a term of reproach bestowed on the persons, who, vindicating the doctrines of passive obedience and non-resistance with respect to the arbitrary proceedings of princes, disallow of the late revolution, and assert the supposed rights and adhere to the interests of the late abdicated king James and his family.

in church history, a sect of Christians in Syria and Mesopotamia; so called either from Jacob, a Syrian, who lived in the reign of the emperor Maurice; or from one Jacob, a monk, who flourished in the year 550.

The Jacobites are of two sects, some following the rites of the Latin church, and others continuing separated from the church of Rome. There is also at present a division among the latter, who have two rival patriarchs, one of whom resides at Caramit, and the other at Derzapharan. As to their belief, they hold but one nature in Jesus Christ; with respect to purgatory and prayers for the dead, they are of the same opinion as the Greeks and other eastern Christians: they consecrate unleavened bread at the eucharist, and are against confession, believing that it is not of divine institution.