Bolton, Utred

Bolton, Utred an English Benedictine writer of the first part of the 14th century, was a native of Wales probably, or of that part of England beyond the Severn. He travelled to Durham, became a Benedictine there, and was ingratiated with the abbot, "the promptness and pleasantness of his parts commending all things he did or said;" went to Oxford, where he brightened his learning, and entered into the Wycliffite controversies. Bolton sided with neither party, or consented to both, as his conscience directed. William Jordan, a Dominican and a northerner, now attacked Bolton both in writing and preaching. Bolton, in his turn, came out more openly for Wycliffe, especially in his book Pro Veris Monachis, showing what sanctity and industry became them. Jordan now became enraged, and tried (it seems in vain) to get Bolton excommunicated as a heretic. See Fuller, Worthies of England (ed. Nuttall), 3, 501.