The Causes of the Koonan Kurisu Schism
©Prax Maskaren de Sangolda, 16th Marz 2003. Sant Juliano de Cilicia, M.
It is become fashionable today to blame the alleged high-handedness and Latinist exclusivity of the Portuguese for the Schism of the indigenous Christians of South India, resulting out of the so-called 'Oath of Koonan Kurisu' (Oath of the Broken Cross or Koonamkurisu Sathayam). Especially singled out for blame are the Council of Diamper (Udayamparambudur) and Dom Aleixo de Menezes, the Archbishop of Goa and chief motivator of Diamper.
This version is even repeated by a dominant section of the Malabar Uniate and the Malankara Uniate churches on their websites. But is this the truth?
The Christians of India are primarily descended from converts made by St. Thomas the Apostle who evangelized India, converting king Gondophanes in the North (modern Afghanistan), in the Konkan, in Kerala and in Tamil Nadu. Later, a community of Syrians immigrated into Kerala under a Thomas of Cana, resulting in the miniscule Knanaia Community. Gradually, Christianity died out in most places except for isolated communities in the Konkan and a substantial community in Kerala.
However, these Christians, for no fault of their own, had been cut off into schism because their metropolitan church, that of Persia or Iran had, together with that of the Assyrians and Chaldeans, seceded to the Nestorian heresy.
When the Portuguese came to India, they found a besieged community which eagerly turned to them for relief. However, the Portuguese naturally enough demanded their abandonment of Nestorianism and return to Christianity. By and large, the Christians of Kerala agreed to this. The Portuguese empire even intruded up the Persian Gulf and into Mesopotamia, bringing a large and influential number of the Nestorians there back to Christianity.
All this was promising of greater glory except for an unforeseen eventuality - the Dutch War of Independence against Spain.
The Dutch are inhabitants of the Low Countries - an extension of Low Germany. Dutch is a Plattsdeutsch (Low German) dialect, and even the name is a variant of the name Deutsch (German). The Germans constituted a more or less federal empire, whose emperor was elected from the Habsberg dynasty. Dynastic policies resulted in the transfer of the Low Countries from Austrian control to that of Spain.
At about the same time, the Protestant schisms began, the disciples of Jean Chauvin, a French priest turned heretic and founder of the Calvinist heresy, won most of the northern Low Countries to Calvinism. This resulted in bringing the Protestant-Christian wars into these lands. The Dutch, because they had abandoned Christianity for the Calvinist heresy, wished to secede, while the Spanish sought to hold on. This resulted in a savage war.
By another accident of history, the Portuguese royal house had come to an end without a heir at about the same time, and the King of Spain, a relative of the last Portuguese monarch was elected the new King of Portugal.
The Dutch took the war to wherever the Spanish crown reigned and sought to overthrow Christianity in those parts also. They seized many parts of Brazil, of Portuguese Africa, Congo and South Africa, South India, Ceylon, Malaya, the Sunda Archipelago, Formosa, etc.
In South India, they drove off the Portuguese, gained the upper hand and commenced, as everywhere a bloody and merciless persecution of the Christians. Many of the Christians fled into the hills which were ruled by Hindu princes, only to have the Dutch instigate these to also persecute.
In South Africa and in the Congo, the thriving missions were entirely destroyed and pagan tribes encouraged to invade, colonize and exterminate the Christians, a pogrom that was successfully carried out.
In Kerala and South India the Christians were called maliciously Black Portuguese or topasses by the white-racist Calvinists — Calvinism being the basis of White Racism. Those topasses who fell into Calvinist hands were treated with the most inhuman cruelty and forced to work as slaves. Moreover, they were terrorized into schism, being promised relief if only they would abandon Christianity.
Moreover, just as the Portuguese facilitated the return to Christianity, going so far as to endeavour to bring about the reconciliation of the main Nestorian sect in Mesopotamia, in like manner, the Dutch facilitated the schismatics' accession to the Monophysite or Jacobite heresy of Syria-Aram, under the Jacobite Patriarchs of Antioch.
Long before this, the Portuguese had realized that there were still elements of Nestorianism in both South India and in Mesopotamia among the reconciled, and took steps to purge these elements. To this end, Dom Aleixo de Menezes, the Archbishop of Goa who had also been assigned the Metropolitan rights over all India by the pope, and thus the rights of visitation over all Indian Churches, zealously toured Kerala and personally conducted the campaign of de-Nestorianisation. This work was crowned by the Council of Diamper.
The Council of Diamper was held in 1599 while the Oath of the Broken Cross ocurred in 1653 - fifty-four years later. There is no real historical connection between the two events.
On the contrary, the Calvinist persecution and incentive to schism is the real and only cause of the Koonan Kurisu Schism. This is proved by the fact that shortly thereafter, when the Dutch collapsed, the larger part willingly returned to Christianity.
It is Dutch and English Protestant anti-Christian propaganda that has brainwashed many into blaming the Portuguese, Dom Menezes and Diamper for their alleged provocations as being the causes of the Schism. Today, as a result of centuries of English rule, the Keralites on either side of the divide largely believe this mischievous lie that the Schism was in reaction to Diamper, and the atrocities and trauma of the dark period of Dutch dominance is obliterated.
It is ironical that among these ex-Nestorian (Malabar) Uniates today, there is a lively controversy about reversions to Nestorianism under the auspices of the New Religion, with two powerful opposing factions, that of Joseph Powathil for Nestorianism with the support of the Anti-Vatican, and of Anthony Padiyara for the Reforms of Diamper. This proves the Portuguese allegation of residual Nestorianism and vindicates Dom Menezes and Diamper! (See here)