Joan Mariana, a Spanish historian, born in Talavera in 1536, died in Toledo, Feb. 6, 1623. He was educated at the university of Alcala, and when 17 years of age joined the society of Jesus. In 1561 he was appointed professor of theology in the Jesuit college at Rome, lie afterward lectured on divinity in Sicily and Paris, and finally retired to the Jesuit house in Toledo. Having been employed to examine the polyglot Bible, edited by Arias Montanus at Antwerp in 1569-72, which had been denounced to the inquisition, he returned a favorable opinion of it, which brought upon him the displeasure of his superiors. His arrangement of the Index Expurgatorius of 1584, and still more his work De Rege et Regis Institu-tione (Toledo, 1599), in which he intimates that unrighteous kings and usurpers may be put to death, were also displeasing. In Paris, where Henry III. had been assassinated a few years before, the latter work was condemned to be burned by the common hangman. It aroused a violent controversy, and brought great popular odium upon the order to which Mariana belonged.

In 1609 he published at Cologne " Seven Theological and Historical Treatises," two of which, "On Mortality and Immortality" and De Alteratione Monetce (denouncing the falsification of the coinage by the king of Spain's ministers), were censured by the inquisition, and the author was subjected to imprisonment and penance. To the "History of Spain "he devoted the last 30 or 40 years of his life. It was published in Latin (1592-1609) and Spanish (1601; enlarged ed., 1623), and extends from the supposed peopling of Spain by Tubal, son of Japheth, to the accession of Charles V., with a summary of later events, down to 1621. The best edition is the 14th (2 vols, fol., Madrid, 1780). There is an English translation by Steevens (London, 1699). Among his other works are Scholia Brevia in Vetus et Novum Testamentum (Madrid, 1619), and Discursvs de Erroribus qui in Forma Gu-bernationis Societatis Jesu occurrunt, published after his death and of disputed authenticity (Bordeaux, 1625).