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The Jesuit father seized the first opportunity to denounce Buddhism and its followers in unmeasured terms, and soon the bonzes began to intrigue with corresponding vehemence for the expulsion of the foreign propagandists. But the shogun extended his protection to Vilela, by issuing a decree which made it a capital punishment to injure the missionaries or obstruct their work.

The last yeere, deare brethren, I wrote vnto you from Firando, how Cosmus Turrianus had appointed me to trauile to Meaco to helpe Gaspar Vilela, for that there the haruest was great, the labourers few, and that I should haue for my companion in that iourney Aloisius Almeida.

Of my comming all the Christians tooke great comfort, but specially Gaspar Vilela who in 6 yeres had seen none of our companie at Meaco: his yeeres are not yet fortie, but his grey haires shew him to be seuentie, so vehemently is his litle body afflicted and worne with extreme cold. Certaine godly bookes also he hath done into that speach, not omitting to translate other as laisure suffreth him.

It led to the death of the shogun, Yoshiteru, and to the issue of an Imperial decree proscribing Christianity, Vilela and his two comrades were obliged to take refuge in the town of Sakai, and they remained there during three years, when they were invited to an interview with Oda Nobunaga, who, at this time, had risen almost to the pinnacle of his immense power.

The times, however, were very troublous, so that Vilela and his fellow workers had to encounter much difficulty and no little danger. Nothing, however, damped their ardour, and five years after their arrival in Kyoto they had not only obtained many converts but had organized churches in five towns within a radius of fifty miles from the capital.

It has already been shown that the visit to Kyoto by Xavier and Fernandez was wholly unsuccessful. Such was not the case, however, when another visit was made to the same city by Vilela, in the year 1559. This eminent missionary had been invited to Kyoto by the abbot of the celebrated Buddhist monastery of Hiei-zan, who desired to investigate the Christian doctrine.

It is to be noted that, at this time, Christian propagandism in Kyushu had not yet begun to be disfigured by acts of violence. Vilela carried letters of introduction from the Bungo feudatory, but before he reached the capital the Buddhist abbot of Hiei-zan had died, and his successor did not show the same liberal spirit of inquiry.

Still, Vilela was permitted to expound his doctrines in the presence of a gathering of priests in the great monastery, and afterwards the good offices of one of these bonzes, supplemented by the letter of the Bungo feudatory, procured for the Jesuit father the honour of being received by the shogun, Yoshiteru, who treated him with much consideration and assigned a house for his residence.

Vilela does not seem to have allowed himself to be influenced in any degree by the aid that he received on this occasion from his Buddhist friend, who is described as "one of the most respected men in the city."

The second incident was the conversion of a petty feudatory, Takayama, whose fief lay at Takatsuki in the vicinity of the capital. He challenged Vilela to a public discussion of the merits of the two creeds, and being vanquished, he frankly acknowledged his defeat, adopted Christianity, and invited his vassals as well as his family to follow his example.