Storia do Mogor 366: Reply of the Lord Bishop of San Thomé to the said Petition.
Storia do Mogor (Irvine) 366
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Contents
Reply of the Lord Bishop of San Thomé to the said Petition.
366.1.1
Until the Reverend Father Fra Spirito submits himself to the Declaration wherein he was declared to have incurred excommunication, he cannot be heard in law. San Thomé, December 29, 1706. The Bishop of Meliapur. Receiving a reply which adjusted itself so well to his request, the Reverend Father Michel Ange said: 'My Lord, I do not claim that you should give audience to the Reverend Father Esprit, nor that you release him from the excommunication, because he has already appealed to his Holiness, and to him alone does he mean to have recourse. I am only asking you to give me the record of the Reverend Father Esprit's case, and to attest the papers which I have in my hands. " Well, then," said his Lordship, " I have no other reply to give you than what I have given." " Very well," replied the Reverend Father Michel Ange, " although your reply be irrelevant to my demand, it will still serve as a proof in the Roman courts that I have asked you for the record of the Reverend Father Esprit's case, and have also prayed you to attest my papers. What say you, gentlemen, of all this that you have heard up to this point ? Does it not look to you a very fine way of behaving ? O God ! who has ever heard such things ?
366.1.2
What person can there ever be who, reading a manifesto thus full of injustice, contradictions, and cruelty to the Capuchin fathers, will not conceive a holy hatred for the bishop and a few regulars who, in order not to have to succumb in a wretchedly bad affair, heap iniquity upon iniquity. If this matter had fallen into the hands of the reverend Jacobin fathers (that is, the Dominicans), or even of the reverend Cordelier fathers (that is, the Franciscans), and it had been vigorously worked, you would then have known how little would be enough to completely destroy the reverend Jesuit fathers. I leave to the reader's consideration, if he will read attentively all that I have written, whether I exaggerate, and I beg him at the same time to reflect whether or not Monsignor has done the exact contrary of what he has reduced to writing in his Declaration, having declared the Reverend Father Esprit of Tours excommunicated before his having done any act contrary to the Pastoral, and condemned him without having cited him to appear. The bishop has used against him (Esprit) nothing but harsh measures, and has drawn up no record. The same can be said almost exactly of the Pastoral published by his Lordship in favour of the reverend Jesuit fathers. Because, just as the Jesuits could not have obtained the Pastoral otherwise than by calumniating the Reverend Father Esprit, equally his Lordship only gave it at a time when he believed the calumny to be true.
366.1.3
For he could not have imagined that religious were capable of committing such an impious act in the execution of their designs. Even if it were not by reason of the calumny that his Lordship sent out the said Pastoral, I assert that there is no less contradiction in that document than in the Declaration, since the Bull of Clement X. and the Instruction of the Sacred Congregation, both of them issued to the Vicars Apostolic of the Indies, which are quoted by his Lordship to prove that he had power to do all he has done, are quoted out of place. In making use of them for the commission [295] of an injustice, he not only makes an abusive use of sacred things, but dishonours equally the court of Rome and the Sacred Congregation, who have never asserted that their authority could be invoked unless in things which were true and not false. It is in regard to a falsity, however, that the Lord Bishop and the reverend Jesuit fathers make use of these authorities. This I will demonstrate to you so plainly that there will be left no one who could have a doubt, even the very slightest. I begin with the Bull of Clement X., of which these are the precise words, which I have taken from the Pastoral of his Lordship; its opening words are 'Decet Romanum Pontificem' [It behoves the Pope of Rome]. The words which follow are these:
366.1.4
'Cum autem prae multitudine neophytorum in una Provincia aut Civitate, vel praenimia earum amplitudine, unus aut alter qui eis praesunt missionarii non sufficiunt, si aliqui suppetunt sacerdotes Seculares aut Religiosi licet alterius ordinis, quorum tamen subsidium nec illi quaerant, nec oblatum recipiant, tunc habito duntaxat respectu ad Christianorum necessitatem, possint ac debeant Vicarii Apostolici praedicti operarios multiplicare, Parochias dividere, aliaque eiusmodi facere iuxta praescripta a Sacris Canonibus et Concilii Tridentini decretis. 'Datum Romae apud Sanctam Mariam sub annulo Piscatoris die 23 Decembris milesimi sexcentesimi septuagesimi tertii, Pontificatus nostri anno quarto.' [But when, on account of the multitude of neophytes in one Province or town, or because the size of the town or district is excessive, the one or two presiding missionaries are found insufficient for the work, and other priests are available, whether secular or religious, no matter of what order, even should the missionaries in charge neither ask for additional help from outside, nor accept it when offered, yet it is the duty of the aforesaid Vicars Apostolic, and they are empowered, regarding only necessities of the Christians, to multiply the number of labourers, to divide the parishes, and to do anything of the kind which the case demands, according to the directions prescribed by the Sacred Canons and by the decrees of the Council of Trent.
366.1.5
Given at St. Mary's at Rome under the ring of the fisherman on the 23rd day of December, 1673, in the fourth year of our Pontificate.] Gentlemen, nothing more terrifies poor people, who cannot judge except by appearances, than hearing some great Papal Bull in Latin cited, as to which they understand and can conceive nothing. These names of 'Bull' and of 'Clement X.' have I know not what of awful about them which carries terror into the heart. Since it is impossible to pay too much respect and show too much submission to what the Holy See has ordered, the ignorant fear to take any action which might, in however small a degree, wound so sacred a tribunal. Would to God that the reverend Jesuit fathers who have concocted this Pastoral were of the same mind [as the lowly], and did not employ for the benefit of their insatiable ambition what is most holy and most sacred in the Christian religion.
366.1.6
Gentlemen, mark well what says the Bull, and then see whether the reverend Jesuit fathers who have quoted it in their Pastoral make use of it appropriately or not. Here is the passage in French: 'Quand dans une ville ou dans une province, il y a une si grande multitude de Chrestiens ou que leur etendue est si considerable que les missionaires qui en ont le soin ne puisse[nt] pas y suffire, s'il y a d'autres Prestres Seculiers ou Religieux d'un autre Ordre qui puisse[nt] les ayder a faire leur[s] functions, si ils ne cherchent pas leurs secours ou qu'ils le refusent quand on leur offre, alors les Vicaires Apostoliques voyant que c'est une necessite peuvent et doivent mesmes multiplier les ouvrie[r]s, diviser les Paroisses,' et cetera.
366.1.7
Now I ask you, gentlemen, since you live in Pondicherry, if there are in it more than one thousand four hundred Christians, including the French gentlemen, the topasses (persons of mixed blood), and the Malabãris (Tamils); I do not believe there can be more, and I look on it as rather an exaggeration than an underestimate. Again I ask you, and entreat you for the love of God to tell me, if in the whole territory of Pondicherry and its dependencies there is more than an area four leagues in circumference. Excepting Ariancupam, where there may be some forty Malabari Christians and as many Frenchmen, and where one of our fathers is stationed to minister to them, is there any other place where [297] a single Christian could be found ? Gentlemen, you are incapable of asserting the contrary, for I am persuaded your consciences are much more timid than those of the reverend Jesuit fathers.
366.1.8
Lastly, I ask you once more, and beg of you to tell me this, too, gentlemen : During the time when the Capuchin fathers were the pastors of the French gentlemen, the topasses and the Malabāris, has any man been known to die without receiving the sacraments ? Have not, throughout that period, the functions of zealous missionaries been fulfilled ? When the Lord Bishop judged it well to send us any priest or friar to aid us in the mission, have we refused to receive him ? This no one can affirm, much less prove. If, then, there are four of us Capuchin friars, all in priest's orders, without referring to the catechists, and the Reverend Father Esprit, who has been sacrificed to their (the Jesuits') passion, stationed at a place where at the outside there are only one thousand four hundred Christians, why do they quote a Bull which puts them in the wrong and justifies us ?
366.2.1
If, then, we cannot be accused of letting any man die without the sacraments ; if it cannot be proved that we have not carried out the duties of our mission ; if it cannot be said that we have refused to receive priests or friars, when his Lordship has offered us any (although by God's grace we have never been reduced to that extremity), whence arises it that his Lordship and the reverend Jesuit fathers have robbed us of our mission and refuse to give it back, even after orders from the Sacred Congregation, especially when the Bull of Clement X. prescribes ' quorum tamen subsidium nee illi quasrant nee oblatum recipiant ' as the only condition required and necessary for the [298] division of a parish.
366.2.2
From this you will see, gentlemen, that the reverend Jesuit fathers and the Lord Bishop not only make a wrong use of the Bulls of the Supreme Pontiffs, which they quote at the wrong time, but, furthermore, wish to dishonour the Capuchin fathers by trying to make them pass for men of such limited zeal that four friars present at Pondicherry are unable to do what is so completely carried out by one village cure in France. No, gentlemen, nothing but their passion for display, and the jealousy with which they look on those who think more of God's interests than men's, could make them act in this manner. I know no other cause. The reason I have for so thinking is this : if his Lordship had no other aim than the pure glory of God, and no other motive than to set up an improved mode of working where there are not over fourteen hundred Christians, then his Lordship would not have left the Reverend Father Bacchet (Bouchet) all by himself in a mission where there were over thirty thousand, and that for a period of seven or eight years ; nor would he leave at this present moment Sadrasta (Sadrãs) and Puliacãt, where there are large numbers of Christians, without sending one single priest to take charge, while his Lordship has fifteen or so of them at San Thome with nothing to do except to play the bully and ruffler from morning to night.
366.2.3
You have just seen, gentlemen, how the Lord Bishop, or, rather, the reverend Jesuit fathers, who have fabricated the said Pastoral, make a wrong use of the Supreme Pontiff's authority, and attempt to discredit the poor Capuchin fathers. Observe now a still more unworthy item in the second quotation. It is from a recommendation made by the Sacred Congregation to Vicars Apostolic for suspending the execution [299] of what it has ordered, when they know as an absolute certainty that they are unable to execute those orders without creating a scandal, tumult, or disturbance of men's minds. Here are the very words, which I have taken out of the Pastoral itself. I pray you to weigh them well ; for if you do that, gentlemen, you will see that it is without any reason that they allege this authority of the Sacred Congregation. Nor could they raise a suggestion more harmful to the Capuchin fathers than this attempt to make the court at Rome believe that a tumult and a sedition would have arisen among the Christians, if they (the Capuchins) had obtained possession of their former mission to the Malabãrls.
366.2.4
'Si in exsequendis Sacra Congregationis mandatis tarn magnas vobis difficultates occurrent, ut sine tumultu non possint acceptari, omnino cavete ea invitis praebere, et ob eorum inobedientiam dissensiones serere, mentes alienare, animos exacerbare, verum indulgendo tempori et neophytorum infirmitati compatiendo, mandata in praesens omittere satius erit ; ad Sacram Congregationem omnino sinceritate summa praescribatis eaque quid sit agendum rescripserit.' [If you should meet with such great difficulties in carrying out the orders of the Sacred Congregation that you find they cannot be executed without creating a tumult, take great heed not to thrust them on unwilling persons, and thus, through their non-obedience, sow dissensions, alienate minds, and embitter souls; but, for the indulgence of the time, and in compassion for the weakness of the neophytes, it will be better to let the orders of the Sacred Congregation stand over a while. Write to the Sacred Congregation with the utmost frankness, and it will write back what is to be done.] Gentlemen, since this matter is one of the greatest consequence to us, and you are under obligation in conscience to testify to the truth, tell us whether you foresee any difficulty in replacing the Capuchin fathers in possession of their cure of the Malabãrls, as directed by the Sacred Congregation ?
366.2.5
Tell us, also, if any tumult or sedition would have occurred by taking out of the hands of the reverend Jesuit fathers a mission forcibly taken by them from the Capuchin fathers. Tell us, once more, whether the Capuchin fathers, who are as well known in Pondicherry as in France, are capable of causing turbulence and of [300] irritating men's minds ? Tell us, lastly, when it became known at Pondicherry that decrees had come from Rome in favour of the Capuchin fathers, was there one single Malabar Christian who showed any displeasure, even the slightest ? But what am I saying, gentlemen ? Was there even one who did not rejoice? Was there ever known such a day of joy to the Malabar Christians as that Feast of all the Saints? Since on that day, when we published the decrees of the Sacred Congregation, no other disturbance of minds was to be seen than that suddenly our church was crammed with people, while that of the reverend Jesuit fathers became a desert: if, then, in the course of these proceedings there has broken out any disorder or tumult among the said Malabar Christians, it can only have been because they were not allowed to perform their heathen ceremonies as sanctioned by the reverend Jesuit fathers.
366.2.6
After having stated all this, I leave it to you to think what will be said at Rome when it is seen that the Lord Bishop and the reverend Jesuit fathers so lead astray the court of Rome that they want it to be believed there are thirty to forty thousand Christians where there are not even two thousand. We leave it to you to think what will be said by the Sacred Congregation when it knows that none of the reasons requiring the suspension of the decrees were to be feared or anticipated. Far from that, the rarest benefit that could have accrued to the Malabar Christians of Pondicherry would have been the restoration of that mission into the hands of the Capuchin fathers. Nothing in condemnation of the Capuchins was ever reported to Rome, nor was any Patriarch deputed, as had to be done about the reverend Jesuit fathers. But what will they say at Rome, gentlemen, when they see that a superior, a friar of twenty-five years' missionary work, has been declared excommunicated and accursed, and doubly accursed of God Omnipotent, et cetera, and that, too, in a city where there are fifty thousand idolaters. Will not this strike them as an excellent way to attract men to our Holy Faith, and a lofty example of virtue for the instruction of those who have already embraced that faith? Is this, gentlemen, the scandal, the sedition, and the tumult from which they ought to flee?
366.2.7
Is this the disturbance which they have implanted in the minds of Christian converts, who rejoiced at returning to the sheepfold of their legitimate pastor, and [now] begin to vacillate in the religion they have professed, on seeing such bad treatment of a friar who by his efforts had gained them over to Jesus Christ. Yet this friar had never been guilty of the slightest act unworthy of his calling. What will they not say at Rome when they learn that the Reverend Father Esprit has been declared excommunicated for having published the decrees of the Sacred Congregation and citing there the reverend Jesuit fathers for acting directly contrary to those decrees ? What will they not say at Rome when they hear that the reverend Jesuit fathers have had recourse to the secular arm, and have laid a petition before Monsieur de Flacourt, judge of Pondicherry, to stop the execution of the said decrees? What will they not say at Rome when they see that the Reverend Father Esprit had gone post-haste from Pondicherry to Madras to appear before Monsignor, and that his Lordship would not grant him even one audience ? What will not be said at Rome when they are aware of the repeated submissions made by these Capuchins [302], a thousand times in excess of what I have recorded in this manifesto, and on the other side such inflexibility displayed by the Lord Bishop and by the reverend Jesuit fathers ?
366.2.8
What will they not say at Rome when they see the petitions of the Capuchins and the wise answers of my Lord Bishop of San Thome ? What will they not say at Rome when they find so many contradictions, so many perversions of words, as those I have shown you, and so many errors committed by a prelate, who ought never to allow himself to transgress — at any rate, in what regards the rendering of justice to those entitled to it ? I have, however, two documents in my possession in which his Lordship says, in one, 'I have made a mistake;' in the other, 'The error was mine.' What will not be said at Rome when they see the truculent letter which the Lord Bishop has written to your Council, conceived in such excellent terms and sent so exactly at the right moment ? What will they not say at Rome when an infamous calumny comes to be unmasked and they read a Pastoral issued in favour of the Jesuits, who are the authors of that very calumny ? Finally, what will they not say at Rome on finding that his Lordship is not content with disobedience to the decrees of the Sacred Congregation, when they could have been carried out to the joy and with the universal consent of all the people, but he (the Bishop) must needs send out also a Pastoral in favour of those against whom the decrees are directed, and adds to it the excommunication of the Reverend Father Esprit, who has never done the slightest act in contravention of that Pastoral.
366.3.1
Father Fra Esprit, according to Monsignor, has said that the reverend Jesuit fathers are not the legitimate pastors of the Malabar Christians at Pondicherry, therefore it is necessary to declare him excommunicated. Behold the mighty crime he committed, which drew upon him a declaration that he was accursed, and doubly accursed under the maledictions [303] of God Omnipotent, of the Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul, and of all the other saints in the quire celestial, et cetera. But, let alone the fact that he never said anything of the sort after the publication of the Pastoral issued by the Lord Bishop of San Thomé, let us suppose that he had said it but without following it by any overt act — I mean by that, performing any function arising out of the cure — he cannot incur any excommunication, as I have already demonstrated in two places. For if, in this country, excommunication is so cheap that a friar can be excommunicated for having said that the reverend Jesuit fathers, having robbed us of our poor mission, and having declined to obey the orders from Rome, were not the legitimate pastors of the Malabãrls in Pondicherry, there is nothing left for them but to excommunicate me too, and hang the order on the doors of their church, because I have said the same thing many times, and I repeat it once more, that they are not, and never have been, the legitimate pastors of the Malabãrl Christians at Pondicherry.
366.3.2
My reasons for this assertion are that, besides encroaching upon our mission without first informing the Sacred Congregation, they have, moreover, entered on it under false allegations and by devious routes. The true shepherd, said Christ, ought to enter by the door, 'qui intrat per ostium pastor est ovium' (Vulgate, Gospel of St. John, x. 2); and he who does not enter into the fold by the door, but by another place, is a thief and a robber: 'Amen, amen, dico vobis qui non intrat per ostium in ovile, sed ascendit aliunde, ille fur est et latro' (loc. cit., x. 1). How, then, have the reverend Jesuit fathers intruded themselves into our mission? Perhaps they did so by order of the said Sacred Congregation, to whom alone belongs the sanctioning of missions, whether [304] generally or in particular instances. No; for no sooner did it become known that the reverend Jesuit fathers had taken possession of our mission to the Malabãrís of Pondicherry than it (the Sacred Congregation) has ordered them to make it over again to us. Perhaps it was because the Capuchin fathers had occasioned some scandal, or had not looked after those Malabãrís efficiently enough. You know the fact, gentlemen, and all the other Christians who live at Pondicherry will bear witness not simply as to our lives and conduct, but will also confess (and of this I can boast without any display of pride) that never did that mission flourish like it did when in our hands.
366.3.3
Perhaps it was because the Capuchins were not enough for the administration of the sacraments to fourteen hundred Christians living in Pondicherry. On that head there is not much to say, for, although the reverend Jesuit fathers desire to exhibit us as persons of scant zeal for the glory of God, and incapable of taking over again our former mission without some great outbreak and sedition among the Malabar Christians, I assert that three of our fathers, among whom I have the honour to be reckoned, hold the cure at Madras of over fifteen thousand Christians, French, Portuguese, and Malabãrís, without anybody being able to complain not only of their behaviour, but of their ever having left any person to die without administration of the Sacraments, or of their ever having left any person uninstructed each in his own tongue. A convincing proof of the truth of this is that the Lord Bishop and the reverend Jesuit fathers, who are so kindly intentioned towards us that without any cause they declare to be excommunicated one of our friars, would without fail [305] have proclaimed our fault in the sight of heaven and of earth had we fallen short in any particular, or neglected to perform exactly all the functions of our ministry. Perhaps it was by order of His Most Christian Majesty that they made themselves masters of the poor Capuchins' mission.
366.3.4
Certainly they have said so, gentlemen, and on the strength of their word the Lord Bishop of San Thome has issued a provision for the cure to our prejudice; but that assertion was false and a lie, deserving of public castigation, since, upon our causing a petition to be presented to our Invincible Monarch by means of the Reverend Father Seraphin of Paris, Capuchin, and preacher in ordinary to his Majesty, his said Majesty replied that he had no recollection of having ever given such orders. If you find it difficult to believe a thing which does not seem credible, read the following words, and you will see that nothing can be more certain or more true: 'The king having ordered me to enquire into the difference which has arisen between the Capuchins and the Jesuits with regard to the cure of Pondicherry, and make a report thereon to him, his Majesty, from the statements and accounts I have given him, learnt that the Lord Bishop of San Thome had asserted, from inspection of a document produced before him by the reverend Jesuit fathers, that the provisional orders given to Father Dolu, Jesuit, making him cure of the Malabāris, were conceded at your instance and at your request, and that you [Governor Martin] had written to him that such was the will of his Majesty. His Majesty does not remember ever having given any such order. '(Signed) Pontchartrain. 'Versailles, 'March 12, 1702.'
366.3.5
Gentlemen, as I do not wish to prove anything beyond the animus with which the reverend Jesuit fathers act (which thing is in no way unusual), I pass over in silence the rest of the letter, and go on to tell you that they have possessed themselves of our cure without our having caused any scandal, without our having failed in our obligations, without it being possible to say that the Capuchin fathers were not sufficient for the administration of the sacraments, without having first informed the Sacred Congregation, which has reserved to itself the authority of arranging for missions and making changes in them when it thinks fit ; to sum up, without any valid reason, solely upon a piece of deceit already exposed, and upon a fictitious order of His Most Christian Majesty. They are, therefore, thieves and robbers, as says the Saviour of our souls : ' Amen, amen, dico vobis qui non intrat per ostium in ovile ovium, sed ascendit aliunde, ille fur est et latro.' Now, the thief comes for nothing else but to rob, ruin, and slay: ' Fur non venit nisi ut furetur et mactet et perdat ' (John x. 10).
366.3.6
Thus you should not wonder, gentlemen, if the Malabar Christians, who had about them nothing of the heathen when under the guidance of their legitimate shepherd, have become more heathen than Christian after falling under the rule of thieves and robbers. You who are on the spot see every day the poor Christians smearing themselves over like masqueraders. Some cover their bodies with heathen marks, others cover their foreheads with cows' ashes. These carry their dead to burial with the sound of trumpets and of drums ; those carry them to the grave on a species of throne, as done by the Hindus, and decline to put them in a bier, as all Christians ought to do. The men wear jewels in their ears [307] representing the attributes of the false gods; the women hang talis on their necks with a cross on one side and the head of an idol upon the other. These ornaments are blessed by the reverend Jesuit fathers, and in their church they cause them to be put by the bridegroom upon the bride. One caste is separated from another in church ; and the wretched Pariahs receive the most Holy Sacrament at the door, while the other castes are admitted to the Holy Table. You, I say, who live in these places, and know more of these things than I could tell you, I need not seek to make you read what was written and sent to Rome by Monsignor de Tournon, Patriarch of Antioch and Legate à Latere; nor what the Reverend Father François Marie of Tours sent in to the Holy Inquisition.
366.3.7
This last is the sole cause of our being so basely treated in these regions. All I will say to you, gentlemen, is that the reverend Jesuit fathers mislead the poor populace by saying these things are done to gain more souls to Jesus Christ; whereas we have at Madras ten times more Malabar Christians than those found in Pondicherry. Although they [the Madras Christians] wear talis with two crosses, one on one, the other on the other side; although they are all seated in church indiscriminately, just as in France; although they all communicate at the same table; although we inter their dead like any other Christians: yet we have ten times more Malabar Christians at Madras than the reverend Jesuit fathers have at Pondicherry. We should have had a hundred times more were it not for the reverend Jesuit fathers. Because I say, as in the presence of God, and were I in the last agony of death I should say the same thing, if we have not a greater number of Christians, if we cannot free those we have from some remaining superstitions, it arises from nothing else than their asking us if we are heretics, since the Capuchins teach in one way and the reverend [308] Jesuit fathers in another.
366.4.1
There is, however, one extraordinary thing which you have not perhaps noticed. It is that all the rules of justice have for us a contrary application; our opponents violate them, they transgress them, they act to the direct contrary of what is therein ordained. Indeed, there is a precept about rendering to Caesar what is Caesar's: 'Reddite quae sunt Caesaris Caesari' (Matt. xxii. 21). There is a precept telling us to love God with all our heart, and our neighbour as ourself: 'Diliges Dominum Deum tuum ex toto corde tuo et proximum tuum sicut te ipsum' (Deut. vi. 5). There is a precept forbidding the use of lying for obtaining success in one's designs and undertakings : 'Mendacium fugies' (Exod. xxiii. 1, 7). There is a precept which enjoins doing justice to him who is entitled to it: 'Facite justitiam coram Deo' (Lev. xix.) There is a precept telling you to obey your superiors : 'Obedite praepositis vestris' (Heb. xiii. 17). There is a precept against robbing another man of his goods: 'Non furtum facies' (Exod. xx. 15), and in St. Matt. x. 19, 'ne fureres.' There is a precept against speaking ill of the poor: 'Pauperem noli calumniare' (Lev. xix. 13) ; and there is a curse pronounced by God against those by reason of whom scandal arises : 'Necesse est ut veniant scandala ; verumtamen vae homini illi per quem scandalum venit' (Vulgate, Matt, xviii. 17).
366.4.2
I do not think, gentlemen, you can doubt that the cure of the Pondicherry Malabārīs was ours until about eight or nine years ago ; neither can you doubt that the reverend Jesuit fathers became masters unjustly of our cure, since you have been ocular witnesses of these facts. You ought not to doubt that the said reverend Jesuit fathers have spoken a very considerable untruth, having falsely alleged the order of his Majesty, as we have already demonstrated, and you can also gather from this manifesto. You ought not to doubt that the same fathers have imposed on us the most infamous of all calumnies, since you have recognised this yourselves, and many of your number have testified thereto on our behalf. You ought not to doubt, finally, that the reverend Jesuit fathers have disobeyed his Holiness and the Sacred Congregation ; that they have not been willing to return goods which do not belong to them ; that they have written to Madras ; that they have gone from house to house hoping to render us hateful to all the Christians ; that they have made us over to the secular arm ; that they have directed us to be treated with all possible severity ; that they have presented a petition to Monsieur de Flacourt, judge of Pondicherry, to stop the execution of the decrees; that they inflict on us daily some fresh mortification;
366.4.3
that they have been the cause of all the trouble which has arisen in Pondicherry and Madras through their having unjustly taken from us our cure, through their open resistance to his Holiness and the Sacred Congregation—in short, through their having declared as excommunicated a superior who has been a missionary five-and-twenty years without one action unworthy of that calling. Nevertheless, the Lord Bishop of San Thomé, although he knew that he ought to render to Caesar what is Caesar's—'Reddite quae sunt Caesaris Caesari'—instead of giving back the disputed cure to the Capuchins, made it over once more to the reverend Jesuit Fathers under an expressly issued Pastoral. Although his Lordship knew as an absolute certainty [310] that it is necessary to obey superiors:—'Filii obedite praepositis vestris'—in order to disculpate himself and place in safety the reverend Jesuit fathers, quotes in his Pastoral two great authorities, from which it is to be inferred that there are ten times more Christians in Pondicherry than there really are, and that the decrees of the Sacred Congregation could not have been executed without raising tumult and sedition. This is in the highest degree untrue, since we have certificates on both heads signed by more than five-and-twenty persons of the best position at Pondicherry.
366.4.4
Although the Lord Bishop knew there is a precept that we should love God above all things, and our neighbour as ourself—'Diliges Dominum Deum tuum ex toto corde tuo, et proximum sicut te ipsum'—notwithstanding this, in place of suppressing the audacity of the reverend Jesuit fathers, who decry us everywhere as if we were so much false coin, he suffers and allows them to go from house to house, to write to persons in holy orders, to come even as far as Madras to tell everybody that all we Capuchins, whether at Pondicherry or at Madras, are excommunicated, and must not be spoken to, but must rather be shunned like the plague. Although the Lord Bishop knew there was a precept against calumniating anyone—'Pauperem noli calumniare'—and for the punishment of calumny whenever discovered—'Anima quae peccaverit, et contempto Domino, negaverit proximo suo depositam, quod fidei ejus creditum servaverit, vel vi aliquid extorserit, aut calumniam fecerit, sive rem perditam invenerit, et inficians insuper peieraverit, et quodlibet aliud ex pluribus fecerit, in quibus solent peccare homines, convicta delicti, reddet omnia, quae per fraudem [311] voluit obtinere, integra, et quintam insuper partem domino, cui damnum intulerat ' (Lev. vi. 2-5). [(2) If a soul sin and commit a trespass against the Lord, and lie unto his neighbour in that which was delivered him to keep, or in fellowship, or in a thing taken away by violence, or hath deceived his neighbour;
366.4.5
(3) Or have found that which was lost, and lieth concerning it, and sweareth falsely ; in any of all these that a man doeth, sinning therein : (4) Then it shall be, because he hath sinned, and is guilty, that he shall restore that which he took violently away, or the thing which he hath deceitfully gotten, or that which was delivered to him to keep, or the lost thing which he found, (5) Or all that about which he hath sworn falsely ; he shall even restore it in the principal, and shall add the fifth part more thereto, and give it unto him to whom it appertaineth, in the day of his trespass offering' (Authorized Version)] — his Lordship, in place of punishing the reverend Jesuit fathers who had raised the calumny, and instead of justifying the poor Capuchin fathers who are innocent, sends the latter a Pastoral founded on that very calumny. He himself derides us, and makes a joke of us, when, after admitting he had made a mistake, he describes us as moved by an evil spirit, always interpreting his best intentions in the worst sense. This he says after having made us over to the secular arm, after having ordered that we should be punished with all possible severity, after having written to your Council that he declined to expose himself to the rudeness and anger of the reverend Father Esprit.
366.4.6
Although the Lord Bishop of San Thomé knew exceedingly well that lying is prohibited — ' Mendacium fugies ' — that robbery is not allowed — ' Non furtum facies ' — and that before God we are under an obligation to do justice to those seeking it — ' Facite justitiam coram Deo' — instead of casting forth the reverend Jesuit fathers from our mission which they had robbed us of, and that by a lie they told in alleging the order of His Most Christian Majesty, a thing that had never entered that monarch's thoughts, his Lordship gives them new authority and walks in their footsteps. He declares we have published the decrees without his order, after he had given it us by word of mouth and in writing. He informs many secular persons that his word may be relied on, yet he afterwards goes from it. First he wrote to the Reverend Father Michel Ange that he had given our mission to the reverend Jesuit fathers solely at the instance of the [Director-] General Martin, who had assured him that such was the intention of his Majesty. Now he writes that he has no recollection of ever having said this, we having demonstrated to him that the order of his Majesty had been falsely alleged. Again he wrote to the said father [Michel Ange] that he could prosecute his rights wherever he liked, that he (the Bishop) could not complain of that. Then, when his Holiness and the Sacred Congregation have given judgment in our favour, he writes that he does not remember having ever said the above words.
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He wrote to the Reverend Father Esprit of Tours that he had only taken away the cure most reluctantly and against his own inclination ; yet, in spite of a favourable opening for restoring the said father to his former cure, he writes now the exact contrary, and adds that he is very old and he does not remember having said that he acted against his own inclination, when he took the mission from the Capuchin fathers and gave it to the reverend Jesuit fathers.
366.5.1
Finally, the Lord Bishop, although he knows that Jesus Christ has said that scandals must come, but woe to that man through whom the scandal cometh — ' Necesse est ut veniant scandala ; verumtamen vae homini illi per quem scandalum venit ' — in spite of this, instead of suppressing the scandal that the reverend Jesuit fathers have caused in these regions — by seizing from us such a flourishing mission without why or wherefore ; by non-obedience to the orders of the Sacred Congregation, which commands that we be replaced in possession of our cure under penalty of privation of offices, privileges, and faculties conceded to missionaries ; after we had published those decrees of the said Sacred Congregation with his own (the Bishop's) permission, although such consent was not an absolute necessity; after finding that all [313] the poor Malabar Christians shouted for joy at seeing themselves once more under their first pastor, and that our church was crowded with people, while, on the contrary, that of the reverend Jesuit fathers was deserted — his Lordship created anew a still greater scandal than before by sending forth a Pastoral to the reverend Jesuit fathers, and excommunicating a poor friar who had never done any act in opposition to the said Pastoral. 'Quis audivit unquam tale? et quis vidit huic simile?' (Vulgate, Isa. lxvi. 8). Gentlemen, who has ever heard such a thing? who has ever seen procedure like this? Of a truth, I remain in wonderment;
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nor can I conceive how persons so intelligent as you are, who have yourselves perceived more passion, more injustice, more deceit in the reverend Jesuit fathers than I have been able to include in these two manifestoes of mine, could shun the Reverend Father Esprit and leave him in the sad condition to which he has been reduced by passion alone and not by any crime of his. Gentlemen, I know perfectly well that you dread the reverend Jesuit fathers, that you fear them more than you do us humble Capuchins, for you know that Capuchin fathers are not capable of bearing malice, not even to those who try to make them hateful to all the world, while on the contrary the Jesuit fathers intimidate by their menaces all those who endeavour to oppose, either their perfidious injustice or their insatiable ambition. Allowing for all that, gentlemen (although I know this to be the sole reason which drives you to it, if you will permit me to say so), yet our too great goodness of heart ought not to be the cause of our not receiving justice. Your office compels you to enter equally into the interests of the one side as of the other [314]. Because the reverend Jesuit fathers use at every turn such emphatic words as, 'The king shall hear of it,' 'We shall inform the court,' 'What will his Majesty say when he hears of this?' it is not necessary to imagine that they have such complete hold over the minds of princes. Besides, the King of France thinks less of the Jesuits at Pondicherry than you do.
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I will say more : even did his Most Christian Majesty prefer them to all his other subjects, his sense of equity equalling his greatness of heart, he could never approve what is unjust or blame what ought to be praised. To believe the contrary, gentlemen, would be an attempt to tarnish the reputation of a prince who is more jealous of doing justice than he is of his own might, who would hold it preferable to lose the title of Louis the Great than that of Louis the Just. Furthermore, religious who seek nothing beyond inspiring terror and making themselves feared ; who have no other answer to give you beyond, ' You will ruin yourselves,' or else, ' We shall destroy you ;' who follow no other rules in their acts than those directly opposed to the maxims of Christianity — these men, I tell you, instead of being feared and dreaded, deserve to be despised and held things of naught. Nor can this last result fail to come to pass, if not now, then at some future time. For, let them take what measures they please to exalt themselves and display themselves before the world, it is absolutely inevitable that the Divine oracles must be fulfilled : ' He who humbles himself shall be exalted, and he who exalts himself shall be brought low' (Matt, xxiii. 12, Lev. xiv. and xv.) — ' Qui se humiliat exaltabitur, et qui [315] se exaltat humiliabitur.'
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Gentlemen, I am unwilling to state anything to you that I cannot prove ; at the same time I am anxious to impress on you so acutely all that I tell you that no possibility of doubt may remain. Thus, although I have written more than was required to show that the reverend Jesuit fathers act to the direct contrary of Jesus Christ's ordinances given in the Holy Gospels, the very least I can do is to bring under your consideration two portions of Holy Scripture which in all good faith can be applied to the reverend Jesuit fathers.
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Here is the first passage : ' Learn of Me, who am meek and lowly of heart ' — ' Discite à me quia mitis sum et humilis corde' (Matt. xi. 29). This is the second one: 'Behold, I send you like lambs in the midst of wolves : be therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves (Matt. x. 16, Luke x. 3) — 'Ecce ego mitto vos sicut oves in medio luporum. Estote ergo prudentes sicut serpentes et simplices sicut columbæ.' Gentlemen, where is the tenderness of the reverend Jesuit fathers? Oh ! had I only the spirit of prophecy to divine what they are thinking in their minds, and the eyes of Argus to behold their external acts, then, by God, I could tell you a fine story indeed ! All the same, although I possess neither the one nor the other, yet, without alluding to a thousand anecdotes I have heard, I desire to bring forward only what we know by experience — what you know as well as we do — that is, that they have taken from us our cure of the Malabāris, as everyone knows, and they have falsely alleged the orders of his Majesty, as is a most indisputable truth.
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The Lord Bishop, after having given an executive order [provision] for the cure in favour of the reverend Jesuit fathers, to the detriment of the Capuchin fathers, writes to us that we may seek our rights wherever seems to us [316] best, that he could in no manner complain. This you have seen already in this manifesto. We brought an appeal before the Holy See and the Sacred Congregation, as you can see in our notice of appeal. His Holiness and the Sacred Congregation have sent out here decrees in our favour ; that of this fact you have no doubt I may take as certain. We presented those decrees to the Lord Bishop, as proved by the words written on the margin of the petition from the Capuchin fathers. We notified them to the Reverend Father Tachard by order of Monsignor in the presence of two of you, gentlemen, and you have attested the fact. The Reverend Father Tachard resisted us by a decision of the Lord Patriarch given without our knowledge, and produced now two years after it had been given in favour of the reverend Jesuit fathers. This you know as absolute fact. Yet that decision was the most unjust in the world, not only from not having been drawn up according to juridical rules, but also from being passed at the very time that our appeal was in the hands of his Holiness and the Sacred Congregation. Still, we obeyed it blindly; that is an asseveration nobody can deny.
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Then, hearing from the mouth of the Lord Bishop that all the things done by the Lord Primate of Goa had been approved at the Court of Rome, and, on the contrary, all that the Lord Patriarch had done was disapproved by his Holiness and the Sacred Congregation, we presented a petition to his Lordship for leave to publish our decrees. If you have any doubt, you can see the petition we presented, which has been already inserted in full. His Lordship said to the Reverend Father Michel Ange that he could not grant us that permission in writing, for reasons known to him, but we could [317] publish them in our church at Pondicherry. Then, after having said the contrary to this in his Pastoral, he has now confirmed in writing what he had said only viva voce. This I have pointed out in many places of my first and second manifestoes.
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After getting this permission, we published the decrees on All Saints' Day of the year 1706, and all the Christians were frantic with joy, as is seen from many affidavits signed by more than thirty of the best-placed Frenchmen in Pondicherry. The Lord Bishop then accepted a calumny against us originated by the reverend Jesuit fathers, and on this foundation his Lordship issued a Pastoral in favour of the reverend fathers just named. We have done no act opposed to the said Pastoral, which fact will be seen at Rome from the affidavits we have forwarded. All we did was to cite there the reverend Jesuit fathers for having acted contrary to the decrees of the Sacred Congregation.
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Could we have done otherwise without falling into the same defect into which the reverend Jesuit fathers have fallen in paying such little heed to the above-named orders of the Sacred Congregation? However, after our line of action was taken, in which, as I believe, there is nothing to condemn, Monsignor, who is a Jesuit, styled us rash and scandalous persons, liars, disobeyers of orders, and madmen. He also asserted that we always interpreted his best intentions the reverse way, that we turned everything into evil, that we were carried away by an evil spirit, that he prayed God to deliver him from the Capuchins' hood. Just as if all these pleasing epithets applied to us by his Lordship did not sufficiently express the hatred he bore us, he issued a Declaration against the Reverend Father Esprit, whereby he was declared to be publicly excommunicated, accursed, and doubly accursed by the arm of God Omnipotent, of the Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul, and of all the other saints in the quire celestial. He was deprived of the communion of the faithful, who were ordered, under the same penalty of the greater excommunication, not to supply him with fire or water, et cetera. He prohibits the father being spoken to, orders that the said Declaration be affixed at the door of the right reverend Jesuit fathers' [church], from which no one can remove it without exposing himself to the same excommunication.
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When this poor father leaves Pondicherry for San Thomé, there to give an account of his conduct, his Lordship's heart is so hardened that he refuses him an audience ; he has the callousness to see our reverend father custodian prostrate at his feet, with eyes brimful of tears, unable to utter anything except through sighs and sobbing ; and yet he was not softened by a sight which would have converted a Turk and melted a heart of bronze. Where, then, gentlemen, do we find the gentleness that the Saviour of our souls desires us to learn from him ? I answer : Everywhere, except among the reverend Jesuit fathers !
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But not only does Jesus Christ require us to learn gentleness from Him, but He also enjoins on us to be humble in heart : 'Discite à me, quia mitis sum et humilis corde.' Now, where is the humility of heart of the reverend Jesuit fathers ? Perhaps it is found in their personality, in their words, in their business dealings, in their talk, their modes of work, in the smaller openings that present themselves for practising it. Were I to answer 'Yes,' you would not believe me, gentlemen, and you would be right ; for, briefly, everybody knows too well that they aim at lording it everywhere : they must act the great man wherever they find themselves. They must know all that goes on within families. To hear them talk, they are such oracles that they command the very essence of knowledge; such stern moralists, such Catos, that they engross all wisdom par excellence; such Aristotles in philosophy, such Saint Thomases in theology, such Saint Peters, that they disdain to convert the heathen in less than thousands at a time. Engage them in conversation, and they will soon begin to glorify themselves; for then, unable to put restraint on their tongues, they assume the pontiff, affect the magnifico, and expatiate on nothing but their own talents.
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In the sight of people who know them not they display the intensity of a zeal which leads them to the ends of the earth; then they exalt the reverend fathers De la Chaise and Bourdaloue. From time to time they let drop discreetly the illustrious names of dukes, princes, kings, and sovereigns under their spiritual direction. On this intimacy they pretend to be able to found the fortunes of those who favour them, or the inevitable ruin of those honest men who refuse to take in hand their interests at the peril of their own souls. If you speak to them of the reverend fathers of the Jacobins, Carthusians, Benedictines, Camaldolese, or the Trappists, et cetera, and say a word or two in their praise, they reply to you with a certain air of depreciation: 'Those reverend fathers are certainly good sort of men, virtuous and worthy of their calling, but . . .' When you beg them to attend at some ceremony they make a thousand protests, asking to be left in the lowliest place; but should you forget to give them the chief place, if they do not show their resentment, they seize the first pretext and soon withdraw. I know this sort of thing from experience, having observed it on many an occasion. Tell me, gentlemen, whether I exaggerate when I say that the reverend Jesuit fathers follow the precepts of this world, and not those of Jesus Christ, which apply more to them than even to you: 'Discite à me, quia mitis sum et humilis corde.' [Folio 320 of the text is blank.]