Storia do Mogor 361.1.8

361.1.8

I know no other whatever, although his Lordship, in his Declaration, may allege [257] that he acted in consequence of our having published certain decrees — that it was not until we had done so that he sent a Pastoral to the reverend Jesuit fathers as our punishment. But we have not taken any step, not even the slightest, since the issue of the said Pastoral, beyond the citation to Rome of the Reverend Father Tachard. Even if we were to be punished for having published the decrees and summoned the reverend Jesuit fathers, who has ever before heard of a case where a friar was anathematized and excommunicated for reasons of that sort ? I cannot believe that since the world became a world up to this very day there ever happened a case of this sort, for the thing appears an impossibility. In fact, if such a thing were likely to happen, it would be much better for the Sacred Congregation to issue no decrees ; and if it is allowable to excommunicate a friar when he summons his opposite party to Rome, the only thing left for the Lord Bishop of San Thome to do is to remove all the missionaries who are dependent upon him and replace them by Jesuit fathers.