from Adiabene (Assemani, Bibl. Or. tom. i. p. 186). On the attempt, three times renewed, of Sapor II. to make himself master of Nisibis, A.D. 338, 346, 350, James maintained the faith of the inhabitants in the divine protection, kindled their enthusiasm by his words and example, and with great military genius and administrative skill thwarted the measures of the besiegers. For the tale of the final siege of 350, which lasted three months, and of the bishop's successful efforts to save his city, see Gibbon, c. xviii. vol. ii. pp. 385 ff. or De Broglie, L’Eglise et l’Empire, t. iii. pp. 180–195. See also Theod. u.s. p. 1118; H. E. ii. 26; Theophan. p. 32. Nisibis was quickly relieved by Sapor being called away to defend his kingdom against an inroad of the Massagetae. James cannot have long survived this deliverance. He was honourably interred within the city, that his hallowed remains might continue to defend it. When in 363 Nisibis yielded to Persia, the Christians carried the sacred talisman with them. (Theod. u.s. p. 1119; Soz. H. E. v. 3; Gennad. u.s. c. 1.)
Gennadius speaks of James as a copious writer, and gives the titles of 26 of his treatises. Eighteen were found by Assemani in the Armenian convent of St. Anthony at Venice, together with a request for some of his works from a Gregory and James's reply. Their titles—de Fide, de Dilectione, de Jejunio, de Oratione, de Bello, de Devotis, de Poenitentia, de Resurrectione, etc.—correspond generally with those given by Gennadius, but the order is different. In the same collection Assemani found the long letter of James to the bishops of Seleucia and Ctesiphon, on the Assyrian schism. It is in 31 sections, lamenting the divisions of the church and the pride and arrogance which caused them, and exhorting them to seek peace and concord. These were all published with a Latin translation, and a learned preface establishing their authenticity, and notes by Nicolas Maria Antonelli in 1756; also in the collection of the Armenian Fathers, pub. at Venice in 1765, and again at Constantinople in 1824. The Latin translation is found in the Patres Apostolici of Caillau, t. 25, pp. 254–543. The liturgy bearing the name of James of Nisibis, said to have been formerly in use among the Syrians (Abr. Ecchell. Not. in Catal. Ebed-Jesu, p. 134; Bona, Liturg. i. 9) is certainly not his, but should be ascribed to James of Sarug (Renaudot, Lit. Or. t. ii. p. 4). James of Nisibis is commemorated in Wright's Syrian Martyrology, and in the Roman martyrology, July 315. Assemani Bibl. Or. t. i. pp. 17 sqq., 186, 557, 652; Tillem. Mém. eccl. t. vii.; Ceillier, Ant. eccl. t. iv. pp. 478 sqq.; Fabricius, Bibl. Graec. t. ix. p. 289; Cave, Hist. Lit. t. i. p. 189.
[E.V.]
Jacobus (13) Sarugensis, bp. of Batnae, a little town in the district of Sarug in Osrhoëne. He enjoyed an extraordinary reputation for learning and holiness and was sainted alike by orthodox and heretics. The Syrian liturgies commemorate him with St. Ephraim as "os eloquentissimum et columnam ecclesiae."
Two Lives are extant in the Vatican and one in the Brit. Mus. (Cod. dcccclx. 46, dated A.D. 1197). The oldest and best is the spirited eulogium by his disciple Georgius, perhaps a bishop of the Arabs. The other two, which are anonymous and later than 10th cent., are in close agreement with it. According to them, Jacobus was born at Kurtom on the Euphrates, A.D. 452, and was taught in one of the schools of Edessa (according to Mares the Nestorian).
The anonymous Life (Vat.) states that Jacobus was made bp. of Batnae ("urbis Sarug") when 67½ years old, A.D. 519, and that he died 2½ years afterwards, i.e. A.D. 521. Before A.D. 503, Joshua Stylites tells us, Jacobus was a periodeutes or visitor of the district of Batnae, a middle rank between the episcopate and the priesthood. Cf. Ep. 316 in the Brit. Mus. Cod. dclxxii. The Stylite adds that Jacobus composed many homilies on Scripture, psalms, and hymns; which proves his fame already established in 503.
Renaudot (t. ii. Liturgg. Orientt.) has charged Jacobus with Monophysitism, a charge which Assemani and Abbeloos shew to be unwarranted. Timotheus of Constantinople (fl. 6th cent. ad init.) calls him "orthodox," Isaacus Ninivita and Joannes Maro quote him as such, and Joshua the Stylite, his contemporary, calls him venerable. The Maronites, always hostile to Nestorians and Jacobites, honour him as a saint. Further, he began his episcopate under Justin, by whose orders Severus was driven from Antioch, Philoxenos from Hierapolis, and other heretics from Mesopotamia and Syria. Had Jacobus been a Monophysite, he would have shared their fate. Not a single Catholic writer of the 5th, 6th, or 7th cent., says Assemani, has so accused him. Bar-hebraeus and the Life in the Brit. Mus., indeed, allege that he communicated with Severus, and Dionysius in his Chronicon asserts that St. Jacobus of Sarug would not communicate with Paul of Antioch, because the latter confessed the two natures. But Dionysius is contradictory in his dates. Some passages of the extant hymns speak of the single nature of Christ, but may be interpolated. There is direct evidence that after the council of Chalcedon the Monophysites began to tamper with texts (cf. Evagr. iii. 91). They even attributed whole works, written in their own interests, to such men as Athanasius and Gregory Thaumaturgus. Jacobus Edessenus testifies that a certain poem was falsely ascribed by the Jacobite sect to the bp. of Batnae shortly after his decease (Bar-hebr. Horr. Myst. ad Gen. vi.). A silly poem against the council of Chalcedon (Cod. Nitr. 5 fol. 139) is proved by internal evidence to be spurious. His writings in general supply ample proof of orthodoxy on the doctrines in question.
Works.—He was a very voluminous writer. Bar-hebraeus says that he employed 70 amanuenses in writing his homiletic poems, of which 760 exist, besides expositions, epistles, hymns, and psalms. Georgius, in his panegyric, gives a list of his poetic writings which treat of the great men of O.T., of angels, and of the mysteries of the Son of God. The anonymous Life (Vat.) states that his homilies (mim’rê) numbered 763. Of these many may be lost; most of those which survive are unedited.
Prose Works.—(1) An anaphora or liturgy (Renaud. Lit. Or. ii. 556–566) beginning Deus
