Storia do Mogor 303.2

303.2

In respect to the adoration of the Cross, I replied that the prosecutor need only read the decree of the Council of Nicaea, recognised by him in his third article of charge as a universal Council. There he will see who is the best Catholic of us two. With respect to graven images, it is untrue that I condemn or reject them as asserted by the prosecution. Let my letter be read, and if what I say means [130] the rejection of images, I shall say that by the same reasoning the Portuguese fathers reject the Holy Communion, since they refuse to administer it to the greater number of Indians as being unworthy; while Jesus Christ our Lord says, 'Nolite santum dare canibus' ['Give not that which is holy unto the dogs,' Matt. vii. 6], which might be construed by saying that he rejected holy things. In regard to what it is alleged that I said upon the customs of our convents, the prosecution does not repeat it in the sense used by me, for I said nothing more than that our altar [at Madras], being arranged like those of our convents in France, I was not obliged to conform to the fancies of certain Indians. They wished me to place the image of St. Anthony in the manner stated at the end of my letter. Were it true that I had rejected graven images, why should I have always worn the image of a crucifix in bronze?