in the original; and in later years even studied Greek that he might properly understand the New Testament.  The scholastic philosophy of the Hindus appeared to him, however, as something superior to what he found elsewhere, and his efforts were directed mainly to purifying the national faith, especially from idolatry.  It was at his instigation that the practice of widow-burning was abolished (in 1829) by the British.  He was finally ostracized from home as a schismatic, and retired to Calcutta, uniting about him a small body of Hindus and Jains, and there established a sort of church or sect, the [=A]tm[=i]ya Sabh[=a],’spiritual society’ (1816), which met at his house, but eventually was crushed by the hostility of the orthodox priests.  He finally adopted a kind of Broad-church Christianity or Unitarianism, and in 1820, in his ‘Precepts of Jesus’ and in one of his later works, admits that the simple moral code of the New Testament and the doctrines of Christ were the best that he knew.  He never, however, abjured caste; and his adoption of Christianity, of course, did not include the dogma of the trinity:  “Whatever excuse may be pleaded in favor of a plurality of persons of the Deity can be offered with equal propriety in defence of polytheism” (Final Appeal).  Founded by him, the first theistic church was organized in 1828 at Calcutta, and formally opened in 1830 as the Br[=a]hma Sam[=a]j; (’the Congregation of God’).  In doing this he wished it to be understood that he was not founding a new sect, but a pure monotheistic worship.  The only creed was a confession of faith in the unity of God.  For himself, he abandoned pantheism, adopted the belief in a final judgment, in miracles, and in Christ as the ’Founder of true religion.’  He died in 1833 in England.  His successor, Debendran[=a]th T[=a]gore,[108] was not appointed leader of the Br[=a]hma Sam[=a]j; till much later; after he had founded a church of his own (’the Truth-teaching Society’), which lasted for twenty years (1839-1859), before it was united with the Br[=a]hma Sam[=a]j.  In the meantime Debendran[=a]th become a member of the latter society (1841).  He established the covenant of the Sam[=a]j, a vow taken by every member to lead holy lives, to abstain from idolatry, to worship no created object, but only God, the One without a second,[109] the Creator, Preserver, Destroyer, the Giver of Emancipation.

The church was newly organized in 1844 with a regularly appointed president and minister, and with the administration of the oath to each believer.  This is the [=A]di Br[=a]hma Sam[=a]j, the First Congregation, in distinction from the schism which soon took place.  The first quarrel in this church was due to a difference of opinion in regard to the authority of the Vedas.  Some members rejected them, others maintained their infallibility; while between these extremes lay various other opinions, some members questioning the infallibility of the Vedas but maintaining their authority.  By a majority vote it was eventually decided that the Vedas (and Upanishads) were not infallible.