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Catholic Missions From 1622 To The Late Eighteenth Century

Catholic missions from 1622 to the late eighteenth century or the "Pontifical Mission (Part 1)"

This article is the third in a series on the expansion and spread of Christianity, which includes:

  1. Expansion of Christianity in the fifth century to the fifteenth century.
  2. Catholic missions in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
  3. "The Catholic missions from 1622 to the late eighteenth century or papal missions (Part 1) ".
  4. Catholic missions in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
  5. History of Protestant missions

Summary

Chronology

The papal missions in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries

The end of Employers

At the end of the sixteenth century, Pope Alexander VI had established a sort of dividing the world between Spain and Portugal that the respective sovereigns of Portugal and Spain were the responsibility of Catholic missions in parts of the world they had been allocated (See The Catholic Missions in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries ). This system, known as the "bosses" (Portuguese padroado) is cracking himself when Portugal proved unable to make the effort necessary missionary in Brazil, Africa and Asia. King John III had been led to demand from 1558, reinforcements to Pope Paul III and the Jesuit founder Ignatius Loyola.

In 1622, after the Council of Trent , by the bull Inscrutabili , Pope Gregory XV instituted a central body, the Congregation of Propaganda Fide , but no specific action is followed. A little later, a French Jesuit, Alexandre de Rhodes , back from Vietnam , pleaded the urgency for the Holy See to send bishops who could devote native priests, the only way for local churches to exist Despite an uncertain presence of missionaries who were chronically subjected to persecution. From 1658, the pope sent directly bishops in missionary countries, as the vicars apostolic.

The predominance of the Jesuit Missions

Established in 1540, the Jesuits became a major component of the Catholic Church in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. They are a thousand, in 1556, the death of their founder, and sixty years later, there were thirteen miles across the globe. They are invested in the most various works, especially the missions. Francis Xavier , a friend and companion of Ignatius Loyola, took part in the evangelization of India and Japan before his death in 1552, near the China. (See Catholic Missions in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries ).

If it is appropriate to establish, as a first approach, a classification of missions employers / Pontifical depending on whether they are under the patronage (Padroado Portuguese) (theoretically before 1622) or they depend directly on the Congregation the Propaganda Fide , after 1622, it is worth noting that the Jesuit missions stand out a bit of both categories:

On the one hand, the Jesuit missionaries who are invested in the world devoted to Portugal under the Treaty of Tordesillas , from the mid-sixteenth century are of course subject to the rule of big business. On the other side since the founding of the Society of Jesus , the Jesuits clearly claim the direct authority of the pope. This is expressed in the "Formula" of the Company subject to Pope Paul III :

"

We felt supremely expedient that each of us should engage with a special vow to ensure that whatever the present Pope or his successors we ordered for the benefit of souls and the propagation of the faith, in whatever country they want us send, we will without hesitation, without apology, without delay, as it depends on us and we will obey, either in Turkish or in other infidels, even in so-called India, or at all heretics and schismatics, and among the faithful.

"

It was the first time that the standing of an institute provided explicitly accepting a missionary task.

For Ignatius the founder, this obedience to the Pope was in no way incompatible with loyalty vis--vis Portugal. After King John III had called the Jesuits in India, Ignace Jan III proclaimed "lord and father of the society."

Given the maritime domination of the Portuguese fleet the first destinations of the Jesuits were in the Portuguese world: India, Africa, Brazil , and departures were still in Lisbon. A number of Jesuits, French, Italian, Belgian and others were among the groups who were sent regularly to Asia in the late sixteenth century. Meanwhile, the Jesuits also recruited in Spain, and finally, when the Society of Jesus was suppressed ( 1773 ) is in the Spanish colonies that is the largest Jesuit missionaries:

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

There were more missions in Japan since the total closure of the country occurred in 1623. They were up 140 at the end of the sixteenth century. The Paraguay is counted separately because she had gained some autonomy under the Spanish crown: what is sometimes called the 'Republic of Guarani. "

Characteristics of Jesuit Missions

It is difficult to discern commonalities Jesuit missionary work in countries as different as imperial China and Paraguay Guarani Indians. The main feature of the Jesuits was to demonstrate the flexibility to adapt to the environment.

The Jesuits handled with great skill what is now called the "communication" with their countries of origin. Despite the distance and length of trips, the European public was fully informed of the Jesuit missionary activity thanks to the "Relations" and the " Edifying Letters and curious "that information not only on the apostolic work, but also customs and geography of distant lands. This missionary literature was a great success and helped to popularize the knowledge that passed the Europeans on other continents.

The Jesuits, being trusted by the power of their company, are independent of the local colonial power. Not only, they distance themselves from the colonial authorities, execrable examples of the religion they preach, but they have the same tendency to substitute the temporal power. Henriquez's father, a missionary in India, does not he write "With a single priest who would himself be official, it would do more for the conversion of the Indians with 20 priests in a bad employee. ? In Paraguay , it will be a true theocratic state that will fall into place. The Jesuits attach great importance to the supervision of novices, training of catechists. The natives, however, can not access a status Jesuit priest. A seminary life would not suffice to achieve the required level.

In Asian countries of old culture, daring adaptation to local culture go hand in hand with a propensity to try to infiltrate the highest echelons of power with the secret hope that a people could follow the example of his sovereign.

The beginnings of the Congregation of Propaganda

Founded in January 1622, the Congregation of Propaganda, composed of 16 cardinals, two bishops and a secretary, Francis Ingol which is the main facilitator. At his death in 1649, 46 300 missionaries gathering missions directly depend on the congregation. Modest but still substantial. In addition to the contributions of the Cardinals (500 ducats each, and 10,000 for the pope), it is mainly the wealthy Spanish Cardinal Vives which provides for the basic needs of the congregation, including assigning to the palace into a ferritin college where the emphasis is on language teaching. Mission funding is obviously a fundamental problem: In Europe, it was assigned to the clergy of the ecclesiastical benefices, but in distant lands, missionaries are often forced to trade to survive.

Meet the aims of the employers who often presented themselves as the form of colonial churches, Spanish and Portuguese, it is now for the Propagation of the foundation to establish indigenous churches. In the logic of the Catholic Church, the development of indigenous churches imply that they are led by bishops independent European powers and that the faithful should be guided by a native clergy. But even in Spanish America, where the posts appear to have achieved significant successes, the native clergy is insignificant.

It's Africa which saw the arrival of the first papal missions: In Congo, an African king, a Christian, had emancipated the king of Portugal. From 1645 to 1692, the Congregation of Propaganda sends hundreds of Italian Capuchins.

It was not until 1658 that he is really acting out, that is to say, sending bishops out of Europe breaking with the system of patronage: Pope Urban VII sends Field five vicars apostolic, with the rank of bishops (Idalkan is to say, Goa, Malabar, Great Mogul, Canada and Vietnam). It took the Holy See in France go seek a counterweight to the Spanish influence, the vast Vatican at the time, and especially to tackle a Portugal defending its prerogatives in a very suspicious since 1620 where he had regained its independence After a century of union with Spain.

The founding of the Paris Foreign Missions

It is quite natural in France, the first Catholic nation at the time, and left outside the system of patronage that the Holy See is the basis for his missionary work. In 1646, in Paris, the worlds of Compagnie du Saint-Sacrement trying to establish a missionary society composed of clergy and laity. In 1653, they encountered Alexander of Rhodes presents his ideas to them.

The Jesuit Alexandre de Rhodes was sent to Japan with a Portuguese colleague, Peter Mark, but when they arrived in Macao, it turned out that Japan was now closed to missionaries, and the two fathers were diverted to Cochin. A few years later, in 1627, Alexander of Rhodes landed in Tonkin. It was repeated in Vietnamese or less the same story in Japan, that is to say an outbreak of spontaneous conversion. Similarly in Japan, had strained relations with political power, Alexandre de Rhodes was ejected. So it was quite convinced of the need for local churches to new ways of their autonomy.

In 1658, church, Franois Pallu, Franois de Montmorency-Laval and Pierre Lambert de la Motte founded the Society of Foreign Missions of Paris, the first society of diocesan priests devoted to missions. It is in this new missionary society that Pope Urban VII chose four of his first apostolic vicar: Franois de Laval embarked for Canada in 1659, but his colleagues Franois Pallu, Pierre Lambert de la Motte and Ignatius Cotolendi China , respectively called Tonkin, Cochin China and China are still some years in Paris, the time to recruit other companions who are themselves founded a seminar in a building acquired in 1663 Rue du Bac. In half a century, from 1660 to 1709, one hundred and six secular missionaries left France bound for East Asia.

In general, the emergence of new entrants is not well accepted by the Portuguese and Jesuits in place. There are conflicts, simple rivalry between missionaries in Tonkin, more political conflict in Goa where it is difficult to distinguish between political power and Portuguese missionaries.

A seminar is open in 1665 in Ayutthaya in Siam. Ayutthaya is often referred to in the missionary literature of the time by Juthia. The seminar welcomes students of Tonkin, Cochin China and Siam. In fact, there will be no more than there are seminarians Siamese Siamese Christianity. The King of Siam is rather tolerant vis--vis the missionaries, and that is why the seminary is located in Siam. Some missionaries delude themselves into imagining that the sovereign could switch to their religion, but in fact, Siamese, Buddhists, are completely impervious to Christianity despite their religious tolerance.

Seed Christian seems more likely to germinate on the ground and in the field Vietnamese Siamese, but it must say something about this disability that will support Catholic missions to the Council Vatican II , namely the practice of Latin. Rome requires that the sacraments, especially the canon of the Mass be said in Latin. Vietnamese catechists who are selected for the seminar of Ayutthaya are those who can succeed in Latin studies. In fact, the father Deydier who took over the mission of Tonkin will also create an underground seminary on a boat. Catechists who are driven to learn by heart the priesthood in Latin forms, and their level of Latin will be lower than in Hue and Jean Benoit Hien , the pioneers of the seminar of Ayutthaya who themselves remained at a fairly rudimentary.

The Jesuits did not fail to criticize their colleagues and rivals of the foreign missions of this lack of training of native priests, going so far as to doubt the validity of the sacraments conferred in Latin gradient.

On a more general access to the priesthood, Alain Forest, who recently showed in his thesis in 1997 that the rivalry between the Jesuits and those of foreign missions were far to enroll in this so-called Rites.

The Rites

In 1659, the vicars apostolic of the Far East had received instructions from the Congregation of Propaganda, which stated basically that Christianity had to accommodate local forms of Civilization:

"

... What could be more absurd than to introduce the Chinese, France, Spain or Italy ... Never compare the customs of these peoples with European ways ... Always stand so far away from political matters and affairs of State that you avoid taking the civil administration of things ...

"

To what extent the practice of the Catholic religion may adapt itself to local customs? How far the eradication of the old beliefs must go? These issues are inherent in the process of evangelization are becoming essential in the absence of a balance of power that allows you to restrict religious supply its model as standard. Such is the case in China and India.

In India, the caste issue that poses a problem: the first missionaries were able to get some success with outcasts , but this image of religious outcasts joined the awful reputation of the Portuguese completely cut the upper castes. Can we afford to put his side the upper classes? At that time, a reasonable person would think. The missionaries and their contemporaries are still steeped in the memory of Constantine that changed in his time the Roman side of Christianity. The Jesuit Roberto de Nobili , an intellectual approach can fly high in Madurai those called the Brahmins (that is to say the Brahmins ) as Ricci was able to do with Chinese scholars. It comes in the form of a saniassi, that is to say a kind of sadhu. But to remain in the world of Brahmins, he must stop attending other Christians, including his fellow missionaries. He dresses and feeds as a Brahman. His methods are strongly criticized in a controversy that lasted 12 years. Finally, Pope Gregory XV in 1623 approved his method. In 1640, he created another class of Jesuits who can attend the pariahs. In fact, as he has no immediate successor, a few decades later, in 1700, the upper castes are virtually represented in the community of Madurai.

In China, with their intellectual prowess, the Jesuits Italian Matteo Ricci , Michele Ruggieri and their successor mathematician Johann Adam Schall von Bell were able to enter the courtyard of Beijing and convert some scholars. Despite the conquest of China by the Manchus in 1644, which puts the young church in difficulty, the mission was able to continue. There is not between Christianity and Confucianism opposition also evident with polytheistic religions, and the Jesuits tried to adapt Christianity to the Chinese Confucian culture. While they are only in China, it is the Jesuit superiors who adjudicate disputes between the missionaries, but from 1931, Jesuits are not alone: the Franciscans and Dominicans, Fathers of Foreign Missions of Paris then call question some practices of the Jesuits, for example, authorization to continue the worship of ancestors or the translation of God, who uses the term with which the Chinese refer to Heaven. Disputes between missionaries were reported to the Holy Office. In 1645, it is against the Jesuits, but in 1656 he arbitrator in favor of the Jesuits. Until 1742, there has been a result of procrastination, both China and Vatican. At that time, the bubble Ex quo singulari confirmed another bubble of 1704 Ex illa die and definitively prohibits the practice of Catholic rites traditional Chinese. But the limits of susceptibility Chinese had already been reached in 1732, and all Europeans were expelled.

This disavowal of the Jesuits should be located within the broader context of an indictment of the company by the most Catholic powers and by other congregations. The bitterest enemy of the Jesuits was the Prime Minister of Portugal, the Marquis of Pombal. In 1773, Pope Clement XIV declared the abolition of the Jesuits. The order will be restored until 1814.

A report in the late eighteenth century

We have seen that since the late seventeenth century, France established itself as the dominant Catholic power. Yet less than twenty years after the abolition of the Jesuits, the French Revolution caused a major cataclysm in the Catholic Church. These two events, it resulted in the early nineteenth century, the presence of the Catholic Church in mission lands had virtually extinguished. One can attempt to take stock of the three centuries that followed the great discoveries.

  • Throughout the period of the employers , the Catholic area has expanded over the entire sphere of Spanish influence. For Spanish America, it is more about the support of the Spanish colonists as a phenomenon of conversion itself. For cons, the Philippines, which can be categorized animist before the Spaniards arrived, it is indeed a new population that is passed to Catholicism. In the seventeenth century, the Jesuits undertake substantive work toward the Indians, with the system of discounts. (See article Jesuit Mission of Paraguay )
  • Portuguese sphere of influence corresponds roughly to Africa and Asia, but without political domination with population control. In Africa, where the Portuguese presence was very shallow and where the penetration to the interior, the establishment of missions was the exception, as in the Congo. By cons, Asia, the Christian religion succeeded penetration among certain people (Japanese, Vietnamese and to some extent, Chinese), but is often met with hostility by the political powers. Buddhists show people completely impervious to Christianity. In South India, missions are successful establishment of several bridgeheads in both ancient and Christian communities in the lower castes.
  • Until the late eighteenth century, Protestant competition is not, strictly speaking, in that it is not yet a Protestant missions. For cons, the Catholic religion is more or less forbidden in many countries under British rule or Dutch. North American English, Catholicism was banned all provinces except Quebec, Pennsylvania and Maryland. In Ceylon, where the Dutch dispossess the Portuguese from Ceylon in 1658, Calvinism became the state religion, and a few hundred thousand Catholics will regain their liberty under the British administration in 1769.
  • The missions are not progressing in the lands of Islam, while Islam is moving towards the east, in northern India, Bengal, Malaysia. The Dominican Navarette and the Jesuit Alexandre de Rhodes relate similar stories which refer to contacts made by the current rulers of Indonesia (respectively Makassar in southwest Sulawesi, in 1670, and Aceh in northwest Sumatra, in 1640) with both Christians and Muslims for conversion to either of these religions. Does Islam proved victorious from the confrontation because he was better suited to the aspirations of the people or is it that Catholic missionaries have not shown enough aggressiveness propagandists? The main reason she should be sought on the side of Dutch Calvinists who dominated the region and not promote the designs of the Catholics? Many exciting questions that are far from settled.

Bibliography

  • S. Delacroix, Universal History of the Catholic missions, 4 cups, Librairie Grund, Paris, Monaco, 1956-1960
  • J. Guennou, Foreign Missions, Paris, 1963
  • KS Latourette, A History of the Expansion of Christianity, 7 vol. London-New York, 1937-1945; The Christian World Mission in Our Days, New York, 1954
  • Alain Forest, French missionaries in Tonkin and Siam, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, L'Harmattan, 1998

See also

External Links

The articles in the Catholic Encyclopedia of 1908, concerning:


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