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This is a 16th–17th century apologetic treatise, authored by Jesuit Visitor Alessandro Valignano or an associate, in response to criticisms from Franciscan missionaries concerning the Society of Jesus’s activities in Japan and China. The document, preserved under archival reference 49-IV-58 at the Biblioteca da Ajuda (Lisbon), refutes claims made by Franciscans such as Fray Martín Ignacio de Loyola and Fray Jerónimo de Jesús regarding the legitimacy of the Jesuits’ exclusive missionary mandate, granted by Pope Gregory XIII in 1585 and supported by Portuguese royal authority. It defends the Jesuit practice of cultural adaptation—such as adopting local dress and language—as essential for evangelisation, contrasting it with the Franciscans’ confrontational methods, which allegedly provoked persecution under Toyotomi Hideyoshi (‘Taico Sama’). The text challenges accusations that the Jesuits obstructed other religious orders, monopolised trade via Macau, or engaged in political manipulation, asserting instead that their efforts sustained Christianity during severe repression. It further disputes claims about financial misconduct, arguing that Jesuit funding derived from limited alms and silk trade profits, not exploitation. Central to the argument is the assertion that Jesuit prudence preserved Christian communities, while the Franciscans’ imprudence led to martyrdom in 1597. Drawing on personal experience, correspondence, and theological reasoning, the author upholds the validity of papal and royal decrees restricting access to Japan, maintaining that unity among missionaries was vital for the faith’s survival in a politically volatile context.
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This document is a 1747 transcription—preserved in the ‘Mata’ folio of the Province of Japan and catalogued as ‘Livro na Nho S. Pedro’—of a detailed Jesuit missionary report concerning clandestine Catholic pastoral activity in Dutch-occupied Malacca between 1651 and 1661. It records the mission of Fathers Pero de Mesquita and Manuel Henriques, dispatched from the College of Macau to reinvigorate the persecuted Catholic community following the Dutch capture of Malacca in 1641. The text documents their covert entry, disguised as laymen; the establishment of secret chapels and rotating pastoral residences across the Malacca River and surrounding settlements including Pulau, Booraya, and Ilhomada; the administration of sacraments—including Mass, confession, baptism, and marriage—under constant threat of Dutch repression; and specific episodes of spiritual resilience, such as the conversion of Dutch merchants, exorcisms, Holy Week observances in forest hermitages, and catechetical instruction for children. It further details ecclesiastical conflicts with Dutch Reformed authorities, surveillance by colonial officials including customs officers and mandarins, judicial persecution, expulsions, and the imprisonment of Jesuits aboard captured vessels en route to Batavia and Ceylon. The report serves as a primary source on underground Catholicism, interreligious dynamics, colonial governance, and missionary strategy in seventeenth-century Southeast Asia.