188 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [N.S., XIX, 
exact date of his journey, we leave to other writers their opin- 
ion that John IJ]. was an Indian Bishop. What runs counter 
to the notions we derive from what we read in our 16th; cen- 
tury writers, is that, zesfe John III., there would have ‘been 
yearly several Bishops at Mylapore on the feast of St. Thomas. 
The quotations we have adduced in our Part I, Chapter IT, lead 
us to expect only one Bishop in the whole of ‘Southern India, 
namely a Bishop in Malabar. Other Bishops would have been 
found in Sokotra, China, and in other parts far away from 
Southern India. On the other hand, we must confess that our 
knowledge of the conditions prevailing in Southern India at 
the time of Mar John III. is of the vaguest. There may also 
have been a Rishop in the Maldives and in Ceylon, as was the 
case at an earlier time. Still, even if there had been several 
Bishops in Southern India at the time, we do not easily 
suppose that they met every year at My lapore for the feast. 
Father Paulinusa 8. Bartholomaeo, referring to Le Quien’s 
Oriens Christianus, col. 1272, states that about 1129 Mar John, 
be our ecsictiny John who went 5 Rome i in or abont 1122. 
Father Bernard of St. Thomas, T.0.C.D., writes to me 
from Mangalore (3-10-1921) that, from the papers he has seen 
about Mar John III., he has no doubt that he really was a 
Bishop, but that native writers Say nothing about his having 
gone to Rome on a visit to the ig 
What i is the origin of the following story ? 
“ Bishop Eschilinus has left written in his book the follow- 
nection with Holy Mass. On the eve of the feast of St- 
Thomas in December, the Bishop of the town where the body 


lun, we have undoubtedly in this sod ahs material a proof of the influ- 
ence of the Indian Christians. Weber, Ind. Skizzen, p. 111. Else, with 
regard to the Indian sesh of nti + ee tatieei ry Se stern literature; 
' we should ascribe to the Indians considerable historic sense, which other 
wise is not characteristic ot them.”—(W. 
te is far fro clear to me, Bags which perhaps my | 
Father A. Stockman, sole wri be about oe John (Cath. Ency- 
clopedia, New York, XII, 00c), speaks of the ‘mythical’ journey ig 
ome of a certain Potten of India in 1122, and ha visit to Callistus I. 
