WINZET, NINIAN (1518-1592), Scottish polemical writer, was born in Renfrew, and was probably educated at the university of Glasgow. He entered into conflict with Knox and other lead ing reformers. He appears to have acted for a time as confessor to Queen Mary. In July 1562, when engaged in the printing of his Last Blast, he narrowly escaped the vengeance of his oppo nents, who had by that time gained the upper hand in the capital, and he fled (Sept. 3) with the nuncio Gouda to Louvain, and then to Paris. At Queen Mary's request he joined Bishop Leslie on his embassy to Queen Elizabeth in 1571, and remained with the bishop after his removal by Elizabeth's orders to ward at Fenny Staunton, Huntingdonshire. When Leslie was committed to the Tower, Winzet returned to Paris. There he continued his studies, and in 1574 left for Douai, where in the following year he became a licentiate. He was in residence at Rome from 1575 to 1577,
and was then appointed by Pope Gregory XIII. abbot of the Benedictine monastery of St. James, Regensburg. There he died On Sept. 21, 1592.
Winzet's works are almost entirely controversial. In his Buke of Four Scoir Thre Questions (1563) he treats of church doctrine, sacraments, priesthood, obedience to rulers, free-will and other matters.
Winzet's vernacular writings have been edited by J. Hewison for the S.T.S. (2 vols., i888, 189o). The Tractates were printed, with a preface by David Laing, by the Maitland Club (1835). For Winzet's career see Zeigelbauer, Historic rei literariae O.S.B. iii., Mackenzie, Lives, iii., and the Introduction to S.T.S., edit. us.