civilization. As late as 1230 human sacrifices were still being
offered up in Prussia and Lithuania, and, in spite of all the efforts
of the Teutonic Knights, idolatrous practices still lingered
amongst the people, while amongst the Lapps, though successful
missions had been inaugurated as early as 1335, Christianity
cannot be said to have become the dominant religion till at least
two centuries later.
(e) Moslem Missions.—The mention of the order of the Teutonic Knights reminds us how the crusading spirit had affected Christendom. Still even then Raimon Lull protested against propagandism by the sword, urged the necessity of missions amongst the Moslems, and sealed his testimony with his blood outside the gates of Bugiah in northern Africa (June 30, 1315). Out of the crusades, however, arose other efforts to develop the work which Nestorian missionaries from Bagdad, Edessa and Nisibis had already inaugurated along the Malabar coast, in the island of Ceylon, and in the neighbourhood of the Caspian Sea. In 1245 the Roman pontiff sent two embassies—one, a party of four Dominicans, sought the commander-in-chief of the Mongol forces in Persia; the second, consisting of Franciscans, made their way into Tartary, and sought to convert the successor of Oktai-Khan. Their exertions were seconded in 1253 by the labours of another Franciscan whom Louis IX. of France sent forth from Cyprus,[1] while in 1274 the celebrated traveller Marco Polo, accompanied by two learned Dominicans, visited the court of Kublai-Khan, and at the commencement of the 14th century two Franciscans penetrated as far as Peking, even translating the New Testament and the Psalter into the Tatar language, and training youths for a native ministry.[2]
(f) Missions to India and the New World.—These tentative missions were now to be supplemented by others on a larger scale. In 1488 the Cape of Good Hope was rounded by Diaz, and in 1508 the foundations of the Portuguese Indian empire were laid by Albuquerque. Columbus also in 1492 had landed on San Salvador, and the voyages of the Venetian Cabot along the coast of North America opened up a new world to missionary enterprise. Thus a grand opportunity was given to the churches of Portugal and Spain. But the zeal of the Portuguese took too often a one-sided direction, repressing the Syrian Christians on the Malabar coast, and interfering with the Abyssinian Church,[3] while the fanatic temper of the Spaniard consigned, in Mexico and Peru, multitudes who would not renounce their heathen errors to indiscriminate massacre or abject slavery.[4] Las Casas has drawn a terrible picture of the oppression he strove in vain to prevent.[5] Some steps indeed were taken for disseminating Christian principles, and the pope had induced a band of missionaries, chiefly of the mendicant orders, to go forth to this new mission field.[6] But only five bishoprics had been established by 1520, and the number of genuine converts was small. However, every vestige of the Aztec worship was banished from the Spanish settlements.[7]
(g) The Jesuit Missions.—It was during this period that the Jesuits came into existence. One of the first of Loyola’s associates, Francis Xavier, encouraged by the joint co-operation of the pope and of John III. of Portugal, disembarked at Goa on the 6th of May 1542, and before his death on the Isle of St John (Hiang-Shang), on the 2nd of December 1552, roused the European Christians of Goa to a new life, laboured with singular success amongst the Paravars, a fisher caste near Cape Comorin, gathered many converts in the kingdom of Travancore, visited Malacca, and founded a mission in Japan.
The successor of Xavier, Antonio Criminalis, was regarded by the Jesuits as the first martyr of their society (1562). Matteo Ricci, an Italian by birth, was also an indefatigable missionary in China for twenty-seven years, while the unholy compromise with Brahminism in India followed by Robert de’ Nobili was fatal to the vitality of his own and other missions. Others of the same order evangelized Paraguay in 1582, while the Huguenots sent forth under a French knight of Malta a body of devoted men to attempt the formation of a Christian colony at Rio Janeiro. By the close of the 16th century a committee of cardinals was appointed under the name of the “Congregatio de propaganda fide,” to give unity and solidity to the work of missions. The scheme originated with Gregory XIII., but was not fully organized till forty years afterwards, when Gregory XV. gave it plenary authority by a bull dated the 2nd of June 1622. Gregory’s successor, Urban VIII., supplemented the establishment of the congregation by founding a great missionary college, where Europeans might be trained for foreign labours, and natives might be educated to undertake mission work. At this college is the missionary printing-press of the Roman Church, and its library contains an unrivalled collection of literary treasures bearing on the work.
Modern Missions
Missionary Societies.—Modern missionary activity is distinguished in a special degree by the exertions of societies for the development of mission work.
As contrasted with the colossal display of power on the part of the Church of Rome, it must be allowed that the churches which in the 16th century broke off from their allegiance to the Latin centre at first showed no great anxiety for the extension of the gospel and the salvation of the heathen. The causes of this are not far to seek. The isolation of the Teutonic churches from the vast system with which they had been bound up, the conflicts and troubles among themselves, the necessity of fixing their own principles and defining their own rights, concentrated their attention upon themselves and their own home work, to the neglect of work abroad.[8]
Still the development of the maritime power of England, which the Portuguese and Spanish monarchies noted with fear and jealousy, was distinguished by a singular anxiety for the spread of the Christian faith. Edward VI. in his instructions to the navigators in Sir Hugh Willoughby’s fleet, Sebastian Cabot in those for the direction of the intended voyage to Cathay, and Richard Hakluyt, who promoted many voyages of discovery in addition to writing their history, agree with Sir Humphrey Gilbert’s chronicler that “the sowing of Christianity must be the chief intent of such as shall make any attempt at foreign discovery, or else whatever is builded upon other foundation shall never obtain happy success or continuance.” When on the last day of the year 1600 Queen Elizabeth granted a charter to George, earl of Cumberland, and other “adventurers,” to be a body-corporate by the name of “The Governor and Company of Merchants of London trading with the East Indies,” the expressed recognition of higher duties than those of commerce may by some be deemed a mere matter of form, and, to use the words of Bacon, “what was first in God’s providence was but second in man’s appetite and intention.” Yet a keen sense of missionary duty marks many of the chronicles of English mariners. Notably was this the case with the establishment of the first English colony in America, that of Virginia, by Sir Walter Raleigh. The philosopher Thomas Harriot (1560–1621), one of his colleagues, laboured for the conversion of the natives, amongst whom the first baptism is recorded to have taken place on the 13th of August 1587.[9] Raleigh himself presented as a parting gift to the Virginian Company the sum of £100 “for the propagation of the Christian religion” in that settlement.[10] When James I. granted letters patent for the occupation of Virginia it was directed that the “word and service of God be preached,
- ↑ Neander vii. 69; Hakluyt 171; Huc i. 207.
- ↑ Neander vii. 79; Gieseler iv. 259, 260; Hardwick, Middle Ages, p. 337
- ↑ Geddes, History of the Church of Malabar, p. 4; Neale, Eastern Church, ii. 343.
- ↑ Prescott, Conquest of Mexico, i. 318, iii.
- ↑ Relacion de la destruction de las Indias.
- ↑ Prescott, Mexico, iii. 218 n.
- ↑ Prescott iii. 219.
- ↑ We must not, however, overlook the remarkable appeal made by Erasmus in the first book of his treatise on the art of preaching (Ecclesiastes sive concionator evangelicus). The salient passages are quoted in G. Smith, Short History of Christian Missions, pp. 116-118; Gustavus Vasa in 1559 made an effort to educate and evangelize the Lapps.
- ↑ Hakluyt, Voyages, iii. 345.
- ↑ Oldy, Life of Raleigh, p. 118.
