Storia do Mogor 359: XLVIII. Huntsman- with CHITAH.
Storia do Mogor (Irvine) 359
- Language
- English
Contents
XLVIII. Huntsman- with CHITAH.
359.1.1
interventu precaminum misérrimo huic nullum mortis, vel mutilationis periculum inferatis.' [Then doth the bishop, who degrades (the priest), effectively and from his heart, and with all insistence, intercede with the secular judge for that miserable castaway, that he will limit his sentence against the degraded man to something short of danger of death or mutilation, saying : 'Sir Justice, we beg of you with all the affection we can, that for the love of God, and from feelings of piety and pity, and through the intervention of our prayers, you bring no danger of death or mutilation on this most miserable person.']
359.1.2
A pontiff, gentlemen, thought it obligatory to implore mercy for a wretched priest or friar who had been abandoned to the secular arm by reason of his misdeeds. It is also held incumbent on a bishop to conjure the judge with all possible insistence, and that, too (which is the most important), when the culprit has dishonoured religion, and profaned its sacred character most disgracefully. Yet the Lord Bishop of San Thome does not think it sufficient to consign the poor Capuchin fathers to the secular arm, men who have left father, mother, country, relations, and friends, to labour within God's vineyard and win souls to Jesus Christ. He cannot bring against them the minutest fault, for they seek nothing but the doing of good to all the world ; and they have no other enemies than those who ought to be their protectors ; instead of desiring vengeance, they pray God for those who persecute them. And his lordship goes on to direct that they be treated with all severity — 'Com todo o rigor'!
359.1.3
The truth is, gentlemen, that the matter is beyond my strength, and I am overcome by the effort of avoiding words that might give offence to someone ; and certainly my senses leave me when I merely reflect upon proceedings of this sort. Why should the Lord Bishop of San Thome, a prince of the Church, who ought to cherish as the pupil of his eye the reputation of all those placed under his jurisdiction, be unable to write a letter to the Reverend Father Esprit without such an outburst of anger over the matter ? 'I will write,' says the Lord Bishop, 'for the satisfaction of you gentlemen to the Reverend Father Spirito, but I have already written him a letter wherein I exhorted him to peace. This letter, when brought to him, he threw contemptuously upon the ground, and declined to receive it. You gentlemen ought not to wish me to expose myself to his further anger and rudeness.' Gentlemen, even were what is here imputed to the Reverend Father Esprit as true as it is most false, ought not the Lord Bishop of San Thome, a prince of the Church [230], to follow on such an occasion the admirable advice of the Council of Trent? 'Illud primum eos admonendos censet, ut se Pastores non percussores esse meminerint atque ita præesse sibi subditis oportare, ut non in eis dominentur sed illos tamquam filios et fratres diligant.' [The Council thinks it meet that the bishops be first of all admonished to bear in mind that they are pastors and not strikers (Titus i.
359.1.4
7), and that they ought so to preside over those subject to them as not to lord it over them (Luke xxii. 25), but to love them as sons and brethren.] Even had the Reverend Father Esprit been wanting in respect towards his Lordship, and had also thrown the bishop's letter on the ground in anger (a thing he is incapable of doing), still, the Lord Bishop of San Thome ought to display greater love, and nourish more tenderness for all priests and friars, more even than a father could have to his own sons. He ought to have written a second letter to the Reverend Father Esprit, or, at the least, if he declined to do him that honour and afford him that consolation, he should have directed his vicar-general, or someone else he might depute, to declare to him (Esprit) his intentions. He need not have blackened the poor Capuchin fathers before your tribunal ; he need not have taken away their reputation ; he need not have loaded them with the grossest calumny that ever was heard of.
359.1.5
Gentlemen, I claim here your whole attention, because this affair touches us to the very quick, and we are so wounded by it that it is necessary for the whole world to be informed of it. On November 3, 1706, at about five or six o'clock in the evening, the Reverend Fathers De la Breuille and Turpé, both Jesuits, presented a letter to the Reverend Father Esprit of Tours, Superior of the Pondicherry Capuchins. The address was in French, in the handwriting of Father Mauricet (Moriset), also a Jesuit; the letter was sealed with the seal of the Reverend Father Tachard. The last named has testified that the letter was from him, a fact that many of you gentlemen have graciously signified to us in the shape of affidavits. Afterwards the Lord Bishop of San Thomé, who, according to jus, natural and divine, was bound to sift the matter to the very foundation before pronouncing upon it, wrote to your Council that the Reverend Father Esprit had thrown contemptuously on the ground a letter written to him by his Lordship. 'I will write to the Reverend Father Friar Spirito to satisfy you gentlemen, but there was a letter I wrote exhorting him to make peace and be quiet; taking it, he threw it to the ground with contempt, and declined to receive it. Thus you gentlemen ought not to desire me to expose myself to his further anger and rudeness.'
359.1.6
O God! how is it possible for a prince of the Church to write like this? If the Lord Bishop of San Thomé wished to honour the Reverend Father Esprit by writing to him, could he not have written direct, as done previously, without forwarding his letter to the reverend Jesuit fathers? Or if his Lordship decided to send it to them, could he not seal it with his own seal, and write the address in Portuguese, as is his habit when he writes any letter that is in his mother-tongue, instead of in a foreign language? Or if he objected to observing any restraint in regard to the Capuchin fathers because they do not deserve any respect from him, ought not the Reverend Father Esprit to have been told that this pretended letter (which apparently possessed the horse of Pacolet, since it traversed in two days and a half more miles than could be covered in six days by the best foot-runner employed by your Company) came from Monsignor, and that under the outer covering was a letter his Lordship had written, instead of saying, as they did, that it was from the Reverend Father Tachard?
359.1.7
Without a doubt, gentlemen, the Lord Bishop ought to have thus acted. But the Reverend Father Tachard meant to take the Capuchin fathers unawares. They are not so skilful as he is in such work, and it was not necessary to say that this letter was from Monsignor. It was quite sufficient to present it to the Reverend Father Esprit as coming from the Reverend Father Tachard, and assert it to be his, when the only object was to enable him (Tachard) to write to his Lordship that the Reverend Father Esprit had thrown a letter written by his Lordship on the ground with anger and contempt [232].
359.1.8
Gentlemen, who has ever seen an act like this? How could the Reverend Father Tachard, whose conscience ought to be more tender than yours, he being a regular cleric while you are not, dare all this in order to extort a Pastoral, which cannot shield him from the censures of the Church. Such a thing would not have been done by you for all the riches in the world. But since you may not, perhaps, know, gentlemen, the motive of the calumny with which they assail us, I will expose it to you in a few words. The Reverend Father Tachard, and all the reverend Jesuit fathers of Pondicherry, perceived that the decrees had been published, and that, because we had published them, we were probably in possession of Monsignor's permission, as is most fully the truth, these being the words that his Lordship appended to the petition of the Reverend Father Michel Ange, which I never tire of repeating as our justification : ' I did not give permission to your Reverence, neither in thought, much less in words ; all I said to you was that you might publish the decrees, as you could publish other orders in your church, without my permission and without anyone preventing you.'
359.1.9
Those Reverend fathers (the Jesuits) knew not what to do to prevent the bad effects, and said to themselves : ' Here are the decrees published without an express Pastoral from My Lord Bishop. Nothing else appears possible, so let us write meanwhile to the Reverend Father Esprit of Tours, who has published the said decrees. Under present circumstances he will decline to take the letter in question, if we omit on it the designation he is entitled to. When that has happened we can write to his Lordship that the said Reverend Father Esprit has thrown on the ground with contempt and anger a letter written to him by Monsignor.' Gentlemen, these words of Ps. lxiii. might with a clear conscience be applied to the reverend Jesuit fathers : ' Scrutati sunt iniquitates ' [They have searched after iniquities (verse 7)], and then might well be added : ' defecerunt scrutantes scrutinio ' [they have failed in their search (verse 7)]. For it is most certain [233] that, having invented this calumny, they said : ' Who is there who will ever find us out ? No one.' ' Illi dixerunt quis nos videbit.' [They have said, Who shall see us ?] But they have deceived themselves, because their work was of too gross a kind for the calumny they affixed to us not to be discovered : ' defecerunt scrutantes scrutationis consilia mala.'
359.2.1
And in effect, who was it that could have written to the Lord Bishop of San Thomé that the Reverend Father Esprit had thrown on the ground with disrespect a letter written to him by his Lordship ? You gentlemen could hardly have done it, since you are incapable of inventing so enormous a calumny. Again, the Capuchin fathers could not have been the persons, for, besides there being no hint of such a thing, to do it would have been too much to their disadvantage. Now, if neither the one nor the other of the above could have done it, as must be admitted, it follows by necessity that it was the reverend Jesuit fathers. For, to sum up, the Lord Bishop of San Thomé not having the gift of prophesy, he could not know what never had happened. Yet his Lordship launched his Pastoral and founded it upon this calumny. The reverend Jesuit fathers, who invented it, know thoroughly well that it is not in the power of the Lord Bishop to put them in possession of the cure of the Malabāris. Because, as it runs in the decrees of the Sacred Congregation: 'Illam sub quovis praetextu aut authoritate exercere absque expressa licentia ejusdem Sacrae Congregationis sub poena privationis officii, privilegii et facultatis ipso facto incurrenda non obstantibus quibuscumque.' At present they enjoy the fruit of their iniquity.
359.2.2
After all this, shall I not believe what I hear everywhere as to the conduct of the reverend Jesuit fathers? After all this, shall I continue to wear myself out in trying to persuade myself that they are not [234] the authors of all that was done by the Lord Patriarch some two years ago? After all this, can I say that there is passion and exaggeration in the eight volumes of the 'Morale Pratique [des Jésuites]'? Gentlemen, he who is capable of inventing such a calumny, and employing so many kinds of stratagem to justify it, is capable of anything. If it had been private persons who had committed this fault I would suspend judgment, but the culprits being a bishop, who is a former Jesuit Provincial, and the whole body of regular clerics in a Jesuit community, there is ground for my believing, and that not without good reason, that these are the maxims prevailing throughout that Society.
359.2.3
Gentlemen, when God decided to punish Pharaoh, as the Scripture tells us, he hardened the heart of that unhappy prince — ' Induravit cor Pharaonis' (Exod. vii. 22, and viii. 32). I know not, gentlemen, if God, who hates iniquity, means to punish the reverend Jesuit fathers. But of this I feel assured : that hearts must be very hard which act as they do. For, finally, there is no mental reservation here that can absolve them from the guilt of such a calumny, still less any which could authorize their doing these things. I do not speak solely of their usurpation of our cure over the Malabãrls, but also of their conduct in regard to the said cure, which they carry on in the accustomed manner in spite of the censures fulminated in the decrees. However, this is an affair which, please God, will be examined into at the court of Rome, and I do not wish to enlarge farther upon it. All I will say in passing is that the following words of Ps. cxiii. are applicable to the reverend Jesuit fathers : ' Óculos habent et non videbunt, aures habent et non audient.' For, of a truth, it would be necessary to have lost one's brains to [235] imagine that acts done so openly and so maliciously should not be known everywhere, above all at the court of Rome, where causes are gone into closely, where they weigh them in the scales of justice and with the weights of the sanctuary. Can they persuade themselves that nothing will be said to them when their disobedience to the Holy See is known ?
359.2.4
Do they consider they did well to extort a Pastoral by pretexts and the use of calumny ? Do they think that his Holiness will approve the decision of the Lord Patriarch, which was given after he was told that this mission had applied to the Holy See, which was pronounced without the consent of the parties, which was not promulgated until two years afterwards ? Do they believe that the Lord Bishop of San Thome will be approved at Rome when his Holiness and the Sacred Congregation learn that his Lordship has acted formally against their orders ? Can they persuade themselves that my lord, after having written such a fulminating letter as that sent to your Council, will be absolved and acquitted by merely saying he had been misled ? Do they believe that he will not be cross-questioned as to why he was misled, why he sent the letter referred to, and how he came to know what he has imputed to the Capuchin fathers ? If they believe all that, then ' óculos habent et non videbunt, aures habent et non audient.'
359.2.5
Decide now, gentlemen, how far we are guilty and have deserved to be treated as scandalous persons — 'The Reverend Fra Spirito came out with a despairing and scandalous resolution.' Decide how far we are culprits, that we should be branded as liars — 'Without order of His Holiness or mine, as they falsely allege.' Decide in what we have sinned, that we should be [236] dealt with as disobedient persons — 'I have not given permission to your Reverence, neither in thought, still less in words.' Decide how far we are of evil mind, that we should be called over-bold — 'Nor was the Pastoral issued to hinder the decrees, but to repress the temerity with which the Reverend Father Spirito,' etc.
359.2.6
Decide how far we have been violent and hasty, that we should be dismissed as madmen — 'But as he has had a letter exhorting him to peace and quietness, which he took and threw on the ground with contempt, not troubling himself to accept it, you, gentlemen, ought not to wish me to expose myself further to his anger and rudeness.' Decide, gentlemen, what offence we have committed, that we should be called seditious, that we should be delivered to the secular arm with an order to deal with us most severely — 'It concerns you, gentlemen, to keep the peace and uphold my jurisdiction in the form in which I have stated it, and force the Capuchin fathers by full severity to desist.' Decide how dishonourable and to be avoided must be the habit we wear, one for which the Supreme Pontiffs have themselves shown the respect they have felt by conceding indulgences to those who out of devotion kiss it ; since it suffices to say : 'God deliver me from the hood of the Capuchin fathers' — words heard to fall from the mouth of the Lord Bishop himself by the gentlemen Cesar and Khwãjah Ivanos, Armenians. Now, if we be thus treated without any fault, what would it be, gentlemen, if we had been guilty ? I leave it to you to decide, and instead ask [237] you the favour of becoming witnesses of the truth and replying to the questions which I take the liberty of putting to you.
359.2.7
For you know during a long time past, not only the good reputation gained by the Capuchins in France, but equally the manner in which they have always borne themselves, be it at Madras, at Sūrat, or at Pondicherry, since they have been at those places. If the reverend Jesuit fathers had procured against us such decrees as we have against them, could they have conducted themselves with more moderation than we have displayed ? If the reverend Jesuit fathers had been our forerunners in Pondicherry, and were in possession of the cure of the Malabāris, would the Capuchin fathers have tried to take it from the reverend Jesuit fathers, as these latter have not only desired to take, but have effectually taken it from the Capuchin fathers ? Had the Capuchin fathers been menaced by the Sacred Congregation with the censures of the Church, would they have resisted as the reverend Jesuit fathers are resisting ? If the reverend Jesuit fathers had been involved in such a contest as we have been for approximately two years, and had they wished to send a religious to the court of Rome, there to explain their conduct, would the Capuchin fathers have employed every device to prevent his journey, as the reverend Jesuit fathers did in respect of the Reverend Father Eusebius of Bourges ?
359.2.8
If any Capuchin of Madras had gone to Pondicherry, and had at once gone to visit the reverend Jesuit fathers, and the reverend Jesuit fathers had come to the Capuchins to see them, would the Capuchin fathers ever have [238] replied, ' We do not want to speak to him ' ? This is what was done by Father Dolu at Madras not a very long time ago. Finally, if the reverend Jesuit fathers had obtained a decision from Rome as we have done, would they have submitted to the Lord Bishop of San Thomé when he annulled what had been ordained by the Sacred Congregation, to whom his Lordship ought to submit just as much as we ? I know not, gentlemen, what you may think, but for my part I am quite certain that regulars who resist his Holiness and the Sacred Congregation face to face could have equally resisted a single bishop.
359.3.1
On the contrary, we obey blindly, however many valid reasons we might have for declining to do so, and this, moreover, in spite of their persecuting us, calumniating us, menacing us, consigning us to the secular arm. Alas ! where, then, is the crime of the Capuchin fathers, that they are dealt with so unworthily ? I know not, gentlemen, unless it be their simplicity, sincerity, and too great kindness of heart. If we were less humble, less good-tempered, less obedient, justice might, perhaps, have been done to us. But God forbid that we should purchase the right to get back our mission at a price so ruinous ! Rather lose a thousand cures and a thousand lives, if we had them, than at any time to do the least thing unworthy of our ministry and our vows. God, who sees the depths of our hearts, and who sees that we work good (Rom. viii. 27), will espouse our cause, as has always happened unto this day by the working of His paternal bounty. We shall see what will come to pass through His divine grace. It will come in the course of time [239], and may happen in two years or thereabouts.
359.3.2
We were, as you know, gentlemen, defamed in these regions. While his Holiness laboured hard to restore us to the possession of the Malabar cure, they (the Jesuits) wanted to deprive us of the Madras mission, just as the reverend Jesuit fathers had designed with the Malabar (Tamil) charge in Pondicherry. At a time when his Holiness was making over to the Capuchins the new missions to Ethiopia and to Tibet, they (the Jesuits) tried to tear to pieces our reputation at Pondicherry and at Madras, hurling thunderbolts at our heads, and placarding notices in all the public squares and on the doors of the churches. But at Rome the Sacred Congregation and two cardinals did us the honour of writing to us, setting forth the gifts that they had graciously forwarded to us, just as if their letters were not enough to convince and persuade us of their goodwill, in addition to the assignment to us of so many new charges. So true is it that those whose only trust is in the Lord, and not in men, can never perish : ' Beati qui confidunt in Domino' (Ps. xxx., cxxiv. and cxxvii.).
359.3.3
We close this letter, gentlemen, by praying God to pardon the reverend Jesuit fathers and the Lord Bishop of San Thomé for all the steps they have taken against us. If we have taken the liberty of addressing this manifesto to you, we most earnestly beg you to believe that it was not to besmirch them, but entirely for our own justification from the calumnies that were published about us. Moreover, before the said tribunal [the Pondicherry Council], along with our conduct the good reputation of our whole order would be exposed to censure and might be blackened by malicious tongues, if we did not present our defence on the heads [240] under which we are accused.
359.3.4
Be not scandalized, gentlemen, if the Capuchin fathers have been unable to endure the sufferings caused them without this cry of pain. For there are some things that must be borne heroically, and others which must necessarily be repudiated. The Saviour of our souls, who is our example, who took flesh in order to the salvation of men through His own agony, has not omitted a justification of Himself, nor to make complaint on certain occasions. When they said to Him (John viii. 48), 'Daemonium habes ?' He replied, ' Daemonium non habeo ' (verse 49). When Judas betrayed Him into the hands of His enemies, He asked them: ' Amice, ad quid venisti ?' (Matt. xxvi. 50). When Malchus smote Him with such indignity and such cruelty, He said to him : ' Si male locutus sum, testimonium perhibe de malo : si [autem] bene, locutus sum quid me caedis ?' (John xviii. 23). [If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil : but if well, why smitest thou Me ?] If I have made use of rather strong and pungent expressions, and if you cannot pardon me for feeling resentment, glance for a moment at the outrageous manner in which we have been dealt with, and notice whether, in expressing myself in such terms, I have done so without just cause. Furthermore, I wish the Jesuits no evil, since God forbids my doing so and my own feelings also. I advise others to pardon their enemies while I remain their, as I am your [friend], et cetera. Gentlemen,
359.3.5
As it is said in Holy Scripture, one abyss produces another : ' Abyssus abyssum invocat ' (Vulgate, Ps. xli. 8) [A. V., xlii. 7 : ' Deep calleth unto deep ']. Thus, after we have been so unjustly calumniated and persecuted by the reverend Jesuit fathers and the Lord Bishop of San Thome, we have little room for hoping to be able for long at a time to enjoy our original quiet. It seems impossible for us to be left a month in peace where there are any reverend Jesuit fathers. In fact, hardly had we begun to comfort ourselves after our past struggles, when about nine or ten days ago we heard that the Reverend Father Esprit of Tours, Capuchin Apostolic Missionary and Superior at Pondicherry, had been declared by the Lord Bishop of San Thome to be excommunicated. The way in which we have learnt this it will not be out of place to tell you, gentlemen, to show to you conspicuously what is the nature of the reverend Jesuit fathers, and the spirit animating all the members of that saintly and illustrious Society. The Reverend Fathers Tachard and Dolu, both Jesuits, being fervently resolved to see us ruined and deprived of reputation in the hearts of all laymen, unexpectedly wrote to Madras informing everybody of this fine piece of news. The Reverend Father Dolu wrote to a person in holy orders that the Reverend Father Esprit was excommunicated ;
359.3.6
and the Reverend Father Tachard wrote to Monsieur Guety, not, it is true, quite so coarsely, but in other phrases which, in spite of their being a little more polite, are none the less pungent. Here they are ; listen to them, I pray of you. ' The Reverend Father Esprit has started from Pondicherry, and is transferring himself to San Thome. It does not suit me to have to impart to you this sad news. All I will say is, that it would be very appropriate to apply to this friar the medical axiom : " Magna mala extremis carent remediis." ' That is as much as to say that for great ills you want great remedies. Admire, gentlemen, the prudence of the reverend fathers, and reflect on the height to which passion can rise when the persons [242] concerned once lose their heads. If the Reverend Father Tachard and the Reverend Father Dolu itched so much to see us defamed, neglected, deprived of reputation, as much at Madras as at Pondicherry, could they not have found some other course for doing it without writing the good news to persons in holy orders, without writing in terms so insulting, without causing so grave a scandal in a town where for one Christian there are a thousand heathen ? The reverend Jesuit fathers state in letters to Europe that they never convert idolaters in less than thousands. Judge what fruits they can gather in countries where they employ such fine methods of bringing men to our holy faith.
359.3.7
Gentlemen, to speak the truth, if these reverend fathers had any — I will not say virtue, but the smallest dose of religion and of concern for their eternal salvation, would they ever act contrary to those two great precepts which call on us to love God above all things and our neighbour as ourself? ' Diliges dominum Deum tuum ex toto corde tuo et proximum tuum sicut te ipsum ' (Lev. xix. 18; Rom. xiii. 9; Gal. v. 14; Jas. ii. 8; Matt. xxii. 37, 39 ; Mark xii. 33). No, without a doubt, gentlemen, they would not. Still, as we have already seen what are their maxims, you can judge equally the purity of their intentions. After we knew from Monsieur Chardin and Monsieur Guety that the Reverend Father Esprit of Tours had been declared excommunicated, we had the confirmation thereof the next day from the Reverend Father Esprit himself, who had travelled post to Madras to justify himself in the presence of the Lord Bishop of San Thome in regard to what had been imputed to him, and to hear from the mouth of his Lordship the cause of his excommunication, and why he had attached the notice to the door of the church of the reverend Jesuit fathers, while neither he nor any one of us was told the reason.
359.4.1
No one doubted, whether at Pondicherry or at Madras, that the Reverend Father Esprit of Tours, Capuchin, must be the winner in his dispute, and would return in triumph after he should have better informed the Lord Bishop of all that had passed at Pondicherry. But we, who know by experience what is the nature of the reverend Jesuit fathers, were already informed by persons of integrity that those fathers had plotted our ruin. Therefore we did not share the opinion above referred to, nor in this were we deceived. For you will see, gentlemen, something that perhaps was never seen before, something that it will be hard to credit in Europe, it being hardly credible on the spot where the thing happened. Yet this is so admittedly true that if I were in the throes of death, on the point of yielding an account to God of all the actions of my life, and if it were required of me to say whether in all I have written there is any falsehood or exaggeration, I could withdraw nothing without denying the truth.
359.4.2
If after the oath I have taken to speak the truth, and after the protest now made of rather diminishing than exaggerating events, any man still blames the Capuchins (as I know of a certainty some do, who are the cause of my issuing this manifesto), he would need to be worse than a Turk, a Hindu, or an idolater. Indeed, it is not possible, gentlemen, for a Turk to learn what I am about to recount without having some little compassion for us and doing us justice. Here I give, gentlemen, word for word, how the affair occurred, so far as I am able to recollect. Beholding the miserable condition to which the Reverend Father Esprit of Tours had been reduced by being declared excommunicated, and the injury done to our mission by the removal of a friar who can use the Portuguese, Malabãrī, and Arab languages perfectly, and has, in addition, been twenty-five years a missionary without causing any scandal or doing the slightest thing unworthy of his ministry, we resolved that we would go to the Lord Bishop of San Thomé, praying him with all possible insistence that he would be good enough to remove the excommunication fulminated by his Most Illustrious Lordship against the person of the Reverend Father Esprit, and taking with us a written petition in case he should decline to listen to our spoken arguments.
359.4.3
We had only just arrived at the house of Monsieur Guety, where we had gone to rest after the fatigues of the journey, when we found a copy of the declaration that the reverend Jesuit fathers had published and subsequently affixed to the door of their churches, adding a prohibition to the Capuchin fathers against putting their foot within the house of the Lord Bishop. It was as if the Capuchin fathers were worse than those criminals who are condemned without being told the reason ; even they, however, have never been denied a hearing [245] when they have prayed their judges to grant them one, as we shall go into farther on, in its proper place.
359.4.4
I wish to give you first a copy of the declaration, in order that everybody may know that the reverend Jesuit fathers do not confine themselves to warfare against idols, but the zeal with which they are filled is so great and so burning, that they would like not only to destroy the Capuchin fathers, but, if they could, render their memory odious to all men. Here is the copy of the declaration fulminated against the Reverend Father Esprit of Tours, apostolic missionary and Superior of the Capuchins at Pondicherry, simply for having published the decrees of the Sacred Congregation ; for having said that the reverend Jesuit fathers are not the legal pastors of the Malabãrís at Pondicherry ; for having reduced to writing the names of the Malabar gods in order to acquaint the Sacred Congregation with the number of Christians living there; finally, for having cited the reverend Jesuit fathers to the court of Rome, upon our discovering that they were acting contrary to the decrees given in favour of the Capuchin fathers.