118.
Choraram-te, Thomé, o Gange e o Indo;
Chorou-te toda a terra, que pizaste;
Mais te choram as almas, que vestindo
Se hiam da sancta Fé que lhe ensinaste.
[ [258] Mar Thomas is Syriac for St. Thomas; this word must have been introduced by the Nestorians or Armenians, as they are called here, though St. Thomas may have carried the word there himself in speaking of others, as of Mar Elias.
[ [259] Ancient coin equal to two reals vellon or sixpence.
[ [260] Mailapur, a league and two-thirds south of Madras, seat of a catholic bishop and two churches, was taken by the Portuguese in 1545 and by the French in 1672.
[ [261] These were Nestorians, who call themselves in Mesopotamia Esky Chaldany, old Chaldæans. In 1599 Archbishop Alexander Menezes held a conference at Culam, for the purpose of uniting the Roman Catholics and Nestorians.
[ [262] Blessed bread, is bread in little pieces distributed in churches on great feast days.
[ [263] It is hardly necessary to state that this is absolutely opposed to catholic practice.
[ [264] Selling the sacraments, canonically a great offence: it was condemned by the 48th Canon of the Council of Elvira, A.D. 305.
[ [265] This passage is translated in the Lisbon edition from Ramusio; the next paragraph is not to be found in either of them.