著者

坂野 正則

出版者

公益財団法人史学会

雑誌

史學雜誌 (ISSN:00182478)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.120, no.10, pp.1697-1722, 2011-10-20

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In 1658 Pope Alexander VII appointed four French priests to the position of Vicar Apostolic and sent them to the Canadian and the Asian missions. This was because the Roman Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith (hereafter, RCPF) intended to take back the initiative in the world Catholic missionary effort from Spain and Portugal, in order to create a new strategy. On the other hand, the Paris Foreign Missions Society (hereafter, PFMS), which was to realize this new strategy, was organized during the early 1660's by these four Vicars Apostolic, the missionaries who accompanied them and fellow clergies to share their experiences in training. This article analyzes the relationship between the PFMS and William Lesley, a priest and refugee from Scotland residing in Rome, and in particular, considers social and confessinal trends within Europe in the hope that this perspective will help us to understand how the PFMS played a leading role in the new strategy of the RCPF. The article begins with an analysis of the characteristic features of the new strategy and an attempt to clarify the background against which personal ties and ideology were shared between French devotees (Devots) and the RCPF. Secondly, the author sheds light on the cooperation that existed between the PFMS and Lesley, by examining the latter's career and the content of his correspondence with the executives of the PFMS. The article ends with an attempt to observe the reorganization of the new strategy on a European dimension by means of tracing Lesley's vision about missionary organizations. While Lesley made an effort to intermediate between the RCPF and the RFMS, as the author's analysis suggests, he tried to remove the Patronage (Padroado) system practiced by the Spanish and Portuguese in addition to certain aspects of monastic societies closely related to that system. On the other hand, Lesley's status as a Scottish refugee gave his missionary vision a pan European character, and he played a crucial role in the RFMS as an informed outsider. Consequently, there were three factors interacting here: the confessional solidarity of French devotees, the RCPF and the Scottish diaspora. For this reason, the RFMS, while based in France, was able to promote its own activities by means of mobilizing a basically confessional network beyond the particular interests of both states and religious organizations.