Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Thompson, John (fl.1382)
THOMPSON, THOMSON, or TOMSON, JOHN (fl. 1382), Carmelite, was probably born, as Pits suggests, at Thompson, near Watton in Norfolk, where a family of Thompsons was settled (Blomefield). He was educated at the Carmelite house at Blakney, Norfolk, whence he proceeded to Oxford (cf. Wood, Hist. et Antiq. 1674, p. 103, col. 1). He graduated B.D. and attained some fame as a theologian before 1382, when he was one of the two Carmelite members of the provincial council summoned to meet in the Black Friars, London, in May to pronounce judgment on Wyclif's doctrines (Wilkins, Concilia, iii. 158, 165; Netter, Fasciculi Zizaniorum, Rolls Ser., pp. 287, 500). Subsequently he is said to have graduated D.D. and to have devoted himself to the study of philosophy and theology. Villiers de St. Etienne (Bibl. Carmel. ii. 127–8) gives a list of fifteen works by Thompson, and says he wrote 'plura alia,' all of which were preserved in Bale's time (circa 1550) in the house of the Carmelites at Norwich. None are now known to be extant, with the possible exception of a work, 'Ex Trivetho de transformatis,' attributed to Thompson by Bale, and beginning 'Abbas a monacho veneno occiditur;' a manuscript with this incipit is extant in Merton College MS. lxxxv. f. 111, and its full title is 'Tabula Nicolai Trivet super allegorias libri Ovidii de transformatis' (Coxe, Cat. MSS. in Coll. Aulisque Oxon. i. 46; cf. art. Trivet, Nicholas). There is nothing to identify the Carmelite with the John Thomson who died vicar of Leeds in 1430, bequeathing his books to Gonville Hall, Cambridge (Venn, Biogr. Hist. of Gonville and Caius College, p. 5).
[Authorities cited; Lezana's Annales Minorum, iv. 706; Bale's Scriptt. vi. 66; Pits, pp. 449, 526; Lelong's Bibl. ii. 987, 991; Fabricius's Bibl. Lat. Medii Ævi, iv. 445; Tanner's Bibl. Brit.-Hib. p. 718, s.v. 'Tompson;' Villiers de St. Etienne's Bibl. Carmel. ii. 127–8; Blomefield's Hist. of Norfolk.]