Some time after these episodes, an edict
appeared, commanding every Jesuit to quit the country within twenty
days. There were at this time sixty-five foreign missionaries in the
country.
Then began a series of persecutions, which, however, were carried on
spasmodically and locally, but not universally or with system. Bitter in
some places, they were neutralized or the law became a dead letter, in
other parts of the realm. It is estimated that ten thousand new converts
were made in the single year, 1589, that is, the second year after the
issue of the edict, and again in the next year, 1590. It might even be
reasonable to suppose that, had the work been conducted wisely and
without the too open defiance of the letter of the law, the awful sequel
which history knows, might not have been.
Let us remember that the Duke of Alva, the tool of Philip II., failing
to crush the Dutch Republic had conquered Portugal for his master. The
two kingdoms of the Iberian peninsula were now united under one crown.
Spain longed for trade with Japan, and while her merchants hoped to
displace their Portuguese rivals, the Spanish Franciscans not scrupling
to wear a political cloak and thus override the Pope's bull of
world-partition, determined to get a foothold alongside of the Jesuits.
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