352 



Life and Writings of Father Beschi. 



[April 



Fathers Beschi and Arnold were natives of Italy, and members of the 

 illustrious Society of Jesuits. Tbey received their education in the 

 Roman College, where their learning and virtue attracted the admira- 

 tion of the reigning Pontiff, who selected them, 'on account of their emi- 

 nent quhlifieations, for the Eastern Missions. 



They arrived at Goa in the year 1700. The Reverend Father Arnold 

 proceeded to South Malabar, where he made himself perfect master 

 of the Malayalam and Ariyam languages, in which he composed many 

 admirable and valuable works, both in prose and verse, explanatory of 

 the doctrines of the Christian Religion. 



The Reverend Father Beschi was appointed to the south of the 

 peninsula. On his arrival at his mission he applied himself with as- 

 siduity to the study of the Sanscrit, Telugu and Tamil languages, of 

 which he became thoroughly master, particularly of the latter. As soon 

 as he had acquired these languages he employed the best part of his 

 time in removing the weeds, which unfortunately began to cover the 

 fountain of the Christian faith; and, in order to preserve its holy purity, 

 he laboured with indefatigable zeal to enlarge and circulate numerous 

 Tamil works, explanatory of that creed, which had been composed by 

 another extraordinary man, the Reverend Father Roberti Nobili. 

 Mr. F. W. Ellis, Asiatic Researches vol. 14, page 58, says ; — 

 " I shall clovse this note by the translation of a passage from a work 

 entitled," Tirusckabeiym Charitra Postagarrif^ or ''^Historia Ecclesias- 

 tica,^' written in Tamul and published by the Protestant MissionarieSf 

 at Tranquebar, in 1709. This passage is from the section relative to the 

 transactions of the Missiotiaries in India, from the arrival of the Por- 

 tuguese, at page 238 of the work, and under the year 1607. The work 

 therein alluded to, as having been written in 1729, is by the famous 

 Jesuit Missionary Conslantio Josepho Beschi, known throughout the 

 South of India for many valuable compositions in the high dialect of 

 the Tainul, under the title of the Vira-Mdmuni or Dhairya Ndtha- 

 Swdmi. This extract is from the preface io ilcLQ Teda Vilaccam^ the 

 E Lucidation of the Scriptures/^ 



TRANSLATION. 

 " [1607] At that time Roberti Nobili, called Tatwa-Bodhager, 

 clothing himself in the habit of a Sanyasi, endeavoured to promulgate 

 Christianity in this country. The secretary to the Congregation de 

 Propaganda Fide, wrote in 1673 to Pope Innocent, that Roberti Nobili, 

 although he called himself a Brahman, was not guilty of falsehood*." 



The fact is that Roberti Nobili uses the word Brahmana alwaj-s in the sense of 

 priest, as indeed it is tendered though not with precision by Sir W. Jones in the In- 

 stitutes of Menu ; thus he calls the high priest of the Jews and his assoeiates YudaSrah- 

 mana, aad the father of the church Brdhma-f^adigQl.'* 



