I am reading a book by Delio de Mendonca, a Jesuit and former Director of Xavier Centre of Historical Research at Alto Porvorim Goa, published in Delhi in 2002. This is a serious and unbiased treatise, of which many passages had me in splits and will have a similar effect on those who see the humorous side of everything. Of special interest to readers who have a fondness for history, this subject will evoke much surprise and bring in question many myths like that of Francis Xavier in his travels to Goa, preaching the Christian religion and Hindus in their thousands lining up to convert or perhaps another in which a sword was held at the throat to make people convert to the new religion.
Here is an excerpt, words in parentheses and italics mine, for context, emphasis or an aside: Some months before the arrival of the ships from Portugal (of the new administration, since the governor's position was for a period of 3 years after which he and his retinue returned to Portugal), the Hindus used to go to the firm land to consult their sorcerers and astrologers to find out about the number of ships and the kind of new government that would follow. Some gaunkars or local residents believed that their situation could change or improve with the arrival of another viceroy or governor, but others expressed strong views on the subject, namely, that the civil authority was not responsible for conversions, but the priests of the Society of Jesus or the Jesuits. The locals argued that this religious group and others would always remain among them. Therefore sooner or later they would have to become Christians. However the religious orders were not always powerful as they wished to be, or as the locals believed them to be. Each religious order had its moments of prosperity and decadence, and they functioned accordingly. The Portuguese missionary activity was intense and extremely aggressive in the middle of the sixteenth century. The religious orders were engaged in competitive conversion activity, resulting in conflicts among themselves, since the royal financial assistance to each religious order depended on the number of conversions they reported. They were missionaries who were out to convert everything and everybody for the militant church. The Jesuits spoke often of missionaries with a 'vocation for India', meaning zealous persons with a proselytizing mentality, having great zeal and enthusiasm to instruct and convert Hindus. Intellectual talents were not demanded from them. But some missionaries overseas had complained that many religious men sent to India lacked learning. Fr. Nicolau Lanciloto, a Jesuit, wrote in 1545 against sending ignorant missionaries to Goa, because there were already many here. But it seems he was referring to the lack of skilled administrators to govern the Society of Jesus, and not so much to the missionaries directly involved in the work of conversion, for in this field anybody would be useful. Nevertheless, a good number of missionaries sent to India were the best that Europe could provide. Francis Xavier demanded from a candidate who claimed to have a 'vocation for India' the following profile: he should not be a young man but between 30 and 40 years of age possessing all virtues, but especially the virtue of chastity, since occasions to sin against it presented themselves everywhere. The heat and the licentious life in Goa, offered sensual temptations not only to the European layman but to the religious person alike (perhaps contemporaries are only following the old model). The climate of India being unfavourable to the observance of chastity imposed a heavy burden on the spirit. This requirement might have been strongly present in other religious orders too. Some Franciscan missionaries turned up as solders and captains in time of war and after war several soldiers entered religious orders, and strangely even during peace time some missionaries went about the town exhibiting their weapons. Five religious with the cross in one hand and a sword in the other accompanied the captain of Bardez, some religious men went about with arms in Goa in 1557, to the extent of making the Hindus remark that the bottos (Hindu priests) of the Portuguese made good soldiers. No wonder, then that the monasteries needed to have a prison for their in-disciplined clergy. The constitutions of the Archdiocese of Goa (1568) decided against the priests carrying weapons, settling disputes by use of arms, and threatening or hurting anyone with such objects. Some members of these religious orders said masses for six or seven years without being dutifully ordained priests. Soldiers who fought in wars offered themselves as candidates for religious life, despite the canonical impediment involved. It is probable that they entered religious life not for the priesthood but rather for brotherhood, for which there was no canonical impediment. Francisco Rodrigues Silveira, a Portuguese soldier who lived in India from 1585 till 1598, wrote that Portuguese soldiers fought like wild animals and without any sense of military discipline during the war. When some of these soldiers had no other alternative but to join the religious ranks to keep themselves alive, we should realize that they carried with them the same sort of indiscipline for making conversions. Roland. Toronto.
