1601–1742

Matteo Ricci and the Chinese Rites Controversy

The Jesuit Matteo Ricci founded a Catholic mission in Beijing in 1601 after great difficulty. He won the emperor's trust through respect for Chinese culture.

His successors treated Confucian ancestor rites as civil ceremonies and allowed converts to take part in them. This outraged Dominicans and Franciscans who arrived later.

In 1645 a Dominican secured a Roman ruling against the rites, even though the Chinese emperor had solemnly declared them civil in nature. The final condemnation of the Chinese rites in 1742 nearly destroyed what had once been a successful mission.