sb. and a. [f. Smectymnuus (-vvs), a fictitious name made out of the initials of the five authors of An Answer to a Book, etc. (1641).
The writers thus indicated were Stephen Marshall, Edmund Calamy, Thomas Young, Matthew Newcomen, and William Spurstow. The book was written as a reply from the Presbyterian side to Bishop Hall’s Humble Remonstrance.]
A. sb. One or other of the authors of the work published under the name of Smectymnuus; also, one who accepted the views of these writers.
1646. Bp. Maxwell, Burden Issachar, 56. A sufficient evidence, to evince this truth against the Smectymnuans.
1656. Blount, Glossogr., s.v., From thence they and their Followers were called Smectymnuans.
1733. Neal, Hist. Purit., II. 400. The Smectymnuans admit that our blessed Saviour taught his disciples a form of prayer.
1874. Masson, Milton, I. p. xxx. There were other pamphlets, of retort and rejoinder, between Hall and the Smectymnuans, in all of which Milton advised and assisted the five Smectymnuans.
B. adj. Pertaining to, connected with, or characteristic of the Smectymnuans.
1673. S. Parker, Reproof Reh. Transp., 182. How little … sufficiently appears … by the great Smectymnuan labours.
1678. Pol. Ballads (Wilkins, 1860), I. 205. I would as soon turn back to mass … As buckle to Smectymnuan laws.
1882–3. Schaff, Encycl. Relig. Knowl., II. 1417. He was one of the chiefs in the Smectymnuan Controversy with Bishop Hall in 1641.
1883. Encycl. Brit., XVI. 329/1. The famous Smectymnuan pamphlet in reply to Hall was mainly Young’s.
