The Aravidu Dynasty of Vijayanagara, Vol. I v1.c24.135

v1.c24.135

Now the way of conveying all these new ideas to the mind and heart of his audience was purely Indian: even in his way of teaching he accomodated himself to the customs of the country. Fr. Laerzio says in one of his letters: "Fr. Roberto charms every one by a great number of verses of his own composition, which he partly sings and partly recites with exquisite delicacy and distinction" 2. Fr. Castets, commenting on this passage, says: "The practice here described by Fr. Laerzio was then the approved method of preaching or teaching moral or religious truths. It is not unknown even now. The orator begins by singing a pithy stanza expressed in more or less enigmatic and very concise language. This is followed by a rather lengthy gloss in which the explanation of the text is interspersed with quotations, stories, allusions, according to the wealth of learning and fluency of the exponent. When one considers that Fr. de Nobili was able to go successfully through such a performance before a most fastidious and fault-finding audience, and even to astonish his hearers by the elegance of his diction and the wealth of his literary knowledge, after scarcely a year’s study of the language, we must conclude that the Father must have been not only a man of wonderful ability, but a true prodigy¹.