1834.] Account of the Christians on the Malabar Coast. lOD 



vice. The principal reason of this sentence according to Gouvea, 

 was a letter which Mar Simeon had written to the Patriarch of 

 Mosul, and which had been intercepted by the Portuguese. He 

 there represented to him that on his arrival in India, finding the au- 

 thority of the Patriarch so weakened, the bishop of the Malabar so 

 infirm, and the Portuguese so determined to overthrow the rites 

 and doctrines of the Syrian churches, he thought he was rendering a 

 service to God by assuming the title and exercising the functions of 

 bishop, in order to preserve the authority of the Patriarch. He 

 therefore entreated him to confirm the orders which he had given, 

 and to send him letters, declaring him archbishop of the christians 

 of Malabar. Such is Gouvea's account, but it is difficult to give im- 

 plicit belief to so partial and prejudiced an historian ; and the more 

 natural interpretation of the letter is that Mar Simeon had been con- 

 secrated without a title, (as is common with the oriental churches) 

 and sent by the Patriarch to enquire into the disorders of Malabar i 

 that finding that they required a prompt and immediate remedy, 

 he assumed the government of the church, and requested the Pa- 

 triarch now to confirm what he had done and to send his Sustaticon 

 or letters patent, for the legal possession of the diocese. 



From Rome Mar Simeon was sent to Portugal, and confined in 

 the Franciscan convent at Lisbon. From thence he wrote every 

 year to the churches that recognized his authority in Malabar, -and 

 particularly to a Catanar, or Priest, named Yacoob, whom he had ap- 

 pointed his vicar general. These letters, in which he styles himself 

 Alexis de Metropolitan of India, contain all the errors of Nestorius. 

 Don Menezes finding one of them when he visited Malabar in 1599, 

 sent it to the Inquisitor General at Lisbon. After this we hear no more 

 of Mar Simeon. 



His rival was now left in full possession of the See, though Yacoob, 

 the vicar general of Mar Simeon, refused to own his authority. 

 Don Matthias, archbishop of Goa, held at this time (A. D. 1590) 

 the fourth Provincial council of India, and summoned Mar Abraham 

 according to the brief of Gregory XIII. but that prelate feared 

 to trust himself a second time to the good faith of the Portuguese, 

 especially as he had not adhered to the promises that were extorted 

 from him in the preceding council. To every summons he answered 

 in the words of an Arabic proverb — The cat that has once been 

 bitten by an addevj is frightened even at a string. 



The Portuguese having informed the Pope (Clement VIII.) of the 

 refractory conduct of Mar Abraham, obtained a brief, addressed to 

 the famous Don Alexis de Menezes, then newly appointed arch- 



