J O 
two Letters in the fourth volume of the Collett. Concil. 
•which were formerly attributed to this pope, but which 
have long'been univerfally confuiered to be iuppofititious. 
JOHN II. pope, furnamed Mercurius, was a Roman by 
birth, the foil of one Projeftus, and became a pretbyter 
of. the Roman church. Upon the death of pope Boni¬ 
face II. in the year 532, after a warm conteft, in which 
there were feveral competitors for the vacant dignity, John 
was elevated to the papal throne. In the following year 
the difpute concerning the propofition of the Scythian 
monks, that “one perfon of the Trinity fufferea in the 
flefli,” was revived with great warmth at Conitantinople ; 
one party maintaining it to be orthodox, and their oppo¬ 
nents acquiefcing- in the judgment of pope Hormifdas on 
the fubjett. In this difpute the emperor Juftinian took a 
part, and was pleafed to declare all thofe to be heretics 
who diffented from the propofition of the monks. Upon 
this, the-party who acquiefccd in Hormifdas’s judgment 
applied to the new pope to confirm the orthodoxy of their 
opinion ; and at the fame time the emperor Juftinian wrote 
to him, fending him his creed, which included the dif- 
puted propofition, alluring him that it was the faith of 
the whole eaftern church, and entreating him to pro¬ 
nounce his judgment in its favour. The emperor’s letter 
vyas accompanied with rich prefents. John was for fome 
time at a lofs how he fhould determine ; but at length, 
after confulting the Roman clergy, and other men of 
learning, decided in favour of orthodoxy of Juftinian’s 
confeflion, and thus declared the fentence of his infallible 
predecefi'or to be erroneous. John died in the year 535, 
after a pontificate of two years and about five months. 
JOHN III. pope, furnamed Cataline, was a native of 
Rome, and the fon of Anaftafius, a perfon of confiderable 
dillinClion. He was raifed to the popedom on the death 
of Pelagius, in 560; and, after holding it nearly thirteen 
years, died in 573. There is no record of any tranfac- 
tions of his during that period which are worthy of no¬ 
tice. 
JOHN IV. pope, was a native of Salone, in Dalmatia, 
and the fon of Venantius, furnamed the Scholaflic. From 
the poll of archdeacon of the Roman church, he was una- 
nimoufly elefted by the people to the pontifical dignity, 
upon the death of pope Severinus, in the year 64.0. I11 
the following year he aTfembled at Rome a council of bi- 
Ihops, with whofe approbation he condemned the famous 
edift of the emperor Heraclius, called the EBhcfis , or Ex- 
pofition of the Faith, in which all controverfies upon the 
queftion, “whether in Chrift there was one or two ope¬ 
rations,” were ftrittly prohibited; and, at the fame time, 
he anathematized the doftrine of the Monothelites. John 
fent a copy of the atts of this council to Pyrrhus, patri¬ 
arch of Conitantinople, who, without paying any regard 
to the authority of the pope, and his council, confirmed 
the EElhtfn, and wrote a letter to the pope, in which he 
expreffed no fmall furprife at his condemning a doftrine 
which his predecefTor Honorius had received and ap¬ 
proved. The pope, fenfible that the reputation and au¬ 
thority of the Roman fee were affefted by that undeniable 
fatt, wrote a long letter in "reply, in which he endeavour¬ 
ed, but very unfatisfattorily, to apologize for Honorius, 
evidently either miftaking or mifreprelenting the mean¬ 
ing of that pontiff; and alfo undertook to confute the 
doftrine of the Monothelites: One good action of this 
pope deferves to be mentioned to his honour; which was, 
that he employed the wealth of the church in humanely 
redeeming numbers of unhappy Chriftians, whom the 
Sclavi had carried off captives in their irruptions into the 
empire during the reign of Fleraclius. This pontiff died 
in 642, having filled the papal chair only one year and 
rather more than nine months. 
JOHN V. pope, was a native of Antioch in Syria, and 
the fon of one Syriacus. While he was only a deacon, 
pope Agatbo appointed him one of the three legates 
whom he chofe to be his reprefentatives at the fixth ge¬ 
neral council: and it was by him, as he underftood the 
Vql. XI. No, 7^6. 
II N. <209 
Greek tongue, that the Greek copy of the letters of Ho¬ 
norius to Sergius, produced and read in the council, was 
compared, and found entirely to agree with the Latin origi¬ 
nal depofited in the library of the patriarch. In the year 
685, upon the death of Beriedift II. John was elefted pope; 
but he enjoyed his dignity only one year and ten (fays, 
and during almoft the whole-of that time was confined to 
his bed by an illnefs which proved fatal to him in the 
year 686. 
JOHN VI. pope, was a Greek by nation, and elefted 
fucceffor to Sergius, in the year 702. Scarcely had the 
knowledge of his eleftion reached Conflantinople, when 
the emperor Tiberius Apfimarus, for reafons of which we 
are not informed, direfted Theophylaft, exarch of Italy, 
to drive him from his fee; but the foldiery prevented 
him from carrying the imperial orders into execution, by 
haftening from all parts to the defence of the pope, whom 
they conlidered, in a manner, as their fovereign. In the 
firlt year of his pontificate, John difplayed great gehero- r 
fity, by redeeming numerous captives 1 whom Gilulpluis 
duke of Benevento had taken in an irruption into the ter¬ 
ritories of the empire in Italy : and he even prevailed 
upon that prince to put an end to his hoftilities againll 
the fubjefts of the empire. In the following year he held 
a council at Rome, in which the haughty and turbulent 
Wilfrid, who had been driven from the fee of York, and 
baniihed England, was declared innocent of the crimes 
laid to his charge: but, the papal judgment was at that 
time confidered by the Engliili to be of fubordinate au¬ 
thority to the decrees of the national clergy, confirmed 
by their kings. John died in 705, after a pontificate of 
three years and between two and three months. 
JOHN VII. pope, was, like the preceding, a native of 
Greece, and the fon of a perfon called Plato. He was 
raifed to the papal throne on the death of John VI. 
When the news of his promotion was known at Conftan- 
tinople, the emperor Jultinian difpatched an embafty to. 
Rome, with a copy of the canons of the council of Trui-. 
lo ; and a letter to the new pope, in which he defired him 
to examine thofe canons, and to point out thofe which 
he received, and thofe which met with his difapprobation. 
The ambafi’adors had all due honours fit own to them; but 
the timorous pontiff, fearful of incurring the emperor’s 
difpleafure if he lhould except againft any of thofe ca¬ 
nons, though fome of them condemned the received prac¬ 
tices of his church, declined-giving his judgment upon 
any of them, and fent back the copy to the emperor, with-, 
out Any expreflions of approbation or difapprobation. In 
his pontificate, Aribert, king of the Lombards, is laid'to 
have reltored to the apoftolic fee the patrimony of the 
Roman church in the Cottian Alps, which had been feized 
and long poffeffed by that people. Alter prefiding over 
the Roman fee tyvo years and rather more than feven 
months, John died in the year 707. 
JOHN VIII. pope, was a native of Rome, and the fon 
of one Gundus. He was appointed archdeacon of the 
Roman church; and when, by the death of Adrian II. in 
the year 872, the papal fee became vacant, he was elefted 
to fill it. In the following year, the emperor Louis II. 
came to Rome, where he held an affembly of the Rates of 
Italy fubjeft to the empire, at which the pope affifted. 
In that affembly the pope affumed the power of abfolving 
Louis from an oath which he had taken, not to interfere 
with the government of the dukedom of Benevento, un¬ 
der the pretences that it had been extorted from him by 
force, and that if was inconfiftent with the welfare of the 
empire. In the year 874, the pope affifted at a council at 
Ravenna, appointed to terminate a difpute between Urfus 
duke of Venice and the patriarch of Grado. That pre¬ 
late had refufed to ordain Dominic, abbot of the monaf- 
tery of Altena, to the biff)opr ; c of Torcellum, became he 
had made himfelf an eunuch. The duke, who efpoufed 
the caufe of Dominic, had fo intimidated the patriarch by 
his menaces, that he privately withdrew' for fafety to 
Rome, and referred the decition of the affair to his ho}i- 
3 H net's. 
