together with clear Confirmations of the Truth of what we meet with in the Fourteenth and other Decrees of the Third Action of this Synod to wit That the Three great Doctrines of Popery the Pope's Supremacy Transubstantiation the Adoration of Images were never believed nor practised at any time in this ancient Apostolical Church but on the contrary were rejected and condemned by her and that in her Publick Offices So that upon what we learn from this Synod and History I think one may venture to say That before the time of the late Reformation there was no Church that we know of no not that of the Vaudois abating that one thing of her being infected with the Heresie of Nestorius of which too she is cleared by one of the Roman Communion that had so Few Errors in Doctrine as the Church of Malabar If the Synod I here publish should be well received as I have reason to hope it will by all Protestants and lovers of Truth upon the account of the clear Discoveries it makes of the forementioned Popish Errors having never been at any time the Doctrines of the Universal Church which we know is confidently affirmed and much boasted of and for further satisfaction in so important a Matter the above-named History should be desired I shall be ready to translate and publish it with all expedition alone and in the same Volume with this of the Synod together with the best Account I can procure of the Church of Malabar and the other Oriental Churches that were never within the Bounds of the Roman Empire for it is in those Churches that we are to expect to meet with the least of the Leaven of Popery As to the Synod to prevent all surmises of its being a Piece either forged by some Protestant or of no Authority in the Church of Rome tho' set forth by a Member of her Communion I have together with the whole Title Page which tells where when and by whom it was printed translated and published all the Licences that it came out with And if any should suspect the Translation if they please they may satisfie themselves of its Fidelity by having recourse to the Original in the Bodleian Library at Oxford to which as the safest as well as noblest Repository of Books in the World I design to give it I have here and there added some short Remarks upon some Passages which will not I hope be unacceptable to the Reader The DOCTRINES wherein the Church of Malabar agrees with the Church of England and differs from that of Rome 1. SHe condemns the Pope's Supremacy 2. She affirms that the Church of Rome is fallen from the true Faith 3. She denies Transubstantiation or that Christ's Body and Blood are really and substantially in the Eucharist 4. She condemns Images and the Adoration of them as Idolatrous 5. She makes no use of Oils in the Administration of Baptism 6. She allows of no Spiritual Affinity 7. She denies Purgatory 8. She denies the necessity of Auricular Confession 9. She knows nothing of Extream Vnction 10. She allows her Priests to Marry as often as they have a mind and Ordains such as have been married three or four times and to Widows without any scruple 11. She denies Matrimony to be a Sacrament 12. She holds but two Orders Priesthood and Diaconate 13. She Celebrates in Leavened Bread 14. She Consecrates with Prayer 15. She denies Confirmation to be a Sacrament In the Account that is given of the Doctrines of the Church of Malabar in the Eighteenth Chapter of the First Book of the Visitation SHe is said 1. Not to adore Images 2. To hold but Three Sacraments Baptism the Eucharist and Order 3. To make no use of Oils 4. To have had no Knowledge of Confirmation or Extream Unction 5. To abhor Auricular Confession 6. To hold many enormous Errors about the Eucharist insomuch that the Author of the History saith he is inclined to believe that the Hereticks of our Times meaning Protestants the revivers of all forgotten Errors and Ignorances might have had their Doctrine about the Eucharist from them 7. To Ordain such as have been married several times and to Widows and to approve of her Priests marrying as often as they have a mind 8. That she abhors the Pope and the Church of Rome as Anti-Christian in pretending to a Superiority and Jurisdiction over all other Churches A Diocesan SYNOD Of the Church and Bishoprick of ANGAMALE Belonging to the Ancient Christians of St. Thomas in the Serra or Mountains of MALABAR Celebrated by the most Reverend Lord Dom Frey Aleixo de Menezes Archbishop Metropolitan of Goa Primate of the Indies and the See being vacant of the above-named Bishoprick by virtue of two Briefs of the most Holy Father Pope Clement 8th on the third Sunday after Pentecost being the 20th day of July in the Year of our Lord 1599. in the Church of All-Saints in the Town and Kingdom of Diamper Subject to the King of Cothin an Infidel in which the said Bishoprick with all the Christians thereunto belonging submitted it self to the Pope and the Holy Roman Church Printed at Conimbra in the Shop of Diogo Gomez Laureyro Printer to the University in the Year of our Lord 1606. THE Father of the Society of Jesus intrusted with the revising of Books in Conimbra having perused the Synod mentioned in the following Petition and the Inquisition of the said City having upon his Approbation given Licence to Print the same we do Order That after it is Printed it be together with the Book Intituled The Journey of the Serra or Mountains transmitted to this Council that it may be compared with the Original and Licensed without which it shall not be made publick Marcos Teixira Ruy Piz de veiga I Have perused this Synod and to me it appears to be a Work that deserves to be Printed for besides the sound Doctrine contained therein it will be of great Use and Consolation to all and very necessary to the extirpating of the Errors Schism and Heresies sown by Hereticks and particularly the Nestorians in the ancient Christianity planted in the Indies by the Apostle St. Thomas Octob. 23d 1605. Joan Pinto BY virtue of a particular Commission to us granted in this behalf by the Council of the General Inquisition of these Kingdoms having seen the Information of Father Joan Pinto Revisor of this City we give Licence for the Printing of the Book Intituled The Synod and the Journey of the Serra provided that after it is Printed it be sent to the said Council to be compared with the Original and to have leave to be made publick Jan. 11. 1606. Joan Alvarez Brandon It may be Printed Conimbra 25th of Feb. 1606. The Bishop Conde THE PUBLICATION and CALLING OF THE SYNOD DOM Frey Aleixo de Menezes by the mercy of God and the Holy Roman See Archbishop Metropolitan of Goa Primate of the Indies and the Oriental Parts c. To the
Reverend in Christ Father George Archdeacon of the Christians of St. Thomas in the Serra of the Kingdom of Malabar and to all other Priests Curates Deacons and Subdeacons and to all Towns Villages and Hamlets and to all Christian People of the said Bishoprick Health in our Lord Jesus Christ We give you all and every one of you in particular to understand that the most Holy Father Pope Clement VIII our Lord Bishop of Rome and Vicar of our Lord Jesus Christ upon earth at this time presiding in the Church of God having sent two Briefs directed to Vs one of the 27th of Jan. in the Year 1595 and the other of the 21st of the same Month in the Year 1597 in which by virtue of his Pastoral Office and that Vniversal Power bequeathed to the Supream Holy and Apostolical Chair of St. Peter over all the Churches in the World by Jesus Christ the Son of God our Lord and Redeemer he commanded us upon the death of the Archbishop Mar-Abraham to take Possession of this Church and Bishoprick so as not to suffer any Bishop or Prelate coming from Babylon to enter therein as has been hitherto the Custom all that come from thence being Schismaticks Hereticks and Nestorians out of the Obedience of the Holy Roman Church and Subject to the Patriarch of Babylon the Head of the said Heresy and to appoint a Governour or Apostolical Vicar to Rule the said Diocess both in Spirituals and Temporals until such time as the Holy Roman Church shall provide it of a proper Pastor which being read by us we were desirous to execute the Apostolical Mandates with due Reverence and Obedience besides that the same was incumbent on us of right the said Church having no Chapter to take care of it during the vacancy of the See as Metropolitan and Primate of this and all the other Churches of the Indies and the Oriental Parts But perceiving that our Mandate in that behalf had no effect what we had ordered not having been obeyed in the said Diocess so that what our most Holy Father the Bishop of Rome had designed was like to be frustrated after having laboured therein for the space of two Years Schism and Disobedience to the Apostolical See having been so rooted in that Diocess for a great many Years that the Inhabitants thereof instead of yielding Obedience to the Apostolical and Our Mandates on the contrary upon the intimation thereof did daily harden themselves more and more committing greater Offences against the Obedience due to the Holy Roman Church after having commended the Matter to God and ordered the same to be done through our whole Diocess and after mature Advice by which Methods the Apostolical Mandates might be best executed and being also moved by the Piety of the People and the Mercy God had shewn them in having preserved so many thousand Souls in the Faith of our Lord Jesus Christ from the time that the Holy Apostle St. Thomas had Preached to them until this day notwithstanding their having lived among so many Heathens and been scattered in divers places their Churches and all belonging to them having been always subject to Idolatrous Kings and Princes and incompassed with Idols and Pagods and that without holding any correspondence with any other Christians before the coming of the Portuguezes into these Parts we being likewise desirous that the Labours of the Holy Apostle St. Thomas which still remained among them should not be lost for want of sound Doctrine and that the Apostolical Mandates might not be frustrated did determine and having provided for the Government of our own Church during our absence did prepare to go in Person to take Possession of the said Bishoprick to see if by our Presence we might be able to reduce them to the Obedience of the Holy Roman Church and purge out the Heresies and false Doctrines sown among them and introduced by the Schismatical Prelates and Nestorian Hereticks that had governed them under the Obedience of the Patriarch of Babylon as also to call in and purge the Books containing those Heresies and according to our Pastoral Duty so far as God should enable us to Preach to them in Person the Catholick Truth Accordingly going into the said Bishoprick we set about visiting the Churches thereof but at that time Satan the great Enemy of the good of Souls having stirred up great Commotions and much opposition against this our just intent great numbers departing from us and forming a Schism against the Holy Roman Church after having passed through many troubles and dangers out of all which God of his great mercy not remembring our sins and evil deeds was pleased to deliver us and to grant us an intire Peace for the Merits of the glorious Apostle St. Thomas the Patron of this Christianity but chiefly of his own great Clemency and Mercy which makes that he doth not delight in the death of a sinner but rather that he should return and live and by coming all to the light of the Truth may joyn with us in the Confession of the Catholick Faith approving our Doctrine and Intention and submitting themselves to the Obedience of the Holy Roman Church which being by us observed after having returned Thanks to God we thought fit in order to the compassing and securing of all those good Effects to assemble a Diocesan Synod in some commodious place near the middle of the said Diocess there to Treat of all such Matters as are convenient for the honour of God the exaltation of the Holy Catholick Faith and Divine Worship the good of the Church the extirpation of Vice the Reformation of the Christians of the said Diocess and the profit and peace of their Souls to which end having pitched upon the Town and Church of Diamper We do hereby let all the Inhabitants and Christians of the said Bishoprick as well Ecclesiasticks as Laicks of what State or Condition soever to understand that we do call and assemble a Diocesan Synod in the said Town of Diamper on the 20th of June of this present Year 1599 being the Third Sunday after Whitsuntide and do therefore by Virtue of holy Obedience and upon pain of Excommunication latae Sententiae Command the Reverend the Arch-Deacon of this Diocess and all the other Priests of the same that shall not be hindered by Age or some other just Impediment to be present in the said Town of Diamper there with us to celebrate a Diocesan Synod conformable to the Holy Canons And whereas by immemorial Custom and a Right introduced into this Diocess from its Beginning and consented to by all the Infidel Kings of Malabar the whole Government as it were and the Cognizance of all Matters wherein Christians are any ways concerned has belonged to the Church and the Prelate thereof and it having likewise been an ancient Custom in the same to give an Account to the People of whatsoever has been ordained in the Church in order to its being the
Metropolitan upon the account of the manifold Heresies and Blasphemies contained therein and the many false Miracles said to be wrought by him in confirmation of the Nestorian Sect Therefore the Synod does in virtue of Obedience and upon pain of Excommunication to be ipso facto incurred prohibit the Observation of the two Festivities that have been dedicated to his Memory the one upon the first of September the other sixteen days after Easter and the dedicating of any Church to him commanding the abovenamed Church to be dedicated to St. Hormisda the Martyr who was also a Persian and whose Festivity is celebrated upon the 8th of August upon which day the Feast of the said Church shall be observed and on the Retablo they are to make the Picture wherein the Martyrdom of the said Saint shall be drawn to the best advantage that so the People may learn to what Saint the said Church is dedicated and all the Prayers and Devotion that used to be performed upon the Festivities of the Heretick Hormisda may be directed to this Glorious Saint Decree XI SEeing in the Creed or Holy Symbol of Faith ordained by the Sacred Apostles and declared by the Holy Councils which is sung in the Mass all the principal Mysteries and Articles of our Faith are contained it is not fit that any thing should be added to it or taken from it but that it should be sung in this Bishoprick as it is all over the Universal Church wherefore the Synod doth Order that the words which are wanting in the Creed that is said in the Mass be added to it where speaking of Christ it it said that he was born of the Father before all Times there is wanting God of God Light of Light very God of very God that so it may in all things be conformable to what is sung in the Universal Church using also the word Consubstantial to the Father and not what is said instead thereof in the Surian Son of the Essence of the Father Decree XII NOtwithstanding it is contrary to the Sacred Canons That the Children of Christians should go to School to Heathen Masters Nevertheless seeing this Church is under so many Heathen Kings who many times will not suffer any but Infidels to be Schoolmasters wherefore the Synod doth command and declare That in all Schools whether for Reading or Writing wherein the Masters have Pagods to which they oblige their Children at their coming into the School to pay their Reverence as the Custom is that it shall not be lawful for Christian Parents or Guardians to send Christian Children to such Schools upon pain of being proceeded against as Idolaters but if there should be any such Schools wherein the Heathen Masters will consent that Christian Children shall pay no Reverence nor be obliged to any Heathen Ceremony in case there is no Christian Master near they may be sent to such Schools their Parents instructing them that they must pay no reverence but only to the Master and that they must use none of the Ceremonies of the Heathen Children that so they may not * Suck in Idolatry They would have done well to have considered whether the introducing of the Adoration of Images into a Christianity that was planted amidst Heathens and under Idolatrous Princes how Innocent soever it may be in other places was safe or not in Malabar before they did it and whether the reconciling them to Images might not dispose them to Heathenism such in Idolatry as Mothers Milk Furthermore the Synod doth earnestly recommend it to all Towns and Villages to do all that is in their Power to have their Children Educated by Christian Masters and as for Reading and Writing to have the Parish-Priests to teach them to do that in their Houses But as to those masters who do oblige Christian Children to do reverence to their Pagods the Synod in virtue of Holy Obedience and upon pain of Excommunication to be Ipso facto incurred doth command all Fathers of Families and others that have charge of Children not to consent to their going to such Schools and doing the contrary let them be declared Excommunicate and be rigorously punished by the Prelate neither shall such Children be suffered to enter the Church as to which matter the Vicars and Priests ought to be extreamly vigilant to prevent Childrens being Educated in Idolatry and where-e'er there is a Christian School-master in any Town or near it the Children of Christians are not to go to School to Infidels Decree XIII THe Synod being certainly informed that there are some Christian Schoolmasters who to conform themselves to others and to have the more Scholars do set up Pagods and Idols in their Schools to which the Heathen Children pay reverence doth command all the said School-masters so soon as it shall be intimated to them upon pain of Excommunication to remove the said Pagods Idols and Reverence out of their Schools and not to give way to Heathen Children paying any such adoration and whosoever shall be found guilty thereof shall be declared Excommunicate and denyed the Communion of the Church and of all Christians and dying shall not be buried in holy Ground nor have Christian Burial nor have any Prayers said for them and let this Decree be published by the Vicars of the Churches to which such do belong Decree XIV THe Purity of the Faith being preserved by nothing more than by Books of sound and holy Doctrine and on the contrary there being nothing whereby the Minds of People are more corrupted than by Books of suspicious and Heretical Doctrines Errors being by their means easily insinuated into the Hearts of the Ignorant that read or hear them Wherefore the Synod knowing that this Bishoprick is full of Books writ in the Surian Tongue by Nestorian Hereticks and Persons of other Devilish Sects which abound with Heresies Blasphemies and false Doctrines doth command in virtue of Obedience and upon pain of Excommunication to be ipso facto incurred that no Person of what quality and condition soever shall from henceforward presume to keep translate read or hear read to others any of the following Books The Book intituled The Infancy of our Saviour Or The History of our Lady condemned formerly by the ancient Saints for being full of Blasphemies Heresies and fabulous Stories where among others it is said that the Annunciation of the Angel was made in the Temple of Jerusalem where our Lady was which contradicts the Gospel of St. Luke which saith it was made in Nazareth as also that Joseph had actually another Wife and Children when he was betrothed to the Holy Virgin and that he often reproved the Child Jesus for his naughty Tricks that the Child Jesus went to School to the Rabbins and learnt of them with a thousand other Fables and Blasphemies of the same Nature and things unworthy of our Lord Christ whereas the Gospel saith that the Jews were astonished at his Wisdom asking how he came by so much
all that are subject to her are immediately under Christ without owing any reverence to the Roman Bishop they say likewise That the Roman Church is fallen from the Faith having perverted the Canons of the Apostles by the force of Heretical Emperors Arms and that the Romans are Hereticks for not celebrating in leavened Bread which has been the inviolable Custom of the Church derived from our Saviour and his Holy Apostles that all the Bishops that followed Nestorius ought to be much esteemed and when named to be stiled Saints and to have their Reliques reverenced That Matrimony is not a Sacrament that it may be dissolved for the bad conditions of the Parties That Vsury is Lawful and there is no Sin in it Also the Book of Timothy the Patriarch where in three Chapters The most Holy Sacrament of the Altar is blasphemed it being impiously asserted in them That the true Body of our Lord Christ is not there but only the Figure thereof Also the Letter which they pretend came down from Heaven called the Letter of the Lord's day wherein the Roman Church is accused of having fallen from the Faith and having violated the Domingo or Lord's-day Letter Also the Book called Maclamatas wherein the distinction of two Persons in Christ and the accedental Union of the Incarnation are pretended to be proved at large and are confirmed with several false and Blasphemous Similitudes Also the Book intituled Vguarda or the Rose wherein it is said That there are two Persons in Christ that the Union of the Incarnation was Accidental that our Lady brought forth with Pain and the Sons of Joseph which he had by his other Wife being in company went for a Midwife to her with other Blasphemies Also the Book intituled Camiz wherein it is said That the Divine Word and the Son of the Virgin are not the same and that our Lady brought forth with Pain Also the Book intituled Menra wherein it is said That our Lord Christ is only the Image of the Word that the Substance of God dwelt in Christ as in a Temple that Christ is next to the Divinity that Christ was made the Companion of God Also the Book of Orders wherein it is said That the Form and not the Matter is necessary to Orders and the Forms therein are likewise Erroneous that there are only two Orders Diaconate and Priesthood that Altars of Wood and not of Stone are to be Consecrated there are also Prayers in it for those that are converted from any other Sect to Nestorianism in form of an Absolution from the Excommunication they had incurred for not having followed Nestorius and of a reconciliation to the Church Also the Book of Homilies wherein it is said That the Holy Eucharist is only the Image of Christ and is distinguished from him as an Image is from a true Man and that the Body of our Lord Jesus Christ is not there nor no where else but in Heaven That the whole Trinity was Incarnate that Christ is only the Temple of the Divinity and God only by Representation that the Soul of Christ descended not into Hell but was carried to the Paradise of Eden that whosoever affirms the contrary errs and that we therefore err in our Creed There are therein likewise some Letters of some Heretical Synods in which it is said That the Patriarch of Babylon is not subject to the Roman Bishop with an Oath to be taken to the said Patriarch as the Head of the Church wherein People Swear to obey him and him only and not the Bishop of Rome Also a Book intituled An Exposition of the Gospels wherein it is every where pretended to be proved That there are two Persons in Christ and that Christ as a pure Creature was obliged to adore God and stood in need of Prayer that he was the Temple of the most Holy Trinity that Christ's Soul when he died descended not into Hell but was carried to the Paradise of Eden which was the place he promised to the Thief on the Cross That our Lady the Virgin deserved to be reproved for having vainly imagined that she was Mother to one that was to be a great King looking upon Christ as no other than a pure Man and presuming that he was to have a Temporal Empire as well as the resâ— of the Jews That the Evangelists did not Record all Christ's Actions in Truth as they were they not having been present at several of them which was the reason why they differed from one another so much That the Wise Men that came from the East received no favour from God for the Journey they took neither did they believe in Christ that Christ was the adopted Son of God it being as impossible that he should be Gods Natural Son as it is that Just Men should be so that he received new Grace in Baptism which he had not before that he is only the Image of the Word and the pure Temple of the Holy Spirit that the Holy Eucharist is only the Image of the Body of Christ which is only in Heaven at the right hand of the Father and not here on Earth That Christ as pure Man did not know when the day of Judgment was to be That when St. Thomas put his Hand into Christ's Side and said My Lord and my God! he did not speak to Christ for that he that was raised was not God but it was only an Exclamation made to God upon his beholding such a Miracle That the Authority that Christ gave to St. Peter over the Church was the same that he gave to other Priests so that his Successors have no more Power or Jurisdiction than other Bishops That our Lady the Virgin is not the Mother of God That the first Epistle of St. John and that of St. James are not the Writings of thole Holy Apostles but of some other Persons of the same Name and therefore are not Canonical Also the Book of Hormisda Raban who is stiled a Saint wherein it is said That Nestorius was a Saint and Martyr and suffered for the Truth and that St. Cyril who persecuted him was the Priest and Minister of the Devil and is now in Hell That Images are filthy and abominable Idols and ought not to be adored and that St. Cyril as a Heretick invented and introduced them There are also many false Miracles Recorded in this Book which are said to have been wrought by Hormisda in confirmation of the Nestorian Doctrine with an Account of what he suffered from the Catholicks for being obstinate in his Heresy Also the Book of Lots into which they put that they call the Ring of Solomon with a great many more Superstitions for the choice of good Days to Marry upon and for several other uses wherein are contained many Blasphemies and Heathenish Observances as also all other Books of Lots and for chusing of Days the Synod prohibits under the same Censure Also the Book written after the manner of â€
Flos Sanctorum Let their Legends â—e as fabulous as they will I am sure they cannot be worse than those of the Church of Rome namely her Flos Sanctorum which is certainly the dullest Romance that ever saw the Sun Melchior Canus the Bishop of Canaâ—ies in his 11th Book de Locis Theologicis gives this just Character of them Dolenter hoc dico potiùs quà m contumeliosè multo à Laertio severius vitas Philosophorum scriptas quà m à Christianis vitas Sanctorum longéque incorruptiùs integriús Suetonium res Caesarum exposuisse quà m exposuerint Catholici non res dico Imperatorum sed Martyrum Virginum Confessorum Illi enim in prâ—bis aut Philosophis aut Principibus nec vitia nec suspiciones vitiorum tacent in improbis etiam colores virtutum produnt Nostri autem plerique vel affectibus inserviunt vel de industriâ quoque ità multa consingunt ut eorum me nimirum non solùm pâ—deat sed etiam taedeat In illo enim Miraculorum monstra saepiùs quà m vera miracula legas hanc auream sc legendac homo scripsit serrei oris plumbei cordis animi certè parùm severi prudentis Flos Sanctorum wherein are contained the Lives of a great many Nestorian Hereticks who are there called Saints and not only that entire Book but also any of the Lives contained therein which may be current separately namely those of Abraham stiled the Great of George Abbot Cardeg whom they call a Martyr Jacob Abban Saurixo Johanan Gauri Raban Sabacat Ocama Daniel Barcaula Raban Nuna Jacob Rabai the Great Dadixo Jomarusia Schalita Ihab Abimelech the Expositor Abraham another Abraham Natpraya Jobcarder John Ircasca Nestorius Jaunam Barcurra Raban Gabarona Schabibi Barcima Titus Raban Sapor Gregory the Metropolitan George Monach Xahucalmaran Joseph Nathanael Simon Abbot Chabita Zinai Abbot Audixo John Crascaya Barcahade Italaah John Sahadui Aha Xalita Joanacoreta Xari another John Elias Joadarmah Ananixo another John Barhetta Rabai Simeon Narsai Naban Raban Theodorus Rabai Doctor Abda Abolaminer Rabantarsaha of Cadarvi Xuuelmaran Sergiududa Xuuealmaran Dadixo another Abraham Ezekieldasa Rabai Perca David Barnutar Hormisda Pition Salomon Abbot Raban Machixo another George Muchiqua another Abraham Apuimacan Xaurixo Ixosauran Josedec Raban Camixo Bardirta Abbot Abraham Barmaharail George Raban Zliva Abbot Guiriaco Rabanbaut Joseph Abbot Zaca Nasbian Jesus Abbot Aaron Bucatixo Ascan another Abraham Xonxa Abbot Amanixo Gasraya Sahedona Bishop Joseph Azaya Isahaha Bishop Jacob whom they call a Prophet Ixaiahu Eunuco Ramain Jobar Malchi Who were all Nestorian Hereticks and the chief followers of that cursed Sect as is evident from their Lives which are full of Heresies Blasphemies and false and * Fabulous Miracles For people not only to condemn that in others which they themselves are visibly and infinitely more guilty of but to do it with the Air and assurance of an unquestionable Innocency cannot be denied to be no common privilege for were all the false Miracles that have been pretended to be wrought by all the other Sects of Religion put together they would fall infinitely short of what may be met with in any single Saint's Life or in confirmation of any single Doctrine of the Church of Rome most of which too are what Canus said of them rather Monstra Miraculorum than vera Miracula or any thing else fabulous Miracles with which they pretend to Authorize their Sect. Also the Book called Parisman or the Persian Medicine which is full of Sorceries teaching certain Methods whereby one may do mischief to their enemies and may gain Women and for a great many other lewd and prohibited purposes there are likewise in it strange Names of Devils of whom they affirm that whosoever shall carry the Names of seven of them about him writ in a Paper shall be in no danger of any Evil It contains also many * Superstitious Exorcisms I do not think they had an Exorcism in any of their Books that was more absurd than that we meet with in the Sacerdotale Romanum printed at Venice no longer ago than the Year 1576. where the Priest when he meets wiâ—h a sullen Devil that will not tell his Name nor give any account of himself is order'd to fall upon him with Praecipio tibi sub poenâ Excommunicationis majoris minoris ut respondeas dicas mihi Nomen Diem Horam exicûs tui I shall not make that reflection upon this Exorcism which is very obvious at the first hearing of it It was with some such Exorcism as this doubtless that they got out of the Devil that raised the terrible Persecution in Japan that he was sent thither from England where he had been employed a great many Years in persecuting of Roman Catholicks upon which the Jesuit Luys Pineyro the Writer of the Persecution makes this grave Remark That doubtless it is with Devils as it is with Men that some of them have particular Talents for some particular works and that this Devil's Talent must doubtless have lain chiefly towards the raising of bloody Persecutions against Catholicks and the Christian Faith Superstitious Exorcisms for the casting out of Devils mixing some Godly words with others that are not Intelligible and with the Invocation of the most Holy Trinity oftentimes desiring the doing of lewd things and enormous sins joyning the Merits of Nestorius and his followers many times in the same Prayer with those of the blessed Virgin and those of their Devils with those of the Holy Angels all which is very common in this Diocess most Curates having this Book and making use of it to this very day all which sort of Books the Synod prohibits in this Diocess under the forementioned censures and whosoever from henceforwards shall be found to have any of them besides the censure they have incurred thereby shall be severely punished by their Prelate Decree XV. BUt the forementioned Heresies are not only to be met with in these Books but are likewise in the Common Prayer and Breviaries that they use in their Churches which having been composed by Nestorian Hereticks are full of Blasphemies Heresies Fables and Apocryphal stories whereby instead of praising God they are continually blaspheming him in their Divine Offices In the Book called the Great Breviary it is said That the Divine Word did not assume Flesh ignorantly pretending to prove it thus because if the Word had assumed Flesh to what purpose was the Holy Spirit 's overshadowing the Virgin In the same Breviary the whole Office of Advent is Heretical it being every where affirmed therein that Christ had two Persons and calling him continually only the Temple of God and in the Feast of the Nativity there is a proposition in one of the solemn Antiphona's that directly contradicts St. John in which it is said that the Word was not made Flesh and that all that believe the contrary are disobedient to the Church and are obstinate Rebels against the Faith so that
for the Churches that are in the Heaths the Vicars shall give orders that the Children or at least such of them as are nighest to the Church shall upon a certain day of the Week come to learn the Doctrine employing others persons to instruct the rest therein and the Schoolmasters that teach Syrian or that teach to read and write shall every day before they begin School repeat the said Doctrine to their Scholars in Malabar neither shall any inferior Orders no not the first Tonsure be given to Children before they can say the whole Doctrine in Malabar in which they must be examined according to the Holy Council of Trent and in all Church s there shall be a Book of the * Doctrine The Christians of Malabar would certainly lose the second Commandment by receiving this Roman Doctrine in which that Commandment never appears no not as part of the first nay in the Tridentine Catechism tho' writ in Latin and for the use of Parish-Priests there is only the three first words of it mentioned and I do not believe there is one Priest of a thousand in Spain or Portugal who if they should have the whole Second Commandment repeated to them would not say what I have heard more than one and those very grave Priests too say of it That it might be John Calvin's but they were sure it was none of God's Commandments Doctrine in the Malabar Tongue for the instruction of Children which the Synod doth entreat the Father Rector of the College of Jesuits of Vaipicotta to order to be translated by some of that College commanding all the Churches of this Diocess as also exhorting all the Christians thereof at Night to cause the said Doctrine to be taught in their Houses to their whole Families that so their Servants and Slaves may be instructed therein and the Confessors in their Confessions must not fail to examine their Penitents in the Doctrine and to exhort them to learn it Decree XIX THat the Faithful Christians in this Diocess may in their Common Prayer be conformable to the whole Catholick Church they must not from henceforward say the Ave Mary as they have been taught by the Perfidious Nestorians but must say it thus Ave Mary full of Grace the Lord be with thee blessed art thou among Women blessed is Jesus the fruit of thy Womb Holy Mother of God pray for us Sinners now and at the hour of our Death Amen Jesus And in this form it shall be inserted into all the Prayer Books of this Diocess Decree XX. VVHereas the Christians of this Diocess do not shew the least Reverence to the most Holy Name of Jesus when it is mentioned which ariseth from the false Doctrine of the Nestorian Hereticks who do impiously assert That it is not worthy of Reverence being the Name of a Humane Person teaching falsly that there are two Persons in Christ therefore since that Divine Name contains in it so many Divine Mysteries being the Name of our Redemption and the Name above all Names At which St. Paul saith every knee in Heaven and in Earth and below the Earth ought to bow the Synod doth command that as often either in the Gospel or Prayers of the Mass or Offices or any where else that that Name is mentioned all People do reverently bow their Body whether they be sitting or standing and the Clergy and other Christians having their Caps on shall take them off and the Vicars and Preachers must not neglect to put their People frequently in mind thereof and whereas the Name Lyo is the same with the most sweet Name of Jesus in the Malabar Language and is commonly given to Children in Baptism the Synod doth strictly prohibit the giving of that Name to any body for the future commanding all that are called by it to take another Name in Confirmation or at any other time it being a great irreverence for any one to be called by so high and Divine a Name Decree XXI WHereas it is necessary that the Feast of Christ's Nativity should be celebrated with great solemnity and uniformity through the whole Catholick Church the Synod doth command that on the Eve of that Festivity all the Clergy and People do assemble together in the Church there to say the Matins with the greatest Solemnity possible and that after they have done these Prayers which shall end about Midnight they shall make the customary Procession which being over a Solemn Mass shall be said with all possible Festivity after which the Priest may say a Mass at break of day and a third at the usual time of Mass for the Priest must know that for the greater Solemnity of this Festival they are permitted to say three Masses upon it that is one at Midnight one at break of day and a third at the ordinary time or being private Masses all three together after break of day but being publick shall be all said in the fore-mentioned Order neither shall they after the first two take the Lavatory but after having received the Blood shall go on with the Mass without taking the Lavatory that so they may be Fasting to celebrate the third and they shall be very careful to have the Cups well scoured and their Fingers washed clean with Water which shall be preserved in a particular Vessel in order to its being afterwards either thrown into a Pond or poured under the Altar or into the Baptismal Water that is in the Font and if any Priest through carelessness should in either of the two first Masses take the Lavatory after that it shall not be lawful for him to say any more because the Mass is not to be celebrated but Fasting which the taking of the Lavatory breaks Decree XXII THe Synod doth command That the Priests in the solemn administration of the Sacraments of Baptism Matrimony and Extream Vnction or when they administer the Holy Eucharist without the Mass for the greater decency and reverence for what they are about do wear a Surplice with a Stole about their Necks And whereas hitherto there has been no such thing as a Surplice in this Bishoprick the most Reverend Metropolitan having been pleased to provide such Vestments as are necessary in this Bishoprick no Vicar shall go from hence without taking a Surplice along with him which he is to wear in the administration of the Holy Sacraments wherein the Synod commands them likewise to use the Rites and Ceremonies prescribed in the Roman Ceremonial which the said Lord Metropolitan has commanded to be translated into Syrian and to be kept in all Churches which contains the Forms of Baptizing of Anointing the Sick of Marrying of Sacramental Absolution with the customary Prayers therein of administring the Holy Sacrament of the Altar of the Exorcisms of the Church for People possessed with the Devil the Blessings of Holy Water of Ashes of Chains and Branches as also the Form of Burying the Dead Old and Young and of reconciling Churches and
Trent Council suffer'd to preach p. 173 Dec. XVIII All Priests that have delivered any Errors or fabulous Stories in their Sermons are ordered to recant them publickly upon pain of Excommunication p. 174 Dec. XIX Makes Void all Oaths against yielding Obedience to the Roman Church under pain of the greater Excommunication p. 175 Dec. XX. Contains the Profession of the Synod p. 177 Dec. XXI The Synod resolves to be governed in all things by the last Trent Council p. 178 Dec. XXII Submits to the Inquisition p. 179 Dec. XXIII All Persons who shall Act Speak or Write against the Holy Catholick Faith to be prosecuted and punish'd by the Prelate p. 181 ACTION IV. Of the Sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation p. 182 Of the Doctrine of the Holy Sacrament of Baptism 187. Dec. I. New form for Baptism and the old ones abrogated p. 189 Dec. II. All Baptized according to the old Forms to submit themselves to the Metropolitan at his Visitation for his Directions p. 189 Dec. III. Orders all Priests to make enquiry who have not been Baptized through any Default and to baptize all such privately without taking any Fees p. 190 Dec. IV. To the same Purpose p. 191 Dec. V. Children to be Christened on the 8th Day with some Limitations p. 192 Dec. VI. The Error Condemn'd of not Baptizing the Infants of Excommunicate Parents p. 194 Dec. VII Exhortation to all Parents and such as are present at Womens Labours not to suffer an Infant to die without Baptism Allowance to any Man Woman or Child that knows the Form to Baptize such in case of eminent Necessity How the Child is to be order'd if it recover p. 194 Dec. VIII Christian Daia's or Midwives recommended and Vicars exhorted to instruct them in the Form of Baptism p. 196 Dec. IX Infidel Slaves ordered to be Baptized p. 197 Dec. X. Christians not to be sold to Infidels for Slaves p. 197 Dec. XI Forbids Auguries p. 199 Dec. XII Foundlings how to be ordered p. 200 Dec. XIII Converts how to be order'd p. 200 Dec. XIV Holy Oils commanded with the manner of using them p. 201 Dec. XV. Commands the use of God-Fathers and God-Mothers in Baptism not used before p. 202 Dec. XVI Prohibits Old Testatament some few excepted and Heathenish Names to be given to Children ordering those of the New according to the Christian Oeconomy p. 204 Dec. XVII Orders Children to be called by no other Names than those they were Christened by p. 206 Dec. XVIII Commands that Children be Christened in order as they are brought to Church without any distinction of Persons p. 206 Dec. XIX Commands the building of Fonts p. 207 Dec. XX. register-Register-Books to be used in all Churches and their Use p. 208 The Doctrine of the Sacrament of Confirmation p. 209 Dec. I. The Sacrament of Confirmation commanded to be used p. 213 Dec. II. Denounces Excommunication against all those that speak against it or vilify it p. 214 Dec. III. God-Fathers and God-Mothers of what 〈◊〉 to be used in Confirmation 〈◊〉 Chrism as well as Baptism p. 216 ACTION V. The Doctrine of the Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist p. 217 Dec. I. The Holy Eucharist when to be Celebrated p. 220 Dec. II. All Christians above the Age of 14 commanded to Receive this Sacrament once a Year at least p. 222. Dec. III. None to Receive before Confession to a Lawful Priest p. 223 Dec. IV. Commands to Receive Fasting with some Limitation p. 224 Dec. V. The Sacrament to be received as a Viaticum in danger of Death The Vicar that suffers any to die without it though his Fault to be suspended for six Months p. 225 Dec. VI. Women with Child to Confess and Receive a little before their time p. 226 Dec. VII Priests to Communicate once a Month at least in their Surplice and Stole p. 227 Dec. VIII Priests not to Receive the Sacrament before Confession nor say Mass having any scruple of Mortal Sin p. 227 Dec. IX Deacons and Subdeacons when to Receive the Sacrament p. 228 The Doctrine of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass p. 228 Dec. I. Directions for saying Mass and many things in the Chaldaean Missals to be rectified p. 231 Dec. II The Missals of Nestorius Theodorus and Diodoâ—â—s to be burnt p. 245 Dec. III. A grand Error of the Nestorians condemn'd p. 246 Dec. IV. The Roman Mass to be translated iâ—to Syrian and used on particular Occasions c. p. 247. Dec. V. Who to handle the Holy Vessels p 248 Dec. VI. Permits the Stole to none but Deacons p. 248 Dec. VII Orders Stamps to be made in all Churches for the Host p. 249 Dec. VIII Orders what Wine is to be used in celebrating the Eucharist p. 250. Dec. IX The King of Portugal to send a Pipe and an half or two Pipes of Muscatel Wine for the Use of the Sacrament and how to be used p. 250 Dec. X. Stones of the Altar to be consecrated by the Metropolitan p. 252 Dec. XI Holy Vestments to be provided by the Metropolitan out of the Alms of the Parish p. 253 Dec. XII All Persons not having lawful impediment commanded to hear a whole Mass every Sunday and Holyday if c. p. 253 Dec. XIII Directs how often to hear Mass to be capable of the Blessing and such as hear it not so often as directed to be Excommunicate p. 255 Dec. XIV Prohibits Heathen Musicians to remain in the Church after Creed or Sermon is ended p. 256 Dec. XV. Exhorts all to procure Masses to be said for the Souls of their deceased Friends p. 256 ACTION VI. Of the Holy Sacrament of Penance and Extream Unction p. 261 Dec. I. Non-Confession declared a Mortal Sin p. 265 Dec. II. All Persons to come to Confession from Eight Years old and upwards p. 268 Dec. III. All Masters of Families admonished to cause all in their Families to Confess p. 269 Dec. IV. Confession injoin'd upon probable Danger of Death or any great Sickness p. 270 Dec. V. Obliges Women with Child to Confess p. 271 Dec. VI. Orders how those are to be confessed that have the Small-Pox p. 272 Dec. VII Exhorts to frequent Confession p. 272 Dec. VIII Who to take Confessions p. 273 Dec. IX Absolution upon Confession how to be Administred and by whom p. 274 Dec. X. Directs in what Cases Confessors may absolve Penitents p. 275 Dec. XI Excommunication and Absolution when prope p. 277 Dec. XII Priests Confessors to have a written Licence from the Prelate p. 278 Dec. XIII Confessors that understand the Malabar Tongue to be made Use of and why p. 281 Dec. XIV None can absolve in the Sacramental Court but such as took the Confession p. 281 Dec. XV. The Sacramental Form of Absolution not to be used as a Prayer but in its proper Place p. 282 The Doctrine of the Sacrament of Extream Unction p. 282 Dec. I. The use of the Extream Vnction recommended with directions therein p. 285 Dec. II. Confessors
not go over his Threshold to meet the King received him when he came with great Civility and after the Complements were over acquainted him first with his Intention of visiting all the Christian Churches in the Serra in order to reduce them to the true Christian Faith from which they had very much swerved telling him that since great numbers of those Churches were within his Territories he expected his assistance in so good a work of which being assured by the King the Arch-Bishop went on and told him that there was another thing that he must not deny him and that was to put off his War with the Caimal till Cunahle was taken the King gave many reasons why he could not deferr it but the Arch-Bishop prest him so hard upon the point that before they parted he made him promise to disband his Army The Arch-Bishop having put the Affairs of the Siege in a good posture begun to apply himself to the reduction of the Christians of St. Thomas and the first step he made towards it was to send to the Arch-Deacon to come and speak with him at Cochim But after having expected him some days and finding that he neither came himself nor returned him any answer he concluded as well he might that he was afraid to venture himself in that City whereupon he sent him a Letter of safe Conduct swearing he would not question him about any thing that was past The Arch-Deacon upon this occasion Assembled a great number of Caçanares and other considerable Christians to consult together what was best to be done It was agreed on all hands that the Arch-Deacon shou'd go and wait upon his Lordship who was a Person of that Authority as to be able to undo them all at once by depriving them of their Pepper-Trade if they should disoblige him and besides he was able to oblige their Kings who were all very much at his Devotion to Sacrifice all their Lives and Estates to his displeasure and what made them the willinger to comply with him therein was their being confident that they should be quickly rid of his Company since Winter was at hand which they thought would certainly call him to Goa Upon all which Considerations it was agreed That they should give way to his saying of Mass and his Preaching in their Churches which their Books told them was a common Civility that is every where paid to Bishops tho' out of their own Diocesses but as for any Acts of Jurisdiction such as Visiting Conferring Orders Excommunicating and the like if he should pretend to exercise any such Acts as it was to be feared he would that they shou'd then put him off as well as they cou'd with delays until he returned to Goa which they thought he would in two Months at farthest by which means they might without embroiling themselves with so powerful a Prelate wait till they had a Bishop sent them by the Patriarch of Babylon to whom they had writ for one of all which they made a publick Instrument and for their further Security brought together a Body of 3000 brave Men who were all well Armed the Christians of St. Thomas being by much both the stoutest and best Firemen in the Indies as the Portuguezes knew very well which made them be the more zealous to reduce them to the Roman Church in order to make them Subjects to the King of Portugal The Arch-Bishop sent also at the same time to some of their Paniquais some of which have 4000 some 6000 Men at their Command to come and speak with him at Cochim but they instead of going thither took an Oath solemnly to make themselves Amouços after the Custom of the Malavars against him in case he offer'd any violence to their Arch-Deacon or to any other of their Priests When the Malavars devote themselves to be Amouços for any cause they defend it to the last drop of their Blood without either fear or wit With two of these Paniquais and 3000 Men well Armed the Arch-Deacon came to wait upon the Arch-Bishop at Cochim Don Antonio de Noronha the Governour of the City met them without the Gates and conducted them to the Arch-Bishop's Palace The Arch-Deacon when he came before the Arch-Bishop kneeled down and kiss'd his Hand as did all the other Caçanares that were in his Company the two Paniquais were also presented to his Lordship by the Arch-Deacon who when the Arch-Bishop and the Governour and the Arch-Deacon came to sit down placed themselves at the Elbows of the Arch-Bishop's Chair where they stood all the while with their broad Swords naked over his Head The door of the Room where they were being shut to keep out the Crowd those that stood without imagining that it was done to make their Arch-Deacon a Prisoner said to one another this is the time to die for our Arch-Deacon and for the Church of St. Thomas but being assured that their Arch-Deacon was in no danger they were quieted After the hubbub was over and they had discoursed together for some time it was agreed that the Arch-Bishop should go next day to Vaipicotta which upon the account of its having a College of Jesuites in it should be the first Church he should Visit and that the Arch-Deacon with his Caçanares should repair thither immediately The Arch-Bishop having furnished himself with all Necessaries for his Voyage embarked with all his Retinue upon seven Tones or Gallies and Roque de Mello Pereyro who had been Governour of Malaca attended him with two Gallies more and Joan Pereyra de Miranda who was afterwards Governour of Cranganor with one Being arrived at Vaipicotta he was conductâ—d by the Jesuites and their Scholars and the whole Village to the Church where with his Mitre on his Head and his Crosier in his hand he gave them a long Sermon His Text was He that entereth not in by the door c. on which words he told them at length That none were true Pastors but what entered in by the door of the Roman Church and were sent by the Pope who was Christ's Vicar which none of their former Prelates having been who had been all sent to them by the Schismatical Bishops of Babylon they were all Thieves and Murderers of the Flock When he had done his Sermon he bid them come next day to the Church to be confirmed which some did to whom after he had confirmed them he told the news of Purgatory a place most of them had never heard of before All this while no Arch-Deacon appeared who came not to Vaipicotta till two days after the arrival of the Arch-Bishop He had delayed his coming on purpose that he might not by his presence seem to consent to any of those things which he knew the Arch-Bishop would offer to do at that place Tho' the Arch-Bishop knew well enough what it was that had made the Arch-Deacon loiter so behind yet he dissembled so far as to receive him very kindly treating with him about
only dwell in Christ as in a Temple The Arch-Deacon returned no answer to this but passing to another point said to the Arch-Bishop Your Grace would fain perswade us likewise that none can be saved out of the Obedience of the Roman Church which is what St. John no where saith that ever I could see besides we have in our Archives a Letter of St. Caius Bishop of Rome wherein he confesseth that he had nothing to do with the Church of Babylon no more than the Church of Babylon had to do with his Church We have also another Letter which is called in our Books the Letter of the Lord's-day because it is said upon that day to have fallen down from Heaven wherein the same Truth is affirmed Here the Arch-Bishop run into a long discourse of the Primacy of St. Peter and of the Pope's being his Successor and Christ's Vicar upon Earth after which they came at last to this Agreement That as to matters of Faith a Synod should be called to determine them and that in the mean while the Arch-Bishop might if he pleased give the Blessing and Preach in any of their Churches but should not be received in them as their Prelate but as a Bishop that was a Stranger neither should he pretend to Confirm or do any other Episcopal Act within that Diocess This Agreement was Signed by the Arch-Bishop and the Arch-Deacon and all the Caçanares who were present with a Declaration that the Synod should be Celebrated before Whitsuntide and that the Arch-Deacon should no longer stir up the People against him nor go attended with such Troops of Armed Men as he had done formerly This Agreement being Signed the Arch-Bishop set Sail for Canhur whither the Arch-Deacon went by Land not daring to trust himself by Water where he would have been in the Power of the Portuguezes At Canhur he was received very friendly by the Christians who had been told by the Arch-Deacon that he did not pretend to come among them as their Prelate but only as a Stranger but tho' he kept to his Agreement so far as not to offer to do any thing but give the Blessing and Preach yet in his Sermon which was a very long one he talked so much of the Roman Church and its Supremacy and of the obligation all Churches were under to submit to it that the whole Congregation were much offended with him the Arch-Deacon was likewise discontented with it and being Sick or at least pretending he was returned to Cheguree to be cured and the Arch-Bishop having other work on his hands was willing enough to dismiss him who in pursuance of the Instruction he brought with him from Goa was obliged to hasten to Coulaon a Fortress belonging to the Portuguezes to see in what condition it was and to take some course to have the Fort the King of Travancor was building in its Neighbourhood and would much incommode it demolished On the first of March he set Sail for a Castle that is within two Leagues of Cochim where the Governour and Bishop of the City met him to whom having communicated his Designs he Sailed directly for Porcoa where the King of the Country had been some days expecting him he went to a Church that was there in the Evening where he was kindly received by the Christians the King who professed a great Friendship for the Portuguezes having Commanded them upon pain of his displeasure to comply with the Arch-Bishop in all things After having Preached he went to Lodge at the House of the Caçanar whither the King came at Night to visit him the Arch-Bishop entertained him very friendly and thanked him for the kindness he had shewed to the Christians of St. Thomas and their Churches and for having cleared his Coast of Pyrates the King after some Complements desired to be admitted to the Honour of being a Brother in Arms to the King of Portugal as the King of Cochim had been The Arch-Bishop told him that was an Honour the King of Portugal never did to any King before he had merited it by some signal Service however he promised to do all that lay in his Power to help him to it Next Morning the Arch-Bishap went to Church where he said Mass and afterwards confirmed the whole Congregation notwithstanding his late solemn Promise to the contrary as indeed none but Fools will ever expect that Papists will observe any such Promises longer than the first opportunity they have to break them From Porcoa he sailed directly to Coulaon where under pretence of visiting a Church that stood near the Fort the King of Travancor was building he took a view of the Fort and finding it was near finished and would in a few days have a Garrison put in it he immediately dispatched away a Messenger to the Captain General of the Fleet and Troops that were before Cunahle to come forthwith with his whole Armada to demolish the said Fort which if he came quickly he might do with great ease for that he would find none in it but Workmen Now you must know that the Arch-Bishop when he was last at the Bar of Cunahle notwithstanding that the King of Travancor and the Portuguezes were at that time in Peace had left a private Order with the General that so soon as he was Master of Cunahle he should set Sail immediately with the whole Armada and demolish this Fort which by reason of Cunahle's not being yet taken had not been executed But while the Arch-Bishop was expecting the Captain-General he received the bad news of a great slaughter of Portuguezes in an Attack they had made upon Cunahle and that the Captain-General was retired to Cochim to have his wounded Men cured from whence he intended to come and wait upon him for further Orders The Arch-Bishop was extreamly troubled at this News as well upon the account of the great numbers of Persons of Quality that had been killed in the Action as because he feared it would very much hearten the Kings of Malabar who had till then still looked upon the Portuguezes as Invincible Wherefore to prevent the ill effects that the true News of this Defeat might have upon the Minds of the Princes of Malabar he dispatched Letters immediately to all of them to acquaint them with the great Victory the Portuguezes had obtained before Cunahle and tho' he acknowledged that it was purchased with the Blood of several brave Men among whom were some of his own Kindred who were very dear to him yet he did not doubt but that they would infallibly carry the Place at the next Attack they made These tricks of the Arch-Bishop coming so thick one upon the neck of another for here we have no fewer than three of them in less than a Fortnight puts me in mind of what Manuel de Faria saith of him in the 3d. Tome of his Asia Portuguesa which I shall give the Reader in his own words Este illustre Prelado estuviera yo por
of Purgatory to be an Article of Faith of no long standing in the Church Multa inquit sunt de quibus in primitivâ Ecclesiâ nulla quaestio factura fuerat quae tamen posteriorum diligentiâ subortis dubitationibus jam evaserunt perspicua Nemo certè jam dubitat Orthodoxus an Purgatorium sit de quo tamen apud priscos illos nulla vel quà m rarissima fiebat mentio sed Graecis ad hunc usque diem non est creditum Purgatorium esse Legat qui velit Graecorum veterum Commentarios nullum quantum opinor aut quà m rarissimum de Purgatorio sermonem inveniet Quamdiu enim nulla fuerat de Purgatorio cura Nemo quaesivit Indulgentias nam ex illo pendet omnis Indulgentiarum existimatio quum itaque Pugatorium tam serò cognitum ac receptum Ecclesiae fuerit universae quis jam de Indulgentiis mirari potest quòd in principio nascentis Ecclesiae nullus fuerat earum usus coeperunt igitur Indulgentiae post quam ad Purgatorii cruciatus aliquando trepidatum est Purgatory and that the Souls which are cleansing from their Sins do receive benefit from the Prayers and Devotions of the Faithful I do likewise affirm that †The Souls of the Iust This was the common Opinion of the Ancient Fathers namely Irenaeus at the end of his 5th Book Justin Quaest 76th Tertullian in his 4th Book against Marcion Origen in his 7th Homily upon Leviticus and a great many other places Lactantius in the 21st Chap. of his 7th Book Victorinus in his Commentary upon the words I saw under the Altar Ambrosius in his 2d Book of Cain and Abel Chrysostom in his 39th Homily upon those words If in this life only in the 1st to the Corinth The Author of the Imperfect Work in his 34th Homily upon St. Matthew Austin in his Enarration upon the 36th Psalm Theodoret in his Commentaries upon the 11th to the Heb. Oecumenius in his Commentaries upon the same place Theophylact in his Commentaries upon the 23d of St. Luke Aretho on those words How long O Lord c. Euthymius upon the 23d of St. Luke and Bernard in his Sermon upon All-Saints day And to Pope John the 22d being charged with having believed this Doctrine Bellarmin returns the following Answer Joannem hunc 22dum reverâ sensisse Animas non visuras Deum nisi post resurrectionem caeterum hoc sensisse quando adhuc sentire licebat sine periculo Haeresis nulla enim adhuc praecesserat Ecclesiae definitio Which Confession makes the Doctrines of praying to Saints and of Purgatory and of Indulgences to be very new Articles of Faith the Souls of the Just and Faithful which at their departure out of this Life have entirely satisfied for the Punishment due to the Sins that they have committed as also those in Purgatory which have made an end of satisfying for their sins according to the Divine Pleasure and Ordination as also those who after Baptism have committed no Sin do at the moment of their death go immediately into Heaven where they behold God as he is And I do condemn and anathematize the Heresy of those who think that the Souls of the Just are in a Terrestrial Paradise till the day of Judgment and that the Damned are not Tormented any otherwise than by the certainty they have of the Torments they are to enter into after the day of Judgment And I do confess and affirm that the Saints now reigning with Christ in Heaven are to be Reverenced and Invoked and that they offer Prayers to God for us whose Relicks are likewise to be reverenced on Earth And moreover that the * Images Gyraldus a Learned Papist in the 18th Page of the History of the Gods speaking of Images in the Church of Rome saith At de istiusmodi magis mutire possumus quam palam loqui idcircò satius ea fuerit Hippocrati Angeronae consignare illud certè non praetermittam Nos dico Christianos ut aliquando Romanos fuisse sine Imaginibus in primitivâ quae vocatur Ecclesiâ Images of our Lord Christ and of our Lady the Glorious Virgin Mary and of all the other Saints are to be kept used and reverenced with due Honour and Veneration I do also believe that our Lady the most Holy Virgin Mary is the proper and true Mother of God and ought to be called so by the Faithful for having brought forth according to the Flesh without any pain or passion the true Son of God and that she always continued a Virgin in and after her Deliverance having never been defiled by any actual Sin I do confess that the power of granting Indulgences was left to the Church by our Lord Jesus Christ the use whereof I do affirm to be healthful and profitable to all Christian People I do acknowledge the Holy Catholick and Apostolick Roman Church to be the Head Mother and Mistress of all other Churches in the World and do hold all that are not subject and obedient to her to be Heretical Schismatical and disobedient to our Lord Jesus Christ and his Commands and to the Order that he left in the Church and to be Aliens from Eternal Salvation I do promise and swear true Obedience to the Pope the Roman Bishop the Successor of the Blessed Prince of the Apostles St. Peter and Vicar of our Lord Jesus Christ on earth the Head of the whole Church on earth and Doctor and Master of the same and the Father Prelate and Pastor of all Christians and do confess that all who deny Obedience to the said Roman Bishop the Vicar of Christ are Transgressors of the Divine Commands and cannot attain to Eternal Life I do without any scruple receive approve and confess all other Matters defined and declared in the Sacred Canons and General Councils and chiefly in the Holy Council of Trent and do in the same manner condemn reject and anathematize every thing that is contrary to the same together with all Heresies condemned rejected and anathematized by the said Church Namely the Diabolical and perverse Heresie of Nestorius together with its perverse Author Nestorius and its false Teachers * Theodorus They should not have been so hard upon Theodorus for Pope Honorius's sake who by Name was condemned together with him by the 5th General Council and I am mistaken if Pighius and some other Popish Writers have not for that very reason laboured hard to vindicate Theodorus's Memory Theodorus and †Diodorus Du Pin in his 4th Century of Christianity p. 189. saith As to what concerns his Doctrine of the Incarnation we could better judge of it if we had his Books but there is no great probability that one who was praised esteemed and cherished by Meletius St. Basil St. Gregory Nazianzen St. Epiphanius and even by St. Athanasius and his Successors Peter and Timothy of Alexandria who was also considered in a General Council as one of the
reign with Christ in the Heavens are to be venerated and invok'd by the Faithful desiring of God a Remedy for our wants through their Intercession and of them that they would intercede for us which they do daily by offering up our Prayers and Petitions to God That the Bodies and Reliques of Saints ought to be had in veneration in being carefully kept kissed and adored by the Faithful and placed under the Holy Altars and other consecrated places upon the account of their having been lively Members of Christ and the Temple of the Holy Spirit and because they are to be raised again at the day of Judgment and and clothed with Eternal Glory in Heaven and God vouchsafes many Blessings upon Earth by them CHAP. XI FUrthermore That the Images of our Lord Christ and of our Lady the Glorious Virgin Mary and of the Holy Angels that are painted after our manner and of other Saints which the Church believes to be in Heaven ought to be kept and used in all decent places not only in the houses of the Faithful but chiefly in Churches and Altars and to be reverenced and adored with due veneration and with the same that is due to the Persons they represent not that we believe that there is any thing of Divinity or * Virtue If there is nothing of Virtue in one Image more than another why do People go so many hundred miles to pray to some particular Images of the Virgin Mary when there is scarce a Church or Chappel in their way wherein there is not an Image of her Virtue in them for which they ought to be honoured or that we put our Hope and Confidence in them as the * Heathens The Learned Heathens made the very same declaration concerning their worshipping of Images Heathens did in their Idols but because the Honour which we pay to them referrs to what they represent so that in prostrating our selves before their Images we adore Christ and reverence the Saints whose Images they are In like manner we adore the sign of the Cross with the Worship of †Latria The saying that this Latria or Supream worship is only Relative cannot excuse it from being Idolatrous without excusing the grossest Worship among the Heathen it being impossible in Nature to give any other Worship than what is relative to an Image when worshipped as such Martinus Peresius Aila Bishop of Guidez in Spain in the third part of his Book of Traditions p. 223. passeth a severe but just censure upon the Worship here established Cujus doctrinae nullum quod ego viderim afferunt validum fundamentum quod possit fideles ad id quod docent obligari Nam neque Scripturam neque Tracitionem Ecclesiae neque communem sensum sanctorum neque Concilii Generalis determinationem aliquam nec etiam rationem quâ hoc efficaciter suaderi possit adducunt Et p. 226. Certe haud dissimile imò fortè majâ—s scandalum infirmis paratur qui has distinctiones prorsus ignorant nec possunt nisi errando intelligere ut ego ipse in multis simplicibus experimento deprehendi cum ab eis sciscitarer quid de hac re sentirent in eo quod dicitur eâdem adoratione adorandum esse Imaginem quâ rem cujus est Nam cum videant simulachrum operosè sculptum affabrè expolitum in eminenti loco templi positum ipsumque à multitudine veneratum super haec audiant quòd eodem honore debeat honorari quo res cujus est colitur certè in multis simplicibus periculosissimus erroris affectus facilè potest adgenerari quo putent aliquid Numinis latere in imagine sic quoque rei repraesentatae tum nomen tum gloriam ad imaginem facilè possunt transferre quod maximè periculosum esse judico Latria which is due only to God because it is a sign representing the Son of God our Lord Jesus Christ upon the Cross and which he himself hath told us will be the sign of the Son of Man in the Day of Judgment and with the same Worship of Latria we adore the Images of our Lord Jesus Christ because they represent him CHAP. XII FUrthermore the Church professeth that every Person as soon as he is born hath a Guardian Angel given him whose business it is to excite People to what is good and to deliver them from many evils which they would otherwise have fallen into which Angel protects and accompanies People through their whole lives doing all it can to keep them from Sin and all other Evils that so it may bring them to Eternal Life and is always suggesting good things to their Free Will from which we receive many Blessings as well Spiritual as Temporal notwithstanding we neither see them nor understand how they do it and these we call our Guardian Angels CHAP. XIII FUrthermore That the Catholick Church is one and the same all over the World having for its Pastor the chief Bishop of Rome Successor in the Chair of the Blessed Prince of the Apostles St. Peter to whom and by him to his Successors our Lord Jesus Christ delivered the full power of ruling and governing his whole Church from whence it is that the Roman Church is the Head of the whole Church and the Father Master and Doctor of all Christians and the Prelate of all in common and of all Priests Bishops Archbishops Primates and Patriarchs of whatsoever Church they are as also the Pastor of all Emperors Kings Princes and Lords In a word of all that are Christians and of all the Faithful People Hence it is that all that are not under the Obedience of the said Roman Bishop the Vicar of Christ upon Earth are out of a state of Salvation and shall be condemned to Hell as Hereticks and Schismaticks for their Disobedience to the Commands of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Order that he left in his Church CHAP. XIV FUrthermore that One and the same God is the Author of the New and Old Testament of the Prophets and the Gospels the Saints of both those Testaments being inspired in the Writing of them with the same Holy Spirit and so the Catholick Church receives all the Canonical Books of both Testaments which contain in them nothing but what is infallibly true and was dictated by the Holy Spirit To wit of the Old Testament the five Books of Moses Genesis Exodus Leviticus Numbers Deuteronomy as also Joshua the two Books of Judges Ruth the four Books of Kings the two Books of Chronicles the first Book of Esdras the second which is called Nehemias Tobit Judith Esther Job the Psalms of David being 150 the Proverbs Ecclesiastes the Song of Songs the Book of Wisdom Ecclesiasticus the four greater Prophets viz. Isaiah Jeremiah Ezekiel Daniel the twelve lesser viz. Hosea Joel Amos Obadiah Jonah Micah Nahum Habakkuk Zephaniah Haggai Zechariah Malachi and the first and second of Maccabees and of the New Testament St. Matthew
of Beasts or of some other Men which besides that it is a great Ignorance is also an Error contrary to the Catholick Faith which teacheth That our Souls after Death are carried to Heaven or Hell or Purgatory or Limbus according to every ones Merits and that there is no such fabulous and false Transmigration The second is That all things come necessarily to pass or through * I am very apt to believe that they are here falsely accused of attributing all things to Fate for no other reason but because they believed Predestination which if it was so Arch-Bishop Menezes who was himself an Austin Fryar shewed but little respect to the Memory of his pretended Father in making Predestination and Fate to be equally destructive of humane Liberty Fate or Fortune which they call the Nativity of Men who they say are compelled to be what they are and that there is no help for it which is a manifest Error and condemned by Holy Mother Church for as much as it destroys that Liberty of Will with which God created us leaving us in the power of our own Will to do Good or Evil to obey his Holy Inspirations and Internal Motions by which he excites to Good or to resist Evil so that as it depends on his Divine mercy and goodness to move us to Good so it depends on our Free-Will whether by his assistance we will obey those Inspirations and will profit our selves of his Internal Motions or of our own free Will refuse to do it or in a word do Well or Ill so that if we perish for doing any thing that is Ill it is the fault of our own Free-Will as the Catholick Faith teaches us and not from the fate of our Nativity as the ignorant Heathens will have it The third is †This is an Error that Justin Martyr Clemens Alexandrinus and others of the Philosophical Fathers seem to have been in That every one may be saved in his own Law all which are Good and lead Men to Heaven Now this is a manifest Heresy there being no other Law upon earth in which Salvation is to be found besides that of our Saviour Christ for that he only teacheth the Truth so that all that live in any other Sect are out of a state of Salvation and shall be condemned to Hell there being no other Name given to Men by which we can be saved but only the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God who was Crucified for us All which Errors the Synod commandeth the Vicars and Preachers often to preach against in the hearing of the ignorant People and all Confessors to examine their Penitents concerning them and to teach them the Catholick Truth Decree V. THis Synod being informed that there is a dangerous Heresy and very injurious to our Lord Jesus Christ sown and preached through this Diocess which is That it is a * Grievous Sin How does this consist with their having so many Crosses in their Churches and Houses as they tell us they had or with their administring the Sacrament of the Eucharist or with their Preaching that it was Christ and not the Son of God that suffered upon the Cross grievous sin so much as to think or speak of our Saviour's Holy Passion and as there are a great many of this Opinion so the doing of it has formerly been prohibited by impious Censures all which is a manifest Error and extreamly prejudicial to the Souls of all faithful Christians and the fruit and profit of Souls arising from such Considerations and Discourses which is very great as well for that love and affection which they beget in us for our Saviour who suffer'd for our Salvation as for the Example of those Vertues which were so Illustrious in his Holy Passion and the hatred of Sin for which he suffer'd so much and the fear of the Divine Justice which he so rigorously satisfied and the confidence of our Salvation by such a plenteous Redemption and the use of the Sacraments to which he applyed the virtue of his Holy Passion and other infinite benefits which are derived from thence to our Souls which Error included another no less prejudicial and which is also common among the Nestorians the condemning of Holy Images for that if it were an Impiety to think of the Passion of our Lord Christ it must follow that all those things are unlawful that move or contribute thereunto as the Sign of the Holy Cross and all Images of the Holy Passion all which is a gross and manifest Heresy Wherefore the Synod doth recommend it to all Preachers Confessors and Rectors of Churches frequently to perswade their People to the consideration of those Divine Mysteries and to that end they shall advise them to the Devotion of the Rosary of our Lady the most Blessed Virgin Mary wherein are contained all the principal Mysteries of the Life of our Lord Christ with profitable Meditations upon them Decree VI. AMong the many Errors sown in this Diocess and left in the Books thereof by the perfidious Nestorian Hereticks there being several against our Lady the most Blessed Virgin Mary the Mother of God the only Remedy of Christians the Mother of Mercy and the Advocate of Sinners the Queen of Angels The Synod doth therefore declare That it is the Doctrine of the Catholick Faith that the Holy Virgin was never at any time stained with the guilt of any actual sin and that it is Pious to believe that she was also Conceived without Original Sin it seeming to be most agreeable to the Dignity of the Mother of God that it should be so tho' it is true that Holy Mother Church †Has not as yet determined It is much she has not since the Invention of the Holy Reliques in the Mountains of Granada among which there was a Book in Arabick of S. Cecilius who was consecrated Bishop of Eliberis by St. Peter and St. Paul at Rome with this Title De Dono Gloriae Dono Tormenti in which there is the following Definition of the Immaculate Conception made by all the Apostles being met together to Solemnize the Exequies of the Blessed Virgin Illa Virgo Maria Illa Sancta Illa electa à primo Originarioque peccato praeservata fuit ab omni culpâ libera atque haec veritas Apostolorum Concilium est quam qui negaverit maledictus excommunicatus erit salutem non consequetur sed in aeternum damnabitur All which Reliques and this Book among the rest were after a severe and impartial Examination approved of and received as genuine by a late Provincial Synod in Spain has not as yet determined any thing about that matter Furthermore the Catholick Faith teacheth that she was always before in and after Child-birth a most pure Virgin and that she brought forth the Son of God made Man without any Pain or Passion having none of those things which are common to other Women after Child-birth
and Praises bestowed upon them the Heads of the said Sect. Therefore the Synod in Virtue of Holy Obedience and upon pain of Excommunication to be ipso facto incurred doth prohibit all Priests and Curates and all other Persons as well Secular as Ecclesiasticks in this Diocess at any time either in common or in particular to commemorate any of the foresaid Hereticks or to keep a day to them or to celebrate their Festivities with any Solemnity or to make any mention of them in the Divine Offices or in the Mass or any where else or to direct any Prayers to them either in common or particular or to make any Vows Promises Offerings or any Nercha's to them or to have their Images either in the Churches or in their Houses and in no wise to give them that Worship and Veneration which is due to Saints and that they raze their Names out of their Books Calendars and Offices and that their Masses be cut out of their Breviaries and Missals and burnt and their Commemorations extinguished that so their Memory may perish among the faithful all of them having been cursed and excommunicate Hereticks and condemned by Holy Mother Church and are * At this time burning This rash Judgment brings to my mind what the Conde de Ereicera in his History printed about fourteen years ago at Lisbon said of King Charles having spent some time in Devotion upon the Scaffold that seeing he died a Heretick that Devotion was of no other benefit to him but as it prolonged his life a few minutes But tho' our Princes for I have reason to believe they heard of it did not think fit to resent this Sauciness as well as Impiety so far as to have the Author questioned for it yet it would seem that God would not suffer it to go long unpunished who a few years after suffered that great Minister to go out of the World after such a manner that they must have a great deal of Charity indeed that can think well of the future state of his Soul for the unhappy Man Murthered himself which is a thing that very seldom happens in Portugal at this time burning in the torments of Hell for their Crimes and Heresies and for their having been the †Followers of such The Church of Rome is not without Hereticks in her Martyrologies and Calendars for not to speak of Eusebius Caesariensis St. George Lucifer Calaritanus Barsanuphius and others the Learned Valesius in his Tract of the Roman Martyrology gives the following Account of Theodotus Bishop of Laodicea Jam vero illa quae in dicto Martyrologio Adonis sc Roswedi leguntur secundo die Novembris Laodiceae Theodoti Episcopi qui arte Medicus fuit descripta sunt ex Ruffini lib 7. cap. ult Sed Compilator iste non animadvertit Theodotum hunc Laodiâ—eae Episcopum cujus eo loco laudationem intexuit Eusebius Arianarum partium praecipuum fautorem fuisse quippe qui ab initio Arianum dogma tutatus est post Nicaenum Concilium conspiratione cum Arianis factâ Eustathium de Antiochenâ sede dejecerit ut scribit Theodoretus lib. 1. hist cap. 24. Hic est Theodotus cui Eusebius libros suos de Praeparatione Evangelicâ nuncupavit cujus meminit Suidas in voce 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Idem quoque Error irrepsit in Martyrologium Romanum quod Patrum memoriâ jussu Sixti quinti editum Baronii notationibus illustratum est nec satis mirari possum quonam modo id Baronii diligentiam fugerit Furthermore The Church of Rome has several Saints in her present Calendars and Martyrologies that were never in being or were never of humane race and here not to mention St. Almanakius or St. Almanak upon the 1st of January nor St. Zinoris on the 24th of the same Month on the 24th of July in the present Reformed Roman Martyrology it is said Amiterni in vestinis Passio Sanctâ—rum Militum Octoginta trium among whom as Baronius learnedly observes Florentinus and Foelix were two of the most Eminent Now in the ancient Martyrology published by Maria Florentinus it is said upon the same day It Amiterninâ civitate Miliario 83º ab urbe Romanâ via Salutaria natalis Sancti Victorini and in another ancient one called Martinianâ—â— it is writ In Amiterninâ civitate Mil. 83 ab urbe Romana via Salutaria Sancti Victurini and in the Queen of Sweden's Martyrology is writ In Amiterna civitate Mil. 83 ab urbe Roma Sancti Victurini and in the Corbey Martyrology thus In Amiternina civitate Miliario Octogesimo tertio ab urbe Româ— via Salutaria natalis Sancti Victorini Martyris So that here we have Eighty-three Italian Miles Canonized and made Eighty-three Martyrs and Souldiers with their Captain and Lieutenants Names Again On the 16th of Feb. in the present Reformed Roman Martyrology it is said In Aegypto Sancti Juliani Martyris cum aliis quinque Millibus Now if this is the Julianus that was Pamphilius's Companion as doubtless it is they must then have encreased his Company mightily for they were but five that suffered with him in Aegypt who it is probable were Souldiers and so the contracted word Mill. came to be taken for Mille This makes me suspect that there may be some such mistake in St. Vrsula's Army of Eleven thousand Virgins For some of her Saints who were Heathens see the Remarks upon 25 Decree Act. 8. followers of such a cursed Sect the Synod doth furthermore command that instead of them on the Friday next after the Nativity St. Athanasius St. Gregory Nazianzen St. Basil St. John Chrysostom and St. Cyril of Alexandria shall be Commemorated and on the seventh Friday following St. Austin St. Ambrose St. Gregory and St. Ephrem who was mentioned by them among the Hereticks and on Wednesdays All-Saints and Confessors together and in the Commemorations of the Divine Offices and Mass they shall Commemorate all the forenamed Saints in the place of the above-mentioned Hereticks neither shall any one that shall presume to do the contrary be absolved from the Censures he has incurred until he hath undergone a condign Penance or such a one as his Prelate shall think fit to impose upon him and shall thereupon be obliged to curse all the said Hereticks and their damnable Sect and to make Oath of the Faith publickly and to submit to all other punishments that his Rebellion shall deserve and if he is an Ecclesiastick he shall moreover be suspended from his Orders and Benefices and punished according to the Holy Canons Decree X. WHereas the Church of Angamale called the Archbishop's was built by Mar-Abraham and dedicated to Hormisda the Abbot commonly called St. Hormusio who was a Nestorian Heretick and a great Ring-leader of that Sect and for that reason was abhorred by all Catholicks who are called Romans as is reported in his Life writ in the Surian Tongue and which was ordained to be burnt by the most Illustrious
Learning having never been taught that the Devil tempted Christ before his Fast of forty days which is contrary to the Gospel that St. Joseph to be satisfied whether the Virgin had committed Adultery carried her before the Priests who according to the Law gave her the Water of Jealousie to drink that our Lady brought forth with pain and parting from her Company not being able to go farther she retired to a Stable at Bethlehem that neither our Lady nor any other Saint is in Heaven enjoying God but are all in a Terrestrial Paradise where they are to remain till the day of Judgment with other Errors too many to be related But it is the Synod's pleasure to instance in some of the chief Errors contained in the Books that it condemns that so all may be satisfied of the reason why they are prohibited to be read or kept upon pain of Excommunication and that all may avoid and burn them with the greater Horror and for other just and necessary respects Also the Book of John Barialdan wherein it is said in divers places That there were two Persons a Divine and Humane in Christ which is contrary to the Catholick Faith which confesses one only Divine Person It is also said That the Names of Christ and Emanuel are the Names of the Humane Person only and for that reason that the most sweet Name Jesus is not to be adored that the Union of the Incarnation is common to all the Three Divine Persons who were all Incarnated that our Lord Christ is the adopted and not the Natural Son of God that the Union of the Incarnation is accidental and is only that of Love betwixt the Divine and Humane Persons Also the Book intituled The Procession of the Holy Spirit wherein it is endeavoured to be proved at large that the Holy Spirit proceedeth only from the Father and not from the Son which is contrary to the Catholick Truth which teaches that he proceeds from the Father and the Son Also the Book entituled Margarita Fidei or The Jewel of Faith wherein it is pretended to be proved at large That our Lady the most Holy Virgin neither is nor ought to be stiled the Mother of God but the Mother of Christ that in Christ there are two Persons the one of the Word and the other of Jesus that the Union of the Incarnation is only an accidental Union of Love and Power and not a substantial Union that there are three distinct Faiths which is divided into three Professions the Nestorian Jacobite and Roman that the Nestorian is the true Faith that was taught by the Apostle and that the Roman is false and Heretical and was introduced by force of Arms and the Authority of Heretical Emperors into the greatest part of the World that to Excommunicate Nestorius is to Excommunicate the Apostles and Prophets and the whole Scripture that they that do not believe his Doctrine shall not inherit Eternal Life that they that follow Nestorius received their Faith from the Apostles which has been preserved to this day in the Church of Babylon of the Syrians That Matrimony neither is nor can be a Sacrament that the sign of the Cross is one of the Sacraments of the Church instituted by Christ that the Fire of Hell is Metaphorical not real that the Roman Church is fallen from the Faith condemning it likewise for not celebrating in leavened Bread according to what the Church has received from the Apostles for which it is said the Romans are Hereticks Also the Book of the Fathers wherein it is said That our Lady neither is nor ought to be called the Mother of God that the Patriarch of Babylon of the Nestorians is the Universal Head of the Church immediately under Christ that the Fire of Hell is not real but spiritual that it is Heresie to say that God was born or dyed that there are two Persons in Christ Also a Book of the Life of Abbot Isaias commented by a Nestorian wherein it is said That the Union is common to all the Three Persons that St. Cyril of Alexandria who condemned Nestorius was an impious Heretick and is now in Hell for having taught that there is but One Person in Christ whereas as often as Nestorius Theodorus and Diodorus are named they are stiled Saints and blessed by whose Authority it is there proved that the Saints shall not enjoy God before the day of Judgment and that till then they shall be in an obscure place which they call Eden near to the Terrestrial Paradise and that by so much the worse as any one has been he is tormented * The less for it in Hell This of fixing something that is justly abominable to all Mankind upon her Adversaries has been the constant practice of the Church of Rome So the Emperor Michael Balbus because he was an Enemy to Image-worship is said to have laughed at the Prophets not to have believed there were any Devils and to have placed Judas among the Saints the Templars upon the Pope and the French Kings conspiring together to destroy their Order are said to have obliged all their Novices to blaspheme God to renounce Christ the Virgin Mary and all the Saints in Heaven to spit and trample upon the Crucifix and to declare that Christ was a false Prophet the Albigenses are said to have held it lawful to deny their Faith when interrogated upon it by a Magistrate to have held that promiscuous Venery was lawful but that Matrimony was Hell and Damnation that the Souls of Men were as Mortal as their Bodies that the way of choosing their chief Priests was by tossing an Infant from one to another and that he in whose hands the Infant expired had that Office and that the Devil was unjustly thrown out of Heaven the less for it in Hell by reason of his greater conformity and friendship with the Devils that the Word was not made Man and that it is Blasphemy to affirm it that Christ conquer'd all the Passions of Sin by a Power derived from God and not by his own strength that St. Cyril was a Heretick in teaching that there was but One Person in Christ that the Divine and Humane Nature were united in Christ accidentally by Love that the whole Trinity was incarnated that God dwelt in Christ as in a Rational Temple giving him power to do all the good things he did that the Souls of the Just will be in a Terrestrial Paradise till the day of Judgment that the Wicked when they dye in Mortal Sin are carried to a place called Eden where they suffer only by the sense of the punishments they know they are to undergo after the day of Judgment Also the Book of Synods wherein there is a forged Letter of Pope Caius with false Subscriptions of a great many other Western Bishops directed to those of Babylon wherein it is acknowledged that the Church of Rome ought to be subject to that of Babylon which with
the whole Offices of the Advent and Nativity are little else than pure Blasphemy In the Book of Prayers for the great Fast it is frequently said that there were two Persons a Divine and Humane in Christ It contains also several Commemorations of Nestorius and other Hereticks his Followers affirming Marndeay Theodorus and Diodorus and other Nestorian Hereticks to have been the Followers of St. Ephrem In the Greater Breviary which they call Hudre and Gaza or The Treasure of Prayers it is every where said that there are two Persons in Christ and one representation of the Son of God that he is the Image of the Word and the Temple of the same that the Divine Person did enlighten the Humane and that Christ advanced in Grace and Knowledge by degrees that our Lady never carried God in her Womb as Hereticks affirm Christ being a Man like to others and that she ought not to be called the Mother of God but only the Mother of the second Adam that the whole Trinity assumed Humanity and that St. Matthew taught the Hebrews so that God did not make himself Flesh which he only took as a Dwelling to cover his Glory that God accompanyed Christ on the Cross but had not taken the Humanity neither was it God that suffered that the Word of the Father changed it self into Humanity and by the Son of Mary redeemed Mankind that the Father Eternal took Flesh in the same manner as the Son that the Angel delivered his Message to the Virgin in the Temple and not at Nazareth that the pains of travail opened the Womb of the Virgin who brought forth with labour after the manner of other Women that * In the most holy Sacrament The Christians who live scattered about Mesopotamia and Assyria and whose Patriarch resides at the Monastery of St. Raban Hurnez the Persian in the Gordyaean Mountains 40 miles above Niniveh tho' Eutychians and for that reason Enemies to the Chaldean Christians do agree with them in denying Transubstantiation as appears from the following Prayer taken out of their Missal and communicated to me by my Learned Friend Dr. Hide Angeli homines laudabunt te O Christe Sacrificere pro nobis qui per Sacramenta quae sunt in Ecclesia tua docuisti nos secundum magnificentiam tuam quod sicut in Pane Vino Natura sunt à te distincta in Virtute potentia idem sunt tecum Sic etiam Corpus quod à nobis distinctum est à verbo in substantia cum illo tamen qui accipit illud adunitum est in magnificentia potentia Sic credimus non metuimus ab iniquitate quod in uno sc una Hypostasi sit filius fatemur non est duo sicut improbi id est sicut dicunt Nestoriani non enim in completionibus Sacrificii Corpus Corpus frangimus sed unum per fidem sicut docuisti nos in Evangelio tuo laus tibi qui per Sacramenta tua instruxisti nos ut lauâ—emus nomen tuum Now I take this Testimony against Transubstantiation to be much the stronger for it 's being given by the Eutychians to whose Heresie Transubstantiation had it been believed would have given great Countenance as indeed I cannot but reckon those Hereticks having no where made use of that Doctrine to support their Heresie to be a considerable Argument of its not having been believed either by themselves or by the Orthodox for had the latter believed it tho' they had not done it themselves they could not have failed to have used it as Argumentum ad hominem which is what they have no where done It is true this is only a Negative Argument but it is as true that it is so circumstantiated as to be of equal force with one that is positive So again I do not see how we could have had a clearer proof of Transubstantiation not having been believed either by the Manichees or the Orthodox than we have from the Manichees abstaining from the Cup in the Sacrament for no other reason but because they did not think it lawful to drink Wine and from the Orthodoxes proving against them from that very Institution that it was lawful and endeavouring to convince them by several Arguments that it was their Duty to receive the Cup in the Sacrament and all this without ever so much as once intimating that the Liquor in the Cup when it came to be received was Blood and not Wine in the most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist there is not the true Body of Christ with a thousand more Blasphemies about it that Nestorius was a Preacher of Truth and in several places God is praised for having declared the Truth to Theodorus and Diodorus who was Master to Nestorius and in several Prayers they beseech God to chastise those that believe otherwise than Nestorius and his Followers whose Faith they say is founded on St. Peter's and the rest of the Apostles Moreover it is said that the Holy Virgin and her Spouse Joseph appeared before the Priests who could not tell how she had conceived and that Images are Idols and ought not to be adored nor so much as kept in Churches or in Houses of Christians there are likewise Offices of Nestorius and his Followers and Commemorations of several Hereticks In the Office for Priests departed it is sung That in the most holy Sacrament of the Altar there is only the Virtue of Christ but not his true Body and Blood all which Books and Breviaries tho' they do well deserve to be burnt for these and other Errors that they contain yet there being no other at present in this Diocess for the keeping up of Divine Service and the celebration of Religious Offices until such time as they shall be furnished with new Breviaries which the Synod desires they may speedily and that some may be Printed for them at St. Peter's in Rome the Synod doth order them to be corrected and purged from all their Errors and Commemorations of Hereticks and the entire Offices for all such and the Offices of Advent and the Nativity to be entirely tore out of their Breviaries and burnt entreating the most Illustrious Metropolitan to see it done at his next Visitation in all the Churches of the Diocess commanding all Curates in virtue of Obedience and upon pain of Excommunication to be ipso facto incurred to produce the said Books and all the other Books that they have as well of publick as of private Use and of Prayers as well as of the Mass before the said Lord Metropolitan at his Visitation in order to their being corrected by Persons appointed for that work in conformity to what is here ordained Decree XVI FOR the preservation of the Purity of the Faith the Synod does command all Priests Curates and all other Persons of whatsoever Condition or Quality within this Bishoprick in virtue of Obedience and upon pain of Excommunication within two Months after the
publication thereof shall come to their knowledge to deliver all the Books they have written in the Syrian Tongue either with their own hands or by some other Person to the most Illustrious Metropolitan which they may do at the Visitation that he intends to hold speedily or to Father Francisco Roz of the Society of Jesus Professor of the Syrian Tongue in the College of Vaipicotta or to the said College in order to their being perused and corrected or destroyed as shall be thought most convenient the Books of Common Prayer being excepted which are to be emended in the form abovesaid and under the same Precept of Obedience and pain of Excommunication the Synod does command That no Person of what Condition or Quality soever within this Bishoprick shall presume to translate any Book into the Syrian Tongue without express License from the Prelate with a Declaration of the Book to which it is granted the Books of Holy Scripture and Psalms only excepted and until such time as this Church shall be provided with a Bishop the most Illustrious Metropolitan doth commit the Power of granting all such Licenses to the Reverend Father Francisco Roz of the Society of Jesus by reason of his great skill in those Books and in the Chaldee and Syrian Languages Decree XVII SEeing the Purity of Faith and good Manners doth very much depend on the Doctrine that is preached to the People wherefore the Synod being informed that there are several ignorant Curates who do take upon them to preach and make Discourses in publick wherein they teach several Errors and Heresies that they meet with in Books that they do not understand and several fabulous and Apocryphal things those especially which they take out of the Book of the Infancy of our Saviour and other Apocryphal and Heretical writings doth command that none presume to preach or make any set Discourse to the People but who are Licensed by the Prelate in Writing who shall first examine them diligently as to their sufficiency and Doctrine according to the Holy Council of Trent and when there shall happen to be no Prelate during the vacancy of the See the most Illustrious Metropolitan doth commit the care thereof to the Rector of the Jesuits College of Vaipaicotta in this Diocess that so he and such of the Fathers as he shall name may make the said Examinations of which they shall give a Certificate sealed by the Rector and at the next Visitation the Lord Metropolitan shall name such as shall appear to him to be most for the benefit of the People of this Bishoprick in order to their being rightly instructed and whosoever shall without having undergone such an Examination and without having obtained a License thereupon in writing under the hand of the Bishop or Prelate presume to preach or make any Discourses to the People shall be suspended from their Office and Benefice for a Year nevertheless all Vicars may in their own Churches make such Discourses to their People as they shall judge necessary out of the Holy Scriptures and other approved Books to which end the Synod doth earnestly desire that there may be a Catechism made in the Malabar Tongue out of which there may be every Sunday something read to the People And whereas the Synod is informed that the most Illustrious Metropolitan is already about such a Work and has reason to hope that it may be done by the end of the Visitation it doth command so soon as it is finished and published That all Vicars do every Sunday at the time of Offering or before or after Mass read a Chapter of the same to the People in conformity to the Orders they shall receive Decree XVIII WHereas through the Ignorance and bad Doctrines of the Priests of this Diocess occasioned by their having been accustomed to read Heretical and Apocryphal Books they do many times deliver Errors and fabulous Stories in their Sermons and Admonitions to the People without knowing what they say themselves Therefore to prevent the Peoples being mis-taught the Synod doth command That whensoever it should be proved to the Prelate that any such thing has been delivered in publick or in any Congregation that the Prelate having drawn up a Form of Recantation in Writing shall send to the said Curates or the Persons that have delivered such things commanding them to retract and unsay the same in publick either by reading the said Recantation or by declaring the Contents of it to the People and teaching them the Truth which if any shall refuse to do which God forbid they shall be declared Excommunicate and shall be punished according to the Holy Canons and the quality of the Matter they delivered which shall be executed with great rigour if it shall appear to have been spoke with Knowledge and Malice but where it shall be found to have flow'd from Ignorance and an innocent Mind it shall suffice that a ready Obedience be paid to the said Satisfaction and Recantation Decree XIX THe Synod having been informed of several Meetings that were in this Diocess upon the death of Bishop Mar-Abraham in which both publick and private Oaths were taken against yielding Obedience to the Holy Roman Church several Curates and others obliging themselves never to consent to any change either in the Government of the Bishoprick or in matters of Faith nor to receive any Bishop that should be sent to them by the Holy Apostolical See or by any other way than by the Order of the Schismatical Heretical Nestorian Patriarch of Babylon with several other particulars contrary to the Sacred Canons and the Obedience that is due to the most Holy Roman Pontificate doth declare all * Such Oaths We may see by this what doughty Securities Promises or Oaths made to defend a Church that is not Popish are in the opinion of Papists such Oaths or any other taken or that shall be taken in the same manner to be void and of no force and that they do not only not oblige the Consciences of those that have taken them but that as they were rashly and maliciously taken so it is an Impiety and Schism to keep them denouncing the Sentence of the greater Excommunication upon all those that made them or took them This Synod having above all other things promised and sworn to yield Obedience to the Commands of the Pope and the Holy Apostolical See according to the Holy Canons and never to receive any Bishop or Prelate but what shall be sent by the Holy Roman Church to which it of right belongs to provide Prelates and Bishops to all the Churches in the World and to receive those that he shall send without any doubt or scruple acknowledging them for the true Prelates and Pastors of their Souls without waiting for any other Order besides that of the Bishop of Rome notwithstanding any impious Oaths that may have been made at any time to the contrary Decree XX. THis present Synod together with all the
Priests and faithful People of this Diocess doth embrace all the Holy General Councils received by Holy Mother Church believing and confessing all that was determined in them anathematizing rejecting and condemning all that they have rejected and condemned but especially it doth with great Veneration receive and embrace the first Holy Council of Ephesus consisting of 200 Fathers firmly believing all that was therein determined and rejecting and condemning whatsoever it condemned but above all the Diabolical Heresy of the Nestorians which has been for many Years preached and believed in this Diocess which together with its Author Nestorius and all his Followers the said Council did reject and anathematize who being taught by the Devil held that there were Two Persons in our Lord Christ affirming also that the Divine Word did not take Flesh into the Unity of its Person but only for an Habitation or Holy Dwelling as a Temple and that it ought not to be said that God was Incarnate or that he Died nor that our Lady the Glorious Virgin was the Mother of God but only the Mother of Christ with other Diabolical Heresies all which this Synod does condemn reject and anathematize embracing the Holy Catholick Faith in that purity and integrity that it is believed and professed in by the Holy Mother Roman Church the Mistress of all Churches to which in all things it submits it self according to the profession it has made Furthermore this Synod does acknowledge the Glorious Cyril Archbishop and Patriarch of Alexandria who by Order of the Bishop of Rome †Presided St. Cyril presided in the Ephesan Council in his own right being the only Patriarch that was present at it presided in the Holy Ephesan Council to be a Blessed Saint at this time enjoying God in Heaven and that his Doctrine in the said Council against the Nestorians is Holy and universally received in the Catholick Church professing all that reject it to be Excommunicated Hereticks Decree XXI FUrthermore This present Synod with all the Priests and faithful People of this Diocess doth embrace the last * Holy Council of Trent Justinianus a Noble Venetian in the 15th Book of his History of Venice gives the following account of the Holiness of the Trent Council Religionis causa in Tridentino Concilio parum prosperos successus habebat ob dissentientes animos coecamque Praelatorum ambitionem Solus autem Cardinalis Lothoringius Vir pietatis Studio dicendi arte clarus que ad Dei honorem veram Ecclesiae reformationem essent fuadebat cui plerique ex Concilii Patribus humanarum potius rerum quà m divinarum curam habentes refragabantur variisque opinionibus Sanctâ Synodâ— dissidente nil quod rectum sanctum piúmque foret decerni potuit omniaque confusione coecitate plena erant tantaque Praelatos ambitio coeperat ut nulla apud eos fidei Religionisque pro verâ Ecclesiae reformatione ratio haberetur Holy and Sacred Council of Trent and does not only believe and confess all that was determined and approved of therein and reject and anathematize all that that Council rejected and condemned but doth moreover receive and embrace the said Council as to all matters therein determined relating to the reformation of the Church and all Christian People promising and swearing to Govern it self according to the Rules thereof and to observe the same Forms that are observed in the Catholick Church and as are observed in this Province of the Indies and in all the other Provinces and Suffragans to the Metropolis of Goa in order to the removing of all Abuses and Customs that are contrary to the Decrees of the said Council of Trent by which only it is resolved to Govern it self as to all matters relating to the Government of the Church and the Reformation of the Manners of this faithful and Catholick People any Customs tho' immemorial in this Bishoprick to the contrary notwithstanding Decree XXII THis present Synod together with all the Priests and faithful People of this Diocess doth with great submission and reverence submit it self to the Holy Upright Just and Necessary Court of the Holy Office of the †Inquisition This agrees with what Paul the IIId said of â—he Inquisition upon his Death-â—ed that it was the Pillar of the Church of Rome if he had been in his Chair he could not have delivered a greater truth A Heathen Roman Synod would never have been guilty of calling that an Upright and Just Court which neither suffers its Prisoners to know the particular Crime whereof they are accused nor the Persons that accuse them nor the Witnesses that depose against them Acts 25. ver 16. I referr those that have a mind to be satisfied of the Justice of this Court to the History of the Inquisition of Goa which was the Inquisition this Synod put the Church of Malabar under published by a French Papist who was himself a Prisoner in it tho' I must tell them that as bad as his Treatment was therein that it was but Play to what it would have been had he profess'd himself a Protestant or not to have been of the Roman Communion tho' he had once been of it Bulenger tho' otherwise a fierce Papist gives this following account of this Holy Office Inter haec actum à Pontifice cum Hâ—spaniae Rege ut Inquisitio Hispanica Mediolanum inserretur quod tam acerbè tulêre Insubres ut defectionis consilia inierint Ea quaestio in Hispaniâ Mauris deprehendendis instituta est per cujâ—â— causam nomen crebrò innocentes ac sceleris integri custodiae mancipaâ—tur opibus evertuntur vitâ dignitate falsis criminibus circumventi spoliantur Si vocula fortè à Delatoribus excepta est Majestatis illicò postulantur in ultimae sortâ—â— hominibus crimina praetentata mâ—â— in Viros Principes districta sunt Jacent plerumque tres annos in fitâ— paedore carceris priusquam libeâ—â—â— aut noto crimine arcessantur alâ—â— nullius criminis comperti judicio affliguntur quidam in squalore carcerâ— ignorati contabescunt Auricularii frumentarii quadruplatores subdâ—â—â— grassantur qui rei faciendae Stâ—dâ—â— in Divitum capità involant 〈◊〉 tam crimina judicio qùam objectâ— menta jurgio prolata quaerunt Sermones inter familiares habitos in reâ— non modo seriam sed capitalem ducuâ— And Mazeray a Papist too 〈◊〉 the Life of Henry II. calls the Inquisition a Dreadful Monster Inquisition in these Parts Established and being sensible how much the Integrity of the Faith depends upon that Tribunal it does promise and swear to be obedient to all its Commands in all things thereunto pertaining being after the Example of all other Bishopricks in this Province willing that all matters of Faith should be judged of by the same Court or by such Persons as it shall depute And notwithstanding the said Holy Office has not hitherto by reason of this Church's having been separated and had little or no
correspondence with the Apostolical See or with any of the Churches that are subject to it medled with any Persons belonging to this Bishoprick yet now for the benefit of their Souls as to Absolutions in cases of Faith which are known to be reserved to that Court This present Synod doth beseech the Lords Inquisitors to Authorize some Learned Men within this Bishoprick or the Jesuits of the College of Vaipicotta and of other residences of the same Religion in the said Diocess to Absolve all such as shall stand in need thereof and that with such limitations as they shall think fit considering how difficult it is for the People inhabiting the Serra to have recourse to the Tribunal at Goa neither can it be otherwise considering that they live in the midst of Infidels but that such necessary Cases will sometimes happen and especially to rude and ignorant People Decree XXIII THe Preservation of the Purity of the Faith and the prevention of Peoples being corrupted with false and strange Doctrines being a thing of the greatest importance this Synod doth therefore command all Persons of what Quality or Condition soever in this Bishoprick that whensoever they shall happen to know of any Christians doing speaking or writing any thing that is contrary to the Holy Catholick Faith or of any that shall give assistance or countenance thereunto to * What a Confusion must this is newly and forcibly converted to practice needs make in a place that the Roman Church dilate them with all possible Expedition and Secrecy to the Prelate or to the Vicars of the Church or to some other faithful Person who will immediately give an account thereof that so such a course may be forthwith taken as the necessity of the Matter shall require the Synod in virtue of Obedience commanding the said Vicars and Persons to whom such things shall be denounced to intimate them with all possible speed ACTION IV. Of the Sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation THe Holy Sacraments of the Gospel instituted by our Saviour and Redeemer Jesus Christ the Son of God for the Remedy and Salvation of Men and to which he hath applyed the Virtue of his Holy Passion and infinite Merits and by which all true Holiness begins in us and being begun is encreased and being lost is recovered are †Seven The Doctrine of the Seven Sacraments is so great a Novelâ—â—n the Church of Rome for it is in no other Church that Bellarmine with all his reading was not able to produce the testimony of one Father for it Greek nor Latin Peter Lombard who lived above a thousand years after the Apostles being the first he quotes for it This is a long time for an Apostolical Tradition to run under ground and which is yet more wonderful that it should break out in an Age that knew nothing of Ecclesiastical Antiquity or indeed of any other sort of Learning but this was the common fate of all the Roman Doctrines and Rites which they pretend to have received from the Apostles only by the way of the dark and uncertain conveyance of Oral Tradition Seven to wit Baptism Confirmation the Eucharist Penitence Extream Vnction Order and Matrimony All which do differ much from the Sacraments of the Old Law which did not cause but did only signifie the Grace that was to be given by the Passion of Christ whereas our Sacraments do contain Grace and give it to all those that receive them worthily the first five were ordained for the Spiritual perfecting of every Man only with relation to himself the two last were appointed for the good Government and encrease of the Church by Baptism we are spiritually born again to God by Confirmation we are advanced in Grace fortified in the Faith and being Regenerated and strengthened we are supported by the Divine Food of the Eucharist and Sacrament of the Altar and when we chance by Sin to fall into any distemper of Soul we are Spiritually restored by Penitence and both Spiritually and Corporally by Extream Vnction by the Sacrament of Order the Church is governed and Spiritually multiplied and by Matrimony Corporally All these Sacraments are perfected by three Causes that is Things as their matter Words as their form and the Person that is to administer them with an †Intention This Doctrine after all their talk of the necessity there is of an infallible certainty in all matters of Religion must make them to be very far from having any such certainty of their being Christians or of their having either a Priest or a Bishop in their Church For as they cannot be infallibly certain of any Bishop or Priest's Intention in the Administration of the Sacraments so they may be certain that it is possible that Bishops and Priests may be so wicked as not to intend what the Church does in such administration nay to intend the contrary for there was a Parish-Priest burnt not many Years ago at Lisbon who confessed at his Death that whenever he baptized or consecrated he had a formed Intention not to administer those Sacraments Intention of doing what the Church doth and where any of these three Causes are wanting they are not perfect neither indeed is any Sacrament administer'd all the Ceremonies and Rites approved and made use of by Holy Mother Church in the administration of the Sacraments are holy and cannot be despised neglected or * Changed This is very strange considering that most of those Rites are but new even in the Roman Church that of the Elevation of the Host not excepted Of the Elevation of the Host Cardinal Bona in the 13th Chap. of his 2d Book of Liturgies saith Non enim liquet quae prima Origo fuerit in Ecclesiâ Latinâ elevandi Sacra Mysteria statim ac consecrata sunt in antiquis enim Sacramentorum libris in codicibus Ordinis Romani tam excusis quà m MSS nec in priscis rituum Expositoribus Alcuino Almario Walfrido Micrologo aliis aliquod ejus vestigium reperitur As to Peoples being present at Mass that did not communicate at the same time the same Cardinal saith in the 14th Chap. of his first Book Primi Secundi post Christum saeculi foelicitas haec fuit cum multitudo credentium quorum erat Cor unum animae una ardentissimo Dei amore succensa nihil impensius desiderabat quà m ad hoc supercoeleste convivium accedere in quo anima de Deo saginatur ut loquitur Tertullianus at propè finem Tertii coepit fervor ille languescere numerus communicantium imminui quam tepiditatem aegrè ferentes Patres Concilii Illiberitani Cap. 28. Statuerunt Episcopum non debere munera ab eo accipere qui non communicat Patres item Conc. Antioch Can. 2. Omnes qui ingrediuntur Ecclesiam se à perceptione Sanctae Communionis avertunt ab Ecclesiâ remover decreverunt Patres denique Conc. Tolet. Cap. 13. Eos abstineri praeceperunt qui intrant
Ecclesiam non Communicant What the Cardinal saith here of these two Practices makes almost the whole Roman Worship at this time to be a meer Novelty the whole of that Worship consisting almost now in Peoples going o Mass upon Sundays and Holy-days which the Church obliges them to not obliging them at the same time to communicate above once a Year and in adoring the Host when the Priest elevates it As to the Priest's putting the Sacrament into the mouth of the Communicants the same Cardinal in the 17th Chap. of his second Book saith Sacra Communio antiquo ritu non ore excipi solebat ut hodiè fit sed manu quam qui susceperat Ori reverenter admovebat As to the Priest's speaking the words of Consecration so low that no body can hear him in his 12th Chap. of the same Book he saith Graeci alii Orientales verba consecrationis elatâ voce pronunciant populus respondet Amen Eundem morem servabat olim Ecclesia Occidentalis omnes enim audiebant verba consecrationis postea statutum est ut Canon submissa voce recitaretur sic desiit ea consuetudo seculo decimo ut conjicio As to the usage of her denying the Cup to the People in the 18th Chap. of his second Book he saith Semper enim ubique ab Ecclesiae primordiis usque ad saeculum duodecimum sub specie panis Vini in Ecclesiis communicârunt fideles coepitque paulatim ejus saeculi initio usus calicis obsolescere plerisque Episcopis eum populo interdicentibus sic paulatim introducta est Communio sub solâ specie panis quod à nullo negari potest qui vel levissimâ rerum Ecclesiasticarum notitiâ imbutus est And as to her making use of Unleavened Bread in the 23d Chap. of his first Book he saith Quod si Veteres Patres percurrere omnem evolvere antiquitatem libeat inveniemus proculdubio sic à tempore Apostolorum de inceps de pane Eucharistico omnes loqui ut non nisi de communi fermentato commodè intelligi explicari queant As to her giving the Sacrament in Wafers in the 23d Chap. of the same Book he saith Vivente Humberto qui floruit Anno 1245. panis consecrandus in Eucharistiâ tantae magnitudinis erat ut ex eo consecratae tot particulae frangi possent quot erant necessariae ad populum communicandum panis qui tradebatur talis fuit ut deglutiri non posset nisi dentibus comminutus And as to her keeping the consecrated Bread or Hosts as she calls them after the Communion is over he saith in the same Book Ne reliquiae Sacramenti superessent saepe decretum est ut tot particulae consecrarentur quot erant parati ad communionem si quid residuum foret à sacerdete seu Ministris commederetur quod si contigerit ut Ministrorum incuria putrescerent statuit Concilium Arelatense apud Joan. X. 2. Cap. 56. ut igne comburatur cinis juxta Altare sepeliatur idque in usu fuisse docet Algerus Lib. 2. Cap. 1. Now I take this acknowledged change of Rites in the Administration of the Eucharist to be a very great Evidence that there has been a Change of belief about it and indeed to have been the Natural Consequence of such a Change and so I believe will any body else that shall consider it impartially changed for others without a great Sin notwithstanding they do not appertain to the Integrity or Essence of the Sacraments there are three that imprint a Spiritual sign on the Soul that can never be blotted out it is called a Character which is the reason why those Sacraments are never to be repeated they are Baptism Confirmation and Orders the other four that is Penitence the Eucharist Extream Vnction and Matrimony imprint no Spiritual Sign in the Soul and so may be repeated with due Order but tho' these seven Sacraments are all Divine and do contain Grace and dispense it to their worthy Receivers deserving our most profound Reverence and Adoration on the account of the Majesty of their Institutor who was our Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God as also for the assistance of the Holy Spirit who operates in conjunction with them and for the virtue that is in them for the curing of Souls the Treasure of the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ being deposited in them and dispensed to us by their means Nevertheless this does not hinder but that in some respects some of them may be more worthy than others and may deserve a greater reverence and veneration These Sacraments were all instituted by our Lord Jesus Christ before his Ascention into Heaven that so by their means he might communicate Grace and other Spiritual Benefits he had merited for us by his Death on the Cross confirming them to the faithful by his Word and Promises that so by using them lawfully and with due dispositions we might be ascertained of his communicating himself and all the fruits of his Passion to us in every one of them in such a manner as he represents himself in them The Doctrine of the Holy Sacrament of Baptism THe first of all the Sacraments is that of Baptism which is the Gate of the Spiritual Life and that whereby we are made capable of the other Sacraments of which without it we are no ways capable for as a Man must first be born before he can enjoy the good things of the Natural Life so Men before they are born again in Baptism are not capable of enjoying the heavenly advantages of a Spiritual Life it being by Baptism that we are made Members of Christ and are incorporated into the Christian Common-wealth and the Mystical Body of the Church for as by the first man Death came upon all for the Sin of Disobedience committed by him and us for which Sin we were excluded the Kingdom of Heaven and were born Children of Wrath and separated from God so that without being born again of Water and the Spirit we cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven as Christ himself has taught us so that as we were born Children of Wrath by Baptism we return to be Children of Grace and as we were born in sin the Sons of Men in Baptism we are born the Sons of God all that are baptized in Christ as St. Paul hath it having put on Christ The Matter of this Sacrament is true natural and common Water as of the Sea Rivers Fountains Lakes or Rain and no other tho' never so pure and clean all others being Liquors and not natural Water The Form is I Baptize thee in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost The Minister of this Sacrament is a Priest to whom it belongs by virtue of his Office but in case of necessity not only a Priest or Deacon but a Lay-man or Woman nay an Infidel a Mahometan a Heretick or Jew
In a word any Person that can Baptize using the Form of the Church and intending to do what she does may administer this Sacrament For seeing none can be saved without being Baptized therefore as our Lord ordained Water than which nothing is more ready at hand to be the matter of this Sacrament so he would exclude no Man from being the Minister thereof the effects and virtue of this Sacrament is the pardon and remission of all sins Original and Actual and of all punishments due to them for which reason there is no Penance to be enjoyned those that are Baptized for any sin they committed before Baptism all that die after Baptism before they have committed any sin going directly to Heaven where they enjoy the Divine Vision for ever Decree I. WHereas in the Examination of the Forms of the administration of the Sacraments of the Church in this Diocess made by the most Reverend Metropolitan in his last Visitation he found that in divers Churches there were different Forms used and written in the Baptisteries some Curates using the Form following * The Ancient Form of Baptizing was by Prayer N. is Baptized and perfected in the name of the Father Amen in the name of the Son Amen in the name of the Holy Ghost Amen Others using the Greek Form saying Baptizetur servus Christi in nomine Patris Amen in nomine Filii Amen in nomine Spiritûs Sancti Amen The Synod in virtue of Obedience and upon pain of Excommunication to be ipso facto incurred doth command that no Person shall presume hereafter to use either these or any other Forms but that which is used in the Holy Roman Church I Baptize thee in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost and that all other Forms be blotted out of their Baptisteries and Books and this be put in their place Decree II. THis Synod being informed That at divers times they have used different Forms of Baptism in this Diocess which were introduced by Schismatical and Ignorant Prelates some of which were not Legitimate neither was the Sacrament administred by them as was declared by the most Illustrious Metropolitan and others after a strict Examination and others were very doubtful doth therefore in the name of the Holy Ghost desire and command all the faithful Christians of this Diocess to declare to the said Metropolitan at the Visitation he intends to make of the Churches of this Diocess or to Persons deputed by him the time when they were Baptized that so according to the Form that was then used a saving remedy may be provided in conformity to what shall be ordained therein and that all submit themselves to whatsoever he shall be pleased to order Decree III. FOrasmuch as the Synod is informed that there are many Persons in this Diocess and especially among those that live in the Heaths and are far from any Church who tho' they are not Baptized yet being of a Christian race do profess themselves Christians and when they come where there is a Church do go to it and receive the Holy Sacraments with others and out of meer shame of letting it be known that they are not Christened do die without Baptism and others because they will not pay the Fees which are Simoniacally demanded of them It doth therefore command all Vicars of Churches to make diligent inquiry through their whole Parishes and the Heaths to see if there are any that are not Christened besides the search that the most Illustrious Metropolitan does intend at his next Visitation as he did at his former and that the said Vicars on the high Festivals upon which those that live in the Heaths do usually come to Church shall admonish them all in general that in case there are any among them that have never been baptized or that have some reason to doubt whether they have or not that they go to them and acquaint them therewith in private that so they may be secretly Christened and without paying any Fee letting them know that they are not Christians nor capable of inheriting Eternal Life nor of receiving the Holy Sacraments without being baptized and all Preachers shall frequently give the same admonition and all Confessors must be careful to ask all rude Christians that live in the Heaths whether they have been baptized and in case it appear doubtful they shall then baptize them privately The Synod grants the same License to all Priests within or without this Diocess to baptize all such secretly in what place soever they shall think fit Decree IV. THE Synod being informed that there are some small Villages in this Diocess which by reason of the great distance they are at from any Church and through the negligence of their Prelates and Priests tho' they call themselves Christians of St. Thomas because descended of such yet are not Baptized having nothing of Christians but the bare name doth command a diligent enquiry to be made into this matter recommending the same to the most Reverend Metropolitan and commanding all Vicars of Churches to search all places bordering upon their Parishes and to oblige all such to be Baptized The Synod doth likewise command Chappels to be built in or near to all such Villages and to be provided with such Curates as may instruct them in all matters of Faith that so there may be none in all these parts that call themselves Christians of St. Thomas but what are Baptized and of some Parish where they may receive the Sacraments Decree V. BY reason of the great negligence that is so visible in the Christians of this Bishoprick in bringing their Children to be baptized within eight days after they are born according to the Custom of the Church but chiefly among those that live at a considerable distance from any Church whose Children are many times some Months or Years old before they are Christen'd the Synod doth strictly command That all Children be baptized on the 8th day after they are born according to the custom of the Universal Church without there should be some danger of their dying before in which case they ought to be Christened immediately or that it should so happen that if they are not baptized sooner they cannot be in a long time in which case also they ought to be presently Christened and for those that live in Heaths and far from any Church if they should not be able to bring their Children to be baptized on the eighth day they must not fail to bring them betwixt the fifteenth and the twentieth and all that are found to be negligent herein let them be punish'd severely and whosoever shall neglect to bring their own Children or others that they have the charge of tho' their Slaves to Baptism for above a Month let them be thrown out of the Church neither shall it be lawful for any Priest to go to their Houses or to give them the Casturi or a Visit no not in order to
the Names of the Country insomuch that there are but very few called by any of the Names of the Law of Grace wherefore the Synod doth command the Priests to do all they can to have the Names of the Law of Grace given in Baptism but chiefly those of the Holy Apostles and of the Saints that are most celebrated in the Church not intending hereby to take them from any Devotion that several among them may have for some of the Saints of the Old Testament whose Names have been hitherto very common in the Diocess such as Abraham Jacob Zacharias and others nevetheless from henceforward they shall not presume to take the Name of Hijo which has been very common among them neither shall the Priests ever give it to any it being the most sweet * Name of Iesus The Portuguezes had the least reason of any Christians that I know of to be offended with such a Name Emanuel being by much the most common Name in Portugal Name of JESVS to which that Respect and †Reverence Francisco Roz and the other Jesuits ought to have had their Order excepted here for if the Synod's Reason why none ought to be called by that Blessed Name holds good it will reach their Order no less than particular Persons Reverence is due that none ought to take it upon them for that in the naming thereof all Knees both in Heaven and Earth and under the Earth ought to bow themselves and every Tongue ought to confess that it is from that Divine Name that we desire all the good things that we enjoy on Earth commanding all that are called by that Name to change it for another when they come to be Confirmed and as for the common Names of the Countrey they may still retain them if they are such as have been used only among Christians but not among the Heathens for as to those Names which the Heathens have ‖ In common The Popes among whom we have had so many Alexanders and Julius's have had little regard to this Rule in common with Christians the Synod will not have them to be given in Baptism charging the Vicars and Priests that Baptize to take care thereof Decree XVII THe Synod being informed That there are some Christians so far unmindful of their Duties in this Matter as to give other Names to their Children than the * Christian Names This is what several Popes have done who upon their Creation have left their Baptismal Names which were Christian and have taken those that were rank Heathen Christian Names they received in Baptism and sometimes such as are not used among Christians it doth therefore strictly command that no Christian shall presume to give their Children or to call them by any other Names than those that were given them when they were Christened or when there shall happen to be any just cause for the changing of their Baptismal Names it shall be done only at their Confirmation and whosoever shall transgress herein shall be severely punished by the Prelate and the Priests must not be wanting frequently to admonish their People thereof Decree XVIII THe Synod being informed That when many Children are brought together to be Baptized there are great heats which shall be first Christened and that after having lay'd Wagers they give Money to the Curates for the preference all which are intolerable disorders and such scandalous abominations as the Church ought not by any means to give way to and which might be easily prevented if People could but be perswaded to bring their Children to be Christened upon the eighth day it being their deferring of their Baptism so long that is the cause of so many coming together wherefore for the removing of these disorders in the Church the Synod doth command that the Children be baptized as they come without any distinction of first or last and that the Priests do accustom themselves either to baptize the poorest first or all indifferently and the Vicar or Priest that shall be found to have taken Money or any Fee before or after Baptism tho' it should be voluntarily offer'd and of never so small value or only what is to be Eat shall be condemned of Simony and punished according to the Canons Decree XIX IN all Parochial Churches there shall with all possible expedition be Fonts provided for Baptism which may be built with the Fabrick Money or with the Alms Money of the Church or by a Collection among the Parishioners it must be erected in a decent place in a corner of the Church and shall have a hole in the bottom through which the Water may be conveyed away that so it may not be thrown out where it may be trod upon or treated with any irreverence it shall also be close covered at top and locked up and until such time as a Font shall be provided they shall have a Vessel of some Metal or other which shall be put to no other use and shall be always kept in some decent place in the Church or Sacristy neither shall they hereafter make use of any common Vessel as has been the Custom hitherto and the Water they have baptized with shall be thrown in some place of the Church where it will not be trod upon and all the Water that shall be made use of in Baptism whether it be in a Font or a Vessel shall be blessed with the Holy Chrism according to the Roman Ceremonial which they are to make use of Decree XX. THis Synod conforming it self to the Decrees of the Holy Council of Trent and the Universal usages of the Church doth command every parish-Parish-Church to provide a Book wherein the Vicar shall register the Names of all that are baptized together with the Names of the Parents and of the place where they live and of the Godfathers and Godmothers naming the place also where they were Christened the day of the Month and the Year in this Form On such a day of the month in the Year N I N. Vicar of the Church of N. baptized there or in such a place N. the Son of N. and of N. naming the Father and Mother Natives of such a place and the Godfathers and Godmothers were N. and N. the Vicar signing his Name to it at the bottom and when any Priest that is not the Vicar shall Christen a Child which shall never be done without the Vicars leave he shall Register it thus I N. Curate with leave from the Vicar of such a Church naming both the Vicar and the Church did Baptize N. and so on as above signing his Name at the bottom which Book shall be always kept in the Church and the Vicars shall be obliged to give an account thereof and at every Visitation to shew it to the Prelate out of which the Curates are to give Certificates of the Age of such as are to be Married or to receive Holy Orders that so their Age may be certainly known and that such
comprehend the word Enim which the Church of Rome adds to the Consecration of the Body and Blood for besides that there is the †Tradition This is what she confidenâ—ly pretends to have for all her Nâ—â—elties Cardinal Bâ—â—a in the 23 Chap. of his first Book of Litargies passeth the following true judgment upon the common practice of the Church of Rome in all such Matters Orta deinde est 4 ferè seculis post 6 Synod â—mconâ—roveâ—sia de Azymo fermentato diu agitata inter Graecâ—s Latinos partium potius quam veritatis inveniende studio ut in similibus fieri solet atque hinc factum est ut pertinaciter contenderint suam quisque consuetudinem à Christo ab Apostolis ad nostra usque tempora derivari sed si omissis hac de re Scholasticorum subtilitatibus argumentis quae apud ipsos legi possunt veritatem sincerè sine affectu ad alterutram partem ex veterum Patrum monumentis ex praxi Ecclesiae investigare voluerimus inveniemus proculdubio quam parvi momenti sint in re quae à facto pendet Doctorum speculationes tum perspicuè cognoscemus multum interesse inter tempora quae praecesserunt quae postea secuta sunt eâ—sque turpiter errare qui ex praesenti rerum statu omnem aestimant antiquitatem which is what the Church of Rome has done above these 600 Years and will do for all that Cardinal Bona or any body else can tell her of the unreasonableness of it But the Cardinal goes on Quis non videt Scholasticos ad hanc rem pertractandam prâ—occupatis mentibus accessisse cum enim ab infantia sola azyma offerri viderint eaque sola in scholis in exedris praedicari audierint ea sola semper in usu fuisse crediderunt hoc posito varias subinde convenientias variaque argumenta excogâitrunt ut quod semel conceperant firmius stabilirent Never was there a truer description given of any thing than this the Cardinal gives of the Genius of the People that defend the Novelties of the Church of Rome Tradition of the Holy Apostles for our Lord Christ's having used it in the Consecration of the Body and that St. Matthew also relates it in the Consecration of the Cup it is no Clause or distinct Sentence but a conjunction to a Sentence of the words of Christ which immediately follow As also the word Aeterni in the Consecration of the Cup and the words Mysterium Fidei which tho' not mentioned by the Evangelists yet as it is proved by Apostolical Tradition were used by our Lord Christ in the Consecration of the Cup and for that reason the Holy Church continues to use them in the same but as for the words added to the Consecration of the Cup in the Syrian Missal Et hoc erit vobis pignus in saecula saeculorum they being no where in any of the four Evangelists nor in any Book of the New Testament and it not appearing to the Church by Apostolical Tradition that Christ used them in that Consecration the Synod doth prohibit them to be used therein any more but the words in themselves being good and Holy and agreeable to what Holy Church singeth of this Divine Sacrament that it is the pledge of the Glory that we expect that we may keep to the Old Missal so far as the sincerity of the Faith and the purity of this Divine Sacrifice will permit the Priest shall say them after the elevation of the Cup where making a profound Reverence he shall begin the following Prayers with them only changing the word Vobis which was used as spoke by Christ for Nobis as spoke by himself saying Hoc erit nobis pignus and for the words in saecula saeculorum which follow they being commonly said in the Church of such Matters only as are to last for ever or are wished to be Eternal seeing the use of this Divine Sacrament as well as of the rest is to continue but to the end of the World they having been instituted only as a remedy for our Spiritual necessities in this life for in the other we are to see our Lord no more under Sacramental Species but clearly as he is neither shall we in Heaven eat this Divine Bread of Angels Sacramentally but shall eat as the Angels do in the Vision of the Divine Word The words in saecula saeculorum shall be therefore left out and instead thereof shall be put usque ad consummationem saeculi saying hoc erit nobis pignus usque ad consummationem saeculi the Sacrament being a pledge only for so long as we do not see the Glory that we hope for but is and ever will be such a pledge in this life Christ having promised to his Church that he will be with her to the end of the World so that the Divine Sacraments which were instituted for our benefit can never fail till then after these words the Priest shall go on with what immediately follows in the Mass Gloria tibi Domine gloria tibi and so on Furthermore in the Consecration of the Cup there is added to the words of Christ novi testamenti qui pro vobis c. novi aeterni testamenti mysterium fidei qui pro vobis pro multis c. Therefore the Synod doth command That the words of Consecration of the Body and Blood be reformed and put in all their Missals according to the Canon of the Roman Missal used in the Universal Church without the least addition or diminution and with the same Adorations Inclinations and Ceremonies as are in the Roman Missal Furthermore where the Priest saith Dominus Deus noster quando spirabit in nobis odor suavissimus it is said in the same Prayer cum animae nostrae veritatis tuae scientiâ fuerint illustratae tunc occurremus dilecto filio tuo c. speaking of the day of Judgment it shall be said Cum corporae nostra veritatis tuae splendore fuerint illustrata tunc occurremus dilecto filio tuo the Souls of the Just being illuminated and glorified in Heaven before the day of Judgment which is the time when the Bodies receive their Glory this Passage seeming to allude to the Nestorian Heresie which teacheth that the Souls of the Just do not see God nor are Glorified nor are in Bliss before the day of Judgment Furthermore where the Deacon saith Orando pro sanctis patribus nostris Patriarchâ nostro pastore universalis totius Ecclesiae Catholicae meaning the Schismatick of Babylon Episcopo hujus Metropolis it shall be said Pro sanctis Patribus nostris beatissimo Papâ nostro totius Ecclesiae Catholicae pastore naming him by his Name Episcopo hujus Metropolis naming him also Ministris ipsorum and a little lower where the Deacon praying saith praecipuè nos oportet orare pro incolumitate Patrum nostrorum sanctorum domini
turn to Vinegar with which they celebrate notwithstanding not considering the danger there is of there being no Consecration for remedy whereof the Synod in the strictest manner that it can doth command That in every Church there shall be in the Vicars keeping a sweet pipe or small Runlet of Wood or a Frask in which the Wine for the Masses shall be kept and that the Vicars be extreamly careful that the Wine do not decay or turn to Vinegar which if it should happen so as to have lost the essence of Wine in the Opinion of those that have good Palates they shall not then celebrate therewith it being a great Sacrilege to do it seeing there can be no Consecration Decree IX WHereas for want of Portugal Wine it many times falls out that there are no Masses celebrated in this Diocess to the great prejudice of the Faithful Christians who for that reason are several months without hearing Mass and without an opportunity of receiving the most Holy Sacrament and the Sick of receiving the Holy Viaticum wherefore the Synod for remedy hereof doth entreat his Majesty the King of Portugal out of his great Piety and as he is Protector of the Christians of these parts once a Year to send us as an Alms a Pipe and a half or two Pipes of Muscatel Wine of Portugal to be distributed among the Christian Churches of this Bishoprick and of the whole Indies and till such time as an Answer shall be returned to this Petition the most Illustrious Lord Archbishop of Goa Dom ffray Aleixo de Menezes Metropolitan of this Church Primate of India and President of this Synod is pleased to give the said quantity of Wine to be distributed among the Churches of this Bishoprick the distribution whereof shall be made by the Prelate according to the Informations he shall receive of the Necessities of every Parish and whereas all the successes of this Life are uncertain if this should happen to fail at any time the Prelate shall then at his Visitation take so much out of the stock of every Church as shall suffice to purchase what Wine is necessary and the Wine shall be committed to the Vicar who shall make use of it only in the Masses that are said in the Church and order shall be taken that the Mass of the day which belongs to the whole Parish and is the chief obligation of the Church shall be celebrated without fail Decree X. THis Synod being very doubtful whether the Stones of the Altar on which the Masses are said in the Churches of this Diocess be consecrated with Holy Oil or truly Blessed by reason of the small care and knowledge which the former Prelates coming from Babylon had of such Matters doth command That all such as are not well known to have been lawfully Consecrated shall be brought to the most Reverend Metropolitan that they may be Consecrated by him whom the Synod doth intreat to provide such Churches with Stones as want them Commanding likewise all Cups that are not of Gold Silver Copper or Tin to be broke and * No Cups In the Primitive Church they thought it no such Crime to make use of wooden Chalices in the celebration of the Sacrament So Honorius in the 89 Chap. of his 3. Book De gemma animae saith Apostoli eorum successâ—res in ligneis Calicibus Missas celebrârunt And Boniface Bishop of Mentz being asked in the Council of Triburis whether it were Lawful to celebrate in Wooden Chalices answered Quondam Sacerdotes aurei ligneis Calicibus utebantur nunc è contra lignei Sacerdotes aureis utuntur Calicibus no Cups to be used but what are made of one of these Metals and that Mass be never said in any of these after they are broken and seeing there are many Churches that for want of Cups have no Masses the Lord Metropolitan is desired to give order that all Churches be furnished with Cups Decree XI WHereas there are many poor Churches in this Bishoprick and especially in the Heaths that have no consecrated Vestments for the saying of Mass and for that reason have but few said in them to the great prejudice of the faithful Parishioners therefore the Synod doth command That out of the Alms of the Parish the most Reverend Metropolitan may provide all Churches with Holy Vestments so that none may be without them and for that reason be without having Masses every Sunday and in those Parishes where the Alms shall not be found to be sufficient to do it the said Lord Metropolitan is desired to take such order therein that they may be some way or other provided and have so great a want supplied Decree XII WHereas the Christians of this Diocess have not hitherto heard Mass as upon obligation having never imagined that the not hearing thereof upon some particular days was a mortal sin for which reason some have without any scruple neglected going to hear it and others have not stayed to hear it out therefore the Synod doth declare That it is the Precept of the Universal Church and that upon penalty of a mortal Sin that all Christians Men and Women having no lawful impediment do hear an entire Mass upon every Sunday and Holy-day that is commanded to be kept if they have the opportunity of a Priest to say it to them As also that all Masters of Families are obliged by the said Precept to make their Children and such of their Servants and Slaves as are Christians and all other Persons living in their Families to go every Sunday and Holy-day to hear Mass which every one shall endeavour to hear at his own Parish-Church or at the place where he then happens to be and as for those who with just reason are afraid to leave their Houses alone without any body in them and especially such as live in Heaths and are a great way from any Church they shall so order the matter that all in their Families shall take their turns of going to Mass and staying at home on Sundays and the Vicars of the Churches must be careful to mark all such as are negligent herein and reprove admonish and punish them so as they shall judge necessary and where there is any number of Clergy they shall sing the Mass on Sundays and Holy-days and when there is not a competent number there the Mass shall be said at a convenient hour the whole Parish being present and he shall at the same time Preach publish their Admonitions the Banes of Matrimony and whatsoever else is necessary in the Church Decree XIII THe Synod being informed that most of all the Christians that live out of Towns and Villages in the Heaths being a great way from Church do go to Church but once a Year on the three days before Lent which they call Monorbo and then rather to fill their Bellies with what is given by Christians at that time than to hear Mass and that there are others who content
Sacrifice having been instituted for the health and remedy of the Living and of the Dead Wherefore the Synod doth exhort all the Faithful of this Bishoprick to accustom themselves to procure * Masses Private Masses are not only a flat contradiction to the Primitive Practice but to the very Office wherein they are celebrated all that Office being made in the name of a Congregation not only as present but as communicating A demonstration that the Offices of the Roman Church are older than her Errors it is plain likewise from the very Canon of the Mass that when that Office was composed Transubstantiation was not so much as dreamt of in the Roman Church but as to the thing in hand Cardinal Bona in the 3 Chap. of his 1 Book of Liturgies saith Ab initio Sacrificium principaliter institutum fuit ut publicè ac solemniter fi ret Clero populo astante ac communicante ipse tenor Misse veteris Ecclesiae praxis evincunt omnes enim Orationes atque ipsa Canonis verba in plurali numero tanquam plurium nomine proferuntur hinc sacerdos populum invitat ad Orationem dicens Oremus post Communionem ait quod ore sumpsimus c. Suntque ferè omnes ejusdem tenoris Orationes quae peractâ Communione recitantur And in the 18th Chap. of the same Book he saith Solenne hoc fuit in utrâque Ecclesia Graeca Latinâ ut unum idem Sacrificium a pluribus interdum Sacerdotibus celebraretur Episcopo enim sive Presbytero celebrante reliqui quotquot aderant Episcopi seu Presbyteri simul celebrabant ejusdemque Sacrificii participes erant c. And a little after he adds Cur autem desierit ille mos causa mihi videtur fuisse primo quidem quod fundatis ordinibus mendicantibus longè latéque propagatis multiplicata sunt ones a Missarum atque adeo necesse fuit singulos Sacerdotes ut iis satisfacerent singulis diebus privatim celebrare deinde quia charitas multorum refrixit cessarit etiam frequens accessus ad hoc Sacramentum adeo ut hodie nec ipsi quidem ministri in plerisque Ecclesiis Communicent licet Sacrificio cooperantur To which the Cardinal might have added the Introduction of the Doctrine of Purgatory and the consequent Doctrine of Masses being the most effectual means of delivering the Souls out of the Torments thereof So John the IV. of Portugal ordered ten thousand Masses to be said for his Soul as soon as he was dead Masses to be said for the Souls of their deceased Friends and to leave something by Will that they may have Masses said for their own Souls which will be much more profitable for them than the Feasts that they used to make for their Kindred and others invited to their Funerals which Custom shall be left off and instead thereof they shall give a Dole to the Poor which is also very profitable to the Souls of the departed And that the Decree relating to such Masses may have its due effect the Synod doth command That all that shall be found to have died worth 2000 Fanoins and have left nothing for a certain number of Masses to be said for their Souls shall have so much taken out of their Estates before they shall be divided among the Heirs as shall procure the saying of five Masses for their Souls which shall be deposited by the Executors in the hands of the Church-wardens by them to be distributed among five Priests that they may be the sooner said and where there are more than five Priests the Alms shall be given to the five Eldest there not being sufficient to divide among them all and where there is only the Vicar of the Church the whole shall be given to him which Custom of procuring Masses to be said for the Souls of the Faithful departed this Life as it is used in the Universal Church so it is what this Synod is extreamly desirous to introduce into this Bishoprick wherein it has been totally disused recommending this Matter earnestly to the Preachers and Confessors to persuade all Christians to it in their Sermons and Confessions and to the Vicars to do the same in their Admonitions ACTION VI. Of the Holy Sacrament of Penance and Extream Unction THe Fourth Sacrament is that of Penance in which the Acts of the Penitent are as it were the Matter and are distinguished into these three parts Contrition of Heart Confession of the Mouth and Satisfaction for Sins according to the direction of the Confessor It belongs to the Contrition of the heart that the Penitent be sorry at his Soul for the Sins that he has committed and detesting them is firmly resolved not to commit them any more which Contrition tho' it sometimes happen to be perfect through Charity so as to reconcile one to God even before he has actually received the Sacrament of Confession yet it can never be perfect nor a means of reconciliation with God if not attended with a readiness and purpose of mind to confess those very sins which it is conversant about such sins being no less subject than others to the Keys and the ingagements to Confession It belongs to the Confession of the mouth that the Penitent Confess himself entirely to his own Priest as to all the sins that he remembers using all due diligence according to the length of the time since he last Confessed himself and this Confession is not to be only of sins in general nor only of the Species of them but of every sin in particular and as far as the Penitent is able to remember of their number declaring withal all the aggravating Circumstances and all such as change the Species in a word all mortal sins how secret soever tho' only in thoughts and wicked desires as also all faults committed against the two last Commandments Thou shalt not covet thy Neighbours Wife Thou shalt not covet any thing that is anothers such sins being at some times more dangerous for the Soul than others that are open all which we are commanded to do by the Divine Law our Saviour when he ascended into Heaven leaving the Priests for his Vicars upon Earth and constituting them Judges before whom all mortal sins committed by Christians were to be brought that by the power of the Keys which he committed to them to forgive or retain sins they may pronounce Sentence which cannot be just and Righteous neither can the punishments they impose be equal or proportionated to the Nature of the Faults without their having a full knowledge of the same as of the matter that they pass Sentence upon which knowledge cannot be had but by the Penitents confessing all and every Mortal Sin whereon Judgment is to pass not only in general but in specie and number making mention of every such Sin in particular with all its necessary circumstances that so a just sentence o◠absolution or retention may be pronounced upon
Year at Easter when they are bound to it upon the penalty of mortal Sin but that they do frequently make use of this Sacrament in proportion to the Sins they fall into daily and not to fail to Confess themselves on the Festivities of the Nativity of the Holy Ghost and the Assumption of our Lady and at the Wake of their Parish and the Vicars must not fail to admonish their People thereof on the Sunday before those Festivities Decree VIII THe Synod doth declare That notwithstanding the power of pardoning Sins is annexed to the Sacerdotal Order nevertheless that all Priests cannot hear Confessions but only such as are Licensed by the Prelate for the Act of Absolution being an Act of Jurisdiction and Judicature cannot be without Subjects which the Prelate only can give when he appoints Confessors with such limitations as he thinks necessary so that a Priest having no Licence or transgressing the bounds that were set to him by his Prelate if he shall presume to hear Confessions and Absolve his Confessions and Absolutions are void and of no force neither are the Sins of the Penitents pardoned who are therefore bound to Confess themselves again to a Confessor that has power to Absolve as if they had not Confessed before but when any one is in probable danger of Death and cannot have a Priest that is Licensed any Priest tho' he is not Licensed may Confess and Absolve him in that case Decree IX WHereas it belongs to the good Government of the Church and the Faithful that Crimes of a heinous nature should be judged not by every Priest but by Prelates or Bishops because for that reason Christians will be the more fearful to commit them besides that it has always been the Custom of the Church to reserve to the Prelates and even to the Pope as the Universal Head of the Church some Crimes from which they and none else can Absolve or not do it without their leave therefore the Synod doth declare That notwithstanding this Doctrine has not hitherto been understood or practised in this Bishoprick by reason of the great Ignorance of the Church and sacred Canons that has reigned therein Nevertheless that the ordinary Confessors have no power to Absolve in cases reserved to the Prelate and least of all in those that are reserved to the Pope namely those contained in the Bulla Coenâ— Domini which all Confessors ought to be acquainted with neither can they Absolve in the Crime of Heresy or in any cases wherein the Faith is concerned all which do belong to the Court of the Holy Office of Inquisition or to such as are Commissioned by them or to the Bishop who by himself may Absolve in the Form of the Holy Council of Trent and according to the Ordinations of the Holy Fathers Neither can ordinary Confessors dispense with or change the Vows of Penitents because that belongs to the Prelate or such as are deputed by him or that have obtained Apostolical Privileges to that effect Only at the point of Death not only approved Confessors but also all simple Priests there being no other to be had are obliged to hear Confessions and may also Absolve in all Cases and from all Censures to whomsoe'er reserved Tho' as to the Censures with this Obligation that if the Sick Person shall recover they shall return to the Persons again to whom they were before reserved from whom they shall receive such healthful Penance as shall be thought meet Decree X. THat Confessors may the better know in what Cases they may and in what Cases they may not absolve their Penitents having no Authority to do it the Synod doth command the Bulla Coenae Domini and all the Cases reserved in this Bishoprick to be pasted on a Board and set up in all Sacristies and where there are no Sacristies in the chief Chapel in every Church in the Malabar Tongue for the direction of the Confessors and doth furthermore in its regulation of the reserved Cases in this Diocess declare That willful Murther publickly committed with violence on the Person of an Ecclesiastick the voluntary firing of Houses or of any Goods belonging to Christians formal Simony both in the givers and receivers marrying without the Vicar and two Witnesses Schism and Disobedience against the Prelate in all that are guilty thereof or that favour such as are the having of any of the Books condemned by this Synod in their Houses or the reading of any of them the performing of the publick Ceremonies called Taliconum Coliconu the having of Pagods or Idols in their Houses and the giving them any Veneration have all the censure of Excommunication annexed to them of which tho' some are * Reserved This is what destroys all Discipline in the Church of Rome and what the Bishops thereof complain of so much Didacus Abulensis in the 73d page of his Book of Councils gives the following account of it Est in to be Romanâ perniciosus abuâ—us qui dissimulatione quâdam jam diu toleratur nam sceleratissimi homines Episcoporum aliorum Judicum ordinariorum justissimam punitionem effugientes tanquam ad tutissimum asylum Romaâ—am accedunt curiam nihil aliud cogitantes quam quod eo ipso sint à gravissimis maximâ cum Justitiae jacturâ immunes Hinc sanè passim videmus Clericos Criminum atrocissimorum autores ab ordinariis Judicibus sugientes in Romanam Curiam propriis beneficiis quae obtinâ—bart aequissimè privatos brevi compendio temporis in Hispaniam patriamque redire ita liberos ut non tantum beneficia quibus ob scelera privati fuerant cum maximo dedecore justitiae contemptu favore importunis precibus obtinuerint iterum apud Romanam Curiam sed aliis pinguioribus honorati in praemium criminum liberam iterum millies peccandi licentiam ferè impefraverint sunt enim in Curiâ Remanâ tot Officiales quorum munus potissimum est prae avaritiâ maximâ voracitate ab ipsis litigantibus aliis extorquere ut tandem jam nihil obtineri apud eandem curiam possit aliter quam ingenti pecuniâ veluti in pretium rei impetratae impensâ And in the 62d Page he gives the Pope himself the following wholsome advice Cavere debet summus ipse Pontifex ne dum agitur de morum censura quae aâ— Clericos Episcopos alios Christianâ— professionis homines omnino in ipsâ— omnium capite requirantur ea morum correctio atque institutio quae à subditis exigenda est praesertim verò illud est ab eo postulandum ac denique summopere petendum ne in curia Romana oscitanter tot contractus Simoniaci tot manifestae fraudes tot adversus naturalia Divina jura scelera palam in totius orbis scandalum permittantur ad enim adeo jam in omnium aures devenit ut à nemine nisi is prorsus à sensu aliènus judicari cupiat taceri possit reserved by Law yet
matters appertaining to their Salvation do but too often make them unmindful of the Holy Sacraments wherefore the Synod doth command and earnestly recommend it to all Confessors that are called upon to Confess any Sick Person to instruct them in the Doctrine and Efficacy of this Sacrament of Vnction admonishing persuading and intreating them when they shall come to stand in need of it to have it administred to them and they shall also admonish the People and particularly those who attend the Sick Person not to fail to call the Vicar when it is necessary that is when they apprehend the Sick Person to be in any danger and before he has lost his Senses to give him the Holy Vnction and such as shall be negligent therein besides the offence they do to God and the Sick Person shall be punished severely at the pleasure of the Prelate Decree III. THe Synod doth command the Priests that go to anoint the Sick tho' it should be to the Hamlets to go in their Surplice and Stole carrying the Vessel the Holy Oil is in in their hands covered with a piece of Silk with great reverence having the Chamus or Parish-Clerk before them with the Cross of the Church in his Arms who or some other Person shall also carry a Pot of Holy Water and if it is in the Night a Lanthorn or some other Light before him that so all People may know what he is going about and if the Sick Person is in a condition he shall persuade him to Confess himself again and be reconciled notwithstanding he should have Confessed himself the day before letting the Sick Person know that it is necessary in order to his receiving the Holy Sacrament of Vnction with the greater purity and when the Priest shall be to carry this Sacrament a long way to those that live in Heaths he shall go in the best Form he can and shall carry the Surplice and Stole along with him that so when he comes to administer the Sacrament he may do it with all due reverence he shall likewise if the Sick Person has not a Crucifix of his own leave one upon his Pillow exhorting him to fix both his Eyes and confidence thereon at his last minute begging by it the pardon of his Sins of our Lord who for our sake died thereon ACTION VII Of the Holy Sacraments of Order and Matrimony The Doctrine of the Sacrament of Order THe sixth Sacrament is that of Order which was instituted by our Lord Jesus Christ the day before he suffered for us after that he had made an end of instituting the Sacrament of the Eucharist that so he might institute the Sacrifice and the Priests that were to offer it together at which time he created the Apostles Priests giving them withal power to consecrate others that so the Sacrifice and the Priesthood might be continued in the Church till the end of the World The Matter of this Sacrament is that which is delivered to the Person that is ordained for the exercise of that Order he has received to the Priests a Cup with Wine in it and a Patten with Bread to a Deacon the Book of the Gospels and to a Sub-Deacon an empty Cup and Patten and so as to the other inferiour Orders The Form of the Priesthood and other Orders are the words spoke by the Bishop when he delivers to every one that which belongs to his Ministry and the exercise of his Order The Minister of this Sacrament is only a Bishop to whom only Christ committed the power of Consecrating Priests the effect of it is the encrease of Grace to the end that the Person ordained may be a fit Minister This Sacrament was instituted by Christ as highly necessary in his Church for a Sacrifice and Priesthood are so joined that the one cannot be without the other wherefore since under the New Testament the visible Sacrifice of the Holy Eucharist was to be instituted it became therefore necessary that there should be a new visible and eternal Priesthood in the same Church whereby the ancient Priesthood of the Old Law was translated and there were Priests provided accordingly for the Offering of the Divine Sacrifice which Priests being lawfully ordained our Lord Jesus Christ has given them power over his true and real Body to Consecrate Offer and Administer it as also over his Mystical Body the Church giving them power to pardon and retain Sins to which power â—t likewise belongs to rule and govern all Christian People and to lead them in the way to Eternal Life Now the Priesthood being so high an Office that it may be exercised with the more decency and veneration it was convenient that there should be different Orders or Ministers who are bound by their Function to serve the Priesthood and to be divided in such 〈◊〉 manner that after having received the Clerical Tonsure they are to ascend through the lower to the higher Orders The * Lower That there was none of the lesser Ecclesiastical Order in the Primitive Church is acknowledged by Caâ—d Bona in his Book of Liturgies Tertia classis Ministrantium saith the Card. Clericos minorum ordinum complectitur Acolythos scil Exorcistas lectores Ostiarios quos antiquissimos esse ab Apostolis vel ab immediatis eorum Successoribus institutos Doctores Scholastici asserunt sed non probant dicendum igitâ— cum St. Thoma quod temporibâ— Apostolorum omnia Ministeria quâ— ordinibus minoribus competunt non 〈◊〉 distinctis personis sed uno duntaxâ— Ministro exercebantur contingit 〈◊〉 mirum Ecclesiae quod hominibus soleâ— qui dum tenâ—e patrimonium hâ—beâ— uno servo contenti sunt qui solâ— omnia administrat si vero rediâ—â— augeantur servorum etiam augetâ— numerus eoque modo crescit familiâ— lower are the Ostiary Reader Exorcist Acolythus The higher those which are called Holy and are the Sub-Deacon Deacon and Priest to which degrees there is joined that of Bishops who succeeded in the place of the Apostles and as St. Paul saith are ordained to govern the Church of God so that they are in a higher degree than the Priests and to them only it belongs by virtue of their Office to administer the Sacrament of Confirmation to Consecrate the Holy Oil of Chrism and to Consecrate Altars and Churches and ordain Priests and other Bishops The Church enjoins Continency and Chastity to all that take Holy Holy that so being disingaged from all other business they may employ themselves wholly in the Ministry of the Altar and be intent only on matters appertaining to our Lord and Divine Worship The Church does not admiâ— Slaves to be Priests because it is necessary to the Divine Worship that the Ministers thereoâ— should be free and not subject to others and that they should not have been guilty of Murther or Blood neither must they have been born out of lawful Wedlock nor have any blemish or maim nor have been twice Married nor have
married a Widow nor be Boys that are not come to perfect Age all which is ordered for just Reasons and Considerations and out of respect to the high Mystery wherein they are exercised Decree I. WHereas it has been hitherto the Custom of this Diocess to ordain Boys even Priests and that without examining their Lives and Manners having for Money and not for any extraordinary sufficiency all the Orders Inferiour as well as Holy conferred upon them in one day contrary to the Holy Canons and the Laws of the Church Therefore the Synod doth command That from henceforward none be ordained but what have first been examined as to their Sufficiency Lives and Manners which shall be done by the Prelate or by some appointed by him fearing God and who are observers of the Holy Canons and the Forms of the Holy Council of Trent And whereas in the said Council it is commanded That none be ordained Sub-Deacon under Two and Twenty nor Deacon under Three and Twenty nor Priest till they are Five and Twenty this Synod doth command the same to be inviolably observed declaring that no Prelate can dispense therewith without being particularly impowered and authorized thereunto by the Apostolical See And forasmuch as there are great numbers in this Diocess that have been ordained before they were at that Age the Synod suspends all such whether Priests Deacons or Sub-Deacons from the exercise of their several Functions until such time as they have perfectly attained to it they shall nevertheless hold their Places and reap the benefits thereof in the same manner as if they were in the exercise of their Functions And as to their Sufficiency the Synod doth declare That as the Council of Trent requires that all that are ordained do understand Latin so in this Diocess it is required that all that are ordained if they do not understand Latin should understand Syrian Neither shall any Syrian that does not understand it so well as to be able to read and sing it so as to understand what they say in the Offices be admitted into Orders or at least not into those that are Holy Decree II. ALL that are in Orders in this Diocess having been Simonaically ordained in having pay'd a certain price upon a formal Bargain for their Orders have thereby incurr'd the grievous punishments of the Law Nevertheless in consideration of their Ignorance and the false Doctrine wherein they have been educated by theiâ— former Prelates the Most Reverend Metropolitan both by his ordinary Authority this See being vacant and the Apostolical Authority committed to him over this Church doth Absolve all that have been so ordained from all Penalties and Censures which by the Law they have incurr'd by having been Simonaically ordained commanding them to have no further scruples about that matter and dispensing with them all as to the exercise of their Orders so that they may lawfully officiate as in right they may and ought to do Decree III. THe Synod being informed that there are several Priests who tho' infected with the Leprosie and miserably deformed thereby do presume to Celebrate to the great loathing of the People and to handle the Holy Vessels and Vestments to the endangering of the health of others doth command That none that are notoriously Leprous do presume to Celebrate â—ll such being irregular according to the Law of Corporal defects on the account of the disgust they give to People when they see them Celebrate in such a condition and receive the most Holy Sacrament of the Altar at their â—ands Decree IV. WHereas it is the custom to receive the Casture or Blessing from the hands of the oldest Clergy-man that officiates in the Quire and for all that are present to return it to him which according to the usage of this Diocess contains in it a Symbol of Charity Communion and Brotherly Love the Synod being informed that there are those who not being in Charity with their Neighbours do not speak to them nor take them by the hand and do neither give nor take the Casture from them thereby discovering that they live in malice with their Neighbours denying them the ordinary Ecclesiastical Salutation used in the Church of this Diocess doth command that all that shall refuse to give or receive the same be punished by the Prelate as Persons living in hatred or out of charity with their Neighbours and that until such time as they shall give the said Casture they shall not be suffered to come to the Altar according to the command of our Lord Jesus Christ Neither shall they be permitted to officiate or Minister in the Church neither shall the Blessing be given them until they have effectually reconciled themselves to their Brother Decree V. WHereas it is the Precept of the Universal Church that all that are in Holy Orders do recite the whole Divine Office and the usage of this Diocess is to recite it only when they go to Church and there tho' it happen to be near ended before they come having heard a little to go away immediately reckoning they have complied with their Obligation tho' they do not say over what they were not present at there being very few that recite the Divine Office in their Houses some imagining that they are not bound to do it any where but in the Church and others excusing themselves for want of Books there being but very few and those that are are in Manuscript in this Bishoprick therefore the Synod doth declare That all that are in Holy Orders are obliged upon pain of Mortal Sin to recite the whole Divine Office as it is recited in the Church and that all such as shall come late shall be obliged to recite what they have missed and if they do not recite it in the Church they shall do it at home in their Houses having the conveniency of a Book which being what a great many do want the Synod obligeth all such to recite the said Divine Office by Beads that so there may be none but what perform this duty either by Book or Beads And tho' the Divine Office consists of seven distinct Canonical hours yet in this Church in conformity to the Breviary thereof they shall only recite one part at two times in the Morning and the other part in the Evening without making any other difference in the Divine Office besides that of repeating one part thereof in the Morning and the other in the Evening and whereas they who have no Books are to recite with Beads such beginning in the Morning as the Divine Office is begun in the Church shall say Thirty-three Pater Nosters and as many Ave Maries with the Gloria Patri c. in the Morning and when they are ended they shall moreover say twelve Pater Nosters and twelve Ave Maries for the Souls of the Faithful departed and one Pater Noster and one Ave Mary for the Pope and the same for the Bishop instead of the Prayers that are said
for them in the Church and instead of the Prayers that are to be recited by them in the Evening they shall say Thirty-three Pater Nosters and as many Ave Maries with the Gloria Patri c. as in the Morning and when they are ended they shall say * Nine It would have been no true Roman Devotion had not the Ave Maries exceeded the Pater Nosters for one may speak within compass and say that the blessed Virgin has ten Prayers and an hundred Vows made to her in the Church of Rome where Christ has one made to him and of this the Tabulae Votivae in their Churches are a clear demonstration there being few or none of these Tables and there are vast numbers of them in several Churches but what are dedicated solely to the honour of the blessed Virgin nine Ave Maries to our Lady and one Pater Noster and one Ave Mary for the Pope and another for the Bishop as in the Morning provided that such as have Books shall recite by them and not by Beads and such as recite by Beads if they have said any of the Prayers either in the Morning or Evening at Church shall not be obliged to recite them again but shall only recite those which they may have omitted there Decree VI. THe Synod doth command the Creed of St. Athanasius Quicunque vult to be translated into Syrian and to be put into all the Breviaries and Books of Prayer of this Diocess and to be read every Sunday in the Church immediately after Morning Service desiring the Reverend Father Francisco Roz of the Society of Jesus to translate it and all the Curates and Clergy to learn the said Creed by Heart which is what the Holy Canons recommend to them for as much as that Creed contains in it summarily the chief Mysteries of our Faith and is used and sung in the Universal Church Decree VII THe Synod doth earnestly recommend it to all the Clergymen and Curates not to be absent from Church at the time of Divine Service Morning nor Evening and that none offer to talk or divert themselves there any other way as has been the Custom or to dispose themselves to sleep whilst others are reciting who are also to take notice that in reciting they ought not to begin a new Verse before the Congregation has done with the former and that tho' it has hitherto been the custom for the oldest Clergyman that was present at Divine Service to give the Casture that from henceforward the true Vicar of the Church being present shall in every thing be preferr'd to all others as he is the particular Pastor of the Church Decree VIII THere being no reason why they that do not minister in the Church should be equally rewarded with those that do it seems just to the Synod that the Curates and other Clergymen that are absent either from Morning or Evening Service or from the Mass of the day on Sundays and Holydays be marked by the Vicar or the oldest Clergyman in his absence that when the Dividend comes to be made for every time they have been absent so much may be deducted from their share as they that make the distribution shall think fit in proportion to the quantity of the Dividend which shall be done only when they are not hindred by some lawful Impediment as Sickness or are not otherwise employed in the Service of the Church or by the Prelate in all which cases they are to be excused and the Sconses shall be equally divided among the rest Decree IX THe Synod being informed that great numbers of Clergy-men do use superstitious and Heathen Exorcisms taking words out of an impious and prohibited Book called Parisman for the casting out of Devils doth command in virtue of Holy Obedience that none presume to use any other exorcisms to that effect but such as the Roman Church makes use of and have been approved of by the Holy Fathers which are to be bound up with the Offices of the Administration of the Sacraments and all Clergymen that shall be found to use any other or to use any unknown superstitious words or Ceremonies with such as are possessed shall be suspended from their Office and Benefice for a Year and be subject to what other penalties the Prelate shall be pleased to lay upon them according to the quality of the Superstitions they have made use of and in case they shall after they have been admonished and censured persist therein they shall then be Excommunicated and when it shall appear that any have acted thus upon any compact or contract with the Devil which God forbid as it is said some do they shall be declared Excommunicate until they have done the condign Penance which the Prelate shall have imposed upon them and shall be moreover suspended from their Office and Benefice during their Lives without any hopes of a dispensation and shall be yet further punished as the Law requires they should be who are guilty of such Crimes and are convicted of having had a compact with the Devil Decree X. WHereas there are several Clergymen who according to the superstitious Custom of the Heathens do give good days for Marriages and do several other things at the request of Christians for the Heathens and for that end keep an account of the lucky and unlucky days of the Gentiles in their Books and do use some of their Prayers and do make Schemes after the manner of Astrologers as appears from several even of their Church-books the Synod doth command in virtue of Holy Obedience and upon pain of the greater Excommunication that no Ecclesiastical or Secular or Cassanar shall dare to give good or bad days for Marriages or on any other occasion or to draw any thing out of a Book of Lots and namely out of that which is generally bound up with the Book called Parisman or out of any other place or by whomsoever invented and whosoever shall transgress herein shall be declared excommunicate and shall be suspended from their Office for a Year and six Months from their Benefice it being the duty of the Priests rather to admonish the People to avoid all Heathen Superstitions and to chuse the solemn days of the Church or the Saints days who may intreat God for them for the celebration of their Marriages or any other days they please all days being good to those that do good upon them being all equally the work of Gods hands Those only which are spent in the greatest works and the higher celebration of the Divine Mysteries being the days that are to be most reverenced Decree XI WHereas it is decent that Priests being the Masters from whom the People are to learn good Manners should themselves give good example the Synod is therefore much concerned for the scandal some give by their being disorderly in their eating and drinking to the great disgrace of the Sacerdotal Office among so many Infidels and does recommend Moderation
over celebrating and performing all other Exercises and Ministeries of Priests all which they thought they might do lawfully by virtue of a Licence granted by their Prelates who notwithstanding they prohibited them to Marry upon pain of Excommunication and had declared them Excommunicate did nevertheless Absolve them for a sum of Money or upon some Simonaical contract so that notwithstanding that Excommunication they did all Marry and continued in Wedlock reckoning themselves safe in Conscience upon their having obtained a Licence after such a manner All which being detested by the Synod as the inventions of the Devil and devised by the covetousness of Schismaticks and desiring to restore this Church to its due purity and the usage of the Roman Church doth command in virtue of obedience and upon pain of Excommunication latae Sententiae that henceforward no Clerk in Holy Orders presume to Marry nor shall any Cassanar Marry any such nor shall any presume to be present at any such Marriage nor give Council Favour or Assistance thereunto And whoever shall offend in any of these particulars must know that they are Excommunicate and Cursed and are to be declared as such by the Church and as to those who are already Married the Synod suspends them all whether Married once or oftner from the Ministery of their Orders and all Sacerdotal Acts until such time as they have put away their Wives effectually which is what the Synod intreats them in the Lord to do And to those who have been twice Married or have Married Widows or Women that were publickly dishonest the Synod doth command all such as being Bigamists and having Married contrary to their consciences as it appears several of them have done by their giving over thereupon to Celebrate notwithstanding their having obtained a Licence from their Bishop in virtue of obedience and upon pain of being declared Excommunicate so soon as this Decree shall come to their knowledge to turn off the said Women not only as to Bed and Board but so as not to dwell in the same House with them declaring that until they have done it they are in Mortal Sin and do live in Concubinate such Marriages having never been true or valid but on the contrary void and of no force neither can any Prelate or Bishop grant Licences in such cases having no Authority to do it by reason of its being contrary to the Rules of the Church that have been always punctually observed and contrary to the Holy general Councils received all over the World and as to those who have been but once Married the Synod will consult the most Holy Pope and Bishop of Rome that he as Prelate and Head of the whole Church of God and Master and Doctor of the same may teach and command what ought to be done therein and whatsoever his Holiness shall ordain shall be punctually observed Decree XVII THe Synod doth declare That those Priests who as obedient Sons shall follow the advice of the Synod in turning away their Wives may after they have so done continue in the exercise of their Functions and if not otherwise hindered may Celebrate notwithstanding they have been twice Married or may have Married Widows since by such Weddings not being true Marriages they did not incurr the irregularity of Bigamy All which the Synod grants out of pure Grace being extreamly desirous to have them turn away such Women and out of respect to their Ignorance and the Cheat that was put upon them by their Prelates who instead of instructing them better granted them Licences And whereas all Priests that Marry are Irregular according to the Holy Canons the most Illustrious Metropolitan by the Ordinary as well as the Apostolical Authority that he has in this Church by reason of the See 's being vacant doth dispense with the Priests and all the other Clergy-men in Holy Orders that shall yield obedience to the Synod in turning away their Wives and shall desire to continue to officiate as to the said irregularity which they have incurred granting them Licence as to this freely and without scruple to exercise their Orders Decree XVIII WHereas the Wives of Priests who are called Catatiaras or Cassaneiras have not only the most Honourable place in the Church for their being such and are the more reverenced but do moreover partake of the profits of the Churches wherein their Husbands ministred equally with the surviving Priests and have sometimes a greater share of them than any of the Priests by reason of the Seniority and Preheminence that their Husbands had in the Church therefore the Synod doth ordain That such of them as do not from henceforward depart from their Husbands shall receive no such benefit but if obeying the admonition of the Synod they shall leave their Husbands they shall then immediately receive their proportion as an Alms to help to sustain them and their Families and shall injoy the same place and Honour in the Church and every where else which they did before Decree XIX THe Synod doth declare That notwithstanding it has received the Holy Council of Trent with all its Decrees relating both to the good Government of the Church and Manners nevertheless that what was declared therein relating to Priests Bastards not being permitted to Minister in the same Church wherein the Fathers have Ministered before is not to be extended to the Sons of the Married Priests in this Diocess that are now born by reason of the great numbers there are of such at present in all Churches and of other great inconveniencies that would follow thereupon it is therefore permitted to such to Minister nay to be Vicars of the Churches wherein their Fathers have officiated but this is to be understood of such only as were born of Marriages that were reputed true the provision of the forementioned Holy Council being to take place as to all that shall be born hereafter Decree XX. WHereas the sin of * Simony This noise of Simony was raised for no other reason but to throw Dirt on the Memory of their former Bishops whose Fees at their Ordination were not in all probability so great as they are at Goa and had as little in them of a formal Bargain But the truth is Simony as well as Heresy is a Stone the Church of Rome throws blind-fold at all that displease her tho' at the same time she 's the Church in the World that 's most guilty of it so when she was crying shame of the Emperors as Simoniacks Petrus Clemangis tells us she her self was totius negotiationis latrocinii rapinae officina in quo venalia exponuntur Sacramenta venales ordines And Didacus Abulensis a learned Spanish Bishop and who was no stranger at Rome at the same time she was thus reproaching the poor Church of Malabar tells us in his Book of Councils that vitium Simoniae frequens est veluti res honestissima in usum deducitur in Curiâ Romanâ nulla unquam punitione
command that all that is above related be punctually observed according to the Decrees of the Holy Council of Trent which has been received by this Church in this Synod declaring all Marriages not celebrated in this Form or not by the Parish-Priest before two Witnesses to be null and the Parties not to be Married neither are they to be permitted to live together as Man and Wife And the Priests who shall presume to Marry without leave from the Parish-Priest or Ordinary shall be suspended from their Orders and Benefices for one Year without Indulgence and the Marriage shall be declared void and the Parties shall be obliged to Marry again in the foresaid Form The Synod doth furthermore declare That the Contracted may be Married by the Parish-Priest of either of the Parties tho' the ordinary Custom is to be Married by the Parish-Priest where the Woman lives Decree II. WHereas Matrimony ought to be celebrated with words signifying a present Consent and in many places of this Diocess it is commonly celebrated with words signifying only a Consent for the time to come Therefore the Synod doth command That when the Persons that are to be Married come to the Door of the Church the Parish-Priest or some other Priest having his or the Prelates Licence being in his Surplice with his Stole and at least two Witnesses present shall ask them if they are pleased to Marry and if they say they are or express their Consent by some other evident signs the Priest then shall take one end of his Stole and laying it on the Palm of his left Hand shall take the right Hand of the Bride and lay it on the Stole and lay the Palm of the right Hand of the Bridegroom on the Palm of the right Hand of the Bride in form of a Cross and covering both their Hands with the other end of the Stole and laying his own right Hand upon all so that the Hands of both Parties and both the ends of the Stole are betwixt the Priest's Hands after having blessed them with the sign of the Cross he shall say In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Amen and shall make the Bride say first I N. receive thee N. for my lawful Husband so as the Holy Mother Church of Rome doth command and shall afterwards make the Bridegroom say the same words I N. receive thee N. for my lawful Wife so as the Holy Mother Church of Rome doth command and after they have both said these words the Priest shall say I by the Authority I have do join you in Matrimony in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Amen after which he shall sprinkle them both with Holy Water saying By this sprinkling of Holy Water the Lord give you Health and Blessing Amen And if neither of the Parties was ever Married before they shall then be carried before the Higâ— Altar where being upon their Knees the Priesâ— shall give them the Blessings as they are in thâ— Roman Ceremonial of the administration of thâ— Sacraments which is to be translated into Syriaâ— and to be used in all Churches but if eitheâ— of the Parties have been Married before he shall not then give them the said Blessings but dismiss them after having said a Prayer in the Church Decree III. THat there may be no Frauds in Matrimony and that the Impediments which if they were known would hinder the same may be discovered and that in all things we may conform our selves to the Decrees of the Holy Council of Trent the Synod doth command That what is ordained by the said Holy Council be punctually observed to wit That the Parties to be Married shall have their Banns published by the Vicar or by one appointed by him on three Sundays or Holy-days in the Churches where the Bridegroom and Bride live when the People are assembled at Mass in this Form N. born in such a place does purpose to Marry N. the Daughter of N. and N. born in such a place wherefore if there be any that know any Impediment they must declare it upon pain of Excommunication And the Vicar in case he has any lawful Impediment declared unto him shall not Marry the Parties before he has made the Prelate acquainted therewith that so he may determine what is just to be done therein which Publications cannot be dispensed with by any but by the Prelate or one representing him And in case it is probable that if such Publications are made there are those that will maliciously endeavour to hinder the Marriage tho' in such a case the parties may be received without them yet for the better discovery of other Impediments that may happen to be therein they cannot be joined together nor receive the Blessings tho' capable thereof before the publications are made in the Churches without the Prelate should be pleased to dispense therewith to whose Prudence and Judgment the Holy Council of Trent has committed the whole of this Matter and the Priest who shall receive any couple without a License from the Prelate before such publications have been made shall be suspended from his Office and Benefice for six months Decree IV. THis Synod conforming it self in all things to the Holy Council of Trent doth command that in every Parish there be a Book as was ordered as to Baptism wherein the Vicar of the Church shall write the Names of the Married Persons and the Place day of the Month and Year and the Names of the two Witnesses commonly called the Padrinhos where they were Married registring them thus On such a Day of such a Month and Year I N. Vicar of the Church naming the Saint to whom it is dedicated in such a part naming where the said Church is did joyn N the Son of N and N. to N. the Daughter of N. and of N. born in such a place both at the gate of the Church according to the Holy Council of Trent the Witnesses were N. and N. to which the Vicar and the two Witnesses shall sign their Names and when any Priest shall by a License from the Vicar or Prelate marry any couple he shall write On such a day of such a Month and Year I N. a Priest by a License from the Vicar of such a place or from the Bishop if he granted the License did receive at the gate of the Church N. naming him the Son of N. and N. naming his Parents born in such a place naming the Town according to the Holy Council of Trent the Witnesses were N. and N. to which the said two Witnesses and Priest shall put their Names which Book shall be kept among the Registers of the Church and the Prelate at his Visitations shall see that there be no fault or neglect therein Decree V. AS Holy Matrimony is a Sacrament and as such conveys Grace it ought therefore to be received with great Purity and Holiness wherefore this Synod conforming
and the last of All-Saints The 29th of November being the Vigil of St. Andrew The 2d of December being the Vigil of the Glorious Apostle St. Thomas on the 24th of our Saviour's Nativity notwithstanding these two do both fall in Advent And that this Diocess may be in all things conformable to the Customs of the Universal Church the Synod doth command the Fast of the four Times to be published and observed therein they are the first Wednesday Friday and Saturday after the first Sunday in Lent and the the first Wednesday and Friday and Saturday after Whitsuntide and the first Wednesday Friday and Saturday after the Feast of the Holy Cross in September and the Wednesday Friday and Saturdaâ— after the Feast of the Holy Cross on the 13th of December which falls in with the Advent Fast And the Synod doth furthermore declare That the Fast of our Lady's Assumption which begins on the first of August and lasts to the day of the Festivity and the Fast that is called the Apostles which begins on the first day after Whitsuntide and lasts fifty days notwithstanding they are Holy and Laudable it wisheth they were not kept as they are by the Christians of this Diocess after the same manner as the ancient Fasts are nevertheless since they are observed by some and not by others that there may be no Scruples nor Disorder the Synod doth declare that the keeping of them is not commanded under the Precept of a Mortal Sin though they may be kept out of Devotion by those that have a mind to 't neither are People under any obligation to a Lent Fare on these Days and as to the three Fasting Days of the Prophet Jonas called Mononebo which begins eighteen days before the first day in Lent the Synod out of respect to its Antiquity and Holiness doth permit it to be observed with great strictness But whereas People do assemble together in the Churches on those days there to eat the Nercha's that are distributed the Synod tho' it is not willing to oblige People to Fast on those three days under the obligation of a Mortal Sin doth nevertheless oblige them to a Lent Diet at least upon them and the Vicars shall be obliged to give notice to the People of all the Fasts of the Week upon Sundays that so all may be warned to observe them Decree XI THe Synod doth approve of the Holy and Laudable Custom observed by the Christians of this Diocess of eating neither Eggs nor Cheese nor any thing made of Milk nor of Fish and of abstaining totally from Wine and from their Wives during the whole time of Lent all which it desires them to continue to observe inviolably as also to begin the Fast upon the day after Quinquagesima Sunday and some Abuses being reformed it doth declare That Fasting doth not only consist in Peoples abstaining from some sorts of Meat but also in their not eating so often as they may desire the Integrity of the Precept of Fasting obliging People not to eat above one Meal a day and that at * The Fasts of the Church of Rome as they are now observed are little else than a Mockery of the Duty of which Card. Bona in the 21st Chapter of his first Book of Liturgies complains as loud as he durst Ita factum est saith the Cardinal ut non prorsus veneranda vetustas interterit dum ordo à sanctis patribus praesciptus saltem in publica officiorum recitatione retinetur quamvis legitimus horarum punctus nullo modo attendatur neque enim horae nonae officium tertia vel quarta post meridiem in Vigiliis psallimus neque vesperas in Quadragesima circa solis occasum sed una vel duabus horis ante meridiem quae anticipatio ut doctissimus Francelinus scribit Cap. 34. quaedam est nostri temporis calamitas ne dicam abusus Caepit hac horaâ—um pra ventio post saeculum duodecimum introduci cum pristina severitas paulatim relaxata mollim disciplina successit de quâ satius est tacere quam loqui And so that they may observe the ancient Rule of not eating upon a Fasting day till after Vespers they have turned the Morning into Evening and say the Vespers â—Ten a Clock that they may go to Dinner at Eleven an hour appointed and at Night they that shall stand in need of it and have an appetite to drink for their Healths-sake may eat a light Collation according to the permission of the Church but if they shall exceed either in the quality or quantity of the said Collation or eat oftner than twice after this manner they do violate the Fast and Sin Mortally and if through infirmity or weakness they should break the Fast upon any day they shall not as some imagine be released by their having broke Lent once from continuing the Fast but on the contrary they shall be guilty of so many Mortal Sins as there are days of Obligation on which they neglect to Fast They are also bound to Fast on all the Saints days tho' never so Solemn that shall fall in Lent Sunday only excepted upon which it is not lawful for any Christian to Fast as to which matter there are great Abuses introduced in to this Diocess Decree XII THe Synod doth declare That notwithstanding Fasting is of great benefit that it doth not intend to oblige any that are under one and Twenty nor such as are very ancient or weak or sickly nor Women with Child nor those that give Suck nor those that cannot Fast conveniently by reason of some hard Labour they are obliged to to Fast any otherwise than by eating a Lent Diet on Fasting-days as to which too the weak and sick are excepted who may at all times eat what is necessary to their health and it shall also be lawful for Women with Child to eat whatsoever they long for to prevent Abortion Decree XIII THe Synod doth very much condemn what some ignorant observers of Heathenish Superstition imagine viz. That if they do not wash their Bodies betimes in the Morning on a Fast-day their Fast will be of no worth and that if they happen to touch any of a base Race or a Naires they must wash themselves to make their Fast to be of any Merit and declares that all such Washings and Superstitious touches are commanded neither by God nor the Church and are no ways proper for Christians and doth furthermore command the observers of all such Superstitions to be punished severely by the Prelate as followers of * Heathenish Superstitions The Church of Rome has little reason to condemn any practise purely for being Heathen her Creature Worship with all the Ceremonies thereof being visibly of such extraction for it was a true judgment that the Fathers of the Council of Constantinople under Leo Isaurus passed upon the endeavours of those who were for introducing Images into the Christian Church That to do it would be
to restore Heathenism again under a Scheme of Christianity Heathenish Vanities condemned by Holy Mother Church earnestly desiring that all such things may be totally rooted out of the hearts of the very Infidels in this Diocess Decree XIV NOtwithstanding the Synod doth approve of the laudable Custom that has obtained in this Diocess of beginning the Holy Fast of Lent upon the Monday following Quinquagessima Sunday Nevertheless in conformity to the usage of the Universal Church it doth ordain and command that on the Wednesday following they consecrate Ashes in the Church which shall be sprinkled on the Heads of the People by the Priest that celebrates Mass using these words Remember Man that thou art dust and that to dust thou shalt return as he is directed by the Roman Ceremonial translated into Syrian by the order of the most Reverend Metropolitan leading by this Holy Ceremony the Faithful to a deeper Repentance for their Sins and a sense of their own vileness in that Holy time which Ashes so far as it can be done shall be made of the branches that were blessed the former Year upon Palm Sunday which is called Osana in this Diocess aâ— it is likewise ordered in the said Ceremonial buâ— at the same time the People shall be told thaâ— this is only a Holy Ceremony of the Church and not a Sacrament Decree XV. THat this Bishoprick may in all things be conformable to the Customs of the Catholick Church the Synod doth command all the Members thereof upon pain of Mortal Sin not to eat Flesh upon Saturdays in memory of our Lord's Burial but Eggs Milk Butter or Cheese they may lawfully eat upon Saturdays as also upon all Fish days that are not Fasts and since the custom of not eating Flesh on Wednesdays is not observed over the whole Diocess but only in some parts thereof and that but by a few the Synod doth declare that albeit that custom is Holy and Laudable and it were to be wished that it were universally observed by all Christians it doth not think fit to oblige People thereunto upon pain of Sin so that all that list may eat Flesh upon Wednesdays Decree XVI THe Synod doth declare That the Obligati of not eating Flesh on prohibited days lasts from midnight to midnight beginning at the midnight of the prohibited day and ending at the midnight of the day following so that the Obligation of not eating Flesh upon Frydays and Saturdays begins at the midnight of Fryday and ends on the midnight of Sunday and the Obligation of ceasing from labour begins at the midnight of the said day and ends at the midnight of Monday being to understand that in beginning the Fasts and Festivities on the Evening of the former and continuing them to the Evening of the latter day they do conform themselves to the Customs and Rites of the Jews condemned by Holy Mother Church in which days and their observances are not reckoned from Evening to Evening but from midnight to midnight Decree XVII WHereas it is the Custom of the Universal Church to have * Holy This Ceremony of sprinkling the people with Holy Water is no less of Heathen Extraction than the washings condemned in the former Decree as is acknowledged by the Learned Valesius in his Annotations on the 6 Ch. of the 6 Book of Sozomen Holy Water at the entrance of the Churches that so the Faithful by sprinkling themselves therewith may have their Venial Sins pardoned and the Holy Water that has been hitherto made use of in this Diocess has not been blessed by the Priest nor by any Prayer of the Church the Sextons only throwing a little of the Clay into it that is brought by Pilgrims from the Sepulchre of St. Thomas or from some other Holy Place relating to him and where such Clay has been wanting the said Sextons have thrown some Grains of Incense into it Whereupon without any further Consecration it has been esteemed Holy Therefore the Synod doth declare that such Water is not Holy and that the Faithful ought not to make use of it and albeit that all the Earth of Holy places and of the Sepulchres of Saints approved of by the Church ought to be kept with much Veneration yet that the Earth of the Holy places belonging to St. Thomas has not the virtue of such a Consecration in it for which reason it commands all Priests to bless the said Water by throwing Holy Salt into it according to the custom of the Universal Church as is directed by the Roman Ceremonial translated into Syrian by the order of the most Reverend Metropolitan according to the Form whereof the true Vicars shall take care to consecrate Water and every Saturday Evening or Sunday Morning to furnish the Water-pots therewith and upon Sundays the People being assembled the Priest being in his Surplice and Stole but without his Planet shall before he begins Mass sprinkle the whole Congregation repeating the Antiphona and the Prayer contained in the said Ceremonial and at Masses at which the Deacon and Sub-Deacon officiate the Deacon may repeat the Antiphona but the Prayer shall always be said by the Priest The Vicars must also instruct the People at their entring into the Church to take Holy Water and bless themselves therewith in the form of a Cross and to give over the saying the Prayer to the impious Heretick Nestorius which they used to do when they took Holy Water as they entred into the Church the Synod condemning the same as Heretical and Blasphemous Decree XVIII WHereas the greatest part of the People of this Bishoprick are not instructed in the Doctrine and they that are know only the Pater Noster and Ave Mary in the Syrian Tongue which they do not understand and most of the Children know not how to bless themselves nay the Clergy themselves are ignorant thereof not being able to say the Commandments therefore the Synod doth command that in all Parish Churches in the Morning and Evening as the Vicar shall think most convenient one of the Boys or the Bell-man shall ring the little Bell to call the Boys and Girls together in the Church where being assembled the Vicar or some other Clergyman that he shall appoint shall instruct them in the Doctrine that is to say the Sign of the Cross the Pater Noster Ave Mary the Creed and the Commandments of God and the Church the Articles of Faith and other Christian Doctrines in the Malabar Tongue that so all may understand them and not in the Syrian which the People do not understand it being the custom of the Church to teach the Doctrine to Children and to the People in theiâ— Mother Tongue and furthermore upon all Sundays and Holydays either before or after Mass the Vicar shall teach the said Doctrine in the Congregation that so all may be instructed there in and shall also after having called the peoplâ— together with a Bell teach it on the Evenings of Sundays and as
Church-Yards Which Books being bound shall be kept in all Churches neither shall any Priest presume to apply them to his own private use or to take them out of the Church And the Synod doth earnestly recommend it to the Rector of the College of the Jesuits of Vaipicotta to have always some of these Books Translated by some of the said College by him in order to the supplying of the Necessities of these Churches Decree XXIII THe Synod desiring that this Church may in all things be conformable to the Holy Roman and whole Italian Church doth command That on the second of February being the day of our Lady's Purification before Mass the Wax Candles which are in the Church be Blest as also all the Candles that shall be brought by the People out of Devotion according to the Roman Ceremonial translated into Syrian and after the publick and solemn Benediction is over there shall be a Procession in or round the Church in which all the Clergy shall carry Blessed Candles lighted in their hands as the People shall also do that have any in Memory of the Mystery of our Lord Jesus Christ the Divine Light and Splendor of the Father first entrance into the Temple there to offer himself to his Eternal Father cloathed with our Humanity So likewise upon the Monday Tuesday and Wednesday before the Feast of our Lord 's Holy Ascension in the Morning either before or after Mass there shall be a Procession in the Church or where the Vicar shall appoint in which the Litanies shall be said according to the customs of the Church which shall also be translated in the said Roman Ceremonial expunging the Names of all the Hereticks who according to the custom of the Nestorians were commemorated in this Church and it is the desire of the Synod that the use of the said Litanies be brought into this Church to be read in their Necessities or when they desire to implore the Divine Mercy Decree XXIV THe Synod being informed that in the remote parts of this Bishoprick as well towards the South as towards the North the Christians that dwell in the Heaths are guilty of Working and Merchandizing on Sundays and Holy-days especially in the Evenings doth command the Vicars to be very vigilant in this Matter and to admonish and reprehend all that they shall find so doing and if after three particular Admonitions they shall not reform they shall after that be thrown out of the Church and have the Casture denied them neither shall any Priest go into their Houses until they have yielded Obedience Decree XXV WHereas in this Diocess there are many Churches dedicated to Marxobro and Marphrod who are commonly stiled Saints of whom there is * Nothing known At Compostella the most famous place of Devotion in all Spain the People pray to some that they know as little of as the Malabars do of Marphrod For the famous Spanish Antiquary Ambrosius Morales in the 9th Book of his Chronicle gives us a particular Account of an Altar with some Names upon it that he met with there and that had great Devotion paid to it In the famous Monastery of the Benedictine Nuns that joins to the Holy Church of St. James saith Morales and is dedicated to the Glorious Martyr Pelayo whom in that Country they commonly call St. Payo there is an Ara on the Altar which they affirm to have been Consecrated by the Apostles and that they themselves said Mass on it and that it was brought thither with the blessed Body of St. James Now there is not saith Morales not only no foundation for the Truth of this Story but there is just cause to believe that that Stone which is at present in the same state it was in when it was first made could never be an Altar I observed it with great attention in the company of several great and learned Men who had all the same thoughts of it that I had the thing indeed being in clear and manifest for any such to doubt of for it is visible that the Stone is the Grave-Stone of some Heathens with this following Inscription D M S ATIAMO ET ATTE T LVMPS AO VIRIA EMO NEPTIS PIANO Xâ— ET S. E. C. The words are very plain and clear there not being a Letter wanting so that notwithstanding the Blunders committed by the Grace in Spelling it they may be with great ease Translated which I will 〈◊〉 as well as I can into Spanish This Stone is Consecrated to the Gods of the Dead and Dedicated to the Memories oâ— Atiamo and of Atte and oâ— Lumpsa as also to her Memorâ— who Erected it Viria Emâ—sâ— their pious Grand-child being 16 Years of Age. This is what the Stone contains therefore they that Consecrated it an Altar would have done well to have defaced the Letters by which means they would have removed the indignity that states all People in the face that consider what a thing it is to have the most Holy Body and Blood of Christ our Redeemer consecrated and placed upon the Tomb-Stone of Heathens whereon the Devils are invocated Thus far Morales But as this Stone has had a great deal of Honour done it in coming to be Consecrated an Altar in such a famous place of Devotion so the Persons whose Names are upon it have had no less done to them who are all great Saints in that Country and particularly Piano who in all probability is the St. Payo to whom the Church and Monastery is dedicated For first Salazar in his Spanish Martyrology upon the 30th day of December gives this following Account of the said Stone and Persons Don Didacus Sequinus Bishop of Auria who has Epitomized the Life of his Predecessor Serrandus gives therein the following Exposition of the Inscription that is upon this Altar Stone in the Galecian Language which History I have now by me in MSS. Consegrada a Deos Maximo Atiamo Erato Telumpsa Viriamo Nepotispiano Xuuito Teliforo Forem Martyres e padezeron em Galizia no Pago Sarense antes que ô Apostolo se fose a Jerusalem e por isto deyxon esta Ara a seus Discipolos paraque sobre de la dixiesem Missa en membraza destes Santos asi dexou escrito ô Bispo Don Serrando That is to say Consrecated to the greatest God Atiamo Erato Telumpsa Viriamo Nepotispiano Xuuito Teliforo Were all Martyrs and suffered in Galecia in the Village of Sarep before the Apostle went to Jerusalem who for that reason left this Altar to his Disciples to say Mass on in memory of those Saints as Bishop Don Serrando has left upon Record Lobarinus tells us that Don Serrandus after having given a description of the Altar subjoins the following Account of it Este he ò Retrayto de Ara que deyxo escripta o Apostol Santiago a seus discipolos e he un tanto da que trouxa con sigo nó mar sobre que pausaran o santo corpo e sobre de la deria missa
Arcadio 1 Bispo do Orenes en san Maria Madre autro tanto como este esta en san Payo de Santiago com istas mismas letras destos Santos Martyres That is to say This is the Portraiture of the Altar which the Apostle St. James left with an Inscription upon it to his Disciples who carried another of the same Dimensions and with the same Inscription along with him to Sea upon which his Holy Body was laid and Arcadius the first Bishop of Orenes said Mass upon it in the Church of St. Mary the Mother of God the other which is the same with this is in the Church of St. Payo of Compostella with the same Names of these Holy Martyrs I hope the Reader will pardon me if I offer one or two more instances of the same Nature In the Spanish Martyrology upon the 22d of May it is said Sanctus Publius Bebius Venustus Martyr qui pontem in honorem templi beatae Mariae condidit petente Ordine Oretanorum ut pateret aditus ad Templum XX. CHS in quo ponte suae Pietatis hujusmodi in visceribus lapidis Monumentum reliquit P. BAEBIUS VENUSTUS P. BAEBIIVENETIEP BAESISCERIS NEPOS ORETANUS PETENTE ORDINE ET POPULO IN HONOREM DOMUS DIVINAE PONTEM FECIT EX HS XXC. CIRCENSIBUS EDITIS D. D. This needs no Commentary it being plain from the Monument it self that this P. BAEBIVS was a Heathen and that Domus Divina herein mentioned was not a Church dedicated to the blessed Virgin but to some Heathen god And at Ebora in Portugal St. Viarius who infallibly cures all pains in the Loins and for that reason is very much prayed to was raised out of such another Heathen Roman Monument whereon Viarum Curator was writ as Resendius tells us But as in some places they have made Saints of Heathens in others they have made Heathens of Saints For in the Castle of Liria in Portugal there is over the Inner Gate a Stone Statue with a long inscription under it of which there is nothing legible from the ground but the word Veneris which is very plain the Portugueze who shewed us the place for we were several Protestants in Company told us very gravely that the Castle was built by the Romans and that the Statue we saw so much defaced the Head and Arms being broke of and the Body very much malled with Stones was the Statue of the Roman Goddess Venus we kept our Countenances as well as we could perceiving plainly that neither the Castle nor the Statue were Roman work and the Letters of Veneris were perfectly Gothick so I and two more having industriously lost our Portugueze we resolved if possible to find out the truth of the matter and after some poring we began to discover some more Letters and with some pains spell out the word Ante after Veneris whereupon we concluded that Veneris there must be a Verb and not a Substantive and that Veneris ante must be the end of a Monkish Verse and we were quickly satisfied that it was so by what followed which was Pertransire cave nisi prius dixeris Ave Regina coeli mater What followed was so defaced that we could make nothing of it neither indeed were we solicitous about it being abundantly satisfied from what we had read that it was a Statue of the most Blessed Virgin when we returned to our Portugueze we asked him as we did the People also at our Inn how he came to know certainly that it was the Statue of a Heathen Goddess and we found him and them all in the same Story that the Name of the Goddess was written under it and that it was the constant Tradition of the City and Country nothing known only it is commonly said That they came into these Parts and wrought wrought Miracles and returned afterwards to Babylon from whence they came others affirming that they died in Coulaon there being nothing writ of them that is Authentick neither does it appear that they were ever canonized by the Church but on the contrary since they came from Babylon there is just cause to suspect that they might be Hereticks Wherefore the Synod doth command That all the Churches which are dedicated to them be dedicated to all the Saints and that the Festivities used to be kept to their Honour and the Nerchas that used to be given upon their days shall be given on All Saints day being the first of November and for the future there be no more Churches dedicated to them Churches and Festivities being never to be dedicated nor Prayers made to any but to Saints canonized and approved of by the Church Decree XXVI WHereas Experience has demonstrated that many Churches have been Robbed by reason of the Poors Box being kept in them and not opened in many Years no not when the necessities of the Churches did require it therefore the Synod doth command That in every Church upon the first of January there be chose four substantial and consciencious Men to be Overseers of the Poor and to take care of the Church who at the end of the Year shall open the Poors Box and take out all the Alms they find therein which shall be put down in a Book by one of the four Overseers and the said Alms shall be afterwards put into a Chest Locked with three different Keys which shall stand in any one of their Houses as they shall agree of which Keys the Vicar shall have one and the other two the two Overseers who are not the Scrivener nor in whose Houses the Chest is not kept He that 's the Scrivener shall also have a Book in which he shall set down the Expences of the said Alms how much has been laid out upon the Fabrick of the Church and in the reparation of the Walls and Roof how much in adorning it and in necessary Linen and in Pictures and in keeping it clean And whensoever there is any great extraordinary Expence it shall not be made without the consent of the four Overseers according to custom neither shall the Chest be opened but when they are all five present or some one in the place of him that is lawfully hindred and when new Overseers are chose the old ones shall deliver the said Chest to them for which the Elect shall give a Receipt that so it may always appear how much has been received and how much is remaining And the Prelate in his Visitation shall look over the said Books and inform himself of the Expences and may order the Alms to be disposed of as he shall think fit and necessary And the Synod intreats the most Reverend Metropolitan to see that this Decree be put in execution at the Visitation he intends to make it being a thing of great advantage to the Churches Decree XXVII WHereas most of the Churches of this Diocess are kept very Nasty being full of Dust and Cobwebs for want of an Officer to keep the Church clean therefore the Synod
he has vouchsafed to me and you and all the faithful People of this Bishoprick in permitting us to celebrate this Synod maugre all the impediments which Satan the enemy of Souls had created to obstruct it by stirring up Contentions and Debates on purpose to separate this Christianity from the Vnion of the Catholick Church and to keep them in their old Errors as you all very well know I do also give many thanks to God for his having been pleased to order Matters so that this whole Affair should end with so much Joy Peace and Concord as you all see it does and so much to the sorrow of Infidel and Idolatrous Kings and of all the other Enemies of our Holy Catholick Faith I do also thank you my most dear Brethren and fellow Priests and Coadjutors and you my beloved Sons the Procurators of the People and all the other principal Persons who have been present at this Synod that not regarding the troubles of the Ways and Times nor the displeasure of the Kings to whom you are subject you have as true Christians desirous of Salvation over-looked all those Inconveniencies and obeyed our Precept in assembling your selves together to treat about the good of your Souls for which God will reward you with Eternal Life if you persevere in the purity of the Faith you have here profest and which you have been taught by this Synod and shall conform your Lives and Manners to its Decrees I trust in the Lord that he will carry you back safe to your Houses and bless you and your Families and Posterity for ever which God of his infinite Grace and Mercy grant Amen This Discourse being ended the most Reverend Metropolitan rose up and with abundance of tears gave his solemn Blessing to the People and after that the Arch-Deacon with a loud voice said Let us depart in peace to which the whole Synod answered in the name of Christ Amen And thus the Diocesan Synod ended the 26th of June in the Year 1599 to the Honour and Praise of our Lord Jesus Christ who with the Father and the Holy Spirit liveth and reigneth for ever Amen The Synod being ended in conformity to what had been ordained therein there was given to every one of the Vicars that was nominated to any Church by the most Reverend Metropolitan a Stone Altar Consecrated by his Lordship for that purpose their former Altars not having been duly Consecrated as also a Box with the Vessels of Holy Oils together with Directions how to use them There was moreover a Book of the Administration of the Sacraments according to the Roman use translated into Chaldee and Syrian given to every Vicar and another which contained the whole Christian Doctrine in the Malabar Tongue for the instruction of Children and others as also a Surplice to be used in the administration of Sacraments which was what had never been in use among them the Churches were also furnished with Corporals Vestments Frontals Cups and what-ever else was necessary to the Ministry of the Altar all which were wanting in most Churches and all the Controversies whether betwixt Corporations or particular Persons that were brought before the Synod were decided by the most Reverend Metropolitan and his Assessors after which they all departed in peace The most Reverend Metropolitan as soon as the Synod was ended begun his Visitation of all the Churches in the Diocess in order to put the Decrees of the Synod in execution reciting the principal and most necessary of them in every Church and delivering the Books Breviaries and Missals as well of th◠Churches as of particular Persons every where and burning the Books condemned by the Synod and correcting others puting the Vicars in possession of their Churches who were every where received as such by the People who settled Revenues upon them of which together with what was given them by the most Reverend Metropolitan they made Ollas or Instruments in the Churches creating four Church-wardens and opening the Church Boxes and in a word ordering whatever was necessary to be done The Clergy who had not been present at the Synod made a profession of the Faith the Confessors were examined and had Licences given them in writing according to their abilities and the necessity of the Church prohibiting all others to hear Confessions Where there was a Font they also Baptized all the Children that they found unchristened and had those brought in that were in the Heaths where there were many that were Eight and Ten Years old unchristened They Confirmed the whole People and Absolved all that were Excommunicate many of which according to their custom had continued so for twenty or thirty Years and especially for Murther for which they never grant Absolution no not at the hour of death the Metropolitan preached every day to Christians in the Church and to Infidels who flocked to see him in the Church Porch treating with them about Baptism when he came to say Ingredimini in Sanctam Dei Ecclesiam several of which he persuaded to turn Christians who after having learned their Catechism were Baptized by him at other places He Catechized the Children in the Malabar Tongue and finding there was none of them that understood their Catechism he ordered them to be taught it every day out of Books that were kept in the Church Finally where he met with any that were disposed to Marry he Married them and gave Orders about every thing else relating to the Synod which he did in the Form following After the most Reverend Metropolitan had been received by the whole People with great Joy and Festivity according to their fashion and carried in Procession to the Church the way as he went being covered with Cloth or Mats or Boughs of Trees after the common Ceremony of Blessing and Absolution the whole People both Men and Women came with a most profound Humility and Reverence to kiss his Hands and to yield Obedience to him he went to Church betimes in the Morning with the whole Clergy and People where after having Confessed himself before the High Altar which he did for the great need there was of having those Christians instructed in the Sacrament of Confession which was in use among them but in few places he said Mass When Mass was ended Father Francisco Roz Master of the Chaldean and Syrian Languages in the Jesuites College at Vaipicotta with the rest of the Fathers deputed to that Work and some of the most learned Caçanares assembled together in the Sacristy or in some other place appointed where in obedience to the Excommunication of the Synod all the Syrian Books were brought before them as well those that belonged to the Churches as those belonging to private Persons all which were emended delivering those which were condemned by the Synod to the Metropolitan who burnt them all The Metropolitan having in the mean time put on his Pontificals sat down and Preached at length to the People all the necessary