The Aravidu Dynasty of Vijayanagara, Vol. I v1.c24.95

v1.c24.95

9. The immediate fruit of this admiration and veneration was a large crop of souls. The first Brahman who became a Christian was a teacher in the school founded at Madura by the Jesuits 4. He was a very learned and proud young man, who had despised the Fathers and their doctrine. Fr. de Nobili gave him a Tamil Catechism written by Fr. G. Fernandez, to be translated into Telugu. The reading of this book excited much curiosity in the teacher’s mind. On the occasion of an eclipse of the sun, that took place on February 25th, 1608, Fr. de Nobili refuted several of his ideas and superstitions. That was their first religious talk. After that the teacher was a frequent visitor at de Nobili’s house, and became his constant disciple. Guerreiro gives the matter and order of some of these discussions: “ They first spoke about the plurality of gods. The Father showed him its absurdity based on the argument of the divine perfection? For it is evident that if God were to have partners of his divinity inferior to Him, they would not be gods; if they were equal, none of them would be god, since each would be wanting in the perfections the others had. The teacher easily agreed to this reasoning. Then they discussed whether God had created this world out of nothing. On this point the pagans hold the same error as our ancient philosophers did, viz. that it is impossible to create something out of nothing. De Nobili refuted this as follows :-