GIOVANNI di RAGUSA. — Dominican, one of the principal figures of the Council of Basel (1431–48), born at Ragusa into the noble Stojković family around 1390–95, died in October–November 1443. In his youth he became a Dominican in the convent of Ragusa. On 8 November 1420 he obtained his doctorate in Holy Scripture at Paris and shortly afterward (1423) was sent as ambassador of the University of Paris to Martin V at the Council of Pavia-Siena. Returning to the chair at Paris, he remained there until 1429, when he was elected procurator of his Order before the Pope.
He was the companion of Cardinal Giuliano Cesarini in Germany against the Hussites and, when the latter was detained by the Bohemian legation, was delegated by Cesarini himself to open the Council of Basel (23 July) and preside over it until his arrival (9 September 1431). From January to April 1433 he argued for Communion under one species against Giovanni Rokicana of the Bohemian party. Together with Enrico Menguer and Simone Freron, he was sent to Constantinople, where he remained from 1435 to 1437 as the Council’s legate to negotiate union with the Greeks. On his return to Basel, he divided the Fathers: at first he sided with Cesarini in support of Eugene IV, but afterward, having joined the dissenters, he represented the majority, which was opposed to the Pope and to the continuation of the Council at Bologna. On 10 October 1438 he was made bishop of Ardijsch in Wallachia by the antipope Felix V, and on 12 October 1440 cardinal of the title of S. Sisto.
He wrote a short work on the beginnings of the Council of Basel, a treatise on union with the Church of the Bohemians, and various speeches.