In adjusting the feudal relations of his vassals in Kiushiu, Iyéyasŭ made great changes, and thus the political status of the Christians was profoundly altered. The new daimiōs, carrying out the policy of their predecessors who had been taught by the Jesuits, but reversing its direction, began to persecute their Christian subjects, and to compel them to renounce their faith. One of the leading opposers of the Christians and their most cruel persecutor, was Kato, the zealous Nichirenite. Like Brandt, the famous Iroquois Indian, who, in the Mohawk Valley is execrated as a bloodthirsty brute, and on the Canadian side is honored with a marble statue and considered not only as the translator of the prayer-book but also as a saint; even also as Claverhouse, who, in Scotland is looked upon as a murderous demon, but in England as a conscientious and loyal patriot; so Kato, the _vir ter execrandus_ of the Jesuits, is worshipped in his shrine at the Nichiren temple at Ikégami, near Tōkiō,[13] and is praised by native historians as learned, brave and true. The Christians of Kiushiu, in a few cases, actually took up arms against their new rulers and oppressors, though it was a new thing under the Japanese sun for peasantry to oppose not only civil servants of the law, but veterans in armor. Iyéyasŭ, now having time to give his attention wholly to matters of government and to examine the new forces that had entered Japanese life, followed Hidéyoshi in the suspicion that, under the cover of the western religion, there lurked political designs. He thought he saw confirmation of his theories, because the foreigners still secretly or openly paid court to Hidéyori, and at the same time freely disbursed gifts and gold as well as comfort to the persecuted. Resolving to crush the spirit of independence in the converts and to intimidate the foreign emissaries, Iyéyasŭ with steel and blood put down every outbreak, and at last, in 1606, issued his edict[14] prohibiting Christianity. The Quarrels of the Christians.