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THE

SYEIAN CHUECH IN INDIA

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PERSIAN CROSS IN OLD CHURCH AT COTTAYAM.
About Tenth Century.

Fron tispiece.

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THE

SYEIAN CHURCH IN INDIA

GEOEGE MILNE EAE, M.A.
FELLOW OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MADRAS J LATE PROFESSOR
IN THE MADRAS CHRISTIAN COLLEGE

WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS
EDINBURGH AND LONDON
MDCCCXCII

TO

MY WIPE

PEEFACE.

The Syrian Church in India, which is sometimes
called the Church of the Christians of St Thomas,
has hitherto been but little known in the West.
The first of the European nations that held inter
course with it was the Portuguese, and it was from
the records of the ecclesiastical relations between
the Portuguese and the Syrians • that Michael
G-eddes compiled his ' History of the Church of
Malabar' (1694), which was the first work in Eng
lish on the subject, and is still of considerable
value. Gibbon, who approached it by a different
route, introduced into a memorable chapter of the
' Decline and Fall ' a notice of the ancient Church
which for comprehensiveness of grasp and general
accuracy has not been surpassed. But it was
reserved for Claudius Buchanan, whose aims were

Vlll PREFACE.
of a distinctly practical character, to habilitate in
this country a knowledge of the Syrian Christians.
Buchanan, however, did not write history but
only an account of his own travels and observations ;
and, in so far as he touched on Syrian history or
Syrian doctrine, his information was imperfect and
in many cases misleading. He depended for light
largely on the talk of the Syrians themselves.
Still, his ' Christian Besearches in Asia,' which
seldom failed to communicate a gleam of his own
enthusiasm to his followers, became the chief guide
of a band of writers, who, it must be added, never
moved out of traditional grooves.
When some twenty-four years ago I went as a
missionary to Madras in the service of the Free
Church of Scotland, I came, like Buchanan, into
direct touch with the Syrians. I found that there
were always representatives of the Syrian com
munity among my students in the Christian Col
lege. During the midsummer vacation in 1870,
I paid a visit to the Malabar coast, where the
Church had existed from a date earlier than the
coming of St Augustine and his monks to Canter
bury. From time to time I examined the holy
places sacred to St Thomas in the neighbourhood
of Madras, where a sister Syrian Church had

PREFACE. IX
existed for the better part of a thousand years, and
ceased to be only about the time when Luther was
becoming a power in Europe. But satisfactory
historical knowledge seemed hard to acquire, and
something more was demanded than Geddes, or
Gibbon, or Buchanan and his following, or the
Syrians themselves could supply.
At length I was led into more fruitful fields of
inquiry. I explored the primitive traditions con
cerning St Thomas, with a view to ascertain the
origin and value of the local tradition. I studied
the history of Christianity in other parts of Asia,
with a view to discover the true kinship of the
Syrian Church. I became acquainted with the
results of archaeological research and of Dravidian
scholarship relevant to my subject. I tracked the
footsteps of travellers in India in the middle ages,
and followed the political relations of European
peoples to the dwellers on the Malabar coast.
Finally, I acquired possession of copies of the
documents, the evidence of witnesses, and the
decisions of the judges in a case of disputed suc
cession in the bishopric of the Syrian Church,
which ran the gauntlet of the civil courts of
Travancore, and which remained for ten years,
1879-89, on their files. Of my obligations to these

X PREFACE.
classes of authorities, and to others, specific ac
knowledgments are made in an appendix of notes.
Certain of the following chapters appeared in
such Indian periodicals as the 'Madras Christian
College Magazine,' the ' Indian Evangelical Be-
view,' and the 'Harvest Field.' I was anxious to
offer facilities for criticism to educated members of
the Syrian community, from whose views on the
origin of their Church I strongly differed. My
challenge, if I may call it such, was promptly
taken up by a Syrian graduate of the Madras
University. From others, suggestions of value
were received. Many of the chapters therefore
have been entirely recast ; and the work, which
has been prepared in the midst of a busy mis
sionary life, is now submitted to the kindly con
sideration of scholars and the public, as a contri
bution to the history of Christianity in India.
G. M. E.

CONTENTS.

INTRODUCTION.
CHAP. PAGE
I. THE HOME OP THE SYRIANS, .... 3
IL THE MIGRATION OP A TRADITION, . . .15
III. ST THOMAS, THE APOSTLE OP THE PARTHIANS, . 27
TV. ST THOMAS, THE APOSTLE OP THE INDIANS, . 39
t
V. THE FIRST INDIAN MISSIONARY, ... 62
VI. PERSIA AND INDIA, ..... 79
VII. WHICH INDIA 1 ..... ¦ 89
THE NESTORIAN PERIOD.

VIII. THE PATRIARCHATE OP BABYLON,
IX. THREE PERSIAN CROSSES,
X. THE JEWS OF COCHIN,
XI. TWO COPPER-PLATE CHARTERS, .
XII. THE LAST OP THE PERUMALS, .

105114
131
154169

Xll

CONTENTS.

THE ROMAN PERIOD.
xiii. rome's first work in india, .
xiv. the inquisition at goa,
xv. the synod of diamper, 1599, .
xvi. at the coonen cross, .

187
198
225256

THE JACOBITE PERIOD.
XVII. THE SYRIAN JACOBITES, .
XVIII. THE ENGLISH MISSION TO THE SYRIANS,
XIX. MAR ATHANASIUS MATTHEW,
XX. TEN YEARS OF LITIGATION,
XXI. THE HOPE OF THE PUTURE,

APPENDIX,INDEX, .

265 281
304327353361
383

ILLUSTRATIONS.

PERSIAN CROSS IN OLD CHURCH AT COTTAYAM,
ABOUT TENTH CENTURY, . . . Frontispiece
MAILAPORE CATHEDRAL, ... . To face p. 16
GONDOPHARES COINS, FIRST CENTURY, . . . Pages 52, 53
st thomas's mount, near madras, . . . To face p. 82
PERSIAN CROSS IN CHAPEL ON ST THOMAS'S MOUNT,
SEVENTH OR EIGHTH CENTURY, . . . u 119
CHURCH AND HERMITAGE AT THE LITTLE MOUNT,
MADRAS, ... . . .1 240
RELIQUARY IN CHAPEL, MAILAPORE CATHEDRAL, . ii 312

INTEODUCTION

*** The refereiice figures in this volume apply to Notes
collected in the Appendix.

THE SYEIAN CHUECH IN INDIA.

CHAPTEE I.
THE HOME OF THE SYRIANS.
The Syrian Church of Southern India is the
oldest of all the Indian Churches. It has seen
the lapse of nearly fourteen centuries of time, and
it still lives as a community more than 400,000
strong on the mountain-slopes and in the valleys
of the Malabar coast.
Malankarai, which is the official designation of the
Syrian diocese, falls, within two native States allied
for the last hundred years as feudatories to the
British Government. It includes the whole of Cochin
and the northern or Malayalam-speaking portion of
Travancore, as far south as Trivandrum, the capital.

4 INTRODUCTION.
The largest number, and probably the most enlight
ened of the Syrians, dwell to-day in Travancore.
This land in which the Syrians live is possessed
of extraordinary riches in respect to both its fauna
and its flora.1 On his recent visit to Southern
India, one of the entertainments arranged for his
Eoyal Highness the late Duke of Clarence and
Avondale was a run into the hunting-grounds of
Travancore after such big game as elephants and
bison, tigers and black panthers ; while the export
of pepper and cardamoms, together with the fibre
and other products of the palm-tree, enrich the
markets alike of the Old World and the New. Its
ever green undulations of surface form a striking
contrast to the often parched plains on the eastern
side of the Ghauts.
The most outstanding feature of the landscape
is the great water-way which runs from end to end
of Malankarai. It consists of a series of lakes, con
nected with one another, and separated from the
sea by a belt of land. Sometimes this back-water
expands to a breadth of many miles, sometimes
contracts to quite narrow channels. The banks are
clothed with cocoanut - palms and studded with
villages. All traffic is by water, and vessels of
many sorts and sizes are seen gliding in all direc-

HOME OF THE SYRIANS. 5
tions, giving life and animation to the foreground of
a picture which is rendered still more impressive by
a background of lofty mountains. Along this route
the voyager may travel, if he avoids the monsoon,
with much enjoyment. In one of the commodious
cabin-boats, manned by some fifteen lusty brown
rowers, whose indefatigable labours are accompanied
with songs or responsive chants in ringing metallic
notes, he is borne along at. the rate of from four to
five miles an hour, with a wealth of tropical vegeta
tion mirrored in the bright blue waters by day, and
the flitting light of myriads of fire-flies at night,
so that at every turn he is almost constrained to
fancy himself in fairy-land. The Brahmans have
invented the legend that all this region west of the
Ghauts was rescued from the sea by Parasurama,
an incarnation of Vishnu ; and, if it was so, the
feat was worthy of his mace.
The civil government of these two native States
has long been remarkably successful. The members
of the royal families have in some cases been ac
complished men, a series of able native dewans
have been at the head of the administration, and
the whole has been in a manner controlled by a
British Political Eesident.
The Eajahs are Sudras, not Brahmans — an illus-

6 INTRODUCTION.
tration of the fact that, when the Brahmans first
came to Southern India, they sometimes found the
government in the hands of native princes, whom
they had the best of all reasons for not attempting
to replace. In the division of Sudras to which the
Eajahs belong, commonly called Nayars, a peculiar
law of inheritance obtains. Succession runs in the
female line. With us the king is succeeded by his
son or his son's son, but there he is succeeded by
his sister's son or his sister's daughter's son. Nor
mally the nephew is the heir. If the king's sister
has several sons, the eldest may be succeeded by the
second, and the second by the third, and so on. In
the event of sisters or sisters' daughters failing,
recourse must be had to adoption of women from
other families, who thus, according to law and
custom, become the sisters of the princes of the
blood-royal. The Eajah's own children usually
receive some private property in the lifetime of
their father, but have no claim on the throne
or royal honours ; and their descendants in course
of time sink to the level of ordinary Sudras. Nor
is this peculiar law of inheritance 2 confined to the
royal families. The sons of any woman of that
caste inherit the property and heritable honours,
not of the father, but of their mother's brother.

HOME OF THE SYRIANS. 7
They are their uncle's nearest heirs, and he is
their legal guardian. A man's sister's son and a
woman's own son, as their respective nearest blood
relatives, perform (if their age permits) the funeral
rites on their decease.
The sovereigns of Travancore have to pass
through a singular experience. They are, as
we have seen, not Brahmans, but Sudras ; and,
although the law of the Brahman is the same
as that of the poet — he is born, not made —
yet the Maharajah of Travancore is an exception
of the kind which proves the rule. He is made
a Brahman, and the ceremony by which this
transformation is effected is curious.3 His High
ness is first weighed against gold taken from his
own treasury, which is then melted and worked
into the form of a hollow cow. Into this hollow
cow the Maharajah is laid, and then removed,
and thus born again- — the cow being a peculiarly
sacred animal in Hindu symbolism, and possessing
a sort of sacramental virtue. But this old-fash
ioned method of exhibiting the pagan idea of
regeneration has been superseded" within recent
memory by another, perhaps less undignified.
The gold in this case is worked into the form of
a hollow cylinder, surmounted by a lotus-shaped

8 INTRODUCTION.
cover adorned with precious stones — the lotus
among flowers being considered peculiarly sacred.
The entrance of the king into this cylinder, and
his exit from it — preceded, accompanied, and
followed by worshipful acts of an idolatrous char
acter — are supposed to produce the desired effect ;
one indispensable condition to be fulfilled by the
royal neophyte being that, whatever form the
golden matrix may have taken, the cow or lotus-
crowned cylinder, having served its purpose, shall
be converted into coins and distributed among
the Brahmans, in return for the doubtful privilege,
which the now twice - born Maharajah thencefor
ward enjoys, of being no longer able to eat food
with the members of his own family.
This weighing ceremony is not in general per
formed immediately on the accession of a sover
eign ; and it has been suggested that it is put off
to allow his Highness time to increase in stout
ness and weight, and so the more to fatten the
Brahmans. Indeed there are darker rumours, to
the effect that the days of the Maharajah are
sometimes shortened by means not sanctioned in
the moral law, on the unacknowledged plea that
the oftener such an enriching ceremonial is re
peated the better. However this may be, when

HOME OF THE SYRIANS. 9
the weighing ceremony was performed in 1870,
the quantity of gold placed in the scale opposite
to the Maharajah, weighted with his sword and
shield, was 204 lb. avoirdupois. But this was only
a small part of the expenses attending all the cere
monies Connected with the materialistic exhibition
of the idea of regeneration. If Travancore were
not naturally rich, and well administered financi
ally, it would be unable to stand such drains, in
this and other forms, as are made on its revenue
in the name of the gods.
With Brahmans, Nayars, and other Hindu
castes, with agrestic slaves and others who have
no caste at all, the Syrian Christians share the
picturesque territory of Malankarai ; and . they
have from time immemorial claimed to be, in
point of social precedence, next to the Nayars.
In daily contact with pagan life and isolated as
they were for centuries from the rest of Christen
dom, it is not wonderful that the habits of thought,
the forms of worship, and the life-practices of the
Syrians have been found to differ from those of
other Christian communities and to have become
deteriorated. Nevertheless their adhesion to the
worship of the one living God; their adoration
of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; their preser-

10 INTRODUCTION.
vation and use of the Holy Scriptures in the
Peschito version ; their maintaining houses of
prayer, and not forsaking the assembling of them
selves together on the weekly Day of Best ; their
administration of the Christian sacraments ; their
observance of the festivals of the Christian year ;
and the comparative respect and liberty accorded
to their women ; — all these things seem to entitle
them to one of the many mansions in the visible
Church. They of course hold these doctrines and follow
these practices in their own oriental way ; and
much ignorance and many errors no doubt mingle
with them. Few weak communities, however, have
suffered so much at the hands of stronger ones,
on account of their being misunderstood and
unsympathetically regarded. It seems always
difficult for the ecclesiastical mind, of whatever
school, to meet members of remote Churches on
the broad platform of humanity, to deal with
them in the first place as men bearing the image
of God, and to be helpful to them apart altogether
from considerations of proselytism. The Syrian
Christians have suffered not only at the hands
of non-Christian princes, but also at the hands of
ecclesiastics, both European and Asiatic, more

HOME OF THE SYRIANS. 11
especially the Portuguese, so that in their isola
tion and distress they have been sometimes com
pared to the Waldenses. The valleys of Malabar
have awakened memories of the valleys of Pied
mont. The Syrians will still tell you, as they told
Claudius Buchanan at the beginning of the cen
tury, how as a people they had seen better days,
and how they had been harried not only by the
pagan, but by folk from the West whom they had
reason to expect to be their friends. The advent
of the British to power on that coast delivered
them from at least the coarser forms of persecution.
The Syrian churches are prominent objects in
the landscape, being so much larger than the
houses in the villages where they are built.
Towers and spires are rare, and there is little
show of architectural elegance. Unadorned struc
tures of brick and plaster, roofed with tiles and
dimly lighted, receive the Syrian worshippers.
No seats are provided, and the idea of pews has
not yet reached Malabar. At the western end
of the church is a gallery, part of which is divided
into rooms for the accommodation of the bishop
on the occasion of his visits. Part of the nave
immediately in front of the chancel is railed off,
and is used as a place for the interment of priests ;

1 2 INTRODUCTION.
and over this space hangs a brass lamp which
is kept burning night and day, and from wrhich
oil is said to be sometimes taken for use in the
baptismal service, and sometimes for medical
purposes. In one of the side walls, and remote
from the chancel, is the baptismal font, which
consists of a hemispherical basin of hewn stone,
large enough for the baptism of infants by immer
sion. Attached to or surrounding the central
edifice are open sheds, cook-houses, and other
buildings for the accommodation of the people on
festive occasions.
Public worship is conducted chiefly in Syriac,
and the Liturgy of St James, which has been made
accessible to English readers,4 is that which is now
used in the diocese. Additions, apparently author
ised, are sometimes made to the Order of St James.
Claudius Buchanan, for example, describes an act
which pleased him much at the close of a service
which he witnessed one Sunday. " The priest (or
bishop if he be present)," he says, "comes forward,
and all the people pass by him as they go out, re
ceiving his benediction individually. If any man
has been guilty of any immorality, he does not
receive the blessing; and this, in their primitive
and patriarchal state, is accounted a severe punish-

HOME OF THE SYRIANS. 13
ment." "Instruction by preaching," he adds, "is
little used among them now."
Again, the Eev. S. Mateer, who has been for many
years a missionary in Travancore, and who was
present one Sunday at public worship in a Syrian
church, describes a ceremony called 'giving the
peace,' " which," he says, " was performed before
the consecration of the elements. The deacon who
carried the censer took from it a double handful of
the smoke, which he smelled, and then appeared to
hand it to the priest, who received it with both
hands. Going to the people, he gave it into the
hands of two or three of the nearest, who put it to
their faces, and then pretended to pass it on to the
others, till it went round the whole congregation.
One of the good people came up to me where I was
standing, and said, ' Do you want this peace, sir ?
This is the sign of peace.' 'Yes,' I replied, and
gave my hand, which he took in both his and
slightly stroked."
As a rule, marriages are celebrated on Sundays,
and forbidden on fast-days; and the bride and
bridegroom must attend public worship before
being married, else a fine is imposed.
The local head of the church is the bishop or
metran (i.e., metropolitan), with priests (cattanars)

14 INTRODUCTION.
and deacons under him.. In old times the metran
not only was the spiritual ruler of his people, but
also had, within certain limits, jurisdiction over
them in civil and criminal affairs. Even still he
retains some tokens of a departed glory. When he
makes a visit of ceremony, his state palanquin, the
red umbrellas of his attendants, the white dresses
of the priests, and the flutter of a little crowd of
hangers-on, form a picturesque group in procession.
On such an occasion he wears a cassock of figured
lawn over crimson satin, and a tippet of em
broidered cloth stiff with gold ; a mitre of red and
green velvet, with gold ornamentation ; a golden
cross studded with rubies on his breast ; an orna
mental bag in his hand; while a silver crosier is
carried behind him by an attendant priest.5
The metran's position might still be one of great
and beneficent influence over a peaceful, industrious,
and fairly prosperous section of the people of the
Malabar coast. But we can hardly be in a position
to understand the divided condition of the diocese
and other causes of its present weakness, or to
attempt to forecast its future, until after we have
traced the evolutions of its history from the begin
ning down to the present time.

15

CHAPTEE II.
THE MIGRATION OF A TRADITION.
The Syrian Church of Southern India is a most
interesting monument of the permanence of the
fruit of missionary effort. It is a heretical branch
of the Oriental Church, and its history must be
viewed in relation to the history of Christianity in
other parts of Asia.
Unfortunately its history has been overgrown by
a mass of local tradition. The local tradition pos
tulates the personal advent of St Thomas, the
apostle, to peninsular India. The story goes that
St Thomas, having landed at Malankara, an island
in the lagoon near Cranganore, preached to the
natives and baptised many that believed ; that,
having planted seven churches 1 on the Malabar
coast like the seven churches of the Apocalypse, he
ordained two priests over them and departed ; that

1 6 INTRODUCTION.
he went to Mailapore on the Coromandel coast and
converted the king and all the people ; that he ex
tended his journey to China with like results ; and
that, returning to Mailapore, he excited by his suc
cesses the jealousy of the Brahmans, who stirred up
the people to stone him, after which one of them
thrust him through with a lance.
For these last scenes in the career of St Thomas,
fitting localities have been invented. There are
three such places in the neighbourhood of Madras.
They are marked respectively by a grave, a cross,
and a cave ; at each a church has been built ; and
they are all under the jurisdiction of the Eoman
Catholic Bishop of Mailapore, who is subject to
the Archbishop of Goa.
The first of these holy places is Mailapore, or,
as the Portuguese named it, San Thome, three miles
south of Fort St George. Attached to the Eoman
Catholic cathedral is a little chapel, in the floor
of which a trap-door gives access to what is popu
larly regarded as the grave of St Thomas. From
this dark underground chamber many a handful
of dust is, as in the days of Marco Polo, carried
off by the faithful to cure diseases. Over the
altar is a quaint old scrinium, with a cruciform
reliquary, made of brass, and adorned with precious

m

RELIQUARY IN CHAPEL, MAILAPORE CATHEDRAL.
Said to contain the Relics of St Thomas.

MIGRATION OF A TRADITION. 17
stones, in which are deposited some of the ashes
and bones of the apostle, together with fragments
of the spear by which he won the crown of
martyrdom. The discovery of these relics has all the interest
of a little romance. It appears that in 1517 certain
Portuguese adventurers visited the Coromandel
coast in company with an Armenian merchant who
was well acquainted with that part of India. They
landed at Pulicat, and went thence to Mailapore,
where they saw many ruined buildings and stones
of divers colours, still retaining traces of ancient
grandeur ; whilst in the midst of these ruins was
a chapel, entire, of mean appearance, on the inside
and outside of which many crosses of a peculiar
form were carved. It would seem that the
Christian population of Mailapore had by that time
become extinct 2 ; but a Musalman who resided
there, perceiving the strangers examining the
locality, came up and told them that the church,
of which only a small part was then standing, was
the place where St Thomas and some of his first con
verts lay buried. No further action, however, seems
to have been taken on this discovery until 1522,
when Duarte Menezes, viceroy of Goa, in pursuance
of orders from John III. of Portugal, appointed
B

1 8 INTRODUCTION.
a commission to visit Mailapore and search for the
body of St Thomas. The labours of this commis
sion resulted in their unearthing, from beneath the
ruins of the ancient church, what they believed to
be the bones of the apostle, together with those of
the king whom he converted. It was easy for
them, they thought, to distinguish the apostle's
bones on account of their superior whiteness, and
to identify the head of the fatal lance, found at
the same time. The relics thus discovered were
transported to Goa, and received into the city
with great rejoicings, and deposited in a shrine
enriched with silver, in the church named after St
Thomas. It must be presumed that a portion of
the relics was left at Mailapore.
The second of the holy places is St Thomas's
Mount, about eight miles south-west of Fort St
George. There, in 1547, while the foundations of
a chapel or hermitage were being dug, there was
found a slab of dark granite, two feet by one and
a half, which may have been cut from the rocks
near Sadras and Mahabalipuram. One face of it
was adorned with a bas-relief cross of the Greek
type, with floreated ornamentation at all the ends.
At the top of the upright shaft is figured a bird
like a dove, with its wings expanded, " as the Holy

MIGRATION OF A TRADITION. 19
Ghost is usually represented when descending on
our Lord at His baptism, or on our Lady at her
Annunciation." It has an inscription upon it which
was then wholly unintelligible. But this symbol
of Christianity, with its mysterious words, was
at once connected with St Thomas; and the un
intelligible inscription had not long to wait for an
interpreter. An unscrupulous Brahman, knowing
what was wanted or expected, volunteered to apply
his learned mind to the solution of the difficult
problem. He represented that the characters were
hieroglyphs, and explained that the inscription set
forth the story of the incarnation and of the spread
of Christianity in the world through the agency
of the twelve apostles ; how one of the apostles
came to Mailapore " with a pilgrim's staff in his
hand ; " and how " the time came when St Thomas
died at the hands of a Brahman, and his blood
formed a cross." 3 Assurance about the correctness
of this rendering was made doubly sure when
" another learned person from a distant part of
the country was sent for, and, without having any
communication with the first, or knowing his in
terpretation, gave one to the same effect."3
Looking back across the generations, and having
a scientific rendering of the brief inscription before

20 INTRODUCTION.
us,4 we may regard this double hoax with some
degree of amusement. But it is not so easy to
treat with equanimity the pious frauds practised by
certain Portuguese ecclesiastics who invested the
cross with the power of working periodical miracles
of the sweating kind, after the manner of St Janu-
arius at Naples ; while Menezes, Archbishop of
Goa, instituted (1599) a festival of the Church, to
be observed annually on the 18th of December,
"being the day whereon the holy cross of St
Thomas did sweat." s
The third, holy place is the Little Mount, six
miles south-west of Fort St George. It is situated
on the right bank of the Adyar, at the end of the
Marmalong bridge, and near the gate of Guindy
Park, the suburban residence of the Governor of
Madras. It is a bare scalp of rock, of insignificant
height. In the rock there is a cave, where it is
asserted that St Thomas took refuge from his pur
suers. On the top of the rock there is a cleft,
miraculously made by the apostle, into which he
introduced a supply of living water to refresh him
during the period of his concealment in the cave.
The apostle's footprints here and there on the sur
face of the rock are also shown, to the admiration
of the credulous. Over the cave a church has been

MIGRATION OF A TRADITION. 21
built, whose walls are adorned with a slab bearing
in relief a bust of St Thomas, with an inscription in
Portuguese which attests the fact that the church
was built by Antonio Gonsalvez de Taide at his
own expense in 1612. This figure represents St
Thomas as raising his right hand in the attitude
of benediction, and holding in his left hand a car
penter's square.
To the Portuguese Eoman Catholics we owe the
preservation and embellishment of the local tradi
tion. Had they not, for reasons of their own, tried
by means of ecclesiastical festivals and other special
devices to keep the memory of it alive, it would
have probably perished, on the Coromandel coast
at least, when that branch of the Syrian Church,
which lingered there for the better part of a thou
sand years, vanished from history. Yet it is curi
ous that, though the Portuguese Eoman Catholics
hold fast by every jot and tittle of the Thomas
tradition, the authorities 6 of the Irish Eoman
Catholic Mission in Madras reject the whole corpus
of local tradition about the apostle. On the other
hand, not only the Syrians of the Malabar coast,
but even some Protestants, hold by the substance
of the local tradition, believing that thus an ortho
dox origin is secured for Christianity in India.

22 INTRODUCTION.
But, though we think it impossible to treat this
local tradition as literal history, it is only fair to
consider what those have to say who hold a differ
ent opinion. Writers who are inclined to favour
the local tradition and to believe that "there is
something in it," have usually pointed to certain
landmarks in history, with a brief introductory
dissertation on the probabilities of the case. It is
not improbable, they allege, that one of the apostles
should have found his way to India, seeing that
from earliest times there was a great deal of coming
and going between the West and the East. It is
admitted on all hands, for instance, that there was
a very active commerce between Southern India
and the marts of the Eoman Empire. Gems and
spices, ivory and ebony and steel, silks and mus
lins, poured into the Eoman market. Moreover,
Southern India is full of Eoman money to this day.
Coins of copper, of silver, and of gold — sometimes
in hundreds together — have been found in many
districts of the Madras Presidency, in Nellore,
Coimbatore, Salem, Madura, and Malabar. In the
collection of coins found in Southern India, and
lodged in the Madras Government Museum, all the
emperors from Augustus to Hadrian, and not a
few of later date, are represented.7 From facts like

MIGRATION OF A TRADITION. 23
these it is contended that it would be strange in
deed if, while merchants were thus finding their
way to the heathen Orient, no missionaries of the
Cross should have attempted to follow in their wake.
All the probabilities, it is maintained, are in favour
of the supposition that at least some Christians
must have penetrated thus far into the East, and
that a South Indian Church therefore may have
existed from apostolic times. But such reasoning
is based rather on modern missionary ideas than on
ancient Church history. Moreover, the question is
one of fact, and not one of mere probability.
Still, it is argued, there is a series of passages in
Church history which distinctly refer to the existence
of a Church in India in early times ; and, though
none of these are within the first century, yet they
form, as it were, a dotted line which may be held
to be continuous at least between the extreme
points, and may easily be supposed to run back
into the apostolic age.
It will be found on examination, however, that
the argument of every one of those passages turns
upon a double meaning of the name India. In
writings belonging to the early Christian centuries,
as well as in writings much more ancient, the name
India is often found in a sense altogether different

24 INTRODUCTION.
from modern usage ; so that we must, in every case
where it occurs, determine from the context and
such collateral evidence as may be available, in
what precise acceptation it is employed. Thus the
several passages in Church history which have
been often applied to the history of the Church in
Southern India, can be proved to have no con-*
nection with it whatever. They apply, as we shall
show at a later stage, to other localities known like
wise in those days by the name India. In short,
we look in vain among the writings and monuments
of the first five centuries for any attestation of the
existence of a South Indian Church. No historical
evidence, we submit, can be produced to show that
such a Church was planted until the beginning of
the sixth century. This being so, the notion that
the local tradition can be regarded as literal history
is absolutely discredited.
The view which seems on the whole most con
sistent with all the facts of the case is, that the
local or South Indian tradition concerning St
Thomas is an example of that curious phenomenon
commonly described under the name of the migra
tion of traditions. Not St Thomas, but only the
tradition, migrated to Southern India.
To make good this position, it will be needful to

MIGRATION OF A TRADITION. 25
go back to the stories of the sub-apostolic age and
to examine the post-canonical literature concerning
St Thomas. More especially we shall have to
examine the primitive traditions which represent
him, now as the apostle of the Parthians, and now
as the apostle of the Indians. Besides finding in
these, and especially in the former, a foundation for
that view of apostolic succession which runs through
the whole history of the Syrian Church, we shall find
proof that St Thomas is described as giving his
services to the cause of Gospel propagation in a
locality far removed from Southern India, and
that he lived and laboured, died and was buried, in
that remote locality, so that not only is no oppor
tunity left for a visit to Southern India, but the
possibility of it is excluded.
Not the least important result of examining the
primitive tradition is, that it is seen to be the
parent of the local tradition. The latter is but
a clumsy reproduction of the former, both in what
is personal and in what relates to the localities.
Though so much is made now-a-days of the local
tradition, the fact is that it was never heard of
until a late date in the middle ages. There seems
to be no definite reference to it in literature, so
far as research has gone, earlier than the book of

26 INTRODUCTION.
Ser Marco Polo,8 who visited Mailapore in 1292 ;
although there is some reason to suppose that it
may have been developed by the tenth century.
In the remaining chapters of this section we shall
introduce the reader to the two primitive traditions
concerning St Thomas as the apostle of the Par
thians and as the apostle of the Indians, and shall
submit a critical examination of those passages in
Church history which have been used to uphold the
local tradition, or at least to support for the South
Indian Church a date of origin earlier than history,
rightly interpreted, seems to warrant. In a sub
sequent section 9 we hope to describe the causes and
the process of the development of the local tradition,
and thus still further to show that it is an example
of migration.

27

CHAPTEE III.
ST THOMAS, THE APOSTLE OF THE PARTHIANS. •
The legends of the sub-apostolic age describe a
past that never was present, and yet they are
full of instruction to the historian. If they do
not always describe facts, they at least record
opinions ; if they do not trace the evolutions of
actual history, they at least exhibit the inter
pretation of facts adopted by ecclesiastical author
ity, and accepted by the generations following
as a basis of belief; and acts founded on the
belief of such traditions can be understood only
through some acquaintance with the traditions
themselves. Some of these legends have arisen in connection
with the allotment of fields of labour for the
apostles. The principle accepted by the ecclesi
astical mind of the period was, that, wherever

28 INTRODUCTION.
Christianity might be found in any particular
country, it must have been originally planted
there by an apostle; indeed this was perhaps
needful as a foundation whereon to build a theory
of apostolic succession. Accordingly it was held
that, soon after the ascension of our Lord, fields
of labour were assigned to the apostles by lot.
Some obtained one region, and others another ;
but ecclesiastical authorities have never been quite
agreed as to the delimitation of the fields originally
assigned ; and in some cases additions were made
long afterwards to the original allotment. Thus
St Thomas was, according to some authorities,
made the apostle of the Parthians ; while, accord
ing to others, he became the apostle of the Indians.
But, as a matter of fact, he was in later times
recognised as the apostle of the whole East, the
apostle of all the regions east of the Euphrates
in which Christianity had found a footing, in
cluding Southern India, Northern China, and
Eastern Tartary; and there have been times
when the Church of St Thomas had at least as
many members as that of St Peter.
It is not easy to discover the rationale of the
favour accorded by the oriental mind to St
Thomas, and yet it may have proceeded from a

ST THOMAS, APOSTLE OF THE PARTHIANS. 29
true instinct. The supremacy of St Peter in
the Church of the West is largely due to particular
interpretations of our Lord's words in connection
with the confession made by the ' man of rock '
at Csesarea Philippi ; and may not the high place
accorded to St Thomas in the East be similarly
based on his noble confession, when he exclaimed
in the presence of his brethren, " My Lord and
my God"?
But whatever may be the true explanation of
the extraordinary favour with which the Orient
accepted St Thomas as its apostle, it is tolerably
clear that the doctrine embodied in St Thomas's
confession as a datum of experience was, especially
in the earlier generations and in the martyr age,
a prominent factor in the life of the Church of
Edessa, which is the source of all our post-canonical
information concerning St Thomas.
Beautiful for situation was the city of Edessa.
On the banks of the Daisan, which feeds the Belik,
a left-hand tributary of the upper Euphrates, it
is famous for its fountains of living water, from
which it acquired the epithet Callirhoe, the City
of the Fair Streams. It was the capital of the
little kingdom of Osrohene, in the higher lati
tudes of Mesopotamia, between Mount Masius

30 INTRODUCTION.
and the river Chaboras on the east, and the great
bend of the Euphrates below Samosata on the
west. It was ruled by a series of elective mon-
archs, who each bore the title of Abgar, just as
the kings of Egypt were called Pharaohs, the
Eoman emperors Csesars, and the kings of Syria
Antiochi. The Abgars were tributary vassals of the great
Parthian empire, which was the second power
in the world for three hundred years, and formed
a counterpoise to Borne. Its territories extended
from the Indus to the Euphrates, and from the
Indian Ocean to the Caspian Sea and the Hindu
Kush. Over this vast area the Parthian kings —
the Arsacids, as they were patron ymically called,
after Arsaces, the founder of the dynasty — exercised
dominion on a well - recognised plan, not unlike
in some respects to the feudal system in Europe.
They established in the various countries either
viceroys holding office for life, or sometimes de
pendent dynasties of kings. In either case the
rulers, so long as they paid tribute regularly to
the Parthian monarchs and aided them in their
wars, were allowed to govern the people beneath
their sway at their pleasure. The viceroys were
fourteen or fifteen in number ; and among mon-

ST THOMAS, APOSTLE OF THE PARTHIANS. 31
archs, besides the King of Osrohene, were those
of Persia, Elimais, Adiabene, and of Armenia and
Atropatene, when they formed, as they sometimes
did, portions of the Parthian empire.1 Thus the
Abgars were dependent monarchs ; and Edessa
came to be known, in her own native literature,
as 'Edessa of the Parthians.'
The precise date at which Christianity was in
troduced into Edessa cannot be ascertained ; but
several converging lines of evidence, which we
cannot here trace out, lead to the conclusion that
it must have been well established early in the
second century, from which time the City of the
Fair Streams became a centre of light for genera
tions to the regions beyond. Edessa became famous
for its schools of learning ; many of its learned
men were employed on the translation of the
Scriptures into the Syriac language ; and, according
to some of our best scholars, the translation of
the New Testament into Syriac was first made at
Edessa itself; so that for reasons like these it has
been called the 'Athens of Syria.' The strength
of its spiritual life may be indicated by the number
of its citizens who thought the truth of more value
than life and sacrificed themselves as martyrs,
and by the hosts of missionaries who went forth

32 INTRODUCTION.
from it spreading far and near the good tidings of
salvation. But, as the noblest trees may have their vitality
sapped by parasites, so the spiritual life of Edessa
became tainted by sacerdotalism and a love of
relics, and more especially the relics of St Thomas ;
and hence it was led to invent stories to bolster up
its fantastic notions on these subjects.
Of all the documents which connect St Thomas
directly or indirectly with Edessa, probably the
earliest is one which Eusebius 2 discovered among
the public records of that city ; and, whatever may
be thought of the historian's opinion of its authen
ticity, his report of its contents has been curiously
confirmed by its reappearance within our own day.
For among the manuscripts acquired by the British
Museum in 1841, 1843, and 1847, from the Nitrian
Monastery in Lower Egypt, Dr Cureton tells us
that he found a considerable portion of the Ara
maic document which Eusebius cites as preserved
in the archives of Edessa.3 This document contains
two letters which purport to have been written
in the fifteenth year of the Eoman Emperor
Tiberius. The writer of the first letter was Abgar
Uchomo, or Abgar the Black. It appears that
Abgar had occasion to send messengers to Phoenicia,

ST THOMAS, APOSTLE OF THE PARTHIANS. 33
who there heard of the works of marvellous benefi
cence that were being done by Jesus Christ at
Jerusalem. Thither accordingly they extended
their journey to verify the strange intelligence.
Like the Queen of Sheba, they found that the half
had not been told them ; and, on their return to
Edessa, they related at Abgar's court all they had
seen and heard. It came to pass soon afterwards
that Abgar fell sick of a grievous disease, and he
despatched Anan, his tabularius, who had brought
the tidings from Jerusalem, with a letter to Jesus,
begging Him to come and cure him, promising at
the same time to share his kingdom with " the
excellent Saviour," and to protect Him from the
Jews. The same document contains the reply
which Abgar Uchomo is said to have received, to
the effect that Jesus had work in Jerusalem which
He might not leave ; but that, after He had been
" received up," He would send one of His disciples
to cure the king and to give life to those with him.
Now it was Judas Thomas — as the apostle seems
almost invariably to be called in Edessene liter
ature — who, according to the legend, acted as
Christ's amanuensis in writing this reply, and it
was Judas Thomas who " by a divine impulse " sent
Thaddseus,4 after the ascension, to Edessa, where he
c

34 * INTRODUCTION.
not only restored the king's health, but spread the
Christian faith throughout his dominions. He
built churches in Edessa and the villages far and
near, and finished and adorned them, and ap
pointed in them deacons and elders, and instructed
those who should read the Scriptures, and taught
the ordinances of the ministry " within and with
out." After all these things he fell ill of the
sickness of which he departed from this world.
And he called for Aggaeus6 before the whole as
sembly of the Church, and bade him draw near,
and made him " guide and ruler " in his stead.
And Palut, who was a deacon, he made elder ; and
Abshelama, who was a scribe, he made deacon.
And so Thaddaeus left a name and an example
which lived long in Edessa.
As the master had done, so did the disciple.
Aggaeus too, with the same ordination which he
had received, made " priests and guides " in the
whole of Mesopotamia, including Persia, the As
syrians, the Armenians, and the countries round
about Babylon as far as the borders of the Indians.
Now Aggaeus was, before he entered into the
service of the Church, a maker of silks, and in his
day the throne was occupied by one of Abgar
Uchomo's wicked sons, who sent word to Aggaeus

ST THOMAS, APOSTLE OF THE PARTHIANS. 35
saying, "Make me a head-band of gold, such as
those thou usedst to make for my fathers in former
times." To such an insolent message there was
only one possible reply, with which the king was
so enraged that he despatched a second messenger,
who brake the legs of Aggaeus as he sat in the
church expounding; so that the bishop suddenly
died, and there was no time for him to lay his
hands on Palut, his destined successor. Palut,
therefore, went to Antioch and received ordination
at the hands of Serapion, the bishop of that see.
Not to dwell on the flagrant anachronism in this
story — Serapion being Bishop of Antioch at the
end of the secgmjjjentury — the point to be noted
is the fact of the dependence of Edessa on the see
of Antioch at the time when these stories were
invented. But from the beginning it had not been
so. These stories were intended to prove that the
succession of Edessene bishops was in the last
resort traceable to St Thomas.
The same device was repeated, only on a larger
scale, in connection with the work of Maris,6
another disciple of Thaddaeus, who went to Ctesi-
phon, the capital city of the Parthian kings.
Ctesiphon was situated on the left bank of the
Tigris, just opposite to Seleucia ; and the double

36 INTRODUCTION.
city — hence called by the Arabs Al Modain —
afterwards became the head of the vast Patri
archate of the East. Mar Maris is said to have
discipled Doorkhan, Cashgar, the two Iraks, Al
Ahwaz, Yemen, and the Island of Socotra, and
to have returned to Ctesiphon, where at a good
age he died. His disciples, who had diligently
inquired of the dying bishop about his successor,
and been instructed to " seek him at Jerusalem,"
sent at once to the Holy City to demand a prelate
for the East ; and the venerable Simeon sent them
Abres, a kinsman of his own, who during an
episcopate of sixteen years consecrated a large
number of bishops, and was much beloved for his
charity. His immediate successors, Abraham and
Jacob, both of the same family as Abres, were con
secrated at Antioch ; and after them an important
change was introduced into the administration.
When the see of Seleucia-Ctesiphon became vacant
after the death of Jacob, his son Achadabues and
Jab-Jesus were both sent by the Church to Antioch,
with a request that the bishop of that see would
consecrate whichever of the two he thought the
most worthy of the dignity. They were both, how
ever, arrested by the Eoman prefect as Persian
spies; and Jab- Jesus with his host was crucified,

ST THOMAS, APOSTLE OF THE PARTHIANS. 37
while Achadabues escaped to Jerusalem and there
received consecration. But the incident suggested
an arrangement whereby it should be unnecessary
for the bishop-elect in future to seek consecration
at Antioch. The bishop of this see renounced his
right of ordination ; and so, when Seleucia-Ctesiphon
again fell vacant, a synod of bishops was assem
bled, and the prelate -elect received consecration
at their hands. Thus the link between Seleucia-
Ctesiphon and Antioch seems to have been prac
tically severed, and the former became, as it is
called, Autocephalus — a change in the external re
lations of the Parthian Church which was effected
not long before the dynasty of the Arsacids was
overthrown by the Sassanians in the year 226.
Without insisting on the anachronisms which like
wise characterise the lists of the bishops of Seleucia-
Ctesiphon, it is to be observed that about the time
when these stories were written, Antioch was the
metropolitan see, and held the right of ordaining
the Parthian bishops. But from the beginning, as
the stories were intended to prove, it had not been
so. At the beginning the fountain of ecclesiastical
orders for Seleucia-Ctesiphon, as well as Edessa,
was St Thomas ; for Maris, like Aggaeus, was or
dained by Thaddaeus, his deputy. Thus from St

38 INTRODUCTION.
Thomas the first bishop of Seleucia - Ctesiphon
derived his ecclesiastical pedigree : thus by him the
chief see in the Parthian empire may be said to
have been founded.
It is therefore as a question of apostolic succes
sion that we are to view St Thomas's patronage of
all the churches in the Parthian empire and the
East.

39

CHAPTEE IV.
ST THOMAS, THE APOSTLE OF THE INDIANS.
The story of St Thomas's Indian apostleship is first
told with great fulness of detail in the apocryphal
'Acts of Apostles.' In that collection the 'Acts of
Thomas ' is one of the best -preserved chapters.
The date of it has been approximately determined.
Both external testimony and internal evidence seem
to agree in assigning it to the end of the second
century.1 It was written by one of the Syrian
Gnostics, who was most probably of the city of
Edessa. The name of the author is not known, but
it has been suggested that the treatise might have
been written by Bardesanes.
Bardesanes fulfilled probably all the conditions,
save one, requisite for the authorship. He was a
Syrian Gnostic and a native of Edessa, having been
educated as the companion of Abgar VIII., who

40 INTRODUCTION.
was a fervent Christian ; he lived from 151 to 223,
so that he would have been a man in his prime
when the ' Acts ' was written ; he was interested in
Indian affairs, having compiled ' Hypomnemata
Indica ' from oral information which he received
from an Indian embassy passing through Edessa
on its way to the court of Eome ; he had a patriotic
zeal for the honour and glory of Edessa ; and he
was, according to Eenan, "an ardent preacher of
Christianity, almost a missionary."2 Whoever
wrote the ' Acts ' had undoubtedly such conditions
as these to fulfil ; but Bardesanes was married, and
had a son, Harmonius, who inherited in enhanced
richness his father's gift of hymn-writing, and
whose hymns became so popular that St Ephrem
found no other means to dethrone them and to
keep children from their charm than to compose
orthodox hymns to the same airs. Now it is mor
ally impossible, as will be seen hereafter, that the
author of the ' Acts ' could have been himself a
married man. But though Bardesanes is thus ex
cluded, the treatise before us may have been writ
ten by a disciple of the school of Bardesanes.
The opening scene in the 'Acts of Thomas' is
laid in Jerusalem, where the apostles had just por
tioned out the regions of the world among them ;

ST THOMAS, APOSTLE OF THE INDIANS. 41
and " Judas Thomas, also called Didymus," is repre
sented as being ill content with his lot. He pro
fessed himself unable, on account of the weakness
of the flesh, to go to India, saying, " How can I,
being an Hebrew man, go among the Indians to
proclaim the truth ? " And, though the Saviour
appeared to Thomas in the night bidding him be
of good courage, and assuring him of the sufficiency
of His unfailing grace, the doubting apostle still
refused to obey, saying, " Wheresoever Thou wish-
est to send me, send me elsewhere, for to the Indians
I am not going." Meanwhile an Indian merchant
of the name of Abbanes, sent by King Gondophares
to procure a carpenter to build him a palace, ap
peared in Jerusalem ; and, having met in the slave-
market with Jesus, who pointed to Thomas as a fit
and proper person for his purpose, bought of Him
the apostle-carpenter for three pounds of uncoined
silver. Next day Thomas came to the Lord and
said, "Thy will be done," whereupon Abbanes and
he began to sail away ; and they had a fair wind,
and sailed fast until they came to Andrapolis, a
royal city.
When they arrived there, the marriage-feast of
the king's daughter was being celebrated, and
Thomas accompanied Abbanes to the feast. And,

42 INTRODUCTION.
when he saw them all reclining, he reclined also in
the midst. But he would neither eat nor drink ;
and a flute-girl, a Hebrew by race, stood and
played over him a long time, and presently he
sang a Hebrew song, setting forth the praises of
the bride, which none but the flute -girl under
stood. Meanwhile a naughty cup-bearer struck the
stranger, and Thomas quietly replied that God would
forgive him in the world to come, but the hand
that had been lifted against His apostle would be
dragged along by a dog. And so it came to pass ;
for the cup-bearer, having gone to the fountain to
draw water, met a lion there, and the lion rent him
in pieces, and the dogs immediately seized his
limbs, among which also one black dog, laying hold
of his right hand in his mouth, brought it to the
place of the banquet. And when it was proved to
be . the hand of the cup-bearer who had struck the
apostle, the flute-girl broke her flutes in pieces and
threw them away, and went and sat down at the
feet of Thomas, saying that he was either God or
God's apostle. And the king having heard, came
and said to him, "Eise up and go with me, and
pray for my daughter, for she is my only child,
and to-day I give her away." And having prayed
and laid his hands on them, he said, " The Lord

ST THOMAS, APOSTLE OF THE INDIANS. 43
will be with you," and he left them in the place,
and went away.
It is at this point that the author of the ' Acts
of Thomas ' first unmistakably shows the cloven
hoof, painting his hero in colours so strongly con
demned by St Paul as characteristic of evil times ;
making him both " abstain from meats," and also
begin his crusade against matrimony.
For when the bridegroom, after the departure of
all the guests, lifted the curtain which separated
him from his bride, he saw Thomas, as he supposed,
conversing with her. Then he asked in surprise,
" How canst thou be found here ? did I not see thee
go out before all ? " And the Lord answered, " I
am not Judas Thomas, but his brother." And the
Lord sat down, and ordered them also to sit down,
calling on them to remember all that His brother
had said to them against matrimony, and promis
ing that, if they would undo the knot which had
been tied that day, they would partake of the true
marriage, and enter the bride-chamber full of light
and immortality. The young couple obeyed this
exhortation, much to the grief of the king, who
ordered Thomas to be apprehended; but he and
Abbanes were already on their way, and so escaped
his hands.

44 INTRODUCTION.
And when they came to the cities of India,
Abbanes introduced St Thomas to King Gondo-
phares, who, having shown him a place beyond
the gates of the city, well wooded and well watered,
where he wished to erect a palace, asked St Thomas
if he would undertake the work, and when he would
be ready to begin. " I shall begin," said the
apostle, "in October and finish in April." And
the king wondering, said, " Every building is
built in summer; but canst thou build and make
a palace in winter itself?" "Thus it must be,"
replied St Thomas, " and otherwise it is impos
sible." The king, thinking that the apostle-car
penter was likely to know his own business best,
judiciously fell in with this part of his proposal.
" And the apostle, having taken a reed, measured
the place and marked it out ; and he set the doors
towards the rising of the sun, to look to the light,
and the windows towards its setting, to look to
the winds ; and he made the bakehouse to be to
wards the south, and the water-tank, for abund
ance, towards the north." And the king exclaimed,
" Thou art a craftsman indeed, and it is fitting
that thou shouldest serve kings." The king then,
having " left many things for the apostle," took his
departure, sending from time to time " the money

ST THOMAS, APOSTLE OF THE INDIANS. 45
that was necessary for the living, both of him and
the other workmen." And one day the king sent
asking St Thomas to report progress ; and the
royal messenger was instructed to reply that the
palace was finished all but the roof, and that more
money was needed. Gdld and silver uncoined
were therefore despatched, and the wheels of time
moved on ; but a crisis was near. For " when the
king came into the city, he inquired of his friends
about the palace which Judas, who also is Thomas,
had built ; " and they said that he had neither
built a palace nor done anything else of what he
promised to do, but he went round the cities and
districts, giving all he had to the poor, and teach
ing that there is one God ; that he healed the
diseased, and cast out demons, and did many ex
traordinary things, and they thought that he was
a magician. " But his acts of compassion and the
cures done by him as a free gift, and still more,
his single-mindedness, and gentleness, and fidelity,
show that he is a just man, or an apostle of the
new God whom he preaches ; for he continually
fasts and prays, and eats only bread with salt, and
his drink is water, and he carries one coat, whether in
warm weather or in cold, and he takes nothing from
any one, but gives to others even what he has."

46 INTRODUCTION.
On hearing this the king was perplexed, and
"stroked his face with his hands, shaking his
head for a long time." So he sent for St Thomas
and Abbanes, and asked whether the palace was
finished, and when he might see it. Then St
Thornas replied that it was ready, adding, "Now
thou canst not see it ; but when thou hast de
parted this life thou shalt see it." And the king
was greatly enraged, and put St Thomas in chains,
and cast him and Abbanes into prison, resolving
to flay them alive and burn them with fire. But
his weakly brother Gad was so distressed at the
indignity suffered by the king that he suddenly
died ; and in the other world he saw a palace so
beautiful that he begged the angels to let him live
in its lowest chambers. But they answered that
it could not be, for this was his brother's palace,
erected by the Christian. Gad therefore asked
and obtained leave from the angels to go back to
the world that he might buy the palace from
his brother. So when they were putting grave-
clothes on the body it returned to life ; and Gad
at once sought an interview with the king and
implored him to sell him the palace. But Gondo-
phares wished to keep it for himself, and assured
his brother that St Thomas, who was still alive,

ST THOMAS, APOSTLE OF THE INDIANS. 47
would build him a better one. Then King Gondo-
phares and Gad became followers of the apostle,
and begged for the seal of baptism ; and the apostle
sealed them, and they heard the voice of the Lord
saying, " Peace to you, brethren." And many
others also believed, and were added, and came
to the refuge of the Saviour.
Now the great purpose of this apocryphal
treatise is to advocate celibacy as a Christian
institution; and, in order to give his opinions
an authoritative character, the author puts them
into the mouth of St Thomas, around whose head
all the devices of his cunning art have been
insidiously employed to paint a magnificent halo.
The more he exalted St Thomas, the more au
thority he hoped to secure in support of his own
opinions ; and so he spared no pains to glorify,
after his own fashion, the apostolic puppet that
his unchastened imagination had created — so
different in all respects from the portrait drawn
in a few touches by St John. We have already
seen that he represented St Thomas as the twin
brother of the Lord Jesus Himself, both being
so much alike that the one could not be dis
tinguished from the other; and it was doubtless
in consequence of this identification that he

48 INTRODUCTION.
thought it needful to prefix ' Judas ' to the
apostle's name.8
The author does not hesitate even to suggest
the identity of the disciple with the Master. For
this identification he skilfully prepares the way.
He introduces St Thomas, not as a fisherman,
but as a carpenter ; a representation which seems
to have captivated the imagination of later gener
ations in the Church, so that, wherever the story
of St Thomas has been subjected to artistic treat
ment, the apostle is invariably represented — as,
for example, in Eaphael's fine picture in Eome,
on the Indo Portuguese coins that bear the
apostle's name, and on the slab in the Goanese
Eoman Catholic Church at the Little Mount,
near Madras — with a carpenter's rule in his hand.
The purpose of this conception is made abundantly
clear by the fact that St Thomas is presently
invested with a function peculiar to our Lord —
namely, that of preparing mansions in heaven
for them that believe. If any further proof of
the preconceived tendency of these representations
were required, it would be found in the testimony of
Friar Jordanus, who certifies that in his day {circa
1322) the Christians of St Thomas on the west
coast of Southern India held it as an article of

ST THOMAS, APOSTLE OF THE INDIANS. 49
belief that their patron saint was no other than
the Christ of God.4 How long before the four
teenth century this tenet was accepted, it is per
haps impossible to trace back, step by step,
through the generations ; but the fact of its
acceptance is a curious example of the influence
of the ' Acts,' and an unexpected proof of the
direct or indirect connection of the ancient Church
in Southern India with the still more ancient
Church of Edessa.
When our author has invested his hero with
this extraordinary rank and power, it is not
wonderful that, in accordance with a notion so
popular in his time, he should have yielded to
the temptation of multiplying miracles as a
means of conversion. The miraculous element
runs through the whole treatise ; but there are
three notable miracles to which vast importance
is evidently attached. They are entitled, (1)
About the dragon and the young man ; (2) About
the demon that dwelt in the woman ; (3) About
the young man who killed the maiden. The
narratives of these miracles cannot be pronounced
unexceptionably pure, but they do not fail to
record that each was productive of a large addition
to the membership of the Church of St Thomas.
D

50 INTRODUCTION.
The Church being thus established on a celibate
foundation, it was deemed a fitting thing that its
apostolic founder should, move on to another
region of India, and there carry forward his
successful crusade against matrimony until he
should achieve even in this doubtful cause the
honour of martyrdom. So, when St Thomas left
the capital city of Gondophares and passed to
that of Misdeus, he converted first Mygdonia,6
the wife of the chief minister, who in obedience
to the apostle's instructions refused to live any
longer with Charisius, her husband ; and the king
had hardly received Charisius's complaint on the
subject when he discovered that his own queen,
Mygdonia's sister, as well as his son, Juzanes,
and others of his household, had become converts
to the same doctrine. Then, at the command
of this irate Indian king, St Thomas was cast
into prison, where he preached the Word to the
prisoners, so that all rejoiced at his presence.
But one day St Thomas overheard the jailers
wrangling and saying, "What wrong have we
done to that sorcerer that, availing himself of
his magic art, he has opened the door of the
prison and wishes to set all the prisoners free ? "
So they took him, and stripped him, and girded

ST THOMAS, APOSTLE OF THE INDIANS. 51
him with a girdle, and thus they stood before the
king. " And how," said Misdeus, " hast thou run
away and come to this country ? " And Thomas
said, " I came here that I might save many, and
that I might by thy hands depart from this body."
Then the king became impatient, and rose, taking
Thomas, with a few soldiers under arms, outside
the city. And when they had gone forth three
stadia, he delivered him to four soldiers and to
one of the polemarchs, and ordered them to take
him to the mountain and spear him ; but he him
self returned to the city.
Such being the substance of the life of St Thomas
according to the ' Acts,' the question that now falls
to be considered is whether any fragment of truth
may be extracted from this apocryphal story. It
seems not unreasonable to assume that, after
eliminating the miraculous elements and doctrinal
vagaries, there may remain a few geographical or
historical facts on which the author could hang
his own opinions. Some light has been cast on
the subject by modern research, and archaeological
experts have been for some time at work on help
ful lines. In consequence of the extension of our
Indian frontier towards the north-west, and our
diplomatic and military relations with Afghanistan,

52

INTRODUCTION.

interesting discoveries have been made which tend
to show that it is in that region we must look for
the realm of Gondophares and the field of St
Thomas's labours. Numerous coins bearing Greek
legends — certainly not less than thirty thousand in
number, and ranging over a period of more than

>^*Jra,3&>K

^9

Gondophares Coins, First Century.
three centuries — have been found in Cabul and the
Punjab. The greater number belong to the series
of pure Greek princes who ruled over the Indian
provinces of Alexander the Great. The remainder
belong to their Scythian conquerors and to their
Indo-Parthian contemporaries. Among these Indo-
Parthian princes is to be reckoned Gondophares.
The inscription on the obverse side of these

ST THOMAS, APOSTLE OF THE INDIANS. 53
Gondophares coins is in Greek characters, on the
reverse side in Indian Pali. The Greek form of the
name is, on the horseman coins, rONAO<J>APOT,
on the bust coins, TNACXMEPPOT ; while the
Indian Pali equivalent is Gudapharasa or Gada-
pharasa. The important questions concerning Gondophares
are, Where and when did he rule? Both are

Gondophares Coin, First Century.
answered in the following extract from General
Cunningham 6 : " The coins of Gondophares are
common in Cabul and Candahar, and Sistan, and
in the Western and Southern Punjab. All these
countries, therefore, must have owned his sway.
He was, besides, the head and founder of his
family, as no less than three members of it claim
relationship with him on their coins — viz., Orth-
•agnes, his full brother, Abdagases, his nephew,

54 INTRODUCTION.
and Sasa (or Sasan), a more distant relation. The
coins of Orthagnes are found in Sistan and Can-
dahar, those of Abdagases and Sasan in the
Western Punjab. I presume, therefore, that they
were the viceroys of those provinces on the part
of the great King Gondophares, who himself
resided at Cabul. All the names are those of
Parthians, but the language of the coins is Indian
Pali. Abdagases is the name of the Parthian
chief who headed the successful revolt against
Artabanus in a.d. 44. The great power of Gondo
phares, and the discovery of a coin of Artabanus
countermarked with the peculiar monogram 7 of all
the Gondopharian dynasty, make it highly proba
ble that the Indo-Parthian Abdagases was the same
as the Parthian chief whose revolt is recorded by
Tacitus (Annal. xv. 2) and Josephus (Antiqua, xx.
iii. 2). This surmise is very much strengthened by
the date of the revolt (a.d. 44), which would make
Gondophares a contemporary of St Thomas."
Further light regarding the period of Gondo
phares' government is derived from an inscription
on the Taht-i-Bahi 8 stone, now in the Museum at
Lahore. Unfortunately for history, this stone was
used for many years, perhaps for many centuries,
for the grinding of spices, so that all the middle

ST THOMAS, APOSTLE OF THE INDIANS. 55
part of the inscription has suffered and become
indistinct, and some portions have been obliterated
altogether. The whole inscription consisted of six
lines of writing. It can be inferred from the con
cluding part of the inscription, imperfect as it is,
that the stone commemorates the building of a stupa
or a vihar by some pious Buddhist, " for his own
religious merit and the religious merit of his father
and his mother." The first two lines, which con
tain the name of the king and the date, are trans
lated by Professor Dowson 9 as follows : "In the
twenty-sixth year of the great King Gondophares,
(and) on the third day of the month Vaisakha,
(year) one hundred (100) of the Samvatsara." As
the Samvatsara or era of Vikramaditya corresponds
to 56 B.C., the date on the stone, according to this
reading, would be 44 A.D.
The result of the testimony derived from coins
and from the Taht-i-Bahi stone, then, is that an
Indo-Parthian king of the name of Gondophares
ruled over India in the first century, that the seat
of his government was at Cabul, and that his
India coincides with the Punjab and Afghanistan,
and does not include peninsular India.
It will thus be seen, on review, that the author
of the 'Acts,' by two strokes of his pen, brings

56 INTRODUCTION.
St Thomas from Jerusalem to the court of Gondo
phares. (1.) "They began to sail away, and they
had a fair wind, and they came to Andrapolis."
(2.) "And when the apostle came into the cities
of India, with Abbanes the merchant, Abbanes
went away to salute Gondophares, the king, and
reported to him about the carpenter whom he had
brought." Can we fill up the interspaces ? The
attempt to do so is at least worth making. From
Jerusalem Abbanes and St Thomas would go down
to Caesarea and take ship at that port for Alex
andria, from which the route to India in those days
was as well defined as the overland route of the
P. & 0. Company from London to Bombay is
in this year of grace 1892. From Alexandria
they would go by boat up the Canopic branch of
the Nile to Andrapolis or Andropolis 10 ; and, after
halting there, would pursue their course to Coptos.
From Coptos they would go by land to Berenice
on the Eed Sea shore, almost under the tropic,
a distance of 258 Eoman miles, where they would
again embark. Departing from Berenice, and sail
ing, according to the ancient mode of navigation,
along the Arabian shore, to the promontory
Syagrus, they would hold their course along the
coast of Persia and Gedrosia (now Beloochistan),

ST THOMAS, APOSTLE OF THE INDIANS. 57
directly to Pattala (now Tatta), at the head of
the, lower delta of the Indus; then up the Indus
as far as (say) Attock, whence they would strike
to the left up the valley of the Cabul river till
they came to Gondophares' capital. Thus St
Thomas reached the scene where he was to begin
his apostolic labours in foreign parts.
But the India of St Thomas was wider than that
of Gondophares. The fact is, that the whole area
between the Indus and the eastern frontier of Persia,
and between the Indian Ocean and the northern
boundary of Afghanistan, was formerly denominated
India. In the treaty made between Seleucus
Nicator and Chandragapta, the Hindu Kush, with
its continuation to the east and west, was to be the
boundary between Iran and India, — the latter
sovereign having sway " not merely over the Ganges
valley in all its extent, and the whole north-west of
India, but, in the region of the Indus, at least over
a part of what is now Cabul ; further, over Arachosia
or Afghanistan ; presumably also over the waste
and arid Gedrosia, the modern Beloochistan, as
well as over the Delta and mouths of the Indus." n
But the agreement referred to did not last long ;
and when the Parthians rose to power, all India
west of the Indus fell into their hands. Pliny

5 8 INTRODUCTION.
informs us that " many indeed do not reckon the
Indus to be the western boundary of India, but
include in that term also four satrapies on this side
of the river," which, in the language of modern
geography, correspond to Beloochistan, Candahar,
Herat, and Cabul.12 It may be added that it is in
the sense of India west of the Indus that the
name is used in the Bible ; and it is in this sense
that St Thomas's India is to be understood.
When St Thomas left the kingdom of Gondo
phares, he entered another Indian kingdom or
satrapy, and made the acquaintance of another
Indian king, at whose court he began work
afresh, and at whose hands he was ultimately put
to death. Later authorities give the name of the
place where St Thomas was dismissed from his
sufferings as Calamina, the identification of which
is one of the puzzles that still perplex the student
of the history of the Church of St Thomas. The
earliest mention of this name appears to be by
Hippolytus,13 who died between the years 235 and
239. According to one reading of the text of
Hippolytus, the name is Caramene ; and, if this
reading is allowed, the burial-place of St Thomas is
evidently to be identified with Caramana,14 the
modern -Kerman, in Eastern Persia; but if not,

ST THOMAS, APOSTLE OF THE INDIANS. 59
then we must look for it in Calama, a town men
tioned by Nearchus, on the seaboard of Gedrosia.
In any case, it is evident that, according to this
apocryphal story, which is almost the only post-
canonical information we have concerning St
Thomas, the apostle died and was buried in that
India west of the Indus to which he went on
receipt of his commission. In that India he
preached, and performed miracles, and established
churches. From the date of his arrival in the
country to the date of his death he never left it.
That and that alone is the India of which he was
the apostle. The whole circle of early literature
knows no other India thus distinguished. So
Calamina15 must be sought, at all events, within
the four corners of India west of the Indus.
But Calamina was not destined to be the final
resting - place of St Thomas's bones, for " long
afterwards, when one of the king's sons became
demoniac, Misdeus opened the apostle's tomb to
find a bone wherewith to touch and cure his
son. But, behold, no bones were there, for one
of the brethren had carried them away to (Edessa
in) the region of the west. Wherefore he took
some dust from the place where the bones had
lain, and touched his son with it, and immediately

60 INTRODUCTION.
the devil left him. Then Misdeus met with the
brethren under the rule of Syphorus, a presbyter
in the mountain, and entreated them to pray for
him, that he might obtain mercy through Jesus
Christ." It thus appears that the destination of the
relics of St Thomas, which is a point in the post-
canonical history of the apostle that has received
a vast amount of attention, was something well
known at the date of the ' Acts.' 16 In fact the
author of the ' Acts ' seems to record the speedy
removal of the dead apostle to his own worshipful
city with an air of triumph, as if St Thomas, who
had not been able to visit the Edessenes in person
during his lifetime, could yet, being dead, not
escape their loving guardianship. It is perhaps
not too much to suppose that one of the author's
motives for writing the ' Acts ' was to put in
circulation what might be accepted as an authentic
account of the deportation of St Thomas's remains
to his beloved Edessa. Anything that would
add glory to his beloved city was dear to the heart
of the disciple of Bardesanes.
To us not the least interesting aspect of the
story lies in the question, which it cannot fail
to suggest, Was there really a Church in India

ST THOMAS, APOSTLE OF THE INDIANS. 61
west of the Indus during the latter part of the
second century? History has little to say in
reply. Perhaps the nearest approximation to an
answer that history makes will be found in our
next chapter. But the position of the author
of the ' Acts ' in relation to the question before
us can hardly be doubtful. He would have
answered it with an unhesitating affirmative.
His business was to supply a fictitious genesis
for a Church of whose existence he was well
assured, in such a manner as to make it appear
that the Indian Church was but a younger sister
of the Church of Edessa, both having sprung
directly or indirectly from the apostolic efforts of
St Thomas.

62

CHAPTEE V.

THE FIRST INDIAN MISSIONARY.

The story of the first Indian missionary is bound
up with the story of the Indian apostleship of St
Bartholomew. It forms an instructive episode in
the history of the Church of Alexandria, which
seems to have fascinated and perplexed every
student of the early propagation of the Gospel
.^in India. It carries us back to a time when the
last of the apostles was already full fourscore years
in his grave. For, although the origin of Chris
tianity in Alexandria is usually ascribed to St
Mark, yet we know little of the history of the
Alexandrian Church beyond the names of its
bishops, till the fourth quarter of the second
century. In the year 179, a notable man ascended
the ecclesiastical throne. His name was Demet
rius. His origin was so humble, and his episco-

FIRST INDIAN MISSIONARY. 63
pate so distinguished for success in administration,
that his introduction into office was accounted for
in later ages on the hypothesis of miraculous inter
vention. While Bishop Julian — so runs the Egyp
tian legend — was on his deathbed, he was informed
by an angel that the man who should on the suc
ceeding day bring him a present of grapes, was de
signed as his successor. On the morrow a country
man, who could neither read nor write, and who
was married, made his appearance in the predicted
manner, and Julian acknowledged him as the
chosen of the Lord. Demetrius wTas most unwill
ing to accept the proffered dignity, and he had to
be ordained by main force. But from the time of
his consecration he became another man. He im
mediately applied himself to the study of the Scrip
tures, and proved one of the most learned prelates
of his time. His being married rendered his flock
unwilling at first to receive him, as it happened
that, from St Mark downward, none such had been
promoted to the see. This reluctance, however,
was shortly removed, and Demetrius entered on
his long and successful reign of more than forty-
two years— a .longer period than the chair of St
Mark was ever filled b3^ any one prelate, with the
exception of Athanasius.1

64 INTRODUCTION.
One of the most remarkable distinctions of the
episcopate of Demetrius was the development of
the catechetical school of Alexandria to a standard
higher than it had previously attained. It was at
first a mere preparatory class for the instruction of
catechumens in the elements of the Christian faith ;
but under the presidency of successive distinguished
teaehers, it grew into a commanding centre of phil
osophical research and theological learning. The
influx of converts of every age and rank, from the
midst of a community which had served itself heir
to all the science and philosophy of the world, had
necessitated on the part of the Church a profound
investigation and scientific development of the first
principles of her faith, unknown because unneeded
in earlier times. To meet this necessity, eminent
men were providentially raised up. In the days
of Demetrius there were three such masters, who
eclipsed all their predecessors. They were Pantae-
nus, Clement, and Origen.
The writings of Clement and Origen survive, and
their opinions, character, and influence are well
known ; but the works of Pantaenus have been lost,
and the fragments of his history that have come
down to us seem to give but a faint idea of his
powers. A Hebrew by nation, a Sicilian by birth,

FIRST INDIAN MISSIONARY. 65
Pantaenus was in philosophy an eclectic, drawing
his principal dogmas from the Stoic and Pytha
gorean sects;2 and having been converted to
Christianity, he was placed at the head of the
catechetical school of Alexandria. Clement, his
convert and pupil, describing his teachers, speaks
of Pantaenus as the last of them, but the first in
power, and continues : " Having tracked him out,
concealed in Egypt, I found rest. He, the true, the
Sicilian bee, gathering the spoil of the flowers of
the prophetic and apostolic meadow, engendered in
the souls of his hearers a deathless element of know
ledge."3 About the year 189 or 190 he became
the first historical missionary to India. The story
of this episode in his life has been told both by
Eusebius and Jerome. And since their testimony
on this point has frequently been used as helping
to prove the existence of a Church in South India
in the end of the second century, and so far encour
aging the belief in an apostolic origin for that
Church, it becomes necessary in this place to dis
cuss the question.
The testimony of the learned Bishop of Caesarea L.
is to the effect that Pantaenus " displayed such
ardour, and so zealous a disposition respecting the
Divine Word, that he was constituted a herald of

66 INTRODUCTION.
the Gospel of Christ to the nations of the East ; "
that he went as far as India ; that he there " found
his own arrival anticipated by some who were
acquainted with the Gospel of Matthew, to whom
Bartholomew, one of the apostles, had preached,
and had left them the Gospel of Matthew in the
Hebrew, which was also preserved until this time."4
Jerome's account, which is in entire harmony with
that of Eusebius, is, for one or two touches of its
own, worthy of separate quotation. " Pantaenus,"
he says, " was a man of such learning, both in
the sacred Scriptures and in secular knowledge,
that Demetrius, the Bishop of Alexandria, sent
him to India at the request of ambassadors from
that nation. And there he found that Bartholo
mew, one of the twelve apostles, had preached the
advent of our Lord Jesus Christ according to the
Gospel of Matthew written in Hebrew, which he
brought away with him on his return to Alex
andria."5 How long Pantaenus laboured in India, or what
were the fruits of his labour, is uncertain. It
would seem that he had a comparatively short
career in the country, and that he had no successor,
at least from the Church that sent him. At all
events he returned to Alexandria and resumed

FIRST INDIAN MISSIONARY. 67
from Clement, who officiated for him in his absence,
his work at the head of its famous school ; and it
is probable that both Clement and Origen owed
some of their knowledge of India and its people
to this mission of their admired preceptor. The
former, in a well-known passage, speaks of Indian
Gymnosophists and ' other barbarian philosophers,'
with a minuteness of detail which it is not un
naturally supposed must be due to information
supplied him by an eyewitness. " Of these," says
Clement, " there are two classes, some of them
called Sarmariae and others Brahmans ; and those
of the Sarmanae, who are called Hylobii, neither
inhabit cities, nor have roofs over them, but are
clothed in the bark of trees, feed on nuts, and
drink water in their hands. Like those called
Encratites in the present day," he adds, " they
know not marriage nor begetting of children." 6
This account was probably taken down from the
lips of Pantaenus, and Jerome has a passage equally
decisive of the class of people that he visited. It
runs as follows : " Pantaenus, on account of the
renown of his excellent learning, was sent by
Demetrius into India, that he might preach Christ
among the Brahmans and philosophers of that
nation."7 The fact here stated is important as

68 INTRODUCTION.
proving that the India to which the mission of
Pantaenus carried him was part of the India of
modern geography — the India, as we shall see,
of Alexander the Great ; and disposes at once of
a difficulty raised by Mosheim, 8 who came to the
conclusion that the " Indians instructed in Chris
tianity by Pantaenus must have been certain Jews
living in Arabia Felix," on the ground, as it would
seem, that a book written in a Semitic language
would be most unsuitable for the instruction of
other than a Semitic people, and that the name
' India,' being loosely employed by early writers,
has been known to be applied even to Arabia,9 or
some part thereof. But Jerome was too well in
formed a writer to people any part of Arabia with
Brahmans. Neander,10 though not without mis
givings, suggests Malabar. " The mention of the
Hebrew Gospel," he says, "is not at all inconsis
tent with the supposition that India proper is here
meant, if we may assume that the Jews, who now
dwell on the coast of Malabar, had already arrived
there. The language of Eusebius seems to intimate
that he himself had in view a remoter country
than Arabia, and rather favours the conjecture that
he meant to speak of India proper." But Sir W.
W. Hunter,11 with none of the hesitation of the

FIRST INDIAN MISSIONARY. 69
elder and more cautious historian, holds that a
Jewish colony existed on the Malabar coast in the
apostolic age; that Christian merchants, "both of
Jewish and other race, would in the natural course
of trade have reached Malabar within the second
century ; " that " rumours, apparently brought back
by the Bed Sea fleet, of a Christian community on
the Malabar coast, fired the zeal of Pantaenus ; " and
that " the evidence of the early Christian writers,
so far as it goes, tends to connect St Thomas with
the India of the ancient world — that is to say,
with Persia and Afghanistan — and St Bartholomew
with the Christian settlements on the Malabar
coast." But why should Mosheim, Neander, and
Sir W. W. Hunter assume that the Gospel of
Matthew would be any less unacceptable to Jews in
the second century than it is to-day ; and on what
grounds of fact, reason, or testimony does the last-
named writer suggest that many, or even a portion
of the Syrian Christians were converted Jews ?
Not to press these points, it is sufficient to remark
that, in the second century, there were neither
Jews, Christians, nor Brahmans in Malabar.
We are constrained, therefore, to exclude both
Arabia and Malabar as in any way satisfying the
language of Eusebius and Jerome, and to hold that

70 INTRODUCTION.
the India to which Pantaenus went was the India
of Alexander the Great, the India which the city
that he honoured with his own name had known
from its foundation, the India with which it
traded for centuries after it had become a Eoman
possession. But how did it come to pass that Indian Chris
tians should possess a gospel in Hebrew ? At
first sight it certainly seems anomalous that a
Semitic book should have been introduced into
a locality presumably occupied by Aryans ; and
this apparent anomaly has led some writers to
question the accuracy of the narrative of Eusebius,
and others to shift the scene of Pantaenus's labours
to latitudes far removed from the India of the
Alexandrian teacher. Is there then, after all, so
great an anomaly in the few simple facts that
Eusebius and Jerome relate ?
In the first place, it is generally admitted that
St Matthew wrote a gospel in Hebrew, although
critics are not agreed as to the relation in which
that gospel stands to the canonical gospel in
Greek.12 But it must be kept in mind that St
Matthew's Hebrew was Aramaic, the language of
the Targums, or translations and paraphrases of
the Old Testament, written during the centuries

FIRST INDIAN MISSIONARY. 71
immediately preceding and following the Christian
era. It was the language of Babylonia, as trans
planted to Palestine, and the dialect spoken by
Christ and His disciples. The few authentic
words preserved in the New Testament as spoken
by our Lord in His own language, such as tahtha
humi, ephphatha, abba, are not in Hebrew (strictly ^
so called), but in the Chaldee or Southern Aramaic,
as then spoken by the Jews, and which remained
the literary language of the Jews till the tenth
century.13 In the second place, it is to be remembered that
a knowledge of the Aramaic language was widely
diffused throughout the Parthian empire; and
that, at the date in question, the Parthian empire,
roughly speaking, extended from the Indus to the
Euphrates, and from the Indian Ocean to the
Caspian Sea and the Hindu Kush ; and embraced
therefore, or at least touched, the India of St
Bartholomew. In how large a portion of this vast
area Aramaic was vernacular will at once occur
to every reader. Moreover Ctesiphon, the capital,
situated on the Tigris, twelve or thirteen miles
below the modern Baghdad, was in the heart of
the Aramaic country, and it was the centre of an
extensive caravan trade from many parts of Asia.

72 INTRODUCTION.
It is most natural, therefore, to suppose that the
vernacular of that region would, in connection with
government, trade, and education, spread widely in
the empire.
Some would probably be prepared to suggest
that a knowledge of Greek rather than Aramaic
was prevalent in tha.t quarter at the time of which
we are speaking, and there is undoubtedly abun
dant proof that, wherever Alexander the Great
carried his conquests in Asia, the Greek language
obtained an extensive footing. Bactria, Afghan
istan, and the Punjab were largely hellenised.
The coins of Gondophares bore Greek legends, and
we know that, when the Parthians carried on
negotiations with the Eomans, it was the Greek
language that was used by both parties. Still the
inducement to keep up the knowledge of Greek
must have been declining, whereas a knowledge
of Aramaic was of increasingly practical value.
At all events, there is some reason to believe that a
knowledge of Aramaic was as a matter of fact very
widely diffused, and probably more so than Greek.
For, when Josephus wrote his ' Wars of the Jews,'
he wrote the book, as he distinctly informs us in
the preface, in Aramaic, for the information not
only of "the Babylonians, and the remotest Ara-

FIRST INDIAN MISSIONARY. 73
bians, and those of our own nation beyond Euphra
tes, with the Adiabeni," but also " the Parthians " ;
and that he afterwards translated it into Greek
"for the sake of such as live under the government
of the Eomans." If Josephus could have counted
on as large a Greek-reading as an Aramaic-reading
constituency in the East, he would most probably
have used Greek as the original language of a
work to which he himself evidently attached a
great deal of importance. The fact of this wide
diffusion of the knowledge of Aramaic is perhaps
also confirmed by a tradition preserved by Hip
polytus to the effect that St Matthew, having
published his Aramaic Gospel at Jerusalem, went
to Parthia, where he "fell asleep at Hieres."14 It
must further be remembered that the Parthians,
while " lax and changeful in their own religious
practice, were naturally tolerant of a variety of
creeds among their subjects." 15 So that both Jews
and Christians enjoyed an easy toleration under
the Arsacian monarchs.
Whether, therefore, Aramaic was to those Chris
tians, whose later representatives Pantaenus found
in the valley of the Indus, their mother tongue or
an acquired speech, it may be easily imagined that
Christians able to use the Aramaic scriptures for

74 INTRODUCTION.
instruction in righteousness would readily find
their way, in the interest of trade, agriculture, or
gospel-propagation, into a promising country so
comparatively near the original home of Aramaic.
It is not needful, of course, to assume that all
the Christians among whom Pantaenus found St
Matthew's Aramaic Gospel were Aramaic-speaking
persons. Probably their Christian predecessors
had been such, probably their teachers at least
had been such ; but, if Jerome's representation be
correct, it would seem, from the fact that Pantaenus
carried away with him what appears to have been
their only copy to Alexandria, that it had become
to them more an antique memorial of their past
history than an instrument of present usefulness.
In fact, one gathers from the story the impression
that this community of Christians of St Bartholo
mew was at the end of the second century in a de
pressed, not to say moribund condition ; that they
were but the surviving remnant of a community
which had seen better days ; that they were fain to
get help from any quarter ; and that perhaps they
found it easier, by reason of the regular marine
trade with Alexandria, to communicate with the
latter than with their own mother Church in Meso-

FIRST INDIAN MISSIONARY. 75
potamia, from which they had long been separated.
This, however, would not alter the fact of the acces
sibility of that region to Aramaic as a living, in
telligible speech in the sub-apostolic age, and thus
both the conditions involved in the narrative of
Eusebius and Jerome seem to be satisfied. It will
on all hands be admitted that in the population of
the India of Alexander the Great there was a pro
portion of Brahmans ; it will likewise, I trust, be
admitted that a case has been made out in favour
of the belief that in the same population, any time
within the first two Christian centuries, Aramaic
may well have been an intelligible language.
It is easy to see how Bartholomew's part in the
matter found its way into history. The simple
folk whom Pantaenus visited held the belief, which
probably all the ecclesiastical world then held, that
in whatever country Christianity had found a
footing, it must have been originally planted there
by an apostle. The origin of Christianity in the
famous land where they dwelt was to be ascribed,
they said, to St Bartholomew. The mind of
Pantaenus received their tale as true, on what
grounds of evidence we are not informed ; and
from Pantaenus directly or through Clement the

76 INTRODUCTION.
story was passed on to Origen, from whose writings
it was duly copied by Eusebius and probably by
Jerome and others.
The subsequent history of this apostle10 is not
irrelevant to our present inquiry. After having
visited India, we are told, he returned to the north
west parts of Asia, and met St Philip at Hierapolis
in Phrygia. Thence he travelled into Lycaonia,
where he instructed the people in the Christian
faith. His last removal was into great Armenia,
where, preaching in a place obstinately addicted
to idols, he was crowned with a glorious martyr
dom. Some say that he was condemned by the
Governor of Albanopolis to be crucified, while
others tell us that he was flayed alive ; and this
last assertion has been perpetuated by art as well
as by the devotion of the faithful. Who that has
visited the cathedral of Milan, for example, does
not remember its statue 17 of St Bartholomew in
agony ?
But, for perpetuating the name and influence of
any defunct saint, nothing is perhaps more import
ant than the destination of his bones. The relics
of St Bartholomew seem to have had a tendency
to travel westwards, away from the scene of his
Indian labours. It is said that about the year

FIRST INDIAN MISSIONARY. 77
508 they were removed to the city of Dura in
Mesopotamia ; that, before the end of the sixth
century, they were carried to the Isle of Lipari,
near Sicily ; that in 809 they were translated
from Lipari to Benevento ; and that finally they
were conveyed from Benevento to Eome in 983,
where they have ever since lain deposited in a
porphyry monument under the high altar in the
famous Church of St Bartholomew, in the isle of
the Tiber.
Happily the early history of Christianity in
India has not been encumbered with any question
concerning the destination of the relics of St Bar
tholomew, no one having affirmed that they ever
found a place on Indian soil. Whether he him
self personally preached in any part of India is
a sufficiently perplexing question. That he did
so is not incredible. But no community of Chris
tians calling themselves by his name, in India
or elsewhere, after the date of Pantaenus's visit, is
known to history.
It would be doing injustice to this interesting
story were we to withhold at the close of it a note
of admiration for an excellent practice of the Orien
tal Church that it records. For the presence of an
Aramaic Gospel among the Christians of St Bar-

78 INTRODUCTION.
tholomew is but an illustration of her custom of
habitually using from the first the Word of God as
an instrument of persuasion and ingathering as
well as of edification ; and few facts in the history
of the Greek, as compared with that of the Latin
Church, are more gratifying than this, that the
former put the Scriptures into the hands of so
many of her children in their own mother tongue
and granted them a free use of the same, limited
only by the difficulty of multiplying copies. Had
she been careful to follow up this wise and con
siderate step with an adequate provision for the
instruction of her youth in schools and of all her
people in their assemblies, her position in Asia
might have been very different to-day.

79

CHAPTEE VI.

PERSIA AND INDIA.

Nothing is better fitted to give a clear and com
prehensive idea of the extent to which Christianity
had spread in the world by the end of the first
quarter of the fourth century than to mark the
dioceses of the three hundred and eighteen bishops
who sat in the Council of Nicaea. The extreme
West was represented by Hosius of Cordova, and
the extreme East by James of Nisibis and John of
Persia and Great India. The last is undistin
guished in history. Nothing is known of him
beyond the fact that he signed the acts of the
first Ecumenical Council, the signature in full be
ing — 'Icodvvrj's Ii.4pcrq<s Trjs iv TLepcrCSi, Trdcrr) Kal
fieydXy 'IvSia.
The origin of the Church of Persia was due to
the labour of Syrian missionaries, probably from

80 INTRODUCTION.
Edessa ; and this historical circumstance was long
commemorated by the fact that, though the speech
of Persia during the Sassanian dynasty (226-561)
was Pahlavi, the Christians used Syriac in their
sacred services, — an illustration of "what an im
portant part the Syriac language played in Asia,
from the third to the ninth century of our era,
after it had become the instrument of Christian
preaching. Like the Greek for the Hellenic East,
and Latin for the West, Syriac became the Chris
tian and ecclesiastical language of Upper Asia." 1
Of the details of the early history of the Persian
Church we know but little ; yet by the fourth cen
tury, when it effloresced in history, it was numeri
cally strong, fully organised, and spiritually robust,
not refusing to take its fair share of the public
business of the Church at large, and to resist to the
death the persecution that assailed it from without.
It had its famous ' Persic School ' at Edessa, where
its clergy were taught the articles of the faith, and
where they probably drank from the great stream
of tradition that saturated the life of the Church
there, learning the attractive story and becoming
familiar with the precious relics of St Thomas.
The signature of Bishop John has received an
amount of attention altogether out of proportion to

PERSIA AND INDIA. 81
its importance. It has frequently been referred to
in proof or illustration of the idea that , the pres
ence of Christianity in India is due to apostolic
intervention. This signature, it is affirmed, proves
that there was a Church in Southern India at least
as early as the fourth century, thus antedating
that Church's origin by about two centuries, and
bringing it so much nearer to apostolic times. It
becomes necessary, therefore, to consider whether
Bishop John can have intended any possible refer
ence to Southern India.
It must be remembered that his bishopric fell
within the period when the Sassanian dynasty
swayed the destinies of Persia. The establishment
of this dynasty meant the restoration of the purely
Persian kings who were unseated in the person of
Darius by Alexander the Great, and who, after the
days of the Seleucidae, were still kept for more
than four centuries from their hereditary dignity
by the brave and powerful dynasty of the Arsa-
cids ; and, although the Sassanians never acquired
that extent of dominion and influence which Cyrus,
for example, gained for the Achaemenidae, yet they
ruled one of the largest empires in the world.
Eoughly speaking, their territory extended from
the Indus to the Euphrates, and from the Indian

82 INTRODUCTION.
Ocean to the Caspian Sea and the Hindu Kush.
Now, it has been already shown that the provinces
which lay between the Indus and the eastern fron
tier of Persia, and between the Indian Ocean and
the northern boundary of Afghanistan, were an
ciently comprehended under the name of India, and
were sometimes spoken of by authors as if they
were the whole of India ; and it seems to me that,
in the designation of John's diocese, the name
India is used in accordance with the usus loquendi
of the period. The subjects of the Sassanian kings
would without doubt use the name most naturally
and most frequently, if not exclusively, to denote
that India which formed such a large and import'
ant part of their own dominions. Bishop John
was a Sassanian subject, and would most probably
use the name in what may be called its Sassanian
sense. It does not appear that . the epithet ' great,' in
troduced into the description of John's diocesan
territory, is there used in any technical sense, like
the epithets major, minor, and tertia or middle
sometimes applied — though not uniformly or with
a constant meaning, applied — to India by writers
in the middle ages. The first two of these epithets
are used by Marco Polo and Friar Jordanus with

ST THOMAS'S MOUNT, NEAR MADRAS.
With Staircase leading to the Church at the top.

PERSIA AND INDIA. 83
opposite applications, and none of them seem to
have been in use so early as the days of Bishop
John. The epithet ' great ' would rather seem
to be used by way of magnifying John's office.
This India had the reputation of haVing, according
to one tradition, a Church founded by St Thomas ;
according to another, a Church founded by St
Bartholomew ; and it was probably out of compli
ment to the memory of these two apostles, or out
of respect to the tradition concerning them, that
the name India was included in the designation
of this bishopric ; and it was probably for the same
reason, and not merely on account of the physical
extent of the diocese, that the epithet ' great ' was
originally applied.
To what extent the Church, which probably had
some visibility in the end of the second century,
survived till the days of John, we have not the
means of determining. So far as appears, it was
in a moribund condition at the date of the visit of
Pantaenus, and history has never granted a distinct
view of that Church or a clear testimony as to its
strength and activity. Certainly the use of the
.title, subscribed by John to the acts of the Council
of Nicaea, does not carry with it, as has been com
monly assumed, the inference that a Church existed

84 INTRODUCTION.
even in this India in the year 325. It is easy to
understand how the title should be retained in full
long after that which originally gave it signifi
cance had become defunct ; just as the Bishop of
the Isle of Man is still known as the Bishop of
Sodor and Man, although it is about five centuries
since Sodor or the Sudreys (that is, the Southern
Hebrides) formed any part of the area of his epis
copal jurisdiction.
But in any case the diocese of John was ' great,'
beyond the power of any single man to do justice
to ; and it is probable therefore that he held the
rank of Metropolitan, with other bishops subject
to his supervision. He himself was subject to the
Archbishop and Catholicos of Seleucia-Ctesiphon,
who was, in his turn, a man placed under author
ity ; for this Catholicate " was, as it were, a vicarial
jurisdiction of the see of Antioch, in the same
manner that the Metran of Ethiopia was depend
ent on that of Alexandria." 2 The loose relation
ship here indicated between these two ecclesiastics,
the one on the Orontes and the other on the Tigris,
continued until the end of the fifth century, when
Seleucia-Ctesiphon, which then ceased to be ortho
dox, itself became the chief seat of an independ
ent patriarchate.

PERSIA AND INDIA. 85
But, if we would estimate the strength of spirit
ual life in the Church of Bishop John, we must
remember that he was contemporary with one of
the most distinguished, if not the greatest, of the
Sassanians. Shahpur II. was a posthumous child,
and his birth was heralded by no common expecta
tions. It is even said that the Magi went through
the ceremony of crowning him before he was born.
His political operations were undoubtedly carried
to a high degree of perfection, and he is one of
the men on whom history confers the name of
Great. But with all this he was a religious zealot
of an almost fanatical type. It must be remembered
that the restoration of the purely Persian dynasty
meant the revival of the Zoroastrian faith, which
was endowed and propagated by the secular arm,
such a union subsisting between Church and State
as almost to amount to an identification. In the
time of Shahpur II. also, the text of the Avesta —
the Zoroastrian Scriptures — was restored, and every
effort, including the persecution of Christianity,
was made to render the supremacy of Zoroastrian-
ism complete. Shahpur II. was as vehement a
persecutor as Nero or Diocletian, and the record
of his doings cannot fail to shock our Christian
sensibilities as keenly as the Boman martyrologies

86 INTRODUCTION.
do, or to awaken in our hearts as sympathetic an
admiration of the constancy and faithfulness of the
Church. Touching details are given by Sozomen,3
who concludes a record of many individual cases
of martyrdom with a reference to twenty -four
bishops, whose names are enumerated, and to six
teen thousand noble Persians, besides many other
persons of the middle and lower classes, who were
called to surrender their lives.
In its conflict with the religions of the world
Christianity offers to the student of history a very
complex but most instructive problem. The ex
ternal conditions of the problem change with the
progress of the centuries, but the intellectual and
spiritual elements are somewhat more constant and
are of perennial interest. Of the conflict between
Christianity and Zoroastrianism, we have been able
to present only a few of the external conditions.
In Zoroastrianism the religion of Christ had to con
tend with no common foe. Think what it might
have been. " There were periods in the history of
the world when the worship of Ormuzd threatened
to rise on the ruins of the temples of all the other
gods. If the battles of Marathon and Salamis had
been lost, and Greece had succumbed to Persia, the
State-religion of the empire of Cyrus, which was

PERSIA AND INDIA. 87
the worship of Ormuzd, might have become the
religion of the whole civilised world. Persia had
absorbed the Assyrian and Babylonian empires.
The Jews were either in Persian captivity or
under Persian sway at home ; the sacred monu
ments of Egypt had been mutilated by the hands
of Persian soldiers. The edicts of the great king,
the king of kings, were sent to India, to Greece, to
Scythia, and to Egypt ; and if, ' by the grace of
Aramazda,' Darius had crushed the liberty of
Greece, the purer faith of Zoroaster might easily
have superseded the Olympian fable."4
We have seen what it was in its revived form
during the days of Shahpur II., and how it strove
to exterminate its rival. Yet Christianity sur
vived. Hereafter we shall see that the tide of
public feeling and political action in Persia turned
largely in favour of the Christians, though they en
joyed this favour on a somewhat precarious tenure.
Nor did Christianity make such advances as to
encourage the belief that within calculable time
its upholders would succeed in possessing the land.
Zoroastrianism indeed was crushed, but it was not
"by the weapons of Eoman emperors or by the
arguments of Christian divines that the fatal blow
was dealt to the throne of Cyrus and the altars of

88 INTRODUCTION.
Ormuzd. The power of Persia was broken at last
by the Arabs ; and it is due to them that the reli
gion of Ormuzd, once the terror of the world, is
now, and has been for the last thousand years, a
mere curiosity in the eyes of the historian."5
Thus the interest of the story of Bishop John
centres around his Persian rather than his
Indian episcopate. But if the latter part of his
official designation was then but an empty title, it
was the symbol of a memory of what had been, and
its retention perhaps embodied a hope and a pro
phecy of what was to be in the then not distant
future, when the Church in which John presided
should send forth spirited missions both to the
Malabar and the Coromandel coasts of Southern
India.

89

CHAPTEE VII.
WHICH INDIA?
Some historical errors die hard. There are writers
who will cling to the notion of an apostolic
origin for Christianity in Southern India, and who
appropriate every passage in Church history which
seems to them to carry the date of its origin back
to a higher antiquity than the law of historical
evidence is commonly understood to sanction.
Thus the laborious, if not always concise, historian
Hough J sets it down as " certain " that, through
the efforts of a bishop of the name of Frumentius,
the Indian "peninsula possessed a knowledge of
Christ early in the fourth century ; " and Hard-
wick2 tells us that Theophilus, the Indian, "on
visiting his native land and other parts of the
Hindu Peninsula," in the third quarter of the
fourth century, "was not surprised to meet with

90 INTRODUCTION.
fellow-Christians, whose peculiarities attested their
antiquity, as well as their comparative isolation
from Christendom at large."
We shall see how far such representations accord
with the sources from which they profess to be
drawn ; and whether the insertion of the words
" peninsula " and " Hindu Peninsula " is not abso
lutely gratuitous.

Eufinus, who is the authority for the story of
Frumentius, was born in Italy about 345. He wTas
at first an inmate of the monastery of Aquileia,
and he afterwards resided many years at a monas-
tery in Palestine, where he became intimate with
Jerojme. After remaining for about twenty-six
years in the East, he returned to Italy in 397 and
died in Sicily in 4 1 0. In his ' Ecclesiastical History ' 3
he tells us that Meropius, a philosopher of Tyre,
fired with the passion for travelling and encouraged
by the example of Metrodorus, determined to pay
a visit to India. He was accompanied on the
voyage by his two young relatives, Frumentius and
Edesius, whose education he was superintending.
He probably thought that a voyage of discovery
would help to perfect in his wards that liberal

WHICH INDIA? 91
culture which it was his ambition to impart. After
completing his researches in India and duly record
ing his observations, Meropius began his return
voyage. He had occasion to touch at a certain
port to take in water and other necessaries ; but the
savage inhabitants, who had just thrown off their
alliance with the Eomans, fell on Meropius and
killed him and all his crew. Presently they found
the two lads, his relatives, sitting under a tree,
preparing their lessons ; and, touched with com
passion, they brought them to the king, by whom
' they were received with marked kindness. Fru
mentius, the elder of the two, seemed to be a lad of
insight and wisdom, and gave promise of capability
in administration ; while Edesius, of less mental
calibre, was distinguished for fidelity and goodness.
The latter became the king's cup-bearer ; the former
his secretary, or chancellor ; and both enjoyed high
favour at court. But, when the death of the king
was approaching, he bequeathed to them their
liberty, and appointed the queen to act as regent
during his son's minority. Pressure, however, was
put on them both to remain after the king's death ;
and the queen had unbounded confidence in Fru
mentius and granted him unrestricted power ;
and the work of administration prospered in his

92 INTRODUCTION.
hands, so that he became like another Joseph. As
a Christian man, he felt that the moral and spiritual
interests of the people had a strong claim on his
regard, and so he instituted careful inquiries as to
whether any of the Eoman merchants that traded
in the country were Christians ; and, finding some
such, he invested them with certain powers and
advised them to build churches where the people
might congregate for prayer ; and much more did
he himself try to promote the same objects and to
act in every way so that " the seed of Christians
might spring up in that place."
But when the royal youth, on whose behalf they
took charge of the kingdom, attained manhood,
they returned, says the historian, to 'our world,'
although the queen and her son begged that they
would stay. Edesius hastened to Tyre to see his
parents and relatives, and was afterwards appointed
a presbyter ; but Frumentius, thinking it not right
to " conceal the divine work," went to Alexandria,
and explained to Athanasius, who had but recently
been placed in the chair of St Mark, the whole
matter as it occurred ; and advised him to provide
some worthy man whom he might send as bishop
to the numerous Christians gathered together and
to the churches erected in the land of the bar-

WHICH INDIA? 93
barians. Then Athanasius, considering with par
ticular attention and favour the words and deeds of
Frumentius, said in the assembly of his presbyters :
"And what other such man shall we find in whom
verily the Spirit of God is,4 who can accomplish
these things so well ? " Having committed to
Frumentius the sacred office, the young archbishop
instructed him to return with the grace of God
whence he had come. So Frumentius went, prob
ably in the year 330, to India as bishop ; and the
historian, with a touch characteristically true to
the notions largely prevalent in his time, adds that
so great grace and powers are said to have been
given him, that apostolic miracles were done by
him and an infinite number of barbarians were
converted to the faith. Wherefore, in various
parts of India, multitudes of people became Chris
tians, and churches were built and the priesthood
began. So far the story has been told as nearly as pos
sible in the words of Bufinus, who took it down,
as he tells us, from the lips of Edesius. The geo
graphy of Bufinus is hardly intelligible ; but for
tunately we possess contemporary sources of infor
mation which enable us to check his terms, and
to determine the local limits of the bishopric of

94 INTRODUCTION.
Frumentius. Bufinus himself informs us that,
while Parthia was assigned to St Thomas, Ethiopia
to St Matthew, and India citerior to St Bartholo
mew, yet " no ploughshare of apostolic preaching
had touched" India ulterior, until, in the time of
Constantine the Great, it "received the first seeds
of the faith " from Frumentius. Commentators
like Pagi, while finding fault with the geographical
nomenclature employed by Bufinus, tell us that
by India ulterior he meant modern Ethiopia ; and,
though this might remain uncertain if we had
nothing but the text of Bufinus to guide us, the
writings of Athanasius and the records of the
Abyssinian Church seem to put the question be
yond dispute.
For nearly half a century, the brave, high-souled
Athanasius held, as Archbishop of Alexandria, the
highest ecclesiastical position in the Christian
world of the fourth century; and, when persecu
tion pressed him, as it persistently did — for he
was banished five times by four successive emperors
— he fled from the city, not uncommonly into the
wilderness, where his active mind produced many
of those writings by which he still speaks to the
world. In the year 356, while he was in exile,
he wrote his 'Apology to Constantius,' the time-

WHICH INDIA? 95
serving son of the great Constantine. In that
apology — the word being used of course in its
primitive sense — he has occasion to complain of
a rumour that had reached him about an alleged
intention on the part of the Emperor to remove
Bishop Frumentius from his see. The rumour was
in due course confirmed by a letter addressed by
Constantius himself to the ' tyrants ' of Auxumis
or Axum, the capital of Abyssinia. In that letter,
of which Athanasius has preserved a copy,5 the
Emperor Constantius, whose prejudices were then
all in favour of the Arians, and deeply embittered
against Athanasius, ordered iEzanes and Sazanes
to " send Bishop Frumentius as soon as possible
into Egypt to appear before the most honoured
Bishop George and the other bishops of Egypt,"
with a view to their determining how far he was
influenced by the teaching of Athanasius. " For,"
adds the Emperor, " ye know and remember, unless
ye alone pretend to be ignorant of those things
which are confessed by all, namely, that it was by
Athanasius that Frumentius was promoted to this
grade of life." Thus, twenty-six years before the
date of the Emperor's letter, Frumentius had been
ordained Bishop of Axum by Athanasius ; for up
wards of a quarter of a century he administered

96 INTRODUCTION.
the affairs of the Church of Abyssinia, whose
records attest the gratitude with which his memory
was long cherished as the founder of the Church,
the translator of the Scriptures into the Ethiopic
(Geez), and the doer of many other beneficent
works. The letter of Constantius threatened the
deposition of Frumentius, and there is some reason
to think that the threat (as we shall see hereafter)
was carried out. But however that may be, the
province, whose ecclesiastical administration under
the Pope of Alexandria was committed to the
hands of Frumentius, was Abyssinia ; and it was
Abyssinia that Bufinus and his followers, Socrates,
Sozomen, and other historians, called by the name
of India.
Among the many Indias known to antiquity,
therefore, there was an Ethiopian India. We
shall presently see that there was also an Arabian
India. II.
The authority for the story of Theophilus, the
Indian, is Bhilostorgius, a native of Cappadocia,
who was born of humble parentage about the year
364. It would seem that he went to Constan
tinople in his youth to complete his studies, but

WHICH INDIA? 97
it is uncertain whether he was educated for the
Church or the Bar. In later life he composed a
' History of the Church,' comprised in twelve books,
from the beginning of the Arian schism down
to the year 425. The work itself is no longer
extant ; but we have an epitome of it compiled
by Bhotius, who was appointed to the patriarchal
see of Constantinople in 853, and under whom the
schism between the Eastern and Western Churches
was formally consummated. From this epitomised
edition of Philostorgius we learn that in 356 Con
stantius resolved to send an embassy to 'Arabia
Magna,' or ' Arabia Felix,' of which the metropolis
was Saba, to a people known as Homeritae. These
Homeritae were, according to Philostorgius, formerly
called by the name of Sabaeans, or Indians in
differently, and one of the names of their country
was India, a name which he freely uses. In other
words, Arabia Felix and India were used by Philo
storgius as synonymous terms. The emperor
wished to build churches for the benefit of the
Eomans who went thither by sea, and the in
habitants of the country who should embrace the
Christian faith. He thought that, if he could con
ciliate the king of that people by magnificent
presents and words of gentle persuasion, he could
G

98 INTRODUCTION.
thence take an opportunity forthwith of sowing
the seeds of religion. In despatching the embassy,
therefore, he put on board the ship two hundred
well-bred horses from Cappadocia, and sent many
other gifts, with the double purpose of making an
imposing show and of conciliating the feelings of
the people. At the head of the embassy he placed
Theophilus, the Indian,6 who, being a native of
the island Diu Socotra, had been sent in early
youth by his fellow-citizens as a hostage to Con
stantinople, where he became a Christian, and
embraced the true — that is, according to Philo
storgius, the Arian — faith concerning God. He
chose the monastic life, and was promoted to the
diaconate at the hands of Eusebius, formerly of
Nicomedia. Having undertaken this embassy, he
was promoted by the men of his own party to the
episcopal dignity.
Accordingly, Theophilus, on his arrival, finding
that the Homeritae, who were descended from
Abraham by Keturah, not only practised circum
cision, but also offered sacrifices to the sun and the
moon and the gods of the country, endeavoured
to persuade the ruler of the tribe to become a
Christian. " Hereupon the customary fraud and
malice of the Jews was compelled to sink into deep

WHICH INDIA ? 99
silence as soon as Theophilus had once or twice
proved by his wonderful miracles the truth of the
Christian faith." The embassy proved successful ;
for the prince of the nation, by sincere conviction,
came over to the true religion, and built three
churches in the district, not however with the
money which the emperor's ambassadors had
brought, but with sums which he voluntarily sup
plied out of his private resources, with a laudable
strife to show that his own zeal was equal to the
wonders performed by Theophilus. One of these
churches he erected in a place called Tapharum
(Zaphar), the metropolis of the nation ; another at
Aden, the mart of the Eoman commerce " lying
towards the outer sea," " where everybody is in
the habit of landing on coming out of the Eoman
territories ; " and the third in another part of the
district, where the mart of Persian commerce stands
" hard by the mouth of the Persian Sea."
Then Theophilus, having arranged everything
among the Homeritae according to his ability and
circumstances, and having dedicated the churches
and adorned them with such decorations as he
could, went to pay a visit to his native island.
Thence he made his way to " other districts of India "
— i.e., to other districts of Arabia Felix than that

100 INTRODUCTION.
whose capital was Zaphar — and corrected many
disorders among the inhabitants. They listened,
it seems, to the Gospel in a sitting posture, and
used other customs "repugnant to the divine
law." But Theophilus, having corrected every
thing among them according to a religious rule,
confirmed the doctrine of the Church. For, with
regard to the doctrine of the Divine Being, he
asserts, they needed no correction, inasmuch as
"from the earliest antiquity they constantly pro
fessed to believe the Son to be of a different
substance from the Father."
From this Arabia Felix, or India, where he
found Arian Christians who practised irregular
forms of worship, Theophilus proceeded to the
Ethiopians, who were called Auxumitae7; and,
according to the Ethiopic Calendar,8 he became
Bishop of Axum in succession to Frumentius.
Arabian Christianity passed through a series of
trying vicissitudes, until it was finally stamped
out by the establishment and progress of Islam.
For in 523 the throne of the Homeritae was seized
by a bigoted and dissolute usurper, named Dhu-
Nowas (Dunaan). "A proselyte to Judaism, he
perpetrated frightful cruelties on the Christians of
the neighbouring province of Najran, who refused

WHICH INDIA? 101
to embrace his faith. Trenches filled with com
bustible materials were lighted, and the martyrs
cast into the flames. Tradition gives the numbers
thus miserably burnt, or slain by the sword, at
twenty thousand. However exaggerated, there
can be no doubt of the bloody character of the
tyrant's reign. One of the intended victims
escaped to the court of Justinian, and, holding up
a half-burned gospel, invoked retribution. At the
emperor's desire, the Negus, prince of Abyssinia,
crossed from Adulis and defeated the usurper ; and
thus the Himyarites (Homeritae) were supplanted
by a Christian Government under an Abyssinian
viceroy." 9 " If a Christian power had been main
tained in Arabia," says Gibbon, by way of apology
for introducing this story into the 'Decline and
Fall of the Boman Empire,' " Mahomet must have
been crushed in his cradle, and Abyssinia would
have prevented a revolution' which has changed
the civil and religious state of the world." "But
Abyssinian rule was distasteful to the people ; an
appeal was made to Bersia ; and, before the end of
the sixth century, the Abyssinians were vanquished
and expelled, and Yemen sank into a simple de
pendency of Persia."10 In the following century
Islam reigned alone in Arabia.

102 INTRODUCTION.
Thus on each side of the Bed Sea, which was
reckoned and named part of the Indian Ocean,
there was an India ; and these, not Southern India,
are the lands to which Frumentius and Theophilus
respectively went. The fact is that Southern
India received Christianity, not from any of the
ancient seats of the Church, not from Jerusalem
or Antioch, not from Alexandria or Borne or Con
stantinople, but from the Nestorian patriarchate on
the banks of the Tigris ; not by way of the Bed
Sea, but by way of the Bersian Gulf ; not in the
fourth century, nor until the beginning of the
sixth.

THE NESTOEIAN PEEIOD

105

CHAPTEE VIII.
THE PATRIARCHATE OF BABYLON.
The Syrian Church of Southern India was a di
rect offshoot from the Church of Persia ; and, at
the date of the planting of the South Indian
Church, the Church of Persia was itself an integral
part of the Patriarchate of Babylon.
To trace the development and extent of this
great patriarchate, we must go back to the second
quarter of the fifth century and glance at the great
controversy of the day on the doctrine of the Per
son of Christ. It is well known how Nestorius,
Bishop of Constantinople, was condemned by the
Council of Ephesus in 431 for holding, as was
alleged, not only that the epithet OeoroKos was ob
jectionable as applied to the mother of our Lord, but
also that in the Christ there were two persons as
well as two natures, and that the incarnation was

106 THE NESTORIAN PERIOD.
not the hypostatic union of the Logos with the hu
man nature, but the simple indwelling of the Logos
in the man as in a temple ; how for many years
thereafter he was persecuted by all the petty de
vices that imperial ingenuity could invent or im
perial authority execute, and at length hunted to
death like a beast of prey ; how his works were
ordered to be burned and his followers to recant ;
and how the Nestorian heresy was finally stamped
out of the Eoman Empire in consequence of strin
gent imperial edicts and the deposition of bishops
hostile to compromise and union.1
But though the Nestorians were thus banished
from the Eoman Empire, they still lived and flour
ished. When they were persecuted under one
government, they fled for protection to another ;
and although it might seem an imprudent step
for them to betake themselves to a kingdom like
Bersia, which had been the home of persecution so
long, yet in Persia they were welcomed, not be
cause they were Christians, but mainly because
they were, like the Persians themselves, the enemies
of the Eoman emperor. Breparation, moreover,
was at an early stage made for them in the land
of their adoption. Pains were taken gradually to
educate the Persian mind. When, for example,

PATRIARCHATE OF BABYLON. 107
the Church - teachers of Edessa were dispersed,
owing to the tyranny of the orthodox, they dif
fused their tenets throughout the length and
breadth of Persia; and King Pheroses was at
length persuaded to issue a decree to the effect
that Nestorianism was the only form of Christianity
which would be tolerated within his dominions, a
decision which was followed by a fearful massacre
of all those who remained faithful to the orthodox
Church.2 At last at a Synod, held at Seleucia in 498, the
Persian Church wholly separated from the Church
in the Eoman Empire, and adopted the name of
Chaldaean Christians 3 ; while their chief assumed
the splendid title of Patriarch of Babylon, his
headquarters being in the first instance the double
city of Seleucia-Ctesiphon, on the Tigris.
Periods of intolerance, however, on the part of
the Sassanidae were not unfrequent; as, for ex
ample, when they kept the patriarchal see vacant
for twenty years till re-established by the elevation
of Jesu-Jabus, who saw the last of that dynasty,
and the subversion of their empire by the Arabs
in the year 651.
On the first setting up of the Saracenic power,
the Patriarch Jesu-Jabus succeeded in obtaining

108 THE NESTORIAN PERIOD.
a guarantee of protection and religious liberty
for the Christians on condition of their paying
a certain tribute. From Omar he subsequently
received a diploma of a more favourable character,
by which the tribute was remitted ; and these
immunities were afterwards confirmed to his suc
cessor by the Caliph Ibn Abi Taleb, in a charter
expressive of high esteem for the Christian religion,
at least in its Nestorian form. When the city
of Baghdad became the oriental metropolis about
762, the Nestorian Patriarch transferred' thither
his ecclesiastical see, where it continued during
the existence of the caliphate. In fact, some of
the earlier Mohammedan princes carried their
goodwill towards the Nestorians beyond mere
protection, so that they enjoyed in several ways
the preference of the Caliphs, who favoured their
commerce, employed them as secretaries and phy
sicians, and raised some of them to municipal
dignities.4 The Caliphs were doubtless well advised in
securing the services of the Nestorians. The
principle of selection was that of fitness. These
Nestorians or Neo-Chaldaeans would seem to have
inherited the distinction for learning which char
acterised the ancient Chaldaeans. Layard5 tells

PATRIARCHATE OF BABYLON. 109
us how we owe to them numerous fragments
of Greek learning, as the Greeks were indebted
to the ancient Chaldaeans for the records of as
tronomy and the elements of Eastern science ;
how in their famous schools of Edessa, Nisibis,
Seleucia, and Dorkena, both Chaldee and Syriac,
as v well as Greek, were taught, and that there
were masters of grammar, rhetoric, poetry, dia
lectics, arithmetic, geometry, music, astronomy,
and medicine, whose treatises were preserved in
public libraries ; how the attention of the Caliphs
was attracted to the stores of learning translated
into Chaldee from other languages and literatures,
and how they were fired with a desire to have
these and similar treasures translated into Arabic ;
how they employed for this purpose learned
Nestorians who rendered, among other Greek
works, those of Aristotle and Galen, besides
original works from Chaldee, Persian, and Egyp
tian ; and how Nestorian experts were sent into
Syria, Armenia, and Egypt to collect manuscripts
and to obtain the assistance of the most learned
men. But with all these instances of patronage, yet
under the dominion of the Saracens, which endured
for six hundred years, the Church had often to

110 THE NESTORIAN PERIOD.
maintain its existence through oppression and in
jury, from the fickleness or cruelty of the reigning
potentate, the avarice of local rulers, the jealousy
of the Islamite doctors, and the hatred of the
Mohammedan people at large to the Christian
name. Yet both before and after the dominion of the
Caliphs began, the Church of the Chaldsean
Christians did much for its own expansion ; and its
missionary labours, commencing so far back as the
beginning of the sixth century, continued unabated
till probably the eleventh or twelfth. These Chal
daeans or Nestorians, says Neale, "pitched their
tents in the camps of the wandering Tartar ; the
Laina of Thibet trembled at their words ; they
stood in the rice-fields of the Punjab, and taught
the fishermen by the Sea of Aral ; they struggled
through the vast deserts of Mongolia ; the memor
able inscription of Singanfu attests their victories
in China ; in India the Zamorin himself respect
ed their spiritual, and courted their temporal,
authority." " The power of the Nestorian Patri
arch," says the same authority, " culminated in the
beginning of the eleventh century, when he had
twenty-five metropolitans,6 who ruled from China
to the Tigris, from the Lake Baikal to Cape Como-

PATRIARCHATE OF BABYLON. Ill
rin. Those who dwelt nearest to Baghdad met the
Patriarch in yearly synod ; those farthest sent their
confession of faith to him every sixth year. It may
be doubted whether Innocent III. possessed more
spiritual power than the Patriarch of the city of
the Caliphs."7
But the days of the destroyer were at hand.
The Arab had found the Turk to be of service ; and
the Turk, being first a servant, gradually became a
master. As in Europe the barbarians of the North
crossed the mountain backbone and swooped
clown on the plains of the sunny South, so Turk
and Mongol came down from the heights of Central
and Eastern Asia and carried all before them in the
regions of wealth and ancient civilisation. When
Hulaku Khan — the nephew of Chengis Khan — took
Baghdad in 1258, the beginning of the end had
come, and the Nestorians thereafter rapidly fell ;
and, when Timur about the year 1400 sent forth
his conquering hordes, the Christians were either
stamped out or driven for protection to the inac
cessible mountain -fastnesses of Kurdistan, where
a remnant of the Nestorian Church exists to this
day. Before passing from the general subject of the
Nestorian Church, it is desirable to note one or

112 THE NESTORIAN PERIOD.
two facts concerning it. In the first place, it was
of vast extent. What may be called the home-
Church covered thousands of square miles in
Central Asia, while Southern India and Ceylon,
Northern China, and Eastern Tartary may be re
garded as its three great fields of foreign missions,
and as daughter Churches. In the second place, its
ecclesiastical position is worth observing. On this
subject we may take guidance from Neale, who is
by no means partial to the Nestorians, believing
them, as he did, to be next to the Arians the worst
enemies of sound doctrine. Neale says of them
that, though heretical, they " can hardly be called
schismatical, because they have constantly retained
their (apostolic) succession, and for centuries had
no branch of the true Church coexistent with them
in their territories." 8 In all the wide territories
occupied by Nestorians there was but the ' one al
tar.' Nestorianism and succession from St Thomas
went together. Where the one was present, so also
was the other. The Patriarchate of Babylon was,
throughout its vast extent, Nestorian in doctrine,
and in the line of succession from St Thomas. If
St Peter claimed Antioch and the West, St Thomas
claimed Edessa and the East. The Church of
Southern India, therefore, which was a part of the

PATRIARCHATE OF BABYLON. 113
Patriarchate of Babylon, and of which we shall
speak more particularly in the next chapter, was in
the first instance Nestorian, and its members, de
riving the succession of their ecclesiastical ' orders '
from the carpenter-apostle, called themselves and
were called by others Christians of St Thomas.

H

114

CHAPTEB IX.

THREE PERSIAN CROSSES.

The first unequivocal testimony to the existence
of a Church in Southern India we owe to Cosmas,
an Alexandrian merchant, who, having sailed the
Indian Seas, was surnamed Indicopleustes, or the
Indian voyager. He was a man with a hobby.
His desire was to demonstrate that the world was
formed after the pattern of the Jewish Tabernacle
in the wilderness, and that the earth was a great
rectangular plane, the length, as in the case of
the table of shewbread, being double the breadth.
When he had realised the hopes of a roving com
mercial career and had gathered all the observa
tions he wanted in support of his impossible cosmical
theorv, he assumed the habit of a monk and retired
to a monastery, where between the years 535 and
550 he wrote, in Greek, an account of his travels,

THREE PERSIAN CROSSES. 115
exhibiting at the same time the details of his the
orising vagaries. His 'Universal Christian Topo
graphy' is, as may be readily believed, a curious
book, full of wild imaginings and strange distor
tions of Scripture. It has been characterised as a
memorable example of that mischievous process
of loading Christian truth with a dead weight of
false science, which has had so many followers.
It has been compared to ' a continent of mud,'
containing nevertheless a few fossils worth digging
up for preservation in the museum of history. As
specimens of such fossils, the following extracts
may be taken. "Even in the Island of Ceylon,"
says Cosmas, " where the Indian Sea is, there is a
Church of Christians with clergy and a congrega
tion of believers, though I know not if there be
any Christians further on in that direction. And
such also is the case in the land called Malabar,
where the pepper grows. And in the place called
Caliana,1 there is a bishop appointed from Bersia."
Speaking of Ceylon again he further says, " The
island hath also a Church of Bersian Christians
who have settled there, and a presbyter who is
appointed from Persia, and a deacon, and all the
apparatus of public worship."
In this testimony we have the first scintillation

116 THE NESTORIAN PERIOD.
of historic light that penetrates the gloom where
with the origin of the South Indian Church is
shrouded. No more precious piece of evidence is
to be met with in the whole of our researches.
It is like a rock on which one may plant one's
foot with firmness and survey the bearings of the
situation. In attempting to estimate the value of this testi
mony, one or two considerations are to be borne in
mind. In the first place, it was in the year 522, or
in the first quarter of the sixth century, that Cosmas
visited the Malabar coast and found a fully organ
ised Church there. The .Church cannot have been
of long standing, because the Persians, who from
of old had a horror of the sea, had just begun to
develop a capacity and a liking for navigation,
and to work out schemes of commercial aggran
disement ; and this enterprise on the South Indian
coast was one of their earliest experiments. So
I that the maritime spirit of the Persian people,
1 and the missionary spirit of the Persian Church,
would seem to have grown together, and to have
become active about the beginning of the sixth
century. In the second place, Cosmas was him
self a Nestorian, was personally on friendly
terms with the Metropolitan of Persia, and was

THREE PERSIAN CROSSES. 117'
therefore as competent to report on the external
relations as on the internal condition of the South
Indian Church. He tells us that the constituency
as well as the constitution of the Church both in
Ceylon and on the west 'coast of Southern India
was Persian ; as neither, it would appear, had yet
begun to associate the natives of the country in
Church fellowship. In fact the Church of Ce3>lon
would seem never to have done so, and probably
for that reason had but a short-lived tenure in the
island ; 2 whereas, on the other hand, the Church of
the Malabar coast largely cultivated the fellowship
of the natives, and this was the main though not
the sole cause of its permanence as a Church in the
land ; this and another cause to be described in a
subsequent chapter 3 account, humanly speaking, for
its being able to strike its roots so deep in the soil
that it has weathered all the storms of adverse for
tune which the vicissitudes of the ages have brought
to bear against it.
But a point in Cosmas's testimony, which requires
perhaps to be specially emphasised, is more of the
nature of a suggestion than a statement of fact.
Though he does not seem to have known of the
planting of a Church on the Coromandel coast, yet
in the first of the above extracts he suggests that

118 THE NESTORIAN PERIOD.
possibly there may have been Christians 'further
on in that direction,' as if he had heard something
to that effect, but could not obtain sufficient evi
dence to warrant belief. At all events there was,
as we know from other sources, a Church there
which must have existed probably as early as the
seventh century, or even from an earlier date. It
would appear, in fact, that the Persian navigators,
having established a connection at the beginning
of the sixth century with the Malabar coast, pro
ceeded thereafter, at no long interval, to establish
a similar connection with the Coromandel coast.
They touched at Mailapore, which was probably
never a large place, but, being at the mouth of the
Adyar river, it offered the most convenient access
in that latitude to the busy centres of the interior.
For it is worthy of note that none of India's great
cities, except those built by the English, are built
on the coast ; so that, if you would see India aright,
you must go inland and visit Delhi and Benares,
Conjeveram and Madura, the temples of her gods
and the palaces of her kings. It was Kanchipu-
ram, the modern Conjeveram, that those Persian
merchants were bound for. Kanchi was then one
of the most famous cities of ancient India, magnifi
cently built and strongly fortified, and it was the

THREE PERSIAN CROSSES. 119
capital of a great and powerful empire. If the
Persian merchants were attracted to the Malabar
coast by the hope of sharing in the world -re
nowned pepper trade, so they must have been
attracted to the Coromandel coast by the hope
of a mutual exchange of products with the mighty
empire of the Pallavas.4
Of the Christian settlement, which the colony
established for itself at Mailapore, historical records
are indeed peculiarly meagre, but they have been
supplemented by a piece of monumental evidence
of rare value, so far as.it goes, which only quite
recently became available. This monument helps
to fix an approximate date for the settlement ; it
tends to show the identity of the Church at Mail
apore with the stronger and more enduring Church
on the coast of Malabar ; and it casts some un
expected light on the doctrinal position of both
Churches. The monument referred to is the cross
which was discovered on St Thomas's Mount in Q-
1547. The inscription, which is divided into two
unequal parts by a mark like the plus sign in
algebra, is in Pahlavi, the language of the Persian
r empire during the Sassanian dynasty, and, accord
ing to Dr Burnell, may belong to the seventh or
eighth century. The same Pahlavi inscription

120 THE NESTORIAN PERIOD.
appears on a similar cross of the same date in a
church at Cottayam, in north Travancore. Of this
inscription several renderings have been given, but
probably the best is that of Dr Burnell,5 which is
as follows : —
In punishment by the cross (was) the suffering of this One ;
He who is the true Christ, and God above, and Guide ever
pure.
Before remarking on this translation it should be
noted that there is one more cross,6 though of a
much later date, in the same old church at Cot
tayam ; and this more modern cross, similar in
form to the older cross in the same church, has
in part the same inscription. In other words, it
bears the second half of the Pahlavi inscription,
" written in a sort of running hand " ; whereas the
first part is replaced by a quotation from Gala-
tians vi. 14, in Estrangelo Syriac, which is, " to
judge from the MSS., of a period not older
than the tenth century." " Thus, if my read
ing be allowed," says Dr Burnell, " the whole
would run : —
{Syriac) Let me not glory except in the cross of our Lord
Jesus Christ j
{Pahlavi) Who is the true Messiah, and God above, and Holy
Ghost."

THREE PERSIAN CROSSES. 121
The meaning of this inscription it is difficult to
make out with precision ; but, in spite of the im
perfect translations available, it would seem that
a definite conclusion may be arrived at with
regard to its general import. The inscription on
a cross, set up as a symbol of Christianity within
the limits of a church surrounded on all hands by
heathenism, might be expected to exhibit the
belief of that Church concerning the crucified
One. To me, at least, it appears that the in
scription does, in point of fact, set forth a view
of the person of Christ characteristic of Indian
Nestorianism; for in no other theological literature,
so far as I am aware, will the notion be found
which this inscription seems intended to convey.
The first or shorter part speaks of the suffering
Saviour, ' who,' continues the second part, ' is the
true Messiah, and God above, and Holy Ghost.'
Nothing can be inferred from the order in which
the persons of the Trinity are here named, being
the same as in the apostolic benediction ; 7 but
the second clause of the inscription seems intended
to give expression to a doctrinal belief entertained
in olden times among the Syrian Christians in
Southern India, and often quoted from those
books of theirs which were condemned as heretical

122 THE NESTORIAN PERIOD.
by the Eoman Catholic doctors at the Synod of
Diamper (1599).8
The doctrine was to the effect that in the Christ
each of the persons of the Trinity was incarnate.
Thus in one book it is maintained that the union
of the incarnation is common to all the Divine
Persons, who were all incarnated ; and in another
the Lord Jesus is described as ' the Temple of
the Most Holy Trinity ' ; and in several other
works, quoted in the Diamper decrees, the same
idea is set forth in similar terms.
The doctrine is peculiar — the Godhead, not the
Logos only, being incarnate. It seems intelligible
on Nestorian premises, but its genesis historically
it is probably impossible to trace. On the one
hand, it bears a certain resemblance to the Sabel-
lian or Patripassian view ; on the other hand, if
we admit, what it seems impossible to deny, that
Nestorians accepted the creed of Nicaea and were
therefore trinitarians, we can hardly ascribe to
them the monarchian view of the divine incarna
tion. But we must not look for perfect logical
consistency on the part of these isolated Nestorians.
However they may have come by this peculiar
heresy, it seems never to have brought them into
trouble. Though they blazoned it on their

PERSIAN CROSS IN CHAPEL ON ST THOMAS'S MOUNT.
Seventh or Eighth Century.

THREE PERSIAN CROSSES. 123
escutcheon, they did not fall out of communion
or lose their succession.
But a point perhaps better worth insisting on
than the historical or logical bearings of the doc
trine exhibited on the cross,, is the fact of the unity
of testimony derived from the two oldest crosses.
Both are Greek in form, both have the same orna
mentation, both have the same Pahlavi inscription,
and both exhibit the same peculiar doctrinal view
of the person of Christ. In fact, it would almost
seem as if these crosses had been originally set up,
like the altar JEd,9 to be a witness between the
two Churches, separated by the breadth of a great
peninsula ; so that, in time to come, if circum
stances should alienate them, or annihilate either,
there might remain some visible token that they
were both of the same stock, that they were not
destitute of a zeal for doctrine, and that they
desired to live in history.
So much for the older crosses ; but the most
modern of the three, which is supposed to belong
to the tenth century, demands some notice separ
ately, by reason of an interesting addition, not
found in the older crosses. The slab on which
the third of our crosses is cut, has a second or
upper panel with a smaller cross, identical in form

124 THE NESTORIAN PERIOD.
and ornamentation with the larger one below, and
having on each side the figure of a peacock by
way of heraldic support, the bill of each being in
contact with one end of the transverse bar of the
cross. This arrangement is unique, and it becomes an
interesting problem to determine what symbolic
meaning is attached to the peacock in connection
with St Thomas, or how it came to be adopted as
a figure on his escutcheon. As the peacock is a
native of Southern India, this piece of symbolism
is less likely to have been imported, than to have
been adopted after the connection of St Thomas's
name with this province was established. At all
events the local circumstances seem to supply the
true explanation. For peacock-stories were often
told to' travellers by the Christians of Mailapore.
Thus Marco Polo 10 informs us how he was told that
one day, while St Thomas was praying in a grove,
a fowler, who was engaged in shooting peacocks
with bow and arrows, shot the apostle by mistake,
so that he presently died, "sweetly addressing
himself to his Creator." Again, John de Mario--
nolli,11 " who visited the place about the middle of
the fourteenth century, tells a story he gathered
on the spot, in which St Thomas is introduced on

THREE PERSIAN CROSSES. 125
a supreme occasion riding on an ass and " wearing
a shirt, a stole, and a mantle of peacocks' feathers ; "
and the tale concludes with an account of St
Thomas's death essentially similar to that given
by Marco Polo, though with many added details.
And once more, Duarte Barbosa,12 in the sixteenth
century, was told a story showing how badly St
Thomas was treated by-the people, how he there
fore often retired to the solitudes, and how one
day "a Gentile hunter" who, having gone out
with bow and arrows to shoot peacocks, and seeing
many together on the slope of a hill, aimed at
the bird in the midst of them, which seemed a
peculiarly handsome creature, and sent an arrow
through its body. Then the peacocks all "rose
up flying," and in the air the wounded bird
" turned into the body of a man." " And this
hunter stood looking until he saw the body of
the said apostle fall. And .he went to the city,
where he related that miracle to the governors,
who came to see it, and they found that it was
indeed the body of St Thomas; and then they
went to see the place where he had been wounded,
and they saw two impressions of human feet
marked on the slab, which he left impressed when
he rose wounded."

126 THE NESTORIAN PERIOD.
Now it is evident that these peacock-stories must
have been invented for a purpose ; and their crea
tion marks the progress of decadence in the Church.
The time of which we are speaking is not earlier
than the tenth century. It may even be later.
By that time the empire of the Berumals on the
one side, and that of the Pallavas on the other,
had passed away. Beinforcements from the mother
Church had probably ceased ; and the prosperity of
the Indo-Syrian Church in temporal as well as
spiritual things was probably on the wane. The
thought of the Church began to turn upon itself. It
sought to render to itself and to its neighbours an
account of its own origin. Such questions could
arise only long after all memory of its arrival in
the country had perished. Generations must have
passed away, and with them all tokens of their first
coming to Southern India. The Syrians therefore
wove this fictitious story of their pedigree. In
doing this they had two considerations to guide
them. In the first place, was it not the belief of
the Church from the earliest times that St Thomas
was the apostle of the Indians ; and was this India
in which they dwelt not to be adjudged to St
Thomas ? Was it not here that he fulfilled the
commission which he received from the Saviour

THREE PERSIAN CROSSES. 127
after the ascension ? was it not here that he at
tained his consummation and won the crown of
martyrdom ? In the second place, were they not
Christians of St Thomas ? and was it not an eccle
siastical axiom, that, in whatever country Christi
anity might be found, it must have been planted
there by an apostle ? Who therefore could have
planted the Church of St Thomas save the apostle
whose name they had the honour to bear ?
Such seems to have been the mental process
through which they arrived at a conclusion still
accepted by many in India. But it is full of fal
lacies. In the first place, these Nestorian Chris
tians had forgotten, if they ever knew, that it was
in India west of the Indus that St Thomas
preached and performed miracles and planted
churches, that from the date of his arrival in that
country to the date of his death he never left it,
and that no room is left by the writer of the
'Acts' for labours elsewhere, but that, on the
contrary, all opportunity for such labours is ex
cluded from the story. In the second place, they
forgot what exactly is meant by the phrase Chris
tians of St Thomas. It means merely that the
Church to which they belonged, their mother
Church on the Tigris, derived the grace of apos-

128 THE NESTORIAN PERIOD.
tolic succession from St Thomas. If St Thomas
planted the Church in Southern India, he did so,
not by a personal visit, but by the agency of the
Church which had adopted him as its patron saint,
from whom, according to tradition (our only author
ity on this point), it received the chrism of ordina
tion. The Church was planted in Southern India
by Christians whose priesthood received their eccle
siastical ' orders ' in the last resort from St Thomas.
Their Church-standing was ultimately traceable to
that apostle ; and so, by a figure of speech, it
might be said that St Thomas planted the Churches
of the East ; what was done by his followers in his
name, whether in Southern India, or Northern
China, or Eastern Tartary, was spoken of as if it
had been done by himself; and thus it came to
pass that, not St Thomas, but only the tradition
migrated to these countries respectively.
For the development of these peacock-stories the
spirit of rivalry and competition came into play ;
and the Christians of Mailapore probably felt that
they were put on their mettle, and must not allow
themselves in this matter to be outdone by their
neighbours. The suggestion was derived from the
mythology of the neighbouring Hindu temple ; for
it so happens that it has a peacock-story connected

THREE PERSIAN CROSSES. 129
with it. The Burana of that temple tells how
Siva's wife appeared there to her lord in the form
of a mayil or peafowl ; and that the place from
this circumstance received its name, mayil-a-pur
or peacock-town. Philologists may dispute con
cerning the etymology of this name if they please ;
but, whatever the historically correct origin of the
name may be, it was the traditional view that
became the popular belief, and it was the popular
belief that operated so influentially on the minds
of the Christians of St Thomas. They invented
those peacock - stories, in which their apostolic
patron figures somewhat ludicrously, for the pur
pose of adding prestige to their cause. They
wished to carry back the beginning of their
local history on the Coromandel coast to a time
earlier than the foundation of the city, and to
make - believe that it was not a Hindu but a
Christian town, which owed its name to incidents
in the history of St Thomas. It was he in fact
that had made the place by having worked, and
prayed, and died there ; and his memory had been
perpetuated in the name of the city. They wished
to represent that the city was of Christian-apostolic
and not of Hindu origin. Such was the intended
effect of this clever appropriation of the peacocks ;

130 THE NESTORIAN PERIOD.
and so it came to pass that the Indian peacock
became the symbol of the Indian apostle.
It seems that the idea of appropriating the pea
cock as a symbol of St Thomas originated with the
Syrian Christians on the Coromandel coast; but
the fact that a representation of it in stone was
set up as a piece of church decoration on the
Malabar coast, shows that its acceptance by the
Church was not confined to one side of the penin
sula. It seems probable that, as in the seventh
century two identical crosses were prepared and set
up, one on each coast, so in the tenth century two
identical crosses may have likewise been prepared
and similarly arranged. But if so, the tenth-cen
tury cross on the Coromandel coast must have been
lost, as the older cross on the same coast was for a
time. It probably lies buried somewhere on St
Thomas's Mount, to reward one day the labours
\ of some industrious explorer.

131

CHAPTEE X.

THE JEWS OF COCHIN.

Of Indian Jews there are in all about ten thousand.
Perhaps the largest and most influential commun
ity of them is to be found in Bombay and Puna,
where they have commodious and well-equipped
synagogues. This body of Jews in our own time
attracted the notice of royalty and received in
the person of Sir Albert Sassoon the distinction of
knighthood. Perhaps the most interesting colony of Jews
in India, however, is located on the western coast
of the peninsula at a considerably lower latitude
than Bombay. The Bajah of Cochin used to
be called by the early Portuguese the king of
the Jews, because of the conspicuous number of
the stock of Abraham that dwelt within his
dominions ; just as the Zamorin of Calicut was

132 THE NESTORIAN PERIOD.
styled, for a like reason, the king of the Moors
or Mohammedans.
In the Cochin State there were, according to
the census of 1881, some 1294 Jews1 — including
both the white Jews and the black — or about
one - eighth part of all the Jews in India. In
dress and outward bearing they hardly differ
from their brethren in other places. The ladies
are said to adopt the fashions of Baghdad ; while
the men, who all cultivate the long love-locks
brought down in front of the ears in obedience
to Leviticus xix. 27; wear a turban, a long tunic
of rich colour, a waistcoat buttoned up to the
neck, and full white trousers.
In speech, while they use Hebrew for purposes
of religious worship, they employ for secular and
common purposes the vernacular Malayalam of
the place. They forsake not the assembling of
themselves together on the seventh day of the
week, and they put off their shoes before they
cross the sacred threshold of the synagogue. Any
one, however, who wears English boots or an
English hat is not required or permitted to un
cover. They separate the sexes in the house of
prayer, and give to the woman a secondary place,
every one of the circumcised meanwhile saying

JEWS OF COCHIN. 133
in a spirit, as it would seem, of self-gratulation,
' I thank Thee, 0 God, that Thou didst not make
me a woman.' When public worship is being
conducted, the rabbi stands on a platform in the
middle of the synagogue, with his face towards
Jerusalem, supported on either hand by a member
of the congregation, and reads, chants, or snivels
the service at such a rapid rate that it is difficult
for an uninitiated spectator to understand how
even the devout can profit or follow. In reading
the law they do not venture to pronounce the
name Jehovah, but substitute for it, according
to a long-standing though by no means uniform
practice,2 the name Adonai — the Cochin theory
being that ' Jehovah ' was never pronounced in
old times save by the high priest on the day of
atonement. They observe the new moons and
the annual feasts after a fashion, but modern
Jews have no altars and no bloody sacrifices, and
considerable modifications on strictly Mosaic ritual
must in any case be made.
When I visited the colony in 1870, I asked
what views prevailed among them concerning the
Messiah — were they looking for Him? 'Yes,'
said one who had visited Constantinople, Amster
dam, London, and New York ; ' we are looking for

134 THE NESTORIAN PERIOD.
Him ; daily, hourly, minutely looking for Him,' —
language that may be compared with an article in
the creed of Maimonides which runs, ' I believe
with a perfect heart that the Messiah will come ;
and, though He delays, nevertheless I will always
expect Him till He comes.' They have copies of
the Pentateuch, both manuscript and printed.
The prophecies, I believe, are rare ; and the New
Testament, I am told, they abhor, and will not
allow a copy of it to come within their borders.
Yet Claudius Buchanan relates that, when he
visited the colony in 1807, he obtained 'in a
private manner ' an inspection of two translations
of the New Testament into Hebrew — the one 'in
the small rabbinical or Jerusalem character, the
other in a large square letter.' The former, he
adds, was rendered by a learned rabbi, who per
formed his task with stern fidelity because he had
undertaken it, not to make the New Testament
available to his kinsmen, but to confute it.
There is one touching feature in this little colony
which can hardly escape the attention of even the
most casual visitor. The cemetery, where their un-
eoffined dead sleep under the rustling leaves of the
cocoanut-palms, in graves that run north and south,
is called Beth Haiim, the house of the living.

JEWS OF COCHIN. 135
In discussing the question of the coming of the
Jews to Cochin, reference has been made by several
writers with varying results to three different
sources of information. The first authentic record
of the contact of Jews with Dravidians is to be
found in the Bible, 1 Kings x. 22, and 2 Chronicles
ix. 21. Solomon's fleet, manned by Phoenician
sailors, seems to have fetched from the Malabar
coast of India " ivory, apes, and peacocks," as well
as " gold and silver " to adorn his magnificent
court. The subject has been much discussed,2 but
it is admitted that the names for ivory, apes, and
peacocks are foreign words in Hebrew, as much as
gutta-percha and tobacco are in English. Now, if
we wished to know from what part of the world
tobacco was first imported into England, we might
safely conclude that it came from that country
where the name, tobacco, formed part of the spoken
language. If therefore we can find a language in
which the name for (say) peacocks, which is foreign
in Hebrew, is indigenous, we may be certain that
the country in which that language was spoken
must have been the country visited by Solomon's
fleet. The discovery has been made. At all
events, not a few competent scholars are agreed
that the word used in the original text- of the Bible

136 THE NESTORIAN PERIOD.
for ' peacocks,' tukki-im, is simply the Tamil word
spelt in Hebrew letters and supplied with a Hebrew
plural inflection. Few can speak on this subject
with more authority than Dr Caldwell. " The
oldest Dravidian word," says the late learned
Bishop, " found in any written record in the world,
appears to be the word for 'peacock' in the
Hebrew text of the books of Kings and Chronicles,
in the list of the articles of merchandise brought
. . . in Solomon's ships about 1000 B.C. . . .
The ordinary name at present for the peacock on
the Malabar coast and in Tamil is mayil (Sans.
mayHra) ; it is sometimes called siki (Sans, sikhi),
a name given to it on account of its crest ; but the
ancient, poetical, purely Tamil-Malayalam name of
the peacock is tdkei, the bird with the (splendid)
tail. Sikhi = avis cristata ; tdkei = avis caudata. " 3
It seems reasonable, therefore, to infer that Sol
omon's historiographer became acquainted with the
bird and its name in consequence of visits made
by that great king's sailors to the west coast of
Southern India. Nor is it improbable that similar
visits may have followed in the course of the cen
turies subsequent to Solomon's time, there being
no reason to disbelieve that Jews may have visited
India, just as the Teutons visited Britain long

JEWS OF COCHIN. 137
before they actually settled there. A broad dis
tinction, however, is to be made between the visits
of traders and the coming of settlers ; and there is
no historical evidence of any actual settlement of
Jews on the Malabar coast till more than a millen
nium and a half after Solomon.
The second source of information that falls to be
considered is a document emanating from the Jews
of Cochin themselves. It is a narrative, written in
Hebrew, of the events relating to their first arrival
in India which had been handed down to them
from their fathers. Of this document they pre
sented a copy to Claudius Buchanan in 1807. It
is as follows : After the second Temple was de
stroyed {which may God speedily rebuild .'), our
fathers, dreading the conqueror's wrath, departed
from Jerusalem, a numerous body of men, women,
priests, and Levites, and came to this land. There
were among them men of repute for learning and
ivisdom ; and God gave the people favour in the
sight of the king who at that time reigned here,
and he granted them a place to dwell in, called
Cranganore. He allowed them a patriarchal
jurisdiction within the district, with certain privi
leges of nobility ; and the royal grant was en
graved, according to the custom of those days, on a

138 THE NESTORIAN PERIOD.
plate of copper. This was done in the year from
the creation of the world 4250 (a.d. 490) ; and this
plate of copper we still have in possession. Our
forefathers continued at Cranganore for about a
thousand years, and the number of heads who
governed were seventy-two. Soon after our settle
ment, other Jews followed us from Judcea; and
among these came that man of great ivisdom,
Rabbi Samuel, a Levite of Jerusalem, with his son
Rabbi Jehuda Levita. They brought with them
the silver trumpets made use of at the time of
the Jubilee, which voere saved when the second
Temple was destroyed ; and we have heard from
our fathers, that there were engraven upon those
trumpets the letters of the ineffable Name. There
joined us also from Spain and other places, from
time to time, certain tribes of Jews, ivho had heard
of our prosperity. But at last, discord arising
among ourselves, one of our chiefs called to his
assistance an Indian king, who came upon us with
a great army, destroyed our houses, palaces, and
strongholds, dispossessed us of Cranganore, killed
part of us, and carried part into captivity. By
these massacres we were reduced to a small
number. Some of the exiles came and dwelt at
Cochin, where we have remained ever since, suffer-

JEWS OF COCHIN. 139
ing great changes from time to time. There are
amongst us some of the children of Israel (Beni
Israel) who came from the country of Ashkenaz,
from Egypt, from Tsoba, and other places, besides
those who formerly inhabited this country}
In this narrative there are three notes of time :
(1) that the Jews came to the west coast of Benin-
sular India just after the destruction of the second
Temple by the Bomans a.d. 70 ; (2) that their
coming preceded by no long interval the date of
their sasanam, or copper-plate charter, which they
assign to the year of the world 4250 (a.d. 490) ;
and (3) that their " forefathers continued at Cran
ganore for about a thousand years." Now these
data seem to be mutually inconsistent, and can
not therefore be accepted without considerable
modification. Before, however, attempting to prove this, it is
necessary to examine with some care our third
source of information, namely, the sasanam or
copper-plate charter referred to in the statement
which Buchanan received at Cochin. It consists
of two copper plates with three pages of text.6
The character in which it is written is the Vat-
teluttu, which is believed to be an adaptation of
some foreign (probably Semitic) character to a

140 THE NESTORIAN PERIOD.
Dravidian language ; and is " the original Tamil
alphabet once used in all that part of the penin
sula south of Tanjore, and also in South Malabar
and Travancore," though of course as different from
the modern Tamil alphabet as the handwriting of
Alfred the Great is different from the caligraphy of
Queen Victoria.
The Jewish charter has often been translated, the
oldest rendering of it being that given in Hebrew
by the Jews themselves. "The Hebrew transla
tor," however, says Dr Gundert, who was the first
to unravel its true meaning, " seems neither to have
understood much of the original Tamil, nor to have
cared about rendering it faithfully." It confers, in
the name of Bhaskara Bavi Varma, King of Malabar,
the principality of Anjuvannam and all its revenues
on Joseph Babban, the head man of the Jewish
community. It sanctions also the use of elephants
to carry earth and water in marriage and other
processions ; the light by day, still highly prized
by the ruling houses of Travancore and Cochin and
other chieftains ; the spreading cloth to walk upon ;
the litter or palanquin ; the umbrella, a privilege so
highly prized that the title ' lord of the umbrella '
is hardly inferior to that of maharajah ; the trumpet
or conch-shell, which still figures in the emblazon-

JEWS OF COCHIN. 141
ments of the Travancore and Cochin rulers ; the
gateway with seats, probably the power of ad
ministering justice ; ornamental arches, and similar
awnings and garlands, still thrown across the paths
taken by members of the royal houses.
But the grand distinction was the according to
the head man of the Jews a rank co-ordinate with
that of the local princes, which is implied in the
fact that six of the latter appended their names as
witnesses to the deed. Thus to Joseph Eabban,
the owner of Anjuvannam, and to his posterity,
sons and daughters, nephews and sons-in-law, these
rights and privileges were given, " a hereditary
appendage so long as the earth and moon endure."
" The actual date of this grant," says Dr Burnell,
" cannot be later than the eighth century a.d., for
of two other similar grants in possession of the
Syrian Christians one presupposes its existence,
and one of these I have ascertained to be of 774
A.D., while the other belongs to the beginning of
the ninth century. Nor can the Jewish sasanam
be older than the beginning of the eighth century,
as the many Grantha letters in it are too developed
to be of an earlier date." The date therefore has
been set down approximately as 700 a.d.
Having thus ascertained the true date of the

142 THE NESTORIAN PERIOD.
Jewish sasanam, we may now recur to the con
sideration of those three notes of time found in
the statement delivered to Claudius Buchanan.
In the first place, the Cochin Jews are known
to have been expelled from Cranganore (of which
more hereafter) in the year 1565 ; so that, if the
'thousand years' be taken as the nearest round
number to fix the approximate date, then the
coming of the first company of Jewish settlers may
fall anywhere between the middle of the sixth and
the middle of the seventh century. Again, the
date of the sasanam as given in Buchanan's text
is wrong. The true date is not 490, but 700.
But the coming of the colony must have preceded
the latter date by a considerable interval in order
to give them time to show their own importance
and the stuff of which they were made. They
could not gain the goodwill of the king and the
respect of the neighbouring chiefs in a day. If
two or three generations should suffice for this pro
cess of habilitation, then the time of their coming
would fall within the first half of the seventh cen
tury ; if more were required, the date might still
not go beyond the middle of the sixth century.
On the whole it would seem that there is substan
tial agreement between the second and third notes

JEWS OF COCHIN. 143
of time above specified ; but, for this very reason,
they exclude the first. The date synchronising
with the destruction of Jerusalem seems, not from
any inherent improbability in the statement itself,
but for the reasons just assigned, to be as apoc
ryphal as the ' silver trumpets.' This amount of
truth, however, may be supposed to reside in that
first note : it may be held to record a lingering
memory in the colony, of their having been orig
inally urged to this migration by reason of perse
cution or war.
Having thus determined, within certain limits,
the probable time of the coming of the Jews, the
next question to consider is whence they came.
On this point some light may be expected from
a review of the political circumstances in which
Jews were placed by the authorities in those coun
tries of Asia that lie nearest to India and that
border most closely on the great commercial high
ways by which intercourse with the West was
maintained. It is well known, for instance, that
Arabia had from early times become the chosen
home of Jews. The sack of Jerusalem by Nebu
chadnezzar, the attack of Pompey sixty -four years
before the Christian era, with that of Titus seventy
years after it, and the bloody retribution inflicted

144 THE NESTORIAN PERIOD.
by Hadrian on Judea in the year 136, are some
of the later causes which dispersed the Jews and
drove large numbers into Arabia, where they long
enjoyed the privilege of toleration. But on the
rise of Mohammedanism all was changed. At first
indeed Mahomet hoped to annex them to his
cause ; but, when it became evident to the prophet
that his promises failed to win them, he had re
course to the stern proselytism of the sword. He
sent them the peremptory alternative ' Islamism
or war ' ; and there could be little doubt which
of the two contending parties would ultimately
win the day. Many of the Jews were slain, " but
Mahomet reserved the right of exiling them
according to his pleasure — a right which was after
wards exercised by the Caliph Omar, who alleged
the dying injunction of the prophet, that but one
faith should be permitted to exist in Arabia."
" Some of the Jews of Khaibar," adds Dean Mil-
man,6 " were transplanted to Syria ; " and it does
not seem improbable that some may have found
in India an asylum from Arabian persecution.
Similar persecutions were being carried on about
the same time in Persia, where Jews had long dwelt
and where they seem to have been sometimes op
pressively treated. Especially severe was the per-

JEWS OF COCHIN. 145
secution directed against them during the reign of
Yesdegred III., the last of the kings of the Sassan
ian dynasty, and it was not to be wondered at, that
many of them should have endeavoured to escape
to countries where the hand of persecution would
not be laid upon them, and where they would en
joy a measure of liberty in the pursuit of their
chosen avocations. It seems therefore probable
that the Jews, who obtained a charter from Bhas-
kara Bavi Varma, the King of Malabar, in the year
700, were refugees from the persecutions directed
against them in Arabia or Persia.
In their adopted country the Jews enjoyed
toleration ; for the Brahman, the Musalman, and
the Portuguese were all as yet equally unknown
there ; and, in so far as the people of Malabar had
been influenced by Buddhism and Jainism, such
influence was rather in favour of toleration than
otherwise. With the blessing of toleration, denied
them elsewhere, the Jews soon attained to a
measure of material prosperity, social distinction,
and political consequence, to which the circum
stances that eventuated in the granting of their
charter add a significance and a value that might
otherwise escape notice. For we ought not to
regard the recognition of the Jewish colony by
K

146 THE NESTORIAN PERIOD.
the sovereign of the country and the promotion
of its head man to a position of equality with the
local princes, as being merely a transaction in
which favour was granted on the one side and
accepted on the other. It was rather, of the na
ture of a bargain or contract. The Jews did not
receive their privileges for nothing : it is probable
that they gave a substantial quid pro quo. For
the Jewish charter was granted "at or very near
the time when the Western Chalukya raids into
Southern India resulted in the dismemberment of
the Ballava kingdom, and its three confederate
and apparently subordinate dynasties, of which
Kerala was one." 7 At such times the royal
treasury might need replenishing and the ranks
of the army require reinforcement ; and the Jews,
on condition of supplying, to an extent worthy
of their proverbial resources, the sinews of war,
and perhaps also a contingent of fighting men,
would secure for themselves and the generations
following both the status of a self-governing
community and the right of freely carrying on
domestic and foreign trade. The Perumal's ex
tremity was the Jews' opportunity, and they made
their bargain accordingly.
For nine hundred years the Jews of Cranganore

JEWS OF COCHIN. 147
enjoyed the high standing set forth in the mem
orable deed ; but no literary monuments of that
prosperous period have survived the catastrophes
which befell them in the sixteenth century, and
by which they were finally expelled from Cranga
nore. It appears that in 1524, the year before
Vasco da Gama's death, the Mohammedans, with
the Zamorin's approval, made an onslaught on the
Cranganore Jews and Christians, the reason alleged
being that the followers of the prophet had re
sorted to various tricks for adulterating the pepper
and other wares brought to market, and some
Jews and Christians had been specially selected
to discover such tricks and mete out justice to
the offenders. Assembling from various quarters,
the Mohammedans mustered a fleet of one hundred
grabs and attacked Cranganore. They slew many
Jews and drove out the rest to a village to the
east ; but, when they attacked the Christians, the
Nayars of the place retaliated, and in turn drove
all the Mohammedans out of Cranganore.
After this there seems to have been a respite for
about forty years ; but in 1565 the Zamorin and
his allies again invaded the Cochin State. The
enemy was victorious, the Cochin rajah and two
princes were slain in battle, and the succeeding

148 THE NESTORIAN PERIOD.
rajah shared the same fate only a fortnight later.
In the same year the Portuguese enlarged and
strengthened their Cranganore Fort ; and the Jews
finally deserted their ancient settlement of Anju-
vannum and came to Cochin, near which they built
Jews' Town, where they reside to this day. Even
here, however, they did not escape chastisement
at the hands of their enemies; for in 1661, on the
siege of Cochin being raised, the Portuguese
blamed the Jews for having helped the Dutch,
and plundered their town of almost all it con
tained. What with the destruction of Cranganore,
which they paint like the destruction of Jerusalem
in miniature, and recite as if it were a chapter out
of the book of Lamentations, and what with the
wanton onslaught by the Portuguese at Cochin,
the sacrifice of life and property to them must have
been truly awful, and the destruction of all literary
monuments is an irreparable loss to history. Soon
afterwards the Dutch came into power on that
coast, and after a hundred and thirty years gave
way in their turn to the English. During the
dominance of these two Protestant powers, the
Jews have had all the advantages of a kindly
toleration, and a frequent and friendly intercourse
with their brethren in Europe.

JEWS OF COCHIN. 149
Twelve or thirteen centuries have thus come and
gone since this colony of Jews, who are fairer in
complexion to-day than most Europeans, planted
itself in the little Hindu State of Cochin. It has
usually been believed that white races in India,
after three or four generations, become sterile and
die out ; and some have inferred that the per
sistence of this colony at Cochin so long shows the
common belief on this point to be destitute of
adequate foundation. Yet the Jews of Cochin
form no real exception to a rule so well established;
for it is needful, in order to maintain the con
tinuity of the colony, that fresh blood should be
periodically imported from higher latitudes. It is
the testimony of careful observers, who have lived
on the west coast of Southern India, that no white
Jews " of upwards of three generations," born in
the country, of pure unmixed blood on father's
and mother's side, can be detected.8 The colony
has been largely replenished from time to time by
immigrants from Europe for at least two hundred
years ; and the law of periodic immigration as a
condition of continuity doubtless goes much farther
back in its history.
Nowhere have the Jews amalgamated with the
people among whom they dwell. At Cochin this

150 THE NESTORIAN PERIOD.
exclusiveness has operated peculiarly in connection
with the formation of a synagogue of black Jews.
These black Jews are converts to the faith from
among the people of the land. It is said that, when
the Jews settled at Cranganore, they purchased five
hundred slaves, who became proselytes. In that
case, the black Jews are the descendants of the five
hundred together with those of accessions received
afterwards. While the white Jews are traders and
merchants, the black Jews gain their livelihood
by practising various handicrafts, and are sawyers,
blacksmiths, carpenters, bricklayers, bookbinders,
tailors, fishermen, servants to the white Jews, or
vendors of household necessaries. The black Jews
have a separate synagogue of their own, but, if
one of the white Jews were to enter, the chief seat
would be at once vacated for him ; and every rela
tion in which they stand marks them out to be an
inferior race, that have never yet risen above the
servile origin from which they seem to have sprung.
In these respects there is a marked contrast between
the black Jews and the native Syrian Christians.
The latter have some of the best blood of the
land. But the synagogue never opened its door to
the native. It told him to erect a synagogue for
himself. The Church, on the other hand, freely

JEWS OF COCHIN. 151
opened its doors, admitted the natives to com
munion and to office, until the time came when
the administration of Church ordinances, Church
property, and Church offices from the highest to
the lowest, fell entirely into their hands.
There seems to be no memory of any great men
having arisen among the Jews of Cochin. A cor
respondent informs me that within the last half-
century one of their number was made a judge
by the rajah of Cochin, and was much esteemed
also by the rajah of Travancore. " The brother
of this judge," he adds, " became a Christian, and
was very useful in service under the Church Mis
sionary Society among the Beni-Israel of Bombay
and Puna. ... In commerce none have attained
eminence, though there are two or three rich
families still extant." For education they do not
seem to care, either for its own sake or as a pass
port for admission to the public service. Efforts
have been made from time to time by benevolent
persons to encourage public instruction among
them. The Church of Scotland maintained a
mission to the Jews of Cochin from 1845 to 1857,
but without success. Some ten or twelve years
ago they petitioned the Dewan of Cochin for an
English school, promising to send always fifty or

152 THE NESTORIAN PERIOD.
a hundred boys. A district school in the neigh
bourhood of Cranganore, being no longer needed,
was accordingly transferred to Mattancheri, within
a stone's-throw of Jews' Town. On the other side
of the backwater and ferry-free they have Govern
ment education available from the primary classes
up to the standard of the First-in-Arts Examina
tion of the Madras University. But they do not
use their advantages. When the Mattancheri school
was opened they sent about twenty scholars, vary
ing in age from ten to twenty-eight. The elder
ones fancied they could learn English in a year,
but they proved too old to learn anything, and
after a few months the numbers dropped to eight
or ten ; and now there are not over a dozen Jewish
boys in the district school and the High School
together. A school in which the Hebrew Scrip
tures and the Talmud are taught is maintained by
the synagogue and aided by the native State, but
it is a poor affair. The parents are contented if
the boys learn to read a little Hebrew, and then
turn their attention to trade or some other mode
of money-making.
It deserves to be mentioned, however, that in
1884 a Jewish lad passed the Matriculation Ex
amination of the Madras University, having been

JEWS OF COCHIN. 153
able to fulfil the requirements for matriculation in
that particular year, because — not to speak of his
educational equipment — the examination, which
lasts for five days, began on a Monday morning,
and did not therefore encroach on the Jewish
Sabbath. What the future of the Indian Jews shall be is
a question bound up in the still larger question of
the destiny of the Jewish people as a whole. They
have been scattered over all the parts of the earth,
but nowhere have they been absorbed. They re
main as by miracle a distinct nation, six and a
quarter million strong.9 What is known in modern
politics as the Eastern Question raises large issues
with respect to the Jews. If, as many think, the
Jews are destined in the latter days to return to
their own land, then, when that grand reunion is
effected, India will send its contingent of ten
thousand to the great general assembly.

154

CHAPTEE XI.
TWO COPPER-PLATE CHARTERS.
The history of the Church of Malabar is very
different from that of the sister Church of
Mailapore. The former has survived all the
vicissitudes of its lot, and is at this day repre
sented by a community of more than 400,000
people ; while the latter had disappeared early
in the sixteenth century, leaving a heritage of
unhistorical traditions, to which the Goanese
Eoman Catholics promptly served themselves
heirs. The difference of fortune in the case of these two
sister Churches may be accounted for mainly by
the fact that the Malabar Christians acquired from
the kings of that country a certain political status,
including the right of self-government, in token of
which they received two of those sasanams or

TWO COPPER-PLATE CHARTERS. 155
copper-plate charters so familiar to the student of
Indian history.1
Of these documents, the first that was granted
to the Christians is a copper instrument — 14|
inches by 4 — written on both sides in old Tamil
characters mixed with a good many Grantha
letters. The date of it, according to Dr Burnell's
calculations, is 774. It is a grant made by King
Vira Baghava Chakravarti to Iravi Corttan of Cran
ganore, making over to him, as representative head
of the Christian community there, the little princi-
cipality of Manigramam,2 and elevating him to the
position of sovereign merchant of Kerala.
The second sasanam that was granted to the
Christians of St Thomas consists of five copper
plates, bound together according to the usual
custom by a ring passing through holes pierced
in the ends of the several plates. These plates or
leaves, as they are sometimes called, are of smaller
size than the former, and contain seven pages of
Tamil-Malayalam,3 apparently written by different
hands, and two pages of two other languages —
Pahlavi and Arabic — in the Kufic character, with
four Hebrew signatures. This deed was granted
about the year 824 with the sanction of the
palace - major or commissioner of King Sthanu

156 THE NESTORIAN PERIOD.
Eavi Gupta, who is probably identical with
Cheraman Perumal, whose name is in the mouth
of every child on the coast. It is a legal instru
ment by which one Muruvan Sapir Iso, who had
obtained a grant of a piece of ground in the
neighbourhood of Quilon, with several families of
different heathen castes, transfers the same with
due legal formality to the Tarasa Church and
community. From these two charters, compared with the
Jewish charter, much may be learnt regarding the
constitution of society in Malabar from the be
ginning of the eighth century to the end of the
first quarter of the ninth. It will be sufficient to
set forth here only so much of that constitution as
may enable us to understand the position to which
the Jews and the Syrian Christians were admitted
by their respective charters.
The petty empire of the Perumals, or big-men,
as the kings of Malabar were called, extended from
Calicut in the north to Quilon in the south, and
was known by the name of Chera, or — to use its
better-known Canarese equivalent — Kerala. The
great body of the people in this area, as well as
the Perumals themselves, were then as now non-
Aryans. But if the non-Aryans have always been

TWO COPPER-PLATE CHARTERS. 157
the most numerous section of the population of
Malabar, the Aryans have been the most in
fluential. The introduction of Aryan civilisation
into Malabar is due to the Jains, who were in that
part of the country as early as the third century
before Christ. Jain missionaries penetrated as far
as Malabar in Asoka's time.4 But though they
established one of their peculiar styles of archi
tecture and probably organised the community
into corporate guilds, they seem to have made
little impression on the religious beliefs of the
people. This last result was reserved for the
Brahmans, who seem to have first come to Mala
bar in the eighth century.5 With that haughty
indifference to objective truth in questions of
divinity which led the Bomans to admit into their
pantheon the gods of the nations which they con
quered, the Brahmans not only recognised the gods
of the people over whom they obtained influence,
but invented for them genealogies which connected
them with their own proper divinities. Hence
MalayaH - Hinduism embraces, chiefly as divers
manifestations of Siva and his consort Kali, all
the demoniac gods originally worshipped by the
Malayalis.6 The influence of the Brahmans, however, was by

158 THE NESTORIAN PERIOD.
no means limited to religion. It is interesting to
mark how they contributed also to the develop
ment and perfecting of the organisation of the
community for civil purposes. The old Aryan
constitution consisted of the well-known four-fold
division into Brahmans, Kshatriyas, Vaisyas, and
Sudras ; and it was on this model that the Brah
mans sought to construct society in Southern India.
It was not possible for them to carry out their
scheme in all its symmetrical proportions ; for, in
dealing with the primitive population of Malabar,
they were dealing with an alien race. They had
no sufficient body of protectors of their own to fall
back on, so they had perforce to acknowledge the
native ruling race, whom they invested with the
functions of Kshatriyas, but on whom they were
apparently unable to confer a higher rank than that
of Sudras. It was needful that there should be a
protector or Kshatriya caste ; so they promoted
the ruling race to this distinction, and called them
Nayars. t
As protectors their duties were to preserve all
rights from being curtailed or falling into disuse.
They were the militia, the police, and in some
sense the custodes morum of the nation. Nor
was this the only class of duties they had to per-

TWO COPPER-PLATE CHARTERS. 159
form. They were originally cultivators and be
longed to the Vellala caste. In the development
of the caste system they were made not only ' pro
tectors,' but also land-agents and collectors of
revenue, in which capacity the name applied to
them was that of ' supervisors.'
Originally the Nayars seem to have been orga
nised into ' six hundreds,' and each ' six hundred '
seems to have had assigned to it the protection of
all the people in a nad or county. The nad was
in turn split up into taras — the tara being the
Nayar territorial unit of organisation for civil pur
poses — and governed by representatives of the
caste, who were termed karanavar or elders. The
' six hundred ' was probably composed exclusively
of these elders, and there seems to have been four
families of them to each tara, so that the nad must
originally have consisted of one hundred and fifty
taras. In compensation for the services rendered in the
double capacity of ' protectors ' and ' supervisors,'
one share of the produce of the land, the amount
of which cannot now be determined, was given to
the ' six hundred ' of the nad, and another to the
king. Now it will be comparatively easy to show in

160 THE NESTORIAN PERIOD.
what respect or to what extent the Christians of St
Thomas were placed next or equal in precedence to
the Nayars. In the charter of 774, it appears that
the Christians were, like the Jews three-quarters of
a century before, incorporated into the Malayan
nation ; while the charter of 824 shows that the
position assigned to both Jews and Christians was
that of practical equality with the 'six hundred'
of the nad in respect to the two characteristic
functions and the privileges that have been already
indicated. For it was declared to be the duties of
the Jewish and Syrian guilds, assembled in their
respective headquarters at Anjuvannam and Mani-
gramam, in association with the ' six hundred ' of
the nad, to protect the town of the Falliyar, or
Church people. Further, it was the duty of the
Church people to render to the powers above them,
who were the king on the one hand and the Jew
ish and Christian protector guilds on the other, a
trustworthy account of the shares of the produce
of the land which respectively fell to them. " Let
them, even Anjuvannam and Manigramam, act
both with the Church and the land according to
the manner detailed in this copper deed for the
times that earth, moon, and sun exist." 8
The circumstances which brought about this re-

TWO COPPER-PLATE CHARTERS. 161
markable promotion of the Christian community
in Malabar are historically interesting.
In the first place, there was a political necessity
for this recognition. It was no feeling of favour
towards the religion which they professed that
induced the kings of Malabar to exalt the new
comers. The element of fear and of self-interest
entered into the motive. For, as it was at the
date of the Jewish charter, so at the respective
dates of the two Christian charters, the Perumals
had to fortify themselves against external enemies ;
they had to bethink themselves of every available
resource whereby their seats on their throne might
be preserved. The first Christian sasanam was
granted "at or very near the time when the Bash-
trakuta invasion of Southern India had resulted in
the final subjugation of the Ballava dynasty of
Kanchi (Conjeveram). Indeed the date of this
charter (774). falls in the reign of Dhruva, the
Bashtrakuta who hemmed in the Ballava host be
tween his own army and the sea, and who, after
despoiling them of their fighting elephants, seems
to have let the opposing host go free in shame and
contumely after making their sovereign ' bow down
before him.'" "A few years later, about the time
of the second Christian charter, it may be noted
L

162 THE NESTORIAN PERIOD.
that fresh invasions of Kerala took place. It was,
as the Keralolpatti tradition indicates, threatened
from two sides at once. The Northern Kolattiri
chief was appointed by the Perumal to stop the
invaders — probably Kadambas or some other
feudatory of the Eashtrakuta, — coming along
the coast from the north, while the raid from
the east, vid the Palghat gap, probably by the
Gangas or other feudatories of the Eashtrakutas,
seems to have been defeated by the Enadi chiefs
of the Zamorin's house." " At such times money
may be required in large sums to buy off oppos
ing hosts ; and it is not therefore an improper
inference to draw from the facts that, in offering
assistance in this shape, the trading foreigners met
the Berumal's wishes, and naturally enough secured
for themselves a higher standing in the land in
which they traded."9
Secondly, the numerical and material strength of
the Christians of St Thomas had greatly increased ;
and therefore their help in the exigencies of the
empire would be of considerable value. New
colonies had arrived not long before the granting
of each of the Christian charters. " The tradition
of the existing Church is that a company of
Christians from Baghdad, Nineveh, and Jerusalem,

TWO COPPER-PLATE CHARTERS. 163
under orders from the Catholic arch-priest at
Urahai (Edessa), arrived in company with the mer
chant Thomas in 745 a.d." 10 This Knaye Thomas
or Thomas of Cana11 and his following evidently
made a deep impression on the popular imagination
in Malabar. To him has even been ascribed the
origin and not merely the reinforcement of the
colony ; and some authors have supposed that it
was by confounding this Thomas with the apostle
that the date of the origin of the Church has been
thrown so far back as the first century — a suppo
sition as inconsistent with history as the legend
which it is intended to explain. Little light on
the history of Knaye Thomas can be got from the
stories that are still believed by the Malabar
Christians. It is said that he had two wives —
whether successively or simultaneously is not
affirmed — and by each wife he had a numerous off
spring, among whom his property was at last
divided, those by his first wife receiving his
northern estates, and those by the second receiving
the southern. Hence there are two comprehensive
divisions in the present day among the Christians
of the coast, usually described as the Northists and
the Southists respectively. Though they profess
to believe the same doctrines and to obey the same

164 THE NESTORIAN PERIOD.
bishops, they keep themselves perfectly distinct,12
and avoid intermarriage with each other as care
fully as if they were Hindus of different castes.
The Southists are fairer of complexion than their
brethren of the party of the North, and they boast
of this as a proof of their more direct descent from
the parent Church, and of their having genuine
Syrian blood in their veins. This immigration pre
ceded at no long interval the granting of the
Christian charter of 774.
Besides this immigration of Christians under
Thomas which settled at Cranganore, there was
another which settled in the neighbourhood of
Quilon. In 822 two Nestorian Bersians, Mar Sapor
and Mar Peroz, the former of whom is no other
than the Muruvan Sapir Iso of the second Christian
| charter (c. 824), came with a large following and
j made a deep impression on the powers that were
i then in Malabar ; and this circumstance helped to
ipave the way for the recognised and honourable
place that they obtained in the society of that
coast by the charter granted so soon afterwards.
These two immigrations, it would seem, form the
historical grounds for the division of the community
into Northists and Southists, although the legends
which have mingled with the history have obscured

TWO COPPER-PLATE CHARTERS. 165
the facts ; and they are probably the last immigra
tions on any important scale from the mother
Church in high Asia to Southern India.
But, at whatever time immigration from high Asia
ceased, provision had been made otherwise for the
continuity of the Church of Malabar. This Church
was in some sense a missionary Church, and sought
to share its spiritual possessions with the people of
the land. It attempted, and it succeeded in the
attempt, to build up a native Church. In the days
of its prosperity, the expansion of the Church was
probably rapid. Many converts came no doubt
from among the employees and dependants of ' the
sovereign merchant of Kerala ' ; but, in the sub
sequent decadence of foreign influences, the Per
sian element would die out or be absorbed; and,
in the absence of fresh blood from higher lati
tudes, the native element would soon be left in
sole possession.
The presence of a large native element from the
first, nay the exclusively native composition of the
membership, is attested in a characteristic manner
by the author of the ' Brief History of the Syrians
in Malabar.' This work, written by one of them
selves about the year 1770, is of little worth in so
far as it professes to set forth the facts of ancient

166 THE NESTORIAN PERIOD.
history, but is valuable only as a record of the
opinions of the people. Now the ' Brief History '
asserts that St Thomas, during the thirty years of
his sojourn in Malabar, preached the Gospel to the
Brahmans, " and to the natives at large," that
" many believing were baptised," that " two were
ordained priests," and that, only when he had
thus established the Church in Malabar, did the
apostle feel free to carry the Gospel to regions
beyond. The evidence of physiology as well as
of history, testifies that the Christians of Malabar
to-day are of Dravidian and not of Aryan or Semi
tic descent, unless the contention of the Southists,
who are less than one-fortieth part of 'the whole
Syrian Christian community, may be held in any
degree to modify this general statement of fact.
In this connection, however, the term ' Syrian '
requires careful definition. The members of the
Church of Malabar are called Syrians, not because
they have Syrian blood in their veins, but because
,they have a Syrian liturgy. They are not of the
Syrian nation, but of the Syrian rite. The name
in this case is not an ethnological or geographi
cal designation, but is purely ecclesiastical. The
Christians of St Thomas have from time immemo
rial used Malayalam for their vernacular speech ;

TWO COPPER-PLATE CHARTERS. 167
and this Malayalam-speaking people, who had sat
in darkness, received the light in a dark Syriac
lantern. As Syriac was the sacred language of
the mother Church in Persia, so it became the
sacred language of her daughter in Malabar ; just
as the services in the Church of England were con
ducted for centuries in Latin through the failure
of Augustine its founder to perceive that the same
reason which required men to pray in Latin at
Eome required men to pray in English at Canter
bury. So the Christian Dravidians of Malabar
have long, and not inconsistently with ecclesiasti
cal usage, been called Syrians ; but much confusion
of thought has been created by the neglect, on the
part of writers on this subject, to apply the word
here only in its purely ecclesiastical sense. If it
were the custom to call the Eoman Catholic natives
of Malabar by the name of Eomans, no one would
have any difficulty in perceiving the sense in which
the name was applied, and no one would puzzle
himself over the question of their race-connection
with the men that peopled the ' city on the seven
hills.' The colonists who came from Bersia and Meso
potamia to settle in Malabar made many mistakes,
as those who make experiments in colonisation are

168 THE NESTORIAN PERIOD.
sure to do ; but, in so far as their aims were Chris
tian, the developing of a native Church was the
wisest thing they could have done for the per
petuation of their cause. Their worldly wisdom
in discerning that the Perumals' extremity was
their opportunity, and in striking a good bargain
with the Perumals during the exigencies of the
empire, gave a sort of stability to the Church they
founded, which their neglect or incompetence on
the spiritual side never availed to overthrow. To
a long training in ecclesiastical customs and to an
exalted social position, rather than to Christian
learning and intelligent faith, is to be ascribed the
permanence of the Syrian Church in Malabar.

169

CHAPTEE XII.
THE LAST OF THE PERUMALS.
The last Emperor of Kerala was Cheraman Peru-
mal. The closing act in the drama of his life is
remarkable, even after it has been stripped of
sundry embellishments and reduced to a form in
which it can be accepted both by the Hindus and
the Mohammedans of that part of the country.
It turned on a strange dream. Cheraman Peru-
mal dreamt that the full moon appeared on the
night of new moon at Mecca in Arabia, and that,
when on the meridian, it split into two, one half
remaining in the sky and the other half descend
ing to the foot of a hill called Abikubais, where
the two halves joined together and then set. Some
time afterwards a party of Mohammedan pilgrims
on their way to the footprint shrine at Adam's
Peak in Ceylon * chanced to visit Cranganore, the

170 THE NESTORIAN PERIOD.
Perumal's capital, and were admitted to an audi
ence and most hospitably treated. On being asked
if there was any news in their country, Sheikh
Seuj-ud-din related to the Perumal the apocryphal
story of Mahomet having, by the miracle about
which the Perumal had dreamt, converted a num
ber of unbelievers. The Perumal was much inter
ested and secretly made known to the Sheikh his
intention " to unite himself to them."
When Seuj-ud-din and his retinue returned from
Ceylon, the Perumal directed them to make ready
a vessel and provide it with everything necessary
for a voyage ; and for the next eight days he
busied himself in arranging affairs of State, and,
in particular, in assigning to the different chief
tains under him their respective portions of terri
tory. This was all embodied in a written deed to
be left behind him. He then embarked secretly
in the vessel prepared for him, along with the
Sheikh and his companions, and, touching first at
Northern Kollam near Quilandy, and then at the
island of Darmapattanam near Tellicherry, they
made for the Arabian coast and landed at Shahr.
After remaining a considerable time at Shahr,
during which the Perumal changed his name to
Abdul Eaman Samiri and married a wife named

LAST OF THE PERUMALS. 171
by some Bahabieth, by others Gomaria, he resolved
to return to Malabar for the purpose of establish
ing his new religion, and of providing suitable
places of worship. ¦ But before the ship which was
to carry him back to his kingdom was built, he
was seized with a dangerous disease, and, being
convinced that there was no hope of recovery, he
implored his companions not to desist from their
design of going to Malabar to propagate the Fourth
Vedam.2 But they replied that being foreigners
they knew little of his country, and were not
likely to have influence therein, so he gave them
writings in the Malayalam language to all the
chieftains whom he had appointed in his stead,
requiring them to give land for mosques and to
endow them. " But," he solemnly charged them,
" tell ye not my people of the violence of my
sufferings, or that I am no more ; " and, having
finally enjoined them to land nowhere except at
Darmapattanam, Quilandy, Cranganore, and Quilon,
" he surrendered his soul to the unbounded mercy
of God."
Some years afterwards, the pioneers of Islam in
Malabar — Malik-ibn Dinar, his two sons Habib-ibn-
Malik and Sherif-ibn-Malik, his grandson Malik-
ibn-Habib, his grandson's wife Kumarieth, and

172 THE NESTORIAN PERIOD.
their family of ten sons and five daughters — set
out for that coast, bearing the Perumal's letters ;
and, concealing his death, they delivered them to
whom they were addressed. They went first to
Cranganore, where the officiating ruler received
them hospitably, granting, in accordance with his
royal master's orders, land whereon to build a
mosque, together with a suitable endowment ; and
Malik-ibn-Dinar himself became first Kazi of the
capital. At nine other places, including Darma
pattanam, Mangalore, and Quilon, mosques were
built and Kazis appointed ; and thus, according to
the dying wish of the last of the Perumals, Islam
was established in Malabar.
Doubtful in detail as this narrative appears,
considerations have been adduced which are sup
posed to confirm its general outline and substance.
In the first place, Sheikh Zin-ud-din, writing on
the subject, testifies that Cheraman Perumals visit
to Arabia took place about two hundred years after
the flight of the Prophet. " It is a fact, more
over," he continues, " that the king was buried
at Zaphar — and not on the Arabian coast of the
Bed Sea — at which place his tomb can be seen by
any one, and is indeed now frequented on account
of its virtues. And the king, of whom this tale

LAST OF THE PERUMALS. 173
is told, is styled by the people of that part of
the world as Samiri, whilst the tradition of his
disappearance is very common throughout the
population generally of Malabar, whether Moslems
or pagans ; although the latter believe that he
was taken up into heaven, and still continue to
expect his descent, on which account they as
semble at Cranganore and keep ready their wooden
shoes and water, and on a certain night of the year
burn lamps as a kind of festival in honour of his
memory. " 3
Further, it has recently come to notice, from
the information of an Arab resident near the spot,
that the tomb of the Perumal still exists at Zaphar
in Arabia, at some distance from Shahr, the place
where he is reported to have landed ; and that the
inscription on it runs : " Arrived at Zaphar a.h.
212. Died there A.H. 216." As the former date
corresponds to A.D. 827, this would imply that
the Perumal remained two years at Shahr after
his arrival there ; and as the Malabar era, from
which dates are still reckoned, is the 25th of
August 825, it would seem not improbable that
that era was fixed so as to coincide with the time
when the last of the Perumals set sail for Arabia
and the Persian Gulf.

174 THE NESTORIAN PERIOD.
It might be objected that such a change as is
implied in the foregoing representation on the part
of a people scattered over such a large area is
altogether improbable ; whether a community so
large would have not only admitted so readily
the representatives of a new faith amongst them, •
but actually adopted that faith in considerable
numbers. This objection it would be difficult to
rebut unless it could be shown that there was
some previous preparation for the change. It is
not improbable that such preparation existed ; for
it is well known that by the ninth century Arabs
had penetrated, not to India only, but even as far
as China, in the interests of trade ; and that all
the nine places, besides Cranganore, where mosques
were erected, were either the headquarters of the
petty potentates of the country, or places afford
ing facilities for trade. It is probable that Arab
traders had settled in these places long previously ;
and indeed a Mohammedan granite tombstone at
Northern Kollam, near Quilandy, recites, after the
usual prayer, how " Ali-ibn-Udthorman was obliged,
in the year 166 of the Hej'ra, to leave this world
for ever for the one which is everlasting, and which
receives the spirits of all ; " and the fact that Arabs
had thus settled in the country suggests the belief

LAST OF THE PERUMALS. 175
that even in those early days alliances by Arabs
with women of the country had been contracted,
and that thus the beginnings of the mixed race,
the Mapillas, who have played such an important
part in the political history of the district, had
already appeared.
This change in Malabar amounted almost to a
political revolution ; for no successor to Cheraman
Perumal was nominated, the princes carrying on
the government, for a time at least, in the belief
that he was still alive. Soon of course that de
lusion passed away and every one looked to him
self. So it came to pass in process of time that
the Zamorin4 of Calicut, the Eajah of Cochin who
was the lineal descendant of Cheraman Perumal,
and the Eajah of Travancore who still swears on
attaining sovereignty that he holds the symbols
of his high office only till the return of his uncle,
survived as independent rulers on the west coast
of Southern India.
As time went on, the Mohammedans multiplied,
mostly in the northern parts of the district, having
replaced Chinese traders in the Indian market and
being patronised by the Zamorin, while the Jews
and Christians were mainly concentrated in the
territory of Cochin and North Travancore. The

176 THE NESTORIAN PERIOD.
Mohammedan ranks were replenished partly by
immigration and partly by conversion. The latter
process is still going on, not from among the
Hindus moulded by the Aryan cult, but from the
non -caste population. The low -caste man who
adopts Islam is vastly raised thereby in the social
scale. He obtains by conversion many substantial
benefits, and is protected by the Mapillas from any
oppression or interference at the hands of his former
lords. Even within the ten years 1871-81, the
accessions to the ranks of Mohammedans within
the collectorate of Malabar alone, from the Chera-
mar and other low-caste people, amounted to about
50,000; 6 and there is reason to believe that the
same process, if not to the same extent, is going
on in other parts of the country. The adherents
of Islam are increasing in number, but it is from
the lowest ranks of the non- Aryan community that
the increase is being drawn.
It is much to be deplored that the Mohammedans
of Southern India, with some honourable exceptions,
have as a rule been an ill-instructed race. Children
in Malabar as elsewhere are taught to repeat with
out understanding scraps of the Kuran ; and, in ad
dition to this, elementary Malayalam handwriting
is taught. At Ponnani there exists a Mohammedan

LAST OF THE PERUMALS. 177
college, founded, it is said, six hundred years ago,
by an Arab named Zeyn-ud-din, who bore the title
of Mukkhadam, signifying literally the foremost
in an assembly. He married a Mapilla woman, and
his descendants in the female line have retained the
title, the present Mukkhadam at Ponnani being the
twenty-fourth or twenty-fifth in the line of succes
sion. The students at the college are supported
by the Ponnani townspeople, the custom being to
quarter two students in each house. The students
study in the public Jammat or Friday Mosque, and
in their undergraduate stage they are called mullas.
There is apparently very little system in their
course of study up to the taking of the degree of
mutaliyar — i.e., elder or priest. There is no exam
ination for this degree, but the ablest and most
diligent of the mullas are sought out by the Muk
khadam, and are invited to join in the public read
ing with him at the ' big lamp ' in the Jammat
Mosque. This invitation is considered as a sign
of fitness for the degree, which is thereupon as
sumed without further preliminaries. The learning
thus imparted is despised by genuine Arabs, of
whom many families of pure blood are settled on
the coast, and are themselves highly educated in
the Arab sense. " Their knowledge of their own
M

178 THE NESTORIAN PERIOD.
books of science and of history is very often pro
found, and to a sympathetic listener who knows
Malayalam, they love to discourse on such sub
jects. They have a great regard for the truth,
and in their finer feelings they approach nearer to
the standard of English gentlemen than any other
class of persons in Malabar."6
Still, uninstructed as they were, the Musalmans,
under the aegis of the Zamorin, whose friendship
they assiduously cultivated, were politically and
commercially important in the society of Malabar.
They fought the Zamorin's battles, they garnered
his crops, they bought and sold for him at home
and abroad. " The trade in Malabar products seems
to have been exclusively in the hands of Moham
medan merchants, and it may be safely concluded
that, after the retirement of the Chinese, the power
and influence of the Mohammedans were on the
increase, and the country would no doubt soon
have been converted to Islam either by force or
by conviction ; but the nations of Europe were in
the meantime busy endeavouring to find a direct
road to the pepper country of the East. The first
assured step in this direction was taken when Bar
tholomew Dias sailed round the ' Cape of Storms '
in 1486. The Cape was promptly rechristened

LAST OF THE PERUMALS. 179
the ' Cape of Good Hope,' and the direct road to
India by sea was won." 7
But after the great upheaval in Malabar, con
sequent on the death of Cheraman Perumal, we
are more interested to inquire how the Christians
of St Thomas fared. The development of a Musal-
man power was not in their favour ; yet so far
as history reveals their mutual relationships, the
Christians of St Thomas seem to have experienced
less actual suffering from its hostility than the Jews
did. The fact is that we hardly know anything
of the history of Christianity on the Malabar coast
during the next six hundred years. This was truly
the period of the dark ages. When the Portuguese
arrive on the scene, the recording of events histori
cally interesting is resumed ; but between the flight
of the last of the Perumals and the coming of the
Portuguese there is an almost total blank.
One interesting incident, however, has survived
the reign of gloom. The Syrians seem to have
cherished the tradition of having attained to the
dignity of possessing a king of their own. This
attainment may have been made in spite of, or
because of, the confusion that succeeded the demise
of Cheraman Perumal. Of Beliarte, the first Chris
tian king of the Christians of St Thomas, whose

180 THE NESTORIAN PERIOD.
capital was at Udiamperur near Cochin, they speak
in terms of natural pride. How long the kinghood
lasted it is impossible to say. The story, like so
many parts of the story of this Church, ends with
a sigh. Their royal crown fell to the hands of a
neighbouring sovereign of superior strength. Their
king dying, they plaintively relate, without heirs-
male, the Eajah of Cochin came into possession
by inheritance, and so they have been ever since
a subject people, subject to the non-Christian rajahs
of Cochin and Travancore.8
They might still as a Church, however, have
held up their heads under this calamity, had they
been inwardly fortified with a knowledge of the
Gospel and faith in their own vocation as stewards
of its mysteries. There is, alas ! little reason to
assume that they were so fortified. On the other
hand, there is every reason to believe that they
were particularly lacking in knowledge of the
Scriptures and in desire to propagate such know
ledge among their fellow-countrymen. Their train
ing had not been favourable to the development
of this side of their Christian character. For the
provision of church officers and all the apparatus of
public worship, they had mainly looked to a foreign
source, and never cultivated the virtue of self-re-

LAST OF THE PERUMALS. 181
liance in the matter, or the grace of conscious
dependence on the Head of the Church. They had
never worked out a single problem in Church life
for themselves. The ceremonial, the traditional,
the consuetudinary, bulked far more largely in
their eyes than the doctrine and the ethics of
the Gospel.
But more than this. Their eyes had been
blinded and their hands tied in a manner which
practically prevented them from being a self-
propagating Church in the true sense of the term.
They merely reproduced themselves, and their only
ambition was to hold their own, if indeed they
may be said to have done even that. The mill
stone which was hung about their neck and
weighted them so heavily in the race of progress
was, strange to say, no other than the copper
plate charters. Whether this was the intention
of the givers and receivers of the charters is
another matter. But there can be no doubt of
the effect, and I am inclined to think that there
may have been some such remote intention on the
part of the advisers of the Perumals who granted
the charters. Let it be remembered that these
charters were granted under the pressure of a
political necessity. Of this necessity the Brah-

182 THE NESTORIAN PERIOD.
mans, who appended their signatures as witnesses
to the first Christian charter granted in 774, and
who were the constant advisers of the royal mind
in all matters political, social, and religious, would
be prone to make a virtue. They were at least
able to make provision for it in their scheme for
the construction of Malabar society on Aryan lines.
In Southern India to this day, Hindu society may
be divided into two classes, Brahmans and Sudras.
Both Kshatriyas and Vaisyas, where they exist at
all, are numerically insignificant. But we have
seen that, while the Brahmans regarded the Nayars
in theory as Sudras, they gave them in fact the
position and imposed upon them the duties of
Kshatriyas. Towards the Christians of St Thomas
they acted in a somewhat similar manner. With
out these foreign settlers no section of the existing
community could exactly be said to represent the
interests of trade, and more especially of foreign
trade, on anything like a national scale ; and the
kings, and probably their influential non -Aryan
subjects, would be desirous of availing themselves
of this source of gain and comfort. The Brahmans
therefore made the best of the circumstances. If
they had Vaisyas in the Aryan constitution, why
should they not have a guild of traders in the

LAST OF THE PERUMALS. 183
constitution which they were trying to acclima
tise in Malabar? Might not the formal recogni
tion of these foreigners and their native depen
dants or associates as part of the body politic
help to make the wheels of government run
smooth, promote the interests of conciliation, and
add prestige to the twice-born lords of creation ?
We have seen what the privileges and functions
of the Christians were under these instruments.
The Christians were to all intents and purposes
recognised as a caste ; and they began — if not
from the first, at least in course of time — to
regard themselves in the same light. Had they
not been in the days of the Perumals both ' pro
tectors ' and ' supervisors ' ? had they not acquired
possession of certain heathen castes of the lower
order, and were they not on the whole a superior
class ? Did they not learn thus to look down
upon the lower castes? Did they not teach the
lower castes to look up to them ? And did they
not in matters of diet and on questions of cere
monial pollution take up a position analogous to
that of caste Hindus ? Is it wonder, then, that
this Church, holding such views of the relation of
man to man, should have been indifferent to the
spread of the Christian faith and the ingathering

184 THE NESTORIAN PERIOD.
of the tribes ? With little intellectual and less
spiritual life amongst them, it is not surprising
that their history for such a long period is a
blank, and, with so little self - reliance or self-
respect, that they were unable to hold their own
among their neighbours.
Their fate is in some respects comparable to that
of the mother Church in high Asia. As the
Caliphs were favourable to the Nestorian Church
in Persia and Mesopotamia, so the Perumals were
favourable to the. Nestorian Church in Malabar.
The former Church was trodden down under the
feet of Tartar and Mongol ; but, as we shall see
in a future study, it was reserved for a Christian
power from the West to break the spirit of the
Church of Malabar.

THE EOMAN PEEIOD

187

CHAPTEE XIII.
Rome's first work in india.
The first Eoman Catholic missionary to India, of
whose work we have any account, was Friar Jor-
danus, of the Dominican Order. Jordanus was a
Frenchman and a native of Severac. The dates of
his birth, his first going to the East, and his death
are undetermined. But it is ascertained that he
was in the East in 1321-23, that he returned to
Europe, and that he smarted again for India about
1330. He is best known as the author of the
' Mirabilia ' ; but whether this work was written
on his first or on a subsequent return to Europe
has not been satisfactorily ascertained, though there
seems some reason to prefer the earlier date.
Two letters written by Jordanus are extant. The
first is a sort of circular, dated October 1321, and
addressed to fellow-missionaries of his own Order

188 THE ROMAN PERIOD.
and the Order of St Francis, in Persia. It recom
mends India as a field for systematic missionary
effort, and points out three stations adapted for the
establishment of missions. Those stations were,
to use modern geographical nomenclature, Surat,
Baroch, and Quilon.
In his second letter, dated January 1324, Jor
danus relates how he started from Tabriz to go to
Cathay, but embarked first for Quilon, with four
Franciscan missionaries ; and how they were driven
by a storm to Tana, in the island of Salsette, where
they were received by Nestorian Christians. There
he left his four brethren to go on a special mission
to Baroch ; but he was detained at Surat, where he
received the distressing intelligence that his four
brethren at Tana had been arrested. He therefore
returned to aid them, but found them already put
to death.
The story is interesting as a narrative of India's
protomartyrs, and because of the curious sort of
apologetic, coloured with fictitious miracle, which
the author cunningly wrought into its texture. It
appears that there was at Tana a Saracen of Alex
andria, Yusuf by name, who summoned them into
the presence of the governor of the land to give
some account of themselves. "Being asked what

Rome's first work in india. 189
manner of men they were, they replied that they
were Franks, devoted to holy poverty, and anxious
to visit St Thomas. Then, being questioned con
cerning their faith, they replied that they were
true Christians, and uttered many things with
fervour regarding the faith of Christ. But, when
the governor let them go, Yusuf a second and a
third time persuaded him to arrest and detain
them. At length the Governor, and the Kazi, and
the people of the place were assembled, pagans and
idolaters as well as Saracens, and questioned the
brethren : How can Christ, whom ye call the Vir
gin's Son, be the Son of God ? Then set they forth
many instances of divine generation, as from the
sun's rays, from trees, from germs in the soil ; so
that the infidels could not resist the Spirit who
spake in them. But the Saracens kindled a great
fire, and said : Ye say that your law is better than
the law of Mahomet ; if it be so, go ye into the fire
and by miracle prove your words. The brethren
replied that, for the honour of Christ, they would
freely do this; and brother Thomas coming for
ward would go first in, but the Saracens suffered
him not, because he seemed older than the others.
Then came forward the youngest of the brethren,
James of Padua, a young wrestler for Christ, and

190 THE ROMAN PERIOD.
went into the fire and abode in it until it was well-
nigh spent, rejoicing and uttering praise, and with
out any burning of his hair even, or of the cloth
of his gown. Now they who stood by shouted
with a great cry : Verily these be good and holy
men !
"But the Kazi, willing to deny so glorious a
miracle, said : It is not as ye think, but his rai
ment came from the land of Aben, a great friend
of God, who, when cast into the flames of Chaldaea,
took no hurt ; therefore hath this man abode
scathless in the fire. Then stripped they the
innocent youth, and cast him into the fire. But
he bore the flames without hurt, and went forth
from the fire unscathed and rejoicing. Then the
Governor set them free to go whither they would.
But the Kazi, and Yusuf, full of malice, knowing
that they had been entertained in the house of a
certain Christian, said to the Governor : What dost
thou ? Why slayest thou not these Christ-wor
shippers ? He replied that he found no cause of
death in them. But they say : If ye let them go,
all will believe in Christ, and the law of Mahomet
will be utterly destroyed. The Governor again
says : What will ye that I should do, seeing that
I find no cause of death ? But they said : Their

ROMES FIRST WORK IN INDIA. 191
blood be upon us. For it is said that, if one cannot
go pilgrim to Mecca, let him slay a Christian and
he shall obtain a full remission of sins, as if he had
visited Mecca. Wherefore the night following the
Governor, the Kazi, and Yusuf, sent officers who
despatched the three brethren Thomas, James, and
Demetrius, to the joys of heaven, bearing the palm
of martyrdom. And after a while, having made
brother Beter, who was in another place, present
himself before them, when he firmly held to the
faith of Christ, for two days they vexed him with
sore afflictions, and on the third day, cutting off his
head, accomplished his martyrdom."1
By the help of a young Genoese, whom he found
at Tana, Jordanus was enabled to remove the
bodies of these martyrs, and, having transported
them to Surat, he buried them in a church there
as honourably as he could.
After being thus sorrowfully deprived of his
companions, Jordanus again set his face towards
Quilon ; and, for his further history we must de
pend mainly on the 'Mirabilia.' In India the
Less — which, according to Jordanus, comprehends
" Sindh and probably Mekran and India along the
coast as far as some point immediately north of
Malabar " — he says, " There is a scattered people,

192 THE ROMAN PERIOD.
one here and another there, who call themselves
Christians, but are not so, nor have they baptism,
nor do they know anything else about the faith.
Nay, they believe St Thomas the Great to be
Christ.2 There, in the India I speak of, I baptised
and brought into the faith about three hundred
souls, of whom many were idolaters and Saracens.
And let me tell you," he adds, " that among the
idolaters a man may with safety expound the Word
of the Lord ; nor is any from among the idolaters
hindered from being baptised throughout all the
East, whether they be Tartars or Indians or what
not."3 In another place he says, with reference to India,
" that, if there were two hundred or three hundred
good friars, who would faithfully and fervently
preach the Catholic faith, there is not a year which
would not see more than ten thousand persons
converted to the Christian faith. For whilst I was
among those schismatics (i.e., the Syrian Chris
tians, or Nestorians) and pagans, I believe that
more than ten thousand, or thereabouts, were con
verted to our faith ; and because we, being few in
number, could not occupy or even visit many parts
of the land, many souls (woe is me !) have perished,
and exceeding many do yet perish for lack of

ROMES FIRST WORK IN INDIA. 193
preachers of the Word of the Lord. And 'tis grief
and pain to hear how, through the preachers of
accursed Saracens, those sects of the heathen be
day by day perverted. For their preachers run
about, just as we do, here, there, and everywhere
over the whole Orient, in order to turn all to their
own miscreance. These be they who accuse us,
who smite us, who cause us to be cast into durance,
and who stone us ; as I indeed have experienced,
having been four times cast into prison by them,
I mean the Saracens. But how many times I have
had my hair plucked out, and been scourged, and
been stoned, God Himself knoweth ; and I, who
had to bear all this for my sins, yet have not
attained to end my life as a martyr for the faith, as
did four of my brethren. For what remaineth
God's will be done. Nay, five preaching friars
and four minors were there in my time cruelly slain
for the Catholic^faith. Woe is me that I was not
with them there." 4
The only remaining point of interest in the bio
graphy of Jordanus is found in a bull of Pope
John XXII., dated 5th April 1330, addressed to
the Christians of Quilon, and intended to be de
livered to them by Jordanus, who was nominated
bishop of that place. The bull begins : Nobili
N

194 THE ROMAN PERIOD.
viro domino Nascarinorum et universis sub eo
Christianis Nascarinis de Columbo, venerabilem
fratrem Jordanum Catalini, episcopum Colum-
bensem, Predicatorum ordinis professorem quern
nuper ad episcopalis dignitatis apicem auctoritate
apostolicd duximus promovendum,5 &c. The Pope
goes on to recommend the missionaries to their
goodwill, and ends characteristically by inviting
the Syrian Christians in India, Nascarini, to
abjure their schism, and enter the unity of the
Catholic Church. This is probably the first claim
definitely made by a Pope of Borne to ecclesias
tical rights in India : we shall see in subsequent
chapters it was not the last.
We may suppose that Jordanus proceeded to his
see in Malabar by way of the Persian Gulf, the
route which he had followed on his first visit to
India ; but how long he laboured there, or whether
he had any successor, are questions which it seems
impossible to answer, although it is tolerably cer
tain that some at least of the churches which he
planted survived his episcopate. John de Marig-
nolli, who was sent out to China on an embassy by
the Pope, reached Quilon, " where the whole world's
pepper grows," on his return voyage about Easter
1347, and there he remained a year and four months.

rome's first work in india. 195
" There is a church of St George there," he says,
" of the Latin communion, at which I dwelt, and I
adorned it with fine paintings and there taught the
holy law." 6 But unfortunately this visitor did not
leave any record of the number of Christians or
churches, and still less of the state of Christian
life on the west coast of Southern India in the
fourteenth century.
For Bome's entering on her great work in India,
the full time had not yet come. That was reserved
to a later date, when a variety of historical circum
stances combined to lead to large and decisive
action. The doubling of the Cape of Good Hope
for the first time by European navigators was an
event not more important in geographical science
and commercial enterprise than in the history of
Church extension. While it vastly enlarged the
dominion of Portugal, and furnished Camoens with
a theme for his national epic, it lengthened the
cords of the Eoman Catholic fold, and introduced
a new chapter into the annals of the Church. Her
ranks had been greatly thinned by the off-break of
Protestantism, and they must needs be replenished
by foreign accessions. The counter-reformation of
the Church from within was signalised not only by
the formation of the Society of Jesus and the sit-

196 THE ROMAN PERIOD.
tings of the Council of Trent, but also by the in
gathering of many proselytes in foreign parts, to
fill the gap made by the Protestant defection.
The way in which this aggressive work was carried
out cannot in all respects be commended. Any
means were thought lawful which had for their object
the ingathering of outsiders, by whatsoever name
known, under the protection of the Pope, the
theory being that all persons beyond the pale of
Eome were beyond the pale of salvation. Zealous
for the conversion of the world on these terms, the
decimated Church was ready to compass sea and
land for the purpose of restoring the balance of
power which had been disturbed by the loss of the
most progressive race in Europe ; and few regions
offered a more promising field for this enterprise
than India.
When Borne developed her plans for a really
active propagandism on the Malabar coast, she sent
forth the monastic orders, armed with the Inquisi
tion. With all its intolerance and its terrors, the
Inquisition was set up at Goa in the sixteenth
century ; and when it was resolved to subjugate
the Syrian Church to Papal jurisdiction, this relent
less institution was used to overawe it, and to pre
vent the arrival of bishops from Babylon. The

pome's first work in india. 197
subjugation was consummated by the Synod of
Diamper in 1599, and for nearly two generations
Eome's tyranny endured, until the splendid rebel
lion of the Syrians at the Coonen Cross near Cochin
in 1653, achieved for them a new liberty and gave
promise of better days.

198

CHABTEE XIV.
THE INQUISITION AT GOA.
The Holy Office of the Inquisition was established
in India at the instigation of the first Jesuit mis
sionary. In a letter dated 10th November 1545,
St Francis Xavier begged John III. of Portugal
to grant this favour on the plea that ' the Jewish
wickedness ' spread daily in his Indian dominions.
The proposal commended itself to the royal
mind, and the Inquisition was at length set up
in 1560 at Goa, where for more than two hun
dred and fifty years it was maintained in terrible
severity. All the Inquisitors were nominated by the King
of Portugal and confirmed by the Pope, from whom
they received their bulls. Of the two that ad
ministered the duties of the Office at Goa, the one
was always a secular priest, and the other a monk

THE INQUISITION AT GOA. 199
of the Order of St Dominic. The former was called
the Grand Inquisitor and was the highest digni
tary in the place, receiving more respect than the
Archbishop or the Viceroy. The position must
have been attractive to ambitious men who loved
power and who were not over-burdened with feel
ings of humanity. But men were attracted into
the office by motives more questionable. The
property of the prisoners was almost invariably
confiscated, and became, in whole or in part, the
property of the Holy Office.1 It would appear in
fact that the officers of the Inquisition were much
more anxious about annexing the property of their
prisoners than about using suitable means to con
vict them of heresy, and that all steps towards the
latter end were taken mainly with a view to accom
plish the former.
The jurisdiction of the Inquisition at Goa ex
tended over all the Bortuguese dominions beyond
the Cape of Good Hope ; and the authority of the
Grand Inquisitor extended over all descriptions of
persons, both ecclesiastic and lay, except the Arch
bishop, his Grand Vicar (who was generally a
bishop), and the Viceroy or Governor; but he
could cause any of these to be arrested, after in
forming the Court of Portugal and receiving secret

200 THE ROMAN PERIOD.
orders to that effect from the Grand Council2 of
the Inquisition at Lisbon. The Inquisition at Goa
was more comprehensive in its sweep, more omniv
orous so to speak, than similar institutions else
where. Besides hunting down heretics, Jews, new
Christians,3 and all who were accused of judaising
(that is, conforming to the ceremonies of the Mosaic
Law, such as not eating pork, attending the solem
nisation of the Sabbath, partaking of the paschal
lamb, and so forth), the Goanese Inquisitors also
replenished their dungeons with persons accused of
magic and sorcery (that is, of trying to divine, for
example, "whether one is beloved by a certain
person, the thief who has stolen what is lost, the
issue of a certain undertaking or disease, and other
things of a like nature "). This Inquisition also
punished not only Christians who fell, or were
accused of having fallen, within the cases under
its cognisance ; but Mohammedans, heathens, and
other strangers of whatever persuasion, who com
mitted any of the prohibited offences or who
publicly exercised their religion in the countries
subject to the King of Bortugal ; "for, though that
prince tolerated liberty of conscience, the Holy
Office interpreted the permission, that strangers
might live in their own faith, but were liable to

THE INQUISITION AT GOA. 201
be punished as criminals, if they practised its cer
emonies." Now in the territories of the Portuguese in India,
there were more Mohammedans and heathens than
Christians ; and the Inquisition, which punished
apostate Christians with death, never sentenced to
that penalty those who had not been baptised,
though they should relapse a hundred times into
the same errors, but generally commuted it for
banishment, corporal correction, or the galleys.
The dread of being liable to be sentenced to the
flames hindered many from embracing Christian
ity ; and the Holy Office, instead of being useful
in those parts for the propagation of the faith,
deterred people from the Church by rendering it
an object of horror to them. But surveillance of
' Gentile ' manners and customs on the part of the
Inquisition and its attempt to control them with
such a rigorous severity caused the Portuguese
name to become nauseous to the people of the
land. In consequence of the fears that the In
quisition inspired, sometimes almost the entire
population fled and took refuge in British or
French possessions, and there can hardly be a
doubt that this was one of the main causes of
the practical collapse of the Portuguese power on

202 THE ROMAN PERIOD.
the coast. Nor was the jurisdiction of this In
quisition limited to the living. It professed to be
the judge of the quick and the dead. A process
might be instituted against a person who had been
in his grave for years before his accusation ; so that
his body was exhumed and, on conviction, burned
at the auto da fe, his estates seized, and those
who had taken possession compelled to refund.
We possess a history of melancholy interest
written by one who himself experienced the horrors
of the Inquisition at Goa in the seventeenth cen
tury. M. Dellon was a young French physician who
had already travelled much and was now preparing
to make the tour of India. He was staying at
Damaun, a seaport town and district in the collec-
torate of Surat, about eighty miles from Bombay,
which was then and is still included among the
Portuguese dominions. He proposed to rest there
from the fatigues he had endured in various voy
ages, and to recruit himself for the more ample
gratification of his passion for travelling. He lived
with a friar of the Dominican order, and was in
cautiously free and affable in conversation. He had
read with enthusiasm the Old and New Testaments,
had some knowledge of scholastic theology, had
freely disputed as a devoted Boman Catholic with

THE INQUISITION AT GOA. 203
heretics and schismatics, and indulged the same
sort of free-lance policy at Damaun. He had an
active mind and an eager temperament, and it
hardly occurred to him that the freedom of speech
in which he indulged was likely to bring him into
trouble. He was only twenty-four then, and he
believed himself to be perfectly secure against the
calamity which ultimately befell him. On this
point, however, he was undeceived in a manner as
sudden and vexatious as it was cruel. He had
given abundant occasion to the vultures of the
Holy Office to pounce upon him for their prey ; he
had entered into a dispute with a priest of the
Dominican order about the different kinds of
baptism, denying, not so much on the ground of
doubt or disbelief as for the sake of discussion, the
efficacy of the baptism flaminis, and quoting John
iii. 5 in support of his argument ; he had refused
to kiss, as was customary, an image of the Virgin
on a box handed round for the reception of alms ;
he had said that we might honour images, but that,
if we used the word 'worship,' it could only be
with reference to those of our Saviour alone, whilst
the adoration related only to the person represented
by them, and he quoted the Council of Trent on
the subject, Session 25; he had asked on one

204 THE ROMAN PERIOD.
occasion, " Is this crucifix more than a piece of
ivory ? " And he had even dared to question the
infallibility of the judges of the Holy Office : " Are
the Inquisitors less human or less subject to their
passions than other judges ? " But while he rejoiced
in the success of his argument and congratulated
himself that, as " this severe tribunal had not been
introduced " into France, he was therefore not
subject to its jurisdiction, his conversations were
exactly reported to the Father Commissary of
Damaun, and a ' process ' was soon out against
him. Yet he maintains that all these matters could
have been easily adjusted, and that they were but
the ostensible cause of his incarceration. The real
cause lay in a foolish jealousy on the part of the
Governor of Damaun, who had watched with much
uneasy impatience " the frequent but innocent
visits which I paid to a lady whom he admired,
and by whom he was truly beloved, which I then
knew not; and, as he judged from appearances
only, he imagined that I was more favourably re
ceived than himself."
At all events, M. Dellon was arrested by order
of the Inquisition on the 24th August 1673, and
consigned in the first instance to the prison-house

THE INQUISITION AT GOA. 205
of Damaun, where he was detained in spite of all
his offers of confession, conciliation, and com
promise, until the first day of the following year,
when he embarked in chains for Goa. This unex
plained and unreasonable detention in a black-hole
with a foetid atmosphere was due to the treachery
and wickedness of the Commissary. Dellon explains
that this pretended friend of his own wished to do
a kindness to the Governor at Dellon's expense.
It appears that the auto da fe, or jail delivery,
which usually takes place once in two or three
years, was appointed in that year (1673) to be
held in December, and that Dellon. was inten
tionally kept in the local prison until this function
at Goa should be over, so that he might not have
the chance of obtaining his release for two or three
years to come. However that may be, he was not
admitted within the precincts of the Santa Casa
till the 16th January 1674.
The first scene in the second act of this drama
Was in the audience-chamber of the Grand Inquis
itor,4 who, having made a note of Dellon's name
and profession, and having asked him whether he
knew the occasion of his arrest, exhorted him to
confess it freely, but without receiving his con
fession then, dismissed him till a more convenient

206 THE ROMAN PERIOD.
season ; whereupon the Alcaide conducted him to
a corridor where this official, assisted by a secretary,
made a strict inventory of all his belongings, with
the assurance, oft repeated, that everything should
be restored to him on his release, which of course
it never was. He was left with nothing but his
rosary, his handkerchief, and a few gold - pieces
providently sewn into his garters, which they
neglected to examine ; and the inventory being
completed, he was conducted to his cell, where
after a frugal supper, which two days of fasting
enabled him to enjoy, he laid his weary body down
and slept his first sleep in the Santa Casa.
His cell was ten feet square, vaulted, clean, and
lighted by means of a small grated window, placed
at a height above the reach of the tallest man.
There were about two hundred such cells, and in
each cell there were two platforms to lie on, as it
sometimes happened that two persons were con
fined together. In addition to the mat which was
given to each prisoner, Europeans had a checked
counterpane, which served for a mattress, there
being no need for a covering unless it were to
protect one from the persecutions of mosquitoes,
which were most intolerable ; and, to add to his
sense of degradation, M. Dellon was shorn of his

THE INQUISITION AT GOA. 207
flowing locks. On complaining of his poor accom
modation, he was shown cells smaller than his
own, dark and without any window, to make him
feel that he might fare worse. The food, he
admits, was fairly good and sufficient in quantity ;
in the event of sickness, competent medical aid
was supplied; and, if death seemed imminent,
confessors were admitted. Moreover, the In
quisitor, attended by a secretary and interpreter,
visited every prisoner about once in two months,
to inquire if anything was wanted, if the victuals
were brought at the appointed times, and if there
were any complaints against the officers ; and as
soon as answers were returned to those three
questions, the door was instantly closed. " In
effect," remarks M. Dellon bitterly, "these visits
are made for no other purpose than to display that
justice and goodness, of which there is so much
parade in this tribunal ; but they produce neither
comfort nor advantage to the prisoners who may
be disposed to complain, nor are they ever treated
with more humanity in consequence. Such of the
prisoners as are wealthy," he adds, " have no
better allowance than those who are poor, the
latter being provided for by the confiscations
levied from the former ; for the Holy Office seldom

208 THE ROMAN PERIOD.
fails to seize all the property, real and personal,
of those who are so unfortunate as to fall into its
hands." But the terrible stillness of the place, even more
than its physical discomfort, was specially trying
to an eager temperament like M. Dellon's. A
perpetual and rigid silence was preserved in the
Inquisition ; and those who ventured to utter their
complaints, to weep, or even to pray to God too
loudly, were liable to be beaten by the guards who,
on hearing the slightest noise, hastened to the
spot from whence it proceeded to require silence ;
and, if a repetition of the order was not obeyed,
they opened the doors, and struck without mercy. '
But what was probably most trying to M. Dellon
was the lack of everything that could appeal to
or feed his mind. ' ' Was there ever any conduct,"
he indignantly asks, " so unjust as to shut up
Christian people for many years in a narrow prison
without books (since even the breviary is not
allowed to priests), without any exhortation to
encourage them to suffer patiently ; without hear
ing Mass, either on holy days or Sundays ; without
administration of the Eucharist, even at Easter,
which all Christians are compelled to receive under
danger of committing mortal sin ; and without

THE INQUISITION AT GOA. 209
being strengthened by the holy viaticum and ex
treme unction at the hour of- death ? " Nor did
he enjoy the benefit of companionship, except for
two short periods when another prisoner was
placed in his cell to prevent him from committing
suicide, which he had several times unsuccessfully
attempted. On both occasions they were ' black '
prisoners ; the one stayed with him five months,
the other, who was "much less civilised" than
the former, for two ; and this happened within
the first year of his incarceration. The Inquisition
was thus an experiment in solitary confinement
on a large scale.
Those attempts at suicide on the part of M.
Dellon were due, not only to the irritating nature
of his confinement, but also to the exasperating
character of his examination at the Inquisitor's
tribunal. He was taken there on three several
occasions within the first three months of his
confinement ; he was exhorted in each case to be
his own accuser ; he had confessed everything
he could think of as a ground of accusation ; and
he had signed his name to the record made of his
confessions before the tribunal. Having thus
made a clean breast of all his offences, he expected
that he would not have to wait much longer for
o

210 THE ROMAN PERIOD.
his release. But for the next fifteen months he
was not again called. At the fourth audience, the
"Proctor, on reading the informations, stated that,
besides what I had admitted, I was accused and
fully convicted of having spoken contemptuously
of the Inquisition and its officers, and even with
disrespect of the sovereign Pontiff and against his
authority ; and concluded that the contumacy I
had hitherto displayed, by neglecting so many
delays and benignant warnings which had been
given to me, was a convincing proof that I had
entertained the most pernicious intentions, and
that my design was to teach and inculcate heretical
opinions." It is needless to say that M. Dellon
was not furnished with the names of the persons
who had evidenced this new charge against him,
or granted the opportunity of confronting them for
the purpose of cross-examination. Such practice
was entirely foreign to the benevolent methods
of the Inquisition. However, M. Dellon was not
subjected to 'the question,' or compelled to taste
of the torture which he was well aware from their
cries that many of his fellow-unfortunates suffered,
and which, as in the case of one of his temporary
companions in the cell, crippled many of them
for life. Moreover, the charge of his expressing

THE INQUISITION AT GOA. 211
disrespect towards his Holiness the Pope was
not further insisted on, and was not recounted
with the other charges, as we shall see, when he
received his final sentence.
At length the auto da fe was at hand. It was
fixed for Sunday the 12th January 1676, and in
timation thereof was duly made in all the churches
within the Portuguese dominions, so that if possible
none might lose the benefit of enjoying this means
of grace. But the prisoners had no intimation of the
approaching event, and it came on them therefore
as a surprise. A little before midnight on Satur
day, M. Dellon's door was opened, and he received
a particular dress, which he was instructed forth
with to put on. It consisted of " a jacket with
sleeves down to his wrists, and trousers hanging-
over the heels, both being of black stuff with white
stripes." At two o'clock in the morning the guards
returned and summoned him to turn out into a
long corridor, where about two hundred men, in
cluding only about a dozen ' whites,' were arranged
in perfect silence against the wall. In another
corridor the women, whose number is not specified,
were assembled, apparelled in the same. stuff. Pres
ently other dresses of a more varied character were
brought, intended to correspond to the nature of

212 THE ROMAN PERIOD.
the offence or punishment of each ; but none of the
prisoners seem to have been sufficiently skilled in
the mysteries of the Holy Office to interpret its
symbols correctly, and they therefore received but
the vaguest information from the character of these
additional habiliments. The upper garment which
M. Dellon received is thus described by himself.
It was a sort of scapulary " made of yellow stuff,
with crosses of St Andrew painted in red, both in
front and behind." He adds, as the result of later
information, that these particular vestments, which
were named sanbenitos, were used to distinguish
such as had committed, or were adjudged to have
committed, offences against the Christian faith,
whether Jews, Mohammedans, sorcerers, or heretic
apostates. On this occasion these sanbenitos were
distributed to twenty ' blacks ' accused of magic, to
one Portuguese who was charged with the same
crime, and was moreover a new Christian, as well
as to M. Dellon himself.
When all were duly accoutred according to the
character of their respective offences, they were
allowed to sit down on the floor in expectation of
fresh orders. At four o'clock the prisoners were
offered some nourishment in the form of bread and
figs ; but, though M. Dellon had taken no supper

THE INQUISITION AT GOA. 213
the previous evening, he did not feel disposed to
eat and would have declined the proffered food,
had not the guard whispered him, " Take your
bread, and, if you cannot eat it now, put it in your
pocket, for you will be hungry before you come
back" — words which gave M. Dellon great satis
faction and dissipated all his terror by the hope
which they inspired of his return. So he took the
advice in the spirit in which it had been given, and
was thankful.
At dawn, the prisoners were ushered one by
one into the public hall, where the principal
citizens of Goa were assembled to take part
in the exciting function of the day. To each
prisoner one of the citizens was attached as god
father. These god-fathers had the charge of the
persons they were respectively attached to, and
were obliged to attend them until the feast was
concluded ; and the Inquisitors affected that they
conferred a high honour on any citizen whom
they condescended thus to employ. M. Dellon's
god-father was the ' General of the Portuguese ships
in the Indies.' The procession set forth in double
file, each prisoner and his god-father walking abreast
through the streets of Goa. In front of all marched
a company of Dominicans preceded by the banner

214 THE ROMAN PERIOD.
of the Holy Office, on which the image of St Do
minic, the founder, was represented with a sword
in one hand and an olive branch in the other, over
the inscription — which can hardly be regarded
otherwise than as a mockery — Justitia et Miseri-
cordia. The prisoners walked with head and feet
bare, and M. Dellon complains of his tender feet
being badly cut by the sharp flints on the road,
which caused the blood to stream forth. At length,
" overwhelmed with shame and confusion, and
fatigued by the walk," they reached the church
of St Francis, where all the prisoners were arranged
in due order and an immense concourse of specta
tors had assembled. On the right of the high altar,
which was " hung with black and had six silver
candlesticks with tapers of white wax burning upon
it," a throne was erected for the Grand Inquisitor
and his council ; on the left, another for the Vice
roy and his court. The ceremonies, which lasted
the whole day, began with a sermon by the Pro
vincial of the Augustins, who took occasion to
compare the Holy Office to Noah's ark, pointing
out however this difference, that the creatures
which entered the ark left it on the cessation of
the deluge with their original natures and proper-

THE INQUISITION AT GOA. 215
ties ; whereas the Inquisition had this singular
characteristic, that those who came within its walls
cruel as wolves and fierce as lions, went forth
gentle as lambs.
When the sermon was concluded, the sentences
of the prisoners were read out one by one from the
pulpit, each prisoner standing forth in the middle
of the aisle until his sentence was delivered, and
then going forward to a side-altar to make, with
his hand on the book, confession of his faith in
a prescribed form. M. Dellon was summoned in
his turn to stand forth to hear his sentence. " I
found," he says, " that the charge against me in
volved three points, one of which was the having
maintained the inefficacy of the baptism faminis ;
another, having asserted that images ought not to
be worshipped, and having blasphemed against a
crucifix by saying that it was a piece of ivory ;
and the last, that I had spoken contemptuously of
the Inquisition and its ministers ; but, above all,
the bad intention from which I had uttered these
things. For these offences I was declared excom
municate, and, by way of atonement, my goods
were forfeited to the king, and myself banished
from the Indies, and condemned to serve in the

216 THE ROMAN PERIOD.
galleys of Portugal for five years ; and moreover
to perform such other penances as might be ex
pressly enjoined by the Inquisitors."
" Of all these punishments," he adds, " that
which appeared to me the heaviest was the indis
pensable necessity of quitting India, in which I
had intended to travel for some time ; but this
disappointment was in some measure compensated
by the prospect of being soon delivered from the
hands of the Holy Office."
When all the cases of the prisoners " to whom
mercy was extended by the boon of their lives"
were finally disposed of, the Inquisitor left his seat
to put on alb and stole, and, with twenty priests
bearing each a wand, went to the middle of the
church, where, after the recitation of the appro
priate prayers, he released these prisoners from
excommunication by a stroke administered by a
priest with his wand.
Yet even in those grim proceedings the comic
element did not fail to intrude itself. " I cannot,"
says M. Dellon, "resist mentioning a circumstance
which will show the excessive superstition of the
Portuguese in matters relating to the Inquisition.
During the procession, and whilst we remained in
the church, the person who was my god-father

THE INQUISITION AT GOA. 217
(though I frequently addressed him) would not
speak to me, and even refused me a pinch of snuff
which I requested ; so apprehensive was he that in
so doing he should participate in the censure under
which he conceived me to lie ; but the moment I
received absolution, he embraced me, presented his
snuff-box, and told me that thenceforth he should
regard me as a brother, since the Church had ab
solved me."
But perhaps the blackest acts of this unholy
assembly have yet to be recorded. The cases of
such as were doomed to be burnt had yet to be
disposed of, and they were accordingly ordered to
be brought forward separately. They were a man
and a woman, and the images of four men deceased,
with the chests in which their bones were deposited.
The man and the woman were " black native Chris
tians" accused of magic, and condemned as apos
tates. Two of the four statues also represented
persons convicted of magic, who were said to have
judaised. One of these had died in the prison of
the Holy Office ; the other expired in his own house,
and his body had been long since interred in his
own family burying-ground, but, having been ac
cused of Judaism after his decease, as he had left
considerable wealth, his tomb was opened, and his

218 THE ROMAN PERIOD.
remains disinterred to be burnt at the auto da fe.
The proceedings against these unfortunates were
then read, which concluded in these terms : "That
the mercy of the Holy Office being prevented by
their xelapse or contumacy, and being indispensably
obliged to punish them according to the rigour of
the law, it gave them up to the secular power and
civil justice, which it nevertheless entreated to
regard these miserable creatures with mercy and
clemency, and, if they were liable to capital pun
ishment, that it should be inflicted without effusion
of blood ! " " How benevolent is the Inquisition,
thus to intercede for the guilty ! What extreme
condescension in the magistrates to be satisfied,
from complaisance to the Inquisition, with burning
the culprits to the very marrow of their bones
rather than shed their blood ! "
We may well throw a veil over the smoky spec
tacle on the banks of the river which seems to have
attracted the Viceroy of Goa and his heartless
retinue. Neither need we describe the punishments
of those whose spared lives were robbed thereby of
all peace and honour and usefulness. As for M.
Dellon, he had only a few more days of detention.
On the 25th of January he embarked for Lisbon,
where he duly arrived ; and he would probably have

THE INQUISITION AT GOA. 219
served his five years in the prisons there, had not
a French physician, who possessed influence at the
Court, interceded for him ; so that, on the 30th of
June 1677, he had the supreme satisfaction of hear
ing the welcome sentence : " Let him be discharged
according to his request, and let him go to France."
In the list of penances to be observed by M.
Dellon after his discharge from the Inquisition, the
last item imposed on him the duty of being ' ' in
flexibly reserved " as to everything which he had
" seen, said, or heard," or the treatment which had
been " observed towards him, as well at the Board
as in the other places of the Holy Office." But
when, after nearly four years of prison life, M.
Dellon again tasted the sweets of liberty in his own
native France, he thought it his duty to communi
cate to the world a knowledge of the bitter experi
ence he had passed through ; and the story 5 which
has just been related in outline is the result.
We get a curious peep into the Inquisition of
Goa about the beginning of the present century,
when the doom with which the Holy Office had
visited so many was rapidly hastening on itself.
It was in January 1808 that Dr Claudius Buchanan
paid a visit to Goa, and his account of this visit is
one of the most interesting chapters in his ' Chris-

220 THE ROMAN PERIOD.
tian Eesearches.' It appears that, at the date of
Buchanan's visit, the forts in the harbour of New
Goa were occupied by British troops — two king's
regiments and two regiments of native infantry —
to prevent its falling into the hands of the French.
The British force was commanded by Colonel
Adams of his Majesty's 78th Begiment, whose
acquaintance Buchanan had made in Bengal. It
happened also that Lieutenant Kempthorne, com
mander of his Majesty's brig ' Diana,' a distant con
nection of his own, was at that time in the harbour.
By the former he was introduced to the Viceroy,
and he soon made many influential acquaintances.
Several of his friends accompanied him in the
British Eesident's barge up the river — a distance
of eight miles — to Old Goa, where the Inquisition
was, and which was a city of churches and in
habited by priests. There he was introduced, at
the convent of the Augustinians, " to Joseph a Dol-
oribus, a man well advanced in life, of pale visage
and penetrating eye, rather of a reverend appear
ance, and possessing great fluency of speech and
urbanity of manners." " After half an hour's con
versation in the Latin language, during which he
adverted rapidly to a variety of subjects, and in
quired concerning some learned men of his own

THE INQUISITION AT GOA. 221
Church whom I had visited in my tour, he politely
invited me to take up my residence with him dur
ing my stay at Old Goa. I was highly gratified
by this unexpected invitation ; but Lieutenant
Kempthorne did not approve of leaving me in the
hands of an Inquisitor. For, judge of our surprise
when we discovered that my learned host was one
of the Inquisitors of the Holy Office, the second
member of that august tribunal in rank, but the
first and most active agent in the business of the
department. Apartments were assigned to me in
the college adjoining the convent, next to the
rooms of the Inquisitor himself. I breakfast and
dine with him almost every day, and he generally
passes his evening in my apartment. As he con
siders my inquiries to be chiefly of a literary nature,
he is perfectly candid and communicative on all
subjects." " I had thought for some days," adds Buchanan,
"of putting Dellon's book into the Inquisitor's
hands ; for, if I could get him to advert to the facts
stated in that book, I should be able to learn by
comparison the exact state of the Inquisition of the
present time. In the evening he came in as usual
to pass an hour in my apartment. After some
conversation, I took the pen in my hand to write a

222 THE ROMAN PERIOD.
few notes in my journal ; and, as if to amuse him
while I was writing, I handed him Dellon's book,
and asked whether he had ever seen it. It was
in the French language, which he understood
well. ' Belation de lTnquisition de Goa,' pro
nounced he with a slow articulate voice. He had
never seen it before, and began to read with eager
ness. He turned over the pages with rapidity,
and when he came to a certain place he exclaimed,
in the broad Italian accent, ' Mendacium, menda-
cium!' He continued reading till it was time
to retire to rest, and then begged to take the book
with him."
" Next morning after breakfast we resumed the
subject of the Inquisition. The Inquisitor admitted
that Dellon's descriptions of the dungeons, of the
torture, of the mode of trial, and of the auto da fe
were in general just ; but he said the writer judged
untruly of the motives of the Inquisitors, and very
uncharitably of the character of the Holy Church ;
and I admitted that, under the pressure of his pecu
liar suffering, this might possibly be the case." e
But there were already indications that the be
ginning of the end had come ; and accordingly, on
the 16th June 1812, a decree was issued from the
palace of Bio Janeiro, over the signature of the

THE INQUISITION AT GOA. 223
Prince Eegent Don Jose^, ordering the final and
total extinction of the Inquisition at Goa.7 It is
admitted in this decree that it was needful to do
something towards the increase of the population
and the improvement of industry within the Por-
tuguese dominions in India, " by removing those
obstacles which seem hitherto to have impeded
the settling on the estates of persons belonging to
various sects and nations, who are still intimidated
by the deterrent remembrance of the ancient pro
ceedings wherewith the Inquisition of Goa fright
ened the people of India." The decree, therefore,
declares that in all the " estates of India " all the
religions of its various populations will be tolerated,
and it prohibits " the commission of any kind of
violent acts towards the professors of any sects,
conformably to the usage observed by the most
civilised nations, which promote by such toleration
the aggrandisement of their country." "Let it,
however, be well understood," adds the Begent,
" that the public profession of Gentile religions is
allowed with the reserve exacted by the respect
and veneration due to our holy Eoman Catholic
faith as the only dominant religion of Portugal,
which I purpose to keep inviolable in all its purity
and decorum."

224 THE ROMAN PERIOD.
Thus toleration was at last extended to the
dwellers in the Portuguese dominions in India.
But it was only the toleration of expediency, not
of justice. It had yet to be acknowledged by
Portugal that her Indian subjects are entitled to
toleration as of right.

225

CHAPTEE XV
THE SYNOD OF DIAMPER, 1599.
The Synod of Diamper is one of the most in
teresting and at the same time one of the most
melancholy episodes in the history of the Syrian
Church. The synod was held at a time when the
office of metran, or bishop, of the Syrian Church
was vacant. It was convened by the Archbishop
of Goa under a brief from Pope Clement VIII.
To this synod were summoned not only the arch
deacon of the Syrian Church and " all the other
priests of the same not hindered by age or some
other just impediment," but also representative
laymen. " Whereas," says the archiepiscopal cita
tion, " by immemorial custom and right introduced
into this diocese from its beginning, and consented
to by all the infidel kings of Malabar, the whole
government, as it were, and the cognisance of all
p

226 THE ROMAN PERIOD.
matters wherein Christians are any way concerned,
has belonged to the Church and the prelate there
of ; and it likewise having been an ancient custom
in the same to give an account to the people of
whatsoever has been ordained in the Church, in
order to its being better observed by all : we do
therefore command all Christians in all towns and
villages in this bishopric, and, where there are no
villages, all that use to assemble at any church as
belonging to it, immediately upon this our pleasure
being intimated to them, to choose four of the
most honourable, conscientious, and experienced
persons among them to come in their name to the
said synod, with sufficient powers to approve, sign,
confirm, and consult in their name, so as to oblige
themselves thereby to comply with whatsoever
shall be determined in the synod." 1
The objects of the synod were comprehensive
and thorough. It was convened " for the increase
and exaltation of the Catholic • faith among the
Syrians in Malabar ; for the destruction of the
errors and heresies which had been sown in the
diocese by several heretics and schismatics ; for
the purging of books from the false doctrines
contained in them ; for the perfect union of this
Church with the whole Church Catholic and

SYNOD OF DIAMPER, 1599. 227
universal ; for the yielding of obedience to the
supreme Bishop of Bome, the universal pastor of
the Church and successor in the chair of St Peter,
and vicar of Christ upon earth, from whom they
had for some time departed ; for the extirpation
of simony, which had been much practised in the
diocese ; for the regulating of the administration of
the holy sacraments of the Church, and the neces
sary use of them ; and for the information of the
affairs of the Church and the clergy, and the cus
toms of all the Christian people of the diocese." It
was in fact intended by means of this synod to
revolutionise the whole doctrine and practice of the
Syrian Church, to annex and assimilate it as, far as
possible to the Church of Eome, and to thrust on
the acceptance of the Syrians the whole body of
doctrine formulated by the Council of Trent.
It is much to be regretted that there is no his
tory of this synod written by a representative of
the Syrian community. The Syrian Christians,
like their kinsmen the Hindus, have no annals.
The Hindu mind, in bygone days at least, seems
to have had no idea of time. India produced
many poets, but no chroniclers. To the Greeks
and Eomans, to the Chinese and Arabs, to Chris
tians and Moslems, to foreign litterateurs and

228 THE ROMAN PERIOD.
foreign archaeologists, the Hindu owes his know
ledge of his own country. To foreign scholars
the Syrians likewise owe their knowledge of the
history of their own Church. Take away the his
tory of the Syrian Church in high Asia, the ' Chris
tian Topography' of Cosmas, and the great work
of Assemanus,2 take away the Persian crosses
and the copper-plate charters, and the history of
the Syrian Church in Malabar, at least till the
coming of the Portuguese, would be an absolute
blank. But though we have no record of the synod
from the Syrian standpoint, we have a very com
plete and authentic history of it from the Boman
side. Its proceedings, and the events immediately
preceding and following its sittings, were recorded
by Antonio de Gouvea in his ' Jornada,' 3 published
at Coimbra in 1606. Gouvea was an Austin friar,
and reader of divinity at Goa. He enjoyed the
confidence of the archbishop, who himself belonged
to the same brotherhood, and under his direction
and by command of the provincial of his order in
Portugal, he prepared the history of the synod, to
which he appended a copy of the original decrees as
drawn up by the archbishop, with the assistance of
the Jesuits. Whatever modifications may have, on

S¥NOD OF DIAMPER, 1599. 229
account of his Eoman proclivities, to be made on
the representations given by Gouvea of the condi
tion of the Syrian Church of Malabar at the end of
the sixteenth century, it may be observed that
Protestant writers have as a rule been fain to
regard his representations as being rather credit
able than otherwise to the Syrians. Nevertheless,
it must be added that this favourable estimate on
the Protestant side applies to the doctrine and not
to the social life of the Syrians, and is based rather
on a consideration of what the Syrians did not
hold than on positive statements of their actual
belief and practice.4 As the interference on the
part of Eoman ecclesiastics with the Syrian Church
proceeded on the erroneous assumption that the
latter had more than a millennium previously gone
from under the obedience of the Church of Eome,
they probably felt no great temptation to exag
gerate the departures from Eoman usage which
they discovered on the part of the Syrian Church.
In only one case have we the means of definitely
checking their accounts, and in that case they are,
as I shall afterwards point out, found to be correct ;
and, though we have no account of the social condi
tion of the Syrians from the Brotestant side until
more than two hundred years afterwards, yet on

230 ' THE ROMAN PERIOD.
this score the accounts given by the missionaries
of the Church Missionary Society, who were un
doubtedly most friendly to the Syrians, are not
essentially different from those given at Diamper.
On the whole, therefore, I am disposed to accept
the statement of facts made by Gouvea, so far as
the)'' came within the sweep of contemporary
observation, as substantially correct, leaving my
readers, each according to his own individual
standard, to appraise the opinions and the policy
he enunciates, at what they may respectively be
worth. The circumstances which led to the convening
of this synod are most instructive. It will be
remembered that, when the Portuguese arrived on
the coast, the Syrians welcomed them with open
arms, and the Portuguese on their part reciprocated
the feeling. Cabral persuaded two of the Syrians,
brothers,5 to accompany him to Portugal ; and in
1502 the Syrians presented a petition to Vasco da
Gama praying him to take them under the pro
tection of his Christian master, that so they might
be defended against the injuries which they daily
suffered from infidel princes ; and, as a lasting
testimony of their submission to the King of
Portugal, they sent his Majesty a rod tipped at

SYNOD OF DIAMPER, 1599. 231
both ends with silver, with three little bells at the
head of it, which had been the sceptre of their
Christian kings. As a further proof of the con
fidence reposed in the Portuguese, which the
Syrians thus intimated to the hero of the ' Lusiad,'
their bishop handed over the six plates of copper,
on which their ancient rights and privileges were
recorded, to the Commissary of Cochin for safe
keeping. These plates, consigned to the Portu
guese soon after they settled on Indian shores,
were kept until the memory of their existence had
wellnigh perished, and were recovered only about
the beginning of the present century after careful
search in the Fort of Cochin by Colonel Macaulay.6
This mutual confidence led to considerable in
tercourse between the two races, and the Portu
guese were freely admitted to the services of the
Syrian Church, where they soon discovered a
divergence of creed and ritual from those of Bome.
A long period of more or less friendly intercourse
enabled them to ascertain in detail the points on
which the doctrine and practice of the Syrian
Church were considered erroneous. First of all,
their Scriptures varied from the Vulgate, and were
therefore -judged to be in need of correction or
supplement. Apart from texts which were thought

232 THE ROMAN PERIOD.
to have been intentionally corrupted to accord the
better with Nestorian errors, such as 1 John iv.
3,7 it was observed that in their copies of the Old
Testament there were " wanting the books of
Esther, Tobit, and Wisdom ; " and that, in their
copies of the New Testament, the second Epistle
of Peter, the second and third of John, Jude, and
Bevelation,8 were not to be found. The words of
John's Gospel, viii. 1-11, and the trinitarian
passage in 1 John v. 8, were likewise omitted,
while the doxology was added to the Lord's Prayer
in the sixth chapter of Matthew.
But if the Eoman censors were dissatisfied with
the text of Scripture as used by the Syrians, they
were shocked by the contents of some of their
theological and liturgical books. For the Syrians
not only held the characteristic views of Nestorius
with regard to the Virgin Mary and the person
of Christ, but they asserted that the followers of
; Nestorius received their faith from the apostles,
; that this faith had been preserved in the Church
/ of Babylon, and that the Nestorian patriarch of
[ Babylon was the universal head of the Church im
mediately under Christ. They recognised the first
two general councils; but the Athanasian creed,
Quicunque vult, was altogether unknown among

SYNOD OF DIAMPER, 1599. 233
them ; and they maintained that the Holy Ghost
proceeds from the Father only, and not from the
Father and the Son. Of the seven Eoman sacra
ments the Syrians recognised only three — viz., bap
tism, the eucharist, and ordination. The doctrine
of the sacraments and their uses those Malabar
Christians were supposed entirely to misappre
hend, and it was therefore judged impossible for
them to obtain that spiritual benefit which these
ordinances were fitted and intended to convey, and
which their Portuguese friends seemed to think it
their bounden duty to secure for them unasked.
With regard to baptism, the form of words used
in the service by the Syrian priest was " N. is
baptised and perfected in the name of the Father,
amen ; in the name of the Son, amen ; and in the
name of the Holy Ghost, amen ; " and, being dif
ferent from the Eoman formula, this was judged
altogether wrong. Moreover, proper fonts were
not provided in the churches, the water was not
blessed by the addition of holy chrism, the priest
administered in his ordinary dress without surplice
or stole, and the ancient custom of having god
fathers and god-mothers " was not in use in the
bishopric." Old Testament names were judaically
given to the children, the ordinance was not ad-

234 THE ROMAN PERIOD.
ministered on the eighth day after birth " accord
ing to the custom of the universal Church," but
was often delayed for months and even years, and
no baptism registers were kept. Great careless
ness, it is alleged, was shown on every hand.
Children in danger of death, the offspring of ex
communicated persons, foundlings, infants exposed
by their parents, adult slaves who desired baptism,
and children of slaves, were not baptised, and no
provision was made for the instruction and baptism
of converts from heathenism. There were many
persons in the diocese, and especially among them
that lived " in the heaths " and far from any
church, who, though they were not baptised, yet,
being of a Christian race, professed themselves
Christians, and when they came to a church re
ceived the holy sacraments with others, and, out
of mere shame of letting it be known that they
were not christened, died without baptism ; and
others, because they could not pay the fees that
were simoniacally demanded of them. Nay,
through this and similar acts of negligence on
the part of the Syrian clergy, considerable sec
tions of the community relapsed entirely into
heathenism. " Hitherto there has been no use," say the

SYNOD OF DIAMPER, 1599. 235
Diamper decrees, " nor so much as knowledge of
the holy sacrament of confirmation among the
Christians of this bishopric, the heretical prelates
that governed it having neglected to feed the
people in a great many cases with wholesome
Catholic food."
With respect to the eucharist, the Syrians com
municated in both kinds, the bread being dipped
in the wine and placed by the celebrant's hand in
the mouth of each communicant. The bread hap
pened often to be bread of rice and not of wheat ;
and, as for wine, they prepared an infusion of
raisins and sometimes of dates instead of using the
blood of the grape ; and, even if they had real
wine, it was " kept in glass bottles, where, being in
small quantity and kept a long time, it necessarily
decayed and turned to vinegar, thereby losing the
essence of wine in the opinion of those who have
good palates, with which they celebrated notwith
standing, not considering the danger there was of
there being no consecration." They had wooden
instead of stone altars, their cups were made of
wood, or by the art of the potter, and not of metal,
and the celebrant had not proper vestments ; for
hitherto there had been " no such thing as a sur
plice in the bishopric." The Syrian doctrine of

236 THE ROMAN PERIOD.
the eucharist was most unsatisfactory to their new
friends. They held that the true body of our Lord
is not in the holy sacrament of the altar but only
the figure thereof, that the holy eucharist is only
the image of Christ, and is distinguished from Him
as an image is distinguished from a true man ; that
the body of our Lord Jesus Christ is not there nor
anywhere else but in heaven, at the right hand of
the Father ; that under the element of bread is
only the body of Christ without blood, and under
the element of wine the blood without the body ;
and that in this sacrament there is only the virtue
of Christ but not His body and blood. Further,
the priest seemed to call on the Holy Ghost to
come down from heaven to consecrate the elements,
" whereas in truth it is the priest that does it,
though not in his own words, but in the words of
Christ." It is evident, therefore, that transubstan-
tiation, the sacerdotal function of the priesthood,
; and the sacrifice of the Mass for the living and the
; dead were altogether foreign to Syrian thought.
Of the seven orders of the Eoman clergy, the
Syrians knew only two, namely, the priest (kashee-
shn) and the deacon (shumshana) ; but the Syrian
clergy, to the scandal of their Portuguese friends,
were in most cases married men, some had married

SYNOD OF DIAMPER, 1599. 237
after they were in orders, " nay, had taken orders
on purpose that they might marry the better, and
had sometimes married widows." The Syrian posi
tion with regard to matrimony was that it " neither
is nor can be a sacrament " ; and it would have
been well if it had been only in regard to the
theory of matrimony that their Eoman counsellors
were able to lay a charge at the door of the Syrian
Christians. For it would seem that inexcusable
violations of the marriage law were but too notori
ous throughout the diocese.
The sacraments of penance, auricular confession,
and extreme unction were, to the keen eyes of
those Western ecclesiastics, conspicuous by their
absence from Syrian usage.
So much for the sacraments. But errors or
defects in other departments of doctrine, ritual,
and practice could not be passed by without ex
posure. A few illustrations must suffice. "The
holy water," say the Portuguese spies, "that has
hitherto been made use of in this diocese has not
been blessed by the priest, nor by any prayer of
the Church, the sexton only throwing a little of
the clay into it that is brought by pilgrims from
the sepulchre of St Thomas, or from some other
holy place relating to him ; and, when such clay

238 THE ROMAN PERIOD.
has been wanting, the said sextons have thrown
some incense into it ; whereupon, without any
further consecration, it has been esteemed holy."
Again, through the misgovernment of Nestorian
;. heretics, it is affirmed, the Syrians lacked " the
i healthful use of pictures," they maintained that
'images are filthy and abominable idols, and ought
not to be adored ; the worship of the Virgin and
the invocation of saints they abhorred. The
Syrians were not accustomed to bow at the name
of Jesus; "the greatest part of the people of this
bishopric are not instructed in the doctrine, and
they that are, know only the Pater Noster, and
the Ave Maria in the Syriac tongue, which they
do not understand, and most of the children know
not how to bless themselves, nay, the clergy them
selves are ignorant thereof, not being able to say
the commandments ; " and " in the remote parts
of the diocese, as well towards the south as towards
the north, the Christians that dwell in the heaths
are guilty of working and merchandising on Sun
days and holy days, especially in the evenings." •
The Syrian theory of the intermediate state was
somewhat peculiar. " The souls of the saints," they
held, " are not to see God until after their bodies
are raised at the day of judgment, and till then

SYNOD OF DIAMPER, 1599. 239
they are in a terrestrial paradise." " The soul of
Christ, when He died, descended not into hell, but
was carried to the paradise of Eden." " The wicked,
when they die in mortal sin, are carried to a place
called Eden, where they suffer only by the sense
of the punishments they know they are to endure
after the day of judgment," the fire of hell being,
in Syrian thought, metaphorical or spiritual, not
literal or material. Such a view of the inter
mediate state altogether precludes the idea of a
purgatory. The insertion of the doctrine of pur
gatory in their creed must have been felt most
seriously to dislocate some of the joints of the
Syrian eschatology.
But reformation was needed in social as well as
in ecclesiastical affairs. Faults great and small
were patent to the eyes of fault-finding friends.
A great many of the Christians had recourse toi
superstitious practices. When about to marry, for
example, they consulted wizards and fortune-tellers
to ascertain what success they should have, and
governed themselves so much by what they were
told as to break off matches already concluded and
to make new ones at the pleasure of those wizards.
During sickness they would send for such people
to perform some ceremony whereby they hoped to

240 THE ROMAN PERIOD.
have their health restored, and, in case of theft, to
give a clue to the identity and whereabouts of the
thief. Many Christians were in the habit of ob
taining from wizards talismanic notes which they
hung about their persons to cure their distempers,
on the necks of their cattle to keep them well, and
in their orchards to increase the fruit. In some
parts of the diocese, when any of the baser sort
touched the cisterns of the Christians, the cisterns
were purified with ceremonies like those of the
heathen. The Christians also forbore touching
certain castes, and, if they did happen to do so,
went and purified themselves by washing. Cer
tain heathen festivals proved attractive to some of
the Christians, who took part in some of the pro
ceedings. Sometimes Christians also, when charged
with a crime of which they were innocent, volun
teered, in order to substantiate their innocence, to
subject themselves to ordeals which were enjoined
by heathen rulers on their own people, such as
handling bars of hot iron, thrusting their hand
into boiling oil, or swimming through rivers full
of snakes, reckoning, if they were innocent, that
none of those things could hurt them, but would
certainly do so if they were guilty of the crimes
laid to their charge.

SYNOD OF DIAMPER, 1599. 241
In other matters the spirit of superstition, though
more innocent perhaps, showed itself ; for instance,
in the making of circles with rice, into which they
put persons about to be married, having given rice
to children ; in drawing out a thread when they
cut a web of cloth ; and in taking back two grains
of rice after they had sold and measured it. Among
other faults set down to the Syrians is that they
were litigious, and often went to law before heathen
judges ; although it was " the ancient custom con
sented to by the infidel kings of Malabar that the
whole government of the Christians of this bishopric,
not only in spirituals, but temporals also, is devolved
to the Church and the bishop thereof, who is to de
termine all differences that are among Christians."
Another fault of which the Syrians were accused
shows how agreeable to the oriental mind is the
traffic in money. Charles Lamb would have had no
hesitation in applying to the Syrians his compre
hensive principle, that all mankind may be divided
into two classes, borrowers and lenders. At all
events, borrowing and lending seem to have been
almost universal among them. But the Bortuguese
ecclesiastics could not away with their usurious
practices. Syrian money-lenders were in the habit
of charging one and sometimes two per cent per
Q

242 THE ROMAN PERIOD.
mensem for the use of money, whereas ten per
cent per annum was the highest rate of interest
that, according to the Portuguese, could come
within the sweep of legitimate trade. Slavery as
an institution was found among the Syrians, and
this the Bomans did not attempt to suppress ;
but two circumstances connected with it they
deplored, and felt it a duty to try to restrain.
The one was that " several poor wretched Chris
tians, following the example of the heathen among
i whom they live, when they find themselves pinched
with want, do, contrary to all right and reason, sell
their children ; " and the other was that baptised
or Christian slaves were sometimes sold to ' infidel '
masters. The discriminating reader will judge how far the
charges made against the Syrians were discreditable
to them. I have not attempted to characterise in
detail the evils laid at their door by the Portuguese.
It may be enough to say that with much that
was good, there were many corruptions, and, con
sidering their circumstances, much excuse may
reasonably be made for the Syrians. The ex
planation of so much divergence from Eoman
doctrine and practice was given by the Portuguese
in a manner completely satisfactory to their own

SYNOD OF DIAMPER, 1599. 243
mind. " The Nestorians," they held, " by reason
of the great communication they have had with
the Greeks, have imbibed some of their errors."
More particularly, the Syrian Christians of Malabar
had long been subject to heretical and schismatical
prelates, whose misgovernment might account for
all doctrinal and ecclesiastical aberrations ; while
the fact that they had lived among the heathen 1
and mingled with them for so many centuries
was sufficient to explain the existence among
them of so many superstitions and social dis
orders. But the cause of causes was that this
Church had " been for 1200 years from under the
obedience of the Holy Eoman Church, the mistress
of all the other Churches, and from whence all
good government and true doctrines do come." In
other words, it is pretended that up to the date of
the General Council at Ephesus, which condemned
Nestorius in 431, the Syrian Church had' been
subject to the Pope and loyal to Eome ; and, by
way of confirming this monstrous piece of history,
the readers of the decrees of this notorious synod
are obligingly informed that it was by order of the
Pope of Eome that Cyril of Alexandria presided at
Ephesus. That there was much need of reform in the

244 THE ROMAN PERIOD.
Syrian Church every good Catholic was convinced :
the only question was, how it could be brought
about. To the monastic orders all naturally
looked for such a service. The Franciscans were
the first to move in this direction. They estab
lished a college at Cranganore, 1546, for the purpose
of training up in the orthodox faith priests who
should be set over the Syrian congregations.
But the college was not a success, and its failure
was set down by the Jesuits, who were far more
aggressive than any of the other orders, chiefly to
the fact that it did not pay sufficient attention to
the Syriac language, " always regarded as most
sacred by these people, being (as they maintained)
the language spoken by their apostle St Thomas,
and, further still, by our Lord Jesus Christ Him
self when on earth." Passing by Cranganore, they
selected a quiet spot on the isle Malankara. Here
they erected in 1587 the famous College of Vai-
picotta, in which special attention was given to
the study of the Syriac language and literature.
The place was well chosen, since, in addition to
its having been the island where, according to
tradition, St Thomas first landed, it was on one
of the great water-ways leading directly to several
of the churches of the interior, and not many

SYNOD OF DIAMPER, 1599. 245
miles from Angamale, one of the most highly ven
erated strongholds of the native Christians. But,
despite all their acquaintance with the Syriac
language and the Boman doctrines, the young
priests were rejected by the people for whose
benefit they were intended; and this means of
sapping the foundations of the Syrian Church was
thus rendered abortive.
Such a state of things, however, could not be
allowed to continue. If gentleness failed, force
must be applied. A powerful ecclesiastic arose to
lead the movement. Aleixo de Menezes, who had
been appointed Archbishop of Goa and Primate of
the Indies, had arrived with a brief from Pope
Clement VIII., dated January 27, 1595, according
to which he was directed to " make inquisition
into the crimes and errors of Mar Abraham, and,
in case he found him guilty of such things as he
had been accused of, to have him apprehended and
secured in Goa ; as also to appoint a Governor or
Vicar-apostolic of the Boman communion over his
bishopric ; and upon Mar Abraham's death to take
care that no bishop coming from Babylon should
be suffered to succeed."
Mar Abraham died in 1597, "contemning the
sacrament of penance," and committing the care

246 THE ROMAN PERIOD.
of his diocese to Archdeacon George. The time
had, therefore, arrived for Menezes to carry out
the papal brief, but it soon became evident that
he had tough work to do. At an early stage of
the negotiations Archdeacon George made bold to
inform him that the Pope of Bome had no more
to do with them than they had with the Pope of
Bome ; and, having made this declaration as for
himself, he assembled a synod of the clergy and
most substantial laity at Angamale, the then
metropolis of the diocese, where they all swore
to stand by their archdeacon in defence of the
faith of their fathers, to allow no alteration to
be • made in the doctrines of their Church, and
to admit no bishops save such as should be sent
by the Patriarch of Babylon ; of all which they
made a public instrument, and, having sworn to
maintain it with their lives and fortunes, ordered
it to be published. Would that they had proved
as courageous in action as in speech ! Plistory
searches in vain for their martyrs, their Hamil-
tons and Wisharts, their Bidleys and Latimers.
The Syrians would murmur and protest and weep,
but ' they would not burn. When Menezes came
among them in person, with all his strength of
will and wealth of resource, oriental - like they

SYNOD OF DIAMPER, 1599. 247
yielded. The archbishop, after a tour of visita
tion through the diocese the better to under
stand the state of feeling, convened a synod of
the Syrians, over which he himself was to preside.
It met at Diamper9 on June 20, 1599, and sat
for seven days. The meeting was opened with
much solemnity, in presence of the dean and
chapter of Cochin, and many other Eoman ecclesi
astics, the governor of Cochin, the commissioners
of the Bortuguese treasury, and the whole chamber
of that city, besides several merchants of dis
tinction ; for the president evidently believed in
having a strong platform. The proceedings were
conducted partly in Portuguese and partly in
Malayalam, and had eventually to be communi
cated to the congregations in the latter language.
Jacob, a Syrian priest, was therefore appointed
official interpreter to the president, who " had but
little knowledge of the Malabar tongue," and to
the holy synod, with Francisco Boz and Antonio
Toscano, both of the Society of Jesus and of the
College of Vaipicotta, as assistant interpreters ; and
every precaution was taken for giving to the synod
as much of the appearance and as little of the
reality of a free deliberative assembly as possible.
The synod having been constituted with a

248 THE ROMAN PERIOD.
solemn Mass and a sermon against schism, the
first act which the members were required under
heavy pressure to perform was to make, in their
own name and in the name of all whom they
represented, a profession of faith as it was hence
forth to be taught among them. The Syriac
Scriptures10 were to be corrected and supplemented,
while the Western form of the Constantinopolitan
(Nicene) creed was accepted, together with all apos
tolical and ecclesiastical traditions, and the Church
as the interpreter of Scripture. The Syrians
acknowledged the seven sacraments with all their
Boman interpretations and uses. The doctrines
of the real corporeal presence, purgatory, the in
vocation of saints, indulgences, and the veneration
of relics were all swallowed by the Syrians. They
renounced Nestorius and all his works, holding
the perpetual virginity of ' our Lady,' saluting
her as the mother of God, and maintaining that
in Christ there are two distinct natures and one
person. The Nestorian saints' days were abolished
and those of the Eoman calendar put in their
place. The Patriarch of Babylon was anathema
tised as being out of communion with the Church
of Bome and beyond the pale of salvation ; and
the Syrians took an oath and protested to God

SYNOD OF DIAMPER, 1599. 249
by the Holy Gospel and the cross of Christ that
they would never receive into their Church " any
bishop, archbishop, prelate, pastor, or governor,
unless appointed by the Bishop of Bome." The
diocese was divided into parishes, each of which
was to have a vicar and as many assistant clergy
as were needful. Abuses and neglects in Church
affairs were to be reformed, and heathen customs
were to be abolished. A stricter moral discipline
was to be introduced among the laity, and a
higher standard of duty among the clergy. Last
ly, the Syrians were placed under the protection
of the Portuguese ; the Jesuits were licensed to
preach and administer the sacraments throughout
the diocese, without the permission of the parochial
clergy ; and the people of this ancient Church were
to submit themselves to the Holy Office of the
Inquisition " in these parts established." Will it
be believed that decrees to this effect were signed
by a hundred and fifty-three cattanars, or priests,
and six hundred and sixty lay procurators ? Such
was the influence of one strong-willed and resource
ful European, supported as he was by all the local
representatives of Portuguese civil and military
power, over those unprotected orientals.
There were but few kindly touches in the pro-

250 THE ROMAN PERIOD.
ceedings of this synod, yet, such as they were,
they perhaps ought in fairness to be mentioned.
As there was no proper supply of wine for the
performance of Masses in the diocese, the King of
Portugal was petitioned to send " once a-year as
an alms a pipe and a half or two pipes of muscatel
wine of Portugal, to be distributed among the
Christian churches ; " and, pending a reply to this
petition, the archbishop volunteered to supply wine
at his own charges. He also undertook to supply
the clergy in the same manner with proper official
vestments ; and, whereas simony had been largely
practised in the diocese, and it was desirable
to arrange " by the way of alms, collection, or
assessment, or by the way of tithes, according to
the people's ability," for the maintenance of the
clergy without their having recourse to fee-collec
tions for particular services, his Catholic Majesty,
the King of Portugal, was entreated as " the pro
tector of the Christians of these parts, and the
only Christian king and lord in the Indies," to be
graciously pleased, on account of their poverty,
to provide for the vicars of the Church, allow
ing them at least fifteen thousand cruzados to
be divided among them all besides what should
be gathered for them in their respective parishes.

SYNOD OF DIAMPER, 1599. 251
Some provision was also made for the poor in the
congregations. The most cruel of the synod's proceedings was
the making of the decree about the celibacy of
the clergy retrospective. After the manner of
Hildebrand, Menezes compelled all married priests,
on pain of excommunication, to put away their
wives ; and wives of priests — who were called
cattaneiras, and held in honour as such, and par
took of the revenues of the Church — refusing to
leave their husbands, were to be deprived of all
their church-living. But what history will least
willingly forgive to this notorious synod is its
wanton destruction of books. The liturgies were
either destroyed or altered beyond recognition, and
there is probably no entire copy now in existence
which was used by the Syrians in Southern India
before 1599. n Moreover, all other books that
could be laid hold of and that contained heretical
doctrine, were as a rule summarily committed to
the flames, so that, apart from excerpts made from
about twenty books given in the decrees of the
synod, it is impossible to hear the Syrians of those
days speak for themselves. Would that the arch
bishop had been content to send all the books,
heretical or otherwise, to the Vatican !

252 THE ROMAN PERIOD.
With a view to carrying out, under his own
personal supervision, some of the decrees, such
especially as those just referred to, Menezes
resolved to make a second tour of visitation
through the diocese.
Only one fragment from the report of this tour
seems of sufficient interest to deserve notice. While
he was at Ballur, a farce — a diabolical farce, as
Gouvea calls it — was enacted in the church there,
which was afterwards enacted in other churches ;
and, though the construction of the play was of
the simplest kind, the effect it produced on the
spectators wTas very remarkable, and anything but
agreeable to Menezes. There were three dramatis
persona?. One of the speakers personated St
Peter ; another, St Thomas ; and the third, who
acted as umpire, St Cyriac, the patron of the
church of Pallur. St Thomas began the dispute
by bitterly inveighing against St Peter, and com
plaining of the wrong which that apostle had done
him, in seducing the Indian Christians from their
allegiance to himself, seeing that he had acquired
a legitimate right over them by his preaching.
" Your law," said he to St Peter, " was preached
at Bome, and in Italy ; your proceedings here,
therefore, are most unreasonable. You have

SYNOD OF DIAMPER, 1599. 253
brought into this country an archbishop, a very
enterprising man, who, by sheer violence/ has
maintained the cause of the Portuguese, and in
troduced your law among a people who owe you
no allegiance. Your successors, the Bishops of
Bome, can have no authority whatever in this
country. We are both apostles of Jesus Christ ;
our power is therefore so equal that you have no
more jurisdiction over my Christians than I have
over yours." To such arguments, and others of
equal force, St Beter was represented as returning
a very feeble answer. He contented himself with
asserting that his law was for all the earth ; and
that, although that of St Thomas was good, yet
his own was much better. Upon this the dis
pute grew very warm, both the apostles becoming
enraged. At last, however, bethinking themselves
that, being the apostles of Jesus Christ, it was
unbecoming their dignity to dispute in this angry
manner, they moderated their wrath, and agreed
that it would be better to refer the question to
St Cyriac, to whom this church belonged, both
promising to abide by his decision. St Cyriac,
being called in, heard both cases, and decided
immediately in favour of St Thomas, "because,"
said he, " the Christians of India do not depend on

254 THE ROMAN PERIOD.
St Peter, but on their true pastor, the Patriarch
of Babylon. The Portuguese archbishop, who
declares the contrary, is a heretic, against whom
it is necessary that the Indian Christians should
be on their guard. They ought not to surrender
their faith to him ; and the oaths he extorted at
Diamper are manifestly null and void."
During Menezes' ten months' absence among the
Christians of St Thomas, the Viceroy of Goa died ;
and on his return to the capital, the archbishop
was called on by his sovereign to assume the reins
of civil government. In 1601 he received a bull
from Pope Clement VIII. confirming the provisional
appointment of Francisco Eoz, S.J., as Bishop of
Angamale ; and four years afterwards Pope Paul V.
translated the see of Angamale to Cranganore and
gave the title of archbishop to the prelate of that
church, still retaining the primacy of India in the
archbishopric of Goa. What more could the heart
of Menezes wish to secure the permanency of
his work ? Presently, therefore, he " returned to
Europe, where the respectability of his family, as
well as his energetic character, and the elevated
post he had filled in India, naturally led to his
promotion to the highest offices both in Church
and State. He was soon raised to the primacy of

SYNOD OF DIAMPER, 1599. 255
Brague, nominated Viceroy of Bortugal, under
Philip III., which he held for two years, and was
then made president of the council of the state of
Portugal at Madrid, in which office and court he
is said to have died in disgrace." 12 But the great
work of his life was that which Gouvea recorded
in his ' Jornada,' consisting of a couple of tours of
visitation in the Syrian bishopric, with the Synod
of Diamper between. These accomplished, he
thought that he had made peace in the Syrian
Church by reconciling it with the mother Church
of Bome ; but readers of this story will be reminded
of the policy of the Eomans so tersely described by
Tacitus, solitudinem faciunt pacem appellant.

256

CHAPTEE XVI.

AT THE COONEN CROSS.

The Portuguese never prospered after their sub
jugation of the Syrian Church at the Synod of
Diamper in 1599. Of this let their own historians
be the judges. Portuguese chroniclers divide the
history of their nation's prosperity in India into
three periods. The period of its infancy extends
from the end of the fifteenth century, when Portu
guese intercourse with India began, down to the
year 1561. From that time to the year 1600, they
regard as the period of its manhood or full vigour.
At the last date they reckon its old age to have
commenced ; and it has since become so decrepit
as to be only the shadow of a great name. It is
the old story : prosperity begat luxury, self-indul
gence, and all kinds of moral weakness ; and, where
the carcass is, there the vultures assemble. To-

AT THE COONEN CROSS. 257
wards the close of the sixteenth century the Dutch
threw off the Spanish yoke in the Netherlands ;
and, the ports of the Iberian Peninsula being
thenceforward closed against them, they turned
their attention to the commerce of the East, where
they soon became formidable rivals to the Portu
guese. In 1595 they captured Java, where they
founded the city of Batavia, the capital of their
possessions in the Eastern Archipelago. This suc
cess was followed in a few years by the capture of
Formosa, Amboyna, Sumatra, and several smaller
islands. In the year 1603, they began trading
with Ceylon and soon had a large commerce in its
productions. For some years they seem to have
limited themselves to these peaceful occupations,
but in 1632 their ambition stretched beyond the
bounds which had hitherto confined them ; and,
when in 1636 their designs of conquest became
known to the King of Kandy, he invited them to
help him to effect his deliverance from the arro
gance and tyranny of the Portuguese. Accepting
this invitation, the Dutch lost no time in sending
a strong armament to the king's assistance ; and,
after a long struggle, Colombo, the capital, yielded ;
the power of the Portuguese in Ceylon was de
stroyed; and they were expelled from the island.
R

258 THE ROMAN PERIOD.
In 1660, four years after the capture of Colombo,
they took Negapatam from the Portuguese and
made it the capital of their possessions on the
Coromandel coast. They next turned their atten
tion to the Portuguese maritime towns in Malabar,
the possession of which they considered essential
to the safety of their commerce. They succeeded
in taking Quilon about the end of the year 1661 ;
and, in January of the following year, they captured
by assault the town of Cranganore, which was the
residence of the Jesuit archbishops, who then
ruled over the Syrian Christians, in place of their
own metrans. The taking of Cranganore was fol
lowed by the siege of Cochin, which submitted to
the Dutch in January 1663. This was the death
blow to the Portuguese power in India. After this
it never rallied. Its possessions shrank within a
very small area, being reduced to the city of Goa
and a few places of minor importance to the north.
The glory had departed. Another sun had arisen
in all its splendour on the coast. Fresh hopes in
spired the breasts of the Syrian Christians ; for
practically the whole area within which the ancient
Church was planted fell under the dominion of
a European Protestant power. The Dutch had
known themselves what it was to be persecuted

AT THE COONEN CROSS. 259
in their own land. In a spirit of obedience to the
royal law, they refused to persecute their subjects
in foreign parts. To the Syrians at least they ex
tended an easy toleration.
But, before this political change occurred, one of
those hopeful outbursts of indignation, which serve
to show what might have been, was manifested on
the part of the Syrians. They had not been accus
tomed to strict ecclesiastical discipline ; and they
could not endure ¦ the rigid rule of the Jesuit arch
bishops of Cranganore. Nothing, they thought,
could be worse than that ; and they resolved that,
whatever should be the consequence, they would
make an end of what they were accustomed to call
their Babylonish captivity. They accordingly pre
pared for action, and they certainly made a dem
onstration which their foreign ecclesiastical rulers
could not fail to understand. They assembled one
day in thousands round the Coonen Cross, in a
village near Cochin, and took an oath that they
were done with Portuguese bishops and would
never again acknowledge them. This was in 1653.
The immediate occasion of this demonstration
was that one Atalla or Ahatalla (i.e., Theodore), a
bishop, having been sent by the Patriarch of Baby
lon to India, and having landed at Mailapore, had

260 THE ROMAN PERIOD.
been seized by the Portuguese and put on board
ship to be conveyed to Goa and consigned to the
Inquisition. When the Syrians became aware that
the bishop intended for them was thus doomed to
destruction, their indignation knew no bounds ;
and the numbers being so great that all could not
touch the cross in taking the oath, they connected
themselves with the venerable symbol by means
of ropes along which the current of ' virtue ' might
flow to sustain them in the brave stand which they
resolved to make for liberty. Then and there,
too, they appointed a provisional government for
the diocese, choosing Archdeacon Thomas as their
bishop, and taking such further action as seemed
necessary for carrying on the work of the Church.
Not all the Syrians, however, renounced Boman
jurisdiction on that day. They were then divided
into two parties, some in favour of the Syrian
regime, others contented with the Boman. The
former accordingly reverted to the Syrian rite ; the
latter continued to be Eomo-Syrians. The names
by which they were thenceforward distinguished in
Malabar are respectively the Puthencoor or new
community, and the Palayakoor or old community,
—the relative proportions being probably then as
now about three to one.1

AT THE COONEN CROSS. 261
It was ten years after this memorable incident
that the Dutch became masters of Cochin ; and
though they did nothing directly for the benefit
of the Syrians, they undesignedly did them a great
kindness, when, to serve their own ends, they
ordered all foreign ecclesiastics of the Boman rite
to leave their newly won territory.
Eeleased from the tyranny of the Portuguese
priests, the Syrians might have been expected to
look forward to an independent future and to
solve once for all the problem of self-government.
But they did not avail themselves of the splendid
opportunity which Providence gave them, and from
that day to this they have shown a degree of in
difference on the point only too characteristic of
the Oriental. Leading-strings they loved, and in
leading-strings they were content to walk. If the
supply of bishops from the Patriarch of Babylon
was hopelessly cut off, they would not refuse a
bishop from any other oriental sect, and so they
were fain to take the first that came their way.
He happened to be a Jacobite, but such as he was
they vastly preferred him to any bishop from the
West,

THE JACOBITE PEEIOD

265

CHAPTEE XVII.

THE SYRIAN JACOBITES.

To trace the origin and progress of the Syrian
Jacobites we must go back to the days of the con
troversy concerning the constitution of the Berson
of Christ in the fifth century, and especially to
that phase of it which connected itself with the
name of Eutyches, an Egyptian monk. The
question of the period was : Are there in the one
person of Christ two distinct natures, or only one ?
Eutyches adopted the latter alternative ; and thus
became, however unfitly, the representative of a
theory which engaged the attention of three
synods, and was finally condemned and disposed
of as a heresy by the famous Ecumenical Council
of Chalcedon in 451.
But among those who were adjudged heretical

266 THE JACOBITE PERIOD.
on the question at issue, two views prevailed. The
Armenians embraced the Eutychian view that the
divinity is the sole nature in Christ, the humanity
being absorbed ; while the Egyptians and Abys-
sinians held to the doctrine, which is specially
called Monophysite, that the divinity and humanity
make up one compound nature in Christ. The
West Syrians, or the Syrians of Syria Proper, were
ultimately drawn into the adoption of the Mono
physite view chiefly by the influence of Severus,
Patriarch of Antioch.
Now it came to pass in the days of the Emperor
Justinian that the Monophysite party in Syria
was threatened with becoming gradually extinct ;
when a man arose among them whose indefatigable
zeal did much to revive and extend the Mono
physite communion. This was Jacobus Zanzalus,
commonly surnamed Baradaeus, or the man in rags,
from the circumstance that he went about in the
guise of a beggar. Ordained by certain imprisoned
bishops to be the metropolitan of their Church, he
visited the Syrian and neighbouring provinces,
ordained clergy for his party, and gave them a
Patriarch of Antioch for their superior. For more
than thirty years he continued his labours with
great success till his death in 578. It was from

SYRIAN JACOBITES. 267
him that the Syrian Monophysites were called
Jacobites, and it was by his ordination of Sergius
as successor to his master that the heretical suc
cession was kept up.
Though the head of the Monophysite sect claims
the rank and prerogatives of the Patriarch of An
tioch, it is to be remembered not only that he is
both a heretical and schismatical patriarch, but
also that there are other three Church dignitaries
who all claim the same title. These three are :
first, the orthodox Patriarch of Antioch, who sits
on the throne of St Peter and St Ignatius, and
lives to-day at Damascus ; second, the head of
the Maronites, who dwells in the monastery of
Kanobeen, in the district of Khesrowan, in Mount
Lebanon ; and third, the Eoman anti-patriarch,
who dwells in Aleppo. The Jacobite Patriarchs
of Antioch, being unable to reside at that city
while it remained in the power of the Emperors,
settled themselves at Amida (Diarbekr) on the
Tigris, where they still have their headquarters.
They also pass much of their time in the monastery
of St Ananias, near Mardin. Since the end of the
sixteenth century they have invariably taken the
name of Ignatius.
It is wellnigh impossible to estimate the number

268 THE JACOBITE PERIOD.
of Christians subject to the Jacobite patriarch.
As many as a hundred and three episcopal and
twenty metropolitan sees are reckoned as having
belonged to him. But at the end of the sixteenth
century there were not more than twenty of both
kinds ; and at a later period only five metro
politans, viz., those of Diarbekr, Mosul, Maadan,
Aleppo, and Jerusalem.
The Jacobite Church has not been distinguished
for great theologians or great works in theology ;
but the Syro-Jacobite liturgies are very numerous,
no fewer than forty-one being described by Neale.
Gibbon finds only one name of eminence among
them, and on Abulpharagius, otherwise known as
Gregorius Bar Hebraeus, he has pronounced a well-
deserved panegyric. He adds, however, that " the
sect which was honoured by the virtues of Abul
pharagius appears to sink below the level of their
Nestorian brethren." " The superstition of the
Jacobites," he continues, " is more abject, their
fasts more rigid, their intestine divisions are more
numerous, and their doctors (as far as I can
measure the degrees of nonsense) are more remote
from the precincts of reason."

SYRIAN JACOBITES. 269

II.

Such then are the Jacobites ; and it was one of
their number, Gregorius, styled Metropolitan of
Jerusalem, that the Syrians of Malabar had the
pleasure of welcoming among them when their
Church was thought to be in a state of widowhood.
It was in 1665 that Gregorius arrived, and he was
cordially received by metran and people as giv
ing encouragement to their feeble hope of regain
ing connection with an Oriental Church. Grego
rius seemed to them to be sent by Brovidence in
answer to their prayers. As the officiating bishop,
whom we may now call Mar Thomas I., had never
received the formal rite of episcopal consecration, it
was deemed advisable that he should undergo this
solemnity at the hands of Gregorius. For twelve
years Mar Thomas I. had administered the see-
without imposition of hands, having received only
such call and consecration as his fellow-believers
could give. But now, having among them, as they
believed, a duly consecrated dignitary of the
Jacobite Church in high Asia, there was no longer
any reason for the omission of this. formality. The
consecration was accordingly performed, and Gre
gorius seems to have exercised a sort of joint rule

270 THE JACOBITE PERIOD.
along with the native metran till death, in which
they are said to have been divided by the space of
only two days. It is by no means certain whether
they or either of them had previously consecrated
a successor ; but it may be admitted as probable,
although there is certainly no historical evidence
on the point, that Mar Thomas II. was likewise
consecrated by Gregorius. Meanwhile several other
foreign prelates came to Malabar, but the informa
tion available concerning them is peculiarly meagre.
One Mar Andrews is said to have come in 1678,
but no ecclesiastical act is ascribed to him and no
good service of any kind. His whole known his
tory is summed up in the suggestive words of
Baoli, ebrius in fumen prolapsus mortuus est. In
1685, the year to which the death of Gregorius is
commonly assigned, Mar Basilius Catholica, Mar
Ivanius Episcopa, two Armenian priests, and others
arrived in Malabar from foreign parts ; but from
what parts or with what credentials history leaves
us uninformed. Mar Basilius died very shortly
after his arrival in the country, but Ivanius had
a career before him ; for Mar Thomas II., having
been struck by lightning, suddenly died ; and the
administration of the see seems to have fallen for
a time to Ivanius. Bresently he consecrated and

SYRIAN JACOBITES. 271
appointed Mar Thomas III. as metran of Malan-
karai ; but, as the latter enjoyed this dignity for
only two years, he next consecrated the Anandara-
van1 of the deceased as Thomas IV. ; and having
done much to free the Syrian Jacobite churches
from practices which had crept into them by long
contact with Nestorians and Jesuits, he died in
1694, and was buried at Mulanthuruthu.
During the time of Mar Thomas IV., Mar Ga
briel, a Nestorian bishop, came to Malabar. He
is described by Paoli as an implacabilis hostis
Jacobitarum. On account of his creed neither the
metran nor his people acknowledged him, nor
would they allow him to preach in their churches.
Nevertheless some of the Syrians clave to him and
thereby made factions ; and for twenty -three years,
or till his death in 1731, this man managed to
retain a position and to take some part in the
administration of the Church. Mar Thomas IV,
without consulting Mar Gabriel, consecrated his
own Anandaravan with the designation of Mar
Thomas V., by whom he was succeeded in 1728.
In 1747 Ezekiel, a Cochin merchant, brought from
Bassorah Mar Ivanius, of whom little seems to be
known, except that Paoli calls him a Jew. But in
consequence of his interference with images in the

272 THE JACOBITE PERIOD.
church, the metran and the people united in oppo
sition to him, and " resolved that, since it was the
practice for prelates, who had up to that time come
from foreign parts, to be subject to the metran
and archdeacon of Malayalam, a proper prelate
should be got down." A letter was accordingly
despatched to the Jacobite Patriarch of Antioch,
who sent Basilius Catholica, Gregorius, and Ivan
ius, who with some others arrived in Cochin in
1751, bringing with them many copies of the Jaco
bite liturgy. A letter from the patriarch to Tho
mas V. seems to show that the latter had ques
tioned the necessity for imposition of hands under
authority from Mardin. " You wilfully contend,"
writes the patriarch, " that the perfection of your
dignity is not needed," and he goes on to allege
that Mar Thomas V.'s consecration had consisted in
the placing of the episcopal mitre on his head by a
priest. Further on, the metran is exhorted to be
come obedient, and " get his episcopal title con
firmed." Whether the patriarch's letter had the
desired effect, and whether Mar Thomas V. sub
mitted and was reconsecrated, are questions which
we have not the means of satisfactorily answering ;
but, if he was reconsecrated, the act must have
been more of the nature of extreme unction than a

SYRIAN JACOBITES. 273
qualification for admission to office, for he died soon
after the date of the alleged reconsecration.
In 1761 Mar Thomas V. raised his Anandaravan
to the dignity of episcopa as Mar Thomas VI. and
died in 1765. Though the reconsecration of the
former by foreign prelates is probably apocryphal,
yet their reconsecration of the latter seems to be
an admitted fact. It took place in 1770, and,
strange as it may appear, this is the first and last
occasion when any ordination of a metran of
Malankarai took place by admitted authorisation
of the Jacobite Patriarch of Antioch. In the case
of those that follow, no one pretends that any of
them were consecrated by authority derived from
the patriarch ; and, as for those that precede him,
we shall presently sum up our finding.
From the date of his reconsecration, Mar
Thomas VI. governed the diocese for upwards of
thirty-seven years ; and, being a man of consider
able influence and administrative capacity, is not
unfrequently referred to as Dionysius the Great.
In 1796 he consecrated Matthan Bamban as Mar
Thomas VII., and the latter succeeded to the ad
ministration of the see in 1808 ; which, however,
he held only for one year, when he died. Soon
afterwards, that is in 1813 or 1815, the Balamattam
s

274 THE JACOBITE PERIOD.
family appears to have become extinct, and at all
events it supplied no more bishops for the see of
Malankarai.2 III.
It is unnecessary to pursue the detailed history
of these native metrans. Enough has been said
to show how loosely the whole of the ecclesiasti
cal business was conducted ; how dependent the
Syrians were on the services of foreign bishops ;
and how dear to their heart it was to see a prelate
from high Asia among them. The services of these
foreign prelates were so given and received as to
exhibit on both sides a ludicrous attempt to keep
up a show of apostolic succession, and the way in
which it was done was enough to reduce apostolic
succession, at least in Malankarai, to a farce.
It is important to notice that most of the foreign
prelates that came to Malabar were mere adven
turers and not a few of them unscrupulous men,
altogether unworthy of the position to which they
aspired. Those who performed episcopal acts, as
well as those who did not, have left behind them
no evidence to show that they were duly accredited
representatives of the Jacobite Patriarch of Antioch.
And so it came to pass that when the whole case of

SYRIAN JACOBITES. 275
the succession was recently sifted in the courts
of Travancore, no evidence of authorisation in fa
vour of any of the bishops was forthcoming until
we come down to those who reconsecrated Mar
Thomas VI. Even the documents produced in
their favour are not unanimously accepted by the
judges of the Boyal Court. Of' Gregorius, who
consecrated Mar Thomas I. and perhaps also Mar
Thomas II. ; of Ivanius, who consecrated Mar
Thomas III. and Mar Thomas IV., not a shred of
evidence is producible to free them from the suspi
cion that they came on their own account and to
serve ends of their own. In fact the coming of the
latter prelate, with a companion who died soon
after their arrival, is described by the two Hindu
judges in the Eoyal Court as being "from foreign
parts, but from what parts the histories do not
clearly say, but, from the circumstances attending
their reception by the people of Malabar, it is only
fair to presume that they must have come " from
the Jacobite Patriarch of Antioch, or under direc
tions from that dignitary. And even if we admit
the validity of the claims of the reconsecrators of
Mar Thomas VI. as genuine representatives of the
Jacobite Patriarch, it appears that — from 1653,
the year in which the Syrian Church asserted its

276 THE JACOBITE PERIOD.
independence of Eome, down to 1852, the year
in which the first native of Malabar that ever
received consecration direct from the hand of the
Patriarch, was installed as metran — there was
found, in the mass of documents recently laid
before the Courts of Travancore, only one which
could be construed as a sort of proof of ordina
tion by delegation from the Patriarch. Thus the
net result of two hundred years' connection with
the Jacobite see of Antioch is that one metran was
reconsecrated by delegation of the Patriarch, and
another consecrated directly by the Patriarch's own
hands. All the rest were, so far as documentary or
other legal evidence is concerned, without authority;
and there is no proof that they were bishops at all.
But not to press this point, let us assume for
the sake of argument — what cannot be conceded
on any other ground — that all who came to Malan
karai from foreign parts and performed episcopal
acts in the Syrian Church, or took part in the
ordination of metrans, were bishops duly authorised
in that behalf by the Jacobite Patriarch of Antioch,
what ecclesiastical position was acquired thereby ?
The answer to this question cannot be very satis
factory to those among the Syrians who try to
uphold the formal continuity of apostolic succes-

SYRIAN JACOBITES. 277
sion in their Church. By their acceptance of the
services of those foreign prelates, they became
Jacobites ; they became connected, that is to say,
with a heretical and schismatical Church. I am
not here using my own words in describing the
Church of the Jacobites. Dr Neale, an expert
in ecclesiastical archaeology, has shown that the
Jacobites, having derived their existence as a sect
from Severus, the heretical and schismatical Patri
arch of Antioch, were themselves both heretics
and schismatics. It is a moot point in ecclesi
astical law whether schism does or does not
nullify ordination and cause the Church, which
is the subject of it, to lose the notes of a true
Church. But, according to Newman, there can
be no doubt about what ' the traditional view ' on
this subject was. In the preface to the third
(1877) edition of the ' Via Media,' § 32, the late
Cardinal wrote: "As regards schismatical ordi
nation, as of the Donatists : on this occasion, Eome
stood firm to her traditional view, and Augustine
apparently concurred in it ; but the African
bishops on the whole were actuated by their sense
of the necessity of taking the opposite line, and
were afraid of committing themselves to the
principle that heresy or schism nullifies ordina-

278 THE JACOBITE PERIOD.
tion." So that according to this dictum, the
Syrians of Malankarai by becoming Jacobites did,
wittingly or otherwise, link themselves on to a
Church which, on the ordinary traditional mechan
ical theory of apostolic succession, for which they
have always been sticklers, was no part of the
Church Catholic and did not possess the grace
of orders. That is the position from which there
seems no logical escape.
But let us waive the point. Let us assume
for the sake of argument — what cannot be con
ceded on any other ground — that the Syrians
of Malankarai were linked on, not to the heret
ical schismatical Church, but to the orthodox
Catholic Church of Antioch, and that the con
tention which they sometimes erroneously make
about their ancestors having come from the place
where the disciples of our Lord were first called
Christians, were admitted, what follows from their
voluntary acceptance of this position ? It follows
that they have departed from the line of apostolic
succession in which the Church of their fathers
subsisted ; they have chosen to be of the Church
of Antioch, and to desert the Church of Babylon ;
they have preferred succession from St Peter to
succession from St Thomas. The Syrians of

SYRIAN JACOBITES. 279
Malankarai would therefore do well to remember
that the acceptance of Antioch means the rejection
of St Thomas. Whatever right their fathers may
have had to call themselves Christians of St
Thomas — and I for one believe that, according
to ecclesiastical usage, they had the right — the
modern Syrians have now no right, nor have they
had for more than two hundred years the right
to assume that designation. They have been
disloyal to St Thomas, and have set him aside ;
so that, if their own contentions and those of the
Jacobite Patriarch of Antioch were admitted, they
would now be Christians of St Peter, for Antioch
is St Peter's Eastern chair.
Such are the results which seem to me to fol
low logically from the application of that merely
mechanical theory of apostolic succession which
has hitherto been of so much account in the treat
ment of ecclesiastical questions on the part of the
Syrians and those who have had the regulation
of their affairs. It will be shown in a future study
that the Syrians of Malankarai, by adjusting them
selves to new bearings, might still take up a true
and effective position as a spiritual society and
hold an honoured place among the Churches.
It is enough here to remark that they passed from

280 THE JACOBITE PERIOD.
the one extreme of Nestorianism to the opposite
extreme of Monophysitism at a single bound, with
out a moment's thought on the question of doctrine
involved. A Church that sits so loose to doctrine,
which is the nutriment of spiritual life and the
guide of Christian practice, cannot be spiritually
strong. The Syrians were exasperated by the
rigid rule of the Jesuit archbishops of Cranganore
and were prepared to purchase freedom from it at
any price. Had they fought their battle on the
basis of theological principles, or attempted to work
on the lines of a rational Biblical theology, the
revolution we have chronicled might have been a
forward movement. As it was, they only ex
changed one -ism for another and lost their apos
tolic succession into the bargain.

281

CHABTEE XVIII.
THE ENGLISH MISSION TO THE SYRIANS.
When the Portuguese Eoman Catholics began to
reform the Syrian Church, the first step they took
was the establishment of a college for the training
of the Syrian clergy. When the English Protest
ants began their reform, the first step they took
was the planting of a similar college. The plan of
establishing such a college originated with Colonel
Munro, the British Eesident at the Court of Tra
vancore and Cochin (1810-19). It so happened
that the ways and means for carrying out such an
undertaking were not far to seek. The Eesident
found that a certain amount of money was avail
able through the foresight of his predecessor in
office. During the episcopate of Mar Thomas VI.,
a sum of three, thousand star pagados (Es. 10,500)
was recovered by Colonel Macaulay, through the

282 THE JACOBITE PERIOD.
Travancore Government, on account of injuries
inflicted on the Syrian Christians by their non-
Christian neighbours ; and this sum was invested
by him with the Government of Madras at eight
per cent a-year, for the benefit of the injured
community. The accumulations of interest were
sufficient to erect the structure, and the Eanee of
Travancore not only provided land for a site, but
gave also land and money for an endowment.
The college building is a quadrangle in which the
apartments open into a verandah, or covered
gallery, which runs round the whole of the interior.
It was finished in 1813, and students presently
began to frequent its halls.
With this nucleus, Colonel Munro made an
earnest appeal to the Church Missionary Society
to send missionaries to begin the work that was
so needful for the renovation of the ancient but
down-trodden Church. The way for this appeal
had been paved by the writings and the personal
influence of Claudius Buchanan,1 and we shall see
that it was not made in vain. But before we in
troduce the missionaries on the new scene of their
labours, let us glance at the field into which they
were called to work, and describe the plan of the
operations which it was intended they should carry

ENGLISH MISSION TO THE SYRIANS. 283
out. The field had undergone considerable trans
formation since we surveyed it in connection with
the prpceedings of the Synod of Diamper. That
notorious assembly had borne fruit. So much so
that, while the Bortuguese Eoman Catholics had
in those days traced all the evils of the Syrian
Church to her isolation from Eome, the mother of
all the Churches, the English Protestants, on the
other hand, considered that if only the Eoman
elements, which had been introduced by the Synod
of Diamper, could be eliminated, and the Syrian
Church could return to her ancient canons, there
would be a glorious exhibition of primitive purity
in doctrine and worship. Never was there a
greater mistake, although the mistake was to a
large extent excusable. Certainly the ecclesiasti
cal aberrations of the Syrian Church under Eoman
influence were very conspicuous, but they were
accompanied with much religious apathy, much
theological error, and many social vagaries of a
grave and serious character. Prayers were offered
to the saints, to the Virgin, and for the dead, the
communion was administered only in one kind,
the clergy were celibates ; the Scriptures, though
theoretically not withheld from the people, were,
like the liturgy, in Syriac, a tongue wholly un-

284 THE JACOBITE PERIOD.
known to the people, and no further understood
by the clergy as a rule than that they could spell
the words and parrot-like repeat the services.
Simony was still prevalent in the diocese. The
clergy yielded to the temptation of eking out their
incomes by means of the chattum, a funeral service
for the departed, and even the metran did not
disdain 'to aim at providing a revenue consistent
with his rank and dignity by granting ordination
indiscriminately to the sons of the wealthy for the
sake of the fees. The church fabrics were in a bad
state. Some fifty-five churches needed repairs ;
others, having gone to ruin, required to be rebuilt ;
and a few had fallen into the hands of the Eoman
Catholics, for which reason an arbitration had to
be appointed, and two out of four churches then
lost to the Syrians, viz., the great church at
Cottayam and the church at Buruwum, were re
stored. Above all, priests and people were ignorant
to an inordinate degree. Their lack of enterprise,
" the loss of the martial spirit of their ancestors,"
and their indolence, which prevented them from
making the best of what was given to them in the
good land, — these things were grievous to the
hearts of their English friends, and their grief was
still further aggravated by the evils of Sabbath

ENGLISH MISSION TO THE SYRIANS. 285
profanation, adultery, the abuse of intoxicating
drinks, and occasional participation on the part
of Christians in heathen ceremonies.
The plan of reform was simple and definite, sub
ject to such modifications as time and experience
indicated. The object was to reform without dis
integrating the Syrian Church, to help it in fact to
reform itself from within. " The business of the
Society's missionaries," said one of themselves, " is
not to pull down the ancient Syrian Church and to
build another on some plan of their own out of the
materials ; our object is to remove the rubbish, and
to repair the decayed places of the existing Church.
We are but advisers and helpers and instructors of
such as are willing to hear." Their policy, said
another, was to " alter as little as possible, so that
the character and individuality " of the Church
might be preserved. The Syrian Church had fallen
into hard hands, and the Church Missionary Society
played the part of the good Samaritan towards it.
The first triumvirate of English missionaries to
the Syrian Church of Southern India were Benja
min Bailey, Henry Baker, and Joseph Fenn. They
came to Malabar 1816-18, and gave themselves
devotedly to work out the policy we have just.
sketched. They received liberty from the metran

286 THE JACOBITE PERIOD.
to preach in the Syrian churches, a liberty of which
they freely availed themselves, using the vernac
ular Malayalam in the services. In their preaching
they were silent on those points of the Syrian ritual
and practice which all Protestants would condemn,
leaving it to the gradual spread of evangelical
knowledge to undermine, and at length by regular
authority to remove such things. On the question
of the celibacy of the clergy, however, a more posi
tive course of action seemed practicable. The met
ran and his malpan were secretly of opinion that
the single life was the highest and holiest ; never
theless they admitted that matrimony was lawful
to the clergy according to the ancient rules and
practice of the Church, and, moreover, that it
seemed to them the only cure for the dissolute
habits of many of their order. To encourage the
movement of restoring to the Syrian clergy the
right to marry, the metran published that he him
self would gladly perform the nuptial ceremonial in
the case of any cattanars who were willing to enter
' the holy state ' ; and Colonel Munro offered a
reward of four hundred rupees to the first cattanar
who should come forward to be married. So that
by the year 1820 forty cattanars out of a hundred
and fifty had become married men.

ENGLISH MISSION TO THE SYRIANS. 287
Possessing diversity of gifts, the missionaries soon
saw the propriety of making a division of labour.
In addition to the services in the Syrian Church
already referred to, the work of the missionaries
was mainly educational and literary. Bailey gave
himself at once to literary work and the instruction
of the cattanars. He translated the Scriptures and
the Book of Common Prayer into Malayalam ; he
made two dictionaries of the vernacular language ;
with the aid of a native blacksmith he got types
and punches made and a wooden press ; and so
the work of printing was begun. His version
of the Scriptures still survives, though sorely in
need of revision ; and the work of revision has in
fact been going on during a longer period than
Bailey, with such coadjutors as he could obtain,
required for the original version.
Baker gave himself to the establishment of vil
lage schools in connection with about seventy-two
congregations which were not under the heel of
Bome, and which were willing to be helped. These
were carried on in Malayalam, and Scriptural in
struction was given throughout. At Cottayam a
superior grammar-school was erected, where Eng
lish was also taught ; and similar grammar-schools
were established at Mavelikara and Alleppy. These

288 THE JACOBITE PERIOD.
were all under Mr Baker's supervision, and were
intended as feeders to the seminary.
The work of the seminary or Old College, as it is
now called, for the training of the Syrian clergy,
was placed under the principalship of Mr Fenn.
The instruction given included the elements of a
general education as well as special instruction for
the work of the ministry. The students studied
the Latin, Greek, and Syriac languages, construing
by means of English and Malayalam. They also
made considerable progress in mathematics. And,
whatever may be thought of the propriety of weight
ing the curriculum with European classics, it was
evidently the design of its framers that the college
should turn out men well equipped for their sacred
profession. An arrangement had been made more
over, with the consent and approval of all parties
concerned, that the metran would accept no applicant
for ordination unless he produced a certificate from
the principal of the college, showing that he had
gone through the regular course of study, and had
acquitted himself satisfactorily.
The Church Missionary Society was thus making
an experiment, and its work attracted visitors. The
first of these visitors came in 1820 in the person of
the Bev. James Hough, for some years a chaplain

ENGLISH MISSION TO THE SYRIANS. 289
in the service of the East India Company, and the
author of a valuable ' History of Christianity in
India.' His testimony was most explicit to the effect
that the missionaries had not interfered with the
observances of the Syrian Church, and were highly
esteemed by the metran and his clergy generally.
The next visitor was Dr Middleton, the first
Bishop of British India, who, from his point of
view, was not disposed at first to regard this
particular mission with favour. He did not see
that it was right, unless under very special limi
tations, for one Church to enter the diocese of
another, and to attempt to effect changes in the
latter. In the course of his pastoral visitation in
1821, Bishop Middleton "had heard it stated that
there was great reason to hope for a rapid approxi
mation of this ancient and venerable community
to the doctrine and discipline of the Church of
England, that it was actually in contemplation
to introduce the English Liturgy into the Syrian
¦ service." So, in returning from Bombay, he halted
at Cochin, where he invited the metran to meet
him. It was in reference to this interview that
Middleton wrote : " I was with the Syrian bishop
yesterday from seven till nine a.m., having no
other person present but an interpreter, whom I
T

290 THE JACOBITE PERIOD.
could trust. The result is that the Syrians are
much in the same state in which I left them four
years and a half ago ; that there is no visible
approximation to the Church of England ; and
that, if ever there should be, it will be communi
cated to the bishop of that Church in India. The
Church missionaries do indeed expound in their
own church to all who will hear them ; and this is
well received by the people, to whom it is some
thing new ; but the bishop assures me that nothing
is done which he has any reason to complain of." 2
In 1822, Dr Mill, Principal of Bishop's College,
Calcutta, visited the Mission largely with the view
of searching for copies of the ancient liturgies used
by the Syrians previous to 1599. In this quest he
was wholly disappointed, but he gave cordial tes
timony to the satisfactory character of the work
of the missionaries and to the soundness of their
policy. When Major Mackworth visited the Mission in
1823, an attempt was made to impress him with a
show of that military character and status which,
it was assumed, their ancestors possessed. He
was met at Buruwum by the malpan with all the
state his limited means could admit. He was
escorted by a small troop of boys, armed with

ENGLISH MISSION TO THE SYRIANS. 291
swords and shields, who preceded him with
measured step. On their arrival at the church,
half-a-dozen iron pots filled with gunpowder were
discharged, giving a report like a small cannon,
and two or three ancient matchlocks were fired
off on the occasion. " The metran, who then
usually lived in the college at Cottayam, gave a
state reception to the gallant Major. He wore on
the occasion a mitre ; whilst a pastoral staff of
polished blackwood, mounted with gold, and orna
mented with a strip of silver descending spirally
from the top to the bottom, was carried before him
by an attendant. After a short time he took off
his outer robes, and kept on only the usual one of
crimson silk. His suite of apartments, and the
furniture which adorned them, were of the most
primitive order ; he had a little bedroom con
taining a cot, three chairs, a small table, a wooden
chest, and a brass lamp ; from the canopy of his
cot some dresses of ceremony were hanging, and a
few books lay on the chest opposite the small
window. He had one other room, not much larger
and nearly empty." The metran allowed unre
servedly the state of wretched ignorance in which
the Syrians were plunged prior to the coming of
the English missionaries ; and since then, by con-

292 THE JACOBITE PERIOD.
verse with them, he had made the discovery that
he himself had everything to learn, everything
was new to him.
So far all had gone well. All this apparatus of
reformation was benevolently provided for the
Syrians and cost them nothing. Many of the
contemplated reforms were easily carried out at
first, partly through the friendly attitude of the
metran, but largely because the British Eesident,
who wielded immense power, was strongly and
avowedly on the side of the cause of progress.
The missionaries were happy, and the work they
had undertaken seemed full of promise. To those
early days, to the greater part of the first decade,
they looked back in after years with feelings of
gratitude and joy. But this happy period was not
destined to last very long, and a second decade
saw the end of this friendly alliance. Altogether
it lasted for a period of about twenty years, and
what remains of the story will have for the most
part to trace the development of those untoward
circumstances which led to the final rupture be
tween the Syrian Church and their evangelical
friends from the West.
In the history of Indian Missions, one has always
to reckon with the climate and its deteriorating

ENGLISH MISSION TO THE SYRIANS. 293
influence on the health and vigour of European
missionaries. And by the end of the first decade
the triumvirate that saw the beginning of the
work was broken up by the enforced retirement of
Mr Fenn on the failure of his health ; and, though
vacant places thus caused may be speedily filled up,
there is a distinct loss, for a time at least, when
men have to retire with all their dear-bought expe
rience, and their places have to be filled by novices.
But, apart from the question of the continuity and
efficiency of the missionary staff,3 other conditions
developed that acted unfavourably on the plans
and prospects of the Church Mission. Some of
the Syrians on their part were apt to be critical
and suspicious. Too much, perhaps, was being
done for them without any cost of labour, self-
denial, or money ; and there are always evil-
disposed persons ready to resist a forward move
ment and to incite the halting to do the same ;
and the opportunity for an outburst of ingratitude,
discontent, and wilfulness in due time came.
The native metrans were at first distinctly
favourable to the co-operation of the missionaries.
Of such metrans there were three during the
period of the confederacy, each of whom assumed
the title of Dionysius, the name of their respective

294 THE JACOBITE PERIOD.
villages being prefixed for the sake of distinction.
They were Pulikote Dionysius, Punnatharai Dio
nysius, and Cheppat Dionysius. The first of these
is said to have been at the outset somewhat sus
picious of the intervention of English ecclesiastics,
but a little intercourse with the missionaries soon
dispelled his fears and he offered them every
encouragement. But he did not long enjoy his
episcopal dignity, having survived his consecration
only about eighteen months. His successor, Pun
natharai Dionysius, who was consecrated by the
same prelate, is described as having " a pleasing
and dignified appearance, a good address, and a
fine countenance, expressive of mildness and good
sense, yet with a meek, subdued look, which
secured sympathy." Like his predecessor, he went
heart and soul into the plans and purposes of the
missionaries ; so that the work of church reform
and church extension was going on apace, when it
was mysteriously arrested in 1825 by the sudden
death of the metran, caused by an attack of cholera.
The ceremonies connected with the death and
funeral of this prelate are interesting as illustrative
of the manners and customs of the Syrians of
Malankarai. Immediately after he expired, the bells
of Cottayam church tolled, and shouts of lamenta-

ENGLISH MISSION TO THE SYRIANS. 295
tion and wailing were heard throughout the place.
Having wiped the body with a moist cloth, the
priests dressed it in full pontificals, and placed it
in a chair. Thus seated it was removed into the
church (which belonged to the Northern party of
the Syrians), and placed at the foot of the chancel
steps with the face looking westward. During
the whole day dirges were chanted by the priests,
and at four o'clock in the afternoon they carried
the deceased metran round the church, followed
by his state and private palanquins. The body,
on being brought back into the church, was carried
to the central altar, and then raised nine times
towards the north, and three times towards the
south ; and, when it was returned to its place, men,
women, and children were allowed to come for
ward and kiss the hand of the departed bishop.
When Mar Philoxenos4 at length arrived from
Anjur, he could not suppress exclamations of grief
while he took away from his deceased brother his
wig, pastoral staff, and cross. He then seated him
self in the chancel. The body being placed in a
large wooden chair, a wooden cross was hung round
the neck, another placed in the right hand, and the
pastoral staff in the left ; in this position the body
was interred in a grave within the church, on the

296 THE JACOBITE PERIOD.
north side of the chancel, opposite that of Mar
Gabriel the Nestorian; and, after the body had
been lowered, Mar Philoxenos, supported by two
or three friends, came forward and poured a small
bottle of olive-oil on the head. For forty days
after the funeral, Masses were performed by some
of the priests. On the twentieth day after death,
a chattum or funeral feast was given, at which
deputies, lay and clerical, attended from all the
churches. Food was provided for ten thousand
persons, and it was calculated that more than six
thousand actually partook of the good things pro
vided. No meat or fish was allowed to be eaten ;
but there was rice in abundance, ghee, curds, oils,
pulse, pickled mangoes, sweetmeats and preserves,
milk, cakes, and pancakes fried in ghee and
sugar. After all the funeral ceremonies were over, steps
were taken to fill up the vacant office of metran.
That was not now so simple a matter as it had
been till recently. Within the generation which
witnessed the death of Punnatharai Dionysius, there
had been some important innovations. In the first
place, the office had ceased to be hereditary. The
Palamattam family, which had from time imme
morial furnished all the Metrans of Malankarai, had

ENGLISH MISSION TO THE SYRIANS. 297
become extinct. Since this happened, appoint
ments had been made in a manner altogether new.
The person generally supposed to be the fittest was
selected by some of the senior cattanars and tacitly
accepted. That is to say, there was no formal
popular election, no plebiscite. But as there were
in connection with such appointments certain mal
contents, who endeavoured to agitate and carry an
appeal to the Batriarch of Antioch for the exercise
of his supposed prerogative, the Eesident fell on
the expedient of causing the person, selected for
the office, to be proclaimed as metran by a royal
proclamation. The substance of such proclama
tion was to the effect that So - and - so was ap
pointed Metran of Malankarai, and that his people
were to obey him according to custom. Thus an
end was put to all disputation, but whether this
device was in the long-run for the good of the
church may admit of some question. At all events,
when a successor to Punnatharai Dionysius was
wanted, an unprecedented circumstance emerged.
There were three candidates for the office, and it
was curiously decided to make the selection by lot.
The lot fell on Philippus Malpan, who was presently
consecrated by Philoxenos of Tholiyur as Cheppat
Dionysius. It was hoped by the missionaries that

298 THE JACOBITE PERIOD.
the new metran would walk in the steps of his
predecessor. But in this they were destined to
be disappointed.
The development of his hostile policy, how
ever, was slow and cautious, and meanwhile he
had himself to pass through an experience of
sharp trial. He soon became aware that his own
mitre was not over secure on his head. Com
plaints were being quietly sent by some of the
people to the Jacobite Patriarch of Antioch re
garding ecclesiastical irregularities in Malabar, and
more especially about the insufficient ordination,
as they thought, of their metran. In response to
these communications the patriarch took a most
unwarrantable step. Without any attempt to
verify the representations that had been made to
him, he resolved to supersede the native metran,
and to replace him by a foreign ecclesiastic. Ath
anasius Metran and Abraham Episcopa were accord
ingly sent to take charge of the government of
the Syrian Church of Malankarai. At Bombay
they met with Bishop Heber, who happened to be
there on a tour of visitation. The English Bishop
was ill advised enough to honour this man Athan
asius as if he had been an angel of light. At the
communion in St Thomas's Church, he placed

ENGLISH MISSION TO THE SYRIANS. 299
Athanasius in his own chair within the altar rails,
and afterwards sent him on his way to Malabar
with a present of £30 to pay his travelling ex
penses. When he reached what he regarded as
his diocese, he showed himself to be a veritable
firebrand, and was deported along with his
attendant colleague by order of the Government
of Travancore ; and the native metran was estab
hshed on his throne by royal proclamation. So
far there was peace. But the new metran began
to show the cloven hoof. He was an exceedingly
avaricious man, ordaining mere children for the
sake of the fees. No friend to the reform which
the missionaries sought to effect, he even forbade
them the use of his churches. The missionaries
themselves had begun to fear that the relation
which they had tried to establish between the
English and Syrian Churches could not much
longer be maintained.
So matters continued in this unsatisfactory state
till the coming of Bishop Wilson, the first Metro
politan of British India, on a tour of visitation in
1835. He was enthusiastic and hopeful, and per
haps slightly domineering. At all events he held a
conference with the metran and cattanars in which
he mildly laid down the law, hoping and perhaps

300 THE JACOBITE PERIOD.
believing all the while that his counsel was being
accepted in the spirit in which it was offered. He
recommended (1) that those who should be ordained
by the metran should be so only after they had been
instructed in the college, and had obtained certifi
cates of learning and good conduct from the princi
pal, the agreement between Colonel Munro and the
then metran having apparently fallen into disuse ;
(2) that all the lands, funds, and other property
belonging to the Syrian Church should be examined,
and an account of them sent to the Eesident that
he might see that all was in order ; (3) that some
arrangement should be made to provide adequate
salaries for the Syrian clergy, so that they might
be able to abjure the custom of collecting fees for
prayers for the dead ; (4) that schools should be
multiplied so that there should be at least one
school for every church ; (5) that the Gospel should
be explained to the people on Sundays in Malay
alam ; (6) that the prayers should likewise be said
in the vernacular language ; and, at the instance
of Mr Bailey, (7) that the plan decreed by Colonel
Munro should be revived, viz., that all official
letters on church affairs and to the churches should
be signed conjointly by the metran and the senior
missionary.5 Looking back on this day's work, or

ENGLISH MISSION TO THE SYRIANS. 301
rather on this visit, the Bishop recorded in his
journal, " Never in my life, I think, was I per
mitted to render a greater service than to these
dear Syrian churches." But the worthy Bishop was
unable to penetrate below the surface of the inscru
table Syrian countenance. He did not read the
thoughts of the people. Hardly had his back been
turned when all his counsels were set at naught, and
the thousand rupees he had left as a mark of his
love to the Church were returned. So things went
from bad to worse, till at length, in 1837, the met
ran summoned a synod of his Church at which he
managed to drown the voice of the reforming party,
and carried a resolution to cut off all connection
with the Church Missionary Society, and to have
nothing more to do with its aims and objects.
A formal dissolution of partnership was thus
effected between the Syrian community and the
C. M. S. missionaries, whose verdict on the occa
sion was expressed in the words of St Baul, ' from
henceforth we will go unto the Gentiles.' " These
ancient Christians must now seek us, not we them.
We sought them for twenty years, and the separa
tion was at their instance, not ours. Our schools
and churches cannot but be open to all, and our
clergy will use their discretion as to admitting

302 THE JACOBITE PERIOD.
such as may desire it to our communion on pro
per evidences. But no attempt at anything like
proselytism must be thought of either as to clergy
or laity."6
One step more, and the severance of the ties
that had bound them together for twenty years
was complete. The metran, the missionaries, and
the Travancore Government appointed a commit
tee of arbitration to allocate the several properties
hitherto held in common. The arbitration was
completed in 1840; and it assigned certain pro
perties " to the Eeverend the Missionaries at Cot
tayam and their successors, the Secretary pro
tempore to the Corresponding Committee of the
Church Missionary Society (Madras), and the
British Eesident for the time being or such per
son as the latter may authorise to act on his be
half, to be held by them in trust for the exclusive
benefit of the Syrians ; " while it assigned certain
other properties " to the metran to be held in
joint trust by him and two others, an ecclesiastic
and a respectable layman of the Syrian persuasion,
to be selected by that community itself, for the
exclusive benefit of the Syrians."
The Syrian Church was thus much richer after
the separation than before the alliance ; but un-

ENGLISH MISSION TO THE SYRIANS. 303
happily this property, which was intended to be
a means of helping the ancient Church forward
on evangelical lines, has now become an apple of
discord between different parties of Syrians ; and,
so far as one can judge from present appearances,
it will likely be used in the future to maintain
the influence of the reactionary party, and thus
to retard the very cause it was intended to pro
mote. Such is the Nemesis of kindness unregu
lated by self-restraining discretion.

304

CHABTEE XIX.
MAR ATHANASIUS MATTHEW.
The first native of Malabar that ever received con
secration as Metran of Malankarai directly at the
hands of the Jacobite Patriarch of Antioch was
Mar Athanasius Matthew. This Matthew was a
student in the old Syrian college at Cottayam, when
it was under the charge of the Church Missionary
Society, and was one of the deacons selected in
1837, as its most prominent students, to be further
trained in the Church Missionary Society's institu-
i tion at Madras. After some, years' study there he
I was dismissed as unfit for the ministry. Then he
/ proceeded to Mardin in Armenia to visit the patri
arch, as well as the churches and convents in that
region. He was graciously received by his Holi
ness, who entertained him under his own roof for
seven months.1 It so happened that, at the time of

MAR ATHANASIUS MATTHEW. 305
Matthew's arrival, the mind of the patriarch was
perplexed in regard to the state of things in Mal
ankarai by some doleful and perhaps not altogether
unprejudiced accounts that he had just received from
that diocese. It appears that between 1825 and
1842 the Syrian community, or rather the Adul-
lamite section thereof, had addressed the patriarch
eleven times, soliciting that a metropolitan should
be sent there, and stating that they were as sheep
having no shepherd ; that the Syrian Church in
Malabar was in a state of widowhood ; that, being
without a duly constituted metropolitan and priests,
they were deprived of the benefit of baptism, abso
lution, mass, and other sacred rites ; that they had
no morone (holy oils) ; that a priest ordained a
priest and a priest consecrated a metran ; that the
patriarch should prohibit the priest, Mar Cheppat
Dionysius, who wore the sacerdotal habit of metro
politan, from wantonly transgressing the canons of
the Church ; and that a metropolitan should be
sent, reputed for piety, wisdom, and discretion,
provided with the necessary holy oil and religious
books. Accordingly, in the staticon or commission
given to Matthew, the patriarch says : " While
we were labouring with all these thoughts, as to
who should be sent to Malayalam, there came our
u

306 THE JACOBITE PERIOD.
dear son Matthai from you in peace. On seeing
him we were much pleased with him, and said that,
as one had come from among them, it is best above
all that he should be the father and ruler of them.
So first we ordained him as deacon, thereafter as
cattanar, subsequently as ramban or archdeacon,
and afterwards as metropolitan."
This was in 1842. In the following year Mar
Athanasius arrived in Malabar to take possession
of his see. But then his difficulties began. There
was already a metran in possession. Mar Cheppat
Dionysius, holding as he did a royal proclamation
which recognised him as the regular accredited
bishop of the Syrians, declined to vacate his see
in favour of the new claimant. In these circum
stances Mar Athanasius made appeal in a series
of letters, year after year, to the British Political
Eesident at the court of Travancore. His plea was
that he had been properly ordained by the patri
arch, and that the Syrian community were longing
to see him invested with the tokens of his rightful
authority over them, whereas Mar Cheppat Diony
sius had never been properly ordained, having re
ceived consecration neither from the hands of the
patriarch direct nor by delegation from that dig
nitary, and that he had not a majority of the

MAR ATHANASIUS MATTHEW. 307
Syrians in his favour. The Eesident, however,
seems to have turned a deaf ear to all his pleadings.
Meanwhile Mar Cheppat Dionysius and his cat
tanars were by no means idle. They were busily
engaged in sending to Mardin representations of
the life and doctrine of Mar Athanasius Matthew
very damaging to him ; so that the mind of the
remote patriarch was as much perplexed as ever.
He therefore sent Mar Koorilos (Cyril) to make
inquiries on the spot. It appears that Koorilos
was intrusted by the patriarch with blank papers,
signed and sealed by him, for such use as he
(Koorilos) might have occasion, such for instance
as to issue an interdict if he found Mar Athanasius
guilty of heretical practices and to grant a staticon
to one who should take his place. Armed with
these instruments Mar Koorilos arrived in Malabar,
and, after an interview with Mar Cheppat Diony
sius, declared himself metropolitan of Malankarai
duly consecrated and appointed by the patriarch,
to supersede Mar Athanasius, showing as his cre
dentials a staticon in his own favour which he
had forged on the blank papers intrusted to him.
There is no doubt that Mar Cheppat Dionysius
lent himself to this most daring and sacrilegious
act, to defeat the aspirations of his opponent. At

308 THE JACOBITE PERIOD.
all events he made over the charge of his office to
Mar Koorilos and gave intimation of that fact to
the British Eesident.
It became necessary therefore for the Sirkar to
take some action, and accordingly a committee
was appointed to inquire and report. The circum
stances under which the committee was appointed
are interesting. " A proclamation having been
issued by the Acting Dewan of Travancore in
January 1848 to the effect that, whereas both Mar
Athanasius and Mar Koorilos, who arrived in this
country in the years 1843 and 1846 respectively,
have produced to the British Eesident credentials
from the Patriarch of Antioch, appointing them
severally metropolitans of the Syrian Church in
Malabar, and that, whereas one party of the Syrian
community desire to receive Mar Koorilos as their
metropolitan, alleging that the documents pro
duced by Mar Athanasius are not genuine, and
the other party desire to receive Mar Athanasius
as their metropolitan, alleging that the documents
produced by Mar Koorilos are not genuine : the
Sirkar, before recognising either of the two
persons above mentioned as the Syrian metro
politan, deem it necessary that inquiry should be
made into the dispute between the two parties ;

MAR ATHANASIUS MATTHEW. 309
and with that view have appointed, with the
concurrence of the British Eesident, four Sirkar
officers to form a committee for the purpose of
instituting such inquiry, and that Mar Athanasius
and Mar Koorilos together with two cattanars and
four principal parishioners of each of the Syrian
Churches are required to attend at Quilon (on a
given date) to answer such questions as may be
put to them by the said committee."
The finding of this committee was that the
documents submitted by Mar Koorilos were for
geries ; that he had lent himself to acts which no
man of principle would be guilty of, thereby com
promising his character and the dignity assumed
by him ; that the charges which were made the
grounds for the alleged supersession of Mar
Athanasius were entirely unfounded ; that, in
dependently of the staticon possessed by Mar
Athanasius being unquestionable, his selection as
a native of the country being in strict accordance
with former precedents, it was but just and reason
able that he should be recognised and proclaimed
by the Sirkar as metropolitan of the Syrian
Church. Thus the pretensions of Mar Koorilos were
finally disposed of; Mar Dionysius resigned his

310 THE JACOBITE PERIOD.
dignity on account of old age ; Mar Athanasius
was by royal proclamation declared metropolitan,
he having brought a letter from the Batriarch of
Antioch for that dignity; and all comprising the
Puthencoor Syrians in the diocese were enjoined
to acknowledge him as such, and to " conduct
themselves in conformity with past customs."
This happened in 1852, so that, after ten years
of painful waiting and struggling, Mar Athanasius
attained the summit of his ambition.
During the sittings of the Quilon committee,
however, and before the royal proclamation of
1852, fresh trouble arose. A letter from the
Jacobite Patriarch of Antioch, addressed to Mar
Cheppat Dionysius and based on representations
made by Mar Koorilos and others, intimated that
he had sent Mar Athanasius Stephanos Episcopa,
and with him Eamban Simon. " Therefore let
them rule with you and with Mar Koorilos, our
spiritual son," wrote his Holiness, adding that he
had sent with these officers service books to be
copied and placed in the churches, and holy
morone, and that he had further instructed them
to collect the Rasisa, an ecclesiastical tax " due to
the chief Preceptor of the Apostolic See."
Stephanos, having duly reported his arrival in

MAR ATHANASIUS MATTHEW. 311
Malabar to the British Eesident, was informed by
that officer that it appeared to him that the patri
arch in sending Stephanos must have been acting
on most incorrect information ; that neither the
money intended for the Syrian College at Cotta
yam nor any funds derived from the Syrian com
munity were at the disposal of the patriarch ; that
the College funds were controlled exclusively by
the local authorities in Travancore and no foreign
prelate could have any right to meddle with them.
Besides, to carry out the patriarch's wishes would
be in direct violation of the order of the Madras
Government, to which he would refer. What
action, if any, the Madras Government took is not
known. However, Stephanos was not to be put
down. He entered the Syrian churches and
preached, whereupon a quarrel arose, and the
Dewan interfered to quiet the disturbance. A
further appeal to the Eesident being of no avail,
Stephanos addressed the Honourable Court of
Directors in London, who sent a despatch in which
they repeat that their policy of "absolute non
interference with religious matters must be adhered
to." Such matters, they add, are to be determined
by the Syrian Church alone, " and it is for them to
recognise or not the pretensions of any ecclesiastic

312 THE JACOBITE PERIOD.
who may be hereafter sent into the country by the
Patriarch of Antioch." This despatch was dated
13th May 1857, after which Mar Athanasius
Matthew seems to have been allowed to reign in
peace for the next eight or nine years.
But in 1865 another native of Malabar, said to
be "connected with the Palamattam family by
relationship," and henceforth known as Mar Dio
nysius Joseph, went to the Jacobite Patriarch of
Antioch at Mardin and got himself consecrated and
appointed as Metran of Malankarai. The patriarch
appointed him metropolitan because complaint of
heresy and objectionable practices had been re
ceived, though as usual not verified, against Mar
Athanasius Matthew. In the following year Mar
Dionysius Joseph returned to his native land, where
he hoped to be in due course established on the
episcopal throne. With a view to attain this de
sirable end he addressed the Dewan of Travancore
on the. subject of his appointment to the metran-
ship and of Mar Athanasius 's deposition, and prayed
for recognition by the Sirkar and the granting of
facilities for his installation. But he received no
redress. The Sirkar's principles were those of
perfect neutrality in religious matters. To this
official declaration the Dewan (4th July 1866)

MAILAPORE CATHEDRAL.
Chapel under Dome at east end said to contain Grave and Relics of St Thomas.

MAR ATHANASIUS MATTHEW. 313
added his advice that " the only satisfactory course
for the dissentient parties to pursue would be to
effect a compromise, and, failing that, to go to law.
If the case of one Church were taken to court and
there decided, the principle involved would be
settled and would apply to all similar cases."
Such a man as Mar Athanasius Matthew could
not be supposed, however, to watch the tactics of
his rival, and to sit still with folded hands. He
determined to checkmate Mar Dionysius Joseph,
if he could, and so in 1868 he consecrated his
cousin Thomas as his successor. On that occa
sion he invited his neighbour, Mar Koorilos of
Tholiyur, to unite with him in the act of ordina
tion ; and thousands of his own people were pres
ent from all parts of the diocese to witness the
interesting spectacle and to show by their presence
how thoroughly they approved of their metran's
act for securing the succession in accordance with
the ' use and wont ' obtaining in Malankarai. Mar
Athanasius Matthew also took the precaution to
make a will, so that in the event of his death his
cousin Thomas might quietly enter on the duties
of the offices of metran and joint manager of the
property held in trust for the benefit of the Syrian
community.

314 THE JACOBITE PERIOD.
In 1869 Mar Dionysius Joseph addressed a
memorial to the Government of Madras complain
ing of his anomalous position and begging redress.
But his Excellency in Council did not see his way
to interfere with the possession of the Syrian
churches then avowedly in the hands of Athana
sius, and referred the petitioner to the advice
given by the Dewan of Travancore, already quoted.
At the same time the Government of Madras
ordered that the moneys lying in the Besident's
treasury to the credit of the Syrian Church, includ
ing thirty years' accumulations of interest since the
date of the arbitration, should be paid over to Mar
Athanasius. But the mind of the resourceful rival was still
restless. In 1874, as a last resort, he made his
appeal to the Batriarch at Mardin ; and that digni
tary warmly espoused the cause which was identi
fied with that of his own supremacy in Malabar.
He determined to leave no stone unturned till he
should see his authority fully established (we can
not say re-established) in Malankarai. With this
view he undertook, what must have been to him a
novel task, a journey to London by way of Con
stantinople, his object being to associate with him
self at the latter place the Jacobite Metropolitan of

MAR ATHANASIUS MATTHEW. 315
Jerusalem. In London he had interviews with all
from whom he expected help. In certain circles
he was feted, and some may remember him during
the season of '74 as he moved about, the guest of
appreciative hostesses at garden-parties and even
ing gatherings, always noticeable by his dignified
demeanour and picturesque dress. But on the
whole his visit was disappointing. The Arch
bishop of Canterbury met him at his residence in
Addington Park, near Croydon, and, after a short
service in the private chapel, read to him a letter,
being a reply to the patriarch's, which he after
wards handed over to his Holiness. The Arch
bishop's attitude on the question was perfectly
distinct. He had been in communication with the
Bishops of Calcutta and Madras on the subject,
and he had come to the conclusion that Mar
Athanasius, and not Mar Dionysius, ought to be
supported as Metran of Malabar ; and that the
cause of true religion would be safer in the hands
of Athanasius, who, he was assured, had the con
fidence of the great majority of the native Church,
and who represented the principle of that Church's
independence and its desire for reform. His Grace
suggested, for the consideration of his Holiness the
Patriarch, the question whether it was desirable to

316 THE JACOBITE PERIOD.
endeavour to maintain over the Syrian Christians
of Malabar a control which could only be nominal
over so distant a Church, with which communica
tion must be difficult, and the members of which
seemed entitled to independence in the selection
of their own bishops. The Archbishop further
showed the relation in which colonial Churches
stood to the mother Church of England, and con
cluded by seriously recommending " some similar
readjustment of the relations at present existing
between your Holiness' see and the Christians of
Malabar."2 The English visit having resulted in practical
failure, his Holiness of Mardin next turned his
steps towards Southern India, where he hoped in
some degree to overawe Mar Athanasius Matthew
by his presence ; and, at all events, to obtain an
interview with the authorities in Travancore and
with representatives of the Government of Madras.
He arrived in Travancore at the beginning of
1875 and exerted himself in the interests of his
Church as much as possible. His success was
considerable. He accomplished three things all
of which tended powerfully towards the establish
ment of his ecclesiastical supremacy in Travancore.
The first of these achievements was a change in

MAR ATHANASIUS MATTHEW. 317
the attitude of the Sirkar towards the appointment
of metrans of Malankarai. This was brought into
practical effect by the withdrawal of the royal
proclamation made in 1852 in favour of Mar
Athanasius Matthew. That proclamation had been
interpreted as securing the metran's position
against litigation ; but now, on the 4th of March
1876, a new royal deeree was issued proclaiming
that, "whereas representations have been made
that the Patriarch of Antioch or his predecessor
claims to have deposed the said Mar Athanasius
and to have appointed another metran, this is to
inform all whom it may concern that the former
proclamation is not to be considered as in any
way precluding the courts of law from deciding
on the rights to churches or church property or
the power of appointing or removing officers con
nected with the Church." "The action of his
Highness the Maharajah's Government," it went
on to say, " will be confined to the maintenance of
peace and good order, and any apparent connection
with appointments relating to the Syrian Church,
which proclamations issued under times and cir
cumstances now altered may seem to indicate, will
henceforth be avoided." This action on the part
of the Sirkar did not immediately affect the state

318 THE JACOBITE PERIOD.
of affairs in the Church, but the patriarch promptly
followed up his first success.
Accordingly, the second great achievement of
his Holiness during his sojourn in Travancore was
to convene a meeting which was dignified with
the name of a synod, but which was really of the
nature of a caucus. It was held at Mulanthuruthu
in June 1876, when, to the- discomfort of all con
cerned, the south-west monsoon was at its height.
It was moved that his Holiness, Maran Mar Igna
tius, Peter III., Patriarch, the chief authority on
the Apostolic Throne of Antioch and the Holy
Father of the Jacobite Syrians of Malankarai,
should be requested to preside over the delibera
tions of the assembly, which he was pleased to do.
In his opening speech he intended possibly to give
a veracious account of the situation, but in this
respect at least he was not successful, and it is
difficult to acquit him of the charge of deliberate
prevarication. He not only thought it consistent
with his dignity to brand Mar Athanasius Matthew
with the title of Beliar (Belial), but also to repre
sent the Sirkar as saying in its recent proclamation,
" since the patriarch has dismissed him (Athana
sius), we also dismiss him from the Church." By
this wickedly false rendering of the royal pro-

MAR ATHANASIUS MATTHEW. 319
clamation, coming from the lips of such a high
dignitary, the simple folks who heard him must
have been grossly misled.
Without attempting to give anything like an
exhaustive account of the proceedings at Mulan
thuruthu, I shall content myself with the following
precis of the resolutions, which may be accepted as
fairly indicative of the nature of the caucus. It
was resolved (1) that the people of each respective
parish should execute and register a deed of cove
nant binding themselves to be subject to, and never
to transgress the mandates of, the see' of Antioch ;
(2) that lists should be made of the families in each
congregation and that of their Karanavar (elders),
that a book of canons should be printed and a copy
placed in each church, and that a register of bap
tisms, marriages, and burials should be kept in all
parishes ; (3) that an association of the whole race
should be formed and called the Syrian Christian
Association, of which the present Holy Father and
his successors should be patrons, and the ruling
metran, the president; (4) that whereas it would
be difficult for all of them (i.e., the whole race of
the Syrians) jointly to carry on the affairs, a chief
committee composed of eight priests and sixteen
laymen, with the ruling metran for president,

320 THE JACOBITE PERIOD.
should be formed, with a paid secretary and a
cash-keeper ; that they should be " made respon
sible as managers and responsibility - bearers to
manage and control all the religious and social
concerns of the whole of the people in general ; "
and that, in particular, they should be responsible
for the collecting and remitting Rasisa to his Holi
ness the Batriarch, and for collecting the moneys
due to the ruling metran by the churches ; and (5)
that, as it would be difficult for all of them (i.e.,
the chief committee of twenty-four) jointly to con
duct and carry on all the litigations arising gener
ally as to religious or social matters, the president,
Mar Dionysius Joseph, metropolitan, should be
the person who should have power to carry on all
such and to collect the moneys necessary for the
purpose, and that the members of the committee
should be auxiliaries to him therein.
Such is the gist of the proceedings of the meeting
at Mulanthuruthu as reported by those who took
part in it. Some further questions may fall to be
discussed in the next chapter concerning this caucus.
But it would appear that the practical outcome of
these proceedings was to invest Mar Dionysius
Joseph with a sort of power of attorney to act on
behalf of the Syrians who agreed with him, in the

MAR ATHANASIUS MATTHEW. 321
matter of the approaching litigation, which now
seemed imminent.
The third strategic move made by the patriarch
during his Holiness' sojourn in Travancore, was to
divide the province of Malankarai into seven dio
ceses,3 that number having been fixed on probably
from the consideration that St Thomas was believed
to have planted seven churches in Malabar ; and,
having assigned to Mar Dionysius Joseph, who had
been consecrated in 1865, the charge of the church of
St Thomas at Quilon and the surrounding churches,
he proceeded to consecrate six more metropolitans,
as they are called in their staticons, and to assign to
each of them a see. From the documents it would
seem that the seven metropolitans were intended
to be of co-ordinate rank and all directly respon
sible to the patriarch ; yet the seniority of Mar
Dionysius Joseph would naturally secure for him
a precedence over the other six and make him at
least primus inter pares. And it is probable that
the patriarch intended this. At all events, the other
six metropolitans recognise Dionysius as such, and
testify that to him belongs not only the charge of
the diocese of Quilon, but also " what is comprised
in the Cottayam seminary and all general matters
in the whole of Malayalam." x

322 THE JACOBITE PERIOD.
There is one curious circumstance connected with
the consecration and appointment of these six
metropolitans. In the staticon given to one of
them (and it is the same for all), there ' occurs this
remarkable sentence : " Should he show defiance,
and infringe the canons of the fathers and the true
faith, he would not only render himself, in terms
of the written deed of consent passed by him at
his consecration, excommunicated and accursed ;
but he would also be tried in terms of the temporal
registered deed he has passed, and would be de
clared to have forfeited his dignity." And corre
spondingly in the said ' temporal registered deed '
the following occurs : "It is competent for your
Holiness to dismiss me from all churches, and to
publish that I am a liar so that I may not be be
lieved anywhere, if I should violate in any way
this agreement executed by me of my own free
will and consent. . . . When such is done by
your Holiness or your Holiness' successors, I bind
myself to pay two thousand eight hundred and
fifty (2850) British rupees to your Holiness or
successors." This appointment of additional metropolitans
was intended to be a " counterforce against the
(hitherto) absolute authority of the prelates of

MAR ATHANASIUS MATTHEW. 323
•
Malayalam," and it would largely tend to give
roots to the patriarch's authority in the province.
What view Mar Dionysius Joseph may have
privately taken of this arrangement is not re
corded. It must have greatly altered his prospect
of being the sole Jacobite metran in Malankarai,
but it is possible he may not have objected to this.
His patriarch's will in the matter may have been
his pleasure. But, if Mar Dionysius Joseph did
not suffer from the pangs of wounded ambition,
he must have groaned under the heavy bills of
costs he had to pay. Being mainly responsible
for having sent the patriarch to England to inter
view the authorities there on the subject of his
grievances, and for having brought that dignitary
to India, he was held responsible both for the
heavy travelling expenses of his Holiness with a
retinue suitable to his position, and for the legal
expenses incurred during his temporary stay in
Travancore. On this phase of the subject a curious
side-light may be allowed to fall. We are told by
one of the missionaries of the Church Missionary
Society,4 who was in Malankarai at the time, that
the patriarch's " conduct was so violent and his
greed of gain so insatiable, that even Mar Diony
sius, who had invited him into the country, was at

324 THE JACOBITE PERIOD.
length unable to work with him, and there was a
rupture between them ; " and the same authority
adds, by way of illustrating the above character
isation, that at the Church of Barur the patriarch
opened the grave of an eminent Church dignitary
in the hope of finding treasure.
At length, however, towards the end of 1876,
after a sojourn of about two years in Travancore,
his Holiness returned to Mardin.
In July 1877, Mar Athanasius Matthew passed
|away. His death, heralded by violence, and dis
order 5 in his diocese, was due to blood-poisoning,
caused by the bite of a rat. For a quarter of a
century he had occupied the episcopal throne of
Malankarai ; and, more than any of his predecessors,
had attempted to reform his Church. The sym
pathies of his manhood were those he imbibed in
the course of his early training. During his regime,
" every encouragement was given to the reading
of the Scriptures, translated by the missionaries ;
prayers in the church were conducted in many
instances in the vernacular ; invocation of saints
and worship of relics with other superstitious
practices, introduced into the Syrian worship by
the Boman Catholics, were excluded ; Sunday
schools, Bible-readings, preaching, and other active

MAR ATHANASIUS MATTHEW. 325
efforts to spread the truth were fostered and en
couraged," 6 and all the ordinary apparatus of evan
gelical work was used for promoting the good of
the Syrian Church. Among his last instructions
he gave orders that, though it was customary for
the Syrians to bury their metrans in a sitting
posture, robed as on state occasions, within the
chancel of the church, this ceremony should be
dispensed with in his case as tending to supersti
tion. He ordered a coffin to be prepared some
days before his death, and expressed his desire to
be interred in the open graveyard of the Mara-
mena Church, beside the grave of his uncle, a once
famous malpan of that Church, and the father of
reformation amongst the Syrians.
It is not easy, however, to make an analysis of
the character of Athanasius altogether creditable to
him. He was undoubtedly a man of ability, who
managed to attain to the highest position in his
Church and to hold his own to the last against
considerable opposition. The phase of his char
acter which may be most easily assailed is the
palpable inconsistency of his maintaining — pre
vious to 1852, when a royal proclamation was
issued in his favour — that he held his office in
virtue of his consecration by the Batriarch of

326 THE JACOBITE PERIOD.
Antioch, and that the Patriarch of Antioch was
supreme in matters spiritual in Malabar ; while at
a later stage, when the patriarch, for reasons satis
factory to himself, wished to depose Athanasius,
the latter denied his authority and held his ground
in spite of his Holiness of Mardin. His action in
this matter has been severely criticised by the
judges in the courts of Travancore, and there is
no doubt that he laid himself open to the charge
of double-dealing. On the other hand, it is at
least possible that the Bishop's change of opinion
may have been an honest change. The mission
aries of the Church Missionary Society, who had
ample means of watching him, seem to have be
lieved in him to the last. Moreover, he received
the approbation of the English Bishops of Madras
and Calcutta, and, finally, of the Archbishop of
Canterbury. The death of Mar Athanasius Matthew opened
the way for fresh action on the part of his rival.
In 1878 another caucus, on the same lines as the
meeting at Mulanthuruthu, was summoned to meet,
under the presidency of Mar Dionysius Joseph, at
Parumalai, at which the preparations for litigation
were completed.

327

CHAPTEE XX.
TEN YEARS OF LITIGATION.
A case of disputed succession in the bishopric of
a Christian Church running the gauntlet of a series
of law courts1 in which most of the judges were
non-Christians, is a phenomenon of considerable
historical as well as legal interest. The leading
parties in the case were Mar Dionysius Joseph,
plaintiff, and Mar Athanasius Thomas, defendant.
On the death of Mar Athanasius Matthew, the
latter had quietly entered on the office of metran,
discharging all the duties thereof, and managing,
along with two others, the trust-property for the
benefit of the Syrian community. To oust Mar
Athanasius Thomas from the position which he
had thus acquired, and to secure the recognition
of his own episcopal dignity and the management
of the trust-property were the objects which Mar

328 THE JACOBITE PERIOD.
Dionysius Joseph had in view. His plea was that
he had been duly consecrated Metran of Malan
karai by the Jacobite Patriarch of Antioch in
1865 ; that he had been appointed president of
the Syrian Association Committee ; that he had
been accepted by the Syrian community ; and
that, although during the lifetime of Mar Athana
sius Matthew he had been unable so assert his
rights and enter on his office, he was entitled at
least on the death of that prelate to have his
position recognised and to receive facilities for
accession to office. The contention on behalf of
Mar Athanasius Thomas was that he had been, in
accordance with use and wont, consecrated by his
cousin in 1868 with the approbation of the Syrian
community; that, when his cousin died in 1877,
he had, in accordance with the terms of his will,
entered on the management of the trust-property ;
and that he had discharged the duties of the office
of metran for nearly two years before the institu
tion of this suit. Judgment in each court was
given in favour of the plaintiff, with this modifica
tion, however, that, in the Court of Final Appeal,
the English judge dissented from the finding of
the two Hindu judges, and decided in favour of
the defendant.2

TEN YEARS OF LITIGATION. 329
In the course of these ten years, many strange
things came about. One of the most interesting,
though most irrelevant items in the proceed
ings, was a series of issues involving questions
of heresy. Though there was no reference to
heresy in the plaint, though no supplementary
plaint was put in, and though no motion was
made to amend the plaint, still some crude issues
on the subject were irregularly imported into
the record. The only judge that thought them
worthy of discussion on the merits was Mr Justice
Arianayagom Pillay. He discussed them with
that amount of learning which Pope dubbed a
dangerous thing, and with that sort of zeal which
St Paul attributed to many of his kindred. He
found it proved that invocation of saints, adoration
of the Virgin, and prayers for the dead, had been
deliberately omitted by the late Mar Athanasius
Matthew from certain service-books of the Syrian
Church, and that those omissions were approved
of by the defendant. But he did not inquire how
the said doctrines had got into the Syrian service-
books, or whether there existed any standard of
Syrian doctrine similar to the Thirty-nine Articles,
or the Westminster Confession of Faith, by which
to test whether the said omissions were or were

330 THE JACOBITE PERIOD.
not a return to ancient Syrian orthodoxy. He
was probably not aware that the doctrines in
question were all foisted on the Syrians by their
Boman Catholic oppressors at the Synod of Di
amper in 1599 ; he would probably have refused
to admit that the Syrians acquired the right to
eliminate all Boman elements from their creed
when they threw off the Boman yoke at the
Coonen Cross in 1653 ; and he would probably
have denied that the Syrian Church, which was
no more beholden to the Patriarch of Antioch for
a system of doctrine than to the Archbishop of
Canterbury, had the right to make from time to
time in a regular manner such changes in its creed
as its own wisdom might dictate, irrespective of
foreign intervention. He therefore concluded that
a person with the defendant's views could not
only not be a bishop, but he could not even be a
member of the Syrian Church. It followed of
course that the defendant and his adherents were
not Syrians at all, and so were disqualified for
making any claim to the plaint property. This
decision, or rather fragment of a decision, was,
however, unanimously set at naught by the Eoyal
Court, and the issues on Articles of Faith rejected
as irrelevant. But Mr Justice Arianayagom Pil-

TEN YEARS OF LITIGATION. 331
lay's eloquence probably prejudiced the defendant
in the same way as a dog's interests are damaged
when one gives him a bad name.
But the great issue in the case was whether the
plaintiff was the lawfully appointed metropolitan
of Malankarai, and whether he was as such entitled
to recover possession of the properties specified in
the plaint.3 Both parties agreed in their respec
tive pleadings that to constitute a duly appointed
metropolitan of the Syrian Church two conditions
must be fulfilled, namely, (1) proper consecration,
and (2) acceptance or acknowledgment by the
people. I.
With reference to the requisite consecration,
both parties agreed that it must be performed
by a bishop belonging to a Church holding the
apostolic succession, by imposition of hands.
But plaintiff-respondent affirmed and defendant-
appellant denied that such consecration must be
either by the Jacobite Patriarch of Antioch or by
some bishop duly authorised by that patriarch to
make the consecration. No issue could be more
distinct, but the disposal of it involves a some
what elaborate investigation; for no authoritative

332 THE JACOBITE PERIOD.
canons of the Church or books of procedure were
produced by either side to show what was the state
of the law within the Syrian Church, the fact being
that the Syrians of Malankarai never possessed any
code of laws, or, if they did, the code must have
been lost.4 The only course remaining therefore
was to find out the Syrian ' use and wont ' in
affairs ecclesiastical by referring to such works on
the history of the Syrian Church as were available,
and by calling such witnesses as could speak to the
past practice of the Church. In both these lines of
research the courts were particularly unfortunate.
The quasi-historical works that were filed are most
unsatisfactory productions, three-fourths of them,
moreover, having been written after the controversy
that led to this litigation was begun 5 ; and most
of the witnesses6 were either so ignorant or so
prejudiced that their testimony was worthless.
Both parties strongly, though of course errone
ously, maintained that the Church of Malabar was
founded by St Thomas, the apostle, in the first
Christian century, so that it was at the first an
independent local Church. But how long it re
mained independent of foreign control, neither
party could make out exactly to its own satisfac
tion. The Chief Justice and Mr Justice Sitarama

TEN YEARS OF LITIGATION. 333
Iyer, the two Hindu judges in the Eoyal Court,
seem to think there is reason to believe that, from
a very early date indeed, the Indian Syrian Church
became subject to the Church of Antioch, and that
this relation to Antioch was quite firmly established
by the date of the first General Council at Nicaea
(325). These two judges describe the Council in
a manner which must be pronounced at least un
common. With the help of Ittoop, they find that
" the Council of Nicaea, among other matters relat
ing to the revival and establishment of Christianity,
revision of the Scriptures, and framing a code of
faith and rituals, settled the jurisdiction of the
several ecclesiastical heads who were charged with
the due carrying out of the acts of the Council."
In other words, the Batriarchs of Bome, Constantin
ople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem (such is the
order in the text of the judgment) were appointed,
the fifth or last of these being subordinate to An
tioch. After this, one would be prepared for a good
deal. But it is really too much to be asked to
believe that the following is one of the decrees or
acts of the Council : "It was also laid down, that
the Catholica appointed at Tigris (Baghdad) to
manage the affairs of the Eastern Churches subject
to Antioch was common and could exercise all the

334 THE JACOBITE PERIOD.
functions of patriarchs." Whether this is a correct
quotation from any collection of the acts of the
fathers of Nicaea, is extremely doubtful 7 ; but,
waiving that point and assuming the substantial
correctness of the alleged quotation, two or three
remarks are demanded.
In the first place, the two Hindu judges, who
accept this fragment from Ittoop, do not seem
to be aware that the sentence, which after their
example I have printed in italics, belongs to a
set of forged decrees of Nicaea. In collections con
taining both the genuine and the spurious decrees
of the first Christian Council, this particular decree
appears sometimes as thirty-third and sometimes
as thirty-eighth ; but it is well known that there
are only twenty genuine decrees,8 and that the
remainder, seventy or eighty in number, were col
lected from the Synods of the Greek Church ;
though, judging from the equal reverence with
which the whole code is received by all the Eastern
communions, it was probably finished before the
schism of the Nestorians and Monophysites. Fur
ther, the title of ' patriarch ' was not admitted into
regular ecclesiastical usage at the date of the Coun
cil of Nicaea, or for more than a hundred years after
wards ; and, as for the insertion of ' Baghdad,'

TEN YEARS OF LITIGATION. 335
which we probably owe to the ingenuity of Ittoop,
the city did not exist till about four centuries after
the Council.
In the second place, though it is true that
John, who appended his signature to the acts of
the Council of Nicaea, and described himself as
bishop (or metropolitan) of Persia and Great India,
was at that time subject to the Archbishop or
Catholicos of Seleucia {not Baghdad), the latter
being himself subject to the Patriarch of Antioch ;
and, though it is clear that the Indian Christians
under John were a fortiori under the Patriarch of
Antioch, yet it is not perceived by the two learned
Hindu judges that the Indian Christians subject to
the jurisdiction of Antioch in 325 a.d. were living
under Sassanian government, and that their India
was, not Malabar, but India, west of the Indus.
The Church of Malabar did not then exist.
In the third place, although the Catholicos of
Seleucia was, at the date of the spurious Nicene
decrees, subject to the Patriarch of Antioch, he
did not always remain so. Before the end of the
fifth century (498), the churches under the Catho
licos, having by that time become Nestorian, met
in Synod at Seleucia, and proclaimed themselves
independent of Antioch, and gave to their chief

336 THE JACOBITE PERIOD.
the splendid title of the Patriarch of Babylon.
This happened before the Church of Malabar came
into existence ; and the Church of Malabar was
founded by the Patriarch of Babylon, who was
Nestorian in doctrine and independent of the see
of Antioch.
It has pleased the two Hindu judges in the
Eoyal Court of Travancore to ignore altogether
the relations subsisting between the patriarchate
of Antioch and that of Babylon ; and they never
realised that the latter is, or rather was, the true
mother Church of Malankarai. It is almost need
less, therefore, to follow the reasonings of these
two judicial authorities any further about the ex
ternal or foreign relations of the see of Malankarai
during the middle ages. Yet one or two remarks
may not be altogether superfluous. In the first
place, they represent that Thomas of Cana " made
the power of the Batriarch of Antioch supreme in
Malankarai about twenty years after the Council
of Nicaea," although as matter of fact there was at
the date in question no Church in Malabar at all.
Thomas of Cana came at a much later date, and
was probably a Nestorian and had nothing what
ever to do with the Patriarch of Antioch. But
however this may be, the whole story of Thomas

TEN YEARS OF LITIGATION. 337
of Cana " is far too shadowy and unsubstantial to
be made the foundation of a legal judgment." In
the second place, these two judges ignore the in
valuable evidence of Cosmas, whose testimony is
the first piece of historical illumination that helps
to break up the darkness in which the origin of the
Syrian Church of Malabar is otherwise involved ;
and who, himself a Nestorian, was on friendly
terms with the metropolitan of Bersia, and was
able . to define to the world the exact relation
ship of the see of Malankarai to the patriarchate
of Babylon. Nothing can be more unsatisfactory
than the flagrant misreading of the history by
these Hindu judges, who refuse to see the his
torical bond that connected the Church of Malan
karai with the Babylonian patriarchate. True, we
have not many references to the Syrian Church of
Malabar in the literature or among the monuments
of the middle ages, but every authentic reference
goes to connect it with the Church of Bersia, which
was Nestorian and subject to the Patriarch of Baby
lon — every authentic reference from Cosmas of the
sixth century to Vasco da Gama, the Indicopleustes
of the sixteenth.
Mr Justice Ormsby by consulting, in accordance
with the Evidence Act, works of general interest
Y

338 THE JACOBITE PERIOD.
on the subject, not produced in the atmosphere
that engendered the particular controversy on
which he was called to adjudicate, protected him
self from the delusions which darkened the minds
of his two Hindu colleagues. He declined to have
his hands tied by the cords woven by Ittoop and
his congeners ; and so with a free hand he cut his
way clean through the meshes in which the facts
had been entangled. He saw, what every one who
keeps his eyes open to all the facts of the case
j must see, that there have been three distinct peri-
I ods in the history of the Syrian Church, namely,
) the Nestorian period, from c. 500 to 1599 ; the
I Eoman period, from 1599 to 1653; and, after
i twelve years' interregnum of exemption from for-
[ eign interference, the Jacobite period, from 1665
to the present day.
Now we have already seen that it was only from
the second half of the seventeenth century that
the Church of Malankarai began to have any,
even a nominal, connection with the Jacobites.
We have seen moreover that, during the first
two hundred years of this connection, only one
metran was consecrated by the patriarch's own
hands, and that this did not take place until the
last decade of the said period of two centuries ;

TEN YEARS OF LITIGATION. 339
while, in the course of the other nineteen decades
only one metran, who had first been consecrated
by his predecessor, received reconsecration at the
hands of a foreign bishop believed to have been
delegated by the Jacobite Patriarch of Antioch.
It cannot be maintained surely in the face of these
facts that anything more than the barest and most
nominal connection had been established between
Malankarai and Mardin until the present genera
tion. During those two hundred years the bishops
of Malabar were as a rule consecrated each by his
predecessor, those consecrated by foreign bishops,
professing to be delegates from the patriarch, being
few in number and entirely exceptional.
It seems clear that the precedents of two centuries
of bishop-making should be sufficient to attest the
use and wont of the diocese, and therefore to show
that Mar Athanasius Thomas was consecrated in an
orderly and valid manner;9 and it is not for an
interloper, like the Patriarch of Antioch, to come
in at the request of a few malcontents, and, by a
combination of high-handedness and bigotry, to
upset the precedents of two centuries, and to sub
ject the people to a foreign yoke fitted to repress
all spiritual progress in Malankarai.

340 THE JACOBITE PERIOD.

II.

The second condition to be fulfilled by a metran
of Malankarai was his acceptance by the people.
This was admitted by both parties at the bar and
adopted as a test by the bench in trying the case.
But it is not pretended by any one that this is a
law of the Church, and it is absolutely destitute of
precedent in the Church's history. From time
immemorial down to an early date in the present
century, the office of Metran of Malankarai was
hereditary in the Palamattam family ; so that,
while this particular family furnished metrans for
the see, there was no occasion for the people to
express their acceptance ; and as a matter of fact
such acceptance was never asked or given. On
the other hand, when the Palamattam family be
came extinct and the office of metran ceased to be
hereditary, a new device was introduced by the
Eesident. He arranged that the person nominated
and consecrated by the preceding bishop should be
proclaimed by a royal proclamation, which enjoined
on all the people the duty of obedience to the
new metran according to the custom of the see.
This practice continued down to Mar Athanasius
Matthew, who was the last of the royally pro-

TEN YEARS OF LITIGATION. 341
claimed metrans. So long as the practice of issuing
royal proclamations lasted, the idea of a formal
expression of acceptance by the people is nothing
short of ludicrous. In fact it was the. abolition
(1876) of the practice of making proclamations in
favour of particular bishops that seems to have
suggested the application of this idea of popular
acceptance. The Chief Justice and Mr Justice
Sitarama Iyer say that " this contention of the
parties (i.e., about acceptance) seems to us to be
a new idea, and is due, probably, to a precaution
on their part to prevent foreigners sent by the
patriarch from assuming the management of the
temporalities of the Church, without the consent
and against the wishes of the community. . . .
It was only after the proclamation, under which
the Sirkar disclaimed all connection with the ap
pointment and removal of Syrian metropolitans
and explained the effect of its proclamation in
favour of any particular metropolitan, that acknow
ledgment by the people was thought of as the best
and safest substitute to adopt. . . . The first
case under that system," they add, " happens to
be the present." What could more clearly prove
that, for this condition of acceptance by the peo
ple, there is absolutely no precedent ? It forms

342 THE JACOBITE PERIOD.
no part of the law or the past practice of the
Church. Whether it was invented by " the parties " or
not, it is a mere phrase and does not amount to a
formulated proposition ; and, when it came to be
expanded and applied to details, neither the judges
on the one hand were agreed among themselves,
nor the parties on the other. In fact the two
Hindu judges who formed the majority in the
Eoyal Court, so expanded the phrase and so de
fined ' acceptance,' as to its nature and effects, that
their ruling will probably be quoted hereafter as
a precedent and will acquire all the force of law.
Several points, as will appear in further discussion,
were practically enacted, but the main point is
that it is acceptance by the people which admits a
duly consecrated metran to the enjoyment or con
trol of the temporalities of the see. Due consecra
tion qualifies for the exercise of spiritual functions,
popular acceptance admits to the management of
church property ; that is the present ruling.
It does seem strange that the courts should have
adopted, as an essential condition of the validity
of an appointment to the bishopric of Malankarai,
what had never, until the institution of this par
ticular suit, been heard of as a condition for such

TEN YEARS OF LITIGATION. 343
appointment. The function of the courts of law is
to interpret and apply the law to particular cases,
not to make it. The courts of Travancore are not,
however, the only law courts in the world which
have, especially in ecclesiastical cases, framed de
cisions on the basis of judge-made law.
But we have next to consider the use made of
this piece of judge-made law in its application to
the circumstances of the present case. It appears
that the courts below regarded the question of
acceptance by the people as having been settled at
the meeting at Mulanthuruthu (June 1876). This
announcement, it must be admitted, is surprising ;
for, in the record of the proceedings of that
assembly, there is not a syllable from beginning
to end about the acceptance of Mar Dionysius
Joseph as metropolitan ; and, as a matter of fact,
the name of that person occurs only once in the
record, and that in an altogether different con
nection. It appears, however, that the mere fact
of his having been called metropolitan in the record
is what is relied on as binding the individuals who
signed it. And this might pass. But before it
could be held to bind the whole Church or com
munity to such acceptance, it would be necessary
to prove that the meeting was bona fide a repre-

344 THE JACOBITE PERIOD.
sentative meeting, that the persons who signed did
so not as individuals but as duly accredited repre
sentatives of churches. In this lies the crux of
the whole of this section of the discussion. On
the proof or disproof of this point depends the
decision that must be given on the particular form
of question now in hand. Fortunately it is a
question which admits of fairly direct treatment.
" The meeting was convoked," says Mr Justice
Ormsby, " in part at least by printed summonses
addressed, it would appear, to various churches. . . .
Now it is a general rule applicable alike to public
companies, associations, clubs — and surely no less
to religious bodies — that, when the shareholders in
such company or the members of such association
or body are to be summoned to transact important
business, it should be previously and clearly noti
fied to them what that business is. If the object
of the meeting at Mulanthuruthu was to elect a
metran, or to confirm the appointment of a metran
already consecrated by the patriarch, we might
reasonably expect that such matter would be ex-
plictly stated. But not a reference is made to the
subject. The parishioners are exhorted to choose
certain persons to speak before the synod, putting
them in possession of their views, so that the

TEN YEARS OF LITIGATION. 345
matters that may be resolved upon may be accepted
by you ! No hint is given as to what these matters
are, except that they are ' the spiritual affairs of
our Church in general.' There is indeed a reference
to ' disputes and schisms,' but as to what disputes
or what schisms, no indication is vouchsafed us."
Of the issue and service of the notice of meeting
on all the churches, there was no formal evidence
whatever. " All that the evidence on record proves,
supposing for a moment that it is beyond suspicion,
is that some sort of order, or command, or message,
was sent down to some of the churches. But even
in the case of these churches, there is absolutely
no evidence or next to none, that these ' notices '
were duly promulgated in the various parishes, or
that one parishioner in fifty knew anything about
them." The record of the proceedings of the Synod
at Mulanthuruthu, professes to be signed by the
representatives of one hundred and two churches,
but there were at least one hundred and seventy-
five in the diocese, so that some seventy-three
churches were not even professedly represented,
and there is no proof on record that notice of the
meeting wras served on the parishioners of these
seventy-three churches.
On the other side it is said that " to expect, in a

346 THE JACOBITE PERIOD.
matter like this, proof of service of notices as we
have in civil suits in courts, is to expect an impos
sibility. It could not be expected that the notices
with the acknowledgment of service would be
forthcoming. How, then, was the fact to be proved
otherwise ? It must be only by the evidence of
witnesses who had service of notices on them, and
who saw notices served on others." Perhaps, but
it must be remembered that we are here dealing
with what professes to be a regular synod, sum
moned under direct authority of the patriarch.
Are we to suppose, whatever may be said about
the inexperience or incapacity of the Syrians in the
use of methods of precision, that both the patri
arch and his numerous understrappers were in
competent to convene a synod and to conduct its
business in such a manner that every item of the
proceedings from beginning to end should be cap
able of verification ? Why were printed notices
used at all if not for evidential purposes ? How
much better Menezes managed his business at
Diamper in 1599 !
Again, ' deeds of consent ' are mentioned ; that
is, commissions which should give express author
ity to those who held them to act within speci
fied limits on behalf of those who granted them.

TEN YEARS OF LITIGATION. 347
They were avowedly documents granted by con
gregations to delegates who should have author
ity to attend the Synod of Mulanthuruthu to
deliberate and vote at its sittings on behalf of the
said congregations. We may pass by the pre
liminary difficulty of framing ' deeds of consent '
on ' notices ' so vague. But whether they were
properly framed or not, no copy was produced in
court ; and no verification of their contents was
possible. They are said to have been collected and
put into a box, and carried off to Mardin by the
patriarch. Wherever the fault may lie, nothing
effectual was done during the long years of the
trial to fetch them back from Mardin and subject
them to the scrutiny of the courts. If they could
have helped the plaintiff's case, ways and means of
fetching them back would have been found ; for
the plaintiff's case was the patriarch's. But not a
single copy ever fell under the eye of the judges.
In these circumstances how can it be maintained
that the meeting at Mulanthuruthu was a repre
sentative meeting ?
But we shall be told that some thirty witnesses
" swear to having seen deeds of consent given by
the people to the representatives that attended the
meeting. These deeds of consent contained, it is

348 THE JACOBITE PERIOD.
said,10 authority to the representatives to agree to
the resolutions of the meeting on behalf of the
people. The witnesses also swear to their signa
tures in the record. ... It would be, under the
circumstances, unreasonable to decline to hear the
evidence of the witnesses who were brought to
swear to the production of deeds of consent by
the representatives. That is legal evidence of the
fact that such deeds were given, though not to their
contents.10 All that we want here is that the men
who attended the meeting were representatives.
Even without the deeds of consent, if the men
were competent to represent the community by
their position in that community, it would quite
answTer the purpose." Does not this last sentence
mark an extreme position ; does it not betray a
consciousness of the weakness of the reasoning that
immediately precedes it ?
At all events, all that has been said seems to me
to leave untouched the conclusion arrived at by
Mr Justice Ormsby, viz., that " without proof that
(1) the persons whose names are appended to the
record of the proceedings of the meeting at Mulan
thuruthu did really sign, and (2) that they were
duly authorised to sign, that record becomes abso
lutely worthless; and, without the record of that

TEN YEARS OF LITIGATION. 349
meeting's proceedings, there is no sufficient evi
dence to prove plaintiff's acceptance by the com
munity." Mark, nevertheless, how this doubtful document
is further pressed into the service of the plaintiff's
cause, to prove affirmatively his acceptance by
the people. The Chief Justice and Mr Justice
Sitarama Iyer contend that the question to be
answered is, On which side are the majority of the
Syrians to be ranked ? They find that in addition
to the one hundred and two churches represented
at the so-called synod of Mulanthuruthu, there are
nine more churches admitted by the appellant to
contain only adherents of the respondent. " So,
adding these nine to one hundred and twTo, we
have clearly one hundred and eleven churches
wholly recognising the respondent as their metro
politan." But this reasoning is vitiated by the
fallacious assumption, that the men who signed
the record at Mulanthuruthu were duly authorised
by the churches which they professed to represent.
Of this there has been no sufficient proof. In the
High Court the same vitiating element appears in
the same connection. Mr Justice Narayana Pillay
says of twenty-seven churches, each represented
by a single individual, that such representation

350 THE JACOBITE PERIOD.
" would be absolutely worthless, if the individual
who has signed did so for him alone. But the
plaintiff's case is that these individuals, as also the
others who signed for the different churches, had
written authority from the parishioners of their
respective churches to represent them at the
meeting." No doubt this is the plaintiff's case,
but has he legally proved his case ? The fact is
that the meeting at Mulanthuruthu was a mere
caucus, and not a proper synod at all ; and the
record of its proceedings, even supposing it to be
genuine, cannot prove a majority on the side of
the plaintiff at that date. It is tolerably certain
that now Mar Dionysius Joseph has a majority on
his side. It would be strange if the repeated
decisions in his favour over such a long period of
years did not tend to annex to the successful
metran a larger following. But that he had at
the institution of the suit in 1879 a majority on
his side is extremely improbable.
The two Hindu judges of the Eoyal Court, how
ever, possess marvellous resource. They maintain
that the plaintiff had a majority in his favour ten
years before the date of the institution of the suit.
They seem to have had some misgivings after all

TEN YEARS OF LITIGATION. 351
about the validity of the proof of plaintiff's accept
ance derived from the record of the Mulanthuruthu
meeting, and therefore they change their ground.
They explain that it is a mistake to suppose Mar
Dionysius Joseph was accepted for the first time as
metropolitan at Mulanthuruthu. This, they would
have us believe, was not the case at all. He was
so recognised long before this meeting, and what
this meeting did was to ratify the acceptance made
long previously.
This is a complete change of front. But let that
pass. When did the community first acknowledge
Mar Dionysius Joseph as metropolitan ? The
answer is that it was done as early as 1869 ; and
the sole proof of this surprising discovery is to be
found in the veracious utterances of Dionysius
himself when he addressed his memorial to the
Government of Madras. He then informed his
Excellency in Council that " all the Syrian Chris
tians have acknowledged, and do acknowledge
him," as metropolitan ; and, again in the same
document, that " he has the solemn consciousness
that almost all the Syrian Christians, as a matter
of conscience, lean towards him as their present
legally constituted superior and metropolitan."

352 THE JACOBITE PERIOD.
Special pleading of this kind, made by a man in
his own interest, is actually treated as proof of the
alleged fact.
But the statements made by the plaintiff under
this head were not and could not be true. How
ever discontented the Syrian Christians might have
been with Mar Athanasius Matthew in 1869 (and
there is no evidence that they were discontented),
they would not have dared to express it in any
tangible form. They were by the royal proclama
tion liable to the pains and penalties by which the
Sirkar enforces its orders. They were required to
obey Mar Athanasius according to the custom of
the see ; and there is every reason to believe that
they were at the date in question perfectly loyal
to their metran. At all events, the self-interested
pleadings of an ecclesiastic in his own suit can
hardly be seriously treated as proof of disputed
facts. It appears to me, therefore, with all deference
to the learned persons who have adjudicated other
wise, that the plaintiff failed in both divisions of
the great issue to prove his case. Nevertheless
Mar Dionysius Joseph sits to-day on the episcopal
throne of Malankarai.

353

CHAPTEB XXI.
THE hope of the future.
The native States of India as well as other parts
of that ancient and famous land are engaged, con
sciously or unconsciously, in the experiment of as
similating a new civilisation. In proportion to the
success of this experiment will the face of society
change. Many old things will pass away, and
many new things will take their place. The fresh
graft on the stately old tree may be expected to
develop fruit which in its maturity will be of
priceless quality. Our system of education, our
administration of justice, our railways, the diffu
sion of our literature, and the influence of Western
ideas communicated in a thousand subtle ways, all
tell powerfully on the mind and character, the
feelings and manners of the people. These are the
high road to position and influence and the chief
means by which the people will become available,

354 THE JACOBITE PERIOD.
when political circumstances call for their aid to a
larger extent than has hitherto been the case, in
the administration of the country. The Brahmans
have been from time immemorial the aristocracy, as
well as the priesthood, but this is being changed.
The idea of an aristocracy of intellect and charac
ter is by no means foreign to the aspirations of
the best representatives of young India to-day.
Now the people of Malabar as a whole have
taken advantage of their opportunities to as full
an extent as their fellow - countrymen in other
parts ; and the native Christians have been con
spicuous there as elsewhere for the eagerness and
the success with which, in proportion to their
numbers, they have availed themselves of the
higher education and Western culture. In her
young men, accordingly, the hope of the Syrian
Church seems, humanly speaking, to lie. Many
of these, stimulated partly by the better education
and the more intelligent worship of the Protestant
churches in their neighbourhood, have found their
way to Madras to study there in the Christian and
the Presidency Colleges, in the Medical College,
and in the Colleges of Law and Engineering, for
the higher degrees of the University. Let the
minds of these young men be saturated with Bibli-

THE HOPE OF THE FUTURE. 355
cal truth and spiritual ideas, let their hearts be
possessed with intelligent faith, and it will soon
be found that the old Syrian bottles will not hold
the new wine. Their new spiritual life will de
mand a higher nourishment than the earthen
vessels of the Jacobites can supply. Their char
acter as seen and felt in their daily work, their
family life, and their intercourse with their people
will gradually tell on the community and may be
the indirect means of effecting, more rapidly per
haps than we think, a reformation in Malankarai.
In this view, it is desirable that the people should
take their Church affairs into their own hands and
manage them without foreign intervention. Did
they not throw off the authority of the Pope of
Eome at the Coonen Cross in 1653 ? and why should
they tolerate the usurped authority of a remote
patriarch who has no intelligent sympathy with
them, and little or no interest in the country be
yond draining off money annually in the form of
Rasisa, for which he gives nothing in return ? No
seminaries of learning, no preaching friars, or other
agencies for the spiritual good of the Syrians of
Malankarai are maintained by the patriarch.
" Hereditary bondsmen! know ye not,
Who would be free, themselves must strike the blow 1 "

356 THE JACOBITE PERIOD.
There is one contingency to which the Syrians
and their friends should not shut their eyes. Al
though there seems no reason to fear that this
ancient Church will lapse into heathenism, or
otherwise vanish from history in the same way as
the sister Church on the Coromandel coast did,
yet there is some danger of its being absorbed.
With an English Protestant Mission on the one
side, and a Eoman Catholic Mission on the other,
it will be difficult for the Syrian Christians to hold
their ground apart. These stronger Churches will
doubtless receive from time to time into their
respective communions individual members of 'the
Syrian Church ; and if this disintegrating process
goes on, if the weaker thus gives way to the
stronger, if the Syrian Church be absorbed by the
more vigorous organisations around her, history
will probably interpret her fate as the penalty of
intellectual stagnation and lack of faith.
Yet even in this event, the eye of hope, gazing
further into the vista of the future, would fain
discern the time when the deplorable sectarian
differences which characterise our Western Chris
tianity, and which have acquired a foothold to no
small extent in India, shall be superseded by a
freer and fuller growth of Christian doctrine and

THE HOPE OF THE FUTURE. 357
spiritual life ; and when the Indian Church, recon
ciling all her sects in a common faith and a common
purity, shall hold the unity of the spirit in the
bond of peace, and shall in the most comprehensive
sense be one. When such a time comes, when
there will be one strong Indian Church, the absorp
tion of any particular sect, however venerable,
will be abundantly compensated by the ampler
life and the larger hope of success in winning the
whole of India to Christ, and in contributing the
most effective share to the complete spiritual
conquest of Asia.

APPENDIX

APPENDIX.

Notes to Chapter I.
1. See on Travancore, ' The Land of Charity,' by the Eev.
Samuel Mateer, F.L.S. ; London, John Snow & Co., 1871. Also
by the same Author, ' Native Life in Travancore ' ; London,
W. H. Allen & Co., 1883 : and on Cochin, 'The Land of the
Perumals,' by Francis Day, F.L.S. ; Madras, 1863.
2. In addition to the foregoing works, see ' Mirabilia De-
scripta ; or, The Wonders of the East,' by Friar Jordanus, trans
lated and edited by Colonel Yule for the Hakluyt Society,
1863 — p. 32: and Robertson Smith's 'Kinship and Marriage
in Arabia'; Cambridge University Press, 1885 — p. 122.
3. 'The Land of Charity,' pp. 169-175.
4. 'The Life of the Eight Eev. Daniel Wilson, D.D.,' by the
Eev. Josiah Bateman, M.A. ; London, John Murray, 1860 —
chapter xiv. Notes to Chapter II.
1. The list of the seven churches is as follows : Cranganore,
Quilon, Palur, Parur, South Pallipuram or Kohamungalum,
Neranum, Nellakkul, called also Ghael or Shail.
2. See ' Lingerings of Light in a Dark Land,' by the Eev.

362 APPENDIX.
Thomas Whitehouse, M.A. ; London, Wm. Brown & Co., 1873
—p. 18.
3. 'Christianity in China, Tartary, and Thibet,' by M.
L'Abbe Hue ; London, Longmans, 1857 — vol. i. p. 25.
4. Cf. chapter ix., infra.
5. ' Decrees of the Synod of Diamper,' session viii., chapter
ix., in Hough's ' History of Christianity in India,' vol. ii.
6. See, for example, a short paper by the late Bishop Fen-
nelly of Madras in 'The Catholic Directory' for 1866, under
December 21.
7. Catalogue No. 2 of Coins, by Edgar Thurston, Superin
tendent, Government Central Museum, Madras, 1888.
8. 'The Book of Ser Marco Polo,' iii. 18. It is needful to
emphasise the fact that, though the story of King Alfred's
sending alms to St Thomas is often adduced in proof or illus
tration of the belief that St Thomas's body lay in Southern
India, it has really no bearing on that question. The ' Saxon
Chronicle ' simply states that, in the year 883, " Sighelm and
jEthelsti,n conveyed to Eome the alms which the king had
vowed (to send) thither, and also to India, to St Thomas and
to St Bartholomew." The testimony of later chroniclers is
quoted at great length by Sharon Turner in his ' History of the
Anglo-Saxons,' vol. ii. pp. 146, 147 ; but it adds nothing to
that of the contemporary writer, except this, that the ambas
sadors, on their return from India, " brought many foreign
gems and aromatic liquors, the produce of the country." It
is amusing to notice how difficult Gibbon found it — ' Decline
and Fall,' chapter xlvii. — to make up his great mind on this
small matter. In the text, he talks of St Thomas's shrine,
" perhaps in the neighbourhood of Madras," being devoutly
visited by Alfred's ambassadors, but he ends a footnote on the
subject with the words, " I almost suspect that the English
ambassadors collected their cargo and legend [what legend?]
in Egypt." It is doubtful whether they went by way of Egypt
at all, the Eed Sea being closed at the time against European

NOTES TO CHAPTERS III. AND IV. 363
commerce and European travellers ; but, by whatever route
Alfred's ambassadors went, they did not go to visit a shrine ;
they went, as Freeman puts it, "all the way to India, with
alms for the Christians there, called the Christians of St Thomas
and St Bartholomew." — 'Old English History ' ; London, Mac-
mfflan & Co., 1871— p. 132.
Notes to Chapter III.
1. See Eawlinson's ' Sixth Oriental Monarchy ' ; London,
Longmans & Co., 1873 — p. 87.
2. ' Ecclesiastical History,' i. 13.
3. ' Ante-Nicene Christian Library,' vol. xx. ' Syriac Docu
ments '; Edinburgh, T. & T. Clark, 1871— p. 1.
4. Otherwise referred to in the ' Syriac Documents ' as
Addseus, or Addai. AM- l'-"^-'-* "&.-;'. !U>'4 *
5. Otherwise referred to as Aggai, Attai, Achai, Achi.
6. The story of Maris and his successors is told from Bar-
Hebrseus, Elias of Damascus, &c, in the ' Patriarchate of
Antioch,' by the Eev. John Mason Neale, D.D.; London,
Eivingtons, 1873. Notes to Chapter IV.
The story of St Thomas's Indian apostleship as given in the
' Acts of Thomas,' may be read in ' The Ante-Nicene Christian
Library,' vol. xvi.
A curious travesty of the ' Acts ' was found in a Tamil manu
script now in the Mackenzie Collection. This manuscript is a
translation from Latin by Nanapracasa Pillai, a native Chris
tian, who was probably trained by the Jesuits at Pondicherry,
in whose library he most likely found the Latin MS. It has
been translated into English by the Eev. William Taylor of
Madras. See the 'South India Christian Eepository' (1837),
vol. i. pp. 263-266. According to this travesty St Thomas

364 APPENDIX.
first landed at the capital of the King of Malabar, then went
to Mailapore, at that time ruled by Candapa Raja (meant to
be the Tamil equivalent of Gandapha-rasa or Gondophares).
1. 'Introduction to the New Testament,' by George Salmon,
D.D. ; London, John Murray, 1885— p. 422 ; cf. pp. 431, 432.
2. ' History of the Origins of Christianity,' Book VII. chapter
xxv. 3. Cf. Matthew xiii. 55 ; Mark vi. 3.
4. ' Mirabilia Descripta — The Wonders of the East,' by Friar
Jordanus ; translated and edited by Colonel Yule for the Hak-
luyt Society, 1863 — p. 23, and cf. p. 192 of this volume.
5. Mygdonia is the name of a province in the north-east of
Mesopotamia, adjoining Osrohene. This sister-in-law of Misdeus
may, therefore, have been either a native of that province or
otherwise connected with it by family ties.
6. See his paper on " Coins of Indian Buddhist Satraps with
Greek Inscriptions," being No. 7 of 1854, 'Journal of the Asi
atic Society of Bengal,' vol. xxiii. pp. 711, 712.
7. This monogram ^S is thought by Prinsep to be a com
bination of the b, m, and n of the old Sanscrit alphabet ('Jour
nal, As. Soc. Bengal,' July 1838, p. 553). Professor H. H.
Wilson quotes but does not approve this suggestion ('Ariana
Antiqua,' p. 340), nor does he suggest any other explanation.
Cunningham regards it as a pictorial representation of the com-
poimd name gandaphor =" sugar-cane crusher," from the cir
cumstance that the outer channels for the cane-juice in a sugar-
mill are chiselled in the form of this peculiar monogram.
The Gondophares coins on pages 52, 53 have been copied
from Wilson's 'Ariana Antiqua.'
8. Taht-i-Bahi, situated 28 miles N.E. of Peshawur, is an
isolated hill, 1771 feet above sea -level, or about 570 feet
above the plain. The ruins of a Buddhist city on this hill
have yielded many trophies to the archaeological explorer. The
name is derived from Bdhai, which in. the colloquial means
reservoir, so that Taht-i-Bahi = seat of the reservoir. It appears

NOTES TO CHAPTER IV. 365
that, besides two other reservoirs higher up, there is one at the
foot of the hill, where it joins the plain, concerning which the
people have a tradition that it is connected with the Indus by
an underground channel. Hence the name of the hill and the
ruins. See ' Archseol. Surv. Ind. Eeports,' 1872-73, vol. v. pp.
24, 58, 59.
9. See 'Jour. Eoy. As. Soc' (New Series), vol. vii., art.
xviii. (Triibner & Co., 1875), pp. 376 ss. It is but fair to note
that archaeological experts are not agreed about the reading of
the inscription on the Taht-i-Bahi stone, and perhaps the ren
dering given in the text, though the last, is not final.
10. Andropolis was the capital of the Nomos Andropolites.
Whether its chief magistrate was entitled to the rank of
Basileus we do not know. But even if he was not a king,
our author would be sure to make him one, as it seems to have
been a first principle with him that St Thomas should always
have kings for the nursing fathers of his Church.
11. Mommsen's 'Provinces of the Eoman Empire,' trans
lated by Professor W. P. Dickson, D.D., LLD. ; London,
Bentley & Son — vol. ii. pp. 13, 14.
12. See Colonel Yule's 'Marco Polo,' vol. ii. pp. 335, 336,
where additional authorities on this point are quoted.
13. Ante-Nicene Christian Library: 'Works of Hippolytus,1
vol iv. p. 131.
14. The version of the story given in the Latin hymn — " In
Festo Sancti Thomse Apostoli, ad Vesperum" — is rather in
favour of a locality, such as Carmana, on the borders of Iran
and within the area of sun-worship : —
" Templum solis comminutum
Corruit cum idolo ;
Ac metallum pretiosum
Solvitur in pulverem ;
Rex illiuB civitatis
Fugit cum Carisio.
Tunc sacerdoa idolorum
Furibundus astitit,

366 APPENDIX.
Gladio transverberavit
Sanctum Christi martyrem
Glorioso passionis
Laureatum sanguine.''
The whole of this hymn — from the 'Mozarabic Breviary'
edited by Cardinal Lorenzana in 1775 — is quoted in 'S.
Thomas, the Apostle of India,' by the Eev. Ch. Egbert Kennet,
D.D. ; Madras, Addison & Co., 1882.
15. The name Calamina, as an item of the primitive tradition,
seems to have been transferred to the Coromandel coast, and
applied to Mailapore ('Voyages and Travels' of Sir John
Mandeville, chapter xvi.) ; and attempts have been made, by
means of wild guesses in etymology, to show that the name
grew on South Indian soil. (1) Tamil etymologies have been
invented for Calamina. (a) Some hold that Cal-ur-mina and
others that Cal-mel-mina was the original form of the word,
the final -mina being, with doubtful legitimacy, affixed as a
mere termination. The former word means rock-city and the
latter rock-upon, and both suggestions assume that the rock of
the Little Mount was the scene of St Thomas's martyrdom.
(6) The Abbe^ Du Bois derived Calamina from Calamin, the
Tamil name of a well-known fish on the Coromandel coast,
thinking that a fishing village, where this particular fish
was taken in abundance, might receive from that circumstance
its name. [According to Eussell, 'Indian Fishes,' 1803, the
fish known at Madras as Calamin = Scatophagus Argus, Cuv.
and Val., CJuetogon Argus, Linn. J (2) A Syriac derivation has
been attempted. We are told of a Syriac word Galamath =
roclc-city or hill-toion, which some say is also the meaning of
Mailapore. This Syriac name, we are assured, was given to
Mailapore by the followers of St Thomas, and it is added by
way of explanation that, in the mouths of people who did not
use Syriac for their vernacular, Galamath became Calamafh,
and Calamath became Calamina.
Several other examples might be quoted. But enough

NOTES TO CHAPTER V. 367
Even supposing that these etymologies were linguistically
legitimate, they one and all proceed on false assumptions.
Etymologies must be tried at the bar of history, and if they
cannot give a fair account of themselves there, they must be
considered counterfeit. The etymologies in question all run
in the very teeth of history.
16. It has indeed been maintained that the relics were
removed from India to Edessa only as late as the year 394,
and the ' Chronicle of Edessa ' is quoted by Dr Kennet
(p. 17), in support of the assertion. But what the 'Chronicle
of Edessa' says under the year 394 is this: "They brought
the coffin of Mar Thomas the apostle to his great temple in
the days of Mar Cyrus, the bishop," which means, not that the
relics of the apostle were brought to Edessa then for the first
time, but that they were moved from one part of the city to
another and deposited in a particular church.
Notes to Chapter V.
1. See Neale's ' Patriarchate of Alexandria ' ; London,
Masters, 1841— p. 16.
2. lb., p. 18.
3. Ante-Nicene Christian Library : ' Clement of Alexandria/
vol. i. p. 355.
4. ' Ecclesiastical History,' Book V chapter x.
5. ' Liber de Viris Illustribus,' cap. xxxvi.
6. Ante-Nicene Christian Library : ' Clement of Alexandria,'
vol. i. p. 399.
7. ' Letter to Magnus,' Book II. i.
8. ' Ecclesiastical History,' Second Century, Part I. chapter
i§3.
9. As, for example, by Philostorgius ; see chapter v., infra.
10. ' Church History'; London, Bohn, 1853, vol. i. p. 114.
11. 'The Indian Empire,' Triibner's Oriental Series (2d
edition), pp. 234, 235.

368 APPENDIX.
12. For a discussion of the question, see chapter x. of the
'Introduction to the New Testament,' by George Salmon,
D.D. ; London, John Murray, 1885.
13. See Max Midler's 'Lectures on the Science of Language,'
vol. i. lecture 8.
14. Ante-Nicene Christian Library : 'Works of Hippolytus,'
vol ii. p. 131.
15. Eawlinson's 'Sixth Oriental Monarchy,' p. 400.
16. See Alban Butler's 'Lives of the Saints,' St Bar
tholomew's Day.
17. "The statue by Marco Agrati in the Milan Cathedral,
famous for its anatomical precision and its boastful inscription,
Non me Praxiteles sed Marcus pinxit Agratis." — Mrs Jameson's
'Sacred and Legendary Art'; London, Longmans, 1888 — vol.
i. p. 245. Notes to Chapter VI.
1. Eenan quoted by Hue, ' Christianity in China, Tartary,
and Thibet'; London, Longmans, 1857 — vol. i. p. 66.
2. Neale's 'History of the Holy Eastern Church,' General
Introduction; London, Masters, 1850 — vol. i. p. 125.
3. 'Ecclesiastical History,' ii. 9-14.
4. Max Midler's ' Chips from a German Workshop,' vol. i.
pp. 162, 163.
5. Max Miiller, ib.

Notes to Chapter VII.
1. 'History of Christianity in India,' Book I. chapter ii.
2. ' Christ and other Masters ' ; London, Macmillan & Co.,
1875 — Part II. chapter ii. p. 81 ; cf. Kurtz's 'History of the
Christian Church' (1864), § 94, 4.
3. Book I. chapter ix.
4. Cf. Genesis xii. 38.

NOTES TO CHAPTER VIII. 369
5. 'Apology to Constantius,' § 31.
'6. It is possible that Theophilus may have been a Hindu, as
from the earliest times there was much commerce between
India (Proper) and the island of Socotra. But it seems more
probable, as Socotra was included along with Arabia Felix and
Abyssinia under the name India, that Theophilus was an
Indian in the same sense as the Homeritse.
7. So far Philostorgius. A few notes from other sources are
added to complete the story.
8. See article on " The Ethiopian Church," by the Eev. Dr
Eeynolds, in Smith's ' Dictionary of Christian Biography.'
9. Muir's ' Life of Mahomet,' new edition ; London,
Smith, Elder & Co., 1878 — Introduction, p. v. The story is
also told by Gibbon, ' Decline and Fall,' chapter xiii.
10. Muir, ib. Notes to Chapter VIII.
1. Hefele's 'History of the Councils of the Church,' Book
LX. chapter iii.
2. ' The Church and the Eastern Empire,' by the Eev. H. F.
Tozer, M.A. ; London, Longmans, 1888 — chapter v.
3. Kurtz's 'History of the Christian Church,' § 82, 3.
4. Etheridge's 'Syrian Churches'; London, Longmans, 1846
—pp. 97, 98.
5. 'Nineveh and its Eemains,' by A. H Layard, D.C.L. ;
London, John Murray, 1849 — vol. i. pp. 247, 248.
6. A list of the twenty-five metropolitans is given by Lay
ard, ib., pp. 255, 256.
7. Neale's 'History of the Holy Eastern Church/ General
Introduction, vol. i. p. 143. See also Gibbon's 'Decline and
Fall,' chapter xlvii. ; and, for an account of the inscription at
Siganfu, see Hue's 'Christianity in China, &c.,' vol. i.; also
' Calcutta Eeview' for July 1889.
8. Neale, ib., pp. 151, 152. 2 A

370

APPENDIX.

Notes to Chapter IX. '
1. "It is not necessary to dispute whether the seat of this
bishopric was the modern Kalyan or Quilon (Coilam), as the
coast from Bombay southwards to Quilon bore indefinitely the
name Caliana." — Sir W. W. Hunter's 'Indian Empire,' p. 231.
2. Sir James Emerson Tennent says : " Between the sixth
century and the arrival of the Portuguese in the sixteenth, we
have but few accounts of the internal condition of the island,
and no mention whatsoever of a Christian community." —
'Christianity in Ceylon'; London, John Murray, 1850 — p. 4.
3. See chapter xi., infra.
4. See 'The Manual of the Salem District,' published by
order of the Madras Government, chapter i.
5. See an article on "Some Pahlavi Inscriptions in South
India" in 'The Indian Antiquary,' .vol. iii. (1874) pp. SOS-
SI 6, by A. C. Burnell, Ph.D., of the Madras Civil Service.
6. We have thus three crosses : —

No.

Where situated.

Date of cross or inscription.

1
2 3

In the church, on St Thomas's
Mount, near Madras.
In the old church at Cottayam, in
North Travancore.
Do. do. do.

Seventh or eighth century.
Do. do. do.
Not earlier than tenth
century.

7. 2 Corinthians xiii. 14.
8. See the Decrees of the Synod of Diamper, chapter xiv.,
decree 14, as given by Michael Geddes in his ' History of the
Church of Malabar,' or by Hough in his 'History of Christi
anity in India.'
9. Joshua xxii.
10. Book III. chapter xviii.

NOTES TO CHAPTER X. 371
11. 'Cathay and the Way Thither,' by Colonel Yule; Hak-
luyt Society, 1886— vol. ii. p. 375.
12. 'East Africa and Malabar in the Sixteenth Century,' by
Duarte Barbosa; Hakluyt Society — p. 175.
Notes to Chapter X.
1. A census was taken in 1857, when the number of Jews in
the Cochin State was 1790. It is a pity that the numbers of
the white and the black Jews cannot be had separately.
2. " It would be interesting to know by what steps the name
fell into desuetude. Lagarde, who finds in ' Jehovah ' the idea
of a promise-keeper, supposes that the name fell into disuse in
troublous times, when God no longer appeared to care for His
people, and when men did not venture confidently to address
Him as the fulfiller of His promises. But it seems more
natural to suppose that reverence for ' this glorious and fearful
name ' (Deuteronomy xxviii. 58) engendered a 'fear to profane
it by utterance. ... In Palestine practice and theory on the
point seem to have fluctuated considerably. One tradition tells
us that even the priests ceased to utter the name three hundred
years before the Christian era. The treatise 'Joma,' on the
other hand, affirms that the high priest continued to pronounce
the name distinctly on the day of expiation, and ' Berachoth,'
ix. 5, even enjoins its use in ordinary salutations." — Professor
Eobertson Smith in the 'British and Foreign Evangelical Ee-
view,' January 1876.
3. See, for instance, Max Midler's ' Lectures on the Science
of Language,' sixth edition, vol. i. pp. 230-234.
4. 'Grammar of the Dravidian Languages'; Triibner & Co.,
1875— p. 91.
5. Buchanan's 'Christian Eesearches in Asia,' third edition,
1812— pp. 207, 208.
6. The authorities on the sasanam of the Jews of Cochin are
the Eev. Dr H. Gundert, of the Basel Mission, in ' The Madras

372

APPENDIX.

Journal,' vol. xiii. Part I. pp. 115-146, and Part II. pp. 11-14;
A. C. Burnell, Ph.D., in 'The Indian Antiquary,' vol. iii. pp.
333 ss; and 'The Manual of the Malabar District,' by William
Logan, of the Madras Civil Service ; Madras Government Press,
1887 — vol. i. p. 208, and vol. ii. Appendix xii.
7. ' History of the Jews,' vol. iii. p. 97.
8. No proper census of Jews exists ; but the following totals
given in the ninth edition of the ' Encyclopaedia Britannica '
may be accepted as approximately correct : In Europe,
5,000,000 ; in Asia, 200,000 ; in Africa, 700,000 ; in America,
300,000 ; in Australia, 20,000 : total, 6,220,000.
9. Logan's 'Malabar,' vol. i. pp. 275, 276.
10. ' The Land of the Perumals ; or, Cochin Past and Present,'
by Francis Day, F.L.S. — chapter viii.
Notes to Chapter XI.
My authorities here are mainly Gundert, Burnell, and Logan,
cf. note 5 in chapter ix. and note 6 in chapter x. I am spe
cially indebted to Logan, however, for the materials of this
chapter. 1. As the Jewish sasanam is frequently referred to in connec
tion with the two Christian sasanams, we shall set down the
main facts concerning them in tabular form, as follows : —

Sasanam.

Granted to

Date of grant.

King that granted the Sasanam.

No. 1.
No. 2.
No. 3.

Jews. Syrian Christians.

C 700 A.D.
774 ,,
6. 824 i.

Bhaskara Ravi Varma.
Vira Eaghava Chakravarti.
Sthanu Ravi Gupta.

2. Dr Burnell thought that Manigramam meant the village
of Manes, and therefore believed its first occupants were Mani-
chaeans. But there seems to be no historical foundation for

NOTES TO CHAPTER XII. 373
this belief. The name Manigramam more probably means the
village of gems.
3. During the period covered by the sasanams (700-824),
Malayalam and Tamil, at least in their written form, were
practically one language. But after the close of this period,
Malayalam and the Malayalam-speaking peoples began to draw
apart from Tamil and the peoples east of the Ghauts. Logan's
'Malabar,' vol. i. p. 274.
4. Ib., p. 184.
5. Ib., pp. 272, 274, and 275 ; cf. pp. 261, 262.
6. Ib., p. 187.
7. Nayan, Sans. = leader, soldier; pi. Nayar. But Nayar
has come to be treated as if it were singular instead of plural.
8. Logan's 'Malabar,' vol. ii. p. 120.
9. To., vol i. pp. 275, 276.
10. Ib., vol. i. p. 203.
11. Knaye Thomas, or Thomas of. Cana, probably means
Thomas the merchant. Cf. the use of the word Canaanite in
Proverbs xxxi. 24 (E.V., margin), and Hosea xii. 7.
12. See Whitehouse's 'Lingerings of Light in a Dark Land,'
pp. 303, 304. Notes to Chapter XII.
1. See Tennent's ' Ceylon,' Part VII. chapter ii ; London,
Longmans, 1860.
2. According to the Mohammedans, the Fourth Vedam is the
Kuran, the other three being the Hindu, the Jewish, and the
Christian. 3. Quoted by Logan, 'Malabar,' vol. i. p. 196.
4. The ' Keralolpatti ' " relates how the Zamorin became the
most famous of the Malayali rajahs. He seems to have adopted
the high-sounding title of Kunnalaklwn, or king of the hills
(kunnu) and waves (ala). The Sanscrit form of this title
Samudri, or as it is pronounced by Malayalis Samutiri or

374 APPENDIX.
Tamutiri (or vulgarly Samuri or Tamuri), is that by which
the chief rajah of this house became known to Europeans as
the Zamorin of Calicut."— Logan's 'Malabar,' vol. i. pp. 276,
277. 5. 'Madras Census Eeport' for 1881, vol. i. § 151.
6. Logan's 'Malabar,' vol. i. p. 108.
7. Ib., p. 295.
8. Hough's 'History,' Book I. chapter iv. § 11.
Notes to Chapter XIII.
1. 'Mirabdia Descripta; or, The Wonders of the East,' by
Friar Jordanus; translated and edited by Colonel Yule, C.B.,
F.E.G.S., for the Hakluyt Society, 1863— pp. x-xii.
2. Ib., p. 23.
3. Ib., p. 24.
4. Ib., pp. 55, 56.
5. Ib., p. vii. — Columbum = Quilon ; Catalani is, according
to Colonel Yule, probably the genitive case of Jordanus's
father's name.
6. Whitehouse's 'Lingerings of Light in a Dark Land,'
p. 78. Notes to Chapter XIV.
1. "A third of the property of all condemned heretics was
confiscated to the use of the Holy Office, another third was
assigned for the expenses of the trial, and the last third went
to the Crown." — Milman's ' History of the Jews ' ; London,
John Murray (fourth edition), 1886— vol hi. p. 303.
2. " There were four inquisitions in the Portuguese do
minions : -in Portugal, those of Lisbon, Coimbra, and Evora ;
and, in the East Indies, that of Goa. These were all sover
eign tribunals, without' appeal in all matters within the extent
of their respective jurisdictions. Besides these four tribunals,

NOTES TO CHAPTER XV. 375
there was a Grand Council of the Inquisition, in which the
Inquisitor-General presided. This, was the chief, and whatever
was done in the others was reported there." — Dellon's 'Account
of the Inquisition at Goa/ chapter, xxiii.
3. In Spain and Portugal converted Jews and their descen
dants to the latest generations were called 'New Christians.'
Cf. Milman's ' History of the Jews/ vol. iii. pp. 300-304. It
would appear that many such must have immigrated into the
Portuguese dominions in India. For, while it is well attested
that the Syrian Christians were for a time brought under the
jurisdiction of the Inquisition and suffered from its vigilant
rigour, there is no evidence that the colony of Jews at Cochin
or their Indian proselytes were influenced by Portuguese Chris
tianity, or that they ever came, to any extent at least, within
the clutches of the Inquisition.
4. The office of the Second Inquisitor was then vacant.
5. The quotations made in this chapter are from an anony
mous translation of M. Dellon's book, published at Hull in
1812. Cf. Captain Marryat's 'Phantom Ship/ chaps, xxxvi.,
xxxvii., xl.
6. Buchanan's 'Christian Eesearches in Asia/ pp. 140-162.
7. See 'Calcutta Eeview,' No. 144 (1881), Art. "The Holy
Inquisition at Goa," by E. Eehatsek.
Notes to Chapter XV.
1. Hough's 'History of Christianity in India,' vol. iii. pp.
5, 6.
2. ' Bibliotheca Orientalis ' by J. S. Assemanus.
3. The ' Jornada ' was translated into French by F. Jean
Baptiste de Glen, and published under the title, 'Histoire
Orientale/ in 1609. It was also translated into English by
Michael Geddes, who was chaplain to the English factory at
Lisbon, 1678-83. His 'History of the Church of Malabar/
which includes "the Acts and Decrees of the Synod," was

376 APPENDIX.
published, London, 1694. The proceedings of the Synod are
reprinted from Geddes by Hough in the second volume of his
'History of Christianity in India,' from which my quotations
are made.
4. See Hough's ' History/ for example, vol. ii. pp. 13-18,
where the learned author sets down nineteen such particulars
under the head of " doctrines and customs," to show how far
the Syrian Church "agreed with the Eeformed Churches of
England, Scotland, and other nations, and in what respects she
differed from the Church of Eome."
5. The elder, Matthias, died at Lisbon ; the younger, Joseph,
visited Eome and Venice, where the information obtained by
conversation with him was incorporated in a small volume, and
published under the title of ' The Travels of Joseph, the
Indian.' 6. Buchanan's 'Christian Eesearches in Asia,' p. 131.
7. See Alford in loco.
8. It was the Peschito that the Syrians used, and these are
precisely the New Testament books which are wanting in that
version. So far,, therefore, the statement of facts is correct.
Unfortunately there are probably no other cases in which the
statements can now be so satisfactorily verified.
9. Diamper, short for Udiamperur, is ten or twelve mdes
south-east of Cochin.
10. The Native Christians of Malabar were allowed to retain
Syriac as their sacred language, and not compelled to adopt
Latin ; and Eome followed this policy wherever she managed
to annex Christians of the Syrian rite to her fold.
11. The extant Nestorian liturgies are those of Nestorius,
Addaeus and Maris, and Theodore of Mopsuestia. Of three
lost Nestorian liturgies the titles only have been preserved, —
those of Narses, Barsumas, and Diodorus of Tarsus. One or
more of these six may have been used in Malabar before
1599. 12. Hough's 'History,' vol. ii. p. 210.

NOTES TO CHAPTERS XVI. AND XVII. 377
Notes to Chapter XVI.
1. It is not possible to obtain from the census reports an
exact classification. The number of Jacobite Syrians may be
taken as approximately 330,000, and the number of Eomo-
Syrians as 110,000. The number of Protestant Syrians is
comparatively 'small. Notes to Chapter XVII.
The authorities consulted for Part I. are, ' The Humilia
tion of Christ/ by the Eev. Professor Bruce, D.D. ; Edin
burgh, T. & T. Clark, 1881— chapter ii. : Tozer's 'The
Church and the Eastern Empire/ chapter v. : Neale's ' History
of the Holy Eastern Church,' General Introduction : Gibbon's
'Decline and Fad,' chapter xlvii. And for Part II., Judg
ments delivered in the Eoyal Court, or Court of Final Appeal,
Travancore, by (1) the Chief Justice and Mr Justice Sitarama
Iyer ; (2) Mr Justice Ormsby : printed at the Keraladayom
Press, Trivandrum, 1890.
1. The metrans or bishops of Malabar were chosen from the
Pakalowmattam or Palamattam family, which, according to the
Syrian legends, was selected for this distinction by St Thomas
himself. The Anandaravan was that member of this family,
who, according to their laws of inheritance, was, so to speak,
heir-apparent to the Episcopal throne. This practice was un
doubtedly very ancient, and it continued till about the middle
of the first quarter of the present century, when the Palamattam
famdy appear to have died out. The same practice is still
observed by the Nestorians of Kurdistan, among whom the
office of patriarch is hereditary, not elective.
2. For the sake of easy reference, a list of the native metrans
of Malankarai, from the beginning of the Jacobite regime, is
here given ; with this caveat, however, that the dates are only
such approximations as can be derived from the somewhat
inconsistent materials available : —

378

APPENDIX.

Date of

acces
Name of metran.
By whom con
Date of
Remarks.
sion to
secrated.
death.
office.
.
1653
Mar Thomas I.
Mar Gregorius
(1665)
1685
Ruled 12 years
before conse
1685
,, ' .. II.
Unknown ; per
haps Gregorius.
1686
cration.
1686
„ III.
Mar Ivanius.
1688
1688
M IV
ii u
1728
1728
., V.
Mar Thomas IV.
1765
1765
n VI.
„ V.
(1761), and For
eign Prelates
(1770).
1808
1808
M VII.
Mar Thomas VI.
1809
This metran and
1809
M VIII.
„ „ VII.
1816
the next five
1816
„ IX.
VIII.
1837
following never
1817
Mar Pulikote
Philoxenos of
directly or in
Dionysius.
Tholiyur.
1818
directly receiv
1818
Mar Punnatharai
ed consecration
Dionysius.
n u
1827
from the patri
1827
Mar Cheppat
arch.
Dionysius.
M II
1852
1852
Mav Athanasius
Jacobite Patriarch
1877
First native of
Matthew.
of Antioch
(1842).
Malabar con
secrated by the
patriarch.
Notes to Chapter XVIII.
On this subject Whitehouse's ' Lingerings of Light in a Dark
Land/ chapter xiv., may be consulted.
1. Buchanan visited Malankarai in 1806, and was greatly
touched by the condition of the Syrian Church. He resolved on
three things : (1) To supply the churches with printed copies of
the Syriac Scriptures, which in course of time he did. [It was
NOTES TO CHAPTER XVIII. 379
perhaps in consequence of this proposal that Mar Dionysius
VI. gave to Buchanan an ancient copy of the Scriptures written
in Estrangelo Syriac, which he afterwards presented to the Uni
versity Library at Cambridge.] (2) To have the Scriptures
and the Liturgy translated into the vernacular (Malayalam), of
which work a beginning was successfully made under Buch
anan's direction and at his expense. (3) To negotiate a union
between the Syrian Church and the Church of England. The
outcome of this thought wdl appear in the course of the present
chapter. See ' Memoirs of the Life and Writings of the Eev. Claudius
Buchanan, D.D./ by Dean Pearson (1834), Part II. chapters v.
and vi., and Part III. Also Buchanan's ' Christian Eesearches
in Asia '(181 2), pp. 99-135.
2. See Le Bas' ' Life of Bishop Middleton ' ; London, Eiv-
ington, 1831— vol. ii. pp. 205, 206.
3. The Eev. Joseph Fenn retired on the failure of his health
after nine years' absence from England. The Eev. Benjamin
Badey went on furlough in 1831, returned 1834, and finally
left Travancore in 1850. He had still twenty years of work
in him. He became a rural dean, and the rector of a quiet
village in Shropshire. The Eev. Henry Baker went on fur
lough in 1833, and returned in due course to Travancore, where
he worked at his post till his death in 1866.
4. A curious schism took place in the diocese of Malankarai
during the episcopate of Mar Thomas VI., called also Dion
ysius the Great. One Kattumangat Eamban succeeded in per
suading a foreign bishop (Mar Gregorius) to give him con
secration. When this became known to the native bishop
(Mar Thomas VI.), disputes arose which were referred to the
Dutch Commodore for settlement. The decision was given
against Mar Koorilos (Cyrd), as the new bishop was styled.
He accordingly fled beyond the limits of Malankarai, and pro
cured land where he built churches and gradually drew away
some of the Syrians. The name of the diocese is Tholiyur,

380 APPENDIX.
and the viUage, where the successors of Mar Koorilos, of whom
Philoxenos was one, have resided, is called Anjoor.
5. ' Life of the Eight Eev. Daniel Wilson, D.D.' ; London,
John Murray, 1860 — chapter xiv.
6. Ib. Notes to Chapter XIX.
1. Cf. 'Nestorians and their Eituals,' by the Eev. George
Percy Badger; London, Masters, 1862 — vol. i. p. 71.
2. See 'The Guardian' of 16th September 1874. Also
same paper of the 23d id. for the patriarch's reply.
3. The seven dioceses were Qudon, Thumpone, Niranom,
Cottayam, Arthat, Kantanad, and Ankamali, together with the
churches surrounding them respectively. Cf. chapter ii. note 1.
4. See Paper on " The Syrian Christian Church," by the
Eev. E. H. Maddox, in 'The Eeport of the Missionary Con
ference, South India and Ceylon/ 1879 — vol. ii. p. 181.
5. Ib.
6. A new sect sprang up early in 1875 as a result of the
extravagances which had marked the revival of religion there
in 1873-74. They published in the Malayalam newspapers 'a
divine proclamation' to the effect that "there remained only
six years from May 1875 untd the glorious coming of King
Jesus of Nazareth on the fiery cloud." This Six Years Party
numbered about 5000, including some 18 Syrian priests and
about 300 of the adherents of the Church Missionary Society.
The ' party ' fell off in numbers long before the failure of its
great prophecy ; but, while it lasted, it indulged in wild extra
vagances and caused much anxiety.
Notes to Chapter XX.
1. The Courts, the periods during which this case was on
their respective files, and the names of the judges are here men
tioned : (1) The Zdla Court of Alleppy, or Court of First In-

NOTES TO CHAPTER XX. 381
stance, 1879-84 : Mr Justice Lafrenais, and Mr Justice Krishna
Menon. (2) The High Court of Travancore, or Court of First
Appeal, 1884-86 : Mr Justice Narayana Pillay, and Mr Justice
Arianayagom Pillay. (3) The Eoyal Court of Travancore, or
Court of Final Appeal, 1886-89 : the Chief Justice, Mr Justice
Ormsby, and Mr Justice Sitarama Iyer; The names of the
Christian judges are printed in italics. The second of these
three was a Eoman Catholic.
2. This chapter is mainly a review of the judgments of (1)
the Chief Justice and Mr Justice Sitarama Iyer ; (2) Mr
Justice Ormsby.
3. The properties consisted of (a) lands, the seminary, the
Church, and other buildings valued at 72,700 fanams ; (b)
funded moneys, articles of furniture, and other moveable
property, valued at 343,432J fanams ; (c) mitres, crosses,
staves, jewels, with vestments and other paraphernalia belong
ing to the Syrian metran as such, valued at 9300 fanams. The
total value of the contested property was therefore 425,432^
fanams, or about Es. 60,776.
4. It was maintained in evidence by the defendant-appellant
that a Syriac manuscript existed in the time of Mar Athanasius
Matthew, which had unfortunately been stolen. It was said
to contain "the history of the meeting of the Fathers of Malan
karai to draw up canons." It was also described as having
been "written and left behind by the primitive metrans of
Malankarai," the writing having been " kept up by metrans
after metrans from time to time." From what metran's time
it began, or at what metran's time it ended, witness could not
affirm. But "looking at those papers [sic] they appeared to
be 1500 or 1400 years old. Those of the least age would
be between 40 and 50 years old." Well may we ask incredu
lously, Is the defendant - appellant also among the experts?
Nevertheless, the Chief Justice and Mr Justice Sitarama Iyer,
who disbelieved the story of the theft, believed that some of
the so-called papers were 1500 years old. They were wdling

382 APPENDIX.
even to add to the great age of the manuscript; for they
obligingly inform us that " the existence of a manuscript history
of the Malankarai Syrian Church, almost from the second or
third century, in the seminary in the possession of the appellant,
and its antiquity and authenticity admit of no doubt. That
such a record will satisfactorily and conclusively solve the
question now under consideration equally admits of no doubt"!!
— Credat Judmus.
5. The work on which the plaintiff most relied, and which
seems to have been mainly followed by the two learned Hindu
judges in the Eoyal Court, though considered inadmissible by
Dr Ormsby, was a ' History of the Syrian Christians/ published
in 1869, by Ittoop. It is written in Malayalam and has never
been translated. It follows the lines of the local tradition.
6. " It may be objected that ad this evidence is open to sus
picion as the testimony of partisans. The objection is not
without foundation. It may be said that all, or almost all, the
evidence in this case is open to like objection. Indeed, having
critically examined it, I entertain no doubt that a very great
part of the oral evidence adduced on both sides is altogether
worthless." — Ormsby, pp. 95, 96.
7. See Neale's 'Patriarchate of Antioch/ p. 119.
8. See Hefele, who gives the complete text of the twenty ;
and see Gibbon's note, chapter xlvii.
9. The fifteenth issue in the Court of First Instance runs : Is
the first defendant a duly consecrated bishop or not 1 Mr Jus
tice Krishna Menon replies : " The first defendant was undoubt
edly consecrated by the late Athanasius and Koorilos of Anjoor,
and his consecration may be held to be valid to a certain
extent ; " and after defining this extent, the learned judge con
cluded, " but the validity of the first defendant's consecration
need not be decided in this case
10. The italics are mine.

INDEX.

Abbanes, 41, 43, 44, 46.
Abdagases, 53, 54.
Abgar, 30, 32, 33, 39.
Abulpharagius, 268.
Abyssinia, Church of, 94, 96, 100.
Achadabus, 36.
AchsBmenidae, 81.
'Acts of Apostles,' 39.
'Acts of Thomas,' or 'Acts,' 39-
60.
Adonai, 133.
Adyar, 20, 118.
Afghanistan, 51, 56, 72, 82.
Aggaeus, 34, 35.
Albanopolis, 76.
Alexander the Great, 52, 67, 70,
72, 75, 81.
Alexandria, 56, 65, 66, 74, 91, 96
—Church of, 61, 73.
Andrapolis, 41, 56.
Angamali, 245, 254.
Anjur, 295.
Anjuvannam, 140, 148, 160.
Antioch, 36, 102.
Apocalypse, seven churches of the,
15.
Apostolic succession, 25, 38, 112,
128, 276, 280.
Arab, 177.
Arabia, a home of Jews, 143, 144.
Arabia Felix, 68, 97, 99, 100.
Arabic, 155.

Arachosia, 57.
Aramaic, 70, 71-74.
Arascids, 30, 81.
Arian, 112, 157, 166, 182.
Arsacian, 73.
Asoka, 157.
Assemanus, 228.
Athanasian Creed, 232.
Athanasius, Matthew, 304-327.
Athanasius, St, 63, 92, 93, 94, 95.
Autocephalus, 37.
Auxum, or Axum, 95.
Auxumitse, 100.
Avesta, the, 85.
Babylon, 196, 245.
Babylon, Patriarch of, 105, 107,
108, 110, 111, 112, 261.
Back-water, 4.
Bactria, 72.
Baghdad, 71, 108, 111, 132, 162,
333.
Baradaeus, 266.
Barbosa, Duarte, 125.
Bardesanes, 39, 40, 60.
Bartholomew, St, 62-71, 74, 76,
83, 94— Christians of, 76, 77—
Church of, 77— relicts of, 77.
Beliarte, 179.
Beloochistan, 56.
Berenice, 56.
Bhaskara Rayi Varma, 140, 145.

384

INDEX.

Bishop of Rome, 249, 253.
Brahmans, 5, 6, 8, 19, 67, 69, 75,
145, 157, 158, 166, 182.
Buchanan, Dr Claudius, 11, 12,
134, 137, 139, 142, 219-222,
282.
Buddhism, 145.
Burnell, Dr A. C, 119, 120, 141,
155.
Cabral, 230.
Cabul, 53, 55.
Caesarea Philippi, 29.
Calamina, 59.
Caldwell, Dr, 136.
Caliana, 115.
Caliphs, 108, 184.
Candahar, 53.
Canopic branch of Nile, 56.
Canterbury, Archbishop of, 315.
Cape of Good Hope, 179, 195, 199.
Cappadocia, 96, 98.
Catholicos, 83.
Cattanar, 13, 249, 286.
Cattaneiras, 251.
Celibacy of clergy, 251, 286.
Ceylon, 115, 117.
Chalcedon, Council of, 265.
Chaldean Christians, 107, 110.
Cheraman Perumal, 156, 175, 179.
China, 16, 174.
Church of Antioch, 278.
i, of Babylon, 278.
n of Mailapore, 154.
„ of Malabar, 154, 184, 334.
ii of Mesopotamia, 74.
„ of Persia, 79, 105.
1 1 of Scotland, 151.
i, Syrian, 11, 302, 330.
Church Missionary Society, 230,
282, 285, 288, 301.
Churches, seven, 15.
Clarence, Duke of, 4.
Clement of Alexandria, 64 - 67,
75.
Clergy, Roman, 236.
ii Syrian, 236, 237.
Cochin State, 3, 131, 140, 141,

147, 148, 149, 151, 175, 180,
247, 281.
Coins, Roman, 22.
Commerce between East and
West, 22.
Conjeveram, 118.
Constantinople, 102.
Constantius, 94, 95, 96.
Conversion to Islam, 174, 178.
Copperplate charters, 181.
Coromandel coast, 16, 17, 21,
117, 118, 119, 129, 356.
Cosmas, Indicopleustes, 114, 116,
117, 228.
Cottayam, 120, 284, 287, 291,
302.
Council of Chalcedon, 265.
ii of Ephesus, 105, 243.
Cranganore, 146, 148, 150, 164,
169, 172, 173, 244, 260.
Cross, the Coonen, 259.
Crosses, Persian, three, 114-130.
Ctesiphon, 36, 71.
Cunningham, General, 53.
Cureton, Dr, 33.
Cyriac, St, 253.
Cyril of Alexandria, 243.
Cyrus, 81, 86.
Dellon, M., 202-222.
Demetrius, 62, 63, 65, 66, 67.
Dhruva, 161.
Dhu-Nowas (Dunaan), 100.
Diamper, 247 — Synod of, 187,
225-255, 256, 283.
Dowson, Professor, 55.
Dravidian, 135, 136, 140, 166,
167.
Dura, 77.
Dutch, the, 257, 258, 261.
Eastern Question, the, 153.
Edesius, 90, 92, 93.
Edessa, 29-38, 49, 59, 60, 61, 80,
107, 109, 112, 163.
Encratites, 67.
Ephesus, Council of, 105, 245.
Ethiopia, 94.

INDEX.

385

Euphrates, 29, 30, 81.
Eusebius of Coesarea, 32, 65, 67,
75, 76.
Eusebius of Nicomedia, 98.
Eutychian, 266.
Eutychus, 265.
First Jesuit missionary to India,
198.
First Roman Catholic missionary
to India, 187.
Fort St George, 16, 18, 20.
Franciscans, 244.
Frumentius, 89, 95, 96, 102.
Funeral ceremonies, 294-296.
Gad, 46, 47.
Galen, 109.
Gibbon, 101.
Gnostics, Syrian, 39.
Goa, Archbishop of, 16 — Inquisi
tion at, 198-224— New, 220—
Old, ib.
Gondophares, 41, 44, 47, 50, 53,
54, 56, 58.
Gouvea, 252, 255.
Gouvea's ' Jornado,' 228, 229.
Greeks, 243 — history of the, 78.
Guindy Park, 20.
Gundert, Dr, 140.
Gymnosophists, 67.
Hadrian, 144.
Hardwicke, Archdeacon, 89.
Heber, Bishop, 298.
Hebrew, 70, 152.
Hej'ra, 174.
Hierapolis, 76.
Hieres, 73.
Hildebrand, 251.
Hindu Kush, 57, 81, 82.
Hippolytus, 58, 73.
Homeritse, 97-99, 101.
Hough, Rev. James, 89, 288.
Hulaku Khan, 111.
Hunter, Sir W. W., 68.
Hylobii, 67.
' Hypomnemata Indica, '40.

Ignatius, St, 267.
India west of the Indus, 82, 127
— the Less, 191.
Inquisition, the, 196 — at Goa,
198-224.
Intermediate state, 238, 239. '
Iravi Corttan, 155.
Islam, 100, 144, 176, 178.
Jab Jesus, 36.
Jacobite period, 265-280— Church,
268.
Jainism, 145.
Jains, 157.
Jerome, 67-69, 75, 90.
Jerusalem, 143.
Jesu-Jabus, 107.
Jesuits, 244.
Jews, 68, 69, 71, 98, 143, 179,
212 — Indian, 131, 153 — of
Cochin, 131-153— black, 150—
white, 150, 156, 200.
Jews' Town, 148.
John III. of Portugal, 17.
John of Persia, 79, 80, 83, 88.
Jordanus, Friar, 48, 82, 187-194.
Josephus, Flavius, 54, 72, 73.
Judas, Thomas, 33, 41, 43, 48.
Julian, Bishop, 63.
Justinian, 101.
Kanchi, 118, 161.
Kerala, 146, 155, 165, 169.
Keralolpatti, 162.
Keturah, 98.
Kufic, 155.
Kshatriya, 158, 182.
Kuran, 176.
Latin, 167.*
Law of Brahmans, 7.
n inheritance, 6.
Layard, A. H., 108.
Little Mount, 20, 21, 48.
Lycaonia, 76.
Macaulay, Colonel, 231, 281.
Mackworth, Major, 290.

2 B

386

INDEX.

Madras, 16, 282 — University,
152, 153.
Magi, 85.
Mahabalipuram, 18.
Maharajah, 7, 8, 9.
Mahomet, 101, 144, 189.
Mailapore, 16-18, 118, 119 — origin
of, 128, 129.
Maimonides, 134.
Malabar, 11, 68, 69, 115, 156,
161— coast, 14, 15, 21, 117-
119, 135, 137 — era, 173—
tongue, 247 — Christians, 233.
Malankara, 15.
Malankarai, 3, 4, 9, 273, 279, 297,
336-340, 355.
Malayalam, 178, 247.
Malayali-Hinduism, 157.
Manigramman, 155, 160.
Mapillas, 175, 176.
Maramena Church, 325.
Mardin, 267, 272, 314, 316, 324,
346.
Marignolli, John de, 124.
Maris, 36.
Mark, St, 62, 92.
Marriage, Syrian, 13, 237.
Mateer, Rev. S., 13.
Mattancheri, 152.
Matthew, St, 66-70 — Hebrew
Gospel of, 66, 70, 71, 94.
Mecca, 169, 191.
Menezes, Aleixo de, 20, 245, 251,
252, 254, 255.
Menezes, Archbishop of Goa, 20.
Menezes, Duarte, 17.
Meropius, 90, 91.
Messiah, the, 121, 133.
Metran, 13, 84, 225— native, 293,
377.
Metrodorus, 90.
Middleton, Bishop, 289.
Milan, 76.
Mill, Dr, 290.
Milman, Dean, 144.
Miracles, 49.
Misdeus, 50, 51, 60.
Modain, Al, 36.

Mohammedan, 144, 147, 175, 176,
178, 200, 206.
Monophysites, 267-
Mount, St Thomas's, 119, 130.
,, the Little, 20, 21.
Mukkhadam, 177.
Mulanthuruthu, 319, 343, 351.
Munro, Colonel, 284, 286, 300.
Muruvan, Sapir Iso, 156.
Musalman, 17, 145, 178, 179.
Mygdonia, 50.
Nad, 159, 160.
Najran, 100.
Nascarini, 194.
Native States, 3, 5.
Nayars, 6, 9, 147, 158.
Neander, 68, 69.
Negus, Prince of Abyssinia, 101.
Nellore, 22.
Nestorian Church, 111.
Nestorian Patriarchate, 102, 108
— Patriarch, 232 — heretics,
238.
Nestorianism, Indian, 121.
Nestorians, 106-109, 112, 127,
164, 184, 188, 192, 232, 338.
Nestorius, 105, 106, 248.
New Christians, 200.
Newman, Cardinal, 277.
Nicaea, 79, 83, 334.
Omar, 108, 144.
Origen, 64, 67, 76.
Ormuzd, 86, 87, 88.
Orthagnes, 53, 54.
Osrohene, 29— King of, 31.
Pahlava, 119, 120, 155.
Palamattan family, 273, 312.
Palayakoor, 260.
Pallava, 146, 161.
Palliyar, 160.
Pallur, 252.
Pantaenus, 64-70, 73-75.
Parasurama, 5.
Parthian, 71.
Parthians, 26, 72, 73.

INDEX. 387

Patriarch of Antioch, 267, 297. Rajah, of Cochin, 175, 180— of
Patriarch of Antioch, Jacobite, Travancore, 175, 180.
267, 268, 272, 275, 298, 326, Rashtrakuta, 161.
328, 330, 339. Rasisa, 320.
Patriarch of Babylon, 107, 108, Renan, 40.
110, 111, 248, 254, 261, 336, Roman empire, 101.
337. Rome's first work in India, 187.
Peace, giving the, 13. Rufinus, 90, 93, 94, 96.
Peacock, the, and peacock stories,
124, 130 — a native of India, Sacraments, Roman, 233-237.
124 - 136 — a symbol of St Sadras, 18.
Thomas, 130. Samvatsara, 55.
Peroz, Mar, 164. San Thom<§, 16.
Persia, 106, 115 — Church of, 79, Sapor, Mar, 164.
80, 116, 167. Saracen, 188.
Persian Christianity, 115, 117. n power, 107, 109.
Persians, 116, 164, 165. Sarmanse, 67.
'Persic School,' 80. Sasan, 54.
Perumal, 146, 156, 161, 162, 168, Sasanam, or copperplate charter,
169, 175, 181, 183, 184. 139, 141, 142, 154-168.
Peschito version of the Scriptures, Sassanian dynasty, 80, 81, 82,
10. 107.
Peter, St, 28 et seq., 112, 253, 279. Seleucia, 335.
Pheroses, 107. Seleucia-Ctesiphon, 36, 37, 84,
Philip, St, 76. 107.
Philostorgius, 96-98. Seleucidae, 81.
Phrygia, 76. Semitic, 139, 166.
Pliny, 57. Serapion, 35.
Polo, Marco, 16, 26, 82, 124, 125, Seuj-ud-din, 170.
362, 365. Shahpur II., 85, 87.
Pope of Rome, 243, 246. Sistan, 53.
Portugal, King of, 250. Socrates, 96.
Portuguese and India, 148, 201, Solomon's fleet, 135, 137.
202, 224, 256. Sozomen, 86, 96.
Portuguese language, 247. Sthanu Ravi Gupta, 155, 156.
u Roman Catholics, 21. St James, 12.
Protomartyrs, India's, 188. St Januarius, 20.
Pulicat, 17. Sudras, 5, 158, 182.
Punjab, 53, 55, 72. Syriac, 80, 244— Estrangelo, 120.
Puruwum, 284. h Scriptures, 231, 232, 248.
Puthencoor, 260. Syrian Christians, 69, 150, 156,
192, 227.
Quilandy, 170, 171, 174. Syrian Church, 13, 15, 245, 285.
Quilon, 156, 164, 171, 172, 188, „ defined, 166, 167.
321. Tabriz, 188.
Rabban, Joseph, 141. Taht-i-Bahi, 54.
Rajah, 5. Talmud, 152.

388

INDEX.

Tamil alphabet, 140.
Tamil-Malayam, 155.
Tapharum, 99.
Tara, 159.
Tarasa ©lurch, 156.
Thaddeus, 34, 35.
Theophilus, the Indian, 89, 96, 98-
100, 102.
Tholiyur, 297.
Thomas, St, 15, 16, 19, 21, 24-28,
32, 83, 94, 112, 113, 192, 253,
379 — Mount, 18 — carpenter
apostle, 48, 113 — relics of, 17,
58 — confessions of, 29 — the
apostle of the Parthians, 27 —
apostle of the Indians, 39 —
Christians of St Thomas, 127,
129, 155, 162, 166, 179, 182,
189, 279 — patronage of the
Churches of the East, 38 — sym
bol of, 130— sepulchre of, 237.
Thomas of Cana, or Knaye Thomas,
163.
Tradition, the local, or Indian,
15-26 — primitive, 25 — migra
tion of, 24-26.
Travancore, 3, 4, 7, 9, 13, 140,
151, 175, 180, 281, 302, 316,
318, 321, 324, 336, 361.
Trent, Council of, 203, 227.

Trivandr.um, 3.
Tyre, 92.
Udiamperur, 180.
University of Madras, 152-153.
Vaipicotta, College of, 244, 247.
Vaisakha, 55.
Vaisyas, 158, 182.
Vasco da Gama, 147, 230, 337.
Vedam, the Fourth, 171.
Vellala, 159.
Vikramaditya, 55.
Vira Raghara Chakravarti, 155.
Vishnu, 5.
Vulgate, 231.
Wilson, Bishop, 299.
Xavier, St Francis, 198.
Yemen, 101.
Yesdegred III., 145.
Yusuf, 188.
Zamorin, 131, 147, 162, 175,
178.
Zaphar, 99, 100, 172, 173.
Zoroaster, 86.
Zoroastrianism, 85-87.

PBINTED BY WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS.

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