M. Antoni J. Üçerler
· 2022
Abstract
Chapter 5 introduces Alonso Sánchez, a Spanish Jesuit in the Philippines who advocated for armed intervention to force the Chinese to accept foreign missionaries. He was convinced that ‘peaceful preaching’ was not possible. His ‘Chinese enterprise’ found support from the secular and ecclesiastical authorities in the Philippines, who found themselves in dire economic straits. Elected to represent them at court, Sánchez’s proposal elicited a veritable storm of opposition from both Alessandro Valignano and Antonio de Mendoza, superior of the Jesuits in Mexico. Valignano feared possible repercussions on the Japanese mission. As a result, the Jesuit General, Claudio Acquaviva, appointed the Jesuit missionary in Peru, José de Acosta, to accompany Sánchez from New Spain to Europe and to prevent him from speaking to Philip II about conquest. The Dominicans in Spain also denounced him, even though the bishop of Manila, Domingo de Salazar, had initially backed Sánchez’s plans for ‘imperial evangelism’.