RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Jacob of Vitry Jacobites
writings are characterized by poetic fancy and religious sentiment rather than by logical necessity. He held that the understanding can only join and disjoin given facts, without explaining them, and that knowledge deduced in this way is conditioned and relatively unimportant, being always related to a background of existence which forever remains beyond abstract thinking. All demonstrable knowledge, therefore, is relative and conditioned; it does not touch the ultimate nature of things. The faculty by which we grasp ultimate facts is not the understanding, but faith, which Jacobi identified with reason. It was Jacobi who first pointed out the fatal contradiction involved in Kant's application of the category of causality to the Ding an sich. His doctrine of the relativity of knowledge was later exploited by Sir William Hamilton. Jacobi's principal works are the two philosophical novels, Woldemar (2 vols., Flensburg, 1779) and Eduard AllwiUs Briefsamlvng (Breslau, 1781); Ueber die Lehre des Spinoza (1785; enlarged ed., 1789); David Hume uber den Glauben, oder Idealismus und Realismus (1787), containing his criticism of Kant; Ueber das Unternehmen des Kritizismus, die Vernunft zu Verstande zu bringen (Hamburg, 1801); and Von den gottlichen Dingen und ihrer Offenbarung (Leipsic, 1811), which was directed against Schelling. During his last years Jacobi was employed in collecting and editing his Werke (6 vols., Leipsic, 1812-24). His Auserlesener Briefwechsel was edited by F. Roth (2 vols., 1825-27). Max Jacobi edited Briefwechsel zwischen Goethe und F. H. Jacobi (1846).
Bibliography: J. A. Schmid, Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi, Fine Darstellung seiner PersbnHchkeit und seiner Philosophic als Beitrag zu einer Geschichte des modernen Weltproblems, Heidelberg, 1908; F. H, Jacobi nach seinem Leben, Lehren und Wirken, ed. Schlichtigroll, Weiller and Thiersch. Munich, 1819; J. Kuhn, Jacobi und die Philosophic seiner Zeit, Mainz, 1834; F. Deycks, F. H. Jacobi im Verhaltniss zu seinen Zeitgenossen, Frankfort, 1849; F. D. Maurice, Modern Philosophy, pp. 644-651, London, 1862; E. Zirngiebl, F. H. Jacobi's Leben, Dichten und Denken, Vienna, 1867; L. Levy-Bruhl, La Philosophic de Jacobi, Paris, 1894; N. Wilde, F. H. Jacobi: a Study in the Origin of German Realism, New York, 1894. Consult also J. E. Erdmann, Geschichte der Philosophic, 2 vols., Berlin, 1895- 1896, Eng. transl., 3 vols., London, 1892-98.
JACOBI, JUSTUS LUDWIG: Professor in Halle; b. at Burg (14 m. n.e. of Magdeburg) Aug. 12, 1815; d. at Halle May 31, 1888. He studied in Halle, and in Berlin, where in 1841 he became privat-docent, and in 1847 professor extraordinary; in 1851 he went as ordinary professor of theology to Konigsberg, in 1855 to Halle. As representative of the " mediating theology " and advocate of the Evangelical Union, he was involved in various controversies with the confessional party. By founding the home for deaconesses in Halle with the wife of Professor Tholuck, he took a practical part in the charitable works of the Church. His writings betray the influence of Neander. In Die Lehre des Pelagius, ein Beitrag zur Dogmengeschichte (Leipsic, 1842) he represented the standpoint of Augustine. The first part of Kirchliche Lehre von der Tradition und heiligen Schrift appeared at Berlin, 1847. His Lehrbuch der Kirchengeschichte (part i., Berlin, 1850) is characterized by a thorough presentation of the sources combined with a fine appreciation of ex- VI.— 6
ternal conditions as well as of internal development, measured by the central doctrine of sin and grace. He also wrote Die Lehre der Irvingiten verglichen mit der heiligen Schrift (1853; 2d ed., 1868); Professor Schlottmann, die hallesche Fakultdt und die Centrumspartei (2d ed., Halle, 1882), a defense of his colleague against the aggressive tendency of the Roman curia in the so-called Kulturkampf; and Streiflichter auf Religion, Politik, und Universitaten der Centrumspartei (1883). He commemorated his teachers in Erinnerung an D. August Neander (1882), and Baron von Kottwitz (1882). Bibliography: J. Jacobi, J. L. Jacobi und die Vermittelungstheologie seiner Zeit, Gotha, 1889.
JACOBITES: The Jacobites are an offshoot of
the Syrian Monophysites. While the Syrians were
the bearers of Christianity in the East,
General nowhere has ecclesiastical cleavage pro-
Descrip- duced deeper fissures than among them, tion. And the same might be said also of political relations. The peace between the Persians and Jovinian in 363 made a sharp distinction between Syrians of the Roman empire and those of Persia, which has continued to the present. In religion it was differences concerning Christology which produced the deep rifts, especially those connected with the names of Eutyches and Nestorius. Hence one speaks no more of "an Aramaic nation," rather he speaks of two peoples of Aramaic lineage as distinct as two nationalities. Indeed, authorities do not use the term Jacobitic Church or Nestorian Church, they employ the terms Jacobitic people, Nestorian people. The mutual dislike of these two descendants from a common stock is scarcely less intense than their common hatred of Mohammedans. These peoples seem to have lost consciousness of racial bonds; they speak and write two dialects of a common speech, and this difference goes back to an early time, since the division had its origin in the fifth century. By the term Jacobites is meant now the Syrian Monophysites, though in earlier times Egyptian Monophysites were also included. How early the term came into use is not known; it occurs certainly in the anathemas of the Council of Nice (787). The emperors Zeno and Anastasius favored this form of teaching, and it was introduced among the Syrians by Barsumas of Edessa, Xenaias Philoxenus of Mabug, and Severus of Antioch. Under Justinian I. many Syrian bishops were deposed and exiled for refusing recognition to the deliverances of the Council of Chalcedon. Under the protection of the Empress Theodora, bishops were consecrated for the East and South, and particularly Jacobus Baradseus, whose labors in behalf of monophysitism were epoch-making.
Jacobus Baradseus (Jacob Baradai) was born at
Telia Mauzalat (55 m. e. of Edessa) toward the
close of the fifth century, and died
Jacobus at the monastery of Cassianus, on the Baradseus. Egyptian border, July 30, 578. He was educated in the monastery of Phasilta near Nisibis, lived for fifteen years as a monk in Constantinople, and was consecrated bishop in 541 or 543. Clad in rags, he then wandered from Egypt to the Euphrates and to the islands of the
Jacobites
Jacobus de Varagine