Storia do Mogor 366.6
Storia do Mogor (Irvine) 366.6
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366.6.1
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.
366.6.2
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 !
366.6.3
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.
366.6.4
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.]