Birth. (No date found), of the region of Cæliomonte, Rome. Son of Proiecto. He is also listed as Mercurio Giovanni.

Education. (No information found).

Cardinalate. Presbyter cardinalis of the title of S. Clemente before 532 (1). After the death of Pope Boniface II there was an unusually long vacant see of two and a half months. There were arguments and scandals concerning the method to be used for the election of the new pope. Apparently, discussions took place among the Roman clergy, the Senate and the court of Ravenna. Simony and illicit dealings had become the usual way to arrive at the election of a pope among the clergy. The Senate then set itself as the representative of the laity and the Roman people, using its right to vote in ecclesiastical questions. Even the deliberations of the councils had to be submitted for the Senate's approval because, in certain regards, it had replaced royal authority. Therefore, some members of the clergy even sold property of the Church to try to bribe the more powerful senators. The Senate issued a decree under Pope Boniface II denouncing situations like that. It constituted a humiliating lesson in ethics from the civil authority to the clerical one. Ostrogothic King Athalaric of Italy approved that senatorial edict at the moment in which the elderly Presbyter cardinalis Mercurio of S. Clemente was elected to the pontificate.

Papacy. Consecrated Pope John II on December 31, 532 or January 2, 533 (2). In his letter, King Athalaric approved the Senate's decree and praised the freedom of choice of the clergy and the Roman people for the dignified election of a pontiff. Nevertheless, he stressed that he reserved the right to confirm the choice, and put at the disposal of the royal dignitaries a considerable amount of money for the purpose of securing votes for the candidate pre-selected by them. But if there were disputes between the clergy and the laity over an election and the case were submitted to the court of Ravena, the king commanded that, for the expenses of the case, as the Roman pontiff was the subject, no more than three thousand scudi could be spent. Simony aside, money continued to play a role in the final decisions as an expense account had been set up out of the royal reserves. An order was sent to the prefect of Rome, Salvonzius, to engrave in marble both his edict and the senatorial decree and place them on the facade of St. Peter's basilica. King Athalaric died in 534 and his mother, Amalasuntha, to save the kingdom of the Goths, married her cousin, Theodahad, who was clearly hostile to her, thus creating great uncertainty over Italy. The question of Theopaschism that had agitated the last years of the pontificate of Pope Hormisdas, reappeared under Pope John II. The Theopaschite formula defended by the Scythian monks and opposed by the Acoemetae (sleepless) monks, said that "One of the Trinity suffered in the flesh". The Acoemetae monks were opposed to this formula because they judged that it was close to Monophysism. Byzantine Emperor Justinian, who had openly supported the formula, addressed Pope John II for the condemnation of the Acoemetae monks. To achieve his purpose,the emperor enhanced with great words the teaching authority of the Roman pontiff. The pope received imperial deputations and, after holding a synod, formally accepted a dogmatic decree which the emperor had published on 15 Mar. 533. The pope had his best to convince the monks to abandon their opposition, but when they refused, the pontiff excommunicated them as Nestorians and wrote to the emperor declaring his decree orthodox. Emperor Justinian was very satisfied, and incorporated both his letter and the pope's reply in his Code. Pope John II's action has often been cited as a glaring example of a pope contradicting a previous pope in a matter of doctrine. Pope John II was also forced to deal with the dispute that arose in Gaul between Bishops Caesarius of Arles and Contumelioso of Riez. In a council presided over by the former, the latter had been found guilty of misconduct and confined to a monastery. Learning about the case, the pope adopted punitive measures, ordered the deposition of the bishop of Riez and granted jurisdiction over that see to the bishop of Arles. During his pontificate, he ordained fifteen priests and twenty one bishops for different sees.

Death. May 8, 535, Rome. Buried in St. Peter's basilica, Rome (3). His tomb was destroyed during the demolition of the old basilica and the construction of the new one in the 16th and 17th centuries.

Bibliography. Cardella, Lorenzo. Memorie storiche de' cardinali della Santa Romana Chiesa. Rome : Stamperia Pagliarini, 1792, I, pt. 1, 6-7; Chacón, Alfonso. Vitæ, et res gestæ Pontificum Romanorum : et S.R.E. Cardinalium ab initio nascentis Ecclesiae usque ad Clementem IX P. O. M. Alphonsi Ciaconii Ord. Praed. & aliorum opera descriptæ : cum uberrimis notis. Ab Augustino Oldoino, Soc. Jesu recognitae, et ad quatuor tomos ingenti ubique rerum accessione productae. Additis Pontificum recentiorum imaginibus, & Cardinalium insignibus, plurimisque aeneis figuris, cum indicibus locupletissimis. Romæ : P. et A. De Rubeis, 1677, I, col. 361-366; Cristofori, Francesco. Cronotasi dei cardinali di Santa Romana Chiesa. Rome : Tipografia de Propaganda Fide, 1888, p. XXXVI and 84; "Essai de liste générale des cardinaux. Les cardinaux des 10 premiers siècles". Annuaire Pontifical Catholique 1926. Paris : Maison de la Bonne Presse, 1927, p. 141, no. 1; Kelly, John Norman Davidson. The Oxford Dictionary of Popes. Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 1986, p. 57-58; Le Liber pontificalis. Paris : E. de Boccard, 1981, 1955. 3 v. : facsims. (Bibliothèque des Écoles françaises d'Athènes et de Rome). Notes: Reprint of the 1955 edition./ Includes indexes./ Vol. 3: "Additions et corrections de L. Duchesne publiées par Cyrille Vogel ... avec L'Histoire du Liber pontificalis dupuis l'édition de L. Duchesne une bibliographie et des tables générales, I, 285-286; Montini, Renzo Uberto. Le tombe dei papi. Roma : Angelo Belardetti, 1957. Note: At head of title: Instituto di studi romani, p. 109, no.56; Petruzzi, Caterina. "Giovanni II, papa." Mondo vaticano. Passato e presente. Città del Vaticano : Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1995, p. 529-530; Reardon, Wendy J. The deaths of the popes : comprehensive accounts, including funerals, burial places and epitaphs. Jefferson, N.C. : McFarland & Co., Publishers, 2004, p. 44; Pennacchio, Maria Cristina. "Giovanni II."Enciclopedia dei papi. 3 vols. Roma : Istituto della Enciclopedia italiana, 2000, I, 499-503; Regesta pontificum Romanorum ab conditio Ecclesia. Ad annum post Christum natum MCXCVIII. Graz : Akademische Druck- u. Verlagsanstalt, 1956. 2 v. Reprint. Originally published : Lipsiae : Veit et comp., 1885-1888. Original t.p. included : Regesta pontificum Romanorum ab condita ecclesia : ad annum post Christum natum MCXCVIII. Editionem secundam correctam et auctam edidit Philippus Jaffè ; auspiciis Gulielmi Wattenbach; curaverunt S. Loewenfeld, F. Kaltenbrunner, P. Ewald, I, 113.