b.
S. Asaph
,
1541
. Perhaps he graduated
B.A.
at
Oxford
in
1563
. It is not known when he became a
Roman Catholic
, if indeed he was ever anything else, but he may be supposed to have fled to the
Continent
c.
1573
. He joined the
English College
at
Douai
c.
1576
. By the beginning of
1579
he was a member of the
English College
at
Rome
, and engaging in controversy, together with the other
Welsh
students, against the
English
(see under
Clynnog
,
Morys
). The
English
won, and
Smyth
was dismissed from the college because he refused to express his readiness to be ordained priest, and to return to
England
as a
missionary
. After this, his history becomes obscure; perhaps he was assisted by his friends
Gruffydd
Robert
and
Owen
Lewis
(qq.v.). It is likely that there is some foundation for the statement made in
Y Drych Cristianogawl
, (
1585
), that he was then living at
Rouen
; he may have been the ‘
Doctor
Smythy
’ who joined in signing a petition on behalf of the
Bridgettines
(formerly of
Syon Abbey
) at
Rouen
,
c.
1587
. He returned to
England
some time towards the middle of the nineties, and for a while was imprisoned at
Newgate
, but he escaped somehow. It is probable that he was ordained
priest
some time after this. It is not known where he graduated
S.T.P.
(=
D.D.
). It seems that he lived in
Paris
after his release from prison;
Gruffydd
Robert
wrote to him there
c.
1596
. He is mentioned in reports from
Cecil
's spies in
1598
and
1601
. It was in
Paris
that he published his three
Welsh
books, but a note in a copy of
Theater dv Mond
in
N.L.W.
proves that there was some connection between him and
Monmouthshire
as late as
1615
.
Lewis
Owen
(q.v.)
in his
Running Register
,
1626
, says that
Smith
d. ‘the last year,’ i.e.
1625
, but if the words were written in
1625
, then the year he d. would be
1624
.
According to one of the spies,
Smyth
was a man of uncommon opinions: he disliked both the
Jesuits
and the
English
, and desired to see a republic, together with freedom of conscience, instituted in
Wales
and
England
. As an
author
he is hardly classed with the great masters of
Welsh
prose, but his work is by no means insignificant. Of especial interest is his attempt to
enrich the vocabulary of the language
according to the suggestions of his
master
,
Gruffydd
Robert
.
Here is a list of his published works: (
a
)
Crynnodeb o addysc Cristnogawl
(
Paris
,
1609
) (S.T.C. 4569), a translation of the first two, and part of the third, chapters of
S.
Petrus
Canisius
's
Latin
catechism,
Summa Doctrinae Christianae
; (
b
)
Opus catechisticum … sef yw: Svm ne grynoddeb o adysc Gristionogawl
(
Paris
,
1611
) (S.T.C. 4570), a complete translation of the same catechism; (
c
)
Theater dv Mond sef ivv. Gorsedd y Byd
(
Paris
,
1615
) (S.T.C. 3170a), a translation of a
French
work by
Pierre
Boaistuau
,
Le Thèâtre du Monde
, a treatise on the misery and the greatness of man. This is not one of the books which derives from the
Counter-Reformation movement
.
A short foreword at the beginning of
Y Drych Cristianogawl
,
1585
, is also attributed to
Smyth
, but it is very difficult to determine whether or not this is genuinely his work.
Professor Robert Geraint Gruffydd, D.Phil., Aberystwyth / Bangor
