Part 29 (1/2)
It is probable that the complete story of the persecution inflicted upon the religious of Portugal will never be known. Some of the victims have disappeared as completely as if the earth had swallowed them. But the history of the survivors is full enough in its appalling details to give an idea of the utter barbarity of the oppressors and the ignorance which impelled them to action.
Against the Jesuits the Portuguese secret societies have entertained an abiding hatred ever since the days of the infamous Pombal. Long before the late Revolution the writer visited the ancient church of the Jesuits in Ponte Delgado in the Azores Islands, and there beheld the evidences of vandalism perpetrated years before upon altars and shrines that have not their equal in the world. Naturally the fury of the mob, in the recent upheaval, sought out these Fathers as a worthy object of brutality, and inflicted upon them indignities with a savagery worthy of the inhabitants of the Fiji Islands.
Three of the great Jesuit inst.i.tutions met with especial attention, those of Quelhas, Barro and Campolide. When the revolutionists stormed the first of these establishments, they reported a story that the priests had fired bombs upon the soldiers, and then retreated into underground pa.s.sages to hide. The facts of the case, as it later developed, showed that the house at Quelhas had actually been shut by the Government and deserted by the Jesuits. Nevertheless the story of the bombs and the underground pa.s.sages went the round of the press of the world. These underground pa.s.sages, by the way, were shown to be little sewer conduits about eight or ten inches in diameter, so that it would be extremely difficult for even the most ascetic Jesuit Father to enter, much less to live in them.
The College at Barro was one of the finest in Portugal, and it is a noteworthy fact in connection with it, that on the very last day of his reign the young King had signed a decree closing that Novitiate. In the house on the day of its attack there were eighty-six priests, brothers, novices and students, all members or intending to be members of the Society of Jesus. It is well known that the lower cla.s.s of the Portuguese who fell under secret society influence were superst.i.tious to an incredible degree. Hence, when it became noised abroad that there were strange apparatus in the college, such things as microscopes, X-rays, radium, and electrical appliances, the excited mob held up its hands in holy horror. The Jesuits who had such things, and talked in such learned language could surely be nothing less than hobgoblins, unnatural sprites and wicked spirits. The sentiment was fostered and encouraged in them by the unscrupulous spirits of discontent, who knew that anarchy could never prosper while learning and virtue remained unabused.
On October 5, the college was sacked, and its inmates marched out. After a humiliating journey on the railroad, they were finally imprisoned in the fortress of Caxeas. Father Torrent, a learned scientist of the band, was in a few days liberated as a French citizen.
The college at Campolide, the glory of Portuguese educational inst.i.tutions, shared the same fate. Its Fathers were arrested and led away to swell the number of prisoners at Caxeas. The collection of laboratory apparatus, one of the finest in Europe, was delivered up to the fury of a mob, who could no more appreciate their worth than the savages of Africa. The magnificent library of 25,000 volumes contained rare works that can never be duplicated.
The wave of indignation and contempt that followed in the whole world when the true nature and character of the revolutionists began to be known, has urged the Portuguese controllers to excuse and palliate their acts. When the nuns were driven from their convents they were led to the vile quarters of the a.r.s.enal where their humiliations were continued. It was said that this was done to protect them from the mob; yet it is now known that the mob had no intention of sacking the convents; this work was done almost altogether by the soldiers and sailors. In fact when a few soldiers guarded the Irish convent at Belim, the Dominican convent at Benfrica, and the Irish Dominican monastery at Corpo Santo, the mob had nothing to do, and these convents remained untouched.
When the nuns were taken from their convents they were piled like criminals into any handy vehicle, and then driven in the midst of a shouting, hooting mob along the streets. The soldiers who marched with them, as is shown in the many photographs taken of the event, laughed with idiotic bravado, and a.s.sumed as much importance as if their delicate, helpless charges were so many fierce warrior captives taken on the field of battle. In the a.r.s.enal several hundreds of them were huddled together in one large room. Here they were visited by Senhor Affonso Costa, the Minister of Justice, who swaggered about among the gentle-minded ladies, roared at them, and glared with his magnetic eye.
For three hours he questioned and insulted them, while a score of attendant press agents took down his magnificent bravadoes to be embellished for the press of the day. Except for the misery of the poor Sisters, the whole scene was worthy of one of Sullivan's comic operas, calling for laughter where it did not inspire contempt.
This is the Portuguese Republic, the government to which the people of Portugal have been consigned. Its direction is plainly indicated from the fact that one of its first proposed laws is that which permits of free divorce. The Republic of Portugal has one rival on earth, that of the West Indies, to which people, laughing, give the name of Hayti.
It would be well in speaking of these events to reproduce the letter written by the Rev. Provincial of the Portuguese Jesuits, and addressed to his fellow countrymen. The letter was suppressed in Portugal, but was published later in England. It is as follows:
To My Countrymen: The prolonged period of distress which elapsed while the Fathers and Brothers of the Society of Jesus were quitting Portugal to take the road of exile, being driven from their beloved native land on the charge of abominable crimes, whereas their life had been wholly spent in self-sacrifice on behalf of others, whilst I was moreover occupied with the care of my spiritual children, having to determine for each a new scene for the exercise of his zeal--all this, I say, occupied me to such an extent that hitherto I have been unable to find time to address this protest to my countrymen, which, however, is demanded of me as a relief for my own grief and by my duty as a Christian and a religious whose office lays upon him this responsibility.
In this, my protestation and complaint, I shall speak only of those religious who, as members of the Society of Jesus, were subject to my jurisdiction, since for them alone was I responsible. I must, however, begin by saluting the glorious children of all religious orders whom we cherish and reverence as enn.o.bled by their sufferings and their partic.i.p.ation in the cross through insults, bondage, and even death itself, some of them having sealed a life of saintliness and self-devotedness with the testimony of their blood.
But in thus solemnly addressing my country, I must, as a father, speak of my own well-beloved sons, expressing my grief on beholding what they suffer, and protesting their innocence of the charges brought against them.
In this free country men who extol the spirit of liberty, and claim to be leaders of the principle of universal equality, have on the instant expelled from Portuguese territory more than three hundred of their fellow citizens, spread amongst some score of houses in the Motherland and colonies beyond the seas in Asia, Africa and Oceania.
This cruel act was executed without the victims being permitted to speak one word in their defence, no time being allowed them to carry away a st.i.tch of clothing, their books or their papers, though these contained the fruit of active studies pursued for years.
_SPOLIATION._
In the name of liberty they have taken from us all that we possess, have seized our property and our houses, built with what by dint of careful economy has been saved out of the pensions of our pupils, or has been a.s.signed by individuals and legally invested for the purpose in their own names.
The College of Campolide was established in 1858 by three English subjects in order to a.s.sist Father Rademaker in the development of education and material progress in Portugal. The College of Campolide was accordingly for a long period English property and flew the British flag. Later, after the death of these persons, the trust was dissolved, and Campolide, with all its belongings, was acquired by other individuals, Portuguese or foreign. One of these, Father Bramley, now in India, has, of course, claimed his share. I do not know why the Portuguese partner cannot do the same, there being a fundamental law which absolutely prohibits the confiscation in all cases of property belonging to private citizens. Since 1834, when the possession of property in Portugal was forbidden to religious orders, it has been the rule, as in England, that individuals alone could buy, sell or own such properties as were a.s.signed by their legal owners to the use of Jesuits or others.
Along with buildings and land was seized, likewise the furniture of our houses, comprising first-rate scientific collections in the museums, scientific inst.i.tutes and laboratories of the colleges at Campolide and S. Fiel, where for more than half a century, by means of the monthly pensions of our boys, and the generosity of friends inspired by esteem and devotion, the intelligent and disinterested labors of our fathers and brothers had succeeded in acc.u.mulating valuable materials for study, which by every right were ours, and ours alone.
Our libraries disappeared in like manner during the same period, the store where our linen was kept, the private rooms themselves, in each of which could be found, besides a washstand and bed, only a writing table and a modest bookstand with a few books, the companions of our solitude--all were suddenly declared to be the property of the State.
We ourselves, thus summarily and arbitrarily despoiled of everything, and turned out of our own doors, were led to prison by a throng of armed soldiers and civilians, amidst the insults and jeers of a mob long excited against us by the calumnies of a ribald press.
Those who, forewarned of these outrages, succeeded in making their escape, were hunted like wild beasts through fields and streets, some of them--as I know certainly in the case of six--were pursued with gun shots--in some instances their a.s.sailants spat in their faces.
[Ill.u.s.tration: A CONVENT AFTER BEING SACKED.]
Yet these were men who had never made any appearance in politics, criminals of a novel species, who had renounced and sacrificed all that is attractive in human life to devote themselves, without thought of worldly recompense, to the education of youth in our schools, to preach the gospel to the heathen in our transmarine colonies, or to exercise every kind of priestly ministry, however hard and unattractive. Against these men a disreputable press, which in any other country would be sternly repressed, though spreading vague and bl.u.s.tering charges, could not in any single instance succeed in proving, I will not say a solitary crime, but even a misdemeanor.
Yet such were the men who were clapped into gaols and dungeons as notorious criminals, exposed to barbarous sufferings, and for several days not even permitted any intercourse with one another. Let it not be said that all this is but exaggeration prompted by my grief. What has been endured by our exiles and captives went far beyond my simple sketch.