Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ponce, John
PONCE, JOHN (d. 1660?), author, a native of Cork, studied at Louvain in the college of the Irish Franciscans. He became a member of the order of St. Francis, and, after further studies at Cologne, he removed to the Irish College of St. Isidore at Rome, where he was appointed professor of philosophy and theology. Ponce contributed to the Franciscan edition of the works of Duns Scotus, issued at Lyons in 1639. He published at Rome in 1642 ‘Integer Philosophiæ Cursus ad mentem Scoti,’ in two volumes 4to, containing upwards of fifteen hundred pages of small type in double columns. A third volume of about nine hundred pages was issued at Rome in 1643. Ponce dedicated the work to Cardinal Francesco Barberini, from whom he had received many favours, and who held the office of ‘protector of Ireland.’
Ponce disapproved of the courses pursued in Ireland by those who opposed the nuncio Giovanni Battista Rinuccini [q. v.] In the ‘Aphorismical Discovery of Treasonable Faction’ are preserved two letters written by Ponce at Paris in 1648 in relation to transactions in Ireland.
In 1652 Ponce published at Paris ‘Cursus Theologicus,’ in a folio volume. His views on affairs in Ireland were enunciated in ‘Richardi Bellingi Vindiciæ Eversæ’ (Paris, 1653), impugning the statements which had been promulgated by Richard Bellings [q. v.] and others of the Anglo-Irish party. Ponce was author also of the following works, published at Paris: ‘Philosophiæ Cursus,’ 1656; ‘Judicium Doctrinæ Sanctorum Augustini et Thomæ,’ 1657; ‘Scotus Hiberniæ Restitutus,’ 1660; ‘Commentarii Theologici,’ 1661.
Ponce died at Paris about 1660. A portrait of him is in St. Isidore's College, Rome.
[Scriptores Ordinis Minorum, 1650; Gilbert's Contemporary History of Affairs in Ireland, 1879, and History of Irish Confederation and War, 1881; Lowndes's Bibl. Man. ed. Bohn.]