Born at Walsham, John obtained a doctorate in theology from the University of Cambridge.
[1] He was licensed to take confession in the diocese of Canterbury in 1358.
[2] All of John's surviving works are found in a single manuscript, Oxford, Corpus Christi College, 182.
He distinguishes between the task of proving the existence of a first being and the more difficult one of proving the existence of a supremely and infinitely perfect being who created the universe.
In dismissing a priori proofs, like that of Thomas Bradwardine, he refers to another work of his, which has not survived.