John the Baptist, the forerunner of Christ, who baptized with water unto, or on the confession of, repentance, in anticipation of, and in preparation for, the appearance in the immediate future of One who would baptize with the Spirit and with fire; his fate is well known, and the motive of it.
Definition taken from The Nuttall Encyclopædia, edited by the Reverend James Wood (1907)
John of Salisbusy * John the Good