John, a celebrated Spanish historian, born in 1537, at Talavera, in the diocese of Toledo. He studied with distinction at the university of Alcalá, and was admitted, at the age of seventeen, into the Society of Jesus, where he soon attracted notice for the vivacity of his disposition and the extent of his acquirements. Called to Rome in 1561, he there professed theology during four years, and then passed into Sicily, where he remained two years. In 1569, his superiors sent him to Paris, and he there explained the doctrine of St Thomas, in presence of a great concourse of auditors attracted by his reputation. But the decline of his health, occasioned by vigils and fatigues, having forced him to renounce teaching, he, in 1574, obtained permission to return to Spain. He retired to the house of the Jesuits at Toledo, and it was there that he composed the works which, in adding to his celebrity, disturbed the peace of his life. He bore with patience, however, the criticisms and persecutions to which he was exposed, and died on the 17th of February 1624, at the age of eighty-seven.

The great work of Mariana is entitled Historia de Rebus Hispaniae, libri xxx. cum Appendice. The first twenty books of this history, which terminates at the year 1428, were printed at Toledo in 1592, folio, and the five following books in 1595. The success of this work induced the author himself to translate it into Spanish; and he at the same time made considerable changes in and additions thereto. The most esteemed Latin edition is that of the Hague, 1738, in two volumes folio, with the continuation of Jose Emmanuel Miniana, from 1516, where Mariana stopped, to the year 1609. Amongst the Spanish editions are distinguished those of Madrid, 1669 or 1679, and 1780, each in two volumes folio, and that of Valencia, 1783-1796, in nine volumes small folio. This last edition, the most beautiful of all, is accompanied with chronological tables, and enriched with critical notes and observations. In 1819 there appeared at Madrid another Spanish edition, augmented with a new continuation by Saban Blanco, which, however, we have not seen. The History of Spain by Mariana is esteemed for the extent of the author's researches, the general exactness of his facts, the sagacity of his reflections, and, above all, for the merit of his style, which, at once simple and elegant, makes a nearer approach to that of Livy than any other modern historian. Mariana, however, has been reproached with neglecting to cite his authorities, and sometimes drawing on his imagination to supply defects in historical documents; and he has also committed some errors, which have been exposed with much bitterness by Father Mantuano, secretary to the Constable of Castile, in his Advertencias a la Historia de J. de Mariana, Milan, 1611, in 4to, a work which Tamaio de Vargas endeavoured to refute.

The other works of Mariana are, 1. De Rege et Regis Institutione libri tres, Toledo, 1599, in 4to, the original edition of a work famous in its day, and now much sought after by the curious; 2. Liber de Ponderibus et Mensuris, Toledo, 1599, in 4to; 3. Tractatus Septem, Theologici et Historici, Cologne, 1609, in folio; 4. Scholia brevia in Vetus et Novum Testamentum, Madrid, 1619, in folio, a work commended by Simon, who pronounces Mariana one of the most able and judicious commentators on the Holy Scriptures; 5. A Treatise of some things which require to be amended in the Company of Jesus, Paris, 1625, in 8vo, and reprinted with the Spanish text in the second volume of the Mercure Jésuitique. This work was found amongst the papers of Mariana during his detention, and some copies of it were taken, which the enemies of the Society