{ "book_metadata": { "book_name": "History of Christianity in India: Source Materials", "book_author": "M. K. Kuriakose", "publisher": "Indian Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge", "published_on": "2011" }, "chunks": [ { "chunk_index": 1, "chapter_name": "Chapter 36: 1548. Xavier’s Letter to the King of Portugal", "page_numbers": [ 35 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00059-d3eaa41beced62177d8f.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Xavier’s Letter and Its Purpose", "chunk_data": "In this letter, written from Cochin and dated January 20, 1548, Xavier asks the king to instruct the Portuguese officials in India to assume direct responsibility for supporting the work of the missions. J. N. Ogilvie, The Apostles of India, Appendix II, pp. 437-440.", "time": { "start_year": 1548, "start_month": 1, "start_date": 20, "end_year": 1548, "end_month": 1, "end_date": 20, "time_display": "20 January 1548" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Francis Xavier", "King John III of Portugal" ], "places": [ "Cochin", "India" ], "event": "Francis Xavier writes to King John III requesting that Portuguese officials directly support the missions.", "tags": [ "Religion", "Politics", "Missions" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 2, "chapter_name": "Chapter 36: 1548. Xavier’s Letter to the King of Portugal", "page_numbers": [ 35 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00059-d3eaa41beced62177d8f.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Xavier Considers Christian Expansion", "chunk_data": "To come to a matter which concerns myself individually. I have often pondered in my own mind, after carefully considering the question on every side, what I could write to your Majesty, as to the best means of spreading, and of firmly establishing, the Christian faith in this country.", "time": { "start_year": 1548, "start_month": 1, "start_date": 20, "end_year": 1548, "end_month": 1, "end_date": 20, "time_display": "20 January 1548" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Francis Xavier", "King John III of Portugal" ], "places": [ "India" ], "event": "Francis Xavier reflects on how best to spread and establish Christianity in India.", "tags": [ "Religion", "Missions" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 3, "chapter_name": "Chapter 36: 1548. Xavier’s Letter to the King of Portugal", "page_numbers": [ 35, 36 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00059-d3eaa41beced62177d8f.webp", "raw\\pages\\00060-6b52f136f45bbd65e30b.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Xavier’s Duty and Fear", "chunk_data": "I am impelled to this course, on the one hand, from my desire to obey God and to promote his glory. I am deterred from doing it, on the other hand, because I despair of ever seeing my proposal carried into effect.", "time": { "start_year": 1548, "start_month": 1, "start_date": 20, "end_year": 1548, "end_month": 1, "end_date": 20, "time_display": "20 January 1548" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Francis Xavier", "God" ], "places": [ "India" ], "event": "Francis Xavier explains that obedience to God compels him to write, although he doubts that his proposal will be implemented.", "tags": [ "Religion", "Missions" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 4, "chapter_name": "Chapter 36: 1548. Xavier’s Letter to the King of Portugal", "page_numbers": [ 36 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00060-6b52f136f45bbd65e30b.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Xavier Reveals His Burden", "chunk_data": "Yet it has not appeared possible for me to be silent with a safe conscience, especially as it is evident to me that the thought has been put into my mind from above, for some special purpose and I cannot devise any more probable reason for God having thus revealed the matter to me, than that I might make it known to your Majesty.", "time": { "start_year": 1548, "start_month": 1, "start_date": 20, "end_year": 1548, "end_month": 1, "end_date": 20, "time_display": "20 January 1548" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Francis Xavier", "God", "King John III of Portugal" ], "places": [ "India" ], "event": "Francis Xavier feels divinely compelled to reveal his concerns to the Portuguese king.", "tags": [ "Religion", "Missions" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 5, "chapter_name": "Chapter 36: 1548. Xavier’s Letter to the King of Portugal", "page_numbers": [ 36 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00060-6b52f136f45bbd65e30b.webp" ], "chunk_title": "A Warning to the King", "chunk_data": "And yet, again I tremble, lest, while I thus relieve my mind of its burden, my very letter may prove a testimony against your Majesty before God in your last hour, and aggravate your doom in the day of Judgement, by depriving you of the plea of ignorance.", "time": { "start_year": 1548, "start_month": 1, "start_date": 20, "end_year": 1548, "end_month": 1, "end_date": 20, "time_display": "20 January 1548" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Francis Xavier", "King John III of Portugal", "God" ], "places": [], "event": "Francis Xavier warns that his letter may stand as testimony against the king before God.", "tags": [ "Religion", "Politics" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 6, "chapter_name": "Chapter 36: 1548. Xavier’s Letter to the King of Portugal", "page_numbers": [ 36 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00060-6b52f136f45bbd65e30b.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Xavier’s Motive for Writing", "chunk_data": "I beseech your Majesty to believe that this fear greatly distresses me, since I am deeply conscious that I have no wish or intention, beyond finishing my labours and spending my life here in India, in working for the salvation of the souls.", "time": { "start_year": 1548, "start_month": 1, "start_date": 20, "end_year": 1548, "end_month": 1, "end_date": 20, "time_display": "20 January 1548" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Francis Xavier", "King John III of Portugal" ], "places": [ "India" ], "event": "Francis Xavier declares that his only intention is to complete his labours in India and work for the salvation of souls.", "tags": [ "Religion", "Missions" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 7, "chapter_name": "Chapter 36: 1548. Xavier’s Letter to the King of Portugal", "page_numbers": [ 36 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00060-6b52f136f45bbd65e30b.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Xavier Seeks to Ease Royal Duty", "chunk_data": "I trust that, by so doing, I may, to the best of my ability, relieve you of the weighty duties resting upon you, and, by discharging a part of your proper function, may lighten the burden of thy Majesty's conscience, and enable you to await with greater safety the terrible decision of the last day.", "time": { "start_year": 1548, "start_month": 1, "start_date": 20, "end_year": 1548, "end_month": 1, "end_date": 20, "time_display": "20 January 1548" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Francis Xavier", "King John III of Portugal" ], "places": [], "event": "Francis Xavier seeks to help the Portuguese king discharge his religious responsibilities.", "tags": [ "Religion", "Politics" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 8, "chapter_name": "Chapter 36: 1548. Xavier’s Letter to the King of Portugal", "page_numbers": [ 36 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00060-6b52f136f45bbd65e30b.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Xavier’s Loyalty to the Society", "chunk_data": "Your great love for the Society is such, that I ought to think this benefit cheaply purchased for you at the cost of any labour or troubles of my own.", "time": { "start_year": 1548, "start_month": 1, "start_date": 20, "end_year": 1548, "end_month": 1, "end_date": 20, "time_display": "20 January 1548" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Francis Xavier", "King John III of Portugal" ], "places": [], "event": "Francis Xavier presents his own labour as a small price for benefiting the king and the Society.", "tags": [ "Religion", "Missions" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 9, "chapter_name": "Chapter 36: 1548. Xavier’s Letter to the King of Portugal", "page_numbers": [ 36 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00060-6b52f136f45bbd65e30b.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Xavier Resolves to Speak", "chunk_data": "These conflicting anxieties, Sire, between my duty and your danger have, I confess, caused me extreme agitation and distress, but at last I have made up my mind, once and for all, to relieve my conscience of the burden which I have long concealed.", "time": { "start_year": 1548, "start_month": 1, "start_date": 20, "end_year": 1548, "end_month": 1, "end_date": 20, "time_display": "20 January 1548" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Francis Xavier", "King John III of Portugal" ], "places": [], "event": "Francis Xavier resolves to disclose the burden he has long concealed from the king.", "tags": [ "Religion", "Politics" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 10, "chapter_name": "Chapter 36: 1548. Xavier’s Letter to the King of Portugal", "page_numbers": [ 36 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00060-6b52f136f45bbd65e30b.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Rivalries Harm the Missions", "chunk_data": "Here, then, is the discovery which I have made during my long experience in India, Malacca, and the Moluccas, and which makes me sick at heart. Your Majesty must receive it as a certain truth, that much is neglected which God requires to be done in this country and elsewhere, through the hurtful and disgraceful rivalries which, under the mask of sanctity, prevail amongst your officers, arising out of trivial and concealed causes of offense.", "time": { "start_year": 1548, "start_month": 1, "start_date": 20, "end_year": 1548, "end_month": 1, "end_date": 20, "time_display": "20 January 1548" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Francis Xavier", "King John III of Portugal", "Portuguese officers" ], "places": [ "India", "Malacca", "Moluccas" ], "event": "Francis Xavier identifies rivalries among Portuguese officers as a cause of neglect in the work required by God.", "tags": [ "Religion", "Politics", "Missions" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 11, "chapter_name": "Chapter 36: 1548. Xavier’s Letter to the King of Portugal", "page_numbers": [ 36 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00060-6b52f136f45bbd65e30b.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Officers Contest Missionary Honour", "chunk_data": "One declares—'It is my duty to do this, and I will suffer no one else to usurp the honour of it': another says 'If I am not the doer of it, I have no wish to see others do it': whilst a third complains—'I am bearing the burden and heat of the day, whilst others receive all the profits and thanks'.", "time": { "start_year": 1548, "start_month": 1, "start_date": 20, "end_year": 1548, "end_month": 1, "end_date": 20, "time_display": "20 January 1548" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Francis Xavier", "Portuguese officers" ], "places": [ "India" ], "event": "Portuguese officers quarrel over who should receive responsibility, honour, profits, and thanks for missionary work.", "tags": [ "Politics", "Missions", "Religion" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 12, "chapter_name": "Chapter 36: 1548. Xavier’s Letter to the King of Portugal", "page_numbers": [ 36 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00060-6b52f136f45bbd65e30b.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Rivalries Waste Missionary Opportunities", "chunk_data": "With their passions heated by these altercations, they each strive, both by correspondence and manoeuvres, to further their own interests. Thus, time is consumed, opportunities are lost, and no place is found for the things which relate to the cause of God. In the same way it often happens that the honour of your Majesty, and interests of your empire in India are neglected.", "time": { "start_year": 1548, "start_month": 1, "start_date": 20, "end_year": 1548, "end_month": 1, "end_date": 20, "time_display": "20 January 1548" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Francis Xavier", "Portuguese officers", "King John III of Portugal" ], "places": [ "India" ], "event": "Conflicts among Portuguese officers consume time, waste opportunities, and damage both the Christian cause and royal interests.", "tags": [ "Politics", "Religion", "Missions" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 13, "chapter_name": "Chapter 36: 1548. Xavier’s Letter to the King of Portugal", "page_numbers": [ 36, 37 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00060-6b52f136f45bbd65e30b.webp", "raw\\pages\\00061-ddb2f434bb66843fb335.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Xavier Proposes Royal Oversight", "chunk_data": "I have discovered one only remedy for this evil, the adoption of which, if I mistake not, would both increase the number of Christians in these parts, and protect those amongst them who now suffer injuries from the want of powerful patrons; so that no one, either the Portuguese or Indians, would dare to molest or despoil them. That remedy is, that your Majesty should signify and clearly explain your intention, both by letter to the Viceroy and magistrates now in India, and verbally to those whom you may hereafter send here, that you confide that which is your principal care—namely, the spreading of our holy faith—to the Viceroy and Governor of each province, more even than to all the ecclesiastics and priests who are in India; that you will call each of them strictly to account; and that you will impute to them every success or failure in this respect, and reward or punish them accordingly.", "time": { "start_year": 1548, "start_month": 1, "start_date": 20, "end_year": 1548, "end_month": 1, "end_date": 20, "time_display": "20 January 1548" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Francis Xavier", "King John III of Portugal", "Viceroy of Portuguese India", "Portuguese governors", "Portuguese magistrates" ], "places": [ "India" ], "event": "Francis Xavier proposes that the Portuguese king place the responsibility for spreading Christianity directly upon the Viceroy and provincial governors.", "tags": [ "Religion", "Politics", "Missions" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 14, "chapter_name": "Chapter 36: 1548. Xavier’s Letter to the King of Portugal", "page_numbers": [ 37 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00061-ddb2f434bb66843fb335.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Royal Responsibility for Conversion", "chunk_data": "In order that there may be no mistake about this declaration, I should wish you to mention each of us who are in these parts by name, declaring that you do not lay upon us, either individually or collectively, the duty which conscience demands of you; but that wherever there is any opportunity of spreading Christianity, it rests upon the Viceroy or Governor of the place, and upon him alone.", "time": { "start_year": 1548, "start_month": 1, "start_date": 20, "end_year": 1548, "end_month": 1, "end_date": 20, "time_display": "20 January 1548" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Francis Xavier", "King John III of Portugal", "Viceroy of Portuguese India", "Portuguese governors" ], "places": [ "India" ], "event": "Francis Xavier asks the king to make each Viceroy or Governor solely responsible for opportunities to spread Christianity.", "tags": [ "Religion", "Politics", "Missions" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 15, "chapter_name": "Chapter 36: 1548. Xavier’s Letter to the King of Portugal", "page_numbers": [ 37 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00061-ddb2f434bb66843fb335.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Governors Answer for Souls", "chunk_data": "That, since God has imposed upon your Majesty the weighty duty of watching over the salvation of the souls of your subjects, you can only demand the fulfilment of this duty from those to whom you have delegated your authority, and honour of the magistracy and who therefore represent the person of your Majesty in this country.", "time": { "start_year": 1548, "start_month": 1, "start_date": 20, "end_year": 1548, "end_month": 1, "end_date": 20, "time_display": "20 January 1548" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Francis Xavier", "King John III of Portugal", "Portuguese magistrates" ], "places": [ "India" ], "event": "Francis Xavier argues that the king must demand responsibility for the salvation of subjects from the officials who represent his authority.", "tags": [ "Religion", "Politics" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 16, "chapter_name": "Chapter 36: 1548. Xavier’s Letter to the King of Portugal", "page_numbers": [ 37 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00061-ddb2f434bb66843fb335.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Negligent Governors Must Be Punished", "chunk_data": "And if you find that, owing to the negligence of any one of them, few have embraced the faith of Christ within the limits of his jurisdiction, you will devolve upon him the punishments which, otherwise, such neglect would call down upon your own head; you have already given them full warning, that you have committed to your chief officers here the weighty charge of imbuing the souls of your heathen subjects with the faith of Christ.", "time": { "start_year": 1548, "start_month": 1, "start_date": 20, "end_year": 1548, "end_month": 1, "end_date": 20, "time_display": "20 January 1548" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Francis Xavier", "King John III of Portugal", "Portuguese governors" ], "places": [ "India" ], "event": "Francis Xavier urges the king to punish governors whose negligence results in few conversions.", "tags": [ "Religion", "Politics", "Missions" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 17, "chapter_name": "Chapter 36: 1548. Xavier’s Letter to the King of Portugal", "page_numbers": [ 37 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00061-ddb2f434bb66843fb335.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Governors Must Report Christianity", "chunk_data": "Whenever, therefore, the Viceroy or Governors write to you, let them describe the state of Christianity; the number and quality of the converts from heathenism; what hopes, what means there are of adding to their number; that for information upon these points you will trust only to their letters, passing over without notice all other reports, from whomsoever they come.", "time": { "start_year": 1548, "start_month": 1, "start_date": 20, "end_year": 1548, "end_month": 1, "end_date": 20, "time_display": "20 January 1548" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Francis Xavier", "King John III of Portugal", "Viceroy of Portuguese India", "Portuguese governors" ], "places": [ "India" ], "event": "Francis Xavier asks the king to rely on reports from the Viceroy and governors concerning Christianity and conversions.", "tags": [ "Religion", "Politics", "Missions" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 18, "chapter_name": "Chapter 36: 1548. Xavier’s Letter to the King of Portugal", "page_numbers": [ 37 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00061-ddb2f434bb66843fb335.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Punishment for Failed Conversions", "chunk_data": "Your Majesty should solemnly pledge your word, in the diplomas by which you institute and confer power on any one, that you will severely punish the Governor of any town or province in which few neophytes are added to our Holy Church, when it seems plain that, if it had been the wish of those in authority, many converts might have been secured.", "time": { "start_year": 1548, "start_month": 1, "start_date": 20, "end_year": 1548, "end_month": 1, "end_date": 20, "time_display": "20 January 1548" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Francis Xavier", "King John III of Portugal", "Portuguese governors" ], "places": [ "India" ], "event": "Francis Xavier asks the king to pledge severe punishment for governors who fail to secure conversions.", "tags": [ "Religion", "Politics", "Missions" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 19, "chapter_name": "Chapter 36: 1548. Xavier’s Letter to the King of Portugal", "page_numbers": [ 37 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00061-ddb2f434bb66843fb335.webp" ], "chunk_title": "An Oath Against Neglect", "chunk_data": "I very earnestly desire that you should take an oath, invoking most solemnly the name of God, that in case any Governor thus neglects to spread the faith, he shall, on his return to Portugal, be punished by close imprisonment for many years, and all his goods and possessions shall be sold, and devoted to works of charity.", "time": { "start_year": 1548, "start_month": 1, "start_date": 20, "end_year": 1548, "end_month": 1, "end_date": 20, "time_display": "20 January 1548" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Francis Xavier", "King John III of Portugal", "Portuguese governors" ], "places": [ "Portugal", "India" ], "event": "Francis Xavier urges the king to swear that negligent governors will be imprisoned and have their possessions devoted to charity.", "tags": [ "Religion", "Politics", "Missions" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 20, "chapter_name": "Chapter 36: 1548. Xavier’s Letter to the King of Portugal", "page_numbers": [ 37 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00061-ddb2f434bb66843fb335.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Making the Threat Credible", "chunk_data": "In order that none may flatter themselves that this is but an idle threat, you must declare, as plainly as possible,", "time": { "start_year": 1548, "start_month": 1, "start_date": 20, "end_year": 1548, "end_month": 1, "end_date": 20, "time_display": "20 January 1548" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Francis Xavier", "King John III of Portugal", "Portuguese governors" ], "places": [ "India" ], "event": "Francis Xavier asks the king to make the threatened punishments unmistakably credible.", "tags": [ "Religion", "Politics" ] } } ] }