SIAM
766
SIAM
ships, 15,000 men), and education for both sexes.
Siam has so far been able to maintain her national
independence, owing to the rivalry of England and
France. The latter has tried ever since the days of
Louis XIV to obtain a footing in Siam and has ac-
tually gained large concessions of territory bv the
treaties of 1S91, 1S93, 1904, and 1907, nor has' Eng-
land lacked her share (1909).
The first historical record of an attempt to intro- duce Christianity we owe to John Peter Maffei who states that about 1550 a French Franciscan, Bonferre, hearing of the great kingdom of the Peguans and the Siamese in the East, went on a Portuguese ship from Goa to Cosme (Peguan), where for three years he preached the Gospel, but without any result. In 1552 St. Francis Xavier, writing from Sancian to his friend Diego Pereira, expressed his desire to go to Siam, but his death on 2 December, 1552, prevented him. In 1553 several Portuguese ships landed in Siam, and at the request of the king three hundred Portuguese soldiers entered his service. In the fol- lowing year two Dominicans, Fathers Hieronymus of the Cross and Sebastian de Cantu, joined them as chaplains. In a short time they established three parishes at Aj'iithia with some fifteen hundred con- verted Siamese. Both missionaries, however, were murdered bj' the pagans (1569), and were replaced by Fathers Lopez Cardoso, John Madeira, Alphonsus Ximenes, Louis Fonseca (martyred in 1600), and John Maldonatus (d. 1598). In 1606 the Jesuit Balthasar de Sequeira at the request of the Portuguese mer- chant Tristan Golayo, and in 1624 Father Julius Cesar IMargico, came to Ayuthia and gained the fa- vour of the king. A subsequent persecution, how- ever, stopped the propagation of the Faith and no missionary entered till Siam was made a vicariate ApostoUc by Alexander VII on 22 August, 1662. Soon after, Sigr Pierre de la Motte-Lambert, Vicar- Apostohc of Cochin China, arrived at Ayuthia, ac- companied by Fathers De Bourges and Deydier. In 1664 he was joined by Mgr Pallu, Vicar Apostolic of Tong King. Siam, in those days the rendezvous of all commerical enterprise in the East, gave shelter to several hundred Annamite and Japanese Christians who had been ex-pelled or lived there as voluntary e.xiles on account of persecutions at home. Some Portuguese and Spanish Jesuits, Franciscans, and Augustinians had the spiritual care of their country- men in Siam. Mgr Pallu, on his return to Rome (1665), obtained a Brief from Clement IX (4 July, 1669), by which the Vicariate of Siam was entrusted to the newly-founded Society of Foreign Missions of Paris. In 167.'i Father Laneau was consecrated titu- lar Bishop of Metellopolis and first Vicar Apostolic of Siam, and ever since Siam has been under the spiritual care of the Society of Foreign Missions. King Phra- Xarai (1657-83?) gave the Catholic missionaries a hearty welcome, and made them a gift of land for a church, a mission-house, and a seminary (St. Joseph's colony). Through the influence of the Greek or Venetian, Constantine Phaulcon, prime minister to King Phra-Xarai, the latter sent a diplomatic em- bassy to lyiuis XIV in 1684. The French king re- tumf'd the compliment by sending M. de Chaumont, af;companied by some Jesuits under Fathers de F'onte- nay and Tachard. On 10 December, 1685, King Phra-Narai signed a treaty at IjOuvo with France, wherein he allowed the Catholic missionaries to preach the Gospel throughout Siam, exempted his Catholic subjects from work on Sunday, and ap- pointed a special man<larin to scuttle disputes between Christians anfl pagans. Hut after the departure of M. dr- Chaumont, a Siamese mandarin, Phra-phret- racha, got up a revolution, the j)rim<' minister was murdered, King Phra-Xarai deposed, Mgr Laneau and sfiveral missionaries were taken prisoners and ill- treated, and the Christians were persecuted.
When in 1690 peace and order were restored. Bishop
Laneau resumed work till his death in 1696. Kio suc-
cessor. Bishop Louis of Cice (1700-27), was able to
continue it in peace. But after his death the rest of
the century is but the history of persecutions (those of
1729, 1755, 1764 are the most notable), either by local
mandarins or Burmese in^'aders, though the kings re-
mained more or less favourable to the missionaries and
to Bishops Texier de Kerla^^ and de Loliere-Puycontat
(1755). During the inroads of tlie Burmese the Sia-
mese king even appealed to Bishop Brigot for help
against the common foe, who sacked and burned the
Catholic stations and colleges and imprisoned both
the bishop and the missionaries. In 1769 Father
Corre resumed the missions in Siam and thus paved
the way for the new vicar ApostoHc, Mgr Lebon
(1772-80). But a fresh persecution in 1775 forced
him to leave the kingdom, and both his successors.
Bishops Conde and Garnault, were unable to do much.
During the Burmese wars the Christians were reduced
from 12,000 to 1000, while Bishop Florens was left in
charge with only seven native pri(>sts. It was only in
1826 and 1830 that a fresh supply of European mis-
sionaries arrived, among them Fathers Bouchot,
Barbe, Bruguiere, Vachal, Grandjean, Pallegoix,
Courvezy, etc. In 1834 the last was appointed Vicar
Apostolic of Siam, and the missions began to revive.
Under him Siam numbered 6590 Catholics, 11 Euro-
pean and 7 native priests. His successor. Bishop
Pallegoix (1840-62), author of "Description du roy-
aume Thai ou Siam" and " Dictionnaire siamois-
latin-f rangais-anglais " (30,000 words), was one
of the most distinguished vicars Apostolic of Siam,
the best Siamese scholar, and a missionary among the
Laotines. He induced Xapoleon III to renew the
French alliance with Siam and to send an embassy
under M. de Montigny to Siam in 1856. On 8 July,
1856, King Mongkut signed a pohtical-commercial
treaty with France, by which the privileges granted
to the Cathohc missionaries by Phra-Narai in the
seventeenth century were renewed. The bishop was
highly esteemed by the king, who personally assisted
at his funeral and accepted from the missionaries as
atokenof friendship the bishop's ring. Thanks to the
broad-mindedness of Kings Mongkut (1851-68) and
Chulalongkorn (1868-1910), the Catholic Church in
Siam has enjoyed peace under Pallegoix's successors,
Bishops Dupont (1862-72) and Vey (1875-1909).
Owing to the compUcations between France and Siam,
in 1894, the missionaries had to endure the ill-will of
local mandarins, though the minister of foreign affairs
promised that no harm would be done to the mission-
aries and their work on account of the French inva-
sion. Though the mission in Laos, commenced in
1876, formally opened in 1883, and erected into a
vicariate Apostolic on 4 May, 1899, is now separated
from Siam, the Catholic missions have mad(> great
progress during the last thirty-five years. While in
1875 there were in Siam 11,000 Catholics, 17 Euro-
pean and 7 nati\(' ])ri('s1s, and 30 churches, there are
now (1911), 23,000 Catliolics, 42 European and 13 na-
tive priests, 3S catechist-s, 50 (central stations, 55
churches and cliapels, 12 Brothers of St. Gabriel, 103
sisters (Holy Infant Jesus, St. Paul of Chartres,
Ivovers of the Cross), 50 elementary schools with over
3000 pupils, 15 orphanages with 314 inmates, 3 agri-
cultural schools, 1 seminary with 62 students, 1 col-
lege with 400 boys, and a pemionnat with 220 girls,
under the jurisdiction of Mgr Ren6 Mary Joseph
Perros dv. Guewenh(nm, titular Bishop of Zaora,
appointed 17 September, 1909.
Caktbk, The Kinfidom of Siam (Now York and London, 1904); IIkmhk WARTKtio. .Siam (Lnipzig, 1H99); Pallbqoix, Dencrip- tion du roi/aume Thai ou Siam (Bc-aune, 18.53); Piollet, Lea MinHiorm Catholiques franfaines au XIX' sikcle, II (Paris, 8. d.); Launay, Hint. GSnh-ale de la Sociili des Miasions Etrangiret (.3 vols., Paris. 1894).
Matbrnus Spitz.
