Alessandro Valignano
A number of Jesuits, including the canonical Visitor to the Eastern Missions Alessandro Valignano and Father Gnecchi-Soldo Organtino, were opposed to Cabral's policies and openly resisted them. Valignano opened a school for the training of lay ministers in 1580 over Cabral's objections. Valignano formally criticized Cabral in a letter to the General in October 1580; Cabral later asked Valignano to relieve him of his post as Superior, and left Japan in 1581, being replaced by Gaspar Coelho. Following his departure from Japan, Cabral advised the General that Japan should be evangelized through assertion of Jesuit identity and profound spiritual life.