CHAP.
IV.

"found in the countries of their first captivity."5

66

This extract seems to contain all that has been, or that can be, satisfactorily said upon this intricate question. We have the journal of a converted Jew,6 who has travelled through Asia, as far as British India, and in other countries, in quest of the lost ten tribes, but has returned without discovering them. Some Jews at Bokhara told him, "that the ten tribes are beyond China.”7 We know, from the correspondence and journals of the Romish missionaries, that the Jews are numerous in some parts of that country; but there is no more reason to suppose that they are of the lost ten tribes, than their brethren of Cashmere, Affghanistan, and other regions. It were foreign from the subject of this History to pursue the question further but the digression thus far, suggested by the notice of M. Manouchi, can hardly fail to interest the Christian reader.

5 Buchanan's Christian Researches, pp. 239-244.

6 Joseph (now the Rev. Dr.) Wolff. -Researches and Missionary Labours among the Jews, &c.

7 Ibid, p. 199.

BOOK VI.

CHAPTER I.

CONTINUATION OF THE HISTORY OF THE CHURCH
OF MALABAR.

1. THE transactions of the Jesuits in Malabar at this period are involved in much obscurity. There can be little doubt that their silence is correctly attributed to their anxiety to bury in oblivion the misconduct of their prelates, which led to the irreparable loss they soon sustained in those parts. They have not even named, in any authenticated record, the Latin Bishops who followed Francis Roz; and it would have been difficult to ascertain to what order they belonged, but for the incidental mention of them by the Portuguese Jesuit, Francis Barreto, and others, from whom it appears that they were of their own order.

1 Barreto's Relat. Status, Christian Malabaren, anno 1645, edita Romæ. Raulin. Hist. Ecc. Mal. pp. 439, &c. Urban Cerri's, Present state of Religion,' p. 131. It will be remembered that this writer was secretary to the Propaganda Society at Rome. La Croze, pp. 337, &c. Appendix, pp. 35, &c.

CHAP.

I.

Stephen de

Britto and
Francis

Garzia suc

cessively prelates of Malabar.

A. D.

1634.

A. D. 1636.

2. The prelate that succeeded to the bishopric after the death of J. Xavier, was Stephen de Britto, who is said, by F. Barreto, to have filled the see seventeen years. It seems to be uncertain what year he was elevated to the see, or when he died: but the more prevalent opinion is, that he succeeded to it in 1618, and died in 1634. He was followed by Francis Garzia, another Jesuit, whose pride and intolerance, as will soon appear, made the Syrians weary of the Roman yoke, to which many of them had from the first submitted with reluctance; and they were now provoked to shake it off. The first threatening appearance of the disturbances that led to this issue was observed by a Carmelite monk, Philip de la Trinité, who was in India during the years 1636 and 1637. The storm may have been gathering, however, before the elevation of F. Garzia, who is said to have succeeded to the bishopric about the year 1636.2

Of all the Jesuit missions in India, that of Malabar was at one time the most promising. But, according to Philip, the Carmelite just mentioned, and other writers already named, their foolish attempts to supersede the Syriac language in the church service; together with their pride, avarice and intolerance, towards all who did not conform in every respect to the Latin ritual; roused a spirit of opposition that, in the nineteenth year of Francis Garzia's epis

2 Raulin, p. 439. Others give 1744 as the date of Garzia's elevation. The general account here given of the succession of Jesuit Bishops in Malabar is confirmed by Father John Maracci, Proctor of Goa, in an account of the East India Missions which he presented to the Propaganda at Rome in 1649. La Croze, App. pp. 36, 37.

3 Lib. ii. cap. xiii. p. 119. Vincent de S. Maria, p. 150. La Croze, p. 338, &c.

copate, and about fifty years after the departure
of Menezes, brought the boasted achievements
of the latter prelate to ruin. Philip the Car-
melite complains, that the Jesuits exerted their
power to prevent the publication of all that he
knew respecting the circumstances that led to
this result; 4
nor was he the only writer that
suffered from the same influence. Among
others may be named an Italian, who had
made a voyage to India, and after his return
prepared an account of his travels, with the
intention of publishing it at Venice. But the
Jesuits, finding that he had given a full detail
of their proceedings in Malabar, contrived,
through intrigues, to procure the suppression
of the work before its publication.5

A. D.

1645.

tians' dissa

oppressions

no redress

and choose

deacon for

3. The oppression of the Jesuits is the only The Chriscause to be assigned for the Syrians' separation tisfaction from the Church of Rome; and the following the Jesuits are some of the arbitrary acts which impelled obtaining them to take this decisive step. The Jesuits from Rome, had effectually prohibited the marriage of their they revolt, priests; seized upon all their churches, and the Archsuspended images in them; bribed as many priests as they could to connive at their proceedings, and treated the people generally as slaves. The Christians sent repeated complaints of their treatment to Rome, but without obtaining the least satisfaction, that court being too much interested in the general services of

4 M. Renaudot, pp. 184, 188. La Croze, pp. 338-357. The writers chiefly followed in the sequel are Raulin and Vincent Maria, of the fraternity of St. Caterina de Sienna. The latter was a Romish missionary in India; and he wrote his account of the proceedings in the Serra with great caution, wishing, if possible, to avoid offending the Jesuits. He is constrained, however, to declare, that they treated the poor Syrians as slaves. 6 Id. p. 348.

5 La Croze, p. 339.

their ruler.

A. D. 1655.

CHAP.

I.

FourCarmelites sent

to reclaim

them.

the Jesuits, to interfere with their proceedings. At length, impatient at the Pope's delay to redress their grievances, or even to notice their remonstrances, they determined to submit no longer, and came to the resolution of renouncing the domination of the Roman prelate, and choosing an ecclesiastical ruler of their own. The person selected was their Archdeacon, Thomas, a near kinsman of the late Archdeacon, and his immediate successor. Him they now resolved to obey as their only superior, until they should obtain a Bishop of their Church. La Croze mentions here the consecration of this Archdeacon by twelve cattanars; but it did not take place till some time afterwards, when they had received much further provocation from their oppressors. Its consideration is, therefore, postponed.

4. This defection threw the Jesuits and from Rome Portuguese into great consternation. The news was immediately despatched to Rome, where it arrived about the commencement of the pontificate of Alexander VII. The Pope, alarmed at an event of which it was easy to foresee the consequences if suffered to proceed, determined to act with promptitude in his measures to heal the breach. It was well known at Rome, that the pride, indiscretion, and violence of the Jesuits had driven the Syrians to desperation : the Pope, therefore, deemed it expedient for the present to supersede them. For this purpose he determined to send to India some of his barefooted Carmelites, who had for several years signalised themselves in the eastern missions. Accordingly, four of this order were nominated for the enterprize-Hyacinthe de St. Vincent, Marcel de St. Yves, Joseph de St. Maria, and Vincent Maria de St. Caterina de