Book 1  Continuation .....................
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and as to the Ten they shall likewise consult the Learned, to whom they shall declare how Money may be improved in the place where it is lent, that so they may be able to tell them, whether it be lawful for them to take so much, for it may happen that in some places, there will not be so much to be got by the Negotiating of Money, which must make such an high interest to be there unlawful, and whosoever shall take more than Ten per cent. if his Principal runs no risk, after having been three times admonished by the Prelate or Vicar without Amendment shall be declared Excommunicate, and shall not be absolved until he has dissolved the said contract.

The Synod doth condemn the taking of One per cent. by the month, where the Principal runs no risk, being secured by a pledge, and of Two per cent. by the Month, if the one is not payed punctually, such contracts being very unjust and manifest Onzena, or Usury , so that neither the want of a pledge, nor any thing else can justifie the taking of two per Cent. by the month, if the principal is not in danger, all which contracts the synod doth prohibit, and the vicars to give their consent to any such, and where they are made to dissolve them, compelling all that are faulty therein by penalties and censures if it shall be found necessary: The synod doth furthermore condemn their calling all gain arising from Money, Onzena, because it gives occasion for some to imagine that all such gain is unlawful, and notwithstanding such gain is lawful, and may be justly taken in several Cases, to scruple the taking any.

Whereas there are great numbers of Christians who for want of having the fear of god and the church before their eyes, do cohabit publickly with concubines, to the great scandal of Christianity; the vicars shall therefore with great charity admonish all such offenders, three times declaring to them, that if they do not reform, they must declare them Excommunicate, and if after so many Admonitions they do not turn away their concubines, they must be excommunicated until they are effectually parted, and be punished with other penalties at the pleasure of the prelate, according to the time that they have lived in that sin, and when it shall so happen that their Concubines are their Slaves, they shall constrain them not only to turn them out of their Houses, but to send them out of the Country where they live, that there may be no more danger of their relapsing, which shall be likewise observed as to all other Women where there is the same danger.

The synod doth very earnestly recommend it to all Masters and Fathers of Families, to be very watchful over the Lives and Manners of their Slaves and Servants, and the rather for having been informed, that most of the Black Women belonging to Christians in this Bishoprick, do lead very ill Lives in being publick Whores, and known to be such by their Masters, never going to Mass or Confession, and being totally ignorant of the Christian Religion, their Masters taking no care to have them instructed therein, or of the good of their souls, notwithstanding the Obligation they are under of doing it, St. Paul having told us that he that does not take care of his Family, is worse than an infidel. Wherefore the synod doth very much recommend it to the Vicars of Churches to be very watchful over, and to make diligent inquiry into the lives of the slaves that are in their Parishes, and as they shall see occasion to exhort their masters, and oblige them not to suffer their Slaves to live in a sinful state.

Whereas several poor wretched Christians following the custom of the Heathen among whom they live, when they find themselves pinched with any want, do, contrary to all right and reason, sell their children: Wherefore the synod doth in virtue of obedience, and upon pain of the greater excommunication, prohibit all Christians to sell their children, or any of their kindred no not to other Christians, and doth under the same precept and censure forbid all Christians to buy any such, or to keep them as slaves, except when they see parents so far despise this prohibition, as to be ready to sell their children to infidels, in which case they may buy them to keep the Christian children from coming under the power of heathens, whom nevertheless they shall not keep as slaves, but shall forthwith signifie what they have done, to the prelate, that he may take such course therein, that the buyer may have his money, and the child its liberty, and the seller may be punished: all that shall buy such children in any other case as well as those that sell them, shall be held excommunicate until they have effectually dissolved all such bargains; and if the child do happen to be made an infidel, he that sold it shall not be absolved until he has ransomed the said child, or at least until the vicar and people are satisfied of his having done all that he is able to have redeemed it, and the synod doth furthermore recommend it to the vicars and curates of churches, and to all Christian people, that whenever any such thing happens, they do all that is in their power to recover such children, and to ransom them whatever it cost, by contributing money towards it, and by complaining thereof to their kings, and advising the prelate of it, leaving no means untried to rescue such children, that so they may not be bred up infidels.

The synod doth approve of the laudable custom of this Diocess of Mens giving the tenth part of their wives portion when they are married, to the church; as also of that of making a repartition of the said Alms betwixt the Fabrick of the Church and the Priests thereof; and whereas this Custom does not obtain all over the Diocess, and especially in the Southern Parts, the Synod doth intreat and command all people to conform themselves to the same, and willeth that the People among whom this Custom is not as yet introduced, may be obliged to it by their Procurators, there being no reason, since it is observed in the greater part of this Diocess, why it should not be established all over it.

Whereas by the ancient Custom consented to by the Infidel Kings of Malabar, the whole Government of the Christians of this Bishoprick, not only in Spirituals but in Temporals also, is devolved to the Church and the Bishop thereof, who is to determine all differences that are among Christians, and that some dreading the justice and judgment of the prelate in their Controversies, do without any fear of God, carry them before Infidel Kings and their Judges, who are easily bribed to do as they would have them, to the great prejudice of Christianity; the said kings taking occasion from thence to intrude themselves into the Affairs of Christians, by which means, besides that they do not understand such Matters, being Tyrants and Idolaters, they become very grievous and vexatious to Christians; for the avoiding of which, and several other mischiefs arising from thence to Christianity, the Synod doth strictly command all the Christians of this Diocess, not upon any pretence whatsoever, to presume to carry any of their Causes before Infidel kings or their Judges, without express Licence from the Prelate; which, whensoever it shall be judged necessary, shall be granted to them as shall be thought fit in the Lord; but all Causes shall be first carried before the Prelate, that he may judge or compose them according to Reason and justice; and all that shall do otherwise, shall be severely punished for the same, at the pleasure of the Prelate, and be thrown out of the Church for so long time as he shall think fit.

Whereas the Christians of this Bishoprick are subject to Kings and Lords that are infidels, by whom they are many times obliged to handle Bars of hot Iron, or to thrust their Hand into boyling Oil, or to swim thorow Rivers that are full of snakes; reckoning, that if they are innocent, none of those things can hurt them, but will certainly, if guilty of what they are accused: And seeing there are not wanting, some ill-minded Christians, who finding themselves unjustly accused, do voluntarily offer themselves to undergo the said Ordeals for the manifestation of their Innocency; and notwithstanding that it is true that God has sometimes concurr’d with Peoples Innocency and Simplicity in such Cases, by not suffering them to be hurt by such things; nevertheless since for any to offer themselves to undergo such Ordeals, is to tempt God, and to pretend to work a Miracle, which is not lawful, and may sometimes so succeed, as to be a great affront to our Catholick Faith; therefore the Synod doth prohibit all Christians to presume to offer themselves to undergo any such Ordeals, knowing that they sin mortally in so doing, in being guilty therein of tempting God; commanding all that shall transgress therein, to be severely punished. And when it shall happen that any such Ordeals shall be so imposed upon them by their Infidel Princes, that there is no avoiding it, in such cases they shall submit themselves to the Will of God, as to the Injustices and Violences laid upon them by Infidel Tyrants; and in case of any Oath being tendred to them by Infidels, wherein they must swear by their Pagods, they must know that they ought rather to suffer death, than take any such Oath, the taking of an Oath being an act of Worship and Veneration, that is due to God alone: Neither shall Christians use any Ordeals among themselves, or Oaths, but such as were in use in the Church, the foresaid Oaths being what Christians ought to dread more than all the Torments of the World.

Whereas the distinction of the Faithful from Unbelievers, even by outward signs and habits, is a thing which has always been endeavoured, that so the one may be known and divided from the other; therefore the Synod having observed that there is no distinction neither in their Habits nor in their Hair, nor in any thing else, betwixt the Christians of this Diocess and the Heathen Naires, doth command, that henceforward no Christian do presume to bore their Ears, or to do any thing to make them large, except Women, among whom it is an Universal Ornament; and whosoever shall transgress herein, shall be punished at the pleasure of the Prelate, who shall not suffer them to wear an Ornament of Gold or of any thing else in their Ears; and whosoever shall presume to wear any such Ornament, shall be thrown out of the Church, neither shall the Casture be given them until such time as they are brought to yield effectual Obedience, and to leave off all such Ornaments; but as for those whose Ears are bored already, if they are not Children, they may wear what they please, or what they have accustomed themselves to.

The Synod being desirous to rectifie whatever is amiss in this Diocess, and so far as it is possible, to reform all evil Customs; and having observed the great Debauchery of many, and especially of the poorer sort, in drinking Orraca, from whence do follow many Disasters, Murders, and Wounds; wherefore in order to the preventing such Mischiefs so far as is possible, the Synod doth prohibit the selling of Orraca in any Christian Inn, neither shall Christians Trade in that Commodity upon pain of being punished at the pleasure of the Prelate, by which means not only Disorders, but the great communication the Faithful hath with the Heathen in such Inns, will also be prevented.

Whereas it is a manifest injustice to have diverse weights in the
same country, the synod being informed, that in many Markets of this Bishoprick every one sells with what weights they please, doth command, That there be but one weight for the same Merchandize in a Market and all the shops thereof, and that it be the usual weight of the place; to which all that do not yield Obedience, shall be admonished by the Vicars, and if they do not reform thereupon, shall chastised at the pleasure of the prelate, who shall constrain them to the same by Penalties and Censures, if they shall be found necessary; there being no other Government among the Christians of this Diocess but that of the Church, nor no other coercive power but that of Censures.

Whereas an unreasonable custom has obtained in this Diocess,viz. That Males only inherit their Fathers Goods, the Females having no share at all thereof; and that not only when there are sons, but when there are Daughters only, and they unmarried, and many times infants, by which means great numbers of them perish, and others ruin themselves for want of necessaries, the Fathers Goods falling to the Males that are next in Blood, tho’ never so remote or collateral, there being no regard had to Daughters no more than if their Parents were under no obligation to provide for them; all which being very unreasonable, and contrary to the natural right that sons and Daughters have to succeed, to the good of their parents; the Kindred who have thus possessed themselves of such Goods, are bound to restore them to the Daughters as the lawful Heiresses to them; wherefore the synod doth decree and declare this custom to be Unjust, and that the next a-kin can have no right when there are Daughters to inherit their Father’s Estate; and being possessed of such Estates, are bound in conscience to restore them; neither is it lawful for the Males to divide the Estate among them, without giving any equal portion to the Females; or if they have not done it already, they stand indebted for their portions; or if the Father has disposed of the third part of his Estate by will, the remaining two parts shall be equally divided betwixt the sons and the Daughters, the Portions that have been received by those that are married being discounted; all which the synod doth command to be observed, intreating and commanding all the Christians of the Diocess to receive this Decree as a law, and observe it intirely, it being laid as a duty upon their consciences; and if any shall act otherwise, and being a Kinsman, shall seize upon the Goods belonging to Daughters; or being a Son, shall deny to give Portions to his Sisters, or being in possession of the said Goods, shall refuse to make restitution; the prelate, if it cannot be done otherwise, shall compell them to it by Penalties and Censures, declaring them Excommunicate, without any hope of Absolution, until such time as they shall pay an effectual Obedience, and shall make restitution.

The Adoption of sons is not lawful, but in defect of natural Chil-
dren; which not being understood by the Christians of this Bishoprick through their ignorance of the law, they do commonly Adopt the Children of their Slaves born in their Houses, or of other People, disinheriting their lawfully begotten Children, sometimes upon the account of some differences they have had with them, and sometimes only for the affection they have to strangers, all which is contrary to Law and Reason, and is a manifest injustice and wrong done to their legitimate Children; wherefore the synod doth declare, that the said Adoptions must not be practised where there are natural Children, and being done are void, so that the Persons thus Adopted are not capable of inheriting any thing, except what may be left them by way of Legacy, which must not exceed the third of the Estate; no, not tho’ the Adoption was made before there were any Legitimate Children to inherit. The synod doth furthermore declare, That the Adoptions which have been made before the celebration of this synod, where there are children, and the Adopted are not in actual possession of the Estate, are void, neither shall the Adopted have any share thereof, or having had any, shall be obliged to restore it, to which if it be found necessary, the Prelate shall compell them by Pennalties and Censures; but as to those who by virtue of such adoptions, have for a long time been in quiet possession of Estates, the Synod by this Decree does not intend to dispossess them thereof, by reason of the great disturbance and confusion the doing so would make in this Diocess, which is what this Synod pretends to hinder, leaving every one however in such cases, at liberty to take their remedy at Law.

Whereas the way of Adopting by ancient Custom in this Diocess,is to carry the Parties that are to be Adopted before the Bishop or Prelate, with certain Testimonials, before whom they declare, that they take such a one for their son, whereupon the Bishop passeth an Olla or Certificate, and so the Adoption is perfected; the synod doth command, That from henceforward, the prelate do not accept of an Adoption from any that have Children of their own; or in case they have none, yet it shall be declared in the Olla, That if they shall afterwards happen to have any, that the said Olla shall be void to all intents and purposes; by which means the great Injustices that are now so common in this Diocess will be prevented.

The synod being desirous to have all the Christians of this Diocess
to live together in Villages, by reason of the great inconveniencies they are under that live in the Heaths, as well by reason of the great communication they must have with Infidels, as for wanting opportunities of going to Church, and Sacraments, whereby they are kept in ignorance of Christianity, doth in order thereunto very earnestly recommend it to all Christians that live in Heaths, to do all they are able, either to come and live in some Village, or to build new Villages with Churches, that so they may live more civilly, and be separated from the communication of Infidels, and be the better instructed in the Customs of our Holy Catholick Faith, recommending it earnestly to the Vicars to persuade their Sheep thereunto, for the Spiritual profit they will receive thereby: which the Prelate shall also endeavour with all his power.

THe Synod having taken into consideration the manifold Injustices,
Oppressions and Grievances wherewith Infidel Kings and Governours do often treat the Christians of this Bishoprick; and that out of enmity to our Holy Catholick Faith, and observing the necessity they are in of Defence and Protection, doth with great instance desire, That his Majesty the king of Portugal would be graciously pleased to take all the Christians of this Bishoprick under his Favour and 72Protection, he being the only Christian king or Lord in all these Oriental parts; and the Christians of this Diocess shall on their parts be ready at all times to sacrifice their Lives to their Holy Catholick Faith, the preservation of Christianity, and the defence of Christians, which they shall be always prepared to do with their lives and Fortunes; beseeching the most Reverend Metropolitan, President of this synod, to present this their Petition to his Majesty, and to let him know how ready all the Christians of this Bishoprick are to serve him.

Whereas in this synod, Matters pertaining to our Holy Catholick
Faith, the Holy sacraments of the Church, the Reformation of Affairs thereof, and the Customs of Christian people have been handled; the synod doth command all Vicars of Churches not to fail to have all its Decrees Transcribed from the Original Malabar, and to have a Copy thereof in all their Churches, Signed by the Reverend the Arch-Deacon of this Diocess, and the Rector of the College of Vaipicotta, and upon every Sunday and Holy-day, when there is no sermon nor no lecture upon the Catechism set forth by the most Reverend Metropolitan, that a portion of this synod be read to the People; but on the seasons when the said Catechism is ordered to be read, it shall be read on Sundays, and the Synod upon Holy-days, that so all that is decreed therein may come to the knowledge of the people, and may be remembered and observed by them; the Original of the said synod being signed by the most Reverend Metropolitan and all the other Members thereof, shall be put in the Archives of the Jesuites College of Vaipicotta in this Diocess, from whence so many Copies as shall be thought necessary, shall be transmitted to the Churches; there shall also be another Original signed by the most Reverend Metropolitan, the Arch- Deacon, and other Members, kept in the Archives of the Church of Angamale, called the Arch-Bishop’s See, that all Copies may at all times be corrected according to either of those Originals; and the synod doth furthermore recommend it to all Vicars, Priests, and Curates, and to all and every Christian of this Diocess, and commands them all in the Lord to conform themselves to the Decrees of this Diocesan synod , and so far as is in their power, to observe and cause them to be observed inviolably, and to govern themselves by them in all things; which the synod is confident they will do with the help of God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, who liveth and reigneth for ever: Amen.

After the Decrees were read, the Bishoprick was divided into seventy-five Parishes, whose Bounds were greater or lesser as was judged to be most convenient for the administration of the Holy Sacraments, and the spiritual Food of the Faithful; Vicars were also nominated to them all, and the Churches that were not able to maintain a Vicar were united: The Vicars after they were named, were brought in one by one to kiss the Metropolitan’s Hand, who at the same time gave them their collation, declaring to them the greatness of their Authority, and of the Obligations of their Office, and commanding the People to acknowledge them as their Parish-priests and the Shepherds of their Souls. After they had all, one after another, performed this Ceremony, they were admonished all together in the presence of the people by the most Reverend Metropolitan, to comply with the obligations of their Function, and being all upon their knees before him, he delivered the following Charge to them.

‘Venerable and beloved Brethren, and fellow Priests, and particular Pastors of the Faithful, We let you all to understand, that we, tho’ unworthy of it, are in the place of Aaron, and ye of Eleazar and Ehitaman, the lower Priests; we are in the place of the Apostles of our Lord Christ, ye in that of the seventy-two Disciples; we are to give a strict Account of you at the tremendous Day of Judgment, you of the people that are now committed to you : Now that we may be all found good and faithful stewards in our Master’s House, we do admonish and beseech you, beloved Brethren in Christ, to remember what we are about to say unto you, and which is of most importance, be sure to observe it and put it in execution. In the first place we do admonish and beseech you in the Lord, to have your Life and Conversations unblamable, yielding the favour of a good Name, and Example to the People of God, in suffering no Women, and especially those of which the World may entertain any suspicion, tho’ Slaves, to live in your Houses, neither are you to converse with any of the sex; you must not fail to rise every Night to recite the Divine Office in the Church, which must be performed at some certain hour; and after that is done, none of you must say Mass otherwise than fasting, and after Midnight forward, and in the Holy Habits, which must always be kept clean, ye shall receive the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, with all Reverence and Humility, confessing your sins to some approved Confessor, with great contrition and sorrow for them, but especially if your Consciences do check you for any fault you have committed. the corporal and palls must be made of Linen, neither can they without an Apostolical dispensation, be made of any other Cloth, and must be always kept clean. the Holy vessels you are always to wash with your own hands, and that in other clean Vessels dedicated to that use; putting the Water wherein they were washed, either into the Font or into some Cistern dug for the purpose in the Church-yard, and drying them with all diligence. The Altar must be covered with clean Towels, of which at the time of Celebration, there must be at least three with a Corporal, neither must any thing besides Reliques or Sacred things belonging to the Altar be laid upon it. The Missals, Breviaries, and Prayer-Books, must be perfect and entire : Your Churches must be well covered, and both the Walls and Pavements must be kept clean. In the sacristy, or somewhere near to the High Altar, there must be a place to hold water, wherein the Corporals and Holy Vessels are to be washed, as also the Hands of those that have touched any of the Holy Oils; and in the sacristy there must be a Vessel with clean water for the priests and others that have ministred at the Altar, to wash their Hands, and a clean Towel to dry them; the Gates and porches of the Churches must be strong and well shut. None of you shall take the cure of a Church upon you without the Prelate’s knowledge and order, notwithstanding you should be called to it by the people; neither shall any of you leave the Churches you have a Title to, nor be translated to another Church without his Order. None shall presume to hold more than one Church, contrary to the disposition of the Holy Canons. The jurisdiction of no Church shall be divided among many, but every Church shall have its own parish- priest and Pastor. None shall Celebrate any where but in a Church, or with any sort of Arms. None shall give the Holy sacrament to any of another Parish, without leave from their Parish-Priest. In the celebration of the Mass ye shall all observe the same Ceremonies, that there may be no Confusion nor scandal. the Chalice or Patten must be of Gold, Silver, Brass or Tinn, and not of Iron, Glass, Copper, or Wood. The Parish and other Priests must visit and comfort the Sick in their Parishes, Confessing them and giving them the most Holy Sacrament of the Altar, and the Holy Unction with their own hands, admonishing the Sick when they visit them to desire those Sacraments, when they shall judge them necessary. None shall take any Fee for baptizing or for the administring of any Sacrament, or for burying the Dead. No Child shall die without Baptism through your negligence, nor no sick Person without Confession, and the Holy Communion. None of you shall Drink to excess, or be noted for the same, or for being quarrelsom; None of you must bear Arms, nor eat and drink in Taverns and Inns. Ye shall not eat with an Infidel, Mahometan, Jew, or Heathen; neither shall you imploy your self in Hawking, Hunting, or Shooting. What you know of the Gospel of Christ, of the Holy Scriptures, and of good Examples join’d with pure Catholick Doctrine, ye shall deliver to the People on the Lord’s-day and Holy-days, preaching the word of God, to the edification of your Flocks. You must take care of the Poor, and of Strangers and Widows, of the Sick and the Orphans of your several Parishes. You must be sure to keep Hospitality, inviting Strangers to your Tables, therein giving good Example to others. Upon every Lord’s-day before Mass ye shall Bless the Water with Salt in the Church, with which you are to sprinkle the People, taking it out of a Vessel or Pot made for that purpose. Ye shall not pawn any Sacred Vessels or Ornaments of the Church, neither to Heathen nor Christian. Ye shall not take Usury, nor engage your selves in Contracts or Farms, nor in any Secular publick Office; ye shall not alienate the Goods which ye have acquired after ye were in Orders, because they belong to the Church; neither shall ye sell or change any thing belonging to the Church. In Churches where there are Baptismal Fonts, they shall always be kept clean, and where there are none, ye shall have a particular Vessel for Baptism, which shall be put to no other use, and shall be kept in some decent place in the Church or Sacristy. Ye shall teach your Parishioners, and especially the Children, the Articles of the Creed, the Pater Noster, the Commandments of the Law of God and of Holy Mother Church, the Fasts of the four Seasons, and the Vigils. And before Lent ye shall call upon your People to Confess, and shall hear their Confessions with great charity and zeal, for their Spiritual profit. Upon the Feasts of the Nativity, Easter, and Whitsuntide, ye shall exhort all the Faithful to receive the most Holy Sacrament of Christ’s Body, and at Easter at least ye shall take heed that all that are capable do receive it. All quarrels, differences and enmities that shall arise among your Subjects, ye shall endeavour to compose and oblige them all to live as Friends in Christian Charity; and if there be any that give offence by refusing to speak to their Neighbours, being in malice with them, ye shall admonish them thereof, and so long as they continue to behave themselves so, ye shall not suffer them to receive the Holy Sacrament of the Altar. At certain times, but chiefly upon solemn Festivities and Fasts, ye shall admonish Married Men, according to a Holy Council, to abstain from their Wives. None of you shall wear coloured Cloaths, or any Habit but what is grave and decent for Priests to wear. Ye shall instruct your People to forbear Working on Sundays and Holy-days; neither shall ye suffer Women to Sing or Dance in the Church. Ye shall not communicate with any that are Excommunicate, nor presume so much as to Celebrate where any such are present. Ye shall admonish your People not to Marry with any that are contracted to others, nor with their near Kinswomen, nor with any they have stole out of their Fathers Houses; neither shall ye suffer the solemnities of Marriage, and of carrying home a Bride, to be at a time prohibited by the Church. Ye shall constrain Shepherds and other Servants to hear Mass at least every Lord’s-day, and shall admonish God fathers and God mothers to teach their God-children the Creed and Pater Noster, or to appoint others to instruct them. The Chrism or Holy Oil of the Catechumeni, and Sick, shall be kept in the Church under Lock and Key, and in a decent and secure place, of which ye shall give none away, no not by way of Alms, it being a most grievous Sacrilege to do it. Every one of you must have a Catechism, an Exposition of the Creed, and of the Prayers of the Church, conformable to the Exposition of the Holy Catholick Doctors, by which ye may both edifie your selves and others. Ye must also have this Synod, that so you may govern both your selves and your People by its Rules. Ye shall declare the Catholick Faith to all that will learn it. The Introitus to the Mass, the Prayers, Epistles, Gospels, and Creed in the Mass, shall be read with a loud and intelligible Voice; but the Secret Prayers of the Canon and Consecration, shall be spoke slowly and distinctly, but with a low Voice: When ye recite in the Quire, ye must let one Verse be ended before ye begin another, and not confound the Service by chopping it up and jumbling it together. Ye must study to have St. Athanasius’s Creed, which contains the Catholick Faith, by heart, and repeat it dayly: The Exorcisms, Prayers, the order of Baptism, Unction of the Sick, the recommendation of the Soul, and the burial of the Dead, ye must understand and practise, according to the Holy Canons, and the use of the Holy Roman Church, the Mother and Mistress of all the other Churches in the World; as also the Exorcisms, and the consecration of Salt and Water. Ye shall study to understand Singing, and the things that are Chanted in the Church, as also the Rubricks of the Breviary and Missal, that ye may be able to find what you look for; as also the Account of the Moveable Feasts, and of Easter; in which, that you may not be mistaken, ye must be sure to have the Martyrology of the Saints in all your Churches, which we will take care to have translated into Syrian. All which ye shall observe, that so by these and your other good Works, ye may, by the help of God, bring both your selves and your People to that Glory which shall endure for ever, and be bestowed on you through the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit, liveth and reigneth for ever and ever: Amen.

The Speech and Admonition to the Vicars and Priests being ended, the most Reverend Metropolitan commanded them all to Sign the Original Decrees of the Synod, translated into Malabar, desiring them, if they had the least scruple concerning any thing commanded or declared in the Synod, those excepted that have been decreed and decided already, that they would signifie them openly before they Subscribed, that there might be no doubt or controversie about any thing hereafter: So after several Doubts had been considered and satisfied, they did all unanimously Subscribe to the Synod.

Then the Books of the Synod were delivered to the most Reverend Metropolitan, who being in his Pontificals, and seated on his Throne with a Mitre on his Head, Subscribed the said Decrees; which being done, a Table was set in the middle of the chief Chappel, and the Decrees being laid upon it, all that were called to the Synod, as well Ecclesiasticks as Secular Procurators, Signed and Subscribed them with their own hands before the whole Synod and People. The Synod consisted of 813, viz. 133 Priests, besides Deacons and Sub-Deacons, and others of the Clergy, and 660 Procurators of the People, and other principal Men of the Laity, besides the Inhabitants of the Town of Diamper, where the Synod was held, and of several other neighbouring Villages; there were likewise present a great number of Portuguezes, who came along with Don Antonio De Neronha, Governour of Cochim, who together with all the other Magistrates of the City, assisted at the Synod.

The Decrees being Signed, the most Reverend Metropolitan rose up, and having taken off his Mitre, kneeled down before the High Altar, and begun the Te Deum, with which, to the great joy of all that were present, a solemn Procession round the Church was begun, the Quire singing that and some other Psalms, the Latines in Latin, and the Native Priests in Chaldee, and the People their Festivity in Malabar: proceeding to praise God with abundance of tears and joy, in three Tongues in the Unity of the Faith, and Goodwill among them all, for having at last obtained that, which they had so long desired of Almighty God, Three Persons, and one Nature, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, who liveth and reigneth for ever : Amen.

After the Procession was over, the most Reverend Metropolitan going to the High Altar, read the Prayer Exaudi quaesumus, Domine; as it is in the Pontifical; which being ended, he seated himself upon his Throne with the Mitre on his Head, and his Pastoral Staff in his Hand, and directing his Discourse to the People said, I give many thanks to Almighty God the Author of all good things, for this great favour he has vouchsafed to me and you, and all the faithful People of this Bishoprick, in permitting us to celebrate this Synod maugre all the impediments which Satan the enemy of Souls, had created to obstruct it, by stirring up Contentions and Debates on purpose to separate this Christianity from the Union of the Catholick Church, and to keep them in their old Errors, as you all very well know. I do also give many thanks to God, for his having been pleased to order Matters so, that this whole Affair should end with so much Joy, Peace and Concord, as you all see it does, and so much to the sorrow of Infidel and Idolatrous Kings, and of all the other Enemies of our Holy Catholick Faith. I do also thank you my most dear Brethren and fellow Priests and Coadjutors, and you my beloved Sons the Procurators of the People, and all the other Principal Persons who have been present at this Synod, that not regarding the troubles of the Ways and Times, nor the displeasure of the Kings to whom you are subject; you have, as true Christians desirous of Salvation, over-looked all those Inconveniencies, and obeyed our Precept in assembling your selves together to treat about the good of your Souls, for which God will reward you with Eternal Life, if you persevere in the purity of the Faith you have here profest, and which you have been taught by this Synod, and shall conform your Lives and Manners to its Decrees. I trust in the Lord that he will carry you back safe to your Houses, and bless you and your Families and Posterity for ever; which God of his infinite Grace and Mercy grant. Amen.

This Discourse being ended, the most Reverend Metropolitan rose up, and with abundance of tears gave his solemn Blessing to the People, and after that, the Arch-Deacon with a loud voice said, Let us depart in peace; to which the whole Synod answered in the name of Christ, Amen. And thus the Diocesan Synod ended the 26th of June, in the Year 1599, to the Honour and Praise of our Lord Jesus Christ, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit, liveth and reigneth for ever : Amen.

The Synod being ended in conformity to what had been ordained therein, there was given to every one of the Vicars that was nominated to any Church by the most Reverend Metropolitan, a Stone Altar, Consecrated by his Lordship for that purpose, their former Altars not having been duly Consecrated; as also a Box with the Vessels of Holy Oils, together with Directions how to use them: There was moreover a Book of the Administration of the Sacraments according to the Roman use, translated into Chaldee and Syrian, given to every Vicar, and another which contained the whole Christian Doctrine in the Malabar Tongue, for the instruction of Children and others, as also a Surplice to be used in the administration of Sacraments, which was what had never been in use among them; the Churches were also furnished with Corporals, Vestments, Frontals, Cups, and what ever else was necessary to the Ministry of the Altar, all which were wanting in most Churches; and all the Controversies, whether betwixt Corporations or particular Persons, that were brought before the Synod, were decided by the most Reverend Metropolitan and his Assessors, after which they all departed in peace.

The most Reverend Metropolitan, as soon as the Synod was ended, begun his Visitation of all the Churches in the Diocess, in order to put the Decrees of the Synod in execution reciting the principal and most necessary of them in every Church, and delivering the Books, Breviaries, and Missals, as well of the Churches as of particular Persons every where, and burning the Books condemned by the Synod, and correcting others, puting the Vicars in possession of their Churches, who were every where received as such by the People, who settled Revenues upon them; of which, together with what was given them by the most Reverend Metropolitan, they made Ollas, or Instruments in the Churches, creating four Church-wardens, and opening the Church Boxes, and in a word, ordering whatever was necessary to be done. The Clergy, who had not been present at the Synod, made a profession of the Faith, the Confessors were examined, and had Licences given them in writing according to their abilities, and the necessity of the Church, prohibiting all others to hear Confessions: Where there was a Font, they also Baptized all the Children that they found unchristened, and had those brought in that were in the Heaths, where there were many that were Eight and Ten Years old unchristened. They Confirmed the whole People, and Absolved all that were Excommunicate; many of which, according to their custom, had continued so for twenty or thirty Years, and especially for Murther, for which they never grant Absolution, no not at the hour of death; the Metropolitan preached every day to Christians in the Church, and to Infidels (who flocked to see him) in the Church Porch, treating with them about Baptism when he came to say Ingredimini in Sanctam Dei Ecclesiam, several of which he persuaded to turn Christians, who after having learned their Catechism, were Baptized by him at other places: He Catechized the Children in the Malabar Tongue; and finding there was none of them that understood their Catechism, he ordered them to be taught it every day out of Books that were kept in the Church. Finally, where he met with any that were disposed to Marry, he Married them, and gave Orders about every thing else relating to the Synod, which he did in the Form following.

After the most Reverend Metropolitan had been received by the whole People with great Joy and Festivity, according to their fashion, and carried in Procession to the Church, the way as he went being covered with Cloth or Mats, or Boughs of Trees, after the common Ceremony of Blessing and Absolution, the whole People both Men and Women, came with a most profound Humility and Reverence to kiss his Hands, and to yield Obedience to him; he went to Church betimes in the Morning with the whole Clergy and People; where after having Confessed himself before the High Altar, which he did for the great need there was of having those Christians instructed in the Sacrament of Confession, which was in use among them but in few places, he said Mass. When Mass was ended, Father Francisco Roz, Master of the Chaldean and Syrian Languages in the Jesuites College at Vaipicotta, with the rest of the Fathers deputed to that Work, and some of the most learned Caçanares assembled together in the Sacristy, or in some other place appointed, where in obedience to the Excommunication of the Synod, all the Syrian Books were brought before them, as well those that belonged to the Churches, as those belonging to private Persons; all which were emended, delivering those which were condemned by the Synod to the Metropolitan, who burnt them all. The Metropolitan having in the mean time put on his Pontificals, sat down and Preached at length to the People all the necessary Doctrines of Faith and Manners; after which Discourse the chief Decrees of the Synod were published, and a Procession for the Dead was made round the Church, to which such vast multitudes of Heathens resorted to see the Novelty, and the Pontifical Vestments, that they filled the Church-yard and Windows : After the Procession for the Dead was ended, and the Doctrine of Purgatory, and the benefits of praying for them declared, the Metropolitan having seated himself, began a Discourse of the Sacrament of Confirmation, according to the necessities of the People, and after that Anointed all that were present, then he Baptized all the Children of Christian Parents in his Pontificals, and such of the adult Heathens as desired it, who were called together the day before to that purpose. The Metropolitan whenever he came to the words Ingredimini Sanctam Dei Ecclesiam, beginning a Discourse to the Heathens and Naires, that flocked to see the Ceremony performed, who tho’ all Armed with bows and Arrows and other Weapons, and in their own Country remote from the Portuguezes, did quietly and chearfully hear all that he said to them, not only concerning the Faith of Jesus Christ, but also the indignities and hard words which he bestowed upon their Idols and Priests in order to undeceive them: When the Sermon and Baptism was over, the Ecclesiasticks that were not present at the Synod, made a profession of the Faith before the People in the hands of the Metropolitan, and having called all the Children together, and ordering them to kneel round his Chair, he began a Chamaz, or set of Prayers in their own Tongue, which they all said after him, and having Blessed them all, made a Discourse to them suitable to their Age, to the great satisfaction of their Parents, teaching them the Veneration that is due to the most sweet Name of Jesus, to which, agreeable to the Nestorian Doctrine wherein they had been educated, they had payed no manner of Respect: After that he inducted the Vicar in the presence of the People, charging him with the Flock which received him for their Pastor, and where there were any to be Married he Married them; great numbers also Confessed themselves to him, and received the most Holy Sacrament at his hands, among whom were abundance of Ancient People, who had never Confessed themselves before: In the Evening the People assembled together and agreed about the Stipend, they determined to settle upon their Vicar, which was Registred in Ollas, that were to be kept in the Church; and having opened the Money-Box of the Church, they distributed such Alms as they thought necessary. The Metropolitan and the Fathers that were in his Company, having examined the Caçanares, to such as he found to be qualified for it, he granted a Licence in writing to be Confessors; after that he heard all the Complaints and Controversies that were among Christians, and having those four principal Men, with the consent of the Parties, they decided them all according to the Customs of the Country, and the Judgment of the Metropolitan, so as to exclude all farther Process or Appeals; he then Absolved all that were Excommunicate, and several that had lain twenty or thirty Years under that Censure, there being several Cases wherein they were so barbarous, as never to grant Absolution, no not at the hour of Death, injoyning every one such Penances as were suitable to their Faults, omitting nothing that he judged necessary to the good of the Church and People; in all which he was accompanied and assisted by five Jesuites, who were all zealous for the Salvation of Souls, and well skilled in the Malabar Tongue, and two of them in the Chaldee also; they were Father Hieronymo Cotta, Father Jorgye de Crasto, Father Francisco Roz, who is now the most worthy Bishop of that Diocess, Father Antonio Toscano, and Brother John Maria: Father Frey Braz de Santa Maria, a Divine of the Order of St. Austin, was Confessor to the most Illustrious Metropolitan; there were also three Canons of the Metropolitan Church of Goa, and the Metropolitan’s two Chaplains, and several Caçanares that were Natives, who celebrated the Divine Offices both in Chaldee and Syrian, whom the most Illustrious Metropolitan made great use of in several Occasions. In the reduction of this Church to the Catholick Faith, many remarkable things happened, in which God manifested how much that Work was for his Service; and in the Visitation of the Churches there were several Successes of great edification, and that were much for God’s-Praise, which shall, God willing, be written in another place, for his Glory who liveth and reigneth for ever. Amen.

The Letter of Dom Andre Bishop of Cochim,

to the Synod, being Assembled.

Brethren, in my judgment all you who are called the Christians of St.
Thomas, do owe much to God, for his having by means of that Apostle, chose you from among such multitudes of Infidels as the East is filled with, to enlighten your understandings with the Truth, and for having made you, as St. Peter saith, a Holy Nation, a purchased People : For you are not to imagine that your Forefathers did deserve more at the hands of God, than the other Infidels that were their contemporaries, and yet you see how God was pleased to chuse them, and you by their means, when at the same time he left others and their Posterity in their natural Miserys for which there can be no other Cause assigned, but that it was the will of God to extend that Mercy to you and your Forefathers, which he denied to all the other People of these Parts; and what makes this Mercy to be the greater and more Illustrious, is, That God was pleased to bring you to the Faith, not by the Ministry of some obscure Person of small Authority, which has been the Case of many other Christians, but by sending two chosen and beloved Apostles to you, for your greater Honour, and that this Church might justly stile it self Apostolical; a privilege that was granted but to few Churches that are now in being in the World, and which the Metropolitan of Constantinople was long ago ambitious of usurping to himself, if he might have been permitted. But Satan, the great Enemy to all that’s Good, envying the great Glory of this Church, laboured to sow the Tares of Errours and Heresies in this Field of Christ’s, and the Apostle St. Thomas; and so coming from Babylon and the Land of the Chaldeans, he brought along with him some of the Disciples of the perfidious Nestorius to pervert this Church: This Nestorius was condemned as a Heretick in Asia minor, in the City of Ephesus, in a Council of 200 Bishops, and afterwards in a Council of 630 Bishops: He was so wicked and perverse an Heretick, that besides the punishment inflicted on him for his Sins by Men, God also begun to punish him in this Life, giving him as it were an earnest of those Punishments and Torments which he is now suffering in Hell; for besides his being deposed and deprived of his Bishoprick, and Condemned by the forementioned and other following Councils, and Banished by the Sentence of the Emperour Theodosius the II. who then Reigned, to the Desarts of Egypt, and his having his Books burned by the command of the said Emperour before his death, his Tongue with which he had uttered such great Blasphemies, rotted in his Mouth, as did also his whole Body, and being eat up with Lice he expired, surrendring his Soul to the Devil, as Evagrius, a Noble Writer who lived at the same time, relates; and the same is reported of him by Nicephorus, Cedrenus, and other Greek Writers. The Disciples of this cursed Heretick being brought into this Church by the Devil, sowed their Errours in it without being observed by you, who were a simple sincere People; insomuch that St. Thomas when he was on Earth, might have said the same that St. Paul did to those of Ephesus, where Nestorius was afterwards condemned; I know that after my departure greedy Wolves shall come among you, not sparing the Flock : And well might the Pastors you have had among you be called devouring Wolves, who being a base and inconsiderable People, had no other intent but to rob you of all they could, taking Money for Orders, 73Dispensations, for Absolutions, and for all Sacraments and Sacred things, as you very well know; a thing so abominable in the sight of God, that St. Peter the Prince of the Apostles, for this Sin only threw Simon Magus out of the Church, and Excommunicated him, as you may see in the Acts of the Apostles; insomuch, Brethren, that we see that fulfill’d in you, and in your Prelates, who came from Babylon, which was foretold by God so many Years before by the prophet Isaiah, The shepherds themselves had no understanding, they have all gone out of the Way, and from the first to the last are all turned to Covetousness. For God’s sake, Brethren, tell me what sort of Prelates and Bishops could they be, who sought nothing but their own Interest; and who gave Orders and Dispensations, and did everything that belongs to a Bishop, without being Bishops themselves, or so much as Priests or Clerks, but were pure Laicks, as they themselves afterwards confessed : What Dispensation, what sacrament, what Grace, could he who was dispensed with and ordained, receive from those who were no Bishops, nor so much as Clerks, but pure Laicks, nay Lascares, in whose Habit they came out of their own Country. Brethren, this is the Fruit which they send you from Babylon, Hereticks and pure Laicks, and Barbarians for Bishops : Tell me what has Malabar to do with Babylon, and what correspondence is there betwixt the most pure Doctrine of Christ, which was preached to you by the great Apostle St. Thomas, and the barbarous Errours which were brought hither by Arabians and Chaldeans from Babylon; and from their Master and Apostate Nestorius? Believe me, Brethren, these are they of whom St. Paul spoke in his Epistle to his Scholar Titus, That there should come Men teaching what they ought not to teach, for filthy lucre : And so it fell out for these Men, that they might not lose the Profits and Honours they were unjustly possessed of, did all they could to put into your heads that the Doctrine of St. Peter was different from that which had been taught you by St. Thomas: It is true that the Doctrine of the Apostle St. Peter is contrary to the Heresies that have been brought hither from Babylon, but not what was preached here by St. Thomas: For what St. Thomas, that also St. Peter taught, and Christ himself and all his other Disciples taught; for as St. Paul saith, there is one Lord, one Faith, one Baptism, and one Church, of which Christ is the Head, and that on Earth St. Peter and his successors the Bishops of Rome: For that St. Peter and his successors are the Head of the whole Church 74on Earth is plain, from what Christ before his passion promised St. Peter, as it is recorded in the 16. Chap. of St. Matthew, where Christ, after having examined his Faith, said to him, Thou art Peter, and upon this Rock I will build my Church, and I will give thee the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, &c. Words which he spoke to 75none of the rest of the Apostles, but to St. Peter only. And St. John in the last Chapter of his Gospel tells us, That Christ, after his Resurrection, having asked St. Peter if he loved him more than all other things, and, St. Peter had answered, that he knew very well that he did, said to him three several times, Feed my Lambs, feed my Lambs, feed my sheep : By which words he made him the universal pastor of his Sheep, and after him all the Bishops of Rome who were to succeed him in that Office; for Christ has but one Fold for all his Sheep, and one only Church: and so in the Creed that is sung in the Mass, we say, I believe in one Holy and Apostolical Church : and so Christ her spouse said of his Church in the Canticles, My Dove, my perfect, is but one; that is to say, my Dove, my perfect, which is the Church, is but one : And St. John in his 10th. Chapter tells us, that the Son of God speaking to his Disciples concerning his intent of calling the Gentiles to his Faith, said, I have other sheep which are not of this Fold, whom I must bring in, that there may be one Fold and one Shepherd. Now that Fold wherein the Jews and Gentiles were to concurr in one only Faith, is the Catholick Church, and that Shepherd was St. Peter, and all his Successors the Bishops of Rome; every one of which as he is Bishop of Rome; is the universal Pastor of the 76whole Church of God, insomuch as that all who will not be subject to him, are not of the number of the sheep of Christ, but are without the Fold of the Church, being Schismaticks and Hereticks, for such are all who are disobedient to the Roman Church; in which Roman Church there never was nor will be any error in Faith, by reason of Christ’s promise, who, as St. Luke reports, speaking to St. Peter, said to him; I have prayed for thee, Peter, that the 77Faith of thy Church may never fail : The faith of other particular Churches, as we have seen, may fail, but the Faith of the Roman Church has never failed nor never will. Wherefore, Brethren, fasten your selves close to this firm Pillar of the Roman Church; against which, according to our Saviour’s Promises, the Gates of Hell shall never prevail; which Gates are the Heresies that are, and have been in the World : You ought therefore to render many thanks to God, for his having relieved you at this time, by sending you the Lord Arch-Bishop for a Spiritual Pastor and Master, who having left his Dwelling, and quiet is at all this Trouble, only for the sake of your salvation, and to rescue you from the errors you have hitherto lived in : For I know and am certain, that he is one of those Pastors which God spoke of by Jeremiah; And I will give you Pastors according to my heart, and they shall feed you with knowledge and Doctrine. Hitherto you have been fed with Errors and Ignorances, and your Pastors have sought gain, and not the Salvation of your Souls: This Pastor, as you see, does not come to take any of your Goods from you, but to spend his own for your profit, and to put you in the right way to Heaven and salvation: From 78whence you may clearly perceive the great difference there is betwixt him and those other Pastors, or to speak more properly, those Wolves, which you have had hitherto among you, as our Lord saith, in Sheeps cloathing. Hitherto your Errors have had some excuse, because you could know no more but what your Masters taught you; whereas from henceforward, you shall have no manner of excuse, neither before God nor Man, if you do not become such, as all that love you desire you to be. The faith and Doctrine that has been preached to you by the Arch- Bishop, is the Faith of all the Christians in the Indies, and of all Clerks and Religious in these parts, and which all Portugal, Spain, and in a word all 79Christendom holds. This is the Faith that was taught by the Son of God, the Faith that St. Thomas preached, and was preached also by St. Peter and the rest of the Apostles; and if any shall teach the contrary, let him be, as St. Paul saith, Anathema, and Excommunicated and expelled the Society of the Faithful, as he is from Christ, his Faith and Grace. The Lord give you a perfect knowledge of himself , as it is desired by your Brother in the Lord. Writ at Cochim the 28th of June, 1599.

Your Brother in the Lord,

Bishop Frey ANDRE.

 

To the most Illustrious and Reverend Lord Dom Andre, the most worthy Bishop of Cochim; The Diocesan Synod of the Christians of St. Thomas of the Bishoprick of the Serra, assembled in the Town of Diamper, wisheth eternal health and Prosperity in our Lord.

OUr most Reverend Metropolitan ordered your most Illustrious Lordship’s Letter to this Synod to be read in a full Assembly of
the Priests and People; and having heard and understood it, we rejoiced exceedingly in the Lord, to perceive that the Holy Doctrine taught us by your Lordship, is the same with that our Metropolitan has preached in all our Churches, and has declared in this Synod, as also the same that is preached by the fathers all over this Diocess, by which means we are the more confirmed in the Catholick Faith, and the Obedience we owe to the Holy Roman Church, our true Mother, and to our Lord the Pope, the Successor of St. Peter, and Christs Vicar upon Earth, as is manifest from the Acts of the said Synod, signed by Us, as your Lordship may see; and if we have hitherto been wanting to our Duty in these Matters, it did not proceed from any Obstinacy of Mind, or from any Inclination we had to be Hereticks, or Schismaticks, but purely for want of the Light of true Doctrine and healthful and Catholick Food, which was not given us by our Prelates, but who did instead thereof, poyson us with the false Doctrines of Nestorius, and several other Errors; from which we are now, by the Divine Mercy, rescued; and by the goodness of God, and the Ministry of our Metropolitan, enlightened: from whence also rose the Rebellion which was made by us, when the Truth began to be first preached to us; as also all the Troubles and Vexations that we gave to our Metropolitan, and the manifest Dangers we exposed him to; for all which we are now heartily sorry, and do dayly more and more lament it: But whereas God has been pleased to enlighten us with his Doctrine, the Metropolitan being discouraged by none of those things to go on preaching in our Churches, the light of the Truth coming to us by that means, we have cordially embraced, and have with an unanimous consent and great alacrity, made profession thereof in this Synod; having also put the Affairs of our Church in the best Order we were able, and submitting our selves to the judgment of our Metropolitan Mar Aleixo, who as our Master, has instructed us in all things: But whereas his Lordship, after his Visitation of this Diocess is over, is to go to reside in his 80own Diocess, which we take notice of to our great Sorrow, by which means we shall want a Special Protection; we do therefore beg, that until such time as God shall be pleased to send the Pastor among us, which we expect from the Holy Apostolical See, your Lordship, as being the Prelate that lives nearest to us, and from whom and your Predecessors, this Church has received so many Favors, would be pleased to take us under your protection, and to concern your self in all our Affairs, and to favour the Prelate, which the Metropolitan with his wonted kindness and benignity to his Flock, intends to leave among us. And seeing your most Illustrious Lordship in your Charity has been pleased to favour us with a Letter, we take confidence from thence, to beg of you, That whereas our Priests, both for their Spiritual Consolation, and other Necessities, do frequently resort to your City and several parts of your Diocess, where it will be necessary for them to say Mass, which they have hitherto been hindred from doing, by reason of their not being in a perfect Union with the Holy Mother Church of Rome; we now being in such an Union, as much as can be desired, the Synod doth humbly beseech your Lordship that you would be pleased to give leave to such of our priests as have a Licence from our Prelate to say Mass in your Churches, at least the Roman translated into Syrian, that it may appear thereby that we are all one in the Unity of one only Catholick Church; and that the division which Satan had made betwixt us, and most other Churches is at an end, all Churches making one onely Catholick Church, as your Lordship has clearly taught us, as a vigilant Pastor, in your learned Letter. The Lord preserve your Lordship’s most Illustrious person, and prolong your years, for the good of the Church and the profit of the Sheep of Christ. Writ in the Synod of Diamper the 25th. of June, 1599.

Praise be to God.

The Mass that is henceforth to be used by the ancient Christians of St. Thomas of the Bishoprick of Angamale in the Serra of Malabar, in the East-Indies, purged of the Nestorian Errors and Blasphemies it abounded with, by the most Illustrious and Reverend Dom Frey Aleixo De Menezes, Arch-Bishop of Goa, and Primate of the Indies, at the time when he reduced them to the Obedience of the Holy Roman Church. Translated word for word out of Syriack or Syrian, into Latin.

Among the other things which the most Reverend Arch-Bishop of Goa, and Primate of the Indies, Dom Frey Aleixo de Menezes, put in Order in the Diocesan Synod, assembled by him in the Bishoprick of Angamale of the Serra of Malabar, of the Christians of St. Thomas, in which he purged the Church of the Nestorian Heresies, and reduced it to the Obedience of the Holy Roman Church; one of the chief was the reforming the Syrian Mass, which was said in the Chaldee Tongue in this Bishoprick, which having been composed or inlarged by Nestorian Hereticks, was full of Errors and Blasphemies both in the Prayers and Commemorations of Nestorius, Theodorus, and Diodorus, and several other Nestorian Hereticks, to whom as to Saints, they prayed, for to intercede for them : And whereas this People was in a profound Ignorance, nay the very Bishops, who came from Babylon, not knowing the true Form of Consecration, all of them adding to it and taking from it at their pleasure; there being no certain particular Form of Consecration among them, until a certain Arch-Bishop came who had more knowledge than the rest in Ecclesiastical Matters, and the Holy Scriptures; who perceiving that the Form wherewith they Consecrated, contained in it some Errors, contrary to the Truth of the Divine Sacrament, did establish the true Form, adding some words to it, both in the Consecration of the Body and Blood, in contradiction to the Error and Heresie of those who say that the Sacrament is only the Figure of the Body of Christ our Lord. From whence it is more than probable, the Hereticks of our Times, the revivers of the Errors of all the ancient condemned Sects, took this Opinion. The Form established by the forementioned Arch-Bishop was, This is in truth my Body; this is in truth the Cup of my Blood, which was shed for you and for many, for the propitiation and remission of your Sins; and this shall be a Pledge to you for ever and ever; in which Form they have now Consecrated for several years. But the most Reverend Arch-Bishop Primate, having removed the words that are not necessary, established the proper Form used in the Catholick Church, as it is in the Roman Missal, laying aside divers and Sacrilegious and ignorant Ceremonies also, which signified some Heresies and Errors that were amongst them : And having thus reformed their Mass, he continued it however in its ancient Form, until such time as he had consulted the Apostolical See about it, to know what our Lord the Pope would determine in that Matter; many of the emendations are noted in the Synod, Dec. 10. Act. 5. of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, and in the Action of Matters of Faith, where they are to be seen; I shall here present the Curious only with the Mass reformed, and as its said among them at this time.

I Have Published this Preface for the sake of the Testimony that is therein, of this Church’s not having believed Transubstantiation, but have forbore to Print the Missal it belongs to, because it is the Missal that was imposed upon this Church by Arch-Bishop Menezes, or their Old Missal, so altered and mangled by him, as to be truly what Father Simon calls it, A confused indigested Office, and withal very tedious.

FINIS

1 He was afterwards made Bishop of the Christians of St. Thomas.

2 Purgatory.] John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, in his 18th Article against Luther, does acknowledge the Doctrine of Purgatory to be an Article of Faith of no long standing in the Church. Multa (inquit) sunt de quibus in primitiva Ecclesia nulla quaeslio factura fuerat, quae tamen posteriorum diligentia, subortis dubitationibus jam evaserunt perspicua. Nemo certe jam dubitat Orthodoxus an Purgatorium sit, de quo tamen apud priscos illos nulla, velquam rarissima fiebat mentio, sed & Graecis ad hunc usque diem, non est creditum Purgatorium esse. Legat qui velit Graecorum veterum Commentarios, & nullum. (quantum opinor) aut quam rarissimum de Purgatorio sermonem inveniet. Quamdiu enim nulla fuerat de Purgatorio cura; Nemo quaesivit Indulgentias, nam ex illo pendet omnis Indulgentiarum existimatio; quum itaque Purgatorium tam sero cognitum ac receptum Ecclesiae fuerit universae, quis jam de Indulgentiis mirari potest quod in principio nascentis Ecclesiae nullus fuerat earum usus, coeperunt igitur Indulgentiae, postquam ad Purgatorii cruciatus aliquando trepidatum est.

3 The Souls of the Just.] This was the common opinion of the Ancient Fathers; namely, Irenaeus at the end of his 5th Book; Justin. Quest. 76th. Tertullian in his 4th Book against Marcion; Origen in his 7th Homily upon Leviticus, and a great many other places; Lactantius in the 21st Chap. of his 7th Book; Victorinus in his Commentary upon the words, I saw under the Altar; Ambrosius in his 2d book of Cain and Abel; Chrysostom in his 39th Homily upon those words, If in this life only, in the Ist to the Corinth. The Author of the Imperfect Work, in his 34th Homily upon St. Matthew; Austin in his Enarration upon the 36th Psalm; Theodoret in his Commentaries upon the 11th to the Heb. Oecumenius in his Commentaries upon the same place; Theophylact in his Commentaries upon the 23rd of St. Luke; Aretho on those words, How long, O Lord, & c,. Euthymius upon the 23d of St. Luke; and Bernard in his Sermon upon All Saints day: And to Pope John the 22d being charged with having believed this Doctrine, Bellarmin returns the following Answer, Joannem hunc 22dum. revera sensisse Animas non visuras Deum nisi post resurrectionem, caeterum hoc sensisse quando adhuc sentire licebat sine periculo Haeresis, nulla enim adhuc praecesserat Ecclesiae definitio. Which confession makes the Doctrines of praying to Saints, and of Purgatory and of Indulgences, to be very new Articles of Faith.

4 Images.] Gyraldus, a Learned Papist, in the 18th page of the History of the Gods, speaking of Images in the Church of Rome, saith, At de istiusmodi magis mutire possumus, quam palam loqui, idcirco satius ea fuerit Hippocrati & Angeronae consignare; illud certe non praetermittam, Nos dico Christianos ut aliquando Romanos, fuisse sine Imaginibus in primitiva, quae vocatur, Ecclesia.

5 Theodorus.] They should not have been so hard upon Theodorus, for Pope Honorius’s sake, who by Name was condemned together with him by the 5th. General Council; and I am mistaken, if Pighius, and some other Popish Writers, have not for that very reason laboured hard to vindicate Theodorus’s Memory.

6 Diodorus.] Du Pin in his 4th. Century of Christianity, p. 189. saith: as to what concerns his Doctrine of the Incarnation, we could better judge of it, if we had his Books; but there is no great probability, that one who was praised, esteemed and cherished by Meletius, St. Basil, St. Gregory Nazianzen, St. Epiphanius, and even by St. Athanasius, and his Successors Peter and Timothy of Alexandria; who was also considered in a General Council as one of the most Learned and most Orthodox Bishops of all the East; and in short, who was Master to St. Chrysostom, should be guilty of so gross an Error as that of Nestorius. ’Tis true, that he had for his scholar Theodorus of Mopsuestia, and that he was accused of the same Error with Nestorius, and that he was condemned as convicted of this Error after his Death in the 5th. Council. But besides, that there have been some Persons who have undertaken to justifie him: Yet if it should be granted that he was guilty of this Error, it would not follow that he learned it of his Master, since we daily see Heretical Disciples who have had Orthodox Masters. Should not the Faith of St. Chrysostom rather serve to justify Diodorus, than the Error of Theodorus to condemn him?

 7 Pagninus Gaudentius, a Learned Papist, in his 2d. Book De Vita Christianorum, makes this Judicious reflection upon the Church of Rome’s long Creed, Mirabitur aliquis, cum tam late pateant limites Theologiae Christianae, Scriptores Vetustissimos, quique floruerunt ante Constantinum, brevi admodum ratione, non multisque effatis complecti praecipua Capita Christianae Religionis, Summamque Mysteriorum quae tradita sunt ab Apostolis: Lege Justinum, Tertullianum & observa quam parci sunt, duin referunt quid divina fide sentiant Christiani : Sed subsecuta secula tam multa definierunt, & addiderunt, ut ingentia volumina nunc nostram complectantur Theologiam : ei ergo, qui de vita Christianorum ante tempora Constantini agit, danda opera est, ut exponat incrementum Dogmatum Catholicorum; quod tamen nescio annon offensurum sit aures nostras.

8 There is no Christian Church besides the Roman, and a handful of Maronites, who put together, are not the fourth part of Christendom, but what deny this Supremacy, and do with Pope Gregory I. condemn it as an Antichristian and Heretical Usurpation. It is nothing so much as this Magisterial Pride of the Roman Church that makes the Papists to be by much the most generally hated Sect of People in the whole World; for not to speak of the Jews, Mahometans and Heathens, who hate them infinitely beyond all other Sects of Religion, the Greek and Alexandrian Christians have them in such detestation, as to reckon an Altar defiled by a Roman Priest’s having celebrated thereon : And for the Muscovites, Possevinus tells us, their greatest imprecation is, I hope, to live to see thee so far abandoned, as to turn Papist. The Abbyssin Christians, as Godinus tells us, do not only condemn the Romanists as Hereticks, but do affirm, that they are worse than Mahometans, and in the 28th. Chap. of the first Book of Archbishop Menezes’s Visitation, it is said that the chaldaean and Malabar Christians did so abhorr the Pope, that they could not endure so much as to hear him named.

9 Virtue.] if there is nothing of virtue in one image more than another, why do people go so many hundred miles to pray to some particular images of the virgin Mary, when there is scarce a church or chappel in their way, wherein there is not an image of her.

10 Heathens.] The learned Heathens made the very same declaration concerning their worshipping of images.

11 Latria.] The saying that this Latria, or Supream worship is only Relative, cannot excuse it from being Idolatrous, without excusing the grossest worship among the Heathen, it being impossible in nature to give any other worship, than what is relative to an Image, when worshipped as such.

12 Seem to favour them.] It is hard to give any other reason than this, why the Church of Rome, tho’ since the time of the Council of Trent, she has corrected some hundreds of Errors in the Vulgar Latin, did not think fit to correct that in the 3d. of Genesis, which they apply to the Virgin Mary; nor that in the 11th of Isaiah, which they make use of to promote Pilgrimages to Jerusalem; nor that in the 11th. to the Hebrews, which seems to make for the Adoration of Images; nor that in the first Chapter of the 2d. Epist. of St. Peter, which seems to give some countenance to the Invocation of Saints.

13 Transmigration.] This was not the Doctrine of this Church, as appears plainly from what is said in twenty places of this Synod, of her believing, that the Souls of the Just departed this Life, were in a Terrestrial Paradise, where they were to remain till the day of Judgment.

14 I am very apt to believe that they are here falsely accused of attributing all things to Fate, for no other reason but because they believed Predestination; which if it was so, Arch-Bishop Menezes, who was himself an Austin Fryar, shewed but little respect to the Memory of his pretended Father, in making Predestination and Fate to be equally destructive of humane Liberty.

15 This is an Error that Justin Martyr, Clemens Alexandrinus, and others of the Philosophical Fathers seem to have been in.

16 grievous sin.] How does this consist with their having so many crosses in their churches, and houses, as they tell us they had; or with their administring the sacrament of the Eucharist; or with their preaching that it was Christ, and not the son of God, that suffered upon the cross.

17 has not as yet determined] It is much she has not, since the invention of the Holy Reliques in the mountains of Granada, among which there was a book in Arabick of S. Cecilius, who was consecrated bishop of Eliberis by St. peter and St. Paul at Rome, with this Title, de Dono Gloriae & Dono Tormenti; in which there is the following definition of the immaculate conception made by all the apostles, being met together to solemnize the exequies of the blessed virgin: illa virgo Maria, illa sancta, illa electa a primo, originarioque peccato praeservata fuit, & ab omni culpa libera; atque haec veritas Apostolorum concilium est, quam qui negaverit, maledictus & excommunicatus erit, & salutem non consequetur, sed in aeternum damnabitur: All which Reliques, and this book among the rest, were after a severe and impartial examination, approved of, and received as genuine, by a late provincial synod in Spain.

18 Two different.] by all this which the synod calls two laws, the Christians of St. Thomas meant only,. That the churches planted by the apostles in divers regions, had nothing of superiority or jurisdiction over one another; which is a most certain and ancient truth.

19 at this time burning] This rash Judgment brings to my mind what the Conde de Ereicera, in his History printed about fourteen years ago at Lisbon, said of King Charles having spent some time in Devotion upon the Scaffold, that seeing he died a Heretick, that Devotion was of no other benefit to him, but as it prolonged his life a few minutes : But tho’ our Princes, for I have reason to believe they heard of it, did not think fit to resent this Sauciness, as well as Impiety, so far as to have the Author questioned for it; yet it would seem that God would not suffer it to go long unpunished; who a few years after, suffered that great Minister to go out of the World after such a manner, that they must have a great deal of Charity indeed, that can think well of the future state of his Soul; for the unhappy Man Murthered himself; which is a thing that very seldom happens in Portugal.

20 followers of such] The Church of Rome is not without Hereticks in her Martyrologies, and Calendars; for, not to speak of Eusebius Caesariensis, St. George, Lucifer Calaritanus, Barsanuphius, and others; the Learned Valesius, in his Tract of the Roman Martyrology, gives the following Account of Theodotus Bishop of Laodicea;Jam vero illa quae in dicto Martyrologio, Adonis sc. & Roswedi, leguntur secundo die Novembris Laodiceae Theodoti Episcopi, qui arte Medicus fuit, descripta sunt ex Ruffini, lib 7. cap. ult. Sed Compilator iste non animadvertit Theodotum hunc Laodiceae Episcopum, cujus eo loco laudationem intexuit Eusebius Arianarum partium praecipuum fautorem fuisse; quippe qui & ab initio Arianum dogma tutatus est, & post Nicaenum Concilium, conspiratione cum Arianis facta, Eustathium de Antiochena sede dejecerit; ut seribit Theodoretus lib. 1. hist cap. 24. Hic est Theodotus cui Eusebius libros suos de Praeparatione Evangelica nuncupavit; & cujus meminit Suidus in voce, ’apcllinaVi Idem quoque Error irrepsit in Martyrologium Romanum, quod Patrum memoria, jussu Sixti quinti editum, & Baronii notationibus illustratum est; nec satis mirari possum quonam modo id Baronii diligentiam fugerit. Furthermore, The Church of Rome has several Saints in her present Calendars, and Martyrologies, that were never in being, or were never of humane race; and here not to mention St. Almanakius, or St. Almanak, upon the 1st. of January; nor St. Zinoris, on the 24th. of the same Month; on the 24th. of July, in the present Reformed Roman Martyrology, it is said, Amiterni in vestinis Passio Sanctorum Militum Octoginta trium; among whom (as Baronius learnedly observes) Florentinus and Foelix were two of the most Eminent. Now in the ancient Martyrology published by Maria Florentinus, it is said upon the same day; In Amiternina civitate Miliario 83o ab urbe Romana via Salutaria natalis Sancti Victorini; and in another ancient one, called Martinianum, it is writ, In Amiternina civitate Mil. 83 ab urbe Romana via Salutaria Sancti Victurini; and in the Queen of Sweden’s Martyrology, is writ, In Amiterna civitate Mil. 83 ab urbe Roma Sancti Victurini; and in the Corbey Martyrology, thus; In Amiternina civitate Miliario Octogesimo tertio ab urbe Roma via Salutaria natalis Sancti Victorini Martyris. So that here we have Eighty-three Italian Miles Canonized, and made Eighty-three Martyrs, and Souldiers, with their captain and Lieutenants Names.

21 Suck in Idolatry.] They would have done well to have considered, whether the introducing of the Adoration of Images into a Christianity that was planted amidst Heathens, and under Idolatrous Princes, how Innocent soever it may be in other places, was safe or not in Malabar, before they did it, and whether the reconciling them to Images might not dispose them to Heathenism.

22 The less for it in Hell.] This of fixing something that is justly abominable to all Mankind, upon her Adversaries, has been the constant practice of the Church of Rome : So the Emperor Michael Balbus, because he was an Enemy to Image-worship, is said to have laughed at the Prophets, not to have believed there were any Devils, and to have placed Judas among the Saints; the Templars, upon the Pope and the French Kings conspiring together to destroy their Order, are said to have obliged all their Novices to blaspheme God, to renounce Christ, the Virgin Mary, and all the Saints in Heaven, to spit and trample upon the Crucifix, and to declare that Christ was a false Prophet; the Albigenses are said to have held it lawful to deny their Faith, when interrogated upon it by a Magistrate, to have held, that promiscuous Venery was lawful, but that Matrimony was Hell and Damnation; that the Souls of Men were as Mortal as their Bodies; that the way of choosing their chief Priests, was by tossing an Infant from one to another, and that he in whose hands the Infant expired, had that Office, and that the Devil was unjustly thrown out of Heaven.

23 Flos sanctorum.] Let their legends be as fabulous as they will, I am sure they cannot be worse than those of the Church of Rome; namely, her Flos sanctorum, which is certainly the dullest romance that ever saw the sun.

24 fabulous miracles. ] For people not only to condemn that in others, which they themselves are visibly and infinitely more guilty of; but to do it with the Air, and assurance of an unquestionable Innocency, cannot be denied to be no common privilege; for were all the false miracles, that have been pretended to be wrought by all the other sects. of religion, put together, they would fall infinitely short of what may be met with in any single saint’s life, or in confirmation of any single doctrine of the church of Rome; most of which too, are what canus said of them, rather Monstra Miraculorum than vera miracula, or anything else.

25 Superstitious exorcisms.] I do not think they had an exorcism in any of their books, that was more absurd than that we meet with in the sacerdotale Romanum, printed at Venice no longer ago than the year 1576. where the priest when he meets with a sullen devil, that will not tell his name, nor give any account of himself, is order’d to fall upon him with praecipio tibi sub poena excommunicationis majoris & minoris, ut respondeas, & dicas mihi Nomen & Diem & horam exitus tui: I shall not make that reflection upon this exorcism, which is very obvious at the first hearing of it: It was with some such exorcism as this, doubtless, that they got out of the devil that raised the terrible persecution in Japan, that he was sent thither from England, where he had been employed a great many years in persecuting of Roman Catholicks; upon which the Jesuit Luvs pineyro, the writer of the persecution, makes this grave remark; That doubtless it is with Devils as it is with men; that some of them have particular talents for some particular works; and that this devil’s talent must doubtless have lain chiefly towards the raising of bloody persecutions against Catholicks, and the Christian Faith.

26 In the most holy Sacrament.] The Christians who live scattered about Mesopotamia and assyria, and whose patriarch resides at the Monastery of St. Raban Hurnez the Persian, in the gordyaean Mountains, 40 miles above Niniveh, tho’ Eutychians, and for that reason Enemies to the Chaldaean Christians, do agree with them in denying Transubstantiation, as appears from the following Prayer taken out of their Missal, and communicated to me by my Learned Friend Dr. Hide. Angeli & homines laudabunt te, O Christe, Sacrificere pro nobis, qui per Sacramenta, quae sunt in Ecclesia tua, docuisti nos, secundum magnificentiam tuam, quod sicut in Pane, & Vino Natura sunt a te distincta, in Virtute &potentia idem sunt tecum. Sic etiam Corpus quod a nobis, distinctum est a verbo in substantia, cum illo tamen qui accipit illud, adunitum est in magnificentia & potentia. Sic credimus & non metuimus ab iniquitate, quod in uno (sc. una Hypostasi) sit filius fatemur, & non est duo sicut improbi, (id est, sicut dicunt Nestoriani) non enim in completionibus sacrificii, corpus & Corpus frangimus,sed unum per fidem, sicut docuisti nos in Evangelio tuo, laus tibi qui per Sacramenta tua, instruxisti nos ut lausemus nomen tuum.

27  Such Oaths.] We may see by this what doughty securities, promises, or oaths made to defend a church that is not popish, are, in the opinion of papists.

28 Presided.] St. Cyril presided in the Ephesan Council in his own right, being the only Patriarch that was present at it.

29 Holy Council of Trent.] Justinianus, a Noble Venetian, in the 15th Book of his History of Venice, gives the following account of the Holiness of the Trent Council : Religionis causa in Tridentino Concilio parum prosperos successus habebat, ob dissentientes animos, coecamque Praelatorum ambitionem. Solus autem Cardinalis Lothoringius, Vir pietatis Studio, & dicendi arte clarus, quae ad Dei honorem, & veram Ecclesiae reformationem essent, suadebat; cui plerique ex Concilii Patribus, humanarum potius rerum, quam divinarum curam habentes, refragabantur: variisque opinionibus Sancta Synodo dissidente, nil quod rectum, sanctum, piumque foret, decerni potuit, omniaque confusione, & coecitate plena erant, tantaque Praelatos ambitio coeperat, ut nulla apud eos fidei, Religionisque pro vera Ecclesiae reformatione ratio haberetur.

30 Inquisition.] This agrees with what Paul the IIId. said of the Inquisition upon his Deathbed, that it was the Pillar of the Church of Rome; if he had been in his Chair he could not have delivered a greater truth. A Heathen Roman Synod would never have been guilty of calling that an Upright and Just Court, which neither suffers its Prisoners to know the particular Crime whereof they are accused, nor the Persons that accuse them, nor the Witnesses that depose against them, Acts 25. ver. 16. I referr those that have a mind to be satisfied of the Justice of this Court, to the History of the Inquisition of Goa, which was the Inquisition this Synod put the Church of Malabar under, published by a French Papist who was himself a Prisoner in it; tho’ I must tell them that as bad as his treatment was therein, that it was but Play to what it would have been, had he profess’d himself a Protestant, or not to have been of the Roman Communion, tho’ he had once been of it.

31 What a Confusion must this practice needs make in a place that is newly and forcibly converted to the Roman Church.

32 Seven.] The Doctrine of the Seven Sacraments is so great a Novelty in the Church of Rome, (for it is in no other Church) that Bellarmine with all his reading, was not able to produce the testimony of one Father for it, Greek nor Latin : Peter Lombard, who lived above a thousand years after the Apostles, being the first he quotes for it. This is a long time for an Apostolical Tradition to run under ground; and which is yet more wonderful, that it should break out in an Age that knew nothing, of Ecclesiastical Antiquity, or indeed of any other sort of Learning; but this was the common fate of all the Roman Doctrines and Rites, which they pretend to have received from the Apostles, only by the way of the dark and uncertain conveyance of Oral Tradition.

33 Intention.] This Doctrine after all their talk of the necessity there is of an infallible certainty in all matters of Religion, must make them to be very far from having any such certainity of their being Christians, or of their having either a Priest, or a Bishop in their Church. For as they cannot be infallibly certain of any Bishop or Priest’s Intention in the Administration of the Sacraments, so they may be certain that it is possible that Bishops and Priests may be so wicked as not to intend what the Church does in such administration, nay, to intend the contrary; for there was a Parish-Priest burnt not many Years ago at Lisbon, who confessed at his Death, that whenever he baptized, or consecrated, he had a formed Intention not to administer those Sacraments.

34 Changed.] This is very strange, considering that most of those rites are but new even in the roman church, that of the elevation of the host not excepted: Of the elevation of the host, cardinal bona in the 13th. chap. of his 2d, book of liturgies, saith, Non enim liquet quae prima Origo fuerit in Ecclesia latina, elevandi sacra Mysteria, statim ac consecrata sunt; in antiquis enim sacramentorum libris, & in codicibus Ordinis Romani, tam excusis quam MSS, nec in priscis rituum Expositoribus, Alcuino, Almario, Walfrido, Micrologo & aliis, aliquod ejus vestigium reperitur.

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