arts, as may be perceived from the following noble and pathetic answer to the fathers of the Society residing at Pekin:— “We have received, reverend fathers, in a letter of your reverences, full of grief, the decree of the 16th December 1706, against the most illustrious Bishop of Conon and others.... You say that this event causes you grief and affliction. Would to God that your affliction would lead you to repentance! I should rejoice at it, because it would be acceptable to God, and might be the means of your salvation. “Night and day I shed tears before God, not less for the distressed state of the mission, than on account of _those who are the causes of its affliction; for, if I knew not the cause of the evil, and the authors of it_, I might endure all more cheerfully. The Holy See has condemned your practices; but much more to be detested is _that unrestrained licence with which you try to bury your shame under the ruins of the mission_. You have not lent your ears to salutary counsel; _and now you betake yourselves to means that cause horror_ (modo ad horrenda confugitis). “What shall I say? Wo is me! The cause has been determined, but the error continues; the mission will be destroyed sooner than it can be reformed. “However, your reverences are not in earnest, but merely jesting (_ludunt non dolent reverentiæ vestræ_), when you represent the emperor as being angry with you—the emperor who does not act but according to your wishes. He would assuredly be angry if he knew (God forbid!) what injuries you have caused to his glory.... What faith can I place upon those who in all their intercourse with me have used nothing but insidious devices?... I pray of Him who has reserved revenge for Himself, not to give you the recompence you deserve, nor to measure to you with the same measure ye have meted to your neighbour.... If you knew the emperor so well as to make you think he deserves the name of Herod, why had you recourse to him?... Why have you malignantly excited his hatred against an apostolic legate?... Would to God that you would repent from your hearts!—Yours, &c. “_Nankin, 17th January 1708._”