Storia do Mogor 362.5

362.5

A reverend father, an Armenian by race, belonging to the Order of St. Dominic, died at Madras after living there a whole year. He received the last sacraments at the hands of the Capuchin fathers who dwell in that town. After the death of the said father, the Superior of the reverend Dominican fathers was written to at San Thome, advising him that a friar of his order had died. This was at eight o'clock in the morning. He was requested to write at once whether he meant the defunct to be buried in our church or in his. We waited for an answer up to six o'clock in the evening, though we could have had the answer by midday. Therefore, finding no one came, and the corpse beginning to be offensive owing to the great heat, we went to the spot in order to bury the said body in our church. After we had chanted the 'Libera,' a Jacobin, who had concealed himself in a shop so as not to be seen, in order to affront us threw himself on the body, saying he wanted to inter it at [281] San Thome. The Reverend Father Michel Ange, and all the other priests and friars taking part in the funeral, said to him: 'Reverend father, this is not the way to behave before a thousand heathen here assembled; we wrote to you, and it seems to me you ought to have replied without falling into these excessive ways. Besides, when you come to remove the body of a deceased person, it is necessary to come in the proper vestments with surplice and stole, not in a palanquin and with a cap like an Englishman's on your head. We are going to take the body to our church, and chant the office for the dead. After that is done we shall make it over into your hands, and we in person will follow it as far as San Thome.' The reverend father Dominican began to shout, just as a blind man does who has lost his stick, and then, like a man in despair, started to run to San Thome to report to the bishop. The latter learnt from the reports of his own priests that the Capuchin fathers had behaved with all possible prudence. If there had been anything wrong it had not proceeded from them, since they had themselves carried the body to their church against their will. Yet he (the bishop) did not fail to send the Capuchin fathers a very sharp letter, conveying an order that they must send the body. This is what we did, without hesitating a single moment. Here you have, gentlemen, the great 'tenderness' displayed to the Capuchin fathers, who better deserved to be praised than to be blamed, as they are day after day.
Gentlemen, I should write a big book if I attempted to narrate to you all the injustice done to us, without telling you the bitter things the Lord Bishop has made us swallow on thousands of occasions [282]. However, I will produce to you no more than two of his letters, collated copies of which are in my possession. You have only to pay very slight attention and you will see, gentlemen, that we could not be dealt with more harshly and more cruelly than we have been dealt with by his Lordship. The first is the letter which Monsignor wrote to your Council, which I wish once more to lay before you in writing, although the original is in your hands, because I hope by God's grace that this manifesto will appear in Europe also, and not only at Pondicherry. The second letter is the reply to the Reverend Father Guardian, who had begged his Lordship to be good enough to clear the Reverend Father Esprit of the calumny imposed on him by the reverend fathers of the Society of Jesus.