Storia do Mogor 366.3
Storia do Mogor (Irvine) 366.3
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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.