whom attempted practical reforms, but apparently never exciting any theological interest in their own peculiar tenets. Evidently theology was dead in the Church, and the vitality of the Church itself was not very vigorous. But a silent current was flowing towards the Jacobite position. This is proved by what happened early in the eighteenth century, when Mar Gabriel, a Nestorian bishop, came to Malabar. Neither the metran (metropolitan) nor his people would acknowledge him or permit him to preach in the churches. But this inhibition may have been more due to his polemical airs than to any local objection to his heresy, for he was described as an implacable enemy of the Jacobites. He was able to detach a small following of Syrians whom he brought back to their old Nestorianism. In the year 1751 the Jacobite patriarch of Antioch sent out a number of copies of Jacobite liturgies, but only on one occasion, in the year 1770, was the metran ordained by the Jacobite patriarch. Thus those who are much concerned with the question of orders have grave doubts concerning the status of the priesthood of the Syrian Church in India. It would appear that in many cases, to say the least, ordination has been irregular.
A new chapter in the history of this old Church opens with the introduction of English influences under the auspices of the Church Missionary Society. It was rightly seen that what the Nestorian Church most needed in the first instance was education, for the Syrian Christians, clergy as well as laity, were found to be sunk in gross ignorance. Accordingly in the year 1813 a college was opened. The English missionaries were disposed to hope that if the Roman corruptions could be removed the Syrian Church would return to its pristine simplicity. But longer experience showed them that their task of restoring evangelical Christianity would require a more radical reformation. At first the native metrans welcomed the co-operation of the missionaries; but later on a hostile spirit was manifested towards the foreign intruders. A mistake was made by Bishop Heber at Bombay in highly honouring the
