Storia do Mogor 338.12.5

338.12.5

Unable to endure any longer, they appointed an attorney, who in their absence might plead for their absolution. They then returned to their houses in Madras. Within a very few days one man died and another began to spit blood, while one old man fell very ill from the hardships suffered by first walking all day long in the sun, which at that season in these regions is very powerful, then by passing the whole night in the chilly open air. Nearly all of them were men advanced in years, afflicted with misery and poverty to such a degree that they could hardly feed themselves in their own homes. In those homes it was not a less but a much greater grief to behold the clamour with which the poor wives and daughters implored Heaven, praying from God the help and remedy which they did not receive from His ministers upon earth, after having prostrated themselves at their feet so many times. Four days afterwards, being September 3 [1704], they went back to throw themselves at the feet of the Very Reverend the Vicar-General, praying to be absolved by him. His answer was that he would be very pleased to grant absolution, but it was also necessary to satisfy the complaining party ; that done, he would absolve them at once.