Introduction of Christianity to Malabar. 65

ambassadors of Alfred never got further than Alexandria, where they collected their cargo (of pearls and spices) and legend,' the legend must have been in existence.

In the previous, that is, the eighth century, as acknowledged on all hands, Mar Thomas the merchant, called by the Syrians of Travancore, Knâu Thômâ, settled on the Malabar coast. He was a pillar of the Indian Church. And it has been supposed by some that the tradition of the advent of the apostle Thomas is to be traced to the fact that the merchant had the same name. But were Mar Thomas of the eighth century converted by the Syrians into the apostle Thomas, we should surely hear of but one Thomas in their accounts; whereas they tell us in the most circumstantial manner possible of the advent of Mar Thomas in A.D. 745, and also of that of the apostle Thomas in A.D. 52. Kaye admits, in a note, thát ‘it seems little likely that if the legend of the death and burial of St. Thomas in the neighbourhood of Madras really arose out of the fact of the death and burial of Mar Thomas (the merchant)—an event which took place only about half a century before Alfred's embassage there should have been at that time, either in Egypt or Great Britain, any confusion of an incident which occurred fifty years before, with one that was at least eight centuries old.'

Moreover, there was a Church on the Malabar coast

F

long before the eighth century. Cosmas, a merchant of Alexandria, who visited India in the sixth century, bears witness to a Christian Church in the pepper country of Malabar,' as well as in Taprobane, or Ceylon. This is, I believe, the earliest mention of Malabar itself as being the seat of a Christian Church. But there are earlier notices of Christians in India. I would refer the reader here to Sir John Kaye's book for a most interesting account, derived from Socrates, or Sozomen, both of whom mention it, of the Episcopate of Frumentius in India, most probably on the Malabar coast, during the fourth century. There was also, as is well known, a prelate present at the Council of Nice, who subscribed his name as Metropolitan of Persia and the Great India.' again, so far back as the second century, according to the testimony of Eusebius, Pantænus, the philosopher of Alexandria, advanced as far as India,' and found his arrival anticipated by some who then were acquainted with the gospel of Matthew, to whom Bartholomew, one of the apostles, had preached, and had left them the gospel of Matthew in the Hebrew;' which was also, he further says, preserved among them at that time. I shall have something to say about Bartholomew afterwards. But in the meantime let us observe that we have evidence here of an Indian Church existing within a century of the apostolic age. And there is the highest probability

Then,

Dr. Burton as to the term 'India.

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that the Church Pantænus found was the same as Cosmas found in Malabar. I know that many historians doubt whether Pantænus ever went really to India; some supposing that by India Eusebius may have meant Arabia, or even Abyssinia. Thus Dr. Burton says, 'There is the same doubt concerning the proper meaning of the term India, in another tradition, concerning the apostles Matthew and Bartholomew. It was reported, at the end of the second century, that a Hebrew copy of the gospels, composed by Matthew, had been found in India, which had been brought to that country by Bartholomew. It is plain that a Hebrew translation of this gospel could only have been of use to Jews, who are known to have been settled in great numbers in Arabia; so that, if there is any truth in this story, it probably applies to Arabia, and we may conclude that one, or both, of these apostles visited that country.' But why not let India mean India? And is there not very good evidence that there were Jews, and probably in great numbers, in Cranganore too at that very time? Moreover, when Cosmas in the sixth century, and Frumentius in the fourth, and Solomon's sailors a thousand years before (for I have shown in a former chapter that Solomon's peacocks certainly came from South India) could find their way to the western shores of India, surely Pantænus could do the same in the second century? I

conclude, then, that the Syrian Church of Malabar existed so far back as the middle of the second century; and that they had at that time a copy of St. Matthew's gospel, left there by an apostle, in the Hebrew, or Syriac, language.

But what was the real origin of the Church? They say themselves that St. Thomas visited the coast in A.D. 52; and Eusebius says that Pantænus's report was that Bar-` tholomew, an apostle, had visited them. Both reports speak of an apostle as having come to the coast. Did both come? or was it really Bartholomew who first preached in Malabar? And if so, how is it that, so early at least as the ninth century and ever since, it has been the uniform tradition of the South Indian Christians that St. Thomas founded their Church, and was martyred and buried near Madras ?

Now I have been particularly struck with one thing in the history the Syrians give of themselves, and that is their early connection with Edessa: a fact, too, that harmonises with the bishop's designation of himself at the Council of Nice, which I have mentioned before. Many of the Syrian priests have accounts of the early history of their Church, which are handed down from generation to generation, and often copied. I have seen several. They are all very similar. One now in my hand, given me by a priest, commences thus: In A.D. 52, the apostle Mar Thomas came to Malabar in the reign of Choshen. He

The Legend as to St. Thomas.

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was so successful in his preaching that seven Christian churches were founded by him there. For a long time after his death Christianity was in a declining state. But since India, as well as the rest of the East, was governed by the Patriarch of Antioch, in matters ecclesiastical, after the Nicene Council, he had authorised a Mapriana at Bagdad to see to the welfare of the Eastern Churches. This Mapriana, learning from Knâu Thômâ of the decline of the Church in Malabar, sent, by the authority of the Patriarch, the above-mentioned Thômâ and Joseph the Bishop, a native of Urahâi (or Edessa), and other bishops, priests, and deacons; and also a colony of Syrians, with their families. They landed at Kodungalloor (or Cranganore), in the reign of Cherman Perumal, A.D. 745.' I have just met with another and similar account, given 150 years ago by Mar Gabriel, a Nestorian bishop, who presided at that time over a section of the Syrian Christians, to the Dutch chaplain of Cochin, Jacobus Canter Visscher, whose letters from Cochin have been translated lately by Major Drury.

It runs as follows:- Fifty-two years after the birth of the Messiah, the holy apostle Thomas arrived at Maliapore, on the coast of Coromandel, preaching the gospel and founding churches there. Passing from thence to Malabar, the holy man landed on the island of Maliankarre (situated between Cranganore and Paroe), preached