The controversy—sparked both by jealousy and be doctrinal differences—that broke out between the Jesuits and the Franciscans and Dominicans during the 17/18th Cent. over whether Chinese converts to the Christian faith may be permitted to observe their traditional rites such as ancestor worship and other Confucian practice. The course of the quarrel roused the suspicion of the Qing emperors and ended the freedom of Western missionaries to preach and the religious and cultural influence of Roman Catholicism (esp. Jesuits) in China.
Jesuit missionaries had been operating in China since the arrival of Matteo Ricci in Macao in 1582. Their strategy was to reach the elites, the scholars and officials, utilizing their cultural and scientific erudition to gradually open the door for the gospel. This meant adapting themselves to many Chinese ways and idioms of expressions. In this they were so successful that the fall of the Ming dynasty in1644 and the succession to the Qing dynasty changed little for them.
The arrival of Franciscan and Dominican missionaries in China in the 1630s quickly changed all this. Lacking the cultural empathy of the Jesuits, but also jealous of their connections with upper echelon of society, they attacked the Jesuits for their accommodation, and especially the question of the Chinese rites, which the new comers taught were idolatrous and blasphemous. This internecine quarrels perturbed the Chinese emperor little; in fact Emperor Kangxi (r. 1662-1722) even issued an edict permitting Christians to build churches and to worship freely. Things came to a head in 1704 when Pope Clement XI censured—despite an earlier papal decree that supported the Jesuit practice—the Jesuits for their stand. Things took an even worse turn when, the following year, the pope sent an emissary to China informing the Emperor that authority over all Chinese Catholics should be vested in him. Despite the emperor's natural refusal and suspicion of the intentions behind such demands, Rome continued to press for it while banning all such Chinese rites as idolatrous to Catholic converts. By 1715, the emperor had had enough; while making an exception towards Jesuit scientists and specialists serving in the government he banned the preaching of the Christian religion in China and demanded that all other missionaries should be repatriated. Successive emperors took similar stands, and the contributions and influence of the West in Chinese affairs were thus brought to an unfortunate end.
©ALBERITH
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