It seems needless to notice the several fruitless embassies which the Portuguese, since their earlier resort to China, have sent to Peking, and the last of which occurred in 1753: they exhibit the usual spectacle of arrogance on the one side, and profitless submission on the other. It will be more interesting to take a short view of the Catholic missions, which at first promised to make rapid and extensive progress, but were ultimately defeated by the dissensions among the several orders of priests, and the indiscreet zeal which some of them displayed against the ancient institutions of the Chinese. In 1579 Miguel Ruggiero, an Italian Jesuit, reached Canton, and in a few years was joined by Matthew Ricci, who may justly be considered as the founder of the Catholic mission. The literati of the country praised such of the precepts of Christianity as coincided with those of Confucius; but they found a stumbling-block in the doctrines of original sin, of eternal torments, of the incarnation, of the Trinity, and of not being allowed concubines as well as a wife. No difficulties, however, could dishearten Ricci, who, by his intimate knowledge of the mathematical and experimental sciences, had the means of making friends and converts. He soon abandoned the garb of a bonze, which he at first injudiciously assumed, and put on that of the literati. With great good sense he saw the folly of attempting at once to contend with those prejudices of the Chinese, which were blended with such of their institutions as they considered most sacred, and which in fact formed the very foundations of their social system. Montesquieu has justly argued, from the peculiar character of the Chinese customs, against the facility of introducing material changes in them; and especially of substituting the Roman Catholic observances. The assembling of women in churches, their private communication with priests, the prohibition of offerings at the

tombs of parents, were all abominations in their eyes which could never be endured. Ricci, for such reasons, made a distinction between civil and sacred rites, admitting the former in his converts, and particularly the ceremonies at tombs; and his success accordingly was considerable.

When he had passed about seventeen years in the country, Ricci proceeded to Peking, and by the favour of one of the eunuchs of the palace became introduced to the Emperor's notice, his presents being received, and a place appointed for his residence. Other Jesuits joined the mission, and established themselves at different points from Canton to Peking, proceeding quietly, and with great success, as long as they could remain unmolested by the hot and indiscreet zeal of the several orders of monks, who, in their haste to attack the Chinese prejudices, ensured their own discomfiture. The most distinguished of the Jesuits, for his talents and knowledge, was Father Adam Schaal, by birth a German: he reached Peking at the time when the last Chinese dynasty of Ming was about to be expelled by the Manchow Tartars. Through the influence of a Chinese Christian, named Paul Siu, who was a Colao, or principal minister, and by his own extensive knowledge of the physical sciences, Schaal became a great favourite at court, and even retained his place after the Tartars had possessed themselves of the empire. The first Manchow Emperor, Shun-chy, to whom he easily proved the ignorance of the Arabian mathematicians, made him President of the Astronomical Board; and his own merits were a sufficient explanation of his success, without any need of the lying miracles with which Père Du Halde has not blushed to disfigure his work. According to him, Adam Schaal being condemned to death, soon after the Tartar conquest, "this sentence was carried to the Princes of the blood and to the

regent for confirmation; but as often as they attempted to read it, a dreadful earthquake dispersed the assembly. The consternation was so great, that they granted a general pardon; all the prisoners were released except Father Adam, and he did not get his liberty until a month afterwards, when the royal palace was consumed by the flames."

Permission was given to the Jesuits to build two churches at Peking, and new labourers were allowed to enter the country: among these, Ferdinand Verbiest, another German Jesuit, and a man of distinguished science, became the coadjutor of Adam Schaal. On the accession of Kanghy, then a boy of eight or nine years of age, under the tutorship of four Tartars, the disputes which ensued with the intolerant Dominicans produced an unfavourable impression on the minds of the rulers of China. Accusations were preferred against the missionaries, and their zeal to make converts was condemned as dangerous. It is said that Schaal died of chagrin, and that Verbiest was compelled for some time to abscond. When Kanghy, however, a monarch of enlarged and liberal mind, came to exercise the government in his own person, Verbiest was made President of the Astronomers; and through his influence the expelled missionaries were allowed to return to their churches. By the aid of Verbiest, the Emperor was enabled to cast guns, and to compose a mathematical work, with tables of logarithms. During this reign, although the Emperor was never himself a convert, the state of Christianity in China was vastly more flourishing than it is at present, after the lapse of a century and a half: it was placed by Kanghy on the same footing of toleration with Mahomedanism and Budhism. In the itineraries of Le Compte, and other Jesuits, churches with European priests are mentioned at almost every principal city. At Foshan, about four leagues above

Canton, Père Bouvet speaks of a Milanese Jesuit as presiding over a church, with a flock of 10,000 persons: at this day there is probably not one single individual at that same place.

The decree of Kanghy in 1692, permitting the exercise of Christianity, was abrogated by his successor Yoong-ching, who expelled the missionaries from the provinces. These spiritual delegates, meanwhile, had been in constant collision with the native authorities throughout the empire, and perpetually at strife among themselves; and the jurisdiction of the field which they occupied, became also a subject of discussion between the Kings of Portugal and the Popes. In consequence of the disputes which had arisen, from a very early period, among the Jesuits and the other orders concerning Chinese rites and ceremonies, Matthew Ricci had drawn up for the mission a number of rules, in which he considered the objectionable customs as merely civil and secular. Morales, however, a Spanish Dominican, declared them to be idolatrous, and as such they were condemned by Innocent X. Martinez, a Jesuit, subsequently proved that these rites were of a civil nature, in which light they came to be allowed by Alexander VII.: thus two opposite opinions were sanctioned by papal infallibility.

Notwithstanding every endeavour made by the more sensible and temperate of the missionaries to compromise the differences, a zealot, named Carolus Maigrot, soi-disant Bishop of some Chinese provinces, issued a mandate in which, unmindful of the decree of Alexander VII., he decided that T'hien signified only the visible and material Heaven, and that the Chinese rites were idolatrous. Kanghy himself, in 1700, declared in an edict, which was transmitted to the Pope, that T'hien means the true God, and that the customs enjoined by the ritual of China were of a

political character. The decision of Maigrot, however, was supported and confirmed by a decree of Clement XI. To settle disputes which had disgraced the Christian cause for nearly a century, Tournon was despatched as apostolical vicar and legate to China; but this selection was not a wise one, for Mosheim describes him as a man, "whose good disposition was under the influence of a narrow spirit, and a weak understanding." Shortly after his arrival in 1705, having received Pope Clement's decree, he issued a mandate, that no Chinese Christian should ever practise the customs which had been interdicted by the Bishop of Rome! The Emperor Kanghy, justly offended with this invasion of his sovereignty, promulged an edict, in which he tolerated the missionaries who preached the doctrine of Ricci, but declared his resolution to persecute those who followed the opinions of Maigrot. In 1720 the patriarch Mezzabarba was sent as legate from Rome, with the intention of carrying the points in dispute; but finding Kanghy determined never to allow the Pope any kind of jurisdiction over his own subjects, he made certain temporary concessions with a view to saving the Roman Catholic religion from the disgrace of being banished.

At length, by an imperial decree of Yoong-ching, in 1723, these disturbers of the public peace were formally denounced. A few monks were tolerated in Peking, a few remained concealed in the provinces, but the larger number were driven to Macao, with a positive injunction to leave the country by the first ship. The more enlightened and sensible Jesuits had acted with greater moderation, and the influence of their protectors reconciled them with the court. Ignatius Kogler was appointed by the Emperor President of the Astronomical Board, with a title of honour. On the accession of Kien-loong in 1736, his hatred