Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 14.djvu/119

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SOCIETY


95


SOCIETY


?ho landed being at once executed. In 1644 Father Jaspar dp Amaral was drowned in attempting to ind, and his death brought to a close the century of lissionary efforts which the Jesuits had made to ring the Faith to Japan. The name of the Japan- se province was retained, and it counted 57 subjects 1 1760; but the mission was really confined to Tonkin nd Cochin-China, whence stations were established 1 Annani, Siam, etc. (see Indo-China, VII, 774-5; Iartvrs, Japanese).

China. — A detailed account of this mission from 552 to 1773 will be found under China (111,672-4) nd Martyrs in China, and in lives of the missionaries iouvet, Brancati, Carneiro, Cibot, Fridelli, Gaubil, ierbillon, Herdtrich, Hinderer, Mailla, Martini, latteo Ricci, Schall von Bell, and Verbiest (qq. v.). 'rom 15S1, when the mission was organized, it con- isted of Portuguese Fathers. They established four olleges, one seminary, and some forty stations nder a vice-provincial, who resided frequently in 'eliin; at the sujiprcssion there were 54 Fathers. "rom 1687 there was a special mission of the French esuit.s to Pekin, under their own superior; at the uppression they numbered 23.

Central and South America. — The missions of >ntral and Southern America were divided between 'ortugal and Spain (see America, I, 414). In 1.549 'ather Nombrega and five companions, Portuguese, •ent to Brazil. Progress Was slow at first, but when he languages had been learnt, and the confidence of he natives accjuired, progress became rapid. Blessed gnacio de .^zevedo and his thirty-nine companions ?cre martyred on their way thither in 157t). The lissions, however, prospered steadily under such >.aders as Jos6 Anchieta and John Almeida (qq. v.) Meade). In 1630 there were 70,000 converts, (efore the Suppression the whole country had been ivided into missions, served by 445 Jesuits in Brazil, nd 146 in the vice-province of Maranhao.

Paraguay. — Of the Spanish missions, the most oteworthy is Paraguay (see GuaranI Indians; LBiPONEs; Argentine Republic; Reductions of '.^RAfJUAT). The province contained 564 members of whom 385 were priests) before the Suppression, ,-ith 113,716 Indians under their charge.

Mexico. — Even larger than Paraguay was the

iissionary province of Mexico, which included

'alifornia, with 572 Jesuits and 122,000 Indians. See also California Missions; Mexico, pp. 258, 66, etc; .\Nazco; Cl.4vigero; DiAz; Ducrue; etc.) ^he conflict as to jurisdiction (1647) with Juan de 'alafox y Mendoza (q.v.), Bishop of La Puebla, led o an appeal to Rome which was decided by Inno- ent X in 1648, but afterwards became a cause cHle- re. The other Spanish missions, New Granada Colombia), Chile, Peru, Quito (Ecuador), were dministered by 193, 242, 526, and 209 Jesuits respec- ively (.see Alegre; Araucanians; Ar.\waks; Bar- iasa; Moxos I.ndia.ns).

United Stales. — Father Andrew White (q.v.) and our other Jesuits from the English mission arrived n territory now comprised in the State of Maryland, 15 March, 1634, with the ex^jedition of Cecil Calvert q. V.) For ten years they ministered to the Catholics, if the colony, converted many of its Protestant pio- leers, and conducted missions among the Indians ilong Chesapeake Bay and the Potomac River, the 'atuxents, Anaco.stans, and Piscataways, which last rere especially friendly. In 1644 the colony was nvaded by the Puritans from the neighbouring settle- nent of Virginia, and Father White was sent in hains to England, tried for being a Catholic, and on lis relea.se took refuge in Belgium. Although the !,'atholic colonists soon regained control, they were constant ly menaced by their Puritan neighbours and )y malcontents in the colony itself, who finally in


1692 succeeded in seizing the government, and in enacting penal laws against the Catholics, and par- ticular!}' against their Jesuit priests, which, kept growing more and more intolerable until the colony became the State of Marj-land in November, 1776. During the 140 years between their arrival in Maryland and the Suppression of the Society, the missionaries, averaging four in number the first forty years and then gradually increasing to twelve and finally to about twenty, continued to work among the Indians and the settlers in spite of every vexation and disability, though prevented from increasing in number and extending their labours during the dis- pute with Cecil Calvert over retaining the tract of land, Mattapany, given to them by the Indians, reUef from taxation on lands devoted to religious or chari- table purposes, and the usual ecclesiastical im- munity for them- selves and their households. The controversy ended in the cession of the Mattapany tract, the mission- aries retaining the land they had ac- quired by the con- ditions of planta- tion. Prior to the Suppression they had establi-shed missions in Mary- land, at St. Thomas, White Marsh, St. Ini- goes, Leonard- town, still (1912) under the care of Jesuits, and also at Deer Creek, Frederick, and St. Joseph's Bohemia Manor, besides the many less permanent stations among the Indians in Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Conewago, Lancaster, Goshenhoppen, and excursion stations as far as New York where two of their number. Fathers Hari'ey and Harrison, assisted for a time by Father Gage, had, under Governor Dongan, ministered as chaplains in the forts and among the white settlers, and attempted unsuccessfully to estabhsh a school, be- tween 1683-89, when they were forced to retire by an anti-Catholic administration.

The Suppression of the Society altered but little the status of the Jesuits in Maryland. As they were the only priests in the mission, they still remained at their posts, most of them, the nine English members, until death, all continuing to labour under Father John Lewis, who after the Suppression had received the powers of vicar-general from Bishop Challoner of the London District. Only two of them survived until the restoration of the Society — Robert Molyneux and John Bolton. Many of those who were abroad, labouring in England or studying in Belgium, returned to work in the mi.ssion. As a corporate body they still retained the properties from which they derived support for their religious ministrations. .Vs their numbers decreased some of the missions were aban- doned, or ser\'ed for a time by other priests but main- tained by the revenues of the Jesuit properties even after the Restoration of the Society. Though these properties were regarded as reverting to it through its former members organized as the Corjjoration of Roman Cathohc Clergymen, a yearly allowance from the revenues made over to .\rchbi.shop Carroll became during Bishop Marechal's administration (1S17-.34) the basis of a claim for such a payment in perpetuity


From a Chinese portrait preserved in the College of Propaganda