JAMES, St, called the Less, 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 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 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 object was to put a stop to the incursions of the Moors, these 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 were obliged to give proof of their descent from families that had been noble for four generations on both sides; they also were required to make it appear that their ancestors were neither Jews, Saracens, nor heretics, nor had ever been called in question by the inquisition.