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208 BENEDICT VADAKKEKARA and Punjab - should jointly assume its financial responsibility. During his forthcoming visit to Europe he would personally meet the English Provincial and Fr General and explore the practicalities of establishing the Novitiate in England 36 • He got back to his Mission before the Christmas of 1884 from his tours in Europe, but nothing is reported about the outcome of his sounding in England. The Novitiate of Mussoorie was formally inaugurated on 8 Decem– ber 1880 with the vestition of four novices - Brs Pius, Fidelis, Am– brose (clerical candidates) and Pascal (non-clerical). Soon Pascal quitted on his own accord 37 • However, it was not long before Mgr Tosi's fears were corroborated and cracks were beginning to show. One cannot precise for how long the Novitiate held out before it came to suffer its first premature suspension. What is known for certain is that the Novitiate was reactivated in May 1881 after it had been interrupted and the novices began their one-year Novitiate over again. The circumstances that forced Mgr J acopi' s hand in making this extreme decision was the financial stringency in which the nascent insti– tution found itself. Since the Mission of Agra did not receive the "subsidy of all the five students of Rome", the Novitiate had to be interrupted. The onus of suspending the Novitiate and reviving it seems to have been exclusively Mgr Jacopi's. At the same time he chose to be reticent about these decisions in his correspondence with Rome. Instead belatedly he asked the neo-missionary Damasus of Villafranca to do the communicating 38 • 36 AGCap H 6, III, Fr Louis of S~urcula to Mgr Pesci, Coorjee Bonkipore 23 May 1882: "Mgr. Jacopi mi disse in Agra in Gen.[nai]o che avea la dispensa in riguardo alla famiglia cioe che 4 Padri potessero bastare per l'ammissione di Novizi - ma oltre la dispensa vi sarebbe un'altra irregolarita. II Rettore de] Collegio ed ii Confessore delle monache a Mussoorie non convivono coi Novizi, dunque si riduce a due". Fr Louis (Prov. Abruzzo) was the Administrator of the Vicariate of Patna in Mgr Pesci's absence. 37 Cf. AAAgra A.B.D. 8 n.5: Mgr Jacopi's report of June 1886. 38 AGCap H 4, IV: Fr D_amasus to Fr General, Agra 2 January 1882: "Intorno al noviziato di Mussoorie, ecco quanto da Monsignor Jacopi vengo pregato di riferirla: I novizi fin'ora sono cinque, cioe quattro chierici ed un laico. Se le cose fossero andate bene, i primi tre chierici, a quest'ora avrebbero emessi i voti semplici; ma non avendo questa missione avuto ii sussidio di tutti cinque i studenti di Roma, si dovette sospendere ii noviziato sino a maggio, e percio i suddetti chierici finiranno ii noviziato nel pr.v. maggio. Di postulanti poi non c'e per ora, che un solo giovanetto di quattordici anni, e di stirpe porteghese". Damasus of Villafranca (Prov. Venice) went to India towards