​CHELMESTON or CHELVESTON, JOHN (fl. 1297), Carmelite, was a native of Yorkshire, and is said to have been professor of theology at Oxford. By command of the prior-general of his order, Gerard of Bologna (who filled that office from 1297 to 1317), he went to teach in the Low Countries, principally at Bruges and Brussels. He is said to have obtained great celebrity as a scholastic theologian, and Pits states that manuscripts of many of his works formerly existed in the Carmelite Library at Norwich. The writings attributed to him are ‘Determinationes Theologicæ’ ‘Lecturæ Scholasticæ,’ ‘Quaestiones Ordinariæ,’ ‘Quodlibeta,’ and ‘Sermones et Collationes.’ Leland writes his name Schelmesdun, and Tanner quotes the form Clemeston.

H. B.