I, the Ming Dynasty, can still save me

Chapter 660 Sun Yuanhua in Rome
After this matter is finalized, Sun Yuanhua's mission in Spain will be over.

So under the arrangement of Felipe IV, he took Xu Xiake and others to travel around to learn about the customs and customs of Spain, especially the relevant information of the New World.

In order to close the relationship with the Ming Dynasty, and also to show off Spain's national power.The accompanying Spanish aristocratic officials knew everything about Sun Yuanhua, and finally let Sun Yuanhua understand the entire process of Spain's discovery of the New World.

Among them, he even learned about the feats of Vasco da Gama, Columbus, Magellan and others, and couldn't help but sigh that the Europeans were really superior, and they were able to sail long distances without fear of dangers.

But as he learned more and more, he also gradually learned about the various evil deeds of the Spaniards against the American natives in the New World. They plundered the natives for gold and treasure, and at worst destroyed the country and enslaved the people. They slaughtered wantonly and committed various crimes. It can be said that it is too numerous to write down.

This can't help but make Sun Yuanhua's favorable impression of Europeans greatly reduced. It seems that these people are also ambitious people, combined with what he has seen and heard in India and Africa before.

He secretly thought that if the Ming Dynasty's national power weakened, the Europeans would definitely take advantage of it and would not treat them as kindly as they do today.

However, this line of work really opened his eyes. He recorded what he saw, heard, and thought in a book for easy reference when he went back.

Not only him, but also his subordinates, especially Xu Xiake.

After getting on the ship in Shanghai, although it was very uncomfortable to take the ship along the way, what he saw along the way in the Southeast Asian islands, India, Africa, and now in Europe opened his eyes and broadened his horizons.

He no longer sticks to the Ming Dynasty and wants to see further places, especially the New World. He heard that there are rare and exotic animals, there are many deep mountains and rainforests, and the customs and customs are very different from the Ming Dynasty and even Europe, which makes him yearn for it.

After Sun Yuanhua and his party stayed in Spain for more than two months, they bid farewell to Felipe IV and prepared to leave for their next stop, Rome.

As one of the most loyal believers in Catholicism, Felipe IV was naturally extremely happy, so he sent someone to escort Sun Yuanhua and his party all the way to Rome.

By the time we arrived in Rome, it was already March, and the Holy See attached great importance to Sun Yuanhua's arrival.Not only was Sun Yuanhua an envoy to the Ming Dynasty, but more importantly, he was a Catholic.

It can be said that the second identity is what makes them pay more attention to it.

In their view, the fact that the Ming Dynasty actually sent Sun Yuanhua as an envoy to Europe meant that the entire Ming Dynasty was stepping into the light of God. Therefore, everyone in the Holy See regarded Sun Yuanhua's mission as a major victory in his missionary work in the East.

Sun Yuanhua, who was about to arrive in Rome, did not yet know its significance to the Holy See. Instead, he was still busy visiting historical monuments in Italy.

When he communicated with Matteo Ricci, Tang Ruowang and others before, he speculated that the location of Rome was probably the location of the ancient Qin Dynasty.Therefore, before he came, he deliberately read the records about Rome in the Han Dynasty and learned that its city walls were made of stone and its palaces were made of water essences as pillars. He wanted to wait until he got to Rome to see whether the content in the Han Dynasty was correct.

But before he arrived in Rome, when he stepped into the land of Italy and saw the ruins of ancient Rome under the guidance of the nobles along the way, he found that Han Shu was not deceiving him. As expected, ancient Rome used stone as its city wall. The palaces are all built with water essences as pillars.

When they all entered Rome, Sun Yuanhua was even more surprised by the many ancient Roman buildings in the city. However, these things he saw along the way were not as important as meeting the Pope.

The day after Sun Yuanhua arrived in Rome, he met with Pope Urban VIII in the name of the Ming envoy.

For Sun Yuanhua, the envoy of this great Eastern country, the Roman Church also held a grand welcome ceremony. Hundreds of papal guards guarded Sun Yuanhua and others in Ming dynasty uniforms.Along the road, people kept scattering flowers and laying them in front of Sun Yuanhua and his party, which was extremely solemn and grand.Fortunately, Sun Yuanhua is also a person who has seen the world, and he is not surprised by all this.

So under the guidance of the Bishop of Rome, Sun Yuanhua and his party successfully met the current Pope Urban VIII in Peter's Basilica.

As before, Sun Yuanhua submitted the Ming Dynasty credentials to Urban VIII and expressed his intention of visiting.However, just as Sun Yuanhua was interested in Europe, Urban VIII and other members of the Holy See were full of curiosity about everything about the Ming Dynasty.

Not only did he ask Sun Yuanhua and others in detail about the customs, territory, history, etc. of the Ming Dynasty, but he also asked Sun Yuanhua and the Jesuit missionary situation in the Ming Dynasty.

Sun Yuanhua has already answered these questions for Lisbon and Madrid.Now he reiterated it to the Pope again, and also focused on the development of Catholicism in the Ming Dynasty.

Especially now that Tang Ruowang and others were reused by the Ming emperor to translate Western works, and they were also allowed to participate in the compilation of the Ming calendar, he described it with thick ink and pen.

At the end, Sun Yuanhua introduced the spread of Catholicism in the Ming Dynasty, especially explaining that his teacher, Xu Guangqi, who also believed in Catholicism, had been appointed by the emperor as Minister of Industry, and was the most powerful person in the entire Ming Empire from the emperor down. One of several people.These words undoubtedly proved the success of the Jesuit missionary mission in the Ming Dynasty. Everyone in the Holy See nodded repeatedly, and some were even overjoyed.Although they already knew some of the information, it was different to hear it from the people involved in Ming Dynasty.

Seeing that the Pope and the bishops looked good, Sun Yuanhua took the opportunity to express a question of his.

That is, the spread of Catholicism in China was very good before, although this was due to the contribution of Western learning.But more importantly, the missionary methods represented by Matteo Ricci were very good.

For example, Matteo Ricci regarded Confucianism as Catholicism, and at the same time allowed the scholar-officials to kneel down to worship Confucius and worship their ancestors. He even wore Confucian clothes and sat with the scholar-officials to discuss Taoism, which doubled the scholar-officials' favorable impression of him and made it easier for them to accept Catholicism.

But by the time these fanatical missionaries thought that Ricci was too accommodating to the Chinese, it had affected the "purity" of Catholicism, and the number of believers was too slow.After Matteo Ricci's death, he began to change Ricci's missionary route, adopted a radical missionary approach, resolutely rejected Confucianism, and strictly prohibited Chinese religious people from worshiping heaven, ancestors, and Confucius.

This led to the "Nanjing Mission Case" during the Wanli period, which directly led to the ban on Catholic missionary work, which has not been lifted until now.

Therefore, Sun Yuanhua came to Rome during his trip. In addition to visiting the Pope as an envoy of the Ming Dynasty, he also asked the Pope as a believer to allow him to use the same missionary method as Matteo Ricci in the Ming Dynasty.

However, as soon as these words came out, Urban VIII and others immediately looked puzzled, even a little surprised, and the atmosphere of the entire meeting became a little deserted.

There is no other reason than that Ricci's actions such as allowing Chinese believers to offer sacrifices and kneel down to worship Confucius were his personal missionary actions, which can be said to be against the rules of the Society of Jesus.Originally, the Jesuits and the Holy See didn't know anything about it, but it didn't matter.

But since learning about this a few years ago, there has been a huge debate within the Society of Jesus on whether to allow Chinese believers to worship heaven, ancestors, and Confucius.

In the end, in order to maintain the purity of Catholicism, Chinese believers are prohibited from doing whatever they want.However, this regulation is only an internal decision of the Society of Jesus, and the Pope is not aware of it.

Therefore, Urban was surprised and angry when he heard what the Ming envoy Sun Yuanhua said. However, he could not immediately reply to Sun Yuanhua. He could only say that the matter was important and they needed to discuss it.

Sun Yuanhua also seemed to have guessed something, so he didn't say anything, saying that he was waiting for good news.Within the next two months, they stayed in Rome, learning about the local customs and waiting for news from the Holy See.

Until May, Sun Yuanhua and others were impatient to wait, and the tasks assigned to him by the emperor had not yet been completed.It's just that they don't understand the language. Although they have learned some Latin in the past six months, it is still difficult to communicate with the locals, so they can only wait helplessly.

After Sun Yuanhua said this, the matter, which was originally only discussed within the Society of Jesus, quickly became fermented in the Holy See and was discussed intensely.

So just when Sun Yuanhua was about to leave, the Holy See finally came to the conclusion of the discussion, and Pope Urban VIII immediately summoned Sun Yuanhua to give him an answer.

When Sun Yuanhua heard this, he immediately went to meet him with great expectations, but when he met, the whole occasion was much more serious than before.And before Sun Yuanhua could say anything, Urban VIII said sternly that since the Ming Dynasty believers believe in God, they must follow the rules of the Catholic Church. No one is allowed to worship heaven, ancestors, or Confucius. Anyone who violates this will be expelled. If you leave the teachings, you will have to go to hell to be punished if you lose.

This result made Sun Yuanhua very dissatisfied, but he had no choice but to accept the Pope's decision.But now that the matter was over, he had no reason to stay in Rome.

So he finally made a request to the Pope again as an envoy of the Ming Dynasty.

That is, the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty had long heard that there was a master named Galileo in Italy. The Emperor of the Ming Dynasty admired his talent very much, so he hoped to hire Galileo to teach in the Ming Dynasty, and promised to give Galileo the most generous treatment.

When Urban VIII heard this, he couldn't help but be a little surprised, secretly thinking that even the emperor of the Eastern Empire knew about Galileo's reputation.

However, he was different from others. He established a friendly relationship with Galileo when he was a cardinal. However, he hated Galileo's promotion of Copernicus's doctrine and did not allow him to defend Copernicus.

However, Galileo insisted on his own opinion and always defended Copernicus. As a result, he was persecuted by the Roman Inquisition from 1615, and even Urban VIII could not protect him.

Now seeing that his old friend was favored by the Ming Emperor, he was naturally willing to be a favor and keep Galileo away from the place of right and wrong.So he immediately agreed and asked people to take Sun Yuanhua to the University of Pisa to find Galileo.

(End of this chapter)