Storia do Mogor 332.2.1

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.