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whom no Hindu could have any intercourse without degrading himself to the lowest ranks of the popular tion. Now the Prangui were abominated oecause they violated the most respected customs of India, by eatmg beef, and indulging in wine and spirits; but much as all well-bred Hindus abhorred those things, they felt more disgusted at seeing the Portuguese, irrespective of any distinction of caste, treat freely with the lowest classes, such as the pariahs, who, in the eyes of their countrymen of the higher castes, are nothing better than the vilest animals. Accorrl- ingly, since Femandes was known to be a Portuguese, that is a Prangui, and besides was seen living habit- ually with men of the lowest caste, the religion he preached, no less than himself, had to share the con- tempt and execration attending his neophytes, and maae no progress whatever among the better classes. To become acceptable for all, Christianity^ must be presented in quite another way. While Nobili thought over his plan, probably the example just set by his countryman Matteo Ricci, in China, stood before his mind. At all events, he started from the same prin- ciple, resolving to become, after the motto of St. Paul, all thin^ to all men, and a Hindu to the Hindus, as far as might be lawful.

Having ripened his design by thorough meditation and by conferring with his superiors, the Archbishop of Cranganore and the provmcial of Malabar, who both approved and encouraged his resolution, Nobili boltll}^ began his arduous career by re-entering Ma- dura in the dress of the Hindu ascetics, known as saniassy. He never tried to make believe that he was a native of India; else he would have deserved the •name of impostor, with which he has sometimes l^een unjustly branded; but he availed himself of the fact that he was not a Portuguese^ to deprecate the oppro- brious name Prangui. He mtroduced himself as a Roman raja (nobleman), desirous of living at Madura in practismg penance, in praying and studying the sacred law. He carefully avoided meeting witi Father Femandes arid he took his lodging in a solitaiy abode in the Brahmins' quarter obtained from the oenevo- lence of a high officer. At first he called himself a rdja, but soon he changed this title for that of brah- mm, better suited to his aims. The rdjas or ksha- tryas, being the second of the three high castes, formed the military class; but intellectual avocations were almost monopolized by the Brahmins. They held from time immemorial the spiritual if not the political government of the nation, and were the arbiters of what the others ought to believe, to revere, and to adore. Yet, it must be noted, they were in no wise a priestly caste; they were possessed of no exclusive right to perform functions of reli^ous cult. Nobili re- mained tor a long time shut up m his dwelling, after the custom of Indian penitents, living on rice, milk, and herbs with water, and that once a day; he re- ceived attendance onlv from Brahmin servants. Curi- osity could not fail to be raised, and all the more as the foreign saniassy was very slow in satisfying it. When, after two or three refusals, he admitted visitors, the interview was conducted according to the strictest r ules of Hindu etiquette. Nobili charmed his audience by the perfection with which he spoke their own lan- guage, Tamil; by the quotations of famous Indian authors with which he interspersed his discourse^ and, above all, by the fragments of native poetry which he recited or even sang with exquisite skill.

Having thus won a benevolent hearing, he pro- ceeded step by step on his missionary task, labouring first to set right the ideas of his auditors with respect to natural truth concerning God, the soul, etc.^ and then instilling by degrees the dogmas of the Christian faith. He took advantage also Of his acquaintance with the books revered by the Hindus as sacred and divine. These he contri vea, the first of all Europeans, to read and study in the Sanskrit originals. For this

purpose he had engaged a reputed Brahmin teacher, with whose assistance and by the industry of his own keen intellect and felicitous memory he gained such a knowledge of this recondite literature as to strike the native doctors with amazement, very few of them feel- ing themselves capable of vying with him on the point. In this way also ne was enabled to find in the Vedas many truths which he used in testimony of the doc- trine he preached. By this method, and no less by the Erestige of his pure and austere life, the missionary ad soon dispelled the distrust and prejudices of many, and before the end of 1608, he conferred baptism on several persons conspicuous for nobility and learning. While he obliged his neophytes to reject all practices involving superstition or savouring in any wise of idolatrous worship, he allowed them to keep their national customs, in as far as these contained nothing wrong and referred to merely political or civil usages. Acconiingly, Nobili 's disciples continued, for example, wearing the dress proper to each one's caste; the Brahmins retaining their codhumH (tuft of hair) and cord (cotton- string slung over the left shoulder); all adormng, as before, their foreheads with sandalwood- paste, etc. Yet, one condition was laid on them, namely, that the cord and the sandal, if once taken with any superstitious ceremony, be removed and re- placed by others with a special benediction, the form- ula of which had been sent to Nobili by the Archbish(^ of Cranganore.

While the missionary was winning more and more esteem, not only for himself, but also' for the Gospel, even among those who did not receive it, the fanatical ministers and votaries of the national gods, whom he was going to supplant, could not watch his progress quietly. By their assaults, indeed, his work was al- most unceasingly impeded, and barely escaped ruin on several occasions; but he held his ground in spite of calumny, imprisonment, menaces of dedth and all kinds of ill-treatment. In April, 1609, the flock which he had gathered around him was too numerous for his chapel and required a church; and the labour of the ministry had become so crushing that he en- treated the provincial to send him a companion. But then fell on nim a storm from a part whence it might least have been expected. Femandes, the missioner already meiitioned, may have felt no mean jealousy, when seeing Nobili succeed so happily where he had been so powerless; but certainly ne proved unable to understand or to appreciate the method of his col- league: probably, also, as he had lived perforce apart from the circles among which the latter was working, he was never well informed of his doings. However that may be, Femandes directed to the superiors of the Jesuits in India and at Rome a lengthy report, in which he charged Nobili with simulation, m declining the name of Pranp;ui; with connivance at idolatry, in allowing his neophjrtes to observe heathen customs, such as wearing the insignia of castes; lastly, with Bchismatical proceeding, in dividing the Christians into separate congregations. This denimciation at first caused an impression highly unfavourable to Nobili. Influenced by the account of Femandes, the provin- cial of Malabar (Father Laerzio, who had always countenanced Nobili, had then left that office), the Visitor of the India Missions and even the General of the Society at Rome sent severe warnings to the missionary innovator. Cardinal Bellarmine, in 1612, wrote to his relative, expressing the grief he felt on hearing of his unwise conduct.

TU^ps chan^d as soon as Nobili, being informed of the accusation, could answer it on every point. By oral explaaiations, in the assemblies of missionaries and theologians at Cochin and at Goa, and by an elaborate memoir, which he sent to Rome, he iustified the manner in which he had presented himself to the Brahmins of Madura; then, he showed that th« national customs he allowed his converts to keep wev%