John Ponet (1516–1556): Scholar, Bishop, Insurgent

Mark Earngey, DPhil (2018, in Ecclesiastical History, University of Oxford), is Head of Church History and Lecturer in Christian Thought at Moore Theological College in Sydney, Australia. His research interests and publications have focused on English Reformation history, theology, liturgy, and marginalia.

"Mark Earngey has carried out a notable task of rediscovery on a Protestant bishop who was central to the mid-Tudor Reformation, but whose relatively early death in exile curtailed a career that would probably have made him one of the leading forces in the Elizabethan Church. Earngey retrieves the brilliance and originality of this multi-talented scholar, and has reconstructed much of his library now scattered right across Europe, providing extensive analysis of the lively and fascinating annotations in Ponet's books. This is a major achievement in English Reformation studies."Diarmaid MacCulloch, University of Oxford"Bishop John Ponet has been remembered, if at all, as the punch-line to a joke about scandalous clerical marriages. Mark Earngey’s book finally does justice to him – and more. Drawing on a hugely impressive range of archival discoveries, Earngey is able not only to reconstruct Ponet’s intellectual world, but to show how and why this theological street-fighter was made a bishop aged only 34, and became a central figure of Edward VI’s Reformation and of the English Protestant exile community in the 1550s. The book not only gives us a wealth of lost detail, but provides a compelling overview of a man who, had he not died at the age of forty, would have become a colossus of the Elizabethan Church of England."Alec Ryrie FBA, Durham University

• ForewordAcknowledgementsList of FiguresAbbreviationsNotes on the TextIntroduction1 The Birth of a Cambridge Humanist (1516–1543)1 The Early Years2 Student at Queens’ College, Cambridge3 Fellow of Queens’ College, Cambridge4 Bursar of Queens’ College, Cambridge5 Final Years at Queens’ College, Cambridge6 Summary2 The Rise of an Evangelical Theologian (1543–1549)1 Evangelical Patronage and Preparation2 Evangelical Study and Publication3 Summary3 The Accomplishments of an Edwardian Bishop (1550–1553)1 The Notable Sermon2 Bishop of Rochester3 Bishop of Winchester4 Summary4 The Life and Death of a Marian Insurgent (1553–1556)1 The Rise of Queen Mary and the Rising of Thomas Wyatt2 Settling in Strassburg3 Tragedies and Terminus4 Summary5 The Theological Writings of a Marian Insurgent (1553–1556)1 The Debate over Clerical Marriage2 Behind the Debate over Clerical Marriage3 The Draft Reply: Provenance3.1 Questions of Authorship3.2 Dating of Annotations4 The Draft Reply: Literary Structures4.1 Organisation of Notation4.2 Symbols and Structures4.3 Corrections and Errors4.4 Use of Sources5 The Draft Reply: Polemical Processes6 Theology in Strassburg: Holy Scripture7 Theology in Strassburg: Clerical Marriage7.1 The Tradition of Clerical Celibacy7.2 Hermeneutical Framework7.3 Old Testament Exegesis7.4 New Testament Exegesis7.5 Vows of Celibacy7.6 The Gift of Celibacy8 Theology in Strassburg: A Misattribution to Ponet on the Eucharist9 Theology in Strassburg: Political Theology9.1 Calvinist Resistance Theory?10 SummaryConclusionAppendix 1: Letters Relative to John PonetAppendix 2: John Ponet’s BooksAppendix 3: List of Sources in the Draft ReplyBibliographyIndex