and the community pledged their obedience to the Chaldean patriarch. Primary sources Letter of Mar Gabriel, East Syriac Metropolitan in Malabar (1705 – 1731) Mar Gabriel gives a narrative of the Coonan Cross Oath in his letter entitled "The antiquity of the Syrian Christians, and Historical events relating to them" addressed to Jacobus Canter Visscher, a Dutch chaplain at Kochi (1717 –1720). Following is the excerpt from the letter: In the meantime a priest called Mar Matti [referring to Ahattalla] came to Maliapore sent by the Catholic Patriarch. The Portuguese apprehended him and brought him into the city, and afterwards dragged him to the harbour and cast him into the water. On hearing this, the Christians of Malabar assembled in the church of Mar Tancheri [Mattancherry], took counsel together, bound themselves by oath, and thus threw off the Portuguese yoke from their necks; having first written and signed a letter declaring that from that time forward and for ever, they would have nothing more to do, for good or evil, with the Portuguese. Version in Angamaly Padiyola of 1787 In Angamaly Padiyola, declaration of the Syrian Catholics (Pazhayakoor faction of Saint Thomas Christians) proclaimed in 1787, narrates the oath as the following: Our forefathers received the true faith of Jesus Christ at the hands of the Apostle Saint Thomas. Upon this, Chaldean Syrian bishops ruled over us up to the time of the death of the Metropolitan Mar Abraham, which took place in the East Church of Angamāly in the year 1596. Then the Sanpaloor padre [Jesuits priests] stopped the arrival of other Syrians, and oppressed our people, and ruled over them with an iron rule. However, another Syrian Metran [bishop, referring to Ahattalla] arrived at Cochin with the view of coming to us; but soon the news reached us that he had come to an untimely death by being drowned in the sea. Upon this our forefathers assembled at Mattancherry, and took an oath that neither they themselves, nor their descendants, should ever have anything to do with the Sanpaloor padre. They subsequently assembled at Allangād church, where they duly nominated Archdeacon Thoma as their bishop. The Church Missionary Society Report for 1818-1819 The Church Missionary Society (CMS) report for the year 1818-19 (page 319) includes an abstract of a brief history of Malankara Syrian Church (Puthenkoor faction of Saint Thomas Christians) preserved among themselves as their history. Here