The Jesuits, 1534-1921: A History of the Society of Jesus from Its Foundation to the Present TimeCampbell, Thomas J. (Thomas Joseph)
History
The Jesuits, 1534-1921: A History of the Society of Jesus from Its Foundation to the Present Time
Campbell, Thomas J. (Thomas Joseph)
Jesuits -- History
"Man's inhumanity to man" is cruelly exemplified in a foul accusation
urged against the venerable Schall, a century after he was buried with
imperial honors in Pekin. In 1758 a certain Marcello Angelita, secretary
of Mgr. de Tournon, the prelate who was commissioned to pass on the
question of the Malabar Rites, published a story, which was repeated in
many other books, that Schall had spent his last years "separated from
the other missionaries, removed from obedience to his superiors, in a
house which had been given him by the emperor, and with a woman whom he
treated as his wife, and who bore him two children. After having led a
pleasant life with his family for some years, he ended his days in
obscurity." If there was even the shadow of truth in these accusations
the Dominican Navarrete, who knew Schall personally, and who wrote
against him and his brethren so fiercely in 1667, would not have failed
to mention this fact to confirm his charges about the Chinese Rites. But
he does not breathe a word about any misconduct on the part of the great
missionary. Moreover, it is inconceivable that the vigorous Father
General Oliva, who governed the Society at that time, would have
tolerated that state of things for a single instant.
The foundation upon which the charge was built appears to be that the
old missionary used to call a Chinese mandarin his "adopted grandson"
and had helped to advance him to lucrative positions in the empire. The
libel was written forty years after Schall's death, and was largely
inspired by the infamous ex-Capuchin Norbert.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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