Smith, B. B. (Benjamin Bosworth), 1794-1884. Benjamin Bosworth Smith papers, 1825-1882.
Title:
Benjamin Bosworth Smith papers, 1825-1882.
These substantial materials relate to Smith's long career in the ministry, affairs of the Diocese of Kentucky and of the Episcopal Church in general, and official communications as Presiding Bishop. Three early letters, 1825-1828, from the Reverend Robert B. Croes, concern Smith's activities while at St. Stephen's Church, Middlebury, Vt. Papers about Smith's election as Bishop of Kentucky, 1831-1832, are followed by numerous letters by and about Smith, chiefly his intimate letters to William Rollinson Whittingham before and after Whittingham became Bishop of Maryland. Smith offers Whittingham a post in his new seminary in Kentucky, 1835; asks Whittingham to accompany him on episcopal visitations, 1842; and writes about numerous Church periodicals, publications, and doctrinal controversies. Many letters frankly describe conditions and events in the Diocese of Kentucky; Smith's troubles there; accusations against him in 1837 and 1855; the schism of Bishop George D. Cummins, his assistant bishop, in 1873-1874; and many clergy matters, such as his refusal to accept the Reverend James Briscoe in 1872 because of his ritualism. Other subjects include Smith's theological beliefs: views on baptism, the ministry, the Eucharist, confessions, and reform of the Prayer Book; High and Low Church disputes; Smith's desire for church unity on the basis of primitive church principles; his impartiality and belief the Church of the future needs less ritualism and sacramentalism (1857); relations with the Baptist, Roman Catholic, and Orthodox Churches; support for the missions to Greece and Turkey in the 1840s; the Freedmans' Commission, 1868; and many references to relations with the Church of England, including the Lambeth Conferences of 1867 and 1875-1878; attendance of English bishops at the General Convention of 1871, proposals to vest the patriarchate in the Archbishop of Canterbury and correspondence with the Archbishop, 1875-1876, the death of Bishop Wilberforce, and parliamentary proceedings affecting the Church of England, 1874. Many papers relate to business of the House of Bishops and the General Conventions, elections of many bishops with comments concerning them, criteria for giving consent to the election of bishops, organization of the Episcopal Church and proposals for the provincial system, 1869-1873, and much concerning missions. Papers of 1871-1880 relate to the missions in Cuba; others of 1871-1872 discuss the mission in Haiti, the project for sending Bishop John Payne there, and oversight of Haiti by Bishop A. Cleveland Coxe. Papers of the Mexican Commission of the House of Bishops, 1874-1876, include references to Bishop Smith's role in its affairs. In 1872 Smith urges Bishop Whittingham to attend the conference of Old Catholic Churches at Cologne and gives his views concerning those churches. Official correspondence of 1875 deals with charges against Whittingham for not disciplining a clergyman who used prayer for the dead. The same year Smith writes about African missions, stating he would vote for the Reverend Joseph Sandford Attwell, a Black man, to be bishop there or bishop for the freedmen in the U.S., giving an account of his career and qualities. Correspondence of 1878 concerns the General Convention held in Baltimore, Smith's ill health, and his approaching death. Letters from Smith after Whittingham's death praise him highly and reminisce about their long friendship and their visits with Bishop Wilberforce and William Ewart Gladstone in England in 1857.
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