extended; but shortly afterward the revolution, headed by Mori,
compelled Vilela to leave Kioto, where he had settled, and a
simultaneous outbreak in Omura necessitated the withdrawal of the
missionaries stationed there. Mori, of Choshiu, was perhaps the most
powerful noble of the day, possessing no fewer than ten provinces, and,
as he was throughout an open enemy to Christianity, his influence was
exercised against it with much ill result.
On Vilela's return to Kioto from Sakai, where a branch mission had been
established, he succeeded in gaining several distinguished converts.
Among these were Takayama, a leading general of the time, and his
nephew. He did not, however, remain long in the capital. The recurrence
of troubles in 1568 made it necessary for him to withdraw, and he then
proceeded to Nagasaki, where he met with considerable success. In this
same year we come across Valegnani preaching in the Goto Isles, and
Torres in the island of Seki, where he died. Almeida, too, about this
time founded a Christian community at Shimabara, afterward notorious as
the scene of the revolt and massacre of the Christians.
Hitherto we find little mention of Christianity in Japanese books. This
may partly be explained by the fact that the labors of the missionaries
were chiefly confined to the southern provinces, Christianity having as
yet made little progress at Kioto, the seat of literature. But the
scarcity of Japanese records can scarcely be wondered at in the face of
the edict issued later in the next century, which interdicted not only
books on the subject of Christianity, but any book in which even the
name of _Christian_ or the word _Foreign_ should be mentioned.
Short notices occur in several native works of the arrival in Kioto at
this date of the Jesuit missionary Organtin, and some curious details
are furnished respecting the progress of Christianity in the capital and
the attitude of Nobunaga in regard to it.
The _Saikoku Kirishitan Bateren Jitsu Roku_, or "True Record of
Christian Padres in Kiushiu," gives a minute account of the appearance
and dress of Organtin, and goes on to say: "He was asked his name and
why he had come to Japan, and replied that he was the Padre Organtin and
had come to spread his religion. He was told that he could not be
allowed at once to preach his religion, but would be informed later on.
Nobunaga accordingly took counsel with his retainers as to whether he
should allow Christianity to be preached or not. One of these strongly
advised him not to do so, on the ground that there were already enough
religions in the country. But Nobunaga replied that Buddhism had been
introduced from abroad and had done good in the country, and he
therefore did not see why Christianity should not be granted a trial.
Organtin was consequently allowed to erect a church and to send for
others of his order, who, when they came, were found to be like him in
appearance. Their plan of action was to tend the sick and relieve the
poor, and so prepare the way for the reception of Christianity, and then
to convert everyone and make the sixty-six provinces of Japan subject to
Portugal."
The _Ibuki Mogusa_ gives further details of this subject, and says that
the Jesuits called their church _Yierokuji_, after the name of the
period in which it was built, but that Nobunaga changed the name to
_Nambanji_, or "Temple of the Southern Savages." The word _Namban_ was
the term usually applied to the Portuguese and Spaniards.
During the next ten years Organtin and other missionaries worked with
considerable success in Kioto under Nobunaga's immediate protection.
This period is also remarkable for the conversion of the Prince of
Bungo, who made open profession of Christianity and retired into private
life, and for the rapid progress which the new doctrine made among the
subjects of Arima-no-Kami. This good fortune was again counterbalanced
by the course of events in the Goto Islands, where Christianity lost
much ground owing to a change of rulers.
Ten years thus passed away, when the Christian communities sustained
great loss in the disgrace of Takayama, who was banished to Kaga for
taking part in an unsuccessful intrigue against Nobunaga which was
headed by the Prince of Choshiu. Takayama's nephew, Ukon, however,
declared for Nobunaga, and the latter gave a further proof of his
friendly feeling toward Christianity by establishing a church in
Adzuchi-no-Shiro, the castle town which he had built for himself in his
native province of Omi.
In 1582 a mission was sent to the papal see on the part of the Princes
of Bungo and Omura, and Arima-no-Kami. This mission was accompanied by
Valegnani, and reached Rome in 1585, returning five years later to
Japan.
In the following year Nobunaga was assassinated and Hideyoshi, who
succeeded him in the chief power, was content, for the first three or
four years of his administration, to follow in the line of policy marked
out by his predecessor. Christianity, therefore, progressed in spite of
the drawbacks caused by the frequent feuds between the southern
_daimios_, and seminaries were established under Hideyoshi's auspices at
Osaka and Sakai. During this period Martinez arrived in the capacity of
bishop; he was charged with costly presents from the Viceroy of Goa to
Hideyoshi, and received a favorable audience.
Hideyoshi's attitude toward Christianity at this time is easily
explained. The powerful southern barons were not willing to accept him
as Nobunaga's successor without a struggle, and there were other reasons
against the adoption of too hasty measures. Two of his generals, Kondera
and Konishi Setsu-no-Kami, who afterward commanded the second division
of the army sent against Corea, the Governor of Osaka, and numerous
other officers of state and nobles of rank and influence, had embraced
Christianity, and the Christians were therefore not without influential
supporters. Hideyoshi's first act was to secure his position. For this
purpose he marched into Kiushiu at the head of a large force and was
everywhere victorious. This done, he threw off the mask he had been
wearing up to this time, and in 1587 took the first step in his new
course of action by ordering the destruction of the Christian church at
Kioto--which had been in existence for a period of eighteen years--and
the expulsion of the missionaries from the capital.
It will be seen by the following extract from the _Ibuki Mogusa_ that
Nobunaga at one time entertained designs for the destruction of
Nambanji.
"Nobunaga," we read, "now began to regret his previous policy in
permitting the introduction of Christianity. He accordingly assembled
his retainers and said to them: 'The conduct of these missionaries in
persuading people to join them by giving money does not please me. It
must be, I think, that they harbor the design of seizing the country.
How would it be, think you, if we were to demolish Nambanji?' To this
Mayeda Tokuzenin replied: 'It is now too late to demolish the temple of
Nambanji. To endeavor to arrest the power of this religion now is like
trying to arrest the current of the ocean. Nobles both great and small
have become adherents of it. If you would exterminate this religion now,
there is fear lest disturbances be created even among your own
retainers. I am, therefore, of opinion that you should abandon your
intention of destroying Nambanji.' Nobunaga in consequence regretted
exceedingly his previous action with regard to the Christian religion,
and set about thinking how he could root it out."
The Jesuit writers attribute Hideyoshi's sudden change of attitude to
three different causes, but it is clear that Hideyoshi was never
favorable to Christianity, and that he only waited for his power to be
secure before taking decided measures of hostility. His real feeling in
regard to the Christians and their teachers is explained in the _Life of
Hideyoshi_, from which work we learn that even before his accession to
power he had ventured to remonstrate with Nobunaga for his policy toward
Christianity.
Hideyoshi's next act was to banish Takayama Ukon to Kaga, where his
uncle already was, and he then in 1588 issued a decree ordering the
missionaries to assemble at Hirado and prepare to leave Japan. They did
so, but finding that measures were not pushed to extremity they
dispersed and placed themselves under the protection of various nobles
who had embraced Christianity. The territories of these princes offered
safe asylums, and in these scattered districts the work of Christianity
progressed secretly while openly interdicted.
In 1591 Valegnani had a favorable audience of Hideyoshi, but he was
received entirely in an official capacity, namely, in the character of
envoy of the Viceroy of Goa.
Christianity was at its most flourishing stage during the first few
years of Hideyoshi's administration. We can discern the existence at
this date of a strong Christian party in the country, though the
turning-point had been reached, and the tide of progress was on the ebb.
It is to this influence probably, coupled with the fact that his many
warlike expeditions left him little leisure to devote to religious
questions, that we must attribute the slight relaxation observable in
his policy toward Christianity at this time.
"Up to this date," says Charlevoix, "Hideyoshi had not evinced any
special bitterness against Christianity, and had not proceeded to
rigorous measures in regard to Christians. The condition of Christianity
was reassuring. Rodriguez was well in favor at court, and Organtin had
returned to Kioto along with several other missionaries, and found means
to render as much assistance to the Christians in that part of the
country as he had been able to do before the issue of the edict against
Christianity by Hideyoshi."
The inference which it is intended should be drawn from these remarks,
taken with the context, is clear; namely, that, had the Jesuits been
left alone to prosecute the work of evangelizing Japan, the ultimate
result might have been very different. However, this was not to be.
Hitherto, for a period of forty-four years, the Jesuits had it all their
own way in Japan; latterly, by virtue of a bull issued by Pope Gregory
XIII in 1585--the date of the appointment of the first bishop and of the
arrival at Rome of the Japanese mission--and subsequently confirmed by
the bull of Clement III in 1600, by which the _religieux_ of other
orders were excluded from missionary work in Japan. The object of these
papal decrees was, it seems, to insure the propagation of Christianity
on a uniform system. They were, however, disregarded when the time came,
and therefore, for a new influence which was brought to bear upon
Christianity at this date--not altogether for its good, if the Jesuit
accounts may be credited--we must look to the arrival of an embassy from
the Governor of the Philippines, whose ambassador was accompanied by
four Franciscan priests.
These new arrivals, when confronted by the Jesuits with the papal bull,
declared that they had not transgressed it, and defended their action on
the ground that they had come attached to an embassy and not in the
character of missionaries; but they argued at the same time, with a
casuistry only equalled by their opponents, that, having once arrived in
Japan, there was nothing to hinder them from exercising their calling as
preachers of Christianity.
The embassy was successful, and Baptiste, who appears to have conducted
the negotiations in place of the real envoy, obtained Hideyoshi's
consent to his shrewd proposal that, pending the reference to Manila of
Hideyoshi's claim to the sovereignty of the Philippines, he and his
brother missionaries should remain as hostages. Hideyoshi, while
consenting, made their residence conditional on their not preaching
Christianity--a condition which it is needless to say was never
observed.
Thus, at one and the same time, the Spaniards, who had long been
watching with their jealous eyes the exclusive right of trade enjoyed by
the Portuguese, obtained an opening for commerce, and the Franciscans a
footing for their religious mission.
It was not long before the newly-arrived missionaries were called upon
to prove their devotion to their cause. In 1593, in consequence of the
indiscreet statements of the pilot of a Spanish galleon, which, being
driven by stress of weather into a port of Tosa, was seized by
Hideyoshi, nine missionaries--namely, six Franciscans and three
Jesuits--were arrested in Kioto and Osaka, and, having been taken to
Nagasaki, were there burned. This was the first execution carried out by
the government.
Hideyoshi died in the following year (1594), and the civil troubles
which preceded the succession of Iyeyasu to the post of administrator,
in which the Christians lost their chief supporter, Konishi, who took
part against Iyeyasu, favored the progress of Christianity in so far as
diverting attention from it to matters of more pressing moment.
Iyeyasu's policy toward Christianity was a repetition of his
predecessor's. Occupied entirely with military campaigns against those
who refused to acknowledge his supremacy, he permitted the Jesuits, who
now numbered one hundred, to establish themselves in force at Kioto,
Osaka, and Nagasaki. But as soon as tranquillity was restored, and he
felt himself secure in the seat of power, he at once gave proof of the
policy he intended to follow by the issue of a decree of expulsion
against the missionaries. This was in 1600. The Jesuit writers affirm
that he was induced to withdraw his edict in consequence of the
threatening attitude adopted by certain Christian nobles who had
espoused his cause in the late civil war, but no mention is made of this
in the Japanese accounts.
So varying, and indeed so altogether unintelligible, was the action of
the different nobles throughout Kiushiu in regard to Christianity during
the next few years, that we see one who was not a Christian offering an
asylum in his dominions to several hundred native converts who were
expelled from a neighboring province; another who had systematically
opposed the introduction of Christianity actually sending a mission to
the Philippines to ask for missionaries; while a third, who had hitherto
made himself conspicuous by his almost fanatical zeal in the Christian
cause, suddenly abandoned his new faith, and, from having been one of
its most ardent supporters, became one of its most bitter foes.
The year 1602 is remarkable for the despatch of an embassy by Iyeyasu to
the Philippines, and for the large number of _religieux_ of all orders
who flocked to Japan.
Affairs remained _in statu quo_ for the next two or three years, during
which the Christian cause was weakened by the death of two men which it
could ill afford to lose. One of these was the noble called Kondera by
Charlevoix, but whose name we have been unable to trace in Japanese
records. The other was Organtin, who had deservedly the reputation of
being the most energetic member of the Jesuit body.
The number of Christians in Japan at this time is stated to have been
one million eight hundred thousand. The number of missionaries was of
course proportionally large, and was increased by the issue in 1608 of a
new bull by Pope Paul V allowing to _religieux_ of all orders free
access to Japan.
The year 1610 is remarkable for the arrival of the Dutch, who settled in
Hirado, and for the destruction in the harbor of Nagasaki of the annual
Portuguese galleon sent by the traders of Macao. In this latter affair,
which rose out of a dispute between the natives and the people of the
ship, Arima-no-Kami was concerned, and his alliance with the
missionaries was thus terminated.
In 1611 no less than three embassies arrived in Japan from the Dutch,
Spanish, and Portuguese respectively, and in 1613 Saris succeeded in
founding an English factory in Hirado, where the Dutch had already
established themselves. It was early in the following year that
Christianity was finally proscribed by Iyeyasu. The decree of expulsion
directed against the missionaries was followed by a fierce outbreak of
persecution in all the provinces in which Christians were to be found,
which was conducted with systematic and relentless severity.
The Jesuit accounts attribute this resolution on the part of Iyeyasu to
the intrigues of the English and Dutch traders. Two stories, by one of
which it was sought to fix the blame on the former and by the other on
the latter, were circulated, and will be found at length in Charlevoix's
history.
We have no wish to enter upon a defence either of our countrymen or of
the Dutch, and fully admit the possibility of such intrigues having
occurred. Indeed, considering in what relations both Spanish and
Portuguese stood at that time to both of the other nations, and how high
religious feeling ran in the seventeenth century, it would be strange if
some intrigue had not taken place. Still we should like to point out
that there were, we think, causes, other than those to which the Jesuit
writers confine themselves, quite sufficient in themselves to account
for the extreme measures taken against Christianity at this date.
There was the predetermination against Christianity already shown by
Iyeyasu; there were the new avenues of trade opened up by the arrival of
the English and Dutch; there was the increased activity displayed by the
missionaries at a time when Christianity was in a weak state, and lastly
there was the influence of the Buddhist priesthood.
That this edict of expulsion issued by Iyeyasu was the effect of no
sudden caprice on his part, is clear from the general view which we have
of his whole policy, which was similar to that of his predecessor. His
early tolerance of Christianity is susceptible of the same explanation
as that shown by Hideyoshi. His mind was evidently made up, and he was
only biding his time.
It is also highly probable that the new facilities for trade offered by
the advent of the Dutch and English may have had some influence upon the
action of Iyeyasu. It is impossible that he can have been altogether
blind to the fact that the teaching of Christianity had not been
unattended with certain evils, dangerous, to say the least, to the
tranquillity of the country; and it cannot have escaped his notice that,
whereas the respective admissions of Portuguese and Spaniards had been
followed by the introduction of Christian missionaries, who in numbers
far exceeded the traders, the same feature was not a part of the policy
of the two other nations, whose proceedings had no connection whatsoever
with religion. Possibly, too, reports may have reached his ears of the
growing supremacy of the Dutch in the East, and have induced him to
transfer his favor from the Portuguese and Spaniards to the new
arrivals.
As regards the condition of Christianity at this time, the Jesuit
accounts supply us with facts which show that, numerically speaking, the
Christian cause was never so strong as at this period. There were some
two millions of converts, whose spiritual concerns were administered by
no fewer than two hundred missionaries, three-fourths of whom were
Jesuits. According to the _Kerisuto-Ki_, a native work, there were
Christian churches in every province of Kiushiu except Hiuga and Osumi,
and also in Kioto, Osaka, Sendai, and Kanagawa in Kaga; and it was only
in eight provinces of Japan that Christianity had gained no footing. An
increased activity in the operations of the missionaries is discernible
about this time. The Dominicans in Satsuma, the Franciscans in Yedo
(Tokio), and the Jesuits in the capital and southern provinces, seem to
have been vying with each other which should gain most converts; and the
circuit made by Cerqueyra, in which he visited all the Jesuit
establishments throughout the country, was probably not without effect
in exciting fresh enthusiasm among the converts everywhere, which,
again, would naturally draw attention to the progress of Christianity.
But, strong as the position of the Christians was numerically, we must
not judge of the strength of their cause merely by the number of
converts, or by the number of missionaries resident in Japan. If we
consider the facts before us, we find that Christianity lacked the best
of all strength--influence in the state. All its principal supporters
among the aristocracy were either dead, had renounced their new faith,
or were in exile; and here we have the real weakness of the Christian
cause. While, therefore, circumstances combined to draw attention to its
progress, it was in a state which could ill resist any renewed activity
of persecution which might be the result of the increased interest which
it excited. Without influence at the court and without influence in the
country, beyond what slight influence the mass of common people
scattered through various provinces, who were Christians, might be said
to possess, Christianity presented itself assailable with impunity.
The last cause we have mentioned, as being probably connected with the
decisive measures adopted by Iyeyasu, is the influence of the Buddhist
priesthood. Japanese history mentions the great power attained by the
priesthood prior to Nobunaga's administration. Although that power was
broken by Nobunaga, Hideyoshi did not inherit the former's animosity
toward the priests, and Iyeyasu from the first came forward as their
patron. And, again, we must not lose sight of the fact that a
deep-rooted suspicion of foreigners was ever present in the minds of the
Japanese Government; a suspicion which the course of events in China, of
which we may presume the Japanese were not altogether ignorant--the
jealousy of the native priests; the control of their converts exercised
by the missionaries, which doubtless extended to secular matters; the
connection of Christianity with trade; and the astounding progress made
by it in the space of half a century--all tended to confirm. Enough has
been said to show that we need not go so far as the intrigues, real or
imaginary, of the English and Dutch, to look for causes for the renewed
stimulus given at this date to the measures against Christianity.
In 1614 the edict was carried into effect, and the missionaries,
accompanied by the Japanese princes who had been in exile in Kaga, and a
number of native Christians, were made to embark from Nagasaki. Several
missionaries remained concealed in the country, and in subsequent years
not a few contrived to elude the vigilance of the authorities and to
reenter Japan. But they were all detected sooner or later, and suffered
for their temerity by their deaths.
Persecution did not stop with the expulsion of the missionaries, nor at
the death of Iyeyasu was any respite given to the native Christians. And
this brings us to the closing scene of this history--the tragedy of
Shimabara. In the autumn of 1637 the peasantry of a convert district in
Hizen, driven past endurance by the fierce ferocity of the persecution,
assembled to the number of thirty thousand, and, fortifying the castle
of Shimabara, declared open defiance to the Government; their opposition
was soon overborne; troops were sent against them, and after a short but
desperate resistance all the Christians were put to the sword. With the
rising of Shimabara, and its sanguinary suppression by the Government,
the curtain falls on the early history of Christianity in Japan.
COLLAPSE OF THE POWER OF CHARLES V
FRANCE SEIZES GERMAN BISHOPRICS
A.D. 1552
LADY C. C. JACKSON
Henry II, son of Francis I, ascended the throne of France in
1547. It had been the ambition of the French to establish
the eastern boundary of their country on the Rhine, and
thence along the summit of the Alps to the Mediterranean
Sea. Jealousy of the growing power of his father's old
enemy, the emperor Charles V, probably added to the French
King's eagerness to fulfil the desire of his people for
extension of their borders.