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 FOREIGN MISSIONS 637 means which churchmen themselves disavowed and condemned. Thus Alcuin openly censured Charlemagne for the oppressive measures by which that emperor compelled the pagan Sax- ons to receive baptism. This habitual inter- ference of the eastern and western emperors, while it injured the cause it was designed to serve, did not prevent zealous missionaries in every country from risking their lives in preach- ing to the heathen. The further treatment of the subject may be more conveniently divided under two heads. I. ROMAN CATHOLIC MIS- SIONS. A new missionary zeal awoke in the Roman Catholic church after the foundation of the mendicant orders, which endeavored to excel each other in extending the territory of their church. Innocent IV. in 1245, and St. Louis in 1248, sent mendicant friars as mis- sionaries among the Mongols ; and in 1289 John de Monte Corvino translated the New Testament and Psalms into the Tartar lan- guage. Several bishops were appointed for China, where the mission assumed large dimen- sions, but half a century later it was nearly exterminated. Toward the close of the 14th century the Franciscans supported a flourishing mission in northern Persia, with about 10,000 adherents. The missionaries to the East did not confine their labors to the pagans, but also endeavored to bring about a union of the east- ern episcopal denominations, and were partly successful in the case of the Greeks, Arme- nians, Copts, and others. In the 15th century Portuguese missionaries settled in the islands discovered by their countrymen, and with the aid of the secular arm soon effected the nominal Christianization of Porto Santo and Madeira (1418-'19), of the Azores (1432-'57), and of several districts along the African coast (1486- '97). Very extensive new fields for missions were opened by the discovery of America in 1492, and the circumnavigation of the cape of Good Hope in 1497". Great numbers of mission- aries volunteered to be sent to the newly discov- ered countries, and in the East as well as West Indies missionary operations were commenced on a very large scale. In the East Indies the bishopric of Goa was established in 1520 under Franciscan missionaries, several other bishops for the East were appointed and sent out by the Portuguese government, and a large part of the Christians of St. Thomas were prevailed upon to unite with the Roman Catholic church. In Mexico and Central and South America, the 16th century completed the victory of the Ro- man Catholic missions, as far as the country was under the dominion of the Spaniards and the Portuguese. In many instances, however, the aid of the inquisition was invoked to sup- press the pagan worship. An extraordinary impulse to missionary labors was given by the establishment of the order of Jesuits. As shortly before a large part of Europe had sep- arated from the Roman Catholic church, they directed their efforts equally to the conversion of the pagans and to inducing the Protestants and eastern Christians to submit again to the authority of the pope. St. Francis Xavier, who has been canonized as the apostle of the Indies and Japan, surpassed all Christian mis- sionaries who had lived since the apostolic age in the extent of his missionary travels, and in the number of converts whom he baptized. At the time of his death about 100 Jesuits were laboring in the East Indies. Soon after, the east of Asia presented the brightest pros- pects. But it is particularly in Spanish and Portuguese America that the Jesuit missionaries found a fruitful field. Their first " missions " or Christian parishes along the Parana and the Uruguay were again and again destroyed by the Mamelucos, who only aimed at reducing the natives to slavery. But having obtained from the home government official decrees declaring the Indian converts to be free men and forbidding the European settlers to molest or hold intercourse with them, a native Chris- tian population of between 100,000 and 200,000 were united under the missionaries, taught the art of agriculture, and governed peacefully for a period of 80 years. A similar result was reached in the mining districts of Peru ; while Jesuits, Franciscans, and Dominicans vied with each other in civilizing the wild tribes on the eastern slopes of the Andes and along the head waters and affluents of the Amazon. In New Granada the missionaries were no less ac- tive both among the native populations and the numerous African slaves ; the most conspic- uous among them was the Jesuit Pietro Claver, called " the apostle of Cartagena," who is said to have instructed and baptized upward of 200,- 000 negro slaves. Prescott, in his "Conquest of Mexico," recounts the enlightened efforts of Cortes to obtain efficient missionaries for the natives. The Augustinians, Franciscans, and Dominicans responded to his call, and did much to civilize and protect the indigenous tribes, while establishing everywhere schools and col- leges. Later the labors of the Jesuits in Cali- fornia and New Mexico were attended with the same success as in South America, and their missions were ruined in the last century by the same causes. The Philippines became a Catholic country under the rule of Philip II., and' even in the mighty empire of Japan the conversion of a number of princes prom- ised the speedy victory of Christianity, when internal wars and dread of foreign rule called forth (after 1587) a bloody persecution, which ended in the second half of the 17th cen- tury in what was thought to be the conv plete extirpation of Christianity. In China, several Jesuits, especially Ricci and Schall, obtained great influence at the court by means of their astronomical and mathematical knowl- edge, and among the educated classes of the people by the classic works which they com- posed in the Chinese language ; and this ex- tensive influence was used with great success in gaining converts for their creed. While Spanish missionaries from Mexico were press-