The San Juan County index. (Aztec, N.M.) 1890-19??, 1902-01-24

Their Conversion discovered Co Date
hack to seventeenth Century.
From documents recently %unoarthed
In the Vatican archives It appears that
an embassy Of Japanese Christians Wis
tied the pope at Rome early IN the
seventeenth century. From these doc
uments G.. Mitsukuri OF the University
Of Tokyo has drawn a history, here
tofore untold, Of the first Christianiza-
ton Of Japan in the sixteenth century,
a history which has an interest Of It's
W and which is important in that
It parallels the history Of the later
and existing missionary endeavor In
Japan and China, and again empha-
sizes the mistakes and difficulties
which seem peculiar to such work We
translate from the article by Mr.. Nit
sukuri In the Historische Heitschrift;
In 1549, eight years after the dis
covery" Of Japan by the Portuguese
Xavier, the apostle Of the Indies, came
into the country to try to preach the
teachings Of Christ and at the end
Of the century the number Of Chris
tians reached 400, 900. The reasons for
this astonishing phenomenon were
these; When Xavier began his mis-
sion Japan was divided into countless
small principalities, continually at
war with each other. Buddhism and
Shintoism. then less separated than
to-day, were corrupt to a degree.
Hence the people let themselves be
readily carried away by the fresh and
sturdy Christian propaganda. But a
reaction against this universal dis
memberment of the realm appeared.
First a prince, Nobunaga, called Enc
my Of Buddha," because he attacked
unsparingly the powerful Buddhist
monasteries, showed the more favor to
the Christian teachings, in order to
gain support against the Buddhist
priests, and the new doctrine spread
rapidly, especially in the southern
provinces.
But these favorable conditions were
not to last. In 1882 Nobunaga was
murdered. The attitude toward the
Christians Of his successor, the pow
erful Hideyoshi, was very different,
and persecution began, which was due
partly to the intrigues Of the Bud
dhists, the arrogance Of the Christian
priests in their attitude toward the
ruler, and the boasting declaration of
a Spanish ship captain that the
mighty king of Spain was sending his
priests into foreign lands in order first
to convert the people and through this
means to make their conquest more
easy. But the true reason was the
desire for unity among the Japanese.
The Christian priests used their
power to aid conversion by violence
and persecution. There was also strife
and jealousy between the different or
ders. 1t is, therefore. readily, intelli-
gible, says the Baltimore American,
that the ruler, led by an idea Of unity,
planned to remove the religious diff
ferences and to rely rather on the old
er religion, Buddhism, which retained
its hold over the majority of the peo-
pie. In 1887 Hideyoshi ordered the
catholic priests to leave the country.
To give emphasis to the decree, six
monks and twenty Japanese Christians
were crucifed. His successors in the
main followed his policy, and gradual
iy a firm policy was established which
could outlast the death Of any one
chief, and to this system belonged the
determination or the hrst Christia
church in Japan.