however, have their history; a few of the leading statements of which, uncorroborated as they are, will not be uninteresting.

The Syrian Christians of South India say, that the Apostle Thomas arrived there, in the year of our Lord 52; and that, after living and labouring 30 years on the Malabar coast, he went to Mailapore, where he was murdered by a heathen priest. Many converts, it is stated, were made by his ministry. But after the death of two priests, who immediately succeeded him in the charge of the churches, which he had established, there were no priests for a long succession of years. The services of baptism and of marriage, though continued, were performed by the elders of the churches; and many, in consequence, relapsed into idolatry. In the year 345 a Bishop, with some priests and others, came to them from Syria. The Rajah of Malabar took them under his protection, granted to them important privileges, and issued a decree that no one should persecute them.

After this, we are told, certain Nazarites came from Jerusalem, and intermarried with the Christians in Malabar. They settled about the village of Cranganore, where the Apostle Thomas was said to have landed, when he arrived in India. These Nazarites adopted the Indian institution of caste, and divided into parties; and these divisions, from the circumstance of their settlement, one on the north, and the other on the south side of the village, are to this day called the north party, and the south party.* That there is some truth in these statements, there can be no doubt. But while it is very questionable, whether the ancient church in India was founded by the Apostle Thomas, or by emigrants from Syria, it is hardly to be doubted, whether christianity was planted there, as early as the 4th century of our era.

Dr Buchanan says, that, in the acts of the council of Nice, it is recorded, that Johannes, Bishop of India, signed his name at that council, in A. D. 325; and, that we have as good authority for believing, that the Apostle Thomas died in India, as that the Apostle Peter died at Rome.' If, however, Dr Buchanan had any better authority, than that of report on this subject, he would probably have adduced it.

* An abstract of a Brief History of the Syrians of Malabar, translated from the Malayalim, by Mr Bailey, a Missionary in South India. Chh. Miss. Report, 1819, pp. 317, 318.

+ Christian Researches, pp. 165 and 167.

The next account, in which mention is made of the Christians in India, is given by a writer, who flourished early in the 6th century. There is,' he says, 'in the island of Ceylon, towards interior India, a church of Christians, where are found a clergy, and a congregation of the faithful; but whether it extends farther, I know not. Likewise in Male, as they call it,'-probably a contraction of Malabar,where pepper grows. But in Calliana, there is a Bishop, who is usually ordained in Persia,' &c. From this statement, it appears that the Christians in India had, early in the 6th century, embraced the doctrines of Nestorius; for the archbishop of Persia was, at that time, subject to the Patriarch of Seleusia, who was a Nestorian.*

In the year of our Lord 1500, intelligence was brought to Europe of the Christians in India, by a Portuguese adventurer, who had stopped at the port of Cranganore. Two brothers, from these Christians, embarked with him for Portugal; one of whom died there, and the other proceeded to Rome, and from thence to Venice; where, from his information, a Latin tract was published, giving some account of the Christians in Malabar. In the same year, Don Vasco de Gama, with a Portuguese fleet, arrived at Cochin. A deputation of the Christians of St Thomas, was sent to the Admiral, requesting that his master, whom they understood to be a christian king, would take them under his protection, and defend them from the encroachments and oppression of the native princes. The admiral dismissed them with favourable promises; but as conquest was his object, nothing more appears to have been done for these Christians, after the establishment of the Portuguese among them, during the forty following years, than the erection of some commodious convents for the friars.

In 1545, the Bishop of Goa began the enterprise of bringing them to the faith of Rome. Various expedients were adopted for this end during the succeeding fifty years. But all these having proved ineffectual, the Syrian Bishop was seized, and sent to Portugal, in order to his being conveyed to Rome; where, it was hoped, that he would be detained through the remainder of his life. In Portugal, however, so successful was his dissimulation, that he obtained the entire confidence of Donna Catarina, the Queen Regent; by whom

* A Brief History of the Syrian Churches in South India. Chh. Miss. Soc. Report, 1817, p. 496.

he was sent back, with letters patent, ordering that he should be restored to his diocese. His churches, during his absence, in despair of seeing him again, had applied to the patriarch of Babylon, who sent a Bishop into India. These two Bishops soon became rivals and enemies; and the churches, which had refused to submit to the authority of Rome, were thus rent asunder by dissensions.* From that time, until within a few years, the fires of the Inquisition have burned at Goa; and the church of India has suffered all that could be endured, from divisions among themselves, and from the persecutions of their invaders.

In a synod, in which the archbishop Menezes presided, 150 of the Syrian clergy were assembled; and here it was decreed, that all the Syrian books on ecclesiastical subjects, which could be found, should be burned; that no pretended apostolical monuments might remain. Thus were the churches on the Malabar coast compelled to acknowledge the supremacy of Rome; except that they refused to pray in Latin, and insisted upon retaining their own language and liturgy. And they have still priests of their own nation, and their liturgy in Syriac, printed at Rome for their own use. They have, also, their superior governors sent to them from Europe, and are in a singular state of schism. The Portuguese archbishop of Cranganore, a suffragan of Goa, still claims them as his charge; while this right is denied by the propaganda society' at Rome, who have constantly sent out Italian Vicars Apostolic; and now, latterly, an Irish Bishop has been sent to rule over them. These unhappy churches, still sufficiently proud of their ancient character to feel their present degradation, submit partly to one, and partly to the other, of these opposite claimants.

But the churches in the interior proclaimed eternal war against the Inquisition. They hid their books; fled occasionally to the mountains; and sought the protection of the native princes, who had formerly been proud of their alliance. To this happier division of this singular people, we may look with great interest and hope, as to those whose recovery, and rise to their primitive character, may bring with it the emancipation of the rest.†

* A Brief History of the Syrian Churches in South India. Chh. Miss. Soc. Report. 1817. p. 497-500.

+ Buchanan's Christian Researches, pp. 148, 150. Missionary Register, 1823, .pp. 397, 398.

In 1806, Dr Buchanan, having obtained every facility for his journey from the Rajah of Travancore, penetrated to the hills at the bottom of the high Ghants, which divide the Carnatic from Malay-ala. There it was, he tells us, that he found 200,000 Christians, besides the Syrians, who speak the Malabar language. The form of the oldest churches, he says, is not unlike that of some of the old parish churches in England; the style of building in both being of Saracenic origin. They have sloping roofs, pointed arch windows, and buttresses supporting the walls. The beams of the roof being exposed to view, are ornamented; and the ceiling of the choir and altar, is circular and fretted. Most of the churches are built of a reddish stone, squared and polished at the quarry; and the wall of the largest edifices is six feet thick. The bells of the churches are cast in the foundries of the country; and their sound among the hills, made me forget for a moment, that I was in Hindostan, and reminded me of another country.

The sight of the women here, says Dr Buchanan, assured me that I was once more among Christians; for all women of this country, who are not Christians, are accounted by the men an inferior race, and are confined to the house for life. In every countenance now before me, I thought that I could discover the intelligence of christianity. But, at the same time, I perceived all around symptoms of poverty and of political depression. In the churches, and in the people, there was an air of fallen greatness. I said to a senior priest, 'you appear to me like a people who have known better days.' 'It is even so,' said he, we are in a degenerate state, compared with that of our forefathers.' He ascribed their present decay to two causes. About 300 years ago,' he said, 'an enemy came from the west, bearing the name of Christ, but armed with the inquisition; and compelled us to seek the protection of the native princes; and the native princes have kept us in a state of depression ever since. They, indeed, recognise one ancient personal privilege, for we rank in general, next to the Nairs, the nobility of the country. But they have encroached by degrees upon our property, until we have been reduced to the humble state in which you find us. The glory of our church has passed away; but we hope that your nation will revive it.'

Now it was that, for the first time, these priests saw a printed copy of the Syriac New Testament; and as it passed

from hand to hand, each read it fluently. But the Syriac is now among them alone the language of the learned, and of the church. The Scriptures are expounded in the Malayalim, or Malabar language.

6

Their copies of the Scriptures were few in number, and that number was diminishing instead of increasing. According to the popular belief, the Syriac version of the Scriptures was carried to India, before the year of our Lord 325; and some of their present copies are certainly of an ancient date.* The Abbe Dubois says, (Letters, p. 22,) that all the science of their clergy consists in being able to read, or rather to spell, their sacred language, in order to be qualified to perform their religious ceremonies.' But Mr Hough, chaplain to the East India Company, on the Madras establishment, visited them in 1820, and heard them express their gratitude for the Syriac Testaments, which the Bible Society, at the solicitation of Dr Buchanan, had sent to them. This Testament, says Mr Hough, was used by the priest, whom I heard officiating at the Syrian altar; and as his eye passed over the Syriac page, he rendered it into Malayalim with such facility, that I thought the book before him was written in that tongue, until I was informed to the contrary. Mr Hough admits, that there is much superstition in their religious services; and was pained to witness so close a resemblance in them, to the ceremonies of the Roman Catholic Church. But the Syrian metropolitan informed him, that they had no canon, which prohibited the translating of the whole of their liturgy into the vernacular tongue, for the use of the church; except, indeed, a few prayers, which are addressed to the Virgin Mary.+

It seems, indeed, that the number of these Syrian Christians is hardly to be determined. The Abbe Dubois, I think, supposes them to be 70 or 80,000; of whom two thirds are Catholics, and one third Nestorians. Mr Hough says that, at the time he was with them, the number who were not Catholics, was stated to be 53,000; but that they have since been reckoned at 13,000 families; which, allowing five to a family, will raise them to 65,000. That they were once, however, in a far better condition than they now are, and far more nu

* See Buchanan's Researches, pp. 151. 167.

+ Hough's reply to the Abbe Dubois, pp. 217-220.

+ Ib. p. 221.