Storia do Mogor 359.1.2

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'!