Bore witness against his
father; and, that in consequence of these miracles, the king and all his
family were converted.
[Footnote 169: Heraldic terms, implying that the three upper arms of the
cross end in the imitation of flowers, while the lower limb is
pointed. - E.]
[Footnote 170: The strange expression in the text ought probably to have
been the tenths of the duties on importation. - E.]
An Armenian bishop who spent twenty years in visiting the Christians of
that part of India which is near Coulam[171], declared on oath that he
found what follows in their writings: That, when the twelve apostles
were dispersed through the world, Thomas, Bartholomew, and Judas
Thaddeus went together to Babylon where they separated. Thaddeus
preached in Arabia, since possessed by the Mahometans. Bartholomew went
into Persia, where he was buried in a convent of Armenian monks near
Tebris. Thomas embarked at Basrah on the Euphrates, crossed the
Persian Gulf, to Socotora, whence he went to Meliapour, and thence to
China where he built several churches. That after his return to
Meliapour and the conversion of the king, he suffered martyrdom through
the malice of the bramins, who counterfeited a quarrel while he was
preaching, and at length had him run through by a lance; upon which he
was buried by his disciples as formerly related in the church he had
built at Meliapour.
