John, a celebrated Spanish historian, born in 1537, at Talavera, in the diocese of Toledo. He studied with distinction at the university of Alcala, and was admitted, at the age of seventeen, into the Society of Jesus, where he soon attracted notice by the vivacity of his disposition and the extent of his acquirements. Called to Rome in 1561, he there professed theology during four years, and reckoned among his pupils young Bellarmine, afterwards the celebrated cardinal. He then passed into Sicily, where he remained two years. In 1569 his superiors sent him to Paris, and he there explained the doctrines of St Thomas, in presence of a great concourse of auditors attracted thither 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 there he composed the works which, in adding to his celebrity, disturbed the peace of his life. Mariana displayed too much liberality and candour for his age. If he censured royal vices in his work De Rege, he was accused of treason; and if in Del Gobierno de la Compania he pointed out the defects of his order, he excited the bitterest animosity of the Jesuits, and had his books burnt for his pains. 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 Appendix. 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, 1733, in two volumes folio, with the continuation of Jose Emmanuel Miniana from 1516, where Mariana stopped, to the year 1609. Amongst the Spanish editions the most beautiful of all is that of Valencia, 1783-1796, in 9 vols., accompanied with chronological tables, and enriched with critical notes and observations. 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, in which, in simplicity and elegance, he makes a nearer approach to Livy than do the most of modern historians. 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 were exposed with much bitterness by Father Mantuano, secretary to the Constable of Castille, in his Advertencias a la Historia de J. de Mariana, Milan, 1611, in 4to, a work which Tamayo de Vargas endeavoured to refute.

The other works of Mariana are.—De Rege et Regis Institutiones libri tres, Toledo, 1599, in 4to; the original edition of a work famous in its day, and now much sought after by the curious; Liber de Ponderibus et Mensuris, Toledo, 1599, in 4to; Tractatus Septem, Theologici et Historici, Cologne, 1609, in folio; 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. He also wrote A Treatise of some things which require to be Amended in the Company of Jesus, Paris, 1625, in 8vo, reprinted with the Spanish text in the Mercure Jésuite. 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 multiplied in France, in Italy, and in Germany. The Jesuits obtained its condemnation in 1631; but it is very doubtful whether Mariana had any share in the redaction of the obnoxious publication. Mariana left in manuscript several works, of which a catalogue will be found in the Bibliothèque des Jésuites. His