Fr. S. G. Perera , The Conquista & The Conversion Controversy

  

Table of Contents 


    Revd. Fr. S. G. Perera S. J. & the Portuguese Manuscript on Ceylon by Revd. Fr. Fernao de Queyroz S. J.



    Sighting (in late 1890s) by Fr. Joseph Cooreman S. J.  of St. Aloysius College, Galle & Translation by Fr. Simon Gregory Perera S. J. (from 1920-1929) of St. Aloysius College, Galle.

    Background

    Many foreigners who lived in Ceylon during the colonial period recorded their experiences here, on their return home. They covered a wide range of topics, based on their specialty. Captain Joao Ribeiro (in Ceylon from 1641 to 1658) & Robert Knox (in Ceylon from 1658 to 1679) are two of them whose books are well known. 

    Ribeiro wrote on " The Historic Tragedy of the Island of Ceilao" in Portuguese & presented it to the King of Portugal in January 1685. This book had first been translated into French & published in 1701.  George Lee of the Ceylon Civil Service & Postmaster General of Ceylon had translated the French copy into English & it was published by the Government Printer in 1847.  This can be accessed here 

    https://archive.org/details/historyceylonpr00leegoog/page/n7/mode/1up


    Thereafter, this book had been translated from the original Portuguese into English by Dr. Paul Edward Peiris, M. A. LL.M (Trin.Coll Cantab), D. Litt. (Cantab), Barrister at Law of the Inner Temple, a member of the Ceylon Civil Service & District Judge, as well as a historian, (first Asian to receive a D. Litt. from Cambridge, knighted in 1952) & Part 1 had been published in 1909. His translation (Fourth Edition) can be accessed here 

    : https://archive.org/details/historytragedyof00joao


    Andrew Scott (2005) provides a broad summary of the contents of Ribeiro's book here: Feature (dailynews.lk). Daily News, 6 Aug. 2005.

     


    Robert Knox wrote, " An Historical Relation of Ceylon " in English. & his book was published in 1681. He is believed to be the first European to have described Ceylon of that era.

    An Historical Relation Of Ceylon : Robert Knox : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

    There were many other well-known persons, who lived in Ceylon for varying periods & recorded their experiences for posterity & contributed to our knowledge of Ceylon history.

    At the same time, there are well known books on Ceylon written by foreigners who never visited the country but based their books on written records of others who did &/or personal interviews with those who had lived in Ceylon &/or official records. One of them is “The History of Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to 1600 A. D “.by João de Barros, & Diogo do Couto, two Portuguese chroniclers.This book was translated & edited by Donald Ferguson & printed by the Government Printer in 1909. This book can be accessed here:

    https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.104390/page/n5/mode/1up.


    Ferguson, the son of the publisher of Ferguson's Directory, was fluent in Portuguese, was educated in England & was considered an expert on the Portuguese period, at the time.

    Another better-known book is “The Temporal & Spiritual Conquest of Ceylon” written in Portuguese by Revd. Fr. Fernao de Queyroz S. J. This book was translated into English by Revd. Fr. Simon Gregory Perera S. J. of St. Aloysius College, Galle during the period 1920 to 1929. 

    Ceylon History is based on these & many other books written by foreigners, local chronicles, & well researched books written by local historians, some of whom were fluent in many languages & were products of the Peradeniya Campus of the University of Ceylon.


    Introduction

         St.  Aloysius College, Galle, as it was later known, was founded in 1895 by missionaries from the Belgian Society of Jesus. Among those who accompanied the first Bishop of Galle, Rt. Revd. Dr. Joseph Van Reeth S. J. on the maiden journey to Ceylon was Revd. Father Joseph Cooreman S. J. who was later appointed the Vicar General of the Galle Diocese & Parish Priest of the Galle Parish & Director of the School.

    At the time the Jesuits arrived in Ceylon, there was already a Papal Seminary in Kandy, & Rt. Revd. Mgr. Dr. Ladislao Michele Zaleski, (1852 – 1925), Archbishop & the Apostolic Delegate for the East Indies, resided there. He was in Ceylon from 1893 – 1916 but covered the entire region. He was from Lithuania & in addition to his religious pursuits, was also interested in history. He had already authored, among others, the following books:
    ·      

     Voyage a Ceylan et aux Indes : 1887 / par monseigneur Zaleski - OPAC - Biblioteca nazionale di Firenze. 

     Ceylan et les Indes (in French). A. Savine. 1891. ISBN 1391113993.
      
    The Biography of Father Joseph Vaz, French Translation 1895 based on the Original Biography (Portuguese) – 1745 of Father Sebastian Rego, a Goan.


    It may be noted that both Archbishop Zaleski & Bishop Van Reeth were present , among others, at the inauguration of St. Joseph’s College, Colombo in November 28, 1896. (Seneviratne, Daily Mirror, 30 Nov. 2021 )

    Daily Mirror - Sri Lanka Latest Breaking News and Headlines - Print Edition St. Joseph’s College 125 years; The Citadel of education by the Oblates

    Sighting of a 200-year-old Manuscript on Ceylon

    It was Fr. Joseph Cooreman S.J. of St. Aloysius College, Galle who came across an entry in a Brazilian document about a manuscript titled “Conquista Temporale Espireitual de Ceylao' (“The Temporal & Spiritual Conquest of Ceylon “), hereinafter referred to as “Conquista”, by Fr. Fernao de Queyroz  S. J. written in Portuguese & realized that it would be of immense interest to Ceylon.

     

    Rt. Revd. Fr. Fernao de Queyroz S. J. 

    https://whowaswho-indology.info/4914/queyroz-fernao-de/


    Queyroz , Fernão de. Canavezes near Amarante 1617 — Goa 12.4.1688. S.J. Portuguese Priest and Historian in India. Joined S.J. in 1631 and arrived at Cochin in 1635. In 1635-41 studied philosophy, then Theology in Goa. From 1647 taught Theology at St. Paul’s College in Goa. Rector of college in Thana (1653) and Bassein (1659). From c. 1659 Deputy of Inquisition in Goa (for 16 years). In 1671 nominated Patriarch of Ethiopia (staying in Goa), also Praepositus of Profess House in Goa. For a while parish priest in Salsette, in 1677-80 Provincial of Goa Province. He never went to Sri Lanka, but working on Pedro de Basto’s papers made him interested in its history. His work is said to be one of the best early histories of early colonial period of Sri Lanka, completed in Goa in 1687. On it is based Paul E. Pieris’ Ceylon, the Portuguese Era. 1-2. 1913, and several articles by S. G. Perera. It remained unpublished, the manuscript was first kept in Portugal, then in Brazil and finally came to Sri Lanka, where it was published. In his account of Buddhism he stated that similarities between Christianity and Buddhism hailed from the devil (Harris 2006, 16).

     

    Story Behind the Conquista 


    The story behind the Conquista was later described by its translator, Fr. S. G. Perera S. J. of St. Aloysius College Galle, as follows:
    “This book was completed by the author in October 1687. It was then read by the censors of the Society and received the Imprimatur of the Society on the first of January 1688. On the 12th of April the author died at Goa. The manuscript was apparently sent to Lisbon for publication, and the Necrology of Father Queyroz, written 1692-3, describes’ the book as ready for the preas. It then passed into the possession of Father Francisco José da Serra and found its way to the Royal Library which John VI. took to Brazil, when he fled to that country during the Napoleonic wars, and presented to the National Library of Rio de Janeiro, where it still lies in an excellent state of preservation.’ A copy of it was made in 1834 for the Instituto Historico e Geographico of Brazil and was mentioned in its Catalogue of Manuscripts. From this entry Father Sommervogel learnt of its existence and mentioned it in his Bibliotheque de la Compagnie de Jesus VI. -1341-2. This caught the eye of Father Joseph Cooreman, 8.J., Vicar.General of Galle, who communicated the news to a great lover of Ceylon books, Rt. Revd. Mgr. Ladislaus Zaleski, then Apostolic Delegate of the East Indies residing at Kandy. “
    Fr. Perera continues as follows:
    “When the Portuguese boulder, now in the Gordon Gardens, was brought to light in 1898, the   Delegate promptly pointed out to the Governor of Ceylon that it was obviously the rock on which the Portuguese coat-of-arms is recorded to have been engraved by Don Lourenco de Almeida, and in the course of the correspondence that ensued, Mgr. Zaleski quoted a passage from the Conquista. Subsequently he presented the manuscript to the Papal Seminary at Kandy. “(Perera, 1930). Read also:

    https://thuppahis.com/2021/07/09/the-conquista-a-book-on-sri-lankas-portuguese-period/

     

    Archbishop Zaleski & the Conquista 


    “The Delegate secured a copy from Rio de Janeiro and made use of it in a book entitled: Le Christianisme a Ceylan (published in 1900), which he wrote over a nom-de-plume.” (Perera, 1930). The nom de plume used was P. Courtenay. M.A. The book was written in French.

    It would appear that Archbishop Zaleski also made use of the “Conquista” to write the History of Ceylon during the Portuguese period. His book titled "An Abridged Version of Professor Courtenay's work was published under the pseudonym, M. G. Francis in 1913. A complete version of Professor Courtenay’s book, if it existed, cannot be traced. The Conquista, however, is confined to the Portuguese period (1505-1658) only, whereas the “Abridged Version of Professor Courtenay’s Work includes the History of Ceylon from 1505 to 1848. In the Abridged Version the author refers to the writings of others on the Dutch & British periods up to 1848. 

     


    The sections in the Abridged Version are as follows:
    1505-1554 Portuguese Alliance, 1554-1597       Portuguese Protectorate, 1597-1658   Portuguese Rule, 1658-1796 Dutch Rule, 1796-1848       British Rule.

    https://noolaham.org/wiki/index.php? title=History_of_Ceylon:_An_Abridged_Translation_of_Professor_Peter_Courtenay%27s_Work&uselang=en


    Also read here a description of the book by ABE Books:

    https://www.abebooks.co.uk/History-Ceylon-Abridged-Translation-Professor-Peter/31082359299/bd

     

    Dr. Paul E. Peiris & the Conquista


    In the meantime, Dr. Paul Edward Peiris, had heard of the “Conquista”, apparently from Fr. Cooreman, & having been allowed to examine the manuscript, had desired to make use of it, but it was not made available to him. According to Fr. S. G. Perera, when he made a request to make use of it, much later, Archbishop Zaleski had informed him that the Conquista was made available to him for personal use, & not for public purposes.

    However, Dr. Peiris had purchased another copy of the Conquista from the Instituto Historico e Geographico of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, & he too made use of it to write articles & challenge the views of others such as Donald Ferguson, an expert on the Portuguese period at the time, in particular about the year of arrival of the Portuguese in Ceylon. 


    Ferguson     held the view that the Portuguese first arrived in the island in 1506, & not 1505, as widely believed even then. His arguments were set out in an article titled, "The Discovery of Ceylon by the Portuguese in 1506", published in the Journal of the Ceylon Asiatic Society Vol. XIX No 59 of 1907, which can be accessed here:

    https://archive.org/details/discoveryceylon00ferggoog/page/n3/mode/1up



    Donald Ferguson was the son of the publisher of the well known Ferguson's Directory. See:

    https://www.archaeology.lk/20th-century-historians-d-w-ferguson

     


    Dr. Peiris too published a book titled "Ceylon, the Portuguese era" in 1913 under his own name. Later another edition under the same title was published in 1920 along with another member of the Ceylon Civil Service. Dr. Peiris’s text covers the period 1505 to 1658, the same period covered in the “Conquista”.



    The 1920 Edition consists of 15 Chapters & covers the Pre-Portuguese period, the arrival of the Portuguese in 1505, their activities until the take-over by the Dutch. 

    Ceylon and the Portuguese, 1505-1658 : Pieris, P. E. (Paulus Edward), 1874- : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive




    A clamour now arose for the publication of the Conquista or a translation, but Dr Peiris agreed to sell his copy to the Government & the Portuguese version was published with his assistance by the Government Printer in 1916. Dr. Peiris declined to translate it.




    Fr. S. G. Perera S.J & the Conquista 


    Simon Gregory Perera (1882-1950) joined the Government Clerical Service in 1900 & was the first Ceylonese to join the Belgian Mission of the Society of Jesus at St. Aloysius College, Galle at the age of 23 years in 1905. He was sent to India for his theological studies, in the same year & remained there till 1919. He was ordained in India in 1917.Whilst in India, he contributed articles to the Ceylon Antiquary & Literary Register between 1915 & 1919. After the Conquista was published in Portuguese in 1916, Fr. S.G. Perera had reviewed it & noted similarities in some of the passages in the Conquista & the book written by Dr. Peiris in 1913 & expressed his views in writing. These were published in the Ceylon Antiquary & Literary Register Volume II of 1916-1917 under Article No. XV & continued under Article No. XXV. In the Introduction to his translation of the Conquista later , Fr. Perera has explained the matter as follows:

    Only 16 pages of this Journal can be accessed here: 

    This had resulted in some unpleasantness but also highlighted the need to obtain an English translation of the “Conquista”. Finally, John M. Seneviratne, the Editor of the Ceylon Antiquary & Literary Register, had prevailed upon the Government to entrust the translation to Fr. Perera who had agreed to translate it. Fr. Perera was still in India & commenced the translation on his return in 1920 while also teaching at St. Aloysius College. It took him 10 years to complete the translation & his work was published by the Government Press in 1930.

    The temporal and spiritual conquest of Ceylon : Queyroz, Fernão de, 1617-1688 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive


     Fr. Perera describes the contents of the “Conquista” as follows:


    “His (Fr. Queyroz’s) book is therefore divided into three distinct parts. The first, consisting of the First Book, is a long and detailed account of the Island, containing all the information about the Island which he was able to gather. The second part consisting of four books—Second, Third, Fourth, and Fifth—is devoted to a minute and circumstantial account of the temporal and spiritual conquest of Ceylon for 153 years, drawn from various sources and described with self-restraint and impartiality. In the third part, consisting of Book Six, he opens fire and gives free scope to his indignation. It is a ruthless exposure of the maladministration of the Portuguese, based on authentic documents, one of which was drawn up by the unsparing hand of a Franciscan and others contained the sober judgment of experienced men.”
    Fr. Perera’s English translation consists of the following:
    Book 1 – 23 Chapters; Book 2 – 32 Chapters; Book 3 – 29 Chapters; Book 4 – 28 Chapters.
    Book 5 – 30 Chapters; Book 6 – 27 Chapters.

    https://www.google.com/url?q=https://noolaham.net/project/46/4518/4518.pdf&sa=U&ved=2ahUKEwiHh7asquGKAxXGSWwGHa6WO_kQFnoECAYQAg&usg=AOvVaw1UVnMxzrIYSxUiNwpjA2bt


    Assistance provided to Fr. Perera



    In the Preface to the English translation of the Conquista, dated 9th July 1929 at St. Aloysius College, Galle, Fr. Perera names the following as those who assisted him in this gigantic task:
    1.      Father Jose Pereira Dias of the Portuguese Province of the Society of Jesus for translating portions of the book at his request 
    2.      Mr. John M. Seneviratne, F.R.H.S., editor of the then defunct Ceylon Antiquary and Literary Register for inducing the Government to entrust the translation to him & persuading him to accept it.
    3.      Mr. H. W. Codrington of the Ceylon Civil Service for reading the translation in typescript and making many useful suggestions etc.  
    4.      The Rector of the Papal Seminary, Kandy, for lending the manuscript copy of the text of Queyroz belonging to the Seminary: 
    5.  Father Arkwright, S.J., Mr. W. C. D. Pentelow, C.C.S., and the Right. Reverend Dr. A. M. Teixeira, Bishop of Mylapore, for allowing him to consult them on obscure passages: 
    6.    Father S. Gnana Prakasar, O.M.I., for reading the portions referring to Jaffna and supplying him with some notes: 
    7.   Father Peter de Silva, S.J., (pix n/a) and some young students of St. Aloysius' College for sacrificing their spare time to prepare the Index according to a method suggested by Mr. L. J. B. Turner, C.C.S., Director of Statistics and Office Systems; and,  

    8.     


    Father M. H. Soden, S.J., of St. Aloysius College for proof-reading the entire document.
     






    Justice A. C. Alles (at SAC from 1921 to 1931), writes as follows in an article published in the Aloysian Centenary Souvenir:

    “My special guru at SAC was Fr. S. G. Perera. I used to spend several hours in his upstairs room in the priest's quarters. The room overlooked the wide expanse of the Indian Ocean. It was sparsely furnished. Alongside one wall was a wooden bed. In one corner was an enamel basin on a stand & an ewer of water The rest of the room was strewn with documents & papers & it was in this austere set up that the great historian produced his monumental works on the Portuguese period.
    I helped in the proofs & among my most precious possessions are the 3 volumes of Fr. Queyroz's Conquest of Ceylon autographed by him with the Preface dated on my 18th birthday.
    I am deeply beholden to him for the lessons I learnt from him to write good English & concentrate on precision & detail, a valuable asset which has stood me in good stead in my literary career. “


    Views of Distinguished Local Historians on Queyroz’s Manuscript


    Dr. T. Abeysinghe 

    PhD thesis /book "Portuguese in Ceylon , 1594-1612".

    Prof. C. R. Boxer, in reviewing Dr. T. Abeysinghe's book :
    "The missionary chronicles and the historical works of Diogo do Couto, Antonio Bocarro, Padre Ferrule, de Queiroz, S.J., Captain Joao Ribeiro, and others like them, are well known to every serious student of the history of Ceylon. Dr. Abeyasinghe has naturally made a thorough and discriminating use of these in addition to his archival sources. His evaluation of the Portuguese sources in general is worth reproducing in full."

    Quote :
    'Even a nodding acquaintance with these chronicles and histories should serve to dispel a fear that is sometimes expressed (particularly in Ceylon) that to base a history of the Portuguese in Ceylon on their own writings will necessarily lead to glossing over their many acts of barbarity and their callous disregard for human life, especially Sinhalese. That fear is completely baseless. Most of these authors did not write to comfort their readers, but rather to shock them. At least one writer, Queiroz, seems to have painted the misdeeds of his countrymen in the darkest possible colours in order to induce them to sit down in sackcloth and ashes. It can be said without fear of contradiction that of the three European powers who ruled Ceylon, the Portuguese were unique in having produced chroniclers and writers who were the first and the severest critics of their own countrymen. This is all the more commendable when one remembers that many of these chroniclers and writers held official positions and enjoyed royal patronage'.
    Unquote
    'To which this reviewer would add "Amen"—reminding the reader that likewise as Whiteway pointed out long ago (in his Rise of the Portuguese Power in India. 1899, p. 22), there is reason to believe that on occasion the Portuguese chroniclers deliberately  exaggerated the atrocities of their compatriots in the East; not (as Queiroz may have done) to induce them to repent, but to stress their ability to smite the Muslim and the Heathen hip and thigh, "pardoning neither age nor sex", to use one of their own favourite expressions.'

    Prof. C. R. Boxer's review article appears at page 89 of the Ceylon Journal of Historical & Social Studies, Vol. 9 No. 1 for the period January to June, 1966.

    Dr. C. R. de Silva

    PhD thesis " Portuguese in Ceylon, 1617-1638".

    "Fr. Queyroz's Temporal and Spiritual Conquest of Ceylon has provided the framework on which the chapters on political history in this study have been built. Fr. Queyroz wrote his work with a purpose- that of inspiring the Portuguese to reconquer Ceylon - and to drive home his arguments he did not at times scruple to twist historical facts. But it is a tribute to his skill in assimilating evidence that an examination of contemporary records leaves his narrative (though bereft of the miracles he describes) more or less intact.  Queyroz's study however is uneven in depth and treatment. The whole period 1612-1618 is dismissed in two pages. The political developments of the next twelve years are described in a hundred pages while the period 1630-1638 receives a comparatively scanty thirty pages. "


    Views of a Distinguished Historian on Fr. Perera’s Translation of the Queyroz Manuscript

    Prof. C. R. Boxer 


    Note 14


    “14. The Conquista Temporal e Spiritual de Ceilao, which was ready for the press at Goa in 1687, was first published integrally at Colombo in 1916. With all its faults, it remains an indispensable source for the history of 17th century Sri Lanka, and it is most conveniently consulted in the reliable and painstaking translation made by S. G. Perera S.J., Temporal and Spiritual Conquest of Ceylon (3 vols., Colombo, 1930). I have made occasional and insignificant changes in the wording”.


    Portuguese Policy on Conversions 


    Dr. G. P. Malalasekera

    At about the time Fr. Perera was finalising the translation of the Conquista, Dr. Malalasekera had released a book titled The Pali Literature of Ceylon, published by the Royal Asiatic Society, London in 1928. Page 216 of this book contained the following lines:
    "The Portuguese had as their ostensible motto Amity, Commerce, and Religion, and nowhere were they more zealous than in the propagation of the gospel. Their instructions were 'to begin by preaching, but, that failing, to proceed to the decision of the sword.' ”1
    Dr. Malalasekera quoted a Portuguese historian named Faris Y. Souza. (1590-1649), Author of Portuguese Asia, or the History of the Discovery and Conquest of India by the Portuguese.
    Faria Y Sousa wrote 3 volumes of Portuguese Asia & they were posthumously published between 1665 & 1675. An English translation by John Stevens was published in 1695.








    The above voyage undertaken in 1500 by Pedro Alvares Cabral was a sequel to that undertaken by Vasco da Gama to India in 1498. However, by accident, he also discovered Brazil, & visited India thereafter. In India they met with unforeseen resistance & half the fleet was lost but they returned to Lisbon with loads of spices . Though missionaries accompanied the voyagers, there is no record of any missionary activity being undertaken .(Wikipaedia). At this stage, Ceylon was still unknown to the Portuguese.


    Prof. David Hussey


    Prof. Hussey was Professor of English at the University of Ceylon, but he also wrote a series of books titled Ceylon & World History in the early 1930s. He had an academic background in History. The books were used as School textbooks & were even translated into Sinhala,
    Prof. Hussey had made the following claim in one of the volumes:  

    "THE PORTUGUESE PRIESTS, THOUGHT IT THEIR DUTY TO CONVERT THE HEATHEN BY ANY MEANS IN THEIR POWER. THEY THEREFORE CALLED IN FREELY THE HELP OF THE GOVERNMENT, AND EVEN OF THE TROOPS. MANY SINHALESE WERE BAPTIZED AT THE POINT OF THE SWORD."
     

    Fr. S. G. Perera's Response

    At some stage Fr. Perera had become aware of the above claim & responded publicly about this alleged policy & pointed out that there is no evidence that such a policy was followed in Ceylon.
    The detailed response by Fr. Perera is contained in pages 144 to 172 under "Portuguese Missionary Methods" in the book titled " Historical Sketches" by Fr. S. G. Perera S. J. ,  originally published in 1940 & posthumously printed in 1962. The book can be accessed here: 

    Fr. Perera outlines his position, in response to Prof. Hussey as follows:
    "But neither in the one nor in the other documents that I have seen, nor in any of the publications that came into my hands have I ever read of any person converted at the point of the sword.
    Mark my words. I do not speak of what the Portuguese did elsewhere or intended to do here. I am speaking only of Ceylon.     "

    Fr. Perera also quotes Sir James Emerson Tennent in his book, Christianity in Ceylon, as follows:
    "Information is scanty as to the nature of the means adopted by the Portuguese for the introduction and establishment of the Roman Catholic religion in Ceylon. 
    THERE IS NO PROOF THAT COMPULSION WAS RESORTED TO BY THEM FOR THE EXTENSION OF THEIR OWN FAITH OR VIOLENCE EMPLOYED FOR THE EXTINCTION OF · THE '. NATIONAL SUPERSTITION. • (p. 8) 
    And again : "Cordiner must have been but imperfectly informed when be states that the Portuguese compelled the natives of Ceylon to adopt the Roman Catholic religion without consulting their inclinations, and that the Dutch, unlike them, had refrained from the employment of open force for the propagation of their religious faith ; and Hough, in his important work on Christianity  in India, has adopted his assertion without examination. 
    On both points the historical evidence is at variance with these representations. I HAVE DISCOVERED NOTHING IN THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE PORTUGUESE IN CEYLON TO JUSTIFY THE IMPUTATION OF. VIOLENCE AND CONSTRAINT; but unfortunately, as regards the Dutch Presbyterians, their own records are conclusive of the severity of their measures and the ill success by which they were followed." lb. 65-6.


    Bouquets

    Rt. Revd. Bishop Edmund Peiris 

     Bishop of Chilaw, then, pays the following tribute to Fr. Perera:

    “As a historian, Fr. Perera, was learned, laborious and critical. On the one hand, he avoided the dramatic school of literary historians, although when he gives the reins to his imagination he commands an impressive diction; on the other, he does not belong to the modern type of researchers in archives who are not ashamed of the dryasdust method. Although he had an admirable grasp of the whole range of Ceylon history and every aspect of it, he was strongest on the Portuguese period and the history of the Catholic Church in the Island, and weakest on the pre-Portuguese period, probably owing to the difficulty of studying the subject from documents written in the Oriental languages. Unlike many another historian, ancient and modern, he makes history tell its own tale, with great effect and without the wonted trimmings and exaggerations. This led him to deal out praise and blame with an even hand, to friend and foe alike, according to their deserts. His services to the study of the history of his own country are, indeed, so consider able that they are worthy of being recorded and gratefully remembered.”
    Fr. Perera’s contribution to Ceylon History outlined by Rt. Revd. Bishop Edmund Peiris, then Bishop of Chilaw can be read here in full     : Rev. Fr. S. G. Perera s.j.: his contribution to Ceylon history (zenodo.org).


    Dr. G. C. Mendis, B.A., Ph.D., D. Litt. (Lond.)

    (Ex-Reader in History at the University of Ceylon.)
    Review of the book Historical Sketches  in 1962
    https://noolaham.org/wiki/index.php/Historical_Sketches


    "No comments of mine are necessary to commend this work of Father S. G. Perera to the public of Ceylon. As a student of Ceylon history there are few to equal him.
    As a scholar his thoroughness in sifting fact from fiction is evident in all his writings. He will always be remembered on account of his translation of the three large volumes of the Conquista from Portuguese into English, his other works, and the numerous articles he wrote to various journals. He is still the best authority on the Portuguese Period and on the history of the Roman Catholic Church in Ceylon.
    Father Perera's Historical Sketches is a valuable supplement to his works on the history of the Roman Catholic Church in Ceylon. 
    As they are written from the standpoint of the Roman Catholic Church for Roman Catholics, those outside may not at times agree with his interpretation of the facts which he so carefully assembles.
    But there is no question as to its value as a contribution to the understanding of the history of the Roman Catholic Church in Ceylon and of the history of Ceylon in general."


     Brickbats

    Tissa Devendra, ex. C. C. S. 


    It would appear that not all sections of the community appreciated Fr. Perera’s contribution to Ceylon History & this is reflected in the following comment made by Tissa Devendra of the Ceylon Civil Service in the course of reviewing a book titled, “‘The Portuguese Missionary in 16th and 17th Century Ceylon” by C. Gaston Perera:

    “This volume is a comprehensive study of the tsunami of conversion that swept over “our maritime provinces - which Portuguese writers proudly, and aptly, proclaimed a Spiritual ‘Conquest’ At this stage I must confess that I am no historian. My knowledge of the Portuguese period was garnered from the history for schools written by the Jesuit Fr. S. G. Perera, who had a soft corner for the Catholic missionaries. However, we students in Buddhist schools were imbued with nationalist sentiments and a thorough distaste for the Portuguese and took Fr. Perera’s version with much more than a pinch of salt.”

    Artscope | Online edition of Daily News - Lakehouse Newspapers


    Though not a historian, 2 interesting articles written by him about Portuguese scribes in the court of King Rajasinghe II & about a letter written by the King in Portuguese to the Dutch can be accessed here:

    http://lusophonegoa.org/en/2013/02/portuguese-scribes-in-ceylon-tissa-devendra-from-sri-lanka-describes-for-lsg-a-rare-document-from-colombo/

    https://www.sundaytimes.lk/130120/plus/the-portuguese-scribes-of-rajasinha-ii-29306.html


    C. Gaston Perera (ex. Commissioner of Inland Revenue)


    He is the Author of "The Portuguese Missionary in 16th and 17th Century Ceylon (2009)" reviewed by Tissa Devendra above.  He has made an in-depth study of the Conquista & other sources before writing his book.
    Read the following reviews of his book & his background:

    https://www.sundaytimes.lk/090802/Plus/plus_14.html

    This book deals with the Portuguese missionary and its activities in the island in the heyday of Portuguese domination. Portuguese commentators have also described this process as the spiritual conquest. The theme of the book, therefore, is the Christianization of Ceylon that took place under the Portuguese.

    The publication is divided into several parts. Part One deals with the ideology on which missionary activity was based. Part Two discusses the organization of such activity and deals with recruitment, training and remuneration of the missionary. Part Three deals with various characteristics the missionary displayed in the course of his apostolic mission. Parts Four and Five examine the nature of the conversions effected – their ostensible as well as real objectives and the methods employed. Part Six is a summing up.

    This publication is a pioneering venture, in two ways. On the one hand   this is the first attempt to examine a significant aspect of our history from a non-conquering, non-Catholic point of view. On the other, this is also the first attempt to view the Portuguese missionary enterprise in the island as a whole and not any particular feature in it.

    This publication has been carefully researched, and its conclusions are substantiated with the evidence of primary and secondary sources. Its objective, therefore, is to make a dispassionate and unbiased study of a sensitive subject.

    The author who began his writing career with best-seller historical fiction such as ‘The Rebel of Kandy’, later drifted into history proper with his military history, ‘Kandy Fights the Portuguese’. While that dealt with the temporal conquest of the island, the present volume deals with its spiritual conquest. Together they are a present-day parallel to the Portuguese historian Queiros’ ‘The Temporal and Spiritual Conquest of Ceylon’.

    https://archives.dailynews.lk/2009/08/19/art18.asp

    'The Portuguese Missionary in 16th and 17th Century Ceylon: The Spiritual Conquest' by Gaston Perera is the first full account on the subject. The book makes an excellent contribution to the historiography, explaining the dynamics of the evangelical mission of the Portuguese missionaries in this island. ..........

    Gaston Perera's primary degree is in Western Classics at the University of Peradeniya. He also read for a higher degree in Public Administration at the University of Vidyodaya and was a Visiting Fellow at Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford. His official career has been in tax (Commissioner of Inland Revenue) both here and abroad. Since retirement he has devoted himself to Sri Lanka-Portuguese studies and writing. His first publications were the historical novels The Rebel of Kandy, Sons of the Rebel and Historical Tales - all set in Portuguese times - the first of which won the State Literary Award for English Fiction. He has since drifted onto history proper and his last publication was on military history and entitled Kandy Fights the Portuguese - A Military History of Kandyan Resistance.

    In December 2005 he participated in organizing an International Conference to mark the 500th anniversary of the arrival of the Portuguese. One of the papers he presented at this conference was the 'Spiritual Conquest of Ceylon' out of which the present book has grown.

    Views of Later Historians


    A feature of the brickbats thrown at Fr. Perera by modern day historians & others is that they are couched in somewhat general terms. On the other hand, professors Malalasekera & Hussey were trying to make the point that the Portuguese conversions were made at the point of the sword & Fr. Perera's response had been that there was no proof or evidence in local chronicles or Portuguese writings that it was so. 

    Views of many distinguished local historians like Prof. K. M. De Silva, Prof. C. R. De Silva, Prof.  K. W. Goonewardena (an old Aloysian) , Prof. T. Abeysinghe & views of two distinguished foreign historians are given below:


    Prof. C. R. De Silva

    l

    Tissa Devendra's contention above seems to be supported by the following extract from an article by Professor C. R. de Silva (2007), another expert on the Portuguese period.
    "Religion has also had its impact on the evaluation of the Portuguese impact on Sri Lanka. As I have pointed out in an earlier publication Christian converts have had a much more sympathetic view of Portuguese influence than Buddhist (or indeed Hindu and Muslim) writers. That was the classic contrast between the Kustantinu Hatana, a poem written by a convert in praise of Constantino de Sá de Noronha and the other hatan kavyas that depict the Portuguese as destructive and cruel.
    This debate had been continued in the twentieth century between the Jesuit scholar Simon Gregory Perera and the nationalist Paul E. Pieris. By the mid-twentieth century, despite the popularity of Pieris’s Ceylon: The Portuguese Era, the adoption of S. G. Perera’s History of Ceylon as a school text had ensured that most Sri Lankans grew up with a more favorable view of the Portuguese impact than the nationalist popular legends suggested.

    In the 1950s and 1960s Professor K. W. Goonewardena challenged some of the perspectives presented by S. G. Perera and although he did not publish many of his thoughts relating to the Portuguese, the views that he imparted had an impact on a new generation of Sri Lankan scholars.

    Boxer challenged Perera’s view that conversions to Christianity were made without force. 

    One of Goonewardena’s students, Tikiri Abeyasinghe after a dispassionate discussion of the issue concluded that while conversion might not have been made ‘at the point of the sword,’ force was indeed used against Buddhism and Hinduism."

    https://www.researchgate.net/publication/351069239_Portugal_and_Sri_Lanka_Recent_Trends_in_Historiography_Re- exploring_the_Links_History_and_Constructed_Histories_between_Portugal_and_Sri_Lanka_ed_Jorge_Flores_Wiesbaden_Harrassowitz_Verlag_2007_pp_3-2 

    Prof. de Silva at page 11 of his PhD Thesis submitted in 1967 (The Portuguese in Ceylon 1617-1638) makes the following observation: 
    “Fr. S.G.Perera's shorter review of the whole Portuguese period may be considered a sound work of historical scholarship. Fr. Perera’s qualities as a critical historian fail him only where his religion is involved. Future historians however will be indebted for his work in publishing much of the material in the Vatican Archives relating to Ceylon.” Unfortunately, he does not cite an example of the ‘failing.’


    Similarly, the ‘perspectives’ challenged by Prof. Goonewardena are not stated; Prof.  Goonewardena 's reluctance to publish his views can be understood, as he was an old Aloysian of the 1940s & would have known Fr. Perera well. Moreover, Prof. Goonewardena’s area of expertise was the Dutch period.


    Prof. Boxer’s challenge is also not outlined in specific terms.


    It is possible that the above comments  are based on Fr. Perera's claim that conversions were not carried out "at the point of the sword" or " by the use of force". In other words, with "carrots".

    The missionaries who arrived were the Franciscans in 1543, the Jesuits in 1602, the Dominicans & Augustinians in 1606. Dharmapala was baptized in 1557 & died in 1597. Therefore, the conversions would have taken place between 1543 & 1658, when the Dutch took over.


    As Dr. Abeysinghe states, it is well known that force was used by the troops to destroy / plunder temples, take over temple lands & hand them over to churches & chase the priests away to the Kandyan areas. The civil authorities would have sanctioned such acts. Did the troops & the missionaries act in concert? If they did, those missionaries would have been different to the missionaries we see today.

    Dr.Teotonio R de Souza

    Portuguese Historian in "Amoras and Amores: The Ambiguities of Colonial Manhandling in Sri Lanka under the Portuguese", also makes a point that warrants consideration. Read his article here:
    https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/242733088_Amoras_and_Amores_The_Ambiguities_of_Colonial_Manhandling_in_Sri_Lanka_under_the_Portuguese&sa=U&ved=2ahUKEwiyq9S_6d2KAxW14zgGHTcABfsQFnoECAsQAg&usg=AOvVaw3UgDCjHdt36U3gjYGvkpBV
    The opening paragraphs of the above are quoted below:

    "The title was inspired by the episode related by Fernão de Queiroz, wherein he refers to a gift of mulberries (amoras) the king of Kandy sent to the Portuguese General Manuel Mascarenhas Homem, implying his desire for peace with the Portuguese and a mark of love (amores) he entertained for them.

    Queiroz suggests that the circumstances did not convey the same feelings and calls the circumstances the essence or ‘the soul of History.’ Obviously, the circumstances or historical context as viewed by Queiroz conveyed ambiguities of relationship, which suggested the subtitle for this essay.

    João Ribeiro, who reached Ceylon when he was 18 with the new Captain-General of the Island, D Felipe Mascarenhas, and spent 18 years battling for the Portuguese survival in Ceylon did not also believe those who said that Rajasinha of Kandy was willing to welcome back the Portuguese when he began to understand better the Dutch behaviour. He remarked in his The Historical Tragedy of the Island of Ceylon that after the Portuguese had burnt and sacked Kandy several times “he would always live ill at ease with us there, whereas he does not have to suffer these punishments from the Hollanders.”

    C Gaston Perera in his recent publication The Portuguese Missionary in 16th and 17th Century Ceylon (2009) takes up for analysis the contemporary Jesuit version of Fr Fernão de Queiroz and the more recent readings of Fr S G Perera and Fr V Perniola.

    He sees them as downplaying the implications of violence in repeated complaints of the natives of Ceylon against the villages controlled by them.
    Gaston Perera takes objection to the ecclesiastical historians, and Fr Perniola in particular, for minimising the missionary responsibility for violence as limited to a few cases. Gaston Perera is certainly not amused by Fr Perniola’s logic of distinguishing temples from idols in the historical references to destruction of ‘pagodas,’ on the basis of his selection of Portuguese documents.

    I have no intention of making this essay a review article of Gaston Perera’s book, but I appreciate its merit of reviewing some of the past historiography on the issue of the Portuguese religious conversions in Ceylon and his feelings of revulsion about the colonial manhandling of the ‘natives’ of Sri Lanka.

    It raises the ever-relevant issue of defining the key concepts of conversion and force and conveys an implicit warning that the 16th-17th century colonial actors need not be defended by the modern apologists without taking into account the evolution of those concepts over time.

    Very interesting are also the questions about the subaltern role of the native clergy and the racial discrimination. Linked with these are the questions about the intellectual arrogance of the colonialists, including the white missionaries. These questions remain very relevant till date, because they continue to challenge the post-colonial studies. Even though the colonial flags have been lowered in most of the former colonies, the ‘intellectual arrogance’ has turned more subtle after the denunciation of ‘orientalism’ by Asian scholars like K N Panikkar, Jalal Al-i-Ahmad and Edward Said.

    Much of the discussion of the conflicting interests of the local Portuguese officials and the religious has regional parallels throughout the Portuguese colonial presence in Asia and elsewhere, and so is the Jesuit handling of that historical past, with some rare exceptions that confirm the rule and like few swallows do not make a summer. Had Gaston Perera glanced through the Jesuit apologetic literature produced in India till recent times, he would not engage in beating the dead horse and would classify his Sri Lankan clerical apologists as déjà vue."

    The opening paragraphs of the above are quoted below:

    "A second paradox of Sri Lankan history is that some of those who profess a nationalistic view of the island’s past tend, even in recent years, to rely rather heavily on Portuguese sources, mostly through the filter of English translations.
    As a result, much of what one can read about the Luso-Lankan encounter from a Sinhalese nationalist point of view today still relies as extensively on Portuguese materials as the most conservative historical narratives from the Catholic side.
    At first glance, one is thus tempted to dismiss Gaston Perera’s work, extensively based on Queiroz’s Temporal and Spiritual Conquest and on the missionary letters published by Vito Perniola in The Catholic Church in Sri Lanka, as an anachronistic reflection of such entrenched positions.

    And yet, Perera’s new book—published after earlier titles such as The Rebel of Kandy (an historical novel) and Kandy Fights the Portuguese—may serve at present to examine some of the criteria that have become prevalent among historians on both sides of the divide: a divide that, if further deepened, may well threaten the progress of our knowledge of Luso-Lankan history and make communication between historians increasingly difficult. The single-paged foreword by K M de Silva, a renowned historian converted to a Sinhala-nationalist position in the 1980s, is rather blunt in this regard. Silva welcomes Perera’s book as essentially a “necessary corrective” to a number of older, “soft-pedalling” Catholic accounts of the Sri Lankan missions.

    This, I would argue, does not do full justice to Perera’s work, but it is indicative of the uses that can be made of the book. Behind the curtain of a rather debatable argument—that a country like Portugal, immersed in the culture of the Counter-Reformation and confessional warfare, could barely have acted peacefully in a place like Ceylon—one sees the material that will continue to nurture anti-Catholic discourses in the political agenda of the Sinhala nationalist camp."

    Later Controversy on Conversions - R. M. B. Senanayake & C. Gaston Perera

    A record of what transpired then, reported in 2008, in connection with a later controversy is reproduced below in full for a clear understanding of the issue as different view points are presented by them:

    https://mahawansa.wordpress.com/2006/02/08/forced-conversions-by-the-portuguese-by-rmb-senanayake/

    R. M. B. Senanayake , ex. C. C. S.


    Goebbels said that a lie oft repeated becomes accepted as the truth. So it is with regard to the view that the Portuguese made conversions to Christianity by force. Even a Christian Editor of a Sunday newspaper has in his editorial stated so in the most matter-of-fact way. 
    But what are the facts? To learn about history, we have to go to historians. T. K.  Abeysinghe wrote a book on the history of the Portuguese period titled “Portuguese Rule in Ceylon published in 1965.He has a separate chapter on Missionary Activity. He states that missionary activity in Ceylon began with the arrival of the Franciscans in response to the invitation by the king of Kotte Bhuvanaka Bahu VII. The official policy with regard to conversions was as stated in an official document of the Church “it is not licit to bring anyone over to our faith and baptism by force with threats and terrorism”.
    On page 209 of his book, he specifically addressed this issue of forced conversions. Here is what he says ” These facts should enable us to resolve the vexed question whether conversions in Ceylon were effected by ‘force’ or at the point of the sword. —At the outset it may be stated quite categorically that there is no evidence that conversion by force or at the point of the sword was attempted. The policy laid down in the council at Goa was adhered to. “
    Of course, all conversions were not genuine and with the tide of war the number of converts rose and fell as explained by Abeysinghe. He refers to the criticism of the Portuguese historian Queyroz that the ‘Sinhalese make religion a matter of convenience’. This was particularly applicable to the refugees who fled war and battle and moved under the Portuguese. But all were not political converts. He explains the attraction of Christianity to the fishing caste ( who were the largest number of converts) as follows: 
    “A community whose occupation involved the violation of the first precept of Buddhism” and “The fishing classes would be beyond the pale of traditional society. But in Christianity they found acceptance. Hence the appeal of Christianity to those whom the old society for religious and cultural reasons was not willing to accommodate within its fold.” 
    The Portuguese were involved in continual war with the Sinhalese kings and then as even now it was considered that all is fair in love and war. The combatants destroyed what was considered sacred to the enemy. So, the Portuguese destroyed temples, and the Sinhalese destroyed churches and killed missionaries.
    After the revolt of 1603, priests were killed and churches destroyed by the Sinhalese. Here’s what Abeysinghe says “The Catholic priest and the church became the first target of rebels or enemies such as Edirille Bandara, Kangana aratchi or Nikapitiye Bandara”. 
    Many converts reverted to their old faith after the territories were captured by the rebels. 
    Abeysinghe refers to documents of the missionaries which refer to ‘converts were living in the manner of the gentiles-that is to say they had virtually gone back to the older faith” So Citizen D’s claim that once a convert by force will continue to be a convert, is not correct. 
    The converts really became established in their faith only after the departure of the Portuguese and during the Dutch occupation when the Catholics were persecuted. This point too was made by Abeysinghe. He says “If they (the converts) had all embraced the new faith from motives other than those of sincere conviction, there is no explanation for their loyalty to Catholicism during the years of the Dutch persecution” So if the Christians continue to hold to their faith, it is not because of force or material inducement as stated by critics.

    (www.island.lk/2004/02/14)


    C. Gaston Perera 

    Soon half-a-millenium would have lapsed since the advent of the Portuguese but it is remarkable how despite the passage of time what they did here should still continue to excite attention. To be interested in and speak of what they did is fine, but for heaven’s sake, if we must, then when we do let us also speak the whole truth. 

    This is what one would like to see in a Mr. R.M.B.Senanayake’s recent foray into Portuguese Missionary Activity where he dismisses as an “oft-repeated lie” that the Portuguese converted by force. 

    He says T.K.Abeysinghe (!) “wrote a book” (!) in 1965 (!) and cites him as authority and even quotes a sentence or two from what is the late Tikiri Abeysinghe’s (TA) doctoral thesis, “Portuguese Rule in Ceylon, 1594-1612”, published in 1966. But while he cites him as authority what is puzzling is the queer reluctance displayed to quote TA in full so that the whole truth about his views be made known.

    For instance he quotes the reference TA makes to the First Council in Goa that laid down missionary policy –
    “—— it is not licit to bring anyone over to our faith and baptism by force with threats and terrorism.”
    There he stops abruptly. Why? Why does he not continue? Why does he not also quote the very next sentences of TA which contains the telling comment of TA himself on this decree, which reads as follows –
    “But this was not a declaration of religious toleration and merely eschewed the use of force to induce conversion. The same Council approved the use of force to prevent the worship of other religions in Portuguese territories —-. Thus, the renunciation of the use of force for conversion was little more than a piece of quibbling sophistry.”

    The same strange halt to his reading process occurs later where he triumphantly quotes from TA what he has convinced himself is the crowning argument against forced conversions- 
    “At the outset it may be stated quite categorically that there is no evidence that conversion by force or at the point of the sword was attempted. The policy laid down in the Council of Goa was adhered to.”
    (The operative word here is “evidence”, but of that later.) But in this instance too why does Mr. S apply the guillotine here and abruptly stop reading any further and, as it were, close the book. Why does he not continue and expose in full and without fear TA’s real and expressed views? Why especially does he not reproduce in full the conclusion of that passage, which reads –“In such circumstances, both to raise the question of force and to attempt to rebut it is to unduly simplify the psychology behind the acceptance of a new religion. If one must raise this question then it should be framed differently: not whether Catholicism was propagated by force, but whether force was employed against Buddhism and Hinduism.” 
    I wish I could stop there, but there is more. There is the issue of the attraction of Christianity to the fisher caste. One of the reasons TA offers in explanation of this is that their livelihood conflicted with Buddhist doctrine. This Mr. S quotes with alacrity. But TA has offered another and “simple” explanation where he says –
    “The livelihood of the community depends on the sea over which the Portuguese had mastery. They believed, if they became Catholics, the Portuguese would protect them and more important, would not harass them. Even Francis Xavier was aware of the value of this factor in inducing the fishermen of South India to become Catholics and did not hesitate to exploit it.”
    Why is this “simple” explanation completely omitted?
    But the most telling symptom of the affliction is the last. The topic now is the attacks on Catholic churches and priests. “Here’s what Abeysinghe says,” announces Mr. S. triumphantly and quotes- 
    “The Catholic priest and the church became the first target of the rebels such as —.”
    Here’s what Abeysinghe actually says –“Thus it is seen that the fortunes of the church during these years were inextricably interwoven with those of Portuguese power and the hatred evoked by that power in the minds of the Ceylonese reacted adversely on the fortunes of the former. THAT IS WHY the Catholic priest and the church became the first target of the rebels such as — .”
    When a writer is quoted for authority – especially an eminent, respected and utterly unbiased scholar who is now no more – it is a pity that a reader is denied the whole truth about his views. There are words to describe this kind of selective quoting but one refrains from using them. Just as one should refrain from imputing motives.
    At one point Mr. S. ceases relying on TA’s authority and launching on his own makes this assertion –
    ” —then as even now it was considered all is fair in love and war. The combatants destroyed what was sacred to the enemy. So the Portuguese destroyed temples and the Sinhalese destroyed churches and killed missionaries.”
    The destruction of Buddhist temples was therefore an act of war. They were destroyed in the course of fighting by “combatants”. Forsaking the authority of TA and making an assertion like this can only emanate from his own in-depth study of Portuguese history. It is a pity he does not state the sources and authority he has discovered in the course of his study for this pronouncement. It is a great disadvantage to scholar and layman alike because the sources and authority lesser mortals have access to reveal that the destruction of Buddhist temples was the direct result of expressed official State and religious policy, not war. 
    Some of those sources and authority are –
    The Decrees of the first Council in Goa; The Royal Decree on Pagan Temples of 25th February 1581; Queroz (pp 666, 714, 715, 717); Father S.G. Perera (Historical Sketches-p 169); Father Martin Quere (Christianity in Sri Lanka – p 196).
    In fact, some of the sources reveal that the destruction and vandalism was done sometimes by the missionaries themselves –
    “The Catholic Church in Sri Lanka: the Portuguese Period” – Fr. V. Perniola (Vol. II, pp 321,434, 437); “Historical Gleanings” – Fr. W.L.A. don Peter (p 13); “Ceylon, the Portuguese Era” – Paul E Pieris (Vol. II, p149)
    But never mind all these. The authority Mr. S. himself cited earlier and now abandons, the authority he would have us go “to learn about history” – TA himself has this to say on the subject –
    “The same Council [i.e. the first council of Goa] —— laid down that heathen temples must be demolished; all non-Christian priests and teachers must be expelled and their religious literature destroyed.”
    — (Portuguese Rule in Ceylon, p.206)
    It would be interesting therefore to know the sources for this view that the destruction of Buddhist temples was merely the result of war. Or is it that we should recall that admonition of Alexander Pope in his couplet about the “Pierian spring.”
    This debate on the question of forced conversions by the Portuguese is not of recent origin. Many others have discussed it; men of eminence and learning, that is. The most bravura performance occurred nearly 75 years ago. Professor G.P. Malalasekera had just published his “Pali Literature in Ceylon” in the preface to which he had referred to the instructions the Portuguese king had given the missionaries as recorded by Faria Y Souza in his Asia Portugueza – “to begin by preaching but that failing to proceed to the decision of the sword.” (Faria Y Souza was also a historian, the kind of man we are advised to go to “to learn about history.”). 
    At about the same time a Professor Hussey had published a history textbook for schools in which it was stated, Sinhalese were baptized at the point of the sword.” 
    The Catholic establishment was up in arms. This was still the time it was in its confrontationist mode. The echoes of the Kotahena riots where a Catholic mob had broken up and mauled a Buddhist procession had not quite died down – vide “The Kotahena Riots and their Repercussions” by K.H.M. Sumathipala in the Ceylon Historical Journal, Vol. 19, p.65. A powerful response was therefore indicated and the heavy artillery was brought up for the counterattack.
     Father S.G. Perera was the chosen champion and in characteristic polemical style he came out all guns blazing. A public meeting was organized and there he delivered a lecture on “Portuguese Missionary Methods”. This was later published in 1962 together with some of his other articles in book form by the Colombo Catholic Diocesan Union under the title, “Historical Sketches”.
    In his lecture he made two points among others – 
    1. Despite all his wide reading among Portuguese authorities he had not “ever read of any person converted at the point of the sword” and “I never found any proof of force.” (Historical Sketches -p.157)
    2. The need for extreme caution in coming to any conclusion because of the paucity of information – “I hesitate to assert it too emphatically and say that you will find absolutely nothing; not because I fear that anything will be found but because I know that it is never safe to make a sweeping statement in matters of history. I will put it cautiously and conditionally–. (Ibid. p. 156)
    TA is not alone therefore in declaring there is no evidence of forced conversions. Father S. G. Perera too confirms there is no proof. 
    So do many other eminent historians. Sir Emerson Tennent in his “Christianity in Ceylon” agrees at p.8. Father W.L.A. don Peter also agrees –
    “—— there is no evidence that conversion to Catholicism was ever made by force.     — (Franciscans and Sri Lanka – p151)
    Father Martin Quere says “an unbiased study —— does not warrant such a simplistic picture.” (Christianity in Sri Lanka under the Portuguese Padroado -p. 185).
    But at the same time the popular belief is and has been the very opposite. How could this be? How could a belief prevail so doggedly? How could it persist down the ages and be so widespread? But this is the oral tradition and it is easy to dismiss it as an “oft-repeated lie.”
    The oral tradition is certainly irreconcilable with the categorical and unconditional assertions of scholars and historians. What they have emphatically laid down is that there is no proof or evidence of forced conversions. They have to say so. They must say so precisely because they are historians and scholars, trained in the historical discipline who will never compromise their academic integrity with statements that cannot be substantiated with irrefutable proof and evidence. And for forced conversions by the Portuguese there is none such. But having said that one should also, perhaps, bear in mind the difficulty of finding such evidence. We are familiar nowadays with arguments about the difficulties of proving unethical conversions. Acceptable evidence would be such evidence as is recorded somewhere or deduced from records. In the case of Portuguese conversions where would the evidence be but in documents recorded by Portuguese missionaries? There are none from the Sinhala side (vide Fr. S.G. Perera, for instance – HS, p. 154). Would they record something which is contrary to their given instructions? 
    But how could such a vigorous oral tradition originate and spread so widely and persist so undiminished through the centuries? To say there is no smoke without fire is as cheap as calling it an “oft-repeated lie”. I think two reasons could be identified why it should flourish so strongly.
    Firstly, there are traces in Portuguese records that hint at a dark side. 
    How else would one explain the Portuguese King’s instructions to his missionaries recorded by the Portuguese historian Faria Y Souza in his Asia Portugueza – “begin by preaching but that failing, proceed to the decision of the sword”. What do these words mean? It was Professor Malalasekera’s reference to it that sparked off Fr. S.G. Perera’s famous lecture. But nowhere in that whole lecture did he explain or counter this statement. (In a footnote to the published version he suggests it only authorizes force against those who prevent preaching. (HS p. 168). 
    Then there is a letter a Jesuit priest, J. Salanova, sent to his superior where he actually argues for the use of force in conversion. He writes –
    “The principal cause why conversions are so few is ——- it is not enough to invite ——; it is necessary to compel them——.”
    —(Fr.V. Perniola The Catholic Church in Ceylon – Vol.II, p.94)

    Perhaps, it is the existence of such traces that is at the root of the caution and hesitation Fr. S.G.Perera expressed in that lecture about coming to any firm conclusions about forced conversions and his admonition not “to make sweeping statements in matters of history”. 
    But Fr. Martin Quere is more open and less cagey. He says –
    “There were occasions when the pressure exerted by the civil authorities to induce their subordinates to become Christians was such that we would consider it today tantamount to the use of coercion and force.”
    —(Christianity in Sri Lanka – p. 191)
    The occasions referred to relate to the missionary drive in Jaffna, first by don Braganza and, after its conquest, by de Oliveira where those who were unwilling to, or did not, attend the preaching of the Gospel were either imprisoned or exiled. There is thus many a seed of truth to make the oral tradition about forced conversions to flourish.

    The second reason why the oral tradition has flourished has to do with the semantic jiggery-pokery on which Portuguese missionary policy was based. When forced conversion is solemnly condemned there is a massive equivocation in the use of the word “forced”. 
    The casuistry originated at the First Council in Goa where the policy was laid down. 
    • Don’t use force, it said with a straight face. And immediately went on to define what is not force. 
    • Smashing the infidel’s temples, destroying his statues, burning his religious literature, hounding out his priests, building churches on the ruins of shattered temples, expropriating temple lands and revenue – no, this is not force. 
    • Luring the infidel with material blandishments and office and preferential tax and judicial treatment – no, this is not force. In other words, don’t drive him to baptism him at the actual sword-point, but make it impossible for him to practice his religion. 
    It is the chicanery in this decree that gave the green light to missionary and soldier alike to go on the rampage and launch a brutal and ruthless persecution and destruction of Buddhism. 
    It is the jesuitry behind this missionary approach that TA identified when he asserted the real question is -
    “Whether force was employed against Buddhism.”

    Father Martin Quere himself is not unaware of the equivocation. In a letter published circa January 1991 in the Daily News (?) under his name on the question of Portuguese Conversion he himself distinguishes two meanings in the word “force”. One is “physical force”, of which he says he has found no instance in Portuguese conversions. The other meaning is “moral force”. The example he gives of the latter is that Jaffna missionary drive referred to earlier.
    No wonder the oral tradition flourishes!

    Half-a-millenium, as I said at the beginning. It is easy to condemn the practices of a past age, perhaps, looking at it from our modern outlook and judging it by our present liberal standards. Apologists for Portuguese practices often say that and certainly there is much truth in that. 

    The Catholic Church of today does not advocate the destruction of Buddhist temples. It has set its face even against what is described as unethical conversions today. Besides there were practices among the Sinhala people that today would be described as unsavoury. So, forgiving the past is not a bad idea. Not forgetting, no. 
    But, please, for heaven’s sake, if we must speak of it, we must speak the whole truth.

    (www.island.lk/2004/02/04)


    R. M. B. Senanayake again

    I refer to the diatribe by Mr. Gaston Perera on my article denying that the Portuguese converted the Sinhalese to Christianity by force, under the by-line “Stuff of history in dramatic novel.”

    I first like to refer to the paragraph highlighted by the Editor where GP refers to a statement in Mr. G. P. Malalasekera’s work ‘Pali Literature of Ceylon’ where he quoted a statement by Faria Y. Souza in his Aisa Portugueza about the alleged missionary methods of the Portuguese – – “begin by preaching but that failing, proceed to the decision of the sword.” Mr. Perera goes on to ask “What do these words mean? And says “It was Professor Malalasekera’s reference to it that sparked off Fr. S. G. Perera’s lecture. But nowhere in that whole lecture did he explain or counter this statement”.

    This is of course not true, and I reproduce below from the lecture by Father S. G. Perera. Father SGP said in his lecture that in this statement in Volume the First, Part I the second Chapter the Fifth, Faria y Souza had not yet even begun to speak of Ceylon. He sarcastically went on as follows “But what more can you want than the ipissima verba of the fanatical King, clear unhesitating unmistakable? How could the Franciscans hesitate to obey the behests of their liege lord? It is scarcely possible to go further. Yet he did not say that they actually did so; he does not say clearly and definitively that the Catholics of Ceylon were made that way; he did not say that the Franciscans proceeded to the decision of the sword.

    “That final conclusion was left to a colleague, to Professor David Hussey — In the course of his work “Ceylon and World History “(used as a school textbook) he stated thus “The Portuguese priests, says he, thought it their duty to convert the heathen by any means in their power. They therefore called in freely the help of the government and even of the troops. Many Sinhalese were baptized at the point of the sword”. Father SGP remarks that “he was not hitherto known as a student of Ceylon history”.

    Father SGP went on to say that it is because of this statement in a history book prescribed by the colonial government that so many people came to believe that the Portuguese made their converts at the point of the sword the oral tradition that GP speaks of. “Such a unanimity is after all the only ground for our historical opinions. The only rational explanation of such a unanimity in condemning with one accord the Portuguese methods of conversion seems to be that the conclusion is forced on every student of history — For these estimable persons were not alive at the time these methods are said to have been applied. They must have found them recorded somewhere or deduced them from recorded data; or else they should not be so tremendously positive and assert it in such unqualified terms.
    “He proceeds in a sarcastic tone the logic of these persons that” The proof of the statement must be there, if only we look for it. If you and I keep an open mind and divest ourselves of any prejudice, because it concerns our family history, we too ought to find, what so many others have found, that the Portuguese landed in the country with sword in one hand and the cross on the other; that they set to work with both hands and that we are the outcome of that ambidextrous activity. That investigation we must make— “
    He was stating that there was no evidence for Hussey to reach this conclusion. He could not of course state that there will never be any evidence even in the future but stated quite emphatically that no evidence was available up to then.
    His entire lecture was against the statements made by Malalasekera and Hussey to point out that there was no such force used. He said that he never read of any person converted at the point of the sword.

    Mr. Gaston Perera juxtaposes different paragraphs from Father S. G. Perera. He quotes the statement of Father S. G. Perera that he stresses caution about coming to a conclusion because of the paucity of information). But he made it clear it is not because he fears anything will be found but because it would not be safe to make such sweeping statements in history. Mr. GP omits the statement before the same paragraph where he states, “you will find that there is not the slightest justification in there for the statement of the local writers that the Portuguese used force and violence”. It is after this statement that SG made the statement about his hesitancy to assert it too emphatically. Isn’t this emphatic enough and is that why Mr. GP omitted it from his quotations from S. G. Perera. Contemporary Portuguese writers did not say there were forced conversions in Ceylon.

    SGP also said “Neither Joa de Barros, nor Diogo de Couto, neither Correa nor Castenheda, neither Menezes, nor Ribeiro nor Queyroz nor any of the others who are our authority for the history of the Portuguese nor the contemporary documents published from time to time in Portugal or Goa or England or Ceylon speak of any single person forcibly converted nor give any solid ground for the assertion that the Portuguese converted at the point of the sword.“ He also went to say “I very much doubt whether any of those who pompously and emphatically and in such round terms asserted that the Portuguese converted this island by force and violence has the faintest proof to put forward”. (page 157)

    What do the Sinhalese chronicles say about the issue
    Mr. GP says although there is no evidence, there is a strong oral tradition that the Portuguese converted by force. 
    How did this ‘oral tradition’ referred to by Mr. GP arise? Father SGP ascribes it to the early English writers some of them Anglican clergymen.
    These English writers who came long after the Portuguese made this charge and this is the source for the tradition. 
    But before that S. G. P. referred to the Sinhalese sources for the Portuguese period.
    He says the Rajavaliya has some references to the Portuguese. But it does not say a word to support the statement that the Portuguese baptised at the point of the sword. Here is what it says “From that day forward (i.e. from the date of the arrival of the Viceroy 1552) the leading men of the city of Kotte, coveting the wealth of the Portuguese, and many low caste people unmindful of their birth, inter-married with the Portuguese and became proselytes.” So, the explanation is the greed for wealth not force.
    Here is what according to SGP, the Mahawansa says “the infamous Parangis, the infidels, the impious ones who at the time of Rajasinghe had still remained behind in the town and now dwelling here and there, rich in cunning, endeavoured by gifts of money and the like to get their creed adopted by others.” No mention of force either.

    Dutch writers did not say there were conversions by force by the Portuguese. 

    How did the oral tradition that the Portuguese converted by force arise? 
    Father SGP says “The Dutch writers who followed the Portuguese did not make such statements. Dutch writers like Baldeus, nor Valentzi nor any of the others like Schouter or Saar or Schwitzer ever accused the Portuguese of making forcible conversion although they spoke ill of them in other respects.”

    Early English writers are the source of the wrong oral tradition.

    It is the English writers who came long afterwards and worked in the colony who started this story about forced conversions, according to SGP. The conversions had long since taken place and the missions had ceased to exist about a century and a half before they came. But we find some British writers, like, Captain Percival and James Cordiner asserting that the Portuguese made forced conversions without any evidence whatsoever. Robert Knox and Emerson Tennent however made no such references. It is the assertions without any evidence that these British writers made, that has become the oral tradition. It is their opinions that have been repeated by a succession of local writers. There was no such unbroken tradition from the Portuguese times.

    But what does Emerson Tennent say “Notwithstanding every persecution, however the Roman Catholic religion retained its influence and held good its position in Ceylon. It was openly professed by the immediate descendants of the Portuguese, who remained in the island after its conquest by the Dutch; and in private it was equally adhered to by large bodies of natives both Sinhalese and Tamil, whom neither corruption nor coercion could induce to abjure it”. He (Tennent) also stated “There is no proof that compulsion was resorted to by them (Portuguese) for the extension of their own faith or violence employed for the extinction of the National Superstition.

    Writers like “Cordiner must have been but imperfectly informed when he states that the Portuguese compelled the natives of Ceylon to adopt the Roman Catholic religion without consulting their inclinations and that the Dutch unlike them had refrained from the employment of open force for the propagation of their religious faith; and Hough in his important work on Christianity in India has adopted his assertion without examination. On both points the historical evidence is at variance with these representations. “I have discovered nothing in the proceedings of the Portuguese in Ceylon to justify the imputation of violence and constraint.” So that is what Emerson Tennent the historian said.

    GP says just because there is no evidence to substantiate the claim that there were conversions by force does not mean there were no such conversions. It also does not mean there were forced conversions either. Recently there was medical evidence led at the inquest that Soma Thero died of natural causes. But there are Buddhist monks and laymen who continue to accuse the Christians of murdering him. There is nothing that the Christians can do to dispel such falsehoods.


    C. Gaston Perera Responds


    A running battle on paper tends to tax editorial space, not to mention reader’s patience and no real purpose is served when issues are dodged. So I have no intention of prolonging this. Here I only wish to point out very briefly just one thing. Now that Mr. S has been educated about Father S.G. Perera and his lecture, of which he was obviously ignorant earlier, he is using that as a diversionary tactic to dodge answering any of the issues raised in what is politely described as my “diatribe.”

    He seems to suggest that I have mis-understood Fr. SGP and reproduces long passages from his lecture.
    • Does he really believe that the passage regarding Faria Y Sousa really counters and explains that famous statement about “the decision of the sword” and is not just sarcasm and denial? 
    • Does he really believe that Fr. SGP did not caution his audience against rushing to conclude there were no forced conversions? If he does all I can say is that words mean different things to me and we are separated by a whole English language. 
    • When he triumphantly reproduces what Fr. SGP said as that the Mahawansa (sic) and the Rajawaliya make no mention of forced conversions as if that settles the question.
    •  Does he really believe that means anything? Does he really not know that the Mahavamsa (sic) and the Rajawaliya are equally silent about a multitude of other, well-documented and horrendous outrages perpetrated against the Sinhala Buddhist people – 
      • Dharmapala handing over the lands of the destroyed temples to the missionaries, for instance; 
      • Dharmapala gifting the 2000-year old Sinhala Buddhist kingdom to a foreign Catholic king, for instance, and by a notarial deed at that; 
      • the ruthless persecution of Buddhism, for instance : 
      • Fr. Lambert destroying the Munneswaram temple, 
      • de Sousa Arronches sacking Devinuwara, 
      • Nuno Alvares Perera throwing Buddhist priest to crocodiles, 
      • de Azevedo spitting babes on his soldier’s pikes? 
    This is what happens when one merely repeats other’s arguments. (Fr. SGP’s version either by an error or printer’s devil refers to Mahavamsa, not the Culavamsa; the error too is repeated.) 

    These are the occasions one cannot help recalling again Alexander Pope’s telling couplet about the need for deep draughts of the Pierian spring. Still, now that as a first step Mr. S. has come to know of Fr.SGP and his lecture the next step that could usefully be taken in the learning process might be to read Professor C.R. Boxer’s response to him. If he does read it – read it fully, I mean and not as poor Tikiri Abeysinghe was read – he will then learn of the real worth of the Father’s claims; the real meaning that “force” had to the missionary and statesman of the time; the real origin of the oral tradition which had nothing whatever to do with British missionaries; and the real reason behind the Father’s severe warning to his audience not to come to hasty conclusions that the Portuguese used no force in conversion. If nothing else he will learn that real scholarship is balanced and never afraid of speaking the whole truth. Professor Boxer’s response is entitled “A Note on Portuguese Missionary Methods in the East, 16th to 18th Centuries” and appeared in The Ceylon Historical Journal of July 1961.

    But never mind the Father SGP smoke screen. There were certain issues raised in my “diatribe” in reply to his earlier article. Issues like :
    • what is the authority for stating the destruction of Buddhist temples were only acts of war and nothing more sinister.
    • Was the missionary policy of the time blatantly directed towards the complete annihilation other faiths? 
    • Was there, therefore, only sophistry and double-speak in the prohibition against force? 
    These are side-stepped deftly. Why? Why can he not answer them? Perhaps, the side-stepping may be the answer. So let it pass.

    But there is one issue that one will not let pass. One issue that must not be dodged. The central thrust and purpose of “the diatribe” was to expose one thing. It was to expose the deliberate and perverse fashion in which random sentences and parts of sentences from the late Tikiri Abeysinghe’s doctoral thesis were torn out of context and twisted and distorted to suit an utterly biased purpose. Why is there no response to that? Why is there not even a passing reference to that? Why is that conveniently side-stepped? Why is there no explanation? Or is that the explanation?

    Gaston Perera, Colombo

    Views of Professor C. R. Boxer





    Professor C. R. Boxer referred to earlier was a world-renowned historian & Professor of Portuguese Studies at King’s College, University of London. Many distinguished local historians obtained their PhD under his direction.

    The following articles written by him pertaining to Ceylon affairs are in the public domain:

     



    Some Portuguese Attitudes To The Tamils of Sri Lanka  1550-1658

     

     

    The following passages are quoted below:
    "The conversion of the kingdom of Jaffnapatam to christianity is recounted in detail by the Franciscan chronicler , Fr. Paulo da Trinidade, in his Spiritual Conquest of the East, compiled at Goa in 1630. After listing the distribution of the parish churhes and their communicants,  he proceeds :"And according to this account, the Christians we have in the kingdom of Jaffnapatnam and its neighbouring islands amount to 71,438, all or nearly all of whom were converted to the faith and baptized by our Religious during the last ten years , excluding 400 who were baptized in the month of August of the year 1634  which is when we are writing this chapter, and as many more who are ready to be baptized soon,  according to what the Commissary of that kingdom writes,  to whom I assigned,  by reason of my charge of Commissary-General in these regions,  the task of computing this number with great accuracy and diligence. This total does not include the Christians which we have in the churches of Mantota,  whom we will deal with later, who also belong to the district of this kingdom, nor those who have died during the past ten years, who amount to a great number."
      
     " From the two aptly named Conquistas of Fr. Paulo da Trindade O.F.M,  and Fr. Fernao de Queyroz S .J., as well as from Bocarro's Livro do Estado da India Oriental and from all other Portuguese sources, it is perfectly clear that the great bulk of these mass-conversions were made by a mixture of carrot-and -stick methods during the years when the famous  (o    r infamous,  according to taste ), Felipe de Oliveira was the conquistador,  governor and captain-general of the kingdom of Jaffnapatam,  1619-27. As Fr. Paulo himself noted at the end of his chapter 51:"I conclude this chapter by stating that if there had been a viceroy,  who, as regards the conversion of the unbelievers,  had had  the zeal which Felipe de Oliveira showed when governing the  kingdom of Jaffnapatnam,  there would now be very few heathens in Goa,  Salsete,  Bardes and in the other regions of this State. ".17. Temple bashing was one of his favourite occupations, and he boasted that he had destroyed some 500 Hindu temples by the end of his life. 


    Christians & Spices, Portuguese Missionaries in Ceylon, 1515-1658, History Today, 1958, 346-54.

     

    The following passage written by M. D. D. Hewitt of Kings College, London about Professor Boxer after the latter’s death is quoted below:

    “Boxer was well aware of the political agendas with which many historians in the 1950s and 1960s approached their work. He himself did address the great themes of his time but deftly and often with a light touch that left the reader almost unaware of what he was doing. Take for example a short article entitled “Christians and Spices”, Portuguese Missionaries in Ceylon, 1515-1658” which he wrote for History Today in 1958. This article was in many ways typical of Boxer, a lightweight piece skating briefly over the history of the Portuguese writers. However, it was also a piece with a serious purpose. At the head of the article an unattributed text reads “The methods used, or alleged to have been used, by the Portuguese proselytizers more than three hundred years ago, remain a living issue in Ceylon politics.’ The article suggests that contrary to the claims of some Lankan politicians,

     

    the Portuguese did not seek to impose Christianity at the point of the sword……..but they did seek to foster their religion through coercive and discriminatory legislation……. since it is admittedly the evil rather than the good which men do that lives after them. This helps to account for the rather strident and nationalistic tone which is sometimes observable in the statements of contemporary Sinhalese Buddhists. .(46)
     

    Christianity at the Point of the Sword ?

     
    A series of lectures given by Professor Boxer at an International Institute is contained in a 102-page booklet, & its cover page is reproduced below:

     

    Cover Page of 1961 Publication

    The text of the booklet can be accessed here: 
    Page 37 of the booklet accessed via the above link contains a reference to “imposition of Roman Catholic Christianity at the point of the sword" & the relevant page is reproduced below: 


    From the foregoing it is clear that Prof. Boxer & Fr. S. G. Perera agree that the Portuguese did not "spread their religion at the point of the sword " in Ceylon, & the issue which was raised by Dr. Malalasekera & more forcefully by Prof. David Hussey, should have been settled.

    Comments on Fr. S. G. Perera & Portuguese Missionary Methods in the East

    The matter, however, did not end there. It was raised again by Prof. Boxer himself, eleven years after the death of Fr. S. G. Perera.

    Based on a photostat copy of pages 168-200 of an unspecified and undated Ceylon Magazine of an article titled "Portuguese Missionary Methods" by S. G. Perera S.J. , sent to him by Prof. K. Gunewardena,  some years earlier, Prof. Boxer published an article titled    “ “A. Note on Portuguese Missionary Methods in the East, 16th -18th centuries”,in the  Ceylon Historical Journal,Volume 10, July1960-April 1961), 77-90. It can be accessed here:

     

    This is clearly a response to Fr. Perera’s position on Conversions outlined in the article titled Portuguese Missionary Methods “in the publication Historical Sketches, referred to earlier. This matter had originally cropped up in the mid 1930s.

     The opening paragraphs of Prof. Boxer in this article are reproduced below:










    Later Prof. Boxer makes another reference to Fr. Perera as follows:


    Prof. Boxer concludes his references to Fr. Perera as follows:

     

     .

     The paragraphs quoted above suggests that Prof. Boxer was under the impression that Fr. Perera had made a general statement that the 'Portuguese never under any circumstances used force & violence in their missionary methods"& that  he has effectively demolished that statement.

    However, in the online copy now available, among other things, Fr. Perera has made the following statement .

    "Neither Joao de Barros nor Diogodo Couto, neither Correa  nor Castenbada, neither Bocarro nor Faria y Souza, neither Menezes, nor Ribeiro, nor Queyroz , nor any of the others who are our authorities for the history of the Portuguese, nor the contemporary documents published from time to time in Portugal or Goa or England or Ceylon , speak of any single person  forcibly converted nor suggest that any were, nor give any solid ground for the assertion that the Portuguese converted at the point of the sword. Having said this, I will own that in my heart of hearts I feared, knowing the reckless ways of the Portuguese and having read this charge so often, that some individual acts of high- handedness might be found even in this matter, but I never found any. '

     I have translated the longest of the Portuguese histories of Ceylon; I read the historical records of the Jesuits in Ceylon and translated and published them. I am now engaged in translating and publishing the Oratorian records; I hope soon to be able to make the records of the Franciscans available in this Island; for to my great joy a full and complete record of the missions of the Franciscans, giving an account of the churches and Christians in Ceylon from the beginning to almost the end of the Portuguese period, written by a Franciscan has been recently found in the Vatican Archives, and will soon be published in Ceylon. But neither in the one nor in the other documents that I have seen, nor in any of the publications that came into my hands have I ever read of any person converted at the point of the sword.

    Mark my words. I do not speak of what the Portuguese did elsewhere or intended to do here. I am speaking only of Ceylon. Nor am I saying how they managed to convert such a large number, or anything about their methods, or approving or defending or criticizing their methods, whatever they were. I only say that I never found any proof of force, and that I very much doubt whether any of those who so pompously and emphatically and in such round terms asserted that the Portuguese converted this Island by force and violence has the faintest proof to put forward. (p156, 157).

     "From the foregoing, it should have been quite clear to Prof. Boxer that Fr. Perera was not making a general statement, but one applicable to Ceylon only.

    The question now arises whether the above paragraphs were in the photostat papers seen by Prof. Boxer. It is clear that at least parts of the above paragraphs were there, as Prof. Boxer himself has quoted some words. 

    It is futile to speculate about it now.

    According to the List of Publications & Articles of Fr. Perera  he has authored the following:
    https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Q4OPDptNbLM5DpNCX8SRXeyZCxFWdhid/view?usp=sharing
    P. 279 Books   8. Historical Sketches   1940
    P. 281 Articles & Lectures  "Not forced Conversions : Portuguese Era in Ceylon" 16.9.35 Daily News Lecture
     
    The book Historical Sketches has also been published posthumously in 1962 & it is now available online.
     
    Readers of Prof. Boxer's article in the CHJ in 1961 would have  accepted what he stated about Fr. Perera , at face value, as he was then a  reputed historian.  No one would have remembered exactly what Fr. Perera had said 21 years earlier.  

    One reader who would have been surprised is Bishop Edmund Peiris, also a historian & a great admirer  of Fr. Perera, because he too had contributed an article to the same CHJ & would have read Prof. Boxer's article. If he remembered  Fr. Perera's article in 1940 on the Portuguese Missionary Methods in the publication "Historical Sketches ",  he would definitely have raised the matter.

    It is also surprising that Prof. Boxer makes no reference at all in the CHJ article to Prof. David Hussey, who started it all by stating that conversions took place at the point of the sword in Ceylon, which was vehemently denied by Fr. Perera, on the basis that there was no proof or evidence to arrive at such a conclusion.

    It is necessary to add that Prof. Boxer had in 1954 contributed an article to the CHJ on An Introduction to Joao Ribeiro's " Historical Tragedy of the Island of Ceylon 1685" & in it he had appreciated the "scholarly " translation of the Queyroz Manuscript by Fr. Perera.

    A Comment


    Summing up of the Conversion Controversy

    This writer is an ordinary senior citizen without any background in history.

    The controversy began when Dr. Malalasekera quoted in his book on the Pali Literature of Ceylon", the following line in Fari Y Souza's book, Portuguese Asia: Their instructions were “to begin by preaching, but, that failing, to proceed to the decision of the sword.”1 
    He did not however claim that conversions in Ceylon were carried out "at the point of the sword."

    It was Professor David Hussey who made this claim in his book, Ceylon & World History.

    Fr. S. G. Perera refuted this claim, on the ground that there was no evidence or proof of such conversions in Ceylon.

    Prof. Boxer, also an authority on Portuguese rule, on the three occasions mentioned above, where he wrote about Portuguese rule in Ceylon, obviously held the same view as Fr. Perera, that there were no conversions at the point of the sword by the Portuguese. He also seems to have been aware of the views held by certain politicians here.

    However, in the article published in the  Ceylon Historical Journal (CHJ) Professor Boxer quotes instances where complaints were made to the Portuguese  authorities about alleged forced conversions,  & to the forced conversion of orphans. He, makes no claim that these occurred in Ceylon  or that conversions were carried out at the point of the sword in Ceylon. He also refers to a vice regal decree of 1567 that Fr. Perera had apparently not seen. He claims to have “demolished Fr. Perera’s thesis.”

    An obvious question that arises is why Prof. Boxer made use of the CHJ to raise some doubts about a local historian & a member of the Catholic clergy, on a matter that does not appear to concern Ceylon. Besides, Fr. Perera confined his studies to Portuguese Rule & the Catholic Church in Ceylon, & whatever he wrote applied to Ceylon.  Perhaps there is more to it than meets the eye.

    As the references to Fr. Perera had been made over 10 years after Fr. Perera's death, it is not immediately clear whether anyone responded to this article on behalf of Fr. Perera, at the time.   

    Perhaps, a future researcher/historian studying the papers available at the Fr. S. G. Perera Library at the Tulana Research Centre for Encounter & Dialogue, headed by the well-known theologian Fr. Dr. Aloysius Peiris S. J., (another old Aloysian )  may be able to clarify the matter. Read about Fr. Peiris  here:

    Conclusion


    The purpose of this article is to highlight the role played by Aloysians in bringing to light the “Conquista” & its contents. 
    The Conversion Controversy is a by product.

    Fr. S. G. Perera passed away in 1950 at St. Aloysius College, Galle. I was then a 12-year-old student & have seen him in person, seated on a wheelchair on the ground floor corridor of the Fathers’ Residence reading and / or writing.  I was unaware of his role in the translation of the Conquista & did not even know that he had written a book on Ceylon History for Schools in 1923.  A History Of Ceylon For Schools : S.G. Perera, : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

    In our time, we learnt History from books written by L. E. Blaze & Dr. G. C. Mendis.


    Blaze (1861-1951), a Trinitian, was the founding Principal of Kingswood College, Kandy (1891-1923)  & authored the following books:
    ·         History of Ceylon for Schools (1900). Covered the period from Vijaya up to 1899. Revised & enlarged edition in 1933 covered the period up to 1931

    A history of Ceylon, for schools. : Blazé, L. E : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

    ·         The Story of Lanka: Outlines of the History of Ceylon from the earliest times to the coming of the Portuguese. (1914). 1921 Edition covered the period up to British times.

    Dr. Mendis (1893-1976) was also a student / teacher at Kingswood, before he became a Professor of History at the University of Ceylon. He authored, among others later, the following book    :

    ·         The Early History of Ceylon. (1932)

    https://archive.org/details/TheEarlyHistoryOfCeylon/page/n17/mode/2up

    Read more about Dr. Mendis here:

    Professor K.M.de Silva who wrote the voluminous History of Ceylon was also from Kingswood.
    C. Gaston Perera (pix na) was also a student of Kingswood.


     


    L. E. Blaze, Prof. G. C. Mendis, Prof. K. M. de Silva


    St. Aloysius College Galle also produced, in addition to Fr. Perera, three other eminent historians: Fr. V. Perniola S. J. Professor K. W. Goonewardena & Professor Michael Roberts.
     


    Revd. Fr. V. Perniola S.J., Prof. K. W. Goonewardena, Prof. Michael Roberts

    Read about them here:

    https://frsgpererasj.blogspot.com/2024/09/eminent-aloysian-historians-1-fr.html

    https://frvperniolasj.blogspot.com/2024/09/eminent-aloysian-historians-2-courtesy.html

    by John R. de Silva

    https://drkwgoonewardena.blogspot.com/2024/12/eminent-aloysian-historians-3-prof-k-w.html

    by Dr. K. D. G. Wimalaratne & M. Wereke

    https://drmichaelroberts.blogspot.com/2024/12/eminent-aloysian-historians-4-dr_31.html

    At SAC, Galle where both Fr. S. G. Perera & Fr. V. Perniola resided then, our history teachers recounted in no uncertain terms the atrocities committed by the Portuguese in Ceylon & we became fully aware of them. 

    We also knew that foreign missionaries arrived here during the Portuguese, Dutch & British periods with the sole purpose of spreading Christianity here. But the Schools they established, obviously for this purpose, during the British period also provided a sound education to us. Further information in this regard can be found here:

    https://www.researchgate.net/publication/342170592_Education_System_of_Sri_Lanka_during_the_Portuguese_and_the_Dutch_Period


    K. K. de Silva 

    (An Old Aloysian)

     References 


    Abeysinghe T., "Portuguese in Ceylon, 1594-1612," Ceylon Journal of Historical & Social Studies, Vol 9 No 1, Jan to Jun 1966, p. 89

    Blaze L. E. (1900), History of Ceylon for Schools

    Boxer C. R. , "Some Portuguese  Attitudes to the Tamils of Sri Lanka  ",  Sri Lanka Journal of Asian Studies, University of Jaffna
    Vol 2 Issue No 1 (December) 1980 : [5]

    Boxer C. R. , "A Note on Portuguese Missionary Methods,  ", Ceylon Historical Journal, Vol. 10, 1961

    Boxer C. R. , "Four Centuries of Portuguese Expansion"  Contains 4 lectures delivered at the Oppenheimer Institute, 102 pages

    Boxer C. R. Introduction to Joao Ribeiro's " Historical Tragedy of the Island of Ceylon 1685" , The Ceylon Historical Journal 1954.01-04 (66.8 MB)
    http://noolaham.net/project/119/11896/11896.pdf

     Ceylon Antiquary & Literary Register Volume II of 1916-1917 under Article No. XV & continued under Article No. XXV
    The Ceylon Antiquary and Lilerary Register Volume II 1916-1917 - நூலகம் (noolaham.org)
     
    De Silva, C. R., (2007), 
    Portugal and Sri Lanka: Recent Trends in Historiography, Re-exploring the Links: History and Constructed Histories between Portugal and Sri Lanka, ed. Jorge Flores, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2007, pp. 3-26.
    https://www.researchgate.net/publication/351069239_Portugal_and_Sri_Lanka_Recent_Trends_in_Historiography_Re- exploring_the_Links_History_and_Constructed_Histories_between_Portugal_and_Sri_Lanka_ed_Jorge_Flores_Wiesbaden_Harrassowitz_Verlag_2007_pp_3-2

    De Silva C. R. (1967), “The Portuguese in Ceylon, 1617-1638” 
    ( Thesis presented for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of the University of London, December 1967 https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/33808/1/11010598.pdf

    Devendre T. (2010) , Searchlight on a Dark Era, Review of Book “. The Portuguese Missionary in 16th and 17th Century Ceylon”, by G. Gaston Perera
    Artscope | Online edition of Daily News - Lakehouse Newspapers
     Gunasekera, W. (1999) Daily News, 28 October 1999,

    Mendis C. 
    https://www.archaeology.lk/20th-century-historians-rev-fr-s-g-perera/

    Newitt M. D. D. , " C. R. Boxer, 1904-2000 ", , 115p075.pdf, 


    Perera, S. G. Revd. Fr. Translation of Fr. Fernao de Queyroz’s The Temporal & Spiritual Conquest of Ceylon , Govt. Printer, 1930.
    The temporal and spiritual conquest of Ceylon : Queyroz, Fernão de, 1617-1688 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive



    Perera S. G. Rev. Fr. " Historical Sketches,  / Portuguese Missionary Methods ",1940/1962

    Pieris , P. E. D. S. S. , Ceylon : the Portuguese era ; being a history of the island for the period 1505-1658 .Vol. I., Colombo Apothecaries Co. Ltd. Printers, 1913

    Pieris, P. E. & Naish, R. B. Ceylon & the Portuguese. 1505-1658,American Mission Press, Telippalai. 1920.
    Ceylon and the Portuguese, 1505-1658 : Pieris, P. E. (Paulus Edward), 1874- : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

     Queyroz, Fernao de Revd. Fr. The Temporal & Spiritual Conquest of Ceylon, (1687), Translated by Fr. S. G. Perera S. J. (1929), Govt. Printer, Ceylon. 1930.
    The temporal and spiritual conquest of Ceylon : Queyroz, Fernão de, 1617-1688 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

     Ribeiro J. (1685), The Historic Tragedy of the Island of Ceylao
    https://archive.org/details/historytragedyof00joao/page/n15/mode/1up

    Scott, A, From the Memoirs of Captain Robeiro, Daily News, 6 August, 2005.
    Feature (dailynews.lk)

    Seneviratne A. M. (2021), The Conquista, A Book on Sri Lanka’s Portuguese Period.
    https://thuppahis.com/2021/07/09/the-conquista-a-book-on-sri-lankas-portuguese-period/








     







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