or of any other by whom they are authorized after having heard the Sins of their Penitents do carry them to the said Prelate to be absolved by him in the Sacramental Court which was what happened to the most Illustrious Metropolitan in these parts the Synod doth therefore teach and declare That none can absolve the Penitent in the Sacramental Court but the Priest only that heard his Sins for whereas he is the Judge it is he that ought to pass sentence and absolve in conformity to what he has heard confessed the contrary being a gross and manifest Error Decree XV. FOrasmuch as there are some ignorant Clergymen who being desired by Christians to read the Gospels and Prayers to them or to give them the Blessing on their heads do ignorantly use the form of Sacramental Absolution saying I absolve thee from thy Sins in the Name of the Father c. wherefore the Synod doth advertise and admonish them not to commit such an Error it being a most grievous Sacrilege to apply the Sacramental form where it ought not to be wherefore they shall only read the Gospels and Prayers allowed ending with the Blessing In the Name of the Father c. The Doctrine of the Sacrament of Extream Unction THe fifth Sacrament of Extream Vnction has for its matter the Oyl of Olive blessed by a Bishop it is called Extream Vnction because it is the last of all the Holy Unctions instituted by our Lord Christ in his Church and the last that is received by a Christian this Sacrament is to be administred to an adult Person that is sick when apprehended to be in probable danger of death who is to be anointed by the Priest the only minister of this Sacrament on those parts wherewith he hath offended God chiefly that is to say on the Eyes because of Sins committed by the sight on both the Ears because of Sins committed by hearing on the mouth because of Sins committed by tasting and speaking on both the hands for the sins committed in feeling and touching on both the Feet for the Sins committed in walking on the Loins and Reins for being the chief seat of Carnal pleasure every one of which parts must be anointed by the Priest making the sign of the Cross upon them with his Thumb dipt in Holy Oil and at the same time repeating the words of the form which are By this Holy Vnction and his most tender mercy may our Lord forgive thee all the Sins thou hast committed by thy sight and so on naming every part or sense as it is anointed The effect of this Sacrament is the Health of the Soul and of the Body also so far as it is convenient and necessary to the Soul which is the chief moreover it washeth away the Reliques of sin if there are any remaining in the Soul comforting the Soul of the Sick withall and confirming and exciting in it a great confidence in the Divine Mercy by virtue of which Consolation it suffers the troubles of Sickness with the more patience and with the greater ease resists the Temptations of Satan whose custom it is to assault the Soul with extraordinary violence in its last Hour It likewise cherishes and succours the Body so far as it is convenient for the salvation of the Soul as S. James teacheth us in his Canonical Epistle saying Is any one Sick let him call for the Priests of the Church and they shall pray over him anointing him with Oyl in the Name of the Lord and the Prayer of Faith shall save the Sick and the Lord shall give him ease and if he be in Sins they shall be forgiven him The Apostle in saying they shall be pardoned demonstrates it to be a Sacrament whose Virtue and Nature is to conferr Grace that pardoneth Sins and in saying If any are sick among you he declares the time when this Sacrament is to be received that is in time of dangerous Sickness and in saying they shall call the Priests of the Church he sheweth that the Priests are the only Ministers of this Sacrament and in saying they shall be anointed with Oil in the Name of the Lord he sheweth that Holy Oil is the matter of this Sacrament and in saying they shall pray over the Sick anointing he sheweth that the form of this Sacrament is to be pronounced by way of deprecation or Prayer and in saying the Lord shall give him ease he sheweth also that the effect of this Sacrament is to give health to the Body so far as it is convenient and necessary to the health of the Soul And whereas this Sacrament was instituted for the use of the Sick none but what are dangerously so must take it and a Person who shall recover after having received it may when dangerously sick receive it again it having been instituted by our Lord for that end and to prepare defend and fortifie us at the time of our departure out of this life whensoever it is Decree I. WHereas in this Bishoprick there has not been hitherto any use of the Sacrament of Extream Vnction in which for want of Catholick Instruction there has been no knowledge of the Institution Effects or Efficacy thereof therefore the Synod does most earnestly recommend the use of this Sacrament commanding the Vicars to be vigilant over the Sick of their Parishes where-ever they live whether in the Villages or in the Heaths and whenever they shall hear of any in danger of Death to carry the most Holy Sacrament of Vnction and administer it to them according to the Roman Ceremonial which is to be translated into Syrian and kept in all Churches anointing them with Oil and making the sign of the Cross with Holy Oil on both their Eyes shut doing the right first and then the left upon the Eye-lashes and upon both the Ears the Nostrils and the Mouth being shut on both the Lips but if the Distemper should be such that the Sick Person 's Mouth cannot be shut or not without danger then the upper Lip shall be anointed making the sign of the Cross upon it as also both the Palms of the Hands the Balls of the Feet and the Loins ordering the Sick Person to be moved gently neither is it necessary that any more of these parts should be anointed than what is convenient for the making the sign of the Cross with the Holy Oil and the Priest must be sure to remember in this as in all other Sacraments to join the Form with the Matter repeating the words of the Form as he anoints the parts If the Sick Person shall happen to expire while the Priest is anointing the Priest being satisfied that he is dead shall proceed no further with the Office and the Vicar through whose negligence any Parishioner shall die without having received this Sacrament shall be suspended from his Office and Benefice for six Months Decree II. FOrasmuch as the Troubles the Sick are in together with the want of good Instructions in
Reverend in Christ Father George Archdeacon of the Christians of St. Thomas in the Serra of the Kingdom of Malabar and to all other Priests Curates Deacons and Subdeacons and to all Towns Villages and Hamlets and to all Christian People of the said Bishoprick Health in our Lord Jesus Christ We give you all and every one of you in particular to understand that the most Holy Father Pope Clement VIII our Lord Bishop of Rome and Vicar of our Lord Jesus Christ upon earth at this time presiding in the Church of God having sent two Briefs directed to Vs one of the 27th of Jan. in the Year 1595 and the other of the 21st of the same Month in the Year 1597 in which by virtue of his Pastoral Office and that Vniversal Power bequeathed to the Supream Holy and Apostolical Chair of St. Peter over all the Churches in the World by Jesus Christ the Son of God our Lord and Redeemer he commanded us upon the death of the Archbishop Mar-Abraham to take Possession of this Church and Bishoprick so as not to suffer any Bishop or Prelate coming from Babylon to enter therein as has been hitherto the Custom all that come from thence being Schismaticks Hereticks and Nestorians out of the Obedience of the Holy Roman Church and Subject to the Patriarch of Babylon the Head of the said Heresy and to appoint a Governour or Apostolical Vicar to Rule the said Diocess both in Spirituals and Temporals until such time as the Holy Roman Church shall provide it of a proper Pastor which being read by us we were desirous to execute the Apostolical Mandates with due Reverence and Obedience besides that the same was incumbent on us of right the said Church having no Chapter to take care of it during the vacancy of the See as Metropolitan and Primate of this and all the other Churches of the Indies and the Oriental Parts But perceiving that our Mandate in that behalf had no effect what we had ordered not having been obeyed in the said Diocess so that what our most Holy Father the Bishop of Rome had designed was like to be frustrated after having laboured therein for the space of two Years Schism and Disobedience to the Apostolical See having been so rooted in that Diocess for a great many Years that the Inhabitants thereof instead of yielding Obedience to the Apostolical and Our Mandates on the contrary upon the intimation thereof did daily harden themselves more and more committing greater Offences against the Obedience due to the Holy Roman Church after having commended the Matter to God and ordered the same to be done through our whole Diocess and after mature Advice by which Methods the Apostolical Mandates might be best executed and being also moved by the Piety of the People and the Mercy God had shewn them in having preserved so many thousand Souls in the Faith of our Lord Jesus Christ from the time that the Holy Apostle St. Thomas had Preached to them until this day notwithstanding their having lived among so many Heathens and been scattered in divers places their Churches and all belonging to them having been always subject to Idolatrous Kings and Princes and incompassed with Idols and Pagods and that without holding any correspondence with any other Christians before the coming of the Portuguezes into these Parts we being likewise desirous that the Labours of the Holy Apostle St. Thomas which still remained among them should not be lost for want of sound Doctrine and that the Apostolical Mandates might not be frustrated did determine and having provided for the Government of our own Church during our absence did prepare to go in Person to take Possession of the said Bishoprick to see if by our Presence we might be able to reduce them to the Obedience of the Holy Roman Church and purge out the Heresies and false Doctrines sown among them and introduced by the Schismatical Prelates and Nestorian Hereticks that had governed them under the Obedience of the Patriarch of Babylon as also to call in and purge the Books containing those Heresies and according to our Pastoral Duty so far as God should enable us to Preach to them in Person the Catholick Truth Accordingly going into the said Bishoprick we set about visiting the Churches thereof but at that time Satan the great Enemy of the good of Souls having stirred up great Commotions and much opposition against this our just intent great numbers departing from us and forming a Schism against the Holy Roman Church after having passed through many troubles and dangers out of all which God of his great mercy not remembring our sins and evil deeds was pleased to deliver us and to grant us an intire Peace for the Merits of the glorious Apostle St. Thomas the Patron of this Christianity but chiefly of his own great Clemency and Mercy which makes that he doth not delight in the death of a sinner but rather that he should return and live and by coming all to the light of the Truth may joyn with us in the Confession of the Catholick Faith approving our Doctrine and Intention and submitting themselves to the Obedience of the Holy Roman Church which being by us observed after having returned Thanks to God we thought fit in order to the compassing and securing of all those good Effects to assemble a Diocesan Synod in some commodious place near the middle of the said Diocess there to Treat of all such Matters as are convenient for the honour of God the exaltation of the Holy Catholick Faith and Divine Worship the good of the Church the extirpation of Vice the Reformation of the Christians of the said Diocess and the profit and peace of their Souls to which end having pitched upon the Town and Church of Diamper We do hereby let all the Inhabitants and Christians of the said Bishoprick as well Ecclesiasticks as Laicks of what State or Condition soever to understand that we do call and assemble a Diocesan Synod in the said Town of Diamper on the 20th of June of this present Year 1599 being the Third Sunday after Whitsuntide and do therefore by Virtue of holy Obedience and upon pain of Excommunication latae Sententiae Command the Reverend the Arch-Deacon of this Diocess and all the other Priests of the same that shall not be hindered by Age or some other just Impediment to be present in the said Town of Diamper there with us to celebrate a Diocesan Synod conformable to the Holy Canons And whereas by immemorial Custom and a Right introduced into this Diocess from its Beginning and consented to by all the Infidel Kings of Malabar the whole Government as it were and the Cognizance of all Matters wherein Christians are any ways concerned has belonged to the Church and the Prelate thereof and it having likewise been an ancient Custom in the same to give an Account to the People of whatsoever has been ordained in the Church in order to its being the
of Religion the Greek and Alexandrian Christians have them in such detestation as to reckon an Altar defiled by a Roman Priest's having celebrated thereon And for the Muscovites Possevinus tells us their greatest imprecation is I hope to live to see thee so far abandoned as to turn Papist The Abbyssin Christians as Godinus tells us do not only condemn the Romanists as Hereticks but do affirm that they are worse than Mahometans and in the 28th Chap. of the first Book of Archbishop Menezes's Visitation it is said that the Chaldaean and Malabar Christians did so abhorr the Pope that they could not endure so much as to hear him named and Head of all the Churches in the World and confess that all that were not obedient to her were out of a state of Salvation and if they did promise and swear true Obedience and subjection to the most Holy Father the Pope and Bishop of Rome as Universal Pastor of the Church and Successor of St. Peter the Prince of the Apostles and Vicar of Christ upon Earth without any manner of dependance upon the Schismatical Patriarch of Babylon to whom tho' contrary to Justice they had hitherto been subject and if they did promise never to receive any other Bishop into this Diocess but what shall be sent by the Holy Roman Church by the appointment of our Lord the Pope and that whomsoever he shall ordain they will acknowledge and obey for their Prelate as becomes true Catholicks and Sons of the Church anathematizing the Patriarch of Babylon as a Nestorian Heretick out of the Obedience of the Holy Roman Church and promising and swearing never to obey him more in any matter nor to have any further Commerce or Communion with him in things appertaining to the Church To all which and every particular they did all and every one of them for themselves with their hands upon the Cross and the Gospel swear and protest to God by the Holy Gospel and the Cross of Christ After the Ecclesiasticks had made this Profession and Oath the Procurators and Representatives of the People by virtue of the Powers they had made the same in their own Name and in the Name of the People of the Bishroprick as did also all the other Christians that were present Decree III. THe Synod doth command all Priests Deacons and Sub-Deacons of this Bishoprick that were not present at this Solemnity to make the foresaid Oath and profession of Faith in the hands of the most Illustrious Metropolitan at the Visitation of their Churches which he intends to make speedily or in the hands of such as he shall depute for those that shall be absent at the time of the Visitation that so there may be none in Holy Orders in this Bishoprick but what has made this Profession in the manner aforesaid The Synod doth likewise declare That hereafter none shall be capable of undertaking any Vicaridge or Cure of a Church until they have made the said Profession in the hands of their Prelate or of some Commissionated by him for that purpose as also that all that take Holy Orders do first make the said Profession in the same manner and if any of the forementioned which God forbid shall refuse to do it that they shall thereupon be declared Excommunicate until they comply and withal be vehemently suspected of Heresy and be punished according to the Sacred Canons ACTION III. BEcause without Faith it is impossible to please God and the Holy Catholick Faith without which none can be saved is the beginning of true Life and the foundation of all our Good the Purity thereof being that that distinguishes Christians and Catholicks from all other People wherefore the Synod being sensible that by means of some Heretical Persons and Books scattered all over this Bishoprick many Errors and Falsities have been sown therein with which many are poisoned and more may be doth judge it necessary besides the profession of Faith that has been made further to declare to the People in some Chapters the chief Articles of our Holy Catholick Faith and to point at and observe the Errors contained in their Books and to have them Preached against in this Bishoprick that so knowing the mischief and falsehood of them they may avoid them CHAP. I. The Doctrine of Faith OUr Holy Faith that is believed with one unanimous consent by the Catholick Church spread all over the World is That we believe in One only True Almighty Immutable Incomprehensible and Ineffable God the Eternal Father Son and Holy Ghost One in Essence and Three in Persons the Father not begotten the Son begotten of the Father and of the same substance with him and equal to him and the Holy Ghost proceeding eternally from the Father and the Son not as from two Principals or two Inspirations but from both as from one only Principal and one only Inspiration the Father is not the Son nor the Holy Spirit the Holy Spirit is not the Father nor the Son but the Father is only the Father the Son is only the Son and the Holy Spirit is only the Holy Spirit none of them being before another in Eternity nor superiour to another in Majesty nor inferiour to another in Power but were all without beginning or end the Father is he who begot the Son is he who was born and the Holy Ghost he who proceedeth Consubstantial Equal alike Almighty and alike Eternal These three Persons are one only God and not three Gods one only Essence and Substance one Nature one Immensity one Principal one Creator of all things Visible and Invisible Corporal and Spiritual who when he pleased created all things with his goodness and would that they should be all very good CHAP. II. FUrthermore That the only begotten Son of God who is always with the Father and the Holy Spirit Consubstantial to the Father at the time appointed by the profound Wisdom of the Divine Mercy for the redeeming of Men from the sin of Adam and from all other sins was truly Incarnate by the operation of the Holy Spirit in the pure Womb of our Lady the most Blessed Virgin Mary and in her took our true and intire Nature of Man that is a Body and rational Soul into the Unity of the Divine Person which Unity was such that our Lord Jesus Christ is God and Man and the Son of God and the Son of Man in as much as he was the Son of the Blessed Virgin so that the one Nature is not confounded with the other neither did the one pass into nor mix it self with the other neither did either of them vanish or cease to be but in one only Person or in one Divine Suppositum there are two perfect Natures a Divine and Humane but so that the properties of both Natures are still preserved there being two Wills the Divine and Humane and two Operations Christ still continuing one for as the Form of God does not destroy the Form of a Servant so the
of Beasts or of some other Men which besides that it is a great Ignorance is also an Error contrary to the Catholick Faith which teacheth That our Souls after Death are carried to Heaven or Hell or Purgatory or Limbus according to every ones Merits and that there is no such fabulous and false Transmigration The second is That all things come necessarily to pass or through * I am very apt to believe that they are here falsely accused of attributing all things to Fate for no other reason but because they believed Predestination which if it was so Arch-Bishop Menezes who was himself an Austin Fryar shewed but little respect to the Memory of his pretended Father in making Predestination and Fate to be equally destructive of humane Liberty Fate or Fortune which they call the Nativity of Men who they say are compelled to be what they are and that there is no help for it which is a manifest Error and condemned by Holy Mother Church for as much as it destroys that Liberty of Will with which God created us leaving us in the power of our own Will to do Good or Evil to obey his Holy Inspirations and Internal Motions by which he excites to Good or to resist Evil so that as it depends on his Divine mercy and goodness to move us to Good so it depends on our Free-Will whether by his assistance we will obey those Inspirations and will profit our selves of his Internal Motions or of our own free Will refuse to do it or in a word do Well or Ill so that if we perish for doing any thing that is Ill it is the fault of our own Free-Will as the Catholick Faith teaches us and not from the fate of our Nativity as the ignorant Heathens will have it The third is †This is an Error that Justin Martyr Clemens Alexandrinus and others of the Philosophical Fathers seem to have been in That every one may be saved in his own Law all which are Good and lead Men to Heaven Now this is a manifest Heresy there being no other Law upon earth in which Salvation is to be found besides that of our Saviour Christ for that he only teacheth the Truth so that all that live in any other Sect are out of a state of Salvation and shall be condemned to Hell there being no other Name given to Men by which we can be saved but only the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God who was Crucified for us All which Errors the Synod commandeth the Vicars and Preachers often to preach against in the hearing of the ignorant People and all Confessors to examine their Penitents concerning them and to teach them the Catholick Truth Decree V. THis Synod being informed that there is a dangerous Heresy and very injurious to our Lord Jesus Christ sown and preached through this Diocess which is That it is a * Grievous Sin How does this consist with their having so many Crosses in their Churches and Houses as they tell us they had or with their administring the Sacrament of the Eucharist or with their Preaching that it was Christ and not the Son of God that suffered upon the Cross grievous sin so much as to think or speak of our Saviour's Holy Passion and as there are a great many of this Opinion so the doing of it has formerly been prohibited by impious Censures all which is a manifest Error and extreamly prejudicial to the Souls of all faithful Christians and the fruit and profit of Souls arising from such Considerations and Discourses which is very great as well for that love and affection which they beget in us for our Saviour who suffer'd for our Salvation as for the Example of those Vertues which were so Illustrious in his Holy Passion and the hatred of Sin for which he suffer'd so much and the fear of the Divine Justice which he so rigorously satisfied and the confidence of our Salvation by such a plenteous Redemption and the use of the Sacraments to which he applyed the virtue of his Holy Passion and other infinite benefits which are derived from thence to our Souls which Error included another no less prejudicial and which is also common among the Nestorians the condemning of Holy Images for that if it were an Impiety to think of the Passion of our Lord Christ it must follow that all those things are unlawful that move or contribute thereunto as the Sign of the Holy Cross and all Images of the Holy Passion all which is a gross and manifest Heresy Wherefore the Synod doth recommend it to all Preachers Confessors and Rectors of Churches frequently to perswade their People to the consideration of those Divine Mysteries and to that end they shall advise them to the Devotion of the Rosary of our Lady the most Blessed Virgin Mary wherein are contained all the principal Mysteries of the Life of our Lord Christ with profitable Meditations upon them Decree VI. AMong the many Errors sown in this Diocess and left in the Books thereof by the perfidious Nestorian Hereticks there being several against our Lady the most Blessed Virgin Mary the Mother of God the only Remedy of Christians the Mother of Mercy and the Advocate of Sinners the Queen of Angels The Synod doth therefore declare That it is the Doctrine of the Catholick Faith that the Holy Virgin was never at any time stained with the guilt of any actual sin and that it is Pious to believe that she was also Conceived without Original Sin it seeming to be most agreeable to the Dignity of the Mother of God that it should be so tho' it is true that Holy Mother Church †Has not as yet determined It is much she has not since the Invention of the Holy Reliques in the Mountains of Granada among which there was a Book in Arabick of S. Cecilius who was consecrated Bishop of Eliberis by St. Peter and St. Paul at Rome with this Title De Dono Gloriae Dono Tormenti in which there is the following Definition of the Immaculate Conception made by all the Apostles being met together to Solemnize the Exequies of the Blessed Virgin Illa Virgo Maria Illa Sancta Illa electa à primo Originarioque peccato praeservata fuit ab omni culpâ libera atque haec veritas Apostolorum Concilium est quam qui negaverit maledictus excommunicatus erit salutem non consequetur sed in aeternum damnabitur All which Reliques and this Book among the rest were after a severe and impartial Examination approved of and received as genuine by a late Provincial Synod in Spain has not as yet determined any thing about that matter Furthermore the Catholick Faith teacheth that she was always before in and after Child-birth a most pure Virgin and that she brought forth the Son of God made Man without any Pain or Passion having none of those things which are common to other Women after Child-birth