Storia do Mogor 362.1.p3

362.1.p3

Friar Esprit of Tours, et cetera.]
The Lord Bishop, after having refused many times to receive it, at last, by dint of supplications, was made to read the above petition of appeal ; and the Reverend Father Guardian then praying him to be so good as to verify it, he wrote on the margin the following words : ' We have replied to the request here made — S. Thome, 23 December, the Bishop of Meliapur.' Gentlemen, you [274], who have unbounded understanding, just read, please, the petition in appeal and the reply to it. Consider, I conjure you, what connection there can be between the one and the other ; since it is a white answer to a black question. The same peculiarity is found in all the documents we hold. Therefore judge now if it is necessary to lay any great stress on the unworthy way in which we are treated ; and from this you can gather, gentlemen, if the Capuchin fathers occasionally moan, whether they do so without cause or meaning.
When we had in our hands the petition of appeal which his Lordship had so admirably justified, the Reverend Father Guardian, after a minute or two's conversation, rose to take leave of the Lord Bishop. I, however, before I rose, said : ' My Lord, if I had known what I do at this moment, I should certainly never have come to a country where they behave so well to poor missionaries — men who have abandoned father, mother, relations, and friends ; who have suffered so many dangers, and have come from such far-off countries in the hope of gaining some souls to Jesus Christ ; who have been on their feet for twenty-five to thirty years, like the Reverend Father Esprit, and thoroughly wearied themselves from morning to night, without an hour of quiet on any one day : only to have had perhaps the discomfiture, such as this reverend father has had, of seeing affixed to the doors of the churches an excommunication or declaration against myself, whereby I was declared accursed, and doubly accursed of God Omnipotent, of the Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul, and of all the other saints in the quire celestial ; at the very time, too, when your priests, who lead, for the most part, idle and scandalous lives, are treated by you with the greatest softness — yes, there have been men to be found among them, and are yet to be found daily, who have fallen into such disorders that propriety forbids my stating them ; men who have caused public scandal in many places ; who trade openly ; who in drunkenness have lain down in the middle of Madras streets in the sight of the heathen and of the English gentlemen ; there have been some among them, I say, who have gone to your Lordship's very door, arms in hand, and, unable to obtain the execution of what they had premeditated, have abused you up-hill and down-dale without the slightest correction being applied to them. But the poor Capuchin fathers ! who have shown to your Lordship nothing but respect ; who rush hither and thither from morning to night to gain even one soul to Jesus Christ ; who cannot be accused of the minutest fault in their lives and habits ; who seek to do good to all men ; who have never given an opening for anybody to complain — these fathers receive from you nothing but inhuman treatment ! Of a truth, my Lord, we feel this acutely enough, nor can I conceive how a bishop, who ought to follow the dictates of equity more than anyone else in the world, can leave the transgressor in impunity and chastise the innocent.' As I was finishing what I had to say his Lordship turned his back on me, whence I was aware that there was nothing more to be done. Therefore, making a sign to the gentlemen who had come with us, we withdrew at once.
The Reverend Father Esprit and the Reverend Father Michel Ange had supposed that the Lord Bishop would have adjusted the dispute so happily as to render it unnecessary to present the above-referred-to petition of appeal [276] ; for they had been assured that his Lordship meant to quiet things down. Now they found there was no other course open than to secure the attestation of the papers they held, and to call the fourth time for the Apostoli in the process of the Reverend Father Esprit. After having put in order all the papers, ready for the attestation of his Lordship, the Reverend Father Michel Ange started the next morning for San Thome. On arriving at the palace of Monsignor, he asked for leave to speak to him ; the answer he received was that if he was come on a visit he could enter, but if he came on business he could just go back to Madras. Although he thought this a most surprising and extraordinary procedure, yet, not wishing to give any incitement to his Lordship for farther hurting us, what he had done already being more than we could bear — for an excommunication is a most insupportable thing — the Reverend Father Michel Ange said that he only came to see his Lordship, and put off speaking of business till the next morning. He then went again, taking the Reverend Father Esprit, so that the Capuchins might not be accused of declining to submit themselves to the Lord Bishop.