Indian Christianity

HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA : M. M. NINAN
The remainder of this sketch is compiled almost exclusively, very frequently in the actual words of the writer, from a
paper prepared on this subject by the Rev. David Fenn, shortly before his death, for the Indian Christian
Intelligencer, December 1877.
When the Portuguese first reached India in 1498, under the leadership of Vasco de Gama, they came in contact
with these Syrian Christians, who welcomed them joyfully as fellow-religionists, and expressed their desire to put
themselves under the protection of the King of Portugal as a Christian Sovereign. They told Vasco de Gama that
they numbered about 30,000 persons. This number was in all probability far below the mark. In the year 1500 two
Syrian Christians, brothers, accompanied the Portuguese to Europe. One died at Lisbon, the other after visiting
Rome and Venice, in which latter place he published an account of himself and his travels under the title of The
Travels of Joseph the Indian, returned to Travancore.
It was just one hundred years later that the Roman Catholic hierarchy, acting under directions from the Pope, and
calling in the aid of the Portuguese military power, succeeded in forcibly subjugating the Syrian Church to the
domination of Rome, Cardinal Menezes, Archbishop of Goa, was the great mover in this aggression. He was a man
of marvellous energy and determination. For fifty years previous to his arrival, the Jesuits and other Romanists had
been labouring to effect the voluntary submission of the Syrian Christians to the Pope, but without success.
Menezes at first in like manner tried persuasive measures, but he found them too wedded to their connection with
the Eastern Church to yield to the wishes of one so powerful .even as they knew him to be. Having obtained the
help of the Hindu Rajah of Cochin, in whose territory most of the Syrians resided, he summoned a council or synod
at Udiamparur. This synod assembled on June 20, 1599. By force and fraud Menezes carried all before him. .His
decrees involving transubstantiation, Mariolatry, seven sacraments, and celibacy of the clergy — articles till then
foreign to the Syrian Church — were declared binding. The Inquisition was established, and a wholesale burning of
Syrian MSS. of the Holy Scriptures and service books took place. These proceedings were followed up by other
violent measures. His policy seemed, successful. For sixty years the ascendancy of Rome was maintained,
although the Syrian Christians never ceased to make attempts to restore their connection with the Eastern Church.
One Bishop was sent to them at their earnest entreaty from Antioch, but he was taken prisoner by the Portuguese,
carried to Goa, handed over to the Inquisition and burnt alive as a heretic in 1654.
'In 1661 the Dutch took Quilon and in 1663 Cochin also. Although they showed no particular interest in the Syrians,
yet they rendered them the greatest service by ordering all Romish ecclesiastics to quit the country.
The Syrian Church was once more free, and in 1665 a Bishop named Mar Gregorius, who had been consecrated
by the Jacobite Patriarch of Antioch, safely arrived in the country. Mr. White-house remarks on this : " to have an
Oriental Bishop among them, as really opposed to Rome as any of themselves, was a cause of great joy ; and
Gregory was everywhere hailed by the anti-Romish party as a liberator from spiritual tyranny.' During the 200
years that have since elapsed, the Syrian Church has maintained its connection with the Jacobite Patriarch, who
resides at Mardin in Armenia.( The term Jacobite is derived from Jacob Albardi, who adopted the tenets of the
Eutychians in the sixth century)
The English succeeded the Dutch in 1 795. During the 130 years that the Dutch occupied the country little or no
interest seems to have been shown by them in the well-being of the Syrian Church. It was not long after their
occupation of the country that the English instituted an enquiry into the condition of the Christian population of
Malabar. For this purpose Dr. Claudius Buchanan, a Chaplain in Bengal, was commissioned by Lord Wellesley to
visit the Syrian Christians in 1806. In this work he obtained the cordial assistance of Colonel Macaulay, the first
British Resident of Travancore.
The Christian Researches, published soon after this visit, excited the liveliest interest among Christians in England.
One practical result that followed was that the Church Missionary Society, at the invitation of Colonel Munro, who
had succeeded Colonel Macaulay as Resident of Travancore, undertook a Mission to the Syrian Church in the
years 1816-17.
Messrs. Bailey, Baker, Fenn and Norton were the first missionaries. The object alike of the Resident, the Society,
and the missionaries, was to aid the Syrian Church to reform itself, without in any way interfering with its liberty.
The means used to carry out this end were
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