News from the Province of Filipinas, This Year, 1621


By letters which we have received from Japon this January, 1621,
we heard how bitterly the persecution of God's religion is carried
on in Boxu, the country of Masamune, [1] who has been accustomed
to send embassies to Spain in past years. The spread of the holy
gospel and uninterrupted preaching went on until the return of the
ambassador. Hitherto Masamune had dissimulated for reasons of state,
hoping that he would be allowed to send one ship from his kingdoms to
Nueva España, where he had large interests. Seeing that this would
not be conceded, he commenced to persecute Christians openly and
secretly. On the twentieth of September, 1620, he ordered prohibitions
and edicts to be issued in various places, in which it was ordered
that no one should receive the religion of God; and that all those
who had adopted it should abandon it, under penalty of being deprived
of the property and incomes which the chiefs of equal rank hold from
the tono [_i.e._, daimio], while in the case of the common people,
the plebeians, they should be put to death. He also commanded that
any person having any knowledge of any Christian should denounce
him; and that all preachers of the holy gospel should leave his
kingdom and state. In case that they would not abandon the religion
which they preached, the officials of Masamune commenced to execute
their orders. Many were therefore banished and dispossessed of their
property, others abandoned the faith, and to six fell the best lot
of all in giving up their lives, being beheaded for this reason.