{ "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": "c.1619. Robert de Nobili’s Letter to Pope Paul V", "page_numbers": [ 50 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00074-4add411de064f362d56f.webp" ], "chunk_title": "De Nobili’s Missionary Experiments", "chunk_data": "Robert de Nobili, a Jesuit missionary in Madurai, is well known for his experiments in the adaptation of Hindu customs to Christianity.", "time": { "start_year": 1619, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": null, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "c. 1619 AD" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Robert de Nobili" ], "places": [ "Madurai" ], "event": "Robert de Nobili adapted Hindu customs in his Christian missionary work.", "tags": [ "Religion", "Missionary Work" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 2, "chapter_name": "c.1619. Robert de Nobili’s Letter to Pope Paul V", "page_numbers": [ 50 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00074-4add411de064f362d56f.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Opposition to De Nobili’s Methods", "chunk_data": "This led to opposition from his co-workers and ecclesiastical authorities.", "time": { "start_year": 1619, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": null, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "Before c. 1619 AD" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Robert de Nobili" ], "places": [], "event": "De Nobili’s fellow missionaries and church authorities opposed his methods.", "tags": [ "Religion", "Conflict" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 3, "chapter_name": "c.1619. Robert de Nobili’s Letter to Pope Paul V", "page_numbers": [ 50 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00074-4add411de064f362d56f.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Rome Supports His Methods", "chunk_data": "Eventually Rome took decisions in favour of his methods.", "time": { "start_year": 1619, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": null, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "c. 1619 AD" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Robert de Nobili" ], "places": [ "Rome" ], "event": "Rome eventually decided in favour of Robert de Nobili’s missionary methods.", "tags": [ "Religion", "Church Politics" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 4, "chapter_name": "c.1619. Robert de Nobili’s Letter to Pope Paul V", "page_numbers": [ 50 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00074-4add411de064f362d56f.webp" ], "chunk_title": "The Letter to Pope Paul V", "chunk_data": "The following is a letter written to Pope Paul V in which he gives an account of his apostolate in Madurai and also mentions the proceedings of the Goa conference which was convened to consider his experiments in what is today termed ‘indigenization’.", "time": { "start_year": 1619, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": null, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "c. 1619 AD" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Robert de Nobili", "Pope Paul V" ], "places": [ "Madurai", "Goa" ], "event": "Robert de Nobili described his apostolate and the Goa conference concerning his adaptation of Hindu customs.", "tags": [ "Religion", "Missionary Work", "Church Politics" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 5, "chapter_name": "c.1619. Robert de Nobili’s Letter to Pope Paul V", "page_numbers": [ 50 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00074-4add411de064f362d56f.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Publication of the Translated Letter", "chunk_data": "The letter was written in Latin. It was translated into English by Fr. Sauliere. The original copy is kept in the Roman archives of the Society of Jesus: ARSI Goa 51, ff. 286-290. The translation as it appears here was published in the Indian Church History Review, Vol. II, No. 2, (December 1968), pp. 84-96.", "time": { "start_year": 1619, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1968, "end_month": 12, "end_date": null, "time_display": "Letter c. 1619; translation published December 1968" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Robert de Nobili", "Fr. Sauliere" ], "places": [ "Rome", "Goa" ], "event": "Robert de Nobili’s Latin letter was translated into English and later published in the Indian Church History Review.", "tags": [ "Religion", "Publication" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 6, "chapter_name": "c.1619. Robert de Nobili’s Letter to Pope Paul V", "page_numbers": [ 50 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00074-4add411de064f362d56f.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Origin of the Madurai Mission", "chunk_data": "1. Origin of the Madurai Mission", "time": { "start_year": 1603, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1605, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "1603–1605" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Robert de Nobili" ], "places": [ "Madurai" ], "event": "The letter begins an account of the origin of the Madurai mission.", "tags": [ "Religion", "Missionary Work" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 7, "chapter_name": "c.1619. Robert de Nobili’s Letter to Pope Paul V", "page_numbers": [ 50 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00074-4add411de064f362d56f.webp" ], "chunk_title": "De Nobili Travels to India", "chunk_data": "Having heard by word of mouth and chiefly from the Annual Letters of the great progress of the Christian religion in India and the wonderful labours of many of my fellow Jesuits, I decided with the consent of my superiors to hasten to a place where the hope of spreading the faith was so inviting.", "time": { "start_year": 1603, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1603, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "1603" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Robert de Nobili", "Jesuit missionaries" ], "places": [ "India" ], "event": "Robert de Nobili decided to travel to India after hearing of the progress of Christianity there.", "tags": [ "Religion", "Missionary Work" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 8, "chapter_name": "c.1619. Robert de Nobili’s Letter to Pope Paul V", "page_numbers": [ 50 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00074-4add411de064f362d56f.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Arrival in Goa and Madurai", "chunk_data": "With the permission of Father General I left Rome in 1603 and after two years spent in travelling I arrived at Goa. Soon after I came to Cochin, and thence to Madura.", "time": { "start_year": 1603, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1605, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "1603–1605" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Robert de Nobili" ], "places": [ "Rome", "Goa", "Cochin", "Madura" ], "event": "Robert de Nobili left Rome, travelled for two years, and reached Goa, Cochin, and Madura.", "tags": [ "Religion", "Travel", "Missionary Work" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 9, "chapter_name": "c.1619. Robert de Nobili’s Letter to Pope Paul V", "page_numbers": [ 50 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00074-4add411de064f362d56f.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Earlier Efforts Prove Fruitless", "chunk_data": "There I remarked that all the efforts made to bring the heathens to Christ had all been in vain.", "time": { "start_year": 1605, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1605, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "c. 1605" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Robert de Nobili" ], "places": [ "Madura" ], "event": "Robert de Nobili observed that earlier efforts to convert the people of Madura had failed.", "tags": [ "Religion", "Missionary Work" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 10, "chapter_name": "c.1619. Robert de Nobili’s Letter to Pope Paul V", "page_numbers": [ 50 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00074-4add411de064f362d56f.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Seeking a New Missionary Approach", "chunk_data": "I left no stone unturned to find a way to bring them from their superstition and the worship of idols to the faith of Christ.", "time": { "start_year": 1605, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1605, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "c. 1605" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Robert de Nobili" ], "places": [ "Madura" ], "event": "Robert de Nobili searched for a new way to bring the people of Madura to Christianity.", "tags": [ "Religion", "Missionary Work" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 11, "chapter_name": "c.1619. Robert de Nobili’s Letter to Pope Paul V", "page_numbers": [ 50 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00074-4add411de064f362d56f.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Rejection of Portuguese Customs", "chunk_data": "But my efforts were fruitless, because with a sort of barbarous stolidity they turned away from the manners and customs of the Portuguese and refused to put aside the badges of their ancient nobility.", "time": { "start_year": 1605, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1605, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "c. 1605" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Robert de Nobili" ], "places": [ "Madura", "Portuguese territories" ], "event": "The people rejected Portuguese customs and refused to abandon their traditional status symbols.", "tags": [ "Religion", "Culture" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 12, "chapter_name": "c.1619. Robert de Nobili’s Letter to Pope Paul V", "page_numbers": [ 50 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00074-4add411de064f362d56f.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Observing Brahmin Asceticism", "chunk_data": "When I noticed that certain Brahmins were highly praised because they led lives of great hardship and austerity and were looked upon as if they had dropped from the sky, I thought that, if to win popularity among the pagans, and raise themselves in their esteem, they contrived to keep perpetual chastity and weaken their bodies by watching, fasting and meditation, I could, to win them to Christ, conform myself to their mode of life in all such things which were not repugnant to the holiness of Christian doctrine, for it seemed to me that with divine help I could do for God's sake, what they did with wicked cunning to win vain applause and worldly honours.", "time": { "start_year": 1605, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1606, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "c. 1605–1606" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Robert de Nobili", "Brahmins" ], "places": [ "Madura" ], "event": "Robert de Nobili decided to adopt permissible ascetic practices resembling those of respected Brahmins in order to attract people to Christ.", "tags": [ "Religion", "Culture", "Missionary Work" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 13, "chapter_name": "c.1619. Robert de Nobili’s Letter to Pope Paul V", "page_numbers": [ 50, 51 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00074-4add411de064f362d56f.webp", "raw\\pages\\00075-88faaeaa6eeb9a6c3e27.webp" ], "chunk_title": "De Nobili Becomes an Italian Brahmin", "chunk_data": "Therefore I professed to be an Italian Brahmin who had renounced the world, had studied wisdom at Rome (for a Brahmin means a wise man) and rejected all the pleasures and comforts of the world.", "time": { "start_year": 1605, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1606, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "c. 1605–1606" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Robert de Nobili" ], "places": [ "Rome", "Madura" ], "event": "Robert de Nobili presented himself as an Italian Brahmin who had renounced worldly pleasures and studied wisdom at Rome.", "tags": [ "Religion", "Culture", "Missionary Work" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 14, "chapter_name": "c.1619. Robert de Nobili’s Letter to Pope Paul V", "page_numbers": [ 51 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00075-88faaeaa6eeb9a6c3e27.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Learning Tamil and Sanskrit", "chunk_data": "I had already learned Tamil and Sanskrit, which among them holds the same place as the Latin among us, and was pretty well acquainted with their books which, although it is contrary to their customs, they had allowed me to read.", "time": { "start_year": 1605, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1606, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "c. 1605–1606" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Robert de Nobili" ], "places": [ "Madura" ], "event": "Robert de Nobili learned Tamil and Sanskrit and studied books traditionally restricted by local customs.", "tags": [ "Religion", "Education", "Culture" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 15, "chapter_name": "c.1619. Robert de Nobili’s Letter to Pope Paul V", "page_numbers": [ 51 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00075-88faaeaa6eeb9a6c3e27.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Interpreting Caste Emblems", "chunk_data": "In a short time I went through them and found it clearly stated in them that the thread and the long tuft, which are the object of the present controversy, indicated the nobility of their family and not their worship or religion, and that the nobles, specially the Brahmins, the Rajahs and the merchants were thus specially distinguished from the rabble and lower classes.", "time": { "start_year": 1606, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1619, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "Before c. 1619" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Robert de Nobili", "Brahmins", "Rajahs", "Merchants" ], "places": [ "Madura" ], "event": "Robert de Nobili concluded from Indian texts that the sacred thread and long tuft signified family nobility rather than religious worship.", "tags": [ "Religion", "Caste", "Culture" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 16, "chapter_name": "c.1619. Robert de Nobili’s Letter to Pope Paul V", "page_numbers": [ 51 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00075-88faaeaa6eeb9a6c3e27.webp" ], "chunk_title": "The Thread as a Rank Badge", "chunk_data": "For as they apply their heir laws whether secular or religious to all social actions without any expectation, the way they speak of their thread show that it is a badge of their rank or family but not of their religion.", "time": { "start_year": 1606, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1619, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "Before c. 1619" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Robert de Nobili" ], "places": [ "Madura" ], "event": "Robert de Nobili argued that the thread marked social rank or family rather than religious identity.", "tags": [ "Religion", "Caste", "Culture" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 17, "chapter_name": "c.1619. Robert de Nobili’s Letter to Pope Paul V", "page_numbers": [ 51 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00075-88faaeaa6eeb9a6c3e27.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Indian Texts Support His View", "chunk_data": "Not only can this opinion be read in their books and codices, which the Brahmins read constantly, but I know that it is so deeply ingrained in their soul and stamped in their minds that merely raising a doubt it looks ridiculous", "time": { "start_year": 1606, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1619, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "Before c. 1619" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Robert de Nobili", "Brahmins" ], "places": [ "Madura" ], "event": "Robert de Nobili maintained that the social meaning of the thread was deeply established in Indian texts and public understanding.", "tags": [ "Religion", "Caste", "Culture" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 18, "chapter_name": "c.1619. Robert de Nobili’s Letter to Pope Paul V", "page_numbers": [ 51 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00075-88faaeaa6eeb9a6c3e27.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Status under Portuguese Rule", "chunk_data": "I may add further that the Indians who live in Portuguese territory dress and live in Portuguese style and run no risk of losing their status as is the case with the neophytes who are subject to Hindu Princes.", "time": { "start_year": 1606, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1619, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "Before c. 1619" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Robert de Nobili" ], "places": [ "Portuguese territories", "India" ], "event": "Robert de Nobili contrasted the social security of Indians in Portuguese territories with that of Christian converts under Hindu rulers.", "tags": [ "Religion", "Politics", "Culture" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 19, "chapter_name": "c.1619. Robert de Nobili’s Letter to Pope Paul V", "page_numbers": [ 51 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00075-88faaeaa6eeb9a6c3e27.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Consequences of Abandoning Caste Emblems", "chunk_data": "If the latter were to lay aside the traditional emblems of their family and caste, they would by the very fact be completely cut off from their friends, relations, and castemen, until broken down by tribulations and miseries of all kind they would be driven to seek shelter in some faroff places, where unknown to all men they might hide their shame.", "time": { "start_year": 1606, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1619, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "Before c. 1619" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Robert de Nobili", "Christian neophytes" ], "places": [ "India" ], "event": "Robert de Nobili described the social exile that converts could suffer if they abandoned traditional family and caste emblems.", "tags": [ "Religion", "Caste", "Society" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 20, "chapter_name": "c.1619. Robert de Nobili’s Letter to Pope Paul V", "page_numbers": [ 51 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00075-88faaeaa6eeb9a6c3e27.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Suffering of Christian Converts", "chunk_data": "If on the other hand they shrink from exile, they must resort to ignoble dens and spend their wretched life without the least consolation, for if they come out in the open, they are exposed to so many affronts and insults that they are compelled to hide themselves in ill-famed quarters, there to endure endless sufferings", "time": { "start_year": 1606, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1619, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "Before c. 1619" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Robert de Nobili", "Christian neophytes" ], "places": [ "India" ], "event": "Robert de Nobili warned that converts who refused exile could face humiliation, insults, and prolonged suffering.", "tags": [ "Religion", "Caste", "Society" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 21, "chapter_name": "c.1619. Robert de Nobili’s Letter to Pope Paul V", "page_numbers": [ 51 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00075-88faaeaa6eeb9a6c3e27.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Nearly Two Hundred Converts", "chunk_data": "My efforts were not in vain. By God's grace in two years nearly two hundred persons embraced the faith of Christ.", "time": { "start_year": 1607, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1607, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "c. 1607" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Robert de Nobili", "Christian converts" ], "places": [ "Madura" ], "event": "Robert de Nobili reported that nearly two hundred people converted to Christianity within two years.", "tags": [ "Religion", "Conversion", "Missionary Work" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 22, "chapter_name": "c.1619. Robert de Nobili’s Letter to Pope Paul V", "page_numbers": [ 51 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00075-88faaeaa6eeb9a6c3e27.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Joy at the Christian Harvest", "chunk_data": "At the sight of the present and the prospect of the future harvest our joy was very great, but it was soon damped by unexpected rumours.", "time": { "start_year": 1607, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1607, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "c. 1607" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Robert de Nobili", "Jesuit missionaries" ], "places": [ "Madura" ], "event": "The missionaries rejoiced at the growing Christian community before hearing troubling rumours.", "tags": [ "Religion", "Missionary Work" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 23, "chapter_name": "c.1619. Robert de Nobili’s Letter to Pope Paul V", "page_numbers": [ 51 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00075-88faaeaa6eeb9a6c3e27.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Jesuit Disagreement over Customs", "chunk_data": "Among our Fathers there was no agreement regarding this new method; some did not approve this mode of life, nor the wearing of the thread.", "time": { "start_year": 1607, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1619, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "c. 1607–1619" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Robert de Nobili", "Jesuit missionaries" ], "places": [ "Madura" ], "event": "Jesuit missionaries disagreed over Robert de Nobili’s lifestyle and use of the sacred thread.", "tags": [ "Religion", "Church Conflict", "Culture" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 24, "chapter_name": "c.1619. Robert de Nobili’s Letter to Pope Paul V", "page_numbers": [ 51 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00075-88faaeaa6eeb9a6c3e27.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Order to Suspend Baptisms", "chunk_data": "Shortly after a superior, moved no doubt by a well meaning zeal—as we must in justice believe—forbade me to carry on with my work and baptize neophytes, until that question of the thread was more closely examined.", "time": { "start_year": 1607, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1619, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "c. 1607–1619" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Robert de Nobili", "Jesuit superior", "Christian neophytes" ], "places": [ "Madura" ], "event": "A Jesuit superior ordered Robert de Nobili to stop his missionary work and baptisms until the sacred-thread controversy was examined.", "tags": [ "Religion", "Church Conflict", "Missionary Work" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 25, "chapter_name": "c.1619. Robert de Nobili’s Letter to Pope Paul V", "page_numbers": [ 51 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00075-88faaeaa6eeb9a6c3e27.webp" ], "chunk_title": "The Order Affects Converts", "chunk_data": "Not only this order affected all the neophytes, but many others who desired to embrace the Christian religion.", "time": { "start_year": 1607, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1619, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "c. 1607–1619" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Christian neophytes", "Potential converts" ], "places": [ "Madura" ], "event": "The order affected both existing converts and people who wished to become Christians.", "tags": [ "Religion", "Conversion", "Church Conflict" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 26, "chapter_name": "c.1619. Robert de Nobili’s Letter to Pope Paul V", "page_numbers": [ 51 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00075-88faaeaa6eeb9a6c3e27.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Appeal to the Archbishop", "chunk_data": "That is why the Archbishop of Cranganore", "time": { "start_year": 1607, "start_month": null, "start_date": null, "end_year": 1619, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "c. 1607–1619" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Archbishop of Cranganore", "Robert de Nobili" ], "places": [ "Cranganore", "Madura" ], "event": "Robert de Nobili connected the controversy over his methods with the intervention of the Archbishop of Cranganore.", "tags": [ "Religion", "Church Politics" ] } } ] }