Storia do Mogor 358.2
Storia do Mogor (Irvine) 358.2
- Language
- English
358.2.1
Although all this that I take the liberty of writing is clear and simple, I must pray you, in order to convince you completely of that truth, to tell me whether you can persuade yourselves that the Sacred Congregation, which is the Council of his Holiness, on whom the Supreme Pontiff has conferred absolute power over all missions, both in general and in particular, a body which these same pontiffs have designated by the [216] exalted title of Sacred Congregation 'de Propagande Fide,' does not know as well as the Lord Bishop of San Thomé the meaning of the Sacred Council of Trent, and, further, what the sacred canons allow them to do. Whence it arises that, if the said Sacred Congregation, after having been informed that the cure of the Malabãrls at Pondicherry had been taken from the Capuchin fathers and given to the reverend Jesuit fathers, ordered the Lord Bishop of San Thome to make over once more the said cure of the Malãbarís into the hands of the Capuchin fathers ; and in order to carry the same into effect dispatched such clear and precise decrees ; no one who is not a Jesuit could have any doubt in the matter.
358.2.2
We know very well, gentlemen, though in no way thereby surprised, that the Lord Bishop of San Thome has written to your Council that the decrees of the Sacred Congregation spoke not a word about the parish priests of Pondicherry. But to obviate exaggeration, I will place before your eyes the precise words used by His Most Illustrious Lordship, that you may see, gentlemen, whether those words correspond to the original which you have in your possession. 'The reverend Father Fra Spirito (Esprit) came forth with an unlooked-for and scandalous resolution' (Does it seem to you, gentlemen, a great scandal that we should have published, with his permission, the said decrees of the Sacred Congregation and of his Holiness, issued in our favour, in order to obtain once more our old cure ?) [217] ' without more foundation than that of his many letters, when he ought to have awaited the decision of France, to which this affair had been remitted ' (Here is a fine piece of respect, gentlemen, to the Court of Rome, the preferring to it of an inferior tribunal ; and here is a fine method of gaining the good graces of a monarch whose title of Most Christian King was acquired in no other way than by continual submission to the Holy See!), 'and assumed the right to decide about those decrees of the Sacred Congregation ' (Here is a heavy burden that his Lordship casts on us;
358.2.3
when, then, ought we to come to a decision and be satisfied, if not when we hold the orders of his Holiness and of the Sacred Congregation?) 'which he (Spirito) says have reference to the division of the parishes which we have carried out, making over the cure of the Malabãrls to the reverend fathers of the Society.' (Here we have, gentlemen, a fine piece of reasoning. Why and wherefore did the Sacred Congregation send out decrees in favour of the Capuchin Fathers ? Did it, perhaps, issue them in jest — ficar chouma, as the Portuguese say ?) ' If you, gentlemen, send for and inspect the decrees, you will see if any one of them says a single word about the Pondicherry parishes.' Gentlemen, although the Lord Bishop of San Thomé could not know how to respect or esteem you too highly, to me it seems, according to my feeble understanding, that his Lordship has no right to make you judges in an affair which three great bishops, when deputed by His Most Christian Majesty, declined to examine because they learnt that the Sacred Congregation had passed a decision upon it.
358.2.4
Gentlemen, if the Lord Bishop of San Thomé and the reverend Jesuit fathers had obtained decrees against us, as we have against them, they would be able to see very distinctly that those decrees dealt with the cure of the Malabāris in Pondicherry. But as we hold decrees against them instead of their having them against us, those decrees are couched in a language which our opponents decline to understand. In truth, gentlemen, must not men be very prejudiced, not to say . . ., who talk like that ? We made an appeal to his Holiness and to the Sacred Congregation about the cure of the Malabāris in Pondicherry, which had been so unjustly [218] taken from the Capuchin fathers, and the Reverend Father François Marie of Tours, Capuchin and apostolic missionary, started from Pondicherry on his way to Rome with the object of informing his Holiness and the Sacred Congregation about all that had happened, and there (at Rome) he prepared his statement, which we reproduce in its own words :
358.2.5
Frater Franciscus Maria Turonensis Ordinis Capucinorum Missionarius Apostolicus humillimè exponit Eminentiis Vestris quod contra Mandatum, sub die 28 Aprilis 1698, Illustrissimus Dominus Episcopus Meliapurensis absque causa, nee consulta hac Sacra Congregatione, abstulit à Patribus Capucinis Províncias Turonensis Missionariis Apostolicis Pudicherii in orâ Choromandel existentibus, curam animarum gentis Malabaricae, quam a plusquam triginta annis fundaverant, et non sine fructu et edificatione populorum gerebant illam ; quam dedit Patribus suae Societatis Jesu : quod dicti Patres Capucini videntes mandatis Illustrissimi Domini Episcopi obtemperaverunt, ne scandala excitarentur oppositione quamvis iusta, maxime quod sperarent ut Eminentise Vestrae justo illorum juri faverent statim atque de illis informarentur. Quapropter Devotus Orator humillimè supplicat, quatenus Eminentise Vestrae dignentur super hoc mandatum particulare dare predicto Illustrissimo Domino Episcopo Meliapurensi ut dictos Patres insert in footnotes. Mere differences of spelling and punctuation I have corrected according to the above printed texts. Action seems also to have been taken at the Court of Louis XIV. through Father Paul of Vendôme, Capuchin, as Procurator for the whole Capuchin Order of all ranks. There is a copy of his 'Mémoire' in Bib. Nat., Nouvelles Acquisitions Françaises, MS. No. 9,352, fol. 274, a copy made by P. Margry ; but he does not state the provenance of the original.
358.2.6
The attached documents, of which a list is given, would have been of value if forthcoming. They were (1) extracts from the registers of baptisms and burials ; (2) a deed of gift for the Capuchin church outside the fortress of Pondicherry ; (3) letters to prove that the Capuchins returned (? in 1699) at the request of Governor Martin ; (4) letters from the Bishop of San Thome, who is, they say, entirely under Jesuit influence ; (5) various letters addressed to Father Michel Ange, of Bourges, Superior at Madras ; (6) a letter from the Bishop to Father Esprit, of Tours; (7) a letter from Governor Martin to the said Superior, dated July 7, 1699, asserting that he (Martin) would not have written to the Bishop asking for a transference of the parish had not Father Beauvollier written from San Thome that the Capuchins made him (Martin) pass for a fourbe. The petitioner remarks that he had already earlier in the year (1703) presented letters from the Pondicherry Capuchins to Mr. de Pontchartrain. There are also ten letters of 1702 and 1703 connected with these Pondicherry disputes in the Archives Nationales, Paris, No. K 1,374, Nos. 39-43 and 51-55.
358.2.7
Capucinos pristino juri restituat, pro qua gratia Deus, et cetera.' [F. François Marie of Tours, apostolic missionary of the Capuchin order, most humbly sets forth to your Eminences that, in opposition to the Decree [of the Sacred Congregation], the Most Illustrious Lord Bishop of Meliapur, without cause, and not having consulted the Sacred Congregation, has taken from the Capuchin fathers of the Touraine Province and Apostolic Missionaries at Pondicherry upon the coast of Choromandal, the cure of souls of the Malabar folk, [a mission] which they had founded more than thirty years ago, and were carrying on not without good results, and to the edification of the people. This [the bishop] transferred to the fathers of his own Society of Jesus. Seeing which, the aforesaid Capuchin fathers obeyed the commands of the Most Illustrious Lord Bishop, in order that no scandals might arise from their opposition, however just, and this [they did] more especially in the hope that your Eminences would see them righted as soon as you were informed of the matter. Wherefore your devoted Petitioner most humbly prayeth that your Eminence will deign to issue a special order in this matter to the aforesaid Most Illustrious Lord Bishop of Meliapur that he restore the aforesaid fathers to their former rights. For which favour may God, etc.]
358.2.8
Here, then, gentlemen, is the petition of the Pondicherry Capuchins, not of those at Madras or Surat, in Persia or in Turkey. What, then, is the reply of the Sacred Congregation? You have it, gentlemen, written at the foot of the very petition of the Pondicherry Capuchins. Let it be specially noticed that if it were not written at the foot of the petition itself, but on a separate sheet of paper, maybe something could possibly be found to say against it. But when the answer of the Sacred Congregation is engrossed at the end of the petition from the Pondicherry Capuchins, who can deny that the said decrees are issued with reference to the cure of the Malabārīs in Pondicherry? No one [219], gentlemen, except the Lord Bishop of San Thomé and the reverend Jesuit fathers!