Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 8.djvu/538

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JOHN


470


JOHN


he won renown as a preacher, displayed marked erudition in expounding Scripture, and taught history amongst other sulijects. On 25 August, 6S7, he was consecrated Bishop of Hexham, a district with which he was not unfamiliar, as he had for a period led a life of retreat at Erneshowe (Herneshou), on the opposite bank of the Tyne. Here, too, he was after- wards wont to resort for seclusion, especially during Lent, when the cares of liis episcopal ministration permitted of his so doing. John was present at the synod on the Nidd in 70.5, con\'ened by Osred, King of Northumbria, to decide on Wilfrid's case. In the same year (705), on the death of Bosa, John was translated to York after eighteen years of labour in the See of Hexham, where he was succeeded by Wilfrid. Of his new activity Uttle is known beyond that he was diligent in visitation, considerate towards the poor, and exceedingly attentive to the training of students whom he maintained under his personal charge. His little company of pupils is said to have included: Bede, whom he ordained; Bercthune, after- wards Abbot of Beverley; Herebald, Abbot of Tyne- mouth; and Wilfrid "the Younger", John's succes- sor (71S) in the See of York. Having purchased a place called Inderawood, to which a later age has given the name of Beverley, John established a monastery there and also handsomely endowed the place, which became even in its founder's day an important ecclesiastical centre. To this monastery of Beverley, after resigning the See of York to his pupU Wilfrid, John retired and spent the remainder of his life with Abbot Bercthune, a one time favourite scholar. In 1037 he was canonized by Benedict IX; his bones were translated by /Elfric, Archbishop of York, and placed in a costly shrine. A second trans- lation took place in 1197. The remains were dis- covered in 1664 and again brought to light in 1736. (See Beverley Minster.)

Acta SS. Bollatid., II, 165 sqq.; Sand. Dunehn. et Beverlac, edited by Surtees Society, p. 98; Dugdale, Monasticon, II, 127; WiLKlNS, Concilia, III, 379; Raine in Did. Christ. Biog., s. V. Joannes Beverlacensis; Jocham in Kirchenlex., s. v. Johannes von Beverley; Hunt in Diet, Nat. Biog., s. v.; IBihlmeter in Buchberger, Kirchliches Handlez,, s. v. J . v. Beverley. The authenticity of the works ascribed to John of Beverley in Bale, Script. Illustr. Brit. Catal., is doubtful.

P. J. MacAulby.

John of Biclaro (Johannes Biclakiensis), chron- icler, I), in Portugal, probably about the middle of the si.\th century; d. after 621. He was educated at Con- stantinople, where he devoted at least seven years to the study of Latin and Greek. When he returned an attempt was made to force him to join the State Church, then Arian in character. As he stanchly re- sisted, he was banished by King Leovigild to Barce- lona. After Leovigild's death in 586, John foinided the Benedictme monastery of Biclaro, the site of which has not yet been exactly determined, and pre- sided over it as abbot for several years, until he was appointed Bishop of Gerona (the bishop known as " Joharmes Gerundensis " seems to have been an early successor of the chronicler). John took part in the synod of Saragossa (592), of Barcelona (599), and of Egara (614). His chronicle reaches to the year 590, and is a continuation (from 567) of the chronicle of Victor of Tunnuna, in Africa (Chronicon continuans Victorem Tunnunensem). It was edited by II. Cani- sius (Ingol.stadt, 1600), by Scaliger in "Thesaurus Temporum" (Leyden, 1606), and in Migne, P.L., LXXII (1S49). The best edition, with copious pro- legomena, is by Mommsen in " Mon. Germ. Hist.: Auct. ant.", XI (1S93), 211-220. This chronicle is the most complete and reliable authority on the stormy period of Leovigild's reign, and on the Visigothic conversion from Germanizing Arianism to Romanizing Catholi- cism. The narrative is rigorously impartial, despite the preceding bitter religious conflicts during which the writer himself hail to suffer.


GoRRES, Johannes von Biclaro in Theologische Studien und Kritiken, LXVIII (1895), 103-135; Wattenbach, Deulschlands Geachichtsquellen, I (Leipzig. 1893), 83.

Patricius Schlageb.

John of Cornwall (Johannes Cornubiensis, Jo- HANNE.S DE S.iNCTo Germano) lived about 1176. He was the author of a treatise written against the doc- trine of Abelard, " Eulogium ad Alexandrum Papam III, quod Christus sit aliquis homo". Scarcelj' any- thing is known of his life except the few facts to which he alludes by chance in this work. Though he is claimed by some French writers as a Bas-Breton, it appears certain from the varietl forms of his name that he was a native of St. German's in Cornwall. He was a student under Peter Lombard and Robert of Melun at Paris, and suljsequently became a teacher himself. From Peter Lombard he seems to have derived the view which that scholar held for a time, that Christ's humanity was but the vesture or garment wherewith the Logos was clothed; but he abandoned this doc- trine, which was condemned at the Council of Tours held by Alexander III in 1163, and advocated the orthodox teaching. In support of this he wrote the "Eulogium", though not for many years after the council, since a reference in the preface to William, formerly Archbishop of Sens, as being then Archbishop of Reims, shows that it could not have been written before 1176, in which year the translation took place. It was first published by Martene in the " Thesaurus novus anecdotum" (Paris, 1717), and is reprinted in Migne, P. L., CXCTX. This is the only work which was certainly written by him. The "Apologia de Christi Incarnatione ", usually attributed to Hugh of St. Victor, has been assigned to John without sufficient grounds, as also a treatise " Summa qualiter fiat Sacra- mentum Altaris per virtutem sancta? crucis et de septem canonibus vel ordinibus Missa' " (Migne, P. L., CLXXVII). _ There is at Magdalen College, Oxford, a " Commentarius in Aristotelis libros duo analyticorum posteriorum", which may be his, and the Latin hex- ameters "Merlini prophetiacumexpositione", WTitten at the request of Bishop Warelwast of Exeter, have been ascribed to him by reason of the references to Cornwall it contains. Nothing is known of his death, nor can he be identified with the John of Cornwall who was archdeacon of Worcester in 1197.

Pitts, De ill. Anglim scriptoribua (Paris, 1623); OuDlN.Sm'p- tores eccles., II (Frankfort, 1722), 1223-4, 1529-30; Fabricius, Bibl. med. wt., IV (1735), 189-91; Tanner, Bibl. Brit. Hib. (London, 1748); Wright, Biographia Brilannica Litteraria: Anglo-Norman Period (London, 1846); Hardy, Descriptive Cata- logue, II (London, 1865); Kingsford in Did. Nat. Biog., s. v.; Gross, Sources and Literature of English History (London, 1900).

Edwin Burton.

John of Ephesus, also known as John of Asia, the earliest, and a very famous, Syriac historian. He was born at Amida (Diarbekir, on the upper Tigris), about 505; d. about 5S5. In 529 he was ordained deacon in St. John's monastery of the same city, but on account of his monophysitic doctrine was soon obUged to take refuge in Palestine, where we find him in 534; thence he came to Constantinople, driven from Palestine by the great pestilence of 534-7. In the capital he found a friend in Jacob Barada>us, the organizer of the Jacobite Church; a protector in Justinian; and a life-long collaborator in a certain Deuterius. The emperor placed him at the head of the Monophysite community of Constantinople, and soon entrusted him with the mission of converting the heathens of Asia proper and the neighbouring provinces. Eventually John was consecrated (liy Jacob Barada-us), Bishop of Ephesus, the heart of the Monophysite territory, but his official residence, it seems, was always Constantinople. In 546 he helped Justinian to search out and quash the secret practice of idolatry in the capital and its surround-