Synod of Diamper

Synod of Diamper, council that formally united the ancient Thomas Christians of the Malabar Coast of southwestern India with the Roman Catholic Church. It was convoked in 1599 by Aleixo de Meneses, archbishop of Goa. The synod renounced Nestorianism, the heresy that believed in two persons rather than two natures in Christ, as the Indians were suspected of being heretics by the Portuguese missionaries. The local patriarch—representing the Assyrian Church of the East, to which ancient Christians in India had looked for ecclesiastical authority—was then removed from jurisdiction in India and replaced by a Portuguese bishop; the East Syrian liturgy of Addai and Mari was “purified from error”; and Latin vestments, rituals, and customs were introduced to replace the ancient traditions. The forced Latinization and disregard for local tradition were accompanied by violence and led to schism among Thomas Christians by the mid-17th century.