# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Winzet, Ninian

​WINZET, WINYET, or WINGATE, NINIAN (1518–1592), Scottish controversialist, was born in Renfrew in 1518. Families of the same name held property and rented lands in Glasgow and the vicinity. He was educated at the university of Glasgow, according to Mackenzie (Lives and Characters of the most Eminent Writers of the Scots Nation, 1708–22, iii. 148), and Ziegelbauer (Historia Rei Literariæ Ordinis S. Benedicti, iii. 360, 361, Augsburg and Würzburg, 1754); but the registers of Glasgow in 1537 give the name of ‘William Windegait,’ who became a bachelor, then master, of arts in 1539, and remained at the university till 1552 in a subordinate capacity and as assistant to the rector. William probably changed his name to Ninian (Certain Tractates, vol. i. Introd. pp. xii–xvi, xliv, xcviii, ed. Hewison, 1888, Scottish Text Soc.) when he was ordained priest in 1540. Winzet was appointed master of the grammar school of Linlithgow in 1551–2, and subsequently provost of the collegiate church of St. Michael there. He remained a staunch supporter of the old order during the Reformation era, and being an independent thinker, with feelings and views very similar to those of the ‘old catholic’ school of this century, tried to stem the reformation of the church from within.
The arrival of Knox in 1559 moved Winzet to dispute face to face with the reformer ‘afor the haill court,’ and to write polemics on the questions then at issue, which he afterwards collected into ‘The Buke of Four Scoir Thre Questions.’ In the summer of 1561 Winzet was ejected from his office for refusing to sign the protestant confession of faith. He loitered about Queen Mary's catholic court, and issued from the press at Edinburgh in May 1562 ​‘Certane Tractatis [three in number] for Reformatioun of Doctryne and Maneris set furth at the desyre and in the name of the afflictit Catholikis of inferiour ordour of Clergie and layit men in Scotland.’ In July appeared his pamphlet ‘The Last Blast of the Trompet of Godis VVorde aganis the vsurpit auctorite of Johne Knox.’ He seems to have been acting as the queen's chaplain at this time. In September he was exiled and proceeded to Antwerp, where in 1563 he published a translation of the ‘Commonitorium’ of Vincent of Lerins. From Louvain and Antwerp he issued in the Scots vernacular, in 1563, ‘The Buke of Four Scoir Thre Questions,’ as a challenge to the Scots reformers, and from Antwerp also issued translations of patristic writers now lost. In Paris, from 1565 to 1570, he studied, became a preceptor in arts in the university, and published a translation of Benoist's ‘Certus Modus.’ In 1571 he visited England and entered Queen Mary's service, thereafter proceeding to Douay to study theology.
Pope Gregory in 1577 instituted Winzet abbot of the Benedictine monastery of St. James at Ratisbon, the duties of which he began on 9 Aug. He revived this ancient decayed seminary of learning, and by introducing the old Scots method of instruction soon restored its celebrity. There he published in 1581 ‘In D. Paulum Commentaria;’ in 1582 ‘Flagellum Sectariorum’ and ‘Velitatio in Georgium Buchananum,’ the latter being a reply to Buchanan's ‘De Jure Regni apud Scotos;’ and probably at the same time a translation of the Catechism of Canisius.
Winzet died on 21 Sept. 1592, and was buried in the monastery, where in the church (Kirche des Schotten-Klosters zu S. Jakob) his effigy and epitaph are preserved. His more important works are mentioned above; a fuller list is given in the Scottish Text Society's reprint of the ‘Certain Tractates,’ vol. i. pref. p. lxxv.
[Ziegelbauer's Historia, ut supra; Mackenzie's Lives and Characters, ut supra; Certane Tractatis, &c., by Niniane Winzet (Maitland Club reprint, 1835), with Life by John Black Gracie; Irving's Lives of Scotish Writers, 1839; Bellesheim's Geschichte der katholischen Kirche in Schottland, 1833, vol. ii. (translated by D. O. H. Blair, 1887); Certain Tractates, &c., by Ninian Winzet, edited for Scottish Text Society, with Life, by J. King Hewison, 1888, 1890, 2 vols. and authorities there cited.]
J. K. H.