CEYLON
550
CEYLON
Olcott and Madame Blavatsky. Schools have sprung
up, pride in the ancient religion has revived, and
under the leadership of educated Buddhists the masses
have learned to resist. Christian influences and have
even shown a spirit of aggression. The large major-
ity of the Tamil population are Hindus, especially in
the Northern and Eastern Provinces, and the form of
Hinduism most in favour is Sivaism or the worship of
Siva. Besides the Moors already mentioned a com-
munity of Malays, said to be descendants of the
natives of Java imported into Ceylon during the
Dutch period and recruited by Inter immigrants from
the Straits Settlements, profess Mohammedanism.
The first form of Christianity in Ceylon was of course Catholicism. The conversion of heathens was part of the public policy of the Portuguese, and accordingly we find that in 1518 a number of Fran- ciscan friars arrived in Ceylon and under the protec- tion of the Portuguese Government, preached the Faith, and converted many thousands. We read of many churches built and many monasteries estab- lished within the Portuguese territories, and of the conversion of many even of noble and royal blood among the Sinhalese. Among the more notable converts was Prince Dharmapala, grandson of a Sin- halese king, who was baptized and crowned king in Lisbon in 1541 under the name of Don Juan and reigned a Christian monarch in Ceylon from 1542 to 1597. About this time also took place the visit to Ceylon of St. Francis Xavier, the Apostle of the East, by whom large numbers were converted to the Faith, especially among the Tamils of the North . Catholicism progressed until it encountered the antagonism of the Dutch who were all of the Dutch Reformed Church, and who made that form of Christianity the estab- lished religion of the State. The Catholic religion was proscribed during the Dutch rule, penal laws were enacted, and the Catholics suffered severe per- secution. Ne\ ertheless the light of the Faith was not wholly extinguished and the practice of religion was continued especially through the exertions of mis- sionaries from the Portuguese settlement of Goa, who amidst persecution and hardship ministered to the Catholic people and even converted many heathens. A new era, however, dawned with the conquest of the island by the British Government which put in practice the principles of religious liberty, though the Church of England became in turn the estab- lished form of Christianity. The greater part of the "Dutch Christians" among the natives were either absorbed by the Anglican Church or relapsed into Buddhism, and at the present day Dutch Presby- terianism is represented only by a few hundred Dutch descendants who are served by Presbyterian ministers from Scotland. The Church of England in Ceylon is gi > verned by a bishop who is suffragan to the Bishop of Calcutta. The clergy consist of members of the Church Missionary Society and of the sister Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. The Anglican Church continued to be maintained by the Govern- ment till the year 1SS1 when by act of the local legislature it was disestablished and provision was made for the constitution of a synod, consisting of clergy and laity under the presidency of the bishop, for the regulation of its affairs, and for the election of trustees to hold and administer its property and funds. Other Protestant bodies are: Wesleyan Methodist mission, begun in 1814, it holds many important stations ami does much for education; Baptist Missionary Society, first missionary landed in Ceylon in 1812; American Mission (Congregation- alists), under the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, whose work is confined to the Tamils of the Northern Province. The decennial cen- sus of 1901 gave the following religious statistics: Buddhists, 2.111.101; Hindus. 826,826; Christians,
349,239; Mohammedans, 246,118; others, 2367. The
Christians were: Catholics, 2S7, 119; Anglicans, 32,514;
Presbyterians, 3337; Wesleyan Methodists, 14,991;
Baptists, 3309; Congregationalists, 2446. Authentic
Catholic statistics gave a total of 293,929 Catholics
in 1904 and this number has since probably reached
300,000.
The Catholic Church, as the above figures show, is the largest Christian body in the island. As it was first in the field, so it has been the most fruitful in results. At the date of the British occupation (1796) the Catholic population was only 50.000. At first Ceylon was under the jurisdiction of the Portu- guese Diocese of Cochin with a local vicar-general. In 1834 it was erected into a separate vicariate Apos- tolic by Pope Gregory XVI, and in 1845. as the Cath- olics were increasing in numbers, the island was di- vided into two vicariates Apostolic, Colombo and Jaffna, the former being entrusted to the Benedictine Congregation of the Silvestrines, and the latter to the Oblates of Mary Immaculate. Again, in 1883. the central provinces of the island were separated from Colombo and constituted as the Vicariate Apostolic of Kandy under the same Benedictines, while Col- ombo was transferred to the Oblates. The year 1886 witnessed a notable development of the Church in Ceylon, the Right Rev. C. Bonjean, O. M. I., being then the Vicar Apostolic of Colombo, the Right Rev. C. Pagnani, O. S. B., the Vicar Apostolic of Kandy, and the Right Rev. A. Melizan, O. M. I., the Vicar Apostolic of Jaffna. In that year the Holy See by agreement with the Crown of Portugal abolished the royal patronage which had been exercised in the East Indies from the time of the Portuguese domina- tion; as a consequence, and in accordance with the needs of the time, the Catholic hierarchy was estab- lished in India and Ceylon. Monsignor (afterwards cardinal) Agliardi was sent as delegate Apostolic to put in force the new arrangements and on the 6th of January, 1887, the hierarchy was formally established in Ceylon, Bishop Bonjean being appointed Arch- bishop of Colombo, Dr. Pagnani, Bishop of Kandy, and Dr. Melizan, Bishop of Jaffna. Further changes took place in 1893, when two new dioceses, Galle and Trincomalee, were formed from the Archdiocese of Colombo, and the Diocese of Jaffna respectively. Jesuits of the Belgian province were placed in the former and Jesuits of the French province in the latter, with Fathers Van Reith, S. J. and Lavigne, S. J. as the first bishops. These five bishops have assisting them nearly 200 priests, both European and native, and communities of Sisters of the Good Shepherd, the Sisters of the Holy Family, the Franciscan nuns, Missionaries of Mary, the Little Sisters of the Poor, and the Sisters of Charity of Jesus and Mary, in charge of various schools and institutions. Although Mon- signor Agliardi was sent especially to establish the hierarchy, the Apostolic Delegation to the East Indies was intended to be permanent; accordingly when he departed in 1887 he was succeeded by Mon- signor Aiuti, who in turn was succeeded in 1892 by Monsignor Ladislaus M. Zaleski, who took up his residence at Kandy. At the same time the Holy See took steps to place the education and the supply of native priests in the East on a solid and more secure basis, and accordingly in 1893 a general seminary was established by Leo XI II, which is con- ducted by professors of the Society of Jesus at Kandy. Ceylon, the students being of various nationalities and races, recruited from all parts of the East. The Catholic bishops are on excellent terms with tin- British Government and are held iii high esteem by the people of the island gl nerallv. Their legal status, however, was not quite assured in respect of succes- sion to ecclesiastical property though no practical
difficulty was experienced; but the Supreme Court
of Ceylon, having recently held that the Catholic bishops had no legal corporate capacity and could not
