and Nejiorians. At that time Jefuiabas, fays Mojheim *, was at
the head of that fedt. The memory o f this tranfaction was
quite loft for ages, till in the year 1625 a monument was found
in digging under ground near Si-ngan-fu, in the province Shenfi'.
It was a table o f marble, ten feet long and five-broad, containing
the names of the miffionaries, and a hiftory of the caufe o f their
coming, written in the Syriac language, Which was tranilated by
the Jefuits who happened to be in China at the time o f its dif-
covery, and is given in Xircher's China Illujirata. There is no
doubt of the authenticity. The Jefuits are charged with a moft
ulelefs and unavaling forgery, .efpecially by Voltaire. The
curious may fee more o f -the affair in Renaudof s account of
India and China t. The effedt of this mifiion did not continue
long; at firft they made ahundance o f profelytes; they were
favored by the reigning emperor, permitted to build churches,
and inculcate their dodlrine among his fubjedts. This monument
brings down their hiftor-y to 783, the time o f its being
made. -In the year 845, an emperor -inimical to the monafticlife
arofe, and by an ordinance entirely fupprefied every religious
houfe. This was in fadt levelled at the Bonzees, and the
profeftors of the idolatry o f Fo or Fwe, who had not-only expended
vaft fums in the ornaments o f their pagodas and moriaf-
teries, but made them fanciuaries for albkinds o f profligates: This
<event correfponds exadtly with our celebrated diflolution : here
four thoufand fix hundred o f the .great-monafteries o f male and
■female reclufes, and forty thoufand o f the lefler, were diredted
40 be dem'olifhed, the lands and revenues to revert to the royal
* .Vol. ii. p. I. f Tranf. Pt. ii. p. 76 et feq.
domain*
domain, and a hundred and fifty thoufand flaves belonging to
the houfes to be fet at liberty, enrolled and ranked among the
people. As to thefe Chriftians, who in the ordinance are called
outlandifh Bonzees from Ta-tjing or Mu-bu-pa, about three thoufand
in number, they were alio included, and diredted to return
to a fecular.life, “ to the end that the cuftoms of our empire,”
fays the decree, “ may be uniform and unmixed.” From this
time the hiftory o f thefe people was conligned to oblivion, nor
ever would have been known, but for the difcovery of the Si-
gnan-fu monument.
T h e ambition o f the great Jefuit St. Francis de Xavier to extend
the power and importance of his new order, is mentioned
largely at vol. i. p. 113. o f this work.
In 1549 he failed from Goa to Japan, and after difcharging
his million in that ifland, determined on a vifit to China. Death
fruftrated his pious defign, but preferved him from the mortification
of being refufed an entrance into the empire, according
to the moft rigid ordinances then in force. He departed this life
off the ifle of Sancian. The Chinefe had no objection to receive
a dead chriftian; they permitted his interment; his coffin was
filled with'unilacked lime, which miraculoufly loft its nature,
and the body, preferved uninjured, was found entire, fweet, and
with all moifture, fifty years after, (Du Halde fays only as
many months) and brought with due veneration to the city o f
Goa.
From this period to the end of the fame century, no attempt
was made to follow the great example of St. Xavier. A few Dominicans
S t . F r a n c is
d e X a v ie r .
J e s u it s ^.