Note 47 — Chapter LXII

In this year 1605 the religious of our order had been three years in Japon. They were not a little disturbed by a brief which at this time reached Japon and which had been obtained by the fathers of the Society of Jesus. This brief directed that all the religious and secular clergy who desired to preach in Japon might go thither by the way of Eastern India, but that no one should have authority to go by way of the Western Indias. The brief directed that all who had come in that way or by the Philippinas should depart, on penalty of major excommunication, latæ sententiæ. The religious of the other orders, when this brief was shown to them by the fathers of the Society, replied that the brief had been presented in the previous year to the archbishop of Manila; and that the fathers of the various orders had laid before the archbishop reasons for supposing that his Holiness had been misinformed, and had appealed to the supreme pontiff for a reconsideration. They declared that it was unreasonable to expect them to leave Japon until the reply of the supreme pontiff should be received. The brief was annulled by his Holiness Paul V in 1608, only three years after the petition; and this repeal was confirmed afterwards by Urban VIII. In the interim the fathers of the Society of Jesus did things which annoyed the other religious, but were not sufficient to drive them from Japon. After the repeal the superior sent fathers Fray Thomas del Spiritu Sancto, or Zumarraga, and Fray Alonso de Mena to extend the mission from Satzuma to Vomura [i.e., Omura]. It was a time of great disturbance and of much feeling against the Christians. The fathers of the order did what they could for some fathers of the Society of Jesus who were imprisoned in a church. They went on to the kingdom of Firando—the lord of which47 had in 1587 begged for religious of St. Francis, but was now strongly opposed to Christianity. Among his vassals they found some who were Christians in secret, and encouraged them and gave them the sacraments of the church.]