In the beginning, as the Jesuits were practically speaking the only missionaries in China, it was reserved for them as their special mission-field by Gregory XIII. (1585). But later on Clement VIII. allowed the Franciscans to go to China, and finally the country was opened to all Christian missionaries by Urban VIII. The presence of the new labourers in the vineyard was not productive of so good results as might have been expected. A fierce controversy that broke out regarding the Chinese Rites[5] principally between the Dominicans and Jesuits, did much to retard the progress of the Catholic Church in the Celestial Empire for a long period. To understand the meaning of this controversy it should be remembered that the Chinese people, deeply attached to the memory of their ancestors and to their veneration for Confucius, were accustomed to perform certain rites and ceremonies at fixed periods in memory of their departed relatives and in honour of Confucius. To prohibit these was to put an end to all hope of conversion, and to tolerate them looked like tolerating Paganism. Father Ricci decided to tolerate them, mainly on the ground that they partook more of a civil than of a religious character, that in themselves they were harmless, that the Church has been always very prudent in regard to the national and civil customs of its converts, and that with the acceptance of Christianity all danger of misunderstanding would soon disappear. Furthermore, for want of better names for the Deity Father Ricci allowed the use of Tien-tschu (Lord of Heaven), Tien and Shangti (supreme emperor), words that had been used hitherto in an idolatrous sense, but which in themselves and as explained by the Jesuit missionaries were orthodox enough. Both parties in the controversy meant well, and each could adduce very convincing arguments in favour of its own views. The Dominicans commissioned one of their number to denounce these customs to Rome as idolatrous. He submitted seventeen articles dealing with the Chinese Rites to the Inquisition, and after a long discussion a provisional condemnation was issued by Innocent X. (1645). Father Martini went to Rome to defend the Chinese Rites, and to point out the serious consequences which such a sweeping condemnation might have upon the whole future of Christianity in China. In 1656 a decision more or less favourable to the Jesuits was given by Alexander VII. The decision helped to prolong rather than to settle the controversy. A crisis was reached, however, when Maigrot, vicar-apostolic of Fu-Kien, one of the priests belonging to the Society for Foreign Missions, denounced the Chinese Rites as pure paganism, and interdicted their observance to all converts within his jurisdiction. The case was carried once more to Rome, and de Tournon was despatched as papal legate to decide the case. In 1707 he issued a decree prohibiting the Chinese Rites, incurring thereby the enmity of the Emperor, who had him thrown into