Storia do Mogor 369.1

369.1

[Since, in connection with these disputes between the Jesuits and Capuchins, I have quoted largely from the books of Father Norbert, Capuchin, some words of justification of that much-maligned missionary seem to be called for, especially when a scholar like the late A. C. Burnell makes no scruple of calling him a 'rascally old Capuchin' ('Hobson Jobson,' 2nd edition, 473). The only 'rascality' I can discover in him is that he made himself extremely disagreeable to the Jesuits. Undoubtedly he was a strenuous pamphleteer, and, provoked by persecution, as time went on he became more bitter and more violent in his expressions. But the documents he prints are, I am persuaded, quite authentic, and worthy of admission as evidence. My greatest complaint against him is his overwhelming prolixity, and I also agree with his spiteful biographer, Chevrier, that he wrote in Walloon rather than in French.