Note 55 — Chapter LXVIII

[The kingdom of Japon is subject to constant changes and novelties, as may be known by those who have lived in it, and by those who have read what historians have to say of it. Although the plague of inconstancy is very common among all heathen, the Japanese are particularly subject to it. It is not to be wondered at that the king of Satzuma, after all that he had done to bring religious from St. Dominic to Manila, should have expelled them without any cause. The natural inconstancy of this race is sufficient explanation for his conduct. St. Francis Xavier was expelled from the same kingdom of Satzuma, as he was afterwards from the country of Yamaguçu,55 whence he fled to the kingdom of Firando. As early as the year 1555, the heathen Japanese believed that so soon as the faith should enter their country the kingdom would be destroyed; and in the following year the city of Amaguchi was destroyed, and there was a great persecution. In the year 1564 there was another persecution, even more severe, in Meaco, the imperial court. Father Cosme de Torres was obliged to leave there and to go to the kingdom of Bungo. In Firando the churches were overthrown, and the emperor Nabunanga imprisoned Father Argentino56 and his associate, refusing to release them until he received, as a ransom, from the most noble and Catholic Don Justo the fortress called Tayca Yama.57 In 1599 the Taico [i.e., Iyeyasu] banished by public edict all the religious there were in Japon (all of whom were then Jesuits), declaring that all Christians were his enemies; but soon after he granted to father Fray Juan Cobo—a religious of St. Dominic, who had come from Manila as ambassador—that he, and religious of the Society or of any other order, might preach and make converts in Japon. The sons of the seraphic father St. Francis went, under this permission, in 1593, and were kindly received; but very soon afterward commands were given to crucify them, as preachers of the gospel. Father Fray Francisco de Morales felt that conditions were such that it was necessary to comply, and began by taking down the church and looking for boats to carry it in; for it was fitted together with grooves, without nails, and could be, used elsewhere. They removed for a time to Meyaco, and soon afterwards to the city of Ozaca. In the erection of both churches they were bitterly opposed by the members of the other religious orders, although the others could not serve the twentieth or the thirtieth part of the people of those cities. The Japanese banished from Satzuma suffered greatly. Among this people banishment is often worse than death, which is not greatly feared by them. Banishment is generally accompanied with a loss of their goods, so that those who are noble and rich are by it instantly reduced to poverty and drudgery. The fathers carried away their vestments, the timber of the church, and the body of the holy martyr Leon, removing them to Nangasaqui. Father Fray Francisco also carried with him the lepers of the hospital which he had before his house, that they might not be left in the power of wolves. In the meantime, the affairs of Christianity went on prosperously in the kingdom of Fixen. In July, 1609, father Fray Juan de Sancto Thomas, who sent the first religious to Japon when he was provincial, came to Japon as vicar-provincial, bringing with him as his associate brother Fray Antonio de San Vicente. He labored much and successfully in Fixen, and the Lord showed the fathers grace by enabling them to baptize many whom He had predestinated at the point of death. There were especially many cases of baptism of new-born children, whom the parents intended to kill, or left to drown in the river.]