Why was john Thomas, a missionary, sentenced to death?
Catholicism can spread so smoothly in China, and they must thank one person, and this person is John Tang. During the reign of Shunzhi, he could be regarded as a big red man around the emperor. When John Tang was favored by the emperor, he made the Catholic church grow, the number of missionaries also increased, and these people had a wide range of activities and recruited a large number of believers. It is understood that John Tang had built more than 30 churches in China at that time, and the number of believers was as high as 150,000.
Because John Tang was favored by the emperor, even if someone was dissatisfied with him at that time, he could not shake him. At that time, Wu Mingxuan once reported John Tang, saying that he was wrong in his calculations. Unexpectedly, he himself was accused of cheating and was almost executed. From this, it can be seen that Tang Ruowang was really protected by the Shunzhi Emperor at that time, and no one could move him.
However, in 1661, the Shunzhi Emperor died of illness, and Kangxi, who was only 8 years old, took the throne. At that time, the assistant minister was Ao Bai, and Ao Bai did not like Western theory at all, and at that time, the emperor was small, and the government basically fell into the hands of his assistant minister. So he ordered that John Tang and these missionaries were sinners, and that the Lord had released three sins. First, they infiltrated China and used cult doctrine to confuse everyone. Second, they joined forces with the ministers with the intention of rebellion. Third, the calendar is absurd.
In fact, during the reign of the Shunzhi Emperor, many ministers in the DPRK opposed John Tang, and they were extremely dissatisfied with the fact that he had developed so many tens of thousands of believers in China. It was only at that time that the Shunzhi Emperor was protecting him, so even if these ministers were dissatisfied in their hearts, they could not move Tang John. Now as soon as John Tang's patron saint gave up, he became the fish on the knife, without any resistance. Ao Bai convicted him of so many crimes, of course, not only to reduce his reputation, but most importantly to arrest him.
After so many convictions, in 1664, the people of Aobai ordered that John Tang and other missionaries be taken into custody and executed the following year. However, Xiaozhuang later ordered his release. John Tang, who had escaped the disaster, returned to his church, synthesized some of his deeds, as well as his notes, and began to write his own books. But it was probably also the incident that hit him too hard, so he died not long after. Three years after his death, the Kangxi Emperor rehabilitated him, wrote him a memorial and moved his tomb to the side of Matteo Ricci's tomb. It can be seen that in the heart of the Kangxi Emperor, he can also be regarded as a more gracious missionary of Tang John.