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
whole Christianity into that for some time none of them were found so hardy as to venture to go among them The news of this great and unexpected Heat as it did strangely afflict the Arch-Bishop who had set his Heart so much on the reducing of those Christians so it was the thing that made him resolve to go in Person to the Serra to try what his Presence and Authority would do Not only the Viceroy but the whole Clergy and Laity and particularly the whole Chapter of Goa together in a body did all they could as it is said to disswade him from so dangerous an enterprise but tho' he was deaf to all the Remonstrances of his Friends yet upon a War breaking out suddenly in the Year 1598. betwixt the Kings of Mangate and Paru in whose Territories most of these Christian Churches stand he thought fit to put off his Journey for that Year satisfying himself with writing a Letter to the Arch-Deacon to perswade him to reconcile himself and his Church to that of Rome and acquainting him with his Intentions to visit all the Churches in the Serra in Person so soon as the forementioned War was over which he believed would be very speedily The Arch-Deacon when he received this Letter dreading nothing so much as the Arch-Bishop's coming in Person among them declared that he had refused to Subscribe the forementioned Profession of Faith for no other reason but because he was Commanded to do it before the Rector of the Jesuites College of Vaipicotta with whom and his whole Order he pretended to be justly dissatisfied giving the Arch-Bishop to understand at the same time that if he would order any other Priest or Friar to take his Subscription that he was ready to make it But the Arch-Bishop looking upon this only as a Trick to throw an Odium upon the whole Order of Jesuites and that for no other reason but because they were the most industrious in the reduction of those Christians to the Roman Faith would not comply with the Arch-Deacon's Request in naming some body else to take his Subscription for which Conduct the Arch-Bishop was very much blamed most People and especially the other Orders of Friars murmuring against him as one grown so fond of the Jesuites as to lose the reduction of so many thousand Souls rather than displease the Jesuites But the Jesuites who sacrifice all Interests and Obligations to the Honour of their Order have requited the Arch-Bishop but very ill for this his great kindness for them in having reported this Affair so here in Europe as to rob him of that which he esteemed his chief Glory to wit the Reduction of this Church to the Roman Faith For in the History of the Jesuites in the Indies published by Pieire du Jarri a Jesuite and printed at Bourdeaux in the Year 1608. we have all that is said by the Portuguezes of Mar Abraham and his Arch-Deacon's great aversion to the Roman Church and particularly to the whole Order of Jesuites flatly contradicted for in that History we are told that Mar Abraham had such an extraordinary kindness for the Jesuites that for some time before his Death he put himself so entirely into their hands as to be governed by them in all things and that the Arch-Deacon George had such an high Opinion of their worth as to declare to all the World that without their aid and assistance he should not know after the Arch-Bishop's Death how to Govern the Diocess It is furthermore said that Mar Abraham when he was upon his Death-bed called the Rector of the College of Vaipicotta to him and having all his Clergy about him declared that he committed his Flock to the Bishop of Rome as the chief Pastor and Prelate of the whole Church and Commanded the Arch-Deacon and all his Priests to obey the Jesuites whom his Holiness had sent to cultivate that Vineyard in all things and to be sure to follow the Doctrines that they taught which were the whole truth and nothing but the truth after which Charge he is said furthermore to have beseeched and conjured the Rector by the love of Christ and the great friendship there had been always between them to take care of the Government of his Church after his Death and to have ordered an authentick instrument to be made of all this to remain as a Testimony of his last Will and of the Faith he died in The same History furthermore tells us That this Church was so far reconciled to the Pope in the Year 1596. that when the Jubile of Clement VIII was published among them by the Jesuites they gave his Holiness a thousand Blessings for it and took a singular pleasure in pronouncing his Name and that during the whole time of the Jubile they were at Church from Morning to Night without taking any refection and were so zealous to confess themselves to the Fathers that they waited in the Church till Midnight in great Crowds to do it Now according to this report of things the Arch-Bishop when he came into the Serra had little more to do than to open his Arms to embrace a People who being before hand prepared by the Jesuites were ready to throw themselves into them But to leave Romance and return to History having only observed by the way that it is visible from this gross misrepresentation of those Affairs how little regard is to be had to the Jesuites Reports of their Feats in the Indies since to support a Story purely invented for the Honour of their Order they do not boggle to pretend to have an authentick instrument of the truth of it and that drawn up by the Order of a dying Prelate But a thing happened at this time which tho' in it self not considerable did abundantly manifest how little disposed the Clergy of this Church was to submit to the Pope A Boy that went to School to the Jesuites at Vaipicotta having been taught by them to name the Pope in his Prayers before the Patriarch of Babylon being over-heard doing it in the Church by some of the Malabar Priests was after they had beat him severely turned out of the Church they spoke also to his Father to whip him out of praying for the Pope who they said was none of their Prelate nor had any thing to do with them The Arch-Bishop being informed thereof writ immediately to the Arch Deacon commanding him to make Examples of those impudent Hereticks for what they had said and done to the Boy which the Arch-Deacon was so far from doing that he Honoured them the more for it By the way the Jesuites teaching their Scholars to pray for the Patriarch of Babylon tho' after the Pope is one instance among others of their Conscience in those Parts being subservient to their Policy But the World continuing still to blame the Arch-Bishop for not putting the Affairs of the Serra into some other hands than those of the Jesuites against whose order that whole
indispensable obligation to submit themselves to the Pope After he had done his Sermon which lasted an hour and an half and explained to them the Doctrine of the Sacrament of Confirmation and then called upon them to come to it the Congregation tho' they had heard him till then very quietly began to cry out with great fury That they would never be Confirmed by him that being a thing that none of their Prelates had ever used and that it was no Sacrament of Christ's Institution but an Invention of the Portuguezes to make them their Slaves by setting a Mark on their Foreheads and giving them a Box on the Ear which is what all the Roman Bishops do in Confirmation and tho' the Dastards in Vaipicotta had been so tame as to suffer themselves to be buffeted and enslaved by him they would never endure it nor suffer him to touch their Beards or their Wives Faces that he might go home in a good hour to his Portuguezes and let them alone with their Religion and if he did continue to disturb them thus it should cost him dear The Arch-Bishop heard all this with great patience and sitting down endeavoured to convince them of the Truth of the Sacrament of Confirmation but when he perceived that they were the worse rather than the better for what he said to them having mustered all his Courage together he rose up and having advanced two steps with his Crosier in his hand he told them with great heat That the Faith he Preached to them was the Faith of Christ and St. Thomas and was believed by all Christians and that he was ready to die to confirm the truth of it but they being as ready to die for their Religion as he was or pretended to be for his that Argument had no effect at all upon them He furthermore challenged all those that Talked against the Roman Faith by Night in Corners to come forth if they durst to dispute with him publickly which the Arch-Deacon who the Night before had assembled most of the considerable Christians of Paru together and had made them promise never to throw off the Patriarch of Babylon taking to himself he rose up in a passion and having asked aloud who they were that taught Heresies in the dark and that Preached no where but in Corners flung out of the Church and going into the Town picked up eight or ten Boys whom he presented to the Arch-Bishop to be confirmed by him pretending that with all that he was able to do he could perswade no more to come The Arch-Bishop having confirmed these Boys returned to his Gallies very angry and finding there was nothing more to be done at Paru he determined to Sail next Morning to Mangate to see how those Christians stood affected When he came to the Church of Mangate a Town chiefly inhabited by Christians he found the Church filled with Houshold Goods and Women by reason of the War that was then on foot between the Kings of Mangate and Paru After having comforted the Christians for the Losses they had sustained and given them his Blessing he began to Preach against the Errors they had been Educated in But having advice that there were some Amouços coming after him from Paru he went straightways aboard his Gallies and rowing away before Night he arrived next Morning at Cheguree a place belonging to his Friend the King of Cochim where having sent ashore an Order to the Caçanares and Christians to meet him at the Church he had word sent him that the Church doors were all shut and there was neither Man Woman nor Child to be seen in the whole Village he was informed at Night that the Arch-Deacon was in the Town but that he had shut himself up in a House and was resolved never to see his Lordship again The Portuguezes that were in his Train as well Ecclesiasticks as Seculars were at him perpetually to give over this enterprise and not to expose his Person and Dignity as he did to no purpose but instead of returning any answer to their Importunities he retired all alone to his Cabin where he wrote a long Letter to the Arch-Deacon in which he swore that he remembred nothing that was past and that he had no design of doing him any harm and if he would but do him the favour to come and speak with him once more he did not doubt but that he should be able to convince him of his Errors promising with all to do great things for him if he would but entirely submit himself to the Roman Church This Letter was delivered the same Night to the Arch-Deacon who having read it called the Caçanares together and told them that it being a scandalous thing in them to decline treating with the Arch-Bishop above board about the Affairs of Religion he was for their going to wait upon him to hear what he could say but with such a Guard that it should not be in his Power to make them Prisoners Having all agreed to this Proposition they sent to the Arch Bishop to let him know That if he would be pleaseâ— to come ashoar they would wait upon him The Arch-Bishop sent them back word That thâ— Sun was too hot to stand in and desired theâ— therefore to come aboard his Galley which laâ— with her Stern on ground The Arch-Deacoâ— and Caçanares seeing the Galley quite surroundeâ— by their People ventured to go aboard wheâ— being come they were conducted to the Arcâ—â—Bishop's Cabin where they found him with aâ— his Priests Jesuites and several Gentlemen eâ—pecting them After some discourse the Arcâ—â—Deacoâ— told the Arch-Bishop That it was true they had not received his Grace so courteously as might have been expected nor indeed as they intended to have done had he not fallen so foul upon their Patriarch whom tho' he had been pleased to call an Excommunicate Heretick they knew to be both a Catholick and a most holy Man and endeavoured to introduce several Novelties into the Serra which they and their Forefathers had never so much as heard of before To all which the Arch-Bishop answered That he was sure they were not ignorant of the Patriarch of Babylon 's being a Professed Nestorian and not to trouble them with any Arguments to prove that all Nestorians must be Hereticks he would only ask them one single Question which was Whether they believed the Gospel of St. John They told him they did and would die rather than deny any thing that was revealed in it Well then said the Arch-Bishop pray tell me how you can reconcile what St. John saith The word was made Flesh and dwelt among us with what your Patriarchs and Bishops have taught you to wit that the Word did not make it self Flesh and that Christ was not God and that God did not make himself Man for do you not sing in your Churches upon the Feast of the Nativity that the Word did not make it self Flesh as the unbelieving Romans teach but did
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
well and faithfully to discharge the said Office and truly and exactly to relate all that should be said by his Lordship or any other Person in the Synod without any addition or diminution as also to read in the Congregations all the Decrees and Determinations of the Synod which were to be in the Malabar Tongue And whereas Truth it self has testified That in the mouth of two or three there is all Truth therefore for the greater security there were given to the said Interpreter by the most Reverend Metropolitan as Assistants the Reverend Fathers * He was afterwards made Bishop of the Christians of St. Thomas Francisco Roz and Antonio Toscano of the Society of Jesus in the College of Vaipicotta in this Diocess who being well skilled in the Malabar Tongue were to observe all that was related by the Interpreter and in case he was at any time faulty to correct him there were besides several others present Natives as well as Portuguezes that were well vers'd in both Languages Decree I. THe Congregation being met and all placed according to their Order the Metropolitan seated in his Chair said In the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost Three Persons and One only True God Amen My beloved Brethren you the Venerable Priests and my most dear Sons in Christ you the Representatives and Procurators of the People Does it please you that for the Praise and Glory of the Holy and undivided Trinity the Father Son and Holy Ghost and for the Increase and Exaltation of the Catholick Faith and the Christian Religion of the Inhabitants of this Bishoprick and for the destruction of the Heresies and Errors which have been sown therein by several Hereticks and Schismaticks and for the purging of Books from the false Doctrines contained in them and for the perfect Union of this Church with the whole Church Catholick and Universal and for the yielding of Obedience to the Supreme Bishop of Rome the Universal Pastor of the Church and Successor in the Chair of St. Peter and Vicar of Christ upon Earth from whom you have for some time departed and for the extirpation of Simony which has been much practised in this Bishoprick and for the regulating of the Administration of the Holy Sacraments of the Church and the necessary Use of them and for the Reformation of the Affairs of the Church and the Clergy and the Customs of all the Christian People of this Diocess We should begin a Diocesan Synod of this Bishoprick of the Serra They answered It pleaseth us Then the most Reverend Metropolitan asked them again Venerable Brethren and most beloved Sons in Christ since you are pleased to begin a Synod after having offered Prayers to God from whom all Good proceedeth it will be convenient that the Matters to be treated of appertaining to our Holy Faith the Church the Divine Offices the Administration of the Holy Sacraments and the Customs of the whole People be entertained by you with Benignity and Charity and afterwards by God's Assistance complied with with much Reverence and that every one of you should faithfully procure the Reformation of such things in this Synod as you know to be amiss and if any that are present shou'd happen to be dissatisfied with any thing that shall be said or done therein let them without any scruple declare their Opinion publickly that so by God's Grace it may be examined and all things may be truly stated as is desired but let not Strife or Contention find any room among you to the perverting of Justice and Reason neither be ye afraid of searching after and embracing the Truth Decree II. THe Synod by Virtue of Holy Obedience and upon pain of Excommunication to be incurred ipso facto does command all Persons whatsoever Ecclesiastical and Secular that have been called to and are present at this Synod not to depart the Town of Diamper where the said Synod is celebrated without express leave from the most Illustrious Metropolitan before the Synod is ended and they have signed the Decrees thereof with their own Hand or till all the rest are dismiss'd The Synod does likewise Request and Command all that have any Matter that is fitting to be offered to it for the Advancement of God's Honour and the Good of the Christians of this Bishoprick to acquaint the Metropolitan therewith either by Word or Writing or some Third Person that so what is convenient may be determined therein Decree III. BE it known and declared to all present and absent That no prejudice shall be done or follow to any Town Corporation or Village as to any Preeminence they may pretend to by the celebration of this Synod in the Town of Diamper as also that no Church or Person shall suffer by reason of the Places they sit in in this Synod but shall have their Rights and Privileges in the same state and vigour that they were in before and if any Doubts should happen to arise about this or any such Matter let them be brought before the Illustrious Metropolitan where both Parties being heard they shall have Justice done them Decree IV. THis Synod knowing that all that is Good is from God and that every perfect Gift cometh down from the Father of Light who giveth perfect Wisdom to those that with an humble Heart pray for it and being withal sensible that the beginning of true Wisdom is the fear of the Lord we do admonish and command all Christians as well Ecclesiasticks as Seculars gathered together in this Place to confess their Sins with a true contrition for them and all Priests to say Mass and others to receive the most Holy Sacrament of the Altar beseeching our Lord with humble and devout Prayers for good Success to all that shall be Treated of in this Synod to which intent there shall be two solemn Masses said in the Church every day during the Session of the Synod one of the Latins to the Holy Spirit and the other of the Syrians to our Lady the Blessed Virgin Mary whose Praise and Honour is to be particularly Treated of which Masses shall be said at such hours as to be no hindrance to the Congregations which henceforward shall meet every day in the Church at Seven in the Morning They shall likewise Latins as well as Syrians every day after Sun-set Sing the solemn Litanies of the Church with a Commemoration of our Lady for the good intention of the Synod Decree V. THE Synod for the preventing of some Inconveniences that may otherwise happen and to leave no room for unnecessary and hurtful Debates does command by virtue of Obedience and upon pain of Excommunication to be ipso facto incurred That while the Congregations last no Person whatsoever Ecclesiastick or Secular presume to meet together in any Junctoes with any Persons Ecclesiasticks or Seculars to Treat of any Matters appertaining to the Synod or this Church without express Licence from the most Illustrious Metropolitan that so all that is
St. Mark St. Luke and St. John the Acts of the Apostles writ by St. Luke the fourteen Epistles of St. Paul viz. One to the Romans two to the Corinthians one to the Galatians one to the Ephesians one to the Philippians one to the Colossians two to the Thessalonians two to Timothy one to Titus one to Philemon and to the Hebrews two of the Apostle St. Peter three of the Apostle St. John one of the Apostle St. James one of the Apostle St. Jude and the Revelation of the Apostle St. John all which Books with all their parts are Canonical and contain in them nothing but what is infallibly true Decree II. THe Synod declareth that in the Books of the New Testament used in this Church and writ in the Syrian or Syriack Tongue there is wanting in the Gospel of St. John the beginning of the 8th Chapter the History of the Adulteress that was carried before our Lord Christ as also in the 10th of St. Luke where it is said that Christ sent seventy two Disciples it is said he sent seventy Disciples and in the 6th of St. Matthew the words For thine is the Kingdom the Power and the Glory for ever is added to the end of the Lord's Prayer there is also wanting in the said Books the second Epistle of St. Peter the second and third Epistles of St. John and that of Jude and the Revelation of St. John and in the 4th Chapter of the first Epistle of St. John this Verse is wanting having been impiously left out Qui solvit Jesum non est ex Deo and in the 5th Chapter of the same Epistle these words are wanting There are three that bear Record in Heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost and these three are One and in the Old Testament there are wanting the Books of Esther Tobit and Wisdom all which the Synod commandeth to be translated and the passages that are wanting to be restored to their Purity according to the Chaldee Copies which are emended and the Vulgar Latin Edition made use of by holy Mother Church that so this Church may have the Holy Scriptures entire and may use it with all its parts as it was written and as it is to be used in the Universal Church to which end the Synod desireth the Reverend Father Francisco Roz of the Society of Jesus and Professor of the Syrian Tongue in the College of Vaipicotta in this Bishoprick that he would be pleased to take the trouble thereof upon him for which he is so well qualified by reason of his great skill both in the Syrian Language and the Scripture Decree III. WHereas the Holy Scriptures are the Pillars that support our Holy Faith and as it were the Foundations whereon it stands and wherein the Truth and Purity thereof is to be met with which has made all Hereticks in their endeavours to destroy the said Faith constantly and industriously to corrupt the Text of the Divine Scriptures partly by taking away such passages as did manifestly contradict their Errors and by perverting other places so as to make them * Seem to favour them It is hard to give any other reason than this why the Church of Rome tho' since the time of the Council of Trent she has corrected some hundreds of Errors in the Vulgar Latin did not think fit to correct that in the 3d. of Genesis which they apply to the Virgin Mary nor that in the 11th of Isaiah which they make use of to promote Pilgrimages to Jerusalem nor that in the 11th to the Hebrews which seems to make for the Adoration of Images nor that in the first Chapter of the 2d Epist of St. Peter which seems to give some countenance to the Invocation of Saints seem to favour them which hath also happened in this Bishoprick through its having been governed by Bishops who were Nestorian Hereticks and that used the same practices upon the Holy Scriptures that were in their hands in favour of their Heresies as in the 20th of the Acts of the Apostles where St. Paul saith Take heed to your selves and the whole Church over which the Holy Spirit hath made you Bishops to rule the Church of God which he purchased with his Blood the word God is impiously changed for that of Christ and it is said that Christ hath made them to govern his Church which he purchased with his own Blood because the Nestorians being instigated by the Devil will not acknowledge according to the Catholick Truth that God suffered and shed his Blood for us and in the fourth Chapter of the first Epistle of St. John this Verse is left out Qui solvit Jesum non est ex Deo because it contradicts the Nestorians who do impiously divide Christ by making him to have two Persons and in the 3d. Chap. of the same Epistle where it is said In this we know the Love of God because he laid down his Life for us the word God is maliciously left out and that of Christ put in its stead saying That in this we know the Love of Christ c. and so it favours the Nestorian Heresie which denies God to have dyed for us and in the 2d Chap. of the Epistle to the Hebrews where the Apostle saith We have seen Jesus for the Passion of his Death crowned with glory and honour that he by the Grace of God should taste death foâ— all men the Surian the better to make a difference of Persons in Christ which was what Nestorius taught has impiously added VVe have seen Jesus for the passion of his death crowned with honour and glory that the Grace of God praeter Deum or besides God might taste death for all and in the 6th of St. Luke where our Lord Christ saith Lend hoping for nothing again to favour and justifie their Usury they have made it Lend and from thence hope for something All which places being depraved and corrupted by Hereticks the Synod commandeth to be corrected in all their Books and to be restored according to the Purity and Truth of the Vulgar Edition used by Holy Mother Church entreating the most Illustrious Metropolitan forthwith to visit the Churches of this Diocess either in Person or by some well skilled in the Syrian Tongue whom he shall be pleased to depute Decree IV. THe Synod being informed that the Christians of this Diocess by reason of the Communication they have with Infidels and by living among them have imbibed several of their Errors and Ignorances namely three that are the common Errors of all the Infidels of these parts the first is That there is a * Transmigration This was not the Doctrine of this Church as appears plainly from what is said in twenty places of this Synod of her believing that the Souls of the Just departed this Life were in a Terrestrial Paradise where they were to remain till the day of Judgment Transmigration of Souls which after Death go either into the Bodies
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
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
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
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
shall meet with no Priests in the Church they shall then assemble as many Christians together as conveniently they can and bury the Corps in the Church-yard praying for their Souls with Christian Charity And whosoever shall neglect to bring their Dead to the Church and shall bury them in Profane Ground shall be severely punished by the Bishop Decree XXXIII WHereas the Small-Pox is looked upon in these parts as a very dangerous and infectious Distemper for which reason a great many Christians dying thereof are not carried to the Church nor buried in Holy ground herefore the Synod doth very much recommend it to the Vicars to take order that the Corps of such as die of that Sickness may be brought with due caution to the Church-yard where they with the rest of the Clergy at some distance are to recommend them and pray for them as they do for others and to see them interr'd all which Christian Charity will teach them to do according to the Obligation of their Office Decree XXXIV THe Synod doth order that no Town or Village wherein there is a Church dedicated to any Saint shall dedicate the same to any other or if they do they shall appoint another Orago or Wake so as to have two Festivals to prevent those Emulations that are common in these parts The Synod also condemns the * Ignorance Upon S. Teresa being joyned with St. James in the Patronage of Spain by Pope Vrban the VIIIth how loud did a great many people complain of the Indignity done to St. James their old Patron and General in all their Wars by that Partnership Among others Quivedo as in Honour bound being a Knight of the Order of St. James drew his pen in his Patron 's Quarrel and having laid down this as an undeniable position That St. James must necessarily be disparaged by having one joyned with him and especially a Woman in a Patronage he had enjoyed solely for so many Ages did manfully maintain that its being said in the Pope's Bull That nothing was granted therein to S. Teresa that should be in any wise to the prejudice or diminution of St. James did make that whole grant null and void for that joyning her with St. James in such an Office must necessarily lessen him 2dly That the Saints in Heaven did resent such Affronts 3. That it was monstrous Ingratitude in Spain to treat a Patron thus who had fought personally on Horseback for her in all her Battels with the Moors among whom to this day the Captain on the Whitehorse was formidable As to the Text in Scripture urged by S. Teresa's Friends for such a partnership viz. It is not good for man to be alone I will make him an help meet for him He saith That considering what was the true intent of those words when they were spoke such an application of them was profane and Heretical Ignorance of those Christians who imagine that they do an injury to a Church in dedicating a New one in the same Country to a different Saint from whence it is that all the Churches in the same Country are as it were called by the same Name and doth furthermore command That upon the Orago's of Churches where there are Sermons people having no Sermon in their own Parish do repair thither that so there may be no divisions among Churches to the prejudice of Charity and Christian Unity as the Synod is informed there is in many places all which it is desirous to remove as not becoming Christians and for the further service of the Church commands Fraternities to be erected but especially for the festivities by which means such things as are necessary for the Church may be greatly advanced Decree XXXV THe Synod doth very much recommend it to the Vicars of Churches and other Priests to labour much in the Conversion of Infidels and that by just and gentle methods namely by the preaching of the Gospel to bring them to the Catholick Faith and to omit no opportunity of instructing as well the Naires as the Chegos or baser sort of People in the knowledge of the Truth but above all the poor Malleans who live in the Heaths who as the Synod is informed are less wedded to their Errors particularly that of the Adoration of Idols and are much better disposed to receive the Evangelical Doctrine than others and whensoever any Infidel is converted the Priest shall advise the Prelate thereof that he may take such order therein as he shall judge most convenient and to be most for the service of Christ earnestly entreating that the Conversions that are begun in some parts by the most Reverend Metropolitan may be carried on by the Clergy of this Diocess by providing themselves continually of such Priests as are fit to advance the same and where-ever there is any considerable number of Converts they shall immediately build Churches and appoint Vicars to take the Cure of their Souls Decree XXXVI VVHereas the Synod is informed That the meaner sort of People are much better disposed to receive the Faith than the Naires or Nobles and being extreamly desirous to find some way whereby such well disposed People may be made Christians so as to assemble together with the old Christians as why should they not since they all adore the same God with whom there is no distinction of Persons and are all of the same Faith and do all use the same Sacraments and whereas after mature deliberation and having oftentimes recommended the matter to God and conferred about the most proper methods for the effecting of it in the Congregations we have not been able to find any that are effectual by reason of the Heathen Kings and Lords to whom all the Christians in these parts are subject who if they should observe that we withdraw their common Subjects from their Religion would correspond with us no longer to the loss of the Trade and Commerce we do at present maintain with them all which being observed by the Synod it doth command that if any of the poorer sort of People shall desire to turn Christian that they be received to Baptism and the Prelate shall be advised thereof that he may give order for the building of distinct Churches for them and may appoint Priests to take the Cure thereof that so the meaner sort of People may not have the Gate of Christianity and Salvation shut against them as it has been hitherto in this Church and in case they have not a Church to themselves they shall then hear Mass without doors in the Porch until Christ shall provide some better way for them and the Heathen Kings shall be brought to allow the mean People that turn Christians to be esteemed as Noble upon the account of the Relation that all Christians stand in to one another and the Synod doth beg it of His Majesty the King of Portugal that by means of the great Power he has in these parts he would procure this privilege of
for their Son whereupon the Bishop passeth an Olla or Certificate and so the Adoption is perfected the Synod doth command That from henceforward the Prelate do not accept of an Adoption from any that have Children of their own or in case they have none yet it shall be declared in the Olla That if they shall afterwards happen to have any that the said Olla shall be void to all intents and purposes by which means the great Injustices that are now so common in this Diocess will be prevented Decree XXIII THe Synod being desirous to have all the Christians of this Diocess to live together in Villages by reason of the great inconveniencies they are under that live in the Heaths as well by reason of the great communication they must have with Infidels as for wanting opportunities of going to Church and Sacraments whereby they are kept in ignorance of Christianity doth in order thereunto very earnestly recommend it to all Christians that live in Heaths to do all they are able either to come and live in some Village or to build new Villages with Churches that so they may live more civilly and be separated from the communication of Infidels and be the better instructed in the Customs of our Holy Catholick Faith recommending it earnestly to the Vicars to persuade their Sheep thereunto for the Spiritual profit they will receive thereby which the Prelate shall also endeavour with all his power Decree XXIV THe Synod having taken into consideration the manifold Injustices Oppressions and Grievances wherewith Infidel Kings and Governours do often treat the Christians of this Bishoprick and that out of enmity to our Holy Catholick Faith and observing the necessity they are in of Defence and Protection doth with great instance desire That his Majesty the King of Portugal would be graciously pleased to take all the Christians of this Bishoprick under his Favour and * Protection By this we see the King of Cochim was not jealous without reason that the Arch-Bishop had a State design in the great pains and charge he was at in the reduction of his Christian Subjects and tho' nothing was talked of but the Pope and the Roman Obedience that the King of Spain and the augmentation of his strength in the Indies by the accession of so many new Subjects was the main Spring in the Enterprize I will not say tho' it is probable enough that the Arch-Bishop by magnifying this Service at the Court of Spain got first to be Governour of the Indies and afterwards to be Governour of all the Dominions of Portugal and President of the Council of State at Madrid but this we are sure of that that Service to the Crown of Spain was much boasted of here in Europe by others For the Jesuit Ilayus in his Book De Rebus Japonicis speaking of this very thing â—â—ith Cuae res quanto Regie Majestati emolumento sit latura nôrunt qui non ignorant quanti sit momenti gentem in tota India lectissimam à temporibus B. Thomae Christiano cultui deditum támque numerosum potentem ut armatos ad Triginta Millia in promptu habeat cum Lusitanis unire ad Ecclesiae Romanae obedientiam revocare in Fidem ditionemque Regis Catholici accipere But as it is visible that the increasing of the Portugueze strength in the Indies by the accession of so many new Subjects was what both the Arch-Bishop and Spanish Government aimed at chiefly in the troublesome and chargeable reduction of this Church So it is certain that from this very Year 1599 the Portugueze Historians do begin to reckon the declination of their strength in those parts who give the following Account of the three Ages of their Indian Government that it was in its Infancy till the Year 1561 and from that time till the Year 1600 in its Manhood or full strength and ever since has been in its Old declining Age and is now in truth become so decrepid as to be only the Ghost of a great Name Neither is this to be wondred at considering how common a thing it is for God to blast the most promising Securities when obtained by such violent and unlawful Methods Protection he being the only Christian King or Lord in all these Oriental Parts and the Christians of this Diocess shall on their parts be ready at all times to sacrifice their Lives to their Holy Catholick Faith the preservation of Christianity and the defence of Christians which they shall be always prepared to do with their Lives and Fortunes beseeching the most Reverend Metropolitan President of this Synod to present this their Petition to his Majesty and to let him know how ready all the Christians of this Bishoprick are to serve him Decree XXV WHereas in this Synod Matters pertaining to our Holy Catholick Faith the Holy Sacraments of the Church the Reformation of Affairs thereof and the Customs of Christian People have been handled the Synod doth command all Vicars of Churches not to fail to have all its Decrees Transcribed from the Original Malabar and to have a Copy thereof in all their Churches Signed by the Reverend the Arch-Deacon of this Diocess and the Rector of the College of Vaipicotta and upon every Sunday and Holy-day when there is no Sermon nor no Lecture upon the Catechism set forth by the most Reverend Metropolitan that a portion of this Synod be read to the People but on the Seasons when the said Catechism is ordered to be read it shall be read on Sundays and the Synod upon Holy-days that so all that is decreed therein may come to the knowledge of the People and may be remembred and observed by them the Original of the said Synod being Signed by the most Reverend Metropolitan and all the other Members thereof shall be put in the Archives of the Jesuites College of Vaipicotta in this Diocess from whence so many Copies as shall be thought necessary shall be transmitted to the Churches there shall also be another Original Signed by the most Reverend Metropolitan the Arch-Deacon and other Members kept in the Archives of the Church of Angamale called the Arch-Bishop's See that all Copies may at all times be Corrected according to either of those Originals and the Synod doth furthermore recommend it to all Vicars Priests and Curates and to all and every Christian of this Diocess and commands them all in the Lord to conform themselves to the Decrees of this Diocesan Synod and so far as is in their power to observe and cause them to be observed inviolably and to govern themselves by them in all things which the Synod is confident they will do with the help of God the Father Son and Holy Ghost who liveth and reigneth for ever Amen After the Decrees were read the Bishoprick was divided into Seventy-five Parishes whose Bounds were greater or lesser as was judged to be most convenient for the administration of the Holy Sacraments and the Spiritual Food
thee Peter that the †Faith Here the Bishop makes very bold with the Scripture again in quoting the Faith of thy Church as St. Luke's words Faith of thy Church may never fail The Faith of other particular Churches as we have seen may fail but the Faith of the Roman Church has never failed nor never will Wherefore Brethren fasten your selves close to this firm Pillar of the Roman Church against which according to our Saviour's promises the Gates of Hell shall never prevail which Gates are the Heresies that are and have been in the World You ought therefore to render many thanks to God for his having relieved you at this time by sending you the Lord Arch-Bishop for a Spiritual Pastor and Master who having left his Dwelling and quiet is at all this Trouble only for the sake of your Salvation and to rescue you from the errors you have hitherto lived in For I know and am certain that he is one of those Pastors which God spoke of by Jeremiah And I will give you Pastors according to my heart and they shall feed you with Knowledge and Doctrine Hitherto you have been fed with Errors and Ignorances and your Pastors have sought gain and not the Salvation of your Souls This Pastor as you see does not come to take any of your Goods from you but to spend his own for your profit and to put you in the right way to Heaven and Salvation From ‖ Whence I do not believe that the Arch-Bishops of Malabar made half so much of their Bishoprick as Bishop Andre did of his of Cochim or as Father Rez the Jesuit made of Malabar after he was preferr'd to it by the Pope whence you may clearly perceive the great difference there is betwixt him and those other Pastors or to speak more properly those Wolves which you have had hitherto among you as our Lord saith in Sheeps cloathing Hitherto your Errors have had some excuse because you could know no more but what your Masters taught you whereas from henceforward you shall have no manner of excuse neither before God nor Man if you do not become such as all that love you desire you to be The Faith and Doctrine that has been preached to you by the Arch-Bishop is the Faith of all the Christians in the Indies and of all Clerks and Religious in these Parts and which all Portugal Spain and in a word all * Christendom The Reformed the Greek the Muscovite the Georgian the Armenian the Antiochian Alexandrian and Abyssin Church are it seems no part of Christendom with this Declamer Christendom holds This is the Faith that was taught by the Son of God the Faith that St. Thomas preached and was preached also by St. Peter and the rest of the Apostles and if any shall teach the contrary let him be as St. Paul saith Anathema and Excommunicated and expelled the Society of the Faithful as he is from Christ his Faith and Grace The Lord give you a perfect knowledge of himself as it is desired by your Brother in the Lord. Writ at Cochim the 28th of June 1599. Your Brother in the Lord Bishop FREY ANDRE The SYNOD'S Answer The Lord Assist Us. To the most Illustrious and Reverend Lord Dom Andre the most worthy Bishop of Cochim The Diocesan Synod of the Christians of St. Thomas of the Bishoprick of the Serra assembled in the Town of Diamper wisheth eternal Health and Prosperity in our Lord. OVr most Reverend Metropolitan ordered your most Illustrious Lordship's Letter to this Synod to be read in a full Assembly of the Priests and People and having heard and understood it we rejoiced exceedingly in the Lord to perceive that the Holy Doctrine taught us by your Lordship is the same with that our Metropolitan has preached in all our Churches and has declared in this Synod as also the same that is preached by the Fathers all over this Diocess by which means we are the more confirmed in the Catholick Faith and the Obedience we owe to the Holy Roman Church our true Mother and to our Lord the Pope the Successor of St. Peter and Christ's Vicar upon Earth as is manifest from the Acts of the said Synod Signed by Vs as your Lordship may see and if we have hitherto been wanting to our Duty in these Matters it did not proceed from any Obstinacy of Mind or from any Inclination we had to be Hereticks or Schismaticks but purely for want of the Light of true Doctrine and healthful and Catholick Food which was not given us by our Prelates but who did instead thereof poyson us with the false Doctrines of Nestorius and several other Errors from which we are now by the Divine Mercy rescued and by the goodness of God and the Ministry of our Metropolitan enlightened from whence also rose the Rebellion which was made by us when the Truth began to be first preached to us as also all the Troubles and Vexations that we gave to our Metropolitan and the manifest Dangers we exposed him to for all which we are now heartily sorry and do dayly more and more lament it But whereas God has been pleased to enlighten us with his Doctrine the Metropolitan being discouraged by none of those things to go on preaching in our Churches the light of the Truth coming to us by that means we have cordially embraced and have with an unanimous consent and great alacrity made profession thereof in this Synod having also put the Affairs of our Church in the best Order we were able and submitting our selves to the Judgment of our Metropolitan Mar Aleixo who as our Master has instructed us in all things But whereas his Lordship after his Visitation of this Diocess is over is to go to reside in his * Own Diocess The Arch-Bishop cured them of these fears for some time at least at the end of his Visitation when he made a solemn renunciation of the Arch-Bishoprick of God and as solemn an acceptation of that of the Serra and that judicially and in Form desiring the Christians of St. Thomas to whom he delivered both those Instruments to sollicite the Pope and King of Spain to give way to the Translation and promising withal to employ all his own interest in both to perswade them to it but it seems all would not do for the next News we hear of him is That instead of being gratified with the Arch-Bishoprick of the Serra he was condemned to be Governour-General of the Indies for three Years and after that translated to the Primacy of Portugal own Diocess which we take notice of to our great Sorrow by which means we shall want a Special Protection we do therefore beg that until such time as God shall be pleased to send the Pastor among us which we expect from the Holy Apostolical See your Lordship as being the Prelate that lives nearest to us and from whom and your Predecessors this Church has received so many