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Rh, it will be necessary to retrace, in some degree, the history of the mission. The questions most agitated were, whether the words Tëen, "heaven," and Shang-te, "supreme ruler," meant the true God or the material heavens; and, whether the ceremonies performed at the tombs of ancestors, and in honour of Confucius, were civil or religious rites. The Jesuits maintained the former, and the Dominicans and Franciscans the latter parts of these propositions.

With regard to the terms employed to designate the Deity, difficulties always have been, and still are felt, which have been already alluded to; but as it respects the observances in honour of ancestors and Confucius, all who know anything about Christianity must see that as sacrifices are offered, and temples erected to both, with incense and prostrations before them, the ceremonies in question must be accounted religious, and therefore idolatrous. At the commencement of the mission, Ricci had drawn up a set of regulations for the conduct of future labourers, in which he considered the rites referred to as merely secular; others, however, differed from him; and in 1645, Morales, a Dominican, procured a bull from pope Innocent X., denouncing them as superstitious and abominable. The Jesuits, on their part, were not idle, and made such representations on the subject, as induced pope Alexander VII., A. D. 1656, to declare, that these were merely political ceremonies, and that the toleration of them was both prudent and charitable. Thus there were two infallible decrees, in direct contradiction to each other; and two zealous bodies of labourers pursuing pposite plans for the accomplishment of the same object.