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 and he presented two estates to Lincoln College, the manor of Bushbery, or Ailleston, near Brewood, in Staffordshire, and the manor of Sencleres in Chalgrove, Oxfordshire. In the same year he first formed the design, in concert with Richard Sutton [q. v.], of founding a new college in Oxford. The earliest steps towards effecting this purpose were taken by Sutton, but in 1509 Bishop Smyth appears in conjunction with Sutton as lessee of a stone quarry at Headington, and is represented by an inscription on the foundation-stone of Brasenose College to have laid it, together with Sutton, on 1 June of the same year. The core of the new foundation was Brasenose Hall, dating at least from the thirteenth century. This Smyth rebuilt. With it he incorporated other adjacent halls, and gave to the whole the name of ‘the king's hall and college of Brasenose,’ at first sometimes designated ‘the king's college of Brasenose,’ or ‘Collegium Regale de Brasenose.’ The charter of foundation is dated 15 Jan. 1512 (, xiii. 320). In the following year Smyth transferred to the new college the estates of the dissolved priory of Cold Norton, Oxfordshire, purchased by him from the dean and convent of St. Stephen's, Westminster, to whom they had been granted. He added an estate near Oxford, known as Basset's fee. The objects of his new college, as set forth in the charter, were ‘to study philosophy and sacred theology … to the praise and honour of Almighty God; for the furtherance of divine worship, for the advancement of holy church, and for the support and exaltation of the Christian faith.’ It was to consist of a principal and twelve fellows, all of them born within the diocese of Coventry and Lichfield, with preference to the natives of Lancashire and Cheshire, and especially those of Prescot in Lancashire and Presbury in Cheshire. Apparently the principal and all the fellows were to be in holy orders. The first statutes were drawn up by Smyth himself, largely borrowed from those of Magdalen, and prescribing both the diet and dress of the members of the house. The severity of Smyth's rules was somewhat mitigated after his death by his surviving co-founder, Sutton, at the request of the college. Meanwhile Smyth took part in the conversion of the property of another religious house to educational purposes, having in 1510 assisted in the suppression of the priory of St. John, Cambridge, with a view to the foundation of St. John's College, Cambridge.

The deaths of Smyth's patrons, Henry VII and the Lady Margaret, took place respectively in April and June 1509. The person foremost in Henry VIII's council at this time was Richard Foxe [q. v.], bishop of Winchester, who, together with Smyth, was among the executors of Henry VII. With Foxe Smyth had had frequent official relations, and in 1509 joined with him, Fitzjames, bishop of London, and Oldham, bishop of Exeter, in the successful assault upon the jurisdiction of the archbishop of Canterbury's probate court [see ]. On the other hand, there were differences of opinion between them, Foxe favouring the liberal tendencies of ‘the new learning.’ The sense of rivalry disclosed itself in riotous attacks, in which a former principal of Brasenose Hall was concerned, upon the builders of Foxe's new college of Corpus Christi. Although Smyth retained till his death his office of president of Wales, his name, after his patrons' deaths, practically disappears from the domestic state papers. Foxe's influence was probably the cause of his retirement. He seems to have spent his later years within the limits of his vast diocese. His will is dated 26 Dec. 1513. He died at Buckden in Huntingdonshire, one of his ten palaces as bishop of Lincoln, on 2 Jan. 1514. In his will he desired to be buried in his cathedral, and he left certain sums for religious services. To the college of Brasenose he bequeathed, for the use of the chapel, the books, chalices, and vestments of his domestic chapel. These, of which an inventory was left, appear never to have come into possession of the college. They were probably appropriated by Wolsey, his successor in the see, one of the charges against whom was that he ‘had the more part of the goods of Dr. Smyth, bishop of Lincoln,’ as well as of other bishops whom he succeeded, ‘contrary to their wills and to law and justice.’ Smith also bequeathed 100l. to the hospital of St. John Baptist in Banbury, where another of his episcopal palaces was situate, and certain sums to his relatives. The residue of his goods was to be disposed of by his executors in works of piety and charity for the welfare of his soul. The will was proved on 30 Jan. 1514. He was buried in a stone coffin, one of the latest instances of this practice, under a marble gravestone, inlaid with a rich brass effigy and inscription. This was destroyed during the civil wars, but a copy made in 1641 by Sir William Dugdale is extant. A mural monument near the west door of the cathedral, erected by Dr. Ralph Cawley, principal of Brasenose in 1775, bears a long Latin inscription to his memory.

Smyth was one of the enlightened statesmen-prelates of his age. He evidently shared with his lifelong friend, Hugh Old-