He called the Goan Inquisition "an instrument to fulfill the duty of the state to God" and expressed the opinion: "When Christianity first appeared in India under the auspices of the Portuguese explorers, the land suffered under the double tyranny of Islam and Hinduism, a twin benightment. While Islam is brutal and vicious, Hinduism is but just a little less than Islam." He continued with invectives against Hinduism in general and Brahmins in particular, who are said to have "kept India in a constant state of civil war over centuries and left it too weak and divided to resist foreign invaders!" Mascarenhas concluded his diatribe with the astounding statement: "From the Christian viewpoint, anyone who is a Brahmin cannot be a Christian, for in Christ we have put away the works of Satan ...