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Poynet (or Ponet), John

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Poynet (or Ponet), John

an English prelate of the Reformation period, was born about 1516 in Kentshire. He enjoyed a distinguished education, learned Italian and Flemish, was proficient in mathematics, and constructed in his youth a clock the complicated machinery of which was the admiration of Henry VIII's court. He graduated at King's College, Cambridge; was made doctor of theology and chaplain of archbishop Cranmer. At the age of thirty-three he was appointed bishop of Rochester (1549). In 1551 he succeeded at Winchester the deposed Gardiner, and was appointed to take a share in the redaction of the new code of ecclesiastical laws. He was indebted for these distinctions to his zeal for the cause of reform; he defended it in the pulpit and in his books, and explained its doctrines in his Catechismu, adopted under the name of "King Edward's Catechism." At Mary Tudor's accession to the throne, he repaired to foreign parts, either dreading persecution for having had a share in Wyatt's Rebellion, or because he had been deprived of his see for having married. He died April 11, 1556, at Strasburg. He is spoken of as a man of great erudition and eminent piety. In his theology he was a decided Calvinist. Other works of his are, Defense for Marriage of Priests (1549, 8vo): — Short Treatise of Politic Power (1556, 8vo; reprinted 1639 and 1642): — and De Eucharistia (1557, 8vo). See Strype, Life of Cranmer; Dodd, Church History; Fuller, Worthies of England; Muller, History of Winchester, 1, 346; Lecky, History of Rationalism, 2, 174; Hook, Eccles. Biography, 8, 158; Collier, Eccles. Hist. of England (see Index in vol. 8). (J.W.)