I a r 
years time entirely exterminated. The fathers had made 
a progrefs fo great, that the princes of Bungu, Arima,' 
and Orr.ura, who had been baptized, fent, in the year 
158a, fbine of their nearefl relations, with letters and 
preffrits, to pay homage to the then, pope* Gregory XIII. 
and to allure his holinefs of their filial fubmiflion to the 
church,yan account of which molt celebrated embaffy has 
been given in the works of that incomparable hiflorian, 
Thuanus, and by many other Roman-catholic writers. 
But, notwithstanding.' this pleafing profpecl, the em¬ 
peror, anno 1586, iffued proclamations for the l'uppreflion 
of the religion ; and the perlecution began. This,, how- 
over, at firll had not that effedt which the government ex¬ 
pected ; for though, .accord jogto the letters of the Je- 
fuits, 20,57.0 perfons fuffer^d.death for the faith of Clinic 
in thqyear 1590 only, yet in 1591 and 1592, when all the 
churches were actually Ihut up, they made 12,000 new 
converts. The bulinefs was finally concluded • by the 
maffacre at Simabara, about the year 1640. The reafons of 
the .emperor’s proclamations, making it death to embrace 
the religion, were as follows: 1. The new religion occa- 
fioned confiderable alterations in the Japanefe church, and 
was prejudicial in the liigheft degree to the heathen clergy, 
b. It was feared the innovation in religion might be at¬ 
tended with fatal confequences even in regard to the 
lick. But what more immediately gave rife to them was, 
as the Japanefe of credit cenfefled to Dr. Kasmpfer, pride 
and covetoufnefs; pride among the great ones, and cove- 
toufnefs in people of lefs note ; the fpiritual fathers aim¬ 
ing not only at the falvation of their fouls, but having an 
eye alfo to their money and lands ; and the merchants 
difpofing of their goods in the moll ufurious and unrea- 
fonable manner. To confine ourfelves to the clergy here: 
they “ thought it beneath their dignity to walk on foot 
any longer ; nothing would ferve them but they mult be 
carried about in llately chairs, mimicking the pomp of 
the pope and his cardinals at Rome. They not only put 
themfelves on an equal footing with the greatell men of 
the empire, but, fvvelled with ecclefiaflical pride, fancied 
that even a fuperior rank was nothing but their due. It 
one day happened that a Portuguefe bifhop met upon the 
road one of the counfellors of Hate on his way to court. 
The haughty prelate would not order his chaife to be 
Hopped, in order to alight and to pay his refpedls to this 
great man, as is ufual in that country; but, without tak¬ 
ing any notice of him, nay, indeed without Ihovving him 
fo much as common marks of civility, he very contempt- 
uoufly bade his men carry him by. The great man, 
exafperated at fo fignal an affront, thenceforward bore a 
mortal, hatred to the Portuguefe, and, in the height of 
his refentment, made his complaint to the emperor him- 
felf, with fuch an odiouspiflure-of the infolence, pride, 
and vanity, of this nation, as he expedled could not but 
raile the emperor’s utmoll indignation.” This happened 
in 1566. The next year the perfecution began a-new ; 
and twenty-fix perfons, of the number whereof were two 
foreign Jeiuits, and feveral other fathers of the Franciican 
order, were executed on the crofs. The emperor Jiojas 
had ufurped the crown on his pupil Tidajori, who, as 
likewife the greater part of his court and party, had been 
either Cliriltians themfelves, or at leaH very favourably 
inclined to that religion; fo that reafons of Hate mightily 
co-operated to forward the pe.rfecution. 
Some Franciican friars, whom the governor of the 
Manillas had fent as his ambaffadors to the emperor of 
Japan, were guilty at this time of a moH imprudent Hep; 
they, during the whole time of their abode in the country, 
preached openly in the llreets of Macao, where they re¬ 
sided ; and of their own accord built a church, contrary 
to the imperial commands, and contrary to the ad vie? and 
earneff folicitations* of the Jefuits. 
S,ome time after, a difeovery of auangerous confpiracy, 
.which the fathers, and the yet remaining adherents 
of their religion, entered into againH the perfon of the 
emperor, as a heathen prince, put a iiniffiing Hroke to the 
Voi. X. No. 702. 
' A N. 68 a 
affair, and haftened the fentence which was pronounced 
foon after, that the Portuguefe Jhould for ever be banifhed the 
emperor's dominions ; for till then the Hate feemed delirous 
to fpare the merchants and fecUlar perfons, for the pufpofe 
of continuing trade and commerce with them, which was 
looked upon as a thing independent of religion. The 
affair of the confpiracy was as follows:' Thi Dutchflnd 
had., an eye to the trade of Japan before 1600 ; and in 
j6ii had liberty of a free comrherce granted them by the 
imperial letters patent, and had adiually a fadtorv at Fi- 
rando. The Dutch were at war with Spain, which was 
then fovereign of the Portuguefedominions ;. fo that it was 
natural for them to be trying to fupplant them. The 
Portuguefe, on their part, mqde'ufeof all malicious in¬ 
ventions to blacken their characters', calling them rebels 
and pirates whence it was natural for the Dutch to en¬ 
deavour to clear, and even-to revenge, themfelves. Now 
they took an homeward-bound Portuguefe /hip near the 
Cape of Good Hope, on-board of which they found fome 
traitorous letters to the king of Portugal, written by one 
captain Moro, who was chief of the Portuguefe. iir Japan, 
himfelf a Japanefe by birth, and a great zealot for the 
Ciiriflian religion. The Dutch took I'peciai care to deli¬ 
ver the faid letters to their protedlor the prince of Fi- 
rando, who communicated them without lofs of time to 
the governor of Nagafaki, a great friend to the Portuguefe. 
Captain Moro, having been taken up, boldly, and with 
great affurance, denied the fadl, and fo did all the Portu¬ 
guefe then at Nagafaki. However, neither the governor’s 
favour, nor their conffant denial, was able to clear them, 
and to keep off’ the cloud which was ready to break over 
their heads. Hand and feal convinced' them ; the letter 
was fent up to court, and captain Moro fentenced to be 
burnt alive on a pale, which was executed accordingly. 
This letter laid open the whole plot which the Japanefe 
Chriffians, in conjunction with the Portuguefe, had laid 
againfl the emperor’s life and throne ; the want they 
Hood in of Ships and foldiers, which were promifed then! 
from Portugal; the names of the Japanefe princes con¬ 
cerned in the confpiracy ; and laHly, to crown all, the 
expectation of the papal blefiing. This difeovery made by 
the Dutch was afterwards confirmed by another letter 
written by the faid captain Moro to the Portuguefe go¬ 
vernment at Macao, which was intercepted and brought 
to Japan by a Japanefe /hip.” 
Confidering this, and the fufpicions which the court 
had then already conceived againfi the Portuguefe, it was 
no difficult matter .thoroughly to ruin the little credit and 
favour they .had as yet been able to preferve; and the ra¬ 
ther fince the flridt imperial orders, notwithfianding, they 
did not leave off privately to bring over more eccleliaflics. 
Accordingly, in the year 1637, an imperial proclamation 
was fent to the governors of Nagafaki, with orders to fee 
it put in execution. It was then the empire of Japan 
was ihut for ever both to foreigners and natives. 
Now, although the governors of Nagafaki, on receipt 
of thefe commands, took care they fhould be obeyed, yet 
the direClors of the Portuguefe trade maintained them¬ 
felves in'Japan two years longer, hoping to obtain leave 
to flay in the i/land of Defima, and there to continue their 
trade. But they found themfelves at lait wholly difap- 
poipted; for the emperor was refolved to get rid of them ; 
and on affurance given him by the Dqtch Eafl-India 
company that they would l'upply for the future what 
commodities had been imported by the Portuguefe, he 
declared the Portuguese ( and the Caflilians, and whoever 
^belonged to them, enemies of the empire, forbidding 
the importation of even the gobds of their country, 
Spani/h wines only excepted, for the ufe of the court. 
And thus the Portuguefe loft their profitable trade and 
commerce with Japan, and were totally expelled the coun¬ 
try before the latter end of the year 1639 or 1640 ; and thus 
ended the fruitlefs popilh million in this empire; for the 
Portuguefe have never been ableto reflore themfelves; and 
the Dutch have it not in their power to do any one thing 
8.N m 
