(COCHINENSIS) on the Malabar coast, India. The diocese was
erected and constituted a suffragan of the Diocese of Goa, of
which it had previously formed a part, by the Bull "Pro
excellenti praeeminentia" of Paul IV, 4 February, 1558 (cf.
Bullarium Patronatus Portugalliae Regum, I, 193). It was later
reorganized according to the Concordat of 23 June, 1886, between
Leo XIII and King Luiz of Portugal and the Constitution "Humanae
Salutis Auctor" of the same pope, 1 September, 1886. It is
suffragan to the patriarchal See of Goa (cf. Julio Biker,
Collecçao de Tractados, XIV, 112-437). The diocese consists of
two strips of territory along the sea-coast, the first about
fifty miles long, by eight in its broadest part, the second
thirty miles in length. There are two important towns, Cochin
and Alleppi (Alapalli) in which the higher educational and
charitable institutions of the diocese are situated. The chief
religions professed in Malabar at the arrival of the Portuguese
were: Hinduism, Christianity (the Christians