Alessandro Valignano
Roman Catholic Church | |
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Personal details | |
Born | February 1539 Chieti, Italy |
Died | January 20, 1606 (aged 67) Macau |
Alessandro Valignano,
Education and commission
Valignano was born in Chieti, then part of the Kingdom of Naples, son of a Neapolitan aristocrat and friend of Pope Paul IV.[2]: 255
He excelled as a student at the
India, Macau and China
In spring of 1574, Valignano sailed for Goa as the newly appointed Visitor to the Province of India.[2]: 255 and the next year called the first Congregation of the Indian province, on Chorão near Goa.[2]: 256 The nomination of a Neapolitan to supervise Portugal-dominated Asia was controversial, and his nationality led to conflicts with mission personnel, as would later his adaptationist and expansionist policies.
As Visitor, it was his responsibility to examine and whenever necessary reorganize mission structures and methods throughout
Soon after Valignano arrived in
Valignano left Macau for Japan in July 1579, leaving behind instructions for Ruggieri, who was to arrive within days. Once Ruggieri started studying Chinese and realized the immensity of the task, he wrote to Valignano, asking him to send Matteo Ricci to Macau as well, to share the work. Forwarded by Valignano to the Order's Superior in India in 1580, Ruggieri's request was fulfilled, and Ricci joined him in Macau 7 August 1582.[5] Together, the two were to become the first European scholars of China and the Chinese language.
In 1594 Valignano founded
Japan
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Valignano exercised his position as Visitor by overseeing all of the Jesuit missions in Asia from the major Portuguese port of Macau. He had a particular focus on Japan, however, and made three extended visits there in 1579–1583, 1590–1592 and 1598–1603.[2]: 255–7
During his first visit in 1581, he wrote Il Cerimoniale per i Missionari del Giappone to set forth guidelines for Jesuits. In the writing, he mapped Jesuit hierarchy to that of
Such a luxurious life and authoritarian attitudes among Jesuits in Japan were criticized not only by rival mendicant orders but also by some Jesuits. In addition, his detailed instructions on customs and manners suggest that his understanding of Japanese culture was only superficial. [citation needed]
As was ordered by the Superior General, he devoted efforts to nurturing Japanese priests. He forced
On his first arrival in Japan, Valignano was horrified by what he considered to be, at the least, negligent, and at the worst, abusive and un-Christian practices on the part of mission personnel.
Valignano later wrote that, although the mission had made some major gains during Francisco Cabral's tenure, the general methods used by the Superior were severely lacking. In addition to the problems of Japanese language study and racism, some of the Jesuits, and specifically Cabral were in the habit "to regard Japanese customs invariably as abnormal and to speak disparagingly of them. When I first came to Japan, ours (the crowd usually follows the leader), showed no care to learn Japanese customs, but at recreation and on other occasions were continually carping on them, arguing against them, and expressing their preference for our own ways to the great chagrin and disgust of the Japanese."[citation needed]
There is an implicit belief in the Visitor's writing that leaders influence and are responsible for the behavior of those of lesser rank. Thus, in Valignano's view, any lapse in the mission's behavior towards the Japanese was surely a result of Cabral's heavyhandedness. He immediately began to reform many aspects of the mission, and wherever possible, undermined Cabral's authority as Superior of the Jesuit mission to Japan.[6]
Language study
Language study had always been one of the core problems for the mission. Before the Visitor arrived in Japan, seventeen of Valignano's personally appointed missionaries wrote to him complaining that language training was totally nonexistent. Cabral had protested that it was impossible for Europeans to learn Japanese and that even after fifteen years of study the padres could hardly preach a sermon, even to Christian converts.
It was Valignano's first official act upon arriving in Japan that all new missionaries in the province spend two years in a language course, separating these newcomers by leaps and bounds from the first enthusiastic but stilted efforts of
Where Cabral had worked to exclude Japanese men from rising beyond brothers in the Society, Valignano insisted that they be treated equally in every way to
Establishment of the seminaries
The need for a trained native clergy was obvious to Valignano, and so, in 1580, a recently emptied
The first order of business in the seminaries would be language training. Valignano made clear that all seminarians, whatever their background, would receive education in both Latin and Japanese. After the foundations were laid, the students were educated in moral theology, philosophy and Christian doctrine. This was typical of Jesuit education, and reflects the state of Jesuit schooling in Europe. But there were some significant differences. For one, as the Arima seminary was a converted Buddhist monastery, and because Valignano emphasized the need for cultural adaptation, the original décor was left largely unchanged. This pattern was repeated in other seminaries at other sites, and, in the 1580 Principles for the Administration of Japanese Seminaries, which goes into great detail about seminary methods, Valignano notes that the "tatami mats should be changed every year" and that students should wear "katabira (summer clothes) or kimonos of blue cotton" and outdoors a "dobuku (black cloak)." The students were instructed to eat white rice with sauce with a side dish of fish.
Valignano's purpose is quite clear. The seminaries were typical Jesuit institutions of
Valignano's methodical and organized mind is apparent in every aspect of mission organization. Appended to his "Principles for the Administration of Japanese Seminaries" is a complete daily schedule for a Japanese seminarian. True to form, the scheduled activities include both daily Latin and Japanese instruction with a sprinkling of choral and other musical performance.
Success of seminary reforms
Despite their great idealism, it is unclear how successful Valignano's seminary reforms really were. They certainly stimulated Japanese converts to join the Society; in the decade after Valignano's first visit, some sixty native Japanese joined the Jesuits as novices. But there were problems too. Few Buddhist monks were forced to live under a rule of strict poverty as the Jesuits enforced it, and because gift-giving was such an important part of Japanese social relations, the inability of the novices to accept these gifts undoubtedly helped to alienate them from their families.
In addition, the
Lastly, but even more fundamentally, Japanese culture did not and does not view religious life as totally separate from secular life in the sense that the Jesuits understood it. Within most Buddhist communities it is common, if not expected, that young men and women spend some time in seclusion as a
Port of Nagasaki
As the scale of the mission began to expand rapidly, financial difficulties began to crop up. All of the Jesuit institutions: the seminaries, the schools, the
Originally local Japanese daimyo had tried to curry favor with the Jesuit
The Superior General in Rome was shocked by the news of such a blatant acquisition of property and gave firm instructions that Jesuit control of Nagasaki should only be temporary. But like most suggestions coming from Europe, Cabral and Valignano chose to tactfully ignore them, especially because, as Valignano explained later, the town quickly became a haven for displaced and persecuted Christians.
Under Jesuit control, Nagasaki grew from a town with only one street to an international port rivaling the influence of
Embassy to Europe
Valignano was the initiator of the
Conflicts with Rome and the Shogunate
This breach of ecclesiastical practice did not go unnoticed by the heads of other European missions in the area, or by those who make their living via inter-Asiatic trade. Eventually, the
But sufficient
By 1600, the Jesuit mission there was in decline because of persecution from the ruler Toyotomi Hideyoshi and later, most severely, under the Tokugawas. Tokugawa Ieyasu worked diligently to thwart all European attempts to reestablish contact with Japan, religious or otherwise, after his rise to power in 1603. All samurai and members of the army were required to forswear Christianity and remove Christian emblems or designs from their clothing. Later, daimyo and commoners were ordered to follow the same restrictions. In 1636, Tokugawa Iemitsu enacted the Sakoku edict which ended almost all contact with the outside world. No Japanese ships were allowed to leave the country under pain of death, and any Japanese who attempted to return from abroad would likewise be executed, policies which remained in force until American Commodore Matthew C. Perry's arrival in 1853.
Death and legacy
Valignano died in Macau on 20 January 1606. He was buried at
One of his Jesuit admirers noted in his Panegyric: "In [God] we lament not only our former visitor and father, but, as some would have it, the apostle of Japan." Valignano paved the way for a closer relationship between Asian and European peoples by advocating equal treatment of all human beings. He was a great admirer of the Japanese people and envisioned a future when Japan would be one of the leading Christian countries in the world. He memorably wrote that the Japanese "excel not only all the other Oriental peoples, they surpass the Europeans as well".[8] Jesuit historian Thomas J. Campbell called him "the greatest man of the [Jesuit] missions in the East after Francis Xavier."[9] Ludwig von Pastor considered him the chief architect of the spread of Catholicism in 16th century Japan.
See also
- Francis Xavier
- Matteo Ricci
- Nanban period
- Chinese Rites controversy
- Yasuke, African man in service of Valignano who became an armed retainer of Oda Nobunaga
Notes
- ^ "Novizi Gesuiti - Italia". Archived from the original on 2005-12-20. Retrieved 2006-02-01.
- ^ a b c d e f Lach, Donald F (1965). Asia in the Making of Europe. Vol. 1. University of Chicago Press.
- OCLC 51084106.
- ^ Yves Camus, "Jesuits' Journeys in Chinese Studies" Archived 2015-09-24 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ . Page 153
- ^ Thierry Meynard, The Overlooked Connection between Ricci's: "Tianzhu shiyi" and Valignano's "Catechismus Japonensis", Japanese Journal of Religious Studies, Vol. 40, No. 2 (2013), pp. 303-322.
- ^ "Alessandro Valignano", Beyond Ricci, Boston College
- ^ Valignano, Alessandro Valignano (1584). Historia del Principo y Progresso de la Compania de Jesus en las Indias Orientales (1542-64).
- ^ Thomas J. Campbell (1921). The Jesuits 1534-1921: A History of the Society of Jesus from Its Foundation to the Present Time. New York: The Encyclopedia Press. p. 173.
References
- Boxer, C.R.; The Christian Century in Japan, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1951
- Braga, J.M.; "The Panegyric of Alexander Valignano, S.J." In Monumenta Nipponica, Vol. 5, No. 2. (Jul., 1942), pp. 523–535
- Cooper, Michael S.J.; Rodrigues the Interpreter, New York: Weatherhill, 1974
- Moran, J.F.; The Japanese and the Jesuits, London: Routledge, 1993
- Murakami, Naojiro; "The Jesuit Seminary of Azuchi" Monumenta Nipponica, Vol. 6, No. 1/2. (1943), pp. 370–374
- Schutte, Josef Franz S.J.; Valignano's Mission Principles for Japan, St. Louis: Institute of Jesuit Sources, 1980
- Valignano, Alessandro 1584, "Historia del Principo y Progresso de la Compania de Jesus en las Indias Orientales (1542-64)" ("History of the Beginnings and Progress of the Society of Jesus in the East Indies (1542-64)")
- Valignano, Alessandro 1586, Catechismus christianae fidei. Lisbon: Antonius Riberius, 1586 in 2 vols. (very rare work; but wholly included in Antonio Possevino, Bibliotheca Selecta Qua Agitur De Ratione Studiorum in Historia, in Disciplinis, in Salutem Omnium Procuranda. Rome: Typographia Apostolica Vaticana, 1593. See ISBN 978-0-8122-4261-4), pp. 18–24, 139-146 on the important role of this work of Valignano (version included in the Bibliotheca selecta of Antonio Possevino, 1593) in the European reception of Asian religions.
- Timeline of Valignano biography
External links
- Article on Valignano and the controversies of his first visitation to Portuguese Asia (1573-1580) - [1]