JESUIT SYSTEM OF WORK.

247

flowing with milk and honey, and teeming with a population eager for sacramental rites.

The swift downfall of the Portuguese power, based upon Parochial organizaconquest and conversion, will be exhibited in a later chapter. tion of But the Portuguese are the only European nation who have Portucreated, or left behind them, a Christian State polity in India. guese India. To this day, their East India settlements are territorially arranged in parishes; and the traveller finds himself surrounded by churches and other ecclesiastical features of a Christian country, among the rice-fields and jungles of Goa and Damán. This parochial organization of Portuguese India was the direct result of the political system imposed on the viceroys from Europe. But, indirectly, it represents the method adopted by the Society of Jesus in its efforts at conversion. The Jesuits worked to a large extent by means of industrial settlements. Many of their stations consisted of regular agricultural communities, with lands and a local jurisdiction of their own. Indeed, both in the town and country, conversion went hand in hand with attempts at improved husbandry, or with a training in some mechanical art.

This combination of Christianity with organized labour may Thána, a best be understood from a description of two individual settle- Jesuit station, ments: Thána, a military agricultural station; and Cochin, a collegiate city and naval port. Thána, says a Jesuit letterwriter in the middle of the 16th century, is a fortified town where the Brethren have a number of converts. Once on a time a wrinkled and deformed old man came to them from distant parts, greatly desiring to be made a Christian. He was accordingly placed before a picture of the Blessed Virgin, and, having sought to kiss the Child, was forthwith baptized. He died in peace and joy next morning. Many boys and girls were likewise bought from the barbarians for a few pence a-piece. These swelled the family of Christ, and were trained up in doctrine and handicrafts. During the day they plied their trades as shoemakers, tailors, weavers, and iron-workers; Christian on their return at evening to the College, they sang the craftsmen, catechism and litanies in alternate choirs. Others of them were employed in agriculture, and went forth to collect fruits or to work with the Christian cultivators in the fields.

There was also a Christian village, the Hamlet of the

1 The following details were chiefly condensed from the Rerum a Societate Jesu in Oriente Gestarum Volumen, already referred to. This book is no longer in the author's possession, and as no copy is procurable in India, the pages cannot be cited nor the exact words verified.

vators.

Trinity, 3000 paces off, upon temple lands bought up and consecrated by the Order. The Society had, moreover, certain and culti farms, yielding 300 pieces of gold a year. This money sup ported the widows and orphans, the sick, and catechumens while engaged in their studies. The poorer converts were encouraged in agriculture by a system of advances. Everything seemed to prosper in the hands of the Jesuit Brethren, and their very goats had kids by couplets and triplets every year. The husbandmen are all excellent cultivators and good men,' well skilled in the Mysteries, and constant in the practice of their faith, assembling daily together ad signum angelica salutationis. 'Even in the woods, boys and men are heard chanting the Ten Commandments in a loud voice from the tops of the palm-trees.'

Jesuit rural organization.

Cochin, a

The management of the mission stations seems to have been admirable. Four or five Brothers of the Order regulated alike the secular and the spiritual affairs of each community. One of them was a surgeon, who cured ulcers, sores, and dangerous maladies. The Christian village of the Trinity had, moreover, certain gardens which the inhabitants held in common, weil irrigated and rich in vines, figs, and medicinal fruits. The catechism was publicly rehearsed once on ordinary days, twice on holidays. They held frequent musical services; the youths chanting the psalms, robed in white. The Thána choristers, indeed, enjoyed such a reputation that they were invited to sing at the larger gatherings at Bassein; and were much employed at funerals, at which they chanted the Misericordia' to the admiration alike of Christians and heathens. Besides their civil and secular duties in the town of Thána, and at the Christian village and farms, the Brethren of the Order visited a circle of outposts within a distance of thirty thousand paces; 'to the great gain of their countrymen, whom they strengthen in their faith; and of the natives (harbari), whom they reclaim from their errors and superstitions to the religion of Christ.'

The station of Thána discloses the regulated industry, collegiate spiritual and secular, which characterized the Jesuit settlements city. in India. Cochin may be taken to illustrate the educational labours of the Order and its general scheme of operations. The College of the Society, writes brother Hieronymus in 1570,1 has two grammar schools, attended by 260 pupils, who have made excellent progress both in their studies and in the practice of the Christian sacraments. They are all skilled in

1 Letter to the General of the Order, dated Cochin, February 1570.

JESUIT COLLEGE AT COCHIN

249

the tenets of the faith; many of them have learned the catechism, arranged in questions and answers, and are now teaching it to the heathen. The rites of confession and communion are in constant use, and resorted to on saints' days by 300 or 400 persons. An equal concourse takes place when Indulgences are promulgated; and on a late occasion, when the jubilee granted by the Pope in 1568 was celebrated, 'such was the importunity of those seeking confession, that our priests could not find a breathing space for rest from morning to night.' At the College Church alone a thousand persons received the Eucharist, chiefly new communicants. A wholesale restitution of fraudulent gains took place, with a general reconciliation of enemies, and a great quickening of the faith in all. So vast was the concourse at this single church, without mentioning the other churches in the city, that we had from time to time to push out the throngs from the edifice into the courtyard, not without tears and lamentation on their part.'

Cochin.

The College of the Order likewise ministered to the Portu- Jesuit guese fleet stationed off Cochin; and the writer relates, with College at perhaps pardonable exaggeration, the strict discipline which the Brethren maintained among both officers and men. During the winter they had also collected a fund, and with it redeemed five Portuguese who, the year before, had fallen into captivity among the Moors.' These men, on coming to offer up public thanksgiving in church, edified the worthy fathers by relating how the Christians still remaining in captivity continued firm in the Catholic faith, although sorely tormented incommodis et cruciatibus. They told how one youth, in particular, 'who had attended our school, on being tied to a tree and threatened by the Moors with bows and arrows, had bravely answered that he would give up his life rather than his faith.' Upon which the Moors seem to have laid aside their lethal weapons, and let the lad off with a few kicks and cuffs. Another boy had at first apostatized; but his fellow-captives, foremost among them a nobleman of high station, threw themselves at his feet, and begged him to stand firm. The boy burst into tears, and declared that he had been led astray by terror, but that he would now rather die than abandon his religion. He proved himself as good as his word, rushed in front of his persecutors, and openly proclaimed himself to be still a Christian. The Moors,' as usual, seem to have taken the affair with much good nature; and, after another little comedy of tying him to a tree and threatening to shoot him and cut his throat, let their young apostate go.

Jesuit itineraries.

Conversions.

Efforts at

versions.

'I come now,' continues Father Hieronymus, 'to the harvest of this year.' He goes on to describe the work of itinerating, from which we gather that the King of Cochin was friendly rather than otherwise to the members of the Order and their converts, protecting them by letters patent, and even giving rise to hopes of his own conversion. No fewer than 220 natives were baptized in one day; and the Father adduces, as a proof of their sincerity, the fact that they did not expect any material advantage from their conversion. For neither do they look for a present of new clothes at their baptism, nor for anything else from us, excepting spiritual food. They think themselves greatly honoured by the name of Christians, and labour to bring others to the truth.' Among the converts the Nairs figure a good deal; and an acolyte of this race, notwithstanding that he was harassed by the 'older Christians,' brought in other Nairs, by twos and threes, for baptism. The worthy Father uses 'Nair' as the name of a certain military class,' and so touches on the actual position held by this tribe three hundred years ago.

Conversion was not, however, always without its troubles. The story of a young Moor, whose mother was a cruel woman, and buried him in the ground up to his mouth for turning a Christian, is told with honest pride. His unkind parent likewise placed a huge stone round his head, designing that he should die a slow and painful death. But the boy managed to peep through a cleft in the stone, and spied some travellers passing that way, whereupon, although he had formerly known nothing of Latin, he managed to shout out the two words, ‘exopto Christum. On hearing this, the travellers dug up the lad and took him before the Governor, who, in an obliging manner, gave over the boy to the College to be baptized, and sent the mother to prison. The neophytes seem to have been spirited lads; and the Father narrates how about two thousand of them took part in the military games held when the fleet was lying off Cochin, and distinguished themselves so greatly with various sorts of darts and weapons, that they came next to the Portuguese soldiers.'

The College took advantage of the illness of the king during royal con- the course of the year to try to convert him; but his majesty, although civil and friendly, declined their well-meaning efforts. They were more successful with two 'petty Rájás' (reguli) in the neighbourhood, who, being desirous of the Portuguese friendship,' professed an interest in spiritual matters on behalf of themselves and people. Three hundred, apparently of their

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251

subjects, promised to get themselves baptized as soon as a church should be built. But,' concludes the candid chronicler, 'as this particular people have a grievously bad reputation as liars, it is much to be prayed for that they will keep their word.' From another instance of a royal conversion, it appears that the introduction of Christianity, with 'letters of privilege' to converts, was a favourite method among the weaker Rájás for securing a Portuguese alliance.

turies.

The story of the Catholic missions thus graphically told by The the Rerum Gestarum Volumen of the 16th century, is con- Malabar Mission, tinued for the 17th and 18th by the letters from the Jesuit 17th and Fathers in Malabar. These letters have been edited by Le 18th cenPère Bertrand in four volumes, which throw an important light, not only upon the progress of Christianity in India, but also upon the social and political state of the native kingdoms in which that progress was made.1 The keynote to the policy of the Society of Jesus, in its work of Indian evangelization, is given in the following words :-'The Christian religion cannot be regarded as naturalized in a country, until it is in a position to propagate its own priesthood.' 2

caste.

of caste.

This was the secret of the wide and permanent success of the Catholic missions; it was also the source of their chief troubles. For in founding Christianity on an indigenous Question basis, the Fathers had to accept the necessity of recognising indigenous customs and native prejudices in regard to The disputes which arose divided the Jesuit missionaries for many years, and had to be referred, not only to the General of the Order, but to the Pope himself. The Question des Rites Malabares occupies many pages in Père Bertrand's volumes. In the end, a special class of native priests was assigned to the low castes, while an upper class ministered to the Indians of higher degree. The distinction was rigidly maintained in the churches. Père Bertrand gives the plan of a

1 Mémoires Historiques sur les Missions des ordres religieux (I vol. 2nd ed., Paris, 1862): La Mission du Maduré d'après des documents inédits (3 vols., Paris, 1848, 1850, 1854). The first edition of the Mémoires Historiques (Paris, 1847) formed apparently an introduction to the three volumes of Letters which constitute Père Bertrand's La Mission du Maduré. The author takes this opportunity of acknowledging his obligations to the authorities of St. Xavier's College, Calcutta, for the loan of Père Bertrand's works, and for much kind assistance in his inquiries.

* Condensed from Père Bertrand, Missions, vol. i. p. I.

3 For example, Mémoires Historiques, vol. i. pp. 353 et seq. Indeed, this volume is largely devoted to the polemics of the question. Also La Mission du Maduré, vol. ii. pp. 140 et seq.; vol. iv. pp. 404 to 496; and in many other places of Père Bertrand's work.