Page:History of India Vol 7.djvu/69

 SUPPRESSION OF THE ST. THOMAS CHRISTIANS 43 blow at the ancient native Christians. The Synod of Diamper (i.e. Udayampura), assembled in session, then denounced Nestorius and his heresies, and for a time extinguished the Indian Nestorian Church. The sacred books of the " St. Thomas " congregations, their missals and church ornaments, were pub- licly burned, and their consecrated oil was poured upon the flames. Their relig- ious nationality as a separate caste was abolished, and for the next half-cen- tury the Malabar Christians chafed under a line of Ro- man Catholic prel- ates, and groaned beneath the Inquisi- tion. In the same DOM FR. ALEIXO DE MENEZES, THIRD ARCHBISHOP OF GOA AND FIRST PRIMATE OF THE EAST INDIES (1596-1610). year, 1599, in which the Synod of Diamper crushed the ancient Church of Malabar, the London merchants met in Founders' Hall to establish an East India Company. Portugal thus entered on her struggle with England for the Eastern seas burdened with the traditions of the past and beset by the passionate vengeance which her attempt to enforce those traditions had aroused