Chapter PADRE to PAGODA of P by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

PADRE to PAGODA

PADRE, s. A priest, clergyman, or minister, of the Christian Religion; when applied by natives to their own priests, as it sometimes is when they speak to Europeans, this is only by way of accommodation, as ‘church’ is also sometimes so used by them.

The word has been taken up from the Portuguese, and was of course applied originally to Roman Catholic priests only. But even in that respect there was a peculiarity in its Indian use among the Portuguese. For P. della Valle (see below) notices it as a singularity of their practice at Goa that they gave the title of Padre to secular priests, whereas in Italy this was reserved to the religiosi or regulars. In Portugal itself, as Bluteau’s explanation shows, the use is, or was formerly, the same as in Italy; but, as the first ecclesiastics who went to India were monks, the name apparently became general among the Portuguese there for all priests.

It is a curious example of the vitality of words that this one which had thus already in the 16th century in India a kind of abnormally wide application, has now in that country a still wider, embracing all Christian ministers. It is applied to the Protestant clergy at Madras early in the 18th century. A bishop is known as Lord (see LAT) padre. See LAT Sahib.

According to Leland the word is used in China in the form pa-ti-li.

1541.—“Chegando á Porta de Igreja, o sahirãao a receber oito Padres.”—Pinto, ch. lxix. (see Cogan, p. 85).

1584.—“It was the will of God that we found there two Padres, the one an English-man, and the other a Flemming.”—Fitch, in Hakl. ii. 381.

„ “…had it not pleased God to put it into the minds of the archbishop and other two Padres of Jesuits of S. Paul’s Colledge to stand our friends, we might have rotted in prison.”—Newberrie, ibid. ii. 380.

c. 1590.—“Learned monks also come from Europe, who go by the name of Pádre. “They have an infallible head called Pápá. He can change any religious ordinances as he may think advisable, and kings have to submit to his authority.”—Badaoni, in Blochmann’s Ain, i. 182.

c. 1606.—“Et ut adesse Patres comperiunt, minor exclamat Padrigi, Padrigi, id est Domine Pater, Christianus sum.”—Jarric, iii. 155.

1614.—“The Padres make a church of one of their Chambers, where they say Masse twice a day.”—W. Whittington, in Purchas, i. 486.

1616.—“So seeing Master Terry whom I brought with me, he (the King) called to him, Padre you are very welcome, and this house is yours.”—Sir T. Roe, in Purchas, i. 564; [Hak. Soc. ii. 385].

1623.—“I Portoghesi chiamano anche i preti secolari padri come noi i religiosi…”—P. della Valle, ii. 586; [Hak. Soc. i. 142].

1665.—“They (Hindu Jogis) are impertinent enough to compare themselves with our Religious Men they meet with in the Indies. I have often taken pleasure to catch them, using much ceremony with them, and giving them great respect; but I soon heard them say to one another, This Franguis knows who we are, he hath been a great while in the Indies, he knows that we are the Padrys of the Indians. A fine comparison, said I, within myself, made by an impertinent and idolatrous rabble of Men!”—Bernier, E.T. 104; [ed. Constable, 323].

1675.—“The Padre (or Minister) complains to me that he hath not that respect and place of preference at Table and elsewhere that is due unto him.…At his request I promised to move it at ye next meeting of ye Councell. What this little Sparke may enkindle, especially should it break out in ye Pulpit, I cannot foresee further than the inflaming of ye dyning Roome W^ch sometimes is made almost intollerable hot upon other Acc^ts.”—Mr. Puckle’s Diary at Metchlapatam, MS. in India Office.

1676.—“And whiles the French have no settlement near hand, the keeping French Padrys here instead of Portugueses, destroys the encroaching growth of the Portugall interest, who used to entail Portugalism as well as Christianity on all their converts.”—Madras Consns., Feb. 29, in Notes and Exts. i. p. 46.

1680.—“…where as at the Dedication of a New Church by the French Padrys and Portugez in 1675 guns had been fired from the Fort in honour thereof, neither Padry nor Portugez appeared at the Dedication of our Church, nor as much as gave the Governor a visit afterwards to give him joy of it.”—Ibid. Oct. 28. No. III. p. 37.

c. 1692.—“But their greatest act of tyranny (at Goa) is this. If a subject of these misbelievers dies, leaving young children, and no grown-up son, the children are considered wards of the State. They take them to their places of worship, their churches…and the padris, that is to say the priests, instruct the children in the Christian religion, and bring them up in their own faith, whether the child be a Mussulman saiyid or a Hindú bráhman.”—Kháfi Khán, in Elliot, vii. 345.

1711.—“The Danish Padre Bartholomew Ziegenbalgh, requests leave to go to Europe in the first ship, and in consideration that he is head of a Protestant Mission, espoused by the Right Reverend the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury…we have presumed to grant him his passage.”—In Wheeler, ii. 177.

1726.—“May 14. Mr. Leeke went with me to St. Thomas’s Mount.…We conversed with an old Padre from Silesia, who had been 27 years in India.…”—Diary of the Missionary Schultze (in Notices of Madras, &c., 1858), p. 14.

„ “May 17 The minister of the King of Pegu called