Japan and the Japanese

94 JAPAN. A. D. 1577 15SC.
eame duties of obedience which Dom Michael has renewed to us, in the namft
of your majesty ; whereupon we have tiiouglit proper to add you to the number
of our very dear children, the Catholic kings of the holy church. We have
seen, with much joy and satisfaction, the testimonies of your piety and re-
ligion ; and, to give you the means of increasing these in your heart, we have
sent you, by your before-named ambassador, inclosed in a cross of gold, a
piece of the cross to which was nailed Jesus Christ, King of kings and eternal
Priest, who, by the effusion of his blood, has made us also kings and
priests of the living God. We send you, also, a sword and hat, which we
have blessed, such as it is the custom of the Roman pontiff to send to all the
Catholic kings, and we pray the Lord to be the support of your majesty in
all your enterprises. According to the usage in the courts of the kings of
Europe, the sword and hat should be received at the end of a mass, to which
we shall attach a plenary indulgence for all sins for the benefit of all who
may assist thereat, and who, after having confessed themsehes, shall pray
for the tranquillity of the Catholic church, the salvation of the Christian,
princes, and the extirpation of heresies provided they have a true confidence
in the divine mercy, in the power which has been given to the holy apostles
Peter and Paul, and in that with which we are clothed. Given at Rome, at
St. Peter's, under the seal of the fisherman," &c.
From Rome, escorted out of the city with all honors, the ambassa-
dors went by way of Loretto, where they paid their devotions, to
Venice, and thence to Milan and Genoa, at which latter place
they embarked for Barcelona. They declined, as they had been so
long from home, a pressing invitation from Henry III. to visit
France, and, after a new audience with Philip II., they hastened to
sail from Lisbon on their return voyage, embarking April 13th,
1586.*
* The Letters, Briefs, and the Discourse on Obedience, above quoted, mny be
found at length in Latin, in the very valuable and rich collection, De Rebus Ja-
ponicis Intlicis and Peruvianis Epixtolce Recentiores, edited by John Hay,
of Dalgetty, a Scotch Jesuit, and a sharp controversialist, published in 1605 ;
in Sp.uiish, in Father Luys de Gusman's Historic tie los Jlfissiones, que
h.iin hcc'io los Rellijioses de la Campania de Jesus, fyc., published in 1601,
of which the larger part is devoted to the Japanese mission ; in Italian, in
Father Daniel Bat oil's Hisloria dela Compagnia de Gesu ; and in French, in
Charlevoix's Hisloire du Japan. An Italian history of the mission was printed
at Rome, 1585,
the same, I suppose, of which a Latin translation is given
In Hay's collection ; and a still rarer and more valuable one at Macao, in
1500, of which a further account will be