Of the varied experiences of this, or of the other churches to be brought under our review, it does not comport with the object of these brief notices to attempt a chronological detail: for these we must refer to the voluminous labours of the ecclesiastical annalists, content to point out here the principal events in the history of these communities, which appear to have acted with the strongest force on their progress, character, and fate.
It is commonly thought, that about the same time as that of the election of the seven deacons at Jerusalem,[1] St. James was established the first bishop of that church.[2] He is sometimes called "the brother of our Lord," in accordance with the Jewish, custom of giving the title of brother to a relative or connexion; James being the son of Alphæus and of Maria, the near relative of the blessed Virgin. His long-tried rectitude procured him the title of "the Just;" and his habitual and fervent intercessions for the people, that of Ophlia, or "the fortress of God." He superintended the affairs of the church for nearly thirty years. It was in the early part of his episcopate that the deliberative assembly, sometimes called the council of Jerusalem, was held on the question of a strict uniformity of ceremonial practice between the Hebrew and Gentile believers;[3] when, under the express teaching of the Holy Spirit, the apostles and presbyters convened pronounced such an uniformity to be unnecessary. In the practice of the church of Jerusalem there obtained for a considerable time a modified
- ↑ Circa Annum 31. Acts vi. Conf. Euseb. Chron. an. 34. Ibid. Eccl. Hist. ii. 1.
- ↑ He must not be confounded with James the apostle, surnamed the Greater, or Elder, who was the son of Zebedee and Salome, and brother of St. John, and who was martyred under Herod in 42 or 44. Conf. Euseb. E. H. ii. 23, et 32. Constit. Apost. ii. c. 55; vi. 12; vii. 47. (Labbei Conc. tom. 1.) Hier. Catal. Vir. Illustr. Epiphan. Hæres. 78.
- ↑ Acts xv.
