Trịnh Tráng
In 1640, famed Jesuit missionary Alexandre de Rhodes returned to Vietnam, this time to the Nguyễn court at Phú Xuân. He had been forced to leave the court at Hanoi ten years earlier but now he was back, reasoning correctly that rules against him in Hanoi did not apply in Phú Xuân. He began work on converting people to the Roman Catholic faith and building churches. However, after six years, Nguyễn Phúc Lan came to the same conclusion as Trịnh Tráng had: that de Rhodes and the Catholic Church represented a threat to his rule. De Rhodes was condemned to death but the sentence was reduced to exile on pain of death should he return. De Rhodes never returned to Vietnam but Vietnamese Catholics remained and continued to practice their new religion.