follows: " 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." Stephen Neil describes the oath only as an expression of anger against Archbishop Garcia and the Jesuits. Another Church historian Dietmar W. Winkler also shares the opinion that Coonan Cross Oath was not against the see of Rome, but against the Latin archbishop and the missionary work of the Jesuits. Robert Eric Frykenberg Robert Erick Frykenberg, an American historian, narrates the oath in his book Christianity in India From Beginnings to the Present as follows: "At Koonen Cross, the assembly of priests (kattanars) and people formally stood before a crucifix and lighted candles and solemnly swore an oath upon the Gospel that they would strive, henceforth, to restore their ancient Church to its former full independence and that they would no longer obey Francis Garcia (SJ) or any other prelate sent by the Pfarangi Church of Rome. Here, the oath is narrated as an opposition to the Church of Rome itself. István Perczel István Perczel, a Hungarian scholar of early Christianity and a leading expert on the Saint Thomas Christians, describes the oath as follows: Yet, under the Jesuit archbishops that followed him [Francisco Ros] in the see of Cranganore, the situation deteriorated, finally leading to a revolt of the community against the Portuguese and the Jesuits, the celebrated Oath of the Slanting Cross (kūnan kuriśu satyam). The Christians rejected their obedience to the Portuguese and the Jesuits, the then archdeacon, Thomas Pakalomaṭṭam, was consecrated metropolitan of India with the name Mar Thoma,