John Acton (died 1350) was an English canon lawyer, known for his commentary on the writer on the ecclesiastical Constitutions of two papal legates of the thirteenth century.
Acton's chief work was a commentary on the ecclesiastical ‘constitutions’ of Otto and Ottobone, in succession papal legates in England in the thirteenth century.
These constitutions formed for many years the English canon law, and Acton's notes were held by the lawyers of his own time in their interpretations.
Acton's work was printed for the first time in 1496 by Wynkyn de Worde in William Lyndwood's Provinciale.
His gloss often becomes a growl against the bad world in which he lives, the greedy prelates, the hypocritical friars, the rapacious officials.