Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Tilney, John
TILNEY, JOHN (fl. 1430), Carmelite friar, seems to have had some connection with the Grey Friars of Colchester, and is said to have been ordained acolyte on 19 Sept. 1405 (Tanner, Bibl. Brit.-Hib. p. 713 n.) He was doctor of theology of Cambridge and a teacher and disputant of some note there. He took the vows at Yarmouth, where he became prior of the Carmelite house. An entry in the Lincoln register under 26 March 1474 of the probate of the will of one John Tylney does not in all probability concern the Carmelite friar (ib. p. 714; Bradshaw, Statutes of Lincoln, ii. 459, 467, 489; but cf. Le Neve, Fasti, ii. 185). Tilney seems to have attained special distinction as an exponent of the scriptures, and wrote several treatises, of which the titles were, according to Bale, ‘In Sententias,’ ‘In Apocalypsin,’ ‘Lecturæ Scholasticæ,’ and ‘Conciones.’ Only the last is now known to be extant. It is in Gonville and Caius College MS. i. 9, and is an exposition of the Gospel of St. John. Bale points out the reforming tendency of the teaching of the ‘In Apocalypsin,’ no copy of which is now known.
[Tanner's Bibl. Brit.-Hib. pp. 713–14; Leland's Commentarii … de Script. Brit. pp. 446–7, ed. 1709; Pitseus' De Illustr. Angl. Script. p. 621, ed. 1619; Bale's Script. Illustr. Catalogus, pp. 573–4, ed. 1559; Villiers de St. Etienne's Bibl. Ord. Carmel. ii. 126.]