Nestorianism and the church in India

According to tradition, Christianity was established in India in AD 52 with the arrival of Thomas the Apostle in Cranganore (Kodungaloor). Subsequently, the Christian community of the Malabar Coast established close ties with the other Christians of the Middle East and the Persian Empire. They eventually coalesced into the Church of the East led by the Catholicos-Patriarch of Seleucia-Ctesiphon.

The Church of the East was often separated from the other ancient churches due to its location outside the Roman Empire. When Archbishop Nestorius of Constantinople was declared a heretic by the Council of Ephesus, the Church of the East refused to acknowledge his deposition because he held the same christolical position that the Church of the East had always held. Later, the "Anaphora of Mar Nestorius" came to be used by Church of the East, which for this reason has been pejoratively labelled the "Nestorian Church" by some other Christian groups. However, this is a misnomer, as Nestorius was neither the founder nor even a member of it.

When the Portuguese arrived in India in the 16th century, they were ignorant of other Christian rites. Their ignorance led to the controversial Synod of Diamper that forced the Latin Rite on the Malabar Syriac Christians in 1599, even though the Syrian Church at Malabar was already in union with Rome.[1][2][3] St. Francis Xavier himself praised bishops who provided leadership to this community—including Mar Yaqob (Jacob), Mar Joseph, and Mar Abraham—and acknowledged their communion with the Holy See.

In 1980, Pope John Paul II said that the Syro-Malabar Church "has not ever been severed from the communion with the Church of Rome, in a continuity that the enormous geographic distance has never been able to break."[4]

Mar John, Metropolitan of India (1122 AD)
Prester John from Hartmann Schedel's Nuremberg Chronicle, 1493

In 1122, Mar John, Metropolitan-designate of India, with his suffragens went to Constantinople, thence to Rome, and received the pallium from Pope Callixtus II.[5] He related to the Pope and the cardinals the miracles that were wrought at the tomb of St. Thomas at Mylapore.[6] These visits, apparently from the Saint Thomas Christians of India, cannot be confirmed, as evidence of both is only available from secondary sources.[7][8][9] Later, a letter surfaced during the 1160s claiming to be from Prester John. There were over one hundred different versions of the letter published over the next few centuries. Most often, the letter was addressed to Emanuel I, the Byzantine Emperor of Rome, though some were addressed to the Pope or the King of France.

A Latin text with its Hebrew translation reads as follows:

"Praete janni invenitur ascendendo in Kalicut in arida..."[10]

This is true proof and well-known knowledge about the Jews who are found there near Prester John.

Reading the Hebrew letters of Prester John shows that Prester John lived in India; or to be more precise, in Malabar (southern India).[10]

Connecting Prester John with India is inevitable from the Hebrew text on the one hand, while parts of the legend will support the Indian origin on the other. Firstly, India is mentioned several times in these letters (pp. 41, 89, 107, 119, and more). Secondly, Kalicut which was one of the most important port cities in Malabar (the place where Vasco da Gama was sent), is mentioned in one of the letters. Thirdly, these facts would definitely suffice, but further evidence appears in the form of this statements:[10]

In ... India is buried the body of St Thomas the Apostle.[11]

That is, the author knew that St. Thomas was buried in India, a belief held by the Christians of southern India.[12] Not only that, but the author of the letters knew (p. 133) about "St. Thomas holiday", which is, apparently, St. Thomas Memorial Day held by the same Christians on 3 July.[13]

Fourth, the author of the letters mentioned that pepper grew in his land (pp. 55, 91, 131), pepper being common in Malabar.[14] Fifth, there are some stories in the letters concerning warriors riding elephants. It is well known that, unlike the African elephant, only the Asian elephant could be trained.[10][15]

Mar Ya'qob Metropolitan of India and Patriarch Yahballaha III
Riccoldo da Monte di Croce was in an audience with Patriarch Yahballaha III. In the 15th century, the Roman Catholic Church considered the Church of the East heretical, so Yahballaha is depicted wearing a jester's hat rather than a turban.

At the beginning of the fourteenth century, the Indian church was again dependent upon the Church of the East. The dating formula in the colophon to a manuscript copied in June 1301 in the church of Mar Quriaqos in Cranganore mentions Patriarch Yahballaha III (whom it calls Yahballaha V) and Metropolitan Yaqob of India. Cranganore, described in this manuscript as "the royal city", was doubtless the metropolitan seat of India at this time.[16]

In the 1320s, the anonymous biographer of the patriarch Yahballaha III and his friend Rabban Bar Sauma praised the achievement of the Church of the East in converting "the Indians, Chinese and Turks".[17] India was listed as one of the Church of the East's "provinces of the exterior" by the historian ʿAmr in 1348.[18]

Yahballaha maintained contacts with the Byzantine Empire and with Latin Christendom. In 1287, when Abaqa Khan's son and successor Arghun Khan sought an ambassador for an important mission to Europe, Yaballaha recommended his former teacher Rabban Bar Sauma, who held the position of Visitor-general. Arghun agreed, and Bar Sauma made a historic journey through Europe; meeting with the Pope and many monarchs; and bringing gifts, letters, and European ambassadors with him on his return. Via Rabban Sauma, Yahballaha received a ring from the Pope's finger, and a papal bull which recognized Yahballaha as the patriarch of all the eastern Christians.[19]

In May 1304, Yahballaha made profession of the Catholic faith in a letter addressed to Pope Benedict XI. But a union with Rome was blocked by his Nestorian bishops.

In 1439, Pope Eugene IV sent an apostolic letter through his legates to Thomas, the Villarvattom king: "To our dearest son in Jesus the great king Thomas of India happiness and apostolic benediction. We have been often told that you and your subjects are true and faithful Christians".[20] Udayamperoor (known as Diamper in Portuguese), the capital of this kingdom, was the venue of the famous Synod of Diamper of 1599. It was held in the All Saints Church there. The venue was apparently chosen on account of the place having been the capital of a Christian principality.[21]

Synod of Diamper

When, on 6 April 1553, Pope Julius III confirmed John Sulacca as Chaldean Patriarch, the Pope said that the discipline and liturgy of the Chaldeans had already been approved by his predecessors, Nicholas I (858-867), Leo X (1513–1521), and Clement VII (1523–1534). A Papal letter also mentions Patriarch Simon Mamma as a patriarch of the Christians in Malabar. This shows that Chaldean Patriarchs in communion with Rome at times presided over the Christians of Malabar.

When the Portuguese arrived in Malabar, they assumed that the four bishops present were Nestorian. Their report of 1504, addressed to the Chaldean Patriarch, their being startled by the absence of images and by the use of leavened bread; but this was in accordance with Chaldean usage. The Christians paid the expenses of the Papal delegate Marignoli.[22]

St. Francis Xavier—in a letter dated 14 January 1549, from Cochin to St. Ignatius Loyola—asks for indulgences for certain churches, saying, "This would be to increase the piety of the natives who are descended from the converts of St. Thomas and are called Christians of St. Thomas." In another letter—dated 28 January 1549 to Rodriguez,—St. Francis Xavier asks for indulgences for a church at Cranganore, "which is very piously frequented by the Christians of St. Thomas, to be a consolation for these Christians and to increase piety."

As saints are notoriously keen to detect heresy and as indulgences cannot be granted to schismatics, these letters of St. Francis Xavier show that the Christians of Malabar were in communion with Rome even before the arrival of Mar Joseph in 1555. When the Portuguese deported Mar Joseph to Portugal, it was not the Nestorian Patriarch but the Chaldean Patriarch who sent Mar Abraham to take his place. This appears from Action III, Decree X of the third provincial council at Goa in 1585, which states that Mar Abraham came as Archbishop of Angamale, with a letter from Pope Pius IV. A letter from Pope Gregory XIII that was written on 29 November 1578 to Mar Abraham asks Abraham not to convert his flock, but to convert non-Christians only. [23]

The Synod of Diamper of 1599 marked the formal subjugation of the Malabar Syriac Christian community to the Latin Church.

Accounts of foreign missionaries
In a letter to king John III of Portugal dated 26 January 1549, Francis Xavier described Jacob Abuna as a virtuous and saintly man.

Francis Xavier wrote a letter dated 26 January 1549, from Cochin to king John III of Portugal, in which he declared that:

...a bishop of Armenia (Mesopotamia) by the name of Jacob Abuna has been serving God and Your Highness in these regions for forty-five years. He is a very old, virtuous,and saintly man, and, at the same time, one who has been neglected by Your Highness and by almost all of those who are in India. God is granting him his reward, since he desires to assist Him by himself, without employing us as a means to console his servants. He is being helped here solely by the priests of St. Francis. Y. H. should write a very affectionate letter to him, and one of its paragraphs should include an order recommending him to the governors, to the veadores da fazenda, and to the captains of Cochin so that he may receive the honour and respect which he deserves when he comes to them with a request on behalf of the Christians of St. Thomas. Your Highness should write to him and earnestly entreat him to undertake the charge of recommending you to God, since YH. has a greater need of being supported by the prayers of the bishop than the bishop has need of the temporal assistance of Y.H. He has endured much in his work with the Christians of St Thomas.[2][3]

In that same year, Francis Xavier also wrote to his Jesuit colleague and Provincial of Portugal, Fr. Simon Rodrigues, giving him the following description:

Fifteen thousand paces from Cochin there is a fortress owned by the king with the name of Cranganore. It has a beautiful college, built by Frey [Wente], a companion of the bishop, in which there are easily a hundred students, sons of native Christians, who are named after St. Thomas. There are sixty villages of these Thomas Christians around this fortress, and the students for the college as I have said, are obtained from them. There are two churches in Cranganore, one of St. Thomas, which is highly revered by the Thomas Christians.[2][3]

This attitude of St. Francis Xavier, and of the Franciscans before him, does not reflect any of the animosity and intolerance that kept creeping in with the spread of the Tridentine spirit of the Counter-Reformation, which tended to foster a uniformity of belief and practice. It is possible to follow the lines of argument of young Portuguese historians, such as Joéo Paulo Oliveira e Cosca, yet such arguments seem to discount the Portuguese cultural nationalism in their colonial expansion and the treatment of the natives. Documents recently found in the Portuguese national archives help to confirm a greater openness or pragmatism in the first half of the 16th century.[3][24]

See also

Notes
  1. Encyclopaedia of sects & religious doctrines, Volume 4 By Charles George Herbermann page 1180,1181
  2. Costellioe, Letters, 232–246
  3. "Christen und Gewürze" : Konfrontation und Interaktion kolonialer und indigener Christentumsvarianten Klaus Koschorke (Hg.)Book in German, English, Spanish, 1998 Page 31,32
  4. "http://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/it/angelus/1980/documents/hf_jp-ii_ang_19800831.html
  5. The realm of Prester John, Silverberg, pp. 29–34.
  6. Raulin, op. cit., pp. 435-436. Counto. Asia Lisbonne, 1788, Dec. XII, p. 288.
  7. Halsall, Paul (1997). Otto of Freising: The Legend of Prester John. Internet Medieval Sourcebook. Retrieved 20 June 2005.
  8. Silverberg, pp. 3–7
  9. Bowden, p. 177
  10. Prester John: Fiction and History by Meir Bar-Ilan[Senior Lecturer ,Talmud Department and Jewish History Department,Bar-Ilan University,Ramat-Gan, 52900 ISRAEL]
  11. Actually, the Hebrew text reads 'the unclean Thomas', because the Hebrew translator did not want to admit the holiness of one of the apostles, and therefore changed the title.
  12. On the Christians of southern India that relate their beginning to St. Thomas, see: L. W. Brown, The Indian Christians of St Thomas, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1956.
  13. Brown. p. 50; Silverberg (n. 1), pp. 16-35.
  14. Pepper was one of the exports of India from ancient times. See: R. H. Warmington, The Commerce between the Roman Empire and India, second revised edition, London: Curzon Press, 1974, pp. 180 ff. On the export of exotic animals from India, see ibid, p. 145 ff.
  15. Warmington, pp. 150-152.
  16. MS Vat Syr 22; Wilmshurst, EOCE, 343 and 391
  17. Wallis Budge, The Monks of Kublai Khan, 122–3
  18. Wilmshurst, EOCE, 343
  19. Phillips, p. 123
  20. A. J. John, Anaparambil
  21. "History of Indian Churches". Synod of Diamper (in Malayalam). 2016. Retrieved 20 May 2019.
  22. Father Nidhiry: A History of His Times by Prof. Abraham Nidhiry
  23. Life and Letters of St. Francis Xavier, by H.J. Coleridge, S.J., ii. 74 90.
  24. Arquivio Nacional torre do Tombo Lisbo:Nucleo Antigo N 875 contains a summary of letters from india written in 1525 and also the kings replay to it :Cf.OLIVERIA E COSTA,Portuguese,Apendice Documental 170-178
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