James, the Less. James, called the Less because younger or smaller in stature than James the son of Zebedee. He was the son of Alpheus or Clopas and brother of our Lord (see James); was called to the apostolate, together with his younger brother Jude, in the spring of the year 28. At some time in, the forty days that intervened between the resurrection and the ascension, the Lord appeared to him. 1 Corinthians 15:7.
Ten years after, we find James on a level with Peter, and with him, deciding on the admission of St. Paul into fellowship with the Church at Jerusalem; and from henceforth, we always find him equal, or in his own department superior, to the very chiefest apostles, Peter, John and Paul. Acts 9:27; Galatians 1:18-19. This pre-eminence is evident throughout the after history of the apostles, whether we read it in the Acts, in the Epistles or in ecclesiastical writers. Acts 12:17; Acts 15:13; Acts 15:19; Acts 21:18; Galatians 2:9. According to tradition, James was thrown down from the Temple by the scribes and Pharisees; he was then stoned, and his brains dashed out with a fuller's club.