Page:The Nestorians and their rituals, volume 1.djvu/220

166 arriving at Diarbekir, the Abbot was advised by the two Bishops to take with him Michael and Botros, two lay monks of Rabban Hormuzd, whom they ordained priests to that end. The progress and result of this deputation are thus related by Kas Michael: "On our arrival at Rome, we found that complaints had already been received from Mutran Hanna and Monsignor Trioche against the conduct of the monks. The Propaganda accordingly confirmed the censure pronounced by the Patriarch, and ordered that we should be prohibited from celebrating mass. Kas Botros and I expostulated, and on exhibiting our letters of orders to prove that we were not priests when Mutran Hanna suspended the monks, we were in a measure exculpated; nevertheless, we were obliged to share in the punishment of our Abbot. We continued three months at Rome vainly hoping to speak to the Pope; at length we devised a scheme to obtain an audience. We had brought with us several cartes-blanches bearing the signatures and seals of many of the disaffected Chaldeans, one of which documents we filled with charges against Mutran Hanna and the Vicar Apostolic. After smoking it to give it the appearance of having passed through quarantine, we went to the palace and begged to be admitted to his Holiness.17 After several fruitless attempts we at length succeeded, and were ushered into the presence of the Pope, to whom we endeavoured to make known our grievances, and gave him the letter which we had drawn up. About a week elapsed when we were sent for by the superior of the Propaganda, who ordered us to spend ten days in retirement at the Franciscan convent of Aracelli, where we were told that we should meet Padre Francesco Bilardi, now Vicar Apostolic in Syria, who would supply us with Arabic books. At the end of this period the censure was removed from us after we had given a written promise to this effect: first, that we would henceforth obey Mutran Hanna; and, secondly, that we consented to leave Rome within fifteen days and returned to our convent, whither a special deputy was to be sent to investigate into the grievances of the Chaldeans.