25. Molina, Vol. 3. Disput. 16. page 1768. the laity, to preserve their goods.”

"Priests may kill

26. Francis Xavier Fegeli, Quest. Prac. Pars. 4. Cap. 1. Quest. 7. Num. 8. page 285. "It is not mortal sin for parents to wish the death of their children-nor to desire the death of any one who troubles the church, because considerable good is the direct and immediate object."

27. Dicastillo, Lib. 2. Tract. 1. Disput. 10. Dub. 1. Num, 15. page 290. "If a man becomes a nuisance to society, the son may lawfully kill his father."

28. Escobar, Theolog. Moral. Vol. 4. Lib. 31. Sec. 2. Precept 4. Prob. 5. page 239. "Children are obliged to denounce their parents or relations who are guilty of heresy, although they know that they will be burnt. They may refuse them all nourishment, and permit them to die with hunger-or may kill them as enemies, who violate the rights of humanity."

29. Gobatus, Op. Moral. Vol. 2. Pars. 2. Tract. 5. Cap. 9. Sec. 8. page 328. "A son who inherits great wealth by the death of his father may rejoice that when he was intoxicated he murdered his father."-" Persons may innocently desire to be drunk, if from their inebriation any great good will arise." [According to this doctrine, any man may innocently intoxicate himself, expressly to murder his father for his wealth!]

30. Casnedi, Cris. Theolog. Vol. 5. Disput. 13. Sec. 3. Num. 169. page 438. "I may rejoice in the death of my father, on account of the riches which I obtain by it." Num. 170. "We should become familiar with this doctrine, for it is useful to all who desire property, which can be obtained only by the death of another, especially secular offices and ecclesiastical dignities."

31. Busembaum et Lacroix, Theolog. Moral. Vol. 1. page 295. "In all the above cases, where a man has a right to kill any person, another may do it for him if affection moves the murderer." Page 163. "To avoid a great spiritual or temporal evil, a person may commit suicide."

55. PERSECUTIONS IN CHINA AND JAPAN.

Ar the commencement of the sixteenth century, three Italian missionaries, namely, Roger the Neapolitan, Pasis of Bologna, and Matthew Ricci of Mazerata, entered China with a view of establishing Christianity there. In order to succeed in this important commission, they had previously made the Chinese language their constant study.

The zeal displayed by these missionaries in the dis

charge of their duty was very great; but Roger and Pasis in a few years returning to Europe, the whole la bour devolved upon Ricci. The perseverance of Ricci was proportioned to the ardous task he had undertaken. Though disposed to indulge his converts as far as possible, he disliked many of their ceremonies, which seemed idolatrous. At length, after eighteen years' labour and reflection, he thought it most advisable to tolerate all those customs which were obtained by the laws of the empire, but strictly enjoined his converts to omit the rest; and thus, by not resisting too much the external ceremonies of the country, he succeeded in bringing over many to the truth. In 1630, however, this tranquillity was disturbed by the arrival of some new missionaries; who, being unacquainted with the Chinese customs, manners, and language, and with the principles of Ricci's toleration, were astonished when they saw Christian converts fall prostrate before Confucius and the tables of their ancestors, and loudly censured the proceedings as idolatrous. This occasioned a warm controversy; and, not coming to any agreement, the new missionaries wrote an account of the affair to the pope, and the society for the propagation of the Christian faith. The society soon pronounced that the ceremonies were idolatrous and intolerable, which sentence was confirmed by the pope. In this they were excusable, the matter having been misrepresented to them; for the enemies of Ricci had declared the halls in which the ceremonies were performed to be temples, and the ceremonies themselves the sacrifices to idols.

The sentence was sent over to China, where it was received with great contempt, and matters remained in the same state for some time. At length a true representation was sent over, explaining that the Chinese customs and ceremonies alluded to were entirely free from idolatry, but merely political, and tending only to the peace and welfare of the empire. The pope, finding that he had not weighed the affair with due consideration, sought to extricate himself from the difficulty

in which he had been so precipitately entangled, and therefore referred the representation to the inquisition, which reversed the sentence immediately.

The Christian church, notwithstanding these divisions, flourished in China till the death of the first Tartar emperor, whose successor Cang-hi, was a minor. During his minority, the regents and nobles conspired to crush the Christian religion. The execution of this design was accordingly begun with expedition, and carried on with severity, so that every Christian teacher in China, as well as those who professed the faith, was surprised at the suddenness of the event. John Adam Schall, a German ecclesiastic, and one of the principals of the mission, was thrown into a dungeon, and narrowly escaped with his life, being then in the seventy-fourth year of his age.

In 1665, the ensuing year, the ministers of state published the following decree :-1st. That the Christian doctrines were false. 2d. That they were dangerous to the interests of the empire. 3d. That they should not be preached under pain of death. The result of this was a most furious persecution, in which some were put to death, many ruined, and all in some measure oppressed. Previous to this, the Christians had suffered partially; but the decree being general, the persecution now spread its ravages over the whole empire, wherever its objects were scattered.

Four years after, the young emperor was declared of age; and one of the first acts of his reign was to stop this persecution.

The first introduction of Christianity into the empire of Japan took place in 1552, when some Portuguese missionaries commenced their endeavours to make converts to the light of the gospel, and met with such success as amply compensated their labours. They continued to augment the number of their converts till 1616, when, being accused of having formed a plan to subvert the government and dethrone the emperor, great jealousies arose, and subsisted till 1622, when the court commenced a dreadful persecution against both

of

foreign and native Christians. Such was the rage this persecution, that during the first four years 20,570 Christians were massacred. Death was the consequence of a public avowal of their faith, and their churches were shut up by order of government. Many, on a discovery of their religion, by spies and informers, suffered martyrdom with great heroism. The persecution continued many years, when the remnant of the innumerable Christians with which Japan abounded, to the number of 37,000 souls, retired to the town and castle of Siniabara, in the island of Xinio, where they determined to make a stand, to continue in their faith, and to defend themselves to the very last extremity. To this place the Japanese army followed them, and laid siege to the place. The Christians defended themselves with great bravery, and held out against the besiegers three months, but were at length compelled to surrender, when men, women, and children, were indiscriminately murdered; and Christianity from that time ceased in Japan.

This event took place on the 12th of April, 1638, since which time no Christians but the Dutch have been allowed to land in the empire, and even they are obliged to conduct themselves with the greatest precaution, to submit to the most rigorous treatment, and to carry on their commerce with the utmost circumspection.

56. ATTEMPT OF THE MAHOMETANS TO SUBDUE

EUROPE.

CONSTANTINOPLE, after having been for many ages an imperial Christian city, was invested, in 1453, by the Turks, under Mahomet II.,* whose army consisted of 300,000 men, and, after a siege of six weeks, it fell into the hands of the infidels; and the Turks have, to this day, retained possession of it.† They no sooner found

* He was the ninth of the Ottoman race, and subdued all Greece.

† About fifteen years before this fatal event took place, the city

Grown desperate by resistance, Solyman, the Turkish chieftain, determined to undermine the Corinthian gate, but being discovered by the citizens, they prepared a train of gunpowder, which being set on fire, blew up about 8,000 of their enemies, and thus prevented the further introduction of Mahometanism into Europe.