Beston, John

, a learned English divine of the fifteenth century, was prior of the monastery of Carmelite friars at Lynn in Norfolk, and distinguished | for the works which he published, and the great character which he raised by his merit. It seems probable from Leland’s account of him, that he studied first at Cambridge, and afterwards at Paris, as he had the honour of receiving the degree of doctor of divinity in both those universities. The same author tells us, that he was extremely well skilled in natural philosophy, and a considerable divine; and Bale adds, that he was a very fluent and elegant preacher in his own language, and an acute disputant in the schools. Pits likewise observes, that he had a very happy genius, and a solid judgment, and was eminent for his piety and knowledge both in divine and human learning that he was highly applauded for his subtilty in disputation, and his eloquence in the pulpit and that Alan de Lynn affirmed of him, that he used in his sermons to open and explain the four-fold sense of the Scriptures with the utmost perspicuity. Thomas Waldensis, in his Epistles quoted by Bale and Pits, tells us, that he was sent in the year 1424 to the council held at Sienna in Italy, under Pope Martin V. where he distinguished himself to great advantage. He died at Lynn in the year 1428 under the reign of king Henry VI. His works are, 1. “Compendium Theologiae Moralis.” 2. “Ordinariac Quaestiones.” 3. “Super Universalibus Holcothi.” 4. “Sermonesin Evangelia.” 5. “Sermones in Epistolas.” 6. “Lecturae sacrse Scripturse.” 7. “Rudimenta Logices.” 8. “De Virtutibus et Vitiisoppositis.” 9. “Epistolarum ad diversosLibri duo.1

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Gen. Dict. from —Leland, Bale and Pits.—Tanner.