1834.] Account of the Christians on the Malabar Coast. 258 



had hitherto been unknown to them. He commenced it by a pro- 

 cession for the dead, after which he dehvered a discourse on purga- 

 tory, a doctrine of which they were equally ignorant. 



Neither the Archdeacon nor any of his clergy came to Vaipi- 

 cotta till two days after these ceremonies were ended. The Arch- 

 bishop dissembled his displeasure at this delay and received him 

 graciously, communicating to him his plans for the reformation of 

 the Diocese. The Archdeacon, with equal dissimulation on his 

 part, appeared to approve all he proposed. The Prelate, however, 

 was soon roused to measures more natural to his character. He 

 learned that in the Church of Vaipicotta, even in his very presence, 

 a prayer was publicly offered both in the morning and evening ser- 

 vice, for the Patriarch of Babylon, under the title of the universal 

 Patriarch of the Catholic Church. Menezes who considered him 

 as a Nestorian Heretic, as a Schismatic, as an excommunicated 

 person and chief of the whole sect, could not bear this profanation. 

 Those about him advised him to conceal for the present his feelings 

 of indignation, lest the Syrians should be roused to opposition. 

 This temporising policy he at once rejected, and summoning an as- 

 sembly of the Jesuits o^ the College, the clergy of t he seminary, the 

 Archdeacon and his suite, and his own followers, he produced a 

 sentence of excommunication against all persons (whether of the 

 laity or clergy) in the Diocese of Angamale, who should hereafter 

 call the Patriarch of Babylon, by a title which belonged only to the 

 Roman Pontiff, the successor of St. Peter ; and he therefore or- 

 dered that in future, as well in the Liturgy* as in the other public 

 prayers, no mention should be made of that Patriarch, who should 

 be regarded as a Nestorian heretic, cut off from the communion 

 of the Roman church. 



This document being read, the Archbishop ordered the archdea- 

 con and two of the senior Catanars to sign it. Amazed at this un- 

 expected demand, he positively refused compliance. Menezes 

 exclaimed with a resolute and imperious air — " Sig7i, Father. 

 We must lay the axe to the root of the evil" At length he signed 

 his name, without uttering a word, the two Catanars followed his 

 example, the Act was affixed to the doors of the church, and the 

 assembly was dismissed. 



The priests and elders of the people were thrown into the ut- 

 most consternation. They surrounded the door of the archdea- 



* The Liturgy means the office of the Holy Communion, not the Order of 

 Common Piayer» 



