India and the Apostle Thomas Author:Adolphus E. Medlycott Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III SAINT THOMAS'S TOMB IN INDIA On the broad fact that Saint Thomas the Apostle, according to the evidence of antiquity, had preached the Gospel a... more »nd sealed his teaching by his martyrdom in India, it should be taken for granted that if his tomb were to be discoverable anywhere, it would naturally be found within the limits of India proper. Yet this, which in itself is but an historical aphorism, has met with the strongest opposition ever since the Portuguese first announced the discovery of his tomb at Mylapore. This opposition has come first and chiefly from quarters which must cause an impartial historian, who patiently investigates the whole history of the case, to consider the same as being rather the outcome of ' odium theologicum, ' than arising from insufficient historical evidence.1 1 Basnage was amongst the first to deny the Indian Apostolate and martyrdom of Saint Thomas, and Assemani (Bibliotheca Orientalis, tom. iv. p. 25 ff.) gives a full refutation to his statements. La Croze (Histoire du Christianisme des Indes, Lahaye, 1724) rejects the tradition summarily. Tillemont (Me'moires Hist. Eccl., Venice, 1732, tom. i. p. 359), on the erroneous supposition that the entire body of the Apostle was at Edessa, declines to accept the tradition ; in his additional Note 4 (p. 613) he accepts a statement of Theodoret, and thereupon builds a further supposition that Thomas, one of Manes' disciples, may have given occasion to the supposition that the Apostle had visited India; a refutation of this will be found in Chapter VI. The Rev. J. Hough (History of Christianity in India, London, 1859, vol. i. p. 30 ff.) denies that any Apostle was ever in India. Sir John Kaye (Christianity in India, London, 1859) considers it a worthless legend. The Rev. G. Milne-Rae (The Sy...« less