99 Account of the Christians on the Malabar Coast. [Januaby 



to preach the catholic doctrine and to attend the provincial conn* 

 cils assembled at Goa, and to observe all the decrees which might 

 then be made for his diocese. In consequence of this letter he at» 

 tended the third provincial council assembled by Don Vincent de 

 Fonceca, archbishop of Goa, and made a new confession of faith, to 

 which he added (if we may believe the Portuguese historian) a for- 

 mal renunciation of his errors, and bound himself to obey the de- 

 crees of the council, and to deliver up to them all the heretical 

 books in his diocese, in order that they might burn some and cor- 

 rect others. The council finding that in his ordination of priests, he 

 put no wine into the calice when he placed it in the hand of the 

 candidate, pronounced the ordination null and void, and obliged 

 him to re-ordain them in the presence of two Jesuits from the toU 

 lege of Vaipicotta. So that these priests were ordained, three seve- 

 ral times ! 



Sometime after the council, Mar Abraham, apprehending that his 

 Patriarch would be offended at his proceedings, wrote a letter to 

 him informing him that he had attended the council of Goa, from 

 fear of the Portuguese " who were as close upon his head as the 

 hammer upon the anvil — and that he had carried with him his 

 confession of faith, which was highly applauded by the bishops. 

 This letter was intercepted. 



His apprehensions of the displeasure of the Patriarch, appear to 

 have been well founded, for about this time a Syrian arrived in 

 Malabar, named Mar Simeon, who gave out that he was sent by 

 the Patriarch of Mosul to succeed Mar Abraham. The whole 

 diocese was thrown into confusion by the parties, and mutual excom- 

 munications of the two prelates, Mar Simeon being supported by 

 the Queen * of the country at carturte, and Mar Abraham by the 

 Portuguese, to whose protection he appealed. After some time how- 

 ever Simeon was pursuaded by some Franciscan Missionaries, in the 

 interest of the opposite party, that he would never be secure in the 

 possession of his dignity, till he obtained the sanction of the Pope. 

 He therefore went to Rome, to solicit it ; and Sixtus V. the reign- 

 ing Pontiff, according to Gouvea, finding on examination that he was 

 a Nestorian, that he was not a bishop, and that there was no 

 proof of his being even a priest, obliged him to recant his errors, 

 and confined him in a monastery, till he should be instructed in the 

 Catholic doctrine. The sentence, pronounced by the Pope him- 

 self, declared that he was not a bishop, and forbade him to 

 exercise any episcopal function, or even to celebrate Divine Ser- 



* Called by the Portuguese, Rainha de P'menta. 



