cident, too complicated to describe in detail, may be
summed up by saying that some Japanese Christians were discovered to
have conspired for the overthrow of the Tokugawa Government by the
aid of foreign troops. It was not an extensive plot, but it helped to
demonstrate that the sympathy of the priests and their converts was
plainly with the enemies of Tokugawa's supremacy. Ieyasu, however,
abstained from extreme measures in the case of any of the foreign
priests, and he might have been equally tolerant towards native
Christians, also, had not the Tokugawa authority been openly defied
in Yedo itself by a Franciscan father--the Sotelo mentioned above.
"Then (1613) the first execution of Japanese converts took place,
though the monk himself was released after a short incarceration. At
that time... insignificant differences of custom sometimes induced
serious misconceptions. A Christian who had violated a secular law
was crucified in Nagasaki. Many of his fellow-believers kneeled
around his cross and prayed for the peace of his soul. A party of
converts were afterwards burnt to death in the same place for
refusing to apostatize, and their Christian friends crowded to carry
off portions of their bodies as holy relics. When these things were
reported to Ieyasu, he said, 'Without doubt that must be a diabolic
faith which persuades people not only to worship criminals condemned
to death for their crimes, but also to honour those who have been
burned or cut to pieces by the order of their lord.'"*

*Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th edition; article "Japan," by Brinkley.

SUPPRESSION OF CHRISTIANITY

The first prohibition of Christianity was issued by Ieyasu in
September, 1612, and was followed by another in April, 1613; but both
bore the character of warnings rather than of punitive regulations.
It was on the 27th of January, 1614--that is to say, fifty-four years
and five months after the landing of Xavier at Kagoshima--that an
edict appeared ordering that all the foreign priests should be
collected in Nagasaki preparatory to removal from Japan; that all
churches should be pulled down, and that all converts should be
compelled to abjure Christianity. There were then in Japan 156
ministers of Christianity, namely, 122 Jesuits, 14 Franciscans, 9
Dominicans, 4 Augustinians, and 7 secular priests. It is virtually
certain that if these men had obeyed the orders of the Japanese
Government by leaving the country finally, not so much