India, Japan, and China were the principal fields of exertion. The exertions and success of Xavier in Japan and the East Indies will be found in the notice of him in the Moo. Div. China was also for a long time a scene of successful missionary exertion under the direction of the Jesuits. Father Roger, a missionary of this order, first preached the gospel in China in 1531. Matthew Ricci,an Italian Jesuit, was the first missionary who obtained an Introduction to the court, and is justly regarded as the founder of the Chinese mission. Ricci proceeded to China in 1583, but ho was not introduced to the emperor until 1601, when ho presented to him a picture of Christ and another of the Virgin, and obtained permission to preach. Individuals were chosen for this mission on account of their scientific acquirements, and it was Ricei's mathematical attainments which rendered him acceptable to the emperor aud the court. Adam Schaal, another of the missionaries, was employed to reform the Chinese calendar and their system of astronomy. Shortly afterwards two handsome churches were erected at Pekin with the permission and under the protection of the emperor.
Under those favourable circumstances Christiauity made considerable progress. But after several vicissitudes of favour and disgrace, the missionaries were in 1717 accused of seditious designs, and the emperor confirmed a decree prohibiting the building of churches, and Europeans were in future only allowed to remain in China on condition of their promising never to return to Europe. In 1723 the throne was filled by an emperor who at first was rather favourably disposed towards the missionaries ; but he afterwards issued an edict under which they were driven from the churches and only tolerated at Pekin and Canton. Duhalde says that above 300 churches and more than 300,000 Christian converts were deprived of religious instruction by this act. Several families of rank were degraded or exiled by the emperor on account of professing Christianity. In 1732 the missionaries, 30 in number, were banished to Macao, having from motives of conscience disobeyed the edict which forbade the propagation of the Christian religion. Converts were at this period kept together by native cate chists, and a few of the missionaries remained in China in concealment or re entered the country by stealth. The mission is still carried on, in spite of the occasional attempts of the Chinese to put it down ; the mission of Father Huc and his companions is the most recent, and the missionaries were expelled. There are still believed to be many Christian congregations served by native priests, but the numbers stated are by no means to be depended on, and the congregations are always liable to persecution.
In the 17th century the Jesuits sent many missionaries to the East Indies, to Tonquin, Bengal, Madura, the coast of Coromandel, and to Surat, with but moderate success. Of their efforts in South America, a notice will be found under PARAGUAY, in the GEOG. Div.
In 1700 the three orders of Capuchins, Jesuits, and Carmelites were the most active missionaries. The Capuchins bad 25 missions in Turkey, and missionary stations were established in Persia, Georgia, and Africa. The Jesuits had ten missions in Turkey, and the Carmelites three. Many of these missionaries had acquired a know ledge of medicine, and obtained access to families as physicians. In 717 the Jesuits supported missions in the islands and continent of America, in Greece, Asia Minor, snd the Archipelago, and in Egypt, Syria, and Persia, besides those in India. Louis XIV. made grants of land to the missionaries in Canada, and to them we are indebted for some of the earliest descriptions of North America.
In 1822 the cause of missions was revived in France by the Insti tution for the Propagation of the Faith, which has committees at Paris and Lyon. Several popes have granted to its members certain
indulgences. The Annals of the Propagation of the Faith' are pub lished by the society. The funds are placed at the disposal of the Seminary for Foreign Missions, and the superiors of the Lazarite Missions and the Jesuit Missions. There is no part of the world in which Catholic missionaries are not supported.
The first Protestant mission of which we have any notice was founded by the church of Geneva, which sent missionaries to America in 1556; but it is believed to have existed only a short time. Early in the 17th century the Dutch, who had taken Ceylon from the Portu guese, admitted the natives to employments under their government only on condition of subscribing to the Helvetic Confession, and becoming members of the Reformed church. Large numbers made a profession of Christianity, but comparatively few were real converts ; and there was a consequent relapse when the coercion was removed by the cession of the island to Great Britain. In Java, Formosa, and Amboyna, the Dutch made attempts to gain converts. Transla tions from the Scriptures were made in the Cingalese and Malay Languages.
It was some time after the English had begun to form settlements in North America before attention was directed to the religious condition of the natives. In 1644 a petition was presented to parliament from a minister of the Church of England, supported by many English and Scotch divines, which urged the duty of attempting to convert the natives of America to Christianity. Soon afterwards an ordinance of the Lords and Commons appointed the Earl of Warwick governor of the islands and plantations of North America ; and a committee was appointed to assist him in several matters," but chiefly for the advance ment of the true Protestant religion, and for the spreading of the gospel of Christ among those that yet remain there in great and miser able blindness and ignorance." In 1846 the General Court of Massachusetts passed the first act " for encouraging the propagation of the gospel amongst the Indians." In 1649 an incorporated body was established with the authority of par liarpent, under the title of the " President and Society for the Propa gation of the Gospel in New England." In 1661 Charles II. renewed the Society's charter, on the ground that it was now fit to lay a founda tion for " educating, clothing. civilising, and instructing the poor natives." The design of the Society was to support and maintain ministers and schoolmasters to instruct the natives in the English lan guage, and to teach them useful trades. Eliot, called the " apostle of the Indians," and Mayhew, had already laboured for several .years in the conversion of the native tribes of New England. In a narrative of their exertions, published in 1653, and dedicated to Cromwell, an account is given of the conversion of several chiefs. In "A Later and Further Account," published in 1655, Eliot states that a great desire for baptism had arisen amongst the Indians ; but never was there a missionary so conscientiously scrupulous as to trusting to professions of this kind. Ile told the Indians " how necessary it was that they should first be civilised by being brought from their scattered and wild course of life ; " and he began the formation of a village, in which they might learn the advantages of living in a community. The Indians were taught various useful arts, and after several :% ears were admitted as church communicants, previous to which they were required to give an account of their conversion and faith at a public examination.