Note 6 — Of Great China

I will begin my account of the affairs of this kingdom with the cruel and bloody persecution against Christianity which is now at such a height, and in which they put so many to death for the faith that, to me, it seems a picture of what happened in the primitive church during the early persecutions by the emperors. What I have said may be realized from part of a letter dated in Nangasaqui October 14, 1619, from Father Matheo de Couros,6 provincial of Japon, to Father Valerio de Ledesma, provincial [50] of these islands. Translated from Portuguese into Spanish it is as follows: “In regard to news from Japon I will not write you at length, since I understand that the father visitor has done so. In temporal affairs everything is quiet. Persecution of Christians has been and is very severe in Meaco, where almost sixty are prisoners for the faith. Five or six of these Christians died in prison there, thoroughly resigned to the divine will. In this city of Nangasaqui there are twenty-eight imprisoned for Christ, in three prisons. In Omura seven religious are imprisoned, four of the Order of St. Dominic, one of the Order of St. Francis, and two of our Society. With them are imprisoned ten other Christians. Of the inhabitants of the same city of Omura three were martyred—Lino, Pedro, and Thome—the first, because when he was guarding the prison in which the religious I have mentioned were confined, he allowed too much food to be given to the holy prisoners, as he was a Christian at heart himself; the second, because from time to time he sent food to them; and the third, because he carried the food. All three were promised their lives if they would renounce our holy law; but they chose rather to die, in order that they might live forever in heaven.”