(a). ³d--þ- þm-am-­p -sa-Sw -Rm--bÀ ³-þm-w-\p -sa-{]m -sXm-½³ -Nm­n.

a. Melpral Thommen chandy on the 9th day of the month of Medom of the year 92.

b. Cheriyan Thommen cattanar on the 24th day of the month of karkadagam of the Kollam year 799.

These dates are equivalent to A.D. 917 and A.D. 1624.

The other churches said to be founded by St. Thomas were at Quilon, Chayil, Chockamangalam, Maliancara, Kottakawe and Palur.

"The value of this document is very great to the protestant Churches of the West, as bearing ample testimony to the great number of points of doctrine and discipline, in which they differ equally with ourselves from the corruptions of Rome. We are accused of innovation and modern heresy: but here, according to the written testimony of our adversaries themselves, is a Church wonderfully preserved by the merciful Providence of the Divine Saviour in the midst of a heathen land from the earliest and purest ages-in all probability from the days of the Apostles, without any communication or intercourse with the Churches of Europe: and yet agreeing in very many of the most essential points in which the Protestants of Europe have resisted the corruptions of the Romanists. These points as collected by Geddes from Gonvea’s history are briefly these. They are said, 1. Not to adore images: 2. To hold but three sacraments, baptism, the Eucharist and orders: 3. To make no use of oils: 4. To have had no knowledge of confirmation or extreme unction. 5. To abhor auricular confession. 6. To hold many enormous errors about the Eucharist, insomuch that Gouvea saith he is inclined to believe that the hereticks of our times (meaning Protestants), the revivers of all forgotten errors and ignorances, might have had their doctrines about the Eucharist from them. 7. To ordain such as have been married several times and those who had married widows and to approve of her priests marrying as often as they have a mind. 8. That she abhors the Pope and the Church of Rome as Anti-Christian, in pretending to a superiority and jurisdiction over other Churches."

"The heresy of Nestorius, which spread in the fifth century of our era, consisted principally in the dogma, that there were two Persons in Jesus Christ: one Jesus the man, brought forth by the Virgin, the other proceeding from the word of God: and that the Incarnation was not the hypostatic union of the Divine Word with the Human Nature, but the simple indwelling of the Word in the Man, as in a temple. The Jacobites admitted only one Person, but without mixture of the divine and Human Nature." Huc. Christianity. i.67,note.

The Synod of Diamper said that this church had been Nestorian for 1200 years.

Bishop Medlycott, formerly Vicar Apostolic at Trichur, in his suggestions for this book, says that there must have been copper plates in existence in the Portuguese period, evidencing grants from Cheruman Perumal to Thomas Cana and his followers. Gouvea’s Jornada, 4, says that Mar Jacob entrusted these copper plates to the Portuguese Factory at Cochin and that through carelessness they were lost. De Couto in his Asia says the same thing. Seventh Decade, pt. i. 15, Twelfth Decade, pt.ii. 283. Gouvea’s Jornada, 97, says that when Archbishop Menezes was at Tevalicare the Christians spoke of these plates but also showed to the Archbishop three large copper plates on a ring bearing a grant to Mar Xabro and Mar Phrod, by the king who founded Quilon. Bishop Medlycott says that a Manuscript volume dated 1604 in the British Museum containing reports of the Jesuits on this coast has a Portuguese version of the grants on Cheruman Perumal’s copper plates. It is a little fuller than the version given by De Couto’s Asia, Twelfth Decade, last part, 283. It is follows:-

"May Cocurangon be prosperous and have long life and live a hundred thousand years, divine servant of the Gods, strong, true, just, full of good works, reasonable, powerful over the whole earth, happy, conquering, glorious, prosperous rightly in the service of the Gods, in Malabar in the city of the Great Idol.

During his reign in the time of Mercury, on tho seventh day of March before the full moon, the same King Cocurangon, being in Carnellur, there landed Thomas Cananeo, a chief man, who arrived in a ship determined to see the farthest parts of the East. And some men seeing how he arrived, informed the King. The King himself came and saw and sent for the same chief man Thomas, and he disembarked and came before the King who spoke graciously to him. To honour him he gave him his own name, Cocurangon Cananeo and he received this honour from the King and went to rest in his place. And the King gave him the city of Mogoderpatanam for ever. And the same King being in this great prosperity, went one day to hunt in the jungle and the said King enclosed the whole jungle. And he called Thomas hastily who came and stood before the King in a propitious hour? and the King questioned the Astrologer. And afterwards the King spoke to Thomas that he should build a town in that jungle, And he made reverence and answered the King: I require this jungle for myself. And the King granted it to him and gave it for ever. And forthwith, another day he cleared the jungle and he cast his eyes upon it in the same year on the eleventh of April and gave it for a heritage to Thomas in a propitious time and day in the name of the King, who laid the first stone for the Church and for the house of Thomas Cananeo, and he built there a town for all and he entered the church and prayed there on the same day. After these things Thomas himself went to the feet of the King and offered him presents and after this he asked the King to give that land to him and his decendants. And he measured out two hundred and sixty four elephant

mislephant cubits and gave them to Thomas and his decendants for ever, and jointly sixty-two houses which were immediately erected there and gardens with their circumferences and their paths and boundaries and inner yards. And he granted him seven kinds of musical instruments and all the honours, and to travel in a palanquin and that at weddings his women should whistle with the finger in the mouth as do the women of the Kings and he conferred on him dignity and the privilege of spreading carpets on the ground and to use sandals and to erect a pandal and to ride on elephants. And besides this he granted five taxes to Thomas and his posterity and to his associates (confederados) both men and women, and for all his relations and to the followers of his faith for ever. The said King gave his name and these princes witnessed it:

Cadaxericenden,

Cherucara,

Putanchate,

Comeren, Doorkeeper of the King,

Arcunden Counden, of the King’s Council,

Amenate Counden,

Gerulem, Captain of the Camp,

Chiranmala Portati Reforamem, Governor of East Malabar,

Peni Incalatia Tanditen, Singer of the said King,

Perubelenatacattoconte, Guardian of the Port,

Bichremenchinguen of Carturte, Chamberlain of the King,

Ananiperumcovil, wrote these affairs with his own hand.

This Notarial Act (escritura) of the lowland of Cranganore which the Emperor of all Malabar gave to Thomas Cananeo the Armenian and also to the Christians of St. Thomas."

Here the grant ends but the MSS, in the British Museum goes on to say that it is a thousand two hundred and fifty and eight years since Perumal died on the first of March. That would give A.D. 346 as the date of Perumal’s death.

The French traveller, Anquetil du Perron, who visited Verapoly in January 1758 got from Bishop Florentius a Sanscrit version of a grant by Cheruman Perumal on three copper plates said to be preserved by the Christians of Quilon. This Sanscrit version, a Syrian Priest, through the medium of bad Portuguese, interpreted to Du Perron and from his verbal interpretation Du Perron wrote a French version, which is given in his Zend-avesta, 175. It in no way resembles the Portuguese version which has been given above. There are other versions of this grant current among the Syrian Christians. They differ from each other and can be of no historical value. The copper plates which Colonel Macaulay found in the Cochin Record room in 1806 he gave to the Syrians and they are now at Kottayam.

Before leaving the subject of Thomas Cana, some mention must be made of the division of the Syrian Christians into Northerners and Southerners, a division which exists to this day. The explanation given by Portuguese writers is that the Northerners are the descendants of Thomas Cana by his first wife and that the Southerners are the descendants of a second wife, a Malabar woman who was baptised and then married Thomas. This explanation cannot be accepted because there were Christians here before the arrival of Thomas Cana and his followers also had children so that all the Syrian Christians cannot be descendants of Thomas Cana. The Southerners are a small minority so far as numbers go. Anquetil du Perron in note 4 on page 179 of his Zend-avesta, points out that the Southerners keep the Era of the foundation of Quilon, August 822, and that the Northerners keep the Era of Vaipin, September 1341. Perhaps this may suggest a solution of the problem. The Northerners may be the Christians who lived near Cranganore, reinforced by Thomas of Cana and his party. The Southerners may be the Christians who lived near Quilon, reinforced by the party of Mar Xabro and Mar Prohd.

15 Day, in his Land of the Perumals, 215, speaks of a Bishop named Frumentius, with episcopal authority in South India, about 365, but Hough, Christianity in India, i, 62 to 68, shows that this Bishop Frumentius was in Ethiopia and not in India. See Alban Butler, Lives of the Saints, under October 27th, for St.Frumentius of Ethiopia.

16 Simon Joseph Asseman was a Syrian Christian of the Maronite Rite, employed in the Vatican Library as Scriptor of the Syriac and Arabic languages. In 1715 he was sent by Pope Clement XI to travel in quest of Oriental manuscripts and to edit those already in the Vatican. The result of his labours is four folio volumes, published in 1719, 1721, 1725 and 1728. A copy of this work, in splendid order, is in the library of the Romo-Syrian Bishop at Trichur, There is another copy at Verapoly. The fourth volume is sometimes cited as t. iii, pt. ii. It is so cited in the well known judgment of Mr. Justice Ormsby. Here the fourth volume will be cited as t.iv. There was another Asseman, Joseph Aloysius Asseman, Professor of the Syro-Chaldaic language in the College of Propaganda. He published in 1775 a Commentary on the Chaldean and Nestorian Patriarchs. When a citation is made of Asseman, it refers to the Bibliotheca Orientalis of the elder Asseman.

17 An account of the Chinese stone is given in Appendix 7, volume v, of Bury’s edition of Gibbon, London: Methuen & Co., 1898. The following description of the Chinese stone is given by Father Alvarez Semedo in his Relazione della Cina, Rome: 1643. "In the year 1625 whilst the foundations of a house were a-digging in the neighbourhood of the city of Singanfu, the capital of the province of Shensi, the workmen hit upon a stone slab more than nine palms long, by four in width, and more than a palm in thickness. The head of this slab, i.e., one of the ends in its longer dimension, is finished off in the form of a pyramid more than two palms high with a base of more than one palm, and on the surface of this pyramid is a well formed cross with floreated points, resembling those which are described to be sculptured on the tomb of St. Thomas at Meliapur. Passing afterwards through Cochin on my way to Cranganore, the residence of the Archbishop of the coast, I consulted on the subject of the letters on this stone, Father Antonio Fernandez of our Society, who was very learned in the literature of these St. Thomas Christians and he told me that the letters were Syriac and the same as were in use by that body." (in this Father Semedo must have misunderstood Father Fernandez, who may have said that the letters were like the letters on the stones in possession of the Syrians.) See note x, page clxxxi of Cathay and the way thither, Hakluit Society, 1866.

18 In the litigation between the Jacobite Syrians and the Reformed Syrians the Travancore Courts have given the possession of these copper plates to the Jacobites and they are now in the Seminary at Kottayam. One plate is now missing. As already said in note 14 these grants were deposited by Mar Jacob about 1530 in the Factory at Cochin and were found there by Colonel Macaulay in 1806. A description of these plates with a translation will be found in Madras Journal, xiii, page 121. The following extract is interesting in connection with the remark of John de Marignoli that the Christians had charge of the public weighing, "the brokerage and customs of all that may be measured by the para, weighed by the balance, stretched by the line, of all that may be counted or carried."

19 Cathay and the way thither, i. 197, 214. Huc. i. 349.

20 About Bishop Jordan see page vii of Col. Yule’s preface to the Hakluit edition of the Mirabilia, London: 1863. See also Cathay and the way thither, i. 184,185.

21 Cathay and the way thither, i. 73 to 81.

22 Cathay and the way thither, ii. 342 to 345.

23 The church may be the old church which the Portuguese found in Quilon fatto al modo nostro mediocre. The pillar erected by Marignoli may be the pilllar mentioned by the Dutch Chaplain Baldaeus, " Upon the rocks near the sea shore of Coulang stands a stone pillar, erected there, as the inhabitants report, by St. Thomas. I saw the pillar in 1662." Day in his Land of the Perumals, 212, says that this pillar still exists. Howard in his Christians of St. Thomas and their Liturgies, 9, note, says, " Mr. D’ Albedhyll, the Master Attendant at Quilon, told me that he had seen this pillar, and that it was washed away only a few years ago."

24 Asseman. iii. 589.

25 The Syrian form of the name George is Geverghese, but the first syllable is often dropped, hence the name Verghese among the Syrian Christians.

26 Nosardel Sunday in the Chaldean Calendar is the first Sunday of Summer and the seventh after Pentecost.

27 In the Trivandrum Library is an anonymous Collection of Voyages and Travels, London: Thomas Astley, 1745, and on page 48 there is the following note on cabral’s voyage to Cochin. "This Joseph lived to get to Portugal and is the Josephus Indus, under whose name there is an Voyage given by Grynaeus, containing twelve pages: But properly it is no more than an account of Kranganor and its inhabitants, (particularly the Christians and their religious rites, ) but very short and not very satisfactory. Nor is this any wonder, since Grynaeus, or whoever took the relation from Joseph’s mouth, tells us he could scarce understand him." However, it must be admitted that Joseph Aloysius Asseman in his Commentary on the Chaldean and Nestorian Patriarchs, Preface, pages x and xxiv, treats Josephus Indus as as serious authority.

28 Gouvea, 5. De Couto’s Decadas, last part of twelfth decade, 289. Three Voyages of Vasco de Gama, Hakluit Society, p.354, note. Geddes’ History of the Church in Malabar, 3.

29 Ludovico di Varthema, an Italian traveller, passed down this coast about 1505. At Kayankulam, about twenty miles north of Quilon, he says, "In this city we found some Christians of those of St. Thomas, some of whom are merchants and believe in Christ, as we do. These say that every three years a priest comes there to baptize and that he comes to them from Babylon. These Christians keep Lent longer than we do: but they keep Easter like ourselves and they all observe the same solemnities that we do. But they say Mass like the Greeks. They use four names, John, James,. Matthew and Thomas." Hakluit Society’s publication. 1863.

The Portuguese seem to have regarded the Thomas-Christians with a curiosity mingled with dislike. "After we Portuguese had become masters of the coast from Cranganore to Quilon, many of these Christians came down from the mountains to live in our fortresses; but as they were of a different rite and were schismatics, and we found ourselves obliged to eat fish on our days of fasting, and to begin Lent on Ash Wednesday, and as we could never suffer their clergy to celebrate with leavened bread, one would put off for another occasion any climbing of the Mountains to live among these people. And now, after they have been reduced, they so dislike our judicial procedure that they cannot abide among us. And the Portuguese may well despair of gaining the good will of Oriental nations in matters of justice, so long as we dicide cases with greater expedition and brevity, as do the nations of the North, which much suits the better character of the countrymen." Oriente Conquistado, ii. page 70.

The constant references to the mountains may be explained by the fact that the Portuguese did not leave the coast and that the range of mountains fifty miles inland does form a very conspicuous object from the coast. The Portuguese came to the conclusion that the Christians lived on these mountains and called them the Christians of the Serra, a name which lingered even to the days of the Dutch.

30 The New Testament was translated into Syriac on Wednesday the 6th March 1510 at Scigla which means Cranganore. Commentary of Joseph Aloysius Asseman, 212. Cathay and the way thither, 75, note.

31 It does not appear where Archdeacon Robinson got his idea that the Thomas-Christians were poor and defenceless. They were wealthy and they were fighting men. Gouvea, page 28, says, Porque os Christanos de Sam Thome sam a melhor gente de guerra, mais esforcada, e destra na espingarda de todo o Malavar. " Because the Christians of St. Thomas are the best soldiers, more courageous and handy with the musket, in the whole of Malabar." Father Nicholas Pimenta S.J., Visitor, writes on December 21st 1599 a report to Father Claudius Aquaviva, General of the Society, upon the Synod of Diamper and says that the Thomas- Christians can place in array thirty-thousand armed men for the cause of Portugal, Archdeacon Robinson’s remark will be found in Madras Journal, i. 96.

32 Oriente Conquistado, i.130

33 The letters of Francis Xavier here and below are taken from the Life and Letters of St. Francis Xavier, by the Rev. H. J. Coleridge, S. J. London: Quarterly Series, Manresa Press.

34 The name of the Maharaja of Travancore was Marthanda Varma, but Francis Xavier calls the Maharaja by the curious name Iniquitribirim, which has puzzled commentators. A possible explanation is that this stands for Enakku Tamburan, meaning Our Prince. This is vulgar Tamil, but from the words of the Lord’s Prayer in Tamil, which Francis gives in one of his letters, it appears that Francis spoke the vulgar Tamil of his fisher converts on the coast and they, in their rude speech, would called the Maharaja Enakku Tamburan.

The story that Francis Xavier went to meet the Madura troops, crucifix in hand, and that they retired before him, is told in Oriente Conquistado, i. 143. It is there said that the Maharaja received Francis exclaiming, "They call me the Great King, but hereafter for ever they will call you the Great Father!" Coleridge, Life and letters of St. Francis Xavier, i. 214, places this incident in July 1544 and Father Martin, S.J. fixes the scene of the retreat of the Madura troops on a plain two leagues north of Kottar and says that the altar and sanctuary of the church at Kottar are on the site of the hut in which Francis Xavier lived and taught. Mission de Madure, iv. 18.

35 Dr. Claudius Buchanan in a letter dated 1st November 1806 tells the following story:- "There was an insurrection of the Nayars in Travancore last year, against the Rajah: three battalions of his Nayar body-guards revolted and sought to kill the British Resident and the Rajah and the present minister. Colonel Macaulay fled to Cochin. The Rajah called in the Christian fishermen from the coast to defend him against the Nayers. They assembled at Trivandrum in immense numbers, each man armed with a short bludgeon. The bowmen from the hills appeared at the same time in the Rajah’s behalf, and the Nayars laid down their arms and fled. About fifty of the ringleaders were seized and hanged. The battalions were broken and the Rajah accepted of a subsidiary force from the English." Pearson’s Memoirs of Claudius Buchanan. London: Seeley, 1846.p.238.

36 The word Abuna is a term of respect sometimes prefixed to the names of Syrian Bishops. The title Mar is the Syriac equivalent of the Latin dominus. The word Armenian used in this letter may have been Aramean in the original. It is noteworthy that in this letter St. Francis Xavier states that the old Bishop conformed to the Roman Church, and there is a curious passage in Oriente Conquistado, ii. 71, which says that some priests said Mass in Syriac in their own churches and in Latin when they came in to Cochin. Quando nos dominavamos a costa do Malabar, haria Clerigos, que nas egrejas da Serra diziao Missa na lingua Suriana, e quando desciam a Cochin, na Latina, sendo as cerimonias bem differentes umas das outras: This passage and the attitude of St. Francis Xavier support the theory that these Syrians were in communion with Rome and that historians are mistaken in calling them Nestorians.

37 Asseman. iv. 446, seventh line from foot of page.

38 Asseman. iii. 332, note i.

39 By the help of our Lord and God, this book was finished on Thursday the 17th December 1557. To God be the glory and may his pity and grace descend upon me for ever. The above mentioned book has been written under the shadow and protection of the blessed and illustrious Saint Francis, whom in our language we call Mar Franse; where there is a home of holiness, an asylum for pilgrims and paupers, a gate for benefactors and a refuge for the afflicted, in the blessed city of Bassein, which is distant sixty leagues from the great and celebrated city of Goa, whose inhabitants may, I pray, be preserved by the Lord the Spirit from all evils, hidden and open. In the name of that holy, most celebrated, blessed St. Francis, whom we interpret as Mar Franse, in this place of the Indians, blessed and endowed with the faith of St. Peter are collected seven Convent-buildings, magnificent and glorious, and in these seven buildings dwell nearly one hundred monks, in their mode of life to be compared with Father Anthony, Father Macarius and Father Paul: whose prayers, I beseech, may be a wall and bulwark for the whole world. Amen. There is also in this blessed city of Bassein another church, very high and glorious, under the name of St. Mary: and another Convent, of which no tongue can tell the magnificence, called St.Paul’s. Besides, in the same city is seen another monastery, which is called St. Sebastian’s, the like of which eye has not seen, and another church, called of Mercy and Grace. Moreover, this blessed country of the Indians has altars, holy buildings, churches and monasteries, of which the number is known to none. The aforesaid buildings and churches are full of monks, distinguished by the gravity and sanctity of their conduct, whose conversation and deeds in virtue and in number surpass created speech. I implore that their prayers may benefit me and weak men like me. Amen. In these altars, buildings , churches and monasteries, a perpetual and daily oblation of the Body and Blood of our Lord is diligently offered. May their prayers, I beseech, be with us. Amen. But Goa is the metropolis of the whole country of India and in it resides the Syncletus, that is, the Supreme Prefect of the great and victorious King, the King of Portugal, who is called Don Guan and in our language is called the King, that is to say, Sultan Jochanan (John). May the Lord grant him a kingdom on Earth and also in Heaven. Amen. and may the Lord avert all punishments and rods of anger from this city Goa, holy and blessed and endowed with the faith of St. Peter. These papers were spit out, that is, were corrupted by that lowest sinner, vile and unhappy, abject and contemptible, slowthful and ignorant, lazy and muddle-headed, more than imbecile, dung and scab, maw-worm, doer of abominations, smirched with the mud of vices, far removed from virtues, disobeying orders and working iniquity, dross and refuse of all the sons of Adam; whose name ought never to be remembered before men, unless perchance that it may deserve a prayer from all those who will read these vile lines, the poor and miserable JOSEPH, bearing the name of Bishop and Metropolitan, but empty of and remote from the duties (of that office), as far as the East is distant from the West, and the North from the South, and the Creation from the End of all created things." Asseman, iii. 333.

40 There is in the Vatican Library an Old Testament translated by Mar Joseph at Angamale in 1558. Asseman iv. 446. second line from foot of page.

41 Oriente Conquistado, i. 86, bitterly attacks Mar Joseph, "From this year 1558 there governed the Christians of St. Thomas one Mar Joseph with the title of Archbishop, and this Archbishop, in order to show himself a Catholic and to gain the good will of the Portuguese, put the affairs of the Serra into better order so far as concerns the Mass and Divine Offices. He introduced vestments in the Roman style, for before that they had celebrated covered with an amice and over that a stole. He gave orders to use our hosts and our wine, for before that they had consecrated lumps (bolos) kneaded with oil and salt and sweet wine (mosto) squeezed from moistened raisins. He removed other abuses and ignorances and to obtain greater credit he often came down to Cochin and took into his employ Portuguese pages. Teaching them one day he recommended them to have great devotion towards the Virgin Mary, but told them not to call her Mother of God but Mother of Christ; and that they should never say, Holy Mary, Mother of God, but Holy Mary, Mother of Christ, pray for us. The young Portuguese boys disliked this new doctrine and coming in to Cochin, told what had passed. It was the intention of this wolf in sheep’s clothing, a subtle heretic within, and very humble and modest without, to secretly pervert the few poor places near Cochin and Quilon, that through constant contact with the Portuguese professed the Roman Faith. And as he was eloquent and cautious, he would easily have succeeded in his design if God had not disclosed it."

42 Oriente Conquistado, ii. 17.

43 "Mar Joseph was a second time transported first to Portugal and afterwards to Rome, where he likewise contrived to make his peace with the Pope; but before he could undertake a new voyage to India, he died at Rome on the eve of being made a Cardinal." Wrede’s Account of the St. Thome Christians on the coast of Malabar. Asiatic Researches. Calcutta: 1801. vii. 373.

"In Rome, this wolf succeeded once more in clothing himself with the fleece of a sheep, so much so that they deemed him worthy of a Cardinal’s hood: but God, with his high and admirable providence, cut short the threads of his life in that city." Oriente Conquistado. ii. 75.

44 These Archdeacons were of the Palomattom family and seem to have had control over the Thomas-Christians. The bishops who came from beyond seas performed episcopal acts such as ordination and consecration, but much of the government of the Church seems to have been with the Archdeacon. When Bishop Joseph came to India one instruction which he received from Rome was to endeavour to put an end to the hereditary succession to the Archdeaconship.

45 Day in his Land of the Perumals, 223, and Hough in his Christianity in India, 283, say that Mar Abraham sent to the Nestorian Patriarch for a colleague and successor, but this is unlikely as it would have been an open breach with Rome and with the Portuguese. Asseman, iv. 447, and Jarri, Thesaurus Rerum Indicarum, iii. ii.72, say that Simeon was sent by the Nestorian Patriarch to oppose Mar Abraham. Probably this was done because the Nestorian Patriarch was displeased with the outward conformity of Mar Abraham to Rome.

46 The Archdeacon George was never consecrated as a bishop, but perhaps when this was written there was some intention to make him a bishop. The letter is in Oriente Conquistado, ii.94.

47 That Father Valignano had an interview with Mar Abraham and obtained his permission for the Jesuits to enter his diocese appears from Oriente Conquistado, ii. 66.

48 Bishop Medlycott has supplied the following note:- "In 1577 a Spanish Jesuit lay-brother, John Gonsalves, was the first to cast Malayalam-Tamil type in Cochin, with which a Catechism and Rudiments of the Catholic Faith was published. At first the Malayalis had no letters of their own but used the old Tamil writing. See the incription on the grave of Bishop Roz. In 1578 on the Fishery coast, Father John de Faria, S.J., cast Tamil types and printed the Flos Sanctorum and for years after a number of other devotional books were there published. In 1679 Father Antony de provenea printed at St. Paul’s College, Ambalacad, the first Portuguese-Tamil Dictionary, possessing this peculiarity that the Tamil section was engraved on wooden blocks, while the Portuguese was printed in moveable type. This appearance is smudgy. I saw a copy with my late Secretary, Bishop Menachery, at Trichur."

To this note may be added that in the Mission du Madure, iii. 247. Father Andre Freire, S.J., says that he spent a year at Ambalacate seeing through the press the Tamil works of Father Robert de Nobili, about the year 1674.

49 Very full information about the friendly relations of the Jesuit Fathers is given in Oriente Conquistado. This work was published in 1710, so was of date later than Geddes’ History of the Church in Malabar London: 1694. It became very rare and probably was not known to Hough, Howard and Whitehouse, as they make no mention of it. A cheap reprint was issued in 1881 by the Examiner Press at Bombay.

Aquaviva, the General of the Society, kept up a friendly correspondence with Mar Abraham and sent him a beautiful reliquary. O.Q.ii. 107. A description of the Synod of 1583 when Mar Abraham made his profession of Faith will be found at ii. 125 and a description of the Seminary at Vaipicotta for Syrian priests will be found at ii. 127. Unfortunately, this Oriente Conquistado does not go beyond 1585.

50 Hough, 282, Day, 223, Geddes, 37. In a letter to the Nestorian Patriarch which was intercepted, Mar Abraham said, that the Portuguese were over his head as a hammer over an anvil., como malhos sobre bigorna Gouvea’s Jornada, 9.

51 In the Roman Calendar there are two saints named Hormisdas. One was Pope from 514 to 523. The other was a Persian nobleman who suffered martyrdom in 420 and is widely venerated. The Nestorians held in honour the memory of an Abbot Hormisdas who lived in 630. At the Synod of Diamper, Archbishop Menezes, believing that Mar Abraham had dedicated this church under the name of the Nestorian Abbot, had it dedicated under the name of the Persian martyr. Hough. ii. 82. See Alban Butler’s Lives of the Saints, under August 8th. In a note(22) on page 178 of the seventh edition of Neale’s Primitive Liturgies it is said that "Hormisdas, a celebrated ascetic in Malabar, bears the same relation to the Church of India that S. Antony does to Egypt, S. Sabbas to Palestine, or Tekla-Haimanoth to Ethiopia." Because of this note, the Syrian Bishops have been asked if they knew of this Hormisdas and they have replied that they never heard of him, so Dr. Neale’s note must be rejected as fiction.

52 This Brief some Romo-Syrians, in their anxiety to maintain that Mar Abraham was a good Catholic, denounce as a fabrication. They point out that no Latin original of this Brief is forthcoming and that the Pope in a Bull of August 4th 1600, which gave the patronage to the King of Portugal, spoke of Mar Abraham " of good memory", a phrase which does not accord with the view that Mar Abraham was Nestorian. There seems to be no sufficient reason to discredit the Brief of 27th January 1595. The following is taken from a Portuguese version in the archives of the Bishop of Cochin:- See also Gouvea’s Jornada, 10.

To the Venerable Brother the Archbishop of Goa, Clement VIII, Pope.

Venerable Brother, Health and the Apostolic Benediction: lately We came to know (not without great pain and sorrow) that Mar Abraham, Archbishop of Angamale in the Kingdom of Cochin, situated in Malabar in the East Indies, holding jurisdiction over the Christians of St. Thomas the Apostle, who had already embraced the Catholic Faith and given obedience to the Apostolic See, and who in the Provincial Synod of Goa had treated about the bringing back of the whole of his diocese to the Catholic Faith, and its obedience to the same Apostolic See, has again miserably fallen into the errors of Nestorians, into which he had fallen other times before, and that being advised, he refused to abandon his errors and much less to allow the Chaldean books used in the churches of his diocese and Province and full of the same errors to be corrected and that he has committed several simonies:

We whose principal care and diligence by reason of Our Apostolic Ministry it is to see that the Pastors of the Churches, especially of those that are in regions so far remote from the Apostolic See, may have sound doctrine and feed and refresh the sheep entrusted to them with the salutary pasture of Catholic doctrine: wishing to deal with all these things with such diligence as is convenient, and trusting much in your faith, integrity and zeal for the Catholic Religion, by these present letters entrust to and order your Brotherhood to enquire diligently into the life customs and doctrine of the said Mar Abraham. And if by the enquiry you find him guilty in these things, you shall cause him to come to Goa and there you shall keep him under honest and safe custody: and you shall send to us and to the Apostolic See authentic copies of the Proceedings, that we may see and examine them with diligence and decide with Justice the case of the said Mar Abraham."

The Brief goes on to empower Archbishop Menezes to take charge of the diocese on a vacancy & ca.

53 "Immediately sent home again." Hough, i. 294, Geddes. 41.

54 In the British Museum is a Manuscript volume, dated 1604, containing letters written by Jesuit missionaries on this coast. From this Book Bishop Medlycott sends the following letter of Father Nicholas Pimenta, Visitor, to Father Claudius Aquaviva, General of the Society of Jesus. The letter is dated at Goa, December 21st 1599. "It was no small comfort to all that Alexius Menezes, the Lord Archbishop of Goa, moved by his zeal for the salvation of souls and at our persuation undertook to visit the ancient Christians of St. Thomas spread through the hill tracts of Malabar. There was in fact great danger after the death of Archbishop Abraham at Angamale and the succession of the Archdeacon George, according to ancient usage, on the death of the prelate, to the government of that Church, that she would lapse again under the sway of Nestorian bishops: nor were there wanting persons of ecclesiastical rank and possessed of means, who proposed to proceed to Babylon and bring thence a new Archbishop.

The Archbishop of Goa, to whom not only by Metropolitan right, but also in virtue of Apostolic letters, appertained the right to assume the administration of that Church, sede vacante, took upon himself the task of retaining the vacillating Archdeacon in due submission to the Holy See to avoid a schism. He therefore issued instructions to the Rector of the Vaipicotta College enclosing a letter of appointment naming the Archdeacon as Administrator of the diocese, provided he in the presence of the Rector made a solemn profession of faith. The Archdeacon expressed his satisfaction on receiving the intimation and promised to make the profession demanded on a feast day. But later he would neither make the said profession nor would he accept the nomination as coming from the Archbishop, of Administrator of the diocese. This he afterwards caused to be reported he did on the advice of some.

Having gained over the Governor of Cochin, a meeting composed of lay and ecclesiastical persons was held at Vaipin, to which the Magistrates of Cochin and the Clergy of the Cathedral were invited. Our Fathers were excluded because they said that the Archdeacon objected to their presence. The Archdeacon is warmly received at the meeting, saluted cordially and flattered: music is struck up as an opening to the ceremony: the Governor and the Bishop’s Vicar (the Bishop himself was absent in Ceylon and afterwards disapproved of the meeting being held in his absence), were given prominent seats, while the rest were also seated on benches: a leading ecclesiastic rises and introduces the Archdeacon, whom he declares by no means to be, as perhaps some might think, a schismatic nor as holding any error against the Catholic faith, since he had carefully examined him, and adds that the Archdeacon now presents himself to make the profession of faith. The meeting having been thus addressed, the Archdeacon drops on the knees, somebody reads a profession of faith in Portuguese, of which the Archdeacon is incapable of understanding a single word: he is asked if he admits all this, to which he replies in Malayalam Huva Yes! So, though he declined to receive the office of Administrator from the Archbishop or the Apostolic See, he is nevertheless adjudged a Catholic and obedient to the Holy See, and publicity is given to this announcement.

About this time I happened to land at Cochin, in bad health. Before all else I did my best to induce the Governor and others to recognise the mistake, fraught with danger, that had been committed. .......... In spite of this it was known that our opponents had reported much to the Archbishop artfully to excuse the doings at the Vaipin meeting. We therefore considered it our duty to submit a correct statement of the occurrence, supported by witnesses, to the Viceroy and the Archbishop, so that the truth might be known by both. But since it was a matter of serious importance that the ignorance of these ecclesiastics and of others should be removed, which, otherwise, might cause serious harm to Catholic interests, I instructed Father Roz to reply to certain queries which I had set him, after first making diligent enquiries; These were nine in number. They with the answers have thrown much light on the subject............. This document, when circulated among those whom it concerned greatly astonished the promoters of the Vaipin meeting when they learned that the Archdeacon boasted among his people of his success over them. They also felt aggrieved at what he had given out that none contradicted him but the Fathers of Our Society.

It is time now that I should turn to the Christians of St. Thomas. After taking counsel with our Fathers the Archbishop decided on visiting the Archdiocese of Angamale to induce that Church to receive a prelate from the Sovereign pontiff. The enemy of the human race, however, perceived clearly this to be the one means of bringing an effective remedy to all existing troubles, so he exerted himself to raise technical difficulties of every sort to hinder this good prelate’s design............The supposed dangers and difficulties were pressed upon him with such pertinacity, that the Archbishop wrote to me saying heaven and earth had conspired against his project. Despising these, however, with singular firmnes and prudence, and supported by Divine aid, he began, continued and completed his arduous visitation.

The Archdeacon after endless subterfuges and artifices so that little remained but that he should be excluded from the communion of the faithful-returning to better sense, promised finally that he would live under the obedience of the Apostolic See.

During this visitation the Archbishop, as is known, laboured much on behalf of, and greatly promoted the salvation of souls. In the first place he secured the valid administration of the Sacraments; he expurgated the Nestorian books— of which there were a great number —of six hundred errors and statements opposed to Catholic truth; any passage that denied the supreme authority of the Apostolic See, he ordered should be deleted; finally, he caused capable priests—rare to be found—to be diligently sought out and these he placed in charge of parishes. The means adopted which chiefly enabled the Archbishop to secure his end were the following: he visited personally the churches; he established eighty parishes; he summoned a diocesan Synod at which the Clergy of the Archdiocese were invited to attend according to ancient usage, and only our Fathers besides; at the Synod assisted the Governor of Cochin, Dom Anthony Noronia, and the chief dignitaries of the city who on behalf of the King of Portugal had assumed on themselves the task of the protection of these Christians. How important was the step and how greatly in the future it was to promote the interests of the Portuguese Crown none can gainsay who is aware of the effect of binding this race, which from the days of St. Thomas had alone in India held the faith and could place in array thirty-thousand armed men, to the cause of Portugal, and of bringing them under the obedience of the Roman See. What greatly helped in effecting this, were the zeal displayed and the exemplary life of this Prelate. He in the space of nine months did more, as our Fathers attest, to promote the spiritual welfare of these people than had been done from the Apostle’s time to our days by those who have occupied that See. How well disposed this Prelate is towards ours, who labour in that section of the Lord’s vineyard, is shown by what he writes in the following letter which he addressed to me:—"The visitation through the Serra had often left me exhausted; but I keep in mind what the Holy Ghost has said, Et bene patientes erunt ut annuntient. (Ps.XCI. 15-16.) In what state I was able to leave the affairs of these Christians, and what has been done, the Fathers must have written you, so I say nothing. One thing I will say to your Reverence-had I spent the winter here in Goa, those churches would have been lost: nor would I have saved my conscience, at a time when that flock was mine and was sadly in need of pastoral care and Catholic teaching; had I abandoned it and had I not rather fed it with healthful doctrine, as I did, and do, with the Fathers of the Society who accompanied me. I beg and entreat your Reverence to realise how acceptable to me is the almost unbearable burden they sustain in cultivating and expanding that vineyard. The love, the charity, with which they endure all things for God’s sake has bound me by no slight ties to them, for without them I would have done nothing. Supported by them frequently I learned to throw off the clouds of troubles and anxieties, which weighed upon me, at times tepid and imperfect. May the Lord reward them in heaven, and may your Reverence bestow upon them a copious blessing. The Residence for the Fathers at Angamale has been opened with the approval of all. Let not your Reverence have any doubt. The entire salvation of these Christians depends upon the Residences in the Serra."

55 As a sample may be quoted the following passage from Gouvea’s Jornada. p. 47, telling of the Archbishop’s visit to Kadaturutta: Next day, which was Holy Saturday, the Archbishop performed the office in his Pontifical robes with much solemnity which was seen by all the people, and be gave Holy Orders to many. a thing which had never happened in time past, and showed that the threats of the managers (regedores) had no force there. All swore to the Faith and obedience to the Roman Church, as others had done, so that from this time the party of the Archbishop increased and acquired more strength in Christianity. Late in the evening of that day arrived Father Francis Roz of the Company of Jesus. (who is now the most worthy Bishop of these people,) whom the Archbishop was very glad to see, because Father Francis Roz was well known to all the Christians and was by them held in much reverence, as he preached to them in their own language and in the College of Vaipicotta was Professor of Chaldaic and Syrian. Coming up to the Archbishop he gave thanks to God, saying "Is this Carturte, which I know so well? Only a few months ago, when I came to stay here, they shut the door of the church in my face and I had it opened by the police (regedor da Rayna). When saying Mass, when I elevated the Most Holy Sacrament they all covered their eyes. They thrashed one of my pupils because he named the Pope in the church, and, a few years ago, when I showed them an Image of Our Lady, among the same people many persons closed their eyes, crying out to take away that filth, that they were Christians and did not adore idols or pagodas, which they considered all images to be." The good Father, seeing such a change, embraced all, saying, "Is it possible?" "Is this Caturte? Is Caturte no longer schismatical? Do they no longer adore the idol of Babylon? Have they given obedience to the Roman Church?".

56 The Raja of Porcat and the Raja of Gundra who showed themselves favourable to the Archbishop’s work were both rewarded with the title of Brother in Arms of the King of Portugal.

But it is said that his methods were bad, and that, not content with preaching and arguing, the Archbishop bribed and used the influence of the Rajas and threatened. In the Portuguese books there is no mention of bribery. The Archbishop may have presented some gifts as an act of courtesy. The use of the influence of friendly Rajas is not blameworthy. The threats seem to have been threats of spiritual censures, threats which it was the official duty of the Archbishop to use. When one remembers what methods were in use in Europe in that sixteenth century, the methods of Archbishop Menezes are gentle in comparison.

Into this discussion Professor Milne Rae in his Syrian Church in India has brought the Inquisition at Goa, but it is not relevant. This note is written with diffidence, subject to correction by the light of any further information, but it is believed that there is no instance on record of any Thomas- Christian brought before that tribunal. The instance usually cited is the case of Mar Ahatalla or Ignatius in 1652, but the official record about that bishop shows that he was not brought before the Inquisition but was deported by the civil power, as other bishops had been deported. Mitras Lusitanas no Oriente, iii. 160, says that he came in August 1652: no Jan. 1653 foi pelo vicerei conde d’ Obidos mandado para o reino. "In January 1653 was sent to Portugal by the Viceroy, Count d’Obidos." As authority for this entry Mitras Lusitanas no Oriente gives the Boletim or Gazette of Goa, 1872, no. 63,-80. Even if it be believed that Bishop Ahatalla was brought before the Inquisition, it must be remembered that he was arrested at Mailapur on Portuguese soil and never reached the Thomas- Christians. There is, of course, the twenty-second decree of the third session of the Synod of Diamper, a decree placing this diocese of Angamale under the Inquisition at Goa, but we must not read into this decree any preconceived notion that the Inquisition was at that date a dreaded tribunal. A perusal of the words of the decree will show that the decree was intended as a benefit to the Thomas-Christians and that it was probably gladly accepted by them. The decree requests the Holy Office at Goa to confer powers upon some priests in the Angamale diocese to give absolution in reserved cases, which would be a convenience to the Thomas-Christians and would do away with the necessity of a tedious reference to Goa or Rome in such cases.

A specially bitter denunciation of Archbishop Menezes is made by Professor Lee and other authors because he burned some books. On this point, also the words of the Synod may with advantage be perused. The entire proceedings of the Synod are translated into English in Hough’s Christianity in India and this can be read in the Trivandrum Library. Decrees 14,15 and 16 of the third session of the Synod show what books were destroyed. They were Nestorian books of devotion and manuals of piety of little historical value. Even if Mar Joseph and Mar Abraham were Roman Catholic pastors, the Nestorian heresy had certainly been taught by Mar Simeon and by his Vicar General Jacob to a portion of the Thomas-Christians and their books had to be sought out and destroyed. The Service books of the churches were not destroyed but were expurgated of Nestorian passages. There is nothing whatever to show that the Thomas-Christians possessed any records or books of historical interest and that these were burned, although that is the impression which some authors convey to their readers. On the contrary, there is some little evidence that the the Portuguese would have preserved any such books. In Oriente Conquistado, ii. 127, it is said that in a Syriac book written about A.D. 1200 by Mar Abedjesus, Bishop of Xigar and afterwards Metropolitan of Zuba in Armenia, Father Francis Roz, S.J., when Rector of the Vaipicotta Seminary, discovered fifty canons of the first Nicene council. The books written by Mar Jacob and Mar Joseph were sent to the Vatican Library and if the Portuguese had found other books worth sending they would doubtless have sent them also. Here again, upon this question of destroying books, it is only fair to remember the temper of those times and the methods then in use in Europe. The Anglican Dr.Jessop, in an antiquarian research, laments the difficulty of obtaining copies of the Roman Catholic books that were prohibited in the reign of Queen Elizabeth and he says:- "It was at the peril of a man’s life that he ventured three hundred years ago to be in possession of some of the books which this list contains." (One Generation of a Norfolk House. Second Edition. Preface, ix.)

Another point upon which Archbishop Menezes has been denounced, especially by Dr. J. M. Neale, is his alteration of the Liturgy used by the Thomas-Christians. The Liturgy which they used was the Liturgy of all the Apostles, composed by St. Adaeus and St. Meris, Apostles of the Chaldeans. This Chaldean Liturgy was adopted by the Nestorians, after they were expelled from the Roman Empire and fled into Persia. It was used by the Thomas-Christians in Malabar. The Synod of Diamper made several alterations in this Liturgy and the alterations are all mentioned in the decrees of the Synod. A Latin version of the Mass, as thus altered, is appended by Gouvea to his Jornada. Dr. Neale, in his Primitive Liturgies has cancelled all the alterations and prints an English translation of the Mass. He then attempts to re-arrange the Mass and enters upon a most interesting but not very trustworthy theory that the original Mass used by the Thomas-Christians was collateral with rather than derived from the Mass of all Apostles and, indeed, is clearly a much earlier form, of a most remote antiquity, much earlier than the fifth century and, at the very latest, of the beginning of the fourth century, but which may have come from Apostolic times. In the Liturgy of St. James there is a phrase "gave to us His Apostles and disciples" which is considered to show that the Liturgy was written by St. James himself. So in this Mass there is a passage which has no parallel in any known Eastern Rite and may possibly have been written by the Apostle St. Thomas himself. It is as follows:- "Grant, Moreover, My Lord, that the ears which have heard the voice of Thy songs, may never hear the voice of clamour and dispute. Grant also that the eyes which have seen Thy great love, may also behold Thy blessed hope."

Dr. Neale goes on to say that the revision of this Liturgy by Archbishop Menezes and his assistants shows that the revisers were utterly ignorant of Oriental Liturgies. If that were so, it were no marvel, because the work done by officials in camp in India does not always satisfy the literary standard desired by men who spend their lives in libraries in Europe. But it is likely that Archbishop Menezes knew what he was doing. His chief aim was to win this flock from the Nestorian heresy and any archaeological considerations would have the second place. The fault found by Dr. Neale is that the sequence of the prayers in the Mass has been altered so as to differ from the sequence in other Rites. If that be so, it probably was done with intention. The object in view was to keep these Thomas-Christians from any future intercourse with the Nestorian Patriarch. Even to this day the policy of Rome is to keep this Syro-Malabar Rite quite distinct from any of the other Oriental Rites and so late as 1900 a petition for permission to use the Chaldean Rite was refused.

In 1723 La Croze published his Christianisme aux Indes in which he criticizes the work of the Synod and in 1728 Asseman published vol. IV. of his Bibliotheca Orientalis in which pages 391 to 406 are taken up with a refutation of La Croze. Asseman, a very competent authority, admits that the Synod made mistakes, in thinking that the passages wanting in the Syriac New Testament were wilfully omitted, in the matter and form of Holy Orders, in mistaking for the words of baptism the proclamation of a baptism, in saying that Holy Oils were not used and that Confirmation was unknown, in saying that Masses for the dead were unknown, in forbidding the eating of meat on Saturday and in unnecessary changes of the Syriac Liturgy. He attributes these mistakes either to an ignorance of the Syrian Rite and the ancient Churches, or to an excessive study of the Roman ceremonial and a wish to wean the Syrians from ceremonies which had been mingled with errors. Asseman goes on to admit that before the Synod of Diamper the Thomas-Christians knew nothing of Confession or Extreme Unction, that matrimony was not considered to be a sacrament, that they denied the presence of the Body of Christ in the Eucharist, that they were unwilling to reverence the images of the Portuguese and that they impugned the supreme power of the Roman Pontiff and some other traditions of the Latin Church. But from his long study of Nestorian ecclesiastical matters, Asseman contends that these were recent errors which had crept into the faith and practice of the Malabar Church through the sloth or ignorance or fraud of the Bishops on this coast, because the Nestorians in Asia held all Roman doctrine, even the Primacy of the Roman Pontiff, and went astray only upon the Nestorian heresy.

Francis Roz, S.J., ... ... ... ... 1601 to 1624.

Stephen de Brito, S.J., ... ... ... 1624 to 1641.

Francis Garcia, S.J., ... ... ... 1641 to 1659.

(After the death of Archbishop Garcia, five nominations were made by the King of Portugal, but the nominees did not take up the post. Father Diego went so far as to be consecrated in Portugal in 1694 and he appointed as his Vicar General Mattheus, nephew of Bishop Chandy, but Archbishop Diego never came to India and after seven years resigned.)

John Ribeiro, S.J., ... ... ... 1701 to 1716.

Antony Pimental, S.J., ... ... ... 1721 to 1752.

John Aloysius de Vasconcelles, S.J., ... 1753 to 1756.

Salvador dos Reis, S.J., ... ... ... 1756 to 1777.

The See was vacant for five years. In 1782 Matthias Scherpenzeel was Vicar General. He seems to have been appointed in 1779. See mission du Madure, IV. 461.

Joseph Careatil, nominated 1782, died at Goa, 1786.

See vacant, Thomas Pareamakal, Vicar General from 1786 to 1799.

After the death of Thomas Pareamakal a Syrian priest, Joseph Cheamgurechil, was in charge for a year and then comes a long list of Administrators with Portuguese names. One of these, Father Paul of St. Thomas Aquinas, a Dominican, was consecrated at Goa as Archbishop on March 4th 1821 and died at Olicare near Quilon the 19th December 1823, aged 51. This Archbishop is buried at Changanacheri.

The Jacobites use the Liturgy of St. James the Apostle. A priest must use this Liturgy when he says his first mass and upon certain great festivals. There are thirty or forty other Liturgies with slight verbal differences from the Liturgy of St. James and on ordinary days a priest may use any one of these Liturgies at his option. This Syriac Liturgy of St. James closely agrees with the Greek Liturgy of St. James used by the Greek Church. It also agrees so closely with the Missale Syrianum juxtaritum ecclesiae Antiochenae Syrorum, Romae: typ. Congr. de Pro. Fide, 1843, that the Jacobite priests in Travancore sometimes use that edition.

On the whole subject of these Liturgies see Primitive Liturgies by Dr. J. M. Neale, Hough, Christianity in India, iv. 619, Howard, The Thomas Christians and their Liturgies.

Hough, ii. 295, says "The oppression of the Jesuits is the only cause to be assigned for the Syrians’ separation from the Church of Rome." and quotes in support of this view the Carmelite Vincent who published in 1666 and 1672 the First and Second Journeys of Bishop Joseph, the first Carmelite Vicar Apostolic. But another Carmelite, Eustache, who published the Life of Bishop Joseph in 1719, tells a different story. This is the description which Eustache gives on page 24 of the Archdeacon:-

"A Giorgio successe Thomaso o Tome de Campo suo nipote. Quest’ Uomo come di superbo, e torbido naturale, e percio a se somigliante nè vizi prende per suo istromento il Demonio a turcar la pace innocente di quei Fedeli. Incominciò dapprima con dispareri: poscia (non senza Festrinseci fomenti de’ malcontenti) con pretenzione e finalmente con aperti litigi cozzava col suo Prelato: con suoi non paesò giammai perfetta amicizia: perechè sebbene D. Filippo Mascarenna Vieerè dell’ Indie si studiò una volta di comporne le differenze; col pretesto però della reciproca inosservanza delle cose dall’una, e l’altra parte promesse in quella concordia, e per altre cagioni di rilievo, che sovente si fingono, o compongono da chi, vuol separarsi dall’ amico, e rompere con esso la carità; si rinuovarono le discordie, ed i scandali in guisa tale , che sollevati li Sacerdoti, e la Plebe dalle astuzie dell’ Archidiacono, arringarono apertamente contro il loro Prelato, passandone alte querele nella Corte di Roma; e chiedendone opportuno soccorso, e rigorosa giustizia."

Joseph of St. Mary of St. Sebastian ... ... ...1659 to 1663.

Parambil Chandy ... ... ... ... ...1663 to     .

Raphael F, Salgado ...(Coadjutor.) ... ... ...1677 to 1694.

Custodius ... ... ... ... ... ... ...1695 to 1696.

Peter Paul ... ... ... ... ... ... ...1696 to 1700.

Angelus Francis ... ... ... ... ... ...1700 to 1712.

John Baptist ... ... ... ... ... ...1714 to 1750.

Innocent of St. Leopold ...(Coadjutor.) ... ...1734 to 1735.

Innocent of the Presentation .... (Coadjutor.) ...1738 to 1748.

Florentius ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 1750 to 1773.

Francis ... ... ... ... ... ... ...1775 to 1787.

(During the absence of Bishop Francis, Bishop Louis of St. Conrad was in charge at Verapoly.)

John Mary ... ... died before consecration ...1780 to 1783.

Aloysius ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...1785 to 1802.

Raymond ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...1802 to 1816.

Miles Prendergast ... ... ... ... ... ...1819 to 1827.

Mgr. Stabilini... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...1827 to 1831.

Francis Xavier of St. Anne ... ... ... ... ...1832 to 1844.

Louis of St. Theresa ... ... ... ... ... ...1844 to 1852.

Bernardin... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...1852 to 1868.

Leonard ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...1868 to 1897.

On the establishment of the Hierarchy in 1886 the Vicar Apostolic became Archbishop of Verapoly.

Bernard of Jesus, Archbishop of Verapoly ...   ...1897.

Name. Date of consecration   Date of death.
or arrival in India.

Mar Thomas I ... ... 1665 ... 12th Medam 1670.

Mar Gregorius ... ... 1665 ... 14th Medam 1670.

Mar Thomas II ... ... 1670 ... 3rd Medam 1686.

Mar Basil ... ... ... 1685 ... 20th Kanni 1685.

Mar John ... ... ... 1685 ... 3rd Chingam 1693.

Mar Thomas III ... ... 1686 ... 9th Medam 1688.

Mar Thomas IV ... ... 1688 ... 13th Meenam 1728.

Mar Thomas V ... ... 1728 ... 27th Medam 1765.

Mar Basil ... ... ... 1751 ... 9th Thulam 1763.

Mar Gregory ... ... ... 1751 ... 27th Mithunam 1772.

Mar John ... ... ... 1751 ... 7th Medam 1794.

Mar Thomas VI
or Dionysius I ... 1761 and 1770 ... 25th Meenam 1808.

Mar Thomas VII ... ... 1796 ... 22nd Mithunam 1809.

Mar Thomas VIII ... ... 1809 ... 12th Thulam 1815.

Mar Thomas IX ... ... 1815 ... Desposed 1815.

Mar Dionysius II ... ... 1815 ... 12th Vrichigam 1816.

Mar Dionysius III ... ... 1818 ... 5th Edavam 1825.
Resigned 1847, died 27th Kanni 1855.

Mar Dionysius IV ... ... 1825 ...  

Mar Athanasius
(Matthew) ... 1843 ...   2nd Karkadagam 1877.

Mar Cyril ... ... ... 1846 ... 20th Chingam 1874.

was driven thence by the Mahomedans. The Chaldean Patriarch, Joseph II, sent him to India. This Patriarch received the pallium in 1696 from Pope Innocent XII. Anquetil du Perron Zendaresta page clxxxvi, note, says that the consecration was by " Mar Simeon, a Chaldean Prelate, attached to the Holy See, and who in the Liturgy used unleavened bread." A story gained currency that this Mar Simeon was sent to Pondicherry and died there in prison. Paolo a S. Bartolomeo states that the Archives of the Convent at Pondicherry show that Mar Simeon was a guest there and died in his bed in 1720, probably of old age.

Archbishop Ribeiro, who was appointed in 1701 and tried without success to obtain possession ef the old Cranganore diocese, had been Rector of the Seminary at Ambalacade and knew Syriac, so was well equipped as a missionary but the Dutch opposed him and "wrote letters to the neighbouring Rulers to refuse all access to the Jesuits." (List of ancient Dutch Records in Fort St. George. No. 64.) After the Jesuit Fathers retired to the territory of the Zamorin, there were three separate agencies at work among the Roman Catholics on this coast:- the Carmelite Bishop at Verapoly, the Portuguese Bishop of Cochin at Quilon or Anjengo and the titular Archbishops of Cranganore in the Zamorin’s territory.

In addition to the seminary at Ambalakada, the Jesuit Fathers built other seminaries at Sampalur (St. Paul’s village,) and at Puttenchera and they also did good work in South Travancore in the mission field of St. Francis Xavier. Among the Jesuit Fathers of this period may be mentioned John Ernest Hanxleden, a Hungarian. He learned Sanscrit and Malayalam from two Brahmans at the once famous Trichur Sanscrit college, now a wretched hostel, and he was undoubtedly the first European Sanscrit scholar. He composed the first Sanscrit Grammar. It is in Latin and was not printed, Paulinus took copies to Europe. One copy is at the Propaganda and another copy is with the papers of Paulinus at the Vittorio Emmanuele in Rome, His Malayalam writings were in verse and are of great literary merit. The most important is a poem on the life of Christ. Father Hanxleden also commenced a Portuguese- Malayalam dictionary and brought it down to the letter T. Archbishop Anthony Pimental completed it, enlarged it and issued it in his own name. Manuscript copies exist in the two libraries above mentioned. Father Hanxleden came to India in 1699 and died March 20th 1732 in the Presbytery of Pazhaiur church, which is at the western head of the Trichur lake near the canal leading to Cochin There is a black stone over his grave.

Another Jesuit Father who was for a time at Ambalakada is the Martyr, B. John de Brito. He arrived at Ambalakada in 1673 and seems to have spent three years there, preparing to join the Madura mission. In 1676 or later he set out with Father Andre Freire, S.J., and walked to Sattiamangalam in the Coimbatore district, that being the nearest church of the Madura mission, and there John de Britto had to rest for a month before he was able to continue his journey. Mission du Madure, iii. 255.

When Mgr. de Tournon expressed disapproval of some of the methods of the Madura mission, one priest, Father Simon Carvalho, left Madura and founded a mission station at Neman near Vadakenkulam, on the Tinnevelly frontier of South Travancore in the year 1708. This station from 1743 was under father Bouttari, S.J., who in 1745 baptised a Travancore convert who is reverenced as a martyr. Nilakandan pillai, a man of good family, held office in the court of the Raja. He was disposed to become a Christian and after discussions on Christianity with Eustache de lannoy, a Belgian officer in the Travancore army, Nilakandan pillai was baptised, being then thirtytwo years of age, and he took the Christian name Devasagayam. Four years afterwards he was imprsoned because of his change of religion and after three years of imprisonment he was shot in 1752 by order of the Raja at Aramboli about the fifty-first mile on the road from Trevandrum to Tinnevelly. His Corpse was thrown into the jungle, but the Christians got possession of the corpse, burned it and buried the ashes in a tomb which still exists in the centre of the church of St. Francis Xavier at Kottar.

While things were so, one Cariatil Joseph went as a student to Propaganda and there took his Doctor’s degree. Returning to India Dr. Joseph Cariatil became Rector of the Alangate Seminary. in 1777 he went to Rome a second time, taking with him a Romo Syrian priest named Pareamakal Thomas. The object of this journey is said to have been to carry to Rome overtures from Mar Thomas VI, the bishop of the separated Syrian Christians. The Romo Syrians always longed for a bishop of their own race and Mar Thomas VI was willing to submit to Rome on the conditions that he became Metropolitan of all the Syrians, the Romo Syrians as well as his own flock. The two priests remained in Europe for some years. In 1782 the King of Portugal nominated Dr. Joseph Cariatil as Archbishop of Cranganore. Afterwards they sailed for India and arrived at Goa on may 1st 1786. Dr. Joseph Cariatil died at Goa on September 9th of the same year and the Archbishop of Goa then appointed the survior, Thomas Pareamakal, to be Vicar General of the diocese of Cranganore. Thomas came to his diocese and placed himself at the head of the malcontent Romo Syrians who were at this moment very hostile towards the Verapoly missionaries. They held a meeting at Angamale on February 1st 1787 and passed a resolution which is printed on page 308 of Whitehouse’s Lingerings of light in a Dark Land. In this document they brought atrocious accusations against the Carmelites, even insinuating that the Carmelites were responsible for the death of Dr. Joseph Cariatil at Goa. The resolution goes on to say that the Syrians are determined to have a bishop from among their own number, as other churches have, that they have selected Thomas Pareamakal as their bishop and that if Portugal refuses this request the Syrians will transfer their allegiance to the Catholic Chaldean Patriarch of Babylon, Mar Joseph. These complaints against the Verapoly missionaries were sent to the Rajas of Travancore and Cochin. An enquiry was held at Trivandrum and India Orientalis Christiana, 85, says that the decision was in favour of the Carmelites and that the Syrians were fined for calumny. Page 262 of the same book seems to show that the Raja of Cochin came to a similar decision and this is supported by the fact that the Dutch Council in Cochin town wrote to the Raja of Cochin, advising him not to allow Portuguese priests or bishops to settle in his territory and not to lend an ear to the calumnious stories invented to cause the Carmelites of Verapoly to incur his displeasure. List of Ancient Dutch Records in Fort St. George, No. 1276. But the Syrian Christians dispute the accuracy of India Orientalis Christiana on this point. For this work they have produced copies of Neets dated April 1787 by the Raja of Travancore, declaring that as the Roman bishop and the padres at Verapoly have withdrawn in writing, therefore Joseph Pareamakal may be consecrated bishop. Similarly, in a suit about the church at Trichur there has been filed a copy of a Teetoram dated August 1787 by the Raja of Cochin, saying that as the Verapoly bishop has withdrawn, Thomas Pareamakal may be consecrated as bishop and the Syrians may be free from molestation by the Verapoly missionaries or by the Portuguese priests. There seems no reason to doubt the truth of what is stated in India Orientalis Christiana, and it is likely that these papers produced by the Syrians show only that the Carmelite missionaries recognised Thomas Pareamakal as administrator of Cranganore. The Verapoly missionaries were supported by Rome. A letter, dated 14th November 1789, from Cardinal Antonelli to Bishop Aloysius, says that the accusations brought by the Syrian Christians were fomented by the adherents of the Portuguese party. In a later letter, dated 6th October, 1790, the Cardinal informs Bishop Aloysius that he had obtained an assurance from the Court of Lisbon that the Most Faithful King would not nominate Thomas Pareamakal as Archbishop of Cranganore. This deprived Thomas of any prospect of consecration but he continued to rule his followers as Vicar General of Cranganore, although his diocese was devastated by the Mysore troops. He got over the difficulty of his lack of episcopal character by sending his students to the Portuguese Bishop of Cochin for ordination. He died in 1799 but other Vicars General were appointed by the Portuguese, and in 1807 Bishop Raymond told Dr. Buchanan that forty-five churches were under the Vicar General of Cranganore.

On April 24th 1838 Pope Gregory XVI, by a Bull beginning with the words Multa Praeclara, practically abolished the Sees of Cranganore and Cochin and gave to the Vicar Apostolic at Verapoly jurisdiction from the southern limit of the diocese of Goa to Cape Camorin. This Bull was not obeyed by the Portuguese Clergy who contended that the Pope had no power to make these alterations without the consent of the Most Faithful King and that they themselves were not bound to receive any orders from Rome unless these orders came to them through the Court of Lisbon. This difference of opinion gave rise to many unseemly disputes among Roman Catholics in India for many years. In 1862 Monsignor Saba, with Father (afterwards Cardinal) Howard as his secretary, came to India on a mission to settle this dispute between the Goanese Clergy and the Vicars Apostolic. He gave 106 Syrian churches to the Vicar Apostolic at Verapoly and 36 to the Goanese jurisdiction. The dispute, however, was not really settled until the new Concordat and the establishment of the Hierarchy in 1886.

Peter Pacheco, cons, 1694, came to Cochin 1699, was expelled by the Dutch 1701. List of Ancient Dutch Records in Fort St. George, 60.

Francis de Vasconcellos. S.J., from 1721.

Clement Joseph Collaco Leitao, S.J., from 1745. He wrote letters in 1755 to the Raja of Travancore asking protection against the foreign schismatic bishops.

Emmanuel of St. Catharine, Discalced Carmelite, from 1778. In 1783 was appointed Archbishop of Goa, where he had been in charge since 1780.

Joseph of the Desert of Carmel, Coadjutor, was made Bishop of Cochin in 1783. He lived in the church of St. Thomas at Quilon. Paulinus says, Vir asperi ingenui et nemini indulgens, infinitos in ora Travancoridis excitavit tumultus.

The following is a list of the Vicars Apostolic of Quilon.

Bernardin of St. Theresa ...1845.

Bernardin of St. Agnes ...1852. Died at Rome in the same year.

Mauritius ... ...1853. Died before consecration.

Charles Hyacinth... ...1854.

Mary Ephraim ... ...1865.

Ildephonse ... ...1871.

Mgr. Ferdinand Ossi, Vicar Apostolic from 1883, became Bishop of Quilon when the Hierarchy was established in 1886. Father A.M. Benziger, secretary of the Papal Delegate, was appointed coadjutor of Quilon and was consecrated on the 18th November 1900.

Syriac and Chaldean are sister languages, as are Tamil and Malayalam. Syriac is spoken in the country about Antioch and Damascus. Chaldean is spoken near Babylon and Bagdad. Roman Catholics in Syria use the Chaldean language and Jacobites use the Syriac.

The second Chaldean Patriarch, Ebedjesus, who was present at the Council of Trent, sent Bishop Joseph to Malabar in 1655 and this Bishop Joseph was succeeded by Mar Abraham. These two bishops showed a tendency to return to the Nestorian heresy and therefore from the date of the diocesan synod of Diamper, this diocese was severed from the Patriarchate of Babylon and was placed under a bishop nominated by the King of Portugal and subsequently under a Vicar Apostolic sent directly by propaganda. There are indications that the Romo-Syrians disliked this system. They had their own Oriental Rite but they longed for an oriental Bishop and they looked to the Chaldean Patriarch of Babylon as the quarter whence this Oriental bishop should come. India Orientalis Christiana says that there was one such movement in 1709 and the movement of 1787 under Thomas Pareamakal was in the same direction.

Under the strict rule of Archbishop Bernardin at Verapoly this wish to obtain an Oriental bishop from the Chaldean Patriarch revived and was fomented by a Chaldean priest named Denha Bar Jona, who landed on this coast in 1852. After some months he returned to the Persian Gulf, bearing with him letters from various Syrians to the Patriarch asking him to send them a bishop. The leader in this moment was a Romo-Syrian priest named Thondanatta Antony. Born 1819, he was ordained priest in 1850 by bishop Louis of Verapoly and he had inherited from an uncle the privilege of maintaining a domestic seminary. Under his roof he had fifteen youths studying for the priesthood. When he took these candidates to Verapoly for ordination Archbishop Bernardin refused to ordain them. Angered by this refusal Father Antony in 1858 set sail for the Persian Gulf, accompanied by two priests, three clerics and twelve seminarists. The two priests and some of the younger men died on the journey, but Antony and the survivors returned in 1861, bringing with them a Chaldean bishop named Roccos or Mar Thomas. This bishop Roccos on May 13th 1861 wrote to the Resident and signed the letter "Mar Thomas, Metropolitan and Commissioner of the Roman Catholic Chaldean Syrians in Malabar." The Resident, Mr. Maltby, on December 31st 1861 wrote a memorandum to the Diwan of Cochin "on the subject of the contested jurisdiction of the bishop of Verapoly and of the newly arrived Metran, Mar Thomas." From this it is clear that bishop Roccos was a Roman Catholic and the only point in dispute was the claim of the Chaldean patriarch to have jurisdiction in Malabar. Bishop Roccos obtained a following among the Romo-Syrians, but his coming into this country was vigorously denounced from Rome as a breach of ecclesiastical discipline and at length bishop Roccos himself was convinced by the Verapoly missionaries that his conduct was wrong and in 1862 he sailed from Cochin, his expense for the return voyage being advanced by the Verapoly mission, as appears from the account books still preserved there.

The departure from India of Bishop Roccos did not put an end to this movement. There was a party of Romo-Syrians who yet hoped to get a Chaldean bishop and some of these men were influential and wealthy. A serious feature in the situation was that the Chaldean Patriarch himself sympathized with their wishes. This Patriarch, Joseph VI, had been appointed in 1848 by Pope Pius IX and he was in communion with Rome, but he held a strong opinion that the Malabar coast ought to be part of his Patriarchate, and although this claim was disallowed by Rome the Patriarch held his own opinion tenaciously. He was summoned to Italy and was admonished by Pope Pius IX not to interfere in Malabar. As he nevertheless maintained his claim it was formally considered by the Congregation of Cardinals and the prohibition was repeated on March 23rd 1865. Meanwhile the party among the Romo-Syrians who were anxious to have a Chaldean bishop selected Thondanatta Antony. Mitras Lusitanas no Oriente, iii. 161, says that on April 17th 1863 Antony made his submission to the Padroado jurisdiction and gives as authority the Boletim of 1863, no. 35. Whatever truth there may be in that paragraph, Antony went a second time to the Persian Gulf and applied to the Chaldean Patriarch for consecration. The Patriarch, in the face of the instructions he had received from Rome, dared not himself consecrate Antony, but sent him to the Nestorian Patriarch of Babylon, who consecrated Antony as a bishop.

Taking the name of Mar Abedjesus, Antony then returned to India, wearing the insignia of a bishop. After some time he made his submission to the Vicar Apostolic of Verapoly and laying aside his episcopal insignia, worked among the Romo-Syrians as a parish priest.

The Chaldean Patriarch, Joseph VI, went to Rome to attend the Vatican Council of 1870-1 and at the Council he renewed his attempt to get the Malabar coast included in his Patriarchate, but without success. Nevertheless, in 1874 the Patriarch took the serious step of sending to the Malabar coast a bishop named Elias Mellus. In his letter to the churches in Malabar the Patriarch introduced Bishop Mellus as a Roman Catholic and Bishop Mellus himself, on arrival at Trichur, gave himself out to be a Roman Catholic. But when Rome issued orders that Bishop Mellus must quit India, he refused to obey and was in due course suspended and excommunicated, but yet retained a following at Trichur and elsewhere. It was at this troublous period that Bishop Meurin, S.J., came as Visitor of the Malabar Vicariate and that Mgr. Persico came to enquire and report in the same way that he afterwards went to Ireland. Antony joined Bishop Mellus and acted as a bishop, conferring Holy Orders on some candidates. In 1877 the Chaldean Patriarch made a formal submission to Rome and issued orders recalling Bishop Mellus from India, but it is said that these official letters of recall were accompanied by a private letter from the Patriarch to Bishop Mellus telling him to remain at his post. However that may be, in 1877 Bishop Mellus left India, placing Mar Abedjesus and a Chorepiscopus in charge of the people who still adhered to him. (This title Chorepiscopus is equivalent to the title of Canon in the Latin Church and is derived from Coram episcopo.) In 1889 Bishop Mellus himself made his submission to Rome but his lieutenant Mar Abedjesus was not again reconciled and kept up what is called the independent Syro-Chaldean Church of Malabar. From the pleadings in the Trichur church case it appears that his flock now repudiate the authority of the Chaldean Patriarch because he has submitted to Rome. Mar Abedjesus has consecrated more than one bishop. He consecrated for an Asiatic diocese a bishop named Denha, who was killed by the Kurds in the massacres of 1895-6 and it is said that he also consecrated the Chorepiscopus at Trichur. He also consecrated Suarez, whose history is as follows:- Alvarez, a Brahman by descent, an educated man and the editor of a Catholic journal, was a priest in the diocese of Goa. Failing to maintain amicable relations with his Archbishop father Alvarez left the Roman Catholic Church and joined mar Dionysius, the Jacobite Metropolitan at Kottayam, who consecrated Alvarez as bishop. After a time Bishop Alvarez quitted the Jacobites and set up for himself in Ceylon where he calls himself His Holiness Julius I, Metropolitan of the Independent Catholic Church of India and Ceylon. suarez was a cleric at Goa. He joined Alvarez, who ordained him as priest. Suarez then left Alvarez and was consecrated by Mar Abedjesus as bishop of the Chaldean Church in Madura and Tinnevelly. Mar Abedjesus died at Trichur on the 16th November 1900. The Chorepiscopus presides over the dwindling remnant of his flock.

In the name of Him who is eternal and of necessity exists, Thomas, the humble bishop of the orthodox Syrians of the India of St. Thomas, to him who sits in the seat of the Pontif, holy and glorious and magnificent, upon the throne of the principality of Peter the prince of the Apostles: whom Our Lord has called by his grace and by his mercy has collected and firmly made to sit. Most beloved Father of Fathers, and Pastor of Pastors, who bindest and loosest with thy power in the highest and in the lowest, holy and holily sanctifying and resplendent with the triumph of the Apostles: who rulest upon the glorious soil of Antioch, which is celebrated and lovely through all the four quarters of the world in the world to come. Amen. Because thou art Patriarch the head of the universal Church of Christ, as was ordered by the three hundred and eighteen Fathers who were assembled at Nicea, and the steward of the house of God, obtaining the whole order of the Apostolic Church: and forasmuch as thou dost worthily govern the sheep, which are in the Oriental flock, always introducing all the sheep of thy flock into the fold by the gate, and when of all perishes, thou dost vehemently grieve; but when thou dost see it again thou dost greatly rejoice. Our father, who wast elect in the abundant blessings of Sion. Therefore I wish thee to be as a vessel chosen to receive the grace of the most high God. I beseech, my Lord, that thou mayest bless me with thy right hand full of graces, and I shall hear whatever may be said or enjoined to me by thy benign mouth, and I subject myself to the power of thy paternity. Wherefore may god bless thy See for ever and ever. Amen.

Lord, I am not worthy to worthily write to thy greatness. But we write and we send letters because of the necessities of the orthodox Syrians of India, and we pray that thou mayest send to us one Patriarch and one Metropolitan, and twin priests, who may be philosophers and may understand the interpretations of the holy and divine scriptures. Previously there came to our country Mar Gregory, the fifth Patriarch of Jerusalem, and after him Mar Andeas Alvaeus and after him came a certain Maphrian Mar Basil Catholicus and with him Mar John the Metropolitan and the Rabban Matthaeus.

Since their death we drift like a ship without a rudder. If thou wilt come and wilt come to us, then as God the Father promised to the sons of Israel, so may Jesus Christ, the Merciful and the Ruler, deal with you and so may the Holy Spirit the Paraclete console you. Amen.

In the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and nine, there came a Metropolitan by name Gabriel the Ninivite, whom Mar Elias Catholicus sent to me. But he held such a faith as that Christ had two natures and persons: and therefore we did not believe him, except a certain priest called Mathew Beticutel and a few Portuguese Roman Catholics. (paucos quosdam homines Francos Romanos). We, however, have not wisdom that we may answer him. Therefore we report it to thee, our Lord.

Charles, a Dutch Doctor, an Orientalist of repute, a learned man and a proved philosopher, our dearest and most beloved companion, dwells in Amsterdam, the first city of Holland. He has advised us that we may proceed in this matter with one mind. We have written to him in order that this matter may be made known to Antioch; that you through the mercy of God may write one letter to the honourable Commandant who dwells in Cochin, which town is subject to the King of all India, and another letter to us; that it may bring help to us against our enemies and the infidel kings for ever: and that above all you will with the utmost care supplicate king Comphocius, who greatly honours the Dutch and is very illustrious among Kings. This King gives judgment in accordance with equity and receives the petitions of the poor and greatly honours all this nation. And all these honour Antioch and despise Rome : and they are right. Amen. My Lord, brilliant Ignatius, (Domine mi Ignati ignee,) take action without delay and diligently look after all this business, forgetting no part of it, through the living God. Amen. Especially pray in order that we may obtain a blessing by your prayers. Pray to the beloved Father and the merciful Christ and the Holy Spirit the Protector, and the Virgin Mary, Mother of God, and the Saints. Amen.

In the year of the epoch of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and twenty, this epistle is written from Pharabur Patona, a church of St. Thomas the blessed Apostle, on the twenty-fifth day of the month Elul (September). Amen. Our Father &c. The Gate of all India."

In this letter Mar Thomas IV calls himself the fifth bishop of the Syrians in India. Because of this expression, Mr. Whitehouse has interpolated another bishop and has made this prelate Mar Thomas V. Mar Dionysius, the present Metropolitan of the Jacobites at Kottayam, in a note on this expression, suggests that Mar Thomas reckoned Bishop Chandy as the first. A better suggestion seems to be that in writing thus to the Jacobite Patriarch mar Thomas reckoned as the first bishop Ahatalla or Mar Ignatius, the prelate stopped by the Portuguese in 1652. In this letter it seems clear that he makes a distinction between the ruling bishops, himself and his four predecessors, and the teaching bishops who occasionally came from Syria. Of these he mentions four, Gregory, Alvaeus, Basil and John.

Paulinus, on the page cited above, says :- The heretic Iconoclast in the schismatic churches burned with fire the images of the saints and even of our Lord Christ and also Crosses. He gave wives to the priests, he stole the silver plate of several churches, he drank wine to excess and when drunk he caused various disturbances.

The Dutch records have the following entries about him:

On January 16th 1748 the Syrian Bishop Joannis writes to say that on coming on this coast he had found the ignorance of the Syrian Christians to be gross and their mode of living beastly. Wishing therefore to obtain priests from Antioch he asked the Company for money. On January 17th the Commandeur answers the above, granting his request and hoping that the differences between him and Mar Thome may soon cease. This was reported to Batavia and an answer was received, dated 18th October 1748, telling the Cochin Council that they should try to settle the disputes between Bishop Joannis newly arrived and the old Bishop Mar Thome. They should forward the money which was applied for by the said Joannis in order to obtain more teachers (priests) from Antioch, for they would prove a good obstruction to the Roman Catholics. But, before this letter was received from Batavia, the Council had made the following entry. 22nd October. Letters from the Syrian Bishop Joannis asking protection against the Catholics. He is subsequently arrested by order of the Raja of Cochin for having robbed the moneys of three or four churches. List of Ancient Dutch Records in Fort St. George. 450, 462, 458.

Anquetil du Perron in Zendavesta, clxii, tells the following story:-

The schismatic Christians of St. Thomas, tired of obeying Mar Thomas a simple Archdeacon, asked permission from the Dutch to get a bishop from Syria. The Council of Cochin consented and gave an order to the Dutch ships of Bassora to catch the first that they found. They owed them a bishop named John, who had been driven out of Ethiopia and whom a Franciscan, friend had just got out of the prison of Bassora by paying for him five hundred guineas. The prelate arrived at Cochin in 1747 and was received with the noise of cannon and with extraordinary honours : the Dutch have always shown more regard for the Hereticks than for the Catholics. The passion which this bishop had for wine, soon made him contemptible in the eyes of the Malabar Christians. They were even obliged to rescue from the hands of the Jews the Cross of a Church and a censer which he had given them in payment of a sum which he owed them. One day this prelate embarked drunk on a boat and ordered the boatmen to take him to Cochin; there he sent them to fetch a bottle of brandy, drank this and fell asleep. The Faithful who were searching for him every where, at sunrise found him in this boat. The Commandeur, hearing this story, put Monseigneur under arrest in Cochin and in 1751 sent him back to Bassora, very nearly in the same condition in which he was when he left the prison of that town. Notwithstanding these gross vices, this bishop had never been willing to consecrate Mar Thomas. According to George Nametulla (the Chorepiscopus), it was the bishops who came in 1751 that sent him back to Syria.

The succession of bishops is as follows:-

Cyril I.

Cyril II.

Philoxenos I.

Philoxenos II.

Cyril III and Cyril IV.

In a letter dated May 7th 1787 from the Carmelite Vicar Apostolic of Verapoly to Propaganda, it is stated that Mar Dionysius I was willing to make his submission on the condition that he be recognised as Metropolitan of all the Syrian Christians in Malabar, not only his own flock but also the Syrians in communion with Rome.

Three thousand Star Pagodas were invested with the Fast India Company at 8% interest in 1808 for the benefit of the Syrian Christians and a like sum at the same interest for the benefit of the Roman Catholic Mission at Verapoly. These investments remain to this day. The Roman Catholic Archbishop at Verapoly draws the interest on one fund. The interest on the other fund is claimed both by the Jacobites and by the Reformed Syrians and this dispute is now before the district Court of Trivandrum in the form of an interpleader suit by the Secretary of State as the stakeholder. Mar. Dionysius says that the money was the amount saved by the Syrian bishop in those days, that Colonel Macaulay, in the troublous times of the Revolt of 1808 borrowed this sum from the bishop and that instead of repaying the cash the money was thus invested. This suggestion does not seem likely. The fact that a like sum was invested for a Roman Catholic Mission is against it. Another story is that these two sums were the forfeited property of a wealthy Christian named Mathu Tharakan. Yet another surmise is that these two sums were the private monies of the Resident, Colonel Macaulay, given as a thank-offering when he escaped with his life in the revolt.

In 1816 the Travancore Darbar gave Rs. 8,000 to enable the Syrian Christians to prosecute the study of the Scriptures and in 1818 the Rani gave Rs. 20,000 through the Resident, Colonel Munro, for the support of the Syrian College at Kottayam. Next year, 1819, the Rani gave Munro’s island for the benefit of the Syrians and particularly for the education of the boys in the Kottayam Seminary.

The London Missionary Society in South Travancore also received several benefactions. In 1814 the Rani gave 88 cottahs of paddy fields at Thamarakulam and Vailakulam near Cape Comorin, to the Rev. Mr. Ringletaube and his successors in office for the feeding of the poor and for educational purposes connected with the mission. In 1818 abated the annual tax on 99 Cottahs of paddy given to the Rev. Mr. Meade and his successors in office for the same charitable purpose. The same year, 1818, there was a gift of Rs. 5,000 to Mr. Mead, with which he bought 21 Cottahs of paddy fields near Vellamadum for the support of the seminary. Next year, 1819, the Rani gave 34 Cottahs of paddy lands adjoining Puthiner near Kalimar, to the Rev. Mr. Mead and his successors for the benefit of the mission.

There has been much irrelevant criticism of these judgments because of a want of precision in language when speaking of the consecration of bishops, and an attempt may be made to clear up this point, without any discussion whatever of the merits of the decision.

There is a difference between an irregular and an invalid consecration. Speaking generally, every bishop, as such, has the power to consecrate any priest as bishop. But it is usual that such consecration be by permission of some authority. Thus in the Latin Church at a consecration is read the Pope’s Bull permitting the consecration. So at an Anglican consecration the Royal mandate is read. In Oriental Churches the consent of the patriarch is usual. But a consecration without such permission, although it may be irregular and blameworthy, may nevertheless be a valid consecration. That is to say, the consecrand may be a bishop, although with no lawful jurisdiction over any diocese. Again, the fact that one bishop consecrated another does not of itself give to the consecrator any authority over or any power to interfere in the diocese of the consecrand. All history is full of examples. Augustine of Canterbury went to France for consecration but the French bishop claimed no rights over England. Many an Archbishop is consecrated by one of his suffragans, as here in Travancore, where the Archbishop of Verapoly was consecrated by his suffragan, the Bishop of Quilon. Even the Pope, if not already a bishop before his election, is consecrated by his suffragan, the Bishop of Ostia. Thus the mere fact that episcopal orders came from Antioch was not relied on in this litigation.

The contention put forward by Mar. Dionysius was that this is part of the Patriarchate of Antioch and that the permission of the Patriarch is necessary for a regular consecration. That is an intelligible contention. The case put forward by the defendants is that this Church and the little sister Church of Tholyur are independent Churches with power to consecrate bishops without the license of any Patriarch. That also, is a clear and intelligible contention.

The names of the two bishops who landed at Quilon in the ninth century ought to be Mar Sabresius and Mar Protasius. They were pious catholic Chaldean bishops and Archbishop Menezes had no ground for his suspicion that these two bishops, held in veneration by all the Thomas-Christians, were Nestorians. The mistake which the Portuguese made was to call all these Christians Nestorians, even when they were Catholics. Thus Oriente Conquistado, ii. conq. i, div. ii, end of paragraph 14, divides the Nestorians into two bodies, one under the Patriarch at Mossul, the other giving obedience to the Roman Supreme Pontiff. This ambiguity is avoided if the nomenclature used at Rome is followed and the heretics are called Nestorians while the Catholics are called Chaldeans. Two paragraphs later, in paragraph 16, Oriente Conquistado speaks of these two bishops, mar Sabresius and Mar Protasius, and makes a surmise that they may have been Nestorian heretics and that, if they were heretics, the miracles attributed to them must be fabulous. This is not the way in which history ought to be written. There always was, even in the midst of the Nestorian country, a faithful remnant who held fast to the Holy See. Pope St. Gregory III (731-741) was a Chaldean from the province of Syria. (Guriel Elementa Linguae Chaldaicae, 168). Mar John, Archbishop of the Syrians and afterwards Patriarch, went with his suffragans to Rome and received the pallium from Pope Callixtus II in the twelfth century. That Pope reigned from 1119 to 1124. (Gesta Callixti ii, Papae. Vetera Analecta Mabilloni 468.) When pope Julius III on April 6th 1553 confirmed John Sulacca as Chaldean Patriarch, the Pope said that the discipline and liturgy of the Chaldeans had already been approved by his predecessors, Nicholas I (858- 867), Leo X (1513-1521) and Clement VII (1523-1534). This Papal letter also mentions the former Patriarch, Simon Mamma, of good memory, as Patriarch of the Christians in Malabar. This shows that there were from time to time Chaldean Patriarchs in communion with Rome and it is contended that the Thomas-Christians of Malabar were in communion with these Chaldean Patriarchs and not with the Nestorian Patriarch. When the Portuguese arrived here they inaccurately called the four bishops Nestorians but these bishops were Chaldean. Their report of 1504 was addressed to the Chaldean Patriarch, else how did it find its way into the Vatican Library? The Portuguese were startled by the absence of images and by the use of leavened bread, but these two points are in accordance with Chaldean usage. The Thomas-Christians paid the expenses of Marignoli because he was Papal Delegate. St. Francis Xavier in a letter from Cochin to St. Ignatius Loyola, dated 14th January 1549, asks for Indulgences for certain churches, saying, "This would be to increase the piety of the natives who are descended from the converts of St. Thomas and are called Christians of St. Thomas." In another letter dated 28th January 1549 to Rodriguez, St. Francis Xavier asks for indulgences for a church at Cranganore, "which is very piously frequented by the Christians of St. Thomas, to be a consolation for these Christians and to increase piety." As saints are notoriously keen in detecting heresy and as indulgences cannot be granted to schismatics, it is contended that these letters of St. Francis Xavier show that the Thomas-Christians were in communion with Rome, even before the arrival of Mar Joseph in 1555. Life and Letters of St. Francis Xavier, by H.J. Coleridge, S.J., ii. 74 90.

When the Portuguese deported Mar Joseph to Portugal it was not the Nestorian Patriarch but the Chaldean Patriarch who sent Mar Abraham to take his place. This appears from Action iii, Decree X of the third provincial council at Goa in 1585, which recites that Mar Abraham came as Archbishop of Angamale, with a letter from Pope Pius IV. Another point is that the letter which Pope Gregory XIII wrote on November 29th 1578 to Mar Abraham does not tell him to convert his flock, but to convert others, that is to say, those who were not Christians. The Passage is as follows:- Scis autem hoc esse firmissimum fundamentum salutis, episcopum vero non sua tantum salute contentum esse debere, sed etiam laborare, ut alios a fraude Satanae atque impietate ereptos. ad Catholicam ecclesiam atque ad Christum adjungat, inque eo ejusdem Christi adjutorem esse."

That is the theory put forward in the manuscript which these two Syrian priests have sent me. The tone is hostile to the Portuguese, but the arguments deserve consideration on their merits and, certainly, the attitude of St. Francis Xavier towards these Christians is a point which cannot easily be explained away.

From the revolt against Archbishop Garcia in 1653 the manuscript is bitterly hostile to the Carmelite missionaries. It says that Bishop Chandy brought back the greater part of the rebels and that if the Carmelite missionaries had listened to him and had selected his nephew Mattheus as Coadjutor instead of the Eurasian Raphael, all the malcontents would have returned to their obedience. When at last they got rid of Bishop Raphael, the Christians sent a message to the Chaldean Patriarch asking for a Bishop. In response to this message the Patriarch sent Mar Simon. The Carmelite missionaries made use of him to consecrate Father Angelus Francis and then sent him to Pondicherry to be out of the way.

Afterwards, in 1779, there was a golden opportunity to reconcile the separated Syrians. Mar Dionysius, their bishop, was honestly wishful for reconciliation and made repeated overtures which were rejected by the Carmelite missionaries who suspected his sincerity. The following is the text of the letter which Mar Dionysius in 1779 sent to Pope Pius VI by the hands of Dr. Joseph Cariaty:- "When I took charge, I understood from the Jacobites who came during the rule of my predecessors, as well as from the learned priests of the Roman Catholic Church, that I had not the true ordination and that the priesthood I received at the hands of my predecessors was not valid and so, ‘humbly hearkening to their admonition, in 1772 I received anew in the church of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Neranam all the holy orders from the tonsure to the Episcopal consecration, from the Jacobite Metropolitan, Mar Gregory. Further, I was convinced from the learned priests of the Catholic Church, as well as from the books of the Sacred Councils, that the creed I have received is not orthodox and also, that no one can be saved without the Catholic Faith, which from the days Our Lord to the present day remains spotless and immaculate. Through the medium of the abovesaid priests, I made an earnest prayer to Don Salvador dos Reis, Jesuit Archbishop of Cranganore, and to Fra Florentius of Jesus, the Carmelite Vicar Apostolic of Malabar, asking them to receive me, together with my people, into the communion of the Catholic Church and to absolve us from the excommunication which had befallen us in the days of our Fathers. And further, I asked them that in case they could not receive me, they would kindly send my request to the Apostolic See of Rome; but they refused to give attention to my prayer. So I sent for Father Joseph Cariaty, of our nationality, a student of the Propaganda College, and with tears in my eyes and with deep sorrow I revealed my mind to him and put the salvation of my soul into his hands, and he promised me, saying, ‘I shall go to Rome a second time for you, even at the risk of my life on the way.’ With him therefore I send eight other persons from among the Syrian people, of whom some are priests and others secular, to represent me before the Apostolic See and to inform the Sacred Congregation of the Propaganda of my petition. So far as it lies within my power, I with my people swear before the Omnipotent God and promise to embrace and believe with our whole strength what the Catholic Church embraces and believes." In addition to writing this letter, Mar Dionysius, on June 21st 1799, in the Thathampally Romo-Syrian church, signed a document pleading himself to abide by the decrees of the synod of Diamper. (Bishop Marcellinus’ History of the Catholic Religion in Malabar. 251.) These negotiations came to nought, because the Carmelite missionaries advised Rome that Mar Dionysius was not sincere. Thus the opportunity passed, never to return, because with the English Company came the Protestant missionaries who took possession of the flock of Mar Dionysius.

Such are the opinions expressed in this manuscript. Although these opinions are controversial and will be distasteful to some readers, they are printed in this note for the information of the student of this subject.

The matters of the Archbishopric of Angamale and the Christianity which is called of St. Thomas, in parts of Malabar.

That those who come from Chaldea shall present letters to the Archbishop, Primate of India.

Taken from Bullarium Patronatus Portugalliae, Lisbon: The National Press. 1872.