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ESTABLISHMENT OF CAPUCHIN ORDER IN INDIA- II 505 The General Procurator Fr Melchior of Benisa 13 dispatched on 18 November 1920 a circular to the Regular Superiors of Agra, Ajmer, Allahabad, Lahore and Simla, directing them to report back to him within three months on certain specific practicalities apropos of the opening of a Capuchin Novitiate and Study for the Inda-European and native youth of India 1 4 • The three months' deadline was itself indicative of the high priority that the general superiors attached to the implementation of the scheme. Falling back on Pope Benedict XV's Apostolic Letter Maximum illud of 30 November 1919, the superiors in Rome jolted the Regular Superiors in India into action; the Order had no justification for its lethargy in carrying through faithfully the directives of the ecclesiastical authorities, they were plainly told. The general superiors went out of their way to spotlight the point that the envisaged Novitiate and Study would have as its scope the training of "Indo– European and Indigenous" youth to be religious and priests. This brief clause was to have a far-reaching effect on the birth, growth and spread of the Ca– puchin Order in India. It was precisely this specification that made the pros– pective Novitiate distinct from the earlier venture. The Novitiate of Mussoorie (1880) had been intended exclusively for the children of European descent, even though the guidelines given from Rome had been to the contrary 15 • 13 Fr Melchior of Benisa (Prov. Valencia): in 1920 became General Procurator; elected General Minister in 1926. 14 AGCap G 68, II, Novizjato e Studto, Fr General Procurator, Rome 18 November 1920: the following were the points upon which the Regular Superiors were asked to pronounce: the locations for the erection of the Novitiate and the Study; the kind of Fraternity to be established in these Houses; the immediate authority to which they would be responsible; the nomination of Guardians, Masters and Lectors; and the means for supporting the two Houses financially. It is to be underscored that the Regular Superiors were not asked whether they deemed it opportune or not to have a Capuchin Novitiate in. India but on just how and where it was to be established. The decision to establish the Order in India had already been taken in Rome! 15 AGCap G 68, II, Noviziato e Stud.to, Fr General Procurator, Rome 18 November 1920: "Jam anno 1869, die 8 septembris, Sacra Congregatio de Propaganda Fide Vicarios Apostolicos Indiarium Orientalium sic alloquebatur: 'Optimum erit consilium Vicariorum Apostolicorum, si cum clero indigena saeculari efformando operam dederint, etiam regulares Ordines et Congre– gationes inter indigenas satagant, sub regimine Superiorum Europaeorum in lndiis commoran– tium'. Seraphica autem familia hac in re nihil omnino cedere debet aliis Ordinibus et Congrega– tionibus, quorum incoepta pluribus in locis felicem successum habuerunt''.