Storia do Mogor 338.10.8

338.10.8

Finally, we make known to your Excellency that the Reverend Father Friar Diogo do Sacramento, not having succeeded in his designs by means of our brothers, who had returned to live at San Thome as already stated, has expelled all of them as unworthy, and has admitted Portuguese gentlemen into his confraternity. This is contrary to the directions of the ordinances, bulls, et cetera, all of which set forth that the confraternity of the Rosary must be constituted out of natives of the soil, a phrase known and customary throughout India. This is inevitably one of the principal reasons for asserting that the confraternity of the Reverend Father Friar Diogo is not, and cannot be, the ancient one of San Thome, for it differs from it as black from white. By all this your Excellency will perceive the great reason we have on our side, and the little with which we are molested and disturbed. With this we take shelter under the protection of your Excellency, from whom with all submissiveness we entreat, for the love of God and for the increase of His kingdom whose cause this is, that we be defended for His greater glory. For what those of the other party demand is to be inferred as evidence of their wish to diminish that glory, without regard to the scandal they are causing throughout this congregation and the stimulus they are giving to the adversaries of our religion. Therefore, since we continue assured of your Excellency's zeal, we wait for justice. Madras, this 28th of April, 1704.