JAMES, St, called the Lesser, an apostle, the brother of Jude, and the son of Cleophas and Mary the sister of the mother of our Lord, is called in Scripture the Just, and the brother of Jesus, who appeared to him in particular after his resurrection. He was the first bishop of Jerusalem, when Annanias II. high priest of the Jews, caused him to be condemned, and delivered him into the hands of the people and the Pharisees, who threw him down from the steps of the temple, when a fuller dashed out his brains with a club, about the year 62. His life was so holy, that Josephus considers him as a saint.
James. siders the ruin of Jerusalem as a punishment inflicted on that city for his death. He was the author of the epistle which bears his name.
St James of the Sword, (San Jago del Espada), a military order in Spain, instituted in 1170, under the reign of Ferdinand II. king of Leon and Galicia. Its end was to put a stop to the incursions of the Moors; three knights obliging themselves by a vow to secure the roads. An union was proposed and agreed to in 1170 between these and the canons of St Eloy; and the order was confirmed by the pope in 1175. The highest dignity in that order is that of grand master, which has been united to the crown of Spain. The knights are obliged to make proof of their descent from families that have been noble for four generations on both sides; they must also make it appear, that their said ancestors have neither been Jews, Saracens, nor heretics; nor even to have been called in question by the inquisition. The novices are obliged to serve six months in the galleys, and to live a month in a monastery. Hereafter they were truly religious, and took a vow of celibacy; but Alexander III. gave them a permission to marry. They now make no vows but of poverty, obedience, and conjugal fidelity; to which, since the year 1652, they have added that of defending the immaculate conception of the holy Virgin. Their habit is a white cloak, with a red cross on the breast. This is esteemed the most considerable of all the military orders in Spain: the king carefully preserves the office of grand master in his own family, on account of the rich revenues and offices, whereof it gives him the disposal. The number of knights is much greater now than formerly, all the grandees choosing rather to be received into this than into the order of the golden fleece; inasmuch as this puts them in a fair way of attaining to commands, and gives them many considerable privileges in all the provinces of Spain, but especially in Catalonia.