Page:Christianity in China, Tartary, and Thibet Volume I.djvu/51

39 BISHOPS THEOPHILUS AND MARUTHA. 39 over the interests of the Christian religion. Notwith- standing the lively opposition which he encountered from the Jews, who were at that time very numerous in that country, he succeeded in building three churches, one at Darfar, the capital of that part of Arabia ; the other at Aden, near the straits of Babelrnandel ; and the third at the entrance to the Gulf of Persia, where was held a celebrated annual fair, for the sale of Indian and Chinese productions.* After having founded these va- rious churches, he returned to Diu, his native country, and thence visited other parts of India, where he re- formed many objectionable practices among the Chris- tians ; such, for instance, as that of consulting the pagan oracles, while professing faith in the Gospel. Unfortunately, Theophilus also sowed the seeds of the Arian heresy amongst these neophytes, f Marutha, a Hindoo by birth, was invested with the Episcopal dignity in his own country towards the end of the fourth century. He held the see of SufFerdam ; and St. Chrysostom, in his writings J, pronounces an eulogium on this excellent prelate. In 381, he was pre- sent at the general council of Constantinople, and at that of Seleucia, where he prepared twenty-one canons. In 383, he was present at the Synod of Sides in Pam- phylia. These facts, which cannot be called in question, are so many proofs, that in the early ages of the Church, the evangelical seed was as fruitful in the East as in the West. The grain of mustard seed had become in India f Nicephorus Hist. Eccl., vol. i. p. 719. J Saint Chrysost. Epist. 14., ad Olympiadem. d 4
 * Philostorge, vol. ii., No. 6., and 1 — 3. No. 4.