John XIV., previously called Peter, Bishop of Pavia, was chancellor of Otho II., by whom he was made pope in 984. Boniface, the antipope, four months later, came to Rome and shut him in prison, where he died of starvation.
John XV. or XVI., son of a priest named Leo, was elected in 986. The real John XV., who was elected after the death of John XIV. and occupied the see only eight months, is not usually reckoned with the popes by modern authors. The reason for this exclusion is unknown. John, the son of Leo, is sometimes erroneously confounded with the other. Soon after his accession he sought the aid of Otho III. to protect him against the consul Crescentius, and to increase his power. There is nothing remarkable recorded of him except that he introduced the solemn canonization of saints; that he exercised his papal powers in England, Poland, &c.; and that he was both mean and avaricious. He died in 996.
John XVI., Antipope or Pope, was a Greek of the name of Philagathus, bishop of Piacenza, and the creature of Crescentius. He occupied the papal see in 997; and was put to death, after being deprived of his hands, eyes, and ears in 998, by his rival, Gregory V.
John XVII. or XVIII. was pope for five months in 1003. He was before called Siccus, and was a Roman of ignoble origin. Hitherto the popes were elected by the people; but henceforth, only by the clergy. In his time, says Platina, there appeared many prodigies which betokened future calamities.
John XVIII. or XIX. succeeded the last-named at the close of 1003. He seems to have been a Roman, originally called Fasanus, and the son of a priest. During his papacy, Baronius says, the Berengarian heresy broke out. He aimed at uniting the Greek and Latin churches; abdicated in 1009; and died in a monastery soon after.
John XIX. or XX. succeeded Benedict VIII. in 1024. He was a layman, the son of Gregory, count of Tuscanella, and brother of Benedict VIII. He owed his elevation to money and power; and the Greeks well-nigh succeeded in bribing him and his friends to concede to the patriarchs of Constantinople the title of œcumenical or universal. A tumult was the consequence; the plot failed, and John was well rebuked by the abbé of Dijon. In 1027 he crowned Conrad the emperor at Rome. In 1033 he was expelled from his see, but restored by Conrad, and died the same year.
John XX. or XXI. was pope for eight months in 1276 and 1277. He was born at Lisbon, but had been bishop of Tusculum, and a cardinal. Ciaconius says his name was John Peter, that he was a very learned man, but unacquainted with public affairs and incapable of managing them. He was crowned at Viterbo, but was killed soon after by the fall of a newly-built house in which he was sleeping. He had studied medicine, and wrote something on that subject.
John XXI. or XXII. was a Frenchman, born at Cahors about 1244. His name was Jacques d'Euse or Jacobus Ossa. The historians relate that the papal see had been vacant two years, and that no successor had been appointed after repeated meetings of the cardinals. At length, in 1316, Philip V. assembled these dignitaries at Lyons and shut them in a dominican convent, from which he refused to let them go till they had made their election. Forty days elapsed; and as they could not decide, they agreed to leave the choice to Jacques d'Ossa or d'Euse, who forthwith nominated himself, and was elected. He took the name of John, and was crowned at Lyons, whence he removed to Avignon. Of his previous life little is known except that he had been bishop of Frejus, archbishop of Avignon, and cardinal-bishop of Porto. His father is reputed to have been a shoemaker, but this is denied. He retained the papal chair till his death in 1334 at the age of ninety years. John had studied law in his youth, and his experience in the courts of Charles, the king of Sicily, and Robert, king of Naples, was not lost upon him. To Robert he had been indebted for his cardinal's hat, and him he rewarded by canonizing his brother, Louis of Toulouse. He flattered the dominicans, and honoured the schoolmen by canonizing Thomas Aquinas. He pleased the French in general and their clergy in particular, by founding twelve new bishoprics in France within two years after his election. He edited the Clementines, or Constitutions of Clement V., and gave them his official sanction. He confirmed the knights of Christ, a Portuguese military order formed to make war upon the Saracens and the Moors of Spain, and reformed or reconciled other religious fraternities. In Spain, England, France, and Germany he exercised spiritual functions, or appeared as arbiter in civil questions. He claimed the right to administer the affairs of the empire during an interregnum, and exacted an oath from the German bishops that they would not acknowledge as emperor any one whom he should not in due time confirm in that dignity. He espoused the cause of the Guelphs against the Ghibellines, and excommunicated Louis of Bavaria in 1324, for daring to act as emperor without his sanction. In 1327 Louis marched into Italy; early in 1328 he entered Rome, and in April 18 pronounced "John of Porto, who falsely calls himself John XXII.," deposed as an arch-heretic; and soon after set up Nicholas V., who was shortly forced to abjure, and ended his days at Avignon "in a prison sufficiently convenient," as Moreri says. John was twice accused of heresy; once on the subject of future rewards and punishments, when he was forced to retract; the other occasion arose out of a monastic dispute as to whether Christ and his apostles possessed anything. John made cardinals his son, two of his sister's sons, his brother's son, and several other relatives.
John XXII. or XXIII. (Balthazar Cossa), was a Neapolitan, whom Boniface IX. had made his chamberlain, a cardinal, &c. He had studied canon and civil law at Bologna, where he became papal legate, and in that capacity acted with so much prudence and energy, that when nearly the whole Romagna was on the point of throwing off the papal power, he prevented the catastrophe. Gregory XII. deprived him of his legateship, but Alexander V. restored him and conferred upon him other dignities and offices. He was, says Ciaconius, "a man more apt for war than for religion." He was the chief promoter of the council of Pisa which elected Alexander V., whom he succeeded, as it appears, by craft and money, if not by intimidation. He was elected in 1410, and entered upon his office in portentous times. Besides the rivals who contested his authority, Italy was the theatre of discord and strife, and schism and heresy were everywhere rampant. Three popes at once was an edifying spectacle, and John found that both Benedict XIII. and Gregory XII. had powerful supporters. Benedict had already been condemned, and John at once confirmed the sentence; but excommunications fell idle, and the respective popes had their partisans who were ready to fight, and did fight, both the popes' battles and their own. Louis of Anjou was the champion of John; Ladislas, the hero of Gregory; and Benedict was upheld by the cardinals of Avignon, by Scotland, Spain, &c. Ladislas, however, abandoned his protegé and John his patron, but they soon quarrelled; Ladislas seized Rome, and John fled. In his trouble he appealed to the Emperor Sigismund, whom he implored to name a place for a general council. Sigismund named Constance, whither John went; and there, after various negotiations, he was called upon to abdicate, which he did reluctantly and ambiguously. He soon repented, and endeavoured to recover his position, but in vain. His danger was great, and he took to flight, disguised as a groom. He was summoned to return, but refused; whereupon he was arrested and brought back. Witnesses were called; seventy accusations of every degree of turpitude were laid to his charge; and on May 29, 1415, he was declared guilty of simony, impurity, profligacy, &c. Sentence was passed upon him, notified, and ratified. John was put into prison, where he met with John Huss whom he had excommunicated and afterwards apprehended, notwithstanding his safe conduct. The ex-pope remained four years in different prisons, and then it required thirty thousand ducats to bribe his keeper, and purchase his liberty. After his deliverance he went to Florence as plain Balthazar Cossa to do homage to Martin V., who had succeeded him, and who out of pity for him made him cardinal-bishop of Tusculum, and dean of the college of cardinals. Some months after, John died at Florence, as was supposed, of grief, and was buried with great splendour. His epitaph records that he died, December 22, 1419. Since then no pope has ventured to take the name of John.—B. H. C.
JOHN of Antioch succeeded Theodotus as patriarch of Antioch about the year 427. In the controversy between Cyril and Nestorius, John of Antioch originally favoured the latter. When the council of Ephesus was summoned in 431, John was desirous that the original confession of Nice should be left in its integrity, and that no censure should be passed on Nestorius or his doctrines. Delays occurred during his journey; and when he reached Ephesus, five days after the council had met, he found that the energetic and fiery Cyril had already obtained
