Storia do Mogor 338.13
Storia do Mogor (Irvine) 338.13
- Language
- English
338.13.1
On the next day, the fourth of the same month [September, 1704], the Lord Bishop, while wishing to carry out his word, was anxious also to please the other party. To this intent he went in person to visit the Reverend Father Friar Diogo do Sacramento, whose house was close to his, his object being to acquaint him with the facts and explain how the wretched brothers were not under a ban. As soon as his lordship reached the father's house the latter issued from it and received him with a wordy protest against the result. When they began to discuss the question, the Bishop was so little satisfied with the answers of the Dominican that, unable longer to listen to his prolixities, he rose at once and set out for his own house, the interview having lasted only long enough to say the Credo.
338.13.2
During the same day the attorney of the brothers went to the Bishop's house to press for an order on the petition already referred to. His lordship told him he was unable to issue such an order without first of all the other side being satisfied as to their protest. Thereupon the attorney of the brothers went off to interview Father Friar Diogo. After much argumentation, he found only one way to deliver the brothers of Madras from the excommunication, in spite of the Lord Bishop having said repeatedly that they were not under interdict. That way was to execute a document by which they should all confess that the silver in dispute belonged under a decree of the Patriarch to the confraternity of San Thome.
338.13.3
Here it was that the poor men had to endure more than ever. A very hot controversy arose among them as to whether they should or should not sign such a document. The greater number, eager to be relieved from that fantastic excommunication, were of the opinion that they ought to sign. Others, more wary, were against signing it on any terms, foreseeing that by so doing they risked a great danger. The dispute lasted some twenty days, during which a thousand atrocities were perpetrated upon them ; for the attorney whom they had called in to defend them turned against them, and became the worst weapon they encountered at San Thome. He there affronted them several times in the most opprobrious terms, without regard to the fact that the poor fellows, having confided in him, had put themselves entirely in his hands. Nor did he remember the fact that he had counselled all they had done, both in the defence of the plate and of their confraternity, helping them in the preparation of several documents and petitions on the subject.
338.13.4
But I believe the reader is hardly likely to wonder at such procedure, seeing how this man behaved to the Capuchins. He ate with them and, for over three years, lived with them as a brother. After that, what is there to be surprised at in this other instance ? How much less amazement can it cause, it being in comparison as a single point in a huge circumference ! Moreover, if the Capuchins were taken in by him, in spite of being enlightened by such a long period passed together, how much more likely is it for these poor brothers to be deceived by his fine speeches ! By these he hoped to win them to be his friends, in order to make use of them should there arise any objection or opposition on the part of the people to his introduction as vicar, as he aspired to be. When all his hopes were frustrated, and, as he asserted, all his efforts insufficiently rewarded [182], he planned to get something out of the brothers which, in the future, might be of use in his projects against the Capuchins. But, finding that he could not secure this from the brothers, he was totally undeceived (that is if he had ever been deceived), and, altogether renouncing them, threw them over and openly stamped upon them, until the miserable beings, like so many asses, were reduced to signing the document that had been prepared for them. By this alone were they able to secure and obtain on September 24 [1704] an absolution for that of which they were not guilty.
338.13.5
As in giving this absolution there was a strange and mysterious circumstance, it is not well to pass it over here in silence. The case stood thus : The Lord Bishop ordered the cure of the cathedral to absolve them ad cautelam while he carried it out in forma juris. What could be said upon this I leave to the penetration of the reader, for it is not always seemly to say what might be said, even if some might be pleased to hear it. But all I will say is that one of the brothers noticed the circumstance that in his order the Lord Bishop said they were to be absolved ad cautelam, while the cure's certificate said that he absolved them in forma juris. Seeing that the two statements did not agree, this man went to a certain person and asked him what was meant by these words 'in forma juris.' He construed it finely, for he told the man it was just the same as if the cure had tickled their ribs (as costas), as in effect he had done. 'Then, sir,' rejoined the poor man, 'keep it secret.' When he had been warmly thanked, his interlocutor offered his congratulations : 'And may it profit you much.' Therewith the story of the wretched brothers, which began as a tragedy, ends with a hearty laugh from those who wished to see them chastised, as they had been.
338.13.6
As to the troubles of the poor Capuchins, we know not yet how they will end. May God help them and all their congregation ! What is certain is that if the Lord Patriarch had not been so harsh on his side, nor the Lord Governor of Madras on his, the poor Capuchins would not have been so much ground down, nor the Christians here so much troubled and upset by the want of spiritual consolations, which condition continues to this moment. May our Lord in His mercy ameliorate this in the future, and liberate the souls of the faithful from unjust claims, which, if on rare occasions they enrich, more commonly bring ruin ! As it seems to me, there will not fail to be some faithful Christian, a lover of the truth, who will transmit to Rome some narrative like the above. But it appears to me he will give fuller details, for I cannot adduce many of the circumstances like any of the Capuchins could do. Already the inquiring reader will have seen from the above narrative the reasons which rendered it necessary for the Reverend Father Friar Michel and the other friars resident in Madras to have recourse to the Lord Archbishop of Goa. In reply his Grace sent him a letter, of which a translated copy follows : Most Reverend Father Maítre Friar Miguel Anjo,
338.13.7
With cordial interest I feel the troubles of your Reverence, and the scandals caused by Lord Dom Carlos Thomas. But his lordship's temerity is excused by his want of experience. He could have carried this thing out by giving me, as Primate in India, information of his delegation ; and on his authority being recognised, the whole jurisdiction in the East could have been brought under control at pleasure, and with the greatest ease. But, like the sun behind clouds, so was this prelate obscured by his advisers, who, as is to be supposed by inference from their acts, were not the most circumspect of men. Further, he alienated reasonable persons, owing to the breaking out of these disputes, which scandalize these new plantations of Christianity in the East, and this, too, in the midst of infidels, a thing reproved by St. Paul, et hoc inter infideles. But let us leave on one side past mistakes, and deal solely with a remedy for the difficulties at present existing.
338.13.8
The first thing is to consider what your reverence and your friars have declared to me. In truth, I could not believe in such temerities, were not those attesting them such veracious men. For it is an unbroken rule in God's Church that no one can constitute himself a delegate of the Apostolic See [183] without a general promulgation of the Bulls he holds. It is a fundamental doctrine, and as such upheld in the 'Directorium Inquisitorum,' chap. i.: 'Ubi Penna (? Peña) in versu "poterit": quia nemo creditur delegatus nisi probet delegationem.' [Where Pena says in the paragraph 'Poterit': 'Since no man is accepted as a delegate unless he prove his delegation' (credentials)]. Since the Lord Dom Carlos Thomas did not publish his Bulls within the primacy to which they referred, or, at the least, within the bishopric of San Thomé, in no way was obedience due to him, nor could he be reputed the delegate of the Apostolic See. Much less need his interdicts be respected, or reckoned as such. There is an express passage in the chapter: 'Cum in jure de officio delegati': 'Ubi sic non ligat censuras quando datur copia de delegationis' — (tenet Conradus Brunus, in Tract. 'de Legatis,' lib. i., cap. 8). ['When a question of the office of delegate arises in course of a trial : ' ' there he does not make his censures so binding when opportunity is given to question (the authority) of the delegation. So holds Connachis Brunus.']