headway. In the other areas of Africa the missions stalled especially because of lack of manpower but also because the Jesuits were so ill informed about the situations they met and therefore were ill prepared to deal with them effectively. Moreover, they sometimes made the fatal mistake of identifying themselves too closely with the Portuguese military.
The situation was very different in the Far East. When Xavier took leave of King John III on April 7, 1541, to begin his long voyage to India, he had in hand four papal briefs from Pope PaulIII appointing him papal nuncio in the Indies and recommending him to the princes ruling in the East. Thirteen months later he arrived in Goa, the capital of Portuguese India, which would become the first headquarters for Jesuit missionary activity in that part of the world.
Xavier remained in Goa only four months, then worked for two years among the poor pearl fishers on the eastern side of Cape Comorin (Kanyakumari), the southern extremity of India. After that he traveled to the outmost bounds of Portuguese influence in the Far East, present-day Indonesia, four thousand miles beyond India. He returned to Goa to organize the mission. At that time there were about thirty Jesuits in India, but within five years another twenty-five had arrived. The Jesuits divided their labors between working for the conversion of the native population and ministering to the relatively large Portuguese population in those parts. The Jesuits blamed the greed and bad example of the Portuguese for their failure to make many converts.
The Jesuitsâ most exotic venture in India was the mission to the court of the Great Mughal, the emperors Akbar (1556â1605) and Jahangir (1605â1627). Northern India was at the time enjoying a climate of remarkable creativity and cultural openness. Its worldly rulers invited scholars, priests, and other holy men from around the world to their courts, where they engaged them in weekly interfaith debates into the small hours of the morning. The emperors and their guests expounded on the texts and traditions of faiths as varied as Islam, Hinduism, and Zoroastrianism.
Akbar, a man of insatiable intellectual curiosity and, though professedly a Muslim, an eclectic in religion, in 1578 requested âtwo learned priestsâ to come from Goa to Fatehpur to serve as representatives there of Catholicism. In 1580 three Jesuits arrivedled by Rodolfo Aquaviva, whose uncle Claudio would be elected superior general the next year. At the insistence of Akbar, they plunged immediately into the debates over which he presided. They soon came to realize that, though the Great Mughal treated them with respect and kindness, they were for him more a source to satisfy his curiosity than serious contenders for his religious allegiance.
Nonetheless, the Jesuits founded a permanent mission there in 1598 and remained, with a few interruptions, until the suppression of 1773. They served the emperors well, bringing with them to northern India engravings, printed books, and oil paintings. Akbar himself was fascinated by Christian altarpieces and by the way the Jesuits used taffeta curtains, incense, and candles to enhance the spiritual power of their images. The urbanity of the Mughal court contrasted with the hostility the Jesuits faced elsewhere, due in large part to their being identified in the popular mind with the hated Portuguese.
In 1570 the mission to Brazil suffered a tragic loss of life. In that year, forty Jesuits set out for Brazil under the leadership of Ignacio de Azevedo. They were intercepted on the high seas by the Huguenot corsair Jacques Sourie. When Sourie discovered who the Jesuits were, he ordered them executed and their bodies cast into the sea. Back in Catholic Europe, they were immediately celebrated as saints, and they were in fact beatified in 1854.
Despite this loss of reinforcements, the mission to Brazil continued to prosper as it had from the beginning. Its
The situation was very different in the Far East. When Xavier took leave of King John III on April 7, 1541, to begin his long voyage to India, he had in hand four papal briefs from Pope PaulIII appointing him papal nuncio in the Indies and recommending him to the princes ruling in the East. Thirteen months later he arrived in Goa, the capital of Portuguese India, which would become the first headquarters for Jesuit missionary activity in that part of the world.
Xavier remained in Goa only four months, then worked for two years among the poor pearl fishers on the eastern side of Cape Comorin (Kanyakumari), the southern extremity of India. After that he traveled to the outmost bounds of Portuguese influence in the Far East, present-day Indonesia, four thousand miles beyond India. He returned to Goa to organize the mission. At that time there were about thirty Jesuits in India, but within five years another twenty-five had arrived. The Jesuits divided their labors between working for the conversion of the native population and ministering to the relatively large Portuguese population in those parts. The Jesuits blamed the greed and bad example of the Portuguese for their failure to make many converts.
The Jesuitsâ most exotic venture in India was the mission to the court of the Great Mughal, the emperors Akbar (1556â1605) and Jahangir (1605â1627). Northern India was at the time enjoying a climate of remarkable creativity and cultural openness. Its worldly rulers invited scholars, priests, and other holy men from around the world to their courts, where they engaged them in weekly interfaith debates into the small hours of the morning. The emperors and their guests expounded on the texts and traditions of faiths as varied as Islam, Hinduism, and Zoroastrianism.
Akbar, a man of insatiable intellectual curiosity and, though professedly a Muslim, an eclectic in religion, in 1578 requested âtwo learned priestsâ to come from Goa to Fatehpur to serve as representatives there of Catholicism. In 1580 three Jesuits arrivedled by Rodolfo Aquaviva, whose uncle Claudio would be elected superior general the next year. At the insistence of Akbar, they plunged immediately into the debates over which he presided. They soon came to realize that, though the Great Mughal treated them with respect and kindness, they were for him more a source to satisfy his curiosity than serious contenders for his religious allegiance.
Nonetheless, the Jesuits founded a permanent mission there in 1598 and remained, with a few interruptions, until the suppression of 1773. They served the emperors well, bringing with them to northern India engravings, printed books, and oil paintings. Akbar himself was fascinated by Christian altarpieces and by the way the Jesuits used taffeta curtains, incense, and candles to enhance the spiritual power of their images. The urbanity of the Mughal court contrasted with the hostility the Jesuits faced elsewhere, due in large part to their being identified in the popular mind with the hated Portuguese.
In 1570 the mission to Brazil suffered a tragic loss of life. In that year, forty Jesuits set out for Brazil under the leadership of Ignacio de Azevedo. They were intercepted on the high seas by the Huguenot corsair Jacques Sourie. When Sourie discovered who the Jesuits were, he ordered them executed and their bodies cast into the sea. Back in Catholic Europe, they were immediately celebrated as saints, and they were in fact beatified in 1854.
Despite this loss of reinforcements, the mission to Brazil continued to prosper as it had from the beginning. Its
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