The Roman Catholic effort began in 1293, when
John de Corvino succeeded in reaching Peking.
The failure of his effort was followed by two and
a half centuries of silence, and then, in 1552, the
heroic Francis Xavier set his face towards China,
only to be prostrated by fever on the Island of
Sancian. As he despairingly realized that he
would never be able to set his foot on that still im-
penetrable land, he moaned: "Oh, Rock, Rock,
when wilt thou open?" and passed away. In
1581, another Jesuit, Matteo Ricci, entered Can-
ton in the guise of a Buddhist priest. He managed
to remain, and twenty years later he went to Pe-
king. In him Roman Catholicism gained a per-
manent foothold in China, and although it was
often fiercely persecuted and at times reduced to
feebleness, it never became wholly extinct. Grad-
ually it extended its influence until, in 1672, the
priests reported 300,000 baptized Chinese, in-
cluding children. In the nineteenth century, the
growth of the Roman Church was rapid. It is
now strongly intrenched in all the Provinces, and
in most of the leading cities its power is great.
There are to-day 1,201 foreign priests, 550 Chi-
nese priests, 291 lay brothers, 3,846 sisters, 6,025
churches and chapels, 986,168 members, 426,480
catechumens, 5,621 schools and 514 charitable in-
stitutions. ¹

-95-