JOHN XXI. (pope from 1276 to 1277), successor to Adrian V,, should, according to the order observed above, be named John XX., but there is an error in the reckoning through the insertion of an antipope before John XV. or some time after John XIX. At the time of his elevation to the papal chair he was cardinal-bishop of Tusculum, and he had previously been archbishop of Braga. He was a Portuguese by birth, and his original name was Pedro Juliani. The son of a physician, he had studied with distinction at Paris, was the author of several medical and scholastic treatises, and is mentioned by some chroniclers as a magician. His small affection for the monks, his unecclesiastical tone and habits, free and unaffected intercourse with every class of men, and proficiency in secular science, awakened against him the jealousy and distrust of the clergy, but probably his comprehensive and liberal policy would have shed exceptional lustre on the church had not his life been brought to a premature close through the fall of the roof which he had planned for one of his rooms in the palace of Viterbo. His successor was Nicholas III.

JOHN XXII. (pope from 1316 to 1334) was born at Cahors about 1244. His original name was Jacques d’Euse, and his father is said to have been a cobbler. Tradition also affirms that the son learned the same employment, but afterwards he was taken charge of by his uncle, a successful merchant, who rose to be chancellor of Robert of Sicily. Through the instruction of a Franciscan friar, Jacques d’Euse acquired, besides an acquaintance with theology, a mastery of canon and civil law which afterwards stood him in good stead; but, although he was also versed in all the details of statemanship, his learning was saturated with scholasticism, and his political ideas were narrowed by a mean and paltry ambition, the principal element of which was a miserly love of gold. He was small in stature and slightly deformed, and his features are said to have unpleasantly indicated his special moral defects. It is uncertain whether he ever joined the Franciscan order, but at any rate he afterwards had intimate connexions with the court of Naples, and some time before 1300 he was, at the instance of the king, appointed by Boniface VIII. bishop of Frejus. By means of forged letters purporting to have the authority of the king of Naples, Clement V. was induced in 1310 to bestow upon him the see of Avignon; and, notwithstanding that the fraud was soon discovered, he so recommended himself to the pope by his prudent conduct and his knowledge of law that in 1312 he was named cardinal-bishop of Porto. Robert of Naples also condescended to forget the liberty that had been taken in the use of the royal seal, and, on the death of Clement V. in 1316, the cardinals, through the liberal expenditure of Neapolitan gold, were won over to elect the bishop of Porto to the papal chair. The leanings of the ...

JOHN XXIII. (pope from 1410 to 1415) was born in Naples about 1360. He was of noble descent, his original name being Balthasar Cossa. In his youth he had, along with his brothers, served as a corsair, and at the university of Bologna, which he afterwards entered, he led a loose and intemperate life. After occupying the office of archdeacon of Bologna, he became chamberlain of Boniface IX., and in that office greatly enriched both himself and the pope by his unscrupulous traffic in indulgences. In recognition of the high value of his services he was in 1402 created by Boniface a cardinal, and shortly afterwards he was appointed papal legate to Bologna, which he succeeded in wresting from the Visconti. The scandalous and cruel excesses in which he indulged when governor of the city caused Gregory

XII. to pass against him a sentence of excommunication, but he was restored to his full dignities by Alexander V. The death of this pope, which took place suddenly at Bologna in 1410, was generally believed to have been contrived by the governor, but the cardinals were unanimous in electing him his successor, other two popes, Benedict...