JESUIT INFLUENCE IN INDIA.
The reader who shall intelligently trace the history of the Jesuit
through their conspiracies against the peace of Europe, and especially
their tireless efforts to eradicate everything that tended to freedom
of conscience and the public enlightenment, will not wonder that,
during the last century, it became necessary to the interests of
society and the Church that one of the foremost of the popes should
suppress and entirely abolish the order. And as that event was brought
about, not alone on account of the odium they incurred by intermeddling
with the temporal affairs of States, but because they pursued practices
which shocked the whole Christian world, their society can not be
thoroughly understood without becoming familiar with the history of
their missionary enterprises. As they prosecuted these among ignorant
and illiterate multitudes of peoples, where no watchful eye could
observe them, they have mainly become their own historians; yet there
is enough to be discovered to show that, at every stage of their
development, they have been true to the injunction of their founder, to
be "all things to all men."
Loyola considered his society superior to the ancient monastic orders.
We have seen that he looked upon the latter as corrupted, and no
longer worthy to be intrusted with the work of Christian missions,
on which account he claimed for his society superior jurisdiction
in the missionary field. There, among populations unable to detect
imposture, his followers had their own way, made their own history, and
executed their own purposes, without intelligent popular inspection.
Consequently, when he realized the odium his society had encountered
among European peoples, he considered it necessary to remove this by
setting up for it exaggerated claims of merit in the missionary work.
By this means he evidently hoped to be able to appeal successfully
to the pope and the Church to protect the Jesuits from the rising
indignation of such Christians as had resisted their introduction into
France. Hence it became a fixed Jesuit habit, and yet is, to shield
the society under pretense that it is a necessary part of the Church
machinery, and that the Church can not exist without it. And out of
that same necessity must have grown that multitude of miracles, said to
have been performed in remote and unfrequented parts of the world, and
in the manufacture of which the Jesuits have acquired the reputation
of being thorough adepts. It was not a difficult matter in those days
to impose upon superstitious people by the claim of miraculous powers.
None understood this better than the Jesuits.
The first important mission of the Jesuits was to the East Indies,
in charge of Francis Xavier, one of the most impressible of Loyola's
converts. This mission is of chief importance, inasmuch as it
was initiatory, and conspicuously displays the operations of the
society whilst under the immediate personal charge of its founder.
It indicates the methods of the Jesuit missionary system, and how
they were made to conform to the main purpose of acquiring dominion,
with but little regard to the means employed. There are very few of
the present age who do not regard many of the recorded events as
apocryphal--notwithstanding, the overcredulous have accepted them as
true for many centuries. They are only important now because we learn
from them the prominent characteristics of the Jesuits, and the real
foundation of the reputation to which they so boastingly lay claim.
The Portuguese had, some years before, acquired the occupancy of
territory in India, with a commercial capital and an episcopal see at
Goa. By means of these influences a number of the natives had professed
Christianity, and, along with all the Portuguese Christians, paid
spiritual allegiance to the pope. But the condition of society was
by no means favorable to the practice of the Christian virtues. On
the contrary, it had become greatly demoralized, rivaling Rome and
the principal cities of Europe in that respect. In "The Lives of the
Saints"--a work of standard ecclesiastical authority in the Roman
Church--the author represents "revenge, ambition, avarice, usury, and
debauchery," as extensively prevailing at Goa. According to him, the
Indians who had professed conversion were so influenced by the example
of the Portuguese that they had "relapsed into their ancient manners
and superstitions." Even those who professed to be Christians "lived
in direct opposition to the gospel which they professed, and by their
manners alienated the infidels from the faith."[83]
Those familiar with the condition of ecclesiastical affairs in Europe
at that time, and especially with the immorality prevailing at Rome,
will not be surprised at this description of things at so remote a
place as the Portuguese possessions in India. Of course, such tendency
to demoralization could not long exist anywhere without producing
absolute social degradation. To prevent this, the king of Portugal
made an attempt to reform these abuses, influenced probably by the
twofold purpose of desiring to spread Christianity and to improve
the commercial interests of his subjects. Xavier, therefore, was
sent to India under his auspices, and was better fitted for that
purpose than Loyola himself would have been, because he was less
ambitious, less selfish, and more conscientious. Whilst he possessed
some commendable traits of character and wonderful energy, much that
has been written about him by papal and Jesuit authors can only be
considered as imaginary, and as deserving no permanent place in
history. The character assigned to him is perfectly angelic, with
scarcely any mixture of humanity; and, like Loyola, he is represented
as having performed a vast number of miracles, even to the extent of
restoring the dead to life! With regard to these, he is said to have
resembled Loyola in another respect--in that he, too, performed more
miracles than Christ! It is not difficult to perceive the object of
all this, when it is considered that the pretenses were set up at a
time when an unenlightened public were easily misled by them. They,
like the innumerable myths of the Middle Ages, answered the ends of
their inventors, and are no further useful now than as they serve to
show, not only the character of the society which required them to
be accepted as absolutely true, but that of those who invented and
employed them to mislead the credulous and unsuspecting multitude.
The entire account of Xavier's mission is so mixed up with these idle
tales that the time spent in their perusal would be wasted, but for the
reason that they bring prominently before us some of the distinguishing
characteristics of the Jesuits, under the tuition and during the lives
of the founder of their society and his most confidential colleague.
When he reached Goa, Xavier found the Portuguese Christians in the
demoralized condition already mentioned. The order of Franciscans had
there an established monastery, which, as we may suppose, needed to
be reformed, inasmuch as they do not seem to have been excepted from
other professing Christians in the general charge of immorality. We do
not learn from Jesuit authors how far this order was in fact reformed,
since the eulogists of Xavier consider it to have been his greatest
glory that he brought vast multitudes of the natives into the Christian
fold, and thereby established Jesuit authority and dominion in India in
place of that which the Church, under the patronage of the pope and by
means of the long-established religious orders, had already acquired
there. This was manifestly the view which Xavier himself took of his
mission, as is plainly shown by his conduct. Instead of co-operating
with the established Church authorities and with the monks at Goa, he
entered upon an independent course of his own, whereby he evidently
intended to indicate the superiority of his Jesuit methods. He roamed
the streets with a bell in his hand, and when the ringing attracted a
crowd of curious lookers-on, he invited them "to send their children
and slaves to catechism," so as to learn the truths of Christianity
from him. When the children gathered around him, prompted alone by
curiosity, he taught them "the Creed and practices of devotion," which,
of course, could have been nothing more than the simplest form. After
following this method for some time, he engaged in public preaching,
and it is gravely said that "in half a year" he accomplished the
"reformation of the whole city of Goa," which must have included the
native along with the Portuguese population. The whole story is told
after the manner of the romance-writers.
Reflecting people, who read of the immense multitudes converted to
Christianity under his eloquent preaching, not only at Goa, but in
other parts of India, will naturally wonder how all this could have
occurred when the natives did not understand his language, nor he
theirs! But the Jesuits have no difficulty on that score--nor, indeed,
on any other--when the simple invention of a miracle will serve their
purpose. Xavier became as famous as Loyola in this respect. Butler
represents him as having "baptized ten thousand Indians with his own
hand in one month," and "sometimes a whole village" in a single day;
and as "having preached to five or six thousand persons together,"
but without stating in what language he preached. Seeming, however,
to anticipate that there might be some to inquire how much of real
Christianity there was in these professed conversions, and how he
could have preached with so much effect to those whose language he
could not speak and who could not understand his, he endeavors to
remove the difficulty--evidently following the Jesuit story--by
declaring that, while in India, "_God first communicated to him the
gift of tongues_," so that "_he spoke very well the language of those
barbarians without having learned it, and had no need of an interpreter
when he instructed them_!"[84] It is impossible now to decide how this
statement originated. Xavier reported only to Loyola--not to the pope
or the Church--and whatsoever was circulated in Europe to aid the cause
of the Jesuits, and to gain them popularity on account of the success
of their missions, was derived from him. But whether it originated with
Xavier or Loyola, or was invented after the death of both, neither the
repetition of it now, nor its recent appearance in an authoritative
ecclesiastical volume, published and extensively circulated in the
United States, can relieve it from the suspicion of a fabulous origin.
During the brief stay of Xavier at Goa, he availed himself of the
opportunity of setting an example which the Jesuits of every subsequent
period have been prompt to imitate--an example which gives _practical_
interpretation to the Jesuit vow of "extreme poverty." The Franciscan
monks had erected a seminary, where they taught the native youths
at least the rudiments of a Christian education. But Xavier was not
satisfied with this, having manifestly conceived the idea, still
maintained by the Jesuits, that the cause of education should be
intrusted solely to them, on account of their superiority over all
others, including every religious order. Influenced presumably by this
consideration alone, he conceived a plan of having the Franciscan
seminary turned over to him, with the view of converting it into a
Jesuit college. Claiming that he was a more immediate and responsible
representative of the Church than any of the monastic orders, inasmuch
as the brief of the pope conferred special missionary prerogatives
upon him, he succeeded in effecting his purpose by inducing the
Franciscans to transfer the building to him. Whereupon the Franciscans
were left to engage in such other methods as they could to minister
to the Portuguese Christians and convert the natives, whilst Xavier
was permitted to establish his Jesuit college, so that whatsoever
renown should follow the Indian missions might inure to the benefit
of the Jesuits, and not to that of the monastic orders. The Jesuits
have never since then lost sight of this idea or failed to profit by
it, always taking care in making up the history of these missions
to place their society in the front and the monastic orders in the
background, notwithstanding the latter preceded them in India. They
seem disinclined to allow the least credit to any of the missionary
agencies which the Church had been accustomed to employ.
Having obtained possession of the Franciscan seminary at Goa, Xavier
decided that the building should be improved, so as to impress the
simple natives with the superiority of the Jesuits over the monks.
To an ordinary mind this would appear to be a difficult thing to
accomplish, inasmuch as it is not probable that voluntary contributions
could have been procured in such a community. But to Xavier it was
easy to overcome so trivial a difficulty as this, as it always has
been to the Jesuits, without finding the least impediment in the vow
of "extreme poverty." All he had to do was to employ the Portuguese
troops stationed at Goa "in pulling down the heathen temples in
the neighborhood of Goa, and appropriating their very considerable
property, for the use and benefit of the new college."[85] Admirable
strategy! The poor natives were powerless to resist the Portuguese
troops with arms in their hands, and were compelled to stand by in
silence and see their property despoiled without compensation, all
under the pretense that "the greater glory of God" required it, when,
in fact, it was prompted by Jesuit ambition. Xavier must have felt
gratified at his inexpensive mode of improving his new college, and
Loyola undoubtedly rejoiced when the fact was reported to him. The
former, therefore, having so successfully occupied the missionary field
at Goa by this display of Jesuit power to the natives, and by reducing
the Franciscan monks to inferiority, hastened to other parts of India,
to carry on the work he had begun under such flattering auspices.
He proceeded to the coast of Malabar, where the missionaries previously
sent from Goa, under the authority and within the jurisdiction of
that episcopal see, had baptized a large number of the natives,
whom they claimed to have been converted to Christianity under the
methods employed by them. But in order to make it appear that these
missionaries were inefficient and incompetent, the Jesuits pretend
that these professed converts still "retained their superstitions and
vices,"[86] and that it was absolutely necessary they should be brought
under the influence of Xavier. The purpose of this, at that time, was
to prove to the Christian world that the Church and the papacy had
failed to accomplish any good missionary results through the agency of
the monks, and that the Jesuits were absolutely indispensable. In this
way it was hoped, doubtless, to overcome the prejudice existing against
the society in Europe. Therefore, Xavier is represented as having saved
the Malabar converts from relapsing into heathenism, and increased the
number of natives who submitted to baptism. Whilst all this is spoken
in his praise, it is quite certain, from the most favorable accounts,
that they entertain but little, if any, just conception of the ceremony
of baptism, or, indeed, of any of the fundamental principles of
Christianity.
The first effort of Xavier upon the Malabar Coast was at Cape Comorin,
in a village "full of idolaters," to whom he preached; but as they
were unable to understand what he said, they remained unmoved, having
been probably attracted, like the people of Goa, by his bell-ringing
in the streets. Why the "gift of tongues" was then withheld from him
is not easy to determine, unless it was that he might be furnished
an opportunity of impressing the ignorant natives with sentiments
of awe by performing a miracle. At all events, Butler records what
happened in these words: "A woman who had been three days in the
pains of childbirth, without being eased by any remedies or prayers
of the Brahmins, was immediately delivered, and recovered upon being
instructed in the faith, and baptized by St. Francis [Xavier], as he
himself relates in a letter to St. Ignatius [Loyola]." How she was
instructed in the faith is, of course, not explained, it being left
to the imagination of the reader to conceive by what extraordinary
process this ignorant woman was instructed in the Christian faith, so
that she could be rightfully baptized into the Church, when she did
not understand the language in which she was addressed. If she even
realized that her safe delivery and instantaneous restoration were
occasioned by his intervention, there was no possible mode of conveying
to her mind the idea that it was God's work and not Xavier's, for there
was no word in any of the languages of India signifying the Deity in
the Christian sense. The whole story is not only preposterous, but
puerile. But it bears the unmistakable stamp of Jesuitism, like others
of the same general character. For example, it is seriously recorded
by the same author, that after the happening of this event, "the chief
persons of the country listened to his doctrine, and heartily embraced
the faith." He preached to those who had never before heard of Christ,
"and so great were the multitude which he baptized, that sometimes, by
the bare fatigue of administering that sacrament, he was scarcely able
to move his arm, according to the account which he gave to his brethren
in Europe." He healed the sick by baptism, and where his presence was
impracticable, he sent a neophyte to touch them with a cross, when, if
they signified a desire to be baptized, they were restored to health.
In addition, it is also said that he brought back to life four persons
who were dead, during the fifteen months he remained upon the Malabar
Coast.[87]
He had preached at Travancore, near Comorin, where he was more
favored by having the "gift of tongues" given to him, so that he
could speak in one language as well as another. Thus endowed, as the
Jesuits insist, with divine power, he dispersed and drove out of the
country "a tribe of savages and public robbers," who were in search
of plunder, by approaching them with a crucifix in his hand, although
they had never heard of a crucifix before, and had no means of knowing
what it signified. When the people of a village near Travancore
remained uninfluenced by his preaching--an event not at all wonderful
considering their utter ignorance of Christianity--he is represented
as having again resorted to a miracle, which was the never-failing
Jesuit resource. He had a grave opened, which contained a body interred
the day before, and, after putrefaction had commenced, restored it to
life and "perfect health." Near the same place he also brought back to
life a young man whose corpse he met on the way to the grave. "These
miracles," says Butler, "made so great an impression upon the people
that the _whole kingdom_ of Travancore was subjected to Christ in a few
months, except the king and some of his courtiers."[88]
Every enlightened mind will reject such tales as pure fictions--as
absolutely incredible. They trifle with serious things, and their
inventors act in imitation of those who make merchandise of human
souls. It directly impeaches the wisdom of Providence to pretend that
he permitted miracles to be performed in his name--even the dead to
be raised to life--to influence the destiny of an ignorant heathen
population utterly unable to appreciate the character and teachings of
Christ, whilst, at the same time, he permitted almost every variety of
vice and corruption to prevail among the intelligent populations of
Europe, and to fester about the very heart of the papacy itself.
The accounts of what was done by Xavier in the various parts of
India are of the same general character as the foregoing, the chief
variations being in the kind of miracles performed by him. To minds
capable of subjecting them to the test of reason and common sense,
it is impossible to avoid the conclusion that they were either
invented by Xavier himself, and sent to Europe to aid Loyola in
giving popularity to the Jesuits, or were made up by them after his
death for the same purpose. In point of fact, his whole claim to be
considered as the "Apostle of the Indies" rests upon a flimsy and
unsubstantial foundation. This is especially so, in view of the fact
that the multitudes he pretended to convert were turned into professing
Christians by the simple ceremony of baptism. Some of them may possibly
have been able to repeat the invocations "Our Father" and "Hail Mary,"
but without any intelligent conception of the difference between the
one Omnipotent God of the Christians and the many gods they had been
accustomed to worship, or of the meaning of the words uttered to them
by Xavier, or of the sacraments he administered, or of any of the
attributes of the Deity, or of a single essential principle in the
Christian Creed. Nevertheless, other accounts are added, whereby he
is represented as having visited other places upon the Indian coast,
where like results are said to have been produced, until, after having
remained about seven years in the East Indies, he went to Japan to
bring that idolatrous nation under the same influences, leaving the
bulk of his Indian converts to succumb to the dominion of the Brahmins,
and sink back into heathenism. He did not seem to realize that true
conversion to the Christian faith involves the sympathetic emotions of
the heart, the intelligent action of the mind, and that without these,
no signs, or genuflexions, or empty words spoken merely from the lips,
can give substantial value to the profession of it. A knowledge of
the manual of arms does not impart to a coward the bravery of a true
soldier, nor does the repetition of a few familiar words convert a
parrot into an intelligent being. And not a whit more can a heathen,
who never heard of Christ, be converted into a Christian by any form of
words, or by any bodily gestures, unless his mind has been touched and
his heart stirred by some knowledge of what and who God is, and of the
wisdom of his providences displayed in the creation and government of
the universe.
One would suppose that the "gift of tongues," when once conferred upon
Xavier, remained with him, inasmuch as he could not convey his thoughts
to the multitudes of people in any other way. But, strange to say, it
was otherwise. This miraculous gift was a mere "_transient favor_,"[89]
conferred only for a season, during his intercourse with some of the
heathen populations of India, and withdrawn as miraculously as it had
been given. What strange infatuation it must be to accept it as true
that, after he had been divinely endowed with the faculty of preaching
to the people of India in their own languages, he should have entered
upon his mission to Japan without any knowledge whatsoever of the
Japanese language! Although that language is one of the most difficult
in the world, and wholly unlike any spoken then or now in Europe, yet
that fact was of trifling consequence to such a man as the Jesuits
represent Xavier to have been. He undertook this mission as if nothing
were in the way, relying, as may be inferred from the Jesuit accounts,
upon his miraculous powers to convert to Christianity an idolatrous
people he had never seen, and of whom the world at that time knew but
little. It is solemnly averred that in _forty days_ (!) he acquired
a sufficient knowledge of the Japanese language to translate into it
the Apostles' Creed, and an exposition of its meaning by himself.
With this he began to preach, and "converted a great number." Still
the intensity of his zeal made him impatient, and, being unwilling to
await the slow process of appealing to the intelligence of the Japanese
people, he resorted again to the familiar expedient of miracles, which
had accomplished so much in India. Accordingly, we are told that, "by
his blessing, a child's body, which was swelled and deformed, was made
straight and beautiful; and, by his prayers, a leper was healed, and
a pagan young maid of quality, that had been dead a whole day, was
raised to life."[90] The Jesuits have never hesitated to assign to
Xavier, as they did to Loyola, the performance of some miracle, when
anything had to be done that could be accomplished in no other way. The
aggregate number of miracles attributed to them exceed all that are
recorded in the Gospels. And neither Xavier nor Loyola ever hesitated
to avow their authority to perform them, in verification of the Jesuit
doctrine that God had transferred his divine attributes to each of them.
Such recitals are calculated to tax the patience of enlightened readers
of this day; but without them it is not possible to obtain accurate
knowledge of the record the Jesuits have made up to inform the world
of the glorious achievements of their society, and to keep out of
view the enormities for which they have been, in the course of their
history, condemned by every Christian nation and people of Europe. They
are necessary also to a proper understanding why Xavier was beatified
and canonized; for these and other kindred fables were held to be
sufficiently attested to cause his name to be enrolled among the saints.
The difficulty of conveying to the minds of the Japanese people any
proper idea of God, when their language contained no word to express
it, has already been suggested with regard to India. He told them,
says Butler, that "_Deos_" meant God. But it is impossible that this
or any other single word can so signify the Deity as to convey to an
ignorant, idolatrous people any just conception of the Creator of the
world, or of his Divine attributes, or of their own responsibilities
to him either in life or death. But the wonderful exploits of Xavier
were not balked at this or any other point. The "gift of tongues" had
once been given to him, whereby he was enabled to preach to any people
without any previous knowledge of their language. This gift, however,
as we have seen, was only a "transient favor," granted for a season,
or some special occasion, and taken away. And, notwithstanding, in
consequence of this, it had become necessary that he should learn the
Japanese language in forty days, so as to be able to speak and write
it, it still became necessary also that he should again have the power
conferred upon him to understand and speak all languages. Consequently,
we learn from Butler that "at Amanguchi _God restored to St. Francis
the gift of tongues_; for he preached often to the _Chinese_ merchants
who traded there, _in their mother tongue, which he had never
learned_."[91] To appreciate the character of this statement, it should
be borne in mind that, at that time, he had never visited China.
And it is proper to observe that, notwithstanding this providential
preparation for missionary labors in that country, he never did visit
there.
It converts serious things into mockery to pretend that God conferred
this gift upon Xavier in order to fit him specially for the conversion
of the Chinese, and yet that he so disposed his providences with
reference to him that he was never able to enter that empire, or to
hold direct intercourse with its people. If it had been the Divine
decree that he should be set apart for this great work by this
miraculous preparation, no earthly impediment would have been likely
to arrest him, or keep him out of China; for God's fixed purposes are
not subject to fluctuation to suit the exigencies of human affairs.
But, notwithstanding he made several earnest efforts to get there,
he signally failed in all of them. He returned from Japan to India,
and, after remaining a short time at Goa, resorted to the expedient
of attempting an entrance into China by indirection, because the
authorities there were inimical to the Portuguese. He conceived the
idea of procuring the organization of a diplomatic mission, and
having himself attached to it, so that, by this means, he could enter
the country. This plan having failed, he endeavored to accomplish
his object "secretly," says Butler, making the effort to be landed
somewhere upon the Chinese coast, "where no houses were in view."
Every step he took, however, proved abortive, and he died before
reaching China, thus leaving wholly unaccomplished what the Jesuits
allege was the foreordained purpose of Providence.
The death of Xavier occurred in 1552, and his remains were taken to Goa
about three months after, when, according to the Jesuit account, his
flesh "was found ruddy and fresh-colored, like a man who is in sweet
repose!" When it was cut, the blood ran! And so necessary is it deemed
by the Jesuits that his body shall appear to have been absolutely
incorruptible--as an argument to prove that their society is under the
special protection and guardianship of God--it is seriously affirmed
that "the holy corpse exhaled an odor so fragrant and delightful that
the most exquisite perfume came nothing near it." When the body reached
Malacca, a pestilence then wasting the city, suddenly ceased, the
effect alone of its mere presence! It was transported to Goa--"entire,
fresh, and still exhaling a sweet odor"--and deposited in the church
of the Jesuit college he had dextrously obtained from the Franciscan
monks. Upon this occasion we are told that "several blind persons
recovered their sight, and others, sick of palsies and other diseases,
their health and the use of their limbs!" His relics, by order of the
King of Portugal, were visited in 1774--one hundred and ninety-two
years after his death--when "the body was found without the least bad
smell, and seemed environed with a kind of shining brightness, and the
face, hands, breast, and feet had not suffered the least alteration or
symptom of corruption!"[92]
In view of the universal experience of mankind and the enlightenment
of the present age, it is difficult to treat the foregoing statements
seriously, they are so palpably the product of Jesuit imposture.
And yet they are published in this country, and recommended as
positive truths, by the highest ecclesiastical authority, as if some
intelligent providential object would be accomplished by believing
them. Notwithstanding, however, that every man of common sense will
reject them, they are indispensable to a proper understanding of the
methods employed by the Jesuits in setting forth the claims of their
society to providential favor. And although the vagaries of the wildest
enthusiasts are more credible, because they do not sport with sacred
things, their recital puts us in possession of some of the means of
unraveling the nets this wonderful society has cunningly woven.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 83: Lives of the Saints. By the Rev. Alban Butler. Vol. XII,
article "St. Francis Xavier," December 3, p. 608.]
[Footnote 84: History of the Saints. By the Rev. Alban Butler, Vol.
XII, article "St. Francis Xavier," December 3, p. 610.]
[Footnote 85: Griesinger, pp. 88-89.]
[Footnote 86: Butler, pp. 608, 609.]
[Footnote 87: Butler, p. 609]
[Footnote 88: Butler, p. 611.]
[Footnote 89: Butler, p. 614.]
[Footnote 90: Butler, p. 615.]
[Footnote 91: Butler, p. 616.]
[Footnote 92: Butler, pp. 620-622.]