The Jesuits in Asia under the Portuguese Padroado

Abstract

This chapter is devoted to the Jesuit missions in Asia under Portuguese patronage, with a focus on India, Japan, and China. In these territories, the Society of Jesus experimented with the policy of accommodation, which was grounded in the belief that Asian societies were mature enough to receive the Christian doctrine, but also unlikely to be subjugated by European powers. While accommodation undeniably became the central paradigm of the Jesuit missions in Asia, it was seldom a unifying force, its implementation proving intricate and prone to attracting controversy both from within the Society and from without. As this chapter demonstrates, accommodation should be seen as an array of dynamic and partially autonomous experiments that developed in a precarious context of interdependence and rivalry among the Asian missions.