Abstract
This essay examines the ways in which Franciscan authors recounted the history of their missions in East Asia from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century. Key differences between Franciscan authors and those of other orders are highlighted, with special emphasis placed on disputes over precedence in the Asian mission field, over privileges accorded by the papacy for missionary activity, and over the prestige secured by acts of pious heroism and appointments to high ecclesiastical offices. Chronicles served as important adjuncts to the face-toface rivalries of Catholic religious orders, with the Franciscans dueling their peers for pride of place in historical memory. The publication of Franciscan histories in Europe ensured that the conflicts between orders extended around the globe, while their original intention was to consolidate the memories of distant efforts to plant and grow the church.
Highlights
This essay examines the ways in which Franciscan authors recounted the history of their missions in East Asia from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century
Frei Paulo da Trindade opened his monumental history of the Franciscans in Asia with an unusually candid acknowledgment
Trindade retreated from invective as he concluded his preface, hoping that “divine goodness would favor our intentions, which are none other than the glory of His Holy Name, honor for our sacred Franciscan order, and credit and reputation for this Holy Province of São Tomé” (Trindade, 1962-1967, I: 6). This formulation gets to the heart of the historical enterprise as it was conceived by early modern chroniclers from religious orders
Summary
An overview of the recent historiography of pre-modern Europeans in Asia reveals a dominance of Jesuit narratives. The Franciscans “were the first ones to plant the tree of the Cross in the West Indies, & to shine the light of the Gospel into the darkness of Idolatry: Frei João Peres de Marchena, of the Portuguese nation, son of the Holy Province of Arrábida, in the company of the same Christopher Columbus, the first discoverer of that New World; they were the first to light the torch of faith in the dark lands of Brazil: Frey Henrique of Coimbra and his companions; these same men were the first who sowed the seeds of the Gospel in the Orient, & the first who traversed all of this vast & spacious Indian Empire” (Deus, 1690: 117).10 When he reached the lands at the farthest corner of Asia, Frei Jacinto de Deus had to concede that the Franciscans had not been the first emissaries of the Church. Other Jesuits had preceded the two Italians, but the Franciscan chronicler was most likely unaware of those earlier missions. Knowledge, for that matter, would not have served his polemical intent
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