Section III Foreign missions
1. India, Japan, China

The conversion of “pagans” had been the first objective of the Society of Jesus’ founder. Even though the necessity to combat Protestantism in Europe involved its disciples more and more, and this political as well as religious action, of which we just gave a short summary, became their main task, they still pursued the evangelisation of distant lands.

Their theocratic ideal: to bring the world under the Holy See’s authority, required that they should go into all the regions of the globe, in the conquest of souls.

Francis Xavier, one of Ignatius’ first companions who, like him, was canonised by the Church, was the great promoter of Asia’s evangelisation. In 1542, he disembarked at Goa and found there a bishop, a cathedral and a convent of Franciscans who, together with some Portuguese priests, had already tried to spread around them the religion of Christ. He gave that first attempt such a strong impetus that he was surnamed the “Apostle of India”. Actually, he was more a pioneer and “exciter” than one who really accomplished something lasting. Fiery, enthusiastic, always on the look-out for new fields of action, he showed the way more than he cleared the ground. In the kingdom of Travancore, at Malacca, on the islands of Banda, Macassar and Ceylon, his personal charm, and his eloquent speeches did wonders and, as a result, 70,000 “idolaters” were converted especially amongst the low caste. To obtain this, he did not despise the political and even military support of the Portuguese. These results, more showy than solid, were bound to rouse interest for the missions in Europe as well as throwing a brilliant lustre over the Society of Jesus.

The untiring but little persevering apostle soon left India for Japan, then China, where he was about to enter when he died at Canton, in 1552.

His successor in India, Robert de Nobile, applied in that country the same methods the Jesuits used in Europe very successfully. He appealed to the higher classes. To the “untouchables”, he gave the consecrated water only on the end of a stick.

He adopted the clothes, habits and way of living of the Brahmins, mixed their rites with Christian ones, all with the approval of Pope Gregory XV. Thanks to this ambiguity, he “converted”, so he claimed, 250,000 Hindus. But, “about a century after his death, when the intransigent pope Benedict XIV forbade the observance of these Hindu rites, everthing collapsed and the 250,000 pseudo-Catholics disappeared”.(1)

In the north Indian territories of the Great Mogol Akbar, a tolerant man who even tried to introduce into his States a religious syncretism, the Jesuits were allowed to build an establishment at Lahore in 1575. Akbar’s successors granted them the same favours. But Aureng-Zeb (1666-1707), an orthodox Moslem, put an end to this enterprise.

In 1549, Xavier embarked for Japan with two companions and a Japanese he had converted at Malacca called Yagiro. The beginnings were not very promising. “The Japanese have their own mortality and are rather reserved; their past has set them in paganism. The adults look at those strangers with amusement and the children follow them, jeering”.(2) Yagiro, a native, managed to start a small community of one hundred adherents. But Francis Xavier, who did not speak Japanese very well, could not even obtain an audience from the Mikado. When he left that country, two Fathers stayed behind who eventually secured the conversion of the daimos of Arima and Bungo. When this particular one so decided in 1578, he had been considering the matter for 27 years. The following year, the Fathers settled at Nagasaki. They pretended to have converted 100,000 Japanese. In 1587, the internal situation of the land, torn apart by clan wars, changed entirely. “The Jesuits had taken advantage of that anarchy and their close relations with Portuguese merchants.”(3) Hideyoshi, a man of low birth, had usurped power and taken the title of Taikosama. He distrusted the Jesuits’ political influence, their association with the Portuguese and their connections with the great and wild vassals, the Samurai. In consequence, the young Japanese Church was violently persecuted, six Franciscans and three Jesuits were crucified; many converts were murdered and the Order was banished.

(1) “Les Jesuites”, in “Le Crapouillot”, Nr. 24, 1954, p.42. (2) “Le Crapouillot”, op.cit., p.43. (3) H. Boehmer, op.cit., p.162.

Nevertheless, the decree was not carried out. The Jesuits continued their apostolate in secret. But, in 1614, the first Shogun, Tokugawa Ieyasu, became uneasy with their occult actions and the persecution started again. Besides, the Dutch had taken the place of the Portuguese at the business’ counters and were closely watched by the government. A profound distrust of all foreigners, ecclesiastics or laymen inspired from then on the conduct of leaders and, in 1638, a rebellion of the Nagasaki Christians was drowned in blood. For the Jesuits, the Japanese adventure had come to an end, and was to remain so for a long time.

We can read in the remarkable work of Lord Bertrand Russell “Science and Religion” the following racy passage about Francis Xavier the miracle worker: “He and his companions wrote many long letters which were kept; in them, they gave accounts of their labours, but none of those written in his lifetime made any mention of miraculous powers. Joseph Acosta, the Jesuit who was so much troubled by Peru’s animals, expressly denied that these missionaries had been helped by miracles in their efforts to convert the pagans. But, soon after Xavier’s death, stories of miracles started to abound. It was said that he had the gift of tongues, even though his letters were full of allusions to the difficulties he had to master the Japanese language or find good interpreters.

“Stories were told of how, when his friends had felt thirsty at sea, he had changed salt water into fresh. When he dropped his crucifix into the sea, a crab brought it back to him. According to a later version, he had thrown the crucifix into the sea to still a tempest. When he was canonised in 1622, it was proved, to the satisfaction of the Vatican authorities, that he had accomplished miracles, as no one can become a saint without them. The pope gave his official guarantee to the gift of tongues and was particularly impressed by the fact that Xavier had made the lamps burn with holy water instead of oil.

“This same pope, Urban VIII, refused to believe Galileo’s statements. The legend continued to improve: a biography by Father Bonhours, published in 1682, tells us that the saint had resuscitated fourteen persons during his lifetime. “Catholic authors still attribute to him the gift of miracles; in a biography published in 1872, Father Coleridge of the Society of Jesus restated that he had the gift of tongues”.(4)

Judging by the exploits just mentioned, saint Francis Xavier well deserved his halo.

In China, the sons of Loyola had a long and favourable time with only a few expulsions in-between; they obtained this on condition they woud work there mainly as scientists and bow to the thousands of years old rite of this ancient civilisation.

(4) Lord Bertrand Russell: “Science and religion” (Ed. Gallimard, Paris 1957, pp.84-85

“Meteorology was the main subject. Francis Xavier had already found out that the Japanese did not know the earth was round and were very interested in what he taught them on that and other similar subjects. “In China, it became official and, as the Chinese were not fanatical, things developed peaceably.” “An Italian, Father Ricci, was the initiator of it.

Having made his way to Peking, he played the part of an astronomer before the Chinese scientists… Astronomy and mathematics were an important part of Chinese institutions. These sciences enabled the sovereign to date their various seasonal religious and civil ceremonies… Ricci brought information which made him indispensable and he used this opportunity to speak about Christianity… He sent for two Fathers who amended the traditional calendar, establishing the accord between the course of the stars and earthly events. Ricci helped with lesser tasks as well; for instance, he drew a mural map of the empire, where he carefully put China at the center of the universe…”(5)

This was the Jesuits’ main work in that Celestial Empire; as for the religions side of their mission, the interest in it was minute. It is rather amusing to think that, in Peking, the Fathers were busy rectifying the astronomical mistakes of the Chinese, while, in Rome, the Holy See persistently condemned the Copernican system, and that until 1822! In spite of the fact that the Chinese had very little inclination for mysticism, the first Catholic church opened at Peking in 1599. When Ricci died, he was replaced by a German, Father Shall von Bell, an astronomer who also published some remarkable tracts in the Chinese language; in 1644, he was given the title of “President of the mathematical Tribunal”, which created jealousy amongst the mandarins. In the meantime, the Christian communities organised themselves. In 1617, the emperor must have foreseen the dangers of this pacific penetration when he decreed the banishment of all foreigners. The good Fathers were sent to the Portuguese at Macao in wooden cages. But, soon after, they were called back. They were such good astronomers!

In fact, they were just as good as missionaries with 41 residences in China , 159 churches and 257,000 baptised members. But a new reaction against them called for their banishment and Father Shall was condemned to death. No doubt he had not incurred this sentence merely for his work in mathematics! An earthquake and the burning of the imperial palace, cleverly presented as a sign of wrath from heaven, saved his life and he died peacefully two years later. But his companions had to leave China. In spite of all, the esteem for the Jesuits was so great that emperor Kang- Hi felt obliged to call them back in 1669, and ordered solemn funerals for the remains of Iam Io Vam (Jean-Adam Shall). These unusual honours were only the start of exceptional favours”.(6)

(5) “Le Crapouillot”, op.cit. p.44.
(6) H. Boehmer, op.cit., p. 168.

A Belgian Father, Verbiest, followed Shall at the head of the missions— and also the Imperial mathematical Institute. He was the one who gave to Peking’s Observatory those famous instruments whose mathematical precision is concealed by chimeras, dragons, etc. Kang-Hi, “the enlightened despot”, who reigned for 61 years, appreciated the services of that scientist who gave him wise advice, accompanied him to war and even managed a foundry for cannons. But this profane and war-like activity was directed “ad majorem Dei gloriam”, as the good Father reminded the emperor in a note he sent him before his death: “Sir, I die happy as I used nearly every moment of my life to serve Your Majesty. But I pray Him very humbly to remember, after my death, that my aim in all I did was to procure a protector for the most holy religion in the universe; and this protector was you, the greatest king in the East”.(7)

However, in China as in Malabar, this religion could not survive without some artifice. The Jesuits had to bring the Roman doctrine to the chinese level, identify God with heaven (Tien) or the Chang-Ti (Emperor from on- high), blend Catholic rites with Chinese rites, accept Confucian teachings, the cult of the ancestors, etc.

Pope Clement XI, who was told of it by rival Orders, condemned this doctrinal “laxism” and, as a result, all the missionary work of the Jesuits in the Celestial Empire collapsed.

The successors of Kang-Hi proscribed Christianity and the last Fathers left in China died there and were never replaced.

(7) “Correspondence” of Verbiest (Brussels 1931, p.551)

Download a PDF file of this article.

Please follow and like us: