Chapter 743: The Crisis of Faith

Johann Adam Schall von Bell got his wish and soon obtained an audience with Pope Innocent X. The moment he saw the Pope, he was startled by the man's appearance.

The Pope had the most ferocious and cunning face Schall had ever seen. The features were not quite symmetrical, the forehead was bald, and the whole looked somewhat misshapen, which made him appear all the more savage and irascible.

The Pope wore a white cassock with a red shoulder cape and a red cap on his head, sitting upright and solemn in the audience hall of the Vatican Palace. Beside him stood a cardinal of refined appearance and gentle expression.

After composing himself, Schall walked to the papal throne, knelt, and kissed the Pope's shoe, then kissed the back of the Pope's outstretched hand, and addressed him in Latin as "Holy Father."

"Brother Schall, welcome back to Rome," the Pope said, his voice somewhat hoarse. "The Superior General of the Society of Jesus has already told me that the work of spreading the Gospel has encountered some difficulties in the East?"

"Holy Father, we have encountered enormous difficulties!" Schall looked deeply anguished. Even now he still believed that Zhu Cilang had once seen an angel, and he believed that what had happened in the Great Ming over the past few years was a miracle.

But the Catholic Church in the Great Ming — no, not only in the Great Ming, but throughout the entire Eastern world — had run into great trouble.

The Pope thought for a moment, then countered, "But the number of churches and believers is growing!"

Zhu Cilang's open-door policy was of course favorable to the spread of Catholicism in China, so the figures sent to the Pope by the Jesuits and the Dominicans looked very impressive.

The number of churches and converts had grown year after year, and the missionary situation appeared excellent.

But this growth was without quality — most of the growth consisted of "free customers," and it was very difficult to convert them into "paying customers." So the Catholic Church in the Eastern world truly faced enormous difficulties!

The Catholic Church relied on tithes and the donations of believers to sustain its operations. If all who joined were poor people from the lowest rungs of society, then the Church could not make ends meet!

Schall shook his head. "Holy Father, we will soon face a grave crisis of faith!"

The Pope was somewhat surprised. "What? A crisis of faith? Is it that serious?"

"Yes!" Schall replied. "For the missionary enterprise in China, the crisis will be fundamental!"

"A fundamental crisis?" the Pope asked. "What exactly has happened?"

Schall took out a Latin translation of the Zilun Gewu Pian and handed it to the Pope with both hands. "Holy Father, this is a work of ancient Chinese philosophy that has just been discovered. It was written by Confucius of China in the last years of his life. Its value is extremely high, but for unknown reasons it was not transmitted down to us. Only recently, when Confucius's tomb was robbed by the Tartar regent Dorgon, were the buried bamboo slips recording the contents of the Zilun Gewu Pian discovered."

Dorgon had advanced another step and become a leading figure in the international tomb-robbing world!

"How could a philosophical work..."

The Pope took the Latin edition of the Zilun Gewu Pian and read a few pages. "It looks somewhat like the work of Aristotle..." He thought for a moment. "Europe has such things too. It may pose a slight threat to the faith, but it would hardly amount to a crisis."

If one compared the position of the Catholic and Orthodox Churches in European social life before and after the Renaissance, he would not have said that!

"Holy Father," Schall shook his head, "as a servant of the Lord with a deep understanding of Chinese Confucianism, I know very well the great significance of the Zilun Gewu Pian for Confucianism. Confucianism will gain a tool for seeking out the Lord!"

"Seeking out the Lord!" The Pope's already ferocious face suddenly turned hideous. "That is blasphemy against the Lord!"

According to Catholic regulations, Christians may not bypass God's servants and commune with the Lord on their own.

"Holy Father," Schall nodded and said, "but Chinese Confucianism does not quite see it that way. They believe there exists some mysterious connection, unknown to us, between the Lord and man. They call it: the unity of Heaven and man.

And the act of seeking out the Lord they call: exhausting principle to attain knowledge.

They believe that all things possess principle — that is, all things, like man, have some connection to the house of the Lord. As long as one studies all things, one can find the Lord. They call it: investigating things to extend knowledge."

Even Van Diemen, that Dutch profiteer, knew that the system Zhu Cilang had set up was thorny, let alone Schall. Schall simply did not say so to Zhu Cilang's face, but he could not by any means conceal the matter from the Pope.

In a grave tone he said: "Although Confucianism has always sought to probe the principle of Heaven, for more than a thousand years, because the Zilun Gewu Pian had been lost, Chinese Confucian scholars had no tool by which to reach the Lord through the investigation of all things. This caused Confucianism to stagnate, and some among them began to doubt the path of 'investigating things to extend knowledge in order to exhaust principle.' It was this that allowed the Gospel of the Lord to spread.

And knowledge of natural philosophy spread together with the Gospel of the Lord precisely because China's Confucian scholars had not yet completely abandoned the arrogant notion of 'investigating things to extend knowledge in order to exhaust principle.' But now, they have a better tool! This means the universal Church will face an enormous crisis throughout East Asia!"

Seeking the principle of Heaven — or seeking the great Dao, or seeking God, Allah, and the like — has always been one of the driving forces behind the advancement of science!

And Confucianism's zeal for seeking the Dao and exhausting principle is by no means inferior to that of the three revealed religions. The claim that Confucianism did not value natural philosophy and therefore caused Chinese science and technology to lag behind is basically made by people who have read little of the Confucian classics.

In fact, Confucianism also has its "ultimate questions," and it too desires to probe the truth of all things in the universe. Moreover, Confucianism also knows that all things possess principle, and that one must investigate all things in order to extend knowledge.

But the problem is that Confucianism had the demand but lacked the tool, so the demand could not be converted into a driving force.

"Why the whole of East Asia?" the cardinal standing beside the Pope suddenly interjected.

"Brother Schall," the Pope said, pointing to the cardinal, "this is Brother Fabio Chigi, the cardinal in charge of the Holy See's diplomatic affairs."

"The Chigi of Siena?" Schall pressed.

The Chigi family of Siena was one of Rome's foremost great houses, a financial dynasty, enormously wealthy. In later times the official residence of the Prime Minister of the Italian Republic would be called the Palazzo Chigi — it was their family's old house.

"Exactly." The cardinal nodded. "Brother Schall, can you answer my question?"

"Your Eminence," Schall replied, "because China is the Rome of the East. It is the Celestial Empire, and east of Malacca it possesses extraordinary influence!"

"But has that country not already declined?" the cardinal asked.

"It is only a temporary decline," Schall said. "Once the Great Ming rouses itself, its former vassals will quickly return to its side.

And the Great Ming has already begun to rouse itself. In order to find outlets and food for its surplus population, it has already begun to return to the seas. Annam and Siam have already returned and become vassals of the Celestial Empire!"

"Surplus population? How many?" the cardinal asked.

"There are one hundred and thirty million. In just the eight provinces of the Four Rivers, the Two Lakes, Fujian, and Guangdong — an area roughly equal to the combined territory of France and Spain proper — there are one hundred and twenty million people!"

"So many people!"

"Good Lord! With so little land, how can they eat their fill?"

Both the Pope and the cardinal were greatly shocked and crossed themselves.

France had only a little over sixteen million people. Richelieu and Mazarin, those two "cardinal prime ministers," had no shortage of worries over the problem of bread for the French people. One hundred and twenty million was nearly six times the combined population of France and Spain proper. With so little land, if they did not go out and seize, what were they to do? And seizing could not rely on swords alone — it had to be paired with faith and culture!

The expansion of the Great Ming would inevitably bring the expansion of Confucianism!

"With an excess of population and truth in their hands, they will naturally seek an outlet outward!" Schall said. "Therefore the universal Church's enterprise in the East will face an extreme crisis!"

(End of Chapter)