JOHN, St, the Baptist, the forerunner of Jesus Christ, was the son of Zacharias and Elizabeth. He retired into a desert, where he lived on locusts and wild honey; and about the year 29 began to preach repentance, and to declare the coming of the Messiah. He baptized his disciples, and the following year Christ himself was baptized by him in the river Jordan. Some time afterwards, having reproved Herod Antipas, who carried on a criminal correspondence with Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, he was cast into prison, where he was beheaded. His head was brought to Herodias, who, according to St Jerome, to revenge herself after his death for the freedom of his reproofs, pierced his tongue with the bodkin with which she used to fasten her hair.

John, St, the Apostle or Evangelist, was the brother of St James the Great, and the son of Zebedee. He quitted the business of fishing to follow Jesus, and became his beloved disciple. He was witness to the actions and miracles of his Master, was present at his transfiguration on Mount Tabor, and attended him in the garden of olives. He was the only apostle who followed him to the. cross, and to him Jesus left the care of his mother. He was also the first apostle who knew him again after his resurrection. He preached the faith in Asia, and principally resided at Ephesus, where he maintained the mother of our Lord. He is believed to have founded the churches of Smyrna, Pergamus, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea. He is also said to have preached the gospel amongst the Par-thanis, and to have addressed his first epistle to that people. It is related that, when he was at Rome, the Emperor Domitian caused him to be thrown into a caldron of boiling oil, but that he came out unhurt; upon which he was banished to the isle of Patmos, where he wrote his Apocalypse. After the death of Domitian he returned to Ephesus, where he composed his Gospel, about the year^ 96; and died there, in the reign of Trajan, about the year 100, at the age of 94.

Gospel of St John, a canonical book of the New Testament, containing a recital of the life, actions, doctrine, and death, of our Saviour Jesus Christ, written by St John the apostle and evangelist. At the desire of the Christians of Asia, St John wrote his Gospel at Ephesus, after his return from the isle of Patmos. St Jerome says he would not undertake it, except upon condition that they should appoint a public fast to implore the assistance of God; and that, the fast being ended, St John, filled with the Holy Ghost, broke out into the words, “In the beginning was the Word,” &c. The ancients assign two reasons for this undertaking. The first is, because, in the other three Gospels, there was wanting the history of the beginning of Jesus Christ’s preaching till the imprisonment of John the Baptist, which therefore he applied himself particularly to relate. The second is, that it was written in order to remove the errors of the Cerinthians, Ebionites, and other sects. But Mr Lampe and Dr Lardner have urged several reasons to show that St John in his Gospel did not write against Cerinthus, or any other heretic.

Revelation of St John. See Apocalypse. John, St, the name of several small towns, counties, rivers, lakes, bays, creeks, and capes of North and South America, all of which deserving of particular notice will be found described under the heads of the various states or provinces where they occur.

John of Salisbury, bishop of Chartres, in France, was born at Salisbury, in Wiltshire, in the beginning of the twelfth century. Where he received the rudiments of his education is unknown; but we learn, that in the year 1136, being then a youth, he was sent to Paris, where he studied under several eminent professors, and acquired considerable reputation for his application and proficiency in rhetoric, poetry, divinity, and particularly in the learned languages. From Paris he travelled into Italy; and, during his residence at Rome, he rose into high favour with Pope Eugenius III. and his successor Adrian IV. After his return to England, he became the intimate friend and companion of the renowned Thomas-a-Becket, archbishop of Canterbury, whom he attended in his exile; and he is said to have been present when that haughty prelate was murdered in his cathedral. What preferment he obtained in the church during this time does not appear; but in 1176 he was promoted by King Henry II. to the bishopric of Chartres in France, where he died in 1182. This John of Salisbury was one of the first restorers of the Greek and Latin languages in Europe, a classical scholar, a philosopher, a learned divine, and an elegant Latin poet. He wrote several books, the principal of which are, his Life of St Thomas of Canterbury, a collection of Letters, and Polycratico.

Pope John XII. a native of Cahore, originally called James d’Euse, was well skilled in the civil and canon law, and was elected pope after the death of Clement V. on the 7th of August 1316. He published the constitutions called Clementine, which were framed by his predecessor; and drew up the other constitutions called Extravagantes. When Louis of Bavaria was a candidate for the imperial crown, John XH v opposed him in favour of his competitor; which made much noise, and was attended with fatal consequences. That prince, in 1320, caused the antipope Peter de Corbiero, a Cordelier, to be elected, who took the t name of Nicoas V. and was supported by Michael de Cesenne, general of his order; but that antipope was the following year taken and carried to Avignon, where he begged pardon of the pope with a rope about his neck, and died in prison some [7:12:590]years afterwards. Under this pope arose the celebrated question among the Cordeliers, called “the bread of the Cordeliers ;” which was, whether those monks had the property of the things given them, at the time they were making use of them; that is, whether the bread belonged to them when they were eating it, or to the pope, or to the Roman church. This frivolous dispute gave great employment to the pope, as also did those which turned upon the colour, form, and stuff, of their habits, whether they ought to be white, gray, or black; whether the cowl ought to be pointed or round, large or small; whether their robes should be full, short, or long; of cloth, or of serge. The disputes on these minute trifles were carried so far between the minor brothers, that some of them were burned upon the occasion. Pope John died at Avignon in 1334, aged ninety.

John of Eordιm. See Fordun. John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster, a renowned general, father of Henry IV. king of England, died in 1438.

John Sobieski of Poland, one of the greatest warriors in the seventeenth century, was, in 1665, made grandmarshal of the crown, and, in 1667, grand-general of the kingdom. The victories he obtained over the Tartars and the Turks procured him the crown, to which he was elected in 1674. He was an encourager of arts and sciences, and the protector of learned men. He died in 1696, at the age of seventy-two.

St John’s Day, the name of two Christian festivals; one observed on the 24th of June, in commemoration of the wonderful circumstances attending the birth of St John the Baptist; and the other on the 27th of December, in honour of St John the Evangelist.