1834.] Account of the Christians on the Malabar Coast, 98 



the Queen's letters, suffered to resume his oflBce. The church was 

 divided into parties by the two rival bishops, and Mar Joseph ap- 

 pealed for protection to the archbishop of Goa. Mar Abraham 

 was accordingly siezed by his order and sent to Goa, where he was 

 put on board a vessel bound for Portugal. The ship however touch- 

 ing at Madagascar, he there made his escape, and went to Mosul 

 with a view of obtaining fresh orders from the Patriarch and returning 

 to India. Fearing however that the influence of the Portuguese 

 would never leave him in repose, he took the hardy resolution of 

 going at once to Rome, where he arrived under the pontificate of 

 Pius IV. The Pope compelled him to make a new confession of 

 faith, and to promise the entire reduction of this church to the Ro- 

 man See ; and the Eastern forms of ordination being different 

 from the Romish ritual, he decided that Mar Abraham had never 

 been properly ordained. He obliged him therefore to receive the 

 several orders, from the tonsure to the priesthood inclusive ; and 

 then having enjoined the Patriarch of Venice to consecrate him 

 bishop, he sent him back to India, with a brief addressed to the vice- 

 toy and the bishops directing them to acknowledge him as bishop 

 of Angamale. The records of all these transactions, were in the 

 time of Gouvea in the church of Angamale, then the cathedral 

 church of Malabar. 



Mar Joseph, during the absence of Mar Abraham, enjoyed all the 

 |)rerogatives of his office, and continued to preach the doctrines of 

 Nestorius, in violation of his engagements both at Goa and Lisbon^ 

 The archbishop of Goa and the bishop of Cochin wrote to the Car- 

 Tdinal Don Henny, who obtained from the Pope, (Pius V.) an order 

 to the archbishop of Goa, to make strict enquiry into the charge 

 of heresy and if he were found guilty, to send him immediately to 

 Rome. He was accordingly siezed and sent to Portugal, and from 

 thence to Rome, " where (says Gouvea) he ended his days.'* 



Mar Abraham arrived at Goa a short time after the departure of Mar 

 Joseph, but was received with great suspicion by the Portuguese, and 

 confined in the Dominican convent. He contrived however to make 

 his escape, and went to his own church, where he was received with 

 transports of joy. He re-ordained those whom he had formerly or- 

 dained, apparently in obedience to the decision of the Pope regard- 

 ing the invalidity of his own consecration, but he still continued to 

 preach the errors of Nestorius and suppressed the name of the Pope 

 in the public prayers, inserting only that of the Patriarch of Baby- 

 lon. Gregory the XIII, at the instance of the archbishop of Goa, 

 addressed a brief to him dated November 28, 1576, enjoining him 



