﻿372 ACCOUNT OF THE ST. TPIOMe' CHRISTIANS 



life liis adherence to tlie Nestorian church, and \m 

 ablionence of the tenets of the Popish religion. The 

 Archbishop of Go<7, Menezes, immediately appoint- 

 ed a Jesuit, Franciscus Roz, to fill the vacant seat 

 o^^ Aiiganiake ; but to no eitect, for he was not ac- 

 knowledged nor admitted by the St. Thome Chris- 

 tians, who had previously elected a priest of their 

 own of the name of George for their Archdeacon, 

 till a new metropolitan could be procured from Ba- 

 bylon. 



Menezes resolved now to visit in person the Ma- 

 labar Christians, and to try if by his presence and 

 influence he could brino; about a sincere and lastinoj 

 re-nnion. The appearance of a man of his birth, rank, 

 wealth, and power, as primate of Indian to which 

 he joined an ecjual zeal, devotion, and great private 

 virtue, was decisive. The forlorn George employed 

 at first every evasion and subterfuge that his natural 

 sairacitv and his o-reat attachment to his sect could 

 suggest, in order to gain time for a new Bishop to 

 arrive from Babylon, who might be able to meet Me- 

 nezes upon e(jual terms; but no bishop from Baby- 

 lon did or could make good his voyage to India, and 

 Menezes was indefatigable, bold, persevering, and 

 lavish of his wealth ; and had all the petty Rajas of 

 that time at his command, lie appointed at last a 

 mock council or synod at Odiamper, in the vicinity 

 of Cochin, m the year 1599, where he assend)led most 

 of the Syrian priests or Ca.ssanas, and four elders 

 from each village ; and after some shew of disputa- 

 tion, and explanation of the controverted tenets of 

 the church of ivowzt', he proceeded to dictate the law 

 lO them, there being not a person of sufticient erudi- 

 tion, orof consideration and influenceenough amongst 

 the Cassanas, who could dare to oppose Men ezls : 

 and to appearance the Nestorians of Malabar were 

 vinitcd to the Roman church *. 



Menezes 



* We cannot fufficiently lament the great less wlikh literature sus, 



tained 



