Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 3.djvu/751

 CHINA

671

CHINA

Wu-ch'ang. Brighter days were looked for after the signing of a treaty al Wham-poa (1844) !>y the French ambassador, fheodose de Lagrene, expecta-

which were fulfilled after the Peking Conven- tion of 1860.

In an edict of 20 Feb., 1S46, Tao-kwang ordered that the establishments belonging formerly to Chris- tians be restored to their owners and that hence- forward officers searching for and arresting harmless Christians should be tried. The edict was not sent to all the governors, and the same year the mission- aries, Hue and (Jabet, were arrested at Lhassa and the Franciscan Father Navarro in ilu-pe, and all taken under escort to Canton and .Macao; it. was not till the war of I860 that the churches of Peking were surrendered to Bishop Mouly. The murder of Auguste Chapdelaine (Missions Etrangeres de Paris) at Si-lin-hien, in Kwang-si on 2!) Feb., 1856, was the pretext chosen by France to join England in a military action against China. Special privileges were awarded to missions by Art. XIII of the French [Yeaty of Tientsin i IS.is) and Art. VI of the French Peking Convention i 1800). The old churches of the capital were restored to the Lazarists, and passports for inland transit or sojourn issued to twenty-eight missionaries. Korea, already ill-famed on account of the massacre of Monsignor Imbert and Fathers ■I anl Maubant on 21 Sept., 1839, was the

see if a terrible persecution in 1866; Bishop Ber-

neiix, with Fathers de Bretenieres, Beaulieu, and Dorie s March), Pburthie' and Petitnicolas (11 \1 rcn. the coadjutor Bishop Daveluy, and Fathers

ttre and Hum (30 March) were all decapitated. Of the flourishing establishment of the Missions Etran-

le Paris, there were left only Fathers Ridel, later on Wear Apostolic, Feron, and Calais. This led to an intervention of France in Korea which did not, however, achieve any great degree of success. Things were going from bad to worse in china. In Kwang- Verchere 1867), Dejean (1868), 1868 . were persecuted; in Sze-ch'wan, Fathers Mabileau (29 Aug., 1865) and Rigaud (2 Jan., 1869) were murdered at Veu-yang-chou, near Kwei -elii.ii. and Filler- ("lilies and Lcbrun were ill- treated 1869 7(1); anti-foreign placards were posted up in Ilu-nan (1809); the French Minister, Count de

Rod houart, was nearly murdered at T'ai-yuan,

in the Shan-si province (1869). Finally came the ot T'ien-tsin, 21 June, 1870. Fontanier, the French Consul, Simon, his chancellor, Thomassin, the interpreter and his wife, the Lazarist Father Chevrier and the Cantonese priesl I lu. Challemaison, a merchant, and his wife, ten sisters of St. Vincent of Paul, Bass, ,n and Protopopoff, Russian merchants, and the 'i i the latter— -in all twenty-one per- sons, were pul to death with greal barbarity.

The Franco Prussian War prevented France from

taking any energetic action in China, but a special mis-

Seaded by the High Commissioner, Ch'ung Hon,

apologize. The lack of retaliation

on the part of France encouraged Prime Kung to

to the foreign ministers at Peking ilsTli a irandum relating to missions and regula pplied to I hristian mis ionaries. This circular

not, net with a protest not only from the French

Minister, Rochechouarl 11 Nov.. 1871), bui also

from Mr. Wade, British Minister. The murder of

the German missionaries, Nies and Henle 1 Nov.,

in the Shan-tung province led to the occupa-

hou by the ( iermans. < in 1 I ( >d. 1898,

Chan.'- lered at Pak-tung Kwang-tung);

in Delbrouck, a Belgian, was killed in Bu pi

M Dec, 1898 satisfaction was given by the Chinese

for th'-s.- crimes, which had been perpetrated in the

I two imperial decries of the same year, dated

12 July and 6 October. The Boxer rebellion brought

sad days for the missions. The list of martyrs is

lengthy. The following bishops were put to death: Fantosati of Northern Hu-nan, Grassi and Fogolla of Shan-si, Italian Franciscans; Guillen, Missions Etran- geres of Manchuria, Hamer (Dutch) of Kan-su (burnt to death), and the Franciscans, Ceseda and Joseph (Hu- nan); Facchini, Saccani, Balat, and Egide (Shan-si); Ebert (Hu-pe); the Jesuits, Andlauer, Isord, Denn, and Mangin (Chi-li); the Lazarists d'Addosio, Gar- rigues, Dore., Chavanne (Peking); Emonet, Viaud, Agnius, Bayart, Bourgeois, Leray, le Gudvel, Geor- jon, Souvignet, of Manchuria, all of the Missions Etrangeres of Paris; Segers, Heirman, Mallet, Jas- pers, Zylmans, Abbeloos, Dobbe, of Mongolia, all of the Congregation of Scheut.

Mention should be made of the fact that in 1895, the French Minister Gerard made an agreement with the Tsung-H Yamen that all passages in the official codes disadvantageous to the Christian religion should beerased. The Berthemy Convention, finally sett lei II >y M. Gerard (spoken of below), and the reorganization of the protectorates and the hierarchy, treated of hereafter, are the chief events of the last few years.

The Question op Rites. — Father Ricci, the first su- perior of the Jesuits in China, had remarkable Buccess in his work of evangelizing because of the greal tolerance he showed the cult rendered by the Chinese to Heaven, to Confucius, and to ancestors. Indeed, mandarins being obliged to honour officially Heaven and Confucius on certain days, it would have been difficult to convert any of them if they had not been allowed to carry out the functions of their office. Ancestor worship is, practically, the principal religion of China. Ricci's successor, Longobardi, was different mind and finally in 1G28, when Emmanuel Diaz (Junior) was vice-provincial, a meeting was called to study the question, but no decision was reached. Affairs reached a crisis when the Domini- can, Moralez, and the Franciscan, Santa Maria, ar- rived in China (1633). Excess of zeal, ignorance of local customs, or some such reason was the cause of the expulsion of Dominicans and Franciscans ( 1637). In addition to different views about the religion of the Chinese there was another cause of discord be- tween the Jesuits and the Dominicans. The former were protected by Portugal and their protectors were at Macao. The latter were Spaniards, and they looked for support to Manila. In 1639, Moralez addressed to Diaz Senior, then Visitor of the Jesuit mission, a memorandum in twelve articles regarding Chinese practices. Diaz having delayed his ai Moralez went to Rome and on 12 Sept., 1645, ob- tained from Innocent X a decree condemning Jesuits. The Jesuits thereupon dispatched to Rome Martin Martini, who after a stormy voyage, was carried to the Norwegian coast and was obliged to cross Holland and Germany to Italy. lie bucci eded in having a contradictory decree issued by Alexander VII (23 March. L656). Then followed a m ■■ mem orandum of Moralez to the Sacred Congregation

1661 . and a new decree of Clement I \

Jesuits (20 -Nov.. 1669). Moralez died L664) but

his successor as Prefect of the Dominicans in China, Domingo Fernandez Navarrette, published his "Tra- tados historicos"; the Dominicans, however, found an adversary among themselves, The Chinese

Dominican, (iregorio Lopez, Bishop of Basilea and Vicar Apostolic of Nan-king, sent the Saend Congre- gation a memoir in favour of the I

New elements were brought into the disCVJ when French Jesuits and priests ol lie Mi Etrangeres arrived in China. The publication in Paris, m 1682, of a work entitled " Fa Morale pratique

des Jesuit es", a bitter criticism of the Jesuit ictedae a firebrand. Pere la- Tellier answered with 'D

fense dee Nouveaux Chretiens" (1687). which was later censured at Rome (23 May, 1694). On 26 March, 1693, Charles Maigrot, of the Missions Etran-