favourite of the Romanists, and I am for that very reason desirous that we should view his actions with equity and impartiality, and that all prejudice should be banished from our minds.

I cannot, however, help remarking, that if Bishop Gardiner, and his associate Bishop Bonner, were in truth, the blood-stained tyrants which history has represented them, it becomes the imperative duty of a Protestant Legislature to guard against the possibility, however remote, of Roman Catholics again having the ascendancy in this kingdom: since their Church is ever one and the same her principles unchanged and unchangeable; and her acts and modes of proselytism, are still, not reprobated, but defended.

JOHN *PONET or POYNET, D.D.
(A PROTESTANT),

SUCCEEDED A.D. 1550-1.-DIED A.D. 1556.

Bishop Ponet, re:narkable for having been a Bishop at the early age of 33, was born in Kent in 1516, presented Jan. 29, 1545, to the eighth stall in Canterbury Cathedral (Le Neve's Fasti, p. 17). He was of Queen's College, Cambridge, S.T.D.

This Prelate, against whom Bishop Milner and the Roman Catholic writers bitterly inveigh, probably, solely from the circumstance of his being a Protestant, was highly esteemed for his varied talents and acquirements by King Edward VI., who nominated him March 8, 1549, Bishop of Rochester. He was accordingly consecrated at Lambeth June 29, 1550, (Registr. Cranmer, f. 330); and on the deprivation of Bishop Gardiner, he was translated March 23, 1551, to the See of Winton. 1 Pat. 5 Edward VI. m. 40.

On the 29th of June, 1550, the day of his promotion to the See of Rochester, an order of council was made, that no Bishop should for the future hold any other benefice in commendam, except John Poynet, Bishop

He wrote himself PONET.

elect of Rochester, and that, because he had no episcopal palace. Accordingly he had licence to hold in commendam with his Bishopric, the Vicarage of Ashford in his native county, Kent, about 12 miles from Canterbury; and of St. Michael's, Crooked Lane, London, with his stall in Canterbury Cathedral. This licence was dated July 4, an. 4 Edward VI., 1550, to hold until Lady-Day, 1555. Rymer. Fæd. vol. 15, p. 70-241.

When Queen Mary came to the crown he left the kingdom, and after spending a few years among the celebrated self-exiled Protestants, who sojourned during Mary's reign at Strasburgh, in Germany, he died there April, 11, 1556, (Rymer. Fæd. vol. 15, 235. Le Neve's Fasti, p. 287) at the age of 40. See Bayle's Dictionary, vol. 4, p. 692, and Hasted's Hist. of Kent, vol. 2, p. 42. Fuller thus notices him in his Worthies, vol. 1. Nichols's edition, under Kent:

p. 496, "John Poynet was born in this county; bred in King's College, Cambridge. Sure I am he was none of the foundation therein, because, not appearing in Master Hatcher's exact MS. Catalogue. Bale is rather to be believed herein, making him to be brought up in Queen's College in the same University. De Script. Brit. cent. 8, No. 62.

"But wherever he had his education, he arrived at admirable learning, being an exact Grecian and most expert mathematician. He presented King Henry VIII. with a horologium (which I might English dial, clock, or watch, save that it is epitheted sciotericum) observing the shadow of the sun, and therein shewing not only the hours, but days of the month, change of the moon, ebbing and flowing of the sea, &c. I confess the modern mystery of watch-making, is much completed, (men never being more curious to divide, more careless to employ their time;) but surely this was accounted a master piece in that age.

"His sermons so endeared him to King Edward VI., that he preferred him (whilst yet scarce 36 years of age*) to the Bishopric of Rochester, then of Winchester. But, alas! these honours soon got, were as soon lost, he being

If "he was not fully '40" in 1556, he must have been scarce 34, instead of "scarce 36 years," when made Bishop of Rochester in 1550. -EDIT.

forced to fly into High Germany in the 1st of Queen Mary, where, before he was fully 40, and before he had finished his book begun against Thomas Martin in defence of ministers' marriage, he died at Strasburgh, Aug 2,1555, and was buried there with great lamentation." Bishop Godwin records him in his English edition 4to. 1615, p. 248, thus, among the Bishops of Winchester :-"60. John Poynet. Presently upon the deprivation of Stephen Gardiner, John Poynet, D.D., a Kentish man born, brought up in King's College, in Cambridge, consecrated Bishop of Rochester June 21, 1550, was translated to Winchester. Queen Mary having attained the crown, he well knew there was no living for him in England, and therefore he fled the realm, and died at Strasburg in Germany, April 11, 1556, being scarce 40 years of age. A man of great learning, whereof he left divers testimonies in writing, works yet extant both in Latin and English: beside the Greek and Latin, he was very well seent in the Italian and Dutch tongues, and an excellent mathematician. He gave to King Henry VIII. a dial of his own device, shewing not only the hour of the day, but also the day of the month, the sign of the sun, the planetary hour; yea, the change of the moon, the ebbing and flowing of the sea; with divers other things as strange to the great wonder of the King and his own no less commendation. He was preferred altogether by King Edward in regard of certain excellent sermons preached before him.'

He wrote a Treatise on Politic Power, which I have not seen; also, An Apology or Defence of Priests' Marriages afterwards translated into Latin by Michael Renneger, Lond. 1604, 80. Bodleian 80. R. 68. Th. See Bliss's Wood's, A.O. vol. 2, p. 52.

Bishop Ponet was the first Bishop consecrated by the new ordinal of Edward VI. Bishop Milner affects to throw a doubt over the validity of the consecration, but it is to be remembered that, as that consecration was performed by Bishops who had themselves duly received their consecration from Catholic Prelates, the Apostolic

The reader will see that Fuller has implicitly followed Godwin in this error, without stopping to rectify the anachronisms.—EDIT.

+ (I.E.) Excellent-well approved. This pure Latin phraseology is well deserving notice: the scholar will immediately recognize in it Cicero's vir honestus et spectatus, and Virgil's rebus spectata juventus.

succession was regularly kept up, In this individual case it signifies little, as we do not hear that Bishop Ponet ever officiated in any consecration of Bishops. But the principle itself is of essential importance, as the chief and distinguishing characteristic of the Priesthood of the Established Church: since the apostolic commission and the promises exclusively annexed thereto by the founder of the Christian Church (Matt. 28*) are the grand points which render communion with the Church in this country of such vital importance to salvation; and schism and "divisions" of any kind, however plausible, a matter of infinite danger to the spiritual concerns of those who give themselves up to those "carnal" sins, as the Apostle terms them. The Apostolic succession of the Priesthood of the Church of England was kept up by Archbishop Parker. Now, his consecration by duly consecrated Roman Catholic Bishops, though once cavilled at by the Romanists, is so safely and triumphantly established, that no historical fact ou record can claim a superior ground of credibility.

Bishop Milner roundly asserts, that Ponet was raised to the See of Winchester for the express purpose of betraying the possessions of it to those who preferred him. He hesitates not to call his conduct simoniacal; and asserts, on the authority of Heylyn, that he dismembered from the See the palace of Marwell, with the manors and parks of Marwell and Twyford, which had before been seized upon by the Lord Protector to make a Knight's estate for Sir Henry Seymour. I should be unwilling to believe such harsh things of any man, unless upon much higher authority than that of Bishop Milner. Those who have a relish for invectives of this nature, may consult the history of Winchester, written by that able, though bigotted apologist of the Romanists, and impugner of the Establishment.

The argument drawn from this verse resolves itself into a narrow compass, and defies the objections of Schismatics. Christ, in the passage quoted, assembles, not his disciples at large, but the 11 Apostles only. To them he gives a commission to baptize and make converts of all nations, and promises his presence with them to the end of the world. Now, as the Apostles were only men, and consequently mortal, this promise must refer to his presence with their legitimate successors: which the Apostles regularly appointed in all the Churches, as we learn from various passages of the Epistles, under the names of Bishops, Priests, and Deacons.

XXVII. JOHN WHITE, D.D.

THE LAST OF THE CATHOLIC BISHOPS.

SUCCEEDED A.D. 1556-7.—DEPRIVED A.D. 1559.— DIED A.D. 1559-60.

"John Whyte," [says Anthony Wood] ("brother to Sir John Whyte, Lord Mayor of London, anno 1563) was son of Robert Whyte, of Farnham, Surry, (son of John Whyte, of the same place, son of Thomas Whyte, of Purvyle,+ Hants), and was born at Farnham; educated in grammar learning in Wykeham's school, near Winchester admitted perpetual fellow of New College, in 1527, took the degrees in arts, that of A.M. being completed in an act celebrated March 23, 1533-4, left his fellowship in 1534, being about that time master of the said school in the place of Richard Tuchiner. Afterwards [he was also rector of Cheyton, near Winchester] he was made warden of the college, [in the year 1541, Willis's Mit. Abbies, I. p. 333] near Winchester. Concerning him, while in that post, Strype (in his Memorials of Archbishop Cranmer, lib. 2, cap. 21, p. 233) has these remarkable passages; "March 25, 1550, Mr. White, warden of Winchester appeared before the King's council and confessed that he had divers books and letters from beyond sea, and namely from one Martin, a scholar there, who opposed the King's Majesty's proceeding utterly. And it being manifested that he had consented to things of that sort in such wise, that greater practices were thought to be in him that way, he was committed to the Tower; where lying for some months, he shewed better conformity in matters of religion. So on June 14, 1551, the council wrote a letter to the Archbishop that he should send a letter to the tower for Mr. White, to be brought to him and with him to remain till such time as he should reclaim him; which being done, he was sent back again to the

The passages in brackets are supplied by the Editor.

The pedigree here given by A. Wood, differs from that in Manning and Bray's History of Surry. The latter authors make the last named John, Son, not of Thomas of Purvile, but of Robert of Farnham, with whom the pedigree begins, and whose will was proved Oct. 19, 1467.— Hist. Surry, vol. III. p. 177.-Edit.