Christianity in China, Tartary and Thibet/Volume 1/Chapter 1
CHRISTIANITY
IN
CHINA, TARTARY, AND THIBET.
CHAPTER I.
The Gospel of the Christian religion, when preached successively to all the nations of the earth, excited no astonishment, for it had been everywhere prophesied, and was universally expected. A Divine Incarnation, the birth of a Man-God, was the common faith of humanity,—the great dogma that under forms, more or less mysterious, appears in the oldest modes of worship, and may be traced in the most ancient traditions. The Messiah, the Redeemer, promised to fallen man in the terrestrial Paradise, had been announced uninter-
ruptedly from age to age ; and the nation specially
chosen to be the depository of this promise had spread
the hope abroad among men for centuries before its
fulfilment ; such was, under Providence, the result of
the great revolutions which agitated the Jews, and
dispersed them over all Asia and the world at large.
In the year 719 (b. c), Salmanassar, King of the
Assyrians, seized upon Samaria, and transported the
inhabitants into the most remote village of Media. In
676 (b.c), Assaharaddon dispersed the remnant of the
kingdoms of Syria and Israel over Persia, Media, and
the distant provinces of the East.
At length, in 606, began the captivity of Babylon, when Nebuchadnezzar carried away the greater part of the Jewish nation, and among them the princes, priests, and even prophets into his own dominions, which at that time extended as far as Media.
The Israelites of the ten tribes met in the sorrowful days of their captivity, and by the waters of Babylon they sat down and wept together when they remem- bered Sion. Dispersed afterwards over the whole East, they proceeded in numerous caravans to Persia, India, Thibet, and even China. In our own time there have been found, in all these countries, traces of the ancient migrations of the Jewish people.
Thus as early as the seventh century before the Christian era, the captivity of the Jews had had the effect of disseminating the books, the doctrines, and the prophecies of that people among all the inhabitants of Asia, as if to rc-animate the ancient faith, and restore to men their hopes of a Eedeemer. The biblical tra- ditions accompanied the children of Israel throughout all their wanderings; travelled with them through Persia, India, and Tartary, and by both routes to China; at the same time that they penetrated into Egypt, Asia Minor, and Greece, and through Greece to the West and North of Europe. At length, according to Strabo (who wrote in the time of Pompey and Crcsar), "the Jews were scattered into all cities; and it was not easy to find a spot on the earth which had not received them, and where they were not settled." Thus a current of the truth had been felt over the whole surface of the globe; the human race had begun to awaken from its supine slumbers, and to thrill with the presentiment of its redemption.
If there were anything to be surprised at, it would be that after this men should manifest surprise at finding, among all nations, and in all modes of worship, biblical fragments, and ideas that may be called Christian. The wonder would be if it were not so. "God," says St. Paul, "has not left himself without witness among the Gentiles; "and according to the prophecy of Jacob, the Redeemer was to be "the expectation of the nations."
When the Christ appeared, it was not only in Judea, among the Hebrews, that he was looked for; he was expected also at Rome, among the Goths and Scandinavians, in India, in China, in High Asia especially, where almost all religious systems are founded on the dogma of a Divine Incarnation. Long before the coming of the Messiah, a reconciliation of man with a Saviour, a King of righteousness and peace, had been announced throughout the world. This expectation is often mentioned in the Puranas, the mythological books of India. Sometimes the earth is represented in them as mourning, that by the weight of human iniquities accumulated upon her she is pressed down into Patala, the hell of the Hindoos. The gods themselves complain of the oppression of the giants; and Vishnu consoles the earth as well as the gods by assuring them that a Saviour will come to redress their wrongs, and put an end to the tyranny of the demons (Dartyas); that for this end he will become incarnate in the house of a shepherd, and be brought up amidst pastoral people. Confucius, in his writings, laments the loss of the Sacred Tripod, by which he probably meant the idea of the Tri-une God; and he announces to the Hundred Families*, that the Saint, par excellence, is to be born in the West.
By degrees, as the time approached, the Poets, those half divine seers {mens divinior) who draw their inspirations from the traditions of all nations, began to sing the birth of the Saviour of men; and to send from one end of the world to the other prophetic echoes of the marvellous event expected. In the Indian poem called Barta-Sastra f, after a long detail of the woes and disorders of the Age of Iron (Kaly-Younga), a Hindoo sage, addressing himself to Darma Raja, one of the greatest kings of India, expresses himself as follows:—"Then shall be born a Brahmin, in the city of Sambhala. This shall be the Vishnu Yesu; he shall possess the Divine Scriptures and all the sciences, without having employed to learn them as much time as it takes to pronounce a single word. That is why he shall be called the Sarva Buddha —he who knows in
An expression designating the Chinese nation,
Barta-Sastra in the 3rd vol., entitled Arania-parva, or narrative of the Adventures of the Forest. perfection all things. Then this Vishnu Yesu, conversing with the race of man, shall purge the earth of sinners (which would be impossible to any other than him), and shall cause truth and justice to reign upon it; and shall offer the sacrifice of the horse, and shall subject the universe to Buddha. Nevertheless, when he shall have attained old age, he shall withdraw into the Desert to do penance; and this is the order that the Vishnu Yesu shall establish aniong men. He shall establish virtue and truth in the midst of the Brahmins, and restore the four Castes within the limits of their law. Then the first age will be restored. The Supreme King will render the sacrifice so common to all nations, that even the wildernesses shall not be deprived of it. The Brahmins, established in virtue, shall employ themselves only in the ceremonies of religion and sacrifice; they shall cause penitence, and other virtues, which follow in the train of truth, to flourish; and they shall spread abroad the splendour of the Holy Scriptures. The seasons shall succeed each other in an invariable order; the rain in due time shall inundate the fields, the harvest in due time shall pour forth abundance. Milk shall flow at the pleasure of those who desire it; the earth, as in the first age, shall be intoxicated with joy and prosperity, and all nations shall taste of ineffable delights." {Kaly-Younga and Krita-Younga of the Hindoos.)
Whilst the Indian poet Maricandeya sung thus on the banks of the Ganges, Virgil was making the shores of Tiber resound with nearly the same strain.
Ultima Cumcei venit jam carminis cetas ;
Magnus ab integro sceclorum nascitur ordo.
Jam redit et Virgo, redeant Saturnia regna :
Jam nova progenies ccelo demittitur alto.
Tu modo nascenti puero, quo ferrea primum
Desinet, ac toto surget gens aurea mundo,
Casta fave Lucina : tuns jam regnat Apollo.
Teque adeo decus hoc cevi, te consule, inibit,
Pollio ; et incipient magni procedere menses :
Te dace, si qua manent sceleris vestigia nostri,
Irrita perpetua solvent formidine terras,
llle deum vitam accipiet, divisque videbit
Permixtos heroas, et ipse videbitur Mis ;
Pacatumque reget patriis virtutibus orbem.
At tibi prima, puer, nulla munuscula cultu,
Errantes hederas passim cum baccare, tell us
Mixtaque ridenti colocasia fundet acantho.
Ipsa lacte domum referent distenta capella?
libera ; nee magnos metuent armenta leones.
Ipsa tibi blandos f undent cunabula Jlores.
Occidet et serpens, etfallax herba veneni
Occidet ; Assyrium vulgo nascetur amomum.
Aggredere o magnos, aderit jam tempus, honores,
Caret deum suboles, magnum Jovis incrementum !
Adspice convexo nutantem pondere mundum,
Terrasque, tractusque maris, cozlumque profundum :
Adspice, venturo l&tentur nt omnia sceclo.
The supreme age foretold by the CmnaBan sibyl, he exclaims, has at length arrived ; then he celebrates the birth of the child who shall live the life of the Gods. Under his auspices " the traces of our crimes shall be effaced. The world shall be delivered from eternal alarm. The serpent shall perish," &c.
These words are remarkable enough to have struck many Christian apologists; and though Virgil doubtless had in view nothing more than the praise of Augustus, his Eclogue was a harmonious echo of the prophetic rumours that were floating over the Roman World. All he did was to turn to the glory of his hero, Caesar, the Pacificator of the Empire, the predictions that really related to the Saviour of men.
The age of Gold foretold by the Sibyl of Cumse, and so melodiously sung by Virgil, was announced in the mysterious verses of all the sibyls, many of which were at that time extant, and enjoyed great celebrity. They were to be found in Egypt, Chaldea, Persia, Elis, and according to Pausanias, even in Judea. These prophetesses, dwelling in the midst of the pagan world, drew their inspiration from the antique faith of their respective countries; they were collectors of the primitive traditions which all referred to the redemption of the human race by a Divine Incarnation; so that they often unconsciously proclaimed the truth, and foretold future events. The great artists of the Middle Ages, who had so profound a comprehension of what related to Christianity, never failed to place on the magnificent stained windows of our cathedrals, the most renowned sibyls of antiquity by the side of the prophets of the Old Testament.
A short time before the birth of Jesus Christ, not only the Jews, but even the Romans, on the authority of the Sibylline books and the decision of the Sacred College of Augurs, in Etruria, considered that this important event was approaching. The capital of the Roman world was alarmed by prodigies, as well as by ancient prophecies, announcing that an emanation of the Divinity was about to appear, and a regeneration of the world to take place. One day the Senate was assembled to deliberate on the imminent danger that threatened the Republic, and the whole world, of having to receive a king. Nigidius Figulus (an intimate friend of Cicero, at that time Consul), having heard Octavius excuse himself for coming so late, on account of his wife having been seized with the pains of childbirth, exclaimed: "You have then been bringing into the world a lord and master for us."
Nigidius enjoyed a high reputation at Rome, as one of the most learned men of the Republic; indeed, his proficiency in the mathematical and other sciences based upon them, was such that he was supposed to be an adept in magic. This exclamation from him threw the Conscript Fathers into such alarm, that for months afterwards they kept repeating that "Nature was about to bring forth, and to place a king on the throne of the world." They added, that the same thing had been announced in the verses of the Sibyl, and that, moreover, from all parts of the world, even the most distant, there had arrived numerous oracles which repeated the same prediction. The Senate, terrified by these rumours, and by the prodigies which were reported to have taken place in Rome, issued a decree, forbidding fathers of families to bring up any child that should be born for a year, or to adopt any that should be found exposed. Those Conscript Fathers, however, whose wives were then in a state of pregnancy, contrived to prevent the registration of this decree, in the hope that this king-child might be one of theirs.[1]
[2] At the same epoch Cicero writes in his book "Of the Republic," "There shall not be one law at Rome, another at Athens; one now, another then; but one law, immutable and eternal, shall rule all nations, throughout all time; and he who has made, manifested, and promulgated this law, shall be the sole common master and supreme sovereign of all
Whoever shall refuse to obey him, must fly from himself, and renounce his human nature; and by that he will become subject to great punishments, even though he should escape what here below is called by that name."[3]
India, the Roman empire, the civilised world in fact, was thus looking for a renovation of humanity; and it is very remarkable that, precisely at that time, the most distant people of the east, the Seres or Chinese, sent ambassadors to Rome to seek the friendship of Augustus. A Roman author tells us expressly[4]; and the annals of China show a high probability of such a circumstance having really taken place. Towards the period when Pompey had extended the dominion of Rome to the western shores of the Caspian Sea, the Chinese had approached the eastern, and thus the two great nations were brought into proximity with each other. At the very moment when Augustus was closing the temple of war, two immense empires, Rome in the West, and China in the East, were thus taking each other by the hand, as if to keep the world in the stillness of expectation.* China and Confucius were looking for the saint from the West. Rome was expecting a monarch from the East; and neither one nor the other was mistaken. The subject of the magnificent Indian epics, the Incarnation of the Divinity, was really about to be accomplished in Judea, between the East and the West.
The Messiah was actually born in a poor shed at Bethlehem, near Jerusalem ; and immediately three "kings of the East" three magi, who had been living in anxious expectation of the event, betook themselves to the spot where they were told they should find the Divine infant. At the same time, the emperor of the Indies, alarmed by the general diffusion of prophecies, which he supposed to menace the fall of his empire and his own ruin, sent out messengers to inquire whether in any place such a child had really been born, and if they found him, to put him to death. The horrible massacre ordered by Herod, from the same motives, is well known.
Finally, some years afterwards, a Chinese emperor himself accompanied an embassy to the West, in order to seek the supreme saint, who was to be born in that
The English reader will remember the lines in Milton's Hymn of the Nativity, —
"No war or battle's sound
Was heard, the world around
The idle spear and shield were high uphung;
The hooked chariot stood
Unstained with hostile blood,
The trumpet spake not to the armed throng,
And kings sat still with awful eye,
As if they surely knew, their sov'reign Lord was by."
"In the twenty-fourth year of the reign of Tchao-Wang, of the dynasty of the Tcheou (corresponding with the year 1029 b. c.), on the eighth day of the fourth moon, a light appeared in the south-west, which illuminated the king's palace. The monarch, struck by its splendour, interrogated the sages who were skilled in foretelling future events. They then showed him books in which it was written that this prodigy signified the appearance of a great saint in the West, whose religion was to be introduced into this country a thousand years after his birth.
"In the fifty-third year of the reign of Mou-Wang, which is that of the Black Ape (951 b. c.), on the fifteenth day of the second, moon, Buddha manifested himself. One thousand and thirteen years afterwards, under the dynasty of Hau-Ming, in the seventh year of the reign of Young-Ping (a. d. 64), on the fifteenth day of the first moon, the king saw in a dream a man whose appearance was that of radiant gold, like the sun, and whose stature was more than ten feet. This man entered the king's palace, and said, 'My religion shall spread abroad in this country.'
"The next day the king questioned the sages; and one of them named Fou-y, opening the annals of the empire in the reign of Tchao-Wang, pointed out the connection between the circumstance narrated therein and the kind's dream. The king consulted the ancient books, and having found the passage corresponding with the time of Tchao-Wang, was filled with joy. Then he sent the officers Tsa-Yn, and Thsin-King, the learned Wang-Tsun, and fifteen other men to the West, to obtain information concerning the doctrine of Buddha.
"In the tenth year (a.d. 67), these emissaries being sent into Central India, procured a statue of Buddha, and some Sanscrit books, which they conveyed on a white horse to the city of Lo-yang."[5] The Chinese ambassadors, however, lost sight of the true object of their mission ; they suffered themselves to be seduced by the priests of India ; and from that epoch is to be dated the introduction of Buddhism into China.
The idea of a Divine Incarnation prevailed equally among the Gothic tribes of the North. They were so perplexed and agitated by prophetic rumours from the East, that they sent emissaries to seek for the divine being so impatiently expected over the whole world; and it was these strange embassies that formed the foundation of the Edda, which concludes with these words: "The new gods then took the names of the ancient ones, and appeared like real gods."
The fact was, that audacious men, profiting by the preconceived idea generally prevalent, gave themselves out for the promised Messiah, and that the divinity of Odin was acknowledged in the kingdom of Glyphe, and Trenmor was deified by Fingal.
That a Saviour, and a regeneration of the human race, was expected in all parts of the civilised world, in consequence of ancient prophecies, cannot be denied. Such an event was confidently looked for in the West and the East, in Persia, India, and China, and even among the wandering tribes of Upper Asia. In the intermediate countries, as among the Hebrews, it was the fundamental doctrine of religion ; and thus, thanks to this general expectation and preparation, Christianity was able to spread itself with facility over the whole surface of the earth.
Its advent was more adapted to satisfy the human mind than to astonish it; and there was nothing to prevent the words of the apostles from being heard, according to the text of Holy Writ, to the utmost confines of the world: —
Et in fines orbis terræ verba eorum.
The preaching of the Gospel was, in fact, heard in the most remote countries, and probably in the very heart of the Chinese Empire, — an empire at that time vaster, and perhaps more civilised, than that of Rome.
The propagation of the Christian faith in Upper Asia, is a subject that has been very little studied. People have generally contented themselves with supposing that the Gospel was not carried there till a recent time; and it is nevertheless now discovered that to a certainty the doctrines of Jesus Christ were preached from the very beginning to the nations of the utmost East.
The light has often shone in the midst of darkness, and unfortunately the darkness has "comprehended it not."
Abdias, in his history of the apostolic labours, says that St. Thomas[6], while he was at Jerusalem, received a divine command to go to India, in order to show the light of truth to that people, still sitting in darkness and the shadow of death. " Now I nryself recollect having seen a certain book in which the voyage of St. Thomas to India and the things he did in that country were described.[7] As this book was not received on account of its tediousness (ob verbositatem), I will leave out superfluous things, and content myself with relating that which is certain, and which may be agreeable to the reader, and useful to the Church." After this preamble, Abdias gives the legend, as follows. " When St. Thomas the Apostle was at Jerusalem, our Lord appeared to him, and said: 'Gondaphorus, the King of India, has sent his minister Abbas to Syria, in order to seek for men instructed in the art of architecture. Go, I will send thee to him.' St. Thomas answered, 'Lord, send me anywhere, except to India;' and our Lord said to him, 'Go, I will watch over thee, and when thou shalt have converted the Indians, thou shalt come to me to receive as a recompense the crown of martyrdom;' and St. Thomas said, 'Lord, I am thy servant; thy will be done.' And as Abbas, the servant of King Gondaphorus, was going across the market-place, our Lord met him, and said to him, 'Young man, what dost thou wish to buy?' And Abbas replied, ' My master has sent me hither to bring to him workmen skilled in the art of masonry, and who may build him a palace like those that there are at Rome.' Then our Lord showed him St. Thomas, and said that he was well skilled in architecture.
"The holy apostle and the minister of the King Gondaphorus embarked; and Thomas converted on the way a great number of infidels, especially at Aden, a town situated at the entrance of the Red Sea, where they stopped some time. They arrived at length on the coast of India; and in the first city they entered, they were present at the marriage of the king's daughter. St. Thomas preached the Gospel, and performed many wonderful miracles, which effected numerous conversions, and amongst others that of the king; and the newly-married pair also received baptism. A long time afterwards the princess, who had been named Pelagiana, took the holy veil, and suffered martyrdom. The husband, called Denis, was consecrated bishop of the town.
"The Apostle and Abbas, however, went on their way to King Gondaphorus. Thomas was presented to him as an architect; and the king entrusted him with great treasures, in order to provide for the expenses of a magnificent palace, which he ordered him to construct. Gondaphorus then departed into another province; and Thomas, instead of busying himself about the construction of the palace, traversed the country, preaching the Gospel, healing the sick, and distributing the treasures to the poor, for the space of two years, during which the king remained absent. He converted to the faith an innumerable multitude. When Gondaphorus came back and asked him about the palace, the apostle said, 'the palace is built, but thou wilt only inhabit it in eternity;' and thereupon the king, who regarded him as a magician, ordered him to be flung into a horrible dungeon, flayed alive, and burnt.
"In the meantime, however, Sud, the brother of King Gondaphorus died; and the king ordered him a magnificent funeral.
"Now on the fourth day, while the obsequies were being performed, suddenly, to the astonishment and terror of all present, the dead man arose, and said to the king, 'That man whom you intended to flay and burn alive is the friend of God. The angels who serve God took me to Paradise, and showed me a superb palace, enriched with gold and silver, and precious stones; and whilst I stood struck with admiration before so much magnificence, they said to me, "That is the palace which Thomas built for your brother the King Gondaphorus, but he has rendered himself unworthy of it; if you wish to live in it, we will pray God to resuscitate you, in order that you may purchase it of your brother, by restoring to him the money he gave for the building of it, and which he thinks he has lost."'
"The king, on hearing these words, rushed to the prison into which he had thrown the Apostle, eagerly released him from his chains, and besought him to accept a robe of honour. 'Dost thou not know,' said Thomas to him, 'that those who wish to have power over things celestial care nothing for those which are carnal and terrestrial?'
"The king threw himself at the feet of the Apostle, and implored his pardon; and when Gondaphorus and his brother had received baptism, Thomas said to them, 'There are in heaven innumerable palaces, prepared from the beginning of the world; and they may be bought at the price of faith and alms: your riches may precede you thither, but cannot follow you.'
"Thomas afterwards traversed various kingdoms of India, preaching the Gospel everywhere, working many miracles, and converting the nations to Jesus Christ. At last he was persecuted by a king named Mesdeus, who ordered him to worship a statue of the sun. The apostle consented to kneel down before it, and to sacrifice to it, if the statue did not, at his command, fall into dust. But that miracle really took place. Then there arose a great tumult among the people, the greater part of whom took part with St. Thomas. The king ordered him to be thrown into prison, and then delivered him to four soldiers, with orders to go and put him to death on a neighbouring mountain. The apostle remained long in prayer; and then the soldiers approaching him, pierced him through with their lances, and the martyr fell and breathed his last. His disciples buried him with tears, after having poured over him a number of precious perfumes; and the new Church of India subsequently prospered under the direction of Siforus, a priest, and Zuzanes, a deacon, whom the apostle had ordained at the moment when he went to suffer death on the mountain."
Such is the narrative of Abdias, and though, of course the legend cannot be accepted entire, there is probably a certain amount of truth in it, surrounded as it is by the fanciful additions a story usually receives in passing from mouth to mouth, and travelling a great distance.
The circumstance of St. Thomas having preached at all in India has been frequently called in question by writers deserving of attention; but we find it supported by so much evidence, that it seems difficult for an unprejudiced mind to refuse credit to a fact guaranteed by such excellent historical authorities. All the Greek, Latin, and Syriac monuments proclaim that St. Thomas was the apostle of the Indies, who carried the torch of faith into the remote regions where he suffered martyrdom. Some writers have affirmed that he prosecuted his apostolical labours as far even as China; and the mission and the martyrdom of St. Thomas in the Indies have been alluded to in all the martyrologies, and in the ancient liturgies, which form the most pure and authentic source of Christian tradition.
In the Syriac Jacobite service for the festival of St. Thomas, the third of July, we read the following words[8]:—"Thomas, whose memory we this day celebrate, having been sent to India by the Lord, was sold for a slave. He formed the plan of an excellent palace, of which God elevated the summit to heaven. He was afterwards, after the example of the Lord, pierced with a lance; and with the title of apostle, he obtained the crown of the martyr." It is evident these words allude to some of the most striking features of the legend, as related by Abdias.
The Nestorians chant in the Vesper service for St. Thomas's day, "Thanks be to thy preaching, Thomas, the Indians have breathed the perfume of spiritual life, and after renouncing the customs of the heathens, have seen chastity flourish among them." In the nocturnal part of the same service, we find these words:— "Thomas undertook the voyage to India in order to overthrow the temples of demons, and extirpate the licentiousness which prevailed among both men and women. The Indians, who, on account of the excessive heat of the country, had been accustomed to go entirely naked, learned from seeing Thomas clothed, the value of modesty and reserve."
Gregorius Bar-Hebræsus expresses himself in these terms in his Syriac Chronicle (par. 3. chap, i.):—
"Thomas the Apostle, the first pontiff of the East. We learn by the book of the preaching of the holy apostles, that in the second year after the Ascension of our Lord, the Apostle Thomas announced the tidings of the Gospel in the East, and preached to the Indians."
Finally, we find these words in the Roman breviary:— "The Apostle Thomas, surnamed Didymus, by birth a Galilean, preached the Gospel of Christ in many provinces; he proclaimed the faith to the Parthians, Medes, Persians, Hircanians, and Bactrians. Finally, he went to the Indians, and instructed them in the Christian religion. The king of that nation having condemned him to death, he was pierced with arrows at Calamina, and thus glorified his apostleship by the crown of martyrdom."
These numerous testimonies from the most ancient liturgies afford assuredly a strong presumption in favour of the opinion that St. Thomas was really the Apostle of India; and this presumption is still further corroborated, when we see that opinion supported by traditions ascending to the very earliest period of Christianity.
In the Paschal Chronicle is a fragment of a work of Bishop Dorotheus (born 254), in which he relates the acts and journeyings of the Apostles, and this is what he says of St. Thomas:—
"The Apostle Thomas, after having preached the Gospel to the Parthians, Medes, Persians, Germanians[9], Bactrians, and Magi, suffered martyrdom at Calamina, a town of India."
20 CHRISTIANITY IN CHINA, ETC. St. Jerome, who died in the year 420, speaks of the mission of St. Thomas as of a fact universally known at that time. He even, in his catalogue of sacred writers, mentions Calamina, a town of India, as the place of his death.* Admitting that this passage may not have been written by the illustrious doctor himself, but possibly added by the Greeks, it must in that case be attributed to Sophronius ; and it will still serve to prove that Sophronius and the Greeks did not entertain any doubt of the fact of the preaching of St. Thomas in India. It was also, undoubtedly, the opinion of St. Jerome ; for, in speaking of the immensity of the Saviour regarded as God, he says these words, of which no one will dispute the authenticity : — " The Son of God re- mained then with the apostles for forty days after his resurrection, at the same time that he was with the angels in the bosom of his Father. He was present in all places, with Thomas in India, with Peter at Rome, with Paul in Illyria, with Titus in Crete, with Andrew in Achaia, and with every apostle, and every preacher of the Gospel in all the regions they traversed." f TheodoretJ was of the same opinion as St. Jerome. In speaking of the preaching of the apostles, he ex- presses himself thus : — " They have induced not only the Romans, and those who live under their empire, but also the Scythians, Sarmatians, Indians, Ethiopians, Persians, Seres, Hyrcanians, Britons, Cimmerians, and Germans, to receive the law of the crucified Saviour ; and in short have preached it to all nations, and to every class of men."
- Sanctus Hier. Catal. Script, eccl. i. 120.
f Sanctus Hier. Marcell. Epit. 148. v. 3. p. 144. | Theodoret, Serm. 9. p. 125. Theodoret, it is true, speaks of the apostles in general, but St. Thomas is the only one to whom the mission of India has ever been ascribed, and the learned Ba- ronius* observes truly, that to St. Thomas alone can his words apply. Nicephorusf, in the same manner, declares St. Thomas to be the Apostle of the Indians ; and GaudentiusJ says, like Sophronius, that he died in India at the town of Calamina, which is no other than Meliapour, a place at a short distance from Madras. To these clear and positive testimonies of authors in the earliest ages of Christianity, must be added that of the unvarying tradition of all ages. Thus, in the seventh century, we find Gregory of Tours, the father of French history, speaking of a worthy man named Theodorus, who had visited the tomb of St. Thomas in India. In the year 833, Sighelin, Bishop of Shireburn§, was also sent thither by the Anglo-Saxon king, Alfred the Great, in fulfilment of a vow ; and was charged to afford succour to the descendants of the Christians converted by St. Thomas. Is it credible that such pilgrimages should have been made to countries so distant, and at such various epochs, if there had not been a general belief in the apostleship and martyrdom of St. Thomas in India ? and, moreover, this very church of St. Thomas on the Coromandel coast, is men- tioned by two Mussulmans who visited India in the ninth century, a short time after the Bishop of Shire- burn.
The celebrated Venetian Marco Polo, who traversed
Baronius, "Annales," anno 44, No. 33.
Hist. vol. ii. ch. 4.
Gand., Serm. 17.
"Chronicon Saxonicum," anno 883, by Turner. "De Gestis Regum Anglorum," p. 44., by William of Malinesbury. Upper Asia in the thirteenth century, says, in speaking of Aden in Arabia, that St. Thomas is believed to have preached there before he visited India.
"The body of St. Thomas," * adds Marco Polo," lies in the province of Malabar, near an insignificant little town, of which the inhabitants and the traders are few in number, since there is very little traffic to be done; but devotion attracts thither a multitude of Christians. The Saracens, too, hold the spot in profound veneration, saying that the holy apostle was a great prophet; and they call him 'avariia' which in their language signifies 'holy man.'"
Towards the same period, a Dominican missionary, who had travelled over India, and carried the light of the Gospel even into the interior of Tartary, wrote thus to the monks of his order f:—"In this kingdom of India St. Thomas the apostle preached the faith, and converted to God many princes. But as they have been hitherto far from the countries where this faith was held, their Christianity has gradually declined, until at present there is only one small town where it is still professed. All the other towns and cities have forsaken it."
This town of India, where, according to Frere Ricold, Christianity was still preserved, was doubtless Calamina, where the apostle suffered martyrdom, and where his body reposed. J Subsequently, this town became known
"Le cors meisser Saint Thomas la apostres, est en la provence de Meabar en une petite ville, car ne i a gueires homes ne mercaant," &c.
"Recueil des Voyages et de Memoires Publie par la Societe de Geographic" vol. i. p. 208.
"L'hystoire merveilleuse du Grant Caan," feuillet 3.
According to Rufin, who went to Syria in 371, and resided there twenty-fire years, the relics of St. Thomas had been brought from under the name of Meliapour, or the town of peacocks.[10] It has also sometimes been called San Thome; and in the middle ages, the Arabs named it Betama, or Beti-Thoma, the house or church of St. Thomas.
The apostleship of St. Thomas in India appears, therefore, to have been fully believed, not only by the Christians of Europe, but also by the Arabs, the disciples of Mahomet; and the tradition has been especially perpetuated in the kingdoms of Madura and the Carnatic, and many races still glorify themselves on the fact of their ancestors having been enlightened by the apostle. From age to age it has been believed at Meliapour that St. Thomas was put to death on a hill near the town, and the practice of making annual visits to his tomb has been retained. According to the testimony of Father Pons[11], the Brahmins stated that there were among the books deposited in their library at Cangiapour, some very ancient historical works, in which mention was made of St. Thomas and of his martyrdom, and the place of his burial.
Many facts connected with the epoch of the Portuguese conquest, tend to confirm the tradition of the apostleship and death of St. Thomas in India. Alfonso Albuquerque, whose exploits have procured for him the surname of the Great, seized upon Goa in 1510, and strengthened it by new fortifications. In digging for the foundations of these, a cross of bronze, bearing the image of the crucified Saviour, was found; and placed by the governor in the church, which he built in thanks|thanksgiving}}
India, and deposited at Edessa. But, as we shall see, he spoke only of a part of them. thanksgiving for his success. The body of St. Thomas was not discovered till 1521. It was then found at a considerable depth under ground, beneath the ruins of a vast and ancient church at Meliapour. There was a sepulchre, in which, amongst lime and sand, were found some remarkably white bones, the iron point of a lance, with part of the wood attached, and a clay vase filled with earth. The coincidence of this discovery with the local traditions of the presence of the body of St. Thomas at Meliapour, and the arrangements of his tomb, left in the opinion of the Portuguese no reason to doubt the identity of these remains with those of the apostle. They were, therefore, placed in a shrine, enriched with silver, and subsequently taken to Goa, where they were deposited in a church dedicated to St. Thomas.[12]
Du Jarric[13] relates, after Osorio, the historian of Emmanuel, and Bishop of Sylves in Algarve,—that towards the year 1543, there was presented to Martin Alphonse de Sousa, Lieutenant-general of the Portuguese possessions, a copper lance, on which were engraved some worn and ancient letters that nobody could read. A Jew, versed in the language and antiquities of India, however, at length succeeded in making out the sense of them, and it appeared they related to a donation of a piece of land, whereon to build a temple to the true God, made by an Indian king to St. Thomas.
Du Jarric adds, that towards the year 1548, when Jean de Castro was governor of the Indies, some Portuguese of Meliapour wished to build a chapel upon a hill near the town, where they said an apostle had been killed by the Brahmins. On this occasion, they found a stone, with a cross sculptured in relief upon it, two feet long and a foot and a half broad, with the four extremities ornamented with open fleur de lys, and surmounted by a dove, which appeared to peck the top. Round this token of salvation was a triple arcade, and beyond that some strange characters that no one could read.
In order to discover the signification of these letters, the captain and vicar of the town of Meliapour, applied to a Brahmin of the kingdom of Narsinga, who was much famed for his learning. He replied that they were hieroglyphical signs, and gave the translation of them thus:—
"Since the law of the Christians appeared in the world, and thirty years afterwards, on the 25th of the month of December, the Apostle St. Thomas died at Meliapour, where there was the knowledge of God; a change of law, and the destruction of the demons. God was born of the Virgin Mary, was under obedience to her for thirty years, and was an eternal God. This God taught his law to twelve apostles, and one of them came to Meliapour, with a pilgrim's staff in his hand, and there built a church; and the king of Malabar, and the king of Coromandel, and the king of Pandi, and other various nations and sects, determined of their own will to submit to the law of St. Thomas, a holy and penitent man. The time came when St. Thomas died by the hands of a Brahmin, and his blood formed a cross." Another learned person from a distant part of the country was then sent for, and without having any communication with the first, or knowing his interpretation, gave one to the same effect. In 1562, the bishop of Cochin sent to the Cardinal Henry, at that time infant, and afterwards king of Portugal, the authentic vouchers, attesting these facts; the historian Osorio had had them in his own hands, and the other Portuguese historians are unanimous concerning them.
After a tradition so steady and consistent, and such an amount of evidence to the same purport, it certainly does seem to us that there would be great temerity in denying the fact of the apostleship and martyrdom of St. Thomas in India. This legend of Abdias appears on examination to be fundamentally confirmed by as incontestable proofs as can be required for the most authentic facts of history.
The existence even of the king Gondaphorus, named in the legend, has recently been rendered indisputable. The discovery is due to M. Reinaud, member of the Institute, a learned Orientalist, whose writings have always been remarkable for erudition, perspicuity, and candour, and who expresses himself thus in a Memoire published in 1849:—
"Amongst medals recently discovered, may be mentioned some of the Indo-Scyihian kings, who reigned a short time after Kanerkes in the valley of the Indus, and especially those of a prince named Gondaphorus. There are medals of the same kind in the National Library at Paris; and, according to a tradition which ascends to the very earliest ages of the Christian era, the apostle St. Thomas went to preach the Gospel in India, and suffered martyrdom on the coast of Coromandel.
"Now the Acts of the life of St. Thomas, which are extant both in Greek and Latin, mention a king named Gondaphorus. According to these Acts, St. Thomas, being at Jerusalem, embarked at the nearest port, and arrived on the coast of the Peninsula of Hindostan. Thence he travelled into the interior, and visited a king named Gondaphorus, who embraced Christianity; and after that he went to another province of India, where he received the crown of martyrdom. It will be seen that this narrative is in no way incompatible with that transmitted to us by tradition, and indicated also by archæological monuments.[14]
Certainly not; and not only not incompatible, but, on the contrary, in the most perfect harmony with them. Everything tends to prove that St. Thomas was veritably the first apostle of India. This opinion, says M. Coquebert-Montbret[15], has in its favour an unvarying tradition, and the suffrages of the majority of Catholics; and of late years it has obtained some favour even with Protestants: for example, from M. Hohlenberg, in a dissertation on the origin and destiny of the Christian Church in India, and from Mr. Claude Buchanan in his "Christian Researches in India." (Second Edition, p. 104.)
We have said that the human race had been prepared from its commencement to receive the fundamental truths of Christianity. Independently of the relations established beyond the limits of the Celestial Empire between several Chinese and the Israelites whom God dispersed amongst the nations to make known his name and prepare the way for the Messiah, there have been Jews in China, perhaps, from the seventh century before the Christian era. Many of these Jews, says Father Gaubil (in his "Chinese Chronology," p. 267.), were employed in the highest military offices, and there were some among them who became governors of provinces, ministers of state, bachelors and doctors. These messengers of the truth were not wanting to their mission, and they communicated so much information, that Confucius was enabled to announce in his writings, that there should be born, in the West, a saint who had been expected more than three thousand years. "Vast and extensive as the heavens, deep as the abyss, he will be respected by all nations; the whole world will believe his words, all will applaud his actions. His name and his glory will extend over the whole empire, and even among the barbarians of the south and north, wherever ships and chariots can advance, and the power of man penetrate, in all places which the sky covers and the earth supports, which are enlightened by the sun and moon, and fertilised by the dew and the mist; and all beings who have blood and breath shall honour and love him. He is the equal of Tien" (heaven).
Is it, after this, surprising that a Chinese emperor should (in the year 65 of our era) send to the West, in search of the Saviour of men, that solemn embassy of which we have already spoken?
India, as we have endeavoured to show, was evangelised by St. Thomas; and many learned men have expressed their belief that the same apostle carried the light of Christianity as far as the Chinese empire. They ground this belief on the Chaldean books that have been found in India. The Breviary of the church of Malabar contains in fact the following words in a lesson of the nocturnal service:—
"By St. Thomas idolatrous delusion was dissipated in India.
"By St. Thomas the Chinese and Ethiopians were converted to the truth.
"By St. Thomas they received baptism, and believed and confessed the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
"By St. Thomas they have preserved the faith in one only God.
"By St. Thomas the splendours of a vivifying law have arisen over all India.
"By St. Thomas the kingdom of heaven has been extended even to China."
In the same Chaldean service for St. Thomas's day, is found the following anthem:—
"The Indians, the Chinese, the Persians, and the other insular people (cæteri insulani[16]), offer their adorations to your holy name in commemoration of St. Thomas."
The Chaldee breviary of the church of Malabar does not certainly afford any proof that St. Thomas was ever in China; but it confirms, at least, the opinion that the most distant Oriental churches regard him as their founder. The Christians of India, Persia, and Bactriana could then freely enter the Celestial Empire, and carry thither the evangelical light that had come to them from the West; and whilst St. Thomas was preaching in the India of the Ganges, and St. Bartholomew in Ethiopia and Arabia Felix, the shock of the Christian revolution was felt throughout the world. At that epoch the people of different nations had much more intercourse with each other, than has been commonly supposed, and the relations between the East and the West were much more frequent. There was apparently more individual energy then than in our days, and people did not require the aid of steam to undertake long and dangerous voyages. The natives of the banks of the Ganges were scattered over the West in much greater numbers than at present.
In the Letters of Alciphron, we find that the Greeks frequently had Hindoos of both sexes in their families, in the quality of domestics. The latter had especially emigrated in great numbers to Colchis; and when Metellus Celer was pro-consul in Gaul, fifty-nine years before Christ, the famous Ariovistus, king of the Suevi, made him a present of some Hindoos, who had been shipwrecked on the German coast. These were merchants, whose adventurous spirit had carried them to that distance from their country.
It is known that numerous embassies were sent from India to the emperors of Rome and Constantinople, down to the seventh century; but after that time, the Mussulman power, swelling and rolling on like an ocean tide, became an insurmountable obstacle to such communications.
The most famous of these embassies was that sent to Augustus by Porus, who boasted in his letter of having six kings under his authority. The object of this mission was to form an alliance with the Roman Emperor, and as he happened to be at that time in Spain, the ambassadors followed him thither; but as they did not on that occasion succeed in their object, others were sent some years afterwards, when Augustus was at Samos.
Besides these ambassadors from Porus, there came others from Pandeon, a king whose territories were situated in the southern part of the peninsula; and they had in their suite a Brahmin, who chose to remain in Rome, and attach himself to the court of Augustus as an augur or soothsayer. The Emperor Claudius also received an embassy from Ceylon; and when, in a.d. 103, Trajan marched against the Parthians, some Indian princes sent ambassadors to entreat his arbitration in some difference that had arisen between themselves and their neighbours.
Antoninus Pius, Diocletian, Maximin, Theodosius, Heraclius, and Justinian also received ambassadors from India in 274; and when Aurelian took Palmyra, and made Queen Zenobia prisoner, he found in that country a body of Hindoos, whom he brought to Rome to ornament his triumph.
In the early ages of Christianity, the Indians emigrated in great numbers to the countries of the West, and the inhabitants of Europe showed the same eagerness to visit places remote from the lands of their birth, and more especially India. At the period when the apostles traversed every region of the known world, in obedience to the command of their Divine Master, "Go, and teach all nations," there existed a lively intercourse and fusion between the East and the West. Numerous caravans, impelled by the spirit of commercial enterprise, or of curiosity, travelled continually between Europe and the Indies. The Chinese were less exclusive then than they have been since, and they allowed strangers to penetrate freely into their vast empire, whilst they themselves visited neighbouring nations for the purposes of traffic. Their junks traversed the Straits of Sunda, visited the coasts of Malacca, and carried their merchandise to the ports of Ceylon, the Gulf of Persia, and the Red Sea.
The Greeks and Romans knew them under the name of Seres, because silk, which was originally obtained from them, was known by that name over a great part of Asia; and still bears nearly the same appellation. The commerce between the Romans and Chinese was often carried on by the intervention of the Parthians; and thus the apostles were enabled to bear the light of the Gospel to Upper Asia, by the way of Egypt to India, and through India to China.
In urging the consideration of these facts, and insisting so much on the existence of Christian traditions, concerning the early propagation of the faith in the remotest East, we have had a special purpose in view.
Those who have studied the system of Buddhism in Upper Asia, have been often struck with the analogy, in many points, between its doctrines, moral precepts, and liturgy, and those of Christian Churches. Unbelievers have exulted at these resemblances, and have inferred immediately that Christianity was copied from the religious systems of India and China. But their triumph in this discovery, which has often served to trouble timid Christians, could only arise from want of good faith, or from ignorance. For if the primitive traditions of our race were carried to India and China by the descendants of Noah,—if the Jews were established there seven centuries before Christ,—if St. Thomas preached the Gospel there in the very first period of its existence,— if Judaism, Christianity, and the religions of Asia, were in continual juxtaposition, it is surely not difficult to imagine that the latter may have borrowed much from the Jews and Christians. In observing the various phases of the propagation of the faith in the East, it will be easy for us to show that they actually did so, and that the real fact is that Buddhism, by adorning itself with some Christian truths, has been able for many centuries to delude a countless multitude of people. Men do not seek error instinctively; on the contrary, they have a horror of it, — and when it succeeds easily in deluding them, it is because it presents itself to them under the guise of truth.
From the various evidence we have collected, it may be considered certain, that in the time of the preaching of the Gospel by the Apostles, evangelical truth was announced by St. Thomas to the nations of India. It is equally beyond a doubt that the propagation of the faith went on rapidly among all the nations of the East, if not by the preaching of the apostle himself, at least by that of his disciples,—for there were at that time such relations between the Chinese, the Indians, and the people of the West, that the former could hardly have remained ignorant of the wonderful events which had occurred at Bethlehem and Calvary, or of the miraculous resurrection of the Lord.
Be the apostleship of St. Thomas in India admitted or not, it is certain that the good tidings of the coming of the Messiah and the redemption of men, were, from the very commencement of Christianity, made known in Upper Asia. AVe shall see apostles and missionaries from age to age braving the perils and fatigues of the longest and most dangerous journeys, to carry over land and sea the words of eternal life. Opportunities of becoming acquainted with the truth have not been wanting to the Orientals, and yet they are still plunged in the grossest error. That East, from which we received our light, is herself in the thickest darkness; but it is not the fault of the people of the West, who have returned again and again to their aged parent; not like the poor and destitute prodigal son, but radiant in light, and with their hands full of celestial gifts.
One of the earliest apostles of the remote East, was St. Pantenus, a Sicilian by birth, who lived towards the end of the second century. He had applied himself much to the study of eloquence, and of the Stoical philosophy, and afterwards having become a Christian, entered the Church, and employed his talents in endeavouring to throw light on the divine mysteries of Christianity. From a motive of humility, he lived, after his baptism, in the closest retirement, and Clement of Alexandria long sought for him in vain, though his search, say the writers of the time, was conducted with "the ardour of a huntsman pursuing his game in the recesses of the forest."
He at last found him in Egypt, passing a life of seclusion and solitude, devoted to prayer, meditation, and the study of holy books. Up to that time Clement had studied under various masters, but having now formed an intimate friendship with Pantenus, he discovered in him such great talents, such a rich treasury of divine wisdom, that he thought he should need no other guide to lead him to the summit of Christian philosophy. Thenceforward, Pantenus shed such glory on the town of Alexandria, that the Bishop Julian charged him with the interpretation of the Holy Scriptures in that famous school.
The renown of Pantenus extended beyond the limits of the Roman Empire; and some Indian merchants, drawn by commerce to Alexandria, before the year 179, took occasion to make themselves acquainted with the holy doctor, the head of the Christian school, and besought him to proceed to their country, in order there to combat the doctrines of the Brahmins by those of Jesus Christ.
There were many holy-minded men at that time to be found, under the name of Evangelists, who, full of zeal for the service of God, were willing, after the example of the apostles, to renounce every worldly prospect, and devote themselves wholly to the propagation of the Christian religion. Pantenus was of this number; and yielding to the entreaties of an envoy, sent to him from India, he gave up his school, and in 189 quitted Egypt, and set out for those remote countries, though not without the permission of the Bishop of Alexandria, who appointed him preacher of the Gospel to the Oriental nations.[17]
On arriving in India, Pantenus found indications of the faith having been already preached there; but he again announced Jesus Christ to the Brahmins and philosophers of the country. History, however, gives us no further details concerning his mission, than that he found in the hands of some Christians, a Gospel of St. Matthew in the Hebrew character. It is supposed, that, after having devoted some years to evangelical labours in India, he returned to Alexandria, and recommenced his former occupation. It is certain that he was still living when Origen was filling, with much 36 CHRISTIANITY IN CHINA, ETC. tinction, the professorial chair, but the precise date of his death is not known. It is commonly thought that he lived till the end of the reign of Severus, or the com- mencement of that of Caracalla. The Gospel of St. Matthew, which he brought from India to Alexandria, was still in existence in the time of St. Jerome.* In the early ages of Christianity the ecclesiastical hierarchy was rapidly organised. Wherever there were found a few of the faithful gathered together, the Church of Jesus Christ, full of vigilance and anxiety for their welfare, placed at their head bishops charged to confirm neophytes in the faith, and excite the ardour of proselytism. St. Pantenus had been, it was sup- posed, before his departure for India, consecrated bishop at Alexandria, by Demetrius. After the departure of St. Pantenus, the evangelical charge of the extreme East was undertaken by Fru- mentius, who visited India in company with his brother Adhesius, and his paternal uncle, a native of Tyre, and a man remarkable for his scientific attainments ; but on entering a certain port to take in provisions and water, they were attacked suddenly, as soon as they set foot on land, by the natives of the country. Many of the travellers perished, and others were dragged into cap- tivity. Among the killed was the uncle of Frumentius ; but the two nephews were presented to the king, who, having formed a high opinion of their merit, raised them to the chief dignities of the state. Frumentius resided a long time in India, where for several years he filled the office of first minister, and governor of one of the kings during his minority. He preached the Gospel in the southern parts of the
- Eusebius, lib. vi. ch. 14. FRUMENTIUS PRIMATE OF INDIA. 61
peninsula, and from his high position, and his speaking remarkably well the language of the country, he exer- cised great influence over the population, and his mis- sion was crowned with the most brilliant success. After having built several churches, he obtained per- mission to revisit his native country, where he was consecrated bishop; and he returned to India invested with this new dignity. Christianity was soon so flourishing on the banks of the Ganges, that it was thought necessary to institute a Primacy of India ; and the first bishop appointed to this dignity was one named John, who, in 325, was present at the Council of Nice, and put his signature to its acts. In the following year, Frumentius suc- ceeded him in the primacy, and was consecrated at Alexandria by Athanasius. He resided in the penin- sula, and from that time the Christians always had a bishop who bore the title of Primate of India. The religion of Jesus Christ extended rapidly in these vast regions, and even penetrated to the north, notwith- standing all the opposition it had to encounter from the Brahmins, and the disciples of Buddha. It is well known that Musseus, Bishop of Aduli, on the frontiers of Abyssinia, evangelised the northern parts of India in the second half of the fourth century ; being associated in this task with the famous Palladius, a Goth of Galatia. They embarked with some merchants on the Red Sea, at that time much frequented by vessels from Ceylon and China ; but Palladius, whose temperament was not very robust, could not bear the excessive heat of India, and was obliged to return to his own country. Bishop Musseus, however, pursued his journey, and D 3 52817 38 CHRISTIANITY IN CHINA, ETC. travelled in Lesser Bucharia and China. These details have been preserved by St. Ambrose, in his book on the customs of the Brahmins, which seems to have been composed for the instruction of this same Palladius, who was for some time the travelling companion of Musa3us. The holy doctor expresses himself thus : — " The desire of your mind, my dear Palladius, which, filled with the love of wisdom, is always drawn towards the knowledge of new things, has induced us to under- take a new and difficult work, that of describing the life, the manners, and the country of the Brahmins." He then commences his narrative thus : — " Our brother Musseus, Bishop of the Dolenians, has related to me, that having set forth some years ago to visit the Brah- mins in India, he travelled over almost the whole country of the Seres (Chinese). After having seen a great number of nations and countries, he arrived at Arianam, near the river Indus.* At this time the apostle of India was the Bishop Theophilus, who afterwards rendered himself famous by his adherence to the heresy of Arius. He was a native of Diu, at the mouth of the Indus, a depen- dency of the kingdom of Cambodia, and he was, when very young, sent to Constantinople, where he went through a course of study, and afterwards embraced Christianity and the monastic life. As he was remarkably dark complexioned, he was called the Black Monk ; and subsequently being con- secrated bishop, he was sent to Arabia to watch there
- St. Ambrose. "De Moribus Brachmannorura," vol. iv. p. 1131.
(Euvres Completes, Edition de Migae. BISHOPS THEOPHILUS AND MARUTHA. 39 over the interests of the Christian religion. Notwith- standing the lively opposition which he encountered from the Jews, who were at that time very numerous in that country, he succeeded in building three churches, one at Darfar, the capital of that part of Arabia ; the other at Aden, near the straits of Babelrnandel ; and the third at the entrance to the Gulf of Persia, where was held a celebrated annual fair, for the sale of Indian and Chinese productions.* After having founded these va- rious churches, he returned to Diu, his native country, and thence visited other parts of India, where he re- formed many objectionable practices among the Chris- tians ; such, for instance, as that of consulting the pagan oracles, while professing faith in the Gospel. Unfortunately, Theophilus also sowed the seeds of the Arian heresy amongst these neophytes, f Marutha, a Hindoo by birth, was invested with the Episcopal dignity in his own country towards the end of the fourth century. He held the see of SufFerdam ; and St. Chrysostom, in his writings J, pronounces an eulogium on this excellent prelate. In 381, he was pre- sent at the general council of Constantinople, and at that of Seleucia, where he prepared twenty-one canons. In 383, he was present at the Synod of Sides in Pam- phylia. These facts, which cannot be called in question, are so many proofs, that in the early ages of the Church, the evangelical seed was as fruitful in the East as in the West. The grain of mustard seed had become in India
- Philostorge, vol. ii., No. 6., and 1 — 3. No. 4.
f Nicephorus Hist. Eccl., vol. i. p. 719. J Saint Chrysost. Epist. 14., ad Olympiadem. d 4 40 CHRISTIANITY IN CHINA, ETC. and the surrounding countries a great tree, and nu- merous populations had found shelter under its branches, which may very probably have extended even to China, since, according to the testimony of St. Ambrose, Bishop Musaeus had traversed almost all the country of the Seres." The Chinese of that time were less indifferent to matters of religion than they have been since, and it is scarcely probable that they should have remained quite uninterested in the great Christian movement then going on in the world, since they were in frequent com- munication with the neophytes of India, Persia, and Arabia; and that, moreover, the propagators of the faith had no difficulty in obtaining entrance into their empire, as it was then open to all foreigners. This assertion does not appear to us a mere hypothe- sis; for Arnobius, who lived in the third century, reckons the Chinese among the nations who had already received the Gospel. At a somewhat later period, namely in 585, under Justinian, the celebrated Egyptian traveller, Cosmas Indico'pleustes (that is to say, traveller in India), made many journeys in those countries ; and he reports, in his work, entitled " Christian Topography," that there were churches and priests, with a complete liturgy, in the island of Ceylon, on the coast of Malabar, and in the north-west of the peninsula of Hindostan.* This is
- These churches, priests, and liturgies in the north of India at
that remote period, form certainly a very striking fact. At the present day it is there that the pomp of the hierarchy and liturgy of Buddhism is chiefly displayed ; but at that time it did not exist. If, therefore, there has been any imitation in the case, it is certainly not Christianity that has been the imitator. 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-
- Cosmas Indicopleustes in the " Voyages de Thevenot," p. 20.
t An ulterius etiam ignoro. " Topographia Christ." vol. iii. 42 CHRISTIANITY IN CHINA, ETC. merous churches were governed by very enlightened, though heretical ecclesiastics, and who, moreover, de- spatched missionaries of their doctrines to Ceylon, India, and even the Chinese empire, where they greatly cor- rupted those of true Christianity. From the monument of Si-gnan-Fou, of which we shall presently speak, some authors have concluded that Christianity was first carried to China by the Nestorians. But this appears to us extremely doubtful ; for, leaving out of the question for the moment the opinions of those who have distinctly affirmed that the Chinese were first evangelised by St. Thomas or his disciples, we have the most authentic testimony that the first propagation of the faith in Upper Asia was by orthodox Catholics, un- touched by any taint of heresy. Ebedjesus, a Syrian writer, much versed in the Christian antiquities of the East, expresses himself thus in his Canonical Epitome: — " The Catholicos Saliba-Zacha founded the metropolitan sees of Heria (in Khorassan), of Samarcand, and of China, though some have affirmed that they were insti- tuted by Achaaus and Silas." * Thus, according to Ebedjesus, many have thought that Achats and Silas established the metropolitan sees of China. Now Achasus, the Archbishop of Seleucia, was at the head of the orthodox Chaldean Christians, from 411 to 415; Silas was patriarch of the Nestorians from 503 to 520 ; and Saliba-Zacha held the same see from 714 to 728. If, therefore, it should be admitted, in contradiction to the opinion of many, that the metropolitan see of China- was established by Saliba-Zacha, it only appears more certain that the Chinese must have been converted
- "Ebedjesus Sobensis in Epitome Canonum," par. 8. cap. 15. FROOF FURNISHED BY ASSEMANI. 43
to Christianity long before the time of this Nestorian patriarch. How, in fact, could a metropolitan see be created in a country, in which Christianity had not made considerable progress, and in which there were not already several episcopal sees ? The creation of a metropolitan supposes a flourishing church already esta- blished ; and this could not be till after a considerable lapse of time. But if we suppose, with the authors referred to by Ebedjesus, that the metropolitan see of China was founded by Achoeus, Archbishop of Seleucia, towards the year 411, we are fully justified in giving credit to the tradition which dates the propagation of the Christian faith in China from the time of the Apostles themselves ; and it is not surprising that Ar- nobius, who lived in the third century, should have counted the Seres or Chinese amongst the nations who, in his time, had received the Gospel. One of the most conclusive arguments, however, which tend to prove the antiquity of Christianity in China, has been furnished by Assemani, in his very erudite work.* This learned Orientalist quotes from Amrus the list of metropolitans subject to the Patriarch of Seleucia, and in this catalogue the metropolitan see of China is reckoned with that of India. f It may, therefore, be inferred that the two were established about the same time, for Ebedjesus says expressly, " The primacy of the sees is determined by the priority of time, in which the patriarchs lived who founded them." J Now the proofs of the antiquity of Christianity in India rest on the most solid foundation.
- Assem. vol. ii. p. 413. 1
| China occupies the thirteenth place, and India the fourteenth. X Assem. vol. iii. p. 346. We have seen that the fact of the Apostleship of St. Thomas in Upper Asia is supported by the constant and unvarying tradition of the Church; by the testimony of Greek, Latin, and Syriac writers; by the most ancient liturgies; and by the most authentic archæological monuments[18]; and the propagation of the Christian faith in China bears an equal character of antiquity, since, according to the catalogue of Amrus, cited in the Bibliothèque Orientale, by the learned Assemani, the metropolitan see of China is placed on a level with that of India.
It has seemed to us important to dwell on these proofs of the introduction of Christianity into China during the first ages of the Church, because, if it is demonstrated that the Gospel was known in those countries before the seventh century, the possible authenticity of the monument of Si-gnan-Fou, into which we are now about to inquire, may be admitted à priori.
- ↑ Auctor est Julius Marathus, ante paucos quam (Augustus) nasceretur menses, prodigium Romæ factum publice, quo denuntiabatur regent Populo Romano naturam parturire; senatum exterritum sensuisse, ne quis illo anno genitus educaretur; eos qui gravidas
- ↑ uxores haberent quo ad se quisque spem traheret curasse ne senatus consultum ad cerarium deferretur.Suetonius, Life of Augustus, 94.
- ↑ Cic. de Rep., I, 3.
- ↑ Florus, liv. 4. chap. 12.
- ↑ This is the city now called Kai-Fong-Fou, the capital of Ho-nan.
- ↑ The history was puhlished for the first time by Wolfgang Lazius, under the title of Adiaz Babylonia, Episcopi et Apostolorum Disciptdi, de Historia Certaminis Apostolici, libri decern ; Julio Africano interprete (Basilise, 1552). Fabricius published it again with critical notes, in the 2nd vol. p. 388. of his Codex Apocryphus Novi Testamenti.
- ↑ "Probably," says Fabricius, "he here alludes to the 'Acts of St. Thomas,' which are to be found in Greek in some libraries."
- ↑ Assemani, "Bibliotheca Orientalis," vol. ii., passim.
- ↑ An agricultural people of Persia, mentioned by Herodotus, i. 125.
- ↑ Called Meliar-Pha by Ptolemy.
- ↑ "Lettres Edifiantes," vol. xxii. p. 205. édit. in=18.
- ↑ Maffei, "Histoire des Indes Orientales," vol. i. p. 81—84.
- ↑ Du Jarric, "Histoire des Choses Memorables," &c. vol. i. p. 502.
- ↑ "Mémoire Géographique Historique et Scientifique sur l'Inde antérieurement, au milieu du onzième siècle de l'ere Chrétienne, d'après les Ecrivains, Arabes, Persans, et Chinois," par M. Reinaud, de l'Institut. p. 95.
- ↑ Note on the Christian converts of St. Thomas in the "Recueil des Voyages et des Mémoires de la Société de Géographie," vol. iv. p. 25.
- ↑ This is quite an Oriental expression. The Bible speaks (Gen. x. 5.) of the "isles of the Gentiles," and we know that in the religious books of India, various parts of the world are regarded as so many islands, newly risen from the waters which separate them from each other, and on which they float like a ship or an aquatic plant.
- ↑ Eusebius Hist., lib. iv. ch. 10.
- ↑ "Mémoire de M. Reinaud," p. 95.