[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) › 359.3 # Storia do Mogor 359.3 Storia do Mogor (Irvine) 359.3 - **Language:** English ### [359.3.1](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.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](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.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](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.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](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.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](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.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](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.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](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.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. --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.359.3](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.359.3) · Pramāṇa