their grateful sense of the merits and benefits as well of their ancestors as of Confucius, and engage to tread in their steps. And hence they conclude, that it is allowable for Christians to observe these sacred rites of their country, provided they understand the true nature and grounds of them, and always keep in sight the object of their institution. And whoever wishes to see the cause of Christianity flourish and advance in China, can scarcely think differently from the Jesuits, whether their statements are erroneous or correct. For it has been established, by public law, for many ages, that no one shall be accounted a good citizen in that country, or be admitted to any office in the state, who does not perform the ceremonies in question.2 But the Dominicans and the other enemies of the Jesuits, contend, that these rites are no small part of the Chinese religion; that Confucius, and the souls of their ancestors, are objects of religious worship to the Chinese; and of course, that such as observe these rites, offer an affront to the divine majesty, and cannot be accounted Christians. The more candid among the Jesuits themselves do not deny that this is a very difficult question to decide; and hence some of them, at last, resorted to the plea of necessity; and urged, that minor evils, if productive of the greatest advantages, are scarcely to be accounted evils.3 § 15. Japan, at the commencement of this century, was filled with an astonishing multitude of people, whom the Jesuits especially had convinced of the excellence of the Christian religion. 2 [Had the early Christians reasoned thus, they might have escaped persecution from the Pagan Roman emperors, who only required of them to obey the public laws of the land, and thus to show themselves good citizens. No: it is only on the supposition that those Chinese rites were merely civil, and not religious, that it could be consistent for Christians to comply with them. Tr.] [The public honour paid to Confueius twice a year, used to be performed before his statue, erected in the great hall or temple, that is dedicated to his memory. At present they are performed before a kind of Tablet, placed in the most conspicuous part of the edifice, with the following inscription: The throne of the soul of the most holy and the most excellent chief teacher Confucius. The literati, or learned, celebrate this famous festival in the following manner : The chief mandarin of the place exercises the office of priest, and the others discharge the functions of deacons, sub-deacons, and so on. A certain sacrifice, called Ci, which consists of wine, blood, fruits, &c. is offered, after the worshippers have prepared themselves for this ceremony by fasting and other acts of abstinence and mortification. They kneel before the inscription, prostrate the body nine times before it, until the head touches the ground, repeat a great variety of prayers; after which, the priest, taking in one hand a cup full of wine, and, in the other, a like cup filled with blood, makes a solemn libation to the deceased, and dismisses the assembly with a blessing. The rites performed by families, in honour of their deceased parents, are pretty much of the same nature." But this very brilliant success was disturbed somewhat, partly by the hatred of Christianity, entertained by the national priests and some nobles in the court, which gave rise to severe persecutions, in one place and another, both of the newly-converted Christians and their teachers; and partly by the internal broils and contentions, among those who had the charge of this rising church. For here, as in other countries, the Augustinian, Dominican, and Franciscan missionaries, waged a most pernicious war against the Jesuits. They taxed them, both at the court of Rome and elsewhere, with insatiable avarice, with excessive indulgence both to the vices and the superstitions of the Japanese, with a crafty management unbecoming the ministers of Christ, with an eagerness to reign and give law, and with other crimes of no less magnitude. The Jesuits on the other hand complained, that their accusers, by their imprudence, their ignorance of human nature, their pertinacity, the asperity of their manners, their rustic mode of life, and other faults, injured, rather than promoted, the growth of Christian principles among a high-minded and discerning people. Yet all these causes were by no means adequate to arrest the progress of Christianity, or to bring any great evil upon the immense multitude which had made profession of this religion. And, perhaps, means might have been devised at Rome, if not for entirely removing, yet for quieting and tempering these contentions.1 "Now in order to know, with certainty, whether this festival and these rites be of a civil or a religious nature, we have only to inquire, whether they be the same with those ceremonies that are performed by the Chinese, in the worship they pay to certain celestial and terrestrial spirits or genii, which worship is undoubtedly of a religious kind. The learned Leibnitz (Præf. Novissim. Sinicorum,) undertook to affirm, that the services now mentioned were not of the same kind, and consequently, that the Jesuits were accused unjustly. But that great man does not appear to have examined this matter with his usual sagacity and attention. For it is evident from a multitude of relations every way worthy of credit, and particularly from the observations made on the Chinese missions, by that learned and candid Franciscan Antonio de S. Maria, (Epp. Leibnitz, vol. ii.) not only that Confucius was worshipped among the idols, and the celestial and terrestrial spirits of the Chinese, but that the oblations and ceremonies observed in honour of him were perfectly the same with those that were performed as acts of worship to these idols and spirits. Those that desire a more ample account of this matter may consult the following authors: Budæi Annal. Histor. Philos. p. 287, where he treats De superstitioso Demortuorum apud Sinenses Cultu.-Wolfii Not. ad Casaubon, p. 342.- Nic. Charmos. Annot. ad Magrotti Historiam Cultus Sinensis. But more especially Arnaud, Morale Pratique des Jésuites, tom. iii. vi. vii. and a collection of historical relations published at Cologne, in 8vo., in the year 1700, under the following title: Historia Cultus Sinensium, seu varia scripta de Cultibus Sinarum inter Vicarios Apostolicos, et PP. S. I. controverMacl.] sis," Besides the writers mentioned by Jo. Alb. Fabricius, Lux Evangelii toto § 16. But in the year 1615, the emperor of Japan himself commenced a most direful persecution against the Christians, the like to which is not to be found in the whole history of the Christian church; and this persecution continued many years, and did not cease, until it had exterminated Christianity from that empire. For the Christian religion was judged to be pestilent and intolerable: because injurious to the safety of the nation, and to the majesty of their supreme pontiff, whom the populace of Japan believed to be the offspring of the gods themselves, and also to the most sacred institutions and religion of their ancestors. The foreign Christians, therefore, the Portuguese especially, and the Spaniards, were required to depart the kingdom; and the Japanese, who had renounced their idols, were required to abandon Christ, or undergo the most cruel death. This dreadful persecution destroyed an innumerable multitude of people, of every class, age, sex, and rank, who chose to die amidst the most exquisite tortures, rather than break the faith once pledged with Christ. And if either the Jesuits, or their adversaries, were guilty of faults while pleading the cause of Christ; they now, as it were, atoned for them, by their own blood. For most of them surrendered themselves to death for Christ, with the greatest firmness, and some of them with joy and triumph. The causes of this horrid persecution are differently stated by different parties. The Jesuits throw some of the blame on the imprudent conduct of the Dominicans and Franciscans: and these, in return, ascribe it to the avaricious, factious, arrogant temper of the Jesuits.5 orbi exoriens, cap. xl. p. 678, &c. see Domin. Charlevoix, Histoire de Japon, tom. ii. lib. xi. &c. p. 57, &c. 5 Engelbert Kaempfer has given a neat account of this protracted business, in the sixth of those Dissertations, which he has annexed to his history of Japan; § 4, &c. p. 64-75, of the English edition. But it will also be reasonable to hear the fuller statement of Domin. Charlevoix, who has omitted nothing that would go to excuse the Jesuits; in his Histoire générale de Japon, tom. ii. livr. xii. p. 136, &c. The other writers are mentioned by Jo. Alb. Fabricius, Lux Evangelii toti orbi eroriens, cap. xl. p. 678. Add the Acta Sanctorum, tom. i. mensis Februarii, p. 723, &c. where may be seen the History of the church founded in Japan, and the life and death of those who were first put to death by the Japanese, on account of Christianity. Mammachius, Origines et Antiquit. Christiana, tom. ii. p. 376, &c.-[Francis Xavier first preached the gospel in Japan, in 1549. After he left that country in 1552, great numbers were converted; and some Japanese became Jesuits. Schools and churches were erected even in the capital of Meaco. In 1585, a Japanese embassy was sent to Rome. Christianity now seemed about to become the prevailing religion; there were at least 200,000 Christians; and among them, princes, courtiers, chief nobles, and generals; the Bonzes and their religion were openly ridiculed; and the emperor had excluded paganism altogether from a new city which he And both accuse the Dutch and the English of studiously inflaming the emperor of Japan, with hatred against the Portuguese and Spaniards, and also against the Roman pontiff, so that they alone might have sway among the Japanese, and secure their commerce to themselves. The Dutch and English reply, that neither the Spaniards nor any other adherents to founded; and he was on terms of intimacy with the Jesuits. But the base conduct of the Europeans led the emperor to suspect Christianity to be all a farce; and he became jealous of the designs of these strangers. He was also offended at the refusal of some converted females to surrender to him their chastity and at the instigation of his favourite, in 1587, he commenced a persecution. All Jesuits were ordered to quit the country. Some obeyed, but others remained under the protection of the nobles. Out of about 250 churches, 70 were pulled down. In 1590, more than 20,000 Christians lost their lives. But the next year added 12,000 new converts. In 1596, a Spanish seacaptain, driven upon the coast, showed a chart of extensive countries subject to his master; and being asked how his master could conquer so many nations, he said their missionaries went forward, and prepared the minds of the people to favour him, and then fleets and armies made an easy conquest. This statement was transmitted to court, and produced great jealousy of the missionaries. The emperor swore the Spaniards should never thus conquer Japan; and immediately set himself to exterminate Christianity, which he called a devilish law. The missionaries were imprisoned; and not a few of them as well as their converts were put to death. The persecution continued several years. Yet in 1603, there were 120 Jesuits, most of them priests, in Japan. After this, an English officer of a Dutch ship cautioned the Japanese to beware of the military enterprises of the Spaniards; and represented the priests as designing men, who had been excluded from most European countries, and who did not teach genuine Christianity. This produced a fresh persecution: and in the province of Nangasaki, where there had been more than 40,000 Christians, not one could be found in 1622; all had either renounced their religion or been put to death. Hitherto, however, the number of Christians in Japan had not diminished greatly; and some estimates make them to have been about 400,000, and others near 600,000. But now things began to take a different turn. In 1616, Ijejas, guardian to the young prince Fidejori, (who was favourable to Christianity, as were many of the nobles,) slew his ward, and proclaimed himself emperor. The Jesuits were objects of his jealousy; and various causes induced him to forbid the further spread of Christianity, and the ingress of monks and priests into the country. He likewise determined to bring back the Japanese Christians to the old religion. Edicts were issued for these purposes; but they were not at once rigorously executed. At length some Franciscan monks, sent as envoys from the Spanish governor of Manilla, imprudently ven tured to preach openly in the streets of Meaco, and to erect a church there. This exasperated the government, and brought on a persecution, which is without a parallel in the annals of the church. Among the causes of it were the intercepted letters mentioned in the text, giving account of a projected insurrection of the Christians, as soon as a Spanish force should appear on the coast. As soon as these letters reached the court, in 1637, decrees were passed requiring all foreigners to quit the country at once on pain of death; and subjecting every foreigner to the same penalty, who should ever after set his foot in the country. The return of the Japanese Christians to paganism was now peremptorily required, on pain of death. These decrees were rigorously executed and two years after, the Portuguese were all driven from the country; and only the Hollanders were allowed to introduce a small quantity of European goods, and to live as it were imprisoned in a corner of the empire. Thus fell the Japanese church, after it had stood very nearly a century. See Schroeckh's Kirchengesch. seit der Reform. vol. iii. p. 668, &c. Tr.] the Roman pontiff were by them accused, but only that the perfidy of the Spaniards was laid open. And indeed, nearly all are agreed in this, that the emperor was persuaded by certain letters intercepted by the Dutch and by other evidence bearing a strong probability, that the Jesuits and the other teachers of the new religion designed to raise a sedition, by means of their disciples, and to bring Japan under the power of the Spanish king; and hence the tyrant, equally cruel and jealous, thought he could not be safe and quiet, unless he destroyed every vestige of Christianity. From this time, Japan has been closed against all foreigners; and even every shadow of the Christian name is exterminated with fire and sword. A few of the Hollanders, who are allowed annually to import a small quantity of European merchandise, live in an extreme corner of the kingdom, shut up as it were in a prison. § 17. Many respectable and pious men have endeavoured to enkindle a desire among the Lutherans of imitating the papists in efforts for imparting Christian truth to the nations buried in the darkness of degrading superstitions. No one entered more zealously into this business than an Austrian nobleman, Justinian Ernest, baron of Wels; who proposed the formation of a society for this purpose, which should bear the name of Jesus." But there were various causes, and especially the situation of the Lutheran princes, few of whom possessed any territories or fortified posts out of Europe, which prevented this matter from ever proceeding beyond good wishes and consultations. But the • Liber Baro de Wels. [Freyherr von Wels. Von Ein.] Godfr. Arnold's Kirchen- und Ketzer historie, pt. ii. book xvii. ch. xv. § 23, &c. p. 1066, and pt. iii. ch. xv. § 18, p. 150. Jo. Möller, Cimbria Litterata, tom. iii. p. 75. [In 1664, this Hungarian baron published two letters, addressed to the Lutheran community, on a reformation of manners, and efforts for the conversion of the heathen. In the first, he proposed these three questions: Is it right, that we evangelical Christians should keep the Gospel to ourselves, and not seek to spread it abroad? Is it right, that we every where encourage so many to study theology, yet give them no opportunity to go abroad; but rather keep them, three, six, or more years, waiting for He parishes to become vacant, or for the posts of schoolmasters?—Is it right, that we should expend so much in dress, high-living, useless amusements, and expensive fashions; yet hitherto have never thought of any means for spreading the Gospel?-His proposal to form a missionary association, was approved by some, but objected to by others, especially among the higher clergy. himself advanced 12,000 dollars for the object; went to Holland on the subject; and at length took ship for the Dutch West Indies, to embark himself in missionary labour; but he was no more heard of. Some feeble attempts were made to get up a missionary association afterwards; but to no purpose, during this century. See the authors above cited. Tr.] |