CHAPTER X
Father Valignani—State of the Missions—Conversion and Baptism of the King of Bungo—Growth of Nagasaki—Embassy to the Pope—Documents relating to this Embassy—A. D. 1577-1586.
Such was the state of things on the arrival, at the beginning of 1577, of Father Alexander Valignani, visitor-general of the Jesuit establishments in the East, and who in that capacity came to inspect the missions of Japan. He found there, in addition to a large number of native catechists, fifty-nine professed Jesuits (including twelve who had arrived but a short time before), of whom twenty-six were native Japanese; but, as only twenty-three of the whole number were ordained priests, it was found very difficult to meet the demand for ministers qualified to baptize and to administer the other sacraments. Hence the visitor was the more convinced of the necessity of establishing a novitiate of the order (a project already started by Father Cabral, the vice-provincial), and seminaries for the education of the children of the converts designed for the priesthood, especially those of superior rank; and in his letter to the general of the order and to the Pope, he recommended the appointment of a bishop, so that ordination might be had without the necessity of going to Malacca. He also settled, at a general assembly of the missionaries, who met him at Kuchinotsu, many points of discipline, and especially a difficult and much disputed question as to the wearing of silk garments, which, as being the stuff in use by all persons of consideration in Japan, some of the Jesuits wished to wear. The ground taken was that it would only be a new application of the policy, which had been agreed upon, of conforming as far as innocently might be to the customs of the country. This argument, however, had not satisfied Father Cabral; he had prohibited the wearing of silk, which the rule of the order did not allow; and that decision was now confirmed by the visitor.
There were, however, other points upon which the vice-provincial and the visitor did not so well agree. Of Cabral, Charlevoix draws the following character, one for which many originals might be found: “He was a holy professor, a great missionary, a vigilant and amiable superior; but he was one of those excellent persons who imagine themselves more clear-headed than other men, and who, in consequence, ask counsel of nobody but themselves; or rather, who believe themselves inspired, when they have once prayed to be so, regarding as decrees of Heaven, expressed by their mouth, all the resolutions which they have taken at the foot of the cross, where the last thing to be laid down is one’s own judgment.” Cabral had taken up the idea that persons of such vigorous understanding as the Japanese must be duly held in check; and the whole twenty-six of them received, up to this time, into the company, and almost all of whom aspired to the priesthood, he strictly limited to such studies as would suffice to qualify them for the subordinate parts of divine service. This policy Valignani did not approve; but when he sought to alter it, he encountered such opposition from Father Cabral, to be obliged to send him off to Goa, appointing Father Gaspard Cuello in his place.
Shortly after the arrival of Valignani, the church gained a new and distinguished accession in Kiuan,[45] king of Bungo, who, having repudiated his old pagan wife, to whom the Catholics gave the name of Jezebel, married a new one, and was baptized with all his household, taking the name of Francis, according to the custom of the missionaries in giving European names to their converts. There were even strong hopes of gaining over his eldest son and colleague, Yoshimune, when a war broke out with the king of Satsuma for the possession of the intervening kingdom of Hyūga, which resulted in the loss of all Kiuan’s conquests, and his reduction to his original province of Bungo, which also he was in danger of losing,—a change by no means favorable to the missionaries. Kuchinotsu was ruined in this war; and the spectacle of the vicissitudes to which everything in Japan was exposed induced Valignani to urge upon the Portuguese merchants and residents to fortify Nagasaki. This was done in 1579, and that port became thenceforward almost the sole one resorted to by the Portuguese. The converted king of Gotō having died, the guardian of his infant son showed himself hostile to the missionaries; but this circumstance was an advantage to Nagasaki, which received many fugitives from these islands.
The new king of Arima being brought, by the labors of the visitor, to a better disposition, was baptized, and became one of the most zealous of the converts. Both the emperor Nobunaga and his three sons still continued very well disposed to the missionaries, allowing Father Gnecchi, who was a favorite with him, to establish a house, a church, and a seminary at Azuchiyama, his local capital, which he had greatly beautified, and between which and Miyako he had caused a highway to be built, at great expense and with immense labor. His evident design to make his authority absolute had indeed led to a league against him, which, however, proved of no avail, this attempt at resistance resulting in the subjection of all the kings of the western half of Nippon, except Mōri of Nagato. The good service which the missionaries rendered, in persuading the Christian princes, and the Christian vassals of the unconverted ones, to submit to the emperor, as their superior lord, caused Valignani to be very graciously received, both at Miyako and also at Azuchiyama.
On the visitor’s return to Shimo, the converted kings of Bungo and Arima, and the prince of Ōmura, determined to send ambassadors to be the bearers of their submission to the Pope. For this purpose two young nobles were selected, scarcely sixteen years of age: one, prince of Hyūga, the son of a niece of the king of Bungo, the other, prince of Arima, cousin of the king of Arima, and nephew of the prince of Ōmura. They were attended by two counsellors somewhat older than themselves, by Father Diego de Mesquita, as their preceptor, and interpreter, and by a Japanese Jesuit, named George Loyola, and, in company with Father Valignani, they sailed from Nagasaki February 20, 1582, in a Portuguese ship bound for Macao, now the headquarters of the Portuguese trade to Japan. They arrived at Macao after a very stormy and dangerous passage of seventeen days; but the season of sailing for Malacca being past, they had to wait there six months. When at length they did sail, they encountered very violent storms; but at last, after twenty-nine days’ passage (January 27, 1583), they reached Malacca, passing, as they entered the harbor, the wreck of another richly laden Portuguese vessel, which had sailed from Macao in their company. After resting at Malacca eight days, they embarked for Goa, which third voyage proved not less trying than the two others. Delayed by calms, they ran short of provisions and water, and by the ignorance of the pilot were near being run ashore on the island of Ceylon. They disembarked at length at Travancore, at the southeastern extremity of the peninsula of India, whence they proceeded by land to the neighboring port of Cochin. Here, owing to the unfavorable monsoon, they had to wait six months before they could sail for Goa, at which capital of Portuguese India they arrived in September. The viceroy of the Indies received them with great hospitality, and furnished them with a good ship, in which they had a favorable passage round the Cape of Good Hope, arriving at Lisbon August 10, 1584.
Four years before, Portugal had passed under the rule of Philip II, of Spain, who had thus united on his single head the crowns of both the East and the West Indies; and to him these ambassadors were charged with a friendly message. The viceroy of Portugal received them at Lisbon with every attention. At Madrid they were received by Philip II himself with the greatest marks of distinction. Having traversed Spain, they embarked at Alicante, but were driven by a storm into the island of Majorca, thereby escaping an Algerine fleet and a Turkish squadron, both of which were cruising in that neighborhood. Sailing thence they landed at Leghorn, where Pierro de’ Medici, brother of the grand duke of Tuscany, was waiting to attend them. They spent the carnival at Pisa, and thence by Florence proceeded towards Rome.
Aquiviva, general of the Jesuits (the fourth successor of Loyola), was very pressing with the Pope for a reception without display; but Gregory XIII (the same to whom we owe the reform of the calendar) had determined in consistory that the honor of the church and of the holy see required a different course. The ambassadors were met at Viterbo by the Pope’s light horse, and were escorted into the city by a long cavalcade of Roman nobles. The whole of the corso up to Jesus, the church and house of the Jesuits, where the ambassadors were to lodge, was crowded with people, who greeted their arrival with deafening shouts. As they alighted from their carriage, they were received by Father Aquiviva, attended by all the Jesuits then at Rome, who conducted them to the church, where Te Deum was chanted.
The next day a magnificent procession was formed to escort them to the Vatican. It was headed by the light horse, followed by the Pope’s Swiss guard, the officers of the cardinals, the carriages of the ambassadors of Spain, France, Venice, and the Roman princes, the whole Roman nobility on horseback, the pages and officers of the ambassadors, with trumpets and cymbals, the chamberlains of the Pope, and the officers of the palace, all in red robes. Then followed the Japanese on horseback, in their national dress,[46] three silken gowns of a light fabric, one over the other, of a white ground, splendidly embroidered with fruits, leaves, and birds. In their girdles they wore the two swords, symbols of Japanese gentility. Their heads, shaven, except the hair round the ears and neck, which was gathered into a cue bent upwards, had no covering. Their features were hardly less divergent from the European standard than their dress, yet their whole expression, air, and manner, modest and amiable, but with a conscious sentiment of nobility, was such as impressed the bystanders very favorably. The prince of Hyūga came first, between two archbishops. The prince of Arima followed, between two bishops. Of their counsellors, one was kept away by sickness, the other followed between two nobles, and after him Father de Mesquita, the interpreter, also on horseback. A great number of richly dressed courtiers closed the procession. The crowds, which filled the streets and the windows, looked on in almost breathless silence. As the ambassadors crossed the bridge of St. Angelo, all the cannon of the castle were fired, to which those of the Vatican responded, at which signal all the bands struck up, and continued to play till the hall of audience was reached.
The ambassadors approached the foot of the papal throne, each with the letter of his prince in his hand. Prostrating themselves at the Pope’s feet, they declared in Japanese, in a voice loud and distinct, that they had come from the extremities of the earth to acknowledge in the person of the Pope the vicar of Jesus Christ, and to render obedience to him in the name of the princes of whom they were the envoys, and also for themselves. The Father de Mesquita expressed in Latin what they had said; but the appearance of the young men themselves, who had essayed so many dangers and fatigues to come to pay their homage to the holy see, was more expressive than any words; and it drew tears and sobs from the greater part of the audience. The Pope himself, greatly agitated, hastened to raise them up, kissed their foreheads, and embraced them many times, dropping tears upon them. They were then conducted to an alcove, while the secretary of the consistory read the letters from the Japanese princes, which Father de Mesquita had translated into Italian, and of which the following may serve as a specimen:
“LETTER OF THE KING OF BUNGO,
“To him who ought to be adored and who holds the place of the King of Heaven, the great and most holy Pope.
“Full of confidence in the grace of the supreme and almighty God, I write, with all possible submission, to your Holiness. The Lord, who governs heaven and earth, who holds under his empire the sun and all the celestial host, has made his light to shine upon one who was plunged in ignorance and buried in deep darkness. It is more than thirty years since this sovereign Master of nature, displaying all the treasures of his pity in favor of the inhabitants of these countries, sent thither the fathers of the Company of Jesus, who have sowed the seed of the divine Word in these kingdoms of Japan; and he has pleased, in his infinite bounty, to cause a part of it to fall into my heart: singular mercy, for which I think myself indebted, most holy Father of all the faithful, as well to the prayers and merits of your Holiness as to those of many others. If the wars which I have had to sustain, my old age, and my infirmities had not prevented me, I should myself have visited the holy places where you dwell, to render in person the obedience which I owe you. I would have devotedly kissed the feet of your Holiness, I would have placed them on my head, and would have besought you to make with your sacred hand the august sign of the cross on my heart. Constrained, by the reasons I have mentioned, to deprive myself of a consolation so sweet, I did design to send in my place Jerome, son of the king of Fiunga [Hyūga], and my grandson; but as he was too far distant from my court, and as the father-visitor could not delay his departure, I have substituted for him Mancio, his cousin and my great-nephew.
“I shall be infinitely obliged if your Holiness, holding upon earth the place of God himself, shall continue to shed your favor upon me, upon all Christians, and especially upon this little portion of the flock committed to your care. I have received from the hand of the father-visitor the reliquary with which your Holiness honored me, and I have placed it on my head with much respect. I have no words in which to express the gratitude with which I am penetrated for a gift so precious. I will add no more, as the father-visitor and my ambassador will more fully inform your Holiness as to all that regards my person and my realm. I truly adore you, most holy Father, and I write this to you trembling with respectful fear. The 11th day of January, in the year of our Lord 1582.
“Francis, King of Bungo,
“prostrate at the foot of your Holiness.”
The reading of this and of the other letters, translated into Italian, was followed by a “Discourse on Obedience,” pronounced, in the name of the princes and the ambassadors, by Father Gaspard Gonzales, a model of rhetorical elegance and comprehensive brevity—whatever may be thought of its ethical or theological doctrines—which some of the long-winded speakers of the present day, both lay and clerical, would do well to imitate. We give, as a specimen, a passage from the beginning:
“Nature has separated Japan from the countries in which we now are, by such an extent of land and sea, that, before the present age, there were very few persons who had any knowledge of it; and even now there are those who find it difficult to believe the accounts of it which we give. It is certain, nevertheless, most holy Father, that there are several Japanese islands, of a vast extent, and in these islands numerous fine cities, the inhabitants of which have a keen understanding, noble and courageous hearts, and obliging dispositions, politeness of manners, and inclinations disposed towards that which is good. Those who have known them have decidedly preferred them to all the other people of Asia, and it is only their lack of the true religion which prevents them from competing with the nations of Europe.
“For some years past this religion has been preached to them, under the authority of the holy see, by apostolical missionaries. Its commencements were small, as in the case of the primitive church; but God having given his blessing to this evangelical seed, it took root in the hearts of the nobles, and of late, under the pontificate of your Holiness, it has been received by the greatest lords, the princes and kings of Japan. This, most holy Father, ought to console you, for many reasons; but principally because, laboring as you do with an indefatigable zeal and vigor to reëstablish a religion, shaken and almost destroyed by the new heresies here in Europe, you see it take root and make great progress in the most distant country of the world.
“Hitherto your Holiness has heard, and with great pleasure, of the abundant fruits borne by this vine newly planted, with so much labor, at the extremities of the earth. Now you may see, touch, taste them, in this august assembly, and impart of them to all the faithful. What joy ought not all Christians to feel, and especially the Roman people, at seeing the ambassadors of such great princes come from the ends of the earth to prostrate themselves at the feet of your Holiness, through a pure motive of religion,—a thing which has never happened in any age! What satisfaction for them to see the most generous and valiant kings of the East, conquered by the arms of the faith and by the preaching of the gospel, submitting themselves to the empire of Jesus Christ, and, as they cannot, from their avocations, come in person to take the oath of obedience and fidelity to the holy see, acquitting themselves of this duty by ambassadors so nearly related to them, and whom they so tenderly love!”
In the following passage the orator alludes more at length to the revolt in Europe against the authority of the Pope, which Philip II, no less than the Pope, was at this moment vigorously laboring to put down, by the recent introduction of the Jesuits into the Netherlands, where the Protestant rebels had been suppressed, by war against Holland, by aiding the French leaguers, by countenancing the retrograde movement then in rapid progress in Germany, and by preparing to carry out against Elizabeth of England the sentence of deposition which the Pope had fulminated against her.
“O immortal God! What a stroke of thine arm! What an effect of thy grace! In places so distant from the holy see, where the name of Jesus had never been heard, nor his gospel ever preached, as soon as the true faith shed there the first rays of the truth, men of temperaments quite different from ours, kings illustrious by their nobility, redoubtable for their power, happy in the abundance of their possessions, conquerors and warriors signalized by their victories, acknowledge the greatness and dignity of the Roman church, and hold it a great honor to kiss the feet of the church’s head by the lips of persons infinitely dear to them; all this happens while we see men at our very gate blind and impious enough to wish to cut off with a parricidal hand the head of the mystic body of Jesus Christ, and to call in doubt, to their own ruin, the authority of the holy see, established by Jesus Christ himself, confirmed by the course of so many ages, defended by the writings of so many holy doctors, recognized and approved by so many councils!
“But it is not proper that I should give way to grief, or trouble the joys of this day by the recollection of our miseries!”
To this address, on behalf of the Japanese princes and their ambassadors, Monseigneur Antony Bocapaduli replied in Latin, in the Pope’s name, as follows:
“His Holiness commands me, most noble lords, to say to you that Dom Francis, king of Bungo, Dom Protais, king of Arima, and Dom Barthelemi, prince of Ōmura, have acted like wise and religious princes in sending you from the extremities of Asia to acknowledge the power with which God’s bounty hath clothed him on the earth, since there is but one faith, one church universal, and but a single chief and supreme pastor, whose authority extends to all parts of the earth where there are Christians, which pastor and only head is the bishop of Rome, the successor of St. Peter. He is charmed to see that they believe firmly and profess aloud this truth, with all the other articles that compose the Catholic faith. He gives ceaseless thanks to the divine goodness which has wrought these marvels; and this joy appears to him so much the more legitimate, as it has its foundation in the zeal by which he is animated for the glory of the Almighty, and the salvation of souls which the incarnate Word has purchased with his blood. This is why this venerable pontiff and all the sacred college of the cardinals of the Roman church receive, with a truly paternal affection, the protestation which you make to the vicar of Jesus Christ of faith, filial devotion, and obedience, on the part of the princes whom you represent. His Holiness earnestly desires and prays to God that all the kings and princes of Japan, and all those who rule in other parts of the world, may imitate so good an example, may renounce their idols and all their errors, may adore in spirit and in truth the sovereign Lord who has created this universe, and his only son, Jesus Christ, whom he has sent into the world; since it is in this knowledge and this faith that eternal life consists.”
The reply finished, the ambassadors were conducted around to the foot of the throne, and again kissed the feet of the Pope; after which the cardinals, drawing near, embraced them, and put to them many questions as to their travels and the rarities of their country: questions to which they replied with so much sense and acuteness as to cause no little admiration.
At length the Pope rose, exclaiming, Nunc dimittis servum tuum, Domine (which might by a pious Catholic be taken as a prophecy of his approaching death). The two chief ambassadors, who were of the blood royal, were directed to lift up the train of his robes,—an honor monopolized, as far as the princes of Europe were concerned, by the ambassador of the emperor. The holy father having been thus conducted to his apartment, the cardinal St. Sixtus, his nephew, the cardinal Guastavillani, and the duke of Sora entertained the Japanese at a magnificent dinner. A private audience followed, in which the ambassadors delivered the presents they had brought, and the Pope announced that he had endowed the proposed new seminary at Fuchū with an annual dotation of four thousand Roman crowns.
Gregory XIII died a few days after;[47] but his successor, Sixtus V, who, as cardinal of Monte Alto, had taken greatly to the Japanese, was not less favorable to them as Pope. They assisted, among the other ambassadors of kings, at his coronation, bearing the canopy and holding the basin for his Holiness to wash in when he said mass. They had the same honors when the pontiff was enthroned at Saint John Lateran. The holy father afterwards invited them to visit his country-house, where they were splendidly entertained and regaled on his behalf by his steward and four-and-twenty prelates.
Finally, on the eve of the Ascension, in the presence of all the Roman nobility, they were dubbed knights of the gilded spurs. The Pope himself girded on their swords, while the spurs of the two princes were buckled on by the ambassadors of France and Venice, and those of the two others by the Marquis Altemps; after which the Pope placed about their necks chains of gold, to which his medal was attached, and kissed and embraced them. The next day his Holiness said mass in person, and they communicated from his hand. He dismissed them with briefs, addressed to their princes, of which the following may serve as a sample:
“BRIEF OF POPE SIXTUS V TO THE KING OF ARIMA
“Noble prince and our well-beloved son, salvation and apostolical benediction.
“Our well-beloved son Dom Michael, your ambassador to this court, delivered to Pope Gregory XIII, our predecessor, of holy and happy memory, now, as we must presume, in glory, the letters with which your majesty had charged him; and after these letters had been publicly read, he rendered to that pontiff the obedience due to the vicar of Jesus Christ, and which all Catholic kings are accustomed to render to him. This was done in presence of all the cardinals of the holy church, then assembled at Rome, of which number we were. A greater concourse of persons of all conditions, and a greater public joy, had never been seen. Shortly after, it having pleased God to charge us, without our having in the least merited it, with the government of His church, we have also received with entirely paternal tenderness the same duties of obedience which Dom Michael has renewed to us, in the name of your majesty; whereupon we have thought proper to add you to the number of our very dear children, the Catholic kings of the holy church. We have seen, with much joy and satisfaction, the testimonies of your piety and religion; and, to give you the means of increasing these in your heart, we have sent you, by your before-named ambassador, inclosed in a cross of gold, a piece of the cross to which was nailed Jesus Christ, King of kings and eternal Priest, who, by the effusion of his blood, has made us also kings and priests of the living God. We send you, also, a sword and hat, which we have blessed, such as it is the custom of the Roman pontiff to send to all the Catholic kings, and we pray the Lord to be the support of your majesty in all your enterprises. According to the usage in the courts of the kings of Europe, the sword and hat should be received at the end of a mass, to which we shall attach a plenary indulgence for all sins for the benefit of all who may assist thereat, and who, after having confessed themselves, shall pray for the tranquillity of the Catholic church, the salvation of the Christian princes, and the extirpation of heresies—provided they have a true confidence in the divine mercy, in the power which has been given to the holy apostles Peter and Paul, and in that with which we are clothed. Given at Rome, at St. Peter’s, under the seal of the fisherman,” etc.
From Rome, escorted out of the city with all honors, the ambassadors went by way of Loretto, where they paid their devotions, to Venice, and thence to Milan and Genoa, at which latter place they embarked for Barcelona. They declined, as they had been so long from home, a pressing invitation from Henry III to visit France, and, after a new audience with Philip II, they hastened to sail from Lisbon on their return voyage, embarking April 13, 1586.[48]