[65] An account of the violent measures as well as arts employed by the Romish Church to make the Nestorians in India unite themselves to it, may be seen in the work published by the ingenious and learned La Croze on the state of Christianity in that country. The above-mentioned synod at _Diemper_ or _Udiamper_, at which the violent, enthusiastic, and despotic Alexis de Menezes effected a pretended union of the Christians of St. Thomas, is a real and lasting monument of shame for the Romish Church. It is impossible to read the history of it without the most affecting sensations, and without being sensible that the spirit of enthusiasm is always combined with ignorance and the most striking barbarity. Since the reformation the Romish Church has exhibited very little of its former violence, and some of its members have learned to know the importance of ancient monuments, particularly those of Eastern Christianity. This is sufficiently shewn by Assemanni and Renaudot in their writings, and by the valuable collections of the noble Cardinal Borgia at Velitri. _F._ [66] 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._