Bateren Edict
The Bateren Edict was issued by Toyotomi Hideyoshi in Chikuzen Hakozaki on July 24, 1587, regarding Christian missionary activities and Nanban trade. Bateren is derived from the Latin patrem, which means father in the accusative case, or the Portuguese word padre.
The original document is preserved within the 'Matsuura Family Documents' collection, housed at the Matsuura Historical Museum in Hirado City, Nagasaki Prefecture. The term 'Bateren Expulsion Edict,' which refers to an order issued to expel Christian missionaries, generally denotes a five-article document dated July 24, 1587, contained within the 'Matsuura Family Documents'. However, it may also encompass an eleven-article memorandum, dated June 23, 1587, discovered in 1933 within the 'Goshuin Shishiki Kokaku,' an archival collection at the Jingu Library of Ise Jingu, necessitating careful distinction. This memorandum is referred to as either 'oboe' or 'kakusho' in historical records. Since the discovery of the eleven-article memorandum, extensive scholarly discussions have addressed the reasons for its discrepancies with the five-article expulsion edict and the interpretive significance of both documents.
Background
Jesuit missions and leaders in Japan
, the mission's founder, introduced Christianity in Kyushu, establishing its foundation. Cosme de Torres led as de facto Superior, expanding the mission until his death. Francisco Cabral, as Superior, enforced rigid policies, causing cultural friction, and was dismissed by Alessandro Valignano in 1581. Gaspar Coelho succeeded Cabral as Superior, managing relations with Japanese authorities until his death. Alessandro Valignano, appointed Visitor of the East Indies in 1573, held supreme authority over East Asia's Jesuit missions, until his death in 1606. Visiting Japan three times, he championed cultural adaptation and founded St. Paul's College in Macao to train Japanese clergy.Nagasaki's formation and Christian settlement
Nagasaki's development as a significant port city in Japan was closely tied to the arrival of Christianity and Portuguese trade. Initially an unpopulated promontory covered with wild thickets, Nagasaki was selected around 1570 by Jesuit missionaries, with the support of the Christian daimyo Ōmura Sumitada, for its natural advantages as a port, including a narrow promontory that provided visual defense of the bay entrance. Sumitada, the first Japanese daimyo to convert to Catholicism, invited Jesuits to settle in Yokoseura in the early 1560s, where a church was built, and Portuguese ships visited in 1562 and 1563. However, Yokoseura was destroyed in 1563 by anti-Christian groups and jealous merchants, prompting the Jesuits to seek a new location. Nagasaki was chosen, and Sumitada offered to donate the land to the Jesuits to establish a settlement for displaced Christians, many of whom were exiles from other regions due to religious persecution or wars, granting perpetual usage rights and extraterritorial privileges in return for securing permanent port customs and entry taxes, with designated officials stationed to oversee their collection.By 1579, Nagasaki had grown from a village of 400 houses to a town of 5,000 by 1590, and 15,000 by the early 17th century, becoming a hub for Portuguese trade and Catholic activity, with multiple parishes established to meet spiritual needs. The Jesuits, led by Valignano, accepted Ōmura's donation to establish a secure base for their mission and facilitate Portuguese trade. Valignano saw Nagasaki's strategic value for supporting displaced Christians and funding missionary activities. The donation was accepted conditionally, allowing the Jesuits to withdraw if needed, reflecting caution due to Japan's political instability and the non-binding nature of Japanese donations, which could be revoked by lords or their successors.
In 1582, Gaspar Coelho, upon his appointment as the Superior of the Jesuit mission in Japan, promptly initiated the construction of fusta ships. The funding for this endeavor was reportedly secured from Portuguese merchants residing in Nagasaki, primarily allocated to the construction of vessels equipped for towing, intended for the towing of carrack ships upon their arrival. Furthermore, the fusta vessels are presumed to have also functioned as a means of transporting fresh supplies, such as water, food, and firewood, to Nagasaki. As a consequence of the destruction of Christian refugee homes and a monastery in Yokoseura by anti-Christian forces in 1563, the Jesuits were compelled to relocate to Nagasaki. Following this relocation, it is posited that, in order to strengthen the defenses of the trading port, the Jesuits assigned fusta ships the task of patrolling Nagasaki Bay and the outer coastal regions of the Nagasaki Peninsula.
The Nagasaki Misericórdia was formally instituted in 1583 through the election of officers and the establishment of a hospital. This charitable institution managed a secondary facility outside the city for leprosy patients, underscoring the profound impact of Christian practices in a Japan that lacked hospitals prior to Portuguese arrival. Jesuit Luis Fróis recorded that this facility served individuals considered “repugnant” by Japanese society. This endeavor exemplified the innovative introduction of Christian charitable principles, offering a novel framework for Japanese social welfare. Moreover, the establishment of an almshouse in Hirado as early as 1561, with officers actively collecting donations, attests to the early adoption of the Misericórdia system across Japan and the deep integration of Christian charitable ideals into local communities.
Through their operation of hospitals for the poor and critically ill, the Jesuit order deepened engagement with marginalized communities, resulting in their categorization as impure. Historian George Ellison observes that, despite being driven by profound compassion, the missionaries’ actions yielded unintended social consequences. While these hospitals gained favor among the destitute, the elite distanced themselves from the missionaries, citing fears of "contamination". This concept of "contamination" was less about physical disease transmission and more about anxieties over social and symbolic impurity associated with the missionaries. In environments frequented by leprosy or scurvy patients, Jesuit missionaries were perceived as vectors of impurity, risking their portrayal as tainted entities or sources of defilement in the eyes of aristocratic patrons. Consequently, they faced the danger of being situated as loci of impurity. In Japanese history, the purity-impurity dichotomy has recurrently served as a logic of domination rooted in hierarchical structures. Though its specific manifestations shift across time and context, this binary consistently sustains mechanisms of control and exclusion. Unwittingly, the Jesuits positioned themselves within the subordinate domain of impurity.
Slavery in 16th century Japan and Jesuit responses
In 16th century Japan, economic pressures and cultural practices led to widespread servitude resembling slavery. Parents, facing taxes from non-Christian lords, sold children into servitude under "great" rather than "extreme" necessity. Japanese lords wielded power akin to Roman vitae necisque potestas, treating peasants and servants as near-slaves, often using them as tax guarantors. Daimyos and merchants sold war captives, especially women and children, into slavery, with Portuguese and Japanese sources documenting brutalities in conflicts like the 1553 Battle of Kawanakajima and 1578 Shimazu campaigns. The inter-Asian slave trade, including wokou piracy, exacerbated suffering, with reports of Chinese slaves treated like cattle in Satsuma, a fate shared by many Japanese. The geninka system formalized servitude, involving children sold by parents, self-sold individuals, debt-bound workers, and those punished for crimes or rebellion including their wives and children. Women fleeing abuse could be forced into genin status, and lords demanded retainers' daughters serve as genin. Famine and disasters drove people to offer themselves as genin for survival, with the status often becoming hereditary, perpetuating bondage across generations.The Portuguese engaged in the slave trade in Japan, particularly in Kyushu, where political disunity and economic incentives facilitated the practice. Japanese slaves, often acquired through war, kidnapping, or voluntary servitude due to poverty, were sold to Portuguese merchants and transported to places like Macau, Goa, and even Portugal. Some Japanese chose servitude to travel to Macau or due to poverty, but many indentured servants in Macau broke contracts by fleeing to Ming territory, reducing Portuguese slave purchases. Poverty, driven by lords' tax demands, led some to view slavery as a survival strategy, with peasants offering themselves or others as collateral for unpaid taxes, blurring the line between farmers and slaves.
Jesuit reforms and humanitarian compromises
The 1567 Goa Council advised missionaries to recommend the release of Japanese servants once their labor matched the compensation provided, particularly during famines or disasters when individuals offered labor for protection. The Council allowed Christians to ransom criminals sentenced to death unjustly, with the rescued serving as servants in return, since no one could be forced to provide funds without compensation. Jesuits also advised against enslaving the wives and children of punished criminals and supported freeing women who sought refuge from abusive fathers or husbands, except in cases of serious crimes, despite Japanese customs permitting their enslavement.Valignano, the Jesuit Visitor, consistently highlighted the Japanese Jesuits’ lack of authority and power to suppress the slave trade. In Portuguese India, Valignano and fellow Jesuits lacked jurisdiction to intervene in slave transactions, which were subject to secular courts. Priests were limited to providing ethical guidance, rendering the cessation of the practice unfeasible, and it persisted into the seventeenth century. In Japan, the Macao Diocese, established in 1568, oversaw Japan from 1576, but the absence of a resident bishop impeded the resolution of local issues. The Jesuits’ attempt to establish an independent diocese required explicit approval from Rome.
Given the limited impact of admonitions and recommendations, missionaries sought to navigate local social dynamics within the constraints of ecclesiastical law. They categorized labor into three forms: servitude equivalent to slavery, a tolerable non-slavery condition, and an unacceptable state. This distinction is believed to have led missionaries to reluctantly acquiesce to local customs. Furthermore, missionaries critical of the Portuguese slave trade in Japan, unable to directly prevent Portuguese merchants’ slave purchases due to insufficient authority, advocated for reframing Japan’s prevalent perpetual human trafficking as a form of indentured servitude to align with local practices while mitigating the harshest aspects of exploitation.
Recognizing their limited power, the Jesuits sought to reform Japan's system of perpetual slavery into indentured servitude. Some missionaries, driven by humanitarian concerns, signed short-term ownership certificates to prevent the greater harm of lifelong enslavement. This pragmatic approach, however, was controversial. By 1598, missionary participation in such practices was banned. Critics like Mateus de Couros condemned any involvement, even if motivated by compassion, highlighting the moral complexities of the Jesuits' position. The practice of issuing permits for temporary servitude in Japan, recognized as early as 1568 with Melchior Carneiro's arrival in Macao, gained official or local acknowledgment. The intervention of missionaries in Japan, particularly in issuing short-term permits, likely peaked between 1568 and the period following the 1587 Bateren expulsion edict, when permit issuance requirements became stricter or were increasingly restrained.
Jesuit-established organizations, such as confraternities and the Nagasaki Misericórdia, undertook efforts to rescue Japanese slaves, particularly women, from ships and brothels. The memoirs of Afonso de Lucena and letters of Luis Fróis concur regarding the treatment of captives during the Battle of Nagayo Castle in March 1587, reflecting Lucena’s concerns about their legitimacy. After Christmas 1586, Lucena urged Ōmura Sumitada, whose health was failing, to free unjustly held captives, leveraging the threat of withholding confession. The Jesuits strategically withheld confession or sacraments to compel moral conduct, especially among influential converts.
Moreover, bishops and their representatives condemned brothels and private prostitution as “workshops of the devil.” The fourth article of the Constitutions of Goa prohibited brothel ownership and operation, imposing fines and public shaming on violators, while mandating the liberation of slaves coerced into prostitution.