[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Indian literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in) › [Dark Ages](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages) › [Travellers (1500–1858)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel) › [Storia do Mogor](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci) › [Storia do Mogor (Irvine)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine) › 357 # Storia do Mogor 357: \[209\] Account of the Persecutions endured by the Reverend Capuchin Fathers \[translated from the French by Count Andrea Cardeira, Portuguese (Public Professor)\]. Storia do Mogor (Irvine) 357 - **Language:** English ### \[209\] Account of the Persecutions endured by the Reverend Capuchin Fathers \[translated from the French by Count Andrea Cardeira, Portuguese (Public Professor)\]. ### [357.1](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.357.1) Sirs, although for the space of nearly eight years we have been persecuted in deadly war by the reverend Jesuit Fathers, who have unjustly deprived us of the cure of the Malabar natives, have made us endure many disagreeables, and as you, too, are aware, have had for us no compassion : we, on the contrary, have continued to submit to everything with unspeakable patience, and have never attempted to discredit them. Now, however, they are no longer content to aim at us as persons, but wish also to injure our reputation. Thus, the Lord Bishop of San Thome and the reverend Jesuit fathers are working hard before your Tribunal to besmirch and blacken the reverend Father Esprit, and in his person all the other Capuchins, as mad, disobedient, and scandalous persons. We have therefore judged it well, for the maintenance of our reputation and that of the whole Capuchin Order, to justify our conduct, that we may not pass for such in your opinion. ### [357.2](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.357.2) You know, gentlemen, that until about eight or nine years ago the Capuchin fathers were pastors of the Malabar people in Pondicherry. Without the Malabãris making any complaint of us, or our doing the very slightest thing possible to which an objection could be made, we were deprived of that mission on the false allegation of an order from the king \[of France\]. The falsehood is made clear by the letters we have received from His Most Christian Majesty. Although there was every reason for us to complain about such an injustice as the above, have we ever declined to obey the Lord Bishop of San Thome, when his Eminence made over the charge of that cure to the reverend Jesuit fathers? No! In what, then, have we been disobedient, that we are treated thus basely ? Finding, then, that we could not obtain justice from the Lord Bishop of San Thome in things appertaining to this mission, we appealed from him to the Holy See and the Sacred Congregation. The latter, moved to compassion at the injustice done to us, has declared in formal terms that its intention, and that of his Holiness, was that the Capuchin fathers should be admitted to the possession of their former cure. With the object of preventing the reverend Jesuit fathers from alleging ignorance \[210\], it has sent out decrees, in which it declares that such was its final decision. ### [357.3](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.357.3) We presented these \[decrees\] to the Lord Bishop, who after perusal approved them, as may be seen on the margin of one particular decree sent to him by the Sacred Congregation. Not only has he approved them, but also directed that they should be communicated to the reverend Father Tachard. This we have done, gentlemen; but what was the reverend father's answer when we showed him the above-named decrees ? 'My fathers, you are wasting your time and wearing yourselves out fruitlessly.' Do you not think that a fine answer from a man of judgment, as he is ? By it he makes out these decrees to be no more than a jest, and the penalties recited therein mere trifles of no importance. Neither he nor the other reverend fathers have ceased to carry on their functions in the ordinary way, just as if nothing had been said. Now we pray you, gentlemen, to tell us which of the two parties is the more disobedient, the Capuchins or the reverend Jesuit fathers ? ### [357.4](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.357.4) Since we knew that all things done by the reverend Jesuit fathers since the announcement to them of the decrees of the Sacred Congregation are null and void — for they are ipso facto under suspension, and deprived of all the privileges conferred upon missionaries, as stands recorded in the decrees themselves— we came to the resolve of publishing the decrees in our church at Pondicherry. With the object of not being afterwards blamed in any way, we presented a petition to the Lord Bishop of San Thome on the eve of St. Michael, September 28, 1706, wherein we prayed His Most Illustrious Lordship to put into execution the orders of his Holiness and of the Sacred Congregation ; or, if he objected to do so, would he attach at the foot of the petition a formal refusal, for the sole purpose of proving to his Holiness and to the Sacred Congregation that we had taken or urged all the possible steps for causing their orders to be executed. ### [357.5](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.357.5) Finding himself driven into a corner, and knowing, in addition, that he would be censured at Rome if he opposed the execution of the decrees, the Lord Bishop of San Thome replied that he could not grant the petition for certain reasons known to him. But we could publish the decrees in our church, seeing that no one could hinder us. Upon hearing these words from the mouth of a prince of the Church, whose words ought to be oracles, Father Michel Ange, pleased in the highest degree, put a question to him in these words : ' Most Illustrious \[211\] Lord, we may, then, publish the decrees in our church ?' His lordship responded : ' You can publish ; who is to prevent it?' After hearing these words the Reverend Father Michel Ange took leave of Monsignor, and wrote to the reverend Father Esprit that he could make the publication. Gentlemen, as you are just and reasonable men, mark a little, I pray you, the scandal raised by the Capuchin fathers, for which they are dealt with and disgraced, as is now the case ! ### [357.6](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.357.6) Upon the reverend Jesuit fathers finding they could not openly oppose the decrees, do you know what they have done ? We should never utter it were not our reputation, and, above all, that of our order, involved, and did they not calumniate us unjustly, as they are doing. They have persuaded the Lord Bishop of San Thome to say that we have published the decrees without any permission from him — a most extraordinary statement to be made by an honourable man, but still more so when made by a priest and a prince of the Church. Gentlemen, we have not a permission in writing given to us by His Most Illustrious Lordship for the publication of the decrees. We had not thought it well to demand that from a bishop, whose words ought to be more than sufficient for acting upon in security. Wherefore are we thus made dupes of, that Monsignor should declare in his Pastoral that we have published the decrees without his license ? I leave it to the thoughts of all honourable men to decide what sort of act this is ; we beseech God, however, not to exact vengeance for it, but to inspire my Lord Bishop with a desire to testify the truth. ### [357.7](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.357.7) Gentlemen, I pray you to join me here in making a reflection. The infamous old men who accused the chaste Susannah of having committed adultery were triumphant until she was led to the place of execution (Dan. xiii.). But their joy was of no long duration, because God, who cannot endure detraction and calumny, as the Scripture saith, ' Detractores, Deo odibiles ' (Vulgate, Rom. i. 30), raised up the Prophet Daniel, who laid bare the deceit, and caused the culprits to be condemned. The same thing, gentlemen, happened, as it were, in our case, but in a still clearer shape ; since God, who is the protector of oppressed innocence, took our cause visibly in hand. He has willed that those who made us out to be disobedient should be our justifiers, and that their manifest contradictions should be demonstrated. This is how it happened. --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.357](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.357) · Pramāṇa