CHAP. He flees in alarm to Cashmere. J. Xavier's fictitious Gospel disgusts Akdies, leaving bar; who no satisfactory evi dence of his conversion. A. D. 1602. the fire. Vast quantities of melted gold and silver ran down the streets of Lahore." 2 26. It is hard to refrain from suspecting that this account of the awful event is greatly exaggerated; and the suspicion is confirmed by the historian's silence as to whether any lives were lost. Had the conflagration been such as is here described, it is incredible that no persons should have perished in the flames. But whatever foundation the story may have had in fact, the tremendous visitation is assigned as the emperor's reason for retreating from Lahore, where every object he saw is said to have reproached him with his impiety. He now retired to Cashmere, whither Jerome Xavier accompanied him but Father Pinnero remained behind at Lahore, where he is described as meeting with great success, and gathering with joy the fruits of those evangelic seeds which his predecessors had sown in tears. We have no account of the instructions he gave to his disciples, and cannot, therefore, participate in the feeling of satisfaction expressed at his success. 27. Some notion may be formed of the mode in which Christianity was presented to this people, from the device of Jerome Xavier to commend it to the emperor himself. Having studied Persian for the purpose, he composed two works in that language; the first entitled, The history of our Lord Jesus Christ: The second, The Life of the Apostle St. Peter. 3 These works were 2 M. Manouchi, p. 163. 3 These two works, in manuscript, fell into the hands of Louis de Dieu, a celebrated professor of Oriental languages in the University of Leyden, who published them, with a Latin version, and some notes " which, says the Jesuit, Alegambe, were worthy of the fire." This, however, he, with all his fra interwoven with Persian legends, which he imagined would render them more acceptable to his imperial disciple; but in this expectation he was greatly deceived. Akbar had long been convinced of the fallacy of those fabulous tales, and was disgusted, instead of pleased, to see them mixed up with works that purported to give an account of the Author of Christianity, and one of its first teachers. There is every reason to believe that he cordially admired the Gospel, though he never embraced it: and whatever hopes were at this time entertained of his conversion, this device appears to have subverted them. It is not stated when this happened, but it was, probably, not long before Akbar's death, which event took place at Agra, on 13th October, 1605. J. Xavier was with him at the time; but he has given us no reason to conclude that the emperor's heart was more ternity, would say of the Word of God, which they have so frequently committed to the flames. The purport of Louis de Dieu's notes was, to defend the Sacred Scriptures against the imputation of sanctioning such gross falsehoods as Jerome Xavier had mixed up with them. No wonder, therefore, that they provoked the ire of the Jesuit, Alegambe, or that the Roman censors condemned them. Besides his works on the Gospel, J. Xavier composed a similar version of the Koran in Portuguese, which is quite as profane and superstitious. What reception it met with from the Mahomedans is not mentioned. La Croze, pp. 332, 333. While this work is passing through the press, the author has received the first volume of a History in French, now in course of publication, intitled, Histoire Générale de L'Etablissement du Christianisme, &c. D'après l'allemande de C. G. Blumhardt. Par A. Bost. Genève. 1838. The account of J. Xavier's attempt to impose upon the Mogul given in this work, entirely corresponds with that in the text. p. 324, &c. James Fraser, History of the Moguls, pp. 11, 12. The fact is related also by W. C. Taylor, in his History of Mohammedanism, p. 318, 319. A. D. 1602. A. D. 1605. CHAP. IV. Jahan tism of his nephews. under the influence of Divine grace at his death, than it had been in his life. Nor is it probable that he should pay much more attention to the instructions of the man who had attempted to impose upon him with so manifest and disgraceful a fraud. Some have concluded that he died a Christian, from the circumstance of the images of the Virgin Mary and Ignatius being found in his mausoleum: but the more probable conjecture is, that they were placed there, as European curiosities, to decorate his tomb, without regard to the persons represented, or as any intimation of what religion he died. 5 28. Jahan-Gueir succeeded to the throne of Gueir bap his father. This prince countenanced the Christians, but was too voluptuous to pay any regard to their admonitions. He was also even more ambitious than his father, and boasted that he was a greater prophet than Mahomet himself, of the truth of whose religion he did not hesitate to avow his doubts. Indeed, he paid little regard to any religion; but it was his policy to take notice of the Jesuits, with whom he is said to have held frequent discussions, and to have added to the immunities that Akbar had granted to them. His object in all this appears to have been, to defeat a prediction of his sages, that the children of his brethren were to succeed to the empire instead of his own. As none but a Mahomedan could sit upon the throne, he resolved to obtain the baptism of his nephews, and for this purpose he committed them to the Jesuits' care, to be educated in the Christian religion, and then baptized. 5 This is the conjecture of a Romanist, M. Manouchi, p. 169. 6 Others affirm that he became "a bitter persecutor." W. C. Taylor, p. 323. The Jesuits were glad to have charge of these royal pupils, whom they baptized with great display in their church at Agra. Whether they understood Jahan-Gueir's motive is uncertain; but it was soon known to his Mahomedan subjects, and produced so general a feeling of disgust, both against the emperor himself and the fathers, that from that time the Christian religion made no further progress in his do minions. A. D. 1605. 29. It does not appear whether Jerome Xavier J. Xavier remained with the Mogul after Akbar's death, dies while preparing and we hear little more of him until his eleva- for the bishtion to the see of Cranganore, in the year 1617, Cranganore: opric of which he did not live to join. This account is his works. given by the Jesuit, Alegambe, who says, that he died at Goa, while preparing to take possession of his Archbishopric. Of his works which have been mentioned, Alegambe speaks in flattering terms, especially of the Persian in which his pseudo Gospel was written. In this respect, however, Xavier is more honest than his encomiast; for he acknowledges that the writer was a Mahomedan of Lahore, named Abdel Senarin Kasem, 7 whom he employed in the work. A. D. 1617. The general the Jesuits" works of inthe failure character of struction: 30. We shall not be surprised at the extravagant commendations bestowed by Alegambe and several other Jesuits upon the works of J. Xavier, if we remember the writings of the Jesuits at Madura, and consider that it has missions been the uniform practice of their missionaries attributed in India and China, to substitute such base 7 Vide p. 586 of his first work, at the end. La Croze, p. 333. 8 In many countries of Europe also the same deception has been practised. Witness the Cité Mystique of Mary of Ag of their to them. CHAP. IV. compositions for the pure word of God. They are too numerous to be described here, or even named. Beschis' Temba-vani, and the forged Veda of R. de Nobili, have been noticed above; and we shall have occasion in the sequel to mention several works of a similar description, published not long after this period by other Jesuit missionaries in India. All these tend to show the uniformity of their proceedings in their endeavour to extend the creed and jurisdiction of Rome. While the Gospel, of which God Himself is the Author, is prohibited; these compositions, which are correctly described as "a monstrous mass of fictions and gross fables," have been substituted for it. The major part of them are invented for the purpose of exalting the see of Rome, and of associating the worship of creatures with that of the Creator. Will not this account for the signal failure of the Jesuit missions in China, Japan, India, Abyssinia, and several other countries, as well as those at Madura and in the empire of the great Mogul? Without the Divine blessing, no mission can prosper. That blessing is to be expected only upon missions formed for the glory of His Name reda. This infamous work was put forth as a New Gospel, under pretence of its having been dictated by the very mouth of the holy Virgin. This and several other fabulous traditions were received in Spain, where the whole nation were stirred up to maintain their authenticity. In the seventeenth century, however, Pope Innocent XI. an enemy to fraud and monastic superstitions, had them carefully examined; when it was discovered, that their authors were at heart Mahomedans, and enemies to Christianity; and the sole tendency of the works was proved to be, to turn religion into ridicule, and sap its foundations. One of the examiners was F. Louis Maracci, who makes this statement in the Preface to his Refutation of the Alcoran, p. 2. La Croze, pp. 335, 336. Geddes' Tracts, Vol. iii. Life of Mary of Agreda. |