E06925: Aldhelm, in his poem On the Altars of the Twelve Apostles, records the dedication of an altar to *James (the 'brother of the Lord,' S00058), presumably in Britain. Written in Latin in southern Britain, c. 670/710.

Aldhelm, Carmina Ecclesiastica, 4.7

VII. IN SANCTI IACOBI APOSTOLI
Nec non Iacobus Christi matertera cretus
Et consobrini felici nomine fretus
Hanc aedem Domini de summo servat Olimpo;
Quem plebs Iudaea scaevo bachante tumultu
Pulsum de pinna fullonis sude necavit,
Quod Christum populis scandens fastigia templi
Concionaretur crebro sermone sacerdos.
In cuius genibus cutis callosa refertur,
Dum crebris vicibus oraret voce Tonantem
Poplitibus flexis tundens pavimenta sacelli.
Lanea villosi sprevit velamina pepli
Linea brumosis sumens mantilia flabris;
Sic quoque flagrantem contempnens corpore nardum
Thermarum penitus neglexit pectore pompas;
Non cirros capitis ferrata forfice dempsit
Nec culter malas vestis lanugine rasit.

Cuius virtutum tanta praeconia constant,
Ut vindicta necis, quam dira morte luebat,
Interitus fieret Solimae populique ruina,
Dum Titus Caesar densa comitante caterva
Cum genitore simul Romanis arcibus orto
Urbem ferriferis vallarent milibus amplam,
Donec dira fames consumpsit strage caterva
Moenibus obstructas et muri carcere saeptas.
Tempore quo tenerum mactavit femina natum,
Insuper assandum veribus transfixit acutis;
Quem coctum laribus crudelis mater edebat
Humanae penitus naturae iura resolvens:
Horresco referens effebi funus acerbum.
Sic vindicta crucis multavit clade nefandos,
Sic quoque Iacobi multavit passio sontes!
Undecies centena simul cecidisse leguntur
Milia per miseram moribundis civibus urbem;
Insuper et centum venduntur milia passim,
Quos rigidus ferri neglectos mucro reliquit
Et famis exigua fugerunt funera stipe.


'vii. On St James the Apostle
So too St James, who was born the son of Christ's aunt and who enjoyed the happy distinction of being Christ's cousin, protects from the highest heaven this house of God. The Jews, raging in insane fury, pushed him from the battlements of the church and he was killed by a laundryman's club – all because, after climbing to the roof of the temple, the priest [i.e. James] (had) preached Christ to the people with insistent words. He is said to have had callous skin on his knees because on so many occasions he used to pray aloud to God, pounding the pavement of the church with his bended knees. He scorned the woollen covering of a shaggy cloak, adopting a linen mantel (to face the) wintry blasts. Similarly, he scorned the perfumed oil for his body, and completely avoided the splendour of the public baths for his soul's sake. He did not cut off the locks of his hair with steel scissors, nor did any knife shave the down of his beard from his cheeks.

The reputation of his powers was so great that as punishment for his murder – which he underwent through a cruel death – the destruction of Jerusalem and the fall of the Jews took place, when Titus Caesar, together with his father (Vespasian) who was born in a Roman citadel – accompanied by a massive army, deployed his armed soldiers to lay siege to the great city, until at length a terrible famine wasted with death and destruction the crowds contained by the ramparts and enclosed within the prison of the city walls. It was at this time that a woman butchered her young child; what is more, she transfixed him with sharp spits in order to be roasted; when he was cooked by the flames, the cruel mother ate him, destroying utterly the bonds of human nature: I recoil in horror from describing the boy's violent death. Thus did the vengeance of the Cross punish the impious with destruction; so too did the martyrdom of St James punish the guilty! Eleven times 100,000 are said to have died at that time in the wretched city [i.e. Jerusalem] with its doomed inhabitants; moreover, another 100,000 were sold into slavery everywhere – those whom the rigid blade of the steel sword spared and who (only) escaped by death from starvation on miserable rations.'


Text: Ehwald 1919, 25-7. Translation: Lapidge and Rosier 1985, 54-5, title lightly modified.