HUNT, WALTER

Carmelite theologian; b. in the west of England, early 15th century; d. Oxford, England, Nov. 28, 1478. A member of the carmelites, he was by 1450 a doctor in theology from the University of oxford. He attended the Ecumenical Council of florence, during which he was presumably prominent in the doctrinal discussions with the Greeks. He wrote a work about this council and compiled its acta, but neither this work nor his other writings on a wide range of subjects are extant [for a list of his writings, some with incipit 's, see A. B. Emden, A Biographical Register of the University of Oxford to A.D. 1500, 3 v. (Oxford 1957–59) 2:986–987]. Hunt was a representative of the Oxford section of the English Carmelite province at a provincial meeting held in 1446 or 1447 concerning reform measures to be taken up at the general chapter of 1447. In 1450 he was a chaplain to Cardinal John kemp, and despite his status as a friar he had dispensations for livings and held various benefices, canonries, and prebends. He was buried in the church of the Carmelite friary at Oxford.

Bibliography: j. bale, Scriptorum illustrium maioris Brytanniae, quam nunc Angliam et Scotiam vocant, catalogus, 2 v. (Basel 1557–59), 1:615–616. c. de villiers, Bibliotheca carmelitana, ed. g. wessels, 2 v. in 1 (Rome 1927) 1:579–581. j. tait, The Dictionary of National Biography From the Earliest Times to 1900, 63v. (London 1885–1900) 10:281.

[k. j. egan]