Storia do Mogor 332.2
Storia do Mogor (Irvine) 332.2
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332.2.1
Furthermore, in several other conversations that I have had with the said priest-administrator I have heard him make great complaint that Father Ephraim unjustly occupied the post of one of his priests, and that the place was one subject to his jurisdiction. To which I replied that Madras was not within his jurisdiction, it being a country owned by a Hindu king who had given it to the English, and they had built a fort and established a government. For this reason neither the King of Portugal nor the Bishop of Meliapur (Mailapur) had any jurisdiction in that territory, and still less could make any claim thereto. Further, I told him several times that there was not a single priest at San Thome fit to live among heretics and convert them by an exemplary life. Still less was there any who could by his knowledge refute errors and heresies as Father Ephraim did. Not one of them was able even to read his breviary properly, or to say a Mass as it ought to be done. In this way, if any one of them occupied the said church [at Madras] he would create a great confusion, he would be a great dishonour, and would commit great affront to our Holy Catholic faith.
332.2.2
It was from these differences that arose so much animosity and ill-will against the father. Not only did the secular priests enter into the quarrel, but the fathers of the Society of Jesus took a leading part. They incited the priests against the poor father. Neither the one nor the other group could, however, revenge themselves or deprive him of his employment. Thus they made a malicious accusation against him to the Holy Office that he was the author of certain false assertions and of other statements they only partly understood. For, not being learned, but, on the contrary, very ignorant, they caused by their depositions and accusations the issue of an order from the Holy Office. It was directed to the said priest administering the diocese of San Thome, and required him to cause Father Ephraim to be arrested, and sent to Goa to the Holy Office.
332.2.3
The order was carried out with such harshness as to make it quite manifest that passion was the moving force with the said administrator, his priests, and the Jesuits. For, first of all, this capture and this imprisonment were entirely opposed to the rules followed by the officials of the Inquisition — at least, were opposed to the rules of the Holy Office in similar affairs. What is meant is that the law of the Inquisition enjoins that a capture be made secretly, while this one was so public that it resembled rather (if I may be permitted the comparison) the seizure of our Lord Jesus Christ than a hidden arrest. It was such that, since the Holy Office was established in the East Indies, never has an arrest been seen so public or so degrading. The practice of the inquisitors when they order the taking of some Jew or some new Christian layman, is to capture the man by means of a familiar, with a great deal of secrecy, conveying him in a palanquin securely closed. But the priest-administrator of the diocese of San Thome sent a company of soldiers and armed satellites to seize Father Ephraim. Two of them dragged him along bound : one went in front hauling at the rope round his gown, while the other followed, holding another rope, which he had tied round the prisoner. In this scandalous manner they took him publicly through the whole town of San Thome. Thereby they affronted the poor father and greatly dishonoured the habit of Saint Francis.
332.2.4
Many people — Christians, Mahomedans, and Hindus — followed weeping and wailing over his lamentable state. They detested what was being done, and invoked Heaven against the cruelty practised on a man they held to be a saint. The administrator of the diocese preceded his captive, lying at full length in his palanquin, borne by six to eight coolies, just as if he were a conqueror leading his enemy in triumph. In this manner, as cruel as it was to be deplored, he conducted Father Ephraim, his prisoner, in the midst of his satellites, to the college of the fathers of the Society of Jesus. There they put fetters on his feet so heavy that the father fell three times and fainted as one dead, owing to the weight of the irons, he being a man of feeble and delicate constitution. He was also overcome at finding himself in such a degraded and disgraced position.
332.2.5
In this condition the priest-administrator sent the imprisoned father to a cell so narrow that he could hardly move in it, and so dark that there was only light to see his sufferings and the cruelty of his brethren. The Jesuits, on seeing the good friar in such a pitiable condition, and for three days unable to eat, grew afraid that he might die in their house and college. They went to the administrator and warned him to be careful. On their solicitation he changed the heavy irons then on the prisoner's legs for ones smaller and more humane. Nevertheless, he was left in his dark dungeon, where he could speak to no one. In time he grew so weak that it was thought he was dying. He was attacked by diarrhoea, which lasted eighteen days, and he was unable to eat. As he really believed that death was at hand, he prayed the fathers that one of them might have the kindness to confess him. This they would never consent to do, in spite of their being under obligation as ecclesiastics to administer to him the Sacrament of Penitence, since he asked for it and was in peril of death. They should not have listened to the administrator's opposition, for the tribunal of the Holy Office grants to prisoners sacramental confession whenever asked, and prisoners are even exhorted to confess.
332.2.6
Furthermore, the Jesuits ought not to have allowed the administrator of the diocese to put irons upon the father when he placed him under guard in their college, for they knew quite well that such was not the order of the Inquisition nor of the inquisitors. What is more, if the father had so wished, he need never have fallen into their hands. For the Agent of the English had warned him [146] not to go to San Thome, because he knew that the governor there had an order from the Holy Office to arrest him. The said governor [of San Thome] made so little of a secret of the subject that before Father Ephraim was seized everybody was aware of the order he had received to that effect. He had read his commission and the warrant of arrest sent him by the inquisitors to a Dominican named Father Francois de Fonseca, and to another father named Thomas Mexia. The latter published the fact everywhere, so that even the English knew it and warned the father. But he was so confident in his innocence that he paid no heed to this advice, and went to Our Lady of the Light, a [Capuchin] church within our jurisdiction. He had been invited there by a letter from the said administrator saying that he wanted to communicate with him on certain business. There the administrator also went himself in order to seize the father's person in the way already indicated. Subsequently he caused the father to be put publicly on board a ship with the irons on his legs.
332.2.7
He was taken to Negapatam, and there sent ashore in the above condition in the sight of the whole town, greatly to the disgrace and dishonour of the habit of St. Francis. He was sent on board again in the same way, and carried to Manaar. I heard of this when I was for a time in the country of Jafnapatam, near Manaar. I was then inspecting the convents of our order under a commission from the reverend father our Commissary-General. My duty was to collect our brethren for a Provincial Chapter that was about to be held. I threw up my inspection and all my other work in order to reach Manaar. There I found the said Father Ephraim with the same irons upon him as above described. On beholding this, I promptly sent for the captain of the ship to whom he had been made over. I gave an undertaking in writing to produce him before the tribunal of the Holy Office ; and in case of default I agreed to answer with my own person. The captain transferred his responsibility on to my shoulders, and made over the father to me. Forthwith I had his leg-irons removed. This I did not only to remove the opprobrium thereby cast upon our religion and our habit, but because I knew his virtue and holiness, having been for five years and a half his confessor, and we had been on very familar terms of intercourse. I knew, in addition, that all the things imputed to him proceeded from the malignity of his accusers. It was nothing, all of it, but envy, mere hatred, and falsehood.
332.2.8
I also certify it to be true that if this good friar had wished to take to flight after his irons had been removed, he could easily have done so. He could have gone away to Tuticorin, which is a country of the Hindus, or to Cochin ; for he was always in freedom, and went by himself wherever he pleased without my paying any heed. I knew his innocence, of which he has given sufficient proof; for although able to deliver himself from the prisons of the Holy Office, he has disdained to do so. I say, further, that the said father was of the greatest service to the Portuguese of San Thome; and in all the disputes they had with the English, whether important or not, they obtained a favourable issue by the mediation of this father, for the English respected him greatly. As a proof thereof, take the case of a Portuguese who killed an Englishman in their fort of Madras, and the English intended to execute the murderer on the spot, not even leaving him time to confess himself. The Pere Ephraim succeeded in obtaining from the Agent, in teeth of his council's opposition, a respite of three days in order that the man might prepare himself worthily for confession, and set his conscience at rest. During these three days the father lived continuously in the prison, consoling the guilty man both day and night. He accompanied him to his execution with a crucifix in his hand, and never abandoned the man until his last sigh, and this he did against the will of the English.