PONCIUS (PONCE), JOHN. — Franciscan Scotist theologian, born in Cork (Ireland) in 1603, died in Paris ca. 1672. He completed his philosophical studies at Cologne and his theological studies at Louvain.
Summoned to Rome in 1625 by the Franciscan annalist L. WADDING, LUKAS (v.), in addition to teaching theology—which he later also taught at Lyons—he collaborated on the Wadding edition of the works of Scotus (Lyons 1639), preparing therein the Supplementum to F. Licheto’s exposition, the commentaries on the questions of Books I and II of the Oxonian [Scotus] omitted by Licheto, and in Book III from question XXVI to the end. For the same edition he also completed the commentary that A. Hickey had left unfinished because of his death. Among his works, which generally interpret and defend Scotist thought, the following are noteworthy: Philosophiae cursus integer (Rome 1643), to which, following Mastrius’s criticisms, he added an Appendix apologetica (there 1645); Cursus theologicus ad mentem Scoti (Paris 1652); Scotus Hiberniae restitutus (there 1660), in which he maintains the Irish origin of Scotus; Commentarii theologici in quatuor libros Sententiarum (there 1661), regarded as the finest production of seventeenth-century Scotism. As a reflection of his participation in the political-religious struggles of those times, the following should be recalled: Richardi Bellingi vindiciae aversae (there 1653); Iudicium doctrinae (s. Augustini et Thomae (there 1657); Deplorabilis populi hibernici pro religione, rege et libertate status (there 1651).