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Terms
Apostasy is the act of renouncing Christianity, regarded by the Catholic Church as the ultimate, unpardonable sin. Within the novel, apostasy is always committed by stepping one’s foot onto Christ’s image on a fumie.
Apostasy Quotes in Silence
The Silence quotes below are all either spoken by Apostasy or refer to Apostasy. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Prologue Quotes
Their plan was to make their way into Japan in the throes of persecution in order to carry on an underground missionary apostolate and to atone for the apostasy of Ferreira which had so wounded the honor of the Church.
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The priests formulate their mission into Japan after word reaches the Portuguese Catholic Church that Father Ferreira, a great leader in the missionary movement, has apostatized. Significantly, there is no mention of saving or rescuing Ferreira, only covering for the shame the Church feels over his betrayal. The priests’ desire to “atone” for the embarrassment that Ferreira has brought upon the Church reveals that the Church has a great deal of institutional pride; it values its reputation highly and seeks to defend it. Such institutional pride, even arrogance, informs the religious arrogance that Father Rodrigues personally carries within himself, which Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt.
Chapter 4 Quotes
This story was well known. Its moral was that a priest does not exist to become a martyr; he must preserve his life in order that the flame of faith may not utterly die when the church is persecuted.
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Rodrigues is deciding whether or not to expose himself to a newfound village—if they are Christian, they will accept him; if they are not, they will likely kill or capture him. He recounts the story of a priest in hiding who voluntarily gave himself up for execution, but in doing so endangered the lives of other Christians. The argument that a priest should survive if possible is an important recognition for Rodrigues, who dreams of a glorious martyrdom for himself. Beyond speaking to the priest’s own arrogance, however, it also foreshadows Rodrigues’s future choice of whether he will apostatize. Rodrigues Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis co
If it is not blasphemous to say so, I have the feeling that Judas was no more than an unfortunate puppet for the glory of the drama which was the life and death of Christ.
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Suspecting that Kichijiro has betrayed him in the past and will do so again, Rodrigues reflects on their relationship through the lens of Jesus Christ’s relationship with Judas Iscariot, His betrayer. Even early on, when Rodrigues’s eventual apostasy is a long way off, the priest already sympathizes with Judas’s painful role within the Gospel story, seeming to be a powerless player, doomed from the beginning. Rodrigues’s contemplation of Judas’s powerlessness is apt on two levels. Kichijiro, whom the priest recognizes is a weak man, will betray him again out of his weakness before the Japanese officials, creating an explicit parallel Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est.
Chapter 5 Quotes
All those Christians and missionaries who had been tortured and punished—had they heard the gentle voice of persuasion prior to their suffering?
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After Japanese officials capture Rodrigues in the forest, he finds that rather than fear, he feels a strange tranquility about the whole thing; the Japanese officials do not seem furious or evil, but rather gently try to convince the captured Christians to apostatize. Once again, Rodrigues’s expectations of suffering for Christ and the type of people who would inflict such religious persecution are unmet. While one might expect such capture to be a fearful or exciting event and one’s persecutors to be ferocious, Rodrigues’s captors are regular people who speak gently. The ordinary, almost placid nature of Rodrigues’s captors suggests Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta.
Chapter 7 Quotes
He had come to this country to lay down his life for other men, but instead of that, the Japanese were laying down their lives one by one for him.
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Rodrigues watches from a distance as Garrpe, by refusing to apostatize, condemns several Japanese Christians to their deaths, even though they themselves already apostatized. Rodrigues is horrified—not only to see Japanese Christians die, but also to realize that he is in the same position. Beyond being a horrifying proposition in itself, Rodrigues causing the deaths of other people for the sake of his faith completely subverts his desire to experience noble suffering and even a martyr’s death for the sake of the Japanese Christians. In his arrogance, Rodrigues visualizes himself as Christ, and aspires to be as close to Christ Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrup
Chapter 8 Quotes
“You make yourself more important than them. You are preoccupied with your own salvation. If you say that you will apostatize, those people will be taken out of the pit. This will be saved from suffering. And you refuse to do so. It’s because you dread to betray the Church. You dread to be the dregs of the Church, like me.”
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Ferreira makes his final appeal to Rodrigues to apostatize. Outside of Rodrigues’s cell, both men can hear the moans of Japanese Christians being tortured for Rodrigues’s refusal to apostatize. Ferreira’s condemnation of Rodrigues’s faithfulness reveals that, although Rodrigues is trying to be loyal to Christ, his refusal to break is also rooted in his own arrogance. Rodrigues does not want to smear his own name. He does not want to be despised rather than venerated, nor does he want to betray his God. even if it means that other people must suffer and die. The religious arrogance that has plagued Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impe
[Rodrigues] will now trample what he has considered the most beautiful thing in his life, on what he has believed most pure, on what is filled with the ideals and the dreams of man. How his foot aches! And then the Christ in bronze speaks to the priest: “Trample! Trample! I more than anyone know of the pain in your foot. Trample! It was to be trampled on by men that I was born into this world. It was to share men’s pain that I carried my cross.”
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Rodrigues, broken by the tortured Christians’ moaning, finally agrees to apostatize to put an end to their pain. For Rodrigues, this moment represents a betrayal of everything he has ever believed, every ideal he has ever about serving God. However, Christ speaking from the fumie suggests that even such a betrayal is covered by God’s grace. Although it is certainly a betrayal of the Catholic Church and institutional Christianity, it does not remove one from the reach of Christ’s mercy and power. Although this is something of a radical notion and contradicts the orthodox view of apostasy, the idea that Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et
Chapter 9 Quotes
Yet the face was different from that on which the priest had gazed so often in Portugal, in Rome, in Goa and in Macao. It was not a Christ whose face was filled with majesty and glory; neither was it a face made beautiful by endurance of pain; nor was it a face filled with the strength of a will that has repelled temptation. The face of the man who lay at his feet was sunken and utterly exhausted.
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Rodrigues, now living in a house in Nagasaki as an agent of the Japanese government, thinks back to image of Christ’s face on the fumie that he stepped on to symbolize his apostasy. He reflects on how different Christ’s face was in that moment than in any other moment of his life. Throughout the novel, Christ’s face functions to reflect Rodrigues’s perception of Christ as a man, and as his Lord. This perception changes as Rodrigues faces adversity, and in this final reflection the entire scope of Rodrigues’s changing perceptions of Christ’s face is listed. When Rodrigues was naïve, Christ’s Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Sit neque odit. Tenetur qui dignissimo
Chapter 10 Quotes
“Lord, I resented your silence.”
“I was not silent. I suffered beside you.”
“But you told Judas to go away: What thou dost do quickly. What happened to Judas?”
“I did not say that. Just as I told you to step on the plaque, so I told Judas to do what he was going to do. For Judas was in anguish as you are now.”
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While Rodrigues lives in Nagasaki and continues to reflect on his apostasy betrayal of the Church, he remembers Christ speaking to him from the fumie, and imagines that he hears God’s voice yet again and converses with him. That Rodrigues hears God speak at all is a major step in his own journey of faith, since God has seemed silent through so many months of endless suffering. The proposition that God is not silent, but suffering alongside his followers, is a powerful idea—particularly for those who feel they have known nothing but suffering for their entire lives. This concept of Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a.
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Apostasy Term Timeline in Silence
The timeline below shows where the term Apostasy appears in Silence. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Prologue
...Church receives word that Father Christovao Ferreira was tortured in “the pit” and made to apostatize (renounce his faith) in Nagasaki, Japan. Ferreira was a highly-regarded Portuguese missionary, having led the...
(full context)
...the Japanese Christians and the torture they endured. The Japanese government, intent on making Christians apostatize, tortured men and women alike pouring boiling water on them for hours at a time,...
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...They plan to carry on the underground missionary work, as well as to investigate Ferreira’s apostasy and “atone” for the humiliation it had brought not only Portugal, but all of Europe....
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...entered the religious life together at 17 and studied theology under Ferreira. News of Ferreira’s apostasy confuses them, since they’d always known him to be a “radiant” Christian, and they are...
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Chapter 1
...cell, or has “won a glorious martyrdom,” though he does not mention the possibility of apostasy. Moreover, this new man Inoue is a “terror of the Christians” and “cunning as a...
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Chapter 3
...to Japan. Rodrigues and Garrpe learn that Kichijiro is in fact a Christian, though he apostatized by stepping on an image of Christ eight years before, while the rest of his...
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...bringing the priest, and though he struts around, he also is repentant for his past apostasy and makes long confessions before the priest. Villagers come from the surrounding mountains and islands...
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Chapter 4
...the three men ask the priests what they should do if they are told to apostatize and place their foot upon the fumie (a bronze etching of Christ made by the...
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Chapter 5
...peasants are foolish and easily swayed, but priests are another matter. If Rodrigues will not apostatize, the samurai will make the peasants suffer. They close Rodrigues in a small hut and...
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...that the priest will not meet his rage, declares that if the priest does not apostatize, the peasants will be hung upside-down in the pit.
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...tells Rodrigues that he will meet Inoue before long, and lists all the priests who apostatized after Inoue cross-examined them, one of whom is Father Ferreira. The priest tries to pretend...
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Chapter 6
...Five of them are seated, and Rodrigues is placed before them, positioned so that his apostasy will be clearly audible to the Christian peasants. In the middle of the five, a...
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...them. The officials and the guards gently, even personably, attempt to convince the peasants to apostatize, reassuring them that all they want to see is a symbolic renunciation. Then, the peasants...
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Chapter 7
...roll. As Rodrigues watches the scene, the interpreter explains that all three prisoners have already apostatized the day before, but unless Garrpe does so as well, they will not be spared....
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...seems to shrink before Rodrigues. Ferreira announces that his task is to convince Rodrigues to apostatize. The former priest shows the younger a small scar behind each ear, and explains that...
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Chapter 8
...time to reason with Rodrigues, but the priest tells him he’d rather be tortured than apostatize. The priest is not so much brave as numb; physical pain seems distant and obsolete....
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...leads him to Inoue’s house, telling him that Inoue has determined that the priest will apostatize this very evening. The priest believes this means he will finally be tortured, and he...
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...Ferreira reveals that he himself hung in the pit for three days and did not apostatize, nor utter a word against God. But when Ferreira was left in the cell, listening...
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...“dregs of the Church.” If Christ were in their position, he argues, Christ would certainly apostatize to save the sufferers. Rodrigues tries to deny him, but his resolve is crumbling. Understanding...
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Chapter 9
...the street children often call him Apostate Paul. The priest knows that news of his apostasy has likely reached his brethren in Portugal, and that he has thus been expelled from...
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Chapter 10
...meet Inoue at his home, the first time he has seen the magistrate since he apostatized. Inoue greets him gently and is careful to avoid mention of the priest’s apostasy. Rather,...
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