Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Helyar, John
HELYAR, JOHN (fl. 1535), scholar, born about 1503, was a native of Hampshire, and matriculated at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, on 1 June 1522, was admitted B.A. on 27 July 1524, and commenced M.A. on 3 April 1525; he supplicated for B.D. in 1532 (Reg. Univ. Oxf. i. 134, 326). He became fellow of his college, and being well versed in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew attracted the patronage of Wolsey. He afterwards became vicar of East Meon and rector of Warblington, Hampshire. Previously to August 1535, when he was living at Paris, he went abroad, according to his own account for the purpose of study, but he had evidently fallen into disgrace; he was still abroad in December 1536. Helyar is said to have been a friend of Erasmus, but none of his alleged correspondence with him has survived. The following writings are ascribed to him: 1. ‘Commentaria in Ciceronem pro Marcello.’ 2. ‘Scholia in Sophoclem.’ 3. ‘Commentaria in Epistolas Ovidii.’ 4. ‘Carmina in obitum Erasmi’ (in Greek and Latin; printed in the book of ‘Epitaphs on Erasmus,’ Basle, 1527; Antwerp, 1537). He also translated into Latin Chrysostom's ‘De Providentia et Fato.’ A letter from Helyar to ‘Master Palmes’ is calendared in ‘Letters and Papers of the Reign of Henry VIII’ (ix. 128), and also one addressed to him by ‘Ric. Langgrische, priest’ (xi. 1350). Helyar is said to have been alive in 1539.
[Tanner's Bibl. Brit.-Hib. p. 390; Wood's Fasti, i. 66, 92; Wood's Athenæ Oxon. i. 107; Dodd's Church Hist. i. 211; Gillow's Bibl. Dict. English Catholics, iii. 264–5.]