Smectymnuus was the ''nom de plume'' of a group of
Puritan clergymen active in
England
England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
in 1641 during the reign of
Charles I. It comprised four leading English churchmen, and one Scottish minister (
Thomas Young). They went on to provide leadership for the anti-episcopal forces in the
Church of England
The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...
, continuing into the
Westminster Assembly, where they also opposed the Independent movement.
The name is an acronym derived from the initials of the five authors:
Stephen Marshall,
Edmund Calamy, Thomas Young,
Matthew Newcomen, and
William Spurstow. Their first pamphlet, ''An Answer to a booke entituled, An Humble Remonstrance. In Which, the Original of Liturgy and Episcopacy is discussed'', appeared in March 1641. The pamphlet was written in response to
Joseph Hall's ''An Humble Remonstrance to the High Court of Parliament''. It is thought that
John Milton wrote the postscript for Smectymnuus's reply.
This response provoked Hall to write another reply: ''A Defence of the Humble Remonstrance, against the Frivolous and false Expectations of Smectymnuus''. Smectymnuus answered Hall again with there ''A Vindication of the Answer to the Humble Remonstrance, from the Unjust Imputations of Frivolousnesse and Falsehood''.
Milton also published two tracts defending the Smectymnuus group from Hall: ''
Animadversions upon The Remonstrants Defence Against Smectymnvvs'' (1641) and ''
Apology for Smectymnuus'' (1642). Thomas Young was a former tutor and close friend to Milton.
References
{{Reflist
1641 works
Pamphlets
British writers' organisations