The Samurai and the Cross by M. Antoni J. Ucerler;

Author:M. Antoni J. Ucerler;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: OUP Premium
Published: 2022-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

As for the Spanish Friars’ role in all this, they were well aware of what Ieyasu really wanted from Spain. They had entertained high hopes of establishing themselves in Japan as a missionary presence and counterbalance to the Jesuits ever since their arrival in 1594. They soon realised that this would be impossible without the shogun’s explicit approval. One of them, Fray Jerónimo de Jesús, had been treated with kindness by Ieyasu, even after he had admitted to having gone into hiding following the execution of six of his companions in Nagasaki in 1597. This unexpected reprieve may have led them to believe that they might yet make themselves useful to the shogun. Ieyasu went as far as to entrust Fray Jerónimo with the mission to convince the authorities in Manila to petition the Spanish court to establish trade with New Spain. Ieyasu would thus continue to use the Friars, including Alonso Muñoz and Luís Sotelo (1574–1624), with this specific purpose in mind.

The Franciscans understood the risks of procrastination. They were witnesses to Ieyasu’s growing impatience, as Spanish ships failed to come regularly to his ports in the Kanto region. Diego de Bermeo, the provincial superior of the Franciscans in Manila, describes the situation bluntly in a letter to Governor Acuña penned in Kyoto on 23 December 1604.19 He admits that the Japanese are not well disposed to the Friars’ plans for evangelisation and believe that the missionaries are quite mad (nos tienen por locos) to think they can succeed in such an implausible enterprise as spreading a foreign faith in their country. Bermeo notes that the Japanese think that the Friars’ success in Japan is about as likely as ‘a handful of monks attempting to preach Buddhism in Rome’. Eight years later, Fray Muñoz would similarly urge that an expeditious solution be found to Ieyasu’s request in a Memorial that he wrote while in Madrid on 4 May 1612.20 Several years thereafter, Luís Sotelo too would continue to urge the governor of New Spain to respond to Ieyasu, for ‘if Nueva España sends a favourable reply to Iyeyasu and promises to open Nueva España to trade with Japan, not only priests of the Franciscan Order but those of other orders as well will enjoy protection and prosperity in Japan.’21

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