Storia do Mogor 332.2.3

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.