John III
John III.
the patriarch, surnamed THE SCHOLAR (1), was born at Sirimis, near Antioch, towards the middle of the 6th century. He became successively attorney, then presbyter of Antioch, and finally, in 565, patriarch of Constantinople under Justinian I. He died in 577. He prepared a large Collectio canonum under fifty headings, which became authoritative in the whole Greek Church. He is also considered as the author of a collection of ecclesiastical rules and regulations under the title Nomocanon (both in Justelli, Biblioth.juris canonici [Paris, 1662], 2, 499, 603, 660). He is also said to have delivered a dissertation on the doctrine of the Trinity which involved him in a controversy with the renowned so-called Tritheist John Philoponus (Phot. Cod. 75).
