The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 264

JINGO, a name, of uncertain derivation, given to a political party favourable to an aggressive, menacing policy in foreign affairs, and first applied in 1877 to that political section in Great Britain which provoked the Turco-Russian war.

JINN, in the Arabian mythology one of a cla.s.s of genii born of fire, some of them good spirits and some of them evil, with the power of a.s.suming visible forms, hideous or bewitching, corresponding to their character.

JOAB, the nephew and a general of David's; put to death by order of Solomon 1014 B.C.

JOACHIM, JOSEPH, a distinguished violinist, born near Presburg, in Hungary; famous as a youthful prodigy; was encouraged by Mendelssohn; has visited London every year since 1844, and has been princ.i.p.al leader in the Monday and Sat.u.r.day Popular Concerts from the first, and became head of the Academy of Music at Berlin in 1869; the fiftieth anniversary of his first appearance was celebrated on March 17, 1889, when his admirers presented him with a magnificent violin; _b_. 1831.

JOACHIM, ST., the husband of St. Anne, and the father of the Virgin Mary.

JOAN, POPE, a woman who, in the guise of a man with male accomplishments, is said for two years five months and four days to have been Pope of Rome between Leo IV. and Benedict III. about 853-855, and whose s.e.x was discovered by the premature birth of a child during some public procession. She is said to have been of English parentage, and to have borne the name of Gilberte. However, it is but fair to say that the story is of doubtful authenticity.

JOAN OF ARC, OR MAID OF ORLEANS, a French heroine, born at Domremy, of poor parents, but nursed in an atmosphere of religious enthusiasm, and subject, in consequence, to fits of religious ecstasy, in one of which she seemed to hear voices calling to her from heaven to devote herself to the deliverance of France, which was then being laid desolate by an English invasion, occupied at the time in besieging Orleans; inspired with the pa.s.sion thus awakened she sought access to Charles VII., then Dauphin, and offered to raise the siege referred to, and thereafter conduct him to Reims to be crowned; whereupon, permission being granted, she marched from Blois at the head of 10,000 men, whom she had inspired with faith in her divine mission; drove the English from their entrenchments, sent them careering to a distance, and thereafter conducted Charles to Reims to be crowned, standing beside him till the coronation ceremony was ended; with this act she considered her mission ended, but she was tempted afterwards to a.s.sist in raising the siege of Compiegne, and on the occasion of a sally was taken prisoner by the besieging English, and after an imprisonment of four months tried for sorcery, and condemned to be burned alive; she met her fate in the market-place of Rouen with fort.i.tude in the twenty-ninth year of her age (1412-1431).

JOANNUS DAMASCENUS, theologian and hymn-writer, born at Damascus; was a zealous defender of image-wors.h.i.+p; was said to have had his right hand chopped off by the machinations of his foes, which was afterwards restored to him by the Virgin; _d_. 754, at the age of 70.

JOB, BOOK OF p.r.o.nounced by Carlyle "one of the grandest things ever written with pen; grand in its sincerity, in its simplicity, in its epic melody and repose of reconcilement"; one perceives in it "the seeing eye, the mildly understanding heart, true eyesight and vision for all things; sublime sorrow and sublime reconciliation; oldest choral melody as of the heart of mankind; so soft and great as the summer midnight, as the world with its seas and stars"; the whole giving evidence "of a literary merit unsurpa.s.sed by anything written in Bible or out of it; not a Jew's book merely, but all men's book." It is partly didactic and partly biographic; that is to say, the object of the author is to solve a problem in part speculatively, or in the intelligence, and in part spiritually, or in the life; the speculative solution being, that sufferings are to prove and purify the righteous; and the spiritual, consisting in accepting them not as of merely Divine appointment, but manifestations of G.o.d Himself, which is accomplished in the experience of Job when he exclaims at last, "Now mine eye seeth Thee." It is very idle to ask if the story is a real one, since its interest and value do not depend on its historic, but its universal and eternal truth; nor is the question of the authors.h.i.+p of any more consequence, even if there were any clue to it, which there is not, as the book offers no difficulty to the interpreter which any knowledge of the author would the least contribute to remove. In such a case the challenge of Goethe is _apropos_, "What have I to do with names when it is a work of the spirit I am considering?" The book of Job was for long believed to be one of the oldest books in the world, and to have had its origin among a patriarchal people, such as the Arabs, but is now pretty confidently referred to a period between that of David and the return from the captivity, the character of it bespeaking a knowledge and experience peculiarly Jewish.

JOCASTE, the wife of Laius, king of Thebes, and mother of Oedipus; she afterwards married him not knowing that he was her son, and on discovery of the crime put an end to herself, though not till after she had become the mother of Eteocles, Polynices, Antigone, and Ismene.

JOCELIN DE BRAKELONDA, an old 12th-century St. Edmundsbury monk, who left behind him a "Chronical" of the Abbey from 1173 to 1202, and which, published in 1840 by the Camden Society, gave occasion to the "Past and Present" of Thomas Carlyle; he had been chaplain to the Abbot Samson, the hero of his book, living beside him night and day for the s.p.a.ce of six years, "an ingenious and ingenuous, a cheery-hearted, innocent, yet withal shrewd, noticing, quick-witted man"; _d_. 1211.

JODHPUR (2,522), largest Rajputana State, under British protection since 1818; is backward in government, education, agriculture, and manufactures; tin, lead, and iron are found; salt is made at Sambhar Lake. The state revolted at the Mutiny. JODHPUR (62), the capital, is 350 m. SW. of Delhi, and is connected by rail with Jeypore and Bombay.

JOE MILLER, an English actor, the author of a book of jests (1684-1738).

JOEL, a Hebrew prophet, author of a book of the Old Testament that bears his name, and which is of uncertain date, but is written on the great broad lines of all Hebrew prophecy, and reads us the same moral lesson, that from the judgments of G.o.d there is no outlet for the sinner except in repentance, and that in repentance lies the pledge of deliverance from all evil and of the enjoyment of all good.

JOHANNESBURG (40), the largest town in the Transvaal, 30 m. S. of Pretoria, and 800 m. NE. of Cape Town; is the centre of Wit.w.a.tersrand gold-mining fields. Until recently an ill-equipped town, it has made rapid progress. Since 1892 railways connect it with Delagoa Bay, Durban, Port Elizabeth, and Cape Town. Magnificent buildings and residential suburbs are springing up. The water-supply is bad, and dust-storms are frequent, otherwise the climate is very healthy. Johannesburg was the seat of the dissatisfaction among the Uitlanders in 1895, which led to Dr. Jameson's raid.

JOHN, king of England from 1199 to 1216, was clever and vivacious, but the most vicious, profane, false, short-sighted, tyrannical, and unscrupulous of English monarchs; the son of Henry II., he married Hawisa of Gloucester, and succeeded his brother Richard I., being Richard's nominee, and the tacitly elect of the people; his nephew, Arthur, claimed the French dominions, and was supported by the French king, Philip; in 1200 he divorced Hawisa, and married Isabel of Angouleme, a child-heiress; this provoked the French barons; in the war that ensued Arthur was captured, and subsequently murdered either by John himself or by his orders; Philip invaded Normandy, and with the fall of the Chateau-Gaillard in 1204, most of the French possessions were lost to the English crown; then followed John's quarrel with Pope Innocent III. over the election of an archbishop of Canterbury; the Pope consecrated Stephen Langton; John refused to receive him; in 1208 the kingdom was placed under an interdict, and next year the king was excommunicated; John on his side confiscated Church property, exiled the bishops, exacted homage of William of Scotland, and put down risings in Ireland and Wales; but a bull, deposing him and absolving his va.s.sals from allegiance, forced him to submit, and he resigned his crown to the Pope's envoy in 1213; this exaction on Innocent's part initiated the opposition to Rome which culminated in the English Reformation; the rest of the reign was a struggle between the king, relying on his suzerain the Pope, and the people, barons, and clergy, for the first time on one side; war broke out; the king was forced to sign Magna Charta at Runnymede in 1215, but the Pope annulled the Charter; the barons appealed for help to the Dauphin, and were prosecuting the war when John died at Newark (1167-1216).

JOHN, the name of no fewer than 23 popes. J. I., Pope from 523 to 526, was canonised; J. II., pope from 532 to 535; J. III., Pope from 560 to 578; J. IV., pope from 640 to 642; J. V., Pope from 686 to 687; J. VI., pope from 701 to 705; J. VII., Pope from 705 to 707; J. VIII., pope from 872 to 882; J. IX., Pope from 898 to 900; J. X., pope from 914 to 928; J. XI., Pope from 931 to 936; J. XII., Pope from 956 to 964--was only 18 when elected, led a licentious life; J. XIII., pope from 965 to 972; J. XIV., Pope from 984 to 985; J. XV., pope in 985; J. XVI., Pope from 985 to 996; J. XVII., pope in 1003; J. XVIII., Pope from 1003 to 1009; J. XIX., pope from 1024 to 1033; J. XX., Anti-Pope from 1043 to 1046; J. XXI., Pope from 1276 to 1277; J. XXII., Pope from 1316 to 1334--a learned man, a steadfast, and a courageous; J.

XXIII., Pope in 1410, deposed in 1415--was an able man, but an unscrupulous.

JOHN, EPISTLES OF, three Epistles, presumed to have been written by the author of the Gospel, from the correspondence between them both as regards thought and expression; the occasion of writing them was the appearance of Antichrist within the bounds of the Church, in the denial of Christ as G.o.d manifest in flesh, and the object of writing them was to emphasise the fact that eternal life had appeared in Him.

JOHN, KNIGHTS OF ST., a religious order of knights, founded in 1048, and inst.i.tuted properly in 1110, for the defence of pilgrims to Jerusalem; established a church and a cloister there, with a hospital for poor and sick pilgrims, and were hence called the Hospital Brothers of St. John of Jerusalem; the knights consisted of three cla.s.ses, knights of n.o.ble birth to bear arms, priests to conduct wors.h.i.+p, and serving brothers to tend the sick; on the fall of Jerusalem they retired to Cyprus, conquered Rhodes, and called themselves Knights of Rhodes; driven from which they settled in Malta and took the name of Knights of Malta, after which the knighthood had various fortunes.

JOHN, PRESTER, a supposed king and priest of a mediaeval kingdom in the interior of Asia; converted to Christianity by the Nestorian missionaries; was defeated and killed in 1202 by Genghis Khan, who had been tributary to him but had revolted; he was distinguished for piety and magnificence.

JOHN, ST., the Apostle, the son of Zebedee and Salome, the sister of the virgin Mary; originally a fisherman on the Galilaean Lake; after being a disciple of John the Baptist became one of the earliest disciples of Christ; much beloved and trusted by his Master; lived after His death for a time in Jerusalem, and then at Ephesus as bishop, where he died at a great age; he lived to see the rise of the Gnostic heresy, against which, as a denial that Christ had come in the flesh, he protested with his last breath as an utter denial of Christ; he is represented in Christian art as either writing his Gospel, or as bearing a chalice out of which a serpent issues, or as in a caldron of boiling oil.

JOHN, THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO, the fourth Gospel, of which tradition alleges St. John was the author, and which is presumed to have been written by him at Ephesus about A.D. 78; its great design is to bear witness to the Son of G.o.d as having come in the flesh, as being not an ideal, therefore, but a real incarnation, and as in the reality of that being the light and life of man; whereas the scene of the other Gospels is chiefly laid in Galilee, that of John's is mostly in Judea, recording, as it does, no fewer than seven visits to the capital, and while it portrays the person of Christ as the light of life, it represents him as again and again misunderstood, even by those well disposed to Him, as if the text of his Gospel were "the light s.h.i.+neth in darkness, and the darkness comprehendeth it not"; the authenticity of this Gospel has been much debated, and its composition has by recent criticism been referred to somewhere between A.D. 160 and 170.

JOHN BULL, a humorous impersonation of the English people, conceived of as well fed, good natured, honest hearted, justice loving, and plain spoken.

JOHN OF GAUNT, Duke of Lancaster, third son of Edward III.; an ambitious man; vainly seized the crown of Castile; supported the Wycliffites against the clergy; married Blanche of Lancaster, and was made duke by Henry IV. (1340-1399).

JOHN O' GROAT'S HOUSE, on the Caithness coast, 1 m. W. of Duncansby Head, marks the northern limit of the Scottish mainland; the house was said to be erected, eight-sided, with a door at each side and an octagonal table within, to compromise the question of precedence among eight branches of the descendants of a certain Dutchman, John o' Groot.

JOHN OF LEYDEN, originally a tailor; attained great power as an orator; joined the Anabaptists, and in 1534 established at Munster, in Westphalia, a society based on communistic and polygamic principles; but the bishop of Munster interfered, and next year John was put to death with great cruelty (1509-1536).

JOHN OF SALISBUSY, bishop of Chartres, born at Salisbury, of Saxon lineage; was a pupil of Abelard; was secretary first to Theobald and then to Thomas a Becket, archbishop of Canterbury; was present at the a.s.sa.s.sination of the latter; afterwards he retired to France and was made bishop; wrote the Lives of St. Thomas and St. Anselm, and other works of importance in connection with the scholasticism of the time (1120-1180).

JOHN THE BAPTIST, the forerunner of Christ, who baptized with water unto, or on the confession of, repentance, in antic.i.p.ation of, and in preparation for, the appearance in the immediate future of One who would baptize with the Spirit and with fire; his fate is well known, and the motive of it.

JOHN THE GOOD, king of France from 1350 to 1364, succeeded his father Philip VI.; at the battle of Poitiers he was captured and carried to England; four years later he was allowed to return on leaving his son as hostage; the hostage made his escape; John chivalrously came back to London, and died in captivity (1319-1364).

JOHN'S EVE, ST., a festival celebrated with fires on Midsummer Eve; very universally observed and with similar rites throughout Europe, in the Middle Ages, and the celebration of it was a.s.sociated with many superst.i.tious practices.

JOHNSON, ANDREW, American President, born at Raleigh, N. Carolina; was entirely self-educated, and became a tailor; settling in Tennessee he entered the State legislature in 1839; he sat in Congress from 1843 till 1853; was for four years Governor of Tennessee, and sat in the Senate from 1857 to 1863; though in favour of slavery, he discountenanced secession and supported Lincoln, whom he succeeded as President in 1865, and whose policy he continued; but he lost the confidence of Congress, which indeed he treated somewhat cavalierly; his removal of Secretary Stanton led to his impeachment for violation of the Tenure of Office Act; he was tried before the Senate, but acquitted, and completed his term (1808-1875).

JOHNSON, SAMUEL, the great English lexicographer, born in Lichfield, the son of a bookseller; received his early education in his native town and completed it at Pembroke College, Oxford, in 1728; in 1736 he married a widow named Porter, who brought him 800; started a boarding-school, which did not prosper, and in the end of a year he removed to London along with David Garrick, who had been a pupil under him; here he became connected with Cave, a printer, the proprietor of the _Gentleman's Magazine_, with whom he had previously corresponded, and contributed to the pages of the magazine, earning thereby a meagre livelihood, eking out his means by reporting Parliamentary debates in terms which expressed the drift of them, but in his own pompous language; in 1740 he published a poem ent.i.tled the "Vanity of Human Wishes," and about the same time commenced his world-famous Dictionary, which was Published in 1755, "a great, solid, square-built edifice, finished, symmetrically complete, the best of all dictionaries"; during the progress of the Dictionary Johnson edited the _Rambler_, writing most of the contents himself, carrying it on for two years; in 1758 he started the _Idler_; in 1762 the king granted him a pension of 300, and by this he was raised above the straitened circ.u.mstances which till then had all along weighed upon him, and able to live in comparative affluence for the last 22 years of his life; five years after he inst.i.tuted the Literary Club, which consisted of the most celebrated men of the time, his biographer, Boswell, having by this time been introduced to him, as subsequently the family of Mr.

Thrale; in 1770 he began his "Lives of the English Poets," and in 1773 he made a tour in the Highlands along with Boswell, of which journey he shortly afterwards published an account; Johnson's writings are now dead, as are many of his opinions, but the story of his life as written by BOSWELL (q. v.) will last as long as men revere those qualities of mind and heart that distinguish the English race, of which he is the typical representative (1709-1783).

JOHNSTON, ALEXANDER KEITH, cartographer, born at Kirkhill, Midlothian; was an engraver by trade, and devoted himself with singular success to the preparation of atlases; the "National Atlas" was published in 1843, and the "Royal Atlas of Geography" (1861) was the finest till then produced; he also executed atlases physical, geological, and astronomical, and constructed the first physical globe; honours were showered upon him by home and foreign geographical societies; he died at Ben Rhydding (1804-1871).