Storia do Mogor 366.4
Storia do Mogor (Irvine) 366.4
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- English
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.
366.4.7
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.