The doctrine of pta-ffafory they wholly ignore, though It is true they follow the Syrian custom in prayuie for their dead. ' ^
Descent. — Their origin they attempt to trace lineally from the first Hebrew Christians. Dr. Wolff {Jouriiu/, 1839) says, " They call themselves the B7iay Israel (the children of Israel), whose ancestors were converted by the apostle James;" and continues, that "there cannot be the least doubt that their claim to being the de- scendants of the Jewish Christians of old is just. Their physiognomy, mode of worship, their attachment to the Mosaic law, their liturgy, their tradition, so similar to the Jewish, the technical terms in their theology, all prove that they are real descendants of Abraham." They certainly followed the Jews at one time in sub- jecting their male members to circumcision (comp. Sa- ligniac. Itinerancy, viii, c. i). One thing is peculiarly characteristic of the Jacobites — they practise the adora- tion of the saints, and particularly worship the mother of Christ. As teachers and saints, they revere some of the most prominent actors in the Church Historj' of the early centuries, particularly Jacob of Sarug, Jacob of Edessa, Dioscorus, Severus, P. Fullo, and Jacob Ban\- dKus ; but Eutyches they ignore. (Compare Assemani, Bihl. Orient, ii, diss, de Jlonophys. § 8 and 10 ; Penau- dot. Hist. Patriarch. Alex. p. 133 sq. ; id. Litu?-ff. ii, 103).
The Jacobites also impose upon themselves excessive fasts: "five annual lents, during which both the cler- gy and the laity alistain not only from flesh or eggs, but even from the taste of wine, of oil, and of fish" (Gib- bon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Emjiire, iv, 551 ; comp. La Croze, Christianisme de VEthiopie, p. 352).
Their clergy are constituted on the model of a perfect hierarchy. "Extremely tenacious of their ecclesias- tical status in this particular, they glorj^ in an apostol- ical succession from St. Peter as the first bishop of Anti- och, and exhibit what they hold to be an unbroken series of more than 180 bishops of that see from his day to our own." This assertion they mr.ke in the face of the fact that they only started in the Cth century under Jacob, but they certainly ought to enjoy the same priv- ileges with all other churches that lay claim to a direct apostolic succession (q. v.).
By the side of the patriarch, who holds the highest oflSce in the Church, there is a secondary officer at the head of the Eastern Jacobites, the Maphrian (Syriac, Xi"'^S w, i. e. the fructifier), or Primas Orientis, whose mission it is to ordain bishops, and also to consecrate the patriarch elect by the laying on of hands. He oc- cupies, to a certain degree, the same position as the now obsolete Katholikos (Catholic) of the Nestorian Church, and is sometimes designated by that name. He resides at Mosul, and his jurisdiction extends over the Jacobites of the East residing bej-ond the Tigris and a portion of Mesopotamia ; the rest of Mesopota- mia, Asia proper, Phoenicia, Palestine, Cilicia, and Ar- menia are under the immediate control of the patriarch of Antioch. (On Ordination, see Etheridge, Syi: Ch. p. 147 sq.) With the diocese of the patriarch there comes in contact the patriarchate of the Copts (q. v.), and of late j-ears both churches have sustamed a bishop at Je- rusalem.
The Jacobites are distinguished for the number of their convents, from which, as is the custom in all the Eastern churches, the higher officers of the Church are all chosen. These institutions are, perhaps for this rea- son also, under the supervision of the bishops.
At the time of its greatest prosperity the Jacobite Church ])roduced many men remarkable for the pro- foundness of their views, their teachings, and their writ- ings. No less than 150 archbishops and bishops have been counted in the different ages of the sect, of whom an account is given in the second part of J. G. Assemr.- ni's Bibliotheca Orientalis. The most eminent of them are John, bishop of Asia ; Thomas of Harkcl, who, in tlie beginning of the 7th centurj', revised the Philoxenian translation of the N.T.; Jacob of Edessa ; the patriarch Dionysius I, in the first half of the 9th centurj', author of a Sj-riac chronicle, of which Assemani has made much use, and of which a part has been published by
JACOBITES
•43
JACQUELOT
TuUberg (Upsala, 1850) ; John, bishop of Dara, in the 9th century; Moses Bar-Ktpha (f 913), whose treatise on Paradise was translated into Latin by Andr. Masius ; Dionysius Bar-Salibi, bishop of Amid in the 12th cen- tury, author of commentaries on the Bible and other theological works (Assemani, ii, 15G-211); Jacob, bishop of Tagrit in the 13th century ; and esjiecially Gregorius Abulfaragius ; Bar-Hebra!us, in the 13th centurj', who was perliaps the greatest and noblest man of the East- ern Church ; his death was mourned alike by Jacobites and Nestorians, by Greeks and Armenians, all of Avhom forgot the disputes which were agitating at that time the Eastern Church, and gathered at his grave to min- gle their tears for the loss of a truly virtuous and great man. The work of Biblical criticism known as Rectnsio Karkaphensis is also, as shown by Wiseman {Horce Si/i: Rome, 18-28, 8vo, p. 206, 212), due to the Jacobite Church.