Storia do Mogor 314: THE EIGHTH ARTICLE.

314

[133] That the defendant being present in a certain place at a certain time in company of persons, both Catholics and heretics, a certain person went to speak to the English Agent about two women who had fled from Madras to San Thome. The governor of the said San Thome demanded them from the said person. He replied that the said women were white women, and Catholics; they could not be slaves of the [English] Company. Having sought asylum in the church, the governor [of San Thome] possessed no right of interference, still less so if the said women had been mixed up [134] in anything concerning the Holy Office (i.e., the Inquisition). To that the Agent answered that the tribunal of the Holy Office took nobody but the rich. This reply so angered the said person that he made retort by applying his hand to his sword-hilt and saying: 'That is done only in the sect of Luther and of Calvin, and he might defend it, but in the tribunal of the Holy Office the Holy Ghost was present ; there alone could truth be found, as was well known to Father Ephraim ' (who was then present). To this the defendant replied in favour of the heretics by saying that in France, his native country, there was no Holy Office. To this the person referred to replied that from this cause his reverence's country was full of heretics. He found it wrong for the defendant not to confirm his words when he was disputing with a heretic.