to be as cle same we might z inv: the za tese hu recre in gene- xes not require permit recogize Leitar as craily, to se natives encored a delic service, the sittwo Sundays are minent for rest from bodily abour-t I: gre ten more coiydays is to nurse their superstitions Crimcte the influx of rele what other country would it be considered; gious mendicans mustrious communities.? means of promoting the happiness of the people, to grant them so great a portion of to spend in idleness and dissipation? The indulgem •The Brahmins observe me hired and 10wards. the people require fewer days rest than the Hiodes thing of that eorporal esertica and stigle (rom Contries render regular repose so grate to the b See Appendix E. Le, ten to consecrate The old man, by Miles inland But we have authentic historical record for the following particulars. In the fifth century a Christian bishop from Antioch, accompanied by a small colony of Syrians, arrived in India, and preached the gospel in Malabar. "They made at first some proselytes among the Brahmins and Nairs, and were, on that account, much respected by the native princes.* 4. When the Portuguese first arrived in India, they were agreeably surprised to find a hundred Christian churches on the coast of Malabar. But when they had become acquainted with the purity and simplicity of their doctine, they were offended. They were yet more indignant when they found that these Hindoo Christians maintained the order and discipline of a regular church under episcopal jurisdiction; and that for thirteen hundred years past, they had enjoyed a succession of bishops appointed by the patriarchal see of Antioch. Mar Joseph was the bishop, who filled the Hindoo see of Malabar at that period. The Portuguese used every art to persuade him to acknowledge the supremacy of the pope; but in vain. He was a man of singular piety and fortitude, and declaimed with great energy against the errors of the Romish church. But when the power of the Portuguese became sufficient for their purpose, they invaded his bishopric, and sent the bishop bound to Lisbon. A synod was convened at Diamper in Malabar, on the 26th June, 1599, at which one hundred and fifty of the clergy of his diocese appeared. They were accused of the following opinions which were by their adversaries accounted heretical; "That they had married wives; that they In the year 536 Cosmus the Egyptian merchant, who had travelled through the greatest part of the Indian peninsula, found in the Dekhun and in Ceylon, a great many churches and several bishops. Many of them to this day preserve the manners and mode of life of the Brahmins, as to the cleanliness, and abstaining from animal food." Asiat. Res. VII. page 368. "The bulk of the St. Thome Christians consist mostly of converts from the Brahmins and Shondren cast, and not as new Christians, or proselytes made by the Portuguese missionaries, of the lowest tribes." Asiat. Res. Vol. VII. page 381. owned but two sacraments, baptism and the Lord's supper; that they denied transubstantiation; that they neither invoked saints nor believed in purgatory; and that they had no other orders or names of dignity in the church than bishop and deacon." These tenets they were called on to abjure, or to suffer instant suspension from all church benefices. It was also decreed that all the Syrian and Chaldean books in their churches, and all records in the episcopal palace, should be burnt; in order, said the inquisitors, "that no pretended apostolical monuments may remain.”* 5. Notwithstanding these violent measures, a great body of the Indian Christians resolutely defended their faith, and finally triumphed over all opposition. Some shew of union with the Romish church was at first pretended, through terror of the inquisition; but a congress was held by them on the twenty-second of May, sixteen hundred fifty three, at Álangatta; when they formally separated from that communion. They compose at this day the thirty-two schismatic churches of Malabar; so called by the Roman Catholics as resembling the protestant schism in Europe. At this time their number is about fifty thousand. These churches soon afterwards addressed a letter to the Patriarch of Antioch, which was forwarded by means of the Dutch government, and published at Leyden in seventeen hundred and fourteeñ; in which they request "that a spiritual guide may be sent, together with such men as are versed in interpreting the holy scriptures." But no spiritual guide was ever sent.§ See Appendix K. Annales Mission page 193. Malabarian Conferences, 1719. Préface. QIn the year 1752, some bishops were sent from Antioch te consecrate by episcopal ordination, a native priest, one of their number. The old man, 1 hear, is yet alive. The episcopal residence is at Narnatte, ten miles inland from Porca, U The province of Malabar now forms part of the British dominions; and divine providence hath placed these churches under our government. 6. The manners of these Christians are truly simple and primitive. Every traveller who has visited the churches in the mountains takes pleasure in describing the chaste and innocent lives of the native Christians. The congregations support each other, and form a kind of Christian republic. The clergy and elders settle all disputes among members of the community; and the discipline, for the preservation of pure morals, is very correct, and would do honor to any protestant church in Europe.* 7. The climate of Malabar is delightful; and the face of the country, which is verdant and picturesque, is adorned by the numerous churches of the Christians. Their churches are not, in general, so small as the country parish churches in England. Many of them are sumptuous buildings,† and some of them are visible from the sea. This latter circumstance is noticed incidentally by a writer who lately visited the country: "Having kept as close to the land as possible, the whole coast of Malabar appeared before us in the form of a green ampitheatre. At one time we discovered a district entirely covered with cocoa-nut trees; and immediately after, a river winding through a delightful vale, at the bottom of which *At certain seasons, the agape or love feasts ar › celebrated, as in primitive times. On such occasions they prepare delicious cakes, called Appam, made of bananas, honey, and rice-flour. The people assemble in the church yard, and, arranging themselves in rows, each spreads before him a plaintain leaf. When this is done, the clergyman, standing in the church door, pronounces the benediction; and the overseers of the church, walking through between " the rows, gives to each his portion. "It is certainly an affecting scene, and capable of elevating the heart, to behold six or seven thousand persons, of both sexes and of all ages, assembled and receiving together, with the utmost reverence and devotion, their Appam, the pledge of mutual union and love." Bartolomeo, page 424 Compare the amiable lives and charaeser of these Christian Hindoos with the rites of their uncontroverted countrymen in Bengal described in Appendix B. In the year 1790 Tippoo the Mahometan, destroyed a great number of the Christian courches, and a general conflagration of the Christian villages marked the progress of his destroying host. Ten thousand Christians lost their lives during the war, Bartolomeo, page 149, In one place ap it discharged itself into the sea. peared a multitude of people employed in fishing; in another, a snow white church bursting forth to the view from amidst the thick-leaved trees. While we were enjoying these delightful scenes with the early morning, a gentle breeze, which blew from the shore, perfumed the air around us with the agreeable smell wafted from the cardamon, pepper, beetel, and other aromatic herbs and plants." A snow white church bursting on the view from amidst the trees! Can this be a scene in the land of the Hindoos; where even a church for Europeans is so rarely found? And can the persons repairing to these snow white churches be Hindoos; that peculiar people who are supposed to be incapable of receiving the Christian raligion or its civilizing principles? Yes, they are Hindoos, and now a "peculiar people," some of them formerly Brahmins of Malabar; who, before means were used for their conversion, may have possessed as invincible prejudices against the religion of Christ as the Brahmins of Benares, or off Juggernaut. Whatever good effects have been produced by the Christian religion in Malabar, may also be produced in Bengal, and in every other province of Hindos tan. CHAPTER II. Of the extension of Christianity in India by the labors of Protestant Missionaries. 1. In the bill brought into Parliament in seventeen hundred and ninety-three for communicating Christian instruction to our Asiatic subjects, there Bartolomeo, P, 425. |