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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[MAY, 1917
nothing to gratify their avarice. When Proenza subsequently returned, they accused him of soroery and of having caused a Valaiyan to be possessed, and the governor ordered his arrest.
The persecution and trial of Proenza, Proenza once again made his escape, but not to a place outside Trichinopoly. He went to the Naik commander of the army, a man of broad mind and kindly nature, whose friendly attitude to the Christian religion was well known. The general, an uncle of the king at Madura and therefore a person of great influence in the Court and council, gave refuge to Proenza, and at his instigation induced the governor to order a public trial, so that the preacher could prove his innocence to the world. It was a plausible request, and the governor appointed judges. These however were his tools and decided that the accuration of the Valaiyans was right. The general however refused to recognize the sham trial and sent men to his nephew to inform him of the event. The governor also sent his decision. The Da a vâi-Pradhani at Madura thereupon ordered a retrial of the case, and at the same time expressed a desire to see a record of the evidence. The result was, that the evidence of the Valaiyan was found to be of no value and Proenza was acquitted.
Other missionaries of the period. The Christians had many similar annoyances; but opposition gave them strength and increased their numbers. In all this they had to thank their leaders, Aroclini and Proenza in Trichinopoly, Stephen and De Silva in Madura, De Costa and Alwarez in Tanjore, Frere and others in the East Coast. Alwarez, who died in June 1664, after 21 years of glorious service, was a fit successor of De Nobilis and Martins. Proenza, an Italian of Lombardy, was an equally great man. Historically he occupies a more conspicuous place, as it was around him the court intrigues in Trichinopoly were very active. Indifferent to personal violence and physical suffering he used to make long excursions north of Trichinopoly for the sake of the Pariahs, the special objects of his solicitude, in one of which excursions he died of sheer exhaustion. Between 1670 and 1680 the work of the mission declined in the Western region in Satyamangalam, while it increased in activity in the Coromandel coast from Jingi to Ramnad. The progress in the northern part of the region, in the basin of the Coleroon, was due to the untiring labours of Father Frere, and in the southern part to the labours of the singularly remarkable saint and sage, who came to Madura as the head of the mission. This was the celebrated John de Britto, a sage, who as a preacher and servant of God, was perhaps greater, certainly purer, than Da Nobilis himself.
Jean de Britto. Jean de Britto was born at Lisbon of illustrious parents in March 1647. His father Don Pereyra was a favourite of the Duke of Braganza, later on king, then governor of Rio de Janeiro. His mother Donra Beatrix, was a highborn woman of a lively intellect and religious bent of mind. De Britto shewed the spirit of a saint and a martyr even in his youth, when he was under the instruction of the Jesuits. So serious and solemn be was in his studies that his companions called him a martyr, little dreaming that the aristocratic child was after all destined to die thousands of miles away amidst a sturdy and higoted race, for the sake of Christ and the Cross. In December 1662, De Britto bocame, in spite of the dissuasions of the Infanta whose companion and playmate he was and of the queen-regent, a member of the society of Jesus; and after eleven years of
