[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) › 359.2 # Storia do Mogor 359.2 Storia do Mogor (Irvine) 359.2 - **Language:** English ### [359.2.1](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.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](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.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](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.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](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.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](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.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](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.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](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.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](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.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. --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.359.2](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.359.2) · Pramāṇa