nt in themselves to account
for the extreme measures taken against Christianity at this date.

There was the predetermination against Christianity already shown by
Iyeyasu; there were the new avenues of trade opened up by the arrival of
the English and Dutch; there was the increased activity displayed by the
missionaries at a time when Christianity was in a weak state, and lastly
there was the influence of the Buddhist priesthood.

That this edict of expulsion issued by Iyeyasu was the effect of no
sudden caprice on his part, is clear from the general view which we have
of his whole policy, which was similar to that of his predecessor. His
early tolerance of Christianity is susceptible of the same explanation
as that shown by Hideyoshi. His mind was evidently made up, and he was
only biding his time.

It is also highly probable that the new facilities for trade offered by
the advent of the Dutch and English may have had some influence upon the
action of Iyeyasu. It is impossible that he can have been altogether
blind to the fact that the teaching of Christianity had not been
unattended with certain evils, dangerous, to say the least, to the
tranquillity of the country; and it cannot have escaped his notice that,
whereas the respective admissions of Portuguese and Spaniards had been
followed by the introduction of Christian missionaries, who in numbers
far exceeded the traders, the same feature was not a part of the policy
of the two other nations, whose proceedings had no connection whatsoever
with religion. Possibly, too, reports may have reached his ears of the
growing supremacy of the Dutch in the East, and have induced him to
transfer his favor from the Portuguese and Spaniards to the new
arrivals.

As regards the condition of Christianity at this time, the Jesuit
accounts supply us with facts which show that, numerically speaking, the
Christian cause was never so strong as at this period. There were some
two millions of converts, whose spiritual concerns were administered by
no fewer than two hundred missionaries, three-fourths of whom were
Jesuits. According to the _Kerisuto-Ki_, a native work, there were
Christian churches in every province of Kiushiu except Hiuga and Osumi,
and also in Kioto, Osaka, Sendai, and Kanagawa in Kaga; and it was only
in eight provinces of Japan that Christianity had gained no footing. An
increased activity in the operations of the missionaries is discernible
about this time. The D