Storia do Mogor 303.3

303.3

As far as regards the letter written by me to the governor, my motives are detailed in the letter itself. In the interrogatories put to me on this subject, no error or rash expression has been pointed out to me. If this be done, I am ready to retract and renounce it. In respect of forbidden books, everybody knows that I am a missionary, and that we are privileged to have printed books. The inquisitor once said to me that such privileges did not extend to India. To this I replied that, even granting that point to him, I had not transgressed in what I had done. For in 1640 his lordship the Primate of Goa had inspected them, and given permission to use them within his archbishopric. In 1642 the reverend father, Maitre Francois de la Croix, Dominican, commissary of the Holy Office, read them through twice, and made a minute examination of them [131] without discovering anything worthy of censure. Again, in 1646, the priest administering the diocese of San Thome, my accuser, gave me a writing under his hand, whereby he permitted me to make use of the privileges referred to within his bishopric. Hence I draw this inference (arguing thus to prove he was acting from passion) : either he had seen my privileges or he had not seen them. If he saw and approved them, why at the present day does he accuse me because I used them ? If he has not seen the books, how came he to give me a writing under his hand by which he certifies that he had seen and approved them ?