Roman Catholics and the Boxers.
The statement has been made that the Boxers are opposed to all Christians in China because the priests of the Roman Catholic Church, by treaty between France and China two years ago, now hold ceremonial and civil powers not enjoyed by Protestant missionaries, and that the Roman Catholic Church has been using this power as an inducement to the natives to embrace Christianity. Some of the priests were even suspected of going so far as to defend criminals and evil-doers who promised to join “the church” providing they were acquitted. Some Protestants declare that the present Boxer fury is but a just punishment for the flagrant abuse by the Roman Catholics of the special power and authority thus invested in them. On the other hand, the Roman Catholics declare that the imperial decree simply regulated the intercourse of their missionaries with the mandarins—for instance, by its provisions, bishops were placed equal in rank with viceroys, rural deans with tao-tais or department directors, and priests with prefects; that personal communication, which had been before almost impossible to obtain, is now possible, and consequently justice between Christian and non-Christian is easier of accomplishment. In any case, it is not improbable that, basing their belief on treaty rights protecting all Christians, native Christians may have presumed that they were really independent of Chinese authority and, through foreign protection, might escape the punishment which an ordinary Chinaman would receive. It is not extraordinary that the Roman Catholic Church has been so successful in China, and now numbers there thirty bishoprics and a million adherents. For it should be remembered that she began her work in the far East more than five centuries before the Protestants began theirs. Even Marco Polo found an Archbishop of Peking. No one has estimated Protestant Chinese adherents as numbering over 300,000, and most estimates fall below this figure. In North China the Presbyterians have the largest number of American missionaries—nearly two hundred—and nearly six hundred helpers. The Presbyterian printing-press at Shanghai is the largest mission press in the world, issuing sixty-seven million pages a year. The Methodists have over a hundred and fifty American missionaries and nearly seven hundred native helpers. The Congregationalists (American Board) have over a hundred missionaries and over three hundred native helpers. These are the principal American religious bodies in North China. Important American Protestant mission stations are situated at Kalgan, Paoting, Lin Chang, and Pang Chang. The Church of England is also strongly represented, having in China nearly two hundred missionaries and over five hundred native helpers. In all China religious and educational work is now at a standstill. Church services are impossible. Schools have been disbanded and school buildings made into barracks, and the daily life of all the people is interrupted through dread of the Boxers. It is a satisfaction to add that, though some of the weaker Chinese have fallen away, as a rule the natives have stood firm in loyalty to their faith.