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