Section 110
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T8 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. dea." Such is the more ample testimony of Hegesippus, in which he fully coincides with Clement. So admirable a man indeed was James, and so celebrated among all for his justice, that even the wiser part of the Jews were of opinion that this was the cause of the immediate siege of Jerusalem, which happened to them for no other reason than the crime against him. Josephus also has not hesitated to superadd this testimony in his works : " These things," says he, " happened to the Jews to avenge James the Just, who was the brother of him that is called Christ, and whom the Jews had slain, notwithstanding his pre-eminent jus tice." The same writer also relates his death, in the twentieth book of his Antiquities, in the following words : " But Cesar hav ing learned the death of Festus, sends Albinus as governor of Judea. But the younger Ananus, whom we mentioned before as ob taining the priesthood, was particularly rash and daring in his disposition. He was also of the sect of the Sadducees, which are the most unmerciful of all the Jews in the execution of judgment, as we have already shown. Ananus, therefore, being of this cha racter, and supposing that he had a suitable opportunity, in con sequence of the death of Festus, and Albinus being yet on the way, calls an assembly of the judges ; and bringing thither the brother of Jesus who is called Christ, whose name was James, with some others, he presented an accusation against them, as if they had violated the law, and committed them to be stoned as criminals. But those of the city that seemed most moderate and most accurate in observing the law, were greatly offended at this, and secretly sent to the king, entreating him to send to Ananus with the request not to do these things, saying that he had not acted legally even before. Some also went out to meet him as he came from Alexandria, and inform him that it was not lawful for Ananus to summon the sanhedrim without his knowledge. Al binus, induced by this account, writes to Ananus in a rage, and threatening that he would call him to an account. But king Agrippa, for the same reason, took from him the priesthood, after he had held it three months, and appointed Jesus the son of Dammaeus his successor. These accounts are given respecting James, who is said to have written the first of the epistles general, (ca
