Matteo Ricci by Michela Fontana Read Free Book Online Page A

soldiers and to ill-considered manifestations of contempt for the local religion on the part of one of the missionaries. 16
    “Chinese in China”:
Valignano’s Policy of Cultural Accommodation
    Ricci felt useless in Goa and longed for nothing more than to begin his missionary work. Despite the commitment he put into his work, he derived no satisfaction from the teaching of Latin and Greek grammar, a task that he could not get out of 17 and which he performed solely through a “spirit of obedience,” as he confessed in a letter of November 25, 1581, to Claudio Acquaviva, 18 who had been appointed Superior General of the Company of Jesus just a few months earlier. 19 Writing to superiors was one of the duties that missionaries were required to perform on a regular basis in order to provide information about the countries in which they lived and to report on their activities, as well as to express doubts or ask for support. Of the fifty-four letters that have survived out of the unquestionably much larger number sent to Europe by Ricci, twelve are addressed to Superior General Acquaviva and cover the entire period of his mission. In the first letter from Goa, Ricci not only congratulated his superior on his recent appointment but also took the opportunity to express some views about a recent decision taken by his superiors with which he disagreed, a somewhat courageous step for a member of an order insisting on absolute and unquestioning obedience.
    The Jesuit authorities had forbidden Indians who were studying for the priesthood from attending the courses on philosophy and theology so as to avoid them becoming “overly proud of their learning” and refusing to work among the poorer sections of the indigenous population. Ricci explained the grounds for his dissent in a number of points. If the reason given for denying access to the advanced courses were valid, he argued, then it would hold also for the novices educated in Europe, to whom the entire syllabus was instead open. Moreover, as he bluntly asserted, not all of the European brethren who had studied philosophy and theology put their knowledge to the best use. A staunch defender of the role of culture in the process of evangelization, Ricci maintained that the restrictions imposed on Indians would have the sole effect of “fostering ignorance in the ministers of the Church in a place where knowledge is so necessary.” As he pointed out, the Indian novices were “in any case to become priests and to have souls in their keeping, and it hardly seems appropriate, among so many sorts of unbelievers, for priests to be so ignorant that they are unable to answer an argument or to put one forward in order to confirm themselves and others in our faith, unless we wish to hope for miracles where none are necessary.” He concluded his plea with the point closest to his heart, namely that preventing the locals from studying “letters” lest they should become “swellheaded” only brought the risk of incurring hatred and obtaining insincere and short-lived conversions. 20
    These frankly expressed observations highlight the principles upon which Ricci intended to base his missionary work. His convictions with regard to the importance of “knowledge” formed during his years at the Roman College were certainly strengthened in Goa, where he saw for himself how the methods used by the Portuguese soldiers to conquer markets and the coercion imposed on the population to convert them caused distrust, fear, and hatred. The young Jesuit meant to adopt a different method of proselytism, one that would follow the guidelines laid down by the Visitor Alessandro Valignano after his arrival in the Far East. While Clavius had been the point of reference for Ricci’s mathematical studies in Rome, Valignano was to become his mentor for his missionary work in China.
    Born in Chieti in 1539, Alessandro Valignano graduated in law in Padua at the age of eighteen and entered the Society of