Note 66 — Chapter VI
William Johnston translation
The decline of the Nestorian monasteries on the coast of Malabar was not occasioned merely by the establishment of the Portuguese in that country, but by the furious persecuting spirit and the violent conduct of the Portuguese clergy. The mild beneficent teachers of the Christians of St. Thomas were either compelled to join the Romish Church, or suffered to become extinct; as it was impossible for new ecclesiastics or monks to go to India from Persia, or the Persian gulph, where the Portuguese at that time had great power. Afterwards, indeed, when the Dutch got the better of the Portuguese, Syrian and Nestorian ecclesiastics went from Persia and Antioch to India; but these priests, who belonged to different sects, were always at variance with each other. See Relatio historica ad Epistolam Syriacam a Maha Thome, i. e. Magna Thoma Indo, antiquorum Syrorum in India Episcopo, ex Chaddenad in Malabaria scriptam ad Ignatium Patriarcham Antiochenum, et ipsa illa Episcopi Indi Epistola Syriaca, cum Versione Latina, &c. accurante Carolo Schaaf. Lugduni Batavorum, 1714. 4to. F.