t other causes undoubtedly contributed to
produce in him this intolerant frame of mind. Indeed, the idea of
toleration as applied to religious belief had not yet been admitted even
in Europe. At this very time Philip II., who had united in his own person
the kingdoms of Spain and Portugal, was endeavoring to compel, by force of
arms, the Netherlands to accept his religious belief, and was engaged
throughout all his immense dominions in the task of reducing men's minds
to a hideous uniformity.

Even in several of the provinces of Japan where the Jesuits had attained
the ascendancy, the most forcible measures had been taken by the Christian
princes to compel all their subjects to follow their own example and adopt
the Christian faith. Takeyama, whom the Jesuit fathers designate as Justo
Ucondono, carried out in his territory at Akashi a system of bitter
persecution. He gave his subjects the option of becoming Christians or
leaving his territory. Konishi Yukinaga, who received part of the province
of Higo as his fief after the Korean war enforced with great persistency
the acceptance of the Christian faith, and robbed the Buddhist priests of
their temples and their lands. The princes of Omura and Arima, and to a
certain extent the princes of Bungo, followed the advice of the Jesuit
fathers in using their authority to advance the cause of Christianity. The
fathers could scarcely complain of having the system of intolerance
practised upon them, which, when circumstances were favorable, they had
advised to be applied to their opponents. It was this impossibility of
securing peace and harmony, and the suspicion of the territorial ambition
of Spain and Portugal, which drove Taiko Sama to the conclusion that the
foreign religious teachers and the faith which they had so successfully
propagated, were a source of imminent danger to his country. To him it was
purely a political question. He had no deep religious impressions which
had led him to prefer the precepts of the old Japanese faith to those of
Christianity. These systems could not apparently live together, and it
seemed to him the safest and most sensible way to extinguish the weaker
and most dangerous before it became too strong. Hence he began that policy
of repression and expulsion which his successor reluctantly took up.

During the first years of Ieyasu's supremacy the Christians were not
disturbed. He was too much occupied with the establishment of the new
executive d