The Japanese embassy of Mancio Ito, with Pope Gregory XIII in 1585.
In the days when the first Catholic missionaries went to Japan to preach the Gospel to the natives, certain merchants from Holland went to the Emperor and told him that the only aim that these missionaries had was to bring the Portuguese and the Spaniards into the country, that in time they might take possession of it and add it to their dominions.
The Martyrs of Nagasaki, Japan on on February 5, 1597. Painted by Cuzco School.
This great calumny was the source of the ruin of religion in that Empire, and the cause of a great persecution which was raised against the Catholics who dwelt in it.
Martyrs of Nagasaki. 16-17th-century Japanese painting.
At that time there were 400,000 Catholics in Japan; forty years afterwards there was not even one to be found in the whole Empire. This was the result of a lie which was raised by the cupidity of these merchants, who wished to be the only ones who would have a right to come into that country. What an account they shall have to give at the Day of Judgment of the words which brought so great a calamity on the Church, and caused the ruin of so many souls!
The Catechism In Examples Vol. III By Rev. D. Chisholm Pgs 390-391
Short Stories on Honor, Chivalry, and the World of Nobility—no. 484
