[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Indian literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in) › [Dark Ages](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages) › [Travellers (1500–1858)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel) › [Storia do Mogor](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci) › [Storia do Mogor (Irvine)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine) › 338.1 # Storia do Mogor 338.1 Storia do Mogor (Irvine) 338.1 - **Language:** English ### [338.1.1](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.338.1.1) \[The practice of conceding certain points to the prejudices of high caste Hindus, when they became converts to Christianity, began in India with the mission of the Jesuit Roberto de' Nobili to the so-called Pescaria coast in 1606. The earliest objections to the practice were disposed of by an order from Pope Gregory XV., dated January 31, 1623, 'Romanæ Sedis Antistes.' Another prohibition (in respect to a parallel difficulty in China) was issued by Innocent X. on September 12, 1645, and modified by Alexander VIII. on March 23, 1656. Similar orders were passed from time to time by other Popes. But murmurs on the subject were still heard from the earlier established non-Jesuit missions in China and India. Influenced by the growing importance of these questions, Pope Clement XI., who had received the tiara in November, 1700, resolved to send a legate to India and China with authority to enquire into and dispose of the matters in dispute. ### [338.1.2](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.338.1.2) The Pope's choice fell on one of his domestic chaplains, Charles Maillard de Tournon, belonging to a good Savoyard family, and born at Turin on December 21, 1668. On December 21, 1701, the Feast of St. Thomas the Apostle, Tournon was created Patriarch of Antioch, having already been empowered by a brief dated December 9, 1701, to enquire into and regulate the practices of the missionaries in India and China. He was made Apostolic visitor with the powers of a legate a latere, and left Rome on July 4, 1702, taking with him several zealous missionary recruits, and made his way to Spain. While waiting there for some means of transport to the East, he received from the King of France the offer of a passage to India. He therefore left Cadiz on February 9, 1703, and joined the French man-of-war Maurepas (Denis de Fontaine, captain) at the Canary Islands, whence they set sail on May 3, 1703. Clement XI. had already announced the patriarch's deputation to the Archbishop of Goa and the Bishop of San Thomé of Meliapur by letters dated June 20, 1702. The legate's instructions were contained in a brief dated July 2, 1702, 'Speculatores Domus Israel.' ### [338.1.3](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.338.1.3) On November 4, 1703, the ships were off Madras, and on the 5th close to Pondicherry. The party landed on the evening of November 6 (1703), and proceeded to the house of the Jesuits. Compelled to wait for a means of reaching China, his ultimate destination, the patriarch devoted the nine months of his sojourn at Pondicherry to an enquiry into the differences in India between the Jesuits and the other missionaries. His original intention had been to reserve these questions until his return from China. His principal evidence was drawn from the mouths of two Jesuits, Jean Venant Bouchet, Superior of the Karnātik mission, and Carlo Michaele Bertoldi, missionary in Madura. He had interrogated them after having hidden in the room two of his own secretaries, who overheard and were thus able to prove all that was said. Satisfied that he had arrived at an exhaustive knowledge of the points in dispute, the patriarch drew up a decree dated June 23, 1704. It dealt with the following topics : (1) The omission of saliva, salt, and insufflation at baptism ; (2) the imposition of names at baptism other than those in the Roman martyrology ; (3) names of holy things and of the saints were to be strictly adhered to in translating them, but the Latin form to be retained if possible ; (4) baptism of infants not to be unduly postponed ; (5) marriages by the tali at six or seven years of age were prohibited ; (6) no tali was to be worn unless it bore a cross or the image of our Lord ; ### [338.1.4](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.338.1.4) (7) the cord suspending the tali round a bride's neck must not have 108 threads, nor be of saffron colour; (8) superstitious ceremonies at weddings were prohibited, including any use of an arasiomaram (arasu or pipal-tree) branch: the number of dishes of food provided and their contents must be altered, and the use of the yellow dishes in which the food was placed must be abandoned, while the use of crowns, supposed to drive off demons, was prohibited; (9) coco-nuts must not be used publicly at weddings, because of the heathen belief in omens obtained by breaking them; (10) no one must be excluded from the church or the confessional, not even women when in a state of impurity; (11) no public feast on a girl's arrival at puberty to be tolerated; (12) the pariahs to be treated as on an equality with every one else — they must be visited during illness, and no differences should be made in the administration of extreme unction; (13) prohibition against Christian musicians attending at Hindu temples; (14) bathing, as allowed by Gregory XV., must be confined to physical cleanliness, and such baths taken at times different from the Hindu usage; (15) the use of ashes of cow-dung was prohibited, whether on forehead, chest, or other part of the body, the employment of ashes being only permissible on Ash Wednesday; (16) books of Hindu fable were prohibited, subject to the permission of the missionaries. ### [338.1.5](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.338.1.5) This decree was published on the 8th, and publicly promulgated on July 11, 1704, the day that the patriarch embarked for Manila. The Jesuits pressed the legate to suspend the operation of the above decree, chiefly on the ground that such sudden changes would be disastrous. Affected by their appeals, he yielded so far as to grant a suspension for three years, pending orders from Rome, in regard to all the prohibitions except that in the paragraph ferre partum non possumus — that is, the heading referring to the pariahs, to which I have given the number 12 in the abstract above entered. At the reiterated instances of the Jesuits he finally included this article also in his order of suspension, as is stated in his letter to the Holy Office of July 9, 1704. The Jesuits sent two deputies to Rome, Francesco Laynez and Jean Venant Bouchet. On arrival there they found that Pope Clement XI. had already approved the patriarch's decree, as set forth in a decree of the Inquisition dated January 7, 1706, 'until the Holy See should otherwise decide.' The preparation of a summary of the obnoxious rites was ordered, in which were to be included those prohibited by Gregory XV. on January 31, 1623, as well as any other observances of the same kind not specified by the Patriarch of Antioch. The question of the pariahs was to be taken up separately. ### [338.1.6](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.338.1.6) The Jesuit appellants began by producing a 'Defence of the Madura Missions,' prepared by Father Laynez. Before it reached the Pope's hands via Portugal Father Laynez had left for India (1708) as successor to the Bishop of Meliapur. The steps taken in India to hinder the execution of the patriarch's decree are sufficiently disclosed in Manucci's text and my notes thereon. The Patriarch of Antioch reached Manila in 1704, and Macao on April 2, 1705. He was received in audience by the Emperor of China at Pekin on December 31, 1705. In 1707 he was sent back to Macao by the Chinese on the instigation of the Jesuits. There the Portuguese Captain-General threw him into prison, where he died on June 8, 1710. On August 1, 1707, he had been raised to the dignity of Cardinal by Clement XI. ### [338.1.7](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.338.1.7) Ordinarily the common herd are very simple; thus it is not to be wondered at if they make bold to judge things according to their own rash caprice, resting the apology for their error solely on the subterfuge of a 'Thus they say.' Without getting at the substance of the business, and not having of it more evidence than is furnished to sight or is represented by imagination; disregarding the truth that the latter can never yield a certainty, and not remembering that the former ofttimes produces deception, they are led away by the fact that our intellects cannot endure uncertainty. Thus they constantly come to conclusions differing from reality. This is shown in the tribulation which fell upon the Capuchins of Madras after the arrival of the Lord Patriarch of Antioch at Pudicheri (Pondicherry). It lasted over six months, and disturbed the whole coast of Choromandal. For most people, not to say almost all (I speak of what the common people did), understood that the poor fellows' disgrace arose from two sources, which were in reality only accidents. But they held that he who designs the end must have contrived the plot. ### [338.1.8](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.338.1.8) They connected one of these causes, which we will call the first, with five thousand pagodas which a Dominican father, an Armenian by race, had collected by begging during twelve years that he had wandered about for this purpose in these regions by the authority of his superiors and under their written orders. He died at Fort St. George on December 6, 1703, and committed the money to the Capuchins and others with directions to remit it to Bengal and Persia, finally to be delivered over to his convent. --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.338.1](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.338.1) · Pramāṇa