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The East India Company and Roman Catholic Missionaries

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 February 2009

Kenneth Ballhatchet
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Extract

The general opinion of historians has been that the East India Company was opposed to the presence of Christian missionaries in India. It is generally held also that when the Charter Act of 813 left the Company with no option but to admit them, its governments in India maintained a fairly consistent posture of religious neutrality. These notions have recently been reinforced by Penelope Carson. But thisignores the Company's policies towards Roman Catholic missionaries. In the eighteenth century the Company welcomed Roman Catholic missionaries. It was at the nvitation of the Bombay government that Italian Carmelite missionaries settled there in 1718. It was at the invitation of the authorities of Fort St George that a French Capuchin mission was established in Madras in 1742. When the Company came into Kerala towards the end of the eighteenth century an Italian Carmelite mission was already established there, with a bishop and two priests. The mission was soon receiving material support from the Company.

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Articles
Information
The Journal of Ecclesiastical History , Volume 44 , Issue 2 , April 1993 , pp. 273 - 288
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1993

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References

1 Penelope, Carson ‘An imperial dilemma: the propagation of Christianity in early colonial India’, Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History 18 (1990), 169–90.Google Scholar

2 Bishop, Luigi (Aloysius) Maria di Gesul, Fr Raimondo and Fr Valentino to governor of Bombay, 3 Mar. 1799, Board's Collection 601/14474. Bishop Luigi was bishop of Ursula in partibus: Ambrosius a S. Teresia, ‘Hierarchia Carmelitana, iv’, Analecta Ordinis Carmelitanum Discalceatorum 18 (1938),212.Google Scholar

3 Public letter from Bombay, 14 Dec. 1799, para. 12.

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8 Fr Prospero to Propaganda Fide, 30 Sept. 1814, Archives of Propaganda Fide, SC Ind. Or. 2 (1811–19), 74–5; Prospero to Father-General, 30 Sept. 1814, ibid. 76–81V; Acta CP Sin. & Ind. 20 (1815–21), 52–3; Fr Saverio to Propaganda Fide, 10 Dec. 1818, SC Ind. Or. 2 (1811–19), 206.

9 Cardinal Fontana to secretary, East India Company, 7 Oct. 1820, Board's Collection 601/14474. Francesco Fontana succeeded Lorenzo Litta as cardinal prefect in 1818.

10 Committee of Accounts memo, 15 Dec. 1820, ibid.

11 Public letter from Bombay, 16 June 1814, paras 28–39.

12 Public despatch to Bombay, 8 Apr. 1816, paras 13–16.

13 Public despatch to Bombay, 21 Jul. 1786, para. 18.

14 Memorial from parishioners of St Michael's, Mahim, n.d., Bombay public proceedings, 29 Mar. 1791, 174–7; memorial from parishioners of Salvacao, Mahim, 12 Apr. 1791,Google Scholar ibid. 15 Apr. 1791, 241–5.

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17 Public despatch to Bombay, 25 June 1793, para. 35.

18 Archbishop Manuel de S. Gualdino.

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22 Erskine to government, 2 Mar. 1819, ibid. 488–95.

23 Campbell, minute, n.d., Madras Public Proceedings, 30 Oct. 1787, 2752–9.

24 In fact eight laymen were selected by the bishop, and four of these were nominated as syndics by the government: Regulations for the Capuchins, ibid. 3 Mar. 1787, 313–14.

25 Report by bishop and syndics, ibid. 20 Mar. 1792, 85ff.

26 Adrian de Fries and Miguel Joannes to government, 3 Apr. 1792, ibid. 3 Apr. 1792, 97gf. The de Fries brothers were well-known bankers in Madras.

27 Public letter from Bombay, 1 Nov. 1819, para. 91.

28 Judge and magistrate to government, 31 Jan. 1820, Bombay Public Proceedings, 31 Jan. 1820, 185–93.

29 Public letter from Bombay, 12 Aug. 1820, paras 23–7.

30 Public despatch to Bombay, 23 Jan. 1828, paras 33–42.

31 Fran¸ois Xavier to government, 13 Mar. 1821, Board's Collection 20461 (he spelt his name in this way when writing in French to the government.); Harris, J. (Collector) to government, 22 Sept., 22 Nov. 1821; government to Collector, 4 Dec. 1821.Google Scholar

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38 Supreme government to Madras government, g Dec. 1835, Madras Ecclesiastical Proceedings, Jan. 1836, 18–20.

39 Government resolution, ibid. 20–1.

40 Beauclair to Lt Col. Dalgairns, 24 Sept, Madras Military Proceedings, 27 Oct. 1835, 14181–2.

41 Dalgairns to Beauclair, 27 Sept. 1835, ibid.

42 Beauclair to GOC, Mysore, 30 Sept., ibid. 43 Government resolution, ibid.

43 Government resolution, ibid.

44 Gamier to Father-General, 12 Feb. 1839, Archivum Romanum Societatis Iesu, Missio Madur. i-iv-3; Martin to Father-General, 4 Jan. 1840,ibid, I-V-I ; Bertrand to Father-General, n.d., ibid, i-iv-10.

45 Gamier to government, 25 Jan. 1841, Madras Ecclesiastical Proceedings, 25 Jan. 1841, 118–20.

46 Government to Carew, 4 Feb. 1841, ibid. Feb. 1841, 15.

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52 Carew to Government, 4jan. 1841, ibid. 57–65. Besides the Irish troops in the British army serving in India the Company had its own regiments of British troops, and recruited directly in Ireland. The problem was eventually resolved with the issue of the Douai Bible and The Garden of the Soul to Roman Catholic soldiers in the Queen' Army: Olive Anderson, ‘The growth of Christian militarism in mid-Victorian Britain’, English Historical Review lxxxvi (1971), 46–72.

53 Auckland, minute, 30 Jan. 1841, India Ecclesiastical Proceedings, 10 Feb. 1841, 9.

54 Government of India to Madras government, 9 Feb. 1841, Madras Ecclesiastical Proceedings, 10 Feb. 1841, 14.

55 Ecclesiastical despatch to Madras, 21 Sept. 1842, paras 25–6.

56 Ecclesiastical letter from Madras, 31 May 1853; Ecclesiastical despatch to Madras, 6 Mar. 1844.

57 Ecclesiastical despatch to Government of India, 17 Sept. 1845, paras 6–8. The reference to ‘ignorant individuals and low persons of Portuguese extraction’ was inserted by the Board of Control, whose president was Lord Ripon: Board to Court, 3 Sept. 1845, letters from Board, xiv, 376.

58 Bishop, Manuel de Jesus Maria José Mailapur was near Madras, but the bishop' authority extended to Bengal. In the absence of a bishop authority was exercised by a senior priest termed governor (governador).Google Scholar

59 O'Connor, to government, 13 Aug. 1836, Madras Ecclesiastical Proceedings, 23 Aug. 1836, 292–301; Government of India to Madras government, 19 Oct. 1836,Google Scholar ibid. Nov. 1836, 507–19.

60 Minute, n.d., Auckland Papers, British Library, MS Add. 36474, fos 567–73.

61 Auckland to Elphinstone, 30 Mar. 1838, MS Eur. F87 Box 2 g, 23.

62 Hobhouse to Elphinstone, 24 Nov. 1838, ibid. Box 2 b, 14, 48–55.

63 Ecclesiastical despatch to Madras, 1 Apr. 1840, para. 14.

64 Keating to bishop, n.d., Madras Ecclesiastical Proceedings, 5 Mar. 1839, 151.

65 Sheriff to bishop, 18 Feb. 1839, ibid. 152–3.

66 Sir Robert Comyn to government, 11 Mar. 1839, ibid. Mar. 1839, 203–4.

67 Minute, 21 Dec. 1841,ibid. 2 Jan. 1841, 62–3.

68 Government resolution, ibid. 64–5.

69 Davidson, D. to government, 13 Jan. 1857, Bombay Ecclesiastical Proceedings, 19 Feb. 1857, 130.Google Scholar

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73 After Bishop Alcantara' death, his successor Bishop Fortini was not paid, but Fortini' successor Bishop William Whelan was paid a government stipend of 200 rupees a month initially, later increased to 400 rupees. Bishop Whelan was known to have regularly visited British troops in Bombay after the Sind campaign, in spite of an outbreak of cholera among them.

74 Ecclesiastical despatch to Government of India, 1 Aug. 1852. These were the bishops in Madras and Bombay, and in West and East Bengal.

75 Petition from Persico and Strickland, n.d., Board' Collection 2525/14174.

76 Lucas, speech on 15 Aug. 1853, and Wood' reply, Parliamentary Debates, 3rd. ser., cxxix, 1722–3.

77 Ecclesiastical despatch to Government of India, 28 Feb. 1856.

78 Government of India to Bombay government, 29 May 1856, para. 4, Bombay Ecclesiastical Proceedings, 28 June 1856, 388.

79 Jones, E. C. (Collector, Thana) to government, 10 Dec. 1856, and government to Jones, 18 Dec. 1856,Google Scholar ibid. 31 Dec. 1856, 827–8.

80 Ecclesiastical despatch to Bombay, 11 Aug. 1858, para. 9.