Page:Christianity in China, Tartary, and Thibet Volume I.djvu/32

 20 CHRISTIANITY IN CHINA, ETC. St. Jerome, who died in the year 420, speaks of the mission of St. Thomas as of a fact universally known at that time. He even, in his catalogue of sacred writers, mentions Calamina, a town of India, as the place of his death.* Admitting that this passage may not have been written by the illustrious doctor himself, but possibly added by the Greeks, it must in that case be attributed to Sophronius ; and it will still serve to prove that Sophronius and the Greeks did not entertain any doubt of the fact of the preaching of St. Thomas in India. It was also, undoubtedly, the opinion of St. Jerome ; for, in speaking of the immensity of the Saviour regarded as God, he says these words, of which no one will dispute the authenticity : — " The Son of God re- mained then with the apostles for forty days after his resurrection, at the same time that he was with the angels in the bosom of his Father. He was present in all places, with Thomas in India, with Peter at Rome, with Paul in Illyria, with Titus in Crete, with Andrew in Achaia, and with every apostle, and every preacher of the Gospel in all the regions they traversed." f TheodoretJ was of the same opinion as St. Jerome. In speaking of the preaching of the apostles, he ex- presses himself thus : — " They have induced not only the Romans, and those who live under their empire, but also the Scythians, Sarmatians, Indians, Ethiopians, Persians, Seres, Hyrcanians, Britons, Cimmerians, and Germans, to receive the law of the crucified Saviour ; and in short have preached it to all nations, and to every class of men." f Sanctus Hier. Marcell. Epit. 148. v. 3. p. 144.
 * Sanctus Hier. Catal. Script, eccl. i. 120.
 * Theodoret, Serm. 9. p. 125.