Autograph document signed. Co-signed by Hilario di Jesu Costa, Vicar Apostolic of Eastern Tonkin.
8vo. 1 p. In Latin.
€ 3.000,00
An oath renouncing the practice of the Chinese rites, taken by the prominent Dominican and later bishop as required by the Papal Bull "Ex Quo Singulari" (1742). The oath was sworn on the Bible, and a signed autograph ("manu propria") of the formula had to be produced as evidence. Most of these documents are co-signed by church officials or superior friars as witnesses to an oath sworn in their presence ("in manibus meis"), in this case Hernández's predecessor as Vicar Apostolic of Eastern Tonkin, the Italian Discalced Augustinian Hilario a Jesu Costa (1696-1754).
Little is known of Santiago Hernández, who was born in Melgar del Arriba, province of Valladolid. He probably took the oath upon his arrival in Vietnam, before he started his missionary work. The Dominicans first established their mission in Vietnam in 1676. Christians endured severe persecution under the Nguyen Lords, and several Dominican missionaries were martyred in 1745 and 1773, thus during Santiago Hernández's episcopate (1757-77).
During the early years of their mission to East Asia, the Jesuits led by Matteo Ricci accommodated Catholicism to Chinese customs and Confucian practice in important ways, both for political reasons and in the hope of attracting more converts. Criticism of this syncretism is as old as the Chinese rites themselves, and Ricci's direct successor Niccolò Longobardo attempted to change course, which led to his replacement as provincial. When Dominican and Franciscan missionaries entered China, they reported to Rome critically on the Jesuit practices. A first condemnation was decreed by Pope Clement XI in 1704 and confirmed in the 1715 Bull "Ex Illa Die". In "Ex Quo Singulari", Pope Benedict XIV re-affirmed "Ex Illa Die" and required all missionaries in East and South-East Asia to take the oath renouncing the practice of Chinese rites and similar accommodations to local beliefs and religious practice.
A transcription and translation of the document are available on request.
Well preserved.
