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MAY, 1917]
THE HISTORY OF THE NAIK KINGDOM OF MADURA
103
and jeered at, the saint was taken to the Sêtupati, and he, in response to the advice of his advisers, resolved to put an end to his life. Unwilling to shed the blood himself or afraid of the rebellion of Tadia Tevan's men, he sent the father to a brother of his, Udaya Tevan, then evidently a local chief on the Pâmban. The latter, a lame man, asked the missionary to cure him of his lameness by his magic-for, all this time the universal impression was that he was a magician and deluder of men's minds-and on his pleading inability, it was taken for unwillingness, and he was taken to the scaffold, erected in a plain and seen by all men, tied to a post, and cut to pieces, after the severance of the head from the body. Even the right of burial was denied and the corpse was left to be devoured by birds and beasts.
De Britto18 had gained his great object-martyrdom. It was in 1693, (February).
Such is the life and career of De Britto.19 The historian cannot but have a deep affection for his personality. A more inspiring, ennobling, sincere or profound martyr never came to India. Compared with that of De Nobilis, it will be readily noticed that his moral influence was greater, his character more tender and sympathetic. There was much hypocrisy and more self-contradiction in De Nobilis; but De Britto was all sincerity, a personification of uniform and shining virtues. De Nobilis might have been more aston shingly equipped for the work of controversy, he might have even a longer number of the accredited prophetic gifts; but while his genius and his intellectual powers can be readily recognized, it is certain that he is at a distance from De Britto in the beauty of character and the sincerity of God's servant.
In a sketch of the activities of the Madura Mission; one thing should always be remembered,—namely that the Madura missionaries, in the enthusiasm of their propaganda, forgot the spirit of their own gospel and persecuted the other Christians who, like them, wanted to elevate the heathen. A remarkable example of the narrow sectarianism of the Jesuits is clear in a case of Christian converts at Uttamapalayam in 1680. One of these Christians" went to the Syrian Christians in the mountains of Travancore, and represented to their bishop that in Uttamapalayam, at the foot of the mountains on the Madura side, there were several Brahman converts who had not accepted baptisement at the hands of the Jesuits, because they regarded them as Parangis. He was asked to come and baptize them, and with them a great prince of that region. The bishop sent an Italian Carmelite, and he went in his European dress to the church at Uttamapalayam. The catechist there begged him to avoid lowcaste neophytes, and because he refused to do that, withdrew with the whole congregation, and there shut him out of the church. The Carmelite's guide abandoned him and the Hindus would not help him, so that the poor man, forsaken in a strange country, disappeared, and probably perished. The Madura priests approved of the catechist's action.20 "
18 O. H. MSS.. II, 223.
19 The life of Constantius Beschi is important more for its literary than its religious work. I have therefore dealt with it in Chap. XI.
20 Chandler Madura Mission.
