A History of the Japanese People Part 68

But the Jesuits have not left any misgivings on record. They relate that during Xavier's sojourn in Bungo he had numerous public debates--one continuing for five days--with Buddhist priests, but even Fernandez not being available as an interpreter, these debates must have been either farcical or imaginary, though brilliant results are claimed for them by the Church historians. That Xavier himself was not satisfied is proved by his determination to transfer his ministrations to China, for he said, "if the Chinese adopt the Christian religion, the j.a.panese also will abandon the religions they have introduced from China."

SECOND PERIOD OF PROPAGANDISM

Torres and Fernandez remained in j.a.pan after Xavier's departure and were there joined soon afterwards by three others. The new-comers landed at Kagos.h.i.+ma and found that the Satsuma baron was as keen as ever in welcoming foreign trade, although his att.i.tude towards the alien religion continued antipathetic. Bungo now became the headquarters of the Jesuits in j.a.pan. Local disturbances had compelled them to leave Yamaguchi, where their disputes with Buddhist priests had become so violent that an official proscription of the Western religion was p.r.o.nounced. In Funai, the capital of the province of Bungo, they built their first church in j.a.pan and also a hospital. From that place, too, they began to send yearly reports known as the Annual Letters to their generals in Rome, and these Letters give an interesting insight into the conditions then existing in j.a.pan. The writers "describe a state of abject poverty among the lower orders--poverty so cruel that the destruction of children by their famis.h.i.+ng parents was an every-day occurrence." This terrible state of affairs was due to the civil wars which had entered their most violent phase in the Onin era (1467-1468), and had continued without intermission ever since. The trade carried on by the Portuguese did not, however, suffer any interruption. Their vessels repaired to Hirado as well as to Funai, and the masters and seamen of the s.h.i.+ps appear to have treated the missionaries with such scrupulous respect that the j.a.panese formed an almost exaggerated conception of the civil influence wielded by the religionists. It further appears that in those early days the Portuguese seamen refrained from the riotous excesses which had already won for them a most unenviable reputation in China.

In fact, their good conduct const.i.tuted an object lesson in the interests of Christianity. We learn, incidentally that, in 1557, two of the fathers, visiting Hirado at the instance of some Portuguese sailors who felt in want of religious ministrations, organized a kind of propagandism which antic.i.p.ated the methods of the Salvation Army.

They "sent brothers to parade the streets, ringing bells, and chaunting litanies; they organized bands of boys for the same purpose; they caused the converts, and even children, to flagellate themselves at a model of Mount Calvary, and they worked miracles, healing the sick by contact with scourges or with a booklet in which Xavier had written litanies and prayers. It may well be imagined that such doings attracted surprised attention in j.a.pan. They were supplemented by even more striking practices. For a sub-feudatory of the Hirado chief, having been converted, showed his zeal by destroying Buddhist temples and throwing down the idols, thus inaugurating a campaign of violence destined to mark the progress of Christianity throughout the greater part of its history in j.a.pan.

There followed the overthrowing of a cross in the Christian cemetery, the burning of a temple in the town of Hirado, and a street riot, the sequel being that the Jesuit fathers were compelled to return once more to Bungo."*

*Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th edition; article "j.a.pan," by Brinkley.

All this conveys an idea of the guise under which Christianity was presented originally to the j.a.panese. Meanwhile, the Portuguese traders did not allow their commerce to be interrupted by any misfortunes which overtook the Jesuits. Hirado continued to be frequented by Portuguese merchantmen, and news of the value of their trade induced Sumitada, feudatory of Omura, to invite the Jesuits in Bungo to his fief, offering them a free port for ten years, an extensive tract of land, a residence for the missionaries, and other privileges. This induced the Hirado feudatory to revoke the edict which he had issued against the Jesuits, and they were preparing to take advantage of his renewed hospitality when a Portuguese merchantman entered Hirado. Its appearance convinced the local chieftain that trade could be had without the accompaniment of religion, towards which he renewed his hostility. When, however, this change of demeanour was communicated to Funai, the Jesuit leader, Torres, hastened thence to Hirado, and induced the master of the merchantman to leave the port on the ground that he could not remain in a country where they maltreated those who professed the same religion as himself. Thereafter, for some years, Hirado remained outside the pale of foreign trade. But ultimately three merchant vessels appeared in the offing and announced their willingness to put in provided that the anti-Christian ban was removed. This remonstrance proved effective. A parallel case occurred a few years later in the island of Amakusa. There a petty baron, avowedly for the purpose of attracting foreign trade, embraced Christianity and required all his va.s.sals to follow his example. But when no Portuguese s.h.i.+p arrived, he apostatized; ordered his va.s.sals to return to their old faith, and expelled the missionaries.

"In fact, the compet.i.tion for the patronage of Portuguese traders was so keen that the Hirado feudatory attempted to burn several of their vessels because they frequented the territorial waters of his neighbour and rival, Sumitada. The latter became a most stalwart Christian when his wish was gratified. He set himself to eradicate idolatry throughout his fief with the strong arm, and his fierce intolerance provoked revolts which ended in the destruction of the Christian town at the newly opened free port. Sumitada, however, quickly rea.s.serted his authority, and five years later (1567), he took a step which had far-reaching consequences, namely, the building of a church at Nagasaki, in order that Portuguese commerce might have a centre and the Christians an a.s.sured asylum. Nagasaki was then a little fis.h.i.+ng village. In five years it grew to be a town of thirty thousand inhabitants, and Sumitada became one of the richest of the Kyushu feudatories."*

*Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th edition; article "j.a.pan," by Brinkley.

This baron appears to have been sincere in his adoption of the foreign religion. "When in 1573, successful conflicts with neighbouring fiefs brought him an access of territory, he declared that he owed these victories to the influence of the Christian G.o.d, and shortly afterwards he proclaimed banishment for all who would not accept the foreign faith. There were then no Jesuits by his side, but immediately two hastened to join him, and 'these accompanied by a strong guard, but yet not without danger of their lives, went round causing the churches of the Gentiles, with their idols, to be thrown down to the ground, while three j.a.panese Christians went preaching the law of G.o.d everywhere.'" They further record that three fathers who were in the neighbouring fief "all withdrew therefrom to work in this abundant harvest, and in the s.p.a.ce of seven months twenty thousand persons were baptized, including the bonzes of about sixty monasteries."* The Jesuit vice-provincial (Francis Cabral), relating these events, speaks with marked satisfaction of the abas.e.m.e.nt of the Buddhist priests, and adds, "That these should now come to such a humility that they throw themselves on the ground before two ragged members of the Company is one of the miracles worked by the Divine Majesty."

*Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th edition; article "j.a.pan," by Brinkley.

In Funai things were by no means so satisfactory. The Jesuits, as stated above, had a hospital there, which had been built at the charges of a devout Portuguese. But Francis Cabral, writing from Bungo, in 1576, said: "Down to this hour the Christians have been so abject and vile that they have shown no desire to acknowledge themselves, partly from being few in the midst of so many Gentiles, partly because the said Christianity began in the hospital where we cure the people of low condition and those suffering from contagious diseases, like the French evil and such others. Whence the Gospel came to be of such little reputation that no man of position would dare to accept it (although it seemed good and true to him) merely lest he should be confounded with this rabble (con quella plebe). And although we gave much edification with such works, the thing nevertheless was a great obstacle to the spread of the holy faith.

And thus, during the twenty years we have had a residence in Funai, one gentleman became a Christian, and this after having been cured of the said evil in his house; but as soon as he was cured he afterwards thought it shame to acknowledge his Christianity in the presence of others."

This most disheartening record underwent a complete change in 1576, when the son of the Bungo feudatory, a youth of some sixteen years, and, two years later, the feudatory himself, Otomo, embraced the Christian faith. In the first Annual Letter sent to Rome after these events a striking admission is made: "It is Otomo, next to G.o.d, whom the Jesuits have to thank for their success in j.a.pan." This appreciation looks somewhat exaggerated when placed side by side with the incidents that occurred in Sumitada's fief, as related above.

Nevertheless, Otomo certainly did render powerful aid, not within his own fief alone but also through his influence elsewhere. Thus, he did not hesitate to have recourse to arms in order to obtain for the Jesuits access to the island of Amakusa, where one of the local barons, tempted originally by tradal prospects and afterwards urged by his wife, called upon his va.s.sals to choose between conversion or exile, and issued an order that any Buddhist priests refusing to accept Christianity would have their property confiscated and their persons banished.

Practically the whole population became converts under the pressure of these edicts, and it is thus seen that Christianity owed much of its success in Kyushu to methods which recall Islam and the Inquisition. Another ill.u.s.tration of this is furnished by the Arima fief, which adjoined that of Omura where Sumitada ruled. The heads of these two fiefs were brothers, and thus when Sumitada embraced Christianity the Jesuits received an invitation to visit Arima at the ports of Kuchinotsu and s.h.i.+mabara, where from that time Portuguese s.h.i.+ps repaired frequently. In 1576, the Arima baron, seeing the prosperity and power which had followed the conversion of his brother Sumitada, accepted baptism and became the "Prince Andrew" of missionary records. In those records we read that "the first thing Prince Andrew did after his baptism was to convert the chief temple of his capital into a church, its revenues being a.s.signed for the maintenance of the building and the support of the missionaries. He then took measures to have the same thing done in the other towns of his fief, and he seconded the preachers of the Gospel so well in everything else that he could flatter himself that he soon would not have one single idolater in his states." This fanatical "Prince Andrew" survived his baptism by two years only, but during that time twenty thousand converts were made in Arima. His successor, however, was a believer in Buddhism. He caused the Christian churches to be destroyed and the crosses to be thrown down; he ordered the Jesuits to quit his dominions, and he required the converts to return to Buddhism. Under this pressure about one-half of the converts apostatized, but the rest threatened to leave Kuchinotsu en ma.s.se.

However this would have meant the loss of foreign trade, and as a result of this circ.u.mstance the anti-Christian edicts were radically modified.

Just at that time, also, a fortunate incident occurred. It had become the custom for a large vessel from Macao to visit j.a.pan every year, and the advent of this s.h.i.+p had great importance from a commercial point of view. It chanced that she made the port of Kuchinotsu her place of call in 1578, and her presence suggested such a pleasing outcome that the feudatory embraced Christianity and allowed his va.s.sals to do the same. By this "great s.h.i.+p from Macao" the Jesuit vice-general, Valegnani was a pa.s.senger. A statesman as well as a preacher, this astute politician made such a clever use of the opportunity that, in 1580, "all the city was made Christian, and the people burned their idols and destroyed forty temples, reserving some materials to build churches."

RESULTS OF THE FIRST THREE DECADES OF PROPAGANDISM

The record achieved by the Christian propagandists up to this time was distinctly satisfactory. In the Annual Letter of 1582 we find it stated that, at the close of 1581, that is to say, thirty-two years after Xavier's landing in j.a.pan there were about 150,000 converts. Of these some 125,000 were in Kyushu; the remainder in Yamaguchi, Kyoto, and the vicinity of the latter city. As for the Jesuits in j.a.pan, they then numbered seventy-five, but down to the year 1563 there had never been more than nine. "The harvest was certainly great in proportion to the number of sowers. But it was a harvest mainly of artificial growth, forced by despotic insistence of feudal chiefs who possessed the power of life and death over their va.s.sals, and were influenced by a desire to attract foreign trade."

BUDDHISM AND CHRISTIANITY

"To the Buddhist priests this movement of Christian propagandism had brought an experience hitherto almost unknown in j.a.pan--persecution solely on account of creed. They had suffered for interfering in politics, but the cruel vehemence of the Christian fanatic may be said to have now become known for the first time to men themselves usually conspicuous for tolerance of heresy and for receptivity of instruction. They had had little previous experience of humanity in the garb of an Otomo of Bungo, who, in the words of Cra.s.set, Svent to the chase of the bonzes as to that of wild beasts, and made it his singular pleasure to exterminate them from his states.'"*

*Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th edition; article "j.a.pan," by Brinkley.

j.a.pANESE EMBa.s.sY TO EUROPE

Another important result of the coming of Valegnani to j.a.pan was that, in 1582, an emba.s.sy sailed from Nagasaki for Europe. It consisted of four young men, representing the fiefs of Arima, Omura, and Bungo, and it is related that at Lisbon, Madrid, and Rome they were received with an elaborate show of dazzling magnificence, so that they carried back to their island home a vivid impression of the might and wealth of Western countries.

KYOTO AND CHRISTIANITY

It has already been shown that the visit to Kyoto by Xavier and Fernandez was wholly unsuccessful. Such was not the case, however, when another visit was made to the same city by Vilela, in the year 1559. This eminent missionary had been invited to Kyoto by the abbot of the celebrated Buddhist monastery of Hiei-zan, who desired to investigate the Christian doctrine. It is to be noted that, at this time, Christian propagandism in Kyushu had not yet begun to be disfigured by acts of violence. Vilela carried letters of introduction from the Bungo feudatory, but before he reached the capital the Buddhist abbot of Hiei-zan had died, and his successor did not show the same liberal spirit of inquiry. Still, Vilela was permitted to expound his doctrines in the presence of a gathering of priests in the great monastery, and afterwards the good offices of one of these bonzes, supplemented by the letter of the Bungo feudatory, procured for the Jesuit father the honour of being received by the shogun, Yos.h.i.+teru, who treated him with much consideration and a.s.signed a house for his residence.

Vilela does not seem to have allowed himself to be influenced in any degree by the aid that he received on this occasion from his Buddhist friend, who is described as "one of the most respected men in the city." The Jesuit father seized the first opportunity to denounce Buddhism and its followers in unmeasured terms, and soon the bonzes began to intrigue with corresponding vehemence for the expulsion of the foreign propagandists. But the shogun extended his protection to Vilela, by issuing a decree which made it a capital punishment to injure the missionaries or obstruct their work. The times, however, were very troublous, so that Vilela and his fellow workers had to encounter much difficulty and no little danger. Nothing, however, damped their ardour, and five years after their arrival in Kyoto they had not only obtained many converts but had organized churches in five towns within a radius of fifty miles from the capital. Two incidents may be specially mentioned ill.u.s.trating the loyal spirit with which the j.a.panese of that time approached controversy. Among Vilela's converts were two Buddhist priests who had been nominated officially to investigate and report upon the novel doctrines, and who, in the sequel of their investigation, openly embraced Christianity though they had originally been vehemently opposed to it. The second incident was the conversion of a petty feudatory, Takayama, whose fief lay at Takatsuki in the vicinity of the capital.

He challenged Vilela to a public discussion of the merits of the two creeds, and being vanquished, he frankly acknowledged his defeat, adopted Christianity, and invited his va.s.sals as well as his family to follow his example. His son, Yusho, became one of the most loyal supporters of Christianity in all j.a.pan. He is the "Don Justo Ukondono" of the Jesuits' annals.

n.o.bUNAGA AND CHRISTIANITY

At the time of Vilela's visit to Kyoto civil war was raging. It led to the death of the shogun, Yos.h.i.+teru, and to the issue of an Imperial decree proscribing Christianity, Vilela and his two comrades were obliged to take refuge in the town of Sakai, and they remained there during three years, when they were invited to an interview with Oda n.o.bunaga, who, at this time, had risen almost to the pinnacle of his immense power. Had n.o.bunaga shown himself hostile to Christianity, the latter's fate in j.a.pan would have been quickly sealed; but not only was he a man of wide and liberal views, but also he harboured a strong antipathy against the Buddhists, whose armed interference in politics had caused him much embarra.s.sment. He welcomed Christianity largely as an opponent of Buddhism, and when Takayama conducted Froez from Sakai to n.o.bunaga's presence, the Jesuit received a cordial welcome. Thenceforth, during the fourteen remaining years of his life, n.o.bunaga steadily befriended the missionaries in particular and foreign visitors to j.a.pan in general.

He stood between the Jesuits and the Throne when, in reply to an appeal from Buddhist priests, the Emperor Okimachi, for the second time, issued an anti-Christian decree (1568); he granted a site for a church and a residence at Azuchi on Lake Biwa, where his new castle stood; he addressed to various powerful feudatories letters signifying a desire for the spread of Christianity; he frequently made handsome presents to the fathers, and whenever they visited him he showed himself accessible and gracious. The Jesuits said of him: "This man seems to have been chosen by G.o.d to open and prepare the way for our faith. In proportion to the intensity of his enmity to the bonzes and their sects is his good-will towards our fathers who preach the law of G.o.d, whence he has shown them so many favours that his subjects are amazed and unable to divine what he is aiming at in this. I will only say that, humanly speaking, what has above all given great credit and reputation to the fathers is the great favour n.o.bunaga has shown for the Company." It is not to be supposed, however, that n.o.bunaga's att.i.tude towards the Jesuits signified any belief in their doctrines. In 1579, he took a step which showed plainly that policy as a statesman ranked much higher in his estimation than duty towards religion. For, in order to ensure the armed a.s.sistance of a certain feudatory, a professing Christian, n.o.bunaga seized the Jesuits in Kyoto, and threatened to ban their religion altogether unless they persuaded the feudatory to adopt n.o.bunaga's side. Nevertheless, that Christianity benefited much by his patronage there can be no dissentient opinion.

HIDEYOs.h.i.+ AND CHRISTIANITY

After n.o.bunaga's death, in 1582, the supreme power fell into the hands of Hideyos.h.i.+, and had he chosen to exercise it, he could have easily undone the whole work hitherto achieved by the Jesuits at the cost of much effort and devotion. But, at first, Hideyos.h.i.+ followed n.o.bunaga's example. He not only accorded a friendly audience to Father Organtino, as representative of the fathers, but also he went in person to a.s.sign to the Company a site for a church and a residence in Osaka. At this time, "many Christian converts were serving in high positions, and in 1584, the Jesuits placed it on record that 'Hideyos.h.i.+ was not only not opposed to the things of G.o.d, but he even showed that he made much account of them (the fathers) and preferred them to all the sects of the bonzes. . . He is entrusting to Christians his treasures, his secrets, and his fortresses of most importance, and he shows himself well pleased that the sons of the great lords about him should adopt our customs and our law.' Two years later in Osaka he received with every mark of cordiality and favour a Jesuit mission which had come from Nagasaki seeking audience, and on that occasion his visitors recorded that he spoke of an intention of christianizing one half of j.a.pan." Nor did he confine himself to licensing the missionaries to preach throughout all j.a.pan: he exempted not only churches from the billeting of soldiers but also the priests themselves from local burdens.

"This was in 1586, on the eve of his great military enterprise, the invasion of Kyushu. . . He carried that difficult campaign to completion by the middle of 1587, and throughout its course he maintained a uniformly friendly demeanour toward the Jesuits. But suddenly, when on the return journey he reached Hakata in the north of the island, his policy underwent a radical metamorphosis. Five questions were by his orders propounded to the vice-provincial of the Jesuits: 'Why and by what authority he and his fellow propagandists had constrained j.a.panese subjects to become Christians? Why they had induced their disciples and their sectaries to overthrow temples? Why they persecuted the bonzes? Why they and other Portuguese ate animals useful to men, such as oxen and cows? Why the vice-provincial allowed merchants of his nation to buy j.a.panese and make slaves of them in the Indies?' To these queries Coelho, the vice-provincial, made answer that the missionaries had never themselves resorted, or incited, to violence in their propagandism, or persecuted bonzes; that if their eating of beef was considered inadvisable, they would give up the practice, and that they were powerless to prevent or restrain the outrages perpetrated by their countrymen. Hideyos.h.i.+ read the vice-provincial's reply and, without comment, sent him word to retire to Hirado, a.s.semble all his followers there, and quit the country within six months. On the next day (July 25, 1587) the following edict was published:

'Having learned from our faithful councillors that foreign priests have come into our estates, where they preach a law contrary to that of j.a.pan, and that they have even had the audacity to destroy temples dedicated to our Kami and Hotoke; although the outrage merits the most extreme punishment, wis.h.i.+ng nevertheless to show them mercy, we order them under pain of death to quit j.a.pan within twenty days.

During that s.p.a.ce no harm or hurt will be done, to them. But at the expiration of that term, we order that if any of them be found in our estates, they should be seized and punished as the greatest criminals. As for the Portuguese merchants, we permit them to enter our ports, there to continue their accustomed trade, and to remain in our estates provided our affairs need this. But we forbid them to bring any foreign priests into the country, under the penalty of the confiscation of their s.h.i.+ps and goods.'"*

*Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th edition; article "j.a.pan," by Brinkley.

How are we to account for this seemingly rapid change of mood on Hideyos.h.i.+'s part? A comparison of dates furnishes some a.s.sistance in replying to that question. The Kyushu campaign took place in 1587, and it was in 1586 that Hideyos.h.i.+ commenced the construction of the colossal image of Buddha in Kyoto. The Taiko was by no means a religious man. That is amply shown by the stories told in the previous pages. But his political sagacity taught him that to continue n.o.bunaga's crusade against Buddhism would not be wise statesmans.h.i.+p, and that if the bonzes could be disarmed and diverted from military pursuits, they would become useful agents of intellectual and moral progress. His idea of setting up a gigantic idol in the capital marked his final subst.i.tution of a conciliatory programme for the fiercely destructive methods of n.o.bunaga. Of necessity he had, then, to reconsider his demeanour towards Christianity, and it is on record that before leaving Osaka for Kyushu he publicly stated, "I fear much that all the virtue of the European priests is merely a mask of hypocrisy and serves only to conceal pernicious designs against the empire." Then, in Kyushu, two things influenced him strongly. One was that he now saw with his own eyes what militant Christianity really meant--ruined temples, overthrown idols, and coerced converts. Such excesses had not disgraced Christian propagandism in Kyoto or in the metropolitan provinces, but in Kyushu the unsightly story was forced upon Hideyos.h.i.+'s attention. The second special feature of the situation in Kyushu was that relations of an altogether exceptional character were established between Hideyos.h.i.+ and Kennyo, abbot of the s.h.i.+n sect. By the contrivance of that prelate, Hideyos.h.i.+'s troops were enabled to follow a secret road to the stronghold of the Satsuma baron, and in return for such valuable services Hideyos.h.i.+ may well have been persuaded to proscribe Christianity.

Some importance, though probably of a less degree, attaches also to the last of the five questions propounded by Hideyos.h.i.+ to the vice-provincial--why the priests allowed merchants of their nation to buy j.a.panese subjects and carry them into slavery in the Indies. It was in Kyushu only that these abuses were perpetrated. With respect to this matter the following pa.s.sage appears in the archives of the Academy of History at Madrid: "Even the Lascars and scullions of the Portuguese purchase and carry slaves away. Hence it happens that many of them die on the voyage, because they are heaped up one upon the other, and if their master fall sick (these masters are sometimes Kaffirs and the negroes of the Portuguese), the slaves are not cared for. It even often happens that the Kaffirs cannot procure the necessary food for them. I here omit the excesses committed in the lands of pagans where the Portuguese spread themselves to recruit youth and girls, and where they live in such a fas.h.i.+on that the pagans themselves are stupefied at it." Nevertheless, the fact that the Taiko specially exempted the Portuguese merchants from his decree of banishment indicates that he did not attach cardinal importance to their evil doings in the matter of slaves. It seems rather to have been against the Jesuits that his resentment was directed, for he did not fail to perceive that, whereas they could and did exact the utmost deference from their country's sailors and traders when the ends of Christian propagandism were served thereby, they professed themselves powerless to dissuade these same traders and sailors from outrages which would have disgraced any religion. He cannot but have concluded that if these Portuguese merchants and seamen were to be regarded as specimens of the products of Christianity, then, indeed, that creed had not much to recommend it. All these things seem amply sufficient to account for the change that manifested itself in Hideyos.h.i.+'s att.i.tude towards Christianity at the close of the Kyushu campaign.

SEQUEL OF THE EDICT OF BANISHMENT

The Jesuits, of whom it must be said that they never consulted their own safety when the cause of their faith could be advanced by self-sacrifice, paid no attention to the Taiko's edict. They did indeed a.s.semble at Hirado to the number of 120, but when they received orders to embark at once, they decided that only those needed for service in China should leave j.a.pan. The rest remained and continued to perform their religious duties as usual, under the protection of the converted feudatories. The latter also appear to have concluded that it was not necessary to follow Hideyos.h.i.+'s injunctions strictly concerning the expulsion of the priests. It seemed, at first, as though nothing short of extermination was contemplated by the Taiko. He caused all the churches in Kyoto, Osaka, and Sakai to be pulled down, and he sent troops to raze the Christian places of wors.h.i.+p in Kyushu. But the troops accepted gifts offered to them by the feudatories and left the churches standing, while Hideyos.h.i.+ not only failed to enforce his edict, but also allowed himself in the following year, 1588, to be convinced by a Portuguese envoy that unless the missionaries were suffered to remain, oversea trade could not possibly be carried on in a peaceful and orderly manner. For the sake of that trade, Hideyos.h.i.+ agreed to tolerate the Christian propagandists, and, for a time, the foreign faith continued to flourish in Kyushu and found a favourable field even in Kyoto.

At this time, in response to a message from the Jesuits, the viceroy of the Indies sent an amba.s.sador to thank Hideyos.h.i.+ for the favours he had hitherto bestowed upon the missionaries, and in the train of this nominally secular emba.s.sy came a number of fresh Jesuits to labour in the j.a.panese field. The amba.s.sador was Valegnani, a man of profound tact. Acting upon the Taiko's unequivocal hints, Valegnani caused the missionaries to divest their work of all ostentatious features and to comport themselves with the utmost circ.u.mspection, so that official attention should not be attracted by any salient evidences of Christian propagandism. Indeed, at this very time, as stated above, Hideyos.h.i.+ took a step which plainly showed that he valued the continuance of trade much more highly than the extirpation of Christianity. "Being a.s.sured that Portuguese merchants could not frequent j.a.pan unless they found Christian priests there, he consented to sanction the presence of a limited number of Jesuits,"

though he was far too shrewd to imagine that their services could be limited to men of their own nationality, and too clever to forget that these very Portuguese, who professed to attach so much importance to religious ministrations, were the same men whose flagrant outrages the fathers declared themselves powerless to check.

If any further evidence were needed of Hideyos.h.i.+'s discrimination between trade and religion, it is furnished by his despatches to the viceroy of the Indies written in 1591:--

The fathers of the Company, as they are called, have come to these islands to teach another religion here; but as that of the Kami is too surely founded to be abolished, this new law can serve only to introduce into j.a.pan a diversity of cults prejudicial to the welfare of the State. It is for this reason that, by Imperial edict, I have forbidden these foreign doctors to continue to preach their doctrine.

I have even ordered them to quit j.a.pan, and I am resolved no longer to allow any one of them to come here to spread new opinions. I nevertheless desire that trade between you and us should always be on the same footing [as before]. I shall have every care that the ways are free by sea and land: I have freed them from all pirates and brigands. The Portuguese will be able to traffic with my subjects, and I will in no wise suffer any one to do them the least wrong.

The statistics of 1595 showed that there were then in j.a.pan 137 Jesuit fathers with 300,000 native converts, including seventeen feudal chiefs and not a few bonzes.

HIDEYOs.h.i.+'S FINAL ATt.i.tUDE TOWARDS CHRISTIANITY

For ten years after the issue of his anti-Christian decree at Hakata, Hideyos.h.i.+ maintained a tolerant demeanour. But in 1597, his forbearance was changed to a mood of uncompromising severity. Various explanations have been given of this change, but the reasons are obscure. "Up to 1593 the Portuguese had possessed a monopoly of religious propagandism and oversea commerce in j.a.pan. The privilege was secured to them by agreement between Spain and Portugal and by a papal bull. But the Spaniards in Manila had long looked with somewhat jealous eyes on this Jesuit reservation, and when news of the anti-Christian decree of 1587 reached the Philippines, the Dominicans and Franciscans residing there were fired with zeal to enter an arena where the crown of martyrdom seemed to be the least reward within reach. The papal bull, however, demanded obedience, and to overcome that difficulty a ruse was necessary: the governor of Manila agreed to send a party of Franciscans as amba.s.sadors to Hideyos.h.i.+. In that guise, the friars, being neither traders nor propagandists, considered that they did not violate either the treaty or the bull.

It was a technical subterfuge very unworthy of the object contemplated, and the friars supplemented it by swearing to Hideyos.h.i.+ that the Philippines would submit to his sway. Thus they obtained permission to visit Kyoto, Osaka, and Fus.h.i.+mi, but with the explicit proviso that they must not preach."*

*Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th edition; article "j.a.pan," by Brinkley.

How far they observed the terms and the spirit of this arrangement may be gathered from the facts that "very soon they had built a church in Kyoto, consecrated it with the utmost pomp, and were preaching sermons and chaunting litanies there in flagrant defiance of Hideyos.h.i.+'s veto. Presently, their number received an access of three friars who came bearing gifts from the governor of Manila, and now they not only established a convent in Osaka, but also seized a Jesuit church in Nagasaki and converted the circ.u.mspect wors.h.i.+p hitherto conducted there by the fathers into services of the most public character. Officially checked in Nagasaki, they charged the Jesuits in Kyoto with having intrigued to impede them, and they further vaunted the courageous openness of their own ministrations as compared with the clandestine timidity of the methods which wise prudence had induced the Jesuits to adopt. Retribution would have followed quickly had not Hideyos.h.i.+'s attention been engrossed by an attempt to invade China through Korea. At this stage, however, a memorable incident occurred. Driven out of her course by a storm, a great and richly laden Spanish galleon, bound for Acapulco from Manila, drifted to the coast of Tosa province, and running--or being purposely run--on a sand-bank as she was towed into port by j.a.panese boats, broke her back. She carried goods to the value of some six hundred thousand crowns, and certain officials urged Hideyos.h.i.+ to confiscate her as derelict, conveying to him, at the same time, a detailed account of the doings of the Franciscans and their open flouting of his orders. Hideyos.h.i.+, much incensed, commanded the arrest of the Franciscans and despatched officers to Tosa to confiscate the San Felipe. The pilot of the galleon sought to intimidate these officers by showing them, on a map of the world, the vast extent of Spain's dominions, and being asked how one country had acquired such wide sway, replied,* 'Our kings begin by sending into the countries they wish to conquer missionaries who induce the people to embrace our religion, and when they have made considerable progress, troops are sent who combine with the new Christians, and then our kings have not much trouble in accomplis.h.i.+ng the rest.'"**

*Charlevoix, referring to this incident, says, "This unfortunate statement inflicted a wound on religion which is bleeding still after a century and a half."

**Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th edition; article "j.a.pan," by Brinkley.