The Politics of Polemic: John Ponet's Short Treatise of Politic Power and Contemporary Circumstance 1553-1556

Abstract

In her biographical note on John Ponet, C. H. Garrett observed that although there was “little good” to be said of him as a man, as a political pamphleteer Ponet had attracted less attention than was his due. Although W. S. Hudson and W. Gordon Zeeveld have remedied this deficiency to a considerable extent, the precise connections between Ponet's Short Treatise of Politic Power and the contemporary situation in England have not been delineated. Much of the strength of this work lies in the fact that it was written as a direct response to events in England and on the Continent. In particular, Ponet's theories regarding the natural rights of subjects stemmed from efforts by the crown in 1555 to remove the right of ownership of private property from those it regarded as delinquents: the Protestant exiles. Ponet elevated the possession of property by private individuals to the status of a right. He went on to examine the basis of regal power and its practical limits and, in arguing the legitimacy of resistance to an unjust ruler, postulated a commonwealth in which a substantial measure of power rested with “the people”.