Storia do Mogor 332.1.2

332.1.2

But the English governor, who is the head of that fort, begged him with great urgency and warmth to remain where he was, and to found there a church for the consolation of all the French — I mean to say, the Roman Catholic Christians living there. These Christians could not enter the jurisdiction of the Portuguese on account of their criminal courts or for other reasons, when they wanted either to get married or to partake of the other sacraments. In addition, those living at Pallacatta, belonging to the Dutch, and about seven leagues from San Thome, could not go there owing to the war between the Dutch and the Portuguese. If Father Ephraim settled in Madras, all these grievances would be remedied. He would render a great service to our Church, and give exceptional succour to forsaken souls. For if his zeal constrained him to undertake such perilous voyages to search for lost souls, and forward the conversion of others already beginning to doubt, right reasoning required that he should still more eagerly seek to gain over souls already converted, who were straying in the paths of perdition, merely from want of a shepherd to gather them within the fold of Holy Church. They needed spiritual pasturage by means of the sacraments, of which they had been so long deprived, to the danger of their salvation. Thus they lived excommunicated, sunk in grossness, and dying in evil state, forfeited both soul and heaven.