NATIONALISM TAKES ON THE CHURCH

Questioning the Christian Dogma

The Enlightenment, the intellectual movement that shook Europe, stretches from the 1630s to the eve of the French revolution in the late eighteenth century. In those few years, Rene Descartes, Thomas Hobbes, Baruch Spinoza, John Locke, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, David Hume, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Voltaire, Edward Gibbon, Denis Diderot, and Pierre Bayle, the best-known modern philosophers, made their mark. Most of them were amateurs: none had much to do with universities. They explored the implications of the new science and of religious upheaval, which led them to reject many traditional teachings and attitudes, and it left a spiritual vacuum in the realms of Christianity in Europe, questioning its dogma.

The seeds were sown in the seventeenth century when some people came to think that history was the wrong way around. Francis Bacon (1561-1626) was the first to crystallise this thought. Among the many that echoed Bacon, the French scientist Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) put it best in his writings about the vacuum.

Pascal's vacuum was not the spiritual one-In 1646, Pascal learned that an Italian, Evangelista Torricelli, had inverted a long glass tube filled with mercury into a bowl also filled with mercury, and the result was some mercury left standing in the tube with a vacuum above it. Torricelli thought that the mercury in the tube was kept up by the weight of the atmosphere pressing down on the bowl. Both claims were highly contested--at this time, the air was believed to be natural light, and Nature was supposed to abhor a vacuum.

Pascal sided with Torricelli, and he reasoned that if the atmosphere had weight, then less atmosphere should have less weight, and the level of mercury in the barometer should be lower. Accordingly, on 19 September 1648, Pascal engaged his brother-in-law Perier to climb the Puy de Dôme, the tallest mountain in central France, carrying a Torricellian tube with its bowl of mercury all the way up. Sure enough, as Perier climbed higher, the level of the mercury fell. This experiment, which convincingly demonstrated that air has weight, is one of the most famous experiments performed during the period of the Scientific Revolution.

 

John Locke

Bacon was an effective propagandist for the new idea that all old ideas in Europe are suspect. To Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679), who was briefly Bacon's assistant, the medieval European philosophy was part of "the Kingdom of Darkness". Superstition and intolerance were at work in this kingdom. (1)

John Locke was a late starter: It was not until he was 57 that he published his main works. the Essay Concerning Human Understanding, Two Treatises of Government and the Letter Concerning Toleration, all of which came out in 1689. He was born in the same year as Spinoza and his first 45 years were far from idle. The Second Treatise of Government has been called an inspiration not only for the French revolution but for the American constitution, as well. His essay was heralded particularly in France, as the philosophical counterpart of Newton's Principia, which had been published in 1687. They were the twin prophets of Enlightenment. 

In questions of religion, Locke's idea was that theological doctrines must be answerable to the court of reason: "Reason must be our last Judge and Guide in every Thing." He said that some truths, such as the resurrection of the dead, are "Above Reason". (2) In a tract entitled The Reasonableness of Christianity, published in 1695, Locke argued that nothing in the scriptures was contrary to reason and that God had generously expressed himself in terms that can be understood even by "the poor of this World, and the bulk of Mankind." (3) 

Locke's rationalistic approach to religion did not go as far as that of his contemporary, 25-year-old John Toland, whose Christianity Not Mysterious was published the next year. Toland was condemned in parliament and threatened with arrest in Ireland for asserting that doctrines which were "above reason" were as suspicious as those which were contrary to reason and that Christianity is better off without them. (4) Locke was regularly accused by conservative churchmen of indirectly encouraging atheism in various ways, and of not having enough to say about the Trinity. On the question of religious tolerance, Locke argued for the same sort of freedom of belief that Spinoza had defended: "men cannot be forced to be saved", he wrote in his Letter Concerning Toleration, "they must be left to their own consciences." (5)

The Enlightenment dominated Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries with global effects, including India. While it included a range of ideas centred on the value of human happiness, and the pursuit of knowledge obtained using reason and evidence, in politics, it stood for the separation of Church and State. (6)

Some date the beginning of the Enlightenment to the publication of French philosopher René Descartes' Discourse on the Method in 1637, featuring his famous dictum, Cogito, ergo sum ("I think, therefore I am"). Others cite the publication of Isaac Newton's Principia Mathematica (1687) as the culmination of the Scientific Revolution and the beginning of the Enlightenment. European historians date its beginning with the death of Louis XIV of France in 1715 and its end with the 1789 outbreak of the French Revolution. Many historians now date the end of the Enlightenment as the start of the 19th century, with the latest proposed year being the death of Immanuel Kant in 1804.

The Scientific Revolution was a series of events that marked the emergence of modern science during the early modern period, when developments in mathematics, physics, astronomy, biology (including human anatomy) and chemistry transformed the views of society about nature. It took place in Europe starting towards the second half of the Renaissance period, with the 1543 Nicolaus Copernicus publication De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres) often cited as its beginning. (7)

The era of the Scientific Renaissance focused on recovering the knowledge of the ancients and is considered to have culminated in the 1687 Isaac Newton publication Principia which formulated the laws of motion and universal gravitation, thereby completing the synthesis of a new cosmology. The subsequent Enlightenment saw the concept of a scientific revolution emerge in the 18th-century work of Jean Sylvain Bailly, who described a two-stage process of sweeping away the old and establishing the new. (8)

Philosophers and scientists of the period widely circulated their ideas through meetings at various places. The Enlightenment undermined the authority of the monarchy and the Catholic Church and paved the way for the political revolutions of the 18th and 19th centuries. A variety of 19th-century movements including liberalism, communism, and neoclassicism trace their intellectual heritage to the Enlightenment. (9)

The central doctrines of the Enlightenment were individual liberty and religious tolerance, in opposition to an absolute monarchy and the dogmas of the Church. The Enlightenment was marked with increased questioning of religious orthodoxy—an attitude captured by Kant's essay Answering the Question: What is Enlightenment, where the phrase Sapere aude (Dare to know) can be found. (10)

The "Radical Enlightenment" (11) promoted the concept of separating church and state, (12) an idea credited to John Locke. (13) According to his principle of the social contract, Locke said that the government lacked authority in the realm of individual conscience, as this was something rational people could not cede to the government for it or others to control. For Locke, this created a natural right in the liberty of conscience, which he said must therefore remain protected from any government authority.

These views on religious tolerance and the importance of individual conscience, along with the social contract, became particularly influential in the American colonies and the drafting of the United States Constitution. (14) In a letter to the Danbury Baptist Association in Connecticut, Thomas Jefferson called for a "wall of separation between church and state" at the federal level. Jefferson's political ideals were influenced by the writings of Locke, Bacon, and Newton, (15) whom he considered the three greatest men that ever lived. (16)

Nationalism as religion

Hans Ulrich Wehler, a German historian, in his book, nationalismus (2001) has interpreted the collapse of Christianity resulting in a spiritual vacuum along the Enlightenment and secularization process as one of the conditions for the success of nationalism since the end of the Eighteenth Century in Europe. (17)

The criticism of religion during the Enlightenment (Lumières in French), the dissociation between the Church and the State as manifested in the civil constitution of the clergy during the French Revolution, and the loss of religious guidance by large strata of the population, created a “void” in which nationalism could be inserted. Religion as a system of faith and guidance lost its space in Europe. 

According to French historians, The Lumières originated in western Europe and spread throughout the rest of Europe. It was influenced by the scientific revolution in southern Europe arising directly from the Italian renaissance with people like Galileo Galilei. 

The replacement of religion with the nation became possible in Europe because religion and nationalism were going to share some common traits and functions: They would provide myths of origin, saints and martyrs, holy objects, places and ceremonies, a sense of the sacrifice and functions of legitimization and mobilization. The Jacobinical period in France and the anti-Napoleonic wars were the first manifestations of what the French historian Mona Ozouf (1976) has named as “transference of sacrality” from the strict religious domain to the nation. (18) That is how the sans-culottes (lower classes) used to talk about their “Sainte pique”, celebrated the Revolution before the “altars of the fatherland” and left to fight in holy wars. (19) 

Bacon

Elias Canetti (1992), originally from the national and ethnical “melting pot” of the Balkans, insists that the nations can be regarded as religions, and it is mainly during the wars that the national and religious feelings get mixed. Norbert Elias (1989), the historian of European civilization, points out that nation and nationalism are important systems of belief, and eventually regards nationalism as the most important faith of the Twentieth Century. (20) Georg Mosse (1976) emphasized in his book on the nationalization of masses, that nationalism is not only a political and social movement but also utilizes a religious language and religious symbols. In his view, nationalism-socialism is the expression of that osmosis between nation and religion within the political culture. (21) 

However, as early as the origin of the scientific investigation on nationalism, Carlton J. Hayes (1926) found out that nationalism is a religion since it possesses rituals and martyrs and develops a particular national mythology. (22) American historian Eugen Weber (1986) observed that a historian can be regarded as the priest of the nation, for helping to provide nationalism with a historical legitimation.

The works that focus on the nation’s symbolism inquire to what extent this symbolism was borrowed from the existing religions and creeds, or was developed in a confrontation with them. (23) The actors of this process also play a primordial role. The priests and their influence, the intellectuals and their audience, and the political men and their strategies are the factors intervening at the moments of contact between religion and nation. 

Thus, German Emperor Wilhelm II could invoke the divine right as the source of his dynasty and his government, in face of the German defeats: however, during World War I, its legitimacy, inexorably disintegrated.  (24) 

The national States did not act only as factors of communication but tried also to impose themselves as organizing principles of the societies, as sources of legitimacy and as references to civic morality. In this mission, the national States had to face oppositions, among which the strongest were those by the Catholic Church. It opposed the State’s intervention in the systems of education and in the internal operation of the Churches, as well as in the public organization of the consolidating ceremonies, the mythical heroes, and the integrating ideologies. The debates regarding the place of the Churches in national societies were always accompanied by a conflict on who was going to retain the monopoly of interpretation of the past and the present. 

Those fights in Europe were between the State and the Catholic Church, from Portugal to Italy, and from France to the Czech portion of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire. There were conflicts between the newly created national States and the Catholic Church, as well as the place of a national movement in face of the Catholic Church in Europe, especially in France, Italy, the Czech portion, and Germany, during the decades that preceded World War I.

Martin Luther

In France, Italy and Czechoslovakia, the State or a laic stream stood, in the course of the Nineteenth Century, against the Catholic Church. (25) This opposition was older in France - during the French Revolution, the revolutionary State forced the clergy to make a civic oath, causing a schism within the Church between the priests that made the oath and those that refused to make it. The opposition between the two loyalties was the origin of the civil war unleashed in Vendee. (26) If under Napoleon, such opposition was attenuated particularly due to an agreement with the Holy See, it exploded again when, under the Restoration, the Monarchy leaned on the Church. But it was under the Third Republic that the conflict between the Church and the State found its most important expression.

The acts of supporting the Republic and standing for political and social progress were equivalent to anticlericalism; the acts of defending the Monarchy and opposing the Republican and, a fortiori, socialist movement were the same as defending the Christian faith and the Catholic Church. Following one of the third French Republic's founders, Leon Gambetta’s word of command: “The clericalism, here’s the enemy!”, the victorious Republicans passed laws to restrict the Institutional power of the Catholic Church (27). With the establishment of the laic, free and mandatory school using educational legislation, the privileged field of activity of the Catholic Church was reduced. In 1880, the hospitals, previously managed by the Church, were nationalized; in 1884, divorce was legalized, and, in 1889, a law decreed that priests should obligatorily render military service, like any other citizen. The practical application of the law of 1905 on the separation between Church and State caused a sometimes violent confrontation between the churchgoers and the police force. (28) The confrontation between the “two Frances” reached its summit.  

In Italy, differently from France, an agreement between the Holy See and the national movement seemed to be possible within the period that preceded the revolution of 1848. However, because the Pope stood on the counter-revolutionary forces’ side, the Church took quarters in its hostility toward the national unity, and the priests who participated in the national unification had to face problems with the ecclesiastic hierarchy. (29) This hostility was expressed on both sides after the national unity. The State responded to the questioning of the government by confiscating the Church’s properties, imposing military service on the seminarians and priests, and refusing to acknowledge the religious marriage ceremony unless accompanied by a civil marriage. The State exercised its right to inspect and consent to the ordination of the archbishops- in 1864, half of the dioceses possessed no archbishops. The Pope’s position hardened when, in 1864, he condemned in his “Syllabus” the “eighty mistakes”, and, in 1870, the Pope’s infallibility was affirmed when he speaks ex-cathedra. 

The issue of the pontifical State’s survival was the major obstacle between the two actors. The representatives of the Risorgimento proclaimed the march over Rome and elevated Rome to a symbol of the recovered national unity. After the Rome of the Caesars and the Rome of the Popes, the Rome of the people should be constructed against the Pope. With those discourses, they provoked and intensified the suspicion of the Pope, who feared that this expansionist rhetoric would lead to the abolition of the pontifical State. That occurred on 20 September 1870. (30) The subsequent decades regarded the papacy, pathetically as a “prisoner inside the Vatican.”  

In the Czech portions of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire, only in the second half of the Nineteenth Century, a conflict between the Catholic Church and the national movement occurred. The Catholic Church was divided into a Bohemian and a Moravian Church, which was dedicated to the cult of their regional saints: Saint Wenceslas in Bohemia, Saint Cyril and Saint Methodius in Moravia (31). But it was with the revolution of 1848 that the Czech started to refer, more and more, to Jan Hus, the heretic who was burned during the Council of Konstanz. Hus was regarded as an important character within a European general movement towards progress and an individual religion that was based on ethics. Hus was interpreted as a factor of sacralization of the nation that, with its sacrifice, had permitted the rebirth of the Czech nation. The more the Catholic Church attacked Hus’ doctrines, the more his image gained popularity. Within a period in which the Catholic Church was losing importance, a national interpretation of Jan Hus became relevant. (32) This cult was supported by 250 important intellectuals who, in 1868, left in a peregrination to Constance, where Hus had been burned at the stake as a heretic. 

Jan Hus

The German situation was fundamentally different, for the German empire had been the stage not of an opposition between the national State and Catholicism, but of a struggle between Protestantism and Catholicism; the Hebrew community did not have the same numeric weight. The identification of the German nation with the history of Protestantism, which had already begun before 1871, was reinforced with the victory of Prussia against Austria in 1866, and with the outcome of the Franco-German war. Protestantism could claim to be the Emperor’s faith, which had been defined as Protestant. He stood against the Catholic faith, whose loyalty to the Pope was construed as antinational, and whose connivance with the enemies – often Catholic – of Protestant Prussia was suspected. During the period of the Kulturkampf – the cultural struggle- after 1871, the difference between the Protestant Empire and the Catholic Church exploded. (33)

In December, the clergy was forbidden to criticize the Empire and its constitution ex-cathedra. One year later, Prussia decided to exclude from the School inspection all the Catholics. In the same year, the Jesuits’ houses were closed and their foreign members were expelled from Germany. From that time on, the Catholic priests had to be German citizens and should have studied in the State schools of Theology. The State reserved the right to appoint the archbishops and threatened with financial penalties those who preferred to leave their positions vacant. In this confrontation, the Catholics were perceived as the internal enemies, and it was even affirmed that there was a new confession of faith in the public and private life: struggles occurred between students of different creeds, the inter-creed marriages became more difficult, and consumers chose stores that were managed by merchants of their own creed. (34)  

The Catholic Church refused to comply with the laws, organized movements of protest and refused to participate in the holidays of national celebration. In the organization of the “political circles”, as defined by German sociologist Rainer M. Lepsius, the Catholic environment would eventually organize the majority of the Catholic voters, regardless of their social origin (35). Catholicism found itself in a difficult situation, for it should try to find its place in a national culture defined by the Protestants. Considering that, for a long time, Catholicism had defended a Germany that lived under the domination of Catholic Austria, and it found itself in an uneasy position in face of the victory of Protestant Prussia. Moreover, its social professional composition was damaging to it, for Protestantism was supported by the great majority of the members of the "enlightened bourgeoisie", whose importance was smaller within the Catholic sphere. Because the members of the bourgeoisie had a prominent position within the German national movement, the Catholics had limited space to make their voices heard.

Another trend would constitute the nation as a community of believers, by using Christian symbols to ascribe it to a sacred nature, resorting to the religious liturgy to celebrate it, and developing a history of national redemption. (36) The was a re-interpretation of the national figures and the establishment of civil religion, as developed by Rousseau in 1772 in his “Considerations on the government of Poland”; then there was the national application of the biblical figures, of the saints or of the characters of the Churches’ history.

In the history of the nationalization of religion, the cult of Martin Luther in Germany is important. The reformer was celebrated as a national hero, for having defended Germany against the Pope and Catholicism. The Reformation was celebrated as a pre-history of German national unity. During the commemoration of the 400th anniversary of his birth, on 10 November 1883, forty thousand speeches were allegedly made in Germany about the Reformer’s merits; a Luther Foundation was created to sponsor the higher education of the pastors’ and teachers’ children, and a multitude of monuments was built and inaugurated in Luther’s honour. The reference to Luther and to a Protestant national tradition also helped to differentiate, in history and in the present time, those who favoured the uprising of the nation and those who opposed it. The Middle Ages were regarded as gloomy and ineffective, and the Catholic Church was ultramontane and vassal to Rome. The European countries that were regarded as enemies of the new German nation, such as France, in their majority Catholic, were perceived as “rotten” due to the ultramontanism that prevailed there. With many initiatives and resources, Protestantism succeeded, under the Empire, to promote a “religionization” of the nation and a nationalization of the religion.

The German Catholics responded with the same enthusiasm and with similar arguments. Even in 1848, Ignaz von Döllinger contended that the “only true national Church is... the Catholic Church” (37). Against Luther, the Catholics mobilized, especially after 1848, Boniface, the “apostle of the Germans”, to emphasize that the German nation had been associated, by the time of its birth, with the introduction of Christianity. Boniface, whose name derives from the Latin bonum facio, was celebrated as the one who, during the AD Eighth Century, was assigned by Pope Gregory II with the mission of Christianizing the German provinces. In this missionary action, he was murdered – as the legend has it – by pagans from Northern Germany. The missionary and civilizing action and the martyrdom were, in Boniface’s Catholic perspective, good examples of the longevity of the Catholic struggle for the unity of Germany. 

In France, a similar effort to nationalize a character of the ecclesiastic history occurred when the Republicans tried to nationalize the cult of Joan of Arc, which had great importance within the Catholic Church. As demonstrated by Krumeich (1989), Joan of Arc achieved great popularity among Catholic believers and in popular culture (38).  To the “maid of Orleans”, who had saved the king, the Republicans opposed a Joan of Arc that had been betrayed by the king, by the noblemen and by the Catholic Church, and who had to die to save France. The Republicans placed among the adversaries of Joan of Arc all those that they combated during the Third Republic. The Republicans were successful in ascribing a sacred nature to the national heroes by transferring them to the Church of Saint Genevieve. Such a decision, made during the Revolution of 1789, was abolished during the Second Empire, but renewed under the Third Republic. The entombment of the national heroes inside an ancient church raised a strong reaction from the Catholics, who regarded it as a profanation and a sacrilege. However, in 1855, Victor Hugo - the national poet – was transferred to the Pantheon. (39)

It is surprising to see how the policies of memories and symbols are similar in the four Christian societies. They were based on characters of the past, both to celebrate the longevity of the national unity that had been created by the Christianization of the country – such as Saint Wenceslas, in Czechoslovakia; Boniface, in Germany; Joan of Arc or Saint Louis, in France – Jan Hus, Martin Luther, Giordano Bruno, and a Republican Joan of Arc could serve as an example. In this opposition, the characters of the ecclesiastic history were nationalized and inserted into a historical construction, into an “invention of tradition.” (40) The nation itself was made sacred with those discourses and lost the character of a contingent and historical construction. The nation was not defined in a pluralist, open way, but as a closed, unique and holistic entity. 

Joan of Arc

During the years preceding World War I, in Italy, the Right-wing had tried to attain a commitment to the Catholic Church and avoid manifestations and publications that could be regarded as anti-clerical. The attitude of the Catholic Church was changing as well. With the encyclical Rerum Novarum, the Pope signalized a relative openness toward the modern world and allowed the national Churches to set out for a policy of commitment with the laic National States (41). This did not produce deep effects in France, where the Catholics had eventually adopted the national symbols such as the tricolour flag and the commemoration of July 14, but where the separation between the Church and the State of 1905 unleashed new conflicts and increased the rupture between the laic Republicans and the Catholic believers. Only World War I allowed the Catholic Church to participate in the defence of national unity and the “sacred” cause of the nation, without eliminating the fundamental differences between the “two Frances”. (42)

Tipu ties up with the French

While Europe was in conflict with the Church, in 1794, surprisingly, the despot Muslim king of Mysore, Tipu Sultan, allegedly founded the (French) Jacobin Club in Seringapatam, had planted a Liberty tree, and asked to be addressed as 'Tipu Citoyen,'" which means Citizen Tipu. (43) Helped by French republican officers, he founded the club for ''framing laws comfortable with the laws of the French Republic."

One of the motivations for French Emperor Napoleon's invasion of Egypt was to establish a junction with India against the British. Bonaparte wished to establish a French presence in the Middle East, with the ultimate dream of linking with Tippoo Sahib. (44) Napoleon assured the French Directory that "as soon as he had conquered Egypt, he will establish relations with the Indian princes and, together with them, attack the English in their possessions." (45) According to a 13 February 1798 report by Napoleon's chief diplomat and cleric Charles Maurice Talleyrand: "Having occupied and fortified Egypt, we shall send a force of 15,000 men from Suez to India, to join the forces of Tipu-Sahib and drive away the English." (46) Napoleon was unsuccessful in this strategy, losing the Siege of Acre in 1799 and at the Battle of Abukir in 1801.

But, In a 2005 paper, historian Jean Boutier argued that the club's existence, and Tipu's involvement in it, were fabricated by the East India Company in order to justify British military intervention against Tipu. (47)

Ignorance in England

The majority of textbooks on British history make little or no mention of the English Enlightenment, although they do include coverage of major intellectuals such as Joseph Addison, Edward Gibbon, John Locke, Isaac Newton, Alexander Pope, Joshua Reynolds, and Jonathan Swift. (48) Freethinking, a term describing those who stood in opposition to the institution of the Church, and the literal belief in the Bible, can be said to have begun in England no later than 1713 when Anthony Collins wrote his "Discourse of Free-thinking", which gained substantial popularity. This essay attacked the clergy of all churches and was a plea for deism.

The reasons for this neglect were the assumptions that the movement was primarily French-inspired, that it was largely a-religious or anti-clerical, and that it stood in outspoken defiance of the established order. (49) After the 1720s, England could claim thinkers to equal Diderot, Voltaire, or Rousseau. However, its leading intellectuals such as Gibbon, (50) Edmund Burke and Samuel Johnson were all quite conservative and supportive of the standing order. The reason given was that Enlightenment had come early to England and had succeeded such that the culture had accepted political liberalism, philosophical empiricism, and religious toleration, positions which intellectuals on the continent had to fight against powerful odds. Furthermore, England rejected the collectivism of the continent and emphasized the improvement of individuals as the main goal of enlightenment. (51)

In England, during the last decade of the Eighteenth century,  the pattern of English thought got altered profoundly. Responding to the dual impulses of the French revolution and the evangelical revival, educated Englishmen changed their attitudes toward both political and religious questions. In politics, a Trory emphasis on traditional institutions superseded the Whig insistence on traditional rights as the framework for debate on public issues. In religion, emotional Evangelicalism began to compete with rational Christianity of the late Eighteenth century for the allegiance of the educated population. These changes in the political and religious views in turn modified the hitherto dominant ideas in other spheres of thought and thus set a cultural pattern which persisted well into the nineteenth century. (52)

In the period of transition in England, the least studied development was the growth of public concern about the relation of science to religion. This most perplexing nineteenth-century problem had caused Englishmen little anxiety in the years before 1790. The orthodox opinion then assumed that science and religion were complementary, not contradictory, and that scientific investigations would confirm the literal truth of the religious writings. English scientists for the most part acknowledged this religious mission and carefully organized their findings to accord with the scriptural account of the origin of the earth and its inhabitants. According to Charles C Gillispie, Eighteenth-century English scientists were influenced by rationalist ideas and began to express the religious applications of their work in "the language of convention rather than of ardent conviction." (53) 

Scientists and theologians were united in that "peculiarly English phenomenon, the holy alliance between science and religion". (54) 

It is in this world of contradictions that the East India Company Writers in India tried to place Indian scriptures.

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1. Gottlieb, Antony, The Dream of Enlightenment, Allen Lane, 2016, p xi
2. ibid, p 116
3. ibid, p 117
4. ibid
5. ibid
6. Zafirovski, Milan (2010), The Enlightenment and Its Effects on Modern Society, p. 144
7. Juan Valdez, The Snow Cone Diaries: A Philosopher's Guide to the Information Age, p 36
8. Cohen, I. Bernard (1976). The Eighteenth-Century Origins of the Concept of Scientific Revolution. Journal of the History of Ideas. 37 (2): 257–88.
9. Eugen Weber, Movements, Currents, Trends: Aspects of European Thought in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries (1992).
10. Gay, Peter (1996), The Enlightenment: An Interpretation, W.W. Norton & Company
11. Israel, Jonathan I. (2011). Democratic Enlightenment: Philosophy, Revolution, and Human Rights 1750–1790. Oxford University Press. p 10-11
12. ibid, pp. vii-viii
13. Feldman, Noah (2005). Divided by God. Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, p. 29: "It took John Locke to translate the demand for the liberty of conscience into a systematic argument for distinguishing the realm of government from the realm of religion."
14. ibid, p 29
15. Sorkin, David. Hayes-Robinson Lecture: Enlightenment and Faith: Debates among Protestants, Catholics and Jews in Eighteenth-Century Europe, 2008, p. 10
16. Susan Manning, Francis D Cogliano, ed., The Atlantic enlightenment, 2008, Routledge p. 14
17. Heinz-Gernhard Haupt, Religion and Nation in Europe in the 19th Century: Some Comparative Notes, Estudos Avancados, 22 (62), 2008
18. Ozouf, M. The Revolutionary Party: 1789-1799. Paris: Gallimard, 1976, quoted in Heinz-Gernhard Haupt, Religion and Nation in Europe in the 19th Century: Some Comparative Notes, Estudos Avancados, 22 (62), 2008, quoted in Heinz-Gernhard Haup
19. Martin, J. C. Violence and Revolution: Essay on the Birth of National Myth, Paris: Seuil, 1996
20. Elias, N. Studies on the Germans: Power Struggles and Culture Development in 19th and 20th Centuries. Jahrhundert. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1989. quoted in Heinz-Gernhard Haup

21. Mosse, G. L., The Nationalization of the Masses. Political Symbolism and Mass Movements in Germany from the Napoleonic War to the Third Reich, Frankfurt: Campus, 1976. quoted in Heinz-Gernhard Haup
22. Hayes, C. J. H. Essays on Nationalism. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1926
23. Temps Modernes, v.550, May 1992, quoted in Heinz-Gernhard Haup
24. Haupt H G & Langewiesche, D ed. (2001, 2004), ) Nation und Religion in Deutschland. p.293-332.
25. Burleigh, M. Earthly Powers. The Clash of Religion and Politics in Europe from the French revolution to the Great War. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005 (2005),
26. Martin, 1996, quoted in Heinz-Gernhard Haup
27. McManners, John (1972), Church and State in France-1870-1914, Oxford, p.2327-58
28. Mayeur, Separation of Church and State (1966), quoted in Heinz-Gernhard Haup
29. Papenheim, Margot, 2003, p.202-36, quoted in Heinz-Gernhard Haup
30. Verocci, G, 1997, Places of memory, Characters and dates of United Italy, p.89, quoted in Heinz-Gernhard Haup
31. Hroch, The Europe of Nations, 2005, p.55, quoted in Heinz-Gernhard Haup
32. Schulze-Wessel, 2004, p.135-50, quoted in Heinz-Gernhard Haup
33. Burleigh, M. Earthly Powers. The Clash of Religion and Politics in Europe from the French revolution to the Great War. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005 (2005), p.311 ss
34. Kuhlemann (2004), p.27-63, quoted in Heinz-Gernhard Haup
35. Laube, 2001, p.293-332, quoted in Heinz-Gernhard Haup
36. ibid, p.302ss
37. ibid
38. Winock M, 1997, p.4427-73, quoted in Heinz-Gernhard Haup
39. Ben Amos, 2002, Funerals, Politics, and Memory in Modern France, 1789-1996. Oxford University Press, 2002
40. Burleigh, 2005, p.365
41. Hobsbawm & Ranger, ed, (1992), Invention of Tradition, Cambridge
42. Mollenhauer D, 2004, p.228, quoted in Heinz-Gernhard Haup

43. Conrad, Sebastian (2012). Enlightenment in Global History: A Historiographical Critique. The American Historical Review. 117 (4): 999–1027
44. Watson, William E. (2003). Tricolor and Crescent: France and the Islamic World (2003), Praeger Publishers
45. Amini, Iradj (1999). Napoleon and Persia, Mage Publishers

46. ibid

47. Boutier, Jean (2005). "Les "lettres de créances" du corsaire Ripaud. Un "club jacobin" à Srirangapatnam (Inde), mai-juin 1797". ( The "credentials" of the corsair Ripaud. A "Jacobin club" in Srirangapatnam (India), May-June 1797". The Learned Indies, Les Indes Savantes.

48. Peter Gay, ed. The Enlightenment: A comprehensive anthology (1973) p. 14

49. Roy Porter, "England" in Alan Charles Kors, ed., Encyclopedia of the Enlightenment (2003) 1:409–15
50. Karen O'Brien, English Enlightenment Histories, 1750–c.1815 in José Rabasa, ed. (2012). The Oxford History of Historical Writing: Volume 3: 1400–1800. Oxford, England: OUP. pp. 518–535
51. Roy Porter, The Creation of the Modern World: The Untold Story of the British Enlightenment (2000), pp. 1–12, 482–484.
52. Gillispie, Genesis and Geology, Cambridge, 1951, p 10, quoted in Norton Garfinkle, Science and Religion in England 1790-1800: The Critical Response to the Work of Erasmus Darwin, Journal of the History of Ideas, (June 1955) vol 16, no 13p 376-388
53. Morris Quinlan, Victorian Prelude, New York, 1951, W L Mathieson, England in Transition,1789-1832, London, 1920
54. Basil Willey, The Eighteenth Century Background, (New York, 1941, p 136)

© Ramachandran 

ക്രിസ്ത്യാനികൾ ശവം ദഹിപ്പിക്കണം

1963 ൽ മാർപാപ്പ  മുടക്ക് നീക്കി 

കോട്ടയത്ത് കോവിഡ് ബാധിച്ച ഒരു ക്രൈസ്തവൻറെ ജഡം പൊതു ശ്മശാനത്തിൽ അടക്കുന്നത് കഴിഞ്ഞ ദിവസം വിവാദം സൃഷ്ടിച്ചതിന് പിന്നാലെ,ഇപ്പോൾ ആലപ്പുഴയിൽ നിന്ന് സദ് വാർത്ത അഥവാ സുവിശേഷം വന്നിരിക്കുന്നു -അവിടെ ലത്തീൻ രൂപതയിൽ രോഗ ബാധിതർ ആയവരുടെ മൃത ദേഹം  ഇടവകയിൽ തന്നെ ദഹിപ്പിക്കുമെന്ന് മെത്രാൻ ഡോ ജെയിംസ് ആനാപറമ്പിൽ പ്രഖ്യാപിച്ചിരിക്കുന്നു.മൃത ദേഹ ഭസ്മം പള്ളി സെമിത്തേരിയിൽ അടക്കം ചെയ്യും.കോവിഡ് പ്രോട്ടോകോൾ പാലിച്ചാകും ദഹനം.

കേരളം ഒന്നാകെ ഇത് സ്വാഗതം ചെയ്യും;ചെയ്യണം.കോട്ടയത്ത് മരിച്ച ക്രൈസ്തവൻ സി എസ് ഐ സഭക്കാരനായിരുന്നു.ആ സഭയ്ക്ക് ഇഷ്ടം പോലെ സ്ഥലം കേണൽ മൺറോ തിരുവിതാംകൂർ റസിഡന്റും ദിവാനും ആയിരുന്നപ്പോൾ പതിച്ചു കൊടുത്തിട്ടുണ്ട്. എന്നിട്ടും ആ സഭയിൽ പെട്ട ഒരാൾ കോവിഡ് വന്നു മരിച്ചപ്പോൾ സഭ ഒരിഞ്ചു സ്ഥലം നൽകിയില്ല. പിന്നോക്കക്കാർ താമസിക്കുന്നിടത്തെ ശ്മശാനം പാതിരയ്ക്കു ശേഷം ഉപയോഗിക്കേണ്ടി വന്നു. കഷ്ടമായിപ്പോയി.ഈ പശ്ചാത്തലത്തിൽ,സഭകൾ ഒന്നാകെ,ജഡം ദഹിപ്പിക്കുന്ന ഹൈന്ദവ രീതിയിലേക്ക് മാറുന്നതാണ് നല്ലത്. കോവിഡിൽ തുടങ്ങി പിന്നീട് പൊതു ശീലത്തിലേക്ക് മാറാം.

ജെയിംസ് റാഫേൽ ആനാപറമ്പിൽ കഴിഞ്ഞ ഒക്ടോബർ 12 ന് മാത്രമാണ് മെത്രാൻ ആയത്.റോമിലെ ഉർബാനിയ സർവകലാശാലയിൽ നിന്ന് ബിബ്ലിക്കൽ തിയോളജിയിൽ ഡോക്ടറേറ്റ്‌’നേടിയ അദ്ദേഹം ആലുവ സെൻറ് ജോസഫ് സെമിനാരി അധ്യാപകൻ ആയിരുന്നു;കർമ്മലഗിരിയിൽ റെക്ടറും.വിവരം ഉണ്ടെന്നു സാരം. മറ്റ് പല മെത്രാന്മാർക്കുമില്ലാത്ത വിവേകവുമുണ്ട്.

കേരളത്തിൽ ക്രിസ്ത്യാനികളുടെ ജഡം ദഹിപ്പിക്കുന്നത് ആദ്യമായല്ല.

ജോസഫ് പുലിക്കുന്നേലിൻറെ ഭൗതിക ശരീരം 2017 ൽ അദ്ദേഹത്തിൻറെ ആഗ്രഹപ്രകാരം വീട്ടുവളപ്പിൽ  ദഹിപ്പിക്കുകയുണ്ടായി. അതിന് ഏതാനും വർഷങ്ങൾക്കു മുൻപ്  അദ്ദേഹത്തിൻറെ ഭാര്യയെയും സ്വന്തം സ്ഥലത്തു  ദഹിപ്പിക്കുകയാണ് ചെയ്തത്. സാമുവേൽ കൂടൽ അദ്ദേഹത്തിൻറെ  മൂത്തമകനെകൊണ്ട് അദ്ദേഹത്തെയും അദ്ദേഹത്തിൻറെ ഭാര്യയെയും അവരുടെ വീട്ടുവളപ്പിൽ  ശവദാഹം നടത്തിക്കൊള്ളാമെന്ന് ക്ഷണിക്കപ്പെട്ട അനേകരുടെ മുൻപിൽ പ്രതിജ്ഞ  ചെയ്യിപ്പിക്കുന്നത് യു ട്യൂബിൽ കണ്ടു , ഈ രണ്ട് ക്രിസ്തീയ മഹൽ വ്യക്തികളും മരണാനന്തര ശുശ്രൂഷ എങ്ങനെ  ആയിരിക്കണമെന്നുള്ളതിന്  വലിയ മാതൃക ലോകർക്ക് കാട്ടിക്കൊടുത്തു. 

2007-ൽ ഇടമറ്റംകാരനും CGH-Earth,കാസിനോ ഗ്രൂപ്  ഉടമയുമായിരുന്ന  ഡൊമിനിക്‌ ജോസഫ് (തൊമ്മിക്കുഞ്ഞ്) കുരുവിനാക്കുന്നേൽ ജീവിച്ചിരിക്കുമ്പോൾത്തന്നെ  മേജർ ആർച്ചുബിഷപ്പ് മാർ വർക്കി വിതയത്തിൽനിന്ന്  അദ്ദേഹത്തിൻറെ ഭൗതികശരീരം ദഹിപ്പിക്കാനുള്ള അനുവാദം വാങ്ങി; മരിച്ചപ്പോൾ ശവദാഹം നടത്തി.

കത്തോലിക്കാ സഭയിലെ പരമാധികാരം അനുവദിച്ചിരിക്കുന്ന ഒരു കാര്യത്തിന് വീണ്ടും അനുവാദം വാങ്ങിക്കേണ്ടതില്ല . സീറോ-മലബാർ സഭയിലെ എല്ലാ കാര്യങ്ങളും അങ്ങനെയൊക്കെ തന്നെ. പെസഹാവ്യാഴാഴ്ച സ്ത്രീകളുടെ പാദങ്ങൾ കഴുകണ്ടെന്ന് സീറോ-മലബാർ സഭാധികാരം തീരുമാനിച്ചത്,ആൺ കോയ്മയുടെ ഭാഗമാണ് .

ജോസഫ് പുലിക്കുന്നേൽ മരണാനന്തരം ചെയ്യേണ്ട കാര്യങ്ങൾ 15 നിബന്ധനകൾ ആയി എഴുതി വച്ചു.”എൻറെ മൃത ദേഹം കുടുംബം വകയായ എൻറെ ഭൂമിയിൽ അടക്കുകയോ ദഹിപ്പിക്കുകയോ ചെയ്യുക; അനുശോചന യോഗം പാടില്ല”അദ്ദേഹം എഴുതി. സാധാരണ ധരിക്കുന്ന ഖദർ വസ്ത്രങ്ങൾ മതി,തലയ്ക്കൽ കുരിശു വേണ്ട,റീത്ത് വേണ്ട,ഒരാചാരവും പാടില്ല,മുഖത്തു ചുംബിക്കേണ്ട,ശവക്കുഴിയിൽ കുന്തിരിക്കം വിതറരുത്,കാരണം,മനുഷ്യൻ മണ്ണാണ് എന്നിങ്ങനെ പോയി നിബന്ധനകൾ.

ഏറ്റവും കുറഞ്ഞ ചെലവിൽ  ശവപ്പെട്ടിയോ വിലപിടിച്ച വസ്ത്രങ്ങളോ (Suit) പൊതുപ്രദർശനമോ (funeral visitation or wake) പുരോഹിത സാന്നിധ്യമോ പ്രാർത്ഥനകളോ ഒന്നുമില്ലാതെ കഴിവതും വേഗം (സാധിക്കുമെങ്കിൽ 24 മണിക്കൂറിനുള്ളിൽ) തൻറെ ഭൗതിക ശരീരം ദഹിപ്പിക്കണമെന്ന് ചാക്കോ കളരിക്കൽ എഴുതി പരസ്യപ്പെടുത്തിയിരുന്നു.മറ്റുള്ളവർക്ക് പ്രചോദനം ആകാൻ വേണ്ടിയാണ് അത് ചെയ്തത്.

മൃതശരീരത്തെ ചിതയിലോ  ക്രെമറ്റോറിയത്തിലോ ദഹിപ്പിക്കുന്ന  രീതിയെ ക്രിസ്ത്യാനികൾ  പ്രോത്സാഹിപ്പിക്കണ്ടതാണ്. അത് ഭാരതീയ  സംസ്കാരത്തിൽ അലിഞ്ഞു ചേർന്നിരിക്കുന്ന  പാരമ്പര്യമാണ്. ഹിന്ദുക്കൾ , ബുദ്ധമതക്കാർ, സിക്കുകാർ, ജൈനമതക്കാർ എല്ലാം ശവദാഹമാണ് അവരുടെ സമുദായങ്ങളിൽ കാലങ്ങളായി നടത്തികൊണ്ടിരിക്കുന്നത് .പല  പ്രാചീന സംസ്ക്കാരങ്ങളിലും മൃതദേഹം ദഹിപ്പിക്കുന്ന ആചാരം നില നിന്നിരുന്നു. ഇരുപതിനായിരം വർഷങ്ങൾക്കുമുൻപ് ഓ സ്ട്രേലിയയിൽ മൃതദേഹം ദഹിപ്പിക്കുന്ന രീതി ഉണ്ടായിരുന്നതായി തെളിയിക്കപ്പെട്ടിട്ടുണ്ട്. ഈജിപ്ഷ്യൻ, യൂറോപ്യൻ, സിന്ധു തട  സംസ്കാരങ്ങളിലെല്ലാം മൃതശരീരം ദഹിപ്പിക്കൽ ഉണ്ടായിരുന്നു. അഞ്ചാം നൂറ്റാണ്ടോടുകൂടി ശവം മണ്ണിൽ സംസ്ക്കരിക്കുന്നതിലേയ്ക്ക് പാശ്ചാത്യ രാജ്യങ്ങൾ തിരിഞ്ഞത് ക്രിസ്ത്യൻ സ്വാധീനംകൊണ്ടുമാത്രമാണ്. യൂറോപ്പിലെ പുറജാതിക്കാർ ശവദാഹം നടത്തിയിരുന്നതുപോലെ ക്രിസ്ത്യാനികൾ ശവദാഹം ചെയ്യാൻ പാടില്ലെന്ന് 789-ൽ വിശുദ്ധ റോമാസാമ്രാജ്യത്തിലെ ചക്രവർത്തി ചാർലിമെയ്ൻ കല്‍പന പുറപ്പെടുവിച്ചു; നിയമവിരുദ്ധമായി പെരുമാറുന്നവർക്ക് വധശിക്ഷയും പ്രഖ്യാപിച്ചു.

 മരണശേഷം പുന:രുദ്ധരിക്കപ്പെട്ട ശരീരം അന്ത്യവിധിക്കായി ദൈവത്തിന് മുൻപാകെ പ്രത്യക്ഷപ്പെടുമെന്നുള്ള വിശ്വാസമാണ് ജഡം  മണ്ണിൽ സംസ്ക്കരിക്കാൻ വിശ്വാസികളെ പ്രേരിപ്പിച്ചിരുന്നത്.  ശാസ്ത്രീയ അറിവിൻറെ പോരായ്മമൂലമാവാം, ദൈവത്തിനും ക്രിസ്ത്യാനികൾക്കും വിരുദ്ധമായ വൃത്തികെട്ട ഒരു പ്ര വൃത്തിയായി ശവദാഹത്തെ സഭ കണ്ടു . നിത്യ രക്ഷയുടെ അതീന്ദ്രിയമായ അഥവാ  അനുഭവജ്ഞാനാതീതമായ അവസ്ഥയാണ് മോക്ഷം; സൃഷ്ടിയായ ആത്മാവ് സ്രഷ്ടാവിൽ (ബ്രഹ്മനിൽ) ലയിക്കുന്നതാണ് ആത്യന്തികമായ സാക്ഷാത്കാരം. ഈ തിരിച്ചറിവിൻറെയും മൃതശരീരം ദഹിപ്പിക്കുന്നതിലെ ശാസ്ത്രീയ ഗുണത്തിൻറെയും അടിസ്ഥാനത്തിലായിരിക്കണം കത്തോലിക്ക സഭ വൈകിയാണെങ്കിലും ശവം ദഹിപ്പിക്കൽ അനുവദിച്ച്. കത്തോലിക്കാ സഭ നൂറ്റാണ്ടുകളായി ശവദാഹത്തെ മുടക്കിയിരുന്നെങ്കിലും 1963-ൽ മാർപാപ്പ ആ മുടക്കിനെ നീക്കി . 1966-ൽ കത്തോലിക്കാ പുരോഹിതർക്ക് ശവദാഹ ചടങ്ങിൽ ഔദ്യോഗികമായി പങ്കെടുക്കാനും മാർപാപ്പ അനുവാദം നൽകി.

ശാസ്ത്രീയമായും സാമൂഹ്യമായും മതപരമായും മൃതശരീരം അഗ്നിക്കിരയാക്കുന്നതാണ് മണ്ണിൽ സംസ്ക്കരിക്കുന്നതിലും അഭികാമ്യമാകുന്നു . മണ്ണിൽ സംസ്ക്കരിച്ചാൽ മൃതശരീരം ജീർണിക്കുമ്പോൾ അതിൽനിന്ന്  ഒഴുകിവരുന്ന ദ്രാവകം കുടിവെള്ളത്തിൽ കലർന്ന് അശുദ്ധമാകാൻ ഇടയുണ്ട്. ശവ സംസ്കാരത്തിന് സ്ഥലം ആവശ്യമുണ്ട്. നഗരങ്ങളിലെല്ലാം സ്ഥലപരിധിയുള്ളതിനാൽ മൃതശരീരം ദഹിപ്പിക്കുന്നതാണ് പ്രായോഗികം. ജനസംഖ്യ നാൾക്കുനാൾ വർദ്ധിച്ചുകൊണ്ടുമിരിക്കുന്നു. ശവസംസ്കാരത്തിൻറെ ഫലമായി രോഗങ്ങൾ ഉണ്ടാകാം. മൃഗങ്ങളും പക്ഷികളും മറ്റും ഭക്ഷിച്ചെന്നിരിക്കാം. ഇതെല്ലാം ഒഴിവാക്കാൻ മൃതശരീരം ദഹിപ്പിക്കൽ സഹായകമാണ്.

ജെയിംസ് ആനാപറമ്പിൽ 

ഭാരത സംസ്ക്കാരം മൃതശരീരത്തെ ദഹിപ്പിക്കലാണെന്നിരുന്നിട്ടും ആഗോള കത്തോലിക്ക സഭ മൃതശരീരം ദഹിപ്പിക്കാൻ  അനുകൂലനിലപാടാണെന്നിരുന്നിട്ടും എന്തുകൊണ്ട് ഭാരതത്തിലെ കത്തോലിക്ക സഭാധികാരം അതിനെ പ്രോത്സാഹിപ്പിക്കുന്നില്ല? അല്മായർക്ക്  കടിഞ്ഞാണിടാനും (തെമ്മാടിക്കുഴി) പള്ളിപറമ്പിലെ ശവ സംസ്ക്കാരം വഴി ഇടവകാംഗങ്ങളെ കല്ലറ വില്പന വഴി സാമ്പത്തികമായി  ചൂഷണം ചെയ്യാനും കഴിയും . ദഹിപ്പിച്ചാലും സംസ്ക്കരിച്ചാലും മരണാനന്തര കർമ്മങ്ങൾ നടത്തണമെന്ന് ആഗ്രഹിക്കുന്ന കുടുംബങ്ങൾക്ക് പള്ളിയിൽ നടത്താവുന്നതാണ്. ശവം ദഹിപ്പിക്കലും സംസ്ക്കരിക്കലും ഓരോ വ്യക്തിയുടെയും ആഗ്രഹത്തിന് വിട്ടുകൊടുക്കേണ്ടതാണ്.വിശ്വാസികളുടെ അറിവില്ലായ്മയെയും അന്ധവിശ്വാസത്തെയും പുരോഹിതർ ചൂഷണം ചെയ്യുന്നു.

അവനവൻ ചെയ്യുന്ന നന്മയാണ് സ്വർഗം സൃഷ്ടിക്കുന്നത്.സ്വർഗ്ഗവും നരകവുമിവിടെ തന്നെ.അവനവൻ ചെയ്യുന്ന തിന്മയാണ് നരകം. ഇതറിഞ്ഞാൽ എല്ലാം എളുപ്പമാണ്,മനുഷ്യാ,നീ മണ്ണാകുന്നു എന്ന് ബൈബിളിൽ തന്നെ പറഞ്ഞിരിക്കുന്നു.ശരീരം പഞ്ചഭൂതമാണ്. മണ്ണിലേക്ക് മടങ്ങാൻ ദഹനമാണ് നന്ന്.മരിച്ചു കഴിഞ്ഞുള്ള അജീർണതയാണ് ശരീരം അടക്കമുള്ള സംസ്കാരം.ശരീരം വെറും ജീർണ വസ്ത്രമാണ് എന്ന് ഭഗവദ് ഗീത പറയുന്നു.ജീവൻ മാത്രമാണ് സത്യം.

© Ramachandran 

NOT St THOMAS, St BARTHOLOMEW CAME TO INDIA

He Was One of the Twelve Disciples; Came After Ascension

L K Ananthakrishna Ayyar, the father of Indian Anthropology, in his pioneering work, The Anthropology of Syrian Christians, states: "As recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Alfred the Great in 883 sent an embassy to India, headed by Sighelm, bishop of Shireburne, bearing the alms which the King had vowed to send to shrines of St. Thomas and to St Bartholomew in India."

It has been historically proved that St Thomas was never in India. But who was St Bartholomew?

He was one of twelve disciples of Jesus, like St Thomas. The exact statement in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is: "In the year 883, Alfred sent Sighelm and Athelstan to Rome, and likewise to the shrine of Saints Thomas and Bartholomew in India, with the alms which he had vowed." 

Two ancient testimonies of Eusebius of Caesarea (early 4th century) and of Saint Jerome (late 4th century) exist about the mission of Saint Bartholomew in India. Both refer to this tradition while speaking of the visit of Pantaenus to India in the 2nd century.

St Bartholomew Flayed, by Marco d'Agrate, 1562

Eusebius of Caesarea Ecclesiastical History (5:10) states that after the Ascension, Bartholomew went on a missionary tour to India, where he left behind a copy of the Gospel of Matthew. Other traditions record him as serving as a missionary in Ethiopia, Mesopotamia, Parthia, and Lycaonia. Popular traditions and legends say that Bartholomew preached the Gospel in India and then went to Greater Armenia. He has also been identified as Nathanael or Nathaniel, who appears in the Gospel of John when introduced to Jesus by Philip (who would also become an apostle, John 1:43–51) although many modern commentators reject the identification of Nathanael with Bartholomew.

The twelve disciples are:

Simon who is called Peter (buried in St Peter's Basilica, Rome)

Andrew, his brother (buried in St Andrew's Cathedral, Patras, Greece

James, son of Zebedee (buried in Santiago de Compostela Cathedral in Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, Spain)

John, brother of James (buried in the Basilica of St. John in Ephesus, Turkey)

Philip (buried in the Church of the Holy Apostles in Rome or possibly Hierapolis, near Denizli, Turkey)

Bartholomew (buried in the Basilica of Benevento, Italy, or Basilica of St. Bartholomew on the Island, Rome, Italy )

Thomas (Supposed to be buried in the San Thome Basilica in Chennai, India or in the Basilica of St. Thomas the Apostle in Ortona, Abruzzo, Italy)

Mathew the Publican ( buried in the Salerno Cathedral, Salerno, Italy)

James, son of Alphaeus (buried in the Cathedral of St. James in Jerusalem or the Church of the Holy Apostles in Rome)

Thaddaeus-Judas the Zealot (buried in St. Peter's Basilica under the St. Joseph altar with St. Simon; two bones (relics) located at the National Shrine of St Jude in Chicago, Illinois)

Simon, the Canaanite (buried in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome under the St. Joseph altar with St. Jude)

Judas Iscariot (remains located in Akeldama, near the Valley of Hinnom, in Jerusalem)

He is also Nathaniel

In the East, where Bartholomew's evangelical labours were expended, he was identified as Nathanael, in works by Abdisho bar Berika (often known as Ebedjesu in the West), the 14th-century Nestorian metropolitan of Soba, and Elias, the bishop of Damascus. Nathanael is mentioned only in the Gospel of John. In the Synoptic Gospels, Philip and Bartholomew are always mentioned together, while Nathanael is never mentioned; in John's gospel, on the other hand, Philip and Nathanael are similarly mentioned together. Giuseppe Simone Assemani specifically remarks, "The Chaldeans confound Bartholomew with Nathaniel". Some Biblical scholars reject this identification, however.

Bartholomew is English for Bar Talmai and comes from the Aramaic: bar-Tolmay native to Israel "son of Talmai" or "son of the furrows". Bartholomew is listed among the Twelve Apostles of Jesus in the three synoptic gospels: Matthew,[10:1–4] Mark,[3:13–19] and Luke,[6:12–16] and also appears as one of the witnesses of the Ascension; [Acts 1:4, 12, 13] on each occasion, however, he is named in the company of Philip. He is not mentioned by the name Bartholomew in the Gospel of John, nor are there any early Acta, the earliest being written by a pseudepigraphical writer, Pseudo-Abdias, who assumed the identity of Abdias of Babylon and to whom is attributed the Saint-Thierry (Reims, Bibl. mun., ms 142) and Pseudo-Abdias manuscripts.

Along with his fellow apostle Jude "Thaddeus", Bartholomew is reputed to have brought Christianity to Armenia in the 1st century. Thus, both saints are considered patron saints of the Armenian Apostolic Church.

One tradition has it that Apostle Bartholomew was executed in Albanopolis in Armenia. According to popular hagiography, the apostle was flayed alive and beheaded. According to other accounts, he was crucified upside down (head downward) like St. Peter. He is said to have been martyred for having converted Polymius, the king of Armenia, to Christianity. Enraged by the monarch's conversion, and fearing a Roman backlash, King Polymius's brother, Prince Astyages, ordered Bartholomew's torture and execution, which Bartholomew endured. However, there are no records of any Armenian King of the Arsacid dynasty of Armenia with the name Polymius. Current scholarship indicates that Bartholomew more likely died in Kalyan in India, where there was an official named Polymius.

The 13th-century Saint Bartholomew Monastery was a prominent Armenian monastery constructed at the site of the martyrdom of Apostle Bartholomew in Vaspurakan, Greater Armenia (now in southeastern Turkey).

Altar of San Bartolomeo Basilica in Benevento, with the relics of Bartholomew

The 6th-century writer in Constantinople, Theodorus Lector, averred that in about 507, the Byzantine emperor Anastasius I Dicorus gave the body of Bartholomew to the city of Daras, in Mesopotamia, which he had recently refounded. The existence of relics at Lipari, a small island off the coast of Sicily, in the part of Italy controlled by Constantinople, was explained by Gregory of Tours by his body having miraculously washed up there: a large piece of his skin and many bones that were kept in the Cathedral of St Bartholomew the Apostle, Lipari, were translated to Benevento in 838, where they are still kept now in the Basilica San Bartolomeo. A portion of the relics was given in 983 by Otto II, Holy Roman Emperor, to Rome, where it is conserved at San Bartolomeo all'Isola, which was founded on the temple of Asclepius, an important Roman medical centre. This association with medicine with time caused Bartholomew's name to become associated with medicine and hospitals. Some of Bartholomew's alleged skull was transferred to the Frankfurt Cathedral, while an arm was venerated in Canterbury Cathedral.

Of the many miracles claimed to have been performed by Bartholomew before and after his death, two very popular ones are known by the townsfolk of the small Italian island of Lipari.

The people of Lipari celebrated his feast day annually. The tradition of the people was to take the solid silver and gold statue from inside the Cathedral of St Bartholomew and carry it through the town. On one occasion, when taking the statue down the hill towards the town, it suddenly became very heavy and had to be set down. When the men carrying the statue regained their strength, they lifted it a second time. After another few seconds, it got even heavier. They set it down and attempted once more to pick it up. They managed to lift it but had to put it down one last time. Within seconds, walls further downhill collapsed. If the statue had been able to be lifted, all the townspeople would have been killed.

During World War II, the Fascist regime looked for ways to finance their activities. The order was given to take the silver statue of Saint Bartholomew and melt it down. The statue was weighed, and it was found to be only a few grams. It was returned to its place in the Cathedral of Lipari. In reality, the statue is made from many kilograms of silver and it is considered a miracle that it was not melted down.

Saint Bartholomew is credited with many other miracles having to do with the weight of objects.

The appearance of the saint has been described in detail in the Golden Legend: "His hair is black and crisped, his skin fair, his eyes wide, his nose even and straight, his beard thick and with few grey hairs; he is of medium stature..." Christian tradition has three stories about Bartholomew's death: "One speaks of his being kidnapped, beaten unconscious, and cast into the sea to drown. Another account states that he was crucified upside down, and another says that he was skinned alive and beheaded in Albac or Albanopolis", near Başkale, Turkey.

According to the Synaxarium of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria, Bartholomew's martyrdom is commemorated on the first day of the Coptic calendar (i.e., the first day of the month of Thout), which currently falls on September 11 (corresponding to August 29 in the Julian calendar). Eastern Christianity honours him on June 11 and the Catholic Church honours him on August 24. The Church of England and other Anglican churches also honour him on August 24.

Popular martyr

St Bartholomew is the most prominent flayed Christian martyr. During the 16th century, images of the flaying of Bartholomew were so popular that they came to signify the saint in works of art. Consequently, Saint Bartholomew is most often represented as being skinned alive. Symbols associated with the saint include knives (alluding to the knife used to skin the saint alive) and his skin, which Bartholomew holds or drapes around his body. Similarly, the ancient herald of Bartholomew is known for "flaying knives with silver blades and gold handles, on a red field." As in Michelangelo’s Last Judgement, the saint is often depicted with both the knife and his skin. Representations of Bartholomew with a chained demon are common in Spanish painting.

St Bartholomew is often depicted in lavish medieval manuscripts. Manuscripts, which are literally made from flayed and manipulated skin, hold a strong visual and cognitive association with the saint during the medieval period and can also be seen as depicting book production. Florentine artist Pacino di Bonaguida depicts his martyrdom in a complex and striking composition in his Laudario of Sant’Agnese, a book of Italian Hymns produced for the Compagnia di Sant’Agnese c. 1340. In the five scenes, narrative-based images of three torturers flay Bartholomew's legs and arms as he is immobilised and chained to a gate. On the right, the saint wears his own flesh tied around his neck while he kneels in prayer before a rock, his severed head fell to the ground. Another example includes the Flaying of St. Bartholomew in the Luttrell Psalter c.1325-1340. Bartholomew is depicted on a surgical table, surrounded by tormentors while he is flayed with golden knives.

Due to the nature of his martyrdom, Bartholomew is the patron saint of tanners, plasterers, tailors, leatherworkers, bookbinders, farmers, housepainters, butchers, and glove makers. In works of art, the saint has been depicted being skinned by tanners, as in Guido da Siena's reliquary shutters with the Martyrdoms of St. Francis, St. Claire, St. Bartholomew, and St. Catherine of Alexandria. Popular in Florence and other areas in Tuscany, the saint also came to be associated with salt, oil, and cheese merchants.

Although Bartholomew's death is commonly depicted in artworks of a religious nature, his story has also been used to represent anatomical depictions of the human body devoid of flesh. An example of this can be seen in Marco d'Agrate's St Bartholomew Flayed (1562) where Bartholomew is depicted wrapped in his own skin with every muscle, vein and tendon clearly visible, acting as a clear description of the muscles and structure of the human body.

The Martyrdom of Saint Bartholomew (1634) by Jusepe de Ribera depicts Bartholomew's final moments before being flayed alive. The viewer is meant to empathize with Bartholomew, whose body seemingly bursts through the surface of the canvas, and whose outstretched arms embrace a mystical light that illuminates his flesh. His piercing eyes, open mouth, and petitioning left-hand bespeak an intense communion with the divine; yet this same hand draws our attention to the instruments of his torture, symbolically positioned in the shape of a cross. Transfixed by Bartholomew's active faith, the executioner seems to have stopped short in his actions, and his furrowed brow and partially illuminated face suggest a moment of doubt, about the possibility of conversion. The representation of Bartholomew's demise in the National Gallery painting differs significantly from all other depictions by Ribera. By limiting the number of participants to the main protagonists of the story—the saint, his executioner, one of the priests who condemned him, and one of the soldiers who captured him—and presenting them half-length and filling the picture space, the artist rejected an active, lively composition for one of intense psychological drama. The cusping along all four edges shows that the painting has not been cut down: Ribera intended the composition to be just such a tight, restricted presentation, with the figures cut off and pressed together.

The Martyrdom of St. Bartholomew by Aris Kalaizis, 2015

The idea of using the story of Bartholomew being skinned alive to create an artwork depicting an anatomical study of a human is still common among contemporary artists with Gunther Von Hagens's The Skin Man (2002) and Damien Hirst's Exquisite Pain (2006). Within Gunther Von Hagens's body of work called Body Worlds, a figure reminiscent of Bartholomew holds up his skin. This figure is depicted in actual human tissues (made possible by Hagens's plastination process) to educate the public about the inner workings of the human body and to show the effects of healthy and unhealthy lifestyles. In Exquisite Pain 2006, Damien Hirst depicts St Bartholomew with a high level of anatomical detail with his flayed skin draped over his right arm, a scalpel in one hand and a pair of scissors in the other. The inclusion of scissors was inspired by Tim Burton's film Edward Scissorhands (1990).

Bartholomew plays a part in Francis Bacon's Utopian tale New Atlantis, about a mythical isolated land, Bensalem, populated by a people dedicated to reason and natural philosophy. Some twenty years after the ascension of Christ the people of Bensalem found an ark floating off their shore. The ark contained a letter as well as the books of the Old and New Testaments. The letter was from Bartholomew the Apostle and declared that an angel told him to set the ark and its contents afloat. Thus the scientists of Bensalem received the revelation of the Word of God.

The above biodata reveals that Bartholomew is a better person than St Thomas or Thomas of Cana, for the Syrian Christians of Kerala to venerate. The studies of Fr A.C. Perumalil SJ and Moraes hold that the Bombay region on the Konkan coast, a region which may have been known as the ancient city Kalyan, was the field of Saint Bartholomew's missionary activities. Quite unlikely. Both these priests are Jesuits, their inference could be termed as part of a Latin agenda. If Bartholomew had been to India, he would have been in Kerala, the stronghold of Syrian Christians.

© Ramachandran 

PANTAENUS AND INDICOPLEUSTUS IN KERALA

Not St Thomas,but St Bartholomew

L K Ananthakrishna Iyer,in his Anthropology of the Syrian Christians,records:

"In AD 190, the Great Gnostic Pantaenus, a Professor of Theology in the school of Alexandria, set sail from Bernice in the Red Sea and landed after the tedious coasting voyage of those days in one of the Cochin ports, where he found a colony of Christians in possession of the Aramaic version of the Gospel of St. Mathew, in Hebrew, which St. Bartholomew was supposed to have carried thither, and this is the earliest mention of the community now known as the Syrian Christians."

Who was Pantaenus?

Ayyar in his book states:

"In 547 AD, Cosmos, an Alexandrian monk, who was called Indicopleustes on account of his voyages to India, went to Ceylon, and reported that there were churches there. "At Male (Malabar) where pepper grows and at Kalliana Kollam) — Quilon — there is a Bishop who is specially ordained in Persia."

Who was Indicopleustes?

Ayyar states that,"As recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Alfred the Great in 883 sent an embassy to India, headed by Sighelm, bishop of Shireburne, bearing the alms which the King had vowed to send to shrines of St. Thomas and to St Bartholomew in India."

Who was Sighelm?

Ayyar's book refers to The Acta Thomae.What is it?

Saint Pantaenus the Philosopher (died c. 200)was a Greek theologian and a significant figure in the Catechetical School of Alexandria from around AD 180. This school was the earliest catechetical school, and became influential in the development of Christian theology.
Pantaenus was a Stoic philosopher teaching in Alexandria. He was a native of Sicily. He converted to the Christian faith, and sought to reconcile his new faith with Greek philosophy. His most famous student, Clement, who was his successor as head of the Catechetical School, described Pantaenus as "the Sicilian bee". Although no writings by Pantaenus are extant, his legacy is known by the influence of the Catechetical School on the development of Christian theology, in particular in the early debates on the interpretation of the Bible, the Trinity, and Christology. He was the main supporter of Serapion of Antioch for acting against the influence of Gnosticism.

In addition to his work as a teacher, Eusebius of Caesarea reports that Pantaenus was for a time a missionary, travelling as far as India where, according to Eusebius, he found Christian communities using the Gospel of Matthew written in "Hebrew letters", supposedly left them by the Apostle Bartholomew (and which might have been the Gospel of the Hebrews). This may indicate that Syrian Christians, using a Syriac version of the New Testament, had already evangelized parts of India by the late 2nd century. However, some writers have suggested that having difficulty with the language of Saint Thomas Christians, Pantaenus misinterpreted their reference to Mar Thoma (the Aramaic term meaning Saint Thomas), who is currently credited with bringing Christianity to India in the 1st century by the Syrian Churches, as Bar Tolmai (the Hebrew name of Bartholomew). The ancient seaport Muziris on the Malabar Coast (modern day Kerala in India) was frequented by the Egyptians in the early centuries AD.

Ancient trade routes in Silk road map

Saint Jerome (c. 347 – 30 September 420), apparently relying entirely on Eusebius' evidence from Historia Ecclesiastica, wrote that Pantaenus visited India, “to preach Christ to the Brahmans and philosophers there.”It is unlikely that Jerome has any information about Pantaenus' mission to India that is independent of Eusebius. On the other hand, his claim that "many" of Pantaenus' Biblical commentaries were still extant is probably based on Jerome's own knowledge.

His feast day is July 7.

The Universalist Church of America historian J W Hanson (1899) argued that Pantaenus "must, beyond question" have taught Universalism to Clement of Alexandria and Origen.However, since it is now considered that Clement of Alexandria's views contained a tension between salvation and freewill,and that he and Origen did not clearly teach universal reconciliation of all immortal souls in their understanding of apokatastasis, Hanson's conclusion about Pantaenus lacks a firm basis.

Cosmas Indicopleustes (Cosmas who sailed to India; also known as Cosmas the Monk) was a Greek merchant and later hermit from Alexandria of Egypt.He was a 6th-century traveller, who made several voyages to India during the reign of emperor Justinian. His work Christian Topography contained some of the earliest and most famous world maps.Cosmas was a pupil of the East Syriac Patriarch Aba I and was himself a follower of the Church of the East.

Around 550 Cosmas wrote the once-copiously illustrated Christian Topography, a work partly based on his personal experiences as a merchant on the Red Sea and Indian Ocean in the early 6th century. His description of India and Ceylon during the 6th century is invaluable to historians. Cosmas seems to have personally visited the Kingdom of Axum in modern day northern Ethiopia, as well as Eritrea, India, and Ceylon.

"Indicopleustes" means "Indian voyager".While it is known from classical literature, especially the Periplus Maris Erythraei, that there had been trade between the Roman Empire and India from the first century BC onwards, Cosmas's report is one of the few from individuals who had actually made the journey. He described and sketched some of what he saw in his Topography. Some of these have been copied into the existing manuscripts, the oldest dating to the 9th century. In 522 AD, he visited the Malabar Coast (South India). He is the first traveller to mention Syrian Christians in present-day Kerala in India. He wrote, "In the Island of Taprobane (Ceylon), there is a church of the Christians, and clerks and faithful. Likewise at Malé where the pepper grows; and in the town of Kalliana, The present Day Kalyan where Comas used to rule, there is also a bishop consecrated in Persia.

A major feature of his Topographia is Cosmas' worldview that the world is flat, and that the heavens form the shape of a box with a curved lid. He was scornful of Ptolemy and others who held that the world was spherical. Cosmas aimed to prove that pre-Christian geographers had been wrong in asserting that the earth was spherical and that it was in fact modelled on the tabernacle, the house of worship described to Moses by God during the Jewish Exodus from Egypt. However, his idea that the earth is flat had been a minority view among educated Western opinion since the 3rd century BC.Cosmas's view was never influential even in religious circles; a near-contemporary Christian, John Philoponus, disagreed with him as did many Christian philosophers of the era.

David C. Lindberg asserts: "Cosmas was not particularly influential in Byzantium, but he is important for us because he has been commonly used to buttress the claim that all (or most) medieval people believed they lived on a flat earth. This claim...is totally false. Cosmas is, in fact, the only medieval European known to have defended a flat earth cosmology, whereas it is safe to assume that all educated Western Europeans (and almost one hundred percent of educated Byzantines), as well as sailors and travelers, believed in the earth's sphericity."

Cosmology aside, Cosmas proves to be an interesting and reliable guide, providing a window into a world that has since disappeared. He happened to be in Adulis on the Red Sea Coast of modern Eritrea at the time (c. 525 AD) when the King of Axum was preparing a military expedition to attack the Jewish king Dhu Nuwas in Yemen, who had recently been persecuting Christians. On request of the Axumite king and in preparation for this campaign, he recorded now-vanished inscriptions such as the Monumentum Adulitanum (which he mistakenly attributed to Ptolemy III Euergetes).

World map by Indicopleustus

Though containing no important information, it were unpardonable in an English collection of voyages and travels, to omit the scanty notice which remains on record, respecting a voyage by two Englishmen to India, at so early a period. All that is said of this singular incident in the Saxon Chronicle, is, "In the year 883, Alfred sent Sighelm and Athelstan to Rome, and likewise to the shrine of Saints Thomas and Bartholomew, in India, with the alms which he had vowed." (Bartholomew was the messenger of Christ in India, the extremity of the whole earth.) This short, yet clear declaration, of the actual voyage, has been extended by succeeding writers, who attribute the whole merit to Sighelm, omitting all mention of Athelstan, his co-adjutor in the holy mission. 

The first member of the subsequent paraphrase of the Saxon Chronicle, by Harris, though unauthorized, is yet necessarily true, as Alfred could not have sent messengers to a shrine, of which he did not know the existence. For the success of the voyage, the safe return, the promotion of Sighelm, and his bequest, the original record gives no authority, although that is the obvious foundation of the story, to which Aserus has no allusion in his life of Alfred. "In the year 883, Alfred, King of England, hearing that there existed a Christian church in the Indies, dedicated to the memory of St Thomas and St Bartholomew, dispatched one Sighelm, or Sithelm, a favourite ecclesiastic of his court, to carry his royal alms to that distant shrine. Sighelm successfully executed the honourable commission with which he had been entrusted, and returned in safety into England. After his return, he was promoted to the bishoprick of Sherburn, or Shireburn, in Dorsetshire; and it is recorded, that he left at his decease, in the treasury of that church, sundry spices and jewels, which he had brought with him from the Indies." 

Of this voyage, William of Malmsbury makes twice mention; once in the fourth chapter of his second book, De Gestis Regum Anglorum; and secondly, in the second book of his work; entitled, De Gestis Pontificum Anglorum; and in the chapter devoted to the Bishops of Shireburn, Salisbury, and Winchester, both of which are here added, although the only authority for the story is contained in what has been already given from the Saxon Chronicle42. "King Alfred being addicted to giving of alms, confirmed the privileges which his father had granted to the churches, and sent many gifts beyond seas, to Rome, and to St Thomas in India. His messenger in this business was Sighelm, bishop of Sherburn, who, with great prosperity, which is much to be wondered at in this age, penetrated into India; whence he brought on his return, splendid exotic gems, and aromatic liquors, of which the soil of that region is prolific." "Sighelm having gone beyond seas, charged with alms from the king, even penetrated, with wonderful prosperity, to Saint Thomas in India, a thing much to be admired in this age; and brought thence, on his return, certain foreign kinds of precious stones which abound in that region; some of which are yet to be seen in the monuments of his church."

In the foregoing accounts of the voyage of Sighelm, from the first notice in the Saxon Chronicle, through the additions of Malmsbury, and the amplified paraphrase by Harris, we have an instance of the manner in which ingenious men permit themselves to blend their own imaginations with original record, superadding utterly groundless circumstances, and fancied conceptions, to the plain historical facts. 

Thus a motely rhetorical tissue of real incident and downright fable is imposed upon the world, which each successive author continually improves into deeper falsehood. We have here likewise an instance of the way in which ancient manuscripts, first illustrated by commentaries, became interpolated, by successive transcribers adopting those illustrations into the text; and how many fabricators of story, first misled by these additaments, and afterwards misleading the public through a vain desire of producing a morsel of eloquence, although continually quoting original and contemporary authorities, have acquired the undeserved fame of excellent historians, while a multitude of the incidents, which they relate, have no foundations whatever in the truth of record. He only, who has diligently and faithfully laboured through original records, and contemporary writers, honestly endeavouring to compose the authentic history of an interesting period, and has carefully compared, in his progress, the flippant worse than inaccuracies of writers he has been taught to consider as masterly historians, can form an adequate estimate of the enormity and frequency of this tendency to romance. The immediate subject of these observations is slight and trivial; but the evil itself is wide-spread and important, and deserves severe reprehension, as many portions of our national history have been strangely disfigured by such indefensible practices. 

The early 3rd-century text called Acts of Thomas is one of the New Testament apocrypha. References to the work by Epiphanius of Salamis show that it was in circulation in the 4th century. The complete versions that survive are Syriac and Greek. There are many surviving fragments of the text. Scholars detect from the Greek that its original was written in Syriac, which places the Acts of Thomas in Edessa. The surviving Syriac manuscripts, however, have been edited to purge them of the most unorthodox overtly Encratite passages, so that the Greek versions reflect the earlier tradition.

Anglo-Saxon Chronicle

Fragments of four other cycles of romances around the figure of the apostle Thomas survive, but this is the only complete one. It should not be confused with the early "sayings" Gospel of Thomas. "Like other apocryphal acts combining popular legend and religious propaganda, the work attempts to entertain and instruct. In addition to narratives of Thomas' adventures, its poetic and liturgical elements provide important evidence for early Syrian Christian traditions," according to the Anchor Bible Dictionary.

Acts of Thomas is a series of episodic Acts (Latin passio) that occurred during the evangelistic mission of Judas Thomas ("Judas the Twin") to India. It ends with his martyrdom: he dies pierced with spears, having earned the ire of the monarch Misdaeus because of his conversion of Misdaeus' wives and a relative, Charisius. He was imprisoned while converting Indian followers won through the performing of miracles.

Embedded in the Acts of Thomas at different places according to differing manuscript traditions is a Syriac hymn, The Hymn of the Pearl, (or Hymn of the Soul), a poem that gained a great deal of popularity in mainstream Christian circles. The Hymn is older than the Acts into which it has been inserted, and is worth appreciating on its own. The text is interrupted with the poetry of another hymn, the one that begins "Come, thou holy name of the Christ that is above every name" (2.27), a theme that was taken up in Catholic Christianity in the 13th century as the Holy Name.

Mainstream Christian tradition rejects the Acts of Thomas as pseudepigraphical and apocryphal, and for its part, the Roman Catholic Church declared Acts as heretical at the Council of Trent.

Thomas is often referred to by his name Judas (his full name is Thomas Judas Didymus), since both Thomas and Didymus just mean twin, and several scholars believe that twin is just a description, and not intended as a name. The manuscripts end "The acts of Judas Thomas the apostle are completed, which he did in India, fulfilling the commandment of him that sent him. Unto whom be glory, world without end. Amen.".

First page of the Gospel of Judas

The Acts of Thomas connects Thomas, the apostle's Indian ministry with two kings, According to one of the legends in the Acts, Thomas was at first reluctant to accept this mission, but the Lord appeared to him in a night vision and said, “Fear not, Thomas. Go away to India and proclaim the Word, for my grace shall be with you.” But the Apostle still demurred, so the Lord overruled the stubborn disciple by ordering circumstances so compelling that he was forced to accompany an Indian merchant, Abbanes, to his native place in north-west India, where he found himself in the service of the Indo-Parthian king Gondophares. The apostle's ministry resulted in many conversions throughout the kingdom, including the king and his brother.

According to the legend, Thomas was a skilled carpenter and was bidden to build a palace for the king. However, the Apostle decided to teach the king a lesson by devoting the royal grant to acts of charity and thereby laying up treasure for the heavenly abode. But at least by the year of the establishment of the Second Persian Empire (226), there were bishops of the Church of the East in north-west India comprising Afghanistan and Baluchistan, with laymen and clergy alike engaging in missionary activity.

The Acts of Thomas identifies his second mission in India with a kingdom ruled by King Mahadeva, one of the rulers of a 1st-century dynasty in southern India. It is most significant that, aside from a small remnant of the Church of the East in Kurdistan, the only other church to maintain a distinctive identity is the Mar Thoma or “Church of Thomas” congregations along the Malabar Coast of Kerala State in southwest India. According to the most ancient tradition of this church, Thomas evangelized this area and then crossed to the Coromandel Coast of southeast India, where, after carrying out a second mission, he died in Mylapore near Madras. Throughout the period under review, the church in India was under the jurisdiction of Edessa, which was then under the Mesopotamian patriarchate at Seleucia-Ctesiphon and later at Baghdad and Mosul. Historian Vincent A. Smith says, “It must be admitted that a personal visit of the Apostle Thomas to South India was easily feasible in the traditional belief that he came by way of Socotra, where an ancient Christian settlement undoubtedly existed. I am now satisfied that the Christian church of South India is extremely ancient... ”.

Although there was a lively trade between the Near East and India via Mesopotamia and the Persian Gulf, the most direct route to India in the 1st century was via Alexandria and the Red Sea, taking advantage of the Monsoon winds, which could carry ships directly to and from the Malabar coast. The discovery of large hoards of Roman coins of 1st-century Caesars and the remains of Roman trading posts testify to the frequency of that trade. In addition, thriving Jewish colonies were to be found at the various trading centers, thereby furnishing obvious bases for the apostolic witness.

Piecing together the various traditions, one may conclude that Thomas left north-west India when invasion threatened and traveled by vessel to the Malabar coast, possibly visiting southeast Arabia and Socotra en route and landing at the former flourishing port of Muziris on an island near Cochin (c. AD 51–52). From there he is said to have preached the gospel throughout the Malabar coast, though the various churches he founded were located mainly on the Periyar River and its tributaries and along the coast, where there were Jewish colonies.He reputedly preached to all classes of people and had about seventeen thousand converts, including members of the four principal castes. Later, stone crosses were erected at the places where churches were founded, and they became pilgrimage centres. In accordance with apostolic custom, Thomas ordained teachers and leaders or elders, who were reported to be the earliest ministry of the Malabar church.

Image of St Thomas

The text is broken by headings:

• 1 - when he went into India with Abbanes the merchant. The apostles cast lots to see who will go where as a missionary. Thomas gets India, but refuses his mission, even after Jesus speaks to him. Jesus then appears in human form and sells Thomas to a merchant as a slave, since Thomas is skilled as a carpenter. Thomas is then asked if Jesus is his master, which he affirms. It is only then he accepts his mission.
• 2 - concerning his coming unto the king Gundaphorus
• 3 - concerning the servant
• 4 - concerning the colt
• 5 - concerning the devil that took up his abode in the woman
• 6 - of the youth that murdered the Woman. A young couple begin to have relationship problems when the woman proves to be too keen on sex, while the male advocates being chaste, honouring the teachings of Thomas. So the male kills his lover. He comes to take the eucharist with others in the presence of Thomas, but his hand withers, and Thomas realises that the male has committed a crime. After being challenged, the male reveals his crime, and the reason for it, so Thomas forgives him, since his motive was good, and goes to find the woman's body. In an inn, Thomas and those with him lay the woman's body on a couch, and, after praying, Thomas has the male hold the woman's hand, whereupon the woman comes back to life.

The story clearly has the gnostic themes of death and resurrection, death not being a bad thing but a result of the pursuit of gnostic teaching, and the resurrection into greater life (and they lived happily ever after) once gnostic teaching is understood.

• 7 - of the Captain
• 8 - of the wild asses
• 9 - of the Wife of Charisius
• 10 - wherein Mygdonia receiveth baptism
• 11 - concerning the wife of Misdaeus
• 12 - concerning Ouazanes (Iuzanes) the son of Misdaeus
• 13 - wherein Iuzanes receiveth baptism with the rest
• The Martyrdom of Thomas
• Leucius Charinus

The view of Jesus in the book could be inferred to be docetic. Thomas is not just Jesus' twin, he is Jesus' identical twin. Hence it is possible that Thomas is meant to represent the earthly, human side of Jesus, while Jesus is entirely spiritual in his being. In this way, Jesus directs Thomas' quest from heaven, while Thomas does the work on earth. For example, when the apostles are casting lots to choose where they will mission, Thomas initially refuses to go to India. However, Jesus appears in human form to sell Thomas as a slave to a merchant going to India, after which Jesus disappears.Also in line with docetic thinking is Jesus' stance on sex. In one scene a couple is married, and Jesus miraculously appears to the bride in the bridal chamber. He speaks against copulating, even if it is for the purpose of reproduction. This indicates that the spiritual world is more important than the earthly one, and therefore Christians should not be concerned with reproduction.

St John with Bartholomew( right) /Dosso Dossi,1527

It is clear now that St Barthalomew was in India and maybe,Kerala.

Bartholomew was one of the twelve apostles of Jesus according to the New Testament. He has also been identified as Nathanael or Nathaniel, who appears in the Gospel of John when introduced to Jesus by Philip (who would also become an apostle,John 1:43–51) although many modern commentators reject the identification of Nathanael with Bartholomew.

In the East, where Bartholomew's evangelical labours were expended, he was identified as Nathanael, in works by Abdisho bar Berika (often known as Ebedjesu in the West), the 14th century Nestorian metropolitan of Soba, and Elias, the bishop of Damascus. Nathanael is mentioned only in the Gospel of John. In the Synoptic Gospels, Philip and Bartholomew are always mentioned together, while Nathanael is never mentioned; in John's gospel, on the other hand, Philip and Nathanael are similarly mentioned together. Giuseppe Simone Assemani specifically remarks, "the Chaldeans confound Bartholomew with Nathaniel". Some Biblical scholars reject this identification, however.

Eusebius of Caesarea Ecclesiastical History (5:10) states that after the Ascension, Bartholomew went on a missionary tour to India, where he left behind a copy of the Gospel of Matthew. Other traditions record him as serving as a missionary in Ethiopia, Mesopotamia, Parthia, and Lycaonia.Popular traditions and legends say that Bartholomew preached the Gospel in India, then went to Greater Armenia.

Two ancient testimonies exist about the mission of Saint Bartholomew in India. These are of Eusebius of Caesarea (early 4th century) and of Saint Jerome (late 4th century). Both of these refer to this tradition while speaking of the reported visit of Pantaenus to India in the 2nd century. The studies of Fr A.C. Perumalil SJ and Moraes hold that the Bombay region on the Konkan coast, a region which may have been known as the ancient city Kalyan, was the field of Saint Bartholomew's missionary activities.

Since it has been accepted that St Thomas was never in India,it is better to replace him with Bartholomew.

© Ramachandran