207 The Jesuit historians relate with malicious satisfaction how one of the Spanish friars, in a dispute with one of Adams’ shipwrecked company, to sustain the authority of the church appealed to the miraculous power which its priests still possessed. And when the Hollander challenged an exhibition of such power, the missionary undertook to walk on the surface of the sea. A day was appointed. The Spaniard prepared himself by confession, prayer, and fasting. A great crowd of the Japanese assembled to see the miracle, and the friar, after a confident exhortation to the multitude, stepped, crucifix in hand, into the water. But he was soon floundering over his head, and was only saved from drowning by some boats sent to his assistance.—Hildreth’s _Japan_, etc., p. 140. 208 “This will seem to you less strange, if you consider how the Apostle St. Paul commands us to obey even secular superiors and gentiles as Christ himself, from whom all well-ordered authority is derived: for thus he writes to the Ephesians (vii. 5): ‘be obedient to them that are your temporal lords according to the flesh, with fear and trembling in the simplicity of your heart, as to Christ; not seeming to the eye, as it were pleasing men, but as the servants of Christ doing the will of God from the heart, with a good will seeming as to the Lord and not to men.’ ” The above is an extract from an Epistle of St. Ignatius, the 26th of March, 1553, which is still regarded as authoritative and is read every month to each of the houses. It was supplied to me by Dr. Carl Meyer and verified by Rev. D. H. Buel, S. J. of St. Francis Xavier’s College, New York City. Dr. Meyer has also pointed out that the Second General Congregation, 1565, severely forbids any Jesuit to act as confessor or theologian to a prince longer than one or two years, and gives the minutest instructions to prevent a priest from interfering in any way with political and secular affairs in such a position. 209 This edict of Ieyasu is given by Mr. Satow in his contributions to the debate on Mr. Gubbins’ _Review of the Introduction of Christianity into China and Japan_. Fifteen rules to guide the Buddhist priests in guaranteeing the orthodoxy of their parishioners are also given.—_Asiatic Society Transactions_, vol. vi., part i., p. 46. 210 See Gubbins’ paper, _Asiatic Society Transactions_, vol. vi., part i., p. 35. 211 See Mr. Satow’s contributions to the debate on Mr. Gubbins’ paper, _Asiatic Society Transactions_, vol. vi., part i., p. 51. _ 212 Asiatic Society Transactions_, vol. vi., part 1, p. 35.