Sivut kuvina
PDF
ePub

station is Siwan beyond the Great Wall, where is a college. The bishopric of Nanking includes three provinces; and the third, those of Kwangtung and Kwangsí; all of them committed to the administration of the Portuguese. The vicariates of Sz'chuen, Yunnan, Chehkiang, and the three extra-provincial ones, are under the care of the French society, most of whose missionaries are Jesuits; those of Shantung, Hukwang, and Shansí are served by Italians sent out by the Propaganda; and that of Fuhkien is under the care of Spanish Dominicans, whose bishop Carpena has superintended the mission for nearly fifty years. The summary for the year 1846 gives twelve bishops, seven or eight coadjutors, about eighty foreign missionaries, and ninety native priests. The number of converts in the whole is now not far from 400,000; the number of schools is not given; in Sz'chuen alone, there are 54 for boys, and 114 for girls. There are six colleges for educating native priests, including that at Naples; but we cannot learn the total number of pupils. The amount of funds received from Europe for them all in 1846 was about $59,000.*

The valuable and clever works which have been written by the Romish missionaries from time to time, together form a small library, and many of their details relate to the missions. Among these authors, Trigault, Martinez, Semedo, Magaillans, Ripa, Avril, Le Comte, Du Halde, Amiot, Mailla, Grosier, and others, besides the official reports of letters in missionary serial works, all afford minute details on every point.

It is noticeable at the outset, and worthy of much consideration, "that the constant experience of the Romish missionaries has shown that, however numerous and zealous their converts, the presence of European pastors and overseers is indispensable to their spiritual prosperity." Whether this is owing to the character of the Chinese mind, or to the little Christian principle these converts really have, cannot easily be decided; but it can hardly be expected that pagans should perceive much difference between their old superstitions and the ceremonies of the new faith, when too the foreign priest regarded their reception of the rites of the church, as baptism, communion, and confession, as sufficient evidences of their fitness for heaven, and left all further instruction to native catechists.

Chinese Repository, Vol. XIV., 298.

MISSIONARY SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES.

317

When a new missionary arrives, he is lodged with his brethren, until a trusty guide comes from the country to conduct him to his appointed place. He adopts the Chinese garb, and with little or no knowledge of the language, commits himself to the care of the courier. "Sometimes on foot, sometimes in boats, sometimes like a rich man in his sedan, and sometimes under the guise of an officer in his chariot, he pursues his course. If suspected, which is often the case, from the blue color of his eyes, the length or turn of his nose, or the fairness of his skin, he turns his face to the wall; if addressed with impertinent questions, he either feigns deafness, or professes not to understand the dialect of the questioner. If the case become an extreme one, and his conductor cannot browbeat or evade the challenger, he declares him an idiot, whom he is conducting to his friends in another part of the empire; or the party seek safety in sudden flight, and come together again under cover of darkness." When they reach their field of labor, the new missionaries are placed under the direction of their associates, spending some of their time in learning the language, and in hearing confessions with the aid of a manual prepared for that purpose. As they advance in knowledge of the language and of their charge, they go from one christianity (as the separate circles of converts are called) to another, hearing confessions and masses, administering baptism and extreme unction, and performing the various duties belonging to a pastor's office. They are constantly changing their residence, which both diminishes the chances of their detection, and tends to the preservation of their health.

In former times they had few schools, and such as they had were, apparently, not much thought of; since greater toleration has been allowed, they have multiplied the schools both male and female. The institutions for training young men for the ministry, of which there are four in China and one at Penang, each receive the constant care of one or more of the missionaries; the one at Penang receives students from Siam and Cochinchina as well as China. There was one established at Loyang kiu in Yunnan in 1780, before which time none appear to have been started, which was destroyed by the Chinese officers in 1814, so suddenly that M. Florens, the bishop of Zela, barely had time to escape to Tungking; but it has been revived, and another one established in Shensí, which was for many years under the charge

of M. Imbert. The procureur has the oversight of one at Macao, and the Portuguese priests educate about fifteen in the college of St. Joseph in that city. The number of students in these institutions at any one time seldom exceeds ten or fifteen, and of these only a small portion actually enter the ministry. M. Hamel, who spent more than thirty years as principal of the seminary at Loyang, educated only 27 for the sacred office; and during twenty years, while the converts were numbered in Sz'chuen by thousands, the missionaries found but nine whom they were willing to consecrate, and their principal dependence for native assistants at this period was from this source. That there should not be more persons deemed fit for ministers will not much surprise those who are acquainted with the native mind, and know the necessity of early education in science and religion, in order to infuse more self-dependence and fibre than can be done by a few years' tuition in Latin and religious ceremonies. What degree of instruction is given these pupils in general science, geography, history, astronomy, mechanics, &c., does not appear, but it probably is not very deep.

In

Common schools for children of both sexes taught by experienced converts, have usually formed a part of their system of labors when the times were sufficiently quiet to allow them to be gathered, but it is to be presumed that the instruction given by such teachers seldom extended further than the catechism. 1839, "there were fifty schools for boys and eighty for girls, and about 500 persons had devoted themselves to a life of celibacy and prayer;" this was in the Sz'chuen mission. Books are printed for the edification of converts and instruction of the children, but this branch of labor has not received nearly so much attention as among Protestants. The efforts of the foreign priests are principally directed to the converts, and those of the catechists and native priests are turned towards the pagans, to whom in general assemblies the missionary seldom shows himself or attempts to instruct them. The catechumens and inquirers are collected by their countrymen, and after they are sufficiently instructed, are brought to the bishop or missionary to be confirmed.

The baptism of children and adults has ever been a very important work with the Roman Catholic missionaries, and especially (if its frequent mention is an evidence) the baptism of mori

BAPTISM OF DYING INFANTS.

319

bunds, or dying children of heathens. The agents in this work are usually elderly women, says Verolles, "who have experience in the treatment of infantile diseases. Furnished with innocent pills and a bottle of holy water whose virtues they extol, they introduce themselves into the houses where there are sick infants, and discover whether they are in danger of death; in this case, they inform the parents, and tell them that before administering other remedies, they must wash their hands with the purifying waters of their bottle. The parents, not suspecting this pieuse ruse, readily consent, and by these innocent frauds we procure in our mission the baptism of seven or eight thousand infants every year." Another missionary, Dufresse, one of the most distinguished of late years, says, "the women who baptize the infants of heathen parents announce themselves as consecrated to the healing of infants, and to give remedies gratis that they may satisfy the vow of their father who has commanded this as an act of charity." The number of baptized children thus saved from perdition, is carefully detailed in the annual reports, and calculations are made by the missionaries for the consideration of their patrons in France and elsewhere as to the expense incurred for this branch of labor, and the cost of each soul thus saved; and appeals for aid in sending out these female baptists are based upon the tabular reports. It may, however, be a question, even with a candid Romanist, who believes that unbaptized infants perish eternally, whether baptism performed by women and unconsecrated laymen is valid; and still more so, whether it is ritual when done by stealth and under false pretences. The number thus annually baptized in all the missions cannot be placed much under fifty thousand, and some years it exceeds a hundred thousand. No attention seems to be given to the child in ordinary cases if it happen to live after this surreptitious baptism.

The degree of instruction given to their converts is trifling, partly owing to the great extent of a single diocese, and the care the missionary must take not to attract the notice of the officers by publicly collecting audiences, and partly to his imperfect knowledge of the language. The vexations constantly experienced by the adherents of the proscribed faith from one cause and another, urge them to be cautious; and truly, if a missionary believes that baptism, confirmation, confession, and absolution, are all the evidences of faith that are required in a convert to entitle

him to salvation, it cannot be supposed he will deem it advisable to run much risk in giving them further instruction. The causes which usually bring upon the converts the persecuting or troublesome notice of enemies and magistrates are thus summed up in the life of the bishop of Caradre.

1st. Christians are frequently confounded with the members of the Triad society, or of the White Lily sect, both by their enemies and by persons belonging to those associations. 2d. The Christians refuse to contribute to the erection or repair of temples, or subscribe to idolatrous feasts and superstitious rites; though, according to the Annales, they sometimes defray the charges of the theatrical exhibitions which follow, in order to avoid the malice of their adversaries. 3d. "Espousals are almost indissoluble in China, and whenever the Christians refuse to ratify them by proceeding to a marriage already commenced, they are regarded as law-breakers, and treated as such." This is the most common source of trouble, especially when the parents of the girl have become converts since the betrothment, and the other party is anxious to fulfil the contract. These engagements are sometimes broken in a sufficiently unscrupulous manner, and nothing draws so much odium upon Christians as their refusal to adhere to these contracts. On one occasion this bishop assisted in breaking up such an engagement, when the parents, on the death of a sister of the girl, asserted that the deceased was the one who had been betrothed. He adds, "I think the faith of

the parents, and the purity of their motives, will readily excuse them before God for the sin of lying." On other occasions the missionaries endeavor to dissolve these engagements by exhorting the believing party to take vows of celibacy.

4th. All communication with Europeans being interdicted, the magistrates seek diligently for every evidence of their existence in the country, by searching for the objects used in worship, as crosses, breviaries, &c. 5th. The little respect the converts have for their ancestors, is always an offence in the eyes of the pagans, and leads to recrimination and vexatious annoyances. 6th. As the converts are obliged to take down the ancestral tablets in order to put up those of their own religion, they are seldom forgiven in this change, and occasion is taken therefrom to persecute. 7th. The indiscreet zeal of the neophytes leading them to break the idols, or insult the objects of public worship,

« EdellinenJatka »