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Roman Catholic Perceptions of British andAmerican Protestant Missionaries (1807–1920)
Jean-Paul WIEST*

1

Introduction

2

Protestant Views of Roman Catholic Missionaries

Some time ago a colleague asked me about what I thought and read on
Catholic and Protestant missionaries’ perceptions of each other prior to WorldWar I. My answer was rather blunt: “Catholic missionaries did not have muchto say that was good about Protestant missionaries and vice-versa—quite
paradoxical for people preaching to love one another!”
My friend’s question prompted me to pay more attention to how bothsides viewed and dealt with each other, and as I gathered material on thesubject, my assessment of their relationship became more nuanced. In thisessay, I do not pretend to submit an exhaustive assessment of the entire spectrum of what were then called the mission fields. I have limited myself to theone field I know fairly well, the China mission, which provides, in my judgment, a vivid and accurate representation of what happened in other mission
countries when Protestant and Catholic missionaries came face to face. The
material I introduce is arranged topically and put into its proper context. Asmuch as possible, I avoid paraphrasing the subjects of this inquiry. Rather, I
let them speak for themselves so that we may savor, so to speak, the flavor oftheir prose.
I begin with an overview of how Protestants viewed Catholics. Far frombeing a departure from the chosen topic, this will serve as the frame of reference for the rest of the paper when we consider Catholic perceptions andcritiques of Protestant missions.
Scholars looking into the topic of Catholic-Protestant relations during theperiod in question are unanimous in pointing out that negative opinions andattitudes by far outweighed positive ones. Kenneth Scott Latourette writes,	  * Research Director, The Beijing Center for Chinese Studies.

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In all these pioneering efforts, Roman Catholic Missions were practicallyignored. To the Protestant it was as if the Catholics had never come toChina. Protestants nearly always thought of themselves as the sole
representatives of the Gospel and spoke of “opening” cities and provinces to the Christian message even when Catholics had been there
before them. This was natural. By the average Protestant of the time
Rome was thought of as anti-Christian. At best, Roman Catholicism wasregarded as a corrupt form of Christianity from which the Reformers
had, at great cost and suffering, escaped to restore the Gospel in its
purity.1
Ralph Covell, in his book Confucius, the Buddha, and Christ, comes out
with a similar assessment and provides typical arguments used by Protestantmissionaries:
When Protestants reached China … , “Jesuit” was a dirty epithet that
expressed the Protestant revulsion for almost every aspect of Catholicmissionary strategy, such as “sneaking into China” in Chinese garb,
working with the officials and gentry rather than with the commonpeople, insisting on the authority of the pope, and using “non spiritual”
means such as “the calculation of eclipses, or the arrangement of thecalendar.”2
Bob White, in Unfinished Encounter, shows, however, that some missionaries, like Charles Gutzlaff and Hudson Taylor, were much more balanced intheir assessment of their Catholic counterparts:
Charles Gutzlaff’s attitude towards the Jesuits was in part admiration, inpart criticism. Popery and Romanism were anathema but he admired thecourage, dedication and intelligence of the Jesuits. Gutzlaff’s attitude
was perhaps more generous than many, although Hudson Taylor was toadopt a similar standpoint, expressing his appreciation of the courage of
Catholic priests in traveling into the interior at the risk of their lives:“Entering by stealth, living in concealment, … ever and anon meetingwith imprisonment, torture, and death itself, they have presented aremarkable instance of fidelity by their calling.”31 Kenneth Scott Latourette, A History of Christian Missions in China (New York:Macmillan, 1929), p. 361.
2 Ralph R. Covell, Confucius, the Buddha, and Christ: A History of the Gospel inChinese (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 1986), p. 69.
3 Bob Whyte, Unfinished Encounter, China and Christianity (Glasgow: Collins, 1988),
p. 110. See also Covell, Confucius, the Buddha, and Christ. P. 69.

Roman Catholic Perceptions of British and American Protestant Missionaries

21

The following remark from an English Presbyterian at Shantou in 1870
is typical of what other Protestant missionaries in China thought: “Alas!
China knows more of Popery than of true Christianity, and if we ourselves
dread the political influence of a religion which has earthly head in an aliencountry, we can sympathize with the Chinese in their fear to some extent.”4
Yet practicality and circumstances led many Protestant missionaries toadapt to the Catholic reality in China. As is well known, Robert Morrison,upon arriving in Canton in 1807, enlisted the assistance of Chinese Catholics
to learn the language and used Father Jean Basset’s Chinese translation of theNew Testament to assist him in his own translation work.5 And he did this in
the face of strong opposition by the Chinese clergy from Macao who administered the small Catholic community in and around the city. A few years laterin that same city, Dr. Samuel Wells Williams was willing to recognize that“there may have been true converts among the adherents to Romanism.”6 The
American Presbyterian Rev. B. C. Henry kept “trusting that in the flocks
gathered by these self-denying priests there might be many who, through theimperfect light brought them, have been led to a true knowledge of the Lordof all and Jesus, his son.”7
Meanwhile, on the home front, Protestant publications showed no significant relenting of their attacks against Catholics. The March 14, 1907, issue
of a Cincinnati publication called God’s Revivalist and Bible Advocate, forinstance, asserted,
Catholicism is much worse in heathen countries than in America. Shall
we, because of our selfishness, see China’s little ones brought up
Catholics, when we, by putting forth a little effort, can rescue them andtrain them to God? It is sad, but true, that we have to stand by and see
the harvest go to waste, see the grain spoil for lack of reapers.8Finally, for another interesting angle on the Protestants’ views of Catholics
in China, one should carefully read the book of Jesuit Father Bertram
Wolferstan published in 1909 under the title The Catholic Church in China.
Chapter 3, entitled “Catholic Missions from Another Point of View,” shows
how Catholics carefully culled through the Protestant literature and how they
4 Quoted in Whyte, Unfinished Encounter: China and Christianity. p. 110.
5 François Barriquand, “First Comprehensive Translation of the New Testament in
Chinese: Fr. Jean Basset (1662–1707) and the Scholar John Xu”,” Verbum SVD 49,1 (2008): 91–119.
6 S. Wells Williams, The Middle Kingdom, revised edition (New York: C. Scribner’sSons, 1883), vol. 2, p. 317.
7 B. C. Henry, The Cross and the Dragon (London: S. W. Partridge, 1884), pp. 425–426.
8 Reprinted in The Field Afar, May 1907, p. 12.

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understood it. 9

3

Catholic Views of Protestant Missionaries and Their Work

During the period under study, the Roman Catholic clergy’s view ofProtestant missionaries and their work did not remain static, but rather went
through several overlapping phases, each phase layering on top of theprevious one new perceptions and descriptions of the “competitors.” At first
the newcomers were made fun of. Soon, however, they were seen as troublemakers. Then they were described as people who confuse the Chinese andmake the task of conversion more difficult. And finally, they were perceived
as a threat that needed to be counteracted by reasserting the superiority of
Catholic methods. In addition, of course, Protestant missionaries all along
were mostly portrayed as antagonistic and uncompromising zealots who tried
to steal Chinese converts away from Catholic missionaries.
3.1

First Phase
In the first phase Catholic missionaries treated their protestant counterparts
with scorn and ridicule. When Protestant missionaries made their first appearances along the China coast, the Catholic clergy, for the most part, did nottake them seriously. Catholic clerics compared them to “commercial travelers
armed with prospectus,” and described their methods as being nothing morethan “tossing Bibles from shipside upon the beach.”10 There was therefore
nothing to worry about because Protestants would fail and soon go back on
the same boats that brought them over. So Catholic missionary writings about
the early days of the Protestant presence mostly made fun of the Protestants
and their methods:
Two Protestant ministers have arrived in Shanghai and their main
activity is to distribute books—more than 30,000 to this day. And we,their good confreres, we burn them as we find them. Everybody knowsthat these ministers of the so-called reform distribute bibles, but whatmany may not know is that they also distribute medals. Unbelievable,would you say? I would not have believed it myself if I had not seen itwith my own eyes. But what do we find represented on these medals?
The picture of Our Lord, or that of his Holy Mother, or that of somesaint? No, you guessed wrong! What I saw on one of these supposedlyreformed medallions was the head of an unidentifiable animal. Some
Chinese who looked at the medals claimed that the engraving represents
9 Bertram Wolferstan, S.J., The Catholic Church in China (St. Louis: B. Herder, 1909).
10 Comment made in the 1830s by a French Vincentian; quoted in Peter Fay, Opium
War (New York: Norton, 1976), p. 242.

Roman Catholic Perceptions of British and American Protestant Missionaries

23

the devil because on each side of the head there are protrusions resembling the horns of a ram. So, these gentlemen who dare to accuse theCatholic Church of idolatry because it asks its followers to revere
images of Our Lord, the Mother of God and the saints, believe that theyhave accomplished an opportune reform by substituting a bizarre horned
beast to some of our most venerable and sacred objects.11
These attempts at belittling the newcomers were in great part an artificeused by Catholic missionaries to avoid alarming the readership back home. Infact, the Catholic clergy in China was quite concerned by the progress ofProtestantism and began to display an overtly hostile attitude toward its
ministers.12 In Catholic writings such as the preceding quote, one can detecta faint but real undercurrent of uneasiness that at times surfaces in brief andbiting bursts of spite. That same missionary, for instance, had barely finishedmaking fun of the two Protestants in Shanghai when he lashed out at themfor having “debauched” one of his deacons and then declared that the arrivalof Protestantism in China was a “scourge comparable to the introduction ofopium.”13 Accusations against Protestant missionaries’ “deceitful tactics” toentice Chinese Catholics to become Protestants abound during the entire
period.
3.2

Second Phase
In the second phase Catholic missionaries viewed Protestant missionaries
as troublemakers. From the late 1840s on, as Catholic missionaries began torealize that the presence of Protestant missionaries was not just a passing
phenomenon, their tactic tended to shift towards describing them as agents ofdisturbance. Typical is an 1865 letter of Bishop Michele Navarro, vicarapostolic of Hunan, describing the activities of Protestants in the city ofHengyang in these terms:
At the beginning of April, we suffered painful trials. Three American
Protestant ministers arrived at the time of the general examinations when
the number of students had risen to at least ten thousand. The arrival ofstrangers excited general emotion, produced by the unheard of sight of
11 Lettres des Nouvelles Missions de la Chine, vol. 1, letter of Father Estève, June 1,1845, pp. 229–230.
12 See, for instance, Father Renou’s report of June 22, 1849, urging the Paris Foreign
Missions Society to reestablish itself in the city of Canton where “Protestantmissionaries are already preaching, distributing bibles and opening places ofworship” (Archives of the Missions Etrangères de Paris, vol. 550).
13 Lettres des Nouvelles Missions de la Chine, vol. 1, p. 229.

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Europeans who were not clothed in Chinese fashion. The latter,becoming frightened, took refuge in the prefect’s yamen and then,fearing that this asylum would not be sufficiently safe, returned to theirship. The students threw themselves into boats, crossed the river, andentered the ship. On the following morning, the local newspapers
contained the most horrible accusations, and appealed to the popular
passions, exciting the people to kill all the Europeans, and to destroy, as
they already did before [in 1858 and 1862], our church and our dwelling.14
3.3

Third Phase
In the third phase Catholic missionaries thought that Protestant missionaries confused Chinese people. As we approach the end of the nineteenthcentury, it becomes almost impossible to find Roman Catholics saying orwriting anything positive about Protestants. Latourette perfectly summarized
the Catholic literature of the period when he wrote that Protestants weredepicted as “dangerous heretics who hindered the work of Christ and wereintroducing to China the multitudinous sects of Europe and America.”15 What
Catholic missionaries seem to stress most is the confusion that Protestantism
was causing among the Chinese. Father Bertram Wolferstan cunningly
accuses them of leading China from “Confucius to confusion.”16 To prove thepoint, the Catholic literature even resorts to quoting non-Catholic sources,
such as a Chinese author writing that his people “can make neither head or
tail of the peculiar intestine dissensions which render these sects asunder,” ora British lord musing about “the complete bewilderment of the native understanding, ill able to cope with the subtleties of theological logomachies.”17Some Catholic missionaries were so troubled by the confusion that this situation caused to “the naturally skeptical [Chinese] mind” that they begin “todoubt if China will ever be Christianized.”18
3.4

Fourth Phase
During the first fifteen years of the twentieth century, the writings of theCatholic missionaries regarding the activities of their Protestant counterparts
14 Quoted in Columba Cary-Elwes, China and the Cross: A Survey of Missionary History(New York: P. J. Kenedy and Sons, 1957), p. 216.
15 Latourette, A History of Christian Missions in China, pp. 361–362.
16 Wolferstan, The Catholic Church in China, p. 13.
17 Wolferstan, The Catholic Church in China, pp. 18–20, quoting Wen Ching, The
Chinese Crisis from Within (1901), and George N. Curzon, Problems of the Far East
(New York: Longmans, Green and Co., 1896).
18 Quoted in Wolferstan, The Catholic Church in China, p. 22.

Roman Catholic Perceptions of British and American Protestant Missionaries

25

and the future of Christianity in China seem to focus on two closely linkedthemes.
3.4.1 The First Recurring Theme The first recurring theme was that thesuccess of Protestant missionaries was a threat to Catholic missions. One stillfinds, of course, the tune of “confusion” being played out in Catholicmissionary writings. For instance, Jesuit Father Martin Kennelly described theevangelistic work carried out by YMCAs in these words:
It consists mainly in Bible studies, each participant being left to find out
what religion is the true one. Obviously no one finds out and the greaternumber is puzzled to choose among Protestant denominations, so varying
and contradictory are the sects in doctrine, church government, sacraments and worship.19
A more prevalent theme repeated over and over that if Catholics in Europe
and America did not wake up and come to the rescue, Protestantism would
displace Catholicism in China. The success of the Protestants was attributed
to several factors. First among these was the vitality of Protestantism, especially in North America:
The vital spot in Protestantism today is its zeal for domestic and foreign
missions. The missionary box is in almost every house. Among
Protestants whose blessings are so much fewer than ours, whosechurches stand for so little in comparison with the Catholic church, thereis, nevertheless, a splendid missionary enthusiasm almost incomparable
and but for which Protestantism would have perished.20
As a result of this vitality, Catholic missionaries witnessed the en masse
arrival of highly motivated and well-funded Protestant apostles:
We admire in our Protestant fellow-countrymen the energy and the spiritof generosity, which enable them to send out propagandists in everincreasing numbers, and we believe that among those who go forth to“conquer souls” some are sincere in their purpose. Yet this spread ofheresy renders still more difficult the self-sacrificing labors of Catholic
missionaries. These latter find it hard in their poverty to win the attention of natives whose material necessities are often readily met at a wellsustained Protestant mission.21
19 The Field Afar, August 1914, p. 8.
20 The Field Afar, July 1907, p. 12.
21 The Field Afar, January 1907, p. 2.

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But the success of Protestant missionaries was also attributed to less lofty
practices. Already mentioned was the practice of stealing Christians from
Catholic congregations. In addition, Catholic missionaries described many of
their Protestant counterparts as “most bigoted” persons who “do not evenadmit that Catholics are Christians” and who like to badmouth them:Frequently, the stock calumnies, which have been served up in thiscountry [the United States] until our own fair-minded non-Catholics
were nauseated, are still used on the foreign mission field, not by all,but, we regret to say, by too many American Protestant missionaries.
Thus our own countrymen are preventing the labors of Catholic
missionaries.22
In summary, by 1907, some one hundred years after the arrival of RobertMorrison, Catholic missionaries had come to realize that the Protestant presence in China, far from being a passing phenomenon, was becoming a more
and more encompassing reality that threatened their work: “Protestantmissionary activity,” wrote the editor of The Field Afar, “is an obstacle andin some places a serious obstacle to Catholic advance.”23 In 1913, a
published letter of Bishop Augustin Henninghaus, vicar apostolic of South
Shandong, bluntly presented the situation and sounded a wake-up call forCatholic America:
Protestant America is unquestionably a strong power in our midst. Notlong ago an American, Dr. Mott, gave religious lectures in the largest
cities of China, which attracted unusual attention. The Young Men’s
Christian Association is very active and has won great influence. The
modern school system and the press are to no small extent in the handsof Protestant America. It is time to say, “Catholic America to thefront!”24
3.4.2 The Second Recurring Theme The second recurring theme was that
therefore it was imperative for Catholic America to do its part to counter theProtestant success in China. The preceding letter is one of many that, since
the turn of the century, challenged Catholics of the United States to engage ina large-scale missionary effort abroad and also to publicize the work ofEnglish-speaking Catholic missionaries.25 From its inception in January 1907,
22 The Field Afar, October 1907, p. 4; August-September 1911, p. 6. See also theDecember 1908 issue, p. 3.
23 The Field Afar, December 1908, p. 3.
24 The Field Afar, October 1913, p. 2.
25 See, for instance, The Illustrated Catholic Missions, vol. 12 (November 1897), p. 112.

Roman Catholic Perceptions of British and American Protestant Missionaries

27The Field Afar, which would soon become the official publication of theCatholic Foreign Mission Society of America, better known as Maryknoll, didmuch to promote this dual cause. In his first article, commenting on the“great army” of missionaries that the American Protestants maintain in“foreign fields,” the editor wrote,
Would that we Catholics of the US could point to a similar force of men
and women, self-exiled for the spread of the true faith! . . . The
Christianity of America has been too long represented in the foreign
missions, solely by Protestantism, and the time has surely come when weCatholics of the US should enter upon our task among people who areours by the inheritance of Jesus Christ.26
For the Catholic Church in America it was a matter of honor “to rid theChinese of the deep-rooted idea that American and Protestant are one and thesame.”27 So American Catholics were constantly challenged “to counteract”
the influence of American Protestants “by giving better support to the men
and women who represent [them] in the foreign field.”28
3.5

The Overarching Theme for the Entire Period
The overarching theme for the entire period was that in the long run,
Catholic missionaries’ methods of evangelization were the best. Yet as years
went by, Catholic missionaries’ appraisals of their Protestant counterparts
became more nuanced. One notices many instances showing real appreciation
and respect. For instance, the same Father Kennelly who accuses Protestantsof being “bigoted” also says that he finds them, “as a rule, obliging, andsome of them have rendered me great services for which I am grateful.”29
The Protestants’ success was in great part due to a variety of approaches
facilitated by an abundance of financial means. Well aware of the situation,
Catholic missionaries often wrote about it in missionary journals, hoping tostimulate the generosity of Catholics back home, especially those in theUnited States:

26
27
28
29

Another good example is Lettre ouverte aux Catholiques d’Amérique (Open Letterto Catholics in America), written on January 15, 1914, by Francis Gervaix, a Paris
Foreign Missions missionary in Guangzhou, in which he begged American missionaries to hurry to China to counteract the errors spread by their fellow American
Protestant missionaries (see Maryknoll Archives, Canton Archives box, letters anddocuments 1910–1920 folder).
The Field Afar, January 1907, p. 2
The Field Afar, September 1915, p. 134
The Field Afar, October 1907, p. 4. See also, for instance, the August–September
1911 issue , p. 7.
The Field Afar, August–September 1911, p. 6.

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The wealth of Protestant missions is appealing. Stocked dispensaries andfully equipped hospitals for the afflicted; well-supplied larders to feed
the hungry; vast quantities of clothing; first-class organizations ofschools, colleges, and even universities—these, it cannot be denied, arepowerful attractions.30
Yet as a counterbalance, the Catholic missionary press never failed todescribe some of the Protestant methods and behaviors as totally inept for
China and thus continued to make fun of their efforts:
During the year 1912, the British Foreign Bible Society distributed in
China 1,868,000 copies of the Scriptures. This has helped little toadvance the conversion of the people, for the Chinese are illiterate andcannot master enough of the written characters to enable them to understand the text. Besides, there are no notes and as the book does not
explain itself, all is practically a dead loss. It is said that many petty
shopkeepers use the paper to wrap up objects for sale, while shoemakers
find it an excellent and cheap material for soles. . . . General Bromwell
Booth, head of the Salvation Army, contemplates sending a strong force
to China. With the semi-military organization of the Salvationists, thereis danger that the people will take this step as an invasion and resist it.
The best missionary work in China, as elsewhere, has always been donewith the least fuss. The Salvation Army will have to change its character
considerably when it comes to the East.31
So the emphasis remained on affirming the superiority of Catholic methods
and pointing to weaknesses in the Protestant approach. But to achieve somesense of impartiality, the Catholic press liked to borrow directly from theProtestant literature and then add to it its own spin. For instance, in February
1913 The Field Afar provided the following excerpt from a report madeduring a recent mass meeting of the International Bible Students Associationin the New York Hippodrome:Christianizing endeavors (in the Orient) seem generally to have ceased.
Present missionary activity is almost exclusively along the lines ofsecular education. There are evidences of positive teachings in the past,
but very little religious teaching is being done now, because the people
would resent it and keep their children from the schools. Aside from theeducational advantages, the inducements offered by the missionaries arechiefly social and medical.
30 The Field Afar, December 1908, p. 3; see also the October 1907 issue, p. 4.
31 The Field Afar, April 1914, p. 6.

Roman Catholic Perceptions of British and American Protestant Missionaries

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The Field Afar’s editor then commented,
We believe these sentences speak for themselves of the missionary work,
which aims to civilize rather than to Christianize, which seeks to dispel
the darkness of Oriental paganism by the “culture” of Western education
and unbelief.32
Another stratagem used all along in the Catholic press and literature wasto have non-Christians or, even better, the Protestants themselves declare that
the Catholics were doing a superior job:
Some of the fair-minded Protestants admit that the Catholic missionary’s
work among the heathen is more effective and more lasting than theirown. They ascribe this influence especially to the life of celibacy, which
the Catholic priest leads and which enables him to become “all to all.”
The assertion was once made to the writer that if Catholic missionaries
were supplied with the means provided the Protestants in the same
districts, the latter would soon find it necessary to move.33

4Conclusion

Looking at the history of the expansion of Christianity from the particularangle of the writings of missionaries about each other, I could not hold backmy personal feelings about the situation, despite my training as a professional
historian to offer only a detached historical analysis. I felt both saddened andcheered by what I read and found.
I was saddened by the naivety of the Western missionaries and their senseof self-righteousness. I was equally saddened by their failure to realize that
their divisions and badmouthing were contrary to the deepest message ofChristianity. I was, however, cheered by the practical deeds of cooperation
and by the open-minded attitude of quite a few real harbingers of theecumenical and interreligious dialogue more prevalent in our days.
In this regard, my cutoff date of 1920 does not seem at first to have muchsignificance, because for several decades thereafter, one cannot detect adrastic change of attitudes. Most Western Protestant and Catholic missionaries
still bitterly opposed one another and passed that same attitude of mistrust totheir followers. But on second thought, the period from 1915 to 1920 is after
all very significant because it was rich in events such as the Great War inEurope, the rise of Chinese nationalism, and the birth of Chinese communism—events that in the long run would bring about profound changes in32 The Field Afar, February 1913, p. 3.
33 The Field Afar, December 1908, p. 3.

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Western churches’ understanding of themselves and affect their relationshipwith one another as well as with the incipient Chinese Church. The sameshould be said of the influence of modernism in theology and in the socialand political attitudes among missionaries, and of the efforts of the Vatican toregain direct control of the Catholic missionary effort.
During these five years, for instance, the ranks of French missionaries in
the Catholic Church in China became severely depleted by the war. American
Catholic missionaries arrived to pick up the slack and thus imparted their own
mark on the missionary enterprise. On another front, missionaries like Father
Vincent Lebbe and Father Anthony Cotta received the support of Rome withthe apostolic letter Maximum Illud of November 1919 condemning imperialistic attitudes among missionaries and advocating the process of devolution in
the church. These events were just the beginning of a series of events thatover the next decades profoundly transformed the attitude of Catholics toward
Protestants. In the same manner, one can point to persons and events that in
the long run affected the attitudes of Protestants in China toward Catholics.
Interesting changes were definitively in the making.