Systematic persecutions were now begun in the different provinces, culminating in the year 1606, when Iyeyasu issued his famous edict prohibiting Christianity. At this time there were more than 1,000,000 Christians in Japan. An outward show of obedience warded off active persecution for a few years, when the Franciscan friars again aroused the wrath of the government by openly violating the laws and exhorting their converts to do likewise. In 1611 Iyeyasu is reported to have discovered documentary evidence of the {154} existence of a plot on the part of the native Christians and the foreign emissaries to overthrow the government and reduce Japan to the position of a subject state. Taking advantage of the opportunity thus afforded, he determined to utterly extirpate Christianity from his dominions. January 27, 1614, he issued the famous edict in which he branded the Jesuit missionaries as triple enemies--as enemies of the gods, of Japan, and of the buddhas. Desiring to avoid so much bloodshed, if possible, he tried the plan of transportation. Three hundred persons--Franciscans, Jesuits, Dominicans, Augustinians, and natives--were shipped from Nagasaki to Macao. But many priests concealed themselves and were overlooked. The native Christians refused to renounce their faith. It was evident that the end was not yet. The Christians were sympathizers with Hideyori, who had been a rival claimant with Iyeyasu for the shogunate, and whose castle in Osaka was the greatest stronghold in the empire. In this castle Hideyori gave shelter to some Christians, and Iyeyasu called out a great army and laid siege to it. The war which followed was very brief, but, if the report of the Jesuits is to be relied upon, 100,000 men perished. The castle finally fell, and with it the cause of the Christians. Hidetada, the next shogun, now pronounced sentence of death upon {155} every foreigner, whether priest or catechist, found in the country. All native converts who refused to renounce their faith were likewise sentenced to death. The story of the persecutions that followed is too horrible to be described. Fire and sword were freely used to extirpate Christianity. Converts were wrapped in straw sacks, piled in heaps of living fuel, and then set on fire. Many were burned with fires made from the crosses before which they were accustomed to bow. Some were buried alive. All the tortures that barbaric cruelty could invent were freely used to rid the land of them. The calmness and fortitude with which they bore their lot, gladly dying for their faith, command our warmest admiration. The power of our religion to uphold and sustain even in the midst of torture was never more strikingly illustrated, and the ancient Roman world produced no more willing martyrs than did Japan at this time.