See the triumph of the martyrs of Japan. by F. Trigault, from the year
1612 to 1640, the history of Japan, by F. Crasset, to the year 1658, and
that by the learned F. Charlevoix in nine volumes: also the life of F.
Spinola, &c.
THE empire of Japan, so called from one of the islands of which it is
composed, was discovered by certain Portuguese merchants, about the year
1541. It is generally divided into several little kingdoms, all which
obey one sovereign emperor. The capital cities are Meaco and Jedo. The
manners of this people are the reverse of ours in many things. Their
characteristic is pride, and an extravagant love of honor. They adore
idols of grotesque shapes, by which they represent certain famous wicked
ancestors: the chiefest are Amida and Xacha. Their priests are called
Bonzas, and all obey the Jaco, or high-priest. St. Francis Xavier
arrived in Japan in 1549, baptized great numbers, and whole provinces
received the faith. The great kings of Arima, Bungo, and Omura, sent a
solemn embassy of obedience to pope Gregory XIII. in 1582: and in 1587
there were in Japan above two hundred thousand Christians, and among
these several kings, princes, and bonzas, but in 1588, Cambacundono, the
haughty emperor, having usurped the honors of a deity, commanded all the
Jesuits to leave his dominions within six months: however, many remained
there disguised. In 1593, the persecution was renewed, and several
Japanese converts received the crown of martyrdom. The emperor
Tagcosama, one of the proudest and most vicious of men, was worked up
into rage and jealousy by a suspicion suggested by certain European
merchants desirous of the monopoly of this trade, that the view of the
missionaries in preaching the Christian faith was to facilitate the
conquest of their country by the Portuguese or Spaniards. Three Jesuits
and six Franciscans were crucified on {360}a hill near Nangasaqui in
1597. The latter were partly Spaniards and partly Indians, and had at
their head F. Peter Baptist, commissary of his Order, a native of Avila,
in Spain. As to the Jesuits, one was Paul Michi, a noble Japanese and an
eminent preacher, at that time thirty-three years old. The other two,
John Gotto and James Kisai, were admitted into the Society in prison a
little before they suffered. Several Japanese converts suffered with
them. The martyrs were twenty-six in number, and among them were three
boys who used to serve the friars at mass; two of them were fifteen
years of age, and the third only twelve, yet each showed great joy and
constancy in their sufferings. Of these martyrs, twenty-four had been
brought to Meaco, where only a part of their left ears was cut off, by a
mitigation of the sentence which had commanded the amputation of their
noses and both ears. They were conducted through many towns and public
places, their cheeks stained with blood, for a terror to others. When
the twenty-six soldiers of Christ were arrived at the place of execution
near Nangasaqui, they were allowed to make their confession to two
Jesuits of the convent, in that town, and being fastened to crosses by
cords and chains, about their arms and legs, and an iron collar about
their necks, were raised into the air, the foot of each cross falling
into a hole prepared for it in the ground. The crosses were planted in a
row, about four feet asunder, and each martyr had an executioner near
him with a spear ready to pierce his side, for such is the Japanese
manner of crucifixion. As soon as all the crosses were planted, the
executioners lifted up their lances, and at a signal given, all pierced
the martyrs almost in the same instant; upon which they expired and went
to receive the reward of their sufferings. Their blood and garments were
procured by Christians, and miracles were wrought by them. Urban VIII.
ranked them among the martyrs, and they are honored on the 5th of
February, the day of their triumph. The rest of the missionaries were
put on board a vessel, and carried out of the dominions, except
twenty-eight priests, who stayed behind in disguise. Tagcosama dying,
ordered his body should not be burned, as was the custom in Japan, but
preserved enshrined in his palace of Fuximi, that he might be worshipped
among the gods under the title of the new god of war. The most stately
temple in the empire was built to him, and his body deposited in it. The
Jesuits returned soon after, and though the missionaries were only a
hundred in number, they converted, in 1599, forty thousand, and in 1600,
above thirty thousand, and built fifty churches; for the people were
highly scandalized to see him worshipped as a god, whom they had
remembered a most covetous, proud, and vicious tyrant. But in 1602,
Cubosama renewed the bloody persecution, and many Japanese converts were
beheaded, crucified, or burned. In 1614, new cruelties were exercised to
overcome their constancy, as by bruising their feet between certain
pieces of wood, cutting off or squeezing their limbs one after another,
applying red-hot irons or slow fires, flaying off the skin of the
fingers, putting burning coals to their hands, tearing off the flesh
with pincers, or thrusting reeds into all parts of their bodies, and
turning them about to tear their flesh, till they should say they would
forsake their faith: all which, innumerable persons, even children, bore
with invincible constancy till death. In 1616, Xogun succeeding his
father Cubosama in the empire, surpassed him in cruelty. The most
illustrious of these religious heroes was F. Charles Spinola. He was of
a noble Genoese family, and entered the Society at Nola, while his uncle
cardinal Spinola was bishop of that city. Out of zeal and a desire of
martyrdom, he begged to be sent on the Japanese mission. He arrived
there in 1602; labored many years in that mission, gained many to
Christ, by his mildness, and lived in great austerity, for his usual
food was only a little rice and {361} herbs. He suffered four years a
most cruel imprisonment, during which, in burning fevers, he was not
able to obtain of his keepers a drop of cold water out of meals: yet he
wrote from his dungeon: "Father, how sweet and delightful is it to
suffer for Jesus Christ! I have learned this better by experience than I
am able to express, especially since we are in these dungeons where we
fast continually. The strength of my body fails me, but my joy increases
as I see death draw nearer. O what a happiness for me, if next Easter I
shall sing the heavenly Alleluia in the company of the blessed!" In a
long letter to his cousin Maximilian Spinola, he said: "O, if you had
tasted the delights with which God tills the souls of those who serve
him, and suffer for him, how would you contemn all that the world can
promise! I now begin to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, since for his
love I am in prison, where I suffer much. But I assure you, that when I
am fainting with hunger, God hath fortified me by his sweet
consolations, so that I have looked upon myself as well recompensed for
his service. And though I were yet to pass many years in prison, the
time would appear short, through the extreme desire which I feel of
suffering for him, who even here so well repays our labors. Besides
other sickness, I have been afflicted with a continual fever a hundred
days without any remedies or proper nourishment. All this time my heart
was so full of joy, that it seemed to me too narrow to contain it. I
have never felt any equal to it, and I thought myself at the gates of
paradise." His joy was excessive at the news that he was condemned to be
burnt alive, and he never ceased to thank God for so great a mercy, of
which he owned himself unworthy. He was conducted from his last prison
at Omura to Nangasaqui, where fifty martyrs suffered together on a hill
within sight of that city-nine Jesuits, four Franciscans, and six
Dominicans, the rest seculars: twenty-five were burned, the rest
beheaded. The twenty-five stakes were fixed all in a row, and the
martyrs tied to them. Fire was set to the end of the pile of wood
twenty-five feet from the martyrs, and gradually approached them, two
hours before it reached them. F. Spinola stood unmoved, with his eyes
lifted up towards heaven, till the cords which tied him being burnt, he
fell into the flames, and was consumed, on the 2d of September, in 1622,
being fifty-eight years old. Many others, especially Jesuits, suffered
variously, being either burnt at slow fires, crucified, beheaded, or
thrown into a burning mountain, or hung with their heads downward in
pits, which cruel torment usually put an end to their lives in three or
four days. In 1639, the Portuguese and all other Europeans, except the
Dutch, were forbid to enter Japan, even for trade; the very ambassadors
which the Portuguese sent thither were beheaded. In 1642, five Jesuits
landed secretly in Japan, but were soon discovered, and after cruel
tortures were hung in pits till they expired. Thus hath Japan encouraged
the church militant, and filled the triumphant with glorious martyrs:
though only the first-mentioned have as yet been publicly declared such
by the holy See, who are mentioned in the new edition of the Roman
Martyrology published by Benedict XIV. in 1749.
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