Smith left Sussex in 1613 he became superior of the small body of English secular priests who had rented the Benedictine house in Paris called Arras College, where they devoted themselves to writing controversy.
[1] Smith was appointed Apostolic Vicar for the whole of England, Wales and Scotland on 29 November 1624 and was consecrated Titular bishop of Chalcedon, in January 1625.
He created new vicars and archdeacons, and issued a regulation that none of the regular clergy (i.e., priests belonging to religious orders) could hear confessions unless he was approved by Smith.
Smith had also managed to antagonize the Catholic nobles by arbitrarily assigning confessors, and threatening to make Lord Morley return to live with his wife.
Whereupon the king turned to the ambassador and requested that he quickly send a servant to obtain the said permission, adding that he knew full well he would find the bishop there.
[3] In the meantime, Pope Urban had the French nuncio remind Smith that he had been consecrated Bishop of Calcedon, not of England, and that his ordinary powers were both limited and revocable, that missionaries sent by the Holy See did not require his approval, and that he should work better with them.
His resignation was quickly accepted, and although he attempted to rescind it, he was forbidden to return to England In Paris, Smith lived at first with Cardinal Richelieu until the latter's death in 1642.