Note (return) — Chapter XI · - A CENTURY OF ROMAN CHRISTIANITY

In adjusting the feudal relations of his vassals in Kiushiu, Iyéyasŭ made great changes, and thus the political status of the Christians was profoundly altered. The new daimiōs, carrying out the policy of their predecessors who had been taught by the Jesuits, but reversing its direction, began to persecute their Christian subjects, and to compel them to renounce their faith. One of the leading opposers of the Christians and their most cruel persecutor, was Kato, the zealous Nichirenite. Like Brandt, the famous Iroquois Indian, who, in the Mohawk Valley is execrated as a bloodthirsty brute, and on the Canadian side is honored with a marble statue and considered not only as the translator of the prayer-book but also as a saint; even also as Claverhouse, who, in Scotland is looked upon as a murderous demon, but in England as a conscientious and loyal patriot; so Kato, the vir ter execrandus of the Jesuits, is worshipped in his shrine at the Nichiren temple at Ikégami, near Tōkiō,13 and is praised by native historians as learned, brave and true.