all the neceflary Doctrines of Faith and Manners after which Difcourfe the chief Decrees of the Synod were publifhed, and a Proceffi on for the Dead was made round the Church, to which fuch vast multitudes of Heathens reforted to fee the Novelty, and the Pontifical Vestments, that they filled the Church-yard and Windows After the Proceffion for the Dead was ended, and the Doctrine of Purgatory, and the benefits of praying for them declared, the Metropolitan having feated himself, began a Dif courfe of the Sacrament of Confirmation, according to the neceffities of the People, and after that Anointed all that were prefent, then he Baptized all the Children of Chriftian Parents in his Pontificals, and fuch of the adult Hea thens as defired it, who were called together the day before to that purpose. The Metropolitan whenever he came to the words Ingredimini Sanctam Dei Ecclefiam, beginning a Difcourfe to the Heathens and Naires, that flocked to fee the Ceremony performed, who tho' all Armed with Bows and Arrows and other Weapons, and in their own Country remote from the Portugnezes, did quietly and chearfully hear all that he faid to them, not only concerning the Faith of Jefus Chrift, but alfo the indignities and hard words which he bestowed upon their Idols and Priefts in order to undeceive them: When the Sermon and Baptifm was over, the Ecclefiafticks that were not prefent at the Synod, made a pros feffion of the Faith before the People in the

hands

hands of the Metropolitan, and having called all the Children together, and ordering them to kneel round his Chair, he began a Chamaz, or fet of Prayers in their own Tongue, which they all faid after him, and having Bleffed them all, made a Difcourfe to them fuitable to their Age, to the great fatisfaction of their Parents, teaching them the Veneration that is due to the most fweet Name of Jefus, to which, agreeable to the Neftorian Doctrine wherein they had been educated, they had payed no manner of Refpect: After that he inducted the Vicar in the prefence of the People, charging him with the Flock which received him for their Paftor, and where there were any to be Married he Married them; great numbers alfo Confefled themselves to him, and received the moft Holy Sacrament at his hands, among whom were abundance of Ancient People, who had never Confefied themselves before: In the Evening the People affembled to gether and agreed about the Stipend, they determined to fettle upon their Vicar, which was Regiftred in Ollas, that were to be kept in the Church; and having opened the Money-Box of the Church, they diftributed fuch Alms as they thought neceffary. The Metropolitan and the Fathers that were in his Company, having examined the Caçanares, to fuch as he found to be qualified for it, he granted a Licence in writing to be Confeffors; after that he heard all the Complaints and Controverfies that were among Chriftians, and having those four principal Men, with the

confent

confent of the Parties, they decided them all according to the Cuftoms of the Country, and the Judgment of the Metropolitan, fo as to exclude all farther Procefs or Appeals; he then Abfol ved all that were Excommunicate, and feveral that had lain twenty or thirty Years under that Cenfure, there being several Cases wherein they were fo barbarous, as never to grant Abfolution, no not at the hour of Death, injoyning every one fuch Penances as were fuitable to their Faults, omitting nothing that he judged neceffary to the good of the Church and People; in all which he was accompanied and affifted by five Jefuites, who were all zealous for the Salvation of Souls, and well skilled in the Malabar Tongue, and two of them in the Chaldee also; they were Father Hieronymo Cotta, Father Jorgye de Crafto, Father Francifco Roz, who is now the most worthy Bishop of that Diocefs, Father Antonio Tofcano, and Brother John Maria: Father Frey Braz de Santa Maria, a Divine of the Order of St. Austin, was Confeffor to the most Illuftrious Metropolitan; there were alfo three Canons of the Metropolitan Church of Goa, and the Metropolitan's two Chaplains, and feveral Caçanares that were Natives, who celebrated the Divine Offices both in Chaldee and Syrian, whom the moft Illuftrious Metropolitan made great ufe of in feveral Occafions. In the reduction of this Church to the Catholick Faith, many remarkable things happened, in which God manifefted how much that Work was for his Service; and in

the

the Vifitation of the Churches there were fe veral Succeffes of great edification, and that were much for God's Praife, which fhall, God willing, be written in another place, for his Glory who liveth and reigneth for ever. Amen.

The Letter of Dom Andre Bishop of Cochim, to the Synod, being Affembled.

Rethren, in my judgment all you who are called the Chriftians of St. Thomas, do owe much to God, for his having by means of that Apostle, chofe you from among fuch multitudes of Infidels as the Eaft is filled with, to enlighten your understandings with the Truth, and for having made you, as St. Peter faith, a Holy Nation, a purchafed People: For you are not to imagine that your Forefathers did deferve more at the hands of God, than the other Infidels that were their Contemporaries, and yet you fee how God was pleafed to chufe them, and you by their means, when at the fame time he left others and their Pofterity in their natural Mifery; for which there can be no other Caufe affigned, but that it was the Will of God to extend that Mercy to you and your Forefathers, which he denied to all the other People of thefe Parts; and what makes this Mercy to be the greater and more Illuftrious, is, That God was pleased to bring you to the Faith, not by the Ministry of fome obfcure Perfon of fmall Authority,

which has been the Cafe of many other Chriftians, but by fending two chofen and beloved Apoftles to you for your greater Honour, and that this Church might justly ftile it felf Apoftolical; a privilege that was granted but to few Churches that are now in being in the World, and which the Metropolitan of Conftantinople was long ago ambitious of ufurping to himself, if he might have been permitted. But Satan, the great Enemy to all that's Good, envying the great Glory of this Church, Laboured to fow the Tares of Errours and Herefies in this Field of Christ's, and the Apostle St. Thomas; and fo coming from Babylon and the Land of the Chaldeans, he brought along with him some of the Difciples of the perfidious Neftorius to pervert this Church: This Neftorius was condemned as a Heretick in Afia minor, in the City of Ephesus, in a Council of 20 Bishops, and afterwards in a Council of 630 Bishops: He was fo wicked and perverfe an Heretick, that befides the punishment inflicted on him for his Sins by Men, God also begun to punifh him in this Life, giving him as it were an earnest of these Punishments and Torments which he is now fuffering in Hell; for befides his being depofed and deprived of his Bishoprick, and Condemned by the forementioned and other following Councils, and Banished by the Sentence of the Emperour Theodofius the II. who then Reigned, to the Defarts of Egypt, and his having his Bucks burned by the command of the faid Emperour Lefore his death, his Tongue with which he had uttered fuch great Blafphemies, rotted in his Mouth, Ff