Andreas Eudaemon-Joannis


Andreas Eudaemon-Joannis was a Greek Jesuit, natural philosopher and controversialist. He was sometimes known as Cydonius.

Life

He entered the Society of Jesus in 1581, in Italy. He was at the Collegio Romano, where in 1597–8 he lectured on the Physics and other works of Aristotle; he wrote himself on projectile motion. He was at Padua from 1601, where he discussed the “ship’s mast experiment” with Galileo Galilei. This meeting was before 1606.
Eudaemon-Joannis took a deathbed statement from Bellarmine in 1621. He became rector of the Greek College, Rome in 1622. He was theologian and advisor to Cardinal Francesco Barberini who went on a mission as legate to Paris in 1624/5. An unpopular insistence on the formalities was attributed to him, at a time of tension between the Jesuits and the French Catholic Church. He died in Rome, on 24 December 1625.

Works

He defended Robert Bellarmine, in particular, against English attacks over the allegiance oath of James I. One work was directed against Edward Coke, continuing a defence of Henry Garnet. The pamphlet war drew in Isaac Casaubon, and Eudaemon-Joannis was attacked by name by John Prideaux.
Eudaemon-Joannis was sometimes considered to be a pseudonym in this debate, for example for Scioppius; or for the French Jesuit Jean L'Heureux, something repeated in the Criminal Trials of David Jardine in the 19th century. A 1625 work, the Admonitio attacking Louis XIII, that appeared under the pseudonym G.G.R., has been attributed both to Eudaemon-Joannis and to Jacob Keller. Cardinal Richelieu believed Eudaemon-Joannis to be the author; Carolus Scribani was another suspect, and François Garasse was questioned, as part of the struggle of Gallicanism against the Jesuits.