The present condition of this sect is thus described by the Rev. George Percy Badger {Nestorians and their Rituals, i, 60) : " The present hierarchy of the Jacobites in Turkey consists of a patriarch, who claims the title of ' Patriarch of Antioch and successor of St. Peter,' ciglit metropolitans, and three bishops. Of these, one resides at Mosul, one in the convent of IVIar IMattai, in the same district, one at Urfat, one at Diarbekir, or Kharpiit, one at Jerusalem, one at Mardhi, three in Jebel Tur, and two are called Temeloyo, i. e. universal, without an}' regular dioceses. . . . The bishops gener- ally are illiterate men, but little versed in Scripture, and entirely ignorant of ecclesiastical history. They scarcely ever iireach, and their episcopal visitations are confined to occasional ordinations, and to the collection of tithes from their several dioceses. All of them can, of course, read the Sj^riac of their rituals, but few thor- oughly understand it. . . . As might naturally be ex- pected, the lower orders of the Syrian clergy are gener- ally more illiterate than the bishops ; and how can. it be otherwise? . . . Such being the awkwardness and inef- ficiency of their clergy, it is not to be wondered at that religious knowledge and vital godliness are at a very low ebb among the Syrian laity. Notwithstanding the comparative affluence of this community, I believe that there do not exist among them more than twenty small schools in the whole of Turkey, where their popu- lation amounts to something like 100,000 (Etheridge says 150,000). The following is a rough estimate in villages of the proportion of their numbers in the differ- ent districts: (1) Jebel Tur, 150 villages; (2) district of Urfah and Gawar, 50 villages; (3) Kharput, 15 vil- lages; (4) Diarbekir, 6 villages; (5) Mosul, 5 villages; (6) Damascus, 4 villages, making in all 230 villages now inhabited by S\Tians." (Comp. Richard Pococke, Travels in the East, II, i, 208 ; Niebuhr, Reiseheschreib. vol. ii ; Buckingham, Trav. in Mesopiotamia, i, 321, 341 ; Robinson, Palestine, iii, 4G0 sq.)
As early as the 14th century the Roman Catholic Church used her influence to effect a union of the Jac- obite and Western churches under the sway of Rome. But, although many accessions have been obtained from the Jacobites, they have not yielded entire, as did the Copts in the 15th century. The first really important success the Romanists achieved in the 17th centurj', under Andreas Achigian, when the converts, at that time quite numerous, styling themselves "Syrian Cath- olics," elected him as a rival patriarch. Ho was follow- ed by Petriis (Ignatius, vol. xxv), who did not continue long in office, as the opposition party proved too strong for Rome (Assemani, ii, 482). This, however, by no means discouraged the Papists, for the undertaking was resumed shortly afterwards; and thej' have for some time past sustained in SjTia a patriarch who resides at Haleb, and they have even "Cath<}lic .lacobite con- vents." The inferiority of the Syrian Catholics to the Jacobites has induced the Protestants of England and America to establish missions among them, and they have thus far met with tolerable success. See Assema- ni. Bibl. Or, ii ; Diss, de Monpjihys, § 1-10 ; Neale, East.
Church, iii (see Index); Abudachus, Hisi. Jacohitarum (Oxf. 1700) ; Gibbon, Decline and Eall of the Rom. Emp. (Harper's ed.), iv, 651 sq. ; Migne, Diet, des Ordres re- lifjieux, ii, 561 ; Wetzer und Welte, Kircken-Lex. s. v. ; Herzog, Recd-Encyklojiadie, vi, 400 sq. (J. H. W.)
Jacobs, David, a minister of the Lutheran Chur^ih, was bom in Franklin County, Pa., Nov. 22, 1805. He was educated at Jefferson College, Canonsburg, Penn. (class of 1825). While at college he was particularly distinguished as a linguist, and in the absence of the professor of languages was requested to hear the recita- tions in Latin and Greek. He commenced his theolog- ical studies under the direction of the Rev. Dr. B, Kurtz, and completed them in the Theological Seminary at Gettysburg in 1827. The same year he took charge of the classical department established in connection with the seminary, from which Pennsylvania College took its origin. He was very successful as a teacher. No one ever pursued his work more nobly, or with an aim more exalted. He received license to preach the Gos- pel in 1829, but his health was so delicate that he seldom officiated in the puljjit. He died Nov. 30, 1830, in the twenty-fifth year oi^ his age, at Shepherdstown,Va., as he was returning from a trip to the South, whither he had gone in pursuit of health. In talent he was above the ordinary standard, a ripe scholar, and those who were brought in contact with him appreciated his ex- cellent character, and ackno^vledged his eminent ser- vices.
Jacomb, Thomas, D.D., a pious Nonconformist di- vine who took a prominent part in the ecclesiastical af- fairs of England in the 17th century, was born ni Leices- tershire in 1622. He studied at Magdalen Hall, Oxford, and subsequently became fellow of Trinitj' College, Cambridge. Diu-ing the Rebellion he obtained the liv- ing of St. Martin, Ludgate, but was ejected in 1662, diur- ing the Bartholomew ejectment of Nonconformists, and died March 27, 1687. Stoughton {Eccl. Hist, of Engl \_Ch. of the Restoration'], i, 165) says that Jacomb, while a member of the Savoy Conference [see Ixdepen- DENTs], in which he figiu-ed vcrj' prominently, " is de- scribed as a man of superior education, of a staid mind, of temperate passions, moderate in his counsels, and in the management of affairs, not vehement and confident, not imposing and overbearing, but receptive of advice, and j'ielding to reason," He was one of the continua- tors of Poole's Annotations. His works, which are now scarce, are, A Treatise on Holy Dedication [on Psa. xxx} (Lond, 1668, 8vo) : — Several Sermons on the viiith Chap- ter of the Epistle to the Romans [18 on the 1st, 2d, 3d, and 4tli versesj (London, 1672, 4to),— Darling, Cyclop. Bibliog. s. v. ; Stoughton, Eccles. History {Ch. of the Res- toration), ii, 504, 505.