Revaluation of Tradition in the Ideology of the Radical Adivasi Resistance

Article

Cross, Sword and

Conflicts: A Study of the
Political Meanings of
the Struggle between the
Padroado Real and the
Propaganda Fide

251

Studies in History
27(2) 251267
2011 Jawaharlal Nehru University
SAGE Publications
Los Angeles, London,
New Delhi, Singapore,
Washington DC
DOI: 10.1177/0257643012459418
http://sih.sagepub.com

Pius Malekandathil

Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India
Abstract
Geographical explorations and the subsequent intensification of external
commerce made many political actors of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries AD drag in religion and its various institutions as pliable devices for strengthening their claims of monopoly and control over the political and commercial
life of the newly discovered regions. In the midst of these developments, the
pre-colonial struggles for appropriating surplus from the European possessions
in Asia were at times in the form of struggles between different religious institutions and administrative machineries within the same belief system professed
by the various European powers. These conflicts often arose when some of the
religious institutions, which were devised at different points of time in history to
transmit various types of spiritual experiences to the believers, were appropriated by power-mongers for realizing their political and economic agenda. One
of the religious institutions that were often utilized for political purposes during
the early modern period was the church administrative system of patronage or
the Patronato that the Spaniards introduced in America and the Padroado Real that
the Portuguese set up in Asia. As per the right of patronage that the Pope conceded in AD 1455, the Portuguese Crown became the sole authority that could
send missionaries to the lands controlled by the Lusitanians, which eventually
created a certain type of monopoly for them in matters of Christianity in areas
under their influence and kept missionaries of other nationalities out of Asian
and Brazilian soil. When the religious issues in Asia began to get increasingly
embroiled in the politics of the times, thanks to the dominance of Lusitanian
interests in the Padroado system, Pope Gregory XV devised the Propaganda Fide
in AD 1622 as an alternative church administrative system for Asia, which in fact
was meant to provide opportunities basically for non-Portuguese people, both
Indians and Europeans, for missionary work in Asia. However, this led to a chain

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Pius Malekandathil

of conflicts between the ecclesiastical administrative institutions of the Padroado

Real and those of the Propaganda Fide, in Asia in general and India in particular,
where the core issues of contestation began to revolve around matters of politics and the exercise of power. The central purpose of this article is to examine
the nuanced nature of the conflicts that arose between the church administrative
systems of the Padroado and the Propaganda at different points in time and also
to see how the religious conflicts were appropriated and politicized by the various European colonial powers to further their politico-economic agenda in India.
Keywords
Padroado Real, Propaganda Fide, religion and politics, ethnic mutation of LusoIndians, changing colonial trajectories

Evolution of the Padroado Real

The establishment of the Padroado Real in Asia, Africa and Brazil was a unique
experiment in the Catholic Church, which developed it as an institutional arrangement to do evangelization work in the newly discovered territories of the
Portuguese in the three continents.1 The beginnings of the Padroado Real are
traced back to the papal bull Romanus Pontifex of AD 1455, when the Pope, besides
legitimizing the Portuguese discoveries and their claim of domination over the
newly discovered territories, handed over the spiritual jurisdiction of these places,
including missionary work, to the patronage of the Portuguese Crown.2 The king
1

C.R. Boxer, The Portuguese Sea-borne Empire, 14151825 (London: Hutchinson of London, 1969),
22829. See Antonio Da Silva Rego, Le Patronage Portugais de lOrient, un aperu Historique
(Lisbon: Agencia Geral do Ultramar, 1957); Fortunato de Almeida, Historia da Igreja em Portugal,
vols 14 (Porto: Imprensa Academica, 196771); Francisco Bethencourt and Kirti Chaudhuri (eds),
Historia da Expanso Portuguesa, vol. I (Lisbon: Crculo de Leitores, 1998), 36986; Isabel Dos
Guimares Sa, Ecclesiastical Structures and Religious Action, in Portuguese Oceanic Expansion,
14001800, ed. Francisco Bethencourt and Diogo Ramada Curto (New York: Cambridge University
Press, 2007), 25582.
2
In fact, the Padroado rights and duties were initially given to the Order of Christ, which was one
among the four military religious orders (Santiago, Avis, Hospital and Christ) of Portugal involved in
the fight against Islam in the context of the Crusades. The Order of Christ, which was founded by King
Dinis in AD 1319 to replace the Order of the Knights of Templars after its suppression by the Pope, had
channelized a great amount of the wealth of the Templars for sponsoring the Portuguese voyages of
geographical discovery in the Atlantic. Since the time of Prince Henry the Navigator, who was the
Grand Master of the Order of Christ, voyages leading to geographical discoveries became an important activity of the Order of Christ, which was eventually given by the Pope the spiritual jurisdiction
over the lands, islands and places hitherto discovered or yet to be discovered by the Portuguese. After
the death of Henry, the headship Order of Christ was incorporated in the Portuguese Crown. See
Boxer, The Portuguese Sea-borne Empire, 229; Dos Guimares Sa, Ecclesiastical Structures, 258.
A series of papal bulls like Dum Diversus (AD 1452), Romanus Pontifex (AD 1455) and Inter Caetera
(AD 1456) were issued to the Portuguese rulers, handing over to them spiritual authority in the newly
discovered areas.

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253

of Portugal could propose the creation of new bishoprics and nominate bishops
for the newly discovered territories, and for all practical purposes it meant rights
to rule over their spiritual matters as patron of the missions and to set up dioceses,
religious institutions as well as houses in such territories, where they also held the
right of presenting prelates and office holders to vacant sees, religious houses and
other ecclesiastical institutions. The responsibility that fell upon the Portuguese
rulers, in return for it, was that they should provide for the material needs of the
church and clerics appointed by them in such territories.3 The patronage rights
made the Portuguese Crown virtually the sole power that could send missionaries
to Asia, Africa and Brazil, where the temporal and the spiritual domains were
made to merge together so as to augment the weight of the Lusitanian power in
their enclaves.
Though the amount of evangelization work carried out by the Padroado system cannot be underestimated, the political uses to which this institution was
subjugated by the national monarch of Portugal cannot be altogether ignored,
either. Very often, the functioning of the Padroado was made to encompass
activities leading not only to the extension of Gods glory but also the extension
of the glory of Portugal; not only to the proclamation of the Gospel but also the
empowerment of the Portuguese Crown.4 In the Crown of Portugal, as king and
Grand Master of the Order of Christ, both the temporal and spiritual powers
were combined, where religious activities were not restricted to the spiritual realm
alone, but were extended to the farthest possible temporal realms; and the temporal activities were not confined to the secular realm alone, but were stretched
to the farthest possible religious spheres to empower the national monarch.5 The
political overtones that the system carried with it are evident in the writings of
some of the Padroado priests like Pe. Antonio Vieira (AD 160897), who, while
working in Brazil, used to argue that the kingdom of Portugal and the Portuguese
were entrusted with the task of establishing the kingdom of God on earth and
that the Second Coming of Christ would be realized only with the establishment of Portuguese rule on earth.6 These arguments gave sufficient justification
for the Portuguese to combine matters of religion with polity while flourishing
outside Europe.
3

Thomas Pallippurathukkunnel, A Double Regime in the Malabar Church (Alwaye: Pontifical

Institute, 1982), 34.
4
Pius Malekandathil (ed.), Jornada of D. Alexis Menezes: A Portuguese Account of the Sixteenth
Century Malabar (Cochin: LRC Publications, 2003), LIVLV.
5
This central idea is highlighted later in the works of Pe.Antonio Vieira (AD 160897). According to
him, the prophecies of the Bible are to be fulfilled through the kingdom of Portugal and the Portuguese
were entrusted with the task of establishing the kingdom of God on earth. He even goes to the extent
of equating the Second Coming of Christ with the establishment of Portuguese rule on earth (the fifth
universal monarchy), which ensures civilization process and conversion of people to Christianity. For
a detailed study on the ideas of Antonio Vieira, see Raymond Cantel, Prophetisme et Messianisme
dans loeuvre dAntonio Vieira (Paris: diciones Hispano-Americanas, 1960).
6
Ibid.

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The Padroado and the Spice-producing

St Thomas Christians
In India, the Padroado had three levels of functions to perform, of which the most
important were the religious and spiritual; however, the economic and political
significance of some of these functions cannot be ignored. On the one hand, it had
to cater to the spiritual needs of the Portuguese settlers in their various enclaves
scattered along coastal India. On the other hand, it was required to undertake missionary work in the vast terrains of Asia, alongside their Hindu collaborators and
neighbours in India. These two functions necessitated the introduction of the various institutions and devices of Padroado administration in India as early as
AD 1514, when the spiritual care of all the Portuguese possessions in India was
brought under the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the diocese of Funchal located in
the Atlantic.7 However, the missionary work of the Padroado got accelerated only
with the establishment of the diocese of Goa in AD 15338 and the arrival of the
Jesuits in Goa and Cochin in AD 1542.9 Large-scale conversion activities started
from the 1540s onwards, and thousands of people were converted all over Asia by
zealous missionaries, including St Francis Xavier.10 The increase in the spiritual
functions in various Portuguese pockets and missions, besides the growing impetus for evangelization work, necessitated the elevation of Goa into an archdiocese
in AD 1558, with Cochin as well as Malacca as its suffragan dioceses.11 Mylapore
was elevated to the category of suffragan diocese later, in AD 1606.12 The major
religious orders of the JesuitsFranciscans, Dominicans and Augustinians
operating under the Padroado had grown enough to have provincial houses for
each in Goa and regional houses in Cochin, Bassein, Bengal, Nagapattinam and
7

Joo de Barros, Asia. Dos feitos que os Portugueses fizeram no Descobrimento e Conquista dos
Mares e Terras do Oriente, Decada I, livro 1 (Lisboa: Rgia Officina Typografica, 177778); Maria
Levy Jordo (ed.), Bullaruium Patronatus Portugaliae Regum in Ecclesiis Africae, Asiae atque
Oceaniae, tom.I (Olisipone, 1868), 170. Till the erection of the Funchal diocese, all the Christians in
the newly discovered territories were directly catered to by the Order of Christ.
8
Casimiro Christovo De Nazareth, Mitras Lusitanas no Oriente (Lisboa, 1894), 1618; Jordo,
Bullaruium Patronatus, 148. Angra in Azores, Santiago in Cape Verde, So Tome in Africa, and Goa
in India were created almost simultaneously (AD 153334), to cater spiritually to the growing Christian
communities in the continents of Africa and Asia.
9
De Almeida, Historia da Igreja, 169; Gervasis J. Mulakara, History of the Diocese of Cochin:
European Missionaries in Cochin, 12921558, vol. I (Rome: Casa degli Scrittori S. Pietro Canisio,
1986), 9091; Josef Wicki, The Portuguese Padroado in India in the Sixteenth Century and Francis
Xavier, in Christianity in India, ed. E.R. Hambye and H.C. Perumalil (Alleppey: Prakasham
Publications, 1972), 4664; 9495.
10
For more details, see Georg Schurhammer, Francis Xavier: His Life and Times, vols IIV, trans.
M. Joseph Costelloe (Rome: The Jesuit Historical Institute, 1973).
11
BNL, Fundo Geral, Codex 737l, Ereco da villa em cidade (de Cochim), creao do bispado a
pedido de d. Sebastio, 1557, fols. 2714; De Almeida, Historia da Igreja, 25; Jordo, Bullaruium
Patronatus, 191, 193, 196.
12
Jordo, Bullaruium Patronatus, 4; De Nazareth, Mitras Lusitanas, 95.

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Mylapore.13 In most places, such as Goa, the conquests made by the sword were
followed by cultural homogenization by missionaries, principally by the Jesuits in
Salcete and the Franciscans in Bardez.14 Concomitantly, dialogues of a different
nature were also held with the power centres and prominent political actors of
different regions through the medium of the Padroado missionaries, which were
often sequels or parallel processes to political dialogues and economic partnerships. Thus, the Franciscans were involved in a chain of dialogues with the king
of Tanur in Kerala (1540s),15 and Dharmapala of Kotte in Ceylon (1550s)16; the
Jesuits with the Mughal rulers from AD 1580 to 175917; and the Augustinians with
Shah Abbas of Iran in the first decades of the seventeenth century AD.18 Most of
these interactions were religious in nature, but they also helped to create a climate
conducive for protecting the economic interests of the Portuguese state in the
respective regions on a long-term basis.
In the administration of spiritual duties, the Padroado authorities were often
made to keep an eye on all the realms that would strengthen the Portuguese state,
which would mean that the Padroado was considerably used as a handmaiden of
the Portuguese state.19 The smooth combining of the domains of spirituality and
13

De Nazareth, Mitras Lusitanas.

For the purpose of evangelization, Salcete region of Goa was earmarked for the Jesuits, while
Bardez was given to the Franciscans and Tiswadi region was entrusted to the Dominicans and the
Augustinians. For details, see Joseph Thekkedath, History of Christianity in India, vol. II (Bangalore:
The Church History Association of India, 1988), 31063.
15
ANTT, Corpo Cronologico, I, Mao 87, doc. 50; Antonio Da Silva Rego (ed.), Documentao
para a Historia das Misses, vol. IV (Lisboa: Agencia Geral das Colonias, 1948), 34950, 56768;
D. Ferroli, The Jesuits in Malabar, vol. I (Bangalore: Bangalore Press, 1939), 13037.
16
P.E. Pieris, Ceylon: The Portuguese Era, vol. I (Colombo: Colombo Apothecaries, 1913), 12023;
Ferno De Qeyroz, The Temporal and Spiritual Conquest of Ceylon, vol. I, trans. Fr S.G. Perera
(Colombo: Asian Educational Service, 1992), 299305; Georg Schurhammer and F.A. Voretzch,
Ceylon, vol. I (Leipzig: Verlag der Asia Major, 1928), 58384; P.E. Pieris and M.A.H. Fitzler, Ceylon
and Portugal, Part I (Leipzig: Verlag der Asia Major, 1927), 25758. On embracing Christianity,
Dharmapala (AD 155197) confiscated the temple property and gifted them to the Franciscans in 1557.
De Queyroz, Temporal and Spiritual Conquest, 33931.
17
Edward MacLagan, The Jesuits and the Great Mogul (London: Burns, Oates and Washbourne,
1932); See also Sanjay Subrahmanyam, A Matter of Alignment: Mughal Gujarat and the Iberian
World in the Transition of 158081, Mare Liberum no. 9 (1995): 46179; 467.
18
For details, see Malekandathil, Jornada of D. Alexis Menezes, 55391; De Nazareth, Mitras
Lusitanas, 95; Antonio De Gouveia, Relaes da Persia e do Oriente (Lisboa, 1609).
19
However, it should also be mentioned that the relationship between the Portuguese officials and the
missionaries was not always cordial. Sometimes, the missionaries had serious clashes with royal representatives and officials in Asia. But generally speaking they acted in unison. Later developments
took such a drastic political turn that the non-Portuguese European missionaries who did not take an
oath of loyalty to the king of Portugal were not allowed to work in India. One of the striking cases is
that of the Carmelites, who had to leave Goa because of their refusal to take the oath of fidelity to the
Portuguese Crown. In AD 1649, Fr Ephrem OFM (Cap.) was brought to the trial of inquisition for having done Christianization work in Madras, independently of Goa. For details, see O.C.D. Dominic,
The Latin Missions under the Jurisdiction of Propaganda (16371838), in Christianity in India, ed.
H.C. Perumalil and E.R. Hambye (Alleppey: Prakasham Publications, 1972), 10228; 1078.
14

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Pius Malekandathil

materiality was also realized by the frequent appointment of the bishops of the
Padroado dioceses as viceroys, governors and other top temporal officials of the
Portuguese state of India, as in the case of Dom Alexis Menezes, Dom Francis
de Martyres and Dom Antonio Brando, who were archbishops of Goa and later
made governors of Portuguese state in India.20
The third function that the Padroado was made to perform in India was to
bring the spice-producing group of St Thomas Christians under its jurisdiction,
for the purpose of keeping the latter manoeuverable to realize the trading interests
of the Portuguese. It was believed that the Padroado jurisdiction would facilitate the Portuguese to penetrate into the otherwise impregnable pockets of spiceproduction in central Kerala. The St Thomas Christians, who trace their origins
to the apostle St Thomas,21 formed the most important spice-producing group in
central Kerala,22 with a population of about 100,000 in AD 1568.23 They had their
own diocese at Angamaly24 and were spiritually administered to by their own

20

In AD 1627, the Augustinian bishop Lewis de Britto, the bishop of Mylapore and later bishop-elect
of Cochin, was made the acting governor of Portuguese India. Earlier he had served twice as the governor of the Portuguese settlements of the Coromandel Coast. In AD 1651, the Archbishop of Goa,
Dom Francis de Martyres, took charge as the acting governor of the Portuguese possessions in India.
Later Dom Antonio Brando, the archbishop of Goa, administered Portuguese territories jointly with
Antonio Paes de Saude (AD 1678). We find several instances of archbishops of Goa or the bishop of
Cochin sharing the temporal powers and ruling as governor of Portuguese India. For details, see Denis
L. Cottineau De Kloguen, An Historical Sketch of Goa (New Delhi: Asian Educational Society, 2005),
2529. Alexis de Menezes, who was the archbishop of Goa from AD 1595 onwards, was also the
governor of Estado da India from AD 16079 and later viceroy of Portugal from AD 1614 to 1615.
See Malekandathil, Jornada of D. Alexis Menezes, XXIIXXIII.
21
For details on the origin of Indian Christians, see Mathias Mundadan, Sixteenth Century Traditions
of St Thomas Christians (Bangalore: The Church History Association of India, 1970), 3867; Joseph
C. Panjikaran, Christianity in Malabar with Special Reference to the St Thomas Christians of the
Syro-Malabar Rite, Orientalia Christiana VI, Pontifical Institutum Orientalium Studiorum, Rome,
no. 23 (1926): 10017; Jonas Thaliath, The Synod of Diamper (Orientalia Christiana Analecta,
152) (Rome: Pontifical Institutum Orientalium Studiorum, 1958); Fr Bernard, The History of the
St Thomas Christians (Pala, 1916); Placid J. Podippara, The Thomas Christians (Bombay: St Paul
Publications, 1970).
22
St Thomas Christians were described in the Portuguese documents as the major cultivators of pepper
in central Kerala. See ANTT, Cartas dos Vice-Reis da India, doc. 95; Antonio da Silva Rego
Documentao para a Historia das Misses, vol. II (Lisboa: Agencia Geral das Colonias, 1948),
17576. See also E.R. Hambye, Medieval Christianity in India: The Eastern Church, in Christianity
in India, ed. E.R. Hambye and H.C. Perumalil (Alleppey: Prakasham Publications, 1972), 3037; 34;
Samuel Matteer, The Land of Charity: A Descriptive Account of Travancore and Its People (New
Delhi: Asian Educational Service, 1991), 23738.
23
Josef Wicki (ed.), Documenta Indica, vol. VII (Institutum Historicum Societatis Jesu, Roma,
1948/1950), 475; Joo Teles e Cunha, De Diamper a Mattancherry: Caminhos e Encruzilhadas da
Igreja Malabar e Catolica na India: Os Primeiros Tempos (15991624), Anais de Historia de AlemMar V (2004); 283368; 289.
24
Malekandathil, Jornada of D. Alexis Menezes, 4649, 5257, 15660.

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bishops who came from West Asia.25 The various indigenous customs and ritual
practices that these Christians developed among themselves over the centuries
and their long association with the East Syrian bishops from Babylon, who catered
to their spiritual needs, apparently stood as stumbling blocks that prevented the
Portuguese from penetrating into the affairs of the spice-producing Christians.
Against this backdrop, the Padroado authorities started resorting to the rhetoric
of heresy to interfere in the matters of indigenous Christians, whose ritual traditions, customs and practices were increasingly held to smack of Nestorian heresy
by the Padroado authorities, while their bishops, for example, Mar Joseph and
Mar Abraham, were arrested on allegations of perpetuating heresy among the
believers.26 Mar Joseph was arrested in Kerala and sent to Lisbon and then to
Rome, where the church authorities gave him a clean chit for his orthodoxy;
however, the moment he returned to India he was again arrested on charges of
heresy and deported to Rome, where he died in AD 1567.27 The next bishop Mar
Abraham, even though he had a valid episcopal ordination from the patriarch
of Venice himself, was jailed in Goa in AD 1582, again on charges of Nestorian
heresy.28 However, he managed to escape from there and fled to Kerala, where he
was ably protected by the St Thomas Christians.29
The chain of arrests of bishops from West Asia and their deportation to
Portugal and Rome was followed by Portuguese patrolling arrangements to
prevent any other West Asian bishop from entering India. The fact that Bishop
Mar Joseph was sent by a Catholic patriarch,30 with his orthodoxy being testified
to by Roman authorities, and that Mar Abraham was consecrated by the Catholic
patriarch of Venice, shows that they were already Catholics and the allegations
of heresy and arrests were not for the sake of faith and orthodoxy but something else. In fact, the intimidations in the form of arrests and deportations that

25

Pius Malekandathil, The Sassanids and the Maritime Trade of India during the Early Medieval
Period, Proceedings of the Indian History Congress (63rd Session, Amritsar 2002) (Kolkata: Indian
History Congress, 2003), 15766; Pius Malekandathil, Maritime India: Trade, Religion and Polity in
the Indian Ocean (New Delhi: Primus Books, 2010), 210.
26
For details of heretical accusations, see Joo Paulo Oliveira e Costa, Os Portugueses e a
Cristandade Siro-Malabar (14981530), Studia no. 52 (1994): 12178; 14567; Luis Filipe F.R.
Thomaz, Were Saint Thomas Christians Looked upon as Heretics?, in The Portuguese and the
Socio-cultural Changes in India, 15001800, ed. K. S. Mathew, Teotonio R. de Souza and Pius
Malekandathil (Fundao Oriente, Lisboa/IRISH,Tellicherry, 2001), 2791; Eugene Tisserant, Eastern
Christianity in India (trans. by E. R. Hambye) (Bombay: Orient Longman, 1957); Podipara, The
Thomas Christians.
27
Giuseppe Beltrami, La Chiesa Caldea nel Secolo dellUnione, Orientalia Christiana 29 (1933),
4047.
28
The letter of Fr Dionysius S. J., AD 1578, in Wicki, Documenta Indica, vol. XI, 62; 65.
29
Antonio da Silva Rego, Documentao para a Historia das Misses, vol. XII (Lisboa: Agencia
Geral das Colonias, 1948), 32122, 41112; Thekkedath, History of Christianity, 4755.
30
Ibid., 40.

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Pius Malekandathil

the Portuguese resorted to are to be seen as a part of the Portuguese attempts to

keep the West Asian bishops away from the resourceful indigenous Christians of
India. The allegations of Nestorian heresy among the spice-producing Christian
community provided the Portuguese authorities sufficient justification to interfere in their affairs through the medium of the Padroado. Finally, the Synod
of Diamper (AD 1599) offered the Padroado authorities ample scope to replace
the customs and practices of the indigenous Christians with Lusitanian customs
and ritual practices, and to wield sufficient power and control over the spiceproducing Christian community.31 In this process, the spice-producing Christians
were made to become an ecclesiastical appendage of the Portuguese Padroado,
which was meant sequentially to facilitate their conversion into an economic
appendage of the Portuguese commercial system. Obviously, here the Padroado
was conveniently used as a tool to integrate the spice-producing Christians with
the mercantilist world of the Portuguesean attempt to get the spice producers perpetually linked with the traders of Iberia through the commonality of
religionand to enhance Portuguese power and influence in areas where in the
normal course of action the power of weapons would not succeed.32

Establishment of the Propaganda Fide and the

Political Scenario
In the seventeenth century AD, realizing that the Padroado experiments in Asia,
Africa and America had failed, the Church authorities wanted to set up an alternative arrangement for Church administration and evangelization in these
continents directly under the Pope, without giving the Portuguese the chance to
interfere. This led to the establishment of the Congregation for the Propagation
of Faith, often called the Propaganda Fide, in AD 1622 by Pope Gregory XV.33
The reasons given for the establishment of the Propaganda Fide was that the
Portuguese patronage was unable to carry out the missionary commitments
entrusted upon it because of the vastness of the area. On the one hand, by the
1580s, when Portugal passed into the hands of Spanish rulers, it was difficult for
it to raise sufficient money to meet the increasing expenses of the missionary
31

For details on the Synod of Diamper, see Thaliath, The Synod of Diamper; Malekandathil, Jornada
of D. Alexis Menezes; Teotonio R. De Souza, The Indian Christians of St Thomas and the Portuguese
Padroado: Rape after a Century-long Courtship (14981599), in Christen und Gewrze, ed. Klaus
Koschorke (Gttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1997), 3142.
32
However, the move of the Padroado authorities to Lusitanize the St Thomas Christians did
not produce the integration that they dreamt of; instead, it only intensified the conflicts between
them and the Portuguese, and the former increasingly began to divert spices from their production
centres to the Coromandel ports through the Ghat routes as a part of their attempts to ventilate their
anger and resistance to the Lusitanians. For details, see Malekandathil, Jornada of D. Alexis Menezes,
LXIILXIII.
33
Dominic, The Latin Missions, 102.

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establishments.34 On the other hand, with the increasing occupation of Indian territories by the Dutch and the English who were Protestant and the political enemies of the Spaniards in Europe, the Padroado clergy in India with the Spanish
king as the virtual patron was banned from working in areas controlled by the
Protestant powers. The Padroado priests were looked upon by them as enemies
and a source of threat to their political domination, as a result of which the
Padroado could not do any evangelization work in the vast terrains of Asia lying
outside the limited zone of influence maintained by the Portuguese state.35
One of the first steps that the Propaganda took in Rome after its establishment was to send to Asia priests and bishops directly from Rome, bypassing the
LisbonGoa route, contrary to the usual practice followed under the Padroado.
In AD 1637, the first diocese (known as apostolic vicariate) in Asia under the
Propaganda was established at Bijapur. Matheus de Castro, a Goan Brahmin who
became a priest in AD 1630 in Rome, was made the bishop or vicar apostolic for
the vicariate of Bijapur. However, he had to face strong opposition from the archbishop of Goa, who was not ready to accept a church administrative system in
India operating independently of the Padroado.36 The Portuguese maintained that
the Propaganda missionaries were intruders, while the Propaganda Fide was
viewed as an encroachment upon the Padroado rights enjoyed by the Portuguese
kings for centuries. It was held that these rights once conceded to them by the
early Popes could not be revoked arbitrarily by a later Pope.37
The political advantages of the conflict between the Padroado and the
Propaganda were soon realized by the Dutch and the various regional rulers,
who earnestly came forward to support the Propaganda priests in their fight
34

For details on the passage of Portugal into the control of the Spaniards, see Joaquim Verissimo
Serro, Historia de Portugal, vol. III (Lisboa: Verbo, 1978), 8590 and vol. IV, 1415. For details on
the financial problems, see Pius Malekandathil, The Germans, the Portuguese and India (Mnster:
LIT Verlag, 1999), 7596.
35
The Italian priest Fr Francesco Ingoli, who was also the first secretary of the Propaganda Fide,
maintaining an anti-Portuguese position listed the following as the major problems with the Padroado:
equation of Portuguese royal ordinances with the apostolic briefs of the Pope; not providing enough
fund to maintain the churches; not appointing bishops in time; refusal from the Portuguese bishops
to ordain Asians as priests despite having all necessary qualifications; conversion and baptism of
Asians by force and reluctance of the Jesuits to cooperate with other religious Orders. These allegations were based mostly on the information that he gathered from the Goan priest Pe. Matheus Castro,
who was later made the first vicar apostolic of Bijapur. For details, see Boxer, The Portuguese
Sea-borne Empire, 235.
36
Theodore Ghesquiere, Mathieu de Castro, Premier vicaire apostolique aux Indes (Louvain: Bureaux
de la Revue, 1937); Thekkedath, History of Christianity in India, vol. II, 41720.
37
During the period between AD 1514 and 1605, there were over sixteen bulls issued to the
Portuguese by different Popes, strengthening the spiritual rights of the Padrado. Cosme Jose Costa,
A Missiological Conflict between Padroado nad Propaganda in the East, in Indian Christianity,
vol. VII, Part 6: History of Science, Philosophy and Culture in Indian Civilization, ed. A.V. Afonso
(New Delhi: Project of History of Indian Science, Philosophy and Culture, Centre for Studies in
Civilizations, 2009), 123140; 125. In AD 1672, the king of Portugal asked the viceroy to capture
bishops and missionaries sent by the Propaganda and transport them to Portugal. Ibid., 128.

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against the Portuguese. The Adil Shahi sultan of Bijapur received Dom Matheus
de Castro, the Propaganda prelate, in his capital city, where he gave permission for
him to erect a church and to recruit priests from Goa. Meanwhile, the Dutch and
the Adil Shahis who had initiated joint military operations against the Portuguese
from AD 1638, ensured the support of Dom Matheus de Castro for their political
moves against the Portuguese in Goa. The Propaganda prelate in his turn shifted
his seat to Bicholim on the border between Goa and Bijapur, and began to criticize
the Portuguese for not giving due recognition and respect to the indigenous clergy
in Goa. In his letters addressed to the Christian Brahmins of Goa, he invited them
to work together to oust the Portuguese from Indian soil.38 The bitter anger against
the Padroado made Dom Matheus de Castro travel all the way to Agra to fight
with the Jesuits residing in that city. From Agra he went to Delhi and then travelled to the emperors court in Kashmir, taking over there the complaints against
the Padroado Jesuits and accusing them of being Portuguese spies in the imperial city. He also accused the Jesuits of having hindered the recruitment of Dutch
gunners for the Mughal army. In fact, the journey undertaken by the Propaganda
delegate with allegations against the Padroado Jesuits reflected the intensity of
conflict between the Padroado and the Propaganda Fide institutions and personalities at this point of time and the entire purpose behind this move was to make
the Padroado Jesuits unacceptable before the Mughal ruler. The strategy really
worked and the Jesuit priest Father Buys was arrested by the Mughals on the
charges put forward by Matheus de Castro.39
Meanwhile, the monopoly of the Portuguese Padroado in the matters of
Christian religion in India was challenged by the French in their territories, particularly Pondicherry, where they tried to transplant a French version of the patronage within the framework of a nationalistic Gallican Church. As the Capuchin
Fathers wrote in AD 1725, though the French settlers were under the diocese of
Mylapore, which was under the Portuguese Padroado, they followed the customs of the Gallican Church, and the appointments and the material sustenance
of the missionaries in the French territory of Karaikkal were done by the conseil suprieur, the main governing body of the French East India Company in
Pondicherry.40
38

Ghesquiere, Mathieu de Castro, 8092: Thekkedath, History of Christianity, 419; D. Ferroli, The
Jesuits in Malabar, vol. II, Bangalore, 1951, 17482. With his death, probably in AD 1658, the conflicts did not subside but were continued by his successors Custodio de Pinho and Thomas de Castro.
The latter who was the nephew of Matheus de Castro was made the apostolic vicar of Canara in
AD 1674 and he kept his residences in Bangalore and Calicut, very often engaging in conflicts with the
Padroado missionaries, including Blessed Joseph Vaz.
39
Nicolo Manucci, Mogul India (Storia do Mogor), vols I and II, trans. William Irvine (New Delhi:
Low Price Publications, 2005), 20304; Thekkedath, History of Christianity, 419, 434; see also
Maclagan, The Jesuits, 11113; D. Ferroli, The Jesuits in Malabar, vol. II, 182.
40
E.R. Hambye, History of Christianity in India, vol. III (Bangalore: The Church History Association
of India, 1997), 17879, fns 3940. The conseil superieur forbade the publication of papal documents
from Rome without its permission.

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However, the Protestant European powers like the English and the Dutch,
who did not have a nationalistic Catholic Church framework, had to depend
initially on the French, and later on the Italian, Irish and French missionaries
operating under the Propaganda, to fight the hold of the Portuguese Padroado
over their territories. The English in Bombay as well as Madras, and the Dutch
in Cochin, feared that the large number of descendants of the Portuguese, coupled with the continued presence of the Padroado priests as church authorities in their territories, would be a potential source of political threat to them.
As a result, they banned the Padroado priests and allowed only the Propaganda
missionaries to work in their enclaves in India. Thus, a French Capuchin, Father
Ephrem, on his way to Pegu, was asked by the British to remain in Madras so that
the Portuguese Catholic descendants of the city might not go to the Padroado
church of Mylapore.41 He began to serve as the prefect apostolic for the emerging
English town of Madras in AD 1642 under the Propaganda, although there was
already a diocese at Mylapore under the Padroado.42 The king of Portugal immediately responded to this by forbidding the entry of non-Portuguese missionaries
in India in AD 1642. Moreover, in AD 1649 the Portuguese authorities arrested
Father Ephrem, who was later imprisoned in Goa for twenty-two months and put
to inquisitorial trial for having done evangelization work in Madras, independently of the Padroado.43
In the midst of frequent conflicts among the various European powers and
with the increasing use of the Padroado and the Propaganda administrative systems for political purposes by the early colonial powers, the Portuguese royal
court decided in AD 1672 that all priests and bishops who had entered India
bypassing Lisbon should be arrested and taken by the Portuguese viceroy to
Goa.44 Moreover, the king also realized that the Propaganda missionaries were
not supportive of the political and economic claims of the Portuguese in India,
which made him issue an order demanding that all missionaries working in India
should take an oath of loyalty to him as the patron of the Padroado system. The
Portuguese suspected that the presence of non-Portuguese missionaries would

41

Thekkedath, History of Christianity, 206.

George M. Moraes, The Catholic Church under the Portuguese Patronage in the 18th and 20th
Centuries, in Christianity in India, ed. H. C. Perumalil and E. R. Hambye (Alleppey: Prakasham
Publications, 1972), 154.
43
Dominic, The Latin Missions, 107, 117. The Pope on hearing about it lamented over the excesses
of inquisition and declared that the vicars apostolic and missionaries of the Propaganda were totally
immune to the inquisition of Goa. Costa, A Missiological Conflict, 129. Later Fr Ephrem was
released by the Goan authorities under pressure from the French king, after having served an imprisonment period of twenty-two days: See Valentine Ball (ed.), Taverniers Travels in India, 16401676
(New Delhi: Asian Educational Society, 2007), 13233, 168, 17686.
44
Thekkedath, History of Christianity, 416. Pope Clement X finally released the vicars apostolic and
missionaries of the Propaganda working in non-Portuguese territories from the jurisdiction of the
Padroado prelates and took them under his protection; ibid., 416.
42

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Pius Malekandathil

help the other European powers that were then fast expanding in India and causing
severe damage to the economic and political interests of the Lusitanians. Against
this backdrop, the Italian Carmelites, who refused to take the oath of loyalty to the
Portuguese king for carrying out missionary work, were viewed as their enemies
and expelled from Goa in AD 1709 and from Diu in AD 1710. Eventually, they had
to move over to Karwar in Karnataka.45
The various non-Portuguese European powers expanding into the coastal
regions of India made use of the administrative framework of the Propaganda
to undermine the hold of the Padroado over the descendants of the Portuguese
in their enclaves, whom they were fast assimilating as their trade collaborators
and fighting forces. Thus, the English made use of the service of the Propaganda
priests, particularly the French priests, in Madras and Bombay to wean the
descendants of the Portuguese settlers away from the Padroado. The preference for the French missionaries continued till the political conflicts between
the French and the English reached a climax in the 1740s. Meanwhile, the
other Protestant power, the Dutch, made use of Propaganda missionaries from
Belgium, Germany, Austria and Italy to wean the Catholic settlers of Cochin
and its vicinity away from the Padroado.46 With increasing support from them,
the Propaganda missionaries found the English and the Dutch enclaves to be
much safer places for their residence and missionary work, as compared to the
Portuguese settlements. The Italian Carmelite Father Peter Paul, a nephew of
Pope Innocent XII, who was appointed as the vicar apostolic for Bijapur, sought
permission from the Dutch government in Amsterdam to reside in the Dutch territories in India. On reaching India in AD 1697, he took his seat at Surat, where
the Dutch wielded greater influence, and extended the jurisdiction of his vicariate
to Golkonda and the Mughal Empire, thus laying the foundation for almost all
the later dioceses of North India and the Deccan.47 Meanwhile, the vicariate of
Bijapur began to be called the vicariate of the Great Mughals with the transfer
of the Mughal seat of power from Delhi and Agra to Aurangabad (AD 1683)48

45
Dominic, The Latin Missions, 108. As early as AD 1682, the king of Portugal had ordered that all
the missionaries working in India should take a vow of fidelity and loyalty to the king of Portugal. De
Nazareth, Mitras Lusitanas, 193. See also D. Ferroli, The Jesuits in Malabar, vol. II, 171.
46
The Dutch did not allow the Portuguese priests of the Padroado to stay in the city of Cochin and in
their stead from AD 1676 onwards the Dutch permitted the Carmelite missionaries of the Propaganda
from Italy, Belgium, Germany and Austria to stay and work in Verapoly and Cochin. Dominic, The
Latin Missions, 112.
47
Ibid., 10708.
48
In fact, the beginnings of urban life in this place (originally a village by name Kharki) began with
Malik Ambar, the prime minister of Murtaza Nizam Shah of Ahmadnagar, who converted it into his
capital in AD 1610. The name of Kharki was later changed into Fatehnagar, when Fateh Khan, the son
of Malik Ambar succeeded him in AD 1626. Later in AD 1653 when Aurangzeb was made the viceroy
of the Deccan for the second time, he made Fatehnagar his capital and converted its name into
Aurangabad. From AD 1683 onwards, with Emperor Aurangazeb settling down in the city, Aurangabad
became the capital of the imperial Mughals.

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in the Deccan and with the defeat of the Bijapuris by the Mughal forces of
Aurangzeb in AD 1686.49

Politicization of the Conflict between the

Padroado and the Propaganda
The intensity of conflicts between the Padroado and the Propaganda was felt in
Bombay where there were a lot of Portuguese descendants and Christian converts,
whose spiritual care for almost one and a half centuries was undertaken by the
Padroado priests sent from Goa.50 Bombay was initially a Lusitanian enclave,
which the Portuguese king gave in AD 1661 to the English as a part of the dowry
for his daughter Catherine of Braganza who married Charles II of England, who
in turn handed it over to the English East India Company.51 In the beginning of the
eighteenth century AD, the English authorities sensed a serious political threat
in the large number of Catholics in Bombay (around 11,000 in AD 1713)52 whose
spiritual needs were being catered to by the Padroado priests. The English found
that the best way to avoid this possible threat was to transfer the jurisdictional
authority over the churches of Bombay from the Padroado to the Propaganda
Fide, that is, from the archbishop of Goa to the vicar apostolic, in preparation
for which negotiations had already started in Rome and London as early as
53
AD 1716.
In the midst of these discussions, the apostolic vicar of the Great
Mughals, Monsignor Maurice of St Teresa, shifted his residence from Karwar to
Bombay in AD 1717 so that the spiritual jurisdiction over the Catholics of Bombay
might be immediately taken over from the Padroado priests.54 The culmination of
this process was in AD 1720, when the British governor Charles Boone expelled
all the Portuguese priests from Bombay and handed over their four principal
churches to the Propaganda jurisdiction.55 Though the Goan priests, however,
could remain in Bombay, they were not allowed by the English to work under the

49

John F. Richards, The Mughal Empire (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), 21725;
Glenn J. Ames, The Salsette Campaign of 16581659: Issues of War and Peace in BijapuriPortuguese
Relations during the Mid-17th Century, in The Portuguese, Indian Ocean and European Bridgehead:
Festschrift in Honour of Prof. K.S. Mathew, ed. Pius Malekandathil and Jamal Mohammed (Fundao
Oriente, Lisbon/IRISH, Tellicherry, 2001), 223240; 236.
50
Thekkedath, History of Christianity, 36591.
51
Ibid., 382; Achilles Meersman, The Ancient Franciscan Provinces in India, 15001835 (Bangalore:
CLS Press, 1971), 22428; M.D. David, History of Bombay, 16611708 (Bombay: University of
Bombay, 1973).
52
This figure is based on the Franciscan statistics of AD 1713. See Meersman, The Ancient Franciscan
Provinces, 23233.
53
Dominic, The Latin Missions, 108.
54
Ibid.; R. Hull, Bombay Mission History with a Special Study of the Padroado Question, Vols I and
II (Bombay: Examiner Press, 1927), 2830.
55
Hambye, History of Christianity, 38283; Dominic, The Latin Missions, 108.

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Padroado jurisdiction of Goa; instead they were to work under the jurisdiction of
the vicar apostolic of the Propaganda residing in Bombay. Obviously, the king of
Portugal and the Goan archbishop seriously objected to these changes on the
grounds that they were infringements upon the privileges that the earlier papal
documents had bestowed upon the Portuguese. However, the reply of Rome that
the Propaganda jurisdiction of vicar apostolic over Bombay became necessary as
the English were not ready to allow the Padroado priests to work in the city did
not satisfy the Catholic population of Bombay, majority of whom were descendants of the Portuguese whose spiritual attachment to the Padroado spanned
two centuries.56
The situation became intense as the Catholic population of Bombay turned
against the Propaganda, indicating their reluctance to break off with the Padroado.
Consequently, the churches of the city, instead of becoming an instrument for
integrating the urban population in favour of the English as had been the plan,
became platforms for conflict and tension. Indeed, the Portuguese were trying to
continue their domination over Bombay through the ecclesiastical framework of
the Padroado, while the English were using the Propaganda to undermine this
move. However, when the conflicts began to affect the peaceful life of the city,
the English had to find a way of reconciliation, which was done principally by
allocating two major churches to the Padroado and two to the Propaganda in
57
AD 1794.
In the new turn of events following the political peripheralization of the
Portuguese in the eighteenth century AD, the Padroado authorities struggled
hard to retain their hold over the erstwhile Portuguese possessions through their
dioceses of Goa, Mylapore and Cochin; however, in AD 1838, Rome restricted
the jurisdiction of the Padroado to Goa alone and created different vicariates and
later dioceses under the Propaganda Fide for the rest of India, where predominantly non-Portuguese bishops, acceptable to the politically expanding English
power, were put in charge.58 Carving out immense territories from the Padroado
jurisdiction and reducing its control and influence, vicariates (for all practical
purposes they stood for dioceses) were erected in the English presidencies of
Bombay, Madras and Calcutta under the Propaganda. The Propaganda vicariate
of Bombay, which was established in AD 1832, took away the spiritual authority

56

Dominic, The Latin Missions, 109.

Ibid. Hambye, History of Christianity, 38386; Costa, A Missiological Conflict, 12930. This
decision was taken by the English under pressure from the landlords and wealthy citizens of Bombay.
However, the English also did not allow the vicar apostolic Peter de Alcantara to leave Bombay, surrendering everything into the hands of the Padroado, as that would result in the re-introduction of
Portuguese influence and power into the area. For details, see Hull, Bombay Mission History, 6870;
J.H. Gense, The Church at the Gate of India (Bombay: St Xaviers College, 1960), 7093.
58
For nuances of these developments, see Da Silva Rego, Le Patronage Portugais, 12442; Moraes,
The Catholic Church, 15758.
57

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and influence of the Padroado archbishop of Goa over the settlers of the
presidency town of Bombay, while the vicariates of Madras (AD 1832) and Bengal
(AD 1834) de-linked the hold of the Padroado diocese of Mylapore over the
urban dwellers of the presidency towns of Madras and Calcutta, respectively.59
According to the papal brief Multa Praeclare of AD 1838 by which these changes
were brought out, the Padroado right was allowed to be exercised only in the
territories of the archdiocese of Goa. The territories of the other Portuguese dioceses were to be handed over to the newly established apostolic vicariates of
Bombay, Madras and Bengal. In fact, the Pope took such a step to clip the wings
of the Portuguese Padroado, as the liberal government that came to power in
Portugal following the civil war in AD 1833 was anti-religious and anti-clerical,
intent on suppressing the various religious orders and monasteries of Portugal
and the Portuguese enclaves of India. Instead of being a patron of Catholicism,
the new Portuguese government under the influence of the anti-religious ideals of
French Revolution, stopped all the Christianization work being carried out by the
various religious and monastic orders in India and other Portuguese colonies and
began to deport religious members from AD 1835. Consequently, appointments
to many ecclesiastical posts, including bishoprics under the Padroado administration, remained unfilled for years. The new Portuguese government imposed
its men as administrators for the archdiocese of Goa and diocese of Mylapore,
without getting them ratified by the Pope. Against this backdrop, Rome felt that
the Portuguese rulers were taking undue advantage of the Padroado privileges,
without carrying out the responsibilities that went along with these privileges.60
The Portuguese opposed the expansion of the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the
Propaganda Fide, whose missionaries they viewed as insolent intruders, while
the Propaganda authorities viewed the Padroado priests, who challenged the
papal decision for the next fifty years almost, as schismatics and dissidents.
Though the Padroado system was terminated officially only in 1953, it was weakened by the 1830s and became a marginal ecclesiastical administrative institution
in India.
While the Propaganda Fide priests saw to it that the Luso-Indians or the
descendants of the Portuguese living in the towns of Bombay, Madras and Calcutta
were taken out of the ecclesiastical jurisdictional framework of the Padroado, the
English drew out of them commercial intermediaries for their enterprise, wives
for their men and fighting forces for their wars of expansion, making the LusoIndian segment of the population integral to their political processes in India. In
other words, the job of the Propaganda to dissociate the Luso-Indians from the
jurisdictional framework of the Padroado was followed by the colonial manipulation and transformation of this social segment by the English so as to create

59
60

See Moraes, The Catholic Church, 157.

Da Silva Rego, Le Patronage Portugais, 12442.

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a major supportive population in these cities. In this process, the Luso-Indians

were denied their original identity and made to merge with the Anglo-Indians.61
One of the principal ways by which this transformation and redefinition happened
was through marriages conducted between the English soldiers and the girls of
Portuguese descent. Mixed marriages became common in these settlements in the
eighteenth century AD.62 Though the clauses of transfer of Bombay to the English
in AD 1661 had stipulated that the inhabitants of the island of Bombay would
continue to enjoy the free exercise of the Roman Catholic religion as earlier, this
was seldom followed. Eventually with the increasing practise of taking economic
and military collaborators from the Luso-Indians and of the English marrying the
Portuguese descendants of these cities, their children were brought up according
to English ways, Anglo-Saxon customs and, at times, Protestant faith, causing a
sizeable Anglo-Indian community to emerge in Bombay, Madras and Calcutta
out of the Luso-Indians. The construction of the Anglo-Indian category out of the
Luso-Indians was a colonial exigency for the English, and their efforts ensured the
cessation of the linkages of the former with their Portuguese past and thus reduced
the chances for the Portuguese Padroado missionaries to intervene in English
settlements in the name of their spiritual administration.
The conflict between the Padroado and the Propaganda was inevitable in
the course of the process of redefining the Catholic Church from within and in
shaping its functioning outside Europe against the background of geographical discoveries and the dynamics of colonialism. These conflicts paved the way
for the Catholic Church to move away from the medieval notion of functioning
under strict nationalistic political patronage and become a pan-world religious
institution that learned to collaborate with its European enemythe Protestant
powersfor carrying out its administrative and evangelization work among
multicultural people. Probably the erasure of the various European powers from
the political scene of India and the domination of English colonialism facilitated
the success of the Propaganda model against the nationalistic ecclesiastical
model of the Padroado. The French who had experimented with the nationalistic ecclesiastical model of the Gallican Church in their possessions in India in
the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries AD had long back given it up,
paving the way for the Propaganda. The popes realized that the notion of the

61

It is interesting to note here that the Anglicization process among this community got all the more
augmented with the increase of power and authority of the English in India. For details on the early
instances of Anglicization of this community, see Achilles Meersman, The Ancient Franciscan
Provinces in India, 15001835, 23739.
62
The marriage between British company servants and Luso-Indians became so frequent in Calcutta
that even Company officials began to object to it, probably fearing an increase of Catholic influence
in their power base. See Hambye, History of Christianity in India, vol. III, 461; Pius Malekandathil,
Economic Processes, Ruralisation and Ethnic Mutation: A Study on the Changing Meanings of
Lusitanian Space in India, 17801840, Itinerario xxxv, no. 2 (2011): 4559; 5456.

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Catholic Church as a collection of different nationalistic churches had to be done

away with in its process of growth, for which the ecclesiastical framework of
the Propaganda with a large number of missionaries collected from all over the
Christian world appeared to be the best device, fitting in well with the policy of
expansion. The result of this conflict was that the monopoly and domination of
the Portuguese in church matters of Asia was shattered and the Church began to
evolve into an accommodative institution with personnel recruited increasingly
from India as well as other parts of the world.

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