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THE PERSIAN CONNECION The
Indian Church came in contact with the East Syrian Church possibly from
the 4th century. In the 5th century, the church of Persia came to its
own. The Catholicos with his seat at Seleucia -Ctesiphon began to be
called also Patriarch and in 486 A. D. the Church officially accepted a
resolution in its Synod to recognise Nestorius as a Saint and Church
Father. This decision was not however accepted by a minority of Persian
Christians who acknowledged a Catholicos at Tagrit in northern
Mesopotamia as their spiritual head in 629 A. D. We
have evidence that in the 8th century the Indian Church had its Primate
known as "The Metropolitan and the Gate of All India" a title
adopted presumably under Islamic influence. The Vatican Codex 22,
written in Cranganore in 1301 gives the titles as "The Metropolitan
of the Throne of St. Thomas and of the whole Church of the Christians in
India." The Indian Church maintained its autonomous administration. The Church of Persia had a tradition which acknowledged autonomy of Churches in its communion abroad. The Church in Kerala continued as an administratively independent community till the 16th century. THE PORTUGUESE PERIOD Things changed during the Portuguese period. The missionaries who came from abroad were eager to bring the Indian Church into communion with Rome. They worked on it almost through the 16th century. In 1599 by the Synod of Diamper, the assembly of representatives from churches was forced to give up the Indian Church's connection with the Patriarch of the Persian Church in favour of the Pope of Rome. But there was dissatisfaction among the people. This dissatisfaction led to a general revolt in 1653 known commonly as the Coonan Cross revolt. Portuguese efforts to put it down by force did not succeed. Now Rome entered the field directly through Missionaries, and a section of those who rebelled went back to Roman allegiance. A
body of the people led by the Archdeacon, who stood for the
administrative autonomy of the Indian Church inspite of serious
difficulties were determined to keep to the independence of the Indian
Church. The Portuguese were in fact instrumental in causing a division
in the one united church in India. Although they succeeded in getting
the allegiance of a party in the Church to the Roman Catholic community,
an equally important party did not follow their way.
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