JOHN IV

born , Dalmatia [now in Croatia] died Oct. 12, 642, Rome pope from 640 to 642. A Roman archdeacon, John was elected (Dec. 24, 640) as successor to Pope Severinus. He perpetuated Severinus' condemnation of monothelitism, a 7th-century heresy concerning the will of Christ. He sent an emissary to redeem Balkan Christians captured during Slavic invasions. John was against the date for Easter favoured by Celts in Ireland, and he defended the highly controversial orthodoxy of Pope Honorius I, who had held that Christ's human and divine natures were indivisible and that the Son's will was not different from that of the Father.