ACTON, JOHN. – English canonist, a canon of Lincoln from 1329, who died in 1350. A pupil of Giovanni Stratford, later archbishop of Canterbury, he was regarded by Maitland as one of the three great English canonists who flourished at the beginning of the 14th century.
He is known as a glossator of the constitutions of the cardinal legates Otto and Ottobono in 13th-century England; his fame, however, derives less from depth of learning than from his biting spirit toward the milieu in which he lived.
BIBL.: F. W. Maitland, Roman Canon Law in the Church of England, London 1898; Thomas J. Shahan, s. V. in Cath. Enc., I, pp. 114–15.