Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 16.djvu/536

Rh 514 MISSIONS Other representatives of the same order worked with success in evangelizing the Spanish settlement of Paraguay in 1582, while their defeated foes the Huguenots sent forth under a French knight of Malta a body of devoted men to attempt the formation of a Christian colony at Rio Janeiro. By the close of the 16th century the unflag ging zeal of the Jesuits led to a more complete development and organization of the missionary system of the Roman Church. To give unity and solidity to the work of missions, a committee of cardinals was appointed under the name of the &quot; Congregatio de propaganda fide,&quot; and to it was entrusted the entire management of the mission, conducted under the superintendence of the pope. The scheme origin ated with Gregory XIII., but was not fully organized till forty years afterwards, when Gregory XV. gave it plenary authority by a bull dated June 2, 1622. Gregory s suc cessor, Urban VIII., supplemented the establishment of the congregation by founding in connexion with it a great missionary college, where Europeans might be trained for foreign labours, and natives might be educated to undertake mission work wherever new colonies were settled. At this college is the missionary printing-press of the Roman Church, and its library contains an unrivalled collection of literary treasures bearing on the particular work. From its walls have gone forth numbers of devoted men, who have proved themselves able to promote in a singular degree the enlargement of the boundaries of the church by means of material as well as spiritual forces. 3. The Modern Period. This last period of missionary activity is distinguished in a special degree by the exertions of societies for the development of mission work. As contrasted with the colossal display of power on the part of the Church of Rome, it must be allowed that the churches which in the 16th century broke off from their allegiance to the Latin centre at first presented a great lack of anxiety for the extension of the gospel and the salvation of the heathen. The causes of this, however, are not far to seek. The isolation of the Teutonic churches from the vast system with which they had been bound up, the conflicts and troubles among themselves, the necessity of fixing their own principles and defining their own rights, concentrated their attention upon themselves and their own home work, to the neglect of work abroad. Still the development of the maritime power of England, which the Portuguese and Spanish monarchies noted with fear and jealousy, was distinguished by a singular anxiety for the spread of the Christian faith. Edward VI. in his instructions to the navigators in Willoughby s fleet, Cabot in those for the direction of the intended voyage to Cathay, good old Hakluyt, who promoted many voyages of dis covery in addition to writing their history, agree with Sir Humphrey Gilbert s chronicler that &quot;the sowing of Christianity must be the chief intent of such as shall make any attempt at foreign discovery, or else whatever is builded upon other foundation shall never obtain happy success or continuance.&quot; AVhen on the last day of the year 1600 Queen Elizabeth granted a charter to George, earl of Cumberland, and other &quot;adventurers,&quot; to be a body- corporate by the name of &quot; The Governor and Company of Merchants of London trading with the East Indies,&quot; the expressed recognition of higher duties than those of com merce may by some be deemed a mere matter of form, and, to use the words of Bacon, &quot; what was first in God s providence was but second in man s appetite and intention.&quot; Yet a keen sense of missionary duty marks many of the chronicles of English mariners. Notably was this the case with the establishment of the first English colony in America, that of Virginia, by Sir Walter Raleigh. The philosopher Heriot, one of his colleagues, laboured for the conversion of the natives, amongst whom the first baptism is recorded to have taken place on August 13, 15S7. 1 Raleigh himself presented as a parting gift to the Virginian Company the sum of 100 &quot; for the propagation of the Christian religion &quot; in that settlement. 2 When James I. granted letters patent for the occupation of Virginia it was directed that the &quot;word and service of God be preached, planted, and used as well in the said colonies as also as much as might be among the savages bordering among them&quot;; and the honoured names of Nicolas Ferrar, John Ferrar, Dr Donne, and Sir John Sandys, a pupil of Hooker, are all found on the council by which the home management of the colony was conducted. In the year 1618 was published The True Honour of Navigation and Navigators, by John Wood, D.D., dedicated to Sir Thomas Smith, governor to the East India Company, and much about the same time appeared the well-known treatise of the famous Grotius, De Veritate Eeligionis Christiana, written for the express use of settlers in distant lands. The wants, moreover, of the North American colonies did not escape the attention of Archbishop Laud during his official connexion with them as bishop of London, and he was developing a plan for promoting a local episcopate there when his troubles began and his scheme was interrupted. During the Protectorate, in 1649, an ordinance was passed for &quot;the promoting and propagating of the gospel of Jesus Christ in New England &quot; by the erection of a corporation, to be called by the name of the President and Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in New England, to receive and dispose of moneys for the purpose, and a general collection was ordered to be made in all the parishes of England and Wales; and Cromwell himself desired a scheme for setting up a council for the Protestant religion, which should rival the Roman Propaganda, and consist of seven councillors and four secretaries for different provinces. 3 On the restoration of the monarchy, through the influence of Richard Baxter with Lord Chancellor Hyde, the charter already granted by Cromwell was renewed, and its powers were enlarged. For now the corporation was styled &quot; The Propagation of the Gospel in New England and the parts adjacent in America,&quot; and its object was defined to be &quot;not only to seek the outward welfare and prosperity of those colonies, but more especially to endeavour the good and salvation of their immortal souls, and the publishing the most glorious gospel of Christ among them.&quot; On the list of the corporation the first name is the earl of Clarendon, while the Hon. Robert Boyle was appointed president. Amongst the most eminent of its missionaries was the celebrated John Eliot, who, encouraged by Boyle, and assisted by him with considerable sums of money, brought out the Bible in the Indian language in 1661-64, having revealed at the end of the Indian grammar which he had composed the secret of his success : &quot;prayer and pains, through faith in Jesus Christ, will do anything.&quot; Boyle displayed in other ways his zeal for the cause of missions. He contributed to the expense of printing and publishing at Oxford the four Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles in the Malay language, and at his death left 5400 for the propagation of the gospel in heathen lands. The needs of the colonial church soon excited the attention of others also, and great efforts were made by Bishop Beveridge, Archbishop Wake, Archbishop Sharpe, Bishop Gibson, and afterwards by the philosophic Bishop Berkeley, and Bishop Butler, the famous author of the Analogy, to 1 Hakluyt, Voyages, iii. 345. 2 Oldy, Life of Raleigh, p. 118. 3 Neale, History of New Enfjland, i. p. 260 ; Burnet, History of his own Times, i. p. 132.