John OF Crejia, a cardinal who flourished in the first half of the 12th century, is celebrated for his exer- tions in behalf of the cause of pope Calixtus II against his adversary Burdin, and especially for liis activity in the English Churcli. wliillier he was sent by pope Honorius II, in 1 126, to enforce tlie laws of celibacy on the English clergy. How successfid he was in this mission may be best judged from the sudden termination of his stay on the English continent. Not only did the English cler- gy violently oppose the cardinal's efforts, but he was even entrapped into a snare that must har\'e considera- bly annoyed the eminent Roman Catholic ecclesiastic. Says Lea {Hist. Sacerdotal Celib. p. 293 ; compare Inett, Hist. Eng. Ck. ii, chap, viii), the cardinal, " after fiercely denouncing the concubines of priests, and expatiating on the burning shame that the body of Christ should be made by one who had just left the side of a harlot, he was that very night surprised in the company of a courtesan, though he had on the same day celebrated mass." Although instrumental, after his return to Rome, in the election of pope Innocent II (1130), the latter af- terwards forsook him, and John for a time espoused the cause of the rival pope, Anacletus, returning, of course, again to obedience to Innocent II as soon as he had learned that by such an act only he could advance his own interests. The time of his death is not known to us.
John, THE peacon and orator (AiaKovoc Kal Pfj- Tojp) of Constantinople, was a deacon of the great church (St. Sophia) in that city about the end of the 9th Cen- tura. He wrote Aoyog tig rvv (3iov tov Iv ayioiQ ira- Tpbg i'ii.tiov 'Iuja)i(p, TOV vjxvoypa&ov {Vita S. Josephi Bi/mnographi), \-)uh\hhed in the.4rfn Sanctorum (April 3), vol. i, a Latin version being given in the body of the work, with a learned Commentariiis Prmvius at p. 266, etc., and the original in the Appendix, p. xxxiv. Allatius {De Psellis, c. xxx) cites another work of this writer, entitled Ti'c o aKoirbg ti^ Sni^j rijc 7rpwrJ/c toii av^piiiTzov Tr\d(jc<xig, k.t.X. {Quid est Consilium, Dei in prima Hominis formatione, etc.). The designation Jo- t annes Diaconus is common to several mediasval writ- I ers, as John Galenus or Pediasmus ; John Hypatius ,•
JOHN"
964
JOHN"
John, deacon of Rome; and John Diaconus a contem- porary and correspondent of (leorge of Trebizoud. See Acta Sanctorum, 1. e. ; Fabricius, Bihlica Graca, x, 264: xi, 654; Cave, hist. Lit. ii. Dissertatio i, 11 ; Oudin, X>e s'criptoribus et Scriptis Ecdesiasticis, ii, 335.— Smith, Did. Greek and Roman Biog. ii, 594.
John OF Cressy. See John the Monk.
John CvPARissioTA {K.vtTa(>iG(yuori]c), sumamed the Wise, an ecclesiastical writer, lived in the latter half of the 14th century, not in the middle of the 12th, as erroneously stated by Labbe in his Chronologia Brevis Ecclesiasticorum Scriptorum. Cyparissiota was an op- ponent of Gregory I'alamas (q. v.) and his followers (the believers in the light of Mount Tabor), and most of his works (of which some were written after 1359) had ref- erence to that controversy. They compose a series of Jive treatises, but only the first and fourth books of the first treatise of the series, Pulamiticarum Transgressio- niim Libri ie, have been published. They appeared, with a Latin version, in the Anctarium Novissimuni of Combetis, ii, 68-105, and the Latin version was given in the Bibliotheca Patrum, xxi, 47G, etc. (ed. Lyons, 1677). Cyparissiota wrote also 'Ek^iciq aroixtf^Sr]': pijaewv BtoXoyiKuii' (^Ej-positio MaieHarum, eorum qmc rle Deo a Tlieologis dicttntur). The work is divided into one hun- dred chapters, which are subdivided in ten decades or portions of ten chapters each, from which arrangement the work is sometimes referred to by the simple title of Decades. A Latin version of it by Franciscus Turrianus was pulilishcd at Rome in 1581, 4to, and was reprinted in till' /lih/iotheca Patrum, xxi, 377, etc. — Combefis, A uc- tar. Xoriasim. ii, 105 ; Fabricius, Bibl. Gr. xi, 507 ; Cave, Hitt. Lift. vol. ii. Appendix by Gery and Wharton, p. 65 ; Oudin, De Scriptor. et Scriptis Ecclesiasticis, iii, 1062 ; Smith, Diet. Gr. and Rom. Biog. ii, 594.
John OF Damascus (Johannes Damascenus, 'Iw- ('ivi'i)r la(iaat]KvoQ) (1), one of the early ecclesiastical writers, and the author of the standard text-book of dogmatic theology in the Greek Church, was born at Dama-scus about the year 676. His oratorical talents caused him to be sumamed Chrtjmrrhoas (golden stream) by his friends (the Arabs caUed him Mansur). Little is known of his life except that he belonged to a high family, was ordained priest, and entered the convent of St. Sabas at Jerusalem, where he passed his life in the midst of literary labors and theological studies. The other details found concerning him in his biography by John, patriarch of Jerusalem, are considered untnist- wortiiy. According to this writer, John Damascenus's father was a Christian, and governor of the province of Damascus, tlieu in the hands of the Saracens, and John was ably eiUicated by an Italian monk. Under Leo the Isaiirian and Constantine Capronymus he zealously de- fended image worship both by his pen and tongue, and even went to Constantinople on that account. A leg- endary story relates that Leo, who was then ,«, decided iconocla-it, forged a treasonable letter from John to him- self, which he contrived to pass into the hands of the caliph, who sentenced John to have his right hand cut off, when the severed hand was restored to the arm by a miracle. Aljout that time, however, John withdrew from the caliph's court to the monasterv of St. Saba, near Jerusalem, where he passed the remainder of his Me in ascetic practices and study. He died between 7o4 anil 7«7. Fn the former year "we find his last public act, a protest against the Iconoclastic Svnod at Cimstan- tinople, and in the latter the (Kcumeiiical Council of Alee honored his memory with a eulogy. The Greek Church commemorates liim on November 29 and De- cember 4, and the Roman Catholic Cluirch on May 6. Churcli writers agree in considering John Damascenus as siipenor to all bis contemporaries in philosophy and erudition: yet his works, though justifving his reputa- tion, are deficient in criticism.