152 TIIK DECLINE AND FALL title of Mother of God was offensive to their ear, and they measured with scrupulous avarice the honours of the Virgin Mary, whoni the superstition of the Latins had (ihiiost exalted to the rank of a cpoddess. Wiien her image was first presented to the disciples of St. Thomas, they indignantly exclaimed, " We are Cliristians, not idolaters ! " and their simple devotion was content with the veneration of the cross. Their separation from the Western world had left them in ignorance of the im- provements, or corruptions, of a thousand years ; and their conformity with the faith and practice of the fifth century would equally disappoint the prejudices of a Papist or a Pro- testant. It was the first care of the ministers of Rome to intercept all correspondence with the Nestorian patriarcli, and several of his bishops expired in the prisons of the holy office. The flock, without a shepherd, was assaulted b}^ the power of the Portuguese, the arts of the Jesuits, and the zeal of Alexis de Menezes, archbishop of Goa, in his personal visitation of the coast of Malabar. The synod of Diamper, at which he presided, consummated the pious work of the reunion, and rigorouslv imposed the doctrine and discipline of the Roman church, without forgetting auricular confession, the strongest engine of ecclesiastical torture. The memory of Theodore and Nestorius was condemned, and Malabar was reduced under the dominion of the pope, of the primate, and of the Jesuits who invaded the see of Angamala or (ranganor. Sixty years of A.D. 159D. servitude and hypocrisy were patiently endured; but, as soon as the Portuguese empire was shaken by the courage and industry of the Dutch, the Nestorians asserted, with vigour and effect, the religion of their fathers. The Jesuits were incapable of defending the power which they had abused ; the arms of foi'ty thousand Christians were pointed against their falling tyrants ; and the Indian archdeacon assumed the character of bishop, till a fresh supply of episcopal gifts and Syriac mission- aries could be obtained from the patriarch of Babylon. Since the expulsion of the Portuguese, the Nestorian creed is freely professed on the coast of Malabar. The trading companies of Holland and England are the friends of toleration ; but, if oppression be less mortifying than contempt, the Christians of St. Thomas have reason to complain of the cold and silent in- difference of their brethren of Europe. i- 1-" Concerning the Cliristians of St. Thomas, see Asseniannus, Ribhoth. Orient, ton), iv. p. 391-407, 435-451 ; Geddes's Church History of Malabar; and, above all, La Croze, Histoire du Christianisnie des Indes, in two vols. i2nio, La Haye, 1663
