the Kingdoms of Cochin and Travancore. 73 



.of these Christians, which appeared in the seventh vokime 

 of the Asiatic Researches, and which has the merit of call- 

 ing our attention to these people ; though it is no better ihaa 

 a lame transcript of information, which may be fully and 

 satisfactorily obtained in La Croze's book, from whence 

 every material part of that memoir is obviously taken : in- 

 deed, wherever the baron departs from his author he be- 

 comes less iiitcrestinc:, or misleads his reader. That the 

 Christians in Malabar were early taught the tenets of Nes^ 

 torius, is proved by La Croze on ib.e direct authority of 

 Cosmas, an Egyptian merchant (himself a Nestorian), 

 who published his voyage to India in the year 547. It 

 seems, however, not improbable that Christians had been 

 planted in these shores long before the time of Nestorius; 

 and 1 am inclined to regard the tradition of its having spread 

 hither in the age cf the apostles, as very far from fabulous*. 



With respect to their religious tenets, writers may, and 

 will, disagree; upon such subjects human reason avails no-» 

 thing. The disputes which on these points have agitated the 

 world, are in general no better than the perverse offspring of 

 verbal differences. 



Tlie following is a vercion of the present creed of these 

 people, being a written coinmunicatioa from the metropo* 

 litan to the resident at Travancore : 



*' In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, we, 

 the Christians, believers in the religion of Jesus Christ, sub- 

 ject to the jurisdiction of Mar Ignatius, patriarch of An- 

 tioch, being loyal Jacobiansf, hold the following crefd : 



" We believe in the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, Three 



Persons 



• Eiisebius informs us that there were Christians in India as early as the 

 .year 189, who h:id the Gospel of St. Matthew iu Hebrew, which they de- 

 clared was receivec? from St. Bartholomew. 



f Eastern Christians, who renounce the communion of the Greek church, 

 and difler from it both in doctrine aiid worship, ir.ay he comprehended under 

 two distinct classes. To the former belong- the Monophysites or Jacobite^, 

 so culled from Jacob Albardai, who declare it as their opinion, that in the 

 Saviour of the world there is only one nature; while the latter comprche-;:ds 

 the followers of Nestoiiu6,frequcntly called Chaldcan.'i,from the country where 

 they principally reside, and who suppose that tiierearc two distinct persons or 

 natures in the .Son of God. The Monophy.itcs arc subdivided ijito two scctj 



OF 



