ABSTRACT
In the T'ang period Nestorian Christianity flourished in China, then waned and vanished away. This uncomfortable fact needed explanation. The most ready, and the most soothing, was to emphasize the fact of Nestorianism rather than Christianity. China was a free field with no favour, and it was the greatest opportunity Christianity had found since the conversion of the Roman Empire. The early Catholic missionaries, perceiving the resemblance to pagan Rome, and realizing that the Emperor was the font of Confucian orthodoxy, saw that to convert the Throne, to make a Chinese Constantine, was the swiftest and surest road to success. The Catholic missionary approached China in a very different way. Christianity in his view was a way of life, as well as a doctrine for salvation. The missionaries of both the Reformed and the Catholic churches found that the greatest obstacle to their progress was not the fanatical devotion of the Chinese to some pagan creed, but their tolerance.
