Storia do Mogor 359.1.3

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.