[1] This incident earned for him among the Parisians the contemptuous
nickname of "John of Lagny, who does not hurry."
JOHN (1468-1532), called the Steadfast, elector of Saxony, fourth son of
the elector Ernest, was born on the 30th of June 1468. In 1486, when his
eldest brother became elector as Frederick III., John received a part of
the paternal inheritance and afterwards assisted his kinsman, the German
king Maximilian I., in several campaigns. He was an early adherent of
Luther, and, becoming elector of Saxony by his brother's death in May
1525, was soon prominent among the Reformers. Having assisted to
suppress the rising led by Thomas Munzer in 1525, he helped Philip,
landgrave of Hesse, to found the league of Gotha, formed in 1526 for the
protection of the Reformers. He was active at the diet of Spires in
1526, and the "recess" of this diet gave him an opportunity to reform
the church in Saxony, where a plan for divine service was drawn up by
Luther. The assertions of Otto von Pack that a league had been formed
against the elector and his friends induced John to ally himself again
with Philip of Hesse in March 1528, but he restrained Philip from making
an immediate attack upon their opponents. He signed the protest against
the "recess" of the diet of Spires in 1529, being thus one of the
original Protestants, and was actively hostile to Charles V. at the diet
of Augsburg in 1530. Having signed the confession of Augsburg, he was
alone among the electors in objecting to the election of Ferdinand,
afterwards the emperor Ferdinand I., as king of the Romans. He was among
the first members of the league of Schmalkalden, assented to the
religious peace of Nuremberg in 1532, and died at Schweidnitz on the
16th of August 1532. John was twice married and left two sons and two
daughters. His elder son, John Frederick, succeeded him as elector, and
his younger son was John Ernest (d. 1553). He rendered great services to
the Protestant cause in its infancy, but as a Lutheran resolutely
refused to come to any understanding with other opponents of the older
faith.
See J. Becker, _Kurfürst Johann von Sachsen und seine Beziehungen zu
Luther_ (Leipzig, 1890); J. Janssen, _History of the German People_
(English translation), vol. v. (London, 1903); L. von Ranke, _Deutsche
Geschichte im Zeitalter der Reformation_ (Leipzig, 1882).
JOHN, DON (1545-1578), of Austria, was the natural son of the emperor
Charles V. by Barbara Blomberg, the daughter of an opulent citizen of
Regensburg. He was born in that free imperial city on the 24th of
February 1545, the anniversary of his father's birth and coronation and
of the battle of Pavia, and was at first confided under the name of
Geronimo to foster parents of humble birth, living at a village near
Madrid; but in 1554 he was transferred to the charge of Madalena da
Ulloa, the wife of Don Luis de Quijada, and was brought up in ignorance
of his parentage at Quijada's castle of Villagarcia not far from
Valladolid. Charles V. in a codicil of his will recognized Geronimo as
his son, and recommended him to the care of his successor. In September
1559 Philip II. of Spain publicly recognized the boy as a member of the
royal family, and he was known at court as Don Juan de Austria. For
three years he was educated at Alcalá, and had as school companions his
nephews, the infante Don Carlos and Alexander Farnese, prince of Parma.
With Don Carlos his relations were especially friendly. It had been
Philip's intention that Don John should become a monk, but he showed a
strong inclination for a soldier's career and the king yielded. In 1568
Don John was appointed to the command of a squadron of 33 galleys, and
his first operations were against the Algerian pirates. His next
services were (1560-70) against the rebel Moriscos in Granada. In 1571 a
nobler field of action was opened to him. The conquest of Cyprus by the
Turks had led the Christian powers of the Mediterranean to fear for the
safety of the Adriatic. A league between Spain and Venice was effected
by the efforts of Pope Pius V. to resist the Turkish advance to the
west, and Don John was named admiral in chief of the combined fleets. At
the head of 208 galleys, 6 galleasses and a number of smaller craft, Don
John encountered the Turkish fleet at Lepanto on the 7th of October
1571, and gained a complete victory. Only forty Turkish vessels effected
their escape, and it was computed that 35,000 of their men were slain or
captured while 15,000 Christian galley slaves were released.
Unfortunately, through divisions and jealousies between the allies, the
fruits of one of the most decisive naval victories in history were to a
great extent lost.
This great triumph aroused Don John's ambition and filled his
imagination with schemes of personal aggrandizement. He thought of
erecting first a principality in Albania and the Morea, and then a
kingdom in Tunis. But the conclusion by Venice of a separate peace with
the sultan put an end to the league, and though Don John captured Tunis
in 1573, it was again speedily lost. The schemes of Don John found no
support in Philip II., who refused to entertain them, and even withheld
from his half-brother the title of infante of Spain. At last, however,
he was appointed (1576) governor-general of the Netherlands, in
succession to Luis de Requesens. The administration of the latter had
not been successful, the revolt headed by the prince of Orange had
spread, and at the time of Don John's nomination the Pacification of
Ghent appeared to have united the whole of the seventeen provinces of
the Netherlands in determined opposition to Spanish rule and the policy
of Philip II. The magic of Don John's name, and the great qualities of
which he had given proof, were to recover what had been lost. He was,
however, now brought into contact with an adversary of a very different
calibre from himself. This was William of Orange, whose influence was
now supreme throughout the Netherlands. The Pacification of Ghent, which
was really a treaty between Holland and Zeeland and the other provinces
for the defence of their common interests against Spanish oppression,
had been followed by an agreement between the southern provinces, known
as the Union of Brussels, which, though maintaining the Catholic
religion and the king's authority, aimed at the expulsion of the Spanish
soldiery and officials from the Netherlands. Confronted by the refusal
of the states general to accept him as governor unless he assented to
the conditions of the Pacification of Ghent, swore to maintain the
rights and privileges of the provinces, and to employ only Netherlanders
in his service, Don John, after some months of fruitless negotiations,
saw himself compelled to give way. At Huey on the 12th of February 1577
he signed a treaty, known as the "Perpetual Edict," in which he complied
with these terms. On the 1st of May he made his entry into Brussels, but
he found himself governor-general only in name, and the prince of Orange
master of the situation. In July he suddenly betook himself to Namur and
withdrew his concessions. William of Orange forthwith took up his
residence at Brussels, and gave his support to the archduke Matthias,
afterwards emperor, whom the states-general accepted as their sovereign.
Meanwhile Philip had sent large reinforcements to Don John under the
leadership of his cousin Alexander Farnese. At the head of a powerful
force Don John now suddenly attacked the patriot army at Gemblours,
where, chiefly by the skill and daring of Farnese, a complete victory
was gained on the 31st of January 1578. He could not, however, follow up
his success for lack of funds, and was compelled to remain inactive all
the summer, chafing with impatience at the cold indifference with which
his appeals for the sinews of war were treated by Philip. His health
gave way, he was attacked with fever, and on the 1st of October 1578, at
the early age of 33, Don John died, heartbroken at the failure of all
his soaring ambitions, and at the repeated proofs that he had received
of the king his brother's jealousy and neglect.
See Sir W. Stirling Maxwell, _Don John of Austria 1547-1575_ (1883)
and the bibliography under PHILIP II. OF SPAIN.
JOHN, DON (1629-1679), of Austria, the younger, recognized as the
natural son of Philip IV., king of Spain, his mother, Maria Calderon, or
Calderona, being an actress. Scandal accused her of a prodigality of
favours which must have rendered the paternity of Don John very dubious.
He was, however, recognized by the king, received a princely education
at Ocaña, and was amply endowed with commanderies in the military
orders, and other forms of income. Don John was sent in 1647 to
Naples--then in the throes of the popular rising first led by
Masaniello--with a squadron and a military force, to support the
viceroy. The restoration of royal authority was due rather to the
exhaustion of the insurgents and the follies of their French leader, the
duke of Guise, than to the forces of Don John. He was next sent as
viceroy to Sicily, whence he was recalled in 1651 to complete the
pacification of Catalonia, which had been in revolt since 1640. The
excesses of the French, whom the Catalans had called in, had produced a
reaction, and Don John had not much more to do than to preside over the
final siege of Barcelona and the convention which terminated the revolt
in October 1652. On both occasions he had played the peacemaker, and
this sympathetic part, combined with his own pleasant manners and
handsome person with bright eyes and abundant raven-black hair--a
complete contrast to the fair complexions of the Habsburgs--made him a
popular favourite. In 1656 he was sent to command in Flanders, in
combination with the prince of Condé, then in revolt against his own
sovereign. At the storming of the French camp at Valenciennes in 1656,
Don John displayed brilliant personal courage at the head of a cavalry
charge. When, however, he took a part in the leadership of the army at
the Dunes in the battle fought against Turenne and the British forces
sent over by Cromwell in 1658, he was completely beaten, in spite of the
efforts of Condé, whose advice he neglected, and of the hard fighting of
English Royalist exiles. During 1661 and 1662 he commanded against the
Portuguese in Estremadura. The Spanish troops were ill-appointed,
irregularly paid and untrustworthy, but they were superior in numbers
and some successes were gained. If Don John had not suffered from the
indolence which Clarendon, who knew him, considered his chief defect,
the Portuguese would have been hard pressed. The greater part of the
south of Portugal was overrun, but in 1663 the Portuguese were
reinforced by a body of English troops, and were put under the command
of the Huguenot Schomberg. By him Don John was completely beaten at
Estremos. Even now he might not have lost the confidence of his father,
if Queen Mariana, mother of the sickly infante Carlos, the only
surviving legitimate son of the king, had not regarded the bastard with
distrust and dislike. Don John was removed from command and sent to his
commandery at Consuegra. After the death of Philip IV. in 1665 Don John
became the recognized leader of the opposition to the government of
Philip's widow, the queen regent. She and her favourite, the German
Jesuit Nithard, seized and put to death one of his most trusted
servants, Don José Malladas. Don John, in return, put himself at the
head of a rising of Aragon and Catalonia, which led to the expulsion of
Nithard on the 25th of February 1669. Don John was, however, forced to
content himself with the viceroyalty of Aragon. In 1677, the queen
mother having aroused universal opposition by her shameless favour for
Fernando de Valenzuela, Don John was able to drive her from court, and
establish himself as prime minister. Great hopes were entertained of his
administration, but it proved disappointing and short. Don John died on
the 17th of September 1679.
The career of Don John can be followed in J. C. Dunlop's _Memoirs of
Spain_ 1621-1700 (Edin. 1834).
JOHN OF BEVERLEY, ST (d. 721), English bishop, is said to have been born
of noble parents at Harpham, in the east riding of Yorkshire. He
received his education at Canterbury under Archbishop Theodore, the
statement that he was educated at Oxford being of course untrue. He was
for a time a member of the Whitby community, under St Hilda, and in 687
he was consecrated bishop of Hexham and in 705 was promoted to the
bishopric of York. He resigned the latter see in 718, and retired to a
monastery which he had founded at Beverley, where he died on the 7th of
May 721. He was canonized in 1037, and his feast is celebrated annually
in the Roman Church on the 7th of May. Many miracles of healing are
ascribed to John, whose pupils were numerous and devoted to him. He was
celebrated for his scholarship as well as for his virtues.
The following works are ascribed to John by J. Bale: _Pro Luca
exponendo_ (an exposition of Luke); _Homiliae in Evangelia_;
_Epistolae ad Herebaldum_, _Audenam, et Bertinum_; and _Epistolae ad
Hyldam abbatissam_. See life by Folcard, based on Bede, in _Acta SS.
Bolland_.; and J. Raine's _Fasti eboracenses_ (1863).
JOHN OF THE CROSS, ST (1542-1591), Spanish mystic, was born at Ontiveros
(Old Castile) on the 24th of June 1542. He became a professed Carmelite
in 1564, and was ordained priest at Salamanca in 1567. He met with much
opposition in his efforts to introduce the reforms proposed by St
Theresa, and was more than once imprisoned. His real name was Juan de
Yepez y Álvarez; in religion he was known as Juan de San Matias till
1568, when he adopted the name of Juan de la Cruz. Broken by
persecution, he was sent to the monastery of Ubeda, where he died in
1591; his _Obras espirituales_ were published posthumously in 1618. He
was beatified in 1674 and canonized on the 27th of December 1726. The
lofty symbolism of his prose is frequently obscure, but his lyrical
verses are distinguished for their rapturous ecstasy and beauty of
expression.
Some of his poems have been translated with great success by Arthur
Symons in _Images of Good and Evil_; the most convenient edition of
his works, which have been frequently reprinted, is that contained in
vol. xvi. of the _Biblioteca de autores españoles_.
JOHN OF ASIA (or OF EPHESUS), a leader of the Monophysite
Syriac-speaking Church in the 6th century, and one of the earliest and
most important of Syriac historians. Born at Amid (Diarbekr) about 505,
he was there ordained as a deacon in 529, but in 534 we find him in
Palestine, and in 535 he passed to Constantinople. The cause of his
leaving Amid was probably either the great pestilence which broke out
there in 534 or the furious persecution directed against the
Monophysites by Ephraim (patriarch of Antioch 529-544) and Abraham
(bishop of Amid c. 520-541). In Constantinople he seems to have early
won the notice of Justinian, one of the main objects of whose policy was
the consolidation of Eastern Christianity as a bulwark against the
heathen power of Persia. John is said by Barhebraeus (_Chron. eccl._ i.
195) to have succeeded Anthimus as Monophysite bishop of Constantinople,
but this is probably a mistake.[1] Anyhow he enjoyed the emperor's
favour until the death of the latter in 565 and (as he himself tells us)
was entrusted with the administration of the entire revenues of the
Monophysite Church. He was also sent, with the rank of bishop, on a
mission for the conversion of such heathen as remained in Asia Minor,
and informs us that the number of those whom he baptized amounted to
70,000. He also built a large monastery at Tralles on the hills skirting
the valley of the Meander, and more than 90 other monasteries. Of the
mission to the Nubians which he promoted, though he did not himself
visit their country, an interesting account is given in the 4th book of
the 3rd part of his _History_.[2] In 546 the emperor entrusted him with
the task of rooting out the secret practice of idolatry in
Constantinople and its neighbourhood. But his fortunes changed soon
after the accession of Justin II. About 571 Paul of Asia, the orthodox
or Chalcedonian patriarch, began (with the sanction of the emperor) a
rigorous persecution of the Monophysite Church leaders, and John was
among those who suffered most. He gives us a detailed account of his
sufferings in prison, his loss of civil rights, &c., in the third part
of his _History_. The latest events recorded are of the date 585, and
the author cannot have lived much longer; but of the circumstances of
his death nothing is known.
John's main work was his _Ecclesiastical History_, which covered more
than six centuries, from the time of Julius Caesar to 585. It was
composed in three parts, each containing six books. The first part
seems to have wholly perished. The second, which extended from
Theodosius II. to the 6th or 7th year of Justin II., was (as F. Nau
has recently proved)[3] reproduced in full or almost in full, in
John's own words, in the third part of the _Chronicle_ which was till
lately attributed to the patriarch Dionysius Telmaharensis, but is
really the work of an unknown compiler. Of this second division of
John's _History_, in which he had probably incorporated the so-called
_Chronicle_ of Joshua the Stylite, considerable portions are found in
the British Museum MSS. Add. 14647 and 14650, and these have been
published in the second volume of Land's _Anecdota Syriaca_. But the
whole is more completely presented in the Vatican MS. (clxii.), which
contains the third part of the _Chronicle_ of pseudo-Dionysius. The
third part of John's history, which is a detailed account of the
ecclesiastical events which happened in 571-585, as well as of some
earlier occurrences, survives in a fairly complete state in Add.
14640, a British Museum MS. of the 7th century. It forms a
contemporary record of great value to the historian. Its somewhat
disordered state, the want of chronological arrangement, and the
occasional repetition of accounts of the same events are due, as the
author himself informs us (ii. 50), to the work being almost entirely
composed during the times of persecution. The same cause may account
for the somewhat slovenly Syriac style. The writer claims to have
treated his subject impartially, and though written from the narrow
point of view of one to whom Monophysite "orthodoxy" was
all-important, it is evidently a faithful reproduction of events as
they occurred. This third part was edited by Cureton (Oxford, 1853),
and was translated into English by R. Payne-Smith (Oxford, 1860) and
into German by J. M. Schönfelder (Munich, 1862).
John's other known work was a series of _Biographies of Eastern
Saints_, compiled about 569. These have been edited by Land in
_Anecdota Syriaca_, ii. 1-288, and translated into Latin by Douwen and
Land (Amsterdam, 1889). An interesting estimate of John as an
ecclesiastic and author was given by the Abbé Duchesne in a memoir
read before the five French Academies on the 25th of October 1892.