Concord and cooperation: Juan de Albuquerque, Bishop of Goa, and the first Jesuits in Asia (1542-1553)

Abstract

Historiography has already shown that the relationship between the Society of Jesus and other institutions and agents in the religious field has given way to various controversies. This article analyses the atmosphere created between the first Jesuits who reached Asia and the Franciscan bishop Juan de Albuquerque, who ruled the diocese when they settled there in 1542, headed by Francis Xavier. What was the pattern of their relationship? How did they cooperate? Why did they keep a climate of concord and cooperation? This is the context and the problematic here discussed. Different scales of analysis will be adopted, and this combinatory perspective will reveal the structural reasons, but also the specific behavior of the agents who are entangled in this relationship, showing how this type of contingency is crucial to understand the climate created between the Jesuits and the bishop who, in India, structured the first Portuguese diocese in Asia.