Page:Christianity in China, Tartary, and Thibet Volume I.djvu/53

41 TESTIMONY OF COSMAS INDICOPLEUSTES. 41 what he says of Ceylon : — " There is in this island a church for the Christians of Persia, who often go to it. It is served hy a priest and a vicar, who took sacred orders in Persia, and it has the complete ecclesiastical liturgy. As for the natives of the island, they, as well as the kings who rule it, are pagans. They have many temples, and amongst others one built on a hill, in which there is a jewel of inestimable value, a ruby of the size of a large fir cone. When the sun shines upon it, its rays are perfectly dazzling. Great numbers of vessels come to this island, especially from India and Ethiopia, as well as from China and other countries to the east ; and many ships from Ceylon also proceed to those countries." * Cosmas Indicopleustes confesses that he does not knowf whether there are any Christians beyond Ceylon ; but that there were such, even in China, we shall soon find the most convincing proofs. Whilst the religion of Jesus Christ was being thus diffused over the world, the spirit of evil, incessantly la- bouring to delude mankind, was endeavouring to mingle error with the truth, and obscure by his darkness the evangelical light. The Christian converts of St. Thomas did not always preserve in its purity the faith which the apostle had preached to them. The Indians had more communication with Egypt and Greece than with the city in which Jesus Christ has established the focus of his truth, and the centre of his Church ; and by degrees they began to feel the ill effects of their relations with these unsteady people of the East, over whom the very spirit of schism and heres}' seemed to hold sway. Nestorianism had taken firm root in Persia, whose nu- t An ulterius etiam ignoro. " Topographia Christ." vol. iii.
 * Cosmas Indicopleustes in the " Voyages de Thevenot," p. 20.