Christianity became knowi in India at an early pe- riod. There is an old tradition that one of the twelve apostles, St. Thomas, preached the Gospel to the people of India, but the tradition is not supported by any proofs. Cosmas Indicopleustes, who visited the country m the 6th centiuy, found a large number of Christian congre- gations, Avith a bishop who was ordained in Persia. In consequence of this connection with Persia, the Chris- tians of India, who, after the reputed founder of the In- dian Chinch, were called Christians of St, Thomas, were drawn into the Nestorian movement, and subsequently received their bishop from the head of tlie Nestorian Church. Their territory' extended from the southern point of the peninsula of Malabar as far as a few miles south of CaUcut, and from the defiles of the Ghats as far as the sea. An Armenian or Syrian merchant, Thom- as Canna, rearranged in the 9th century the ecclesias- tical aiul political affairs of these Christians. Through his cll'i)rts they obtained from the kings of 3Ialabar im- portant privileges ; in particular, an exempt jurisdiction in all except criminal cases. Their rank was equal to that of the nobility of Malabar, and they were in great demand for the armies of the Hindu princes. This final- ly induced them to attempt the establishment of a king- dom of their own, which was, however, of but short du- ration. After that their position was less favorable, and the Portuguese, who in 1498 landed, under Vasco de Gama, in the port of Calicut, were consequently re- garded by them as their liberators. The first Portu- guese missionaries were Franciscan monks, who were
introduced in 1500 by CabraL Dominican monks land- ed in 1503 with the two Albuquerques, but tliey con- fined themselves to a few convents, while the Francis- cans were for about forty years the onlj' Christian mis- sionaries. It was, in particular, I'. Antonio de Porto who in 1535 established on the island of Salsette a number of colleges, churches, and convents. In 1534 tlie first Koman Catholic bishopric for India was estab- lished at Goa ; the first bishop, Albuquenjue, was a Fran- ciscan monk. But, although the convents of the Fran- ciscans were so niimeroius that they constituted two provinces of the order, they soon ceased to make nota- ble efforts for the propagation of Christianity, leaving the missionary field wholly to the new order of the Jes- uits, who made their first appearance in India in 1542. Their number increased very rapidly, and soon they had in all the Portuguese colonies of India houses and colleges, which were divided into the two jjrovincos of Goa and Cochin. Their success at first was very slow, but when the Portuguese viceroy Constantine de Bra- ganza banished some of the most prominent Brahmans, the Jesuits in 1560 succeeded in baptising nearly 13,000 persons in that city. In 1579 several Jesuits were call- ed to the court of the great mogid, Akbar, who for a time showed an inclination to accept Christianity. Sub- sequently, however, he conceived the plan of foimding a new religion himself, and the Jesuit mission, which at first promised grand results, was confined to the estab- lishment of a few congregations in the empire of the great mogul. The Jesuits were more successful in their endeavors to unite the Christians of St. Thomas with the Roman- Catholic Church. This union was accom- plished in 1599, at the Sj'nod of Dramper, by the arch- bishop of Goa, Alexius Menezes. Tlie bishopric of Goa had in 1557 been made an archbishopric, with two suf- fragan sees at Cochin and IMalacca, to which, in 1606, Meliapur was added. The Christians of St. Thomas re- ceived, in 1601, an episcopal see at Angamala, which in 1601 was raised to the archbishopric of Cranganor. The right of patronage over the ecclesiastical benefices was left to the king of Portugal, as he had to defray most of the expenses for the support of the churches and mis- sionaries. A new impulse was given to the missions when, in 1606, the Jesuit P. Robert de Nobili, at Madu- ra, conceived the novel plan of introducing Christianity by accommodating his mode of life entirely to the In- dian customs. He called himself a Roman sanmjasi (i. e. one who resigns everything), lived after the manner of the Brahmans, clothed his preaching of the Gospel in Indian figures of speech, and even retained among the new converts the difference of caste, allowing the con- verts to wear certain badges indicative of their caste. But he encountered a strong opposition, even among the members of his order, and a violent controversy be- gan, which, after thirteen years, was decided by pope Gregory XV in favor of P. de Nobili, and the converts were permitted to wear the badges. After this the Ro- man CathoUc Church made numerous converts. Accord- ing to statements of the Indian Christians, P. de Nobili is said to have baptized about 100,000 jiersons belonging to all castes. The separation was carried through even with regard to churches and missionaries; the missiona- ries of the Brahmans being called Sannyasi, those of the Pariahs, Pandarams. The successors of Nobili, who were supported by the French missionaries of Pondicherj', en- larged the missions and developed the system, but be- came consequently involved in new controversies, espe- cially with the Cajmchins (controversy of accommoda- tion), which in 1704, liy cardinal Tournon, wlio had been commissioned to examine the subject, and again by pope Benedict XIV in 1744, by the bull '•Omriium sollicitu- dinumr was decided against the Jesuits. These decis- ions not only put an end to the conversions, but the ma- jority of the Indians Avho had been gained by the ac- commodation theories of the Jesiuts again returned to their native religion. The suppression of the order of the Jesuits still more injured the Roman Catholic mis-