D o m in ic a n s .
religion. Among the miracles o f the times, an eunuch converted
fifty ladies ; and Helena Taming, emprefs of China, held epifto-
lary correfpondence with pope Alexander Vllth.
U n f o r t u n a t e l y for the Jefuits; in 1631, an inundation of
other miffionaries poured into the empire. The Dominicans
and the Francifcans were zealous to partake o f the honor, and
lhare in the good work ; but again, unluckily for both, the
Jefuits were men of this world, their rivals o f the other. The laft
foon difcovered the arts by which the Jefuits had eftabliihed
their power in China. They would not condefcend to preach
any but the pure dodtrine o f Chriftianity ; an inveterate quarrel
enfued among thefe holy men. The Dominicans and Francifcans
carried their complaints to Rome ; the grounds o f which
were difcuffed in the higheft ecclefiaftical courts, and with various
fuccefs.. The monks had the moft fubtile orders to coun-
teraéf them. The controverfy lafted a hundred years ; bulls had
been fent to Peking, to difannul all the temporizing compliances
of the Jefuits with the religious rites o f the Chinefe ; fome they
evaded, and at other times, by their power at court, excited perfe-
cutions again ft their chriftian brethren. They even procured
the imprifonment of Tournon, a legate from the Pope himfelf.
His holinefs honored the fufferer with the cardinal’s hat ; he received
it in confinement, and foon after died, the ridicule of the
political Jefuits. The reader will find a very candid and entertaining
account o f the Chriftian church by Mojbeim, in the Chinefe
Mifcellanies, publilhed in 1762, in two fmall volumes. My
plan forbids me from entering further into the hiftory ; let it
fuffi.ee
fuffice to fay, that the Jefuits, from the death o f Kam-hi, experienced
viciifitudes of fortune ; were either depreifed or exalted
according to the genius o f his fucceflors, or according to the uies
to which they were found fubfervient. The difiolution o f the
order probably put an end to the Chriftian church in this political
empire *.
A n o t h e r nation, eminent for extending their religion fat and
wide, could never effetft, by the power o f the fword, what this
artful order did by infinuation, and by temporizing with the
cuftoms and manners of the people o f whom they intended to
make their advantages. The Arabs, who in other places incul- A r a b s .
cated the doririne of their famed impoftor by conqueft and violence,
here never made the attempt; long mafters o f the'fea,
they came from the coafts o f Africa, or o f Arabia and India, in
the form o f traders, in the tenth century. The Cbinefe admitted
them into their ports in that character, but denied them permif-
fion to propagate their faith, as they had done in India. They
were ftridlly forbidden to make any converts, but were allowed
the free exercife o f their own religion, as long as they did not interfere
with that o f the empire. The Portuguefe, when they firft
arrived in China, found the cities full o f Arabs or Moors, and Father
Navarette, a Dominican milfionary in China in 1665, informs
us, that in his time there were about five hundred thoufand,
which had greatly increafed by intermarriages with the natives ;
that many o f them took their degrees among the Chinefe literati;
* For a ftatement of the prefent fituation o f the Miffionaries, &c. o f the Chriftian religion
in this empire, the reader is referred to vol. ii. p. 159» etfeq. of Sir G . Staunton’s account of
the embafty. £ .
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