Page:Christianity in China, Tartary, and Thibet Volume II.djvu/247

 DOCTORS TAUL, LEON, AND MICHEL. 233 numerable superstitions, a multitude of divinities, and the most incoherent doctrines, perpetually varying with various localities and the teachings of various Bonzes ; on the other, one only God, one doctrine, one priesthood, and one worship. This admirable unity at length over- came his doubts, and he no longer hesitated to declare himself a Christian. After having been sufficiently in- structed in the m3'steries of religion, he was baptized under the name of Michel, dismissed the Bonzes that he had had in his service, and converted his pagoda into a Catholic cliapel. AVitli this important conversion the Chinese Christians counted in their ranks the three most celebrated doctors in the corporation of the Lettered; namely, Doctors Paul, Leon, and Michel, Avho continued during their whole lives to manifest the most ardent zeal for the propaga- tion of the faith, and the most boundless devotion to the missionaries. The high reputation for knowledge and integrity which they enjoyed throughout the em- pire, and especially among the high and cultivated classes, procured an amount of respect for the religion they had adopted, as well as for its ministers, which • had not hitherto been felt. The Bachelors of several towns formed themselves into connnittees, and drew up petitions with numerous signatures, in which they begged the superiors of the missions of Nankin and Pekin to send them preachers to teach them the true way of salvation. A new spirit seemed to be awakened from one end of China to the other. New missions were founded, the former ones were enlarged and strengthened: that of Nankin, which already possessed eight missionaries, rivalled even that of Pekin in the number and zeal of