The Same Methods in the East.
TURNING our attention from the Sabbath-keeping Christians of the West, to those of the East, we find that the methods used in Spain and Portugal were also used for the same purpose in India. On the Malabar coast of Hindustan, there were, in the beginning of the present century, a large number of Christians, who claim to have existed as a pure church from the time of the apostles, and who for thirteen hundred years had enjoyed a succession of bishops appointed by the patriarch of Antioch. Near the beginning of the sixteenth century the Portuguese formed a colony on this coast. They were glad to find a large number of Christian churches in the country, but sorry to learn that they did not own allegiance to the Pope of Rome. "When the power of the Portuguese became sufficient for their purpose, they invaded these tranquil churches, seized some of the clergy, and devoted them to the death of heretics. Then the inhabitants heard for the first time that there was a place called the Inquisition, and that its fires had been largely lighted at Goa, near their own land. But the Portuguese, finding that the people were resolute in defending their ancient faith, began to try more conciliatory measures. They seized the Syrian Bishop, Mar Joseph, and sent him prisoner to Lisbon, and then convened a synod at one of the Syrian churches called Diamper, near Cochin, at which the Romish Archbishop Meneses presided. At this compulsory synod, 150 of the Syrian clergy appeared. They were accused of the following practices and opinions: 'that they had married wives; that they owned but two sacraments, baptism and the Lord's supper; that they neither invoked saints nor worshiped images, nor believed in purgatory; and that they had no other orders or names of dignity in the church than priests and deacons.' These tenets they were called on to abjure, or to suffer suspension from all church benefices. It was also declared that all the Syrian books on ecclesiastical subjects that could be found should be burned, 'in order,' said the Inquisitors, 'that no pretended apostolic monuments may remain.' "The churches on the sea-coast were thus compelled to acknowledge the supremacy of the Pope, but they refused to pray in Latin, and insisted on retaining their own language and liturgy. This point they said they would only give up with their lives. The Pope compromised with them; Meneses purged their liturgy of its errors, and they retain their Syriac language, and have a Syriac college unto this day. These are called the Syro-Roman churches, and are principally situated on the sea-coast. "The churches in the interior would not yield to Rome. After a show of submission for a little while they proclaimed eternal war against the Inquisition; they hid their books, fled to the mountains, and sought the protection of the native princes who had always been proud of their alliance."—Buchanan's Christian Researches, ninth edition, London, 1812, pp. 107-110. Dr. Buchanan, who belonged to the English church, says: "I took this occasion to observe that there were some rites and practices in the Syrian church which our church might consider objectionable and nugatory."—Idem., p. 133. The observance of the Sabbath instead of Sunday, was undoubtedly one of these "objectionable and nugatory" practices. To change this practice the cruelties of the Inquisition were used. "The wretched victims to be sacrificed by the Holy Inquisition were ordered to advance separately. There was a man and a woman, and the images of four men deceased, with the chests in which their bones were deposited. The man and woman were black native Christians accused of magic, and condemned as apostates; but, in truth, as little sorcerers as those by whom they were condemned. "Two of the statues, also, represented persons convicted of magic, and the others, two new Christians who were said to have Judaized. One of these had died in the prisons of the Holy Office; the other expired in his own house, and his body had long since been interred in the parish church; but having been accused of Judaism after his decease, as he had left considerable wealth, his tomb was opened, and his remains disinterred to be burned at the Auto da Fe, whence it may be inferred that the Holy Inquisition affects, in imitation of our Saviour, to exercise its power on the quick and the dead."—Dellon's Inquisition at Goa, pp. 114, 115. "As soon as the condemned arrive at the place where the lay judges are assembled, they are asked in what religion they wish to die, without referring in any manner to the proceedings against them, which are presumed to have been perfectly correct, and the prisoners justly condemned, the infallibility of the Inquisition never being questioned. Upon this question being answered, the executioner lays hold of them, and binds them to the stake, where they are previously strangled if they die Christians, and burnt alive if they persist in Judaism or heresy, which so seldom happens that scarcely one instance has been known in four Acts of Faith, though few have passed, without a great number having been burnt."—Idem., pp. 116, 117.—Light of Home.