T H O 



T H O 



that it Ceems to have chiefly led the modern expounders of 

 uuciept writers to take this fpecies for Cxxt^ti of Diofcorides. 

 We have ab-eady, in its proper place, (hewn our Shepherd's 

 Purfe to be what he defcribes ; and we can iinderftaiid the 

 name, as derived from i\aw, in no other light, than alluding 

 to the minute feeds, which feem as if beaten to powder. 

 This is by no means the iirft inllance, in which the moll 

 apparently jufl; etymology, proves not to be the real one. 



THLIBI.^, in Antiquity, a kind of eunuchs. See 

 TuLASiAS and Castration. 



THLIPSIS, SxiTTo-ir, is ufed, by anatomifts, for the 

 compreffion of any veflel or aperture, by which its cavity is 

 leflened. 



THNETOPSYCHITES, compofed of 9»*.-, mortal, 

 and X-xix'^, foul, in Ecdeftajlical Hijiory ; a fedl in the ancier.t 

 church, who believed the foul of man perfeftly like that of 

 brutes ; and taught that it died with the body. See Soul. 



We meet with no account of thefe heretics any where but 

 in J. Damafcenus Hscref. 90, unlefs they be the fame with 

 thofe Eufebius fpeaks of. Hilt. Eccief. lib. ix. c. 38, who 

 relates, that in Origen's time, there were heretics in Arabia, 

 who taught, that the foul of man died with the body ; but 

 that it (hould rife again with it at the end of the world. 

 Ke adds, that Origen refuted them in a numerous council, 

 and reclaimed them from their errors. St. Auguftine and 

 Ifidore call thera the Arabian heretics. 



Marfliall, in his tables, ufes the word Thenopfychites inftead 

 of Thnctopfychites . 



THOA, in Botany, a Guiana name adopted by Aublet, 

 and retained by Juffieu, and even Schreber ; iee our article 

 Gnetum, to which genus this plant is there, for the firfl 

 time, referred, as a fecond fpecies. 



THOALABIAN, in Geography, a town of Arabia, in 

 the province of Nedsjed ; 260 miles E.N.E. of Hajar. 



THOANHOA, a town of Cochinchina, at the bottom 

 of a large bay. N. lat. 16^45'. E. long. 106° 27'. 



THOARD, a town of France, in the department of the 

 Lower Alps ; 9 miles E.S.E. of Sifleron. 



THOCO, an ifland in the Grecian Archipelago, near the 

 coaft of Greece, about eight miles in circumference. N. lat. 

 37° 20'. E. long. 23° 2!'. 



THOCOS, 9i.)xo-, in Antiquity, the izme\\\\h.Thacas. 



THOGRAI, in Biography, a Perfian of Ifpahan, who 

 was grand vizier to the fultan Mahch Mailiud, is celebrated 

 for his poetical talents, a fpecimen of which is given by 

 Pococke ; and for a commentary upon the republic of 

 Plato, to whom the Saracens paid little attention. After a 

 ftrange reverfe of fortune, Thograi was put to death by 

 order of the fultan in the year ] I2I. 



THOIRY, in Geography, a town of France, in the de- 

 partment of the Ain ; 6 miles S.S.W. of Gex. 



THOKES, in our Old Writers, fifn with broken beUies, 

 forbid by ftatute to be mixed or packed with tale-fifh. 

 22 Ed. IV. cap. 2. 



THOLEN, in Geography. See Tolen. 



THOLES, in Sea Language, denote fmall pins driven 

 perpendiculai'ly into the upper edge of a boat. In rowing, 

 the oar paffes between the two tholes, in the fpace called the 

 row-lock. Sometimes there is only one pin to each oar, as in 

 the boats navigated on the Mediterranean fea : in that cafe 

 the oar is hung upon the pin by means of a ftrop. 



THOM/EANS, Thomeans, Thomites, or Chrijlians 

 of St. Thomas, a people of the Eaft Indies, in Cochin, and 

 upon the coaft of Malabar and Coromandel, who, according 

 to tradition, received the Gofpel from the apoftle St. 

 Thomas. 



It appears by the tcftimony of Cofmas, who wrote about 

 Vol. XXXV. 



A.D. 547, and whofc work is tranflated by F. Montfaucon, 

 that Chrilliajiity was eftablifhed in India in the fixth cen- 

 tury. We alfo find in the fubfcriptions of the council of 

 Nice, that of a prelate, who calls himfelf bifliop of Perfia. 

 Moreover, an ancient author, cited by Suidas, fays, that 

 the inhabitants of Interior India, (a name which Cofmas 

 gives to thecoall of Malabar,) the Iberians and Armenians, 

 were baptized under the reign of Conftantine. 



The princes of the country, and particularly Serant Pe- 

 roumal, emperor of Malabar, the founder of the city of 

 Calicut, A.D. 825, granted extraordinary privileges to 

 thefe Chriftians. 



When Vafco de Gama, the Portuguefe admiral, arrived 

 at Cochin with a fleet, in the year 1502, thefe Chriftians 

 fent deputies to him, imploring his protcftion, and that of 

 the king his niafter. The admiral treated them kindly, but 

 was in no condition to afford them any effeftual affiilance, in 

 relieving them from the yoke of the Pagan kings, to which 

 they were then fubjeft. The language they ufe infacris, is 

 the Syriac, or, as fome fay, the Chaldee ; but their ordinary- 

 language is the fame with that of their neighbours. The 

 firft miffionaries, who attempted to profelyte them to the 

 church of Rome, were Cordeliers, but their endeavours 

 proved inefFeftual. The diftinguifhing opinions and reli- 

 gious rites of thefe Chriftians are as follow. 



They are charged with an invincible attachment to the 

 do<Srine of Neftorius, and with an obftinate refufal to ac- 

 knowledge, that the Virgin is the mother of God : they 

 have no images in their churches : they believe that the 

 fouls of the blefled are not admitted into the prefencc of 

 God till after the day of univerfal judgment : they allow 

 only of three facraments, to'z. baptifm, orders, and the 

 eucharift : they defer the baptifm of infants for ibme time, 

 as for a month, or even for feven, eight, or ten years, after 

 they are born : they make no ufe of holy oil, neither in 

 baptifm, nor in the adminiftration of the other facraments ; 

 but atttr baptizing their infants, they fprinkle the oil of a 

 fpecies of Indian faffron all over their bodies : they allow of 

 no auricular confeilion, treat purgatory as a fable, and their 

 priefts are permitted to marry : they entertain an extraor- 

 dinary affeftion for the Neftorian patriarch of Babylon, but 

 will not fuffer any mention of the pope, or of the Romi/h 

 churches in their alFemblies. Their days of abftinence are 

 Wednefday and Friday, and their faft is very fevere in Lent, 

 during which time they go to church three times a day- 

 They alfo faft in the fame manner during the time of 

 Advent. Befides thefe two greater fafts, which are enjoined 

 on pain of excommunication, they have feveral others of a 

 religious nature. Their women do not enter a church for 

 forty days after their delivery of a male child, nor for 

 eighty days after the birth of a daughter. 



Thefe Chriftians are in general poorly inftrucled, knowing 

 only the Lord's prayer and the angelical falutation. Their 

 churches arc mean and unadorned buildings, and conftruAed 

 after the manner of the pagodas. They appear to maintain 

 many of the rehgious opinions and practices received among 

 Proteftants, and rejeft cither wholly, or in a very great mea- 

 fure, thofe of the church of Rome. They deny the fu- 

 premacy of the pope, and tranfubftantiation, and exclude 

 from the number of facraments, confirmation, extreme unc- 

 tion, and marriage. Such are the errors profcribed by the 

 fynod of Diamper, held in 1599, by Aleixo de Menefes, 

 archbifhop of Goa, in order to unite the Thomasans to the 

 Romifh church. However, notwithftanding the temporary 

 {uccefs that attended the vigorous exertions of the arch- 

 bifhop, for which he was reccimpenfed after his return to 

 Europe, with the archbilhopric of Brags, the viceroy/hip 

 4 A of 



