MALABAR. 
178 
territory they lived, who very little interfered in their con¬ 
cerns. When any complaints in civil matters were pre¬ 
ferred to 4 be archbifhop, he ufed to appoint arbitrators or 
judges, whofe fentence was final; they never, however, 
condemned any perfon to death, but all crimes were ex¬ 
piated with pecuniary fines. They paid no tithes to 
their clergy, but at their weddings they ufed, to offer the 
tenth of the marriage-gift to their churches. At their 
weddings they were very profufe and oft^ntatious, and ce¬ 
lebrated them with great pomp; the bride and bridegroom 
rode upon elephants; their hair was ornamented with flow¬ 
ers of gold : the procefiion was accompanied with mufical 
inftruments, and flags of'different colours. They all wore 
fwords and targets, and fome had firelocks; they were 
great markfmen, and, from their eighth year, ufed to fre¬ 
quent their firing-fchools; but hufbandry and trade were 
their principal occupations, and, next to the Brahmins, 
the St. Thome Chriftians ufed to furnifh the greateft quan¬ 
tity of pepper to the Portuguefe cargoes. The girls were 
precluded from all inheritance, evei if no fons were in 
the family ; in which cafe the inheritance went to the 
next male coufin, or uncle, on the father’s fide. This 
fingular law, which is fo contrary to all Malabar cuftoms, 
was unqueftionably imported from Syria, and ferves as an 
additional proof of the St. Thome Chriftians being origi¬ 
nally Syrian colonies. 
As to their religious tenets, they followed generally the 
dottrine of Neftcrius. They rejedled the divine nature of 
Chrift ; and called the Virgin Mary only the mother of 
Chrift, not of God. They alfo maintained that the Hoiy 
Gholt proceeded only from the Father, and nbt from the 
Father and Son. They admitted no images of faints in 
their churches, where the holy crofs alone was to be feen. 
They had only three facramenfs, baptifm, eucharift, and 
holy orders ; and would not admit tranfubftantiation in 
the manner the Roman-catholics do. They know nothing 
of purgatory ; yet the faints, they faid, were not admitted 
to the prefence of God, but were kept in a third place till 
the day of judgment. Their priefts were permitted to 
marry, at leaft once in their life. Their rite was the Chal- 
dfean, or Syrian. They were married in the prefence of 
their priefts, who are called cajfanas ; and the whole cere¬ 
mony confifted in tying a firing round the girl’s neck, as 
is the common practice of all the differents caffs on the 
Malabar coaft. The caflanas were not permitted to ufe 
the Malabar language in their churches, and in inftruft- 
ing the youth ; but taught them in the Chaldsean tongue. 
They reckoned their Sunday from Saturday evening vef- 
pers till the firff matin' of Sunday; fo that after fun-rife 
they might work again. 
This was the happy fituation of the Neftorians, or 
St. Thome Chriftians, before the arrival of the Por¬ 
tuguefe in India. Agreeably to the fpirit of thofe 
times, and efpecially of that bigoted nation, one of their 
firft endeavours was to win over thofe heretics to the 
Roman rite. Every art and every refource was exhaufted, 
efpecially during the reign of Don Manuel, to reclaim 
thofe forlorn fons to the bofom of the church of Rome ; 
but all peaceable and conciliatory means proved fruit- 
lefs, though the fly Jef'uits had in fome manner paved 
the way to an union, by mitigating the terms of their 
fubmiftion under the fupremacy of the pope; by inftitut- 
ing feminaries, in which the Chaldaean language was 
taught to the young clergy; and, above all, by tranfiating 
the Miflal and Roman Catechifm into the fame language, 
and diltributing them amongft the Syrian Chriftians. 
Still they would not have fucceeded, fo ftedfaftly did the 
St. Thome Chriftians adhere to their herefy, had not at 
ialt open force been employed. 
Tire then archbifhop of Angamalee was a Syrian prieft 
of the name of Mar Jofeph ; and, as neither bribes nor 
menaces could induce him to acknowledge the fupremacy 
of the pope, the archbifhop of Goa and the viceroy at laft 
arrefted him, and fent him prifoner to Portugal; but he 
had the art to ingratiate himfelf with the queen Donna 
Catharina, and the reft of the-royal family, whom he made 
to believe, that he had finee been convinced of the truth 
of the Catholic religion, and that on his return he would 
bring about an union of his flock with the fee of Rome ; 
fo that in the year 1564 he was permitted to return, with 
orders to the viceroy Noronha to re (lore him, and to af¬ 
ford him in future every poffible protection and affiftance. ■ 
In the mean time, the St. Thome Chriftians, as loon as 
they heard of the confinement and fubfequent tranfporta- 
tion of their archbifhop to Portugal, had applied to the 
then patriarch of Babylon, fora new metropolitan, whom 
they obtained in the perfon of Mar Abraham. But he had 
hardly taken pofieflion of his fee, when Mar Jofeph re¬ 
turned from Europe, w ith his diplomas from Donna Ca¬ 
tharina. The confequence was an immediate fchifni; and 
the whole Malabar Chriftians divided themfelves into two 
parties, one adhering to Mar Jofeph, and the other to Mar 
Abraham. But Mar Jofeph, being fupported by the whole 
power of the Portuguefe government, f'oon got the better 
of his antagonist, whom the rajah of Cochin and Paroor 
received orders to feize, and to deliver to the commandant 
of Cochin, in order to be fent to Europe. The veffel on¬ 
board of which he w as, happening to touch at Mofam- 
bique, he fohnd means to make his efcape, and to reach 
Babylon over land ; but, inltead of returning to M dabar, 
he refolved to go of his own accord to Rome, where he 
did not fail to captivate the mind of pope Pius IV. in fuch 
a manner, that his recantation of the Neftorian herefy was 
gladly received, and himfelf newly ordained and conle- 
crated, and loaded with the highelt ecclefiaftical dignities; 
though amongft his papers wtre found afterwards a pro- 
teftation of his ftedfaft adherence to his former doctrine, 
the abjuring of which, he laid, was the only refource to 
fave his life. He had alfo written letters to the fame ef- 
ftft to India, which fell afterwards into the hands of the 
archbifhop De Menezes. Deceit and perjury are not con¬ 
fined to any feet nor any rank. 
The Portuguefe clergy, however, were not lefs dif- 
pleafed with the conduct of Mar Jofeph; who, notwith- 
ftanding all his promifes to the queen, and his protella- 
tions made to the archbifhop of Goa, and the Portuguefe 
government, continued to govern his flock after the tenets 
of Neltorius,. anil to prevent rather than to promote an 
union with the Roman-catholics ; fo that a new order for 
his iinprifonment was iffued in the year 1567. He was a 
fecond time tranfported, firft to Portugal, and afterwards 
to Rome, where he likewife contrived to make his peace 
with the pope ; but, before he could undertake a new voy¬ 
age to India, he died at Rome, on the eve of being made 
a cardinal. Mar Abraham had in the mean time arrived 
at Goa, with new authority, and with brevets from the 
pope ; but the famous archbifhop De Menezes, on ex¬ 
amining them, pretended that Mar Abraham had deceived 
his holinefs, and took upon himfelf to confine him in a 
convent, from which, however, he foon found means to 
make his efcape, and to reach Angamalee over land, where 
he was received with uncommon exultation by all the St. 
Thome Chriftians ; and from dire experience he learned 
to take now fuch precautions, that he put it out of the 
power of the viceroy to get a third time hold ot his per¬ 
fon ; and, after fome fruitlefs attempts, he was effeftually 
left in quiet poflefiion of his fee till his death ; but at the 
fame time the molt vigorous meafures were taken by the 
Portuguefe government, that no Syrian prieft might in 
future find his way to the Malabar Chriftians. As they 
were then matters of Ormuz, and the whole navigation on 
this fide India, it is not furprifing that they fucceeded in 
preventing all intercourfe between the Neftorian patriarch 
at Babylon and the St. Thome Chriftians at Angamalee. 
They ltand even accufed of having drowned a new Syrian 
bifliop in the year 1644 in the road of Cochin ; than which 
nothing is more probable. Repeated orders were alfo 
fent from Rome, not to allow, after Mar Abraham’s death, 
that another archbifhop of Syrian extraftion fhould be 
nominated. Mar Abraham died about the year 1597, in 
a very advanced age, profeffing to the laft moment of his 
life his adherence to the Neftorian church, and his abhors 
rence 
