﻿S64 ACCOUXT OF THE ST. THOME' CH RISTIANS 



liatcly had been abettors of Nesforius, and that 

 through tlieir means tliis abominable heresy hid been 

 introduced amongst the Cliristians of Ma/ahar. 

 Though this story is supported by no liistorical proof 

 \vhat?oever, and evidently iabricated by some bigot- 

 ed Roman Catiiolic writers, to serve the purpose of 

 the times, and to vindicate in some manner the bold 

 <loctrine of the see of Rome, that the Gospel liad 

 ])cen preached in every ccrner of the world, at a time 

 Avhen new worlds were discovered, in which it was 

 evident that the Gospel could never have been pro- 

 mulgated, and others in which Christians were 

 found, who would not acknowledge the supremacy 

 of the Pope, and MliO differed in the most substantial 

 articles of faith from the Roman Catholicks ; yet this 

 improbable story has a long time been asserted, and 

 repeated by even Protestant writers, as Baldaeus 

 and Valextyx. 



All traditions and Malabar records agree, that 

 the Si/riati Christians, or \azaranee Mapilas, Mere 

 known, and had been settled on the Malabai^ coast, 

 long before either the Arabs or thejeivs. 



CoMMOx tradition, \vhich has even been admitted 

 by the Portuguese writers of the ]6"th century, pro- 

 l)ably on the foundation of written records in the 

 Svrian Ivanguage, Mhich then existed, and were 

 afterwards all destroyed by the famous Archbishop 

 De Mexezes at the Synoil of Ocliampcr, mentions 

 ^Iar Thome' as the first who introcKiced the Chris- 

 tian religion into Malabar. He is considered^ by 

 the Nestorians, as their fust bishop and founder, 

 from whom they derive their name of iSt. Thome 

 Chiistiajis. His arrival may be placed towards the 

 middle of the ath century ; since notice is taken by 

 Cosmas Ixdopleustes [page 178-179) of Chris- 

 tians in the Pepper Country or Male, who received 

 their bishops from Fersia, where the Nestorian Pa- 

 triarch of that time resided, who liad first his seat in 



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