Jacobites

JACOBITES. - Name given to the Syrian Monophysites, derived from Jacob Baradaeus, who around the middle of the 6th century organized the Monophysite Church, especially in Syria.

I. HISTORY

Monophysitism established itself in Syria already after the Council of Chalcedon (451). The Monophysites managed to occupy the see of Antioch for the first time in 468 (Peter the Fuller). Their most authoritative representative and the father of later Monophysitism — which was, moreover, purely verbal — was Severus, patriarch of Antioch (512-18) under the emperor Anastasius, who was himself favorable to Monophysitism. With the accession of the emperor Justin to power (518) the situation changed and Severus had to flee. When under Justinian (527-65) matters became increasingly critical for the Monophysites, whose bishops were thrown into prison, the monk Jacob Baradaeus succeeded, with the help of the empress Theodora, in having himself consecrated bishop and in consecrating in his turn Monophysite priests and bishops. In this way he created an entire Monophysite hierarchy alongside and against the orthodox hierarchy. From his time, therefore, there exists a Monophysite Church of Antioch distinct from the orthodox one and opposed to it. With good reason, therefore, the Syrian Monophysites are called Jacobites.

Monophysitism established itself in Syria mainly in the countryside, where the Syriac language was spoken. In the Hellenized cities, on the contrary, orthodoxy prevailed. In northern Mesopotamia, e.g. in Edessa, Amida, Mabbûg etc., Monophysitism imposed itself. Into the religious struggle over Monophysitism there also entered a good dose of Syriac nationalism in opposition to the hated Greeks of Byzantium, regarded as oppressors of the Syriac people.

The Monophysites were driven out of Persia after Nestorianism was introduced there toward the end of the 5th century. They were able, however, to return there when at the beginning of the 7th century the Persians temporarily conquered Syria, Palestine and Egypt. The time up to the coming of the Persians is full of internal disputes among the Monophysites of various tendencies, struggles that at times even became bloody.

Under the rule of the Persians, who conquered Antioch in 611, the Jacobites felt liberated from the continual harassment of the Byzantines. In order to win the Monophysites to the cause of the Empire, Heraclius (610-41), after driving the Persians out of Syria (629), propagated Monophysitism as a formula of conciliation. The Emperor recognized the Monophysite patriarch Athanasius as the sole patriarch of Antioch.

The invasion of the Arabs detached Syria definitively from the Empire, apart from the temporary return of the Byzantines in the second half of the 10th century. The Jacobites, as opponents of the Byzantines, at first enjoyed the favor of the conquerors. But toward the end of the 7th century their situation too began to worsen.

Very agitated among the Jacobites, in the Arab era, was the question of the "mafriano". Mafrêjân (= "he who bears fruit") was the title of the supreme head of the eastern part of the Jacobite Church, already subject to the Persians. Once the boundary between Persia and Syria had ceased to exist because of the Arab invasion, the mafrianate seemed to have no further reason to exist. The patriarch Dionysius of Tellmahrê (818-45) succeeded in subjecting also the eastern part placed under the mafrianate.

The Byzantine conquest of the second half of the 10th century again brought the Jacobites into contact with the Byzantines, who disturbed the peace by seeking — not without resorting to force — to convert them to orthodoxy. Recalcitrant bishops and monks and even, on one occasion, the patriarch himself were deported to Constantinople. The Jacobites rejoiced at the victory of the Seljuk Turks over the Byzantines and preferred the domination of the Turks, who did not disturb their faith, to that of the Byzantines.

The relations of the Jacobites with the Latin Crusaders were generally good. Especially the patriarch Michael the Great (1166-99) was a friend of the Latins. The patriarch Ignatius II even issued a profession of the Catholic faith (in 1237 at Jerusalem).

From the 13th century until the 15th various schisms divided the Jacobites. There was also a political one, because the Jacobites were at that time politically separated, inasmuch as, among other things, they belonged partly to the dominion of the Mamluks and partly to the Kingdom of the Armenians of Cilicia. In 1293 the Western bishops, assembled at Sis, elected their own patriarch, Ignatius Michael, against the patriarch Ignatius residing at Mardin. This schism lasted until 1445. In Tur 'Abdin a counter-patriarchate existed from 1364 until 1494.

The Council of Florence made an attempt at union with the Jacobites. In 1444 the delegate of the patriarch Ignatius IX recognized the supreme pontiff Eugene IV in the name of the Jacobites residing between the Tigris and the Euphrates. But this union did not become effective. Another attempt was made under Gregory XIII, who in 1581 recognized the patriarch Ignatius David Sàh as patriarch of Antioch. But since the patriarch refused to recognize the Council of Chalcedon and to condemn Dioscorus, the union did not succeed. Later, in the 17th century, through the patient work of Latin missionaries, a community of Catholic Syrians converted from Monophysitism slowly took shape, who had for the first time a patriarch, in 1662, in the person of Andrew Akidjan.

The centuries-old oppression on the part of the Muslims has reduced the Jacobite Church, once so flourishing, to little. Still during the First World War many Jacobites in Asia Minor were massacred by the Turks. The patriarch, after the war, transferred his see from the Dér Safrán monastery near Mardin in Turkey to Homs in Syria. Many of the faithful too sought refuge in Syria or in Lebanon under the French mandate. Thus in Turkey very few of them remained.

The Jacobites (they themselves do not like this name, calling themselves rather "Orthodox Syrians" or "Old Syrians") are very attached to their Syrian nationality, although they speak Arabic today. In Syria they number (according to the statistics of the French government of 1935) 24,000, and in Lebanon 3,000. For the most part they are refugees who immigrated after the war of 1914-18 from Turkey, from Edessa, from Mardin or even from Iraq. The Jacobites are particularly numerous in the north-eastern corner of Syria (upper Gezirah), where 10,000 of them are found. At Homs, in the surrounding area, and at Damascus many have been resident for a long time. Besides the patriarch who resides at Homs there are in Syria bishops at Aleppo and in upper Gezirah. Another has his see at Beirut in Lebanon. In Palestine the Jacobites are few in number. Monophysitism could never take root in the patriarchate of Jerusalem. In the holy city the Jacobites possess the famous convent of St. Mark, with a rich library of manuscripts and a printing press.

More numerous are the Jacobites in 'Irāq, where their number reaches 12,000. They are especially strong at Mosul, where they have resided for a long time and in comfortable circumstances. There they have beautiful ancient churches. The bishop also resides at Mosul. In the vicinity is found the famous monastery of Mār Mattaj with the tomb of Bar Hebraeus (d. 1286). On the Jacobites of India v. MALABARESI.

II. LITERATURE

The Jacobites possess a rich theological literature. The history of Syriac literature of the Monophysites can be divided into three periods: the first up to the invasion of the Arabs, the second up to the end of the first millennium, and the third which ends with the 13th century. After that no author worthy of note is to be found. The period of complete decadence begins.

The principal Father of the Monophysite Church is Severus, patriarch of Antioch (512-18), who wrote in Greek. Many of his writings are preserved only in Syriac translation; such are the letters and the sermons. The first Monophysite writer of value in the Syriac language is Philoxenus, bishop of Mabbug (Hierapolis), d. in 523, a zealous champion of Monophysitism. Jacob of Serugh (d. 541) is the most celebrated poet of the Syriac Monophysites, called "the flute of the Holy Spirit"; he was of a peaceful nature and did not concern himself with theological controversies; he wrote numerous metrical homilies. John, bishop of Ephesus (d. after 585), is the author of a celebrated history of the Church.

In the second period of Jacobite literature theological controversies no longer hold so eminent a place, since the Jacobites were by then separated from Byzantium. But the Greek influence remained strong as well. Soon Arabic penetrates among the Jacobites, so that toward the end of this period Syriac literature is disappearing.

With Severus Sebokht (666) begins a period of prosperity of Hellenized Syriac literature. To his school belong Athanasius of Balad, elected patriarch in 684 (d. 687), Jacob, bishop of Edessa (d. 708), the most remarkable representative of Christian Hellenism in Syriac literature, comparable with St. Jerome, and George, bishop of the Arabs.

The consolidation of Arab domination led in the long run to the decadence of Syriac literature. The ample and many-sided activity of Moses bar Kepha (815-903) represents the decline of this period.

In the second millennium the Syriac literature of the Jacobites had a new period of prosperity. The renewed contact with the Byzantine world, saturated with culture, gave new impulse also to the literature of the Jacobites. The most distinguished representatives of the literary renaissance belong to the higher Jacobite clergy. The patriarch Michael I the Great (1166-99) is known for his history of the Jacobite Church. The activity of the bishop of Amida, Dionysius bar Salibi (d. 1171) marks the apogee of the renaissance of Syriac literature. The influence of Arab culture shows itself strongly in the monk Jacob bar Shakko (d. 1241), who wrote a philosophical and a theological Summa, and also in the last and perhaps most authoritative and universal theologian of the Jacobites: Gregory Bar Hebraeus (1226-86), comparable in several respects with his Western contemporary St. Albert the Great. After him begins the definitive decadence of the literature of the Jacobites.

III. DOCTRINE

The monophysitism of the g. is, like that of Severus of Antioch, purely verbal. They admit that Jesus is true God and true man, that he has everything that belongs to human nature and to the divine nature. But they persist in refusing to admit the formula of the two natures and in rejecting the decisions of the Council of Chalcedon, which according to them would have fallen back into Nestorianism. The g. are therefore schismatics rather than true heretics. It is clear that they do not accept the Councils that followed that of Chalcedon. As for the doctrine on the Sacraments, the g. have not elaborated a system. They accepted the septenary number under Catholic influence. The minister of the Sacraments is only the priest. Only recently have the g. admitted, under Catholic influence, Baptism administered by laypeople in case of necessity. The ancient authors do not seem to admit a true transubstantiation in the Eucharist, but rather teach a kind of impanation. Matrimony was recognized as a Sacrament only recently under Catholic influence. In the doctrine on the epiclesis, on the matter of the Eucharist and on Communion under the two species, the Jacobite authors seem to have accommodated themselves to the doctrine of the Greeks.

Guglielmo de Vries