_Father Valignani—State of the Missions—Conversion and Baptism of
the King of Bungo—Growth of Nagasaki—Embassy to the Pope—Documents
relating to this Embassy—A. D. 1577-1586._
Such was the state of things on the arrival, at the beginning of
1577, of Father Alexander Valignani, visitor-general of the Jesuit
establishments in the East, and who in that capacity came to inspect
the missions of Japan. He found there, in addition to a large number of
native catechists, fifty-nine professed Jesuits (including twelve who
had arrived but a short time before), of whom twenty-six were native
Japanese; but, as only twenty-three of the whole number were ordained
priests, it was found very difficult to meet the demand for ministers
qualified to baptize and to administer the other sacraments. Hence
the visitor was the more convinced of the necessity of establishing a
novitiate of the order (a project already started by Father Cabral, the
vice-provincial), and seminaries for the education of the children of
the converts designed for the priesthood, especially those of superior
rank; and in his letter to the general of the order and to the Pope, he
recommended the appointment of a bishop, so that ordination might be
had without the necessity of going to Malacca. He also settled, at a
general assembly of the missionaries, who met him at Kuchinotsu, many
points of discipline, and especially a difficult and much disputed
question as to the wearing of silk garments, which, as being the stuff
in use by all persons of consideration in Japan, some of the Jesuits
wished to wear. The ground taken was that it would only be a new
application of the policy, which had been agreed upon, of conforming
as far as innocently might be to the customs of the country. This
argument, however, had not satisfied Father Cabral; he had prohibited
the wearing of silk, which the rule of the order did not allow; and
that decision was now confirmed by the visitor.
There were, however, other points upon which the vice-provincial and
the visitor did not so well agree. Of Cabral, Charlevoix draws the
following character, one for which many originals might be found:
“He was a holy professor, a great missionary, a vigilant and amiable
superior; but he was one of those excellent persons who imagine
themselves more clear-headed than other men, and who, in consequence,
ask counsel of nobody but themselves; or rather, who believe themselves
inspired, when they have once prayed to be so, regarding as decrees
of Heaven, expressed by their mouth, all the resolutions which they
have taken at the foot of the cross, where the last thing to be laid
down is one’s own judgment.” Cabral had taken up the idea that persons
of such vigorous understanding as the Japanese must be duly held in
check; and the whole twenty-six of them received, up to this time,
into the company, and almost all of whom aspired to the priesthood, he
strictly limited to such studies as would suffice to qualify them for
the subordinate parts of divine service. This policy Valignani did not
approve; but when he sought to alter it, he encountered such opposition
from Father Cabral, to be obliged to send him off to Goa, appointing
Father Gaspard Cuello in his place.
Shortly after the arrival of Valignani, the church gained a new and
distinguished accession in Kiuan,[45] king of Bungo, who, having
repudiated his old pagan wife, to whom the Catholics gave the name of
Jezebel, married a new one, and was baptized with all his household,
taking the name of Francis, according to the custom of the missionaries
in giving European names to their converts. There were even strong
hopes of gaining over his eldest son and colleague, Yoshimune, when
a war broke out with the king of Satsuma for the possession of the
intervening kingdom of Hyūga, which resulted in the loss of all
Kiuan’s conquests, and his reduction to his original province of
Bungo, which also he was in danger of losing,—a change by no means
favorable to the missionaries. Kuchinotsu was ruined in this war; and
the spectacle of the vicissitudes to which everything in Japan was
exposed induced Valignani to urge upon the Portuguese merchants and
residents to fortify Nagasaki. This was done in 1579, and that port
became thenceforward almost the sole one resorted to by the Portuguese.
The converted king of Gotō having died, the guardian of his infant son
showed himself hostile to the missionaries; but this circumstance was
an advantage to Nagasaki, which received many fugitives from these
islands.
The new king of Arima being brought, by the labors of the visitor, to
a better disposition, was baptized, and became one of the most zealous
of the converts. Both the emperor Nobunaga and his three sons still
continued very well disposed to the missionaries, allowing Father
Gnecchi, who was a favorite with him, to establish a house, a church,
and a seminary at Azuchiyama, his local capital, which he had greatly
beautified, and between which and Miyako he had caused a highway to
be built, at great expense and with immense labor. His evident design
to make his authority absolute had indeed led to a league against
him, which, however, proved of no avail, this attempt at resistance
resulting in the subjection of all the kings of the western half of
Nippon, except Mōri of Nagato. The good service which the missionaries
rendered, in persuading the Christian princes, and the Christian
vassals of the unconverted ones, to submit to the emperor, as their
superior lord, caused Valignani to be very graciously received, both at
Miyako and also at Azuchiyama.
On the visitor’s return to Shimo, the converted kings of Bungo and
Arima, and the prince of Ōmura, determined to send ambassadors to be
the bearers of their submission to the Pope. For this purpose two young
nobles were selected, scarcely sixteen years of age: one, prince of
Hyūga, the son of a niece of the king of Bungo, the other, prince of
Arima, cousin of the king of Arima, and nephew of the prince of Ōmura.
They were attended by two counsellors somewhat older than themselves,
by Father Diego de Mesquita, as their preceptor, and interpreter, and
by a Japanese Jesuit, named George Loyola, and, in company with Father
Valignani, they sailed from Nagasaki February 20, 1582, in a Portuguese
ship bound for Macao, now the headquarters of the Portuguese trade to
Japan. They arrived at Macao after a very stormy and dangerous passage
of seventeen days; but the season of sailing for Malacca being past,
they had to wait there six months. When at length they did sail,
they encountered very violent storms; but at last, after twenty-nine
days’ passage (January 27, 1583), they reached Malacca, passing, as
they entered the harbor, the wreck of another richly laden Portuguese
vessel, which had sailed from Macao in their company. After resting at
Malacca eight days, they embarked for Goa, which third voyage proved
not less trying than the two others. Delayed by calms, they ran short
of provisions and water, and by the ignorance of the pilot were near
being run ashore on the island of Ceylon. They disembarked at length at
Travancore, at the southeastern extremity of the peninsula of India,
whence they proceeded by land to the neighboring port of Cochin. Here,
owing to the unfavorable monsoon, they had to wait six months before
they could sail for Goa, at which capital of Portuguese India they
arrived in September. The viceroy of the Indies received them with
great hospitality, and furnished them with a good ship, in which they
had a favorable passage round the Cape of Good Hope, arriving at Lisbon
August 10, 1584.
Four years before, Portugal had passed under the rule of Philip II, of
Spain, who had thus united on his single head the crowns of both the
East and the West Indies; and to him these ambassadors were charged
with a friendly message. The viceroy of Portugal received them at
Lisbon with every attention. At Madrid they were received by Philip II
himself with the greatest marks of distinction. Having traversed Spain,
they embarked at Alicante, but were driven by a storm into the island
of Majorca, thereby escaping an Algerine fleet and a Turkish squadron,
both of which were cruising in that neighborhood. Sailing thence they
landed at Leghorn, where Pierro de’ Medici, brother of the grand duke
of Tuscany, was waiting to attend them. They spent the carnival at
Pisa, and thence by Florence proceeded towards Rome.
Aquiviva, general of the Jesuits (the fourth successor of Loyola),
was very pressing with the Pope for a reception without display; but
Gregory XIII (the same to whom we owe the reform of the calendar) had
determined in consistory that the honor of the church and of the holy
see required a different course. The ambassadors were met at Viterbo
by the Pope’s light horse, and were escorted into the city by a long
cavalcade of Roman nobles. The whole of the corso up to Jesus, the
church and house of the Jesuits, where the ambassadors were to lodge,
was crowded with people, who greeted their arrival with deafening
shouts. As they alighted from their carriage, they were received
by Father Aquiviva, attended by all the Jesuits then at Rome, who
conducted them to the church, where _Te Deum_ was chanted.
The next day a magnificent procession was formed to escort them to the
Vatican. It was headed by the light horse, followed by the Pope’s Swiss
guard, the officers of the cardinals, the carriages of the ambassadors
of Spain, France, Venice, and the Roman princes, the whole Roman
nobility on horseback, the pages and officers of the ambassadors, with
trumpets and cymbals, the chamberlains of the Pope, and the officers of
the palace, all in red robes. Then followed the Japanese on horseback,
in their national dress,[46] three silken gowns of a light fabric,
one over the other, of a white ground, splendidly embroidered with
fruits, leaves, and birds. In their girdles they wore the two swords,
symbols of Japanese gentility. Their heads, shaven, except the hair
round the ears and neck, which was gathered into a cue bent upwards,
had no covering. Their features were hardly less divergent from the
European standard than their dress, yet their whole expression, air,
and manner, modest and amiable, but with a conscious sentiment of
nobility, was such as impressed the bystanders very favorably. The
prince of Hyūga came first, between two archbishops. The prince of
Arima followed, between two bishops. Of their counsellors, one was kept
away by sickness, the other followed between two nobles, and after him
Father de Mesquita, the interpreter, also on horseback. A great number
of richly dressed courtiers closed the procession. The crowds, which
filled the streets and the windows, looked on in almost breathless
silence. As the ambassadors crossed the bridge of St. Angelo, all
the cannon of the castle were fired, to which those of the Vatican
responded, at which signal all the bands struck up, and continued to
play till the hall of audience was reached.
The ambassadors approached the foot of the papal throne, each with the
letter of his prince in his hand. Prostrating themselves at the Pope’s
feet, they declared in Japanese, in a voice loud and distinct, that
they had come from the extremities of the earth to acknowledge in the
person of the Pope the vicar of Jesus Christ, and to render obedience
to him in the name of the princes of whom they were the envoys, and
also for themselves. The Father de Mesquita expressed in Latin what
they had said; but the appearance of the young men themselves, who
had essayed so many dangers and fatigues to come to pay their homage
to the holy see, was more expressive than any words; and it drew tears
and sobs from the greater part of the audience. The Pope himself,
greatly agitated, hastened to raise them up, kissed their foreheads,
and embraced them many times, dropping tears upon them. They were then
conducted to an alcove, while the secretary of the consistory read
the letters from the Japanese princes, which Father de Mesquita had
translated into Italian, and of which the following may serve as a
specimen:
“LETTER OF THE KING OF BUNGO,
“_To him who ought to be adored and who holds the place of the King of
Heaven, the great and most holy Pope_.
“Full of confidence in the grace of the supreme and almighty God,
I write, with all possible submission, to your Holiness. The Lord,
who governs heaven and earth, who holds under his empire the sun and
all the celestial host, has made his light to shine upon one who was
plunged in ignorance and buried in deep darkness. It is more than
thirty years since this sovereign Master of nature, displaying all the
treasures of his pity in favor of the inhabitants of these countries,
sent thither the fathers of the Company of Jesus, who have sowed
the seed of the divine Word in these kingdoms of Japan; and he has
pleased, in his infinite bounty, to cause a part of it to fall into my
heart: singular mercy, for which I think myself indebted, most holy
Father of all the faithful, as well to the prayers and merits of your
Holiness as to those of many others. If the wars which I have had to
sustain, my old age, and my infirmities had not prevented me, I should
myself have visited the holy places where you dwell, to render in
person the obedience which I owe you. I would have devotedly kissed
the feet of your Holiness, I would have placed them on my head, and
would have besought you to make with your sacred hand the august
sign of the cross on my heart. Constrained, by the reasons I have
mentioned, to deprive myself of a consolation so sweet, I did design
to send in my place Jerome, son of the king of Fiunga [Hyūga], and
my grandson; but as he was too far distant from my court, and as the
father-visitor could not delay his departure, I have substituted for
him Mancio, his cousin and my great-nephew.
“I shall be infinitely obliged if your Holiness, holding upon earth
the place of God himself, shall continue to shed your favor upon me,
upon all Christians, and especially upon this little portion of the
flock committed to your care. I have received from the hand of the
father-visitor the reliquary with which your Holiness honored me,
and I have placed it on my head with much respect. I have no words
in which to express the gratitude with which I am penetrated for a
gift so precious. I will add no more, as the father-visitor and my
ambassador will more fully inform your Holiness as to all that regards
my person and my realm. I truly adore you, most holy Father, and I
write this to you trembling with respectful fear. The 11th day of
January, in the year of our Lord 1582.
“FRANCIS, King of Bungo,
“prostrate at the foot of your Holiness.”
The reading of this and of the other letters, translated into Italian,
was followed by a “Discourse on Obedience,” pronounced, in the name of
the princes and the ambassadors, by Father Gaspard Gonzales, a model of
rhetorical elegance and comprehensive brevity—whatever may be thought
of its ethical or theological doctrines—which some of the long-winded
speakers of the present day, both lay and clerical, would do well to
imitate. We give, as a specimen, a passage from the beginning:
“Nature has separated Japan from the countries in which we now are,
by such an extent of land and sea, that, before the present age,
there were very few persons who had any knowledge of it; and even now
there are those who find it difficult to believe the accounts of it
which we give. It is certain, nevertheless, most holy Father, that
there are several Japanese islands, of a vast extent, and in these
islands numerous fine cities, the inhabitants of which have a keen
understanding, noble and courageous hearts, and obliging dispositions,
politeness of manners, and inclinations disposed towards that which
is good. Those who have known them have decidedly preferred them to
all the other people of Asia, and it is only their lack of the true
religion which prevents them from competing with the nations of Europe.
“For some years past this religion has been preached to them, under
the authority of the holy see, by apostolical missionaries. Its
commencements were small, as in the case of the primitive church; but
God having given his blessing to this evangelical seed, it took root
in the hearts of the nobles, and of late, under the pontificate of
your Holiness, it has been received by the greatest lords, the princes
and kings of Japan. This, most holy Father, ought to console you, for
many reasons; but principally because, laboring as you do with an
indefatigable zeal and vigor to reëstablish a religion, shaken and
almost destroyed by the new heresies here in Europe, you see it take
root and make great progress in the most distant country of the world.
“Hitherto your Holiness has heard, and with great pleasure, of the
abundant fruits borne by this vine newly planted, with so much labor,
at the extremities of the earth. Now you may see, touch, taste them,
in this august assembly, and impart of them to all the faithful.
What joy ought not all Christians to feel, and especially the Roman
people, at seeing the ambassadors of such great princes come from
the ends of the earth to prostrate themselves at the feet of your
Holiness, through a pure motive of religion,—a thing which has never
happened in any age! What satisfaction for them to see the most
generous and valiant kings of the East, conquered by the arms of the
faith and by the preaching of the gospel, submitting themselves to the
empire of Jesus Christ, and, as they cannot, from their avocations,
come in person to take the oath of obedience and fidelity to the holy
see, acquitting themselves of this duty by ambassadors so nearly
related to them, and whom they so tenderly love!”
In the following passage the orator alludes more at length to the
revolt in Europe against the authority of the Pope, which Philip II, no
less than the Pope, was at this moment vigorously laboring to put down,
by the recent introduction of the Jesuits into the Netherlands, where
the Protestant rebels had been suppressed, by war against Holland, by
aiding the French leaguers, by countenancing the retrograde movement
then in rapid progress in Germany, and by preparing to carry out
against Elizabeth of England the sentence of deposition which the Pope
had fulminated against her.
“O immortal God! What a stroke of thine arm! What an effect of thy
grace! In places so distant from the holy see, where the name of
Jesus had never been heard, nor his gospel ever preached, as soon
as the true faith shed there the first rays of the truth, men of
temperaments quite different from ours, kings illustrious by their
nobility, redoubtable for their power, happy in the abundance of their
possessions, conquerors and warriors signalized by their victories,
acknowledge the greatness and dignity of the Roman church, and hold
it a great honor to kiss the feet of the church’s head by the lips
of persons infinitely dear to them; all this happens while we see
men at our very gate blind and impious enough to wish to cut off
with a parricidal hand the head of the mystic body of Jesus Christ,
and to call in doubt, to their own ruin, the authority of the holy
see, established by Jesus Christ himself, confirmed by the course
of so many ages, defended by the writings of so many holy doctors,
recognized and approved by so many councils!
“But it is not proper that I should give way to grief, or trouble the
joys of this day by the recollection of our miseries!”
To this address, on behalf of the Japanese princes and their
ambassadors, Monseigneur Antony Bocapaduli replied in Latin, in the
Pope’s name, as follows:
“His Holiness commands me, most noble lords, to say to you that
Dom Francis, king of Bungo, Dom Protais, king of Arima, and Dom
Barthelemi, prince of Ōmura, have acted like wise and religious
princes in sending you from the extremities of Asia to acknowledge
the power with which God’s bounty hath clothed him on the earth,
since there is but one faith, one church universal, and but a single
chief and supreme pastor, whose authority extends to all parts of the
earth where there are Christians, which pastor and only head is the
bishop of Rome, the successor of St. Peter. He is charmed to see that
they believe firmly and profess aloud this truth, with all the other
articles that compose the Catholic faith. He gives ceaseless thanks
to the divine goodness which has wrought these marvels; and this joy
appears to him so much the more legitimate, as it has its foundation
in the zeal by which he is animated for the glory of the Almighty, and
the salvation of souls which the incarnate Word has purchased with his
blood. This is why this venerable pontiff and all the sacred college
of the cardinals of the Roman church receive, with a truly paternal
affection, the protestation which you make to the vicar of Jesus
Christ of faith, filial devotion, and obedience, on the part of the
princes whom you represent. His Holiness earnestly desires and prays
to God that all the kings and princes of Japan, and all those who
rule in other parts of the world, may imitate so good an example, may
renounce their idols and all their errors, may adore in spirit and in
truth the sovereign Lord who has created this universe, and his only
son, Jesus Christ, whom he has sent into the world; since it is in
this knowledge and this faith that eternal life consists.”
The reply finished, the ambassadors were conducted around to the foot
of the throne, and again kissed the feet of the Pope; after which the
cardinals, drawing near, embraced them, and put to them many questions
as to their travels and the rarities of their country: questions to
which they replied with so much sense and acuteness as to cause no
little admiration.
At length the Pope rose, exclaiming, _Nunc dimittis servum tuum,
Domine_ (which might by a pious Catholic be taken as a prophecy of
his approaching death). The two chief ambassadors, who were of the
blood royal, were directed to lift up the train of his robes,—an
honor monopolized, as far as the princes of Europe were concerned,
by the ambassador of the emperor. The holy father having been thus
conducted to his apartment, the cardinal St. Sixtus, his nephew, the
cardinal Guastavillani, and the duke of Sora entertained the Japanese
at a magnificent dinner. A private audience followed, in which the
ambassadors delivered the presents they had brought, and the Pope
announced that he had endowed the proposed new seminary at Fuchū with
an annual dotation of four thousand Roman crowns.
Gregory XIII died a few days after;[47] but his successor, Sixtus V,
who, as cardinal of Monte Alto, had taken greatly to the Japanese, was
not less favorable to them as Pope. They assisted, among the other
ambassadors of kings, at his coronation, bearing the canopy and holding
the basin for his Holiness to wash in when he said mass. They had the
same honors when the pontiff was enthroned at Saint John Lateran. The
holy father afterwards invited them to visit his country-house, where
they were splendidly entertained and regaled on his behalf by his
steward and four-and-twenty prelates.
Finally, on the eve of the Ascension, in the presence of all the Roman
nobility, they were dubbed knights of the gilded spurs. The Pope
himself girded on their swords, while the spurs of the two princes
were buckled on by the ambassadors of France and Venice, and those of
the two others by the Marquis Altemps; after which the Pope placed
about their necks chains of gold, to which his medal was attached,
and kissed and embraced them. The next day his Holiness said mass in
person, and they communicated from his hand. He dismissed them with
briefs, addressed to their princes, of which the following may serve as
a sample:
“BRIEF OF POPE SIXTUS V TO THE KING OF ARIMA
“_Noble prince and our well-beloved son, salvation and apostolical
benediction._
“Our well-beloved son Dom Michael, your ambassador to this court,
delivered to Pope Gregory XIII, our predecessor, of holy and happy
memory, now, as we must presume, in glory, the letters with which your
majesty had charged him; and after these letters had been publicly
read, he rendered to that pontiff the obedience due to the vicar of
Jesus Christ, and which all Catholic kings are accustomed to render
to him. This was done in presence of all the cardinals of the holy
church, then assembled at Rome, of which number we were. A greater
concourse of persons of all conditions, and a greater public joy, had
never been seen. Shortly after, it having pleased God to charge us,
without our having in the least merited it, with the government of
His church, we have also received with entirely paternal tenderness
the same duties of obedience which Dom Michael has renewed to us, in
the name of your majesty; whereupon we have thought proper to add
you to the number of our very dear children, the Catholic kings of
the holy church. We have seen, with much joy and satisfaction, the
testimonies of your piety and religion; and, to give you the means of
increasing these in your heart, we have sent you, by your before-named
ambassador, inclosed in a cross of gold, a piece of the cross to which
was nailed Jesus Christ, King of kings and eternal Priest, who, by
the effusion of his blood, has made us also kings and priests of the
living God. We send you, also, a sword and hat, which we have blessed,
such as it is the custom of the Roman pontiff to send to all the
Catholic kings, and we pray the Lord to be the support of your majesty
in all your enterprises. According to the usage in the courts of the
kings of Europe, the sword and hat should be received at the end of
a mass, to which we shall attach a plenary indulgence for all sins
for the benefit of all who may assist thereat, and who, after having
confessed themselves, shall pray for the tranquillity of the Catholic
church, the salvation of the Christian princes, and the extirpation of
heresies—provided they have a true confidence in the divine mercy, in
the power which has been given to the holy apostles Peter and Paul,
and in that with which we are clothed. Given at Rome, at St. Peter’s,
under the seal of the fisherman,” etc.
From Rome, escorted out of the city with all honors, the ambassadors
went by way of Loretto, where they paid their devotions, to Venice,
and thence to Milan and Genoa, at which latter place they embarked
for Barcelona. They declined, as they had been so long from home, a
pressing invitation from Henry III to visit France, and, after a new
audience with Philip II, they hastened to sail from Lisbon on their
return voyage, embarking April 13, 1586.[48]