Three Jesuits XavierRicciNobili

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Three JesuitsXavierRicci--Nobili
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The Jesuits

• Founded in 1540 by St Ignatius Loyola, a Spanish
  nobleman with six followers
• Ignatius of Loyola b.1491, born into a noble
  Basque family in northern Spain.
• Vow of obedience to the pope
• Commitment to scholarship
• Established many colleges
• Rapid growth to 1000 members at Ignatius death,
  100 yrs later 15,000
• Assumed an important role in the renewal of the
  Catholic Church.
• Jesuits were educators, scholars, and
  missionaries throughout the world.

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Xavier
Xaviers birth place

• The baptizing Queen Neachile of India

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Francis Xavier

• Born in Basque region of northern Spain of a
  noble family
• At 19 went to University of Paris to prepare for
  a career in the church.
• While there Xavier developed protestant leanings
  but after encountering Ignatius of Loyola, Xavier
  was won to a deeper commitment to Christ and the
  Catholic church.
• Xavier was one of the original seven in the
  Society of Jesus founded by Ignatius.

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Xavier

• Responding to a request of the king of Portugal
  for four missionaries to be sent to India, Loyola
  responded by sending two. One of the two fell
  ill and Xavier took his place and so went to
  India in 1541.
• He died 11 years later having traveled in India,
  Ceylon, Malacca, Japan.

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Xavier

• His was the vision and the task of the explorer
  and the pioneer, to blaze new trails, to open
  doors, and to lay foundations.
• A devoted friend, intensely interested in
  individuals, seeking by love, gayety, and a
  timely word to lead men into the Christian faith
  or into a deeper Christian life.
• (Latourette 253)

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Xavier

• Arrival in Goa
• Influence of the Portuguese in Goa
• The attachment to the Portuguese
• Ministry in Goa
• Humanitarian sick, prisoners, education
• Left after a few months
• Ministry among the Paravas 2 years
• Low cast pearl fishermen on the SW coast
• Nominal Christian and untaught
• About 20,000 had accepted baptism in exchanged
  for protection from the Portuguese

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Goa
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Malacca
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Indonesia
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Xavier

• Among the Paravas (cont.)
• Teaching, administering sacraments, eradicating
  pagan customs
• Children
• Followed up by later Jesuits churches carrying
  on today
• Assessment of Ministry among the Paravas
• Short
• Language and translation

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Method

• On Sundays I assemble all the people, men and
  women, young and old, and get them to repeat the
  prayers in their language. They take much
  pleasure in doing so, and come to the meetings
  gladly I give out the First Commandment, which
  they repeat, and then we say all together, Jesus
  Christ, Son of God, grant us grace to love thee
  above all things. When we have asked for this
  grace, we recite the Pater Noster together, and
  then with one accord, Holy Mary, Mother of Jesus
  Christ, obtain for us grace from thy Son to
  enable us to keep the First Commandment. Next we
  say an Ave Maria, and proceed in the same manner
  through each of the remaining nine Commandments,
  And just as we say twelve Paters and Aves in
  honour of the twelve articles of the Creed, so we
  say ten Paters and Aves in honour of the ten
  Commandments, asking God, to give us grace to
  keep them well.

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Xavier

• Malacca
• First contact in Xaviers day by Portuguese
  mariners
• Visits Malacca 1545 for four months
• To Indonesia, Spice Islands? For 18 months and
  return to Malacca and Goa
• Goa contact Yajiro and Xaviers question (Neill
  132)
• The challenge of the Portoguese
• On to Japan
• Respect for the Japanese (Neill 133)

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Japan

• Arrived August 15, 1549 in Kagoshima, Yajiros
  home city, in southern Japan
• 3 missionaries, 3 Japanese, 2 servants
• Welcomed by the mayor and the daimyo of the
  region
• Permission to preach (with the hope of gaining
  trade with the Portuguese)
• First convert, Bernardo
• First winter learning language, only Fernando
  gaining proficiency.
• Translation of catechism, ten commandment, Lords
  prayer.
• Translations imperfect
• Terms for Christian ideas

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Japan

• In July depart for Hirado to rendezvous w/ a
  Portuguese ship for letters.
• Returns to Kagoshima to face opposition from the
  bonzes, who convince the daimyo to forbid
  conversions
• Xavier left for Hirado in route to Kyoto, leaving
  the converts in the care of Yajiro.
• Welcomed in Hirado by a prince and given
  permission to preach due to the trade w/ the
  Portuguese.
• About 100 converts
• Depart for Yamaguchi in route to Kyoto in October
• Rough 178 mile trip with snow in the mountains
  and inadequate clothing
• Preached catechism and against idolatry, sodomy,
  infanticide
• Some interested
• Made a presentation to the daimyo and dismissed
  after preaching against the three sins
• Little success w/ few conversions

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Japan

• On to Kyoto in winter in deep snow, Xavier
  barefoot
• Traveled part way with a nobleman. Xaviers joy.
• In Kyoto Xavier hoped to talk with the Shogun
  (king) and proclaim the faith in the university
  neither happened.
• Preached w/o success, extreme poverty, hunger and
  cold
• Back to Hirado after very difficult three month
  journey and on to four months in Yamaguchi, the
  seat of the daimyo
• Visit to the daimyo in silk, and w/ gifts
• Edit of protection for the missionaries,
  permission to preach resulting in higher status
  among the people
• Opposition from the bonzes
• Word for God, and further conflict with the
  Buddhists
• 500 converts many of high status

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Japan

• On to Bungo by ship to rendezvous with a
  Portuguese ship
• No mail and the decision to return to India
• News of a rebellion against the Yamaguchi daimyo
  and the Jesuits flight from the city
• The new daimyo sympathetic to the missionaries
  and the work continued in Yamaguchi
• Departure for India after over 2 years in Japan,
  died the next year.

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China

• Foreigners forbidden
• An embassy to China, Governor Alvaro and travel
  difficulties
• 1552 arrives in Shangchuen, an island near Canton
• Covertly lands in Canton at night, opposition
  from Portuguese traders
• Illness and death

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Xavier

• Assessment
• Forerunner other Jesuits followed and movements
  to Christianity occurred
• Dialogue with Buddhism
• Christendom and Japanese feudalism
• Broke ground in understanding culture and
  allowing mission strategy to look to culture as a
  resource instead of a detriment. (Neill 134)
• After 50 years political changes came and
  ferocious persecution brought death or apostasy
  to the church in Japan.

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Xavier's Hymn

• My God, I love Thee not because I hope for
  heaven thereby,Nor yet because who love Thee not
  are lost eternally.Thou, O my Jesus, Thou didst
  me upon the Cross embraceFor me didst bear the
  nails, the spear and manifold disgrace,And
  griefs and torments numberless, and seat of agony
  --Yea death itself and all for me, who was
  thine enemy.Then why, O blessed Jesus Christ,
  should I not love Thee well?Not for the sake of
  winning heaven nor of escaping hell!Not from the
  hope of gaining aught, not seeking a rewardBut
  as Thyself hast loved me O ever loving Lord!So
  would I love Thee, dearest Lord, and in Thy
  praise will singSolely because Thou art my God,
  and my most loving King.

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Ricci in China

• History
• China Twice Christianity had gained a foothold
  in China
• 7th and 8th c by the Nestorians
• 13th and 14th c under the Mongol Empire
• Twice Christianity was erased with little trace
  of having been present.
• The question of enduring presence.
• What would you do among an unreached group to
  create a lasting Christian presence?

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History

• The vision of Xavier
• Stopped in Canton on the way to Japan
• Contact with Chinese in Japan
• Believed that if the Chinese accepted the faith
  the Japanese would follow.
• Sought missionaries for China from the Portuguese
  after returning to India but opposition kept a
  group from coming together.
• Returned to Canton alone with the intention of
  getting on the mainland but died in 1552 before
  doing so.

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History

• The vision of Valignani
• From Portuguese Macao,
• Oh, Rock, Rock, when wilt thou open, Rock?
• Sends Michael Ruggerius to study language
• Then sends Matteo Ricci who became the leader and
  strategists for RC outreach in China.

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Ricci

• Born the year of Xaviers death
• Studied law, mathematics, cosmology, and
  astronomy
• Five years in Goa then to Macao

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(No Transcript)
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Ricci
Riccis treatise on friendship
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Ricci

• Ricci became the chief pioneer of his Society in
  China. It was he who was the most prominent
  leader in devising and first putting into
  practice methods which gained for Christianity
  much of such standing as it held in China before
  1800. It was he, too, who adopted attitudes
  towards Chinese culture that later aroused the
  protracted and bitter controversy in Roman
  Catholic circles which was one the causes of the
  retardation in the growth of Christianity in
  China in the eighteenth century.
• (Latourette, vol 3, 339)

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Strategy

• Win toleration
• Gain the respect and friendship of the ruling
  classes
• Contact with officials and scholars
• Take advantage of the interests of the Chinese
  mathematics, geography, cartography, regulation
  of the calendar

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Strategy

• Culture
• Learn the culture
• Studied classical Chinese books
• Adopted the dress first of Buddhist monks then of
  Confucian scholars
• Used terms for God drawn from ancient Chinese
  classics
• Chinese practices
• Ceremonies honoring the ancestors
• Architecture use of the pagoda
• Worship style

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Strategy

• Gain influence
• Sought the capital
• Summary
• Points of contact
• Elimination of unnecessary obstacles, objections
  and opposition
• Sought influential powers of society
• Sought to make the church Chinese

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Successes

• Conversion of important scholars and officials
• Conversion of an imperial prince
• Continued approval
• One year after Riccis death an imperial decree
  issued putting the Jesuits in charge of changes
  in the Chinese calendar
• Missionaries defended by Chinese scholars during
  a time of persecution
• Endured political changes
• Growth under Johann Adam Schall von Bell

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Chinese Rites Controversy

• The issue concerned the attitude Christians
  should take toward Chinese customs and practices.
• Was the policy adopted by Ricci and his
  followers allowable? (Latourette 349)
• Chinese terms for God?
• Ancestor veneration?
• Christian involvement in community festivals
  involving worship of Chinese deities?
• Have the fundamentals of Christianity been lost
  or compromised?

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Chinese Rites Controversy

• No other dispute over mission policy in the
  entire history of the spread of Christianity was
  so intense over so prolonged a period.
• (Latourette 350)

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Chinese Rites Controversy

• Two schools of thought among the Jesuits
• Dominicans and Franciscans challenged the
  practices.
• The archbishop of Manila after hearing of what
  was being done in China denounced the Jesuits to
  the Pope.
• A Dominican carried the issue to Rome (1643) and
  the Jesuit methods as they were described were
  prohibited (1645).

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Chinese Rites Controversy

• Jesuits respond to Rome saying they had been
  misrepresented.
• A decree issued which then approved the
  practices (1656).
• A Dominican then challenged the new decree asking
  if the earlier prohibition is to be set aside.
• The answer was that both should be obeyed!
  (1669). So each side claimed endorsement by the
  Pope.
• Controversy carried to Europe
• Controversy complicated by national allegiance.

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Chinese Rites Controversy

• Rome decrees that certain terms for God are not
  to be used and Christians prohibited from
  participating in some aspects of ancestor
  veneration (1704).
• The enforcement of the decree fell to one young
  bungler (Tournon) who aroused first the jealousy
  of the Portuguese, and second, the hostility of
  the Jesuits, and third, the Chinese Imperial
  leadership. He was commanded to leave China in
  1706.

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Chinese Rites Controversy

• Tournon, as he was leaving, commanded all
  missionaries, on pain of excommunication, to
  declare their position. Thus missionaries were
  force to take sides, either with the Popes
  representative with whom they disagreed and
  disliked, or the Emperor. Most found loopholes
  to avoid declaring their position.
• Some excommunicated, others made further appeals.
• Tournon died later in 1707 (?).

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Chinese Rites Controversy

• Rome held to its prohibitions of 1704
• Jesuit appeal rejected (1710)
• In 1715 a papal bull issued requiring all
  missionaries to take a written oath promising to
  abide by the prohibitions.
• Because of ambiguities in just what was being
  prohibited and to enforce the bull among the
  missionaries, another legate was sent
  (Mezzabarba).
• Mezzabarba, was not favorably received by the
  Emperor largely due to the mess made by the
  earlier representative. Yet having more tact he
  issued 8 permissions in compromise.

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Chinese Rites Controversy

• Rome took issue with the permissions and issued
  another bull in 1742 which
• annulled the permissions,
• confirmed the earlier prohibitions,
• ordered all disobedient missionaries back to Rome
  for punishment, and
• prescribed an oath of submission to the papal
  decrees.

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Chinese Rites Controversy

• Consequences
• Diverted the attention and energy of the
  missionaries
• Missionaries left China
• Friendship with Imperial leadership which was won
  over decades was lost.
• Christian virtues subverted
• Progress of the mission effort retarded
• Dissolution of the Society of Jesus in 1773

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Nobili

• Born 1577, died 1656 at the age of 79
• Italian Jesuit
• Arrived in India on the coast in 1605 where he
  studied the Dravidian language of Tamil for some
  months
• Move to Madurai

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Tamil
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Madurai
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Madurai
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Madurai
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Circumstances

• Nobili goes to Madurai and joins a Portuguese
  Jesuit, Father Fernandez who was already there.
• Fernandez used the method he learned in Goaturn
  the converts in Portuguese.
• Believers were all immigrants from elsewhere.
• What is the problem with this approach?

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Nobili

• The higher Indian castes had an invincible
  repugnance for the manners and customs of the
  Parangi and this close association of the
  faith with abhorrent customs made it practically
  impossible for any man of standing or respectable
  position even to consider becoming a Christian.
  (Neill 156)

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Nobili

• Likely heard of the methods of Ricci in China
• Sought to carry the method of accommodation
  (contextualization) further.
• To win the Indians he would become Indian.
  (Neill 156)

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Nobili

• Studied Brahmin customs and prejudice
• Abandoned everything he could that might bring
  offence
• Meat, leather
• Wore the robe of a holy man and sought to fulfill
  the role of guru.
• Renounced attachment to the world as a religious
  teacher
• Mastered classical Tamil
• Later learned Telugu and Sanskrit first
  European
• Cut himself off from contact with the existing
  Christian church

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Nobili

• Public discussions on religious subjects such as
  the nature of God, creation, etc.
• Adapted the scholastic method of argument with
  illustrations from Indian classical literature
• Converts were not required to break cast rules,
  except in so far as they were idolatrous.
• Brahmins could keep tuft of hear at the back of
  the head and the sacred threadalthough a special
  thread blessed by Christian prayer was used.

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Nobili

• Successes
• Within a couple of years he baptized ten high
  caste converts.
• By 1609 he had 63 converts including a few
  Brahmins

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The Storm

• He steered clear of Fernandez, but
• The local storm and his defense

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The Storm

• In am not a Parangi, I was not born in the land
  of the Parangis nor was I ever connected with
  their race I came from Rome, where my family
  hold the same rank as respectable Rajas hold in
  this country The law which I preach is the law
  of the true God, which from ancient time was by
  His command proclaimed in these countries by
  sannyasis and saints. Whoever says that it is
  the law of the Parangis, fit only for low castes
  commits a very great sin, for the true God is not
  the God of one race but the God of all (Full
  text in A pearl to India, 1959, pp 137)

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The Storm

• News reached the bishop in Goa and Rome stating
  he was
• Tolerating Hindu superstition
• Deceiving people
• By Separating his converts from the Portuguese
  church he was creating a schism.

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The Storm

• Nobili replies in a document titled
• A reply to the objections raised against the
  method used in the new mission of Madurai for the
  conversion of the Gentiles to Christ.
• The controversy raged back and forth and in the
  end Nobili was exonerated from the charges
  against him.

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Nobili

• Expansion of his ministry to other areas.
• As lower caste converts came into the church he
  divided the work along caste lines and recruited
  other workers.
• 1645 he is withdrawn, dies blind in Mylapore near
  Madras in 1656 after 50 years of service.

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Nobili

• Later
• The number of converts diminished
• In 1643 it is estimated that 600 converts of
  higher caste had been baptized
• In 1645 only 26 Brahmin Christians remained.
• Later his work generated mass movement among
  lower castes.

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Nobili

• The achievement of Nobili was splendid, and such
  a measure of success among the higher castes is
  almost unparalleled legendary exaggeration has
  done nothing to add to the glory of the historic
  reality. (Neill 159)

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Others

• De Britto and Beschi

John de Britto