many evil genii. They do not offer them any respect and even refuse to perform the accustomed ceremonies. They glory in not having posterity: they exhort the girls not to marry, and those who follow their counsel they style virgins. Furthermore, they have a kind of dark room where men and women enter and speak in a low voice. That is what they call confessing. Now of all sects, this is the most pernicious. It is required by our law that the chief of a sect who deceives the people should be strangled, while those who are his assistants are to be punished with a hundred lashes and banished to a distance of not more than 300 leagues. Again it is strictly prohibited to erect new temples of any sort whatever, and should anyone contravene these orders he shall be banished forever the empire, the temples shall be destroyed, and the land and materials confiscated. Wherefore we, Tson-Ton, viceroy, order that this Christian chief be seized and conducted to Macao with the prohibition never to return to China. We order likewise persons of every condition to detach themselves from so pernicious a law and to correct their errors They should. apply themselves to reading the works of our ancient sages in order that there be no diversity of customs, that the people may persevere in their integrity of purpose and not suffer themselves to be seduced by false sects. The names of those who renounce the sect, we require to be transmitted to us, not only for the sake of pardoning their crime but also with the view of praising their zeal. We shall deprive of their position all who refuse to submit; we shall punish them according to the law, for theirs is a crime that is unpardonable. If the mandarins shall favor them, they themselves shall be deposed.-Done in the first year of Yong-Tching, the second of the eighth moon, that is the 7th of September, 1723."

In consequence of this decree the missionaries were

necessitated to quit the empire and to retire provisionally to Canton, their final destination being Macao. Three hundred thousand people were accordingly left without pastors, and 300 churches were confiscated and employed for civil or idolatrous purposes. A few of the Fathers were retained at the capital, in consequence of their services as mathematicians and artists, but this was only tem-' porary, for nine years later, in 1732, this toleration came to an end, and even those in whose favor an exception was made, were obliged to share the exile of their brethren.

CHAPTER XXXII.

THE SERVICES OF RELIGION SUSPENDED IN CONSEQUENCE OF THE RECENT EDICT-PREJUDICES AGAINST THE CHRISTIANS-THE MISSIONARIES CHARGED WITH MAGICAL PRACTICES-THE CHRISTIANS ENJOY REPOSE FOR SOME TIME-THE RELIGION AGAIN PROSCRIBED-IT IS PRONOUNCED CONTRARY TO THE LAWS OF THE NATION-PERSECUTION IS ACCORDINGLY BEGUN THE MISSIONARIES TRY TO PROVIDE FOR THE WANTS OF THE MISSION BY OPENING A SEMINARY IN THIBET-MARTYRDOM OF FATHER PERBOYRE-EVENTS IN COCHIN-CHINA.

Twelve years had now elapsed since the publication of the edict for the expulsion of the missionaries and the destruction of their churches. In the interim, the services of religion were wholly suspended and the people deprived of all spiritual aid. But a ray of hope now shone upon the suffering Christians. In 1735 the emperor Yong-Tching died and was succeeded by his son and heir Kian-Loung. The first minister of this ruler, Ma-Tzi, being favorable to the Christians, a hope was entertained that all persecution would cease and that the missionaries would be again at liberty to enter the country and prosecute their holy calling. But these favorable anticipations were wholly delusive. The influential mandarins set themselves firmly against all toleration and had a petition presented to the emperor to this effect. The immediate result was an order commanding those of the military who were converts to return to their former religion, and strictly prohibiting all further conversion to Christianity. The persecution, accordingly, brcke out with much force and although many showed a weakness in the moment of trial, the great bulk of the people manifested a noble intrepidity worthy of the primitive ages. At

length the Fathers found means of approaching the emperor, and in a petition supplicated his clemency; the result of which was a partial cessation of the severity employed against the believers. But this was only a temporary lull in the storm.

Two years later, in 1737, an incident happened which evoked once more in its worst characteristics the evil spirit of persecution. It has been common in that country from time immemorial for persons to abandon their children by placing them in the streets or on the door-steps. On the part of the government, hospitals are established where these little outcasts are placed and cared for. Several, if not most, die either from the exposure or the ill-treatment they receive from their guardians. A native catechist having access to the hospital, employed himself with the connivance of the director in administering to the dying the sacred rite of baptism. An account of this having reached the ears of the authorities, the worthy man was summoned before the governor of Pekin, and sentenced to receive a hundred lashes and to bear the cangue for six months, at the expiration of which period, he was to receive forty other lashes. The sentence was couched in the following language: "In examining our registers we find that in the first year of Yong-Tching, in response to a petition presented by Monan-Pao, of the province of Fon-Kien, the tribunal of ceremonies prohibited under severe punishment to embrace the Christian religion, and ordered those who had embraced it to abandon it. Now it appears from the answers of Lieon-Eul, in the interrogatory he has undergone, that disregarding this law he went to the foundling hospital, and pronounced certain magic words while pouring water on the heads of the infants with the view of curing them. In consequence of which act we condemn said Lieon-Eul to receive a hundred lashes and to bear the cangue for six

months at the expiration of which time he is to receive forty more lashes. As to Ching-Tsi, the director of the establishment, inasmuch as he could not be ignorant of the fact that Lieon-Eul employed magic to cure the children, his duty being to prevent that, we order him to receive thirty lashes, though according to the rigor of the law, he should receive eighty. In fine, we order that the little brass vessel in which Lieon-Eul carried the water shall

be broken in pieces. This resolution which we have come to, shall be sent to the governor of Pekin and to the tribunal of Ton-cha-Quen in order that they notify the same to the five departments of the city and to the two Hiens that they govern, so that both may prohibit under grievous penalties any and all from frequenting the hospitals under the pretext of curing the sick, but in reality of enrolling them in the Christian religion. Furthermore, they shall require those who have embraced that sect to abandon it forthwith, and the prohibition ordering the same shall be posted in all the thoroughfares of their respective districts."

In accordance with the foregoing, placards shortly after appeared in all the public places, prohibiting any one from repairing to the hospital for the purposes indicated, and calling upon those who had already embraced the religion to renounce it under the severest of penalties. In the face of these prohibitions nothing remained for the missionaries but to petition the emperor. The document containing their supplication was forwarded by his majesty to the court of criminal procedure, in order to be examined and reported on. But as that was the very tribunal whence the document quoted above, prohibiting the Christian religion, had emanated, it was evident that the fate of the memorial was already determined. The result showed this. After examining the petition the judges answered to the effect that the Christian religion was inconvenient