Congregacao and the Ranking of Non-Jesuits in Asia : The Relationship between Dojuku in Japan and Catechista in Tonkin

Abstract

In this paper the author attempts to show how the missionary activity of the Society of Jesus in Tonkin and Japan could not have been carried out in the initial stages of the propagation of the faith without the cooperation and assistance of native lay Christians. He first tries to grasp the concrete functions of native preachers and catechists assisting the Jesuit missionaries. Then, looking at their treatment at the hands of the Jesuits he analyzes their relationship to the Society and their position within its organization. Starting with the problem of the ranking of dojuku inside the Christian Church in Japan, the author observes that Japanese dojuku were granted privileges and given recognition through the rank of "dojuku of the congregation" and confirms that they organized their own community. As there are no native sources from the seventeenth century concerning the activity and role of the catequista at the time of the initial propagation of the faith in Tonkin, the author was forced to rely on the documents left by the missionaries themselves. However, even according to these documents, the catequista in Tonkin played the same important role as their counterparts dojuku in Japan. Pointing out that the missionaries who were expelled from Tonkin by its king would quickly organize a team of catequista and a community of native Christians, the author clarifies the nature of these organizations. He is able to prove that these missionaries took the idea for such organizations directly from the experience of the Society with the "dojuku of the congregation" in Japan. Furthermore, the Jesuit missionaries in Tonkin used the title tai, which was employed in the Buddhist Church in Tonkin, to rank the catequista authorized to teach as "tai-catequista". From this we can see how they pragmatically adapted the ranking system known to them from the example of the Japanese Buddhists to the local conditions prevailing in Tonkin. Thus having shown how the "tai-catequista" of Tonkin correspond to the "dojuku of the congregation" in Japan, the author concludes that both groups were truly indispensable to early Jesuit missionary activities in East Asia.