Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 8.djvu/327

 JAMAY

275

JAMES

The exports are salt and sponges. The seat of govern- ment is at Grand Turk, the town containing 1750 inhabitants. The Cayman Islands, having an area of about 225 square miles, are situated some ISO miles to the W. N. W. of Negril Point, Jamaica. They were discovered by Christopher Columbus and named by him Las Tortugas, on account of the turtles with which the coast swarmed. The estimated population of the three islands. Grand Cayman, Cajinan Brae, and Little Cayman, is 5000 for the largest island, and about 1000 between the two smaller islands. The ex- ports are coco-nuts, turtles, phosphates, ropes, cordage, etc., made from the palm-thatch which grows in abundance. Shipbuilding to a limited extent goes on; sloops and schooners of from 40 to 70 tons register are built from native w'oods, mahogany, cedar, calabash, cashaw, etc., and sold in Cuba. The Cayman group has an administrator and local jus- tices and forms a dependency under the jurisdiction of Jamaica.

Long. History of Jamaica (3 vols., London. 1774); Bridges, The Annals of Jamaica (2 vols., London, 1S20); G.^Rhner. ,-1 History of Jamaica (London, 1873); Ellis. A Short Sketch of the History of the Church of England in Jamaica (Kingston, Jam., 1891); Hill, The Geology and Physical Geography of Jamaica (Cambridse. Mas.s.. 1.S99); Cundall. Jamaica in 1905. Hand- book, etc. (Kingston, Jam., 1905); Handbook of Jamaica (hondou and Kingston, Jam., annual publication).

J. F. Donovan.

Jamay, Denis, Franciscan missionary, date and place of birth unknown; d.in France, 1625; an impor- tant figure in the early history of the Church in Canada. In 1615 he was chosen by his superiors in France as provincial commissary and chief of the first band of Recollect friars, who were also the first missionaries of Canada. Leaving France on 24 April, 1615, he arrived at Tadoussac on 24 May, and went immediately with Champlain to meet the sav- ages at Sault St. Louis. On 24 June, 1615, at Ri\i("'re des Prairies, he celebrated the first Mass saitl in the country by its first missionaries. In 1616 Fatlicr Jamay returned to France with Champlain to urge before the king and the "Associates" of Rouen the material and spiritual interests of the colony. In 1620, again elected commissary pro- vincial, he returned to Canada with Champlain and his wife. On reaching Quebec he exhorted the col- onists to obey the viceroy and his lieutenant, Cham- plain. Having completed the first regular convent of the Recollects at Quebec, he blessed it and dedi- cated it to Our Lady of the Angels. He returned to France in 1621.

.MSS. Hist, chronol. de la Prov. de St-Denys (1677) in Biljli- oth^que Nationale. Paris; CEuvres de Champlain, ed. Laver- DiERE (Quebec, 1870); Sagard, Histoire du Canada (Paris. 1636) : Leclercq, Premier etahlissement de la foi dans la Nou- velle France (Paris. 1691); Dionne, Samuel Champlain (Quebec, 1906); Beaubien, Sault-au-Recollet (Montreal, 1898).

Odoric-M. Jouve.

James, Edward, Venerable. See Ralph Crock- ett, Venerable.

James, Epi.stle ofS.\int. — The questions concern- ing this Epistle are treated in the following order: — I. Author and Genuineness; II. Tradition as to the Canonicity; III. Analysis and Contents of the Epistle; IV. Occasion and Object; V. To whom addressed; VI. Style; VII. Time and Place of composition.

I. Author .^nd Genuineness. — The author is com- monly identified with the Lord's brother, the Bishop of Jerusalem (see J.\mes the Less, S-Unt; the view that the Lord's brother must be identified with James, the son of .\lpheus, is by far the most probable). Internal evidence (contents of the Epistle, its style, address, date, and place of composition) points un- niistak;dily to James, the Lord's brother, the Bishop of Jerus:ilem, as the author: he exactly, and he alone, fulfils the conditions required in the writer of the Epistle. External evidence begins at a comparatively late date. Some coincidences, or analogies, exist be-

tween the Epistle and the Apostolic Fathers (Clement of Rome, the Pastor Hermas, St. Justin, St. Ire- na;us: see Mienertz, "Der Jacoliusbrief ", Freiburg im Br., 1905, p. 55 sqq.). The literary relation between the Epistle of James and the Epistle to the Romans is doubtfid. Its later recognition in the Church, espe- cially in the West, must be explained by the fact that it was written for Jewish Christians, and therefore not widely circulated among the Gentile ( 'hurchos. From the middle of the third century, ecclesiastic;il authors cite the Epistle as written by St. James, the brother of the Lord. See the testimonies in the section follow- ing. The greater number of the Fathers in the Western Church identify the author with James the Apostle. In the Eastern Church, however, the authority of Eusebius and St. Epiphanius may explain some eccle- siastical doubts about the Apostolic origin of the EpLstle, and consequently about its canonicity.

II. Tradition as to Canonicity. — In the first cen- turies of the Church the authenticity of the Epistle was doubted by some, and amongst others by Theodore of Mopsuestia; it is therefore deutero- canonic;il. It is wanting in the Muratorian Canon, and bi>c;iuso of the silence of several of the Western Churches rej:;irdi!ig it, l^usebius classes it amongst the Antilcyomcua or contested writings (Hist, eccl.. Ill, xxv; II, xxiii): St. Jerome gives the like information (De vir. ill., ii), but adds that with time its authen- ticity became universally admitted. In the sixteenth century its inspired character was contested Ijy Eras- mus and Cajetan; Luther strongly repudiated the Epistle as "a letter of straw", and "unworthy of the apostolic Spirit ", and this solely for dogmatic reasons, and owing to his preconceived notions, for the Epistle refutes his heretical doctrine that Faith alone is neces- sary for salvation. The Council of Trent dogmatically defined the Epistle of St. James to be canonical. As the solution of this question of the history of the canonicity of the Epistle depends chiefly on the testi- mony of the ancient Fathers, it remains to be seen whether it is quoted by them as Scripture, (a) In the Latin Church it was known by St. Clement of Rome (before A. D. 100), the Pastor Hermas (about a. d. 150), St. Irena;us (125?-202?, 208), TertuUian (d. about 240), St. Hilarj' (d. .366), St. Philaster (d. 3S5), St. Ambrose (d. 397), Pope Damasus (in the canon of about A. D. 382). St. Jerome (346-420), Rufinus (d. 410), St. Augustine (430), and its canonicity is un- questioned by them, (b) In the Greek Church, Clem- ent of Alexandria (d. 217), Origen (d. 254), St. Athan- asius (d. 373), St. Dionysius the Areopagite (about A. D. 500), etc., considered it undoubtedly as a sacred writing, (c) In the Syrian Church, the Peshito, al- though omitting the minor Catholic Epistles, gives that of St. James; St. Ephraem uses it frequently in his writings. Moreover, the most notorious heretics of Syria recognised it as genuine. Thus we find that Nestorius ranked it in the Canon of Sacred Books, and James of Edessa adduces the testimony of James, v, 14. The Epistle is found in the Coptic, Sahidtc, Ethiopic, Arabic, and Armenian versions. Although, there- fore, the canonicity of the Epistle of St. James was questioned by a few during the first centuries, there are to be found from the very earliest ages, in dif- ferent parts of the Church, numerous testimonies in favour of its canonicity. From the end of the third century its acceptance as inspired, and as the work of St. James, has been universal, as clearly appears from the various lists of the Sacred Books drawn up since the fourth century.

III. .\nalysis and Contents of the Eplstle. — The subjects treated of in the Epistle :ire many and various; moreover, St. James not imfrequently, whilst elucidatingacertainpoint, passes al>ru]itly to another, and presently resumes once more his former argument; hence it is difficult to give a precise division of the Epistle. It is doubtful whether the sacred writer