Zhao, Simone Paolo, Chinese Propagande Fide missionary in China (1722-1788). Autograph document signed.

€ 3,500.00

An oath renouncing the practice of the Chinese rites as required by the Papal Bull "Ex Quo Singulari" (1742), taken by Simone Paolo Zhao upon his return from Italy to China. The oath was sworn on the Bible, and a signed autograph copy of the formula had to be produced as evidence. While most of these documents are co-signed by church officials or superior friars as witnesses to an oath sworn in their presence, the document at hand was produced in the presence of Cardinal Silvio Valenti Gonzaga (1699-1756) in his capacity as secretary of Propaganda Fide, "prestato nelle mani del Card. Pref.to", which is attested to in a secretary's hand on fol. 2v.

A native of Jingzhou, Hubei province, Simone Paolo Zhao was only the sixth Chinese student of Matteo Ripa's Collegio de' Cinesi in Naples between 1736 and 1750. Following his return to China in 1751, Zhao is known to have been active as a Propaganda Fide missionary in Sichuan.

A former missionary and artist at the Imperial Court in Beijing, Matteo Ripa (1682-1746) started the Chinese College in 1732 with four Chinese converts who had accompanied him back to Italy. While the Chinese students received theological training, they in turn taught Chinese to future European missionaries. Today known as the University of Naples "L'Orientale", the Collegio de' Cinesi is the oldest school of Sinology and Oriental Studies on the European continent.

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.