Poncius (Ponce), John

PONCIUS (PONCE), JOHN. - Franciscan Scotist theologian, b. at Cork (Ireland) in 1603, d. at Paris ca. 1672. He completed his philosophical studies at Cologne and his theological studies at Louvain.

Called to Rome in 1625 by the Franciscan annalist L. Wadding (v.), besides teaching theology, which he later also taught at Lyon, he collaborated on the Wadding edition of Scotus's works (Lyon 1639), editing therein the Supplementum to F. Lychetus's exposition, the commentaries on the questions of Book I and II of the Oxoniense omitted by Lychetus, and in Book III from question XXVI to the end. He also completed for the same edition the commentary that A. Hickey had left incomplete because of death. Among his works, which generally interpret and defend Scotist thought, the following are known: Philosophiae cursus integer (Rome 1643), to which he added, after the criticisms of Mastrius, an Appendix apologetica (ibid. 1645); Cursus theologicus ad mentem Scoti (Paris 1652); Scotus Hiberniae restitutus (ibid. 1660), in which he maintains the Irish origin of Scotus; Commentarii theologici in quatuor libros Sententiarum (ibid. 1661), regarded as the best production of seventeenth-century Scotism. As a reflection of his participation in the politico-religious struggles of those times, the following are to be remembered: Richardi Bellingi vindiciae aversae (ibid. 1653); Iudicium doctrinae (s. Augustini et Thomae (ibid. 1657); Deplorabilis populi hibernici pro religione, rege et libertate status (ibid. 1651).

Gaudenzio Melani