HOME | POLITICS | SPORTS | LIFE | SCI/TECH | OPEDS | HELPFUL TIPS
|
May 31, 2007 Jesuits and Dominican missionaries were part of the first wave of western civilization to reach the shores of Central America, Japan, China and Abyssinia. In China Malleo Ricca, pioneer Jesuit missionary, had been adopted by the Chinese Confucians. The Confucian philosophy stressing the importance of good government, combined with general social harmony, had, after centuries of stagnation again come to the fore. Central to the cross pollination was the Chinese translation of the word ‘Heaven’. The Latin Deaus translated into Chinese as ‘Tien’ thus bringing the religion of Europe and the philosophy of China together. The Orthodox Catholics mounted a campaign in order replace the word Tien with T’ien’e, the non supra natural depiction of heaven. Shortly after this the place of Christianity was usurped and the teaching of it banned in China. The Spanish conquest of the Philippines was followed by the uniting of the Spanish and Portuguese crowns which caused suspicion among the Chinese and the Japanese that the Jesuits were a type of fifth column working to undermine them. Dutch and English traders were allowed to stay as they did not preach so blatantly the Christian religion ,having learned not to be to forthright regarding conversion . The French too were viewed with suspicion and placed in a state of limbo. With the Spanish defeat in the Spanish War of Succession Spain was replaced by Holland, France, and England in the overseas trade. In Japan during the sixteenth century a period of anarchy had ended with gaining power by the warlords, who owed much of their success to the introduction of Portuguese firearms,(also supplied to the Chinese Song Empires navy ). In 1542-3 supreme warlord Hideyoshi attempted an invasion of Korea in order to pave the way for the take over of China but was defeated. The next ruler ,Ieysa, insulated Japan from the outer world and dis-allowed the teaching of Christianity to any of his subjects ,in addition forbidding them any foreign travel . In the year 1637 there was a Christian uprising which was put down with the aid of the Dutch. The Portuguese traders were then ejected, only the Dutch now allowed to trade and confined to a single port. By 1498-1515 Portugal had seized control of the Indian Ocean. Shortly afterwards the Ottomans seized control of Egypt. Portuguese and Osmali mercenaries fought each other for control of Abyssinia.With the Muslim Arab conquest of Egypt the Monophysite Christians within Abyssinia and Nubia became isolated from the rest of Christendom.Their fate was sealed after a battle between Osmali and Portuguese mercenary musketeers. Inexplicably the Osmalis left and after a hard fight the remaining Portuguese recaptured the country for the Monosphite Christians. In 1626 Jesuit missionaries cajoled the Monosphites to recognize the supremacy of the Pope. Attempts at imposing Roman Catholicism upon them resulted in outbreaks of violence and hostility leading to the eventual ejection of the Roman Church.
|
||||||
|
|
|||||||
|
