Storia do Mogor 338.9
Storia do Mogor (Irvine) 338.9
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338.9.1
Finally, the Lord Patriarch embarked on July 11, 1704, considerably grieved and angered at departing without having succeeded in carrying out his purposes. He wanted to appoint Italian fathers to Cuddalore in the place of Father Paulo de Saa, and to Madras in that of the Capuchins; but the English gentlemen refused their consent. Assuming that the Patriarch would surely leave distinct orders to carry out without fail the one and the other project after his departure, the Reverend Father Paulo de Saa, some days before his Excellency's embarkation, quitted Cuddalore one night without the knowledge of the gentlemen of the government. This he could easily do by disguising himself so as not to be recognised, he being a native of India. The distance was only three leagues, and, after all, not being a Frenchman, he did not at that time run much risk.
338.9.2
The father proceeded to Pondicherry in order to throw himself at the Patriarch's feet and demand pardon, and submit himself in all respects to his will. He persisted for three days, which he passed concealed in the College of the fathers of the Society of Jesus, never once appearing outside. But the more he insisted, the less he succeeded in obtaining his desires. It was too late, and the sentence against him had already been sent to the Reverend Father Dom Guilhermo della Valle to be put into execution. By the said sentence Father Paulo de Saa was compelled to abandon the two churches of Cuddalore and Tevanapatam. He was directed to place them in the hands of the Theatine Fathers, and forbidden to administer the Sacraments within them. Failing the execution of this decree, there was an order to proceed against him in legal form. He was also directed to render an account of three years' income from both churches, and to make effective delivery thereof.
338.9.3
Up to this time this sentence has never been carried out, but Father Paulo de Saa has remained at Cuddalore in the capacity of parish priest as before, celebrating daily Mass, but without administering the Sacraments. The Lord Bishop of Meliapur sent a priest to supply this deficiency. With regard to the Capuchins of Madras, the Lord Patriarch left them under suspension, and nominated as parish priest the Very Reverend Father Dom Guilhermo della Valle, as already stated. The Lord Bishop, on his part, selected another priest. Each of them held an order of appointment, but neither could exercise the functions, because the gentlemen of the government declined to recognise them, not even so far as to allow them inside the fortress.
338.9.4
Seeing this, and the lamentable condition into which this congregation of Madras had fallen, without parish priest, without ordained minister, without anyone who could administer the Sacraments, the superior of the Capuchins went on July 19 [1704] to San Thome to fling himself at the feet of the Lord Bishop of Mailāpur. He made clear to him the necessity and misery of the wretched Christians who lived in Madras. He supplicated that he would be pleased to recall his order of suspension — at any rate, until a decision on the case arrived from Rome. The Lord Bishop declined to listen to him on any terms, and in reply the superior asked him if the Reverend Father Paulo de Saa was to continue suspended [176] from the office of parish priest and from the administration of the Sacraments in accordance with the Lord Patriarch's decree. His lordship replied in the negative, and said that he would soon write to him, and on the first opportunity, that he might exercise all the functions of parish priest, and might administer the Sacraments.
338.9.5
The superior interrupted him by saying : ' What, my lord ! are we not in the same case ? If your lordship can remove the suspension of Father Paulo de Saa, can you not equally cancel ours, seeing that they were both promulgated by one and the same Lord Patriarch ?' The Bishop replied that Father Paulo de Saa was a secular priest, while they were regulars. On receiving this reply the superior returned to Madras, whence he urged his demand by a petition and two protests, the one after the other, in which he inquired what were his faults. He proved by invincible arguments that not only his lordship could, but must, remove the suspension, in order not to allow so populous a Christian community to perish in abandonment, deprived of the Sacraments and of every sort of spiritual consolation. Nothing was of any avail, nor did his lordship deign to show himself benignant in any particular. The people themselves, as might be expected in such a terrible conjuncture and under such excessive rigour, made one or two appeals to the Lord Bishop, begging him to be so good as to assist them for the love of God in a case of such urgent necessity, and send them some father who could say Mass and administer the Sacraments.
338.9.6
The answer received was that Father Friar Miguel Anjo [Michel Ange] might nominate an ordained person, either a friar or a secular priest, who should exercise his functions as parochial priest in his place. To that the Christians replied that the gentlemen of the Government would not agree to admit any priest other than the Capuchins already present in Madras, and in addition threatened to expel from their territory all the other fathers then present there that they could lay hands on, as in fact they did. All of this was not enough to make the Lord Bishop feel any pain for that poor community, or apply any remedy. On the contrary, he remained as inexorable as ever, and would not consent to annul the suspension of the Capuchins. All he said was that he had not the power to do it; at the same time he did not neglect to set aside that of Father Paulo de Saa by sending to him an order that he might exercise the functions of parish priest in the two churches of Cuddalore and Tevanapatam. Accordingly, he entered on their exercise. The Capuchins of Madras remained under suspension as before, and the Christians there were deprived of Mass, Sacraments, and a priest capable of aiding them in their spiritual necessities. Deus omnipotens provideat! (Let Almighty God provide).
338.9.7
Without a doubt, after having seen and thoroughly considered all herein reported, the reader will enter into an understanding of the gross error in which the common people persist, attributing the disgrace of the wretched Capuchins to the two causes which I set out by specifying (IV. 165). They believed these misadventures to be directed to some other particular end. They were all the more convinced of this because the Lord Patriarch also claimed the right to eject the Capuchins of Pondicherry from that place, meaning to substitute Italian fathers. He insisted on this as much as ever he could with Monsieur Martin, hoping to get his consent; but that gentleman always gave him the answer that he could not permit it without express orders from the king and the Company. Thus were those unhappy friars [of Pondicherry] delivered from this and similar tribulations, and that design of the Lord Patriarch was entirely frustrated. From this it might seem that the above tragedy arose more from some hidden agreement, or from a secret aversion to the whole of a religious order, than from the motives made public and obvious to the simple-minded. In considering this matter there can be nobody who on good grounds can blame the poor Capuchins for the way they acted, for it is ever hard to bear an injury, although it may be a disguised one; how much the harder, then, was it to cope with all those wiles, as can to-day be easily recognised.
338.9.8
May our Lord of His goodness have compassion on the unhappy priests, and permit them the rest which they and the whole congregation require for His greater glory and the good of souls! Amen. Equally does it seem to me requisite to give here a brief and succinct account of another tragedy, that of the unfortunate brothers of the confraternity of the Rosary at Madras. It was founded many years ago with the licence and consent of the Most Reverend the Vicar-General of the Dominicans in Goa, and ratified by a patent recently come from the Most Reverend Father the Master of the Order at Rome, confirming and approving the said confraternity. In spite of all this it remains at this day suppressed by the order of the Lord Patriarch at the instance of the Reverend Father Friar Diogo do Sacramento, Dominican, living at San Thome, in charge of the Church of San Domingo. There he has started a new confraternity of the Rosary, under whose name he began a contest with that of Madras about some wrought silver of the ancient confraternity of San Thome. If I were to report here the disagreeables and disputes that broke out on this matter it would be an unending business; therefore, as the shortest way, I rely upon a manifesto drawn up by the brothers of Madras and submitted to the Lord Patriarch when cited by the said Reverend Father Friar Diogo do Sacramento before the tribunal of his Excellency. Its terms are as follows [177] :