The Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts of the Bombay Presidency from the Earliest Historical Times to the Musalman Conquest c7.s8.35

c7.s8.35

While the military spirit of the Portuguese steadily declined after the end of the sixteenth century the ecclesiastical power went on ever increasing. Goa was created an episcopal see in 1534,⁴ and by this time numbers of priests had come out from Portugal and established themselves in various places, the Franciscans being the first to arrive, and the Dominicans soon following. The time when the work of conversion was seriously begun is a point of dispute,⁵ some writers believing that from the first the propagation of Christianity had been as great an object with the Portuguese monarchs as the extension of their dominions, others and even some Catholics acknowledging that there was no great zeal until the establishment