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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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Chapter 4
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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.
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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Chapter 5
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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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Chapter 7
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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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Chapter 8
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“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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[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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Chapter 9
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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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Chapter 10
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“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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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,...
(full context)
...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....
(full context)
...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...
(full context)
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...
(full context)
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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