_Great Earthquake—Mission from China—Arrival of a Spanish
Galleon—Friars on Board her—New Accusations on her Account against the
Jesuits—Connection of the Jesuits with the Trade to Japan—Arrest of
Missionaries and Converts—First Martyrs—A. D. 1595-1597._
The emperor, now at the height of his power and glory, was making
great preparations to receive an embassy from China, when Japan was
visited by a frightful earthquake, which almost ruined his new city of
Fushimi. The sea rose to an extraordinary height, especially in the
strait between Nippon and Shikoku, attended with a terrible destruction
of life and property. Nor did the mission from China at all answer the
expectation of the emperor, since the ambassadors demanded nothing less
than the entire evacuation of Corea,—a demand which speedily led to a
renewal of the war.
In 1596, a richly laden Spanish galleon, from the Philippines, disabled
and driven by adverse winds to the coast of Japan, was induced, partly
by persuasions and partly by a show of force, to enter a harbor on
the south coast of Shikoku, where she was immediately seized by the
local authorities as forfeited. The commander of the vessel sent two
of his officers to Miyako to solicit a remission of this forfeiture,
which mission was charged to have nothing to do with the Jesuits, but
to consult only with the Franciscans established in that city. It had,
however, no success. The prize seemed to the emperor too valuable to
be given up. Driven at length by extremity to seek the aid of the
Jesuits, the ship’s company, after being for some time supported by
their charity, were shipped off by their assistance to Manila, all
except four Augustine friars, a Dominican and two Franciscans, who
remained in Japan as missionaries. But, instead of getting any thanks
from the inhabitants of Manila, the Jesuits were accused of having by
their intrigues caused the forfeiture of the ship and her cargo.[60]
A narrative of the affair, written by a monk, and full of charges
against the Jesuits, was printed there, and sent to Spanish America,
whence it was carried to Europe, and widely diffused by the enemies of
the order, being soon followed by violent memorials to the same effect,
addressed to the Pope and the king of Spain. These charges, however,
did not remain unanswered, a reply to them being published at Acapulco,
signed by a number of Japanese who traded thither,[61] and by several
Spaniards and Portuguese who had been in Japan.
It was the Manila pamphlet above referred to which first brought
against the Jesuits the charges, ultimately so damaging to the order,
of an uncanonical connection with commerce. The account of this trade,
so far as Japan was concerned, as given by the Jesuits themselves, is
as follows. The revenues of the mission had consisted at first only
of the charities of some individuals, aided by a sum of five hundred
ducats, paid yearly at Macao by the king of Portugal—a donation doubled
in 1574, to facilitate the foundation of a college. Some considerable
amounts had been received at different times from the wealthier native
converts; but almost the whole of these sums had been expended in the
founding and support of hospitals and other charities. For several
years the chief resource of the fathers for their own support had been
the proceeds of a fund of four thousand ducats, which Louis Almeida,
on entering the order in 1556, and devoting himself to the Japanese
mission, as mentioned in a former chapter, had set aside for that
purpose out of his own private fortune, all the rest of which he had
bestowed in the founding of hospitals. This fund had been entrusted by
Almeida to certain Portuguese merchants to trade upon for the benefit
of the Jesuits. But, though this trust had been faithfully executed,
the proceeds of it had been quite too small to support the increasing
number of the missionaries. Some small pensions, allowed them by the
Popes Gregory XIII and Sixtus V, failed to make up the deficiency; and,
at length, it was agreed by the commercial company at Macao, by whom
the annual Portuguese carac was fitted out for Japan, and by means of
which the chief trade between Japan and the Portuguese was now carried
on, that out of the sixteen hundred packages of silks, which formed
a part of her cargo, fifty (afterwards increased to eighty) packages
should be shipped on account of the Jesuits,—an arrangement to which
the viceroy of the Indies assented. For this business two commercial
agencies were maintained by the Jesuits,—one at Macao, the other at
Nagasaki. The enemies of the Jesuits insisted that they sent to Japan
yearly goods to the value of a hundred and sixty thousand ducats, on
which their profits were sixty thousand. This was probably exaggerated;
yet, when Charlevoix pretends that the whole annual Portuguese trade
and profits did not amount to those sums, his statement is refuted as
well by other known facts as by the vastly larger value of the cargoes
of such of the annual caracs as some years later fell into the hands of
the Dutch.
While the unlucky affair of the forfeited Spanish galleon caused Europe
to resound with accusations against the Jesuits, in Japan itself it
had results more speedily and more fatal. The Spanish pilot, finding
that entreaties did not succeed, had attempted to make an impression
upon those who had seized the ship by expatiating on the power of the
king of Spain, the extent of whose dominions in Europe, Asia, Africa,
and America, he exhibited on a map of the world. To the inquiry how
such an extent of dominion had been obtained, the pilot replied that
nothing was easier; that the king began by sending missionaries into
the countries he wished to conquer, who, as soon as they had converted
a part of the inhabitants, were followed by troops, which troops, being
joined by the converts, easily succeeded in subduing the country. This
statement, it is said, was immediately reported to the emperor, who
no sooner heard it than he ordered guards to be placed at the doors
of the Franciscan converts at Miyako and Ōsaka, at which latter city,
since the earthquake, the emperor had made his residence. Guards were
also placed at the houses of the Jesuits; but in that at Ōsaka there
was only one young priest with two proselytes, and in that at Miyako
only the aged Father Gnecchi, who soon, through the dexterity of some
of his friends, was conveyed out of it unobserved by the guards. There
were taken in the convents of the Franciscans three priests, a clerk,
and two lay brothers, one of them a Spanish creole of Mexico, the other
a Portuguese creole of the East Indies. A list was also ordered to be
taken of the persons who frequented the Franciscan churches at Miyako
and Ōsaka. A great many names were originally placed on it, but the
governor of Miyako, desirous to limit as much as possible the number of
victims, finally struck off all but fifteen, who also were put under
arrest.
On the 3d of January, 1597, these twenty-four prisoners were taken to
a public square in Miyako, where each of them had the tip of his left
ear cut off, after which they were placed in carriages and paraded
through the streets. A similar ceremony soon after took place in Sakai
and Ōsaka, whence the prisoners were sent to Nagasaki to be executed.
At all the towns and cities on the way they were made a spectacle of,
as if to terrify those of the same faith. But they exhibited, we are
told, great fervor and firmness, making many new converts and inspiring
many old ones with the desire of martyrdom. On the way their number
was increased to twenty-six by the addition of two others who had
greatly busied themselves in ministering to the wants of the prisoners,
and who, upon being asked if they were Catholics, replied that they
detested the gods of Japan.
Fortunately for himself, Terazawa, the secretly converted governor
of Nagasaki, had been ordered to Corea, his place being supplied by
a pagan brother of his, by whom an edict was issued threatening with
death all who should embrace the foreign religion. At the same time
he intimated to the Jesuits that he should allow no Japanese to enter
their church in that city, nor themselves to traverse the country, as
they had done, preaching and baptizing. He exhibited, however, every
disposition to be as indulgent as possible in the execution of his
orders; for though the prisoners were denied the privilege of hearing
mass, they were permitted on their way to the place of execution to
stop at the hermitage of St. Lazarus, where the Jesuits confessed to
Father Rodriguez and another of their order, who met them there, and
the Franciscans to each other.
The place of execution was not that made use of for ordinary
malefactors, but a hill bordering on the sea, one of those by which
the city of Nagasaki is surrounded, and thenceforth known among the
converts as the _Holy Mountain_, or _Mount of Martyrs_, to which
name it gained still further claim by becoming the scene of many
subsequent executions, continuing also, as long as the new religion
lasted in Japan, a place of pilgrimage for its adherents. The prisoners
were followed to this hill by an excited crowd, who, with tears and
benedictions, besought their prayers. They were put to death by
crucifixion, which, however, according to the Japanese method, is
not a lingering punishment. The sufferer is bound, not nailed, to the
cross, and his body is immediately pierced by a lance, or sometimes by
two lances, thrust in at the sides, and coming out at the shoulders.
The earth, wet with the martyr’s precious blood, was sedulously
gathered up by the bystanders, and, in spite of the care with which the
bodies were guarded, those of the three Jesuits were conveyed away to
Macao; or, at least, bodies alleged to be the same were preserved in
the churches there with great veneration as relics. Many miracles were
alleged to have attended and followed the death of these martyrs, as to
which duly authenticated affidavits may be found recorded in the great
collection of Bolandus, affording grounds for the canonization of these
twenty-six Japanese proto-martyrs, decreed, thirty years after, by Pope
Urban VIII.