Description
History of the Church of Malabar (1694), which was the first work in English on the subject, and is still of considerable value. Gibbon, who approached it by a different route, introduced into a memorable chapter of the Decline and Fall a notice of the ancient Church which for comprehensiveness of grasp and general accuracy has not been surpassed. But it was reserved for Claudius Buchanan, whose aims were of a distinctly practical character, to habilitate in this country a knowledge of the Syrian Christians.
