John Ponet
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John Ponet (c. 1514 – August 1556), sometimes spelled John Poynet, was an English
Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...
churchman and controversial writer, the
bishop of Winchester The Bishop of Winchester is the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Winchester in the Church of England. The bishop's seat (''cathedra'') is at Winchester Cathedral in Hampshire. The Bishop of Winchester has always held ''ex officio'' the offic ...
and Marian exile. He is now best known as a resistance theorist who made a sustained attack on the divine right of kings.


Early life

Ponet was from
Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...
. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1533, was elected a fellow of
Queens' College, Cambridge Queens' College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Queens' is one of the 16 "old colleges" of the university, and was founded in 1448 by Margaret of Anjou. Its buildings span the R ...
in the same year: and became a
Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA or AM) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Those admitted to the degree have ...
in 1535.


Humanist scholar

Ponet was a pupil and one of the
humanist Humanism is a philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential, and agency of human beings, whom it considers the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry. The meaning of the term "humanism" ha ...
circle of Thomas Smith, who claimed that the new pronunciation of
Ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...
had been introduced by himself, Ponet, and
John Cheke Sir John Cheke (or Cheek; 16 June 1514 – 13 September 1557) was an English classical scholar and statesman. One of the foremost teachers of his age, and the first Regius Professor of Greek at the University of Cambridge, he played a great pa ...
. Smith and Cheke also were proponents of mathematics, and Ponet was one of their numerous followers. A sundial of his design was installed at
Hampton Court Hampton Court Palace is a Listed building, Grade I listed royal palace in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, southwest and upstream of central London on the River Thames. Opened to the public, the palace is managed by Historic Royal ...
. Ponet was ordained a priest at Lincoln on 10 June 1536. From 1539 to 1541 he was a university professor of Greek. In the later 1530s and early 1540s he took on college offices at Queens', acting as bursar and Dean. By the time of the
Prebendaries' Plot The Prebendaries' Plot was an attempt during the English Reformation by religious conservatives to oust Thomas Cranmer from office as Archbishop of Canterbury. The events took place in 1543 and saw Cranmer formally accused of being a heretic. The h ...
, Ponet was a partisan of
Thomas Cranmer Thomas Cranmer (2 July 1489 – 21 March 1556) was a theologian, leader of the English Reformation and Archbishop of Canterbury during the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI and, for a short time, Mary I. He is honoured as a Oxford Martyrs, martyr ...
. By 1545, he was Cranmer's chaplain.


Edwardian reformer

By November 1548, Ponet had married, though the
Parliament of England The Parliament of England was the legislature of the Kingdom of England from the 13th century until 1707 when it was replaced by the Parliament of Great Britain. Parliament evolved from the Great Council of England, great council of Lords Spi ...
had not yet removed the ban on
clerical marriage Clerical marriage is the practice of allowing Christian clergy (those who have already been ordained) to marry. This practice is distinct from allowing married persons to become clergy. Clerical marriage is admitted among Protestants, including bo ...
. In the power struggles of the early reign of
Edward VI Edward VI (12 October 1537 – 6 July 1553) was King of England and King of Ireland, Ireland from 28 January 1547 until his death in 1553. He was crowned on 20 February 1547 at the age of nine. The only surviving son of Henry VIII by his thi ...
, he was a supporter of Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset, and suspicious of his rival the
Earl of Warwick Earl of Warwick is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom which has been created four times in English history. The name refers to Warwick Castle and the town of Warwick. Overview The first creation came in 1088, and the title was held b ...
(later the Duke of Northumberland). Following Somerset's fall from political power, Ponet was arrested in November 1549, perhaps in connection with his translation from Ochino, which flattered Somerset and was dedicated to him. By spring 1550 Ponet was rehabilitated, and preached before the king. In March 1550, he was nominated as
bishop of Rochester The Bishop of Rochester is the Ordinary (officer), ordinary of the Church of England's Diocese of Rochester in the Province of Canterbury. The town of Rochester, Kent, Rochester has the bishop's seat, at the Rochester Cathedral, Cathedral Chur ...
, and was consecrated at
Lambeth Palace Lambeth Palace is the official London residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury. It is situated in north Lambeth, London, on the south bank of the River Thames, south-east of the Palace of Westminster, which houses Parliament of the United King ...
on 29 June. In January 1551, he was appointed to a commission to investigate
anabaptist Anabaptism (from Neo-Latin , from the Greek language, Greek : 're-' and 'baptism'; , earlier also )Since the middle of the 20th century, the German-speaking world no longer uses the term (translation: "Re-baptizers"), considering it biased. ...
s in Kent. On 8 March 1551 Ponet was appointed to the see of Winchester, replacing
Stephen Gardiner Stephen Gardiner (27 July 1483 – 12 November 1555) was an English Catholic bishop and politician during the English Reformation period who served as Lord Chancellor during the reign of Queen Mary I. Early life Gardiner was born in Bury St Ed ...
. As a diocesan he agreed a reduction in the income of the see, to the benefit of the government. His own salary fell to £1300 compared to £3000 for his predecessor.


Marian exile

In 1553, the Roman Catholic
Mary I Mary I (18 February 1516 – 17 November 1558), also known as Mary Tudor, was Queen of England and Ireland from July 1553 and Queen of Spain as the wife of King Philip II from January 1556 until her death in 1558. She made vigorous a ...
succeeded to the English throne. With the group of nearly 800 others, Protestants and mainly of higher social status, Ponet and his wife left for continental Europe. Ponet was the highest-ranking ecclesiastic among the Marian exiles. His exact movements are still a matter of debate, however. As a married man, he was deprived of his bishopric.
John Stow John Stow (''also'' Stowe; 1524/25 – 5 April 1605) was an English historian and antiquarian. He wrote a series of chronicles of History of England, English history, published from 1565 onwards under such titles as ''The Summarie of Englyshe C ...
claimed that during
Wyatt's rebellion Wyatt's Rebellion was a limited and unsuccessful uprising in England in early 1554 led by four men, one of whom was Sir Thomas Wyatt. It was given its name by the lawyer at Wyatt's arraignment, who stated for the record that "this shall be eve ...
in early 1554, Ponet participated in the uprising. He is known to have been in
Strasbourg Strasbourg ( , ; ; ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est Regions of France, region of Geography of France, eastern France, in the historic region of Alsace. It is the prefecture of the Bas-Rhin Departmen ...
after the rebellion's defeat with his wife. A child was born to them later in 1554, and they were granted citizenship in February 1555. Peter Carew, who was one of the rebels, took refuge with Ponet at Strasburg. Ponet died at Strasburg in August 1556.


Works


''A Shorte Treatise of Politike Power''

Ponet rejected outright the idea that the King was ordained by God to rule his Church on Earth. His major work was ''A Shorte Treatise of Politike Power'' (1556), in which he put forward a theory of justified opposition to secular rulers. Ponet had used the library of
Peter Martyr Vermigli Peter Martyr Vermigli (; 8 September 149912 November 1562) was an Italian-born Reformed theologian. His early work as a reformer in Catholic Italy and his decision to flee for Protestant northern Europe influenced some other Italians to convert ...
, a less radical resistance theorist. The work justified
tyrannicide Tyrannicide is the killing or assassination of a tyrant or unjust ruler, purportedly for the common good, and usually by one of the tyrant's subjects. Tyrannicide was legally permitted and encouraged in Classical Athens. Often, the term "tyrant ...
. The ''Treatise'' was a seminal volume that later political philosophers such as
John Locke John Locke (; 29 August 1632 (Old Style and New Style dates, O.S.) – 28 October 1704 (Old Style and New Style dates, O.S.)) was an English philosopher and physician, widely regarded as one of the most influential of the Enlightenment thi ...
expanded on, and influenced
John Adams John Adams (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was a Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. Before Presidency of John Adams, his presidency, he was a leader of ...
. An anonymous work, it had seven chapters, and a conclusion, and proposed a radical resistance theory, of the
Calvinist Reformed Christianity, also called Calvinism, is a major branch of Protestantism that began during the 16th-century Protestant Reformation. In the modern day, it is largely represented by the Continental Reformed Protestantism, Continenta ...
type and based on biblical exemplars. Chapter VII, ''What Confidence is to be Given to Princes and Potentates'', published the murder story ''
Arden of Faversham ''Arden of Faversham'' (original spelling: ''Arden of Feversham'') is an Elizabethan play, entered into the Register of the Stationers Company on 3 April 1592, and printed later that same year by Edward White. It depicts the real-life murder ...
''. This work also presented some recent political history, in Ponet's account of the palace revolution of 1549, and the fall of Somerset. He held responsible, as supporters of John Dudley (then Earl of Warwick),
Thomas Wriothesley, 1st Earl of Southampton Thomas Wriothesley, 1st Earl of Southampton (21 December 1505 – 30 July 1550), was an English peer, secretary of state, Lord Chancellor and Lord High Admiral. A naturally skilled but unscrupulous and devious politician who changed with the ...
,
Henry FitzAlan, 19th Earl of Arundel Henry Fitzalan, 12th Earl of Arundel (23 April 151224 February 1580) was an English nobleman, who over his long life assumed a prominent place at the court of all the later Tudor sovereigns. Court career under Henry VIII He was the only s ...
, and Richard Southwell. It did not accord any legitimacy to Dudley's subsequent attempt to displace Mary Tudor from the succession. Its contemporary focus was not on secular politics, but the church powers of the Marian bishops.


Clerical marriage

In 1549 Ponet dedicated a work defending clerical marriage to the Duke of Somerset. This work, ''A Defense for marriage of priests by scripture and auncient writers proved'', was one of the most comprehensive works on the subject written in the English reformation. It used examples of scriptural allowance of marriage, scriptural figures who married and early Church figures who married or permitted it to priests to argue priests should be able to marry. In October 2013 a manuscript ''A Traictise declarying and plainly prouying, that the pretensed marriage of Priestes … is no mariage'' (1554), from the Mendham Collection and sold by the Law Society, was barred from export by
Ed Vaizey Edward Henry Butler Vaizey, Baron Vaizey of Didcot, (born 5 June 1968) is a British politician, media columnist, political commentator and barrister who was Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries from 2010 to 2016. A mem ...
. It contains the views on clerical marriage of Stephen Gardiner, and those of Ponet. In 1556 appeared ''An Apologie Fully Answeringe ... a Blasphemous Book'', an answer to ''A Defence of Priestes Mariages'' by Thomas Martyn. It was published after Ponet's death by
Matthew Parker Matthew Parker (6 August 1504 – 17 May 1575) was an English bishop. He was the Archbishop of Canterbury in the Church of England from 1559 to his death. He was also an influential theologian and arguably the co-founder (with Thomas Cranmer ...
, whose role may have been largely editorial.


Other works

In 1549 also, Ponet published ''A Trageodie, or, Dialogue of the Unjust Usurper Primacy of the Bishop of Rome'', a translation of a work by Bernardino Ochino. It argued against the
Primacy of the Bishop of Rome Papal primacy, also known as the primacy of the bishop of Rome, is an ecclesiological doctrine in the Catholic Church concerning the respect and authority that is due to the pope from other bishops and their episcopal sees. While the doctrin ...
; and in claiming the
Papacy The pope is the bishop of Rome and the Head of the Church#Catholic Church, visible head of the worldwide Catholic Church. He is also known as the supreme pontiff, Roman pontiff, or sovereign pontiff. From the 8th century until 1870, the po ...
had fallen into
heresy Heresy is any belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs or customs, particularly the accepted beliefs or religious law of a religious organization. A heretic is a proponent of heresy. Heresy in Heresy in Christian ...
, may have been intended to undermine expectations of the effectiveness of the
Council of Trent The Council of Trent (), held between 1545 and 1563 in Trent (or Trento), now in northern Italy, was the 19th ecumenical council of the Catholic Church. Prompted by the Protestant Reformation at the time, it has been described as the "most ...
, convened from 1545, by proposing that
conciliarism Conciliarism was a movement in the 14th-, 15th- and 16th-century Catholic Church which held that supreme authority in the Church resided with an ecumenical council, apart from, or even against, the pope. The movement emerged in response to the We ...
was a dead letter. It contained also Cranmer's reasoning on the Pope as Antichrist. A
catechism A catechism (; from , "to teach orally") is a summary or exposition of Catholic theology, doctrine and serves as a learning introduction to the Sacraments traditionally used in catechesis, or Christian religious teaching of children and adult co ...
added by Ponet to the 42 Articles of 1553 formed the basis of a later catechism of
Alexander Nowell Alexander Nowell (13 February 1602), also known as Alexander Noel, was an Anglican priest and theologian who served as Dean of St Paul's during much of Elizabeth I's reign, and is now remembered for his catechisms, written in Latin. Early lif ...
(1570). It was commissioned from Ponet by John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland. A translation by Michaelangelo Florio (1553) was the first Italian book published in England. Other works attributed to Ponet are ''Diallecticon viri boni et literati'' (1557) which was edited by his friend
Anthony Cooke Sir Anthony Cooke, KB (June 1501 – 11 June 1576) was an English humanist scholar. He was a companion and tutor to Edward VI. Family Anthony Cooke was the only son of John Cooke (died 10 October 1516), esquire, of Gidea Hall, Essex, and Alic ...
, and translated into English by Elizabeth Hoby in 1605; and possibly ''An Answer unto a Crafty and Sophistical Cavillation'' (1550) as ghost-writer for Cranmer. The ''Diallecticon'', an anonymous publication, was an irenical discussion of the Eucharistic controversy within the Protestant churches. The work was edited in 1688 by Edward Pelling. William Goode in the 19th century argued that earlier attributions to Cooke were correct.


Family

Ponet married twice. In July 1551, his first wife was found by a consistory court at
St Paul's Cathedral St Paul's Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of St Paul the Apostle, is an Anglican cathedral in London, England, the seat of the Bishop of London. The cathedral serves as the mother church of the Diocese of London in the Church of Engl ...
to have a legal pre-contract marriage to a butcher and he was forced to divorce her and compensate him. He married his second wife, Maria Hayman, on 25 October of the same year; she was the daughter of one of the Archbishop Thomas Cranmer's financial officers. After his death, having sold his books to Anthony Cooke, Mary Ponet had to apologise to Peter Martyr, some of whose volumes were in the sale.


Notes


References


Primary sources

* John Ponet, ''A shorte treatise of politike power'', facsimile in Winthrop S. Hudson, ''John Ponet (1516?–1556): advocate of limited monarchy'' (1942)


Secondary sources

* Beer, B. L., ''John Ponet's Shorte Treatise of Politike Power reassessed'', Sixteenth Century Journal, 21 (1990), pp. 373–83. * Bowman, G., ''To the Perfection of God's Service: John Ponet's Reformation Vision for the Clergy'', Anglican and Episcopal History (1 March 2003). * Burgess, G. and Festenstein, M. (eds), ''English Radicalism, 1550–1850''. * Dawson, Jane E .A., ''Revolutionary conclusions: the case of the Marian exiles'', History of Political Thought, 11 (1990), pp. 257–72. * Freeman, Thomas S. "'Restoration and Reaction: Reinterpreting the Marian Church'." ''Journal of Ecclesiastical History'' (2017)
online
* Hudson, W. S., ''John Ponet (1516?–1556): advocate of limited monarchy'' (1942). * Peardon, B., ''The politics of polemics: John Ponet’s Short Treatise Of Politic Power, and contemporary circumstance, 1553–1556'', Journal of British Studies, 22 (1982), pp. 35–49. * Pettegree, Andrew, ''Marian Protestantism: six studies'' (1996). * O'Donovan, O. and Lockwood O'Donovan, J. (eds.), ''From Irenaeus to Grotius: A Sourcebook in Christian Political Thought'', 100-1625’. * Skinner, Q., ''The Foundations of Modern Political Thought: Vol. 2, The Age of Reformation''. * Wollman, D. H., ''The biblical justification for resistance to authority in Ponet’s and Goodman’s polemics'', Sixteenth Century Journal, 13 (1982), pp. 29–41.


External links


free text and audiobook of Short Treatise on Political Power


* Article ''Poinet ou Ponet, Jean''. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ponet, John 1510s births 1556 deaths 16th-century Church of England bishops Bishops of Rochester Bishops of Winchester Alumni of Queens' College, Cambridge 16th-century Protestants Marian exiles English Protestants 16th-century English theologians English Renaissance humanists Year of birth uncertain