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He added,
in reply to further questions, that 'the Roman priesthood had been
expelled from many parts of Germany, from Sweden, Norway, Denmark,
Holland, and England, and that, although his own country preserved
the pure form of the Christian faith from which Spain and Portugal
had deviated, yet neither English nor Dutch considered that that fact
afforded them any reason to war with, or to annex, States which were
not Christian solely for the reason that they were non-Christian.'"*
Hearing these things from Will Adams, Ieyasu is said to have
remarked, "If the sovereigns of Europe do not tolerate these priests,
I do them no wrong if I refuse to tolerate them."
*Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th edition; article "Japan," by
Brinkley.
Another incident, too complicated to describe in detail, may be
summed up by saying that some Japanese Christians were discovered to
have conspired for the overthrow of the Tokugawa Government by the
aid of foreign troops. It was not an extensive plot, but it helped to
demonstrate that the sympathy of the priests and their converts was
plainly with the enemies of Tokugawa's supremacy. Ieyasu, however,
abstained from extreme measures in the case of any of the foreign
priests, and he might have been equally tolerant towards native
Christians, also, had not the Tokugawa authority been openly defied
in Yedo itself by a Franciscan father--the Sotelo mentioned above.
"Then (1613) the first execution of Japanese converts took place,
though the monk himself was released after a short incarceration. At
that time... insignificant differences of custom sometimes induced
serious misconceptions. A Christian who had violated a secular law
was crucified in Nagasaki. Many of his fellow-believers kneeled
around his cross and prayed for the peace of his soul. A party of
converts were afterwards burnt to death in the same place for
refusing to apostatize, and their Christian friends crowded to carry
off portions of their bodies as holy relics. When these things were
reported to Ieyasu, he said, 'Without doubt that must be a diabolic
faith which persuades people not only to worship criminals condemned
to death for their crimes, but also to honour those who have been
burned or cut to pieces by the order of their lord.'"*
*Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th edition; article "Japan," by Brinkley.
SUPPRESSION OF CHRISTIANITY
The first prohibition of Christianity was issued by Ieyasu in
September, 1612, and was followed by another in April, 1613; but both
bore the character of warnings rather than of punitive regulations.
It was on the 27th of January, 1614--that is to say, fifty-four years
and five months after the landing of Xavier at Kagoshima--that an
edict appeared ordering that all the foreign priests should be
collected in Nagasaki preparatory to removal from Japan; that all
churches should be pulled down, and that all converts should be
compelled to abjure Christianity. There were then in Japan 156
ministers of Christianity, namely, 122 Jesuits, 14 Franciscans, 9
Dominicans, 4 Augustinians, and 7 secular priests. It is virtually
certain that if these men had obeyed the orders of the Japanese
Government by leaving the country finally, not so much as one
foreigner would have suffered for his faith in Japan, except the six
Franciscans executed on the "Martyrs' Mount" at Nagasaki by
Hideyoshi's order, in 1597. But the missionaries did not obey.
Suffering or even death counted for nothing with these men as against
the possibility of saving souls. "Forty-seven of them evaded the
edict, some by concealing themselves at the time of its issue, the
rest by leaving their ships when the latter had passed out of sight
of the shore of Japan, and returning by boats to the scene of their
former labours. Moreover, in a few months, those that had actually
crossed the sea re-crossed it in various disguises."* The Japanese
Government had then to consider whether it would suffer its authority
to be thus defied by foreign visitors or whether it would resort to
extreme measures.
*Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th edition; article "Japan," by Brinkley.
PERIOD SUBSEQUENT TO 1613
Throughout a period of two years immediately following the issue of
the anti-Christian edict of 1614, the attention of Ieyasu, and indeed
of the whole Japanese nation, was concentrated on the struggle which
took place between the adherents of the Tokugawa and the supporters
of Hideyori. That struggle culminated in an assault on the castle of
Osaka, and fresh fuel was added to the fire of anti-Christian
resentment inasmuch as many Christian converts espoused Hideyori's
cause, and in one part of the field the troops of Ieyasu had to fight
against a foe whose banners were emblazoned with a cross and with
images of Christ and of St. James, the patron saint of Spain.
Nevertheless, the Christian converts possessed the sympathy of so
many of the feudal chiefs that much reluctance was shown to inflict
the extreme penalty of the law on men and women whose only crime was
the adoption of an alien religion. Some of the feudal chiefs, even at
the risk of losing their estates, gave asylum to the converts; others
falsely reported a complete absence of Christians in their dominions,
and some endeavoured earnestly to protect the fanatics; while, as to
the people at large, their liberal spirit is shown in the fact that
five priests who were in Osaka Castle at the time of its capture were
able to make their way to distant refuges without any risk of
betrayal.
ENGRAVING: GREEN-ROOM OF A THEATRE (In the Middle of the Tokugawa
Period)
On the other hand, there were not wanting feudatories who, judging
that zeal in obeying the edict would prove a passport to official
reward, acted on that conviction. Notably was this true of Hasegawa,
who received the fief of Arima by way of recompense for barbarous
cruelty towards the Christians. Yet it is on record that when this
baron sent out a mixed force of Hizen and Satsuma troops to harry the
converts, these samurai warned the Christians to flee and then
reported that they were not to be found anywhere. During these events
the death of Ieyasu took place (June 1, 1616), and pending the
dedication of his mausoleum the anti-Christian crusade was virtually
suspended.
ENGLISH AND DUTCH INTRIGUES AGAINST SPANIARDS AND PORTUGUESE
It has been frequently alleged that if the Spaniards and the
Portuguese endeavoured to bring the Hollanders into bad odour, the
English and the Dutch intrigued equally against the Portuguese and
the Spaniards. The accusation cannot be rebutted. Cocks, the factor
of the English commercial mission to Japan, has himself left it on
record that, being at the Yedo Court in the fall of 1616, "I enformed
the two secretaries that yf they lookt out well about these two
Spanish shipps in Xaxama [Satsuma] full of men and treasure, they
would fynd that they were sent off purpose by the king of Spaine,
having knowledge of the death of the ould Emperour [Ieyasu], thinking
som papisticall tono [daimyo] might rise and rebell and so draw all
the papists to flock to them and take part, by which means they might
on a sudden seaz upon som strong place and keepe it till more succors
came, they not wanting money nor men for thackomplishing such a
strattgin." The two vessels in question were "greate shipps arrived
out of New Spaine, bound, as they said, for the Philippines, but
driven into that place per contrary wynd, both shipps being full of
souldiers, with great store of treasure, as it is said, above five
millions of pezos." It is true that a Spanish captain sent from these
vessels to pay respects to the Court in Yedo "gave it out that our
shipps and the Hollanders which were at Firando [Hirado] had taken
and robbed all the China junks, which was the occasion that very few
or non came into Japan this yeare," and therefore Cocks was somewhat
justified in saying "so in this sort I cried quittance with the
Spaniards." It appears, however, that the Spaniards were not
believed, whereas the Englishman could boast, "which speeches of myne
wrought so far that the Emperour sent to stay them, and had not the
greate shipp cut her cable in the hawse so as to escape, she had been
arrested." It was this same Cocks who told a Japanese "admirall" that
"My opinion was he might doe better to put it into the Emperour's
mynd to make a conquest of the Manillas, and drive those small crew
of Spaniards from thence."
In fact, none of the four Occidental nationalities then in Japan had
any monopoly of slandering its rivals. The accusation preferred by
Cocks, however, must have possessed special significance, confirming,
as it did, what the pilot of the San Felipe had said twenty years
previously as to the political uses to which the propagandists of
Christianity were put by the King of Spain, and what Will Adams had
said four years earlier as to the Imperial doctrine of Spain and
Portugal that the annexation of a non-Christian country was always
justifiable. The "greate shipps out of New Spaine," laden with
soldiers and treasure and under orders to combine with any Christian
converts willing to revolt against the Yedo Government, were concrete
evidence of the truth of the Spanish sailor's revelation and of the
English exile's charge. It has always to be remembered, too, that
Kyushu, the headquarters of Christianity in Japan, did not owe to the
Tokugawa shoguns the same degree of allegiance that it had been
forced to render to Hideyoshi. A colossal campaign such as the latter
had conducted against the southern island, in 1587, never commended
itself to the ambition of Ieyasu or to that of his comparatively
feeble successor, Hidetada. Hence, the presence of Spanish or
Portuguese ships in Satsuma suggested danger of an exceptional
degree.
In the very month (September, 1616) when Cocks "cried quittance with
the Spaniards," a new anti-Christian edict was promulgated by
Hidetada, son and successor of Ieyasu. It pronounced sentence of
exile against all Christian priests, not excluding even those whose
presence had been sanctioned for the purpose of ministering to the
Portuguese merchants; it forbade the Japanese, under penalty of being
burned alive and having all their property confiscated, to connect
themselves in any way with the Christian propagandists or with their
co-operators or servants, and above all, to show them any
hospitality.
in reply to further questions, that 'the Roman priesthood had been
expelled from many parts of Germany, from Sweden, Norway, Denmark,
Holland, and England, and that, although his own country preserved
the pure form of the Christian faith from which Spain and Portugal
had deviated, yet neither English nor Dutch considered that that fact
afforded them any reason to war with, or to annex, States which were
not Christian solely for the reason that they were non-Christian.'"*
Hearing these things from Will Adams, Ieyasu is said to have
remarked, "If the sovereigns of Europe do not tolerate these priests,
I do them no wrong if I refuse to tolerate them."
*Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th edition; article "Japan," by
Brinkley.
Another incident, too complicated to describe in detail, may be
summed up by saying that some Japanese Christians were discovered to
have conspired for the overthrow of the Tokugawa Government by the
aid of foreign troops. It was not an extensive plot, but it helped to
demonstrate that the sympathy of the priests and their converts was
plainly with the enemies of Tokugawa's supremacy. Ieyasu, however,
abstained from extreme measures in the case of any of the foreign
priests, and he might have been equally tolerant towards native
Christians, also, had not the Tokugawa authority been openly defied
in Yedo itself by a Franciscan father--the Sotelo mentioned above.
"Then (1613) the first execution of Japanese converts took place,
though the monk himself was released after a short incarceration. At
that time... insignificant differences of custom sometimes induced
serious misconceptions. A Christian who had violated a secular law
was crucified in Nagasaki. Many of his fellow-believers kneeled
around his cross and prayed for the peace of his soul. A party of
converts were afterwards burnt to death in the same place for
refusing to apostatize, and their Christian friends crowded to carry
off portions of their bodies as holy relics. When these things were
reported to Ieyasu, he said, 'Without doubt that must be a diabolic
faith which persuades people not only to worship criminals condemned
to death for their crimes, but also to honour those who have been
burned or cut to pieces by the order of their lord.'"*
*Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th edition; article "Japan," by Brinkley.
SUPPRESSION OF CHRISTIANITY
The first prohibition of Christianity was issued by Ieyasu in
September, 1612, and was followed by another in April, 1613; but both
bore the character of warnings rather than of punitive regulations.
It was on the 27th of January, 1614--that is to say, fifty-four years
and five months after the landing of Xavier at Kagoshima--that an
edict appeared ordering that all the foreign priests should be
collected in Nagasaki preparatory to removal from Japan; that all
churches should be pulled down, and that all converts should be
compelled to abjure Christianity. There were then in Japan 156
ministers of Christianity, namely, 122 Jesuits, 14 Franciscans, 9
Dominicans, 4 Augustinians, and 7 secular priests. It is virtually
certain that if these men had obeyed the orders of the Japanese
Government by leaving the country finally, not so much as one
foreigner would have suffered for his faith in Japan, except the six
Franciscans executed on the "Martyrs' Mount" at Nagasaki by
Hideyoshi's order, in 1597. But the missionaries did not obey.
Suffering or even death counted for nothing with these men as against
the possibility of saving souls. "Forty-seven of them evaded the
edict, some by concealing themselves at the time of its issue, the
rest by leaving their ships when the latter had passed out of sight
of the shore of Japan, and returning by boats to the scene of their
former labours. Moreover, in a few months, those that had actually
crossed the sea re-crossed it in various disguises."* The Japanese
Government had then to consider whether it would suffer its authority
to be thus defied by foreign visitors or whether it would resort to
extreme measures.
*Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th edition; article "Japan," by Brinkley.
PERIOD SUBSEQUENT TO 1613
Throughout a period of two years immediately following the issue of
the anti-Christian edict of 1614, the attention of Ieyasu, and indeed
of the whole Japanese nation, was concentrated on the struggle which
took place between the adherents of the Tokugawa and the supporters
of Hideyori. That struggle culminated in an assault on the castle of
Osaka, and fresh fuel was added to the fire of anti-Christian
resentment inasmuch as many Christian converts espoused Hideyori's
cause, and in one part of the field the troops of Ieyasu had to fight
against a foe whose banners were emblazoned with a cross and with
images of Christ and of St. James, the patron saint of Spain.
Nevertheless, the Christian converts possessed the sympathy of so
many of the feudal chiefs that much reluctance was shown to inflict
the extreme penalty of the law on men and women whose only crime was
the adoption of an alien religion. Some of the feudal chiefs, even at
the risk of losing their estates, gave asylum to the converts; others
falsely reported a complete absence of Christians in their dominions,
and some endeavoured earnestly to protect the fanatics; while, as to
the people at large, their liberal spirit is shown in the fact that
five priests who were in Osaka Castle at the time of its capture were
able to make their way to distant refuges without any risk of
betrayal.
ENGRAVING: GREEN-ROOM OF A THEATRE (In the Middle of the Tokugawa
Period)
On the other hand, there were not wanting feudatories who, judging
that zeal in obeying the edict would prove a passport to official
reward, acted on that conviction. Notably was this true of Hasegawa,
who received the fief of Arima by way of recompense for barbarous
cruelty towards the Christians. Yet it is on record that when this
baron sent out a mixed force of Hizen and Satsuma troops to harry the
converts, these samurai warned the Christians to flee and then
reported that they were not to be found anywhere. During these events
the death of Ieyasu took place (June 1, 1616), and pending the
dedication of his mausoleum the anti-Christian crusade was virtually
suspended.
ENGLISH AND DUTCH INTRIGUES AGAINST SPANIARDS AND PORTUGUESE
It has been frequently alleged that if the Spaniards and the
Portuguese endeavoured to bring the Hollanders into bad odour, the
English and the Dutch intrigued equally against the Portuguese and
the Spaniards. The accusation cannot be rebutted. Cocks, the factor
of the English commercial mission to Japan, has himself left it on
record that, being at the Yedo Court in the fall of 1616, "I enformed
the two secretaries that yf they lookt out well about these two
Spanish shipps in Xaxama [Satsuma] full of men and treasure, they
would fynd that they were sent off purpose by the king of Spaine,
having knowledge of the death of the ould Emperour [Ieyasu], thinking
som papisticall tono [daimyo] might rise and rebell and so draw all
the papists to flock to them and take part, by which means they might
on a sudden seaz upon som strong place and keepe it till more succors
came, they not wanting money nor men for thackomplishing such a
strattgin." The two vessels in question were "greate shipps arrived
out of New Spaine, bound, as they said, for the Philippines, but
driven into that place per contrary wynd, both shipps being full of
souldiers, with great store of treasure, as it is said, above five
millions of pezos." It is true that a Spanish captain sent from these
vessels to pay respects to the Court in Yedo "gave it out that our
shipps and the Hollanders which were at Firando [Hirado] had taken
and robbed all the China junks, which was the occasion that very few
or non came into Japan this yeare," and therefore Cocks was somewhat
justified in saying "so in this sort I cried quittance with the
Spaniards." It appears, however, that the Spaniards were not
believed, whereas the Englishman could boast, "which speeches of myne
wrought so far that the Emperour sent to stay them, and had not the
greate shipp cut her cable in the hawse so as to escape, she had been
arrested." It was this same Cocks who told a Japanese "admirall" that
"My opinion was he might doe better to put it into the Emperour's
mynd to make a conquest of the Manillas, and drive those small crew
of Spaniards from thence."
In fact, none of the four Occidental nationalities then in Japan had
any monopoly of slandering its rivals. The accusation preferred by
Cocks, however, must have possessed special significance, confirming,
as it did, what the pilot of the San Felipe had said twenty years
previously as to the political uses to which the propagandists of
Christianity were put by the King of Spain, and what Will Adams had
said four years earlier as to the Imperial doctrine of Spain and
Portugal that the annexation of a non-Christian country was always
justifiable. The "greate shipps out of New Spaine," laden with
soldiers and treasure and under orders to combine with any Christian
converts willing to revolt against the Yedo Government, were concrete
evidence of the truth of the Spanish sailor's revelation and of the
English exile's charge. It has always to be remembered, too, that
Kyushu, the headquarters of Christianity in Japan, did not owe to the
Tokugawa shoguns the same degree of allegiance that it had been
forced to render to Hideyoshi. A colossal campaign such as the latter
had conducted against the southern island, in 1587, never commended
itself to the ambition of Ieyasu or to that of his comparatively
feeble successor, Hidetada. Hence, the presence of Spanish or
Portuguese ships in Satsuma suggested danger of an exceptional
degree.
In the very month (September, 1616) when Cocks "cried quittance with
the Spaniards," a new anti-Christian edict was promulgated by
Hidetada, son and successor of Ieyasu. It pronounced sentence of
exile against all Christian priests, not excluding even those whose
presence had been sanctioned for the purpose of ministering to the
Portuguese merchants; it forbade the Japanese, under penalty of being
burned alive and having all their property confiscated, to connect
themselves in any way with the Christian propagandists or with their
co-operators or servants, and above all, to show them any
hospitality.
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