Ralph Acton was a supposed English theologian and philosopher, apparently primarily known for his writings, some of which still exist. More recent enquiries suggest that Acton may have been a scribe or, indeed, non-existent.

Biography

According to the 1885 Dictionary of National Biography

Dictionary of National Biography

The Dictionary of National Biography is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published from 1885...

, Ralph Acton is assigned by Leland and his followers to the first half of the fourteenth century. Of the details of his life nothing definite is known, for the sketch given by Bale

John Bale

John Bale was an English churchman, historian and controversialist, and Bishop of Ossory. He wrote the oldest known historical verse drama in English , and developed and published a very extensive list of the works of British authors down to his own time, just as the monastic libraries were being...

 and Pitts is so vague as to suggest that it is chiefly made up of inferences. According to these writers Ralph received his early education in country schools, whence in due time he proceeded to Oxford

University of Oxford

The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...

. After taking his master's degree in philosophy and theology at this university he was appointed head of a famous church (‘rector cujusdam insignis ecclesiæ’), and henceforward devoted himself in the retirement of his parish to the study of the Scriptures and the care of his flock.

His writings apparently consist of Homiliæ in quatuor Evangelia, Commentarii in Epistolas Paulinas, Illustrationes in Petrum Langobardum, and other works of a similar kind. Two manuscripts of this author are still preserved in the library of Lincoln College, Oxford

Lincoln College, Oxford

Lincoln College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It is situated on Turl Street in central Oxford, backing onto Brasenose College and adjacent to Exeter College...

-—the one written in an early fifteenth-century hand; the other the gift of Robert Fleming, a near kinsman of Richard Fleming

Richard Fleming

Richard Fleming , Bishop of Lincoln and founder of Lincoln College, Oxford, was born at Crofton in Yorkshire....

, the founder of this college (1427). We thus get a date later than which our author cannot have flourished; and Leland, Bale, and Pits conjecturally assign him to the reign of Edward II

Edward II of England

Edward II , called Edward of Caernarfon, was King of England from 1307 until he was deposed by his wife Isabella in January 1327. He was the sixth Plantagenet king, in a line that began with the reign of Henry II...

 (1320). Other manuscripts of Acton's works are said by Tanner to be in the Bodleian Library

Bodleian Library

The Bodleian Library , the main research library of the University of Oxford, is one of the oldest libraries in Europe, and in Britain is second in size only to the British Library...

 and that of Peterhouse, Cambridge

Peterhouse, Cambridge

Peterhouse is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. It is the oldest college of the University, having been founded in 1284 by Hugo de Balsham, Bishop of Ely...

.

Literary ghost

More recent study, summarised in Acton's Oxford Dictionary of National Biography entry suggest that Bale misidentified the author of a number of works, which are in fact by Radulfus Ardens

Radulfus Ardens

Radulfus Ardens was a French theologian and early scholastic philosopher of the twelfth century. He was born in Beaulieu, Poitou.He is known for his Summa de vitiis et virtutibus or Speculum universale...

, attributing them mistakenly to a Ralph Acton, who may have been a scribe or book name, rather than an author.