Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Kynton, John

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1447431Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 31 — Kynton, John1892Andrew George Little ‎

KYNTON, JOHN (d. 1536), divinity professor at Oxford, was a Franciscan friar, though his connection with the Oxford convent seems to have been slight. He received the chancellor's license to incept as D.D. in 1500. He appears as vice-chancellor and senior theologus in 1503, 1504, 1506, 1507, 1510, 1512, and 1513. He preached the university sermon on Easter Sunday 1515. He was among the four doctors of divinity appointed by the university in 1521 to consult with Wolsey about the Lutheran doctrines, and he assisted in a further examination of the reformer's works undertaken by the theologians of Oxford at the king's command; he is said to have written on this occasion a treatise ‘Contra Doctrinam Mart. Lutheri.’ He was divinity reader to Magdalen College, and third Margaret professor of theology; he resigned the latter post in 1530; the date of his election is unknown. In 1530 he was one of the leading members of the committee of Oxford theologians to whom the question of the validity of the king's marriage was referred. Kynton died on 20 Jan. 1535–6, and was buried in the chapel of Durham College, now Trinity College, Oxford.

[Oxf. Univ. Archives, Acta Cur. Cancell. [revD], [revF], EEE.; Pocock's Records of the Reformation, vol. i.; Wood's Athenæ, i. 94; Fasti, i. 6, &c.; Lyte's Oxford.]

A. G. L.