Catholic missions of 1622 at the end of the XVIIIe century

Catholic Missions of 1622 at the end of the 18th century or " pontifical missions (1st part) "

This article is the third of a whole concerning the expansion and the diffusion of the Christianity, which includes/understands:

Expansion of the Christianity of Ve century in XVe century.
catholic Missions in XVIe and XVIIe centuries.
" Catholic missions of 1622 at the end of the 18th century or pontifical missions (1st part) " .
catholic Missions at XIXe and the XXe centuries.
History of the Protestant missions

Chronological reference marks

1494 : Treaty of Tordesillas
1540: Approval of the Society of Jesus by the pope Paul III, founded by Ignace de Loyola and some others.
1542-1560: Council of Thirty
1597: 27 Martyrs with Nagasaki.
1622: 52 Martyrs with Nagasaki and closing of Japan the abroads.
1622: Gregoire XV creates the Congregation of the Propaganda Fide for the coordination of work misisonaire (bubble Incrustabili.
1624: Alexandre of Rhodos and the Jésuites unload in Cochinchine then in Tonkin.
1659: Instructions of the Propaganda Fide with the missionaries.
1660: Departure of the first missionaries of MEP (Foreign missions of Paris), as a apostolic vicars , i.e., bishops depending directly on Rome.
1742: Benoît XIV writes the bubble Ex quo singulari which puts an end to the quarrel rites.
1773: Removal of the Jesuits by Clement XIV
1845: Encyclicals Neminem Perfecto on the formation of the local clergy.

Pontifical missions at XVIIe and the XVIIIe centuries

End of “patronage”

At the end of the 16th century, the pope Alexandre VI had instituted a kind of the division of the world between Spaniards and Portuguese according to whom the respective sovereigns of Portugal and Spain had the responsibility for the catholic missions on the parts of the world who had been allotted to them (See # the Catholic Missions with the {{S|XVI|E}} and with the {{S|XVII|E}}). This system, known under the name of “patronage” (of Portuguese padroado ) fissured itself when Portugal proved to be unable to make the effort missionary necessary to Brazil, in Africa and Asia. King Jean III had been brought to request, as from 1558, of the reinforcements to the pope Paul III and the founder of Jesuits Ignace de Loyola.

In 1622, after the Council of Thirty, by the bubble Incrustabili , the pope Gregoire XV established a central organization, the Congregation of the Propaganda Fide, but no action specifies was not followed from there. A little later, a French Jesuit, Alexandre of Rhodos, return of the Vietnam, pled the urgency for the Holy See to send bishops who could devote indigenous priests, only means for the local Churches of existing in spite of a dubious presence of the missionaries who were subjected to a chronic persecution. As from 1658, the pope directly sent bishops in the countries of mission, under the name of apostolic vicars .

Prevalence of the missions Jesuits

Created in 1540, the Jésuites became a major component of the Catholic church with XVIIe and XVIIIe centuries. They are a thousand, in 1556, with died of their founder, and sixty years later, one counts thirteen thousand of them on all the surface of the sphere. They are invested in the most various works, and particularly the missions. François Xavier, friend and companion of Ignace de Loyola, took part in the evangelization of India and Japan before its death, in 1552, with the doors of China. (See catholic Missions in XVIe and XVIIe centuries).

If it is relevant to establish, in first approach, a classification of the pontifical missions patronage/according to whether they are located under the mode of “Patronage” (Padroado theoretically portuguais) (before 1622) or that they depend directly on the Congregation of the Propaganda Fide, after 1622, it should be stressed that the missions Jesuits arise a little from the two categories:

On a side, the missionaries Jesuits who are invested in the part of the world reserved for Portugal according to the treaty of Tordesillas, starting from the middle of the 16th century obviously are subject to the rule of “Patronage”. On another side, dice the foundation of the Society of Jesus, the Jesuits clearly assert the direct authority of the pope. This is expressed in the " Formule" company submitted to the pope Paul III:

We judged supremely dispatch that each one of us engaged by a special wish so that, no matter what the current Pope or his successors orders to us for the profit of the hearts and propagation of the faith, in some country which they want to us to send, we go without tergiversating, without excuses, without delay, as it will depend on us; we will be held to obey, that it is among Turks or other infidels, even in what is called the Indies, or among all the heretics and schismatics, and among the faithful ones.

It was the first time that the rule of an institute explicitly envisaged the acceptance of a work missionary.

For the Ignace founder, this obedience with the Pope was of nothing incompatible with a honesty with respect to Portugal. After the king Jean III had called the Jesuits in the Indies, Ignace proclaimed Jean III " lord and father of the société".

Being given the maritime domination of the Portuguese fleet the first destinations of the Jesuits were in the Portuguese world: The Indies, Africa, Brazil, and the departures were always made Lisbon. A certain number of French, Italian, Belgian Jesuits and others belonged to the groups which were sent regularly in Asia at the end of the 16th century. In parallel, the Jesuits also recruited in Spain, and finally, when the Society of Jesus was removed (1773), it is in the Spanish colonies that is largest of the missionaries Jesuits:

Portuguese America (Brazil) 591
Spanish America (Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Peru, Ecuador) 1533
Paraguay 584
Asia (203) including 77 in China, 57 in Vietnam and 69 with the Hefty fellow.

There were no more missions in Japan since the total closure of the country which has occurred in 1623. They had been up to 140 at the end of the 16th century. The Paraguay is counted separately since it had obtained a certain autonomy under the Spanish crown: what one called sometimes the “Republic of the Guarani.

Characteristics of the missions Jesuits

It is difficult to distinguish common points with work missionary of the Jesuits in countries so different that imperial China or Paraguay from the Guaranis Indians. The main feature of the Jesuits was to be proof of the greatest flexibility to adapt to the medium.

The Jesuits handled with a great control what one calls today the " communication" with their countries of origin. In spite distances and length from the voyages, the European public was informed perfectly of the missionary activity of the Jesuits thanks to the " Relations" , then with the " edifying and curious Letters " who informed not only about apostolic work, but also about manners and the geography of the remote regions. This literature missionary was a great success and took part in the popularization of the knowledge which Europeans of the other continents had.

The Jesuits, put in confidence by the power of their company, are independent of the local colonial power. Not only, they dissociate colonial authorities, execrable examples of the religion which they preach, but they would tend even to replace the temporal power. The Henriquez father, missionary in India, do not write it " With only one priest who would be itself civil servant, one would make more for conversion of the Indians than with 20 priests under a bad civil servant. " With the Paraguay, it will be a true theocratic state which will be set up. The Jesuits attach a great importance to the framing of the neophytes, with the training of the catechists. The natives could not however reach a statute of father Jesuit. A life with the seminar would not be enough to reach the necessary level.

In the countries of Asia of old culture, the audacities as regards adaptation to the local culture go from par with a propensity to try to infiltrate the highest levels of power with the secrecy hope that a whole people could follow the example of his sovereign.

Beginnings of the congregation of propaganda

Created in January 1622, the congregation of the propaganda, composed of 16 cardinals, two prelates and a secretary, François Ingoli which is the principal organizer. With its death, in 1649,46 missions gathering 300 missionaries depend directly on the congregation. Modest result but nevertheless substantial. In addition to the contributions of the cardinals (500 ducats of gold each one and 10000 for the pope), it is especially the richissime cardinal Spanish Vivés which provide for the first needs for the congregation, in particular by yielding the Ferratini palate to him to make a college of it where the stress is laid on the language teaching. The financing of the missions is of course a basic problem: In Europe, one allotted to the clergy ecclesiastical benefit , but in the remote grounds, the missionaries are often obliged to make trade to survive.

Vis-a-vis the missions of employers which often arised as the colonial shape of the Spanish and Portuguese churches, it is now a question for Propaganda of providing the foundations to constitute indigenous churches. In the logic of the Catholic church, the development of these indigenous churches imply that they are under the control of bishops independent of the European powers and that the faithful ones are framed by an indigenous clergy. However, even in the Spanish America, where the missions seem to have obtained appreciable successes, the indigenous clergy remains unimportant.

It is Africa which had seen arriving the first pontifical missions: In Congo, a king African, Christian, had émancipé himself of the king of Portugal.De 1645 to 1692, the congregation of Propaganda sends a hundred Italian capuchins to him.

It is not however that in 1658 qu ' there is really passage to the act, i.e., bishop sending out of Europe in rupture with the system of employers: the pope Urbain VII sends on the ground five apostolic vicars, with the rank of bishops (Idalkan, i.e. Goa, Malabar, Grand Mogol, Canada and Vietnam). It had been necessary that the Holy See at that time will seek in France a counterweight with the Spanish, very large influence in the Vatican, and especially to face Portugal which defended its prerogatives in a very ombrageuse way since 1620 when it had found its independence after one century of union with Spain.

The foundation of the Foreign missions of Paris

It is rather naturally in France, first nation catholic of the time, and left apart from the system of employers that the the Holy See finds the bases necessary for its action missionary. In 1646, in Paris, the mediums of the Compagnie of the Blessed Sacrament tried to set up a company missionary made up of ecclesisatic and laymen. In 1653, They meet Alexandre of Rhodos which presents its ideas to them.

The Jesuit Alexandre of Rhodos had been sent to Japan with a Portuguese colleague, Pierre Marque, but when it arrived at Macao, it proved that Japan from now on was closed with the missionaries, and the two fathers were diverted on Cochinchine. A few years later, in 1627, Alexandre of Rhodos unloaded in Tonkin. He reproduced among Vietnameses a little the same history as in Japan, i.e. a blaze of spontaneous conversions. In the same way that in Japan, the relations had been tightened with the political power, Alexandre of Rhodos had been expelled. He was thus completely convinced of the need for giving to the new local churches the means of their autonomy.

In 1658, the ecclésisastiques ones, François Pallu, François of Montmorency-Laval and Pierre Lambert of the Mound found the Company of the foreign missions of Paris, first company of priests diocesans reserved for the missions. It is in this new business of missionaries that the pope Urbain VII chooses four of his first apostolic vicars: François of Laval embarks for Canada in 1659, but his/her colleagues François Pallu, Pierre Lambert of the Mound and Ignace Cotolendi in China, named respectively in Tonkin, in Cochinchine and China remain a few years in Paris, time to recruit other companions equi themselves found a seminar in a building acquired in 1663 rue du Bac. In one half-century, of 1660 to 1709, a hundred and six secular missionaries left France bound for Eastern Asia.

Generally, the irruption of new arrivals is not well accepted by the Portuguese and the Jesuits in place. There are conflicts. Simple competition between missionaries in Tonkin, more political conflict with Goa where it is difficult to make the distingo between the political power and the Portuguese missionaries.

A seminar is open in 1665 to Ayutthaya with the Siam. Ayutthaya is often indicated in the literature missionary of the time by Juthia . The seminar accommodates pupils of Tonkin, Cochinchine and Siam. In fact, there will not be more Siamese seminarists than there is Siamese Christendom: The king of Siam is rather tolerant with respect to the missionaries, and therefore the seminar is installed in Siam. Certain missionaries deceive themselves by imagining that the sovereign could rock towards their religion, but in fact, Siamese the, Buddhist ones, remain completely impermeable with Christianity in spite of their religious tolerance.

The Christian seed thus seems to germinate more readily on the Vietnamese ground than on the Siamese ground, but it is necessary well to say a word of this handicap which the catholic missions until the council the Vatican 2 will have to support, namely the practice of Latin. Rome requires that the sacremmentelles formulas, and in particular the gun of the mass be known as in Latin. The Vietnamese catechists who are selected for the seminar of Ayutthaya are those which can succeed of the Latin studies. In fact, the Deydier father who took in hand the mission of Tonkin will also create a clandestine seminar on a boat. The catechists who are led to the priesthood learn the Latin formulas by heart, and their Latin level will be lower than that of Jean Huê and Benoît Hiên, the pioneers of the seminar of Ayutthaya who remained themselves on a rather rudimentary level.

The Jesuits did not fail to make objection to their colleagues and rivals of the foreign missions of this lack of training of the indigenous priests, going until questioning the validity of the sacraments conferred in degraded Latin.

On a level more general than the access to the priesthood, it is Alain Forest who showed recently in his thesis supported in 1997, that the competitions between the Jesuits and those of the foreign missions, were well far from fitting in what it is agreed to call the Querelle of the Rites.

The Quarrel of the Rites

In 1659, the apostolic vicars of the Far East had received the Instructions Congrégation of the Propaganda which stipulated, approximately, that Christianity was to put up with the local forms of civilization:

" … What could be absurder than to introduce among Chinese, France, Spain or Italy… Never compare the uses of these people with the European uses… Tenez you always so far from the political choss and of the businesses of the State, which you avoid taking the administration of the civil things… "

Up to which point the practice of the Catholic religion can it adapt to the local habits? Until where the eradication of the old beliefs must it go? These questions which are inherent in the step of evangelization become impossible to circumvent in the absence of a power struggle which makes it possible to restrict the religious offer with its most standard model. Such is the case in China and India.

In India, it is the question of the castes which poses problem: The first missionaries could obtain some successes from the bet, but this image of religion of bet united with the execrable reputation of the Portuguese cut them completely higher castes. Can one exempt himself to put on his side the higher classes? At that time, nobody of reasonable believes it. The missionaries and their contemporaries are still impregnated memory of Constantin who made rock in his time the Roman world on the side of Christianity. The Jesuit Roberto de Nobili, an intellectual of high flight can approach with Madurai those which one called Brahmes (I.e. the Brahmanes as Ricci could do it with the Chinese well-read men. He appears himself as a saniassi , i.e. a kind of Sâdhu. But to remain in the world of Brahmes, it must cease attending the other Christians, including his colleagues missionaries. It gets dressed and is nourished like Brahme. Its methods are highly criticized during a controversy which lasts 12 years. Finally, the pope Gregoire XV approves his method in 1623. In 1640, it creates another class of Jesuits which can attend bet them. In fact, as it does not have an immediate successor, a few decades later, in 1700, the high castes are not represented practically any more in the community of Madurai.

In China, thanks to their intellectual prowesses, the Italian Jesuits Matteo Ricci Michele Ruggieri and their successor mathematician Johann Adam Schall von Bell could be introduced at the court of Beijing and to convert some well-read men. In spite of the conquest of China by the Manchus in 1644, which puts the young church in difficulty, the mission succeeds in being maintained. There is not between Christianity and the Confucianisme of opposition as manifest as with the religions polytheists, and the Jesuits try to adapt the Christian religion to the Chinese culture confucéenne. As long as they are alone in China, they are the superiors Jesuits who slice the disagreements between missionaries, but as from 1931, the Jesuits are not alone any more: Franciscains and the Dominican ones, the fathers of the Foreign missions of Paris then call into question some practical of the Jesuits, for example the authorization to continue the worship of the ancestors or the translation of God , which uses the term with which the Chinese indicate the Ciel . The disagreements between missionaries are then reported to the the Holy Office. In 1645, this last decides against the Jesuits, but in 1656, it referee in favor of the Jesuits. Until 1742, one attends a succession of tergiversations, both in China and in the Vatican. On this date, the bubble Ex quo singulari confirmed another bubble of 1704 Ex it die and definitively prohibits to the catholics the practice Chinese traditional rites. But the limits of Chinese susceptibility had already been reached in 1732, and all Europeans had been expelled.

This disavowal of the Jesuits must be located in the more general context of a calling into question of the company by the majority of the catholic powers and the other congregations. The keenest adversary of the Jesuits was the Prime Minister of Portugal, the Marquis de Pombal. In 1773, the pope marked Clement XIV suppression of the Jesuits. The order will be restored only in 1814.

An assessment at the end of the XVIIIeme century

It was seen that since the end of the XVIIe sicle, France affirmed itself like the dominant catholic power. However, less than twenty years after the removal of the Jesuits, the French revolution caused a major cataclysm within the Catholic church. Of these two events, it result that at the beginning of the 19th century, the presence of the Catholic church in the grounds of missions was practically extinct. One can try to draw up a three centuries assessment which followed the great discoveries.

· To the length of the period of the employers, the catholic field extended on all the Spanish sphere of influence. For the Spanish America, it acts more accompaniment of the Spanish colonists than of a phenomenon of conversion strictly speaking. On the other hand, for Philippines, that one can classify in the category animist before the arrival of the Spaniards, it is indeed a new population which passed to Catholicism. At the 17th century, the Jesuits undertake a basic work in direction of the Indians, with the system of the Réductions .

the Portuguese sphere of influence corresponds, approximately, in Africa and Asia, but without political domination with control of the populations. In Africa where the Portuguese presence was very surface and where the penetration towards the interior of the grounds, the establishment of missions was the exception, as in Congo. On the other hand, in Asia, the religion chétienne makes a success of a penetration among certain people (Japanese, Vietnamese and to a certain extent, the Chinese), but often runs up against the hostility of the political powers. The Buddhist people show themselves completely impermeable with Christianity. In India of the South, the missions make a success of the establishment of some heads of bridge at the same time at old Christendoms and in the low castes.
Until the end of the 18th century, Protestant competition does not exist strictly speaking, in the sense that there are no yet Protestant missions. On the other hand, the Catholic religion is iplus or less prohibited in much of country under English or Dutch domination. In English North America, Catholicism was prohibited all provinces except Quebec, Pennsylvania and Maryland. In Ceylon, when the Dutchmen dispossess the Portuguese of Ceylon in 1658, the Calvinism becomes religion of state, and the few a hundred and thousand catholics will find all their freedom only under the English administration, in 1769.
the missions do not progress out of grounds of Islam, whereas Islam progresses towards the East, to India of North, in Bengal, in Malaysia. Dominican Navarette and the Jesuit Alexandre of Rhodos bring back similar accounts which give a report on contacts made by sovereigns of current Indonesia (respectively Makassar in the south-west of Sulawesi, en1670, and Atjeh, in the North-West of Sumatra, in 1640) at the same time near the Christians and of the Moslems for a conversion with one or the other of these religions. Was Islam victorious confrontation because it was adapted better to the aspirations of the populations or the catholic missionaries did not show a sufficient aggressiveness propagandists? Does the imperative reason have to be required as regards Dutchman calvinists who dominated the area and who did not support of anything the intentions catholics? As many enthralling questions which are far from being distinct.

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