Foreign Missions

The missions discussed below were associated with the Catholic Church. In principle, neither Lutherans nor Calvinists supported missionary activity, although Jean Calvin (1509-64) did allow several members of his church to participate in the first mission to Brazil. (Not until the 18 th century did Protestant missionary activity flourish outside Europe.) Although Catholic missions were active as early as the 14th century, the Counter-Reformation was a catalyst that prompted the church and its various orders to carry Catholicism to the far corners of the Earth. The Counter-Reformation (see Page 44) included foreign missions among its primary goals. From the early Renaissance, missionary teaching was embroiled in issues concerning slavery and colonialism. As Christianity was introduced to Africa, Brazil, and Asia by the Portuguese; to the Americas and Philippines by the Spanish; and to Canada by the French, expansionists used these contacts to further their own goals of economic and territorial domination. Jesuit missionaries, for example, were associated with Portuguese traders and merchants in Mozambique. The Portuguese converted numerous Africans along the west coast to Christianity, including the Congolese king, whose son maintained profitable diplomatic relations with Portugal. During the early 16th century, Africans were sent to Portugal to train as priests and returned as missionaries to their own people. As the slave trade accelerated, however, the mission in the Congo gradually became inactive. Jesuit missionaries were especially successful, partly because of their excellent training and willingness to learn native languages. In South America and Mexico, Franciscans were eager to communicate in the native languages so that they could become more effective teachers. The first steps in any new mission were to build a church and convent; a school or college soon followed, and a hospital as well. Missionaries founded the first six universities in the Americas. Resistance to Spanish missionary activity in the Americas was futile because of the military power of Spanish troops. Native Americans who refused to convert and cooperate as slaves were massacred. Although fair-minded missionaries such as Bartholome de Las Casas (1474-1566) respected the Indians as human beings (unlike many of his contemporaries), they never expressed any respect for their religion and believed that Christianity was necessary to the salvation of the soul of indigenous people.

In 1500 Portuguese ships carried missionaries to India, where they found a large community of Christians claiming to date from the days of the apostles. Although these Christians welcomed the Portuguese, there was little missionary activity until the Jesuits arrived. Francis Xavier encouraged his colleagues to learn Indian customs as well as languages and adapt themselves to Indian life. He became one of the most renowned missionaries of the Renaissance as he converted thousands in India and Japan, providing an

Religion

! on a folding screen. Japanese School, 16th century.

2.4 Saint Francis Xavier and his missionary entourage, j (Musee Guimet, Paris, France/Bridgeman Art Library)

Example to other Jesuits. Matteo Ricci (1552-1610) used Xavier’s methods in China, mingling his Christian message with Confucianism and allowing converts to continue ancestor worship. With this approach, he diverted potential resistance to his teaching.