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ESTABLISHMENT OF CAPUCHIN ORDER IN INDIA 219 Bishop also for his version, who in fact substantially confirmed, though unintentionally, what the Lector had reported. It looked as if the worst had come to the worst. However, Fr Louis' resignation could not be accepted right away, as more time was needed to take a mature decision and to locate a substitute for him. There was, besides, another side to the coin. Mgr Jacopi had complained of the Lector's insolence in taking sides with the lay teacher against the Bishop. The considered opinion of the General Superiors was that the Lector should make good the damage done by asking the aggrieved Bishop's pardon. It would be only doing the cause a great disservice if he were to get worked up in fiery petulance, especially because his interlocutor was his Superior, a Bishop 63 • Mgr Jacopi's long overdue report on the Novitiate and the Study finally assumed a concrete shape at this juncture. It was dated June 1886. The letter was discussed at the Meeting of the General Definito– ry. The Superiors were more than ever convinced that the Novitiate could not coexist with the Study. Therefore in unambiguous terms Mgr Jacopi was told to suspend the Novitiate as soon as the novice who still was ther.e got the chance of terminating the canonical one-year 63 Cf. APCapTusc, Missione Indostan, Incarto I, the General Secretary of Missions to Fr Louis, Rome 24 July 1886. The letter reached him on 12 August and he promptly wrote the apology and it was warmly welcomed by the Bishop. APCapTusc, Missione Indostan, Incarto I, Mgr Jacopi to Fr Louis, Mussoorie 13 August 1886: "Accetta la sua risposta gia come pienamente soddisfacente, e spero che non ci saranno occasioni d'anche le parti di futuri dispiaceri. II Rev.mo P. Gen.[era]le niente avrebbe saputo da me, se io non fossi stato assicurato che V.P. gl'aveva scritto. Ora, pero, tutto e passato e si tratti. La benedico in osculo pacis". The Bishop took the occasion of Fr Louis' name-day to send him a most cordial letter: APCapTusc, Missione Indostan, Incarto I, Mgr Jacopi to Fr Louis, Mussoorie 18 August 1886. Nevertheless, in his reply to the General Secretary of Missions, the Lector regretted that the Bishop had not uttered even a single word by way of disapproving the "injustice" perpetrated by Fr Doogan, though for the same deed a public tribunal had condemned the Bishop to shell out more than Rs 2000 from "the property of the Church and the blood of the Mission". To remain silent in the face of such insolence and injustice was in itself culpable, he lamented. Again, he requested for permission to retreat from the scene of the "ignoble fights". APCapTusc, Missione Indostan, Incarto I, Fr Louis to General Secretary of Mis– sions, Mussoorie, 14 August 1886:' "E vero, ii modo in cui dissi al V.[escovo] ch'egli calpastava ogni giustizia, e che era legato mani e piedi a chi [Fr Doogan] 14 anni fa aver creduto degno di essere allontanato dalla Missione, mentre adesso faceva peggio d'altro, fu una cosa piena d'irreverenza".