Catholic Missions In The Sixteenth And Seventeenth Centuries
This article deals with Catholic missions in the sixteenth century and seventeenth century , a period known as
This is the second in a series on the expansion and spread of Christianity, which includes:
- Expansion of Christianity in the fifth century to the fifteenth century , which stops the fifteenth century.
- Catholic missions in the sixteenth century and seventeenth century.
- Catholic missions from 1622 to the late eighteenth century (Pontifical Mission, Part 1)
- Catholic missions in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries (papal missions, part 2)
- History of Protestant missions
Summary |
The organization of the division of the world (1494-1514)
1492 is the year that Columbus discovered America, what will be. Despite the capture of Granada , the same year by the Spanish, the spread of Christianity by Islam is stuck in the south of the Mediterranean and east of the Volga.
The so-called great discoveries will be the opportunity of a new phase of the expansion of Christianity in the nations that come under the domination of these two major maritime powers that have become the Portugal and Spain. More broadly, this missionary zeal extends into every country that advances now make navigation accessible to European navigators.
The Portuguese had been exploring the coast of Africa since the early fifteenth century. Upon the return of Christopher Columbus in 1493, the two Iberian nations seeking arbitration of Pope Alexander VI to divide the world. The Treaty of Tordesillas , signed June 7, 1494 establishes a dividing line that goes to one hundred leagues west of the Azores. This definition of sovereignty is extended a few years later, the missionary activity: In 1508, the Bull Universalis Ecclesiae , Spain obtained the monopoly of the missions in the area that had been issued against the commitment to send missionaries in sufficient numbers to provide them free passage, etc. to build churches. In 1514, a symmetrical status is granted to the Portuguese. They are in fact a regularization, as they had already secured the mid-fifteenth century, the exclusive worldwide missionary, back when they were the only maritime power. The Holy See, which has no funds of its own, nor missionary centralized structure, subcontracts and the organization of missions to the Catholic sovereigns.
The Spanish missions in the sixteenth century
Spanish America
The missionary presence is part of the conquest of Central and South America: the Spaniards do not see the establishment of a Spanish government without including clerical institutions. Legions of Spanish missionaries landed in America: the secular but predominantly regular (see Regular and secular ). These Franciscans in 1502, then the Dominicans in 1510, of Mercedarian in 1519, to Augustine in 1533, finally Jesuits in 1568. All these commands are organized into provinces according to their rules. Bishops are appointed from among the regulars.
The first missionary organization itself was that of Mexico (New Spain), where Cortes had landed in 1521. From 1523 missionaries of the Franciscans which Peter of Ghent and arrive there in 1524, 12 Spanish missionaries. The Bishopric of Mexico was created in 1528, with the first bishop, the Franciscan Juan de Zumarraga. Created in 1548 in Mexico City is the first Franciscan Province of the New World .
The second bishop of Lima , Turibius of Mongrovejo , chairs a council in 1583 that defines the outline of the pastoral and missionary organization of the Church in the Spanish possessions of South America. It decided to translate the catechism in Quechua and Aymara. This catechism is actually available in three levels more or less developed. To facilitate religious education, the council calls for a grid of the country by the clergy, a priest per thousand inhabitants, and clusters of villages with less than a thousand inhabitants.
Previous beliefs, animist , does not seem to pose problems for the Spanish missionaries who offer their neophytes worship rich in large outdoor events, ceremonies and processions, at the same time they forbid them all back to their old practices "idolatrous". We talked about political tabula rasa to mean that the Spanish missionaries have both ignored and eliminated any manifestation of religion prior to their arrival. Fully integrated with the Spanish conquest of new territories, some missionaries also play a role as a counterweight vis--vis the civil administration and military defense of the Indians are victims of theft and oppression. The most famous was Bartolome de Las Casas : simple priest in 1512, then bishop of Chiapas in 1545, he opposed the abuses of settlers vis--vis the Indians from 1514.
Ultimately, the Spanish missionaries manage to impose Catholicism in the territories controlled by their country. The cities of Spanish America, grouped around their churches, are perfect replicas of Spanish cities, but attempts to form a native clergy fail completely. Gradually, the Spanish settlement of colonies becomes sufficient to meet the established on-site seminars, but the recommendations of the council of Lima to oversee the Indian population by the clergy remain partly unfulfilled.
Examples of Jesuit missions in South America:
The Philippines
For the Philippines , the situation evolves more favorably. The Spaniards took off in 1564 from Mexico, accompanied, as in the Americas for their missionaries, Augustinian from 1564, and Franciscans from 1577, Jesuits and Dominicans in 1581 in 1587. It estimates the Christian population in 1614 to one million faithful. A Catholic university is entitled to that date by the Dominicans, above all, we see very quickly see a native clergy. What are the causes of this success? Organizational structures missionaries faster and stronger determination to form a native clergy, or increased responsiveness of the Philippine population? The question remains open.
The Portuguese missions in the sixteenth century
The case of Brazil
American Portuguese (Brazil), Bahia is the colonial capital. The terms of settlement are not very different from those of Spanish America, but for reasons that are likely to stand conditions of Brazil, the Portuguese clergy who had landed with the first colonists remain with them more. Things will take a different turn with the arrival of the Jesuits in 1549. In 1600, they are still only 63, but they already have a considerable influence: They were trained in their schools a large number of Indian catechists they send evangelize their compatriots. The Jesuits are also involved socially, in settlement of nomads. They are the organizers and leaders of these new villages.
Les jsuites n'ont jamais tout fait surmont les problmes linguistiques du fait de la multiplicit des langages. They organize festivals and popular celebrations of profanity to compensate for the disappearance of the old pagan holidays. The most famous of Portuguese missionaries in Brazil Manuel da Nbrega , Jos de Anchieta and Ignatius Azevedo , beatified in 1864.
The Portuguese missionaries in Asia
Apart from Brazil, the Portuguese, who are little more than a million and half people are not able to populate the vast territory on which they radiate. Their empire stretching from Brazil to Macao via the tour of Africa and South Asia. If we compare once again the position of Spanish missionaries to the Portuguese, we say that the force ratio is less favorable to the Portuguese: From Goa, Malacca and Macao, the people they encounter are many and old culture. Their action marks yet their contemporaries and leaves traces. Indeed, first of many such missionaries working under the authority of the king of Portugal are Portuguese: Francis Xavier (1506-1552), which will then be declared "the patron saint of missions," is a Navarrese, who had studied Paris. He preaches and baptizes in India (1542) and Japan (1549), he has sometimes taken the gift of tongues, but modern historians believe he often used interpreters. Michele Ruggieri and Matteo Ricci, who first Jesuit China (1580) are Italian, and Roberto de Nobili who exercises his ministry in India from 1604. Alexandre de Rhodes evangelizing Vietnam is French.
Missions in India
Found in India , Christians before the Portuguese arrived. These communities called "St. Thomas" in Kerala and the Coromandel coast. They had, like the Nestorians , lost contact with the papacy for centuries. It is to these regions that are doing the effort of the first Portuguese missionaries shortly after 1500. In fact, the greatest successes are observed, firstly, in the Portuguese territory of Goa, where missionaries can be supported by the power of the state. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia of 1908 "Non-Catholics often explain the initial conversion by the fact that the Portuguese were spreading the word by force," the tip of the sword ", they say sometimes. This vision things are definitely exaggerated, and in many respects false. While there was indeed a small number of cases where physical force was used, for example, when pirates captured had no alternative but to convert where to be thrown into the sea, but such cases, they also were not approved by religious authorities or civilian, were in fact so rare that they should not be considered. In fact, Initially, the trend was to demonstrate tolerance vis--vis paganism while giving a chance to missionary propaganda ... The methods adopted by the State consisted first in the relentless destruction of pagan temples and their pollution sacred tanks when the civil power was fully in place and that the gospel was preached. And also by prohibiting the public practice of any foreign religion in the Portuguese territories ... "In other words, where the Portuguese territories effectively control their is no less persuasive than the Spaniards.
The Franciscans and Dominicans are the first orders on the ground, soon followed by the Jesuits and the Augustinians, and then by the Carmelites Theatines, the Hospital of St John and the Oratory. The Jesuit Roberto de Nobili arrived in India in 1604. Before him, the missionaries have been really successful conversion only to people of low caste or even out-caste. Robert de Nobili realize that this state of affairs is likely to make the Christian religion inevitably incompatible with the high castes. The nobility of its origins allows him to submit unreservedly as an Rajah became sanyassi is - to say penitent, which allows him to discuss on an equal footing with the Brahmins , but they agree to separate completely from other Christians and Jesuits. This attitude starts a controversy in Rome that foreshadows the future Rites. In 1623, a bull of Gregory XV approve his method.
Missions in Japan
During his first contact with Japan in 1549-1551, Francis Xavier develops a line that should regulate the shapes that the Christian apostolate must in Japan: Maintaining good relations with Daimos (that is to say lords), the Japanese treated with honor and respect, get their high cultural level and will recommend that China enjoys great prestige in the Land of the Rising Sun. Christianity is growing slowly until 1579 when another Jesuit, Alexandre Valignano founded the college of Funai in Japan. Several Japanese from this college are then routed to the novitiate of Goa and Macao or access the priesthood. Jean Guennou estimated three hundred thousand the number of baptized in 1597, the year a fierce crackdown on young Japanese church. This persecution takes place simultaneously with the closing of the Western countries.
Missions in China
In China, the Jesuit Matteo Ricci understands that he has done wrong by presenting himself as a "Christian monk." He took the title of scholar he can also assume so great his intellectual capacities that allow not only to master science and mathematics known in the West, but also to quickly assimilate the traditional Chinese culture. Ricci does not consider the point that honors the Chinese travel to Confucius and ancestors are idolatrous in nature. This vision makes things ds adherence to Christianity scholars and mandarins, including some who Siu to the court the very important post Imperial Advisor. Ricci's death in 1610, there were two thousand baptized, which is a small number, but the Jesuit missions in China live long in the belief that the conversion of the emperor is imminent and it could topple any the country.
The end of Employers
The system of patronage that has emerged in the early sixteenth century has entailed for the papacy many advantages, including that of being able to completely discharge the temporal powers, but it is hardly sustainable in the long term. In addition to completely bind the apostolate to the colonial power, it is hardly compatible with the emergence of emerging maritime powers: France, England and Holland. We can address some of these contradictions by compromises: France is so authorized in 1508 to cross the Atlantic, but provided they do not cross the equator. The employers will crack by itself when Portugal is unable to make the effort necessary missionary in Brazil, Africa and Asia and that King John III is led, from 1558, to ask for reinforcements to Pope Paul III and the Jesuit founder Ignatius Loyola. After the Council of Trent , the government of the Church has every reason to want to resume its natural prerogatives. In 1622, the bubble Incrustabili , Pope Gregory XV established a centralized body known as Congregation of Propaganda Fide.
This is really driven by the French Jesuit Alexandre de Rhodes , who returned from Vietnam , argues the urgency for the Holy See to send bishops who could devote native priests, the only way for local churches to exist despite the uncertain presence of missionaries who are chronically subjected to persecution. From 1658, the pope sent directly bishops in missionary countries, as the vicars apostolic
References
- On clio.fr time of conquest of New Spain
- Website dedicated to Father De Smet historian Pierre de Gand would Arthur Helps
- See the foundation of the Patio do Colgio
Related articles
Bibliography
- Rene Guennou, Catholic Missions in the History of Religions, Gallimard, 1972
- Jacques Gernet, China and Christianity - Action and reaction, Paris, NRF Gallimard edition, 1982.
- Collective book edited by Bishop Delacroix, Universal History of Catholic Missions, Paris, 1957-59
- A. Brou, Saint Francis Xavier, Beauchesne, Paris, 1922
- GH Dunne, Chinese with Chinese, Fr Ricci and his companions, Centurion, Paris, 1964
- Matteo Ricci, Christian History of the expedition to the Kingdom of China, trans. from Lat. G. Bessire ed. Descle De Brouwer, 1978
External Links
The articles in the Catholic Encyclopedia of 1908, concerning:
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