The Francis Xavier’s self-perception in a Japanese mirror

La autopercepción de Francisco Xavier en un espejo japonés

Javier Takamura Altuna

Oxford Education Professionals.
Oxford, Reino Unido
oxford@edupro.company

Abstract: This paper considers Xavier’s famous statements in his first letter from Japan, and other missives, wherein he states his high views and expectations of the Japanese people. Xavier located the archipelago on a par with Europe with regards to the people and culture, to the extent that back in Europe, Japan could have been considered to be a very similar civilisation. His remark of Japan that it is an island where there were “nor moors neither jews” before his arrival, hints a subtle search for the ideal mission field. Especially as he saw in the Japanese people hidalguía and reason, and considered this new mission an ideal field, almost as utopic to receive the Gospel. His observations of Japan reveal his own self-perceptions and his modelling on the Apostle to the Gentiles.

Keywords: Francis Xavier, Japan, self-perception, utopia, hidalguía.

Resumen: Este documento considera las famosas declaraciones de Xavier en su primera carta desde Japón y otras misivas, en las que expresa sus altas opiniones y expectativas del pueblo japonés. Xavier situó el archipiélago a la par de Europa en cuanto a gente y cultura, hasta el punto de que en Europa se podría haber considerado a Japón como una civilización muy similar. Su comentario sobre Japón de que es una isla donde no había “ni moros ni judíos” antes de su llegada, insinúa una sutil búsqueda del campo misionero ideal. Sobre todo, porque vio en el pueblo japonés hidalguía y razón, y consideró esta nueva misión un campo ideal, casi como utópico para recibir el Evangelio. Sus observaciones de Japón revelan sus propias percepciones de sí mismo y su modelado sobre el Apóstol de los gentiles.

Palabras clave: Francisco Xavier, Japón, autopercepción, utopía, hidalguía.

Citar como: Takamura Altuna, J. (2023). La autopercepción de Francisco Xavier en un espejo japonés. Revista Internacional de Estudios Asiáticos, 2(2), 85-130. DOI 10.15517/riea.v2i2.54354

Fecha de recepción: 02-03-2023 | Fecha de aceptación: 08-05-2023

Francis Xavier’s self-perception in a Japanese mirror1

Introduction

Among the thousands of men who left Lisbon in the sixteenth century en route to the Indies, on 7th April 1541, departed the Navarrese Francisco Xavier (1506-1552).2 Xavier sailed in the ship Santiago, on his thirty-fifth birthday, representing the newly founded Society of Jesus, of which he was one of its founders, and as Apostolic Nuncio in the East.3 Thus began his mission to the East Indies, and the famous letters that over the years would “electrified his brethren and everyone else who read them.”4 Among these letters, one has been of particular importance, the often quoted and on occasion titled his Magna carta (MC).5 This is the first letter written by Xavier from Japan to his fellow Jesuits in Goa on the 5th November, 1549.6

This paper aims to analyse Xavier’s utopian views of Japan and how by his observation of different cultures we learn about his own self-perception and the mindset of a sixteenth century missionary and his modelling on St Paul.

The Japanese mission began with the pioneer spirit of Xavier and his view of the commensurable cultures between Europe and Japan as expressed in his missives. The description of the archipelago would gradually change from almost terra incognita, to the very significant superlative and superficial impressions of Xavier with the inception of the mission. This would have a lasting impact, especially because of his descriptions of the Japanese people as white, reasonable, hidalgos and honourable, almost replicating European culture.

Xavier, unlike Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556), did not dictate his autobiography, however early biographies were published since the end of the sixteenth century.7 Francisco de Jasso y Azpilcueta was born on 7th April 1506, to a noble family in the castle of Xavier, near Pamplona in Navarra, Spain. He was the youngest son of Juan de Jaso, privy counselor to King John III of Navarre and Doña Maria de Azpilcueta y Aznárez. Little is known of his childhood, except that Xavier showed a special inclination towards studies.8 In 1529, in Paris, at the college of Sainte-Barbe, he met and shared quarters with Loyola, who won Xavier “for the service of God by means of the [Spiritual] Exercises.”9 Following his conversion, Xavier together with Loyola and other companions pronounced their vows on the day of the Assumption of the Virgin, on 15th August, 1534.10 Their intention was to go to Jerusalem, but after this failed, they returned to Rome.11 In 1539, the King of Portugal, João III, asked his Portuguese ambassador, D. Pedro Mascarenhas to request the Pope to send some clerics to India.12 Xavier was chosen to travel to India, and swapped the opportunity to access an important clerical position in Pamplona, for a life as a missionary.13

In Italy and about to depart for Lisbon, Xavier was given an audience with Pope Paul III who conceded him “liberalmente as graças, & indulgencies”14 and according to Lucena, compared him with St Thomas the apostle: “Ide pois avante, seguindo a Deos: Levay, & estendey, imitando ao Apostolo S. Thome, o nome, & religiam Christã até os ultimos fins do Oriente”.15

On the 15th August 1539, Xavier departed for Lisbon. Three years later, on 6 May 1542, he arrived in Goa.16 In Asia, Xavier would tirelessly evangelize, spending two years with the poor pearl fishers on the eastern coast of Cape Comorin, along with apostolic work in other areas. Goa was then the centre of the Portuguese empire in the East and became also the centre for the Society of Jesus east of the Cape of Good Hope. It is worth to highlight that the Jesuits used ‘Company of Jesus’ which emphasised, ‘the centralization of the order, bureaucratic character, clear stratification, and direct lines of communication.’17

Although Japan had been reached by the Portuguese merchants since 1543,18 it seems that Xavier discovered of their arrival, when he was in Malacca in 1547:

While in this city of Malacca, I was given great news by some Portuguese merchants, men of great credit, of some very large islands, recently discovered, which are called the islands of Japan.19

Xavier requested to Portuguese merchant Jorge Alvares, who had been to Japan, to write an account of the islands and its people.20 Immediately, he was impressed and excited,21 first by the accounts given by the Portuguese of the Japanese:

[According to Portuguese merchants] much fruit would be done in increasing our holy faith, more than in any other part of India, because they [the Japanese] are people very eager to learn, what these Gentiles of India do not have. 22

Here, for the first time, Xavier compares the Japanese with the people of India in religious terms, concluding that the former would be more apt to receive Christianity because of their tendency to learn.23 This shows Xavier’s quest for commensurability, looking for cultures sharing common ground with his own culture.

Secondly, by Xavier coming into contact with three Japanese, and in particularly with Anjirō (Paulo de Santa Fe), of whom he held a high opinion and to whom he constantly enquired about his homeland. 24 After over a year and a half of much preparation, he arrived in Japan with fellow Spaniards Cosme de Torres (c.1510-70) and Juan Fernandes (c.1526-67) on 15th August 1549, “dia de nossa Senhora de Agosto, de 1549”.25 The Japan these Spanish missionaries encountered was in political upheaval and undergoing radical changes. This period is characterised by constant wars between competing daimyo (feudal lords), called the Sengoku jidai (戦国時代, ‘Warring States era’, 1467-1600). The Emperor of Japan was nominally the official ruler but exercised little power; he delegated power to the Shogun whose political influence was weakened by the increasing power of semi-independent warlords. This power vacuum was seen as an opportunity by the daimyo to increase their political and financial power by annexing neighbouring fiefdoms.26 This situation was aggravated by the involvement of militant Buddhist sects.27

It is against this background, that Xavier wrote his letter to his brethren in Goa and through this, revealed a self-assessment of himself, together with the high expectations he had of Japan that would, for many decades to come, excite generations of Jesuits.28 If Columbus set the tone for what was to follow in the nature of the accounts that were written about the conquest of America, then Xavier’s impressions in his letters about the Japanese mission did the same for the latter.29 The letter to Goa is a long letter, and in it Xavier raised a number of issues, from spiritual matters to more practical and worldly ones, such as the extreme difficulties and dangers which involved the trip to Japan; the qualities of the Japanese as well as their short fallings, especially of the bonzes; the necessity of the Jesuits to continue improving their spirituality; and the belief in increasing Christianity in these islands. But throughout the letter there is also an underlying theme that shows Xavier’s own mission, a self-perception of his heroic virtue appreciated by God.

Self-presentation – ethos

The literary concept that serves as an aid to the analysis of this text is transtextuality with special focus on the subtype hypertextuality.30 Transtextuality is “all that sets the text in relationship, whether obvious or concealed, with other texts” and that “covers all aspects of a particular text”.31 For Gérard Genette hypertextuality involves “any relationship uniting a text B (hypertext) to an earlier text A (hypotext), upon which it is grafted in a manner that is not that of a commentary”.32 In this way the MC is the hypertext, as designated by Genette: “literary texts which allude, derive or relate to an earlier work or hypotext”.33 As such, Xavier’s MC and his other letters can be considered as hypertexts.34 The importance of St Paul epistles or hypotexts to the MC is paramount, first because Xavier copied, paraphrased or allude to them. Secondly, he used St Paul epistles as examples and as a guide. He clearly not only alludes to the epistles, but he carefully incorporates passages to be more persuasive. As such any analysis of Xavier’s letters must go hand in hand not only with the context of the Japanese mission but also with St Paul epistles.

In his self-presentation, as he articulated his own ethos, Xavier managed to convey his modelling on St Paul. Among the early apostles, St Peter was considered as the apostle of the Jews, and St Paul as the apostle of the Gentiles, the non-Jews, those who had not heard the Gospel. The Sixteenth Century was an age of discovery, when new lands and people were constantly revealed. For the missionary, spreading Christianity to endless numbers of people who had never heard of Christ and were “under the claws of the Devil”, it must have been both exciting and challenging. The letter to Goa resembles in many ways St Paul’s epistles, Xavier also appears to use their style, which demonstrates Xavier was well versed on these letters as he cites them regularly. In his MC, Xavier emerges modelling himself on the Apostle of the Gentiles. This should not be taken as presumptuous on his behalf but rather as following established cultural models, as Peter Burke noted, it is an example of the “presentation of the self”.35 After all it was St Paul who wrote: “Follow my example as I follow the example of Christ” (1 Cor. 11:1).

In the 1960s, the Jesuit Jesús Lópes Gay argued that sixteenth century missionaries were consciously inspired by and more importantly followed the example of the Apostles, and above all that of St Paul. Missionaries not only compared their pastoral work with that of the primitive church but used it as a justification to their methodology.36 In the early 70s, George Elison called Xavier “The Apostle of Japan and Saint Paul of the Indies”.37 Ellison proved that from early times Xavier was compared with the Apostle of the gentiles. In that way, João Rodriguez Tçuzu’s (c.1562–1634) compared Xavier’s behaviour in Yamaguchi with St Paul’s in Athens in the Areopagus.38 Elison argued that the almost identical scene of Xavier leaving Japan, with St Paul’s departure in Ephesus in Acts, 20: 32,39 described by Rodrigues, lacks any historical objectivity, and it probably created by Rodriguez. John W. O’Malley in The First Jesuits, not only effectively argued that the Jesuit’s fourth vow was an affirmation to the early Jesuits’ commitment to missionary work, but their missionary impulse was inspired by the Apostles, among whom St Paul’s epistles took special place among their early preaching.40 So far, the historiography of Xavier has compared him with the Apostle of the gentiles but has not demonstrated how he saw himself.

For a better understanding of the letter to the Jesuits in Goa, it is necessary to see the context in which it was written. It is worth pointing out that the letter to Goa was written less than three months after Xavier’s arrival to Japan.41 This explains his cursory descriptions, generalizations, and conclusions of Japan, with high expectations for the future of this new mission.42

The Jesuits were an activist rather than a contemplative order, and since the early times in Italy had preached mainly upon Paul’s epistles. The description of Japan by Xavier would encourage future Jesuits to choose this mission as their first choice. The revival of the wish for martyrdom in the sixteenth century is depicted in contemporary descriptions. And as the archipelago was full of, “idolatrías y enemigos de Christo”, and the land was going through political upheaval, martyrdom was always a possibility. A seven year old, Teresa de Avila, after reading the life of the saints wished to die in the same way, and wanted to go with her brother, “a tierra de moros, pidiendo por amor de Dios, para que allá nos descabezasen.”43 Tursellini noted: “Pero el [Xavier] que andava desseoso del martyrio, espero hallar en la India, lo que no pudo alcançar en Hierusalem”.44 Tursellini depicts the early Jesuits, and here specifically Xavier, as looking for martyrdom, just as St Paul had desire (Phil. 1: 21-3). In this way Japan was to become the favourite destination for future Jesuits who constantly applied to be sent there.

In his letter to the Jesuits in Goa, Xavier almost paraphrased Romans 8: 39:

Above all, Xavier goes on to use a combination of moral and dogmatic teaching. St Paul had used the same style many centuries before and one can notice the relation between St Paul epistle (hypotext) and Xavier’s MC (hypertext).46 Loyola had modelled himself on St Francis and St Dominic,47 and in this letter, it becomes clear who Xavier was trying to imitate.48 Xavier’s view of himself is illuminating as it helps us also to see this man in full dimension and why he held such utopian views of Japan.

That Xavier quotes and cites from St Paul’s Epistles is of no surprise, as explained earlier, he is a Jesuit missionary whose order had been founded for the caring of souls and since the early times in Italy had preached mainly upon Paul’s epistles. But there is more here, he writes as a leader with a moral authority that resembles the early teachings of the Apostles.

In this letter, even his style of writing occasionally coincides with St Paul’s, and uses almost the same wording: “No os digo estas cosas [...]”49 similar to 1 Corinthians 4: 14 “I do not write this [...]” Xavier’s self-comparison with St Paul becomes all but evident when he uses almost the same words to describe the benefit, he himself had received from God, paraphrasing apostle of the gentiles in:

Xavier’s letter (1549)
2 Cor. 12: 2

Here the similarities are too close; Xavier is obviously describing himself using Paul’s epistles. Xavier like St Paul must have felt called to the service of Christ, as a reward for his spirituality, writing to other Jesuits in Goa he himself proclaimed this. His road to Damascus had been Loyola’s Spiritual Exercises, and according to Tursellini, Loyola had won him over with the passage in Matthew 16: 26: “what will one gain by winning the whole world if he destroys himself”. Xavier felt that his faith in God and Christian dedication had been rewarded having reached Japan. The perils of sailing in Asia in the sixteenth century were innumerable, hundreds died en route to the Estado da India alone.51 Away from the Portuguese fortress and feitorias, Portuguese carracks faced pirates and thieves, storms, diseases, and lack of food and water. To make matters worse, Xavier travelled from Malacca to Japan in the ship of the Chinese gentile Aván “the thief”, and complained of the idolatries and sacrifices on board. 52 This made him feel that he was at the mercy of the devil: “See”, he says, “the travails that we could had in this navigation, it being the opinion of the devil and his servants whether we were to come to Japan or not.”53 Afflicted by “the Devil” as Paul had been: “Three times I prayed to the Lord that it leave me but he answered, ‘My grace is enough for you; my great strength is revealed in weakness’’ (2 Co. 12: 7-9). Xavier tells his brethren in Goa that the best remedy under these circumstances, is “totally distrusting the man of himself, and greatly trusting in God, putting all the forces and hopes in him”.54 Again Xavier takes after St Paul who wrote, “of myself I will not boast except of my weaknesses” (2 Co. 12: 1-5) by boasting of his weakness and relying entirely on God.

In the famous letter to the Jesuits in Goa, written from Japan, Xavier explained to his brethren that in Japan, “Y porque los mayores trabajos en que hasta agora os habéis visto, son pequeños en comparación de los que os habéis de ver los que a Japan viniéredes.”55 Japan is therefore so attractive to the missionaries precisely because it demanded a great deal of suffering and sacrifice, and it would test their endurance. Xavier warned the Jesuits, “Y creedme que los que a estas partes viniéredes, series bien probados para cuánto sois”.56 The circumstances in Japan, which excited Xavier so much, were not just finding a religious paradise for the increase of Christendom in part due to the quality of the people, but also it was the right environment for the missionaries, where their faith would be tested. In this way, Japan offered a religious utopian which appealed to the missionaries, in a land that had not only, “la mejor que hasta agora está descubierta, y me parece que entre gente infiel no se hallará otra que gane a los japanes”.57 But where the difficulties, the obstacles put by “muchas importunaciones de los bonzos,”58 those “ministers of the devil”, the idolatries of the laity, in a country with a scarcity of food: “hízonos Dios tanta merced en traernos a estas partes, las cuales carecen de estas abundancias, que, aunque quisiésemos dar estas superfluidades a el cuerpo, no lo sufre la tierra.”59 To this it should be added that his previous opinions of other races in Asia had been unfavourable, of the people from India, for example, he described them as “hablando en general, muy bárbara […] No tienen inclinación a oír cosas de Dios y de su salvación”.60 Of the people of Morotai island, Maluku Islands, Xavier wrote, “Es gente bárbara, carecen de escrituras, no saben leer ni escribir”.61

So far, we have seen how Xavier was presenting himself, now we turn to how others saw and describe him, the people who saw him as virtuous. According to João de Lucena, while Xavier and Simon Rodriguez were in Lisbon:

Os começáram per todo o Reyno vulgarmente a chamar Apostolos [...] nam podemos porem deixar de estranhar muyto, vĕdo nos tam longe dos merecimentos d’aquelle nome, de que o mesmo S. Paulo se avia por indino. Posto que em parte os Padres Mestre Francisco, & M Simam tambem podéram responder a Portugal o que o propio S. Paulo escrevia aos Corinthios.62

This shows an early indication of how by 1600, Xavier was portrayed as an apostle, due to his mission to the Indies. The Jesuit Henrique Henriques (c.1520-1600) saw Xavier as fulfilling St Paul’s message. In a letter to Loyola on 31st October 1548, he wrote:

I shall first attempt to give you an account of Father Mestre Francisco […] since he seeks as far as he can, and more than can be described, to fulfil that saying of St Paul: “Omnibus omnia factus sum ut omnes lucrifacerem (which is very applicable to our society).”63

Fernão Mendes Pinto (c.1510-83), who met Xavier and was a Jesuit for two years, in his Peregrinação, he mentioned that Xavier by the year 1547 had, “grande nome de santo na voz de todo o povo por milagres que lhe lâ viraõ fazer, ou, para mais acertado, que Deos nosso Senhor por elle fizera.”64 Early biographies, such as Tursellini’s (1545-1599) and Lucena’s (1550-1600) referred to him as beati and saint, although he was not beatified until 1619 and canonized until 1622. But a word of caution should be given here, since these biographies were written by Jesuits, who over-enthusiastically depicted miracles and deeds. However, on the other hand, they also represent the values and processes of their society, when a young religious order, the Society of Jesus, needed a saint to intercede on their behalf to the court of heaven.65 The Italian Jesuit Marcello Mastrilli (1603-37), apparently dreamed about Xavier, who foretold him about his martyrdom in Japan.66

The knowledge which Xavier had of St Paul’s epistle is vast and is very clear when he cites him throughout his letter. This understanding is corroborated by O’Malley who argued that Paul and the apostles were the models in which the Jesuits saw themselves, as shown in the Society’s Constitutions.67 And that the special “fourth’ vow has “often been misunderstood as a kind of loyalty oath to the Pope, whereas it is really a vow to be a missionary”.68 This clear missionary impulse is further emphasized by Nadal’s statement that “Paul signifies for us our ministry”.69 But, if Xavier is modelling himself on St Paul, is he an isolated case? The answer appears to be no. There was the precedent of the Franciscans, who wanted to implement a new Christian paradise in the new world, and with that in mind they sent Fray Martin the Valencia with twelve other friars in 1523. 70 The minister general of the whole Order of the Friars Minor (Franciscans) Fray Francisco de los Angeles, sent them to Mexico to liberate souls from the oppression of the devil by “contemplating and considering the life and merits of the most blessed Saint Paul”.71 The metaphorical language used by de los Angeles is significant of a period of revival in the Church of the sixteenth century, of a need to change, a kind of renaissance of the ideal of the primitive church. It is not by chance that de los Angeles mentioned Saint Paul,72 as clear that these Franciscans were inspired by the work of the Apostle of the Gentiles, by spreading Christianity. The early enthusiasm for the Americas did not last, and by the middle of the sixteenth century the golden age of the colonization of the New World was fading fast.73 Many became disillusioned with the Americans, considered inept for evangelising.74 With Sahagun lamenting at the end of his life: “It is clear that everything is false in the very foundation of this new Church”.75

Early accounts of Francis Xavier emphasized his saintliness, mentioning his austere life and miracles.76 This type of description had propelled him, though deservedly, to become the prototype of the ideal missionary, and had elevated him to become the Apostle of the Indies. But this aura also serves as armour, difficult to penetrate into the real man, and had clouded the impressive and determined figure of this man and of his biographers. On the other hand, studying Xavier without the desire to save souls, deeply influenced by Loyola and his Spiritual Exercises, and searching for salvation; resulted in, as pointed out by Luke Clossey, in a missionary described as an atheist Jesuit risking his life to travel to the end of the world to embrace multiculturalism.77

In 1545, Xavier complained to Loyola that since departing Portugal, four years earlier, he had only received “unas cartas vuestras rescebí de Roma, y de Portugal dos de maestro Simón.”78

Xavier calculated responses to letters from Rome, from those missionaries stationed in the Moluccas and Japan, would take three years and nine months to reach back to Rome. This was not only due to the vast distances but also to the limitation of the times when the ships could travel to and from ports, and that counting on good weather, otherwise it should be added another year.79 As the leading missionary of the Jesuits stationed in Asia, facing new challenges in very different environments and new cultures, Xavier understood that most of the immediate guidance and leadership that his fellow Jesuits would receive will come from him. He felt this weight heavily on his shoulders, requesting from the General of the Order, Ignatius of Loyola, to send a prominent Jesuit:

I beg you, most good father, that you also look after these children of yours who are in India, and send a person eminent in virtue and holiness, whose firmness and encouragement should shake my lethargy.80

Under such circumstances he sought spiritual guidance, a model to follow in his isolation. He found this in the Epistles of Paul and the example of the apostle to the Gentiles, a leader who during the ecclesia primitiva had suffered similar tribulations among those who had never heard of Christ and lay the foundations upon which Christianity would flourish.

As a leading missionary responsible for an increasing number of Jesuits arriving to Goa and making decisions almost independently from Rome,

Xavier is constantly referring to St Paul’s epistles, reflecting and constantly modelling on the legacy left by the early Apostle, and through this inspiration creating a utopian ideal of the construction of a new kingdom of God, in Japan with the best gentiles yet discovered.

“Ni moros ni judios” Japan as utopic island

In 1516, Thomas More (1477-1535) published his Utopia. This work was conceived against a backdrop of discovery of unchartered lands and people, and renaissance humanism, by combining travel literature with the current ideas and preoccupations of the age. As a neologism, this term was needed in order to name what was new or in vogue in his society at that particular time.81 Other cultures and new civilizations gave utopian writers of the early modern period the possibility of a present location, neither in the past nor in the future, while using fiction to tell a story.82

As one analyses Xavier’s missives, one can appreciate something that becomes clearer in his famous MC, which reflects on a close relationship between conversion and specific existing temporal conditions, such as the qualities that the neophytes needed to have for the success of the mission. While the primitive church had insisted that the gospel was for the salvation of everyone who believes, for Xavier the spiritual conversion of the gentiles was associated with and facilitated by a variety of issues. Showcasing his Iberian background, he enthusiastically wrote from Cochin about the high prospects of the conversion of “Japón, que es una isla” where there are no “moros ni judíos”.83 The Iberian Peninsula had experienced a long period of struggle, the so-called Reconquista, between Christians and Muslims by the sixteenth century.84 Japan is considered more apt to receive the Gospel on account of being free of the influence of other known religions. From Lisbon, Xavier had displayed a similar feeling already regarding the conversion of the island of Ceylon (Sri lanka), “[The Viceroy] me dijo este otro día que en la India, en una isla de solos gentiles, sin mixtura de moros ni judíos, que habíamos de hacer mucho fruto”.85 Xavier complained of the lax behaviour of some Portuguese living in India. He asked from King John III of Portugal to send the Inquisition to India: “mande vuestra alteza la santa inquisición; porque hay muchos que viven la ley mosaica y secta morisca, sin ningún temor de Dios ni vergüenza del mundo”.86

Xavier incorporates Japanese society into the European social structure. Here, loosely, a Japanese noble such as a samurai is called a hidalgo. This assimilation of Japanese society into a European model would continue, in such a way for example a Daimyo (feudal lord) becomes a Duque (Duke).87 In this way, Xavier is interpreting his new environment according to his European background, often comparing one against the other, sometimes the Europeans fared better and at other times the Japanese. Throughout these comparisons a subtle criticism of his Europe appears when he thinks that the Japanese are superior. Besides the apparent absent of Judaism and Islam, Xavier also observed qualities inherent to certain cultures, such as hidalguía, honour, and reason, qualities which he considered positive for the expansion of Christianity in Japan.88 At the same time, Xavier’s first impressions, born of false analogies, had filled with optimism the minds of the Jesuits in Goa and Europe.89 Further, I have found that this nobleman of the Renaissance used for the first time the word hidalgo when describing non-Europeans.90 Being a hidalgo must also be understood in the context of the preoccupation during this period with hierarchy, decorum, and courtesy.91 It is worth considering this point, that to my knowledge has never before been mentioned, namely that until Xavier had reached Japan there is no mention of hidalguía / fidalguía in his letters when referring to other Asian peoples.92 When mentioning local societies, he never used hidalgo or fidalgo in the 76 extant letters written after his arrival in Goa. It is only in Japan that Xavier incorporated the local society into the European framework by naming a Japanese “noble” such as a bushi or samurai as a hidalgo or caballero, although Japanese society had no exact equivalent. As a result of this, he was interpreting this new environment according to his European background. Not only was Xavier the first to place the Japanese on socially equal terms with Europeans, but a close analysis of all his extant letters reveals that Japan is the first culture to which he makes this comparison.

Xavier was not only thinking in the next world, he dwelled on worldly matters as well.93 On this, Xavier also follows the stance of the Apostle of the Gentiles in matters such as the marriage of the Japanese who, “No tienen mas de una mujer”94 (Cor. 7: 2); the sin of sodomy of the “bonzos, los cuales son inclinados a pecados que natura aborrece, y ellos lo confiesan y no lo niegan”.95 (Rom. 1: 27) But among these worldly matters, Xavier’s letter are full of praise for the Japanese; issues which reflect upon the criticism of his European roots and utopian views of this new mission. If the Franciscans had hoped for the revival of the primitive church with “innocent savages” in the Americas, Xavier sees it with the Japanese of “muy buena conversación”96 most of whom, “sabe leer y escribir, que es un gran medio para con brevedad aprender las oraciones y las cosas de Dios”.97 He writes that he had discovered between the Japanese “huma cousa, que nehuma das partes dos Christãos me parece que tem”. This is worth mentioning in its totality, as it is very significant of the values which this noble Basque brought from Europe:

Os fidalgos, que por mui pobres q sejão, & os que não são fidalgos, por muitas riquezas q tenhão, tanta honra fazem ao fidalgo mui pobre, quanta lhe fariaõ se fosse muito rico: & por nenhum preço casaria hum fidalgo muito pobre com outra casta que naõ seja fidalga, ainda que lhe dessem muitas riquezas: & isto fazem por lhes parecer que perdem de sua honra, casando cõ casta baixa. De maneira que mais estimaõ a honra q as riquezas.98

This, perhaps, mirrors upon Xavier’s personal experience. Xavier, a younger son of a noble family, had struggled financially during his time as a university student in Paris (1525-1536). Xavier employed a student as his servant, in order to keep up appearances suitable to his background, a passage that resembles the part of the Lazarillo de Tormes (1554) and the esquire, who pretends he is wealthy.99 Xavier found himself in debt because the money from Navarra was not enough.100 Only the assistance of Loyola was able to get him out of trouble financially.101 Xavier admired the Japanese, because even when the hidalgos were very poor they still received the honour reserved to their rank, something that obviously did not always occurred back in Europe.

Describing the archipelago, perhaps following on Xavier’s description, the editor of the Alcalá Cartas wrote than in Japan, “son respetados y acatados los nobles, aunque sean pobres”.102 It is in this way that Xavier sees in the samurai the superlative of the hidalgo. In order to maintain his rank, a nobleman needed money, “largesse was a quality to be expected of every nobleman.”103 There are many examples of this period that emphasize on this issue. The ex-governor of India, Francisco Barreto (1520-73), after a shipwreck decided to winter in Goa instead of Mozambique, “because it was very expensive, […] and did not have the money to maintain his status and the nobility of his character”.104 The Spanish conquistador Bernal Díaz (c. 1492-1584) described Hernan Cortes in similar style:

He wore a plume of feathers, with a medallion and a gold chain, and a velvet cloak trimmed with loops of gold. In fact, he looked like a bold and gallant Captain. But he had nothing with which to meet the expenses I have described, for at that time he was very poor and in debt.105

Cervantes hinted that only a mad person would see honour without money in this period, when the innkeeper asked Don Quixote “if he had any money”, to pay with, to which Don Quixote replied: “that he did not have a copper blanca, because he had never read in the histories of knights errant that any of them ever carried money”.106 In a similar vein, Erasmus in his Praise of Folly made fun of those, “who make a point of seeming rich to their neighbours but live a meagre, hungry life at home”.107

The very positive image of Japanese society portrayed by the pioneering spirit of Francis Xavier is revealing, as he dwelled on those aspects of Japan on which he thought a Christian kingdom could be built, the strongly developed sense of honour in particular. This was, of course, a major feature of Iberian society itself at the time, a reflection of the values of chivalry which it carried with it to Asia, as, for example, in the classic poem of Camoens (c. 1524-80), The Lusiads. The Iberian society of the sixteenth century placed a very high value on birth and rank.108 Emphasizing a code of honour that had developed from warrior groups in the middle-ages, and which had been mixed with Reconquista and crusading feelings.

Immersed in a culture of honour, sixteenth century hidalgos and nobles aimed to enjoy the privileges, freedoms, and exemptions due to their rank. This extended even to those who were not hidalgos but had travelled to the Estado da India with the expectation of being rewarded such as Fernão Mendes Pinto and Diogo do Couto (c.1542-1616).109 In this way, when Xavier observed the honourable behaviour of the Japanese, he is observing from his own background, the issues that were discussed and contested in Europe, and he finds in Japan a better way than the one practiced by Europeans. That he thinks the Japanese hidalgos would rather turn away from riches than lose their honour is something he admired. St Paul had swapped a “middle-class” background and an official position, changing his career from persecutor to Apostle; in a similar way, Xavier (as well as Loyola and Borja) was a noble who renounced worldly vanities.110 There seems to be a model that the renunciation of worldly honours produces trustworthy Christians, and more importantly, saints.111 Xavier had aimed at a successful ecclesiastical carrier when young. Priesthood opened the doors to great and honourable positions, and Xavier had received the tonsure of the diocese of Pamplona already, when he went to commission his title of nobility, knowing that many benefices were reserved to the nobility. This was so common that in 1542, the Venetian ambassador to France noted, “they deal in bishoprics and abbeys at court as elsewhere in pepper and cinnamon”.112

For Xavier, a Japanese “hidalgo” would lose his honour by marrying below his class, and would rather remain poor. Marriage was, of course, one way to achieve social mobility in Europe. But at the same time, it was a delicate issue, contemporary accounts observed that marriage, and the family in general, were in crisis.113 The Council of Trent prohibited the so-called clandestine marriages which caused so much confusion.114 There was also the issue of the dowry; some families in order to marry one daughter into a suitable marriage provided one large dowry to the detriment of others, usually younger daughters who were left with little or nothing. On the other hand, too much honour could be counterproductive. Francesco Carletti (1573- 1636) noted, “the Japanese nature and customs, that they not only do not bear any sort of insult, but also not even the smallest word that is slightly discourteous”.115 A young Ignatius of Loyola almost killed a Moor, believing that he must defend the honour of his lady, the Virgin Mary.116 And Mendes Pinto argued that the bonzos in Japan “por hua natural oufania & presumção que tem […] tomão muyto em caso de honra desdizeremse do que hua vez disseraõ [...] inda que por isso aventurem mil vezes as vidas”.117

Equally Xavier tells the Jesuits that those who would come to Japan would not be able to depend on the support of the Portuguese as in Goa. St Paul indicates in I Cor. 1:18-25, that their simplicity had aided them in proclaiming the gospel and not by the use of beautiful words, as the Jews asked for miracles and the Greeks for higher knowledge, in that manner Xavier who did not know the Japanese language asked for the simplicity of a child when he was in Japan, “y agora nos cumple ser como niños en aprender la lengua, y pugliese a Dios que en una simplicidad y pureza de ánimo los imitásenos”.118

Conclusion

As a leading missionary responsible for an increasing number of Jesuits arriving to Goa and making decisions almost independently from Rome, Xavier sought spiritual guidance, a model to follow in his isolation. Who better to lean on than the apostle St Paul, a leader who during the primitive church proclaim the gospel to the Gentiles, and the bulk of his ministry was spent, like Xavier, in pagan lands. Like many sixteenth century missionaries who were consciously inspired by and more importantly followed the example of the Apostles, Xavier managed to convey his modelling on the Apostle to the Gentiles, as such he was following established cultural models. In his self-presentation, as he articulated his own ethos, Xavier’s moral authority also comes from his comparison with St Paul. In Xavier, we see the early Jesuits’ commitment to missionary work, a missionary impulse inspired by the Apostles, among whom St Paul’s epistles took special place among their early preaching.

The perspectives of Japan by the pioneer of the mission, reveals a baggage of knowledge and experiences acquired not only in Europe, but also from the places and cultures where he had been, from Mozambique to Kagoshima. This is specially appreciated in Xavier’s so-called Magna Carta from Japan, where he thought he had found the best gentiles yet discovered. Xavier’s writings reveal in a snapshot sixteenth century reality. His search for commensurability between Europe and Japan, took him to describe Japan and the Japanese people with utopian views. Here one can appreciate a distinction between the ecclesia primitiva and sixteenth century missions, namely that while the primitive church had insisted that the gospel was for the salvation of everyone who believes, for Xavier the spiritual conversion of the gentiles was associated with and facilitated by a variety of issues. Showcasing his Iberian background, he concluded that places where there were no “moros ni judíos”, or the lack of rival religions well known to him, were more apt to receive the Gospel.

Finally, Xavier incorporates Japanese society into the European social structure. He also observed qualities inherent to the Japanese, such as hidalguía, honour, and reason, qualities which he considered positive for the expansion of Christianity in Japan. Further, this nobleman of the Renaissance used for the first time the word hidalgo when describing non-Europeans cultures and a Japanese noble such as a samurai is called a hidalgo. By doing this he was the first to place the Japanese on socially equal terms with Europeans.

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