appears that these monks must have accomplished their great travels by land during the first part of the sixth century. It was not until 1625 that the early Roman Catholics discovered at Hsianfu, the capital of Shansi province, the celebrated Nestorian monument, a monument whose remarkable inscription, chiselled in Chinese on stone and bearing a date which corresponds to the year 781, proves more than anything else the strong footing the Nestorian Church once possessed in China. Space does not suffice to quote this echo of the past in full, but it may be said that all the Gospel and something of the Old Testament history were found on this tablet commemorating the diffusion of the "illustrious religion" in China. The most important part of the Nestorian monument from the purely political point of view is the clear record it gives of the reception accorded to Christianity by the Emperors of China of the seventh century. In A.D. 636, a man of superior virtue called Olopun, says the inscription in its quaint language, arrived from Judea. The Emperor himself instructed his Minister to take the Imperial sceptre, receive the guest, and conduct him to the Palace. Then the Emperor in his private apartments made inquiry regarding the new religion; and, fully satisfied that it was correct and true, he gave special orders for its promulgation, The Imperial Decree bearing a date corresponding to August, 639, must be allowed to speak for itself. It runs thus: "Religions are without invariable name. Saints are without any permanent body.

In whatever religion they are they give instruction and privately succour the living multitudes. Olopun, a man of great virtue belonging to the kingdom of Judea, bringing the Scriptures and the images from afar, has come and presented them at our capital. On examining the meaning of his instruction it is found to be pure, mysterious, and separate from the world. On observing its origin it is seen to have been instituted as that which is essential to mankind. Its language is simple, its reasonings are attractive, and to the human race it is beneficial. As is right let it be promulgated through the Empire. Let the appropriate Board build a Judean temple in the Righteous and Holy street of the capital and appoint thereto twenty-one priests."

This extract is in all respects a remarkable one. For it explains at once the extraordinary attitude of the Throne of China towards all religions, an attitude which has been carefully preserved for thousands of years and which is now as strong to-day as it has ever been before. To the Emperors of China, holding their fixed and definite ideas and worshipping God in a pure and impressive State worship, religions for ordinary men are but the interpretations by saints and scholars of things celestial, and therefore amplifications of one grand truth. The Imperial rulers, as the fathers of their people, must satisfy themselves in every case that what teachers wished to teach contained no subversive doctrines. Once this had been clearly established, and the popular practice of ancestor-worship,

insisted on by the Throne, left alone, new-comers might do as they pleased.

Thus the Nestorians, after obtaining the direct sanction of the Throne, began to prosper in China. Churches were built and converts made probably in great numbers; and for at least two or three centuries this early Christian Church flourished. Marco Polo in his loquacious book refers to the Nestorians, who in his day, which was upwards of five hundred years after the proclamation of the Imperial Decree quoted, were both numerous and respected. There is every reason to believe, however, that this early Christianity almost immediately degenerated into a species of Buddhism, and that, separated by many thousands of miles from Christian countries, it was impossible for the members of the priesthood to preserve the essentials of their religion.

With the fall of Mongol power in China during the fourteenth century and the establishment of the purely Chinese dynasty of the Mings, all trace of the Nestorians is lost. What fate overcame them no one knows; but possibly, looked upon as barbarians, they were hurled out of the country with the collapse of the Mongol Yuan power. And, finally, it must be noted that Mahommedan missionaries arrived and began their work in China about the same time as the later Nestorians, and being able to accept ancestor-worship in the same way as the Buddhists had done before them, they increased and preserved their power through all the many changes of dynasties. We now enter a new period.

VOL. II

C C

The history of the Romish missions in China begins, strictly speaking, with the coming of the first Jesuit, Matteo Ricci, who established himself at Canton in 1581, and, from that day on, the adventures of this gallant if mistaken priesthood read like some romance. Attempts had been made. previous to the coming of Ricci by Roman Catholic missionaries to penetrate to the extreme East. In the thirteenth century Pope Nicholas IV. had attempted to establish a hierarchy in North China and Mongolia, but it had soon collapsed; and the celebrated Francis Xavier had also attempted to land in China before Ricci, but permission being denied, he had died in sight of the mainland on an island near Macao.

Matteo Ricci, therefore, may claim the honour of being the first of the remarkable chain of men despatched by Rome to effect the conversion of the Chinese, and who, by exhibiting extraordinary perseverance, at last reached Peking. Here it is interesting to note that until the searoute to the Far East was made easy by the establishment of settlements in India, Christianity was doomed to languish. The rapid conversion of Europe, at a date approximately the same as that on which the first Nestorians entered China, must be attributed to climatic and geographical reasons, and to the absence of a culture in which the Chinese already excelled. For in China the conditions were entirely different even at the time of the advent of the early Nestorians. A host of philosophers had

already taught their doctrines for hundreds and hundreds of years. Buddhism and Taoism had only made good their footing by compromising with the people and permitting the various Chinese practices and superstitions to be incorporated in their own beliefs. Had Buddhism refused to tolerate ancestorworship, superstitious divination and other purely Chinese products, it would have made as little progress as Christianity has done.

Ricci, a man of great ability, must have speedily understood these things, for be applied himself immediately to the study of all things Chinese before he ventured to speak directly of his mission. As soon as he had acquired an exceptional facility in the Mandarin or official dialect he began lecturing on the exact sciences before delighted audiences of the literati. Progressing slowly across Southern and Central China, it was not until January, 1601, or twenty years after his first arrival at Canton, that he reached the capital, Peking.

The Ming Emperor Wan-li, hearing nothing but good reports about Ricci owing to the manner in which the latter had used his extensive acquirements with the high Chinese officials, permitted this first Jesuit to act much as he pleased at the capital, although reports were already arriving from Japan that the men of this new sect were causing trouble. Soon other Jesuits, hastily summoned by Ricci, began to arrive, and in a very few years the Roman Catholic mission in Peking had become a redoubtable power. Many rich converts were made, who