Adam Simmons at 16:45, 3 July 2015

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← Older revision		Revision as of 16:45, 3 July 2015
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	with infidels, to wit, Nubia, which adjoins Egypt, and the		with infidels, to wit, Nubia, which adjoins Egypt, and the
	greater part of Ethiopia, and all the countries as far as		greater part of Ethiopia, and all the countries as far as
	India — more than forty kingdoms, they declare, belong to		India - more than forty kingdoms, they declare, belong to
	them. They are all Christians, and were converted by the		them. They are all Christians, and were converted by the
	Apostle St. Matthew, and other Apostolic men; but ~~after-~~		Apostle St. Matthew, and other Apostolic men; but afterwards the enemy sowed tares among them, and they have
	~~wards~~ the enemy sowed tares^ among them, and they have
	for a long time wandered in lamentable darkness and error.		for a long time wandered in lamentable darkness and error.
	They for the most part circumcise their children of both		They for the most part circumcise their children of both

Adam Simmons: Created page with "Jacques de Vitry ''(c. 1220)'' ''Bishop of Acre, subsequently Cardinal Bishop of Tusculum, Legate in France and Germany, and Patriarch of Jerusalem.'' ''Historia Hierosoly..."

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Jacques de Vitry

''(c. 1220)''

''Bishop of Acre, subsequently Cardinal Bishop of Tusculum, Legate in France
and Germany, and Patriarch of Jerusalem.''

''Historia Hierosolymitana.''

''Latin.''

LXXV. Moreover, there are in the Holy Land, and in
other parts of the East, other barbarous nations who differ
in many points from the Greeks and Latins. Of these,
some are called Jacobites, from a teacher of theirs named
Jacobus, a disciple of one of the Patriarchs of Alexandria.
They were a long time ago excommunicated and cast out
of the Greek Church by Dioscorus, Patriarch of Constantinople, and inhabit the greater part of Asia and of the
entire East: some of them dwell among the Saracens,
others possess countries of their own, and do not consort
with infidels, to wit, Nubia, which adjoins Egypt, and the
greater part of Ethiopia, and all the countries as far as
India — more than forty kingdoms, they declare, belong to
them. They are all Christians, and were converted by the
Apostle St. Matthew, and other Apostolic men; but after-
wards the enemy sowed tares^ among them, and they have
for a long time wandered in lamentable darkness and error.
They for the most part circumcise their children of both
sexes after the fashion of the Saracens, not understanding
that baptismal grace hath made circumcision of no effect,
even as flowers fall off and wither when fruit is ready to
come. Wherefore St. Paul says to the Galatians: 'If ye
be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing'; and again:
' For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that
he is debtor to perform the whole law. Christ is become
of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the
law; ye are fallen from grace.' Another error of theirs, no
less than the aforesaid, is that they confess their sins not to
priests, but to God alone in secret, setting frankincense on
fire beside them as though their sins would ascend unto
God in the smoke thereof. They do miserably err, not
understanding the Scriptures, and perish through false
doctrine, concealing their wounds from their spiritual
leeches, whose duty it is to distinguish between leprosy and
leprosy, to weigh the circumstances under which men have
sinned and impose penances upon them, to bind and to
loose according as they have received the keys, and to
make special prayers for those who confess to them.
Wherefore in the Gospel the Lord said to the lepers: ' Go,
show yourselves to the priests.'^ And we read of St. John
the Baptist, that men 'were baptized of him, confessing
their sins.' Now, blushing and anxious shame and humble
confession is the greatest part of penance. Men are made
more apt to sin if they think that they need not disclose
their evil deeds to men; for it is written, 'He that covereth
his sins shall not prosper, but whoso confesseth and for-
saketh them shall have mercy.' The third error and crass
ignorance, and, as it were, darkness that may be felt, of the
aforesaid Jacobites or Jacobins, is that many of them, before
baptism, burn and mark their children with a red-hot iron,
making a cautery upon their foreheads. Others mark their
babes with a cross on both cheeks or both temples, wrongly
supposing that they make atonement for their sins by
actual fire, because it is written in St. Matthew's Gospel
that St. John the Baptist said of Christ: 'He shall baptize
you with the Holy Ghost and with fire;' though it is plain
to all believers that the remission of sins shall be performed
by spiritual fire, that is, by the Holy Ghost, not by visible
fire. Wherefore, in the books of the Prophets, the Lord
often reproves the children of Israel, and terribly threatens
them because they passed their children through the fire as
the Gentiles did. For the Lord says in Deuteronomy, by
the mouth of the prophet Moses: 'Thou shalt not learn
to do after the abominations of those nations; there shall
not be found among you any one that maketh his son or
his daughter to pass through the fire.' And all Christians
know that neither our Lord nor His Apostles, nor any of
the holy Fathers, left any custom of this sort in the Church,
or ordered any such brandings to be done. I have seen
both the Jacobites and the Syrians who dwell among the
Saracens with crosses branded on their arms with hot irons;
they say that it is to distinguish them from the infidels, and
out of respect for the holy Cross, that they have the figure
of the cross thus imprinted upon them. I made diligent
inquiry of the Greeks and Syrians wherefore they abominate the Jacobites, and have cut them off from their communion. They said that the chief reason was that they
had fallen into the most evil and damnable heresy of
declaring that, as Christ had only one person, so He had
only one nature. Now, heretics of this kind were excommunicated and condemned by the Council of Chalcedon.
Some of them erroneously affirmed that Christ after He
had taken our nature upon Him did not exist in two
natures, but that the Divine nature alone existed in Him.
This error was brought into the Church by Eutyches, an
Abbot at Constantinople. Others declare that the two
natures in Christ are made one ; the authors of this error are
certain Bishops of Alexandria, named Theodosius and
Galanus. Yet we know for certain that Jesus Christ hungered, thirsted, and felt other needs according to His
human nature, and even suffered death upon the cross,
while according to His Divine nature He raised the dead
and wrought other miracles; it was according to this
nature that He said, 'Before Abraham was, I am'; and again, I that speak unto you am the Beginning'; and yet again,
' I and My Father are One.' The same said according to
His human nature, ' My Father is greater than I.' And
again, when He would have had the cup pass away, ' Not
as I will, but as Thou wilt.' Now, when I made most careful
inquiry of the aforesaid Jacobites whether they held that
there was only one nature in Christ, they said that they did
not; I know not whether they were influenced by fear or
some other reason. When I asked them why they used
only one finger to cross themselves withal, they answered
that by the one finger they symbolized the One Divine
Being, the Trinity in Three Persons, and that thus they
fortified themselves with the sign of the cross in the name
of the Trinity in Unity. But the Greeks and Syrians say
in reproach that they sign themselves with one finger be-
cause of the one nature which they believe Christ to possess.
Some of them use the Chaldean alphabet, some the Arabic
alphabet, which we call Saracenic. Their laity use divers'
idioms in their common speech, according to their various
nations and provinces, and do not understand the language
which their clergy use for Holy Scripture; for though these
use the Saracenic alphabet, yet what is written is not the
vulgar Saracen tongue, but a peculiar language understood
only by the learned.

'''Selected editions'''

Jacques de Vitry, The History of Jerusalem, trans. A. Stewart (London: 1896).

Histoire orientale de Jacques de Vitry, trans. M.-G. Grossel (Paris: 2005).

[[Category:Literary Sources]]
[[Category:Occidental]]

Jacques de Vitry - Revision history

Adam Simmons at 16:45, 3 July 2015

Adam Simmons: Created page with "Jacques de Vitry ''(c. 1220)'' ''Bishop of Acre, subsequently Cardinal Bishop of Tusculum, Legate in France and Germany, and Patriarch of Jerusalem.'' ''Historia Hierosoly..."