The history of Christianity in India from the commencement of the Christian era

Front matter

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THE HISTORY

OF

Preface

A history of Christianity in India has long been desired by persons interested in the progress of the Gospel in the East. The only general work of the kind, is the Histoire du Christianisme des Indes, by La Croze : a work little known in England, and, though of great value, yet not full enough for a mere translation of it to supply the desideratum. For the earlier annals of the Indian Church, the materials are very scanty ; and they are mixed up with much that tends to obscure, rather than elucidate, the few fragments of history that are unquestionably authentic. But there is no lack of information on the subject during the last three centuries, for readers who have leisure to explore its ample resources ; which, however, is by no means the case with all who are interested in their contents. So numerous are the volumes, consisting chiefly of portions of history and missionary correspondence, that have been published ; they are written in such a variety of languages ; and some of the most important of them are become so scarce ; that they are inaccessi-

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ble to the generality of readers : and even of the persons who are competent and have opportunity to examine this variety of records, only a small proportion have time for the task. There can be no question, therefore, as to the importance of a work of moderate size that shall combine the information scattered over so wide a surface.

In publishing the present History, I do not pretend to have supplied the desideratum ; for a much more extensive work would be desirable, had I leisure for the performance, and the means of incurring the responsibility of its publication. Neither am I entitled to the credit of entering upon the present limited undertaking merely for the purpose of meeting the general wish for such a work. The duties and responsibilities of my situation are too great for me to have thought of engaging in so laborious a task, had I not been constrained by a conviction of duty to the Church of Christ. No other motive could have induced me to sit down to write history, or to persevere in it when begun ; for it is not without much inconvenience and many scruples that I have devoted to these volumes the time that they have required.

If asked, what constituted this constraint, I answer, — The pertinacity of the romanists in continuing to misrepresent the state of their own and the protestants’ foreign missions. Like M. P. Norbert, a Romish missionary in India, who tells us that he was compelled by the Jesuits’ libels to publish many things in justification of himself and his brethren ;* so have I

* Memoires Historiques, &c. tom. III. p. 423, &c. Les Apologistes de la Society par leurs Libelles ont constraint le P. Norbert d sejusti- Jier par des Pieces quil auroit tenu cachees.

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Vll been urged, on former occasions as well as the present, from a similar cause, to expose the fallacy of their statements. In 1824 I was called upon to answer the Abbe Dubois’s Letters on the State of Christianity in India ; and evidence was given in my Reply to reverse the picture he had drawn, that, I have reason to know, proved satisfactory to readers of candour, and disabused the minds of several persons who had been misled by the opposite statements. The only attempt I heard of to answer my work, was an angry letter by a Bishop at Pondicherry, published in the Madras papers, to which I replied on the spot : and as nothing more appeared for some time on the subject, I ventured to hope that no similar attempt would be made to mislead the public mind. In this expectation, however, I have been disappointed. About six years ago writers of the Romish Church resumed the charge, repeating the calumnies of former authors, especially the misrepresentations of the Abb6 Dubois, whom they quoted as an unquestionable authority, without noticing the confutation of his assertions. This disingenuous conduct came to my notice in November, 1833, and I met it immediately with a letter to the Editor of the Record, repeating the substance of my Reply. But this produced little effect upon the opposite party, whose confidence was then gathering strength to publish whatever they chose : and their subsequent proceedings soon convinced me, that to maintain a controversy with men so utterly regardless of their opponents’ answers, was a hopeless contention. They write chiefly for their own people, very few of whom venture to read what is written on the protestant view of the subject ; and thus the repetition of falsehood confirms them in the belief of its

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truth . The success of these statements even upon protestants is much more extensive than may be suspected. For some persons, not sufficiently informed on the matter, are carried away by the confidence with which these writers put forth their assertions ; and though they may read a pamphlet on the other side of the question, yet it soon shares the fate of most pamphlets, which are frequently put out of sight, and dismissed from the mind. Accordingly, when they hear the calumnies that it answered repeated, they have forgotten the arguments and facts that at one time, perhaps, seemed to them satisfactory, and they begin to feel inclined to think that there must be some truth in that which had appeared to be false. It is by no means uncommon to find persons of intelligence on other subjects so ill-informed upon this, as to credit the statements of these authors for no other reason but because positively made. When remonstrated with upon the impropriety of allowing themselves to be carried away by falsehoods so easy of detection, you shall often hear them reply — Such confident assertions can hardly be without some foundation: — and herein is proved the sagacity of Voltaire, as well as his want of probity, in the advice that he is said to have given to a controversialist to go on repeating his falsehood, without noticing its confutation, assuring him that at last it would be believed.

Such were the circumstances that convinced me that no satisfactory result was to be looked for from a mere controversy with these antagonists, however conducted, or to whatever length protracted. A History of Christianity in India seemed to present the only hope of fortifying the public mind against their assaults ; and this thought first suggested the undertaking to my mind.

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IX

Of the manner in which the task is executed, the public will judge : but, while very far from indifferent what judgment may be pronounced upon it, I will confess that my chief solicitude has been about facts. This was demanded, as well for the integrity of the history, as for the sake of the parties chiefly implicated in the transactions here recorded. Exposing as they do the infamous conduct of Romish Missionaries, it was specially necessary to ascertain the truth of every statement, and for this reason I have omitted some of doubtful authority. I am not aware of having stated one fact that did not appear to me unquestionable ; and I pledge myself to withdraw every thing that can he proved contrary to the truth. But I do not promise to take notice of any assertions that have already been confuted. My sole object has been to put the public in possession of a History that shall enable them to understand the merits of the question raised by the romanists to the prejudice of the protestant cause : and the end I desire to promote is, the glory of the Lord — an end not to be accomplished without the most scrupulous adherence to truth. Under this conviction, I shall deem nothing that may seem to affect the integrity of the work too unimportant to claim the best attention I can command.

During the past six years the confidence of romanists in England has increased more than, perhaps, at any former period since the Reformation. Their chapels and seminaries have been multiplied, but it does not follow that their converts have kept pace with them ; for it is their well-known policy first to provide the building, and then to exert themselves to fill it. While, therefore, there is enough in their activity to keep protestants on the watch against their encroachments, we

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should take care not to allow ourselves to be deluded by these appearances into the belief, that their progress is equal to their pretensions. Glad would they be to make such an impression on the public mind ; for it would tend to paralyse the timid, and to confirm the lukewarm in their indifference. They are now preparing extensive means of aggression, and threatening great things : but, in reliance upon the God of truth, we tell them, “ Let not him that girdeth on his harness boast himself as he that putteth it off.” (1 Kings xx. 1 1 .)

Besides these exertions, we are informed, by the Hon. & Rev. George Spencer, that he has proposed to the Romish Clergy abroad to unite in prayer for the conversion of England to the Roman Church, and that they, especially the Archbishop and Clergy of Paris, have entered with zeal into his proposal. Of this there could be nothing to complain, if they would confine themselves to prayer for the Divine blessing on their instructions. No doubt nothing more is to be apprehended from the reverend gentleman with whom the proposal originated : but he does not yet know his

newly adopted fraternity, if he imagines that they will be guided by his pacific suggestions, as soon as they shall have attained power to use means more in accordance with the history, the character, and the pretensions of their Church. The record of their proceedings in India here presented to the public, may teach him, and England, what we have to expect, should they ever obtain the object of their prayers.

But is this probable ? What prayers are the Romish priests using for the purpose ? The reverend gentleman informs us, that he was greatly encouraged in his proceedings for England’s conversion, on being as-

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XI sured, by some French priests, that they had made a beginning by offering mass on the first Thursday that occurred after his proposal. Surely he must have forgotten, or never could have rightly understood, the Creed and Liturgy of the Church he has forsaken, if he expects such prayers to obtain the answer desired. When we consider the character of this Mass — its adoration of a consecrated wafer ; its invocation of the Virgin and other Saints ; we feel that we have nothing to fear from it for the Protestant institutions of our country. Though the whole body of the Romish clergy should unite in this service, we believe that such prayers can injure none but those who offer them. Should the Lord be pleased again to bring Great Britain under the yoke of Rome, it will be, not in answer to these prayers, but in punishment for her own sins.

In the letter of a Romish Bishop in India alluded to above, one principal cause of the writer’s displeasure was, my use of the term Papist, instead of Catholic, in the Reply to the Abbe Dubois. Nothing was more foreign from my intention than to give offence by using an obnoxious term, and therefore, in the present History I have adopted the word romanist. The term papist occurs indeed, but it will be found generally, if not exclusively, in quotations from other authors. If asked, why I have not called them Catholics, since it is the name which they prefer, I answer — Because of the advantage that they disingenuously take of our use of the term. The Church of England retains the word Catholic in her Liturgy, and the romanists know that we do not use it in their exclusive sense, but apply it universally to all that have been baptized in the name of the Trinity, hold the true faith in Jesus Christ, have “ the pure word

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of God preached ” to them, and the Sacraments “ duly adminstered according to Christ’s ordinance in all those things that of necessity are requisite to the same.” (Article xix.) The Church of England regards all other churches who answer to this character as united with her to Jesus, their common Head, by communion of the same Spirit. Though varying in outward circumstances, and in matters not essential to salvation, they form various branches of the Catholic, or Universal Church. Yet romanists well know, that many members of both our Church and theirs do not make this distinction, but apply the term exclusively to that of Rome : and, taking advantage of this ignorance in some, and negligence in others, they charge us with inconsistency in using the term, while we protest against their Church. Whereas, they know that protestants use it in its legitimate sense ; and the inconsistency is theirs, in applying it only to their own communion.

Are we then to be charged with illiberality for refusing to concede to them this name, while they persist in making so unfair a use of ‘the concession ? This is not a mere logomachy. Truly has it been said — “Names are things.” For protestants to call romanists Catholics, is to put a weapon in their hands which they neglect no opportunity to wield against us. While in courtesy yielding the name, they pretend that we concede the principle it implies ; and hereby we expose our brethren, wdio do not take trouble, or have not ability to discriminate, to the designs of these enemies to the truth and freedom of the Gospel. The single point they keep in view is, that theirs is the only Catholic Church ; that all Christians out of her

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Xlll pale, by whomsoever baptized, owe allegiance to the Pope ; and that every term is to be repudiated that implies the existence of any Church independent of Rome. Catholic is the name that bests accords with these arrogant pretensions ; no wonder, therefore, that they so strenuously contend for it : but for the same reason should protestants resist their exclusive appropriation of it to their own communion. Papist is, undoubtedly, their most appropriate designation, for it implies an acknowledgment of the Papal supremacy and infallibility, which they alone believe ; and the learned Bossuet, and others of their best writers were not ashamed to use it. In the days of those authors, indeed, it was not in such bad odour as it is at present, and this is the real cause of the modern romanists anxiety to get rid of it : but unless their character is altered, they will gain nothing by changing their name. There are countries where even the word Catholic is as odious* as the term Papist ever was in Europe : and wherever the light and liberty of the Gospel shall predominate, no mere appellation will shield the darkness and tyranny of Rome from general abhorrence. Should the account of the Roman Church in India given in the following pages, tend to awaken the public mind to the danger of her present encroachments, I shall be grateful to God for the result, and deem myself amply recompensed for all my pains.

The Synod of Diamper is the leading event of the Romish Missions in Malabar, and it developes the character of their entire history. There could be no ques-

S* See Smith and Dwight’s Missionary Researches in Armenia, p. 392, &c.

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tion, therefore, as to the necessity of giving in detail the account of its proceedings, together with the circumstances that preceded and followed it. At the same time, the length of its Decrees created some difficulty. As they contain the only authentic account extant of the doctrines and practice of the Syrian Church in Malabar, previous to this atrocious Synod, I could not consent to curtail them. Yet, if given in the body of the work, they would nearly have filled a volume of the ordinary size ; and an analysis of them is, no doubt, sufficient for the general reader of history. Such an analysis is given by La Croze, for which he has incurred the censure of some Romish writers. It seemed, therefore, essential to the character of the work, as well as due to myself, to publish them entire ; and while consulting the reader’s convenience by giving a brief abstract of them in the text, the whole are printed in smaller type in the Appendix. Persons who have neither leisure nor curiosity to consult such records, may deem this unnecessary ; but I shall be disappointed if the student of ecclesiastical history does not consider them a valuable appendage to the work.

During the progress of these volumes, a paragraph appeared in the public papers, stating that the Bishop of Calcutta was composing a similar history, for which he was said to have collected some valuable materials during his recent visit to the Syrian Church in Malabar. I applied immediately to the Bishop’s son, the Vicar of Islington, to ascertain the fact, and was assured by that gentleman that he believed the report to be without foundation. I then wrote to the Bishop himself, and as his Lordship’s answer, while it confirms his son’s opinion, also shows the importance that he

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attaches to such a work, I venture to transcribe that part of it which relates to the subject.

“I wish I were writing, my dear friend. The History of Christianity in India. It is a glorious theme to those who have health, materials, leisure — of none of which three have I the least portion. How the report got into the papers, I cannot for a moment conjecture, unless it were, that, upon hearing of my 20,000 miles of travel, some one had confounded the opportunity, with the health, materials, and leisure of such an undertaking. It never entered my thoughts.” Then, in answer to my request for such information as he might have to communicate, his Lordship states, that he has not collected any ; assures me, that “ the rumoured collections of the Syrian Churches are all a dream ; ” and refers me to several sources of information from which I had previously drawn. In conclusion, he earnestly persuades me to “to pursue the work with vigour,” and encourages me to persevere : and I cannot refrain from acknowledging thus publicly the kindness of his proposal carefully to revise a few sheets of the work, though it is too late to avail myself of the advantage it would have derived from such a revision. Considering his Lordship’s incessant avocations, this was a favour I did not venture to ask ; but I should certainly have been induced to wait for it, had I contemplated the probability of his finding time to give any attention to the manuscript.

In the prosecution of the undertaking, I have spared no pains to obtain access to all the authentic documents extant ; and as their titles, together with, in some cases, a description of their authors and their contents, are given when first quoted, it is unnecessary to enu-

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merate them here. I am not aware of having made use of one work of doubtful authority ; and the facts that were likely to be questioned by romanists if not well authenticated, I have been specially careful to establish by reference to authors of their own communion. It has been a weary task to wade through such a mass of legendary tales, and to find so little of the light of truth to relieve the toil of the investigation. Volume after volume of ecclesiastical matter have I read, jaded and disappointed to discover nothing like Christianity to extract ; and more than once I have doubted whether it were right to retain the present title of the work, so little does it answer to the general character of the Syrian Church and the Romish Missions in India. With this feeling I quite respond to the sentiment of a friend who has taken the trouble to read the entire manuscript. In returning the papers, he writes — “ They are painfully interesting — but can you get no scrap of history that discovers divine faith or Christian graces in the poor Syrian Churches? They had the Scriptures among them, and surely they were not like dead corpses all through their history. Does Fabricius give nothing in his Lux Evangelii? It is greatly to be regretted that the interior and spiritual history is absent and lost.- Where is the faith, hope and love of the Gospel ? Where is the Blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly things in Christ? You cannot make what the remnants of history do not give you ; but no doubt there could not have been such a conflict with Rome, and such a victory, without some internal principles of real and evangelical truth at the bottom. The great spiritual lessons of the history are left in obscurity for want of insight into their actual spiritual

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XVII state, and this will only fully be given hereafter in the day of the Lord.”

Though not in my power to supply the great deficiency here so affectingly deplored, yet 1 have occasionally given expression to the feelings that afforded relief to my own mind, and have now only to desire that they may produce a similar effect upon that of the reader. If they do not show all that I desire to exhibit of the true Spirit of Christ and His people, together with their heavenly life, yet the contrast it is attempted to present may enable readers, in some measure, to see the partial character of the History in its present development, and induce them to wait with patient devotion, a future discovery of its meaning and intent. In God’s own time and way, He will bring hidden things to light ; and, therefore, will we always patiently abide His pleasure, and praise Him more and more.

The two volumes now published will be found to include the History of the Syrian Church and the Romish Missions to the commencement of the present century. The remaining two volumes will give the history of the Protestant Missions. Some progress is made in them, but it was deemed advisable, in the mean time, to give this first Section to the public: and while I regret that it contains so little to satisfy the mind that is chiefly interested in the progress of Divine Truth, I can venture to promise that the latter Section will correspond better to the title of the work.

VOL. i.

b

CONTENTS OF VOL. I.

BOOK FIRS

Chapter I

A BRIEF DISSERTATION ON THE OPENING OF THE INTERCOURSE BETWEEN THE WESTERN NATIONS AND THE EAST-INDIES.

PAGE

Preliminary Remarks 1

1. The Saviour’s command to his Apostles 3

2. Holy Ghost descends upon them 4

3. Uncertain whether India was visited by an Apostle 4

4. India first known to the Egyptians and Phenicians 5

5. Egyptians relinquish maritime pursuits G

6. Sesostris revives them. He marches across India 6

7. Phenicians permitted to hold the monopoly of the Indian trade —

theirs the earliest route of communication with India 7

8. The Jews’ attention drawn to this commerce 9

9. Persians obtain the first foreign establishment in India 10

10. Alexander the Great covets the Indian commerce — he founds Alex-

andria to facilitate the communication 10

1 1. Commences his first expedition to India 11

12. Is compelled to return 12

13. Opens a communication by sea with India and his dominions 13

14. Customs and manners of India at that period continue unaltered . . 13

15. Extent of Alexander’s projects 14

16. His death 14

17. Division of his empire between four of his officers 15

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18. Seleucus, king of Syria, pursues Alexander’s scheme of conquest in

India, which is ultimately abandoned by his successors 16

Chapter II. Introduction Of Christianity Into India

1. Improbability of any Apostles having preached in India 30

2. The account of St. Bartholomew’s preaching there incredible .... 30

3. The story of St. Thomas also unworthy of credit 32

4. Probable origin of the tradition about him 40

5. Tradition of the eunuch of Ethiopia preaching at Ceylon 42

6. Probable account of the early origin of the Indian church through

Mark the Evangelist, and founder of the church of Alexandria.. 43

7. Pantsenus of Alexandria the first missionary to India in the second

century 47

8. Constantine the Great established Christianity as the religion of the

state 53

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PAGE

i). Johannes, bishop of Persia and India, at the council of Nice, a. d.

325 58

10. Persia recovers her political independence about this period under

Artaxerxes 59

1 1. Persians enter with activity into the Indian trade, both by land and

sea 60

12. Signature of Johannes at the council of Nice accounted for 61

13. Story of Frumentius and (Edesius 62

Chapter III. Rise And Progress Of Nestorianism

1. Cosmas Indicopleustes. His notions of astronomy and geography

correspond to those of the Hindoos 69

2. His account of the Christian Church in India in the sixth century 71

3. Advancement of Nestorius to the see of Constantinople 74

4. His violent proceedings to extirpate heresy 75

5. The cruelty and injustice of his enemies 77

6. The progress of his sect, and degeneracy of his tenets 82

7. Importance of this discussion in reference to the History of Christi-

anity in India 83

8. Nestorianism of the Indian church in the sixth century 86

Chapter IV. Rise And Progress Of Mahome Danism, And Its Effect On The Indian

CHURCH.

1 . Rise and progress of the Mahomedans, who monopolize and extend

the Indian trade 89

2. Manifestations of Divine Providence 91

3. Asiatic Christians tolerated by Mahomedan government. Persian

Christians cherish the Indian Church 91

4. Letter of Jesuyab, on the decline of the Indian and Persian Churches

in the seventh century 92 xxu

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5. Thomas, a Manichee, visits India ; another heresiarch of the same

name visits China ; these supposed to have occasioned the legend about the Apostle Thomas 93

6. Probably confirmed by the settlement of Mar Thomas, a rich mer-

chant of Malabar 94

7. Origin of Malabar ; rise of Ceram Peroumal, a powerful rajah of

that country. Origin of caste : Christians attain respectability and independence under his protection 97

8. Their Charters on copper-plates lost by the Portuguese 103

9. Alfred the Great’s ambassage to the East : his commercial designs 104

10. Visit of Mar Sapores and Mar Pheroz, Persian ecclesiastics, to

Malabar 107

1 1. Baliartes, the first Christian king in Malabar. They fall again under

heathen sovereigns 109

12. The primary objects of civil and ecclesiastic history here attained . . 109

13. Church of India episcopal. Dissertation on Episcopacy 110

14. Doctrines of the earlier Indian Church uncertain 114

15. The Christians’ good character inferred from the peace and pros-

perity they were permitted by their pagan rulers to enjoy 116

Chapter I

CONTINUATION OF THE REVIEW OF THE COMMERCIAL INTERCOURSE WITH INDIA UNTIL THE DISCOVERY OF THE PASSAGE BY WAY OF THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE.

1. Increasing anxiety in Europe for the productions of India 119

2. Crusaders recover the Holy Land from the Mahomedans 120

3. This event opened the Indian trade to the Venetians in the 13th

century 120

4. They are supplanted in the East by the Genoese 120

5. Venetians pursue the trade at Alexandria in conjunction with the

Mahomedans 121

6. In the fifteenth century, the Florentines are admitted to a share of

the commerce of Alexandria 121

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7. Marco Paolo’s travels in India and China awaken the curiosity and

ambition of Europe 122

8. Mahomedans take Constantinople, and expel the Genoese 123

9. Portuguese, under Vasco de Gama, discover the passage to India

by way of the Cape of Good Hope. They are soon obliged to return, but subsequently establish themselves in India 124

Chapter II

RISE AND PROGRESS OF THE SECULAR AND ECCLESIASTICAL POWER IN THE CHURCH OF ROME.

1. The Popes’ limited jurisdiction prior to the sixth century 127

2. Universal Church divided into independent Patriarchates 127

3. Independence of other National Churches : that of Britain proved 128

4. Mission of Augustine the monk to Britain 129

5. Justinian acknowledges the Pope’s supremacy in 533 133

6. Ultimately established under Phocas in 606 : its assumption favoured

by circumstances 184

7. Former Bishops of Rome confined -their attention to ecclesiastical

affairs 136

8. Influence of the priesthood increases in the middle ages 137

9. Roman empire divided into ten kingdoms 138

10. This favours the Pope’s pretensions 139

11. His arrogance condemned by Roman writers 139

12. Decretals of Isidore: protested against by the French and other

foreign prelates ; 140

13. Other iniquitous means used to support the papal pretensions .... 144

14. Pope resisted by sovereigns of Europe : dawn of Reformation.

Inquisition established to extinguish it 146

15. Papal authority begins to wane : two popes at same time 148

16. John Wicliff, the English reformer 149

17. John Huss and Jerome of Prague burnt alive : other wicked means

used without avail to stifle the Reformation 149

18. Roman church seeks to extend her dominion in the eastern and

western worlds newly discovered . 150

19. Reflections relating to the Syrian church in India 151

20. Voyage of Pedro Alvares Cabral to India: brings home two Indian

Christians 152

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21. Second voyage of Vasco de Gama: Christians welcome him, and

place themselves under his protection 153