Chapter 873 - Hangzhou Church

The entire Hangzhou Church had approximately fourteen or fifteen hundred baptized members. Cattaneo baptized about two hundred people on average each year. He spoke of the various difficulties and peculiarities of preaching here, emphasizing that securing the support of the gentry class was paramount for missionary work in the Great Ming. Their influence was extraordinarily extensive—not only could they protect the church's security, but common people often looked to them as models. Frequently, when a local gentry figure was baptized, many people around them would follow suit. Many scholar-official converts would have their entire households baptized—not just themselves and their immediate family, but even the servants would be baptized alongside them.

When gentry and scholar-officials converted, this immediately solved the church's funding problems and the question of buildings for preaching stations. Without gentry converts' donations, poor converts couldn't contribute enough, nor were there sufficient numbers to "build a tower from grains of sand." The church would have to rely on remittances from Macau to survive and would struggle to purchase buildings and land.

The Hangzhou Catholic Church, with the support of a group of Catholic gentry represented by the Yang and Li families, had always maintained a stable state in Hangzhou. Missionary work was rarely disturbed, and so developed rapidly.

Spreading the faith by starting with Confucian scholars and scholar-officials was the missionary strategy formulated by Matteo Ricci after entering China. In Zhao Yingong's view, Ricci truly deserved his reputation as the first European to genuinely understand Chinese society—earlier Europeans, including Marco Polo (if he had truly even visited China), were merely curiosity-seeking tourists passing through.

But this strategy, Zhao Yingong felt, was too fixated on the "upper class route." Although many people from poorer classes had also been baptized into the church—quite a few had even "martyred" themselves during religious persecution cases; the first Catholic martyr in China was a cake vendor during the "Nanjing Religious Case"—overall, the Catholic Church in the Great Ming lacked social roots and "floated on top." The result was that when the Yongzheng Emperor banned Christianity, it was quickly eradicated throughout the country—the Catholic faith having had few adherents to begin with.

After the Second Opium War lifted the religious ban, Protestant Christianity surged ahead in missionary work, largely because of their "popular" approach. Protestant churches opened hospitals, schools, took in orphans, and conducted various charitable works, achieving remarkable results.

But this observation was something Zhao Yingong wouldn't share with Cattaneo—the "grassroots route" was the Elder Council's specialty. Of course, Cattaneo might not be entirely unaware of the drawbacks of the "upper class route," but under the social conditions of the time, taking that approach was an unavoidable choice. Without the "accumulated prestige" of Britain and France after the Second Opium War, the Protestants' "grassroots route" might not have succeeded either.

Though based in Hangzhou, Cattaneo wasn't isolated from church news. The Macau Catholic Church sent messengers to the mainland churches every few months bearing letters. Local churches would also send correspondence back with the messengers. Some letters destined for Europe were loaded onto ships in Macau. Though letters might spend years in transit, the church's communications had never been interrupted. Even during the Yongzheng and Qianlong reigns when missionary work was completely suspended, Beijing missionaries still maintained contact with the churches in Macau and Europe.

Cattaneo had carefully read the Jesuits' letter—this old missionary who had weathered many storms understood China's national conditions thoroughly. Through news from Hangzhou Church members and Beijing missionaries, he knew perfectly well the true identity of this "Cantonese" Chinese: they were the "Australians" in whom the President placed great hopes.

The Australians' war with the Great Ming in Qiongzhou and their unstinting efforts to spread the holy teachings there both surprised and delighted Cattaneo. His brothers—Father Lu Ruohua and others—in their three years of pastoral work in Qiongzhou had achieved more than they had in forty years of hardship elsewhere.

He didn't quite understand why the Australians were interested in the Jesuits and missionary work. Letters from Macau indicated that although a small number of Catholics existed among them, the Australians did not come from a Catholic country. They couldn't really be said to possess any religious faith at all—the letters specifically mentioned their atheistic tendencies. At the same time, the head of the church in Lingao among the Australians was clearly not a qualified clergyman. Obviously, their assistance in spreading religion in Qiongzhou wasn't motivated by religious zeal but by some practical interest.

Now, this mysterious Australian appeared before him, and his exact purpose greatly intrigued Cattaneo.

Zhao Yingong made no secret of his intentions. Evasive or cryptic language was worthless here. The Jesuits were willing to help the Elder Council precisely as a manifestation of the Elder Council's power. As long as the Jesuits still intended to preach in Qiongzhou, Cattaneo had no choice but to assist him.

"You mean: to use the power of our Hangzhou church members to protect your commercial interests?" The Italian listened quietly to his explanation, then spoke.

Zhao Yingong said: "Yes. You've been in the Great Ming for many years; you should understand the difficulties and interference an outsider like myself faces in conducting business here. And you certainly know the influence a gentleman wields in Ming society."

Cattaneo nodded thoughtfully. "You're quite right."

"So I must ask the Hangzhou Church for assistance." Zhao Yingong looked into the dignified Italian elder's eyes.

"What kinds of commercial projects do you want to conduct in Hangzhou?" Cattaneo was very interested. He knew from letters from Macau that the Australians were a group of skilled craftsmen capable of manufacturing many novel and inexpensive goods.

"Many." Zhao Yingong said. "For example, raw silk."

Cattaneo said nothing more, just nodded slightly. The raw silk trade was an important source of income for the Macau Jesuits. Before trade with Japan was cut off, the Jesuits purchased "Nanjing silk" through merchants each year to resell in Japan for enormous profits. The priest naturally knew that so-called Nanjing silk was actually "Lake silk" from Zhejiang and Southern Zhili.

That the Australians had come to Zhejiang to involve themselves in silk production and trade didn't surprise him. That they asked the church to leverage its influence for protection was also expected—Australian warships and cannons, no matter how formidable, wouldn't appear at the mouth of the Yangtze.

Of course he would agree to the Australians' request—this was not only his duty as a Jesuit but was also necessary for spreading the Gospel in China.

He made the sign of the cross, murmuring: "Let God's will be done."

In the subsequent casual conversation, Zhao Yingong mentioned Sun Yuanhua. Cattaneo spoke highly of him, considering him a future mainstay of the Ming church—Li and Yang had already passed away; Xu Guangqi was advancing in years; only Sun Yuanhua was in his prime. He was already Governor of Dengzhou-Laizhou, and apart from Xu Guangqi, was the highest-ranking official among Chinese converts.

Sun Yuanhua's home was in Jiaxing, not far from Hangzhou. In Jiaxing, he had prepared a quiet, comfortable villa for the missionaries. Cattaneo had once retreated there to write for a period; the two maintained a good personal friendship.

Without much effort, Zhao Yingong obtained Cattaneo's promise to write a letter of introduction to Sun Yuanhua. His reason for wanting to meet Sun Yuanhua was quite legitimate—he wanted to sell military supplies to this regional official who was most deeply immersed in Western military theory and technology.

From Cattaneo, he obtained all the support he sought. Thus, when Zhao Yingong subsequently visited the principal gentry converts of the Hangzhou Church, he was received with great hospitality. The heads of both the Li and Yang families held family banquets for this "catechumen."

Zhao Yingong knew that with the Jesuits' letters of introduction and Cattaneo's referral, he could gain the trust of the Hangzhou Church's key members. But proper social courtesies still had to be observed. So he had prepared a substantial quantity of gifts in advance.

Considering that recently baptized converts and church organizations tended toward fundamentalism, overly luxurious personal items shouldn't be given as gifts lest they create offense. So the bulk of the gifts were religious books. He had the Jiangnan Inspection Team bring a large case of Chinese-language religious books printed in Lingao when they departed. These Chinese editions were mostly small religious pamphlets compiled by the old-timeline Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, including commonly used works like Catechism Questions and Answers and Compilation of Essential Prayers. For converts desperately short of quality Chinese Catholic books, this was like sending charcoal in snowy weather. He also donated three hundred taels of silver to the church—using Delong notes—and promised to ship plate glass to renovate the church windows.

He additionally distributed a batch of simple, practical "Australian goods" among the church's leading figures and ordinary members: matches, small knives, windproof oil lamps with glass chimneys. These items had actually begun appearing on the market in small quantities recently, but their high prices kept ordinary people from purchasing them.

These gifts indeed won the Hangzhou Church's considerable goodwill. Setting aside Cattaneo himself, even ordinary church members were won over by this far-traveled "catechumen's" generosity. Zhao Yingong remained quite modest in conversation, occasionally letting slip his "admiration for the holy teachings." This increasingly endeared him to the church's power figures.

The arrival of a new priest also created a small ripple in the calm church—people always prefer fresh things. On the first Sunday after Trigault arrived at the Hangzhou Church, he celebrated Mass for everyone. Because word had spread that a new missionary had arrived, many of Hangzhou's Catholics attended—the small church actually received four or five hundred people. Trigault was moved to tears during his sermon. Zhao Yingong found it rather tedious—but to cultivate favor with the local church, he still maintained a respectful appearance.

In the end, his efforts achieved complete success. Although Zhao Yingong wasn't a convert, his status as a "catechumen" was recognized by the Hangzhou Church. With remarkable ease, he gained the support of several gentry within the church—especially the Li and Yang families. He collected several visiting cards and Cattaneo's letter of introduction to Sun Yuanhua.