Papieski legat na dworze cesarza Chin. Fragmenty z "Acta Pekinensia"

Abstract

In this article the author presents a history of the papal legation of Charles Maillard de Tournon to the court of the Kangxi Imperor, which was one of the most imporant and dramatic episode of so called Chinese Rites Controversy. This legation has been described by a German Jesuit Bernhard Kilian Stumpf in a Latin manuscript entitled "Acta Pekinensia".

Text presents in detail the audience of the patriarch of Antioch and Apostolic Visitor of the Indies, papal Legate Charles Thomas Maillard de Tournon to the Kangxi Emperor Court in December 1705. This meeting of the Chinese Emperor and the representative of the Holy See have been described by Kilian Stumpf SI in a monumental manuscript entitled Acta Pekinensia. Complicated personality of Maillard de Tournon and his completely undiplomatic way of doing were the cause of the series of dramatic events as Kangxi’s decree of December 17, 1706, Tournon’s deportation, his house arrest in Macao and his premature death in 1710. The Tournon’s mission to China was a decisive stage of the history of the Rites Contorversy and also of the relationships between the Middle Kingdom and all Catolic world (and the Holy See in particular), which has officially caused a refusal of Ricci’s accomodation method and in consequence total ruin of the Catholic Church to China. This series of misfortunes began at December 31, 1705, when Charles Maillard de Torunon met the Kangxi Emperor for the first time.