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214 BENEDICT VADAKKEKARA tion they were being imparted. The Lector believed that from 1884 onwards some of the friars were resenting even his presence in India 53 • The General Secretary of Missions wanted Fr Louis to furnish him with: 1. copy of the decree of the foundation and statutes of the Novitiate; 2. information about the opening of the Novitiate, its staff, list of novices; 3. nationality, secular and religious names, date of birth, vestition, Simple and Solemn Profession of those already professed; 4. reasons why some quitted; 5. the Lector's personal assessment of the Novitiate. In April 1886 he again asked Fr Louis for more facts and figures, In his lengthy reply the Lector painted a very grey picture. The Novitiate community had never enjoyed canonidty, as its strength was nearly ,always under the required number. The Guardian, on being appointed confessor to the sisters in Agra, left Mussoorie in the middle of 1883 and in December was made Principal of St Peter's College there. In order to repair this lacuna Mgr Jacopi made the Principal of St George's College in Mussoorie also a member of the house. When Fr Louis brought to the Bishop's notice that since over a year and a half the frateJ:1::ity had no resident Guardian or Vicar, the Novice Master was forthwith- nominated Guardian. The Master, however, did not want to accept this new charge as his additional work as Principal of St Fidelis Orphanage School was already weighing him down. Towards the end of 1884 Br Vincent had to move to Agra, and so the community again lost its canonical status. In February 1885 three novices donned the habit but their Novitiate was reckoned from 22 April onwards, as it was only then that the community regained its canonicity with Mgr Jacopi's arrival there. But the Bishop had to leave Mussoorie on 15 November. Though by then the time was not ripe for the second four-monthly Evaluation cif the novices by the fra– ternity, the Lector proposed that it be held before the Bishop left, as the community would lack the quorum without him. The quorum, 53 APCapTusc, Missione Indostan, Incarto I, Fr Louis to Mgr Jacopi, Bareilly 9 December 1886: "Se in Agra vi sono dei puritani, che dopo tre anni che non hanno veduti gli Studenti e temono calla loro presenza di essere scandalizzati, e di patire detri– mento nel loro progresso spirituale, non saro io quello che mi rendero reo di tanto danno ..." APCapTusc, Missione Indostan, Incarto I, Fr Louis to Mgr Jacopi, Mussoorie 1887, refers to some missionaries "che fino dal 26 Settembre de! 1884 mi volevano fuori dalla Missione''.