The Jesuits, however, by their superior talents, having made themselves useful at court, and obtained the notice and protection of _Caung-shee_ the ruling monarch, and the greatest perhaps that ever filled the throne of China, treated this bull with contempt, and continued to make converts in their own way. They even obtained from the Emperor a sum of money and a grant of land, towards building a church in Pekin. And they further managed their affairs so well as to procure, from the succeeding Pope, a dispensation in favour of their mode of proceeding to convert the Chinese to Christianity. The Dominicans and Franciscans, piqued beyond measure at the success of the Jesuits, represented them to the Pope, in the strongest terms, as the greatest enemies to the Christian faith. The Jesuits, in their turn, transmitted to Rome a manifesto, signed by the Emperor himself, attesting that the ceremonies of homage to the dead, retained by the Chinese Christians, were not of a religious but a civil nature, agreeable to the long established laws of the empire, which could not, on any consideration, be dispensed with. In short, their disputes and quarrels ran so high, and proceeded to such lengths; and Bulls and Embassadors were sent from Rome, with such imperious and threatening commands for the Chinese Christians to desist from all ceremonies that were not warranted by the Catholic church, that the Emperor began to think it was high time to interpose his authority, and to interdict the Christian religion from being preached at all in his dominions. And his son and successor _Yung-chin_ commenced his reign with violent persecutions against the missionaries. He ordered many of them immediately out of the empire; others were thrown into prison[42], where they lingered out a miserable life; and some were put to death by the bow-string. Those few, who were found necessary to assist in the astronomical part of the calendar, he allowed to remain in the capital.