Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Griffith, John (fl.1553)
GRIFFITH or GRIFFIN, JOHN (fl. 1553), præmonstratensian, was a Welshman, and a monk of the order of Cistercians in the, monastery of Halesowen in Worcestershire. He was educated at Oxford in the Cistercian college of St. Bernard, now St. John's College, but what degree he took is uncertain. He was a learned and pious man, but ‘being unacquainted with the dealings of the world, had like to have been drawn over to the reformed religion’ (Wood); he was, however, ‘fastened in his faith again,’ much to the joy of the Roman catholics. He preached eloquently in English and in Latin. He wrote in Latin ‘Conciones Æstivales’ (‘modicum etiam non videbitis mel’), and ‘Conciones Hyemales’ (‘cum appropinquasset Iesus lerosolymam’). The time of his death and his place of burial are both uncertain, as he had been expelled from his monastery several years before the dissolution of the religious houses; but he was still living in the reign of Edward VI, and perhaps in that of Queen Mary.
[Wood's Athenæ Oxon. i. 62; Pits, Angl. Theol. i. 739, ed. 1619; Tanner's Bibl. Brit.]