Vol. IX, No. 4.] Earliest Jesuit Printing in India. 159 
[V.S.] 
The Professed House of Goa was started in 1585.! 
VAIPICOTA.—PrintInG In ‘‘Matapar,’’ SyRIAC AND 
** KanaREsE.’’—The famous Christians of St. Thomas lived i in 
the mountains of Malabar to the number of about 70,000, follow- 
corrupt practices, thes were very ‘anxious to return to the purity 
of the Roman fai 
The decrees of ‘the first Council of Goa for the extirpation 
of those abuses were most prudent ; yet, the inhabitants of the 
forbidden to them.’ Prudence and patience, however, suc- 
eeeded in calming them down. 
Having gained this much, Fr. Alexander Valignano, the 
visitor of the Missions of India, Japan and China, had an 
Abraham, the Archbishop of the St. 
Thomas’ Christians. He offered him costly presents and ob- 
tained in writing ample facilities for the Fathers of the Society 
to exercise their apostolic ministry and settle among his dio- 
cesans. 
A place for a residence was found not far from the fort of 
St in the town of Vaipicota which was subject to the 
of Cochin, a friend of the missionaries. A church was 
built under the invocation of the True Cross, and immediately 
Fr. Bernardino Ferrao, spe with Pedro Luis, a native priest, 
began in 1577 to compose in the Malabar tongue a small work 
containing the orthodox Grist doctrine 
The chief difficulty was how to have it printed. I[n this 
as in all the rest, Divine Pivviitehie had provided by bringing 
to Goa me Spanish Coadjutor Brother Juan Gonzalez 
ived into the Society in 1555, this Brother ‘united to 
no puma sanctity talent, a sound judgment and a rare skill 
in his office of ironsmith and clock-maker. These cer pt rd 
e him most useful to the Ethiopian Mission. He died at 
ee in 1579, siete a sweet remembrance of his virtues. 
eur gue les chrétiens chantaient en |’église sur le 
nag get ee hip tb %s -? a pokey durait une grande 
soir de tous les vendredis du caré 
partie de la nuit, avec un sr a e de Oe: re beard 
douze mille efsonnes pour assister & ce 
Seven he aiecone du P. A de Rhodes, ch. IV 
Sousa, Oriente conquistado, pt. II, — 2 iv. I, n. 105. 
ita 3 i i i is i bariam inter 
chaldaici, Hstranghelo dicti. Me 
Ori 
to confound here the dispositions of the Council 
thos of ° Bt. Thomas Christians in Malabar with those 
the Hindiis in Salsete of Goa.] 
i 
8 [The a 
against et errors of ¢ 
against t By capone ‘rites of 
