Before this time a dreadful persecution commenced against the Christians in the province of Tonquin, and generally in the empire of China. In Tonquin many suffered martyrdom, and among others two Philippine missionaries, the Friars Gil de Federich and Mateo Liciniana, both Dominicans, who had left Manila for the purpose of assisting the missionary establishment which the Dominicans had in China. They were imprisoned separately, and at different times, but they had the happiness, before they died, of being lodged in the same dungeon, where they mutually consoled each other, and by bribing the soldiers who had the charge of them, they were permitted to say mass, and preach and administer the sacrament to the Christians there. In these sacred duties they were occupied continually, until the day on which they were to suffer death for the propagation of the Christian faith, by being bound to a log of wood, and having their heads struck off. This took place at four o'clock in the evening of the 22d of January, 1745. The Christians received their bodies, and delivered them over to the Dominicans, who gave them honourable burial. In the empire of China, the determination of the emperors to oppose the propagation of the Christian religion seemed daily to become stronger, and the Viceroy of Tonquin, who knew that in his province there were many concealed missionaries, persecuted the Christians in every way, in order to induce them to discover them, when, on the imprisonment of several with this view, the missionaries voluntarily came forward and delivered themselves up to the tyrant. There were in all five, of the order of St. Dominic, and belonging to that establishment in the Philippines; viz. the most illustrious Don Friar Pedro Martir Sanz, of the province of Catalonia, Bishop of Mauricastrense, and Apostolical Vicar; the Friars Pedro Francisco Serrano of Jaen; Juan Alcaber of Grenada; Joaquin Royo of Hinojosa, in Aragon; and Francisco Diaz. They were examined frequently, and suffered severely from being beaten and otherwise tormented. The Viceroy at last sentenced Señor Sanz to lose his head immediately, condemning likewise the rest to the same punishment, but deferring their execution till the ordinary time. The court of Pekin confirmed the decree, and immediately it was made known to him; the Señor Sanz rejoiced exceedingly, and sung Te Deum, confessing fully, and waiting impatiently for the period of his becoming a martyr, which took place on the 26th of May, 1747. After a lapse of six months, his body was found as fresh as the day he was beheaded: it was taken up, burnt, reduced to powder, and thrown into a well, that the Christians might not collect his ashes. The other four friars remained in prison, where they were afterwards strangled privately by order of the Viceroy. Many attributed this persecution to the Jesuits, who bore no good will to the Señor Sanz.