Storia do Mogor 303.1

303.1

[129] As regards the image of the most Holy Trinity, let them read Peruyuer, Tostatus, et cetera, and it will be seen that I need not reply to this article. With respect to the English clergyman the prosecution accuses me falsely, for I never said he was a true priest; but to make the matter more of a crime he has imagined that detail. It is quite true that I once said that, assuming that the clergyman had been consecrated by a bishop with the ceremonial followed in the Church, then in my belief he possessed the quality of priesthood; that I had read in certain books that the English had preserved those ceremonies when consecrating their bishops and priests. That consequently it could not be said of one of their clergy that he was a mere layman, for he might have the attributes of a priest. This is what I said, and not what the prosecution avers. Upon this head the reader will notice that Father Francis de Fonseca, a famous and very learned preacher in India, and the inquisitor himself, contradicted me; that is, they said, heretic bishops consecrated according to the requisite ceremonial cannot confer any attributes, for they have not been thereto authorized by the Sovereign Pontiff. My reply to that can be consulted in the writings that I have forwarded to the Sorbonne.