103 Account of the Christians on the Malabar Coast. [J a nu a ry 



of the chief Rajahs of the coast, which rendered the journey dan- 

 gerous, and mterrupted all intercourse of christians. Forced by 

 these circumstances to defer his expedition, he wrote to the arch- 

 deacon and to the church, that he was on the point of visiting them, 

 but that, for weighty reasons, he should defer his journey to the fol- 

 lowing spring ; and that in the mean time the archdeacon should 

 make his public confession of faith as he was pledged to do, that he 

 should give up all the Syriac books in his diocese, of whatever na- 

 ture they were, to be purified and corrected, and lastly that he should 

 bring all his people into subjection to the church of Rome. 



The archdeacon was alarmed and began to temporize. He de- 

 clared that he was ready to make the confession of faith before per- 

 sons of any other order, but that he had reasons to complain of the 

 Jesuits. Menezes however, was entirely governed by that Order in 

 the whole conduct of his expedition to Malabar. They had alrea- 

 dy fixed on the Episcopal dignity as the object of their ambition, 

 and they obtained it by the credit and connivance of the archbishop. 

 They enjoyed it subsequently, as we shall see, till the christians, 

 weary of their avarice and their tyranny, rose en masse against 

 them, and thus depriving the Jesuits of so honorable and lucrative a 

 post, contributed not a little to the conquests of the Dutch, and 

 the expulsion of the Portuguese from that coast. 



Menezes was firm in his demands, and several circumstances that 

 occurred at this time tended to widen the breach between the two 

 churches. He sent a Franciscan Friar, who had brought him let- 

 ters from the archdeacon, to receive publicly his confession of faith, 

 and to send it to him to Goa in Malayalim. The archdeacon, inti- 

 midated by his threats, consented to make a confession of faith, pro- 

 vided he were not forced to make it publicly, lest it should be 

 thought that hitherto he had not been orthodox. He made accor- 

 dingly a sort of confession of faith in private before the Franciscan, 

 and sent it to the archbishop. Menezes was exceedingly displeased 

 with this document, because it was neither public, nor in the form 

 prescribed by Pius IV ; because the archdeacon had contented him- 

 self with saying that he was a Catholic, without abjuring the errors 

 of Nestorlus ; because he professed to believe m the Holy Church 

 without adding the word Roman ; and because he declared the Pope 

 to be the Pastor of the church, without saying that he was the 

 universal Pastor of the whole church of Jesus Christ. 



This confession not being admitted, the Franciscans determined 

 to extort another which should be more acceptable. They there- 

 fore proposed to him to meet them at Vaipin in the immediate 



