APPENDIX  VII.
 

          CHRISTIANITY AND MISSIONS IN CEYLON.



Tennent says in his " History of  Ceylon " that " the fanatical  propa-

gandism of the Portuguese reared for itself  a monument in the abiding

and expanding influence of the Roman Catholic faith.  This flourished

in every province and hamlet where it was implanted by the Franciscans,

whilst the doctrines of the Reformed Church of Holland, never preached

beyond  the walls of  the  fortresses, are  now  extinct throughout the

island, with the exception of an expiring-community at Colombo."  This

latter statement is exaggerated; the Wolfendahl Dutch Reformed Church

in Colombo'is a flourishing community, albeit its services are in English,

and its  chaplain is Irish Presbyterian.  The same may be  said of the

Galle Church, ministered to by a parson of the Church of Scotland, and

there are also small bodies of  adherents in Jaffna and Matara,   What

made the  Franciscans so successful was their easy adaptation  of the

Roman Catholic faith as a companion to,  instead of opponent of, Budd¬

hism, and their giving long honorific Portuguese names to the natives in

baptism, which the latter gladly added to their Sinhalese names, retaining

them for three centuries to this day, though many of them now make

no profession of any form of Christianity.  When the Dutch seized the

maritime provinces, many of the Portuguese with their Roman Catholic

priests settled  in  villages within  the  territory  of the Kandian king,

seven hundred of them in this way at Ruanwcla.  No doubt much

mixture of races took place ; for even  Dutch soldiers  were permitted  to

marry Sinhalese  women,  provided the  latter  professed Christianity.

Money was readily paid by the Sinhalese  to both the Portuguese and

Dutch for the privilege of prefixing Don to their names.

   The Roman Catholic Missions  have  prospered under the tolerant

British  rule in Ceylon, and they number  by far the largest body of

Christians, the old Portuguese Mission being lately transferred from the

care of the Archbishop of Goa to that of the  newly-appointed Archbishop

of Ceylon, who has three  bishops under  him at Colombo, Kandy, and

Jaffna.   There is a large number of priests and teachers ; and educational

establishments  (notably St. Benedict's) are  maintained at Colombo, as

well as at Kandy and Jaffna.

   The Anglican Church has had a bishop  of  Colombo since 1845, who

has  the  oversight of the  chaplains and  clergymen settled over regular

English  congregations as well as  of the agents of the Society for the

Propagation of the Gospel, and in a less  degree of the agents of the

Church Missionary Society.  The latter have a Conference of  their own

to settle the affairs and arrangements of their Missions.  But all branches

of the Anglican Church in the island have united through representatives

to support a Synod  necessitated by the disendowment and disestablish-

                                380