ANTHROPOLOGY OF SYRIAN CHRISTIANS 2

The Jesuits Branded it Nestorianism

Kodungallur was called Cranganur by the Portuguese, and is situated at a distance of 20 miles north of Cochin. This was one of the earliest settlements of the Jews, Christians and the Muhammadans. Within a distance of two miles is the island of Malankara, held sacred as the landing place of St. Thomas. It also gives the name of the diocese. The church erected by the Apostle is no longer there, nor has any vestige of its former glory survived. Antonio de Gouveia ( 1575-1628)  mentions that there was a Syrian Church there at the end of the fifteenth century, and that it bore testimony to the population, wealth and power of the Syrian Christian community in ancient times.In 1536, the Muhammadans destroyed and burned the shrine of St. Thomas. Immediately afterwards the King of Cranganur gave the land to the Portuguese, who on the same spot built a church dedicated to St Thomas.

Jornada of Gouvea

It is also said that there were two churches, the upkeep of which was borne by the Portuguese ; and that there many native converts were engaged in their service, The clergy must have come either from St. Francis Vincent College, established in 1540, or from that of St. Francis in Goa founded in 1541 for candidates from Canara, the Deccan, Malabar and other places.

Quilon is called Kollam by the natives. It commands one of the entrances into the beautiful backwater of Travancore. Tradition says that St. Thomas preached there, and in after times a party of Christian immigrants from Syria landed in the neighbourhood of the modern town, a place now engulfed in the sea, just as a similar party did at Cranganur.Whether they came for the purpose of trade or were driven to seek shelter from the sword of Muhammad or for other reasons cannot now be determined.

Parur,Kokkamangalam ( South Pallippuram),Niranam,Chavil ( Ranni) and Palur ( Chavakkad) are the other Syrian Christian settlements.

By A D 505 the churches on both sides of the peninsula lost their Dravidian liturgy.

Mention is also made by some Portuguese writers about the persecution of Christians at Mylapore after the death of the Apostle and about the flight of the survivors thence to the Malabar Coast to join their Christian brethren there. There were then many Christian families cn the south-western coast, subject to the native princes who treated them well .The new arrivals settled partly in Travancore, and partly among the ghats on the confines of the ancient kingdom of Calicut about a hundred and fifty miles away from the former, and by reason of losing contact with the Christians, lost their name, while those in Travancore kept their faith owing to their having received it from the Apostle until it was polluted by Nestorian errors.

There were also the apostates (Mani-gramakkar) that arose from the preachings of the Manikka Vachakar. Regarding the history and government of the Syrian Church dining the first few centuries, there is no authentic information. Reference is made to Frumentius with episcopal authority in South India about 325 AD; but this is denied by Hough who states that the Bishop was in Ethiopia and not in India. At the Nicene Council 325 A D, one of the bishops signed the decrees as John Bishop of Persia and Great India. Of this bishop nothing is known except that lie was a Persian bishop, and that his diocese might be near the Indus. 

Catholics believed that the ancient apostolic church of India found Syrio-Chaldean bishops and Syrio-Chaldean liturgy before the arrival of the Syrian colony headed by Thomas Cana in 345 A D. This colony had only reinforced the Christian community already in existence in Malabar, but did not give to the community either the title or Syriac liturgy. From this it may be seen, that the early Christians had been reinforced by the refugees from Mylapore and by the followers of Thomas Cana and others. 

When the Syrian church emerges into history, it is known as the Nestorian branch of the Asiatic Church. Nestorius, who was a Syrian by birth, was educated at Antioch, where as presbyter, he became celebrated during his youth, for his asceticism, orthodoxy and eloquence. On the death of Sisinnius, Patriarch of Constantinople, this distinguished preacher of Antioch was appointed to the vacant See by the Emperor Theodosius II, and was consecrated Patriarch in A D 428. 

In the 5th century the question as to how the two natures are united in Christ, called forth two disturbing heresies on the dogma of the redemption, the germ of which had been already laid as there had ever been opposing tendencies on the above named question between the Alexandrians and the. Antiochians, Theodore of Mopsuestia, a scholar of Antioch, relying on the duality of natures in Christ, was led to suppose also two persons in him, whose natures he supposed united by an exterior bond, while to each he ascribed a peculiar subsistence proper to itself alone, so that it was in a figurative sense that Christ could be called one person. These false principles were adopted by Leporius, a monk of Massiha, in Gaul A D 426; but they were vigorously promulgated by Nestorius. He maintained that m Jesus Christ there were two persons: a human person born of Virgin Mary; and the divine person that is the eternal Word.

Dutch Ships at Kodungallur,1708

In consequence of this error he denied to the Blessed Virgin the title of Theotokos or Mother of God contrary to the Roman Catholic doctrine which confesses Mary to be the Mother of the divine person in whom are intimately and indissolubly united bv what is called the hypostatic union, the divine and human person. For this he' was condemned and excommunicated by the third Oecumenical Synod at Ephesus in A D 431. Nestorianism was soon suppressed in the Roman Empire. The Emperor Zeno ordered Syrus, Bishop of Kdessa, to purge the Diocese of that heresy, in A D 489, and the Nestorians were forced to seek refuge across the Roman boundaries into Persia. Teachers and students migrated into Persia where they founded a school in Nisbis which for a long time enjoyed considerable celebrity. They found refuge and protection with St. Thomas Barsumas, Bishop of Nisbis, who spread Nestorianism in Persia.

Favoured by the Persian kings, the number of adherents continued to increase. At last at a Synod held in Seleucia in AD 498, the Persian Church wholly separated from the orthodox in the Roman Empire and adopted the name of the Chaldean Christians. Their Patriarch bore the title of Yazeclich. From Persia the Nestorian Church spread to India, where its adherents are called St. Thomas Christians. They spread as far as China.And 'it is quite certain," says Bishop Medlycott, "that at the time of the visit of Cosmos to India (A D 530 to 535) these churches as also the churches in India were holding the Nestorian doctrine of their bishops and priests."

Nor does this historical fact cause surprise, when we take into consideration, the opportunities, the bold attitude and the violent measures adopted by the promoters of this heresy after expulsion from the Roman Empire. In A D 530 to 535, there was a Nestorian prelate presiding at Kalyan over her future destiny. The bishops, priests and deacons, in India, and Ceylon, were the subjects of the Persian Metropolitan who was a Nestorian. Hence by the year 530, the Indian Christians had all been captured in the Nestorian net.In A D 630 to 660, Jesujabus of Adjabene claimed authority over India, and replaced Simeon of Rayardshir, the Metropolitan of Persia, and so deprived that church of her Ministry. In A D 714 to 728, Saliba Zacha and other Nestorian Patriarchs raised the See of India, among the exempted, which, owing to distance from the Patriarchal See, should, in future, send letters of commission but once in six years. This ruling was subsequently incorporated into a synodal canon. Looking into the traditions of the St. Thomas Christians, it will be found that all their prelates came from Babylon, the ancient residence, as they say, of the Patriarchs or the Catholicos of the Fast. It is further known and acknowledged by them, that whenever they remained deprived of a Bishop fcr a long time they used to send messengers to that patriarchate for bishops. Sufficient proof of this practice has been given above; and, when discussing the arrival of four bishops in A D 1504, the Holy See was fully aware that the Malabar Christians were under the control of the Nestorian Patriarch. When Julian III gave Suluka, his bull of domination as the Catholic Chaldean Patriarch, he distinctly laid down the extent of jurisdiction which had been claimed and controlled by his late Nestorian predecessor. 

 Angamali is described as the last of the Nestorian Syrio- Chaldaic Church, and Mar Abraham is said to be the last Nestorian bishop of Angamali. " We are quite ready," said Father Dahlmann, " to believe that the Nestorianism during long periods was latent and probably unconscious, and that also a good deal of animus, with which zeal for the purity of the faith had little to do, was shown against the Malabar bi- shops by the Portuguese of Goa. " None the less, there seems to be no sufficient evidence of the preaching of St. Thomas in this part of India, and in default of this, the probabilities are in favour of the fact that the Christian community on the coasts was of Nestorian origin. The Nestorianism of Si-Ngan Fou inscription in the heart of China is no longer disputed and the ancient seventh century Crosses at Kottayam and Mylapore with their Pahlevi lettering are suggestive of son e similar influences. 

 
In the works of most of the Protestants and Catholic writers it is unanimously asserted that their Church was Nestorian till 1509. Geddes, 1694, La Croze 1724, Buchanan 1814, Hough 1819, Whitehouse, Milne Kae 1892, and others affirm in the clearest terms that after the first four centuries, the Syrian Church fell into Nestorian heresy and was brought back under the authority of Koine by the indefatigable zeal of Archbishop Menezes. Gouvea 1606, D'Souza 1710, Joseph Asseman 1728, Le Quien 1740, Raulin 1745, Fra Bartolomeo and several Latin missionaries have persistently maintained the same. In short, all those who have written on this subject are agreed in branding the Syrian Church with the stigma of Nestorian heresy.

Nestorius,1688 sketch by Romeyn de Hooghe

Another kind of heresy that found its way to India was that of Eutyches, a zealous' adherent of Cyril in opposition to Nestorius at the Council of Ephesus in A D 431. But Eutyches in opposing the doctrine of Nestorius went beyond Cyril and others and affirmed, that after the union of the two natures, the humnn and the divine, his humanity was absorbed in His divinity. After several years of controversy the question was finally decided at the Council of Chalcedon in A D 451, when it was declared, in opposition to the doctrine of Eutyches, that the two natures were united in Christ, but without any alteration, absorption or confusion, or in other words in the person of Christ there were two natures, the human and the divine, each perfect in itself, but there was only one person- Eutyehes was excommunicated and he died in exile. 

Those who would not subscribe to the doctrines declared at Chalcedon were condemned as heretics: then they seceded and afterwards gathered themselves around different centres which were Syria. Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, Cyprus ,Palestine, Armenia, Egypt and Abyssinia. The Armenians embraced the Eutvchian theory of divinity and humanity being one compound nature in Christ. The west Syrians or the natives of Syria proper, to whom the Syrians of this coast trace their origin, adopted, after having renounced the doctrines of Nes- torius, the Eutychian tenet. Through the influence of Severus,Patriarch of Antioch, they gradually became monophysite. The monophysite sect was suppressed by the Emperors, but in the sixth century there took place the great Jacobite revival of monophysite doctrine under James Banheus better known as Jacobus Zanzalus who united the various divisions into which the monophysites had separated themselves into one Church which, at the present day, exists under the name of the Jacobite church. The head of the Jacobite church claims the rank and prerogative of the Patriarch of Antioch, a title claimed by no less than three church dignitaries.

Leaving it to subtle theologians to settle the disputes, we may briefly define the position of the Jacobites in Malabar in respect of the above controversies. While they accept the qualifying epithets pronounced by the decree passed at the Council of Chalcedon in regard to the union of two natures in Christ, Ihey object to the use of the word two in referring to the same. So far they arc practicably at one with the Armenians, for they also condemn the Eutychian doctrine; and a Jacobite candidate for holy orders in the Syrian Church has, among other things, to take an oath denouncing Eutyehes and his teachers. 

Prevalence of the Nestorian heresy among the Syrian Christians already referred to, is being denied by the Romo  Syrians, who say that the Portuguese missionaries, bishops, priests and writers are completely mistaken in styling them as Nestorians in belief; and because of the false report all the subsequent writers continued to call them so. Further, the word "Nestorian" is commonly applied to the Syrio Chaldaic language. After the spread of Nestorianism in the eastern countries, the language of the people which was then Syro- Chaldean underwent certain modifications of character and pronunciation and came to be know n as Nestorian. Ncstorian and Chaldean were on that account used as convertible terms. In support of this contention the Romo-Syrians maintain that there always had been a small body of the Chaldeans of Mesopotomia who remained true to their faith and from them they received their bishops. They were Chaldeans of an oriental rite in communion with Rome and holding the Catholic faith. They contend that the Portuguese did not convert them irom any heresy but only made them submit to the jurisdiction of the bishops of the Latin rite having cut off their relation with the Chaldean Catholic Patriarch of Babylon. They say that the saints were notoriously keen in detecting heresy and maintained that the aged bishop described by St. Francis as asking for indulgences could not have been in schism. 

Further, it is pointed out that the Portuguese garrison at Cannanore read the Syrian Mass of the Bishops, and in A D 1348 the Syrian Christians at Quilon paid money to John Marignolli (1290-1360) as the Pope Clement's legate. *

It is also said that Nestorianism is very loosely applied by the Portuguese historians, and often denotes orientals and not heretics. Further, on many occasions, the Portuguese priests came to Syrian Churches, and had their masses offered in them, and in turn, the Syrian priests also offered their masses in the churches belonging to the Portuguese, and on many occasions the former heard the confession of the Syrians and gave them Holy Communion- Further, the early travellers to India — the Alexandrian Cosmos Indicopleustus who passed by the Malabar Coast, the Ambassadors Sighelm and Athelstan of Alfred the Croat, and the Venetian traveller,make no reference to the prevalence of Nestorianism. Many other arguments are adduced by the Romo-Syrians in support of this contention, and a few monographs are published in this connection. They now deny the credit of the Portuguese in the conversion of the Syrian Christians to the Roman Catholic faith. As the treatment of the subject is purely ethnological, and not historical, it is not our intention to enter into the merits of the controversy.

 Very little is known of the history of the Syrian Church for six centuries prior to the advent of the Portuguese. During this period the Syrian Christians had very much fallen oft in ceremonial purity. For, as observed by Sir William Hunter, " For a thousand years from the fifth to the fifteenth century, the Jacobite sect dwelt in the middle of the Nestorianism of Central Asia so that both the Nestorian and the Jacobite bishops must have accepted the invitations of the Syrian Christians in Malabar, who never troubled themselves about the subtle disputations and doctrinal differences that divided their co-religionists in Europe and Asia Minor.They were on this account unable to distinguish between Nestorianism and any other form of Christianity. Further, speaking of the Malabar Church at this period, Gibbon says, " Their separation from the Western World had left them in ignorance of the improvements or corruptions of a thousand years; and their conformity to the practices of the fifth century would equally disappoint the prejudice of a Papist and a Protestant". Dr. Day refers to the arrival in India of the Jacobite and Syrian bishops who built churches and looked after the religious affairs of the Syrians. Marco Polo who visited India during the thirteenth century speaks of the prevalence of Nestorianism in India.

World map by Cosmas Indicopleustus

In the thirteenth century, the first Latin missionaries, John of Monte Carvino, Friar Jordanus and John de Marignoli, arrived in Malabar and made converts, but their labours were ineffectual. Until the advent of the Portuguese in India, the Syrian Church was following without any hindrance, in its ritual, practice and communion, a creed of the Syro-Chaldean Church of the East. Conquest and conversion were as close to the heart of the Portuguese as were enterprise and commerce. At first they gladly welcomed the Syrians as their brethren Christians, and never thought of interfering with the doctrines, but they were soon seen to change their attitude towards them. The latter had their mother church at Babylon with their Patriarch at Mosul in Asia Minor, and were of Nestorian faith. This was shocking to Portuguese, who, after the conquest of territories and the establishment of their capital or headquarters at Goa, soon entered on a policy of conversion, and their first care was to intercept all correspondence with the eastern Patriarchs and to prevent communion with them. Franciscan and Dominican friars and Jesuit fathers worked vigorously to win the Syrian Christians to the Roman Catholic communion. They established the Inquisition at Goa in 1500 and a Jesuit church and a seminary were founded at Vaippikotta (Chendamangalam), near Cranganur, in the latter of which was given instruction in theology, in Latin, Portuguese and Syriac languages. A college was also founded at Cranganur by Friar Vincent with the assistance of a Viceroy and a Bishop at Goa for the education of the Syrian youths in doctrine and ritual of Rome. St. Xavier wrote home to his royal patron urging him to endow this college intimating that it would be the means of greatly increasing the number of the adherents to his church . 

The Cranganur college became a failure, for the Syrians looked with suspicion even upon their own children who had been educated there, and refused to recognise the Romish orders that had been received, regarding their latinized habits and customs as so many marks of apostasy from the faith of their forefathers. Vincent intimated his intention to hand over this institution to the Jesuits in the event of his decease ; and Xavier wrote about it to the head of his own order, Ignatius Loyala  , and his friend Simon Roderick requesting them to procure indulgences from the Pope for the Syrian Christians. Thus under the immediate auspices of the pious and amiable Francis Xavier, the Jesuits were introduced to Malabar to work among the ancient Christian congregations.

The Jesuits were at first much more successful than Friar Vincent. The pupils were carefully instructed in Syriac and well grounded in the Romish faith, but their antipathy to Romanism was so strong that they would not utter a word against the ancient: dogmas and customs of the church of their forefathers or offer an apology for those of Rome. The Jesuits were completely defeated in their expectations, and this led to an open conflict with the Syrian Metrans (bishops) in which the most odious and tyrannical measures were adopted. The dignitaries of the Syrian Church refused to ordain students trained in the seminary. The whole plan of the campaign was arranged upon the appointment of Menezes, the new archbishop, of whom the Pope Clement VIII issued a brief dated, January 27, 1595, in which he was directed to make an inquisition into the crimes and errors of Mar Abraham, the Nestorian bishop of Angamali. In the event of the Nestorian bishop being found guilty of such tidings as he had been accused of, he was to be apprehended and secured in Goa.The Archbishop was to appoint a Vicar Apostolic of the Roman communion over Mar Abraham's bishopric, and upon his death, he was not to allow the bishop of Habylon to enter the Serra to succeed him. Menezes could not win over Mar Abraham to his side. He died in 1597, and was succeeded by an Archdeacon George who so far roused the Syrians, whose feelings were already strongly excited, that they resolved no longer to admit any Latin priests in their churches.

When Alex-de-Menezes, Archbishop of Goa, heard of the movement, he arrived at Cochin in January 26, 1599, where he was received with great pomp. He then visited the important Syrian churches and the seminary, and ordained as many as one hundred and fifty three priests. Armed with the terrors of the Inquisition, invested with the spiritual authority of the Pope, and encouraged in his efforts by the Portuguese king whose governors readily backed him up, he held the Synod at Diamper or Udayamperur on Sunday, June 20th, 1599, the third Sunday after Whitsuntide. The first session began with a solemn mass for the removal of schism and a sermon by himself on the same subject, after which, dressed in full pontificals and seated in his chair, he solemnly addressed the Synod ou business matters with the aid of a faithful and pious interpreter Jacob Kattanar who could interpret to the whole assembly fully to comprehend the wording of the decrees. After this all the clerical members of the Synod were compelled to swear a solemn oath in which they were directed to profess their faith not only in the Nicene creed, but in all those Romanish additions which are contain- ed in the creed of Pope Pious IV; and to swear to God that they would never receive into their church any bishop, archbishop, prelate, pastor or governor, unless expressly appointed by the bishop of Rome. Joseph Kattanar read the provision in Malayalam and the clergy repeated it after him on their knees. They were also advised individually to have their firm belief in the statements made above, and made to swear and protest to God by the Holy Gospel, and the Cross of Christ in proof thereof. The lay delegates were also then made to do the same " in their own name" and in the name of the people of the bishopric. Thus Archbishop Menezes and his Jesuit assistants had the satisfaction of having converted the whole church and made believers in the whole range of Tridentine dogma. Many other changes were also introduced The Syriac language was allowed, but the Syrian mass was altered at the Synod, and it is the one used by the Syro-Romans even to this day. The service books of the churches were expurgated and all Xestorian passages expunged. The popular Nestorian books were all destroyed. The doctrine of transubstantiation with all its attendant departures, doctrines containing penance and extreme unction, celibacy of the clergy, reformation of the church affairs, reformation of manners were all changed after the Romish fashion.

Menezes

After the Synod had passed all the decrees, Menezes delivered his final charge to the assembly. A procession was made round the church, during which Te Dcum was sung by choir and people. This ended, the Archbishop pronounced his benediction to which the Archdeacon responded aloud "Let us depart in peace" and Synod broke up. Thus the Synod of Udayamperur came to an end after a session of six days, in June 26, 1599. The Archbishop then spent two months in visiting and organising the churches, and soon after returned to Goa. But the Jesuit government became so intolerable to the Syrian Christians that they resolved to have a bishop of their own from the East and applied to Babylon, Alexandria, Antioeh and other headquarters, as if these ecclesiastics possessed the same creed. 

A man named Ahatalla, otherwise known as Mar Ignatius, was accordingly sent by the Patriarch of Antioch but was on the way intercepted by the Portuguese who secured him at Goa and shipped him off to Europe. According to another account he was either drowned in the Cochin harbour or burned at the Inquisition at Goa.This cruel deed so far provoked a large body of Syrians that they met in solemn conclave at the Coonan Cross at Mattancherry in Cochin, and with one voice renounced their allegiance to the Church of Rome. This incident marks an epoch in the history of the Syrian Church, and led to a separation of the community into two parties, viz,, the Pazhayakuru (the Syrian Romans) who adhered to the Church of Rome according to the Synod at Diamper, and the Puttenkuru, the Jacobite Syrians, who, after the Oath at the Coonan Cross, got Mar Gregory from Antioch, acknowledged the spiritual supremacy thereof. The former owed its foundation to the Archbishop Menezes, and the Syond at Diamper in 1599, and its reconciliation after the revolt to the Carmelite bishop Father Joseph of St. Mary, whom the Pope appointed in 1659, without the knowledge of the King of Portugal, as the Vicar Apostolic of Malabar. It retains in its services the Syrian language and ritual and acknowledges the spiritual authority of the Pope and the Vicar Apostolic. The members of this party are known as the Catholics of the Syrian rite to distinguish them from the converts direct from heathenism to the Latin church of the Roman missionaries.

___________________

*John Margnoli:Giovanni de' Marignolli ( Johannes Marignola ) variously anglicized as John of Marignolli or John of Florence,was a notable 14th-century Catholic European traveller to medieval China and India.He reached Quilon in Easter week of 1348.

Edited By Ramachandran

DIAMPER SYNOD AS MIMICRY OF THE TRENT COUNCIL

The Canon Laws were Frozen Later

The Diamper Synod of 1599,convened by the Portuguese Goa Arch Bishop Alexio de Menezes,seems to me a mimicry of the Council of Trent held during 1545-1563.Like the Council of Trent called by three Popes,the Diamper Synod is characterised by sweeping decrees,aimed at imposition of the Pope's supremacy over the Indian Church.It was vehemently challenged by the Koonan Cross Oath of 1653 and the Diamper decrees were frozen.There is a tendency in the Latin Church in Kerala to glorify the Synod as as a creative dialogue between two versions of the faith-the Eurocentric and Indian.Ultimately indianness prevailed.

Certain canons the Synod passed are termed as progressive by the Latin Church,like the clause for the share of property even to the women.But it is known to everyone the Supreme Court had to intervene finally in 1986 in the Mary Roy case to establish the right of Christian women in the Father's wealth.

Diamper is the Portuguese name for Udayamperur,near Tripunithura in Cochin.A stone's throw away from,my home.

Synod of Diamper

It was the council that formally united the ancient Thomas Christians of the Malabar Coast of Southwestern India with the Roman Catholic Church. It was convoked in 1599 by Aleixo de Meneses, archbishop of Goa. The Synod renounced Nestorianism, the heresy that believed in two persons rather than two natures in Christ, as the Indians were suspected of being heretics by the Portuguese missionaries. The local patriarch—representing the Assyrian Church of the East, to which ancient Christians in India had looked for ecclesiastical authority—was then removed from jurisdiction in India and replaced by a Portuguese bishop; the East Syrian liturgy of Addai and Mari was “purified from error”; and Latin vestments, rituals, and customs were introduced to replace the ancient traditions. The forced Latinization and disregard for local tradition were accompanied by violence and led to schism among Thomas Christians by the mid-17th century.

As the Thomas Christian community grew, its members enjoyed about a millennium of theological and ecclesiastical cohesion and unity. That state of affairs changed after the Portuguese arrival. In April 1498 two Thomas Christians piloted Vasco da Gama’s small fleet from Melinda (East Africa) to Calicut (present-day Kozhikode), an event recorded by two Thomas Christian metrans (Malayam for “bishop”). Half a century later two more Thomas Christians made it possible for the Jesuit missionary St. Francis Xavier to bring shoreline fisherfolk, the Parayars and Mukkavars, into the Roman Catholic fold. Nevertheless, harmonious relations with the Catholics did not last. After 1561, Thomas Christians were branded heretics by the Goa Inquisition, which had been established under Portuguese rule. The 1599 Synod of Diamper anathematized the catholicos of Chaldea and all Christians of India who did not submit to Rome. Ancient churches were destroyed, libraries were burned, and clerics from Mesopotamia were intercepted, imprisoned, and executed.

Yet, eventually, ancient skills of silent resistance and subversion wore out one prelate after another. In 1653 anti-Catholic kattanars met at Koonen (“Crooked”) Cross, a granite monument at Mattancheri. There they swore an oath to never again accept another farangi (European) prelate and installed their own high metran (patriarch). Archdeacon (Ramban) Parambil Thoma became their first indigenous prelate, taking the title Mar Thoma I (Mar is a Syriac term meaning “Saint”). A schism occurred, with some Thomas Christian clergy remaining Roman Catholic while others divided between East Syrian (more closely affiliated with the Assyrian Church of the East) and West Syrian (called Jacoba, after the evangelist Jacob Baradaeus) authority. The unity that Thomas Christians had enjoyed for a thousand years ended in the proliferation of ever more denominations.

Dutch ascendancy along the Malabar Coast in the 17th century helped Thomas Christian communities preserve their ecclesiastical autonomy. The Portuguese Estado da India (“State of India”) could no longer enforce its writ outside Goa. Portuguese control over Thomas Christian Catholics was challenged by Roman Catholic missionaries sent by the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith. The schism lasted until the 19th century, when the Synod of Pondicherry (present-day Puducherry), organized by Msgr. Clement Bonnand, eventually led to a Latin-rite Catholic hierarchy. Non-Catholic Syrian Thomas Christian communities survived but continued to struggle for autonomy.

Council of Trent 1545/By Nicolo Dorigati

As the English East India Company gained ascendancy in the 18th century, Thomas Christians faced new challenges. In 1806 High Metran Mar Dionysius I (Mar Thoma VI) presented an ancient (perhaps 12th-century) copy of Syriac scriptures to Claudius Buchanan, a Church of England clergyman and representative of the government of India. In return, Mar Dionysius I was promised a missionary teacher, a modern seminary for training Thomas Christian clergy, and a Malayalam translation of scriptures for every pulpit. The partnership was ended by the Synod of Mavelikkara in 1836, when Thomas Christians broke away from Anglican domination. Reform-minded Thomas Christians at Kottayam Seminary then broke away from the high metran’s authority. A splinter group became Anglican, while most reformers staunchly adhered to ancient church traditions. Among Thomas Christian Catholics, meanwhile, struggles over Syrian, Latin, and Malabar rites continued. European Catholic prelates tried to bring autonomous Thomas Christian churches under the authority of Rome.

Council of Trent

It was the 19th ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church, held in three parts from 1545 to 1563. Prompted by the Reformation, the Council of Trent was highly important for its sweeping decrees on self-reform and for its dogmatic definitions that clarified virtually every doctrine contested by the Protestants. Despite internal strife and two lengthy interruptions, the council was a key part of the Counter-Reformation and played a vital role in revitalizing the Roman Catholic Church in many parts of Europe.

Period I: 1545–47

Though Germany demanded a general council following the excommunication of the German Reformation leader Martin Luther, Pope Clement VII held back for fear of renewed attacks on his supremacy. France, too, preferred inaction, afraid of increasing German power. Clement’s successor, Paul III, however, was convinced that Christian unity and effective church reform could come only through a council. After his first attempts were frustrated, he convoked a council at Trent (northern Italy), which opened on December 13, 1545.

As the council opened, some bishops urged for immediate reform, and others sought clarification of Catholic doctrines; a compromise was reached whereby both topics were to be treated simultaneously. The council then laid the groundwork for future declarations: the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed was accepted as the basis of Catholic faith; the canon of Old and New Testament books was definitely fixed; tradition was accepted as a source of faith; the Latin Vulgate was declared adequate for doctrinal proofs; the number of sacraments was fixed at seven; and the nature and consequences of original sin were defined. After months of intense debate, the council ruled against Luther’s doctrine of justification by faith alone: man, the council said, was inwardly justified by cooperating with divine grace that God bestows gratuitously. By enjoining on bishops an obligation to reside in their respective sees, the church effectively abolished plurality of bishoprics. Political problems forced the council’s transfer to Bologna and finally interrupted its unfinished work altogether.

Period II: 1551–52

Before military events forced a second adjournment of the council, the delegates finished an important decree on the Eucharist that defined the Real Presence of Christ in opposition to the interpretation of Huldrych Zwingli, the Swiss Reformation leader, and the doctrine of transubstantiation as opposed to that of Luther’s consubstantiation. The sacrament of penance was extensively defined, extreme unction (later, the anointing of the sick) explained, and decrees issued on episcopal jurisdiction and clerical discipline. German Protestants, meanwhile, were demanding a reconsideration of all the council’s previous doctrinal decrees and wanted a statement asserting that a council’s authority is superior to that of the pope.

Period III: 1562–63

Pope Paul IV (1555–59) was opposed to the council, but it was reinstated by Pius IV (1559–65). The arrival of French bishops reopened the explosive question regarding the divine basis for the obligations of bishops to reside in their sees. When peace was restored, the council defined that Christ is entirely present in both the consecrated bread and the consecrated wine in the Eucharist but left to the pope the practical decision of whether or not the chalice should be granted to the laity. It defined the mass as a true sacrifice; issued doctrinal statements on holy orders, matrimony, purgatory, indulgences, and the veneration of saints, images, and relics; and enacted reform decrees on clerical morals and the establishment of seminaries.

Pius IV confirmed the council’s decrees in 1564 and published a summary of its doctrinal statements; observance of disciplinary decrees was imposed under sanctions. In short order the catechism of Trent appeared, the missal and breviary were revised, and eventually a revised version of the Bible was published. By the end of the century, many of the abuses that had motivated the Protestant Reformation had disappeared, and the Roman Catholic Church had reclaimed many of its followers in Europe. The council, however, failed to heal the schism that had sundered the Western Christian church.

The Canon Law

From the time that the Gregorian Reform introduced a more centralized ecclesiastical administration, the number of appeals to Rome and the number of papal decisions mounted. New papal laws and decisions, called decretals, first added to Gratian’s Decretum, were soon gathered into separate collections, of which the best known are the Quinque compilationes antiquae (“Five Ancient Compilations”). The first, the Breviarium extravagantium (“Compendium of Decretals Circulating Outside”; i.e., not yet collected) of Bernard of Pavia, introduced a system inspired by the codification of Justinian, a division of the material into five books, briefly summarized in the phrase judex, judicium, clerus, connubium, crimen (“judge, trial, clergy, marriage, crime”). Each book was subdivided into titles and these in turn into capitula, or canons. This system was taken over by all subsequent collections of decretals. These compilations were the foremost source of the Liber extra (“Book Outside”—i.e., of decretals not in Gratian’s Decretum), or Liber decretalium Gregorii IX (“Book of Decretals of Gregory IX”), composed by St. Raymond of Peñafort, a Spanish canonist, and promulgated on September 5, 1234, as the exclusive codex for all of canon law after Gratian. On March 3, 1298, Pope Boniface VIII promulgated Liber sextus (“Book Six”), composed of official collections of Innocent IV, Gregory X, and Nicholas III and private collections and decretals of his own, as the exclusive codex for the canon law since the Liber extra. The Constitutiones Clementinae (“Constitutions of Clement”) of Pope Clement V, most of which were enacted at the Council of Vienne (1311–12), were promulgated on October 25, 1317, by Pope John XXII, but they were not an exclusive collection. The Decretum Gratiani, the Liber extra, Liber sextus, and the Constitutiones Clementinae, with the addition of two private collections, the Extravagantes of John XXII and the Extravagantes communes (“Decretals Commonly Circulating”), were printed and published together for the first time in Paris in 1500. This entire collection soon received the name Corpus Juris Canonici (“Corpus of Canon Law”).

The science of canon law was developed by the writers of glosses, the commentators on the Decree of Gratian (decretists), and the commentators on the collections of decretals (decretalists). Their glosses were based on the system used by Gratian: next to the texts of canons parallel texts were noted, then conflicting ones, followed by a solutio (“solution”), again with text references. In connection with this the glosses of other canonists were also introduced. In this way the apparatus glossarum, continuous commentaries on the entire book, arose. The glossa ordinaria (“ordinary explanation”) on the different parts of the Corpus Juris Canonici was the apparatus that was used universally in the schools. After the classical period of the glossators (12th–14th century), terminated by the work of a lay Italian canonist, John Andreae (c. 1348), came that of the post-glossators. In the absence of new legislation in the time of the “Babylonian Captivity” (1309–77), when the papacy was situated at Avignon, France, and the Western Schism (1378–1417), when there were at least two popes reigning simultaneously, the commentaries on decretals continued but with a larger production of special tracts—e.g., regarding the laws of benefices and marriage and of consilia (advice about concrete legal questions).

Toward the end of the Middle Ages, decretal law ceased to govern. Medieval Christian society became politically and ecclesiastically divided according to the principle of cujus regio, ejus religio (“whose region, his religion”; i.e., the religion of the prince is the religion of the land). In Protestant areas the former Roman Catholic church buildings and benefices were taken over by other churches; and even in the lands that remained Roman Catholic the churches found themselves in an isolated position as secularization forced them to reorganize. With the end of feudalism, canon law dealing with benefices, chapters, and monasteries, which were closely bound to the feudal structure, changed. The territorial, material, and economic character of canon law and the decentralization allied with it disappeared. The decision of the reform councils from Pisa (1409) until the fifth Lateran Council (1512–17) affected, in particular, benefices, papal reservations, taxes, and other such ecclesiastical matters. In the same period various concordats (agreements) permitted the princes to intervene in the issue of ecclesiastical benefices and property. Canon law took on a more defensive character, with prohibitions regarding books, mixed marriages, participation of Roman Catholics in Protestant worship and vice versa, education of the clergy in seminaries, and other such areas of concern.

At the Roman Catholic reform Council of Trent (1545–63), a new foundation for the further development of canon law was expressed in the Capita de reformatione (“Articles Concerning Reform”), which were discussed and accepted in 10 of the 25 sessions. Papal primacy was not only dogmatically affirmed against conciliarism (the view that councils are more authoritative than the pope) but was also juridically strengthened in the conduct and implementation of the council. The central position of the bishops was recovered, over against the decentralization that had been brought about by the privileges and exemptions of chapters, monasteries, fraternities, and other corporate bodies that sprang from Germanic law, as well as caused by the rights granted to patrons. In practically all matters of reform the bishops received authority ad instar legati S. Sedis (“like delegates of the Holy See”). Strict demands were made for admission to ordination and offices; measures were taken against luxurious living, nepotism, and the neglect of the residence obligation; training of the clergy in seminaries was prescribed; prescriptions were given about pastoral care, schools for the young, diocesan and provincial synods, confession, and marriage; the right to benefices was purified of misuse; and the formalistic law of procedure was simplified.

The council gave the duty of execution of the reform to the Pope. On January 26, 1564, Pius IV confirmed the decisions and reserved for himself their interpretation and execution, and on August 2, 1564, he established the Congregation of the Council for that purpose. The congregations of cardinals, which proceeded from the former permanent commissions of the consistorium (the assembly of the pope with the Sacred College of Cardinals), were organized by Pope Sixtus V in 1587. Since then the administrative apparatus of the Roman Curia has consisted of congregations of cardinals together with courts and offices. This apparatus made it possible for the Latin church to acquire a uniform canon law system that was developed in detail.

First Vatican Council,1859

Expansion of the church brought with it expansion of the ordinary hierarchical episcopal structure. This was true also for the new colonies under the right of patronage of the Spanish and Portuguese kings. In the other mission areas and in the areas taken over by the Protestants, where the realization of the episcopal structure and the decretal law adopted by Trent was not possible, the organization of mission activity was taken from missionaries and religious orders and given to the Holy See. The Sacred Congregation for Propagation of the Faith (the Propaganda) was established for this purpose in 1622. Missionaries received their mandate from Rome; the administration was given over to apostolic vicars (bishops of territories having no ordinary hierarchy) and prefects (having episcopal powers, but not necessarily bishops) who were directly dependent on the Propaganda, from which they received precisely described faculties. A new, uniform mission law was created, without noteworthy native influence; this sometimes led to conflict, such as the Chinese rites controversy in the 17th and 18th centuries over the compatibility of rites honouring Confucius and ancestors with Christian rites.

The First Vatican Council (1869–70) strengthened the central position of the papacy in the constitutional law of the church by means of its dogmatic definition of papal primacy. Disciplinary canons were not enacted at the council, but the desire expressed by many bishops that canon law be codified did have influence on the emergence and content of the code of canon law.

Since the closing off of the Corpus Juris Canonici, there had been no official or noteworthy private collection of the canon law except for the constitutions of Pope Benedict XIV (reigned 1740–58). The material was spread out in the collections of the Corpus Juris Canonici and in the generally very incomplete private publications of the acta of popes, of general and local councils, and the various Roman congregations and legal organs, which made canon law into something unmanageable and uncertain. The need for codification was recognized even more because of the fact that since the end of the 18th century, secular law had undergone a period of great codification. Several private attempts to do this had met with little success.

On March 19, 1904, Pius X announced his intention to complete the codification, and he named a commission of 16 cardinals, with himself as chairman. Bishops and university faculties were asked to cooperate. The schemata of the five books that were prepared in Rome—universal norms, personal law, law of things, penal law, and procedural law—were proposed in the years 1912–14 to all those who would ordinarily be summoned to an ecumenical council, and with their observations were then reworked in the cardinals’ commission. The entire undertaking and all the drafts were under the papal seal of secrecy and were not published. Meanwhile, Pius X introduced various reforms that were to a great degree the results of the commission’s work. In July 1916 the preparations for the Codex Juris Canonici (“Code of Canon Law”) were completed. The code was promulgated on Pentecost Sunday, May 27, 1917, and became effective on Pentecost Sunday, May 19, 1918.

In contrast to all earlier official collections, this code was a complete and exclusive codification of all universal church law then binding in the Latin church. Out of fear of political difficulties, a systematic handling of public church law, especially what concerned the relations between church and state, was omitted. Its main purpose was to offer a codification of the law, and only incidentally adaptation, and so it introduced relatively little that was new legislation. The 2,414 canons were divided into five books that no longer followed the system of the collections of decretals but did follow that of the Perugian canonist Paul Lancelotti’s Institutiones juris canonici (1563; “Institutions of Canon Law”), which in turn went back to the division of the 2nd-century Roman lawyer Gaius’s Institutiones—one section on persons, two sections on things, and one section on actions—and was based on the fundamental idea of Roman law—i.e., subjective right. In some editions the sources that were used by the editors were indicated at the individual canons. With the publication of the codex these sources belonged to the history of the law. Older general and particular law, in conflict with the codex, was given up and, insofar as it was not in conflict with it, served only as a means for interpreting the code. The old law of custom in conflict with the code and expressly reprobated by it was rendered null; when not reprobated and 100 years old or immemorial, it could be allowed by ordinaries for pressing reasons. Acquired rights and concordats in force remained in force. With this change, an independent science of the history of canon law became necessary, in addition to the dogmatic canonical science of canon law on the basis of the code.

Our Lady of Life Church,Mattancherry,Venue of Coonan Cross Oath

In order to ensure the unity of the codification and the law, a commission of cardinals was established on September 15, 1917, for the authentic interpretation of the new code. At the same time it was decided that the cardinals’ congregations should no longer make new general decrees but only instructions for the carrying out of the prescriptions of the code. Should a general decree appear necessary, it was determined, the commission would formulate new canons and insert them into the code. Neither of these decisions was carried out. Only two canons were altered and congregations promulgated numerous general decrees. New papal legislation complemented and altered the law of the code.

Catholic Eastern churches (churches in union with the Roman Catholic Church) retain their own traditions in liturgy and church order, insofar as these are not considered to be in conflict with the norms taken by Rome to be divine law. In 1929 Pius XI set up a commission of cardinals for the codification of canon law valid for all Uniate churches in the East. In the following year a commission was established for the preparation of the codification and another for the collection of the sources of Eastern law, in which experts of all rites were involved. These collections were published in three series, begun respectively in 1930, 1935, and 1942.

In 1935 the preparatory commission became the Pontifical Commission for the Redaction of the Codex Juris Canonici Orientalis (“Code of Oriental Canon Law”). The cooperation of all Eastern ordinaries (bishops, patriarchs, and others having jurisdictions) was requested, and the drafts of the various documents were sent to them. Thereafter four parts were published: in 1949, on marriage law; in 1952, on the law for monks and other religious, on ecclesiastical properties, and a title De Verborum Significatione (“Concerning the Meaning of Words,” a series of definitions of legal terms used in the canons); and in 1957, on constitutional law, especially of the clergy. The still-incomplete codification followed the Latin code with the assimilation of the authentic interpretation and with textual corrections, as well as with the insertion of the general law proper to the Eastern churches, including the Orthodox churches, regarding the patriarchs and their synods, marriage law, the law of religious, and other matters. The promulgation was made only in Latin in the Acta Apostolicae Sedis, the official organ of the Holy See. The Catholic Eastern churches came under the Congregation for the Eastern Churches that was established on January 6, 1862, by Pius IX as part of the Propaganda Fide; it was made independent by Benedict XV on May 1, 1917, and expanded considerably by Pius XI on March 25, 1938. Roman legislation as well as the jurisdiction of a congregation of the Roman Curia was criticized as being incompatible with the traditional autonomy of the Eastern churches in legislation and administration.

© Ramachandran