Jesuit China Missions - Chinese Rites Controversy

Chinese Rites Controversy

In the early 18th century, a dispute within the Catholic Church arose over whether Chinese folk religion rituals and offerings to the emperor constituted paganism or idolatry. This tension led to what became known as the "Rites Controversy," a bitter struggle that broke out after Ricci's death and lasted for over a hundred years.

At first the focal point of dissension was the Jesuit Ricci's contention that the ceremonial rites of Confucianism and ancestor veneration were primarily social and political in nature and could be practiced by converts. The Dominicans, however, charged that the practices were idolatrous, meaning that all acts of respect to the sage and one's ancestors were nothing less than the worship of demons. A Dominican carried the case to Rome, where it dragged on and on, largely because no one in the Vatican knew Chinese culture sufficiently to provide the pope with a ruling. Naturally, the Jesuits appealed to the Chinese emperor, who endorsed Ricci's position. Understandably, the emperor was confused, as to why missionaries were attacking missionaries in his capital, and asking him to choose one side over the other, when he might very well have simply ordered the expulsion of all of them.

The timely discovery of the Nestorian monument in 1623 enabled the Jesuits to strengthen their position with the court by answering an objection the Chinese often expressed - that Christianity was a new religion. The Jesuits could now point to concrete evidence that a thousand years earlier the Christian gospel had been proclaimed in China; it was not a new but an old faith. The emperor then decided to expel all missionaries who failed to support Ricci's position.

The Spanish Franciscans, however, did not retreat without further struggle. Eventually they persuaded Pope Clement XI that the Jesuits were making dangerous accommodations to Chinese sensibilities. In 1704 they prescribed against the ancient use of the words Shang Di (supreme emperor) and Tien (heaven) for God. Again, the Jesuits appealed this decision.

The controversy raged on. In 1742 Pope Benedict XIV officially opposed the Jesuits, forbade all worship of ancestors, and terminated further discussion of the issue. This decree was repealed in 1938. But the methodology of Matteo Ricci remained suspect until 1958, when Pope John XXIII, by decree in his encyclical Princeps Pastorum, proposed that Ricci become "the model of missionaries."

In the intervening years the Ming Dynasty collapsed (1644), to be replaced by the "non-scholarly" and foreign Manchus. At first, the Jesuits were employed and welcome in the court of K'ang-hsi. However, when Pope Clement XI attempted to send Maillard de Tournon as an emissary to control the Jesuit Missionaries and restrict Christian tolerance and practice of Chinese Rites, the request was denied by K'ang-hsi. Further, Jesuit missionaries had to sign a document stating that they agreed to Confucian and ancestral rituals, and those who did not sign were deported. Maillard himself was imprisoned. In spite of this, the Jesuits continued to preach and work in China - but over time, the influence of the Catholic missionary orders began to wane. Pope Clement XIV dissolved the Society of Jesus in 1773. The withdrawal from China of this dynamic segment of the missionary force exposed the church to successive waves of persecution. Although many Chinese Christians were put to death and the congregation scattered, the church continued to manifest a "tough inward vitality" and kept growing.

Among the last Jesuits to work at the Chinese court were Louis Antoine de Poirot (1735–1813) and Giuseppe Panzi (1734-before 1812) who worked for the Qianlong Emperor as painters and translators. From the 19th century, the role of the Jesuits in China was largely taken over by the Paris Foreign Missions Society.