IUNIUS, François (François DU JON), theologian and Protestant philologist, b. at Bourges, 1 May 1545, d. at Leiden, 13 Oct. 1602. While still very young, he exercised the pastoral ministry in the Walloon church at Antwerp (1565), then in the same capacity at Limburg and subsequently at Heidelberg (1567), where he also collaborated with Emmanuel Tremellius on the Latin translation of the Old Testament (Frankfurt 1579).
In 1578, he was appointed professor of theology at Neustadt by the Palatine Elector Frederick III, but soon left this post to undertake a diplomatic mission entrusted to him by Henry IV. After returning once more to Neustadt and Heidelberg, he finally retired to Leiden, where he succumbed to the plague. Among his numerous works, the most notable is the *Admonition chrétienne* and the *Annales* against the polemical writings of Bellarmine. A first complete edition of his works was published at Geneva in 1613 under the title *Opera theologica Francisci Iunii Biturigis*, prefaced by his autobiography written in 1592; reprinted by A. Kuyper in 1882.