CHAP. Archdeacon's fears for his safety. Breach the confer ence. he oppressed. This will soon appear, when God, the righteous Judge of all the earth, wearied with the tyranny of the Portuguese in Malabar, delivered over their possessions to others, and thereby rescued the poor Christians from the yoke under which they had groaned for more than sixty years. 15. The object of both parties was, to produce the bulls and briefs upon which they respectively founded their claims; and Thomas de Campo soon perceived, that by consenting to submit the matter to the arbitration of such an assembly, he had taken a step that would prove most injurious to the interests of his church. Instead of carrying on the intrigues and perpetrating the cruelties imputed to him by the Bishop, he was not even in a position to show himself, and thought only of making his escape before the assembly had proceeded far with the business. The prelate, suspecting this, and desiring, above all things, to apprehend him, prevailed on the Court to make the churches of Candanate and Molandurté responsible for his person, under penalty of a great sum of money. 16. The Bishop had no difficulty in producing widened by his credentials to the satisfaction of the Court; but Iti Thomas, the Archdeacon's deputy, and the most active of his friends, had nothing to show, except the letter of Attalla. He is said to have complained, that the other title deeds were stolen by the cattanars of Diamper. On the whole, the conference, which was carried on with intrigues and severe menaces against the weaker party, tended rather to widen the breach, than to promote the desired union. Stories invented to discredit 17. About the beginning of October, 1661, the Archdeacon Thomas, it is asserted, caused to A. D. 1661. to justify violence. be read in the church of Molandurté a brief, which he pretended to have received from the Pope, Alexander VII. He then permitted the Archthe people to kiss it, exacting a fanam from deacon, and each for this favour. This was, according to the Bishop's the Romish historian, a brief of Indulgence from the same Pope; and as it was read in Syriac, none of the people understanding Latin, it is thought that a false translation might easily have been presented to them. The reading is said to have been followed by a feast and a discharge of cannon. This story is too simple a device to impose upon any but the weakest and most credulous partizans of the Bishop. The judicious and candid reader will perceive its discrepancy with the other story of the Carmelite, about the Armenian merchant from Mocha, with another pretended brief from the successor of Pope Alexander VII. But the whole tale is not yet told. The Archdeacon is reported, by the same authority, to have excommunicated all the ecclesiastics who had joined the Italian prelate. The bearer of the excommunication to Diamper was apprehended by the Bishop's attendants, and brought before him. After sharply rebuking him, he let him go. Another story is introduced at this period, which also bears all the appearance of a fiction, introduced to justify the prelate's subsequent proceedings. A young Indian having deserted the Archdeacon's service, and attached himself to the Bishop, is said to have reported, that his former master had distributed eighteen thousand fanams among the princes and nobles of the coast, to induce them to protract the discussion until the arrival of the Dutch, whom Assuming this to be the Madras single fanam, the sum would be about 1501. CHAP. Archdeacon with diffi culty makes they expected to see this year at Cochin. Upon this pretended discovery, the prelate writes" Since the Archdeacon has recourse to deception, in order to obtain that for which he could produce no reason, I find myself compelled to resort to force in defence of the reasons I have produced."2 Surely, when he penned this, he must have forgotten the representation he had so recently made, of the jeopardy in which he and the Christians stood from the violence of the Archdeacon and his party. 18. At that time there were two rival candidates for the throne of Cochin, both having his escape. been successively adopted by the aged Rannee, who was still alive. The prince, named Codormo, whose cause the Portuguese espoused, perceived that the most acceptable return he could make them for their services, would be to oppress the refractory Christians, and secure the person of the Archdeacon. At the request of the Bishop, he pillaged the towns of Candanate and Molandurté, and stationed one hundred naires around the church where the Archdeacon resided, in order to prevent his escape. His destruction now appeared inevitable. Every one thought that this unfortunate ecclesiastic would soon share the fate of poor Attalla, and become a victim on the altars of the Inquisition. The Bishop, overjoyed at the near prospect of terminating his labours at a blow, sent to Cochin for the Portuguese general and a considerable force. A great number of soldiers, accompanied by nearly all the clergy and monks of Cochin, marched immediately to Diamper, and never were the Portuguese seen to use more promptitude and zeal than on this occasion. 2 Giuseppe di S. Maria, p. 48. La Croze, p. 406. The prelate's spies were on the alert to inform him of every movement, and the troops waited to execute his commands. But while, with the sanguinary spirit of Saul, he "hunted his rival as a partridge in the mountains ;"3 the Archdeacon, like David, was under the Almighty's protection, and ran through the troops that environed him.4 He made his escape during the night, with his faithful companion, Iti Thomas, who was not less detested by the Portuguese than himself. A. D. 1661. chagrin at 19. The Carmelite prelate's chagrin at the Bishop's news of their escape may be seen in his own losing him. lamentations. "God knows," he says, " in what a condition I felt myself on hearing this intelligence! At first we were extremely afflicted to find that we had let two prizes of such importance slip through our hands; for we had already destined them for the Inquisition at Goa. But God, for some purpose now hidden from us, did not permit it; and we have experienced the truth of what is often said, that "affairs conducted by Divine Providence, are often enveloped in darkness and obscurity." What view can that man have taken of the Gospel of peace and love, who could reason thus upon such an issue? This proof that his murderous intentions were odious to the Almighty, whose providence he acknowledged in the event, should at once have turned him from his course. But no, he could not turn. The infatuation with which he embarked on it, instead of being checked, gathered strength from resistance, like a stone rolling down a declivity, and bounded forward with accelerated 5 5 Giuseppe di S. Maria, lib. ii. c. 8, p. 49. La Croze, p. 407. II. CHAP. force. force. Nothing, therefore, was farther from his mind than to interpret this dispensation of Providence, as he himself called it, in favour of the poor Christians, whom he was determined to subdue by every means at his command. Submission of Candanate and Molandurté. Seizure and disposal of the Archdeacon's effects; some are burnt, the Bishop regretting that he had not the Archdea to burn 20. The flight of the Archdeacon placed at the Bishop's mercy the Christians of Candanate and Molandurté, who had been made responsible for his person. Hitherto they had remained attached to the Archdeacon; but the ecclesiastics of both churches were now compelled to repair to Diamper, and there solemnly to abjure their pretended schism, and submit themselves to the Bishop. This abjuration was made in the church, in presence of the Portuguese_general and the heathen prince of Cochin. Lest the ecclesiastics should impose on the Bishop, who was not well acquainted with their language, the prince took great pains to teach him how he should make them pronounce the words contained in their form of abjuration. 21. After this ceremony, the prince Codormo went to Molandurté, accompanied by the Bishop's secretary, to secure the ornaments and effects of the Archdeacon, which his precipitate flight had compelled him to leave behind. The people, however, resisted them; but, convinced that they could not hold out long against the con's body Portuguese, they consented to admit the Bishop if he would come in person for the things. Accordingly he went, attended by three companies of Portuguese soldiers, a vast number of the nobility and gentry of the same nation, and six of the chief officers of the prince, who himself attended on the occasion. The Bishop having seized the spoils, gave a part of them to the prince, as an acknowledgment for the trouble he had taken to secure them. The books, with them. |