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They relate
that during Xavier's sojourn in Bungo he had numerous public
debates--one continuing for five days--with Buddhist priests, but
even Fernandez not being available as an interpreter, these debates
must have been either farcical or imaginary, though brilliant results
are claimed for them by the Church historians. That Xavier himself
was not satisfied is proved by his determination to transfer his
ministrations to China, for he said, "if the Chinese adopt the
Christian religion, the Japanese also will abandon the religions they
have introduced from China."

SECOND PERIOD OF PROPAGANDISM

Torres and Fernandez remained in Japan after Xavier's departure and
were there joined soon afterwards by three others. The new-comers
landed at Kagoshima and found that the Satsuma baron was as keen as
ever in welcoming foreign trade, although his attitude towards the
alien religion continued antipathetic. Bungo now became the
headquarters of the Jesuits in Japan. Local disturbances had
compelled them to leave Yamaguchi, where their disputes with Buddhist
priests had become so violent that an official proscription of the
Western religion was pronounced. In Funai, the capital of the
province of Bungo, they built their first church in Japan and also a
hospital. From that place, too, they began to send yearly reports
known as the Annual Letters to their generals in Rome, and these
Letters give an interesting insight into the conditions then existing
in Japan. The writers "describe a state of abject poverty among the
lower orders--poverty so cruel that the destruction of children by
their famishing parents was an every-day occurrence." This terrible
state of affairs was due to the civil wars which had entered their
most violent phase in the Onin era (1467-1468), and had continued
without intermission ever since. The trade carried on by the
Portuguese did not, however, suffer any interruption. Their vessels
repaired to Hirado as well as to Funai, and the masters and seamen of
the ships appear to have treated the missionaries with such
scrupulous respect that the Japanese formed an almost exaggerated
conception of the civil influence wielded by the religionists. It
further appears that in those early days the Portuguese seamen
refrained from the riotous excesses which had already won for them a
most unenviable reputation in China.

In fact, their good conduct constituted an object lesson in the
interests of Christianity. We learn, incidentally that, in 1557, two
of the fathers, visiting Hirado at the instance of some Portuguese
sailors who felt in want of religious ministrations, organized a kind
of propagandism which anticipated the methods of the Salvation Army.
They "sent brothers to parade the streets, ringing bells, and
chaunting litanies; they organized bands of boys for the same
purpose; they caused the converts, and even children, to flagellate
themselves at a model of Mount Calvary, and they worked miracles,
healing the sick by contact with scourges or with a booklet in which
Xavier had written litanies and prayers. It may well be imagined that
such doings attracted surprised attention in Japan. They were
supplemented by even more striking practices. For a sub-feudatory of
the Hirado chief, having been converted, showed his zeal by
destroying Buddhist temples and throwing down the idols, thus
inaugurating a campaign of violence destined to mark the progress of
Christianity throughout the greater part of its history in Japan.
There followed the overthrowing of a cross in the Christian cemetery,
the burning of a temple in the town of Hirado, and a street riot, the
sequel being that the Jesuit fathers were compelled to return once
more to Bungo."*

*Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th edition; article "Japan," by
Brinkley.

All this conveys an idea of the guise under which Christianity was
presented originally to the Japanese. Meanwhile, the Portuguese
traders did not allow their commerce to be interrupted by any
misfortunes which overtook the Jesuits. Hirado continued to be
frequented by Portuguese merchantmen, and news of the value of their
trade induced Sumitada, feudatory of Omura, to invite the Jesuits in
Bungo to his fief, offering them a free port for ten years, an
extensive tract of land, a residence for the missionaries, and other
privileges. This induced the Hirado feudatory to revoke the edict
which he had issued against the Jesuits, and they were preparing to
take advantage of his renewed hospitality when a Portuguese
merchantman entered Hirado. Its appearance convinced the local
chieftain that trade could be had without the accompaniment of
religion, towards which he renewed his hostility. When, however, this
change of demeanour was communicated to Funai, the Jesuit leader,
Torres, hastened thence to Hirado, and induced the master of the
merchantman to leave the port on the ground that he could not remain
in a country where they maltreated those who professed the same
religion as himself. Thereafter, for some years, Hirado remained
outside the pale of foreign trade. But ultimately three merchant
vessels appeared in the offing and announced their willingness to put
in provided that the anti-Christian ban was removed. This
remonstrance proved effective. A parallel case occurred a few years
later in the island of Amakusa. There a petty baron, avowedly for the
purpose of attracting foreign trade, embraced Christianity and
required all his vassals to follow his example. But when no
Portuguese ship arrived, he apostatized; ordered his vassals to
return to their old faith, and expelled the missionaries.

"In fact, the competition for the patronage of Portuguese traders was
so keen that the Hirado feudatory attempted to burn several of their
vessels because they frequented the territorial waters of his
neighbour and rival, Sumitada. The latter became a most stalwart
Christian when his wish was gratified. He set himself to eradicate
idolatry throughout his fief with the strong arm, and his fierce
intolerance provoked revolts which ended in the destruction of the
Christian town at the newly opened free port. Sumitada, however,
quickly reasserted his authority, and five years later (1567), he
took a step which had far-reaching consequences, namely, the building
of a church at Nagasaki, in order that Portuguese commerce might have
a centre and the Christians an assured asylum. Nagasaki was then a
little fishing village. In five years it grew to be a town of thirty
thousand inhabitants, and Sumitada became one of the richest of the
Kyushu feudatories."*

*Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th edition; article "Japan," by
Brinkley.

This baron appears to have been sincere in his adoption of the
foreign religion. "When in 1573, successful conflicts with
neighbouring fiefs brought him an access of territory, he declared
that he owed these victories to the influence of the Christian God,
and shortly afterwards he proclaimed banishment for all who would not
accept the foreign faith. There were then no Jesuits by his side, but
immediately two hastened to join him, and 'these accompanied by a
strong guard, but yet not without danger of their lives, went round
causing the churches of the Gentiles, with their idols, to be thrown
down to the ground, while three Japanese Christians went preaching
the law of God everywhere.'" They further record that three fathers
who were in the neighbouring fief "all withdrew therefrom to work in
this abundant harvest, and in the space of seven months twenty
thousand persons were baptized, including the bonzes of about sixty
monasteries."* The Jesuit vice-provincial (Francis Cabral), relating
these events, speaks with marked satisfaction of the abasement of the
Buddhist priests, and adds, "That these should now come to such a
humility that they throw themselves on the ground before two ragged
members of the Company is one of the miracles worked by the Divine
Majesty."

*Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th edition; article "Japan," by
Brinkley.

In Funai things were by no means so satisfactory. The Jesuits, as
stated above, had a hospital there, which had been built at the
charges of a devout Portuguese. But Francis Cabral, writing from
Bungo, in 1576, said: "Down to this hour the Christians have been so
abject and vile that they have shown no desire to acknowledge
themselves, partly from being few in the midst of so many Gentiles,
partly because the said Christianity began in the hospital where we
cure the people of low condition and those suffering from contagious
diseases, like the French evil and such others. Whence the Gospel
came to be of such little reputation that no man of position would
dare to accept it (although it seemed good and true to him) merely
lest he should be confounded with this rabble (con quella plebe). And
although we gave much edification with such works, the thing
nevertheless was a great obstacle to the spread of the holy faith.
And thus, during the twenty years we have had a residence in Funai,
one gentleman became a Christian, and this after having been cured of
the said evil in his house; but as soon as he was cured he afterwards
thought it shame to acknowledge his Christianity in the presence of
others."

This most disheartening record underwent a complete change in 1576,
when the son of the Bungo feudatory, a youth of some sixteen years,
and, two years later, the feudatory himself, Otomo, embraced the
Christian faith. In the first Annual Letter sent to Rome after these
events a striking admission is made: "It is Otomo, next to God, whom
the Jesuits have to thank for their success in Japan." This
appreciation looks somewhat exaggerated when placed side by side with
the incidents that occurred in Sumitada's fief, as related above.
Nevertheless, Otomo certainly did render powerful aid, not within his
own fief alone but also through his influence elsewhere. Thus, he did
not hesitate to have recourse to arms in order to obtain for the
Jesuits access to the island of Amakusa, where one of the local
barons, tempted originally by tradal prospects and afterwards urged
by his wife, called upon his vassals to choose between conversion or
exile, and issued an order that any Buddhist priests refusing to
accept Christianity would have their property confiscated and their
persons banished.

Practically the whole population became converts under the pressure
of these edicts, and it is thus seen that Christianity owed much of
its success in Kyushu to methods which recall Islam and the
Inquisition.