[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) › 366.2 # Storia do Mogor 366.2 Storia do Mogor (Irvine) 366.2 - **Language:** English ### [366.2.1](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.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](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.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](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.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](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.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](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.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](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.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](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.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](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.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. --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.366.2](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.366.2) · Pramāṇa