[1] There is no reason to suppose that Jutta is intended by the
[Greek: polis Iouda] of Luke i. 39: the tradition which makes 'Ain
Karim, near Jerusalem, the birthplace of the Baptist only dates from
the crusading period.
JOHN I., pope from 523 to 526, was a Tuscan by birth, and was
consecrated pope on the death of Hormisdas. In 525 he was sent by
Theodoric at the head of an embassy to Constantinople to obtain from the
emperor Justin toleration for the Arians; but he succeeded so
imperfectly in his mission that Theodoric on his return, suspecting that
he had acted only half-heartedly, threw him into prison, where he
shortly afterwards died, Felix IV. succeeding him. He was enrolled among
the martyrs, his day being May 27.
JOHN II., pope from 533 to 535, also named Mercurius, was elevated to
the papal chair on the death of Boniface II. During his pontificate a
decree against simony was engraven on marble and placed before the altar
of St Peter's. At the instance of the emperor Justinian he adopted the
proposition _unus de Trinitate passus est in carne_ as a test of the
orthodoxy of certain Scythian monks accused of Nestorian tendencies. He
was succeeded by Agapetus I.
JOHN III., pope from 561 to 574, successor to Pelagius, was descended
from a noble Roman family. He is said to have been successful in
preventing an invasion of Italy by the recall of the deposed exarch
Narses, but the Lombards still continued their incursions, and,
especially during the pontificate of his successor Benedict I.,
inflicted great miseries on the province.
JOHN IV., pope from 640 to 642, was a Dalmatian by birth, and succeeded
Severinus after the papal chair had been vacant four months. While he
adhered to the repudiation of the Monothelitic doctrine by Severinus, he
endeavoured to explain away the connexion of Honorius I. with the
heresy. His successor was Theodorus I.
JOHN V., pope from 685 to 686, was a Syrian by birth, and on account of
his knowledge of Greek had in 680 been named papal legate to the sixth
ecumenical council at Constantinople. He was the successor of Benedict
II., and after a pontificate of little more than a year, passed chiefly
in bed, was followed by Conon.
JOHN VI., pope from 701 to 705, was a native of Greece, and succeeded to
the papal chair two months after the death of Sergius I. He assisted the
exarch Theophylact, who had been sent into Italy by the emperor
Justinian II., and prevented him from using violence against the Romans.
Partly by persuasion and partly by means of a bribe, John succeeded in
inducing Gisulf, duke of Benevento, to withdraw from the territories of
the empire.
JOHN VII., pope from 705 to 707, successor of John VI., was also of
Greek nationality. He seems to have acceded to the request of the
emperor Justinian II. that he should give his sanction to the decrees of
the Quinisext or Trullan council of 692. There are several monuments of
John in the church of St Maria Antiqua at the foot of the Palatine hill;
others were formerly in the chapel of the Virgin, built by him in the
basilica of St Peter. He was succeeded by Sisinnius.
JOHN VIII., pope from 872 to 882, successor of Adrian II., was a Roman
by birth. His chief aim during his pontificate was to defend the Roman
state and the authority of the Holy See at Rome from the Saracens, and
from the nascent feudalism which was represented outside by the dukes of
Spoleto and the marquises of Tuscany and within by a party of Roman
nobles. Events, however, were so fatally opposed to his designs that no
sooner did one of his schemes begin to realize itself in fact than it
was shattered by an unlooked-for chance. To obtain an influential
alliance against his enemies, he agreed in 875, after death had deprived
him of his natural protector, the emperor Louis II., to bestow the
imperial crown on Charles the Bald; but that monarch was too much
occupied in France to grant him much effectual aid, and about the time
of the death of Charles he found it necessary to come to terms with the
Saracens, who were only prevented from entering Rome by the promise of
an annual tribute. Carloman, the opponent of Charles's son Louis, soon
after invaded northern Italy, and, securing the support of the bishops
and counts, demanded from the pope the imperial crown. John attempted to
temporize, but Lambert, duke of Spoleto, a partisan of Carloman, whom
sickness had recalled to Germany, entered Rome in 878 with an
overwhelming force, and for thirty days virtually held John a prisoner
in St Peter's. Lambert was, however, unsuccessful in winning any
concession from the pope, who after his withdrawal carried out a
previous purpose of going to France. There he presided at the council of
Troyes, which promulgated a ban of excommunication against the
supporters of Carloman--amongst others Adalbert of Tuscany, Lambert of
Spoleto, and Formosus, bishop of Porto, who was afterwards elevated to
the papal chair. In 879 John returned to Italy accompanied by Boso, duke
of Provence, whom he adopted as his son, and made an unsuccessful
attempt to get recognized as king of Italy. In the same year he was
compelled to give a promise of his sanction to the claims of Charles the
Fat, who received from him the imperial crown in 881. Before this, in
order to secure the aid of the Greek emperor against the Saracens, he
had agreed to sanction the restoration of Photius to the see of
Constantinople, and had withdrawn his consent on finding that he reaped
from the concession no substantial benefit. Charles the Fat, partly from
unwillingness, partly from natural inability, gave him also no effectual
aid, and the last years of John VIII. were spent chiefly in hurling vain
anathemas against his various political enemies. According to the
annalist of Fulda, he was murdered by members of his household. His
successor was Marinus.
JOHN IX., pope from 898 to 900, not only confirmed the judgment of his
predecessor Theodore II. in granting Christian burial to Formosus, but
at a council held at Ravenna decreed that the records of the synod which
had condemned him should be burned. Finding, however, that it was
advisable to cement the ties between the empire and the papacy, John
gave unhesitating support to Lambert in preference to Arnulf, and also
induced the council to determine that henceforth the consecration of the
popes should take place only in the presence of the imperial legates.
The sudden death of Lambert shattered the hopes which this alliance
seemed to promise. John was succeeded by Benedict IV.
JOHN X., pope from 914 to 928, was deacon at Bologna when he attracted
the attention of Theodora, the wife of Theophylact, the most powerful
noble in Rome, through whose influence he was elevated first to the see
of Bologna and then to the archbishopric of Ravenna. In direct
opposition to a decree of council, he was also at the instigation of
Theodora promoted to the papal chair as the successor of Lando. Like
John IX. he endeavoured to secure himself against his temporal enemies
through a close alliance with Theophylact and Alberic, marquis of
Camerino, then governor of the duchy of Spoleto. In December 915 he
granted the imperial crown to Berengar, and with the assistance of the
forces of all the princes of the Italian peninsula he took the field in
person against the Saracens, over whom he gained a great victory on the
banks of the Garigliano. The defeat and death of Berengar through the
combination of the Italian princes, again frustrated the hopes of a
united Italy, and after witnessing several years of anarchy and
confusion John perished through the intrigues of Marozia, daughter of
Theodora. His successor was Leo VI.
JOHN XI., pope from 931 to 935, was the son of Marozia and the reputed
son of Sergius III. Through the influence of his mother he was chosen to
succeed Stephen VII. at the early age of twenty-one. He was the mere
exponent of the purposes of his mother, until her son Alberic succeeded
in 933 in overthrowing their authority. The pope was kept a virtual
prisoner in the Lateran, where he is said to have died in 935, in which
year Leo VII. was consecrated his successor.
JOHN XII., pope from 955 to 964, was the son of Alberic, whom he
succeeded as patrician of Rome in 954, being then only sixteen years of
age. His original name was Octavian, but when he assumed the papal tiara
as successor to Agapetus II., he adopted the apostolic name of John, the
first example, it is said, of the custom of altering the surname in
connexion with elevation to the papal chair. As a temporal ruler John
was devoid of the vigour and firmness of his father, and his union of
the papal office--which through his scandalous private life he made a
byword of reproach--with his civil dignities proved a source of weakness
rather than of strength. In order to protect himself against the
intrigues in Rome and the power of Berengar II. of Italy, he called to
his aid Otto the Great of Germany, to whom he granted the imperial crown
in 962. Even before Otto left Rome the pope had, however, repented of
his recognition of a power which threatened altogether to overshadow his
authority, and had begun to conspire against the new emperor. His
intrigues were discovered by Otto, who, after he had defeated and taken
prisoner Berengar, returned to Rome and summoned a council which deposed
John, who was in hiding in the mountains of Campania, and elected Leo
VIII. in his stead. An attempt at an insurrection was made by the
inhabitants of Rome even before Otto left the city, and on his departure
John returned at the head of a formidable company of friends and
retainers, and caused Leo to seek safety in immediate flight. Otto
determined to make an effort in support of Leo, but before he reached
the city John had died, in what manner is uncertain, and Benedict V. had
mounted the papal chair.
JOHN XIII., pope from 965 to 972, was descended from a noble Roman
family, and at the time of his election as successor to Leo VIII. was
bishop of Narni. He had been somewhat inconsistent in his relations with
his predecessor Leo, but his election was confirmed by the emperor Otto,
and his submissive attitude towards the imperial power was so
distasteful to the Romans that they expelled him from the city. On
account of the threatening procedure of Otto, they permitted him shortly
afterwards to return, upon which, with the sanction of Otto, he took
savage vengeance on those who had formerly opposed him. Shortly after
holding a council along with the emperor at Ravenna in 967, he gave the
imperial crown to Otto II. at Rome in assurance of his succession to his
father; and in 972 he also crowned Theophano as empress immediately
before her marriage. On his death in the same year he was followed by
Benedict VI.
JOHN XIV., pope from 983 to 984, successor to Benedict VII., was born at
Pavia, and before his elevation to the papal chair was imperial
chancellor of Otto II. Otto died shortly after his election, when
Boniface VII., on the strength of the popular feeling against the new
pope, returned from Constantinople and placed John in prison, where he
died either by starvation or poison.
JOHN XV., pope from 985 to 996, generally recognized as the successor of
Boniface VII., the pope John who was said to have ruled for four months
after John XIV., being now omitted by the best authorities. John XV. was
the son of Leo, a Roman presbyter. At the time he mounted the papal
chair Crescentius was patrician of Rome, but, although his influence was
on this account very much hampered, the presence of the empress
Theophano in Rome from 989 to 991 restrained also the ambition of
Crescentius. On her departure the pope, whose venality and nepotism had
made him very unpopular with the citizens, died of fever before the
arrival of Otto III., who elevated his own kinsman Bruno to the papal
dignity under the name of Gregory V.
JOHN XVI.,, pope or antipope from 997 to 998, was a Calabrian Greek by
birth, and a favourite of the empress Theophano, from whom he had
received the bishopric of Placentia. His original name was Philagathus.
In 995 he was sent by Otto III. on an embassy to Constantinople to
negotiate a marriage with a Greek princess. On his way back he either
accidentally or at the special request of Crescentius visited Rome. A
little before this Gregory V., at the end of 996, had been compelled to
flee from the city; and the wily and ambitious Greek had now no scruple
in accepting the papal tiara from the hands of Crescentius. The arrival
of Otto at Rome in the spring of 998 put a sudden end to the treacherous
compact. John sought safety in flight, but was discovered in his place
of hiding and brought back to Rome, where after enduring cruel and
ignominious tortures he was immured in a dungeon.
JOHN XVII., whose original name was Sicco, succeeded Silvester II. as
pope in June 1003, but died less than five months afterwards.
JOHN XVIII., pope from 1003 to 1009, was, during his whole pontificate,
the mere creature of the patrician John Crescentius, and ultimately he
abdicated and retired to a monastery, where he died shortly afterwards.
His successor was Sergius IV.
JOHN XIX., pope from 1024 to 1033, succeeded his brother Benedict VIII.,
both being members of the powerful house of Tusculum. He merely took
orders to enable him to ascend the papal chair, having previously been a
consul and senator. He displayed his freedom from ecclesiastical
prejudices, if also his utter ignorance of ecclesiastical history, by
agreeing, on the payment of a large bribe, to grant to the patriarch of
Constantinople the title of an ecumenical bishop, but the general
indignation which the proposal excited throughout the church compelled
him almost immediately to withdraw from his agreement. On the death of
the emperor Henry II. in 1024 he gave his support to Conrad II., who
along with his consort was crowned with great pomp at St Peter's in
Easter of 1027. John died in 1033, in the full possession of his
dignities. A successor was found for him in his nephew Benedict IX., a
boy of only twelve years of age. (L. D.*)
JOHN XXI. (Pedro Giuliano-Rebulo), pope from the 8th of September 1276
to the 20th of May 1277 (should be named John XX., but there is an error
in the reckoning through the insertion of an antipope), a native of
Portugal, educated for the church, became archdeacon and then archbishop
of Braga, and so ingratiated himself with Gregory X. at the council of
Lyons (1274) that he was taken to Rome as cardinal-bishop of Frascati,
and succeeded Gregory after an interregnum of twenty days. As pope he
excommunicated Alphonso III. of Portugal for interfering with episcopal
elections and sent legates to the Great Khan. He was devoted to secular
science, and his small affection for the monks awakened the distrust of
a large portion of the clergy. His life was brought to a premature close
through the fall of the roof in the palace he had built at Viterbo. His
successor was Nicholas III.
JOHN XXI. has been identified since the 14th century, most probably
correctly, with Petrus Hispanus, a celebrated Portuguese physician and
philosopher, author of several medical works--notably the curious _Liber
de oculo_, trans. into German and well edited by A. M. Berger (Munich,
1899), and of a popular textbook in logic, the _Summulae logicales_.
John XXI. is constantly referred to as a magician by ignorant
chroniclers.
See _Les Registres de Grégoire X. et Jean XXI._, published by J.
Guiraud and E. Cadier in _Bibliothèque des écoles françaises d'Athènes
et de Rome_ (Paris, 1898); A. Potthast, _Regesta pontif. Roman._, vol.
2 (Berlin, 1875); F. Gregorovius, _Rome in the Middle Ages_, vol. v.,
trans. by Mrs G. W. Hamilton (London, 1900-1902); R. Stapper, _Papst
Johann XXI._ (Münster, 1898); J. T. Köhler, _Vollständige Nachricht
von Papst Johann XXI._ (Göttingen, 1760). (C. H. Ha.)
JOHN XXII., pope from 1316 to 1334, was born at Cahors, France, in 1249.
His original name was Jacques Duèse, and he came either of a family of
petty nobility or else of well-to-do middle-class parents, and was not,
as has been popularly supposed, the son of a shoemaker. He began his
education with the Dominicans at Cahors, subsequently studied law at
Montpellier, and law and medicine in Paris, and finally taught at Cahors
and Toulouse. At Toulouse he became intimate with the bishop Louis, son
of Charles II., king of Naples. In 1300 he was elevated to the episcopal
see of Fréjus by Pope Boniface VIII. at the instance of the king of
Naples, and in 1308 was made chancellor of Naples by Charles, retaining
this office under Charles's successor, Robert of Anjou. In 1310 Pope
Clement V. summoned Jacques to Avignon and instructed him to advise upon
the affair of the Templars and also upon the question of condemning the
memory of Boniface VIII. Jacques decided on the legality of suppressing
the order of the Templars, holding that the pope would be serving the
best interests of the church by pronouncing its suppression; but he
rejected the condemnation of Boniface as a sacrilegious affront to the
church and a monstrous abuse of the lay power. On the 23rd of December
1312 Clement appointed him cardinal-bishop of Porto, and it was while
cardinal of Porto that he was elected pope, on the 7th of August 1316.
Clement had died in April 1314, but the cardinals assembled at
Carpentras were unable to agree as to his successor. As the two-thirds
majority requisite for an election could not be obtained, the cardinals
separated, and it was not until the 28th of June 1316 that they
reassembled in the cloister of the Dominicans at Lyons, and then only in
deference to the pressure exerted upon them by Philip V. of France.
After deliberating for more than a month they elected Robert of Anjou's
candidate, Jacques Duèse, who was crowned on the 5th of September, and
on the 2nd of October arrived at Avignon, where he remained for the rest
of his life.
More jurist than theologian, John defended the rights of the papacy with
rigorous zeal and as rigorous logic. For the restoration of the papacy
to its old independence, which had been so gravely compromised under his
immediate predecessors, and for the execution of the vast enterprises
which the papacy deemed useful for its prestige and for Christendom,
considerable sums were required; and to raise the necessary money John
burdened Christian Europe with new taxes and a complicated fiscal
system, which was fraught with serious consequences. For his personal
use, however, he retained but a very small fraction of the sums thus
acquired, and at his death his private fortune amounted to scarce a
million florins. The essentially practical character of his
administration has led many historians to tax him with avarice, but
later research on the fiscal system of the papacy of the period,
particularly the joint work of Samaran and Mollat, enables us very
sensibly to modify the severe judgment passed on John by Gregorovius and
others.
John's pontificate was continually disturbed by his conflict with Louis
of Bavaria and by the theological revolt of the Spiritual Franciscans.
In October 1314 Louis of Bavaria and Frederick of Austria had each been
elected German king by the divided electors. Louis was gradually
recognized by the whole of Germany, especially after his victory at
Mühldorf (1322), and gained numerous adherents in Italy, where he
supported the Visconti, who had been condemned as heretics by the pope.
John affected to ignore the successes of Louis, and on the 8th of
October 1323 forbade his recognition as king of the Romans. After
demanding a respite, Louis abruptly appealed at Nuremberg from the
future sentence of the pope to a general council (December 8, 1323). The
conflict then assumed a grave doctrinal character. The doctrine of the
rights of the lay monarchy sustained by Occam and John of Paris, by
Marsilius of Padua, John of Jandun and Leopold of Bamberg, was affirmed
by the jurists and theologians, penetrated into the parlements and the
universities, and was combated by the upholders of papal absolutism,
such as Alvaro Pelayo and Alonzo Trionfo. Excommunicated on the 21st of
March 1324, Louis retorted by appealing for a second time to a general
council, which was held on the 22nd of May 1324, and accused John of
being an enemy to the peace and the law, stigmatizing him as a heretic
on the ground that he opposed the principle of evangelical poverty as
professed by the strict Franciscans. From this moment Louis appeared in
the character of the natural ally and even the protector of the
Spirituals against the persecution of the pope. On the 11th of July 1324
the pope laid under an interdict the places where Louis or his adherents
resided, but this bull had no effect in Germany. Equally futile was
John's declaration (April 3, 1327) that Louis had forfeited his crown
and abetted heresy by granting protection to Marsilius of Padua. Having
reconciled himself with Frederick of Austria, Louis penetrated into
Italy and seized Rome on the 7th of January 1328, with the help of the
Roman Ghibellines led by Sciarra Colonna. After installing himself in
the Vatican, Louis got himself crowned by the deputies of the Roman
people; instituted proceedings for the deposition of John, whom the
Roman people, displeased by the spectacle of the papacy abandoning Rome,
declared to have forfeited the pontificate (April 18, 1328); and finally
caused a Minorite friar, Pietro Rainalucci da Corvara, to be elected
pope under the name of Nicholas V. John preached a platonic crusade
against Louis, who burned the pope's effigy at Pisa and in Amelia. Soon,
however, Louis felt his power waning, and quitted Rome and Italy (1329).
Incapable of independent action, the antipope was abandoned by the
Romans and handed over to John, who forced him to make a solemn
submission with a halter round his neck (August 15, 1330). Nicholas was
condemned to perpetual imprisonment, and died in obscurity at Avignon;
while the Roman people submitted to King Robert, who governed the church
through his vicars. In 1317, in execution of a bull of Clement V., the
royal vicariate in Italy had been conferred by John on Robert of Anjou,
and this appointment was renewed in 1322 and 1324, with threats of
excommunication against any one who should seize the vicariate of Italy
without the authorization of the pope. One of John's last acts was his
decision to separate Italy from the Empire, but this bull was of no
avail and fell into oblivion. After his death, however, the interdict
was not removed from Germany, and the resistance of Louis and his
theologians continued.
A violent manifestation of this resistance took place in connexion with
the accusation of heresy brought against the pope. On the third Sunday
in Advent 1329, and afterwards in public consistory, John had preached
that the souls of those who have died in a state of grace go into
Abraham's bosom, _sub altari Dei_, and do not enjoy the beatific vision
(_visio facie ad faciem_) of the Lord until after the Last Judgment and
the Resurrection; and he had even instructed a Minorite friar, Gauthier
of Dijon, to collect the passages in the Fathers which were in favour of
this doctrine. On the 27th of December 1331 a Dominican, Thomas of
England, preached against this doctrine at Avignon itself and was thrown
into prison. When news of this affair had reached Paris, the pope sent
the general of the Minorites, Gerard Odonis, accompanied by a Dominican,
to sustain his doctrine in that city, but King Philip VI., perhaps at
the instigation of the refugee Spirituals in Paris, referred the
question to the faculty of theology, which, on the 2nd of January 1333,
declared that the souls of the blessed were elevated to the beatific
vision immediately after death; the faculty, nevertheless, were of
opinion that the pope should have propounded his erroneous doctrine only
"_recitando_," and not "_determinando, asserendo, seu etiam opinando_."
The king notified this decision to the pope, who assembled his
consistory in November 1333, and gave a haughty reply. The theologians
in Louis's following who were opposed to papal absolutism already spoke
of "the new heretic, Jacques de Cahors," and reiterated with increasing
insistency their demands for the convocation of a general council to try
the pope. John appears to have retracted shortly before his death, which
occurred on the 4th of December 1334.[1]
John had kindled very keen animosity, not only among the upholders of
the independence of the lay power, but also among the upholders of
absolute religious poverty, the exalted Franciscans. Clement V., at the
council of Vienne, had attempted to bring back the Spirituals to the
common rule by concessions; John, on the other hand, in the bull
_Quorundam exigit_ (April 13, 1317), adopted an uncompromising and
absolute attitude, and by the bull _Gloriosam ecclesiam_ (January 23,
1318) condemned the protests which had been raised against the bull
_Quorundam_ by a group of seventy-four Spirituals and conveyed to
Avignon by the monk Bernard Délicieux. Shortly afterwards four
Spirituals were burned at Marseilles. These were immediately hailed as
martyrs, and in the eyes of the exalted Franciscans at Naples and in
Sicily and the south of France the pope was regarded as antichrist. In
the bull _Sancta Romana et universa ecclesia_ (December 28, 1318) John
definitively excommunicated them and condemned their principal book, the
_Postil_ (commentary) on the Apocalypse (February 8, 1326). The bull
_Quia nonnunquam_ (March 26, 1322) defined the derogations from the rule
punished by the pope, and the bull _Cum inter nonnullos_ (November 12,
1323) condemned the proposition which had been admitted at the general
chapter of the Franciscans held at Perugia in 1322, according to which
Christ and the Apostles were represented as possessing no property,
either personal or common. The minister general, Michael of Cesena,
though opposed to the exaggerations of the Spirituals, joined with them
in protesting against the condemnation of the fundamental principle of
evangelical poverty, and the agitation gradually gained ground. The
pope, by the bull _Quia quorundam_ (November 10, 1324), cited Michael to
appear at Avignon at the same time as Occam and Bonagratia. All three
fled to the court of Louis of Bavaria (May 26, 1328), while the majority
of the Franciscans made submission and elected a general entirely
devoted to the pope. But the resistance, aided by Louis and merged as it
now was in the cause sustained by Marsilius of Padua and John of Jandun,
became daily bolder. Treatises on poverty appeared on every side; the
party of Occam clamoured with increasing imperiousness for the
condemnation of John by a general council; and the Spirituals,
confounded in the persecution with the Beghards and with Fraticelli of
every description, maintained themselves in the south of France in spite
of the reign of terror instituted in that region by the Inquisition.
See M. Souchon, _Die Papstwahlen von Bonifaz VIII. bis Urban VI._
(Brunswick, 1888); Abbé Albe, _Autour de Jean XXII._ (Rome, 1904); K.
Müller, _Der Kampf Ludwigs des Bayern mit der Curie_ (Tübingen, 1879
seq.); W. Preger, "Mémoires sur la lutte entre Jean XXII. et Louis de
Bavière" in _Abhandl. der bayr. Akad._, hist. sec., xv., xvi., xvii.;
S. Riezler, _Die litterar. Widersacher der Päpste zur Zeit Ludwigs des
Baiers_ (Leipzig, 1874); F. Ehrle, "Die Spiritualen" in _Archiv für
Litteratur-und Kirchengeschichte des Mittelalters_ (vols. i. and ii.);
C. Samaran and G. Mollat, _La Fiscalité pontificale en France au xiv^e
siècle_ (Paris, 1905); A. Coulon and G. Mollat, _Lettres secrètes et
curiales de Jean XXII. se rapportant à la France_ (Paris, 1899, seq.).
(P. A.)