Coonan Cross Oath
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The Coonan Cross Oath, also known as the Great Oath of Bent Cross, the Leaning Cross Oath or the Oath of the Slanting Cross, taken on 3 January 1653 in
Saint Thomas Christians were predominantly in communion with the
In 1653, after half a century of the increasing influence of the Latin Church, the majority of the Saint Thomas Christians resisted Padroado Jesuits, and took the Coonan Cross Oath (1653) at
Background
It was propagated that the
The Portuguese started a
The independence of the ancient Church of Saint Thomas Christians was rescinded. The
In 1652, Ahatallah, an oriental Syriac Orthodox prelate visited India. He is said to have landed at Surat and thence came to Mylapore, where he was arrested by the Jesuits on 3 August 1652.[21] While at Mylapore, Ahatalla met two Syrian Christian deacons, viz: Chengannur ltty and Kuravilangad Kizhakkedath Kurien from Malankara, who were on a pilgrimage to the tomb of St. Thomas and sent a letter through them to the Church of Malankara saying:
Behold, I Ignatius, Patriarch of All India and China, send to you a letter through the clerics who came here from your place. When you have read this letter diligently send me two priests and forty men. If however, you wish to send them from your place, send them cautiously, quickly and soon, so that seeing your people they would release me without hindrance. I came to the city of Mylapore thinking that many people come here, and that priests would get me to your place of the Indias. In the year 1652 of our Lord, in the month of August, on Monday, I arrived in Mylapore in the monastery of the Jesuits. In the same monastery I stay, and they help me very much; may their reward increase here and there. Peace be with them, with you, and with us now and always. Amen. I, Ignatius, Patriarch of All India and China.
He was taken on board a Portuguese ship at
Oath
The treatment of Ahatalla, shocked the Thomas Christian community, and their wounded feelings effervesced into a mass upsurge that heralded the breaking off from the Padroado of the Portuguese Crown and the Jesuits.[26]
"In case the patriarch cannot be produced, he having been killed by the Paulists [Jesuits], let any other person of the four religious orders come here by order of the supreme pontiff, a man who knows Syriac, and can teach us in our offices, except the Paulists, whom we do not at all desire, because they are enemies of us and of the church of Rome; with that exception let anybody come, and we are ready to obey without hesitation."[27]
The Thomas Christians made one more attempt to reach some kind of compromise before proceeding to extreme measures. They wrote to Archbishop Garcia, requesting him to come and meet them but Garcia refused to accept the invitation. Seeing that the Archbishop thus turned a deaf ear to their insistent pleas, the Thomas Christians became extremely exasperated. On 3 January 1653,
After this historic oath, out of a population of 200,000
Various interpretations of the events
The exact wordings of the Coonan Cross Oath is disputed. There are various versions on the wording of swearing.[31]
Secondary sources
Stephen Neill
Stephen Neill, a Scottish Anglican Protestant missionary and historian, in his book A History of Christianity in India: The Beginnings to AD 1707 explains the situation as follows:
On [sic] January 1653, priests and people assembled in the church of Our Lady at Mattancherry, and standing in front of a cross and lighted candles swore upon the holy Gospel that they would no longer obey Garcia, and that they would have nothing further to do with the Jesuits they would recognize the Archdeacon as the governor of their Church. This is the famous oath of the "Coonan Cross" (the open-air Cross which stands outside the church at Mattancherry). The Saint Thomas Christians did not at any point suggest that they wished to separate themselves from the Pope. They could no longer tolerate the arrogance of Garcia. And their detestation of the Jesuits, to whose overbearing attitude and lack of sympathy they attributed all their troubles, breathes through all the documents of the time. But let the Pope send them a true bishop, not a Jesuit, and they will be pleased to receive and obey him.[26]
Stephen Neil describes the oath only as an expression of anger against Archbishop Garcia and the Jesuits. Another Church historian Dietmar W. Winkler also shares the opinion that Coonan Cross Oath was not against the see of Rome, but against the Latin archbishop and the missionary work of the Jesuits.[32]
Robert Eric Frykenberg
Robert Erick Frykenberg, an American historian, narrates the oath in his book Christianity in India From Beginnings to the Present as follows:
At Koonen Cross, the assembly of priests (kattanars) and people formally stood before a crucifix and lighted candles and solemnly swore an oath upon the Gospel that they would strive, henceforth, to restore their ancient Church to its former full independence and that they would no longer obey Francis Garcia (SJ) or any other prelate sent by the Pfarangi Church of Rome.[33]
Here, the oath is narrated as an opposition to the Church of Rome itself.
István Perczel
István Perczel, a Hungarian scholar of early Christianity and a leading expert on the Saint Thomas Christians, describes the oath as follows:
Yet, under the Jesuit archbishops that followed him [Francisco Ros] in the see of Cranganore, the situation deteriorated, finally leading to a revolt of the community against the Portuguese and the Jesuits, the celebrated Oath of the Slanting Cross (kūnan kuriśu satyam). The Christians rejected their obedience to the Portuguese and the Jesuits, the then archdeacon, Thomas Pakalomaṭṭam, was consecrated metropolitan of India with the name Mar Thoma, and the community pledged their obedience to the Chaldean patriarch.[34]
Primary sources
Letter of Mar Gabriel, East Syriac Metropolitan in Malabar (1705 – 1731)
Mar Gabriel gives a narrative of the Coonan Cross Oath in his letter entitled "The antiquity of the Syrian Christians, and Historical events relating to them" addressed to Jacobus Canter Visscher, a Dutch chaplain at Kochi (1717 –1720).[35] Following is the excerpt from the letter:
In the meantime a priest called Mar Matti [referring to Ahattalla] came to Maliapore sent by the Catholic Patriarch. The Portuguese apprehended him and brought him into the city, and afterwards dragged him to the harbour and cast him into the water. On hearing this, the Christians of Malabar assembled in the church of Mar Tancheri [Mattancherry], took counsel together, bound themselves by oath, and thus threw off the Portuguese yoke from their necks; having first written and signed a letter declaring that from that time forward and for ever, they would have nothing more to do, for good or evil, with the Portuguese.[36]
Version in Angamaly Padiyola of 1787
In Angamaly Padiyola, declaration of the Syrian Catholics (Pazhayakoor faction of Saint Thomas Christians) proclaimed in 1787, narrates the oath as the following:
Our forefathers received the true faith of Jesus Christ at the hands of the Apostle Saint Thomas. Upon this, Chaldean Syrian bishops ruled over us up to the time of the death of the Metropolitan Mar Abraham, which took place in the
East Church of Angamāly in the year 1596. Then the Sanpaloor padre [Jesuits priests] stopped the arrival of other Syrians, and oppressed our people, and ruled over them with an iron rule. However, another Syrian Metran [bishop, referring to Ahattalla] arrived at Cochin with the view of coming to us; but soon the news reached us that he had come to an untimely death by being drowned in the sea. Upon this our forefathers assembled at Mattancherry, and took an oath that neither they themselves, nor their descendants, should ever have anything to do with the Sanpaloor padre. They subsequently assembled at Allangād church, where they duly nominated Archdeacon Thoma as their bishop.[37]
The Church Missionary Society Report for 1818-1819
The Church Missionary Society (CMS) report for the year 1818-19 (page 319) includes an abstract of a brief history of
The archdeacon addressed letters to all the Syrian churches; and when he had assembled all the priests, students and Christians, they heard that Portuguese had brought Mar Ignatius, the patriarch to Cochin. They all immediately arose and went to Cochin Rajah, decalared to him their grievances, and entered him to deliver their patriarch out of the hands of the Portuguese. The Rajah replied that he would certainly deliver him to them the following morning. He immediately sent for the Portuguese governor of Cochin fort, and said to him "You have confined the patriarch of our Christians, and nothing will satisfy me but your delivering him up to them without any delay". The Portuguese however, gave the Rajah a great sum of money, by the consideration of which he allowed them to retain the prisoner. The same night they tied a great stone to patriarch's neck, and threw him into the sea. In the hour that this was done the Rajah died.
After this, all the Syrians assembled in the church at Muttoncherry and thus resolved - and "These Portuguese having murdered Mar Ignatius, we will no longer join them. We renounce them, and do not want either their love or their favour. The present Francis, bishop, shall not be our governor. We are not his children or followers. We will not again acknowledge Portuguese bishops."[38]
Version of Punnathara Dionysius III in the letter to the C.M.S.
The version presented in a letter of Dionysious Punnathara (c. d 1825) (a nineteenth century prelate of the Malankara Syrian Church) to the head of the Anglican Church Missionary Society from a translation of it out of the Syriac original:
Mar Dionysius, Metropolitan of the Jacobite-Syrians in Malabar, subject to the authority of our Father, Mar Ignatius, Patriarch, who presides in the Apostolic See of Antioch of Syria, beloved of the Messiah. Love from Christ and the people of all the churches to Lord Gambier and ....
In the year of our Lord 1653, came our Spiritual Father, Mar Ignatius, the Patriarch, from Antioch to Malabar: but, when the Franks knew this, they brought the Holy Man to the walls of Cochin, imprisoned him in a cell and gave no small money to the King of Cochin. They then brought out the good man, and the drowned him in the sea, and so put him to death. But when we knew this, all the Jacobite Syrians in Malabar assembled in the Church of Mathancherry, which is in Cochin, and we swore a great oath, by the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, that henceforth we would not adhere to the Franks, nor accept the faith of the Pope of Rome: we accordingly separated from them. A short time after this, some of our people again joined them, and received the faith of the Pope.[39]
Here, the oath is interpreted as an opposition to the Pope himself.
Version in Idavakapathrika Magazine published in 1896
As per the Idavakapathrika magazine (book 5, volume 3,
On the 3rd of
better source needed]
Sanpaloor is the equivalent of St. Paul's monastery or town, a Portuguese stronghold near Vaippikotta. It was so called because the Paulists or Jesuits resided there.[41]
Aftermath
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After the incident of Coonan Cross Oath, three letters were circulated claiming that they had been sent by
Copies of three letters which are said to be written by said to be written by Ahathalla to Saint Thomas Christians are preserved in the archives of the Propaganda Fide and were published in facsimile by Jacob Kollaparambil, a Church historian.[46] In the first letter, Ahathalla informs Saint Thomas Christians of his coming to India and his detention by the Jesuits; in the second letter, he gives the order for Deacon George (George Parampil, one of his visitors at Mylapore) to be ordained Archdeacon and for the Saint Thomas Christians to establish a body consisting of 12 presbyters, one of whom should be elected as bishop; and in the third letter he legislates that Metropolitan Thoma I should be nominated as Patriarch of all India.[47] István Perczel, observes that the Syriac of these letters is very strange. The first two letters are written in a similar style, incidentally not so good Syriac, but the third one is written in a different style. Some of the historians in Kerala think that second and third letters are forgeries and some consider all three are genuine. Perczel says that it is difficult to conclude the authenticity of these letters; first and second letters are in poor Syriac, with possible Malayalam influences and moreover first letter contains so many absurd errors too; these may be simply due to a copyist, on the other hand, the poor Syriac of the letters and the content style may indicate that they were forged in order to prepare and/or to justify the Coonan Cross revolt, by Saint Thomas Christian priests, having learned Syriac from Francisco Ros.[43] He further highlights that the second letter, which served as basis for the enthronement of the Archdeacon Thomas, does not mention him by name, but on the contrary instructs the Saint Thomas Christians to appoint Deacon George Parambil as the Archdeacon and to establish a body consisting of 12 presbyters in order to elect the Metropolitan after the death of Francis Garcia.[43] Perczel comments that this contradicts the hypothesis of a forgery by the authors of the Coonan Cross revolt. In fact, those who conducted the revolt and ordained Archdeacon Thomas to the bishopric had to distort the contents of this letter to justify what they did among others they attributed to Archdeacon Thomas the rights given by the letter to George Parambil.[43]
After the consecration of Thoma I, The information about this consecration was then communicated to all the churches. The vast majority of churches accepted Thoma I as their bishop.
Thoma I, meanwhile sent requests to various Oriental Churches to receive canonical consecration as bishop. In 1665, Gregorios Abdal Jaleel, a bishop sent by the Syrian Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch, arrived in India and the faction under the leadership of Thoma I welcomed him. The bishop was sent in correspondence to the letter sent by Thoma to the Oriental Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch. Bishop Abdul Jaleel regularised the Episcopal succession of Thoma I.[54][55] With this, the split among the Saint Thomas Christians became formal. The faction affiliated with the Catholic Church under Bishop Palliveettil Chandy, referred themselves as Pazhayakuttukar , or "Old Allegiance", and called the branch affiliated with Thoma I as Puthankuttukar, or "New Allegiance".[56][57][58][59] These appellations have been somewhat controversial, though, as both parties considered themselves the true heirs to the Saint Thomas tradition, and saw the other party as schismatic.[56]
This visit of Abdul Jaleel gradually introduced the
The Pazhayakoor is the body from which the modern Syro-Malabar Church and Chaldean Syrian Church descend. The Puthenkoor is the body from which the Jacobite Syrian Christian Church, Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church, Saint Thomas Anglicans of the Church of South India, Mar Thoma Syrian Church, St. Thomas Evangelical Church of India, Syro-Malankara Catholic Church and Malabar Independent Syrian Church originate.[67][68][69]
See also
- Indo-Persian ecclesiastical relations
- Malankara Church
- Goa Inquisition
- Synod of Diamper
Notes
- ^ Brown 1956, p. 100.
- ^ a b Baum & Winkler 2003, pp. 115–116.
- ^ a b c Neill 2004, p. 316.
- ISBN 1739349628. Retrieved 19 March 2024.
- ^ Mingana 1926, pp. 435–514.
- ^ Mundadan 1967, pp. 115–116.
- ^ Mechery, Antony (2018). "Archbishop Aleixo de Menezes OSA, A Portuguese Fidalgo: Behind the Curtain". Vidyajyoti Journal of Theological Reflection. 82: 8–34.
- ^ Brown 1956, p. 32.
- ^ Baum & Winkler 2003, p. 115.
- ^ Neill 2004, p. 208.
- ^ Brown 1956, pp. 100–101.
- ^ Neill 2004, pp. 316–321.
- ^ "Catholic Encyclopedia: St. Thomas Christians".
- ^ I. Gillman and H.-J. Klimkeit, Christians in Asia Before 1500, (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1999), p. 177. [ISBN missing]
- ^ "Thomas Christians". britannica.com. Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 26 May 2021.
India's ancient Christians looked to the Assyrian Church of the East (often disparaged as "Nestorian" by Western or Roman Catholic Christians, who associated it with the anathematized bishop Nestorius) and its catholicos (or patriarch) for ecclesiastical authority
- ISBN 1739349628. Retrieved 19 March 2024.
- ^ "Thomas Christians". e-GEDSH:Gorgias Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Syriac Heritage.
Although India was supplied with bishops from the Middle East, the effective control lay in the hands of the indigenous Archdeacon.
- ^ ISBN 9781351123846.
Documents address him as the Jathikku Karthavyan [the head of the caste], that is, the head of the Thomas Christians.....even when there were more than one foreign bishop, there was only one Archdeacon for entire St.Thomas Community..
- ^ Frykenberg 2008, pp. 127–128.
- ^ Neill (2004), pp. 208–210.
- ^ a b c Kollamparambil, Dr Jacob (1981). The St. Thomas Christian Revolution 1653. Catholic Bishop's House Kottayam. p. foot note 38.
- ISBN 1739349628. Retrieved 19 March 2024.
- ^ a b Aprem, (Mar) (1987). Mar Abdisho Thondanat-A Biography. Mar Narsai Press. p. 67.
- ^ Thekkedath, Joseph (1982). History of Christianity in India. Theological Publications in India for the Church History Association of India. p. 213.
- ^ István Perczel (2011), p. 196-footnote: "but was intercepted,interrogated, handed over to the Inquisition in Goa and, then, was sent to Lisbon and Rome. Finally – most probably – he died in Paris. See Joseph Thekkedatthu, S.D.B., The Troubled Days of Francis Garcia S.J., Archbishop of Cranganore (1641-59)"
- ^ a b Neill (2004).
- ^ Neill (2004), p. 319.
- ^ a b Thekkedathu (1972), p. 60.
- ISBN 9780521548854.
The crowd outside shared in the oath by holding on to a rope tied to a cross in the Churchyard . It is said that the cross bent as a result . Hence the oath is known as Coonan ( bent ) Cross Oath.
- ISBN 9788170227649.
The oath is known in history as the Kunan Kurisu Satyam , an oath taken by holding a rope tied to a cross that consequently developed a bend.
- ^ Census of India (1961: Kerala. Office of the Registrar General. 1965. p. 111.
There are various versions about the wording of swearing, one version being that it was directed against the Portuguese, another that it was directed against Jesuits, and one directed against the authority of church of Rome
- ISBN 9781317482116.
An assembly took place in a church at Mattancherry in 1653, which took a solemn oath – the so-called Coonan Cross Oath – no longer to obey the Latin Archbishop or any other Jesuits. Twelve priests placed their hands on the archdeacon and the first ecclesial division among the Thomas Christians was sealed. The Coonan Cross Oath was not against the see of Rome, but against the Latin archbishop and the missionary work of the Jesuits
- ^ Frykenberg 2008, p. 360.
- ISBN 9781317482116.
- ^ Neill (2004), p. 62.
- ^ Visscher, Jacobus Canter [in Dutch] (1862). Heber Drury (ed.). "Letter XVI". Letters from Malabar, Tr.: To Which is Added an Account of Travancore, and Fra Bartolomeo's Travels in That Country. By H. Drury: 105–109.
- ^ Whitehouse (1873), pp. 308–310.
- ^ Whitehouse (1873), p. 306.
- ^ Lee, Samuel, ed. (October 1822). "Letter from Punnathara Dionysious (Thoma XI) to the Head of the Church Mission Society". The Missionary Register. M DCCC XXII: 431–432.
- ^ Cheeran, Joseph (2013). palūr-kunnamkulam idavakakal: charitravum samskaravum (in Malayalam). Kunnamkulam: M. J. D. Publishing House. p. 53.
- ^ Whitehouse (1873), p. 169.
- ^ a b c Neill 2004, p. 320.
- ^ a b c d István Perczel (2011).
- ISBN 9780521548854.
The basis for this affirmation was what we are told by Jerome was the ancient custom of the church of Alexandria. There, when the patriarch died, the twelve priests of the city churches would elect one of their number as patriarch; the eleven would then lay hands on the elected person and thus consecrate him as their patriarch, and would also immediately elect another presbyter, so that the college should never consist of less than twelve persons.
- ^ Frykenberg 2008, p. 368: "Archdeacon Thomas, having been elevated to High Metran by the laying on of hands by twelve cattanars, took the title of Mar Thoma I."
- ^ István Perczel (2011), p. 213: "Copies of three letters of Mor A'tallah are preserved in the archives of the Congregatio De Propaganda Fide and were published in facsimile by Jacob Kollaparambil, with an English translation."
- ^ István Perczel (2011), p. 212.
- ^ a b Neill 2004, pp. 320–321.
- ISBN 9780521548854.
To bring one of the cattanars to Rome for consecration would have resulted in endless delays...So at the age of thirty-six Joseph Sebastiani, in religion Fr Joseph of Saint Mary OCD, was consecrated secretly on 15 December 1659, and given the title bishop of Hierapolis.....He is appointed as apostolic commissary for the whole of the Serra
- ISBN 9781230341651.
- ^ Mundadan & Thekkedath 1982, pp. 96–100.
- ^ Rev Dr Placid Podipara, The Hierarchy of Syro Malabar Church, in Collected works of Rev Dr Placid Podipara CMI, Vol I p. 719
- ^ "Christians of Saint Thomas (Christian groups, India) – Encyclopedia Britannica". Britannica.com. Retrieved 18 November 2013.
- ^ Menachery G; 1973, 1982, 1998; Podipara, Placid J. 1970; Leslie Brown, 1956; Tisserant, E. 1957
- ^ Mundadan & Thekkedath 1982.
- ^ a b Vadakkekara 2007, p. 84.
- ^ Frykenberg 2008, p. 361.
- ^ Fernando, p. 79.
- ^ Chaput, pp. 7–8.
- ^ Vadakkekara 2007, p. 88.
- ^ Gregorios & Roberson, p. 285.
- ^ Vadakkekara, p. 91.
- ^ Gouvea, Antonio de (1606). Jornada. Coimbra.
- ^ Perczel, István (2013). Peter Bruns; Heinz Otto Luthe (eds.). "Some New Documents on the Struggle of the Saint Thomas Christians to Maintain the Chaldaean Rite and Jurisdiction". Orientalia Christiana: Festschrift für Hubert Kaufhold zum 70. Geburtstag. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag: 415–436 [417].
- ^ Frykenberg 2008, p. 360: "...and then later, after 1653 but especially between 1663 and 1710, under the double government of both Padroado and Propaganda, is a long and unending tale of misgovernment, bitterness, tyranny, and woe."
- ^ Frykenberg 2008, p. 369: "The Yet,those who were Catholic never became fully reconciled to the loss of their ‘Eastern’, ‘Malabar’, or ‘Syrian’ heritage, connection, or rite. Most of all they wanted their own fully autonomous and ethnically distinct bishops and clergy."
- ^ "Thomas Christians: History & Tradition-Britannica". www.britannica.com.
- ISBN 978-90-04-11695-5.
- ^ Frykenberg 2008, p. 249.
Bibliography
- ISBN 9781134430192.
- Brown, Leslie W. (1956). The Indian Christians of St Thomas: An Account of the Ancient Syrian Church of Malabar. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Frykenberg, Robert Eric (2008). Christianity in India: From Beginnings to the Present. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780198263777.
- .
- Mooken, Aprem (1977). The Chaldean Syrian Church in India. Trichur: Mar Narsai Press.
- Mooken, Aprem (1983). The Chaldean Syrian Church of the East. Delhi: National Council of Churches in India.
- Mundadan, Mathias (1967). The Arrival of the Portuguese in India and the Thomas Christians Under Mar Jacob, 1498–1552. Bangalore: Dharmaram College.
- Mundadan, Anthony Mathias; Thekkedath, Joseph (1982). History of Christianity in India. Vol. 2. Bangalore: Church History Association of India.
- ISBN 9780521548854.
- ISBN 9781463233136.
- Thekkedathu, Joseph (1972). The troubled Days of Francis Garcia S. J. Archbishop of Cranganore (1641–1659). Gregorian Biblical BookShop. ISBN 9788876521584.
- Vadakkekara, Benedict (2007). Origin of Christianity in India: A Historiographical Critique. Delhi: Media House. ISBN 9788174952585.
- Whitehouse, Thomas, ed. (1873). Lingerings of light in a dark land: Researches into the Syrian church of Malabar. William Brown and Co.
- Wilmshurst, David (2000). The Ecclesiastical Organisation of the Church of the East, 1318–1913. Louvain: Peeters Publishers. ISBN 9789042908765.
- Wilmshurst, David (2011). The martyred Church: A History of the Church of the East. London: East & West Publishing Limited. ISBN 9781907318047.
External links