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Document Details : Title: Confluence and Divergence Subtitle: The Thomas Christians and the Padroado c. 1500-1607 Author(s): TELES E CUNHA, João Journal: Journal of Eastern Christian Studies Volume: 63 Issue: 1-2 Date: 2011 Pages: 45-71 DOI: 10.2143/JECS.63.1.2149613 Abstract : Through the use of published sources and other material on the controversial union of the Thomas Christians with Rome in 1599, we aim to illuminate a broad time span in which various actors at different places, sometimes geographically far from India, played decisive roles in the lengthy sequence of events that ultimately led to the union achieved at Diamper. We contend that the distinct approaches and strategies adopted by each of the players, individuals and institutions, had in its core the seeds that, paradoxically, would shortly afterwards lead to the end of the sought-after union. The process also reveals the different conceptions of integrating Christian communities within the Catholic Church established at various levels, along with the disparate missionary policies coexisting in the Portuguese Padroado, and the views emanating from the Catholic hierarchy in the ‘Estado da Índia’ of what a ‘true Catholic’ should be. |
