RICCI
38
RICCI
stition." The "perhaps" added t9 the last part of
this conclusion shows the conscientiousness with
which the founder acted in this matter. That the
vulgar and indeed even most of the Chinese pagans
mingled superstition with their national rites Ricci
never denied; neither did he overlook the fact that
the Chinese, like infidels in general, mixed super-
stition with their most legitimate actions. In such
cases superstition is only an accident which does not
corrupt the substance of the just action itself, and
Ricci thought this applied also to the rites. Con-
sequent Iv he allowed the new Christians to continue
the practice of them, avoiding everj-thing suggestive
of superstition, and he gave them rules to assist
them to discriminate. He believed, however, that
this tolerance, though licit, should be limited by the
necessitv of the case; whenever the Chinese Christian
community should enjoy sufficient liberty, its customs,
notably its manner of honouring the dead, must be
brought into conformity with the customs of the rest
of the Christian world. These principles of Father
Ricci, controlled by his fellow-workers during his
lifetime and after his death, served for fifty years as
the guide of all the missionaries.
In 1631 the first mission of the Dominicans was foimded at Fu-kien by two Spanish religious; in 1633 two Franciscans, also Spanish, came to establish a mission of their order. The new missionaries were soon alarmed by the attacks on the purity of religion which they thought they discerned in the communi- ties founded by their predecessors. Without taking sufficient time perhaps to become acquainted with Chinese matters and to learn exactly what was done in the Jesuit missions they sent a denunciation to the bishops of the Philippines. The bishops referred it to Pope I'rban VIII (1635), and soon the public was informed. As early as 1638 a controversy began in the Philippines between the Jesuits in defence of their brethren on the one side and the Dominicans and Franciscans on the other. In 1643 one of the chief accu.sers, the Dominican, Jean-Baptiste Moralez, went to Rome to submit to the Holy See a series of "questions" or "doubts" which he said were con- troverted between the Jesuit missionaries and their rivals. Ten of the.se questions concerned the par- ticipation of Christians in the rites in honour of Confucius and the dead. Moralez's petition tended to show that the cases on which he requested the de- cision of the Holy See represented the practice au- thorized by the Society of Jesus; as soon as the Jesuits learned of this they declared that these cases were imaginary and that they had never allowed the Christians to take part in the rites as set forth by Moralez. In declaring the ceremonies illicit in its Decree of 12 Sept., 1645 (approved by Innocent X), the Congregation of the Propaganda gave the only possible reply to the questions referred to it.
In 1651 Father Martin Martini (author of the "NovuB Atlas Sicnensis") was aent from China to Rome by his brethren to give a true account of the Jf«uit8 pra^itices and permLssions with regard to the Chinese rites. This d(!legatc reached the Eternal City in 1654, and in 165.5 submitted four questions to the Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office. This supreme tribunal, in its Decree of 23 March, 1656, approved by Pope Alexander VII, sanctioned the practice of Ricci and his associates as set forth by Father Martini, declaring that the ceremonies in honour of Confucius and anccKtors ap7)eared to con- stitute "a purfly civil and political cult". Did this decrc* annul that of H>45? Conc<Tning this question, laid before the Holy Office by the Dominican, Father John de Poianco, tfie reply was (20 Nov., 1669) that \joih deereeH hhould remain "in their full force" and should be observed "a(;cording to the questions, circumstancr*, and everything contained in the proposed doubts".
Meanwhile an understanding was reached by the
hitherto divided missionaries. This reconciliation
was hastened by the persecution of 1665 which as-
sembled for nearly five years in the same house at
Canton nineteen Jesuits, three Dominicans, and one
Franciscan (then the sole member of his order in
China). Profiting by their enforced leisure to agree
on a uniform Apostolic method, the missionaries dis-
cussed all the points on which the discipline of the
Church should be adapted to the exigencies of the
Chinese situation. After forty days of conferences,
which terminated on 26 Jan., 1668, all (with the pos-
sible exception of the Franciscan Antonio de Santa
Maria, who was very zealous but extremely uncom-
promising) subscribed to forty-two articles, the result
of the deliberations, of which the forty-first was as
follows: "As to the ceremonies by which the Chinese
honour their master Confucius and the dead, the
replies of the Sacred Congregation of the Inquisition
approved by our Holy Father Alexander VII, in
1656, must be followed absolutely because they are
based on a very probable opinion, to which it is
impossible to offset any evidence to the contrary,
and, this probability assumed, the door of salvation
must not be closed to the innumerable Chinese who
would stray from the Christian religion if they were
forbidden to do what they may do licitly and in good
faith and which they cannot forego without serious
injury." After the subscription, however, a new
courteous discussion of this article in writing took
place between Father Domingo Fernand(>z Navar-
rete, superior of the Dominicans, and the most
learned of the Jesuits at Canton. Navarrete
finally appeared satisfied and on 29 Sept., 1669,
submitted his written acceptance of the artic^le to the
superior of the Jesuits. However, on 19 Dec. of
this j^ear he secretly left Canton for Macao whence
he went to Europe. There, and especially at Rome
where he was in 1673, he sought from now on only
to overthrow what had been attempted in the con-
ferences of Canton. He published the "Tratados
historicos, politicos, ethicos, y religiosos de la mo-
narchia de China" (I, Madrid, 1673; of vol. II,
printed in 1679 and incomplete, only two copies are
known). This work is filled with impassioned accusa-
tions against the Jesuit missionaries regarding their
methods of apostolate and especially their tolera-
tion of the rites. Nevertheless, Navarrete did not
succeed in inducing the Holy See to resume the ques-
tion, this being reserved for Charles Maigrot, a
member of the new Soci6t6 des Missions fitrangeres.
Maigrot went to China in 1()S3. He was Vicar
Apostolic of Fu-kien, before being as yet a bishop,
when, on 26 March, 1693, he addressed to the mis-
sionaries of his vicariate a mandate proscribing the
names T'ien and Shang-ti; forbidding that Christians
be allowed to participate in or assist at "sacrifices or
solemn oblations" in honour of Confucius or the dead;
prescribing modifications of the inscriptions on the
ancestral tablets; censuring and forbidding certain,
according to him, too favourable ref(U-ences to the
ancient Chinese philosophers; and, last but notleiistj
declaring that the exposition made by Father Martini
was not true and that consequently the approval
which the latter had received from Rome was not
to be relied on.
By order of Innocent XII, the Holy Office resumed in 1697 the study of the question on the documents furnished by the procurators of Mgr Maigrot and on those showing the opposite sith; brought by the repre- Sfjntativr's of the Jesuit missionaries. It is worthy of note that at this period a number of the mi.ssionaries outside the Society of Jesus, especially all the Augu.s- tinians, nearly all the Franciscans, and some Domini- cans, were converted to the practice of Ricci and the Jesuit missionaries. The difficulty of grasping the truth amid such diffen^nt representations of facts and
