[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) › 361.4 # Storia do Mogor 361.4 Storia do Mogor (Irvine) 361.4 - **Language:** English ### [361.4.1](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.361.4.1) Gentlemen, it is hardly to be presumed that, in a case of injustice which cries aloud for vengeance in the presence of God and before men, there should be no one who would take our cause in hand. But as the reverend Jesuit fathers were in search of any method of covering up their evil deeds against us, they thought it better to sacrifice a \[268\] poor friar to their anger than to see a whole order dishonoured by the perverse behaviour of seven or eight individuals: Expedit ut unus moriatur homo pro populo, et non tota gens pereat (Vulgate, John xi. 49). As, however, man proposes and God disposes, they were deceived. For they had imagined that the Reverend Father Esprit would subscribe to anything and everything they wished, in order to be relieved from the so-called excommunication of which they had procured the issue against him. But the Reverend Father Esprit foresaw most clearly the consequences that would have arisen if he had subscribed to the propositions made to him. In addition to the witness of his conscience, which in this affair in no way stung him, he knew by full evidence that all they had done was intended solely to force him into returning to his province. Because the reverend Jesuit fathers hold it as an axiom that, when they cannot effect their designs by acting justly, they must persecute so vigorously that, no longer able to endure the persecution, such an one may be obliged to withdraw and escape by flight. ### [361.4.2](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.361.4.2) The Reverend Father Esprit, I say, knowing all these things, held it much better to decide on a return to Europe, there to petition the courts at Rome, than to subscribe such ridiculous propositions. Since we were now forced to return to our hospice at Madras without having been able to make any impression on the mind of my lord, we consulted together as to the best course to adopt on this occasion. After we had thoroughly deliberated, we saw that our opponents were our judges ; that there was no hope whatever \[269\] of obtaining justice from men who did not even know what justice was ; and we resolved to make an appeal to the Holy See. Our appeal was drawn up on the 23rd December, 1706, in the presence of Messieurs Cesar Louis Melique and Khwãjah Joannes, Armenian, whom we had for this end prayed to accompany us, not only to act as witnesses to our petition of appeal, but chiefly to let the whole world see that, when the Capuchin fathers were driven to such an extreme necessity, it was because we had been persecuted to the very last point and there was no other possible resource left. ### [361.4.3](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.361.4.3) In fact, before delivering our petition of appeal to his Lordship, we opened the conversation with the usual compliments, and after a somewhat prolonged conversation on indifferent subjects, our Reverend Father Guardian — that is, custodian and vice-provincial in the Indies \[Laurent (Lorenzo) of Angoulême\] — begged once more the Lord Bishop to be so kind as to have the goodness to adjust the affair of the Reverend Father Esprit, and not to leave him to pass the Festival of the Nativity in such a pitiable condition. His Lordship replied that the said Reverend Father Esprit declined to submit himself. Upon hearing this our Father Guardian replied at once : ' My lord, he has travelled post from Pondicherry with that object, and it is barely two days ago that he was an hour and a half in your entrance-hall awaiting the moment when he would be allowed to see your Lordship once more, and present to you his most humble supplications and pray you urgently to listen to his arguments.' ' Call you that a submission ?' said my Lord Bishop. ' He must admit himself wrong ; he must ask pardon for his misdoing ; ### [361.4.4](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.361.4.4) he must promise to cease further turbulence until some new \[270\] decision comes from Rome.' 'Let Monsignor permit the Reverend Father Esprit to appear before him,' replied the Reverend Father Guardian, 'and after you have heard his reasons, if you are not satisfied, you may do whatever you judge most appropriate.' We noticed then that his Lordship, instead of answering, turned his head in another direction. The more urgent we were with him the more obdurate he became. The Guardian continued and said: 'Monsignor, if the Reverend Father Esprit were at Rome, instead of being at San Thomé, and he were to present himself to his Holiness to report to him on imputations made against him, and were to submit himself to punishment in case he had merited it, would his Holiness order him to go away without having granted him an audience?' 'The cases are not parallel,' said a Jesuit who was present. This having afforded me an opening, I said: 'A pope would not refuse an audience to the Reverend Father Esprit if he were at Rome; and my Lord Bishop, upon the depositions of the reverend Jesuit fathers, whose most iniquitous calumny, worse than any ever yet heard, has been unmasked, excommunicates the Reverend Father Esprit without any regular form of process; ### [361.4.5](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.361.4.5) and then, when he presents himself at his Lordship's to lay before him the true facts, he (the bishop) desires him to confess himself in fault before he has been convicted.' Who has ever heard such a thing, gentlemen, and amongst laymen where is to be found a judge who has fallen into this error? There certainly never has been any such, and if by any chance one were found in the world, he could easily be brought to punishment. ### [361.4.6](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.361.4.6) 'This reverend father,' said his Lordship quickly, without replying to my question, 'publishes certain decrees without my permission; declares publicly \[271\] that the reverend Jesuit fathers are no longer the legal pastors of the Malabārīs at Pondicherry; goes from house to house to take down the names of the Christians, and that notwithstanding the prohibition I have issued. I shall know, however, quite well how to reduce him to order and bring him back to his duty.' 'My Lord,' said I, 'the Reverend Father Esprit has not published the decrees without your Lordship's permission, since you gave it viva voce to the Reverend Father Michel Ange, which you confirmed in writing when we asked as a favour that your Lordship should testify the truth. It was not the Reverend Father Esprit either who declared the reverend Jesuit fathers to be no longer the legitimate pastors of the Malabārīs at Pondicherry, but rather it is the decrees that say so.' Here I repeated to him the whole decree of the Sacred Congregation, word for word, exactly as it stood in the original. 'Furthermore, subsequent to the Pastoral his Lordship issued, the Reverend Father Esprit has performed no function at all as curé, nor uttered the slightest word transgressing the respect he owes to your Lordship.' ### [361.4.7](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.361.4.7) 'In addition, it was before the publication of the said Pastoral that the Reverend Father Esprit wrote down the names of the Malabārī Christians; hence, when he did this, it was not to take away your Lordship's jurisdiction. He knew thoroughly well the obedience he owed you. It was done in order to inform the court at Rome of the number of Malabarī Christians in Pondicherry. For the reverend Jesuit fathers, be it in France, be it at Rome, say there are to be found twenty to thirty thousand Christians, where we give details that show there are not even two thousand. Your Lordship yourself, did you not say to the Reverend Father Guardian, here present, that a reverend Jesuit father had baptized six thousand Christians in one day?' ### [361.4.8](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.361.4.8) These words caused the company present to smile; they knew very well indeed that I was speaking the truth. But our Reverend Father Guardian, whose heart was sore, wished to urge nothing but the matter of the Reverend Father Esprit. A second time he prayed his Lordship to have pity upon the poor Capuchin Fathers, who were thrown into the utmost consternation at seeing one of their friars declared excommunicated when he was innocent and had not done anything, not even the slightest, unworthy of his vocation. All this he poured forth with such energy, and in such touching and penetrating language, that, with the exception of the reverend Jesuit fathers, who seemed pleased at our troubles, all the others present were unable to do otherwise than shed tears. But, coming to the conclusion that all his eloquence was vain, and that he could easier convert a Turk than secure the very slightest hold upon my lord's mind, the Reverend Father Guardian presented to him the following petition of appeal. --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.361.4](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.361.4) · Pramāṇa