The dominance of the Presbyterians prevented any but the most guarded entrance of Jesuits into Scotland. What few priests were able to labour among the remnants of Catholics were always under threat of death or banishment. Educational work, how ever, was carried on in Paris, Rome, and the Spanish Dominions. The Irish Jesuits, likewise, engaged in a two-fold work, that of labouring dangerously at home in keeping the Faith among the people despite the Elizabethan, Cromwellian and Georgian persecutions, and that of maintaining a supply of priests through ecclesiastical institutions on the continent, at Lisbon and Sala manca.
For most people, mention of the Jesiiit foreign missions in stantly evokes the memory of St. Francis Xavier. Heroic as were the proportions of this leader's apostolic labours, they formed but the spearhead of the campaign for Christ that was to be engaged with varying degrees of success in India, Japan, China, and the East coast of Africa. No little glamour of mystery clus tered about the visit of Blessed Rudolph Acquaviva to the Court of Akbar the Great, but the results were not comparable to the numerous conversions which followed the less spectacular attempt of Ven. Robert de Nobili to win souls by himself becoming a Brahmin and permitting his neophytes to retain not only their caste system but the veneration of ancestors. Subsequent con demnation of the so-called Malabar rites choked off this hopeful missionary enterprise just at the moment when Fathers Lopez and Acosta were making another application of the same princi ple among the Pariahs. In the seventeenth century, the Jesuits spread in fan-like thrusts into Tibet, Persia, and East Africa, pene trating as far as Abyssinia. Apart from a French mission at Pondicherry, most of this work was coextensive with the colonial empire of Spain and Portugal in the Orient. The reform of scandal-giving Christians was an indispensable preliminary to the conversion of the natives. In the foundation of colleges, seminaries, hospitals and schools, provision was always made for Europeans as well as Hindus, Chinese and Japanese.
One of the most flourishing missions was that to Japan. For St. Francis Xavier, this was a land of his predilection and he prophesied that the dwellers of the island empire would be slow to embrace Christianity but, once convinced, would remain un shakable. By 1582, thirty years after his death, the number of
Christians was estimated at 200,000 with 25o churches. At the time of the great martyrdom in 1597, this number had soared above a million. Fifteen years later, there were 1,800,000 Chris tians and 14o Jesuit missionaries. A period of intense persecution ensued. All Jesuits who landed in the island during this interval were forthwith executed. During the Suppression of the So ciety the mission suffered from a species of progressive strangula tion, but by a miracle of perseverance, compact practising bodies of Christians were found more than two centuries later when Japan finally was thrown open to world intercourse.
The harvest in China, though rich in quality, was not so im pressive in mere numbers. The Jesuit scientists, esteemed for their skill in mathematics, astronomy, physics and chemistry, were kept at court and in the higher circles of Chinese society. Perhaps the best known of the Jesuits who worked in China was Father Matteo Ricci. His scientific apparatus was a source of never-ending admiration to the curious Chinese. In connection with their research, the members of the Society established four colleges, one seminary, and forty mission stations.
The Mexican Province of the Society of Jesus was founded by Father Pedro Sanchez and fourteen fellow Jesuits in 1572. The first Jesuit college was opened in Mexico City in 1573. Rapid progress was made and in 1581 and 1582, respectively, missionaries were sent out from Mexico to Cuba and to the Philippines. The pioneer labours in Mexico were marked by several martyrdoms. By the year 1753, however, some ioo Christian villages had been organized and about 120,000 Indians brought to some state of civilization. This rapid and fruitful expansion extended north wards into California and in the south as far as Guatemala and Nicaragua. It was due to men like Father Kino (the discoverer of California) and Fathers Ugarte, Salvatierra and Glandorf.
The cultural work in the colleges kept pace with that of the mis sionaries. In 1749, less than 200 years after its foundation, the Mexican province contained 678 members, with 48 houses, of which 32 were teaching establishments, without counting the ele mentary schools among the recently baptized Indians.