I will give another authority regarding the character of the Catholics of India; and it is that of Doctor Buchanan :— "The Romish Church in India," he writes, "is coeval with the Spanish and Portuguese empires in the east; and though both empires are now in ruins, the Church remains. Sacred property has been respected in the different revolutions; for it is agreeable to Asiatic principle to reverence religious institutions. The revenues are in general small, as is the case in Roman Catholic countries at home; but the priests live everywhere in respectable or decent circumstances. Divine service is regularly performed, and the churches generally are well attended; ecclesiastical discipline is preserved; the canonical European ceremonies are retained, and the benefactions of the people are liberal. It has been observed, that the Roman Catholics in India yield less to the luxury of the country, and suffer less from the climate, than the English; owing, it may be supposed, to their youth being surrounded by the same religious establishments they had at home, and to their being subject to the observation and counsel of religious characters, whom they are taught to reverence. Besides the regular churches, there are numerous Romish missions established throughout Asia. But the zeal of conversion has not been much known during the last century: the missionaries are now generally stationary; respected by the natives for their learning and medical knowledge, and in general for their pure manners, they ensure to themselves a comfortable subsistence, and are enabled to show hospitality to strangers. On a general view of the Roman Catholic Church, we must certainly acknowledge, that besides its principal design, in preserving the faith of its own members, it possesses a civilizing influence in Asia; and that notwithstanding its constitutional asperity, intolerant and repulsive compared with the general principles of the Protestant religion, it has dispelled much of the darkness of paganism."*

Here, then, we have a two-fold acknowledgment;-in the Memoirs, p. 12.

first place, of the high character of the Catholic religion in India; its regularity, its morality, and the respect which it obtains; and, at the same time, of its having been effectual in dispelling the errors of paganism. And this much may, I think, suffice, regarding the character of the Catholics in India.

It appears, therefore, by comparing the acknowledgments which we have drawn from Protestant missionaries, with the official returns made to the British Parliament, and with the accounts of Catholic missionaries, whose statements no one has ever called in question, that we have at present native churches in India consisting of about 600,000 individuals, or considerably over half a million; and this, taking it at the estimate of persons rather inclined to depreciate, than to exaggerate their numbers.

Perhaps it may be a matter of interest only to mention, that a large portion of the Catholics on the coast of Malabar consist of Syrian Christians. When the Portuguese arrived there, they found a Church of Christians, who knew nothing of any other civilized community, but were in communion with, and under the authority of, the Nestorian Patriarch at Mosul; and we have the letter which they wrote to him, giving a description of the ships which arrived, and the strangers who had landed on their coast; and expressing their satisfaction at finding that they agreed with them in every point of doctrine. In course of time, conferences were held, and the differences peculiar to their sect discussed; and the consequence was, that one half of these Churches, who may now be about 30 or 50,000, became Catholics, and have remained so ever since; having their own Bishops and Priests; using the Syriac, which is now a dead language, in their liturgy; and thus forming a body united with us in communion, like the united Greek and Syriac Churches in Western Asia.

鲁

There is a singular mistake, for I wish to call it such, in one "The

of the missionary reports, where this passage occurs :— number of these Protestant Christians (on the Malabar coast)

is 60,000, and their churches amount to fifty-five." Now, would you have believed that these 60,000 are those Nestorian Christians who have not joined the Catholics; men who believe in Transubstantiation, practise confession, hold seven Sacraments, pray to Saints and Angels, venerate images and who, in short, believe every Catholic doctrine, except the supremacy of the Holy See, and the existence of only one person in Christ; and who differ from the Protestant confession of faith on all these points? And are they to be considered as Protestants, and be returned in the reports as such, to the amount of 60,000, although no attempt has yet succeeded in gaining over one of them from their original belief?

But a remark has been sometimes made in missionary reports, that it is not at all wonderful, that the Catholic Church should have succeeded so well in India, for this reason, that it had an establishment settled and provided for it by the Spanish and Portuguese government; so that when their dominions passed away, the Church continued to stand upon the foundation which they had given it. Hence the permanency of a native Church in India. I could read you a passage from Bishop Heber, in which he contrasts what the Catholics did with what the English have done since they possessed the country, and observes with what liberality the former built places of worship; while, if the English lost the dominion of India to-morrow, what very poor monuments they would leave to show that a Christian nation had therein held rule.†

But, first, the object of my comparison between the missionary success of the two Churches, is to discover which system is blessed by God's promise being fulfilled in it. The acknowledgment that the Catholic Church has been maintained in India, is a confession that we have been able to make converts and to found a Church. This is the point at issue; and the confession, that we have had the prudence to preserve it, is no disparagement of our prowess in making the spiritual conquest.

* Christian Remembrancer, vol. vii. p. 643. Tom, iii. p. 91.

Secondly, I will enter into some details, respecting a portion of the Indian Church, that in the Island of Ceylon, to show you how far this reasoning is correct; and I think it presents a case which will put the two ground-works of faith on a fair comparison. This island was first converted to Christianity in the following way. The natives having heard of what was doing by St. Francis Xavier on the continent,-sent a messenger, or rather an embassy, to him, requesting him to come among them. He replied that he could not go in person at that moment, as he could not abandon the mission at Travancore, but sent another missionary, who baptized many natives;-after two years St. Francis landed there in person, and finished the work of conversion. Persecution soon arose; the king of Jaffnapatam put six hundred Christians to death in one year, and among them his own eldest son; so that this Church may be said to have been watered by the blood of martyrs.

In 1650, the Dutch became masters of the island; and instantly took two very important steps. The first was, as Dr. Davies tells us in his travels, to allow Wimaladarme, son of Raja Singhe, to send messengers to Siam for twelve Buddhist idolatrous priests of the highest order. These came to Candy, and ordained twelve natives to the same order, and many to the lower order; and thus they restored the religion of Buddha, for the purpose of extirpating Catholicity from the island.* In the second place, they excluded Catholic Bishops and Priests from the country, and forbad the natives to meet for religious purposes; they built Protestant Churches in every parish throughout the island, and compelled every one to attend that worship; and they allowed no one to hold any post or office, unless he subscribed the Protestant profession of faith. Here, then, we have a Church established for less than a century, which yet had obtained a strong footing in the island. After this we have another religion introduced, and every thing done to counteract and destroy what had been effected in favour of the other, by a double method; first, by

Travels in Ceylon, p. 308.

giving those who were so inclined permission to return to their old superstitions, and affording these protection and means of propagation; and, secondly, by proscription, and by endeavouring to substitute in its stead the Protestant religion. For 150 years, till it came into the possession of the English, the island of Ceylon remained in this state. During all this time, the native Catholics had no spiritual succour but what they received from the Portuguese priests, of the order of St. Philip Neri, who landed there from time to time at the risk of their lives, and administered the sacraments privately, going from house to house. We have an interesting account given by the missionary D. Pedro Cubero Sebastian, how, during the time of this persecution, he landed there, and, disguising his character, applied to the Governor Pavellon for leave to remain some time in the town of Colombo. Leave was given him, on condition that a guard of soldiers should constantly accompany him; as he was suspected. He contrived, however, to elude their vigilance; and, having lulled the attention of his guards, in the middle of the night, assembled the whole Christian community of the place, and administered to them the comforts of religion. The transaction was discovered; he was immediately sent for by the Governor, and ordered instantly to quit the island. He did so, and landed on the other side; but found that, in the mean time, a courier had arrived over land, to put the governor of that district, Hoblaut, on his guard. A still more severe guardianship was the result; but, in the middle of the night, he again assembled the Christians, and administered the sacraments.*

These attempts, however, were not always so successful; for we learn that while Father Joseph Vaz, a zealous Portuguese missionary, of the order of Oratorians, was celebrating mass on Christmas night for a congregation of 200 persons, they were suddenly surprised by guards, who broke in the door, and carried the entire congregation, men, women, and

* Peregrinacion del mundo del doctor D. Pedro Cubero Sebastian, predicador apostolico, En Naples, 1682, p. 277.