John Claymond facts for kids

John Claymond (1468–1537) was the very first President of Corpus Christi College at the University of Oxford in England. He was an important scholar and educator during a time of great change in learning.

Early Life and Education

John Claymond was born in 1468. When he was 16 years old, in 1484, he started studying at Magdalen College, Oxford. He stayed at Magdalen College for many years, learning and teaching.

In 1507, he became the president of Magdalen College. He held this important job until 1516. During his time there, he became good friends with a very famous scholar named Desiderius Erasmus. Erasmus was known for his new ideas about education and learning.

A New College and New Ideas

In 1517, a powerful church leader named Bishop Richard Foxe started a brand new college called Corpus Christi College. Bishop Foxe chose John Claymond to be its first president. Claymond and Foxe had been friends for 30 years!

Corpus Christi College was special because it was designed to be a place for "humanist studies." This meant focusing on subjects like Latin, Greek, history, and poetry, and encouraging new ways of thinking about the world and human potential.

While he was president, Claymond also worked as a "Public Reader in Humanity." This meant he taught Latin and classical texts to students. He even wrote a huge academic work, a commentary on the ancient Roman writer Pliny the Elder. This work was so big it filled 20 volumes, but it was never published.

Friendship with Erasmus

John Claymond's friendship with Desiderius Erasmus was very important. In 1526, Erasmus dedicated one of his own books to Claymond. This book was an edition of a work by an ancient writer named Chrysostom, called De fato et providentia Dei (which means "On Fate and God's Providence").

Later Life and Legacy

John Claymond passed away in December 1536. He was buried in the chapel of Corpus Christi College, the college he helped lead and shape.

Besides his work in education, Claymond also helped build a bridge. Around 1530, he built the original stone arch Bulstake Bridge. This bridge crossed the Bulstake Stream, which is a small branch of the River Thames west of Oxford. The bridge was later rebuilt in 1721 and again in 1923–1924, but it started with Claymond.