TWO THOUSAND :ARS OF MISSIONS BEFORE CAREY LEMUEL CALL BARNES THE ADVANCED CHRISTIAN CULTURE COURSES VOLUME II TWO THOUSAND YEARS OF MISSIONS BEFORE CAREY i Cwo thousand Years of missions Before Carey BASED UPON AND EMBODYING MANY OF EARLIEST EXTANT ACCOUNTS LEMUEL CALL BARNES 9 MINISTER, FOURTH AVENUE CHURCH PITTSBURG WITH MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS FOURTH EDITION CHICAGO THE CHRISTIAN CULTURE PRESS 1902 COPYRIGHT, 1900 BY WJMUm, CAW. BARNES ElectrotypeZ^^, ^ Second Edition, Oct., 1901 Third Edition, Feb., 1902 Fourth Edition, May 1902 Fifth Edition, May 1902 To THE TWO Who Have Done Most To Kindle and To Foster My Interest in Missions, MOTHER AND WIFE FORESPEECH. It is said that Shakspere owed much of his broad mental vision to the accounts of the world's explora- tion made available in English by Richard Hakluyt and that Milton was still deeper in debt to the same work. A large outlook on God's world is the necessary basis of lofty inspiration. But the "Principal Navigations" of missionary enterprise have never been brought together in any one book or set of books. After pre- paring the copious bibliography of missions for the London Conference in 1888, Dr. Jackson, Secretary of the American Society of Church History, said in the journal of that society : We have some short histories which try to give an outline of the story : e. g., Mr. Smith's "Short History of Christian Missions." . . . But no one who is interested in the sub- ject thinks of being satisfied with a few pages written at second hand on the story of the spread of Christianity during 1800 years. The list of slight but helpful sketches has been in- creased since 1888. On special fields, periods or phases of mission work discussions of great value and real scholarship have been published, e. g., Dennis' "Christian Missions and Social Progress" and Noble's "Redemption of Africa." There are books almost without number on missions of the nineteenth century vii Viii FORESPEECH. "The Missionary Century." Those books which pay some attention to a longer period give but little space to the earlier times and next to none to any time be- tween the primitive and the recent times, except for the Continent of Europe. The bibliography of the New York Conference of 1900 will show the gap of 1888 still unfilled. All the missions originating in Europe for one thou- sand years half of the period assigned us for study were of necessity Roman Catholic missions. The ne- glect to consider these would be inexcusable in the present work. The largest missionary library in America has made no 'effort to procure books on Roman Catholic missions. Most Protestant accounts of missions ignore the Roman missions or touch them but slightly, not to say slightingly. In like manner the only Roman Catholic history of missions in gen- eral treats of Protestant missions for the avowed pur- pose of disparagement. The present work is an en- deavor to treat all missions of all denominations before the era of Carey with critical, but perfectly friendly, fairness. The mass of scattered details to be kept in mind at once in a continuous history of world-wide missions is so great that chronological treatment of the whole together would be unavoidably confusing. A geo- graphical framework lends itself far more surely to unity and clear-cut outlines. A chronological con- spectus is furnished in a table at the end. The events on each field are considered for the most part in the order of their occurrence. FORESPEECH. IX No space has been taken to consider matters which are perfectly germane, are, in fact, a part of the whole theme of missions in a country, such as its geography, its racial types, its language and literature, its general history in the period considered, its theology, above all its morals. Even the sources, resources and machin- ery of the missionary work have had to be omitted or but incidentally treated. That vital half known as the home side of foreign missions would require and de- serves a separate treatise. Some of the territory surveyed here as being covered by prosperous Christian missions was afterwards lost to Christianity. Part of it has not been recovered to this day. But our line of study is not the history of Christianity in any part of the world, it is the story of the propagation of Christianity in every part of the world. Efforts to reconvert or proselyte are not within our aim. For help rendered it is a pleasure to record grati- tude to the British Museum and all the large libraries of Boston and vicinity, New York, Baltimore, Wash- ington and Chicago. There is multiform and extended obligation to the library composed of more than one hundred thousand volumes which the city of Pitts- burg has gathered in the buildings provided for the purpose by Mr. Carnegie. This collection has been made in five years with the highest judgment, and is administered in the true missionary temper by Mr. E. H. Anderson and his able assistants. Inability to name each separate author who has helped in the preparation of the work is deeply re.- X FORESPEECH. gretted. The Bibliography attached can only in part cover the need. The debt of gratitude of one who at- tempts to write a history in even one department cov- ering the whole earth during two thousand years is simply incalculable. The findings of fact by other students have been freely used and have been often the only dependence for information. But very few quotations have been indulged from second-hand ac- counts, however enticing. On the other hand, the pages have been freely en- riched with quotations from the primary sources of in- formation, so that the reader may have the privilege of seeing for himself and building in his own way on the original foundations of knowledge concerning the subject before him. This, which is always refreshing, is peculiarly desirable in a field like the present, about many parts of which available writings are so few that it is impracticable for the general reader to correct the view of one student by that of another. Thus, so far as the plan of the work and the limitations of the author allowed, the reader has been made an original student. It is more spiritually enkindling to walk in the light than it is to walk in some reflection of it, espe- cially some second, third, or, perhaps, thirteenth, re- flection. The aim has been, however, to introduce the words of even the primary authors, never merely for the sake of the special enjoyment they give, but only when they have such clearness without need of com- ment and such progress of thought as to directly carry on the narrative. FORESPEECH. Xl The extant records of the later generations of mis- sions are naturally more full than of the earlier. Yet the most significant record of all is that of the first thirty-four years of Christian missions given us in the Gospels and the Acts. Quotations from these earliest of all extant accounts are made in the rendering of the Twentieth Century New Testament. It is hoped that no important missionary effort which is on record during the Two Thousand Years has failed of mention. But limitations of space have required plain and condensed statement. Too often repression of incident and of glowing appreciation has been un- avoidable. Opportunity for the necessary research, in the midst of the duties of an exactirfg pastorate, has been possible only by the kindness of a church which is in fact as well as in theory devoted to missions a peo- ple who endeavor to pray with deep sincerity, "Thy kingdom come." If this little study in missions is of any use to the cause, the contribution is theirs. In addition to valuable suggestions from several per- sonal friends, there is one nearer still, a most sympathet- ic and earnest coadjutor in every missionary purpose of life, who has assisted in the present work by obtaining material from Spanish sources and writing much of chapter X, besides making the Index of Names and Subjects and rendering invaluable aid in the finishing of the whole book. CONTENTS. Part I-GENESIS OF MISSIONS. CHAPTER PAGE I ETHNIC MOVEMENTS MISSIONARY, - i II THE MESSIANIC RACE MISSIONARY, 13 III THE MESSIAH MISSIONARY, 33 Part II-DISTRIBUTION OF MISSIONS. Asia. IV SYRIA, - 46 V ASIA MINOR, - -59 VI PERSIA, - - 73 VII INDIA, 87 VIII CHINA AND TATARY, 107 IX CHINA AND TATARY ( Continued) , 1 32 X PHILIPPINE ISLANDS, 150 XI JAPAN AND FORMOSA, - 169 Africa. XII EGYPT AND ABYSSINIA, - 186 XIII NORTH AND WEST AFRICA, - 199 XIV SOUTH AFRICA, - - - 218 xiii CONTENTS. Europe. CHAPTER PAGE XV GREECE AND ITALY, - 228 XVI SPAIN AND FRANCE, - 248 XVII BRITAIN, IRELAND AND SCOTLAND, 257 XVIII ENGLAND, 273 XIX GERMANIC REGIONS, 293 XX SCANDINAVIAN AND SLAVONIC REGIONS, 311 Arctic Regions. XXI ICELAND, GREENLAND AND I