white heat of indignation. They gathered together in thousands round the Coonen cross in a village near Cochin, and took an oath renouncing the Portuguese bishops. Since their own Syrian bishop was a prisoner in the hands of the enemy, these people elected a substitute, Mar Thomas i., for the temporary government of the province. But the result was a split of the Syrian Church, one party adhering to the Papal Church as Romo-Syrians, while the more daring spirits reverted to the Syrian usages. It is estimated that the former, known as Puthencoor, or the new community, now number about 110,000, while the latter, the Palayacoor, or old community, amount to about 330,000.
Ten years later the Dutch obtained possession of Cochin. These new masters ordered foreign Roman Catholic ecclesiastics out of their territory, and the Syrians continued to obtain their bishops from the catholicos of Babylon. But in the year 1665, Gregorius, the Jacobite metropolitan of Jerusalem, appeared among the Syrian Christians at Malabar. These people were at the time without a consecrated bishop, the communication with the catholicos having broken down. For twelve years they had been served by Mar Thomas, the bishop whom they had elected, but who had not received episcopal ordination. Gregorius now duly consecrated Thomas to his office, at the request of his flock, in spite of the fact that the metropolitan was a member of another communion which stood in relations of mutual excommunication to his Church. Gregorius remained in the country administering the affairs of the Church conjointly with Thomas. In this way the Nestorian Church in India passed under Jacobite rule—voluntarily, and apparently without any consciousness of the irregularity of its action. We could not have a plainer proof of the condition of indifference to theological dogmas to which it had arrived. So things went on till the end of the century, apparently giving rise to no confusion of teaching or clash of customs. The Church was ruled by a succession of Jacobite prelates, some of
