The climate is naturally good, but continued neglect of sanitary
precautions has made the city unhealthy. During the summer
months the heat is tempered by a fresh sea-breeze, and there is
usually a sharp fall of temperature at night; but in spring and
autumn the east and south-east winds, which blow across the heated
depression of the Ghor, are enervating and oppressive. A dry
season, which lasts from May to October, is followed by a rainy
season, divided into the early winter and latter rains. Snow falls
two years out of three, but soon melts. The mean annual temperature
is 62.8° F., the maximum 112°, and the minimum 25°. The
mean monthly temperature is lowest (47.2°) in February, and highest
(76.3°) in August. The mean annual rainfall (1861 to 1899) is
26.06 in. The most unhealthy period is from 1st May to 31st
October, when there are, from time to time, outbreaks of typhoid,
small-pox, diphtheria and other epidemics. The unhealthiness of
the city is chiefly due to want of proper drainage, impure drinking-water,
miasma from the disturbed rubbish heaps, and contaminated
dust from the uncleansed roads and streets. The only industry
is the manufacture of olive-wood and mother-of-pearl goods for
sale to pilgrims and for export. The imports (see Joppa) are chiefly
food, clothing and building material. The population in 1905 was
about 60,000 (Moslems 7000, Christians 13,000, Jews 40,000). During
the pilgrimage season it is increased by about 15,000 travellers and
pilgrims.
Authorities.—Pal. Exp. Fund Publications—Sir C. Warren, Jerusalem, Memoir (1884); Clermont-Ganneau, Archaeol. Researches (vol. i., 1899); Bliss, Excavns. at Jerusalem (1898); Conder, Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem (1897), and The City of Jerusalem (1909), an historical survey over 4000 years; Le Strange, Pal. under the Moslems (1890); Fergusson, Temples of the Jews (1878); Hayter Lewis, Holy Places of Jerusalem(1888); Churches of Constantine at Jerusalem (1891); Guthe, “Ausgrabungen in Jer.,” in Zeitschrift d. D. Pal. Vereins (vol. v.); Tobler, Topographie von Jerusalem (Berlin, 1854); Dritte Wanderung (1859); Sepp, Jerusalem und das heilige Land (1873); Röhricht, Regesta Regni Hierosolymitani; Bibliotheca Geographica Palaestinae (1890); De Vogüé, Le Temple de Jérusalem (1864); Sir C. W. Wilson, Golgotha and the Holy Sepulchre (1906); publications of the Pal. Pilgrims’ Text Society and of the Société de l’Orient latin; papers in Quarterly Statements of the P. E. Fund, the Zeitschrift d. D. Pal. Vereins, Clermont-Ganneau’s Recueil d’archéologie orientale and Études d’arch. orientale, and the Revue Biblique; Baedeker’s Handbook to Palestine and Syria (1906); Mommert, Die hl. Grabeskirche zu Jerusalem (1898); Golgotha und das hl. Grab zu Jerusalem (1900); Couret, La Prise de Jérusm. par les Perses, 614. (Orléans, 1896—Plans, Ordnance Survey, revised ed.; Ordnance Survey revised by Dr Schick in Z.D.P.V. xviii., 1895). (C. W. W.; C. M. W.)
JERUSALEM, SYNOD OF (1672). By far the most important
of the many synods held at Jerusalem (see Wetzer and Welte,
Kirchenlexikon, 2nd ed., vi. 1357 sqq.) is that of 1672; and its
confession is the most vital statement of faith made in the Greek
Church during the past thousand years. It refutes article by
article the confession of Cyril Lucaris, which appeared in Latin
at Geneva in 1629, and in Greek, with the addition of four
“questions,” in 1633. Lucaris, who died in 1638 as patriarch
of Constantinople, had corresponded with Western scholars and
had imbibed Calvinistic views. The great opposition which
arose during his lifetime continued after his death, and found
classic expression in the highly venerated confession of Petrus
Mogilas, metropolitan of Kiev (1643). Though this was intended
as a barrier against Calvinistic influences, certain Reformed
writers, as well as Roman Catholics, persisted in claiming the
support of the Greek Church for sundry of their own positions.
Against the Calvinists the synod of 1672 therefore aimed its
rejection of unconditional predestination and of justification by
faith alone, also its advocacy of what are substantially the
Roman doctrines of transubstantiation and of purgatory; the
Oriental hostility to Calvinism had been fanned by the Jesuits.
Against the Church of Rome, however, there was directed the
affirmation that the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father and
not from both Father and Son; this rejection of the filioque was
not unwelcome to the Turks. Curiously enough, the synod refused
to believe that the heretical confession it refuted was
actually by a former patriarch of Constantinople; yet the proofs
of its genuineness seem to most scholars overwhelming. In
negotiations between Anglican and Russian churchmen the confession
of Dositheus[1] usually comes to the front.
Texts.—The confession of Dositheus, or the eighteen decrees of the Synod of Jerusalem, appeared in 1676 at Paris as Synodus Bethlehemitica; a revised text in 1678 as Synodus Jerosolymitana; Hardouin, Acta conciliorum, vol. xi.; Kimmel, Monumenta fidei ecclesiae orientalis (Jena, 1850; critical edition); P. Schaff, The Creeds of Christendom, vol. ii. (text after Hardouin and Kimmel, with Latin translation); The Acts and Decrees of the Synod of Jerusalem translated from the Greek, with notes, by J. N. W. B. Robertson (London, 1899); J. Michalcescu, Die Bekenntnisse und die wichtigsten Glaubenszeugnisse der griechisch-orientalischen Kirche (Leipzig, 1904; Kimmel’s text with introductions). Literature.—The Doctrine of the Russian Church . . . translated by R. W. Blackmore (Aberdeen, 1845), p. xxv. sqq.; Schaff, i. § 17; Wetzer and Welte, Kirchenlexikon (2nd ed.) vi. 1359 seq.; Herzog-Hauck, Realencyklopädie (3rd ed.), viii. 703–705; Michalcescu, 123 sqq. (See Councils.) (W. W. R.*)
JESI (anc. Aesis), a town and episcopal see of the Marches,
Italy, in the province of Ancona, from which it is 17 m. W. by S.
by rail, 318 ft. above sea-level. Pop. (1901), 23,285. The place
took its ancient name from the river Aesis (mod. Esino), upon the
left bank of which it lies. It still retains its picturesque medieval
town walls. The Palazzo del Comune is a fine, simple, early
Renaissance building (1487–1503) by Francesco di Giorgio
Martini; the walls are of brick and the window and door-frames
of stone, with severely restrained ornamentation. The courtyard
with its loggie was built by Andrea Sansovino in 1519. The
library contains some good pictures by Lorenzo Lotto. The
castle was built by Baccio Pontelli (1488), designer of the castle
at Ostia (1483–1486). Jesi was the birthplace of the emperor
Frederic II. (1194), and also of the musical composer, Giovanni
Battista Pergolesi (1710–1736). The river Aesis formed the
boundary of Italy proper from about 250 B.C. to the time of
Sulla (c. 82 B.C.); and, in Augustus’ division of Italy, that
between Umbria (the 6th region) and Picenum (the 5th). The
town itself was a colony, of little importance, except, apparently,
as a recruiting ground for the Roman army.
JESSE, in the Bible, the father of David (q.v.), and as such
often regarded as the first in the genealogy of Jesus Christ (cf.
Isa. xi. 1, 10). Hence the phrase “tree of Jesse” is applied to
a design representing the descent of Jesus from the royal line of
David, formerly a favourite ecclesiastical ornament. From a
recumbent figure of Jesse springs a tree bearing in its branches
the chief figures in the line of descent, and terminating in the
figure of Jesus, or of the Virgin and Child. There are remains of
such a tree in the church of St Mary at Abergavenny, carved in
wood, and supposed to have once stood behind the high altar.
Jesse candelabra were also made. At Laon and Amiens there
are sculptured Jesses over the central west doorways of the
cathedrals. The design was chiefly used in windows. The
great east window at Wells and the window at the west end of
the nave at Chartres are fine examples. There is a 16th-century
Jesse window from Mechlin in St George’s, Hanover Square,
London. The Jesse window in the choir of Dorchester Abbey,
Oxfordshire, is remarkable in that the tree forms the central
mullion, and many of the figures are represented as statuettes
on the branches of the upper tracery; other figures are in the
stained glass; the whole gives a beautiful example of the combination
of glass and carved stonework in one design.
JESSE, EDWARD (1780–1868), English writer on natural
history, was born on the 14th of January 1780, at Hutton Cranswick,
Yorkshire, where his father was vicar of the parish. He
became clerk in a government office in 1798, and for a time was
secretary to Lord Dartmouth, when president of the Board of
Control. In 1812 he was appointed commissioner of hackney
coaches, and later he became deputy surveyor-general of the
royal parks and palaces. On the abolition of this office he
retired on a pension, and he died at Brighton on the 28th of
March 1868.
The result of his interest in the habits and characteristics of animals was a series of pleasant and popular books on natural history, the principal of which are Gleanings in Natural History (1832–1835); An Angler’s Rambles (1836); Anecdotes of Dogs (1846); and Lectures on Natural History (1863). He also edited Izaak Walton’s Compleat Angler, Gilbert White’s Selborne, and L. Ritchie’s Windsor Castle, and wrote a number of handbooks to places of interest, including Windsor and Hampton Court.
JESSE, JOHN HENEAGE (1815–1874), English historian,
son of Edward Jesse, was educated at Eton, and afterwards
- ↑ Patriarch of Jerusalem (1669–1707), who presided over the synod.
