Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 8.djvu/537

 JOHN

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JOHN

Phokas (GIO), using for this purpose Sextus Julius Africanus, Eusebius, Ammianus Marcellinus, and other standard authorities. It is one of tlie many adaptations and imitations of the better known chron- icle of John Malalas. Only fragments of it remain. Gelzer (Sextus Julius Africanus, 41) identifies the author with the Monophysite Patriarch John of An- tioch, who ruled from 630 to 64S. The fragments of the chronicle are contained in two collections, the Codex Parisinus, 1763, written by Salmasius, and the encyclopedia of history made by order of Constan- tine VII, Porphyrogenitus (912-59), in fifty-three chapters, or titles with different headings. Of this collection of excerpts only parts remain (Krum- bacher, "Byz. Litt.", 25S-60). Two titles; "Of A'ir- tue and Vice" and "Of Conspiracies against Emper- ors " contain the literary remains of Jolin of Antioch. A difficulty arises from the fact that a great part of the extracts (from the Roman Commonwealth of Justin I) differs considerably from the corresponding quota- tions in the Salmasian collection. The C'onstantinian passages are of the nature of the old Hellenic writing of history, the Salmasian ones are rather Byzantine and Christian. The Salmasian compilation is older, and so appears to be the original text; the other is no doubt a re-arrangement made under the influence of the Hellenic Renaissance since Photius. But some authorities see in them two different originals and speak of a " Constantinian " and a " Salmasian " John of Antioch.

The Salmasian excerpts are edited by Cramer, "Anecdota Graeca e cod. mss. regije Parisiensis ", II, Oxford, 1S39, 383—101. Both series of fragments are in C. Miiller, "Fragmonta Historicorum Graecorum", IV, r'.ri-, iss:;, :i:;:, iiJ_': V. 27-8.

'I'll " ./ 1 ', M , 394; KocHER. De Joannis

A' ' ' / .■ /, .; ' ', iBonn, 1S71): Krumbacher,

Byz-inliin«ch,' Lill,r<ilunir.ichicUe (Munich, 1897), 334-36. For his identification with the Monophysite patriarch, see Gelzer, Die poUti.^che and kirchliche Stetlung von Byzanz (Proceedings of the thirt\--third congress of German philologists at Gera) (Leipzig, 1S79), 47 sq.

III. John Scholasticus of Antioch, the canon- ist, afterwards Patriarch of Constantinople (.565-77). (See John Scholasticus.)

IV. John of Antioch, Orthodox patriarch at the time of Alexius I Comnenus (lOSl-lllS), formerly a monk in Oxia, one of the Echinades Islands in the Ionian Sea. He w"as a reformer of monasticism and a deserving ascetic writer. Towards the end of the tenth century a custom grew up in the East of be- queathing property to a monastery on condition that some prominent layman should be its patron or guard- ian (€0opos). The monastery then owed something like feudal service to its protector. Such benefices were called charistikaria. The result was that fre- quently the lay "ephoros" misused the property of the monastery for his own enrichment. Against tins abuse John wrote a work " Of the [true] Teaching con- cerning Monasteries" (Tep! iMvaa-riKij^ SiSaaKaKla^), in which he shows its evils in a tone of dignified indig- nation. Theodore Balsamon in the twelth century refers to this work in his commentary on the"No- mocanon". John also wrote a work of anti- Latin controversy, "Of Azymes", that is still unedited. Leo Allatius quotes a passage from a letter from John of Antioch to Theodore of Ephesus ("De aetate et interstitiis in collatione ordinum etiam apud Graecos servandis", Rome, 1638, 215). The work about monasteries is in P. G., CXXXII, 1117-49.

Krdmbacher, Byzantinische Lilteraturgeschichte (Munich, 1897), 156.

Adrian Fortescue.

John of Avila, Blessed, apostolic preacher of An- dalusia and author, b. at Alinodovar del Campo, a small town in the diocese of Toledo, Spain, 6 January,

1500; d. at Montilla, 10 May, 1569. At the age of four- teen he was sent to the University of Salamanca to study law. Conceiving a distaste for j urisprudence he returned after a year to his father's home, where he spent the next three years in the practice of most aus- tere piety. His wonderful sanctity impressed a Fran- ciscan journeying through .\lnioduvar, and at the friar's advice he took up the study of philosophy and theology at Alcala, where he was fortunate to have as his teacher the famous Dominican De Soto. His par- ents died while he was a student and after his ordina- tion he celebrated his first Mass in the church where they were buried, sold the family propertj' ant! gave the proceeds to the poor. He saw in the severing of natural ties a vocation to foreign missionary work and made preparation to go to Mexico in America. While awaiting, at Seville in 1527, a favourable opportunity to start for his new field of labour, his extraordinary devotion in celebrating Mass attracted the attention of Hernando de Contreras, a priest of Seville, who re- ported his observations to the archbishop and general inquisitor, Don Alphonso JIanrique. The archbishop saw in the young missionary a powerful instrument to stir up the faith of Andalusia, and after considerable persuasion Blessed John was induced to abandon his journey to America. His first sermon was preached on 22 July, 1529, and immediately his reputation was estabUshed; crowds thronged the churches at all his sermons. His success, however, brought with it the hatred of a certain class, and while hving at Seville he was brought before the inquisitor and charged with exaggerating the dangers of wealth and closing the gates of heaven to the rich. His innocence of the charges was speedily proved, and by special invitation of the court he was appointetl to preach the sermon on the next great feast in the church of San Salvador, in Seville. His appearance was a cause of public rejoic- ing. He began his career as apostolic preacher of Andalusia at the age of thirty. After nine years in that province he returned to Seville only to depart for the wider fields of Cordova, Granada, Bolza, Mon- tilla, and Zafra. For eighteen years before his death he was the victim of constant illness, the re- sult of the hardships of his apostolate of forty years. He was declared Venerable bv Clement XIII, 8 Feb., 1799, and beatified by Leo' XIII, 12 Nov., 1893.

Among the disciples drawTi to him by his preaching and saintly reputation may be named St. Therjsa, St. John of God, St. Francis Borgia, and Ven. Louis of Granada. The spread of the Jesuits in Spain is at- tributed to his friendship for that boily. Blessed John of Avila's works were collected at Madrid in 1618, 1757, 1792, 1805; a French translation by dAndilly was pubhshed at Paris in 1673; and a German trans- lation by Schermer in six volumes was issued at Rat- isbon between 1S56 and ISSl. His best known works are the "Audi Fill" (Enghsh translation, 1620), one of the liest tracts on Christian perfection, and his "Spiritual Letters" (EngUsh translation, 1631, Lon- don, 1904) to liis disciples.

ZuNGERLE in Kirchenlezikon; Lotjis of Gr.^nada, Vida del Ven. Maestro Juan de Avila (Madrid, 1787); Ruz de Mesa, Vida y Obra de Ven. Maestro J van de Avila (Madrid. 1674); Schermer in Preface to first vol. of German translation (Ratisbon, 1S56-1SS1); Gasqdet in Pre/ace to Letters of B. John of Avila (London, 1904).

iGN-iTius Smith.

John of Beverley, S.unt, Bishop of Hexham and afterwards of York; b. at Harpham, in the East Riding of Yorkshire; d. at Beverley, 7 May, 721. In early life he was under the care of -Archbishop Theodore, at Canterbury, who supervised his educa- tion, and is reputed to have given liim the name of John. He became a member of the Benedictine Order, and for a time was an inmate of St. Hilda's monastery at Streaneshalch (Whitby). Afterwards