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Jaarboek voor Nederlandse Boekgeschiedenis. Jaargang 23 (2016)

Jaarboek voor Nederlandse Boekgeschiedenis. Jaargang 23

(2016)– [tijdschrift] Jaarboek voor Nederlandse Boekgeschiedenis–rechtenstatus Auteursrechtelijk beschermd

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illustratie
Figure 1. Peter Paul Rubens, Portrait of the Jesuit Nicolas Trigault in Chinese Costume, 1617. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York


Trude Dijkstra
It is said that...
The Chinese Rites Controversy in Dutch newspapers and periodicals in the seventeenth century

 
But you have to forgive [the Jesuits];
 
the times in which we live do not
 
bring forth any great Saints among
 
them and so they are of course
 
allowed to search for those some-
 
where else. And I do not doubt that
 
their Father [Le Comte] will soon be
 
making his journey to the moon to
 
look for someone whom he can add
 
to the Company [of Jesus], as the
 
Earth is not favourable for him. If he
 
goes there, I will wish him a good
 
trip and a speedy return; and if
 
he does not come back, I promise
 
that I will recite for him, rather than
 
for Confucius who is
 
damned, a de profunds.1
 
Pamphlet written on the occasion of
 
the censure of Louis Le Comte's
 
propositions by the
 
Sorbonne University of Paris, 19
 
October 1700.2

On 18 October 1700 eight deputies reported to the theology faculty of the Sorbonne University of Paris, which subsequently condemned the majority of nineteen passages taken from the works of Jesuit missionary Louis Le Comte (1655-1728) as false, erroneous, and foolhardy.3 The main reason for this censure was that Le Comte was defending the accommodating stance of the Jesuits in China towards Chinese Rites that the Society of Foreign Mission of Paris considered as idolatrous.4 Le Comte had been part of the

French Jesuit mission to China, sent by Louis xiv in the late 1680s.5 From the end of the sixteenth century onwards, the missionary efforts of the Society of Jesus in China had an important role in the communication of religion, science and culture between the Middle Kingdom and the West.6 With the arrival of the first missionaries, the Jesuits realized that China was a country with a vastly different and sophisticated civilization, and that, if they wished to be accepted into the host culture - let alone preach the gospel - they would have to adapt by not only learning the language, but also by accommodating indigenous cultural elements with Christianity. The strategy of cultural adaptation and even assimilation entailed more than just the comprehension of language, and the Jesuits soon started to wear the clothes of the Chinese literati and to interact with Confucian scholars.7 These adjustments by the Jesuits to the their host-culture were the results of complex cultural negotiations, which were made bearing the opportunities for the future growth of Christianity in China in mind. However, this long-term strategy of interculturation was jeopardized by the arrival in China of members from other Christian orders coming from Europe and reporting back to Rome. They maintained that the Jesuits had compromised too much of their own orthodoxy, especially by allowing Chinese Christians to continue conducting the so-called ‘Chinese Rites’: that is, those practices of honouring family ancestors and other formal Confucian and Chinese imperial rites. Dominican and Franciscan missionaries insisted that these Rites were idolatrous, and that Christian authorities in Europe had to take action.8 The Jesuits, on the other hand, maintained that the Rites were civil rather than religious, which meant that one could perform them and still be a faithful Christian. This dispute known as the ‘Chinese Rites Controversy’, mainly hinged on these kinds of issues, although it also incorporated a broader discussion about the question whether or not Jesuit influence in general was threatening political stability in Europe.9

Many historians and sinologists have concerned themselves with the Chinese Rites Controversy and the perception of Confucius in the West during the early modern period. However, these studies usually focus on France, England and Germany during the eighteenth century, when the Chinese artistic influence was at the height of its popularity. Little is known about the earlier Dutch origins of such European conceptions of China, and how the Dutch Republic functioned as a European hub of information on Asia in the seventeenth century. Furthermore, the Rites Controversy and Confucius have been mainly discussed within the realm of the history of religion or philosophy, without taking into account how the information was presented and distributed to a more general audience of early modern readers.

This article will explore how Confucius and the Chinese Rites Controversy were reported and discussed in newspapers and periodicals printed in the Dutch Republic. The source material consists of a selection of newspapers and periodicals printed and pub-

lished in the Dutch Republic between 1645 and 1715 (from the first mentioning of China until the papal bull Ex illa die condemning the Chinese Rites). The selection was based on papers and periodicals that explicitly mention China, Confucius or the Rites Controversy. In all, 298 reports discuss China in depth, while 467 tidings give notice of shippingnews and the arrival of Chinese produce.10 The main events concerning the Controversy unfurled at the turn of the eighteenth century, but earlier reports will also be taken into account as they shed light on an ongoing process of news coverage concerning China.

Since the Rites Controversy was a long debate, spanning several decades, the condemnation of the propositions of Louis Le Comte by the Sorbonne, mentioned in the opening quote, will serve as a case study. It will be used to analyze the way in which different newspapers and periodicals in Dutch and French printed in the Dutch Republic reported the same event, in which the sources and availability thereof must have been the same; and if a difference in (intended) audience influenced these accounts. The case of the Chinese Rites Controversy sheds light on the dissemination of news from China in Europe during the seventeenth century, when the Dutch Republic was Europe's primary entrepôt for both news and commodities from the Middle Kingdom.11

Moreover, the case offers an insight into how newspapers had an impact on the spread of information about China. It needs emphasising that the image of China in the context of early modern Dutch news goes beyond informing the reader about events from a far away country. First, the sources of information - in this case the Jesuits, and Dutch merchants - should be considered. These actors are by definition subjective, since they have their own goals and objectives in informing both their superiors, as well as the general public about China. In addition, early modern newspapers add a layer of interpretation through which the researcher must navigate. If ‘news on China’ is rephrased as ‘public opinion on a foreign country as presented in newspapers’ it becomes clear that the form of printed matter in which news is presented should also be taken into consideration.12 The

provision of news as found in newspapers and periodicals was per definition influenced by different factors and actors. Roeland Harms points out in his work on pamphlets and public opinion in early modern Europe that book historians have more than once shown that printers and publishers were mainly motivated by commercial interests, ‘many had as main goal to make as much money from the sale of a text as possible’.13 As we shall see in the way in which the Chinese Rites Controversy was reported, it were these commercial interests that heavily influence the way in which news from - and about China - is presented in newspapers and periodicals.



illustratie
Figure 2. Johan Nieuhof, Sineesche papen (Chinese high priests) Het gezantschap der Neêrlandtsche Oost-Indische Compagnie, aan den grooten Tartarischen Cham, den tegenwoordigen keizer van China. Amsterdam: Jacob van Meurs, 1665. Amsterdam, ub: 249 b 3


China and the Dutch Republic

The Chinese Rites Controversy was primarily a debate that took place within the Catholic regions of Europe, mainly in France and Italy. Because of this Catholic nature of the debate, the issue seemed of little or no importance to the Dutch Republic.14 However, during the seventeenth century, the Dutch Republic had become the European hub both for products from, information about and images of China. Merchants and missionaries were the main contributors to the growth of international connections and interactions in the early modern period, which facilitated global

circulation of knowledge. In the Dutch Republic, this distribution of information - and objects - was made possible by the Dutch East India Company (voc) and Jesuit missionaries.15 Although these two seemingly very different types of institutions - the voc was mainly Protestant, while the missionaries were fundamentally Catholic - did not necessarily depend on each other, they often shared interests and space. This mutually beneficial relation has been largely ignored, mainly due to Johan Nieuhof's account of the first embassy to China (1665), in which he partly blamed the failure of the mission on the role of Jesuit Johann Adam Schall von Bell.16 However, in recent years a more nuanced image of the relationship between missionaries and merchants emerged, which acknowledges the Jesuits' dependence on the trading companies for the transport of their correspondence and their travel between Asia en Europe.17 It has been suggested that from the second half of the seventeenth century onwards voc-merchants showed more interest in the learned knowledge of the Jesuits than of their French and English colleagues. So, the voc and the Society of Jesus were complementary and benefited from each other.18

Partly because of these middlemen supplying Dutchmen with information, the Dutch Republic became Europe's primary source for knowledge about Asia, and the Dutch perception of China had considerable significance for understanding early modern European culture in general.19

Dutch book production and trade reached its apogee during the seventeenth century, and had taken the whole of Europe for its market.20 It was Amsterdam that had outdistanced both its Dutch and its European competitors to become the most important centre for the production of printed material in Europe by the middle of the seventeenth century.21 Between 1595 and 1720 hundreds of books were printed in the Dutch Republic containing information on China, often embellished with beautifully executed illustrations.22 During the second half of the seventeenth century, new information about China inspired, infiltrated and affected many aspects of Dutch literature. From poetry, drama and other popular moral works, to satire, medical treatises and collections of historical curiosities and drama.23 The renowned Dutch poet Joost van den Vondel wrote a tragedy based on the events surrounding the 1644 Manchu Conquest of China, which was published in 1667.24 Vondel went so far as to describe China as ‘a noble diamond, which

sparkles divinely in the eyes’.25 The position of the Dutch Republic as the ‘bookshop of Europe’, combined with the availability of information and a great interest in China, resulted in a profound Dutch influence on the European image of China in Europe. Dutch artists, writers, cartographers, booksellers and craftsmen were the most prolific of all in the portrayal of the Middle Kingdom, a portrayal that also included news from China.26

Besides being the European nucleus for the production of books and pamphlets, Amsterdam and the Dutch Republic as a whole were an important centre for the production and distribution of newspapers and periodicals.27 Newspaper publications came to the Dutch Republic in 1618, first to Amsterdam.28 By 1645, this city alone had nine different newspapers while outside Amsterdam, newspapers appeared in Arnhem (1621), Delft (1623), The Hague (1635), Haarlem (1656), Utrecht (1658), Rotterdam (1666), and Leiden (1686).29 As media historian Otto Lankhorst points out in his article on newspapers in the Netherlands: ‘the wealth of publications coming off the Dutch presses in the seventeenth century, which is sometimes referred to as “the Dutch miracle”, certainly also included newspapers’.30

Readers were also provided with news in the form of the so-called Mercuren; periodicals in which news of recent months was summarized and ordered. Examples of these are the Hollandse Mercurius (1650 - 1690), the Europische Mercurius (1690 - 1756) and the Mercure historique et politique (1686 - 1782). In their compilation, editors probably made use of available national and international newspapers, which make the Mercuren a source which gives insight into the provision of news in the Dutch Republic, besides pointing to news items which were of enduring interest.31 As Joop W. Koopmans of the University of Groningen points out, these periodicals were were separate medium, with distinct characteristics, with a contemporary significance that differed from newspapers.32 The reason for publication - aside from commercial purposes - must have been ‘the coherent and regular presentation and preservation of information about important and interesting topics [...] for contemporary and later generations.’33 News from a certain period was presented with explanation and comment. Topics in periodicals - such as China or the Rites Controversy - were presented in a more ‘interrelated way and with more persuasive authority’ compared to newspapers.

The Dutch Republic did not only produce news in the Dutch language. To put the process of news reporting into context, some notes on the publication of French-language newspapers in the Dutch Republic are necessary. Since the Northern Netherlands had become an important refuge for French Huguenot exiles, the journalistic climate

changed and also included a sizable French-language press.34 These newspapers existed alongside their Dutch counterparts, but had a different reading public. While Dutch-language newspapers were confined to the Low Countries through the language in which they were published, the reading public of French-language newspapers was more widespread. Le Gazette d'Amsterdam was the first Dutch journal in French, published in the second half of the seventeenth century.35 More would follow, of which Le Gazette de Leyde would eventually be the most celebrated. The French-language press contributed to the fame of the Dutch Republic, as a symbol of freedom and tolerance in the international Republic of Letters.36 By the end of the seventeenth century, publishers in five towns in the province of Holland were printing French newspapers: Amsterdam, The Hague, Leiden, Utrecht, and Rotterdam.



illustratie
Figure 3. Jan Luyken, title page of the Europische Mercurius of 1700. Amsterdam: Timotheus ten Hoorn, 1700. Amsterdam, ub ubm z 256


These

newspapers were usually directed by French Huguenot refugees, whose situation, aptitudes, and needs - according to G.C. Gibbs - ‘ideally fitted them for the role of journalists’.37 Written in French and produced by their fellow countrymen, the gazettes de Hollande were primarily intended for an audience of French exiles. Louis xiv's expulsion of Huguenots created a substantial audience of French readers in the rest of Europe and beyond, but it was the Dutch Republic that attracted the largest number of permanent settlers. According to one nineteenth-century historian, this made the country: ‘a second France on the very border of the kingdom, but a free France’.38 But the audience for French-language newspapers was not limited to the Huguenot diaspora.

The seventeenth century saw a growing public of Dutch people who were literate in French. Even though Latin remained the language of scholarship and education, the opportunities to learn, read, speak and write in French increased over the course of the century. This development was further stimulated by the presence of Walloon communities which acted as centres of French culture. The popularity of the gazettes de Hollande in France was immense, regardless of the high prices due to costs of transport, and the persistent efforts of the French government to curtail the spread of French news from the Dutch Republic. The commanding position of these Dutch newspapers was such that in 1744 a newspaper with the title Observateur Hollandois was founded in Potsdam; a paper that had absolutely nothing to do with Holland but which ‘attempted to invest Prussian journalism with something of the reflected glory of Dutch journalism’.39 Thus, in the course of the eighteenth century, the French-language newspapers printed in the Dutch Republic were commanding a widespread European audience, which transcended national boundaries and identities, while the Dutch market was serviced by newspapers in their own language.40

The case of Le Comte

In his Nouveaux mémoires sur l'état présent de la Chine (1696), Louis Le Comte was continuing a practice that had started when the first Jesuit missionaries reached China at the end of the sixteenth century, which centred around a policy of accommodation of Confucian rites. This ‘Jesuit creation of a Confucian-Christian synthesis’,41 led to allegations coming from various other Catholic orders that the Jesuits had created ‘a Christian veneer under which Confucianism still flourished’, allegations that would result in the Chinese Rites Controversy. Louis Le Comte entered the debate with the publication of his work on China in Paris in 1696.42 Le Comte had been to China as part of a mission sent by Louis xiv, but returned to France after only three and a half years with the task to inform his superiors of the situation in the Middle Kingdom.43 Despite his relative lack of first-hand experience in China, Le Comte's work was highly

popular. This was probably due to the book's cheap octavo size, its popular writing style and large typeface. It was reprinted several times, and before the turn of the century translations had appeared in Dutch, Italian, German and English. Because it was seen as propaganda for the Jesuit mission in China, and due to its popularity, the Nouveaux mémoires was a very convenient target for those with anti-Jesuit sentiments.

Four years after its publication the book was brought before the Sorbonne Faculty of Theology for examination. This examination centred on five propositions made by Le Comte: that the Chinese had preserved knowledge of the true (i.e. Christian) God; that they had sacrificed with true devotion to that God for two thousand years; his explanation on the views of Confucius on sainthood and saints; the idea that the Chinese nation was truly favoured among nations; and finally that the Chinese emperor need not regard Christianity as a foreign religion. The deliberations by the Sorbonne theologians took two months, and involved thirty meetings at which 160 academics expressed their opinions. On October 17th 1700, the Sorbonne voted 114 to 46 in favour of censure. The propositions were judged separately, and all five were declared ‘false and rash’. Of the newspapers printed in the Dutch Republic, both those in French and those in Dutch showed interest in the outcome of the case of Le Comte, but they did so in rather different ways.

News from China

News from China came to the Dutch Republic by way of both the Dutch East India Company and by reports by Jesuit missionaries, the latter being delivered in person or in the form of correspondence sent to Europe. The earlier reports on China in Dutch newspapers were generally brief.44 A Jesuit letter was used to inform readers of the Gazette d'Amsterdam on 2 February 1667 that ‘there are those of the opinion that every Roman Catholic priest who resided in China is massacred’.45 On the 19th of July 1668 the same newspapers reported that ‘the letters they brought give notice that the affairs of the Company [of Jesus] are in a very good order, we are waiting in Batavia for the return of a deputy who went to the emperor of China’.46 Often the source of the information is given, which in itself colours the impact of the news that follows:

Father Oliva, general of the Jesuits has received letters in which Father Adam [Schall von Bell] - a German Jesuit - gives notice that he has been called upon by the Emperor of that country to provide him with background knowledge in the field of mathematics.47

This was also a way in which the editors of the paper tried to convince their readers that the information was reliable and trustworthy.48

As early as the middle of the seventeenth century, there was a distinct divergence between French and Dutch reports on China.49 The Dutch news was mainly focused on events that might have affected the economic interests of the Republic and its inhabitants. Hundreds of tidings mentioned the arrival of ships from China, ships named China, ships going to China, ships carrying Chinese produce, the sinking of ships on their way to China - and so on.50 These reports were mostly short and to the point: ‘The same [ship] left France on the 7th of March 1701, and since its departure from Canton - on the south part of China -, has lingered for two months in Brazil’.51 The reader was often further informed of the exact nature of the load carried by ships coming from China, or ships carrying Chinese produce. Hundreds of cargo-lists were published in Dutch newspapers, informing the reader, for instance, in 1672 that ‘the first ten ships from Batavia’ brought with them ‘9005 pounds of the China root [and] 79800 pounds of Chinese Silk’.52 Even news that was not directly related to shiploads or cargo bore a distinct economically oriented character, since its focus remained on the commercial interests of the Dutch and all that may have influenced the activities of the voc in Asia. Also wars and conflicts were reported: ‘this [letter of 1662] reports that it would mean that twelve valiant warships were sent against the Chinese robbers, to counter them in the water’53, as were political events in China: ‘Mekin, in China, the 28 December, 1674. Here in this empire is it full of unrest, and it seems great change is coming’.54

Since the Jesuits, regardless of religious differences, were an important contact for Dutch merchants in China, the papers included reports on the fates and often misfortunes of these missionaries: ‘In China, there has been a great dispute between the Jesuits, and Monsr. Berito who showed himself much insistent. Father Adam [Schall von Bell] has died in prison, where he was put by the king [sic] of China’.55 And readers of the Dutch newspapers were apparently interested in reading further about China, considering a number of advertisements, for instance in 1697, when Engelbrecht Boucquer announced the publication of

‘New history of the current state of China by Father Louys le Comte, Jesuit, mathematician of the king of France’.56 So, in Dutch newspapers, news coming from and pertaining to China bore an economic, political and military character. Of the two main sources of information on China - the trading companies and the missionaries - the Dutch newspapers mainly focussed on the former, since it were those reports that could have the greatest impact on the (economic) interest of Dutch readers.

Reports on China in French newspapers were of a different character. The reading public consisted primarily of French exiles and inhabitants of the Southern Netherlands and France, both groups wanting to be kept informed of what was happening in their homeland, while Dutch readers of French newspapers were already supplied by newspapers in their own language.57 This made news on China with a primarily economic focus was probably superfluous, which means that a majority of the news on China found in French newspapers concerned the Jesuits or their mission in China: ‘A letter was sent to Father de la Chaise in Rome on the 10th of February 1694 written from Peking, the capital of China, by Father Antoine Thomas - Flemish [sic] missionary to the general of the Jesuits. This letter reports that the emperor is always very affectionate toward the Christian religion & the society of Jesus’.58 Therefore it is not surprising that most of these tidings can be found under the caption ‘Rome’, ‘Italien’ or ‘Vrankrijk’, since most news on the China mission came from those places.59

French readers generally seem to have also had a broader interest than Dutch readers in events happening in China. A newspaper might, for instance, report from ‘Peking, capital of China, the 8th of October 1696. The emperor was busy during this year to make war with the king of Elouth, a country located in Tartary. Three hundred miles from here to the northwest.’60 These notices carried a more descriptive character than the reports on the political situation in China found in Dutch newspapers, and the focus was not necessarily on the impact such events may have had on the European presence in Asia. The difference between French and Dutch newspapers is most clear when they report the same event. On 3 March 1709, a French-languaged newspaper reported that ‘the Pope attended a congregation on Thursday about the China mission; Father [Antonio Francesco] Provana - Jesuit - has arrived [in Rome] after a very long journey, with a Mandarin, who is staying with the

Fathers of the company’.61 On the same day, Nouvelles extraordinaires de divers endroits carried the same notice, but without mentioning the congregation on the China mission.62 The next day, the Oprechte Haerlemsche Courant also reports of the arrival of Father Provana and the Mandarin63 essentially in the same words.64 So now three newspapers - two in French, and one in Dutch - had reported the return of Father Provana; all reports were brief and without elaboration. Then, a week later the Oprechte Haerlemsche Courant carried another notice about Father Provana, but this time elaborating on the fact that ‘[his arrival] has caused more than a little fear about these affairs at the court [...] since it would do great damage to the Roman Catholic religion, and subsequently also to the commerce that would be lost in these regions’.65 It seems that a week after the arrival of Father Provana more information about his stay in China was made public and this information was a threat to commercial and religious interests of Europeans in China. But while Dutch newspapers gave voice to these threats, French newspapers only reported the most basic information about the arrival of the Jesuit and his Chinese companion.

News coming from China was distributed through a variety of newspapers, mainly differentiated by the language in which they were published. As the selection of examples quoted above suggests, French and Dutch-language newspapers sometimes presented news from China in a different manner. While some Dutch newspapers such as the Oprechte Haerlemsche Courant and the Amsterdamse Courant were mainly interested in the economic and political ramifications of the information received from the East, two French newspapers focussed on news concerning the situation of the Jesuits in China and how this affected the religious presence of Europeans in the Middle Kingdom. In the last quarter of the seventeenth century, this situation was amplified by the increased public visibility of the Chinese Rites Controversy. This debate had already been at the forefront of the concerns of the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith (Sacra Congregatio de Propaganda Fide: the congregation of the Roman Curia responsible for missionary work and related activities) since the middle of the seventeenth century, but became more prominently embedded in the public sphere since the publication of Louis Le Comte's Nouveaux mémoires sur l'état présent de la Chine.

‘The Funeral of Confucius’ (1700)

Since the middle of the seventeenth century, a steady stream of information had been coming from China; some of which was then reported in newspapers and periodicals. However, after 1695 the number of notices on China increased exponentially. Between the last years of the

seventeenth, - and the first years of the eighteenth century the Chinese Rites Controversy had become part of a public debate that was reported in newspapers. First, French newspapers were quite confident in their evaluation of the missionary efforts of the Jesuits in China: a 1695 journal, for instance, included a quote, ‘This letter reports that the emperor of China is always very affectionate towards the Christian religion & the company of Jesus’.66 Even a Dutch newspaper gave its vote of confidence in the success of the Jesuit missionaries, although doing so in a more implicit manner: ‘that the emperor of China has bestowed on the missionaries by means of an edict, to preach the gospel in his empire, and to his subjects to embrace the Christian religion.’67 During the last years of the seventeenth century, however, some French newspapers began to demonstrate a certain opposition against the Jesuit presence in China, especially concerning the issues of Confucius and the Chinese Rites: ‘The Jesuits realize that they cannot prevent, nor elude for a long time, judgement of the case of the Chinese cults [...] They have tacitly agreed to abide by the truth of the facts regarding the cults of Confucius and the dead, which are the main points to judge.’68 Another French paper also started to show concerns about the role of Pope Innocent xii (1691-1700), who by the end of 1699 was already severely ill: ‘we do not know whether the illness of the pope will delay his verdict on the case of the Chinese cults, against the Jesuits’.69 Meanwhile, Dutch newspapers kept printing news about China in a more descriptive manner than their French counterparts did. However, the main source of the news had shifted from shipping reports to letters from missionaries, combined with tidings coming from Rome informing Dutch readers about the growing unease of the Roman Curia concerning the role of Jesuits in China, and the manner in which this role was communicated in Europe trough books and pamphlets.

Louis Le Comte's memoirs of China were first published in Paris by Jean Annison in 1696. As mentioned, translations in various European languages soon followed, and on 2 February 1697 the Oprechte Haerlemsche Courant announced that a Dutch translation was printed and published by Engelbrecht Boucquet in The Hague, ‘with fine illustrations’.70 Earlier that year, a French edition had already been printed by Étienne Roger and Jean Louis de Lorme in Amsterdam. The work was apparently so popular that Antoine Schelte of Amsterdam issued a re-print of this French edition in 1698. Louis Le Comte became a known figure and representative of the China mission, and his presence as such can be traced throughout newspapers. Both French and Dutch papers reported on his departure and arrival in Rome and on the rumour that he would soon be making a journey to China.71

Reports in French papers on both Le Comte and his fellow Jesuits turned grim after the

book was brought before the Sorbonne Faculty of Theology in July 1700. At the end of July, just before the Sorbonne publicly condemned the work, the Nouvelles extraordinaires de divers endroits already reported that ‘the king [...] has proposed three Jesuits to the duchess of Burgundy, so that she may choose one as her confessor, in place of Father Le Comte who is disgraced’ [my emphasis].72 In August, ‘these affaires continued in a heated manner’ for Le Comte.73 On the 26th of that month, a French paper reported that the Theology Faculty gave their opinion on the propositions of Le Comte, and that they declared them ‘reckless [and] scandalous &c.’74 Various other French newspapers copied this same message in the days that followed. Surprisingly, while French newspapers presented the censure of Le Comte's proposition as a done deal, Dutch papers were more nuanced in their reports. Those papers speak of the ‘supposed idolatry of Confucius’,75 while giving Le Comte the opportunity to ‘refute the allegations of the missionaries of China on the false idolatry of Confucius’, which - according to the Oprechte Haerlemsche Courant - he did with ‘very great modesty’.76 However, it would take another two months before a Dutch newspaper again commented on the proceedings of the Sorbonne, while French newspapers remained very articulate in their opposition to Le Comte.

On the 18th of October 1700, the Sorbonne Faculty of Theology convicted the Nouveaux mémoires by Louis Le Comte as false, scandalous and in contradiction to the word of God.77 Le Gazette d'Amsterdam articulated why Confucius and the accommodation of the Chinese Rites were condemned by the Sorbonne, Le Comte's book serving as a concrete example of everything that was wrong with the Jesuit mission in China. In this tiding, an anonymous writer signing with the pseudonym ‘De Champ Veille’ repeated, ‘dare [he] say it’,78 the propositions of Le Comte, and emphasised the absolute ‘falseness, recklessness, scandalousness & wrongness’.79 The author finished his litany by noting that the ‘sacred faculty has declared that they will not give their approval to any part of these books’.80

On the occasion of the censure of Louis Le Comte's propositions by the Sorbonne, a pamphlet was written which was distributed in various churches in France.81 The pamphlet, entitled ‘The funeral of Confucius’, attacked both Confucius and the Jesuits: ‘Confucius had lived in error and was in paganism. His ashes awaited reunion with his soul in horror [...] And yet he found geniuses who, against their own conscience



illustratie
Figure 4. Philippe Couplet, Confucius Sinarum philosophus sive Scientia Sinica latine exposita. Paris, Daniel Horthemels, 1687. Amsterdam, ub otm: k 61-272


and by a cruel stubbornness had risen to propose [his teachings] as a model for Christianity.’82 This rather forceful rejection of Confucius was re-printed verbatim in the Gazette de Rotterdam on the 4th of November. The editor believed readers would surely be interested in the document since ‘the case of Father Le Comte has caused so much turmoil’.83 A similar notice, but with a more detached tone, is found in the Mercure historique et politique of November 1700, here accompanied by the warning for Le Comte that ‘if he does not defend himself better [...] he should [...] stop digging up the ashes [of Confucius].’84

Dutch readers were also briefed of the publication of the pamphlet, but were not fully informed about the content: ‘A print has seen the light, entitled “The funeral of Confucius”.85 But, while Dutch newspapers gave very little information about the censure of Le Comte's book - especially when compared to French newspapers -, the Dutch periodical Europische Mercurius was less cursory in its reports. The Europische Mercurius devoted two pages in the second issue of the year 1700 (July to December) to the ‘Assembly of the Faculty of Theology of Paris about the case of the Chinese Rites’.86 It opened with a short description of the proceedings of the Sorbonne, and their decision to censure Le Comte. However, the tone of this introduction differs significantly from that of the French papers. Here, the paper seemingly presented both sides of the argument, thereby nuancing the severity of the case: ‘Among the Doctors who gave their opinion, were some [...] who thought the word Heresy to be too grave’.87 Most surprising however, is that Louis Le Comte's propositions were quoted in full, but without the disclaimer that these were considered idolatrous by the Sorbonne - information that was available to the editors of this periodical, since other Dutch newspapers had already reported on the condemnation. Dutch readers would read in the Europische Mercurius with statements as: ‘China has practiced the purest precepts of moral philosophy, while Europe and almost all the rest of the world lay in error and corruption’,88 without the context to put the idolatrous nature of this proposition into perspective. Readers could have gotten the context needed for a fuller understanding of this article in the Europische Mercurius from other sources, such as the reports found in French language newspapers. But so far, no report found in a Dutch language publication in this period elaborated on the fact that the statements found in Le Comte's work were considered idolatrous by the Sorbonne.

The Europische Mercurius was not yet finished with the case of Louis Le Comte. In the first issue of 1701, concerning January to June,

a notice entitled: ‘Jesuits protest against the verdict of the Sorbonne’ listed all the arguments proposed by the Jesuits as to why the verdict by the Sorbonne was unjust.89 The popularity of Le Comte's book is emphasised: ‘over the past four years [...] the same has been reprinted several times, in various languages’,90 but in those years ‘no complaints or allegations were made’.91 Besides, Le Comte only based his work on ‘pure historical facts about the religion in the ancient Chinese books’,92 found in works written by members of the Faculty of the Sorbonne, as well as other religious institutions. It is therefore that ‘Father le Comte protests [in order] to nullify all that has been undertaken so far’.93 A protest which, according to the information given by the Europische Mercurius, should be taken into serious consideration.

However, this was not to be. The Sorbonne and Pope Clement xi (1700-1721) remained firm in their condemnation of the propositions of Louis Le Comte, along with a general rejection of the accommodation of the Chinese Rites by the Jesuit missionaries in China. On November 20, 1704 Clement xi condemned all Chinese Rites and Confucian rituals with the decree Cum Deus optimus, which also outlawed any further discussion. The Papal bull Ex illa die of 19 March 1715 reaffirmed this condemnation, and in 1742 Benedict xiv reiterated Clement xi's decree, which demanded that missionaries in China took an oath which forbade them to discuss the issue ever again. A direct result of Rome's challenge to the Chinese Rites was a changing attitude in China towards Catholic missionaries. In 1721 the Kangxi Emperor commented that: ‘I have concluded that the Westerners are petty indeed. It is impossible to reason with them [...]. From now on, Westerners should not be allowed to preach in China, to avoid further trouble’.94 The following years would especially affected the Jesuits. Despite all their efforts, the Jesuits' progress in China stalled and their movements were severely restricted: Newspapers reported that ‘The emperor of China issued a rigorous edict against all missionaries [...] who have to leave the empire on punishment of death’.95 But it is the Oprechte Haerlemsche Courant that informs us it could always be worse: ‘we understand that many of these missionaries embarked on a ship to save their lives, but have lost the same [life] by shipwreck’.96

Conclusion

Newspapers in the Dutch Republic frequently reported on China, thereby informing readers not only about events happening in the Middle Kingdom, but especially about those developments that would have an impact on Europe. The Chinese Rites controversy occupied many a newspaper sheet during the second half of the seventeenth century, and the case of Louis Le Comte and the condemnation of his book by the Theology Faculty of the Sorbonne in Paris serves as a case-study to show that newspapers in the Dutch Republic often gave different accounts of the same event, even though the available information was the same. The main difference lay in the language - and therefore intended audience - of the newspaper concerned. While Dutch newspapers were mostly concerned with events that would have an economic, political or military impact on their own own commercial activity in China and Asia, French newspapers focused more on the Catholic interests of their readers. This distinction meant that Dutch newspapers only sporadically reported on the Chinese Rites controversy or Louis Le Comte, while French papers were rather outspoken in their condemnation of both issues. However, Dutch periodicals - in particular the Europische Mercurius - were more detailed in their reports of the same events. They did not conform to the French explanation of events; in contrast, these publications mainly printed the arguments from the side of the Jesuits.

The discrepancy in the way news about the Rites Controversy and Louis le Comte was reported can in part be explained by the economic interests of the producers of the printed matter concerned. Printers and publishers were mainly interested in the profitability of their products, newspapers and periodicals included. These commercial motives are evident in tidings about China, and this not only in those notices that deal specifically with the economic interests of readers such as shipping news. Publishers of French language newspapers found that during the last decades of the seventeenth century it became increasingly profitable to target an intended audience which consisted of readers - and buyers - in France and the Southern Netherlands. The emergence of this French language press was of course made possible a by sizeable population of Huguenot exiles, who were mainly responsible for this type of print work.97 But, despite their protestant background, these printers and publishers conform in their presentation of news on China to the perspective of their French - and thus Catholic - audience by explicitly condemning Louis le Comte and the Jesuit adaptation of the Chinese Rites. This same process of accommodation of the intended audience can be found when examining the printers and publishers of Dutch language newspapers and periodicals. The fact that these publications mainly conformed to the Jesuits' explanation of the events does not necessarily mean a sympathetic ear to the problems of the Society of Jesus.98 It perhaps indicates that

these publishers - like their French counterparts - wanted to please their intended audience, in this instance consisting of Dutch readers who wanted and needed the Jesuit influence to continue since their commercial activities in China in part depended on these Jesuit contacts.

To solely lay the provision of news on China in the hands of the producers and their economic interests is of course too much of a simplification of the reality of early modern news. Although commercial motives played a crucial part in the way information on, and from China was presented to an intended audience with various needs, further research into the individual motives of printers, publishers and readers is necessary to come to a more nuanced notion of both the image of China, as well as the way in which early modern news was reported. Furthermore, newspapers and periodicals represent only one category of publications on China. As indicated before, hundreds of books were published containing some information on the Middle Kingdom and further research should allow for an image of China in the Dutch Republic based on this whole range of printed materials.


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