and placed at Cartuse, where he exercised episcopal functions; till being carried to Lisbon he was sent thence to Rome, where he was condemned by Pope Sixtus Quintus as a mere Nestorian and not even a priest.  After the death of Mar Abraham his archdeacon governed the diocese, as no Babylonian prelates dared to come to Malabar, Don Alexius, the archbishop of Goa, using his utmost endeavours to keep out all such heretical prelates, which was the particular occasion of his present visitation.

[Footnote 421:  Under this story we may presume without any lack of Christian charity, that these promises were extorted by means best known to the inquisition, that diabolical instrument of the pretended disciples of the Prince of Peace, and eternal opprobrium of the Peninsula.  With regard to Joseph there was some shadow of excuse, as he seems to have accepted his appointment from the orthodox pope, though secretly attached to the heretical Nestorian patriarch.—­E.]

This prelate found that, among other errors, the Thomists denied the virginity of our blessed lady[422]:  They rejected the use of images:  they believed the souls of the just did not enjoy the beatific presence of God till after the general judgment:  they allowed only of three sacraments, baptism, ordination and the eucharist:  instead of confession they used perfuming in their churches:  the wine employed in the sacrament was made from cocoas:  their host was a cake made with oil and salt:  their priests were ordained at seventeen years of age, and were permitted to marry after ordination:  fathers, sons, and grandsons administered the sacrament in the same church:  the Catatorias or Caffaneras, so they called the wives of priests, wore a distinguishing mark to be known by:  in matrimony, they used no other formalities except the consent of parties and consummation:  the women observed the time prescribed by the law of Moses in regard to churching:  no sacraments were administered gratuitously:  holy water was mixed with some powder of frankincense, and some of the soil on which St Thomas was supposed to have trodden:  they used sorcery and witchcraft:  In fine, that all was error, confusion, and heresy.

[Footnote 422:  This probably refers to her supposed immaculate purity even after the birth of the Saviour.—­E.]

Don Alexius with much labour and toil convinced them of their errors and converted them to the true faith, so that whole towns were baptised and reconciled to the Roman see.  He even held a provincial synod at Diamper, all the decrees of which were confirmed by the Pope; and Francisco Rodriguez, a Jesuit who had assisted the archbishop on this important visitation, was made bishop of that diocese.  On the breaking up of the synod, Don Alexius visited all the churches in these parts.  While in the country of the queen of Changanate, visiting the church of Talavecare,