ABSTRACT
Fr. Perera's emphatic denial that "the contemporary documents published from time to time in Portugal or Goa or England of Ceylon, speak of any single person forcibly converted, nor suggest that any ever were" (op. c//., p. 182), would hardly have been made had he read the following passage in the viceregal decree of 4th December, 1567. "Forasmuch as some unbelievers complain frequently to my justices, saying that force has been used against their children, or their slaves, or their dependents, alleging that they wish to make them Christians by force: I hereby order that when such a case occurs, the judge before whom it is brought must send and inform the local prelate thereof, so that the latter may, if he so desires, send a priest with the minister of justice, before whom the said judge will order the complainant to be asked whether he wishes to become a Christian or not; and if he says *yes\ then they will let him be; and if he says that he was constrained and does not want to be a Christian, then he will be dismissed freely to go withersoever seems good to him"1
It is obvious from the wording of this decree that the practice of forcible conversion, although illegal and not countenanced by the highest civil and ecclesiastical authorities-with one exception which is mentioned below-was, in fact, far from being unknown. Moreover, it is possible to adduce chapter and verse in some specific instances, although the allegations, or admissions, are as a rule couched in only general terms. As might be expected, the instances where coercion was used occurred more frequently in places like Goa and Bacaim, which were under complete Portuguese control, than they did in places like Macao, which had strong and nonChristian native authorities in their immediate vicinity.
