“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!”