ABSTRACT
The Jesuits and the Portuguese were involved in the founding and planning of the city and almost all of its citizens where Christian. It became the center of the Jesuit mission and the Japanese diocese, and the only city in Japan where the bishop implemented the parish system. The Council of Trent defined parishes as territorial units under the authority of a parish priest, legitimately appointed by the bishop to provide religious services to the faithful dwelling within its boundaries. Parishioners had to receive the sacraments of baptism, mass, and marriage at their parish church, and were meant to provide fixed or occasional financial contributions. The fusion of confraternities initially founded by Mendicant and diocesan priests, as well as the establishment of certain rural areas in Arima and Omura as Jesuit parishes as a means to keep Mendicant missionaries off limits, account for the continuation of the rivalry between the Jesuits and the Mendicants after 1614.
