Portuguese in the early 16th century. The result of his Synod of Diamper was unfortunate. The Catholic Encyclopedia (1913) says: The only case in which an ancient Eastern rite has been wilfully romanized is that of the Malabar Christians, where it was not Roman authority but the misguided zeal of Alexius de Menezes, Archbishop of Goa, and his Portuguese advisers at the Synod of Diamper (1599) which spoiled the old Malabar Rite. Nasranis gathered at Mattancherry church on Friday, 3 January 1653 (M.E. 828 Makaram 3), and made an oath that is known as the Great Oath of Bent Cross The situation is explained by Stephen Neill (an Anglican Protestant missionary, from Scotland) in his book A History of Christianity in India: The Beginnings to AD 1707. " January 1653, priests and people assembled in the church of Our Lady at Mattancherry, and standing in front of a cross and lighted candles swore upon the holy Gospel that they would no longer obey Garcia, and that they would have nothing further to do with the Jesuits they would recognize the Archdeacon as the governor of their Church. This is the famous oath of the "Coonan Cross" (the open-air Cross which stands outside the church at Mattancherry). The Saint Thomas Christians did not at any point suggest that they wished to separate themselves from the Pope. They could no longer tolerate the arrogance of Garcia. And their detestation of the Jesuits, to whose overbearing attitude and lack of sympathy they attributed all their troubles, breathes through all the documents of the time. But let the Pope send them a true bishop not a Jesuit, and they will be pleased to receive and obey him." Francisco Ros bishop of Angamaly consecreated by Aleixo de Menesis, just after the Synod of Diamper, has mentioned in his letter to Padroado that Archbishop de Menesis added few additional canons on his own to the Portuguese version of the decrees of Synod, which was submitted to Holy See after it ended. The currently available malayalam version, on which participants signed, lacks 35 of the Canons given in the Portuguese text. See also Nasrani Syro-Malabar Church Syro-Malankara Catholic Church Notes and References References Dom Aleixo de Menezes, O. S. A. Paul Pallath, 'The Synod of Diamper: Valid or Invalid', in 'The Synod of Diamper Revisited', Edited by George Nedungatt, Pontifico Instituto Orientale, Rome, 2001, P. 199 External