Against the Jesuit Mission in China

[Tabaglia, Giuseppe Maria]. Il disinganno contraposto da un religioso dell' ordine de' predicatori alla difesa de' missionarii cinesi della Compagnia di Giesù, opera d' un religioso della medesima Compagnia.

€ 4,500.00

First printing of this anti-Jesuit work, anonymously published by the Dominican theologian Tabaglia, a general of the Inquisition. The work forms part of the ongoing war of pamphlets, open letters and (as in this case) fully-fledged books that responded to or defended the criticism which the Dominican Domingo Navarrete hat levelled against the Jesuits' mission in China a quarter of a century earlier. In Part I, Tabaglia quotes from writings on the controversy by Jesuit theologians and missionaries in China. In defence of the Jesuit position, excerpts are given from Alvaro Longobardi (Ricci's successor), Alvaro Semedo, Antonio Gouvea and others. In Part II the author examines Confucianism and the rites honouring Confucius, as they relate to Jesuit practices in making converts.

From the first issue of Matteo Ricci's "Directives" in 1600 and 1603 to the Jesuits' suppression in 1773, a protracted and acrimonious controversy ensued between Rome, the Society of Jesus and other religious orders over the interpretation of T'ien-chu ("Lord of Heaven") and the accommodation of Confucian rites in Catholic practice. In line with early 17th century Christian humanism, Ricci equated T'ien-chu with God, holding that the rites and veneration of ancestors were not idolatrous. A long and heated pamphlet war ensued, fueled by missionary rivalries largely between the Dominicans, the Propaganda Fide of Rome, and the Jesuits, over toleration of these rites. Rome first restricted use of the Rites by the Jesuits in 1645; then in 1656 allowed that local custom be respected. For over 100 years successive popes both condemned and condoned Jesuit interpretation and practice of the Rites by Chinese converts. Along with other Dominicans, Fernando de Navarette, in China from 1657 and virulently anti-Jesuit, called for a more robust response from Rome. In 1692 the Ch'ing emperor K'ang-hsi, a scholar and reformer, issued an edict of toleration regarding Christian conversions, but required all missionaries in China to sign a declaration that ancestor worship and public homage to Confucius were civil rather than religious ceremonies and could continue to be practised by converts, echoing Ricci. While most Jesuits signed, the Dominicans and Franciscans did not. Damning reports on the state of the Jesuit missions by Bishop Charles Maigrot of the Missions Etrangeres de Paris in China and by Charles Toumon, papal legate to China in 1681, were presented to Rome, and in 1700, following other universities' pronouncements, the Sorbonne issued a strongly worded censure of the Jesuits. By 1773 Rome finally chose to preserve strict Catholic doctrine and outlaw any use of the Rites, at the expense of losing converts. The Jesuits were expelled, and the Society of Jesus was not restored until 1814.

Very rare; OCLC locates only 3 ocpies (British Library; National Library Rome, Research Library Olomouc).