he should resign to the king the lands of the see, receiving in return a fixed income of two thousand marks a year, chiefly derived from impropriated rectories. The meaning of the transaction was soon made plain in the grants made of the surrendered lands to various courtiers. But the blame was not solely Ponet's; for the dean and chapter consented, and Cranmer must have had a good deal to say in the matter. At Winchester he had Bale and Goodacre for chaplains, and John Philpot (1516–1555) [q. v.] for archdeacon. On 6 Oct. 1551 he was one of the commissioners for the reformation of ecclesiastical law, and about the same time he was one of the visitors of Oxford University. When Mary came to the throne Ponet was deprived, and is said to have fled at once to the continent. A tradition, however, preserved by Stow, asserts that he took an active part in Wyatt's rebellion. Eventually he found his way to Peter Martyr at Strasburg, where he seems to have been cheerful enough, even though his house was burnt down. ‘What is exile?’ he wrote to Bullinger: ‘a thing painful only in imagination, provided you have wherewith to subsist.’ He died at Strasburg in August 1556.
Ponet's ability, both as a thinker and a writer of English, can perhaps best be inferred from his ‘Short Treatise of Politique Power,’ which is useful as an authority for the history of his time. It is also said to be one of the earliest expositions of the doctrine of tyrannicide; but there Ponet was anticipated by John of Salisbury. Ponet's matrimonial experiences were curious. He seems to have gone through the form of marriage with the wife of a butcher of Nottingham, to whom he had to make an annual compensation; from her he was divorced ‘with shame enough’ on 27 July 1551 (Machyn). On 25 Oct. 1551 he married Maria Haymond at Croydon church, Cranmer being present at the ceremony. This wife went abroad with him, and survived him. An interesting letter from her to Peter Martyr, some of whose books she had sold with her husband's by mistake, has been preserved.
Ponet's chief works were: 1. ‘A Tragoedie or Dialoge of the uniuste usurped primacie of the Bishop of Rome, …’ London, 1549, 8vo. This translation from Bernardino Ochino [q. v.] brought him to the notice of Somerset, who is mentioned in the dedication. 2. ‘A Defence for Marriage of Priestes by Scripture and aunciente Wryters,’ London, 1549, 8vo (possibly an early edition of No. 5). 3. ‘Sermon at Westminster before the King,’ London, 1550, 4to. 4. ‘Catechismus Brevis Christianæ Disciplinæ Summam continens, omnibus ludimagistris authoritate Regia commendatus. Huic Catechismo adiuncti sunt Articuli,’ Zürich, 1553, 8vo. This was published anonymously, in English by Day and in Latin by Wolf. It was assigned to both Ridley and Nowell. Several editions appeared in 1553. The English version has been printed in ‘Liturgies’ of Edward VI's reign by the Parker Society. 5. ‘De Ecclesia ad regem Edwardum,’ Zürich, 1553, 8vo. 6. ‘An Apologie fully aunsweringe by Scriptures and aunceant Doctors a blasphemose Book gatherid by D. Steph. Gardiner … D. Smyth of Oxford, Pighius, and other Papists … and of late set furth under the name of Thomas Martin … against the godly marriadge of priests,’ 1555, 12mo; 1556, 8vo. 7. ‘A Short Treatise of Politique Power, and of the true obedience which subjectes owe to kynges and other civile governours, with an Exhortacion to all true naturall Englishemen,’ 1556, 8vo; 1639, 8vo; 1642, 4to. 8. ‘Axiomata Eucharistiæ.’ 9. ‘Dialecticon de veritate, natura, atque substantia Corporis et Sanguinis Christi in Eucharistia,’ Strasburg, 1557, 8vo. An English translation was published in London, 1688, 4to (Lowndes).
[Cooper's Athenæ Cantabr. i. 155, 547; Dixon's Hist. Church of Engl. iii. 151, &c., iv. 74, &c.; Le Neve's Fasti, i. 56, ii. 570; Heylyn's Ecclesia Restaurata, i. 208, &c., ii. 91, 121, &c.; Wood's Athenæ Oxon. ed. Bliss, i. 390, ii. 52; Wood's Hist. and Antiq. of Univ. of Oxford, i. 273; Machyn's Diary (Camden Soc.), pp. 8, 320, 323; Foxe's Actes and Monuments, vii. 203; Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1547–80, pp. 32, 44; Maitland's Essays, pp. 97, 124; Lipscomb's Buckinghamshire, ii. 162, iii. 392, 653; Hasted's Kent, iii. 265; Hessel's Eccles. Lond. Bataviæ Archivum, ii. 15, 16; authorities quoted.]
PONSONBY, Lady EMILY CHARLOTTE MARY (1817–1877), born on 17 Feb. 1817, was the third daughter of John William Ponsonby, fourth earl of Bessborough [q. v.], by his wife, Lady Maria Fane, daughter of John Fane, tenth earl of Westmorland [q. v.] Frederick George Brabazon Ponsonby, sixth earl of Bessborough [q. v.], was her brother. From 1848 till 1873 she wrote a number of novels, mostly published anonymously; they contain some careful and good writing. She died, unmarried, on 3 Feb. 1877.
Her books are: 1. ‘The Discipline of Life,’ 3 vols., 1848; 2nd edit., 1848. 2. ‘Pride and Irresolution,’ 3 vols., 1850 (a new series of the former book). 3. ‘Clare Abbey; or the Trials of Youth,’ 1851. 4. ‘Mary Gray, and other Tales and Verses,’ 1852. 5. ‘Edward Willoughby: a Tale,’ 1854. 6. ‘The Young Lord,’ 1856. 7. ‘Sunday
