Your Eminence, I ask your pardon too.
I ask the pardon of this assembly. I ask for the pardon of my brothers.
And I ask for your pardon...
...for insulting His Excellency. - Thank you, that will do.
Well, that was most gratifying, Your Eminence.
Do you think you could tell us about your attitude to the transference...
...of the missions' territories? - Precisely.
I have kept these matters in the front of my mind ever since I came here.
But I do not think I should make a final decision...
...until I have seen these mission territories with my own eyes.
There are numerous missions that I should inspect.
But I have decided that I shall begin with the oldest...
...the great mission of San Miguel.
Your Holiness, a surgeon, to save the body...
...must often hack off a limb.
But, in truth, nothing had prepared me for the beauty and the power...
...of the limb that I had come here to sever.
- Very impressive. - Perhaps I'm missing something.
I can't see any difference between this plantation and my own.
That is the difference. This plantation is theirs.
This is another difference.
A runaway slave. Bought by a Spanish settler from a slave trader.
I see. Is that lawful?
Supply and demand is the law of trade.
- And the law of souls? - What's a few cuts on the back...
...compared with what you offer them? Torments of hell? Imprisoned souls?
Think of that, Your Eminence.
Father Ibaye, shall we continue?
What was your income last year?
Last year, 120,000 escudos.
And how was it distributed?
It is shared among them equally. This is a community.
Yes, there is a French radical group that teaches that doctrine.
Your Eminence, it was the doctrine of the early Christians.
Well, I am inexpressibly impressed by your achievement, Father.
- And will that save us? - I hope it may, Father.
The court of Portugal is atheistic, but you and I are Christian Catholics.
- And you serve a Christian king. - Come, I also serve a Catholic king.
You serve the Marquis of Pombal, who is hostile to the church...
...and rules your king.
I suggest we advise your king to postpone the transfer of the mission territories...
...until Portugal guarantees their survival.
And I suggest we do this in the hope of heaven...
...through the intercession of our merciful Redeemer.
In my opinion, the work of the missions is the work of the devil.
They teach contempt for lawful profit, and they disobey the king's authority.
The paramount vow of a Jesuit is a vow of obedience.
Then let them obey. Tell them, Your Eminence.
Am I disturbing you?
I fear I have bad tidings from the Marquis of Pombal.
Between ourselves, I should like to express my personal regret.
He is determined to destroy the power of the church.
And your Christian community is commercially competitive.
Yes. It's very prosperous.
Isn't that precisely why you want to take it over?
You should've achieved a noble failure if you wanted the state's approval.
There's nothing we like better than a noble failure.
It's deeply reassuring to a trading nation such as my own.
You're not going to read it?
I don't need to read it to know what it contains.
So, what will you do?
As my conscience dictates.
What else?
He's been in there five hours.
Come with me to my mission in San Carlos.
There are so many distractions here.
It's hard to see anything clearly.
I think that, there, your prayers might meet with better fortune.
I think, there, God would tell you what it would be good to do.
And he'd give you the strength and the grace to do it...
...whatever it costs you.
The Garden of Eden.
It's a trifle overgrown.
Though I knew, in Europe, states were tearing at the authority of the church...
...and though I knew that to preserve itself there...
...the church must show its authority over the Jesuits here...
...I had to wonder whether these Indians would not have preferred...
...that the sea and wind had not brought any of us to them.
They say they don't understand what you mean.
They want you to speak more clearly. What do you want them to do?
They must leave the mission.
They say the mission is their home.
They must learn to submit to the will of God.
Tell them.
They say it was the will of God...
...that they left the jungle and built the mission.
They don't understand why God has changed his mind.
I cannot hope to understand God's reasons.
He says, how does he know you know God's will?
He thinks you speak not for God, but for Portugal.
I do not personally speak for God, but I speak for the church...
...which is God's instrument on earth.
- He says, speak to the king of Portugal. - I have. He will not listen.
He said he is also a king. He also will not listen.
He says they were wrong ever to have trusted us.
- They're going to fight. - You must persuade them not to fight.
I have failed to persuade you to fight on their behalf.
If they do fight, it is absolutely imperative that no one of you...
...should even seemed to have encouraged them to do so.
And therefore, all of you will return with me to Asunción tomorrow.
If anyone should disobey this, he will be excommunicated.
Cut off. Cast out.
Why must they fight?
- Why can't they return to the jungle? - Because this is their home.
Did you know this was going to be your decision?
- Yes. - Then why did you come, Your Eminence?
To persuade you not to resist the transfer of the mission territories.
If the Jesuits resist the Portuguese...
...the Jesuit order will be expelled from Portugal.
And if Portugal, then Spain, France, Italy... Who knows?
If your order is to survive at all...
...the missions here must be sacrificed.
What were they saying?
They said the devil lives in the forest.
- They want to stay here. - And what did you say?
I said I'd stay with them.
I want to renounce my vows of obedience.
Get out.
- I want to explain... - Get out. I won't listen to you.
Just you?
No. It's Ralph and John too.
What do you want, captain, an honorable death?
They want to live, Father.
They say that God has left them, he's deserted them.
Has he?
- You shouldn't have become a priest. - But I am, and they need me.
Then help them as a priest!
If you die with blood on your hands, you betray everything we've done.
You promised your life to God. And God is love!
Weren't you supposed to be on guard last night?
Look what happened!
Get back there with the others.
They've taken three guns, gunpowder, pistols...
...and I don't know what else.
Father, I've come to ask you to bless me.
No.
If you're right, you'll have God's blessing.
If you're wrong, my blessing won't mean anything.
If might is right...
...then love has no place in the world.
It may be so.
But I don't have the strength to live in a world like that.
I can't bless you.
Down there. Down there.
Bring up both cannons.
Quickly. Quickly.
The other cannon as well.
Indians! Turn around!
Turn around! Face them!
Fire!
We'll have to move the cannon.
Move this cannon. Move it. And that one.
Over there. Shoot the priest. Get him!
- None of us wants to do this. - I'm not interested. Get in position.
Row.
After him! Faster!
Don't let the priest get away!
After him!
Look out! The falls! Halt!
Back! Back! Halt!
Go back!
And you have the effrontery to tell me that this slaughter was necessary?
I did what I had to do.
Given the legitimate purpose, which you sanctioned...
...I would have to say, yes. In truth, yes.
You had no alternative, Your Eminence.
We must work in the world.
The world is thus.
No, Señor Hontar...
...thus have we made the world.
Thus have I made it.
So, Your Holiness...
...now your priests are dead, and I am left alive.
But, in truth, it is I who am dead, and they who live.
For, as always, Your Holiness...
...the spirit of the dead will survive...
...in the memory of the living.
Edited By Tameem666