The decade of 1630 saw years of tensions for the Augustinians of the East, with repercussions in the centers of royal and ecclesiastical powers in Goa, Lisbon, Madrid and Rome. The fact that religious men took up arms highlighted the violent nature of the uprising. It all began on June 2, 1638, when a group of 77 friars signed a sworn oath claiming for the autonomy and independence of the Congregation of East India from the mother house of the Portuguese Province of the Augustinian Order, headquartered in Lisbon. All of them, whether born in India or Portugal, were the so-called “Indianized” friars – that is, those who had taken their vows at the Order’s convent in Goa. The conspiracy thus laid bare the fierce dispute raging within the Augustinian Congregation of East India between the “Indianized” and the “Reinóis” (those who had begun their ecclesiastical careers in the kingdom). Among the leaders were two Portuguese friars who took their vows at the Goa house before the age of 20: Friar Manoel da Purificação and Friar Simão da Graça. On 17 June 1638, the mob of rioters took to the streets of the hill of Nossa Senhora do Rosário, where the Augustinian complex was located. Disorder soon broke out: the younger friars, bearing arms, marched through the streets with “such freedom that they looked more like soldiers than religious men”, as sources record. As part of the rebellion, the provincial supervisor, Friar João Mesquita was deposed and replaced by an elected friar, the eldest of the Indian-born Augustinians, Friar Antão de Jesus. After 6 August, the movement gradually lost momentum following the death of the deposed provincial supervisor and the hurried departure of its two leaders and another member of the group to Rome, all three of whom had been appointed procurators of the Augustinians of India.