John NicioTA (from Nidus, probably the city of that name in the Thebais), also surnamed the Recluse, patriarch of the Jacobite Alexandrian Church, flourish- ed in the early part of the Gth century, and was in the patriarchal chair from 507 to 517. He is noted for his violent opposition to the decrees of the Council of Chalce- don, and is said to have refused communication with any that did not expressh' anathematize them, and to have promised the emperor Anastasius two hundred pounds of gold if he would procure their final and decisive abro- gation (see Neale, ///.>t^ A'asf. Ch. [Alexandria] ii, 26, 27; Theophanes, s. a. A.D. 512). Among the Jacobites, who in his day enjoyed especial favor at the imperial court (a period on which, says Neale, " the Jacobite writers dwell with peculiar complacency," and in which " their heresy had gained a footing which it never before or since i)ossessed"), John Niciota, better known as patri- arch John II of A lexandria, is reckoned among the saints. He is believed to be the author of a learned work against the Pelagians, addressed to pope Gelasius. Some think it was written by John I of AJexandrla, but it is in all probability the production of John Niciota, and was written before' his accession to the patriarchal chair. (J. H. W.)
John OF Nicklaushausen, a German religious fa- natic, flourished, in the second half of the 15th century, at Nicklaushausen, in the diocese of Wiirzburg. He was earning his livelihood as a swinelierd when it sud- denly occurred to him that an attack upon the clergy, and a summons to them to reform their jmifligate ways, might meet with applause from the people, to whom at
JOHN
973
JOHN
this time " the clergy, as a body, had become a stench in their nostrils." He was not slow openly and loudly to proclaim his mission (in 1476), to which he claimed he had been insiiired by the \'irgin Marj', and soon im- mense Hocks gathered about him, who came from the Khine lands to Jlisnia, and from Saxony to Bavaria, so that at times he ]ireached to a congregation of 'iO-OOO or 30,000 men. " His doctrines," says Lea (//*,</. Cilihacy, p. 397), " were revolutionary, for he denounced oppres- sion both secular and clerical; but he was particularly severe upon the vices of the ecclesiastical body. A special revelation of the Virgin had informed him that God could no longer endure them, and that the world could not, without a speedy reformation, be saved from the divine Avrath consequent upon them" (comp. Trithe- mius, Chron. Hirsnnr/. ann. 1470). The unfortunate man, who was a fit precursor of Miincer and John of Leyden, was seized by tlie bishop of Wiirzburg, the fanatical zeal of his imarmed followers easily subdued, and he himself suffered, for his rashness, death at the stake a few days after his trial. (J. H. W.)
John OF NicoJiiiDiA, a presbyter of the Church of Nicomedia, in Bithynia, in the time of Constantine the Great, is noted as the authw of Maprvpiov tov ayiov BaaiXsaic tTZKJKuiTov 'Af-tamiac, Acta martyrii S. Ba- silei ejriscopi Amasur, which is given in the A eta Scnic- torum of the BoUandists (Aprilis, vol. iii); the Latin version in the body of the work (p. 417), with a prelimi- nar\- notice by Henschen, and the Greek original in the Appendix (p. 50). An extract from the Latin version, containing the history of the female saint Glaphyra, had previously been given in the same work (Januar. i, 771), The Latin version of the Acta Martyrii S. Basi- lei had already been published by Aloysius Lippomani {Vitir Sdiictnr. ratrinn, vol. vii) and by Surius (Be p7-o- bati.< SiiiKinnnii 1 7//s, ^. d. 26 Aprilis). Basileus was put to death aliout the close of the reign of Licinius, A.D. 322 or 323, and John, who was then at Nicomedia, pro- fesses to have conversed with him in prison. Cave thinks that the Acta have been interpolated, apparentlj- by Metaphrastes. See Acta Sancto?ian, I], cc; Cave, JJist. Litt. i, 185.— Smith, Diet. Gr. and Rom. Biog. ii, 601 .
John OF Oxford, an English prelate, flourished in the second half of the 12th century, and took an ac- tive and important part in the controversy between king Henry H of England and his archbishop Thomas i\ Becket in behalf of his royal master, whose favor and unlimited confidence he enjoyed. He had attended the Diet at Wliizburg in 1165, held to cement a union be- tween Henry and the emperor of Germany, and had there taken the oath of fidelity to the rival pope of Al- exander, Paschal JH, whom the emperor supported. For his success in this mission, John, on his return, was rewarded by king Henry H with the appointment of dean of Salisbury', Of course the archbishop, at this time himself claiming the right to fill these positions, disapproved of the appointment, and even suspended and cited before him for trial the bishop of the diocese of Salisburj-, who had approved the royal action. (See hiett, History of the Em/lish Church, yo\. ii, pt. i, p, 337, note ; Kobertson, Life of Beclcet, p. 186, note d ; compare art. JocELiNE OF Salisbury and Clarendon Consti- tutions.) John, disregarding the archbishop's censures, was finally punished by excommunication (in 1 166). The king at once dispatched a special embassy t« pope Al- exander, John of Oxford being one of the number, and. notwithstanding the archbishop's serious actions against John of Oxford, the pope, anxious to continue friendly relations with the English court, favorably received John, and the latter even measurably succeeded in the object of their mission [see art. Becket], securing also the pope's confirmation of his appointment as dean of Salisbury. After the close of the controversy and the return of Becket, John of Oxford was appointed by the king to meet and reinstate the archbishop, a not very moderate reproval to the haughty prelate, and upon