Storia do Mogor 361.3
Storia do Mogor (Irvine) 361.3
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361.3.1
To these words Monsignor made answer : ' He has been the cause of it, not I.' ' But what has he done,' said our Reverend Father Guardian, ' since neither he nor we know yet the reason ?' ' He has published the decrees of the Sacred Congregation without my permission ' (this is not true, gentlemen, as you must have ascertained from many passages), ' and has, besides, cited the Reverend Father Tachard to the courts at Rome.' ' Then, my lord,' replied the Reverend Father Guardian, ' your Lordship has declared Father Esprit to be excommunicated because he has published the decrees themselves with your permission, and because he has cited the reverend Jesuit Fathers, who are acting in direct opposition to the decrees ?' ' I gave no sort of permission,' then replied Monsignor. Thereupon, falling upon my knees and craving leave to speak, I asked him in the hearing of two Jesuits, the old cure, the secretary, and of a reverend Cordelier father (that is to say, a Franciscan) : ' Your Lordship has not, then, given permission to the Reverend Father Esprit, or, to speak more strictly, to Father Michel Ange, on the eve of St. Michael, for the publication of the decrees ?' ' No, I have not given it to him,' replied his Lordship without hesitation [263].
361.3.2
' It is quite true I said to him that he could publish the decrees of the Sacred Congregation, by virtue of their authority, in exactly the manner he could publish in his church whatever to him might seem meet, without my permission and without anyone being able to hinder him.' I had my answer ready, but I was interrupted by the Reverend Father Guardian, who with all possible insistence prayed the Lord Bishop to kindly hear the Reverend Father Esprit, who had been waiting at the door for now nearly an hour. As his Lordship persisted not only in declining to admit him, but also in prohibiting us from continuing the subject, the Reverend Father Guardian, a man who has made himself widely known in India by his virtues and other merits, flung himself on his knees, and, bathing his Lordship's feet with a torrent of tears, asked him for the love of God and of St. Thomas, whose festival was then being celebrated; by the love of Jesus Christ, whose natal day was so near at hand, to be so good as to relieve the woes of the Christian people of Pondicherry, who had been left groaning over the loss of their pastor. To get rid of the scandal growing greater day by day, and to satisfy us, would he kindly allow the Reverend Father Esprit to enter his presence, would he listen to his arguments ? But we observed that the greater the pressure applied the less the bishop seemed to feel for us, and the more the father humiliated himself the more furious against us his Lordship grew.
361.3.3
A posture which would have softened the hardest heart raised no hope of advancing our cause in the slightest degree with Monsignor. Our Guardian, therefore, put in our petition, which proved clearly that the Reverend Father Esprit had not become liable to excommunication, and that, even had he become so liable, the Bishop could not excommunicate or declare excommunicated any friar of the order of St. Francis, as he thereby infringed our Privileges, Bulls, and Decrees obtained from four Supreme Pontiffs. Further, it follows that, even could he excommunicate, the act would be null and void for want of compliance with the rules of the Canon Law and the formalities that must be observed.
361.3.4
His Lordship took the petition, and noticing that he had read no more than two or three lines, I went down on my knees again and said to him : ' Monsignor, by the love of God, read it all, from beginning to end.' Then he ordered me to rise, and said to me he knew within a word or two all that it contained ; that he would take upon his own head the responsibility about the said privileges ; and that he was fully cognisant of the respect and veneration due to the Supreme Pontiffs. Nevertheless, seeing that the Lord Bishop would not even now do us the slightest justice, I took upon myself the liberty of saying to him : ' Monsignor, what good does it do us for you to take upon your head the responsibility for our privileges, or for you to cherish such respect and veneration for the Supreme Pontiffs, when your Lordship acts to the precise contrary, and is more stubborn than ever was known before ? You not only refuse to absolve the Reverend Father Esprit from an excommunication to which he is not liable, but still farther you refuse him permission to present himself before you ' [265].
361.3.5
'If the Reverend Father Esprit has not incurred excommunication,' replied his Lordship, 'what is your object, then, in asking me to set it aside?' 'We call for that,' added I forthwith, 'not because he has become liable to it, for he is as much excommunicated as I am, but to avoid scandal, which must without fail arise if the Reverend Father Esprit, who has been declared accursed and doubly accursed of God, et cetera, should say Holy Mass before the publication of another declaration setting aside the former one. In addition to this, the simple folk do not judge by reality, but only by appearances, by which they are misled. Without considering whether the said reverend father is excommunicated or not, it is open to them to believe that he is a malefactor, for they are unable to persuade themselves that a bishop, whom here they venerate like the Pope is venerated at Rome, could treat a friar so unworthily without his having merited it. Moreover, as we clearly comprehend that no limit will be placed on what is done to us, we have just reason to fear that, having declared the Reverend Father Esprit out of rule, you will equally launch an interdict against our church, if he should celebrate publicly Holy Mass without your Lordship's leave.'
361.3.6
At these words the Lord Bishop of San Thomé said that if the Reverend Father Esprit were to be allowed in, it was necessary beforehand for him to admit three things, to be reduced to writing. The first was that he must confess himself to be guilty; the second, [266] that, having confessed his fault, he must humbly ask pardon; and the third, he must promise he will no longer claim the cure of the Malabārīs. We could not accept these conditions, which absolved Monsignor from his acts and threw the blame on the Capuchins. They also deprived us of all hope of a re-entry on our original mission. Shortly afterwards we took our leave. We suddenly perceived what had led to this declaration, and what, if only a little attention is paid, will clearly explain the maxims followed by the reverend Jesuit fathers.
361.3.7
These reverend fathers desire to be masters wherever they are, and to gain their designs make use of falsehood as if it were truth ; they regulate their consciences by their ambitions, and follow no other rule than what suits their interests. We see this in their falsely alleging His Most Christian Majesty's order ; in their having written to France and to Rome that there were thirty thousand Christians where there were only two thousand ; in their having produced a decree two years after it had been pronounced ; in their having disobeyed in formal terms the Sacred Congregation ; in the fact that the authorities they have quoted in the Pastoral are more against them than against us, as you will perceive in the course of time ; in their having recourse to the secular arm to impede the execution of the decrees ; in their spreading the calumny about the Reverend Father Esprit ; in their making us over to your hands [267] with a precise direction to chastise us with all possible rigour. Looking to all the above things, I say, and foreseeing the consequences (for what has been approved at Pondicherry will not remain unpunished at Rome), they have behaved almost identically as did the Scribes and Pharisees who assembled and took counsel to betray Jesus : ' Collegerunt pontífices et pharisaei concilium, ut Jesum dolo tenerent ' (Matt. xxvi. 3, 4, and John xi. 47).
361.3.8
As a matter of fact, after having plotted the destruction of the Reverend Father Esprit, the person who caused them the greatest umbrage, they sent off as quick as they could the Reverend Father de la Breuille to San Thome, where, for three days on end, there were four Jesuits and some other friars not particularly well-intentioned towards us examining into the best means of succeeding in their pernicious enterprises. The vicar-general, who was present at their last meeting, finding there had been such a precipitate excommunication of the Reverend Father Esprit, asked the reasons. After having reflected over them in a judicial spirit, he said such an act could not be done without injustice, and if they carried it out they would be forced one day to repent it. But perceiving what little account they made of his arguments, and that they had sworn our ruin, he shut the door behind him in a rage and fled. Never again did he appear in the midst of such a saintly assembly.