RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Jacob of Eltz Jacob of Sarug
negligentia praelatorum, rest upon the view that the pope is only the most prominent member of the Church; the infallible presence of the Holy Spirit is promised not to him, but to the Church, which has the power to depose the pope. He developed these thoughts in a reformatory memorial addressed in 1449 to Pope Nicholas V., under the title Avisamentum ad papam pro reformatione ecclesiae. A later work, De septem statibus ecclesiae, contains the passionate lamentation of a hopeless man; its aged author did not believe any longer in the possibility of a reform. In spite of his attempts at moral reforms, he did not deviate from orthodox Catholicism. He wrote also a great number of works on canon law, ethics and ascetics, which, however, have mostly perished. The liberal tendency introduced by him culminated in humanism at the time of Luther. Paul Tschackekt.
Bibliography: F. W. Kampschulte, Die Universitat Erfurt, i. 15-16, Treves, 1858 (from the Roman Catholic point of view; cf. KL, vi. 1166-71); C. Ullmann, Reformers before the Reformation, i. 208-216, Edinburgh, 1874 (from the Protestant viewpoint); Pastor, Popes, ii. 45-49, 93, 94, 106.
JACOB OF KIEF. See Nestor.
JACOB OF MIES (called Jacobellus, from his small stature): Bohemian reformer, colaborer of John Huss; b. at Mies (15 m. w. of Pilsen), Bohemia, after 1350; d. at Prague Aug. 9, 1429. He studied at Prague, receiving both the bachelor's and the master's degree in theology, and became pastor of the Church of St. Michael and an outspoken supporter of John Huss. In 1410 he took part in the disputations regarding Wyclif, defending the latter against archiepiscopal condemnation. His study of Scripture and the Fathers had showed him that the withholding of the cup in the administration of the Lord's Supper to the laity was an arbitrary measure of the Roman Church. In 1414 he propounded and defended his views in a public disputation; and when Huss, at that time in jail at Constance, accepted them, he began to administer the cup to his parishioners, in spite of the remonstrances of the bishop and the university. His example was quickly followed by other pastors in Prague. The fathers of the council, who were much alarmed, issued a curious decree, admitting in theory as truth what in practise they condemned as heresy. Though Jacob would by no means submit, he was not removed from his office, perhaps because in other points, as, for instance, in the doctrine of purgatory, he agreed with the Roman Church. During the last decade of his life Jacob was regarded as one of the foremost of the Utraquist theologians. (J. Loserth.)
Bibliography: E. H. Gillett, Life and Times of John Huss, i., chap, xviii., ii. chap, iii., Philadelphia, 1861; KL, ii, 1315; Neander, Christian Church, v. 297, 331, 337, 338. 367.
JACOB (JAMES) OF NISIBIS: Bishop of Nisibis, the chief city of Mygdonia, in northeastern Mesopotamia; d. 338. He is known also as Jacob of Mygdonia and Jacob the Great. After leading a severe life in the mountains of Kurdistan with Eugenius, the founder of Persian monasticism, he became first, or second, bishop of Nisibis in 309.
In 313 he began to build the great church, the ruins of which still bear his name, and finished it in 320. He attended the Council of Nicsea in 325, and the sudden death of Arius (q.v.) is attributed especially to his prayers (cf. the Synaxarium ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae [ = Propylaeum ad ASB, Novembris], ed. H. Delehaye, Brussels, 1902, Jan. 13), as is also the protection of Nisibis against Sapor II. He was also present at the dedication of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem. No writings of Jacob's are known, the great work in twenty-two or twenty-three parts ascribed to him being really the production of Aphraates (q.v.), with whom he was early confounded. The Armenians mistakenly call him the friend of Gregory the Illuminator. His day, with the Syrians, is the 12th Iyar (May); with the Armenians, Dec. 15; with the Copts, the 18th Tobi (Jan.); in the Greek Church, Jan. 13 (14) and Oct. 31; in the Roman martyrology, July 15. E. Nestle.
Bibliography: Ephraem, Carmina Nisibena, ed. G. Bickell, pp. 11, 20, 97, Leipsic, 1866; Eusebius, Vita Constantini, iv. 43, Eng. transl. in NPNF, 2d ser., i. 551; Theodoret, Hist, eccl., i. 7, ii. 26, NPNF, 2d ser., iii. 44-46, 91-92; Philostorgius, Hist, eccl., iii. 23; Gennadius, De vir. ill., i.; Acta martyrum et sanctorum, ed. P. Bedjan, iii. 393, iv. 262, Paris, 1890-97; J. S. Assemani, Bibliotheca orientalis, i. 17, 395, 557, ii. 398, 588. Consult: Ceillier, Auteurs sacres, iii. 369-372, 525-526; A. P. Stanley, Lectures on the Hist, of the Eastern Church, lect. v., London, 1884; DCB, iii. 325-327.
JACOB (JAMES) OF SARUG: Bishop of Sarug; b. at Kurtam on the Euphrates toward the end of 451; d. Nov. 29, 521. He is mentioned about 503 as visiting presbyter (periodeutes) at the capture of Amida, and became bishop of Batnan (Batnae) in the district of Sarug in 519. He was a most prolific writer, and was called the " doctor " (malpana) of the Syrians or of the whole Church, and " the channel of the Holy Ghost." His memory is celebrated by Jacobites and Maronites (July or Dec. 29) and even the Nestorians recognize him, though he was monophysite till his end. Seventy scribes are said to have been always busy copying his homilies, which are all in the dodecasyllabic meter which bears his name. Seven hundred and sixty-three homilies are ascribed to him, besides other works: Bar Hebrseus had 182 before him, and there are 233 in the Vatican. Four volumes of his Homiliae selectae have been published by P. Bedjan (Paris and Leipsic, 1903-08), but most of his works are still in manuscript. E. Nestle.
Bibliography: On his works cf. W. Wright, Catalogue of Syriac MSS. in the British Museum, pp. 502-505, London, 1877. The works are not published in collected form; some are in: Acta sanctorum martyrum orientalium, ed. S. E. Assemani, ii. 230, Florence, 1748; Acta martyrum et sanctorum, ed. P. Bedjan, i. 131, 160, iii. 665, iv. 471, v. 615, vi. 650, Paris, 1890-97; ZDMG, vols, xii.-xv., xxv., xxviii.-xxxi., 1858 sqq.; W. Cureton, Ancient Syriac Documents, pp. 86-107, London, 1864; his letter to Stephan bar Sudaili, a Syrian mystic, is edited and translated by A. L. Frothingham in Stephen bar Sudaili, Leyden, 1886; a discourse on Alexander is translated by E. A. W. Budge, London, 1889; six homilies were rendered into German by P. Zingerle, Bonn, 1867; another is published by Sib'ilani, Beirut, 1901. Consult: J. B. Abbeloos, De -vita et scriptis S. Jacobi Sarugi, Louvain, 1867; P. Martin, in Revue des sciences ecclesiastiques, 4th ser , vol. iii., 1876; J. S. Assemani, Bibliotheca orienlalis, i. 283-340, Rome, 1719; DCB, iii. 327-328.
Jacob of Vitry Jacobites