to his kind patron Lord Burghley.

He died before the collection came from the press, being buried at Husbands Bosworth in his native country. In the register of that parish is this entry: Anno 1591, Henricus Smyth, theologus, m filius Erasmi Smyth, armigeri, sepult. fuit 4to. die Julii.

Smith's preparations allowed his writings to become among England's most popular, after his death. However, some sources indicate that Smith may have survived until around 1600, or even until as late as 1613.