Japanese Christianity

Christianity was brought to Japan by St. Francis Xavier in 1549, attracted more than 300,000 converts within the next fifty years and, according to the standard histories, was completely exterminated by 1640. The fall of Christianity and of European prestige in Japan began when Franciscans arrived to denounce the Jesuits; and it was consummated when the efforts of Spain, Portugal and Holland to injure one another produced an impressive demonstration of the white man’s weakness.

With the inglorious and intricate history of this period Mr. Williams does not concern himself. He recounts with enthusiastic piety the martyrdom of the priests and converts who were crucified or burned at the stake in the successive persecutions, and reports that after 1640 “tens of thousands” of Japanese, although deprived of all contact with the Church, con-

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Revilo Oliver

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Religious Persecution

Christianity was brought to Japan by St. Francis Xavier in 1549, attracted more than 300,000 converts within the next fifty years and, according to the standard histories, was completely exterminated by 1640. The fall of Christianity and of European prestige in Japan began when Franciscans arrived to denounce the Jesuits; and it was consummated when the efforts of Spain, Portugal and Holland to injure one another produced an impressive demonstration of the white man’s weakness.

With the inglorious and intricate history of this period Mr. Williams does not concern himself. He recounts with enthusiastic piety the martyrdom of the priests and converts who were crucified or burned at the stake in the successive persecutions, and reports that after 1640 “tens of thousands” of Japanese, although deprived of all contact with the Church, con-