Rome was crushed by the synod of Diamper which met two years later (a.d. 1599). The differences between the two bodies were brought to a climax at this synod, which was convened "for the increase of the Catholic faith among the Syrians in Malabar," together with the extirpation of heresy and the establishment of union under the papacy. The papal party assumed that previous to the Nestorian schism in the fifth century the Syrian Church had been subject to Rome. The synod was to put an end to a separation which had lasted for more than a thousand years. Although the Syrians were invited, the synod was dominated by Roman Catholic ecclesiastics, to whose decisions the native Christians were required to submit. It began by denouncing Nestorius and saluting Mary as the "mother of God." Then it substituted the Roman saints' days for the Nestorian calendar, anathematised the catholicos of Babylon, established the authority of the pope, ordered moral reforms in the Church, licensed the Jesuits to preach in the Syrian churches, commanded the celibacy of the clergy, and required married priests to dismiss their wives. One further consequence of the synod's decrees was the destruction of the old service books where these were not. altered beyond recognition. Every book containing heretical doctrine that could be found was burnt. In fact, no efforts were spared to bring this ancient Church into line with Rome and under the absolute authority of the pope. And the Syrian Christians submitted. One hundred and fifty-three priests and six hundred and sixty lay procurators signed the decrees of the synod.
It was submission, but forced submission. For more than half a century the fires of discontent smouldered, and in the year 1653 they broke into open flames. A man named Atalla (i.e. Theodore), then ordained bishop by the catholicos of Babylon, and appointed by that supreme ecclesiastic of the Syrian Church, had no sooner landed at Mailapore than he was arrested by the Portuguese authorities, sent to Goa, and there delivered over to the Inquisition. This treatment of the new bishop roused the Syrians to a
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