Page:Christianity in China, Tartary, and Thibet Volume I.djvu/33

Rh Theodoret, it is true, speaks of the apostles in general, but St. Thomas is the only one to whom the mission of India has ever been ascribed, and the learned Ba- ronius* observes truly, that to St. Thomas alone can his words apply. Nicephorusf, in the same manner, declares St. Thomas to be the Apostle of the Indians ; and GaudentiusJ says, like Sophronius, that he died in India at the town of Calamina, which is no other than Meliapour, a place at a short distance from Madras. To these clear and positive testimonies of authors in the earliest ages of Christianity, must be added that of the unvarying tradition of all ages. Thus, in the seventh century, we find Gregory of Tours, the father of French history, speaking of a worthy man named Theodorus, who had visited the tomb of St. Thomas in India. In the year 833, Sighelin, Bishop of Shireburn§, was also sent thither by the Anglo-Saxon king, Alfred the Great, in fulfilment of a vow ; and was charged to afford succour to the descendants of the Christians converted by St. Thomas. Is it credible that such pilgrimages should have been made to countries so distant, and at such various epochs, if there had not been a general belief in the apostleship and martyrdom of St. Thomas in India ? and, moreover, this very church of St. Thomas on the Coromandel coast, is men- tioned by two Mussulmans who visited India in the ninth century, a short time after the Bishop of Shire- burn.

The celebrated Venetian Marco Polo, who traversed

Baronius, "Annales," anno 44, No. 33.

Hist. vol. ii. ch. 4.

Gand., Serm. 17.

"Chronicon Saxonicum," anno 883, by Turner. "De Gestis Regum Anglorum," p. 44., by William of Malinesbury.

c 3