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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 April 2017
One of the most distinct features of European imperialism in its nineteenth century form was the peculiar alliance between missionary activity in backward areas and the political exploitation of the same for reasons of prestige, strategy or economics. No better example of this alignment can be found than in the French protectorate exercised over Roman Catholic missionary activity in China. Here the establishment of a definite political protectorate in the nineteenth century has a long historical background in which one may trace the transition from what G. L. Beer called “The Old Colonial System” to imperialism in its modern form. The question of “origins” here follows a sequence from Portuguese conquests and the Patronage (Padroado) in the Far East through the period of French expansion under Louis XIV to the final acceptance by the European world of the French protectorate over all Catholic missions in China.
1 For a discussion from the point of public law, see C. Georges Soulié, Exterritorialité et Intérêts Étrangers en Chine, 349–371.
2 Gordon, J., “The Bulls Distributing America,” in Papers of the American Society of Church History, IV (1891), 81–89 Google Scholar.
3 The Padroado was first granted by the Papacy to the militia Christi in the wars with the Moors. Richter, J., Allg. Evangelische Missionsgeschichte, IV, 48 Google Scholar ff. This was extended to the Portuguese rulers by Nicholas V and was reaffirmed by his successors. For the terms, see the bulls of Julius II and Leo X in Da Silva, Corpo Diplomatico Portuguez, IX, 90 and 370.
4 Bullarium Patronatus Portugalliae Regum (Jordao), IX, 243–245.
5 Launay, A., Histoire Générale de la Société des Missions-Étranghres, IX, 8 Google Scholar ff.
6 H. Cordier, Histoire des Relations de la Chine avec les Puissances Occidentales, II, 625. However, missionaries must still travel by way of Lisbon and Goa. See C. W. Allen, Jesuits at the Court of Peking, 129.
7 See Cordier’s article in The Catholic Encyclopedia, III, 672.
8 MacNair, in China’s International Relations and Other Essays, 207, suggests that the French protectorate was first recognized by the Pole, Fr. Boym, when he applied to the French envoy at Venice, in 1652, for aid in favor of the Mings against the Manchus.
9 Launay, , op. cit., IX, 34 Google Scholar ff. Pallu and de la Motte were not made titular bishops, since this would bring them under the Portuguese Primate at Goa. The title of Apostolic Vicar meant that the nomination was by the Pope and that their authority was derived directly from the Holy See.
10 Launay, , op. cit., IX, 59 Google Scholar.
11 Ibid., 248 ff.
12 At this time France was in alliance with Portugal against Spain. By the treaty of 1667 the French were granted most-favored-nation treatment in the Far East and free passage for the ships of their trading companies. See the treaty, in Santarem, , Quadro Elementar das Relações Politicas e Diplomoticas de Portugal, IV, 2:594 Google Scholar ff. France was more interested in the quick profits of the Far Eastern trade than in the prestige available from protecting Catholic Christians. The instructions given to the French Ambassador to Lisbon in 1669 propose a partition of Portugal’s vestigial Asiatic empire, but no mention is made of missionaries or the Patronage. Recueil des Instructions Données aux Ambassadeurs et Ministres de France, III, 116 ff. For Louis XIV’s interests in commercial and scientific intercourse with the Court of Peking, see Belevitch-Stankevitch, Le Gout Chinois en France au Temps de Louis XIV, passim.
13 Bullarium Patronatus, II, 132.
14 BuUarium Patronatus, III, 150 ff. The doctrinal aspects of the “Rites,” revolving around the Chinese terms to be used for “God” and the participation of converts in Confucian ceremonies, is fully recounted in Allen, op. cit., Chaps. X-XVI, passim. Cf. * * *, “Les Missions Catholiques en Chine et le Protectorat de la France,” in Revue des Deux Mondes, Dec. 15, 1886, 769–798.
15 Launay, op. cit., 2:222. The French consul, established at Canton in 1776, took an interest in religious affairs as French consuls had traditionally done in the Near East, Soulii, op. cit., 353.
16 French writers have argued that the Patronage entailed a contractural obligation and did not bestow an absolute right. Therefore Portugal vacated its privileged position when it could not carry out the duties attached, such as building churches, providing missionaries, etc. In 1821, for example, the officials at Macao refused to allow priests to cross to Canton fearing that this might cause an official embargo against Portuguese traders. See the Annales de l’Association de la Propagation de la Foi, I, 2:15. Portugal never officially recognized the French position until 1876, when the Bishop of Macao applied for a French passport for a Portuguese priest. Cordier, , Relations , II, 637 Google Scholar. The Patronage was ended in India by a concordat in 1928. The New Catholic Dictionary, 719.
17 See the Annales, cited above, III, 11 ff. and VI, 11 ff.
18 The French Foreign Office used both traditional claims and treaty law. Documents Diplomatiques Français, 1871–1914, 2 série, IV, 181.
19 The term coined by Cordier in his Histoire des Relations de la Chine avec les Puissances Occidentales, I, 75. Cordier adds the Bull Ex Quo Singulari, but I do not find that French claims were ever based on this last.
20 Émile Bourgeois, Manuel Historique de Politique Étrangère, III, 579. The French clergy never tired of pointing to the commercial advantages which they alleged the English had derived from their “Bible Societies.” Annales, VI, 12.
21 Delegates from the Chambers of Commerce of Rheims, Lyons, Paris, etc., accompanied the mission and Guizot sent along an inspector of customs. Cordier, , Hist. Générale, IV, 22 Google Scholar ff.
22 Fernand, Mourret, Histoire Générale de l’ Éalise, VIII, 320 Google Scholar.
23 Bourgeois, , op. cit., III, 579 Google Scholar.
24 Mourret, , op. cit., VIII, 321 Google Scholar.
25 Inspector General of Customs, Treaties, Conventions, etc., Between China and Foreign States, I, 782–783. The English treaties of 1842–44 made no mention of missions. The American treaty of Wanghsia had the same provisions as the French treaty only in more general terms. The American treaty was of no value to Catholic Christians at this time.
26 Callery, J. M., Correspondance Diplomatique Chinoise Relative aux Négociations du Traité de Whampoa, 44 Google Scholar ff. It is quite untrue that the initiative for the revocation of the edict of 1724 came from Ki-Ying, as a French Catholic writer suggests, Revue des Deux Mondes, Dec. 15, 1886, 779.
27 Calleiy, op. cit., 51. The first draft of the edict for the toleration of Christianity is dated Dec. 28, 1844. The text is translated in the Chinese Repository, XIV (1845), 195–198.
28 Ibid., 51.
29 Ibid., 72.
30 Ibid., 114 ff.
31 Mourret, , Hist. Générale, VIII, 320 Google Scholar.
32 Lavollee, M. C., “De la Politique de la France en Asie à Propos de la Guerre de Chine,” in Revue des Deux Mondes, March 1, 1858, 203 Google Scholar.
33 Bourgeois, , Manuel Historique, III, 580 Google Scholar.
34 Mourret, , op.cit., VIII, 320 Google Scholar.
35 Bourgeois, , op. cit., III, 577 Google Scholar ff.
36 Morse and MacNair, Far Eastern International Relations, 138.
37 Latourette, , A History of Christian Missions in China, 305 Google Scholar. Throughout this article reference to “missions” and “Christianity” means Catholicism.
38 Latourette, , A History of Christian Missions in China, 306 Google Scholar.
39 Bourgeois, , Manuel Historique, III, 575 Google Scholar. In the fifty years from 1822 to 1872 the Propa ganda received 150 million francs for work in China, of which over 100 million came from France.
40 Ibid., 574.
41 Bourgeois, , op. cit., III, 566 Google Scholar.
42 Richter, , Allg. Misaionageschichte, IV, 512 Google Scholar.
43 Mayers, W. F., Treaties Between the Empire of China and Foreign Powers, 55 Google Scholar ff.
44 Mourret, , VIII, 648 Google Scholar.
45 Cordier, H., L’Expédition de Chine de 1857–68, 19 Google Scholar ff.
46 Ibid.,5.
47 Cordier, , Hist. Générale, IV, 109 Google Scholar.
48 Morse and MacNair, op. cit., 185.
49 Cordier, , L’Expédition de Chine, 56 Google Scholar.
50 Ibid., 99.
51 Cordier, , L’Expédition de Chine, 27 Google Scholar.
52 Ibid., 29.
53 Ibid., 145–151.
54 Allg. Missionsgeschichte, IV, 106.
55 Revue des Deux Mondes, March 1, 1858, 204.
56 Mayers, Treaties, 61.
57 Ibid., 62 ff.
58 Cordier, , L’Expédition de Chine, 427, 429–430, 431–433Google Scholar.
59 Hertslet, G. E. P., China Treaties, I, 285 Google Scholar.
60 Bourgeois, , Manuel Historique, III, 633 Google Scholar ff.
61 Hertslet, , China Treaties, I, 289 Google Scholar.
62 Mayers, Treaties, note, p. 73. The Chinese text as it appears in Mayers differs in other respects. It gives the date of the Imperial edict as Feb. 20 instead of March 20, provides for the punishment of “all such as indiscriminately arrest Christians,” and states that the confiscated property shall be paid for.
63 Thomson, H. C., The Case for China, 190 Google Scholar. The interpreter of the legation, M. de Meritens, and the Abbé Delamarre may have been responsible. (Soulié, op. cit., 357.)
64 Mayere, op. cit., 60.
65 Holcombe, Acting Minister of the United States in China, has asserted that the interpolation “was never taken advantage of . . . by either the American, British or French governments. The French Minister at Peking officially notified the Chinese authorities that his government recognized the spurious character of the clause and would claim no rights under it. The notorious interpolated clause in the French Treaty of 1858 has played no part whatever in the establishment of missionaries in interior districts.”
66 Ibid., 190.
67 ”Ibid., 187 ff.
68 Cordier, , Relations, I, 68–78 Google Scholar.
69 Mourret, op. cit., IX, 314.
70 Bourgeois, op. cit., III, 586.
71 This is the opinion of the leading scholar on the modern foreign policy of the Vatican, Friedrich Ritter von Lama, in his book, Papst und Kurie, 492. Cf. also, a citation from the Osservatore Romano (Aug. 13, 1918), in Papst u. Kurie, 485.
72 Richter, op. cit., 110.
73 Soulié, op. cit., 357.
74 Cordier, Relations, I, 60–62. Portugal made no protest, and in her treaty negotiated a year later there is no mention of the protectorate; nor does any appear in the protocol over Macao in 1887. See Cordier, Hist. Générale, IV, 112, 166. There was probably some agreement whereby France should promote Belgian interests in China. See Callery, Correspondance Diplomatique, 108.
75 Cited in Cordier, Relations, I, 66 ff.
76 For opposing points of view on the workings of the protectorate, see Giquel, P., La Politique Française en Chine depuis les Traités de 1858 et de 1860, and Wolferstan, B., The Catholic Church in China.
77 This is recognized by leading Chinese publicists. Wellington Koo, V. K., The Status of Aliens in China, 298 Google Scholar.
78 Documents Diplomatiques Français, 2 série, I, 8.
79 This took the form of a declaration by the Propaganda, May 22, 1888. Ten years later, as the result of the German Emperor’s voyage to Palestine, Leo XIII felt called upon to reaffirm this declaration. Cited in Bulletin du Comité de l’Asie Française, I, 119.
