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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
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(DECEMBER, 1916
His return to Madura (1638) And persecution. In the year 1638 De Nobilis found himself once again at Madura. During the 15 years of his absence his work here had been continued by Father Vico, and now they combined their labours. De Nobilis' delinquencies were forgotten in his services, and he was received with cordiality by all. A timely service he was supposed to have done on this occasion raised him to Court favour. A Brahman magnate had a haunted palace, and it was freed from the evil spirit by the blessings of De Nobilis and the influence of a fentence of scripture he attached to the arms of the inmates. The gratitude of the Brahman, it is said, gained him the Näik's favour. And De Nobilis took advantage of the new condition to increase the sphere of his activities. Availing himself of the death of Father Vico (after a hard life of 28 years) in October 1639, the first missionary to be buried in Madura, De Nobilis proceeded to Cochin to get new missionaries. Re-inforcemente were now articularly necessary, as he himself was by this time too old, worn out, and weaksighted to labour much. The new recruits had more enthusiasm than discretion. They appear to have pursued a line of extremism and made a frontal attack on Hindu beliefs. Their activity therefore raised widespread alarm, and even Tirumal Naik had to give way to it and order the arrest of the missionaries both in Madura and Trichinopoly. Some of the Madura missionaries escaped, but De Nobilis was seized, the church and presbytery plundered, and the fathers, with their Brahman attendants, were, after exposure to the sun till night, taken to the prison and detained there for seventeen days on a handful of rice, without a change of clothes or water. The Nâik himself was so indignant with De Nobilis' obstinacy that he expressed the desire of killing him with his own hand. As for the missionary the more he suffered and the older he grew, the more did his studies and his austerity increase. Whether in prison or whether free, he and his companions were uniformly active. Even when free, they could not sometimes, go to their Church and had to live an I worship in huts. In the midst of all this De Nobilis found time to compose various works. “For instance, to replace the wailing chants of.widows, he composed laments on the Passion, the desolation of the Holy Mother, the fall of the angels, Adam, the evils in chastisements, etc. These were taught to Christian widows and by them he tried to protect the neophytes from t'ie unclean language of heathen songs." (Chandler).
De Nobilis' appeal to Tirumal and his edict of toleration. By the year 1644 De Nobilis was tired of persecution. He held consultations with the other missionaries and resolved to appeal to the generous sentiments of Tirumal Naik. Through the influence of a eunuch, they gained the royal audience and placed before the kind monarch a heartfelt appeal for favour. Speaking in Tamil, Telugu and Sanskrit, the reverend and blind father, a true Father of his faith, dilated on the tribulations of the Christians and used all his remarkable persuasive powers to move the heart of the Naik monarch. And he gained his object. Tirumal issued an edict of toleration, authorised the missionaries to live and preach in his dominions, restored the spoils of the church, expressed a desire to see the leaders every month at his Court, and dismissed them with robes of honour. The Pandarams were alarmed at this change in the king's attitude. They held a consultation among themselves, and resolved to kill De Nobilis by magic. The most capable magician in the land invoked, in the midst of a curious crowd, the anger of the Gods. He arranged his apparatus, traced figures in the sand and circles in the air, performed certain ceremonies, and with inflamed eyes, contorted face, grinding teeth, and howling tongue, threw a black powder in the air cursing the missionary to death. But De Nobilis stood before him as hale as ever. The magic had failed, and people concluded that the missionary was more than human,
(To be continued.)
