{
  "bookName": "History of Christianity in India: Source Materials",
  "authorName": "M. K. Kuriakose",
  "publisherName": "Indian Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge",
  "publicationYear": 2011,
  "chapterNumber": 41,
  "chapterName": "1607. Robert de Nobili’s Letter to Bellarmine",
  "pageFrom": 45,
  "pageTo": 45,
  "pages": [
    {
      "pageNumber": 45,
      "ocrText": "SOURCE MATERIALS\n45\nat a time when the flock was mine, and was sadly in need of\nof pastoral\ncare and Catholic teaching, had I abandoned it and had I not\nrather fed it with healthful doctrine, as I did, and do, with the\nFathers of the Society to accompany me. I beg and entreat your\nReverence to realise how acceptable to me is the almost unbearable\nburden they sustain in cultivating and expanding the vineyard.\nThe love, the charity, with which they endure all things for God's\nsake, has bound me by no slight ties to them, for without them I\nwould have done nothing. Supported by them frequently I learned\nto throw row off the clouds of troubles and anxieties, which weigh\nupon me, at times tepid and imperfect. May the Lord reward\nthem in heaven, and may your Reverence bestow upon them a\ncopious blessing. The Residence of the Fathers at Angamali has\nbeen opened with the approval of all. Let not your Reverence\nhave any doubt. The entire salvation of these Christians depends\nupon the Residence in the Serra.'\n41. ROBERT DE NOBILI'S LETTER TO BELLARMINE\n(1607 A.D.)\nThis letter, written from Madurai on 1 December 1607, gives\nan acount of the style of life de Nobili had adopted to accommodate\nhimself to the high caste Hindus. Cited in Vincent Cronin, A Pearl\nto India, pp. 74-75.\nThe way of life which necessity has compelled me to adopt is\nthis: I always remain confined to my little cabin. After rising and\nsaying Mass and commending myself to the Lord, I admit any one\nwho wishes to come to talk or discuss with me. The rest of the\ntime, which is very short, I devote to writing refutations of some of\nthe chief doctrines of these people, in their own language, which is\nvery beautiful, copious and most elegant. As I never stir from\nmy house and the nourishment I take is not very substantial, I am\nalways ill, and rare are the days when I do not feel some pain in\nthe stomach or in the head. My food consists of a little rice-\nabundant in this country with some herbs and fruit; neither\nmeat nor eggs ever cross my threshold. It is necessary to observe\nall these, for if these people did not see me do such penance, they\nwould not receive me as one who can teach them the way to heaven,\nbecause that is the way of life their own teachers observe. Some\nof them lead an even more austere life, abstaining even from rice,\nwhich means a good deal, for your Eminence must know that here\nwe use neither bread nor wine, except at the Holy Sacrifice, so that\nif we do away with rice you may imagine what remains.\nAs for me I do not venture to go so far, because my abstinence\nfrom meat, fish and eggs is enough to persuade these people to",
      "status": "completed"
    }
  ]
}