CHAP. The secular character of the prelacy increases the violence of party feeling. very means for the ruin of his competitor, which the unhappy Mar Joseph had formerly employed against himself. We cannot too deeply deplore these contentions between men holding such responsible stations in the Church, and whose duty it was, "with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering," to forbear "one another in love; endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." But the ambitious Christian pays less regard to the Church of Christ, than the heathen soldiers paid to His seamless robe at the foot of the cross. It is truly afflicting to the pious mind to see these prelates so compromising the dignity, and profaning the sanctity of their office. "The servant of the Lord must not strive; but be 7. This contention was, no doubt, rendered more violent and extensive by the secular character of a great part of the Bishop's duties. Their authority extended equally over temporal and spiritual affairs within the diocese. By virtue of the immunities which the Christians had long enjoyed, the heathen princes and judges took no cognizance of their affairs, criminal cases alone excepted: so that all civil and ecclesiastical causes came within the jurisdiction of their own spiritual rulers. They paid tribute indeed to their heathen governors, and were obliged to furnish their quota of troops in the event of war breaking out: but as the wars of the country were neither frequent nor of long continuance, they felt little incon venience from this part of the conditions on which they held their privileges. The extent of the diocese was great, containing at one time upwards of 1400 churches," and about the same number of country towns, or small boroughs. For many years, while in the uninterrupted enjoyment of their rights and liberties, the population rapidly increased; for the priesthood were not then, as under papal influence they afterwards became, engaged to celibacy; nor had they either monks or nuns among them; and the people very seldom took up their abode out of their native country. A. D. 1578. ham applies espouse his 8. To be the head of so respectable a com- Mar Abramunity as this, was enough to fire the ambition to the Portuof a young prelate, who does not appear to have guese, who taken by any means a subordinate view of his cause. secular dignity and power. For similar reasons, we may understand Mar Abraham's application to the determined enemies of his Church to deliver him from his rival. Though Mar Simeon had been sent from Babylon at his own request, yet he wrote to the viceroy and Archbishop of Goa, describing him as an intruder into his church, and an enemy to the Latin faith; and desiring them to drive him out of the country. The Portuguese authorities had no such regard for Mar Abraham as to induce them for his own sake to take up his cause; yet their own interest prompted them now to do him this service. There was much more hope of their subduing the Syrians, while under the infirm and versatile Abraham, than if they had a prelate of Simeon's energy and ambition. The honour of their church also pleaded in Mar Abraham's favour; for he had received Roman 7 About the beginning of the eighteenth century. - La Croze, p. 68. consecration, and was appointed to his bishopric by the pope. It was, therefore, determined to give him their support, and place him in undisputed possession of his see. 9. Hearing that the party of Mar Simeon was very numerous, and that he was out of their reach at Carturté, they despaired of taking him by force; accordingly it was resolved to get him into their hands by stratagem. For this purpose, they employed some Franciscan friars, who ingratiated themselves with the unsuspecting Bishop, and then, under the mask of friendship, represented to him the danger to which he exposed himself by neglecting to obtain briefs from Rome, without which, they assured him, he would always be troubled by the Portuguese, and his person would never be safe. Observing the impression made upon him by these representations, they urged him to undertake a voyage to Rome, stating it to be impossible otherwise to maintain himself in a dignity, for the sake of which he was taking so much pains. Their stratagem succeeded. Inexperienced in the artifices of Rome, intent on the object of his ambition, Mar Simeon took no time to consider the peril he incurred by following this advice. Neither did he reflect, that the course proposed would invalidate his claim to the preference shown him by the Syrians, which, he ought to have remembered, he owed to the single circumstance of his freedom from Romish contamination. Thus heedlessly did he fall into the snare of his enemies. Having taken the precaution to appoint one Jacob, a cattanar, his vicar-general during his absence, he accompanied the friars to Cochin, whence he proceeded to Goa, and there embarked on the first ship for Portugal. Shortly after his arrival at Lisbon he was sent to Rome. The anxiety of the Roman Church to prove the invalidity of all orders not emanating from herself, has already been shown. Accordingly, this course was adopted with Mar Simeon. He was examined by the Inquisition, and easily convicted of being a Nestorian. They then attempted to prove that he had never been consecrated, or even ordained priest. Having compelled him to anathematize his errors, they shut him up in a monastery, for the purpose, as was pretended, of instructing him in the dogmas of their Church. After a time he was brought out again, and they proceeded with his trial; at the conclusion of which the Pope, Sixtus V., pronounced sentence against him. He declared him to be no Bishop, forbade him henceforth to exercise the episcopal functions, and even prohibited him from celebrating the Liturgy, because of the alleged uncertainty of his ordination to the priesthood. With this sentence upon him, he was sent by the Cardinal Severiana to Philip II., King of Spain, who placed him under the care of Don Alexio de Menezes, whom he was about to send to India as Archbishop of Goa. 10. Mar Simeon naturally expected Menezes to carry him back to India; but instead of this, he was kept in confinement at Lisbon, in a Franciscan convent, from whence he is said to have written to his vicar-general, Jacob, by every fleet that sailed to India, and in all his letters to have styled himself Metropolitan of India, and maintained his unshaken profession 8 This is the monarch who seized the kingdom of Portugal, which remained in possession of the Kings of Spain until the year 1640. CHAP. of the Chaldæan faith. These letters were found some time after, in 1599, by Archbishop Menezes, when he visited Malabar, and were sent by him to the chief tribunal of the general Inquisition of Portugal. It is uncertain whether Mar Simeon was alive at the time of their arrival; but if he was, it is with great probability concluded, that he was made to change his Franciscan prison for a dungeon of the Inquisition, and that they took good care that he should write no more letters to India.9 This is all we know of the end of this young prelate. It was his calamity, as in the case of Nestorius, to be raised to a station of such sacred responsibility, before his religious principles were sufficiently matured for him to feel comparatively indifferent to its honours, while bearing the burden of its cares. At any age, to fulfil the office of a Bishop well, requires a double measure of Divine grace; and when the inexperience of youth is added to all the infirmities natural to man, the difficulties are greatly augmented. We are not surprised, then, that Mar Simeon forgot his duty to God, to the Church, and to his senior, under all the circumstances of his situation: neither can we marvel that the Lord left him in his enemies' hands, to chastise him for his pride. But this does not exonerate the authors of his destruction. His only offences against Rome were, that he owned another authority, and maintained a different creed,―crimes, however, that are never to be pardoned by that intolerant Church, and for which no punishment is deemed too severe. The Portuguese historian, Gouvea, endeavours to exculpate the pope for the part 9 Geddes, pp. 39, 40. |