Edition and Translation of Jesuit writings on Confirmation (1627), composed by Francisco Boldrino and compiled by Diego de San Francisco (AFIO 23-8)

Abstract

In the second decade of the 17th century, several years after Christianity was banned in Japan, the missionaries who had decided not to leave the country were suffering harsh persecution that ended in the next decade with the death, expulsion, or apostasy of all of them. In this context, there were still rough disputes between Jesuits and the mendicant orders, initiated in the previous century with discussions over the respective rights on the evangelization of Japan. This paper presents the edition and translation of the manuscript AFIO 23-8, which gives an account of an almost unknown episode of this long confrontation between religious orders, occurred in present-day Tōhoku area in 1627. The origin of this conflict was the administration by the Franciscans of the sacrament of Confirmation to the Japanese converts of this region. The edited and translated document includes two liturgical treatises in Japanese by the Jesuit Francisco Boldrino against this Franciscan practice, and the answer to these objections in Spanish by the Franciscan friar Diego de San Francisco. This document, of great linguistic and historical interest, reveals that Jesuits and mendicants continued arguing about different aspects of the evangelization of Japan until practically the last years of missionary activities in Japan.