474 J U B 
10. and as Philo, Jofephus, Eufebius, St. Jerome, St. Au- 
gultine, St. Gregory the Great, St. Ifidore, all the Jews, 
both Talmudilts and Caraites, and a great number of com¬ 
mentators, unclerftand it,) or in the forty-ninth year, as 
feems implied in Lev. xxv. 3 . and as feveral good com¬ 
mentators and chronologifts explain it; it may be noted, 
perhaps, that the fiftieth year is fet down for the forty- 
ninth for the fake only of making a round number ; as we 
often fay, that a month contains thirty days, though, pro¬ 
perly fpeaking, it lbmetimes contains twenty-eight,twenty- 
nine, or thirty-one, days. Befides, if the jubilee-year be¬ 
gan after the forty-ninth year, and at the beginning of the 
fiftieth, it might be called indifferently the forty-ninth 
or fiftieth year. If the civil year began at a different time 
from the ecclefiaftical year, will not that folve the diffi¬ 
culty ? i. e. the fiftieth year, by one account, might be¬ 
gin before the forty-ninth year, by the other account, was 
Fully completed. The greateft difficulty confifts in know¬ 
ing whether in both thefe years the fabbath was obferved, 
and the earth remained untilled, or only in the forty-ninth 
year. One fhould think there would be too many incon¬ 
veniences in obferving the fabbatical reft two years 
fuccefiively; the intention of the legiflature was complied 
with by the reft of one year only. The feventh of the 
fabbatical years had only more privileges annexed to it, 
and was more celebrated than the two preceding. Some 
commentators have doubted whether any jubilee was ever 
kept at all. Calmet, however, gives the following parti¬ 
culars from Maimonides, relating to the celebration of it. 
The nine firft days were fpent in feffivity almoft like the 
Homan Saturnalia. During thefe nine days, the flaves 
did not work, but ate, drank, and were merry, and every 
one put a crown on his head. No fooner was the day of 
folemn expiation come, (the tenth of Tizri,) but the 
counfellors of the Sanhedrim ordered the trumpets to found, 
and at that inftant the flaves were declared free, and the 
lands returned to their original owners. 
This law was deligned to hinder the rich from oppreff- 
ing the poor, and reducing them to perpetual flavery, 
and that they fhould not get poffeffion of all the lands by 
purchafe, mortgage, or ufurpation ; that debts fhould not 
be multiplied too much; and that flaves fhould not con¬ 
tinue always, with their wives and children, in fervitude. 
Befides, Moles intended to preferve, as much as poffible, 
the liberty of perfons, equality of fortunes, and the order 
of families. Alfo, that the people fhould be tied to their 
country, their lands, and inheritance ; that they fhould 
have an affection for them, as eftates defcended from their 
anceftors, and defigned for their pofterity. Something 
like this Lycurgus eftabiifhed among the Lacedaemonians, 
when he inflituted an equality of fortunes; banifhing fla¬ 
very, and preventing, as far as he could, any one’s be¬ 
coming too powerful and rich. 
There were feveral privileges, fays Maimonides, be¬ 
longing to the jubilee-year which did not belong to the 
fabbatical year; and the fabbatical had likewife fome 
fmall advantages above the jubilpe-year. The fabbatical 
year annulled debts, which the jubilee did not; but the 
jubilee reftored flaves to their liberty, and lands to their 
owners; befides, it made reliitution of the lands immedi¬ 
ately on the beginning of the jubilee, whereas, in the fab- 
batical-year, the debts were not difcharged till the end of 
the year. The eftates which had been purchafed or given 
returned to their former makers ; thofe which came by 
right of fueceffion continued with thofe who enjoyed 
them: contracts of fale, wherein a certain number of years 
was expreffed, fubfifled during all thofe years, notwith- 
ftanding the jubilee’s coming on. But abfolute and unli¬ 
mited contracts were voided by the jubilee. Houfes and 
other edifices built in walled towns did not return to the 
proprietor in the jubilee-year. Selden de SucceJJion. in boria, 
lib. iii. cap. *4. 
After the Babyionifb captivity, the Jews continued to 
obferve the fabbatical, but not the jubilee, year. Alex¬ 
ander the Great granted the Jews an exemption from tri— 
J U C' 
bute every feventh or fabbatical-year; but as to the jubi¬ 
lee, fince it was inflituted only with a defign to prevent 
the utter deftrudtion of the partition which had been made 
by Joflnia, and the confufion of tribes and families, it 
was no longer practicable, as before the difperfion of the 
tribes, thofe of them which returned from the captivity 
fettling as they could, and a great number of families, and 
perhaps whole tribes, continuing in the place of their 
captivity. 
Uflier places the firft jubilee after the promulgation of 
the law of Mofes, A. M. 2609; ante A. D. 1395. The 
fecond, A.M. 2658 ante A. D. 1346, The third, A. M. 
2707 ante A.D. 1297, and fo on. 
Jubilee, in a more modern fenfe, denotes a grand 
church folemnity or ceremony, celebrated at Rome, 
wherein the pope grants a plenary indulgence to all Tin¬ 
ners ; at leaft to as many as vifit the churches of St. Pe¬ 
ter and St. Paul at Rome. The jubilee was firft eftabiifhed 
by Boniface VII. in 1300, in favour of thofe who fhould 
go ad limina apojlolorum ; and it was only to return every 
hundred years. But the firft celebration brought in fuch 
ftore of wealth to Rome, that the Germans called this the 
golden year ; which occafioned Clement VI. in 1343, to 
reduce the period of the jubilee to fifty years. Urban VI. 
in 1389, appointed it to be held every thirty-five years, 
that being the age of our Saviour; and Paul II. and Six¬ 
tus IV. in 1475, brought it down to every twenty-five, 
that every perlon might have the benefit of it once in his 
life. Boniface IX. granted the privilege of holding jubi¬ 
lees to feveral princes and monafteries ; for inftance, to 
the monks of Canterbury, who had a jubilee every fifty 
years ; when people flocked from all parts to vifit the 
tomb of Thomas a Becket. Jubilees afterwards became 
more frequent, and the pope granted them as often as the 
church or himfelf had occafion for them. There was ufu- 
ally one at the inauguration of a new pope. To be enti¬ 
tled to the privileges of the jubilee, the bull enjoins fad¬ 
ings, alms, and prayers. It gives the priefts a full power 
to abfolve in all cafes,even in thofe otherwife referved to the 
pope; to make commutations of vows, &c. in which it 
differs from a plenary indulgence. During the time of ju¬ 
bilee, all other indulgences were fufpended. 
One of our kings, viz. Edward III. caufed his birth¬ 
day to be obferved in manner of a jubilee, when he be¬ 
came fifty years of age, in 1362, but never before nor af¬ 
ter. This he did by releafing prifoners, pardoning all of¬ 
fences except treafon, making good laws, and granting 
many privileges to the people. Something of this kind 
was celebrated when his prefent majefty entered the 50th 
year of his reign, and again (Oct. 25, 1810,) when he 
completed it. 
In 1640, the Jefuits celebrated a folemn jubilee at Romej 
that being the centenary, or hundredth year, from their 
inftrtution ; and the fame ceremony was obferved in all 
their houfes thoughout the woild. 
JU'BO, a kingdom of Africa, on the coaft of Ajan, 
nearEaftern Indian Sea, with a capital of the fame name j 
fubjedt to the Portuguefe. Lat. o. 50. N. Ion. 43. 20.. E. 
JU'BO, a river of Africa, which runs into the Indian 
Sea a little to the north of the equinodlial line. Lon. 42. 
46. E. 
JUBU', a town of Africa, in the kingdom of Benin. 
JUBO'NES, a river of Peru, which runs into the Paci¬ 
fic Ocean in lat. 3. 20. S. 
JU'CAL, [Hebrew.] A man’s name. 
JUCARI'CHI, a town of Mexico, in the province of 
New Bifcay: no miles north-weft of Parrah 
JUCASETZ', a town of Sclavonia s. twenty-five miles 
fouth of Efzek. 
IUCATAN'. See Yucatan. 
JUC'CA*,/. in botany. See Yucca. 
JUCEN'DRO, a town of the illand Madagafcar. Lat. 
23. 10 S. Ion. 47.14. E. 
JUCKASJER/VI, a town of Swedilh Lapland : 145 
mires north-weft of Tornea. Lat. 67. 50. N. Ion. 20-. 46. E. 
JUCEL- 
