Storia do Mogor 366.3.3

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.