Boston University OpenBU http://open.bu.edu Theses & Dissertations Boston University Theses & Dissertations 2019 Marcelo de Ribadeneira's Historia de las Islas del Archipielago y Reynos de la Gran China: Franciscan missions and representations of Buddhism, 1577-1601 https://hdl.handle.net/2144/39603 Boston University BOSTON UNIVERSITY GRADUATE SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES Dissertation MARCELO DE RIBADENEIRA’S HISTORIA DE LAS ISLAS DEL ARCHIPIELAGO Y REYNOS DE LA GRAN CHINA: FRANCISCAN MISSIONS AND REPRESENTATIONS OF BUDDHISM, 1577-1601 by EVA M. PASCAL B.A., La Sierra University, 2001 M.Div., Harvard University Divinity School, 2005 Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2019 © 2019 EVA M. PASCAL All rights reserved Approved by First Reader _________________________________________________________ Dana L. Robert, Ph.D. Truman Collins Professor of World Christianity and History of Mission Second Reader _________________________________________________________ Rady Roldán Figueroa, Th.D. Associate Professor of the History of Christianity DEDICATION I would like to dedicate this work to my late father Ricardo Eduardo Pascal iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This dissertation would not be possible without the support and encouragement of many people. I am deeply grateful for all the hands that have aided me in so many valuable ways along the path to the completion of this study. It would be difficult to mention all of those to whom I am indebted but I would like to mention some of those individuals here. Firstly, I am deeply grateful to my advisor and first reader, Dana Robert, for her unwavering encouragement and guidance through my doctoral studies at Boston University. I could not have asked for a more thoughtful, skilled, and supportive advisor to help me navigate my studies, research, and academic career. I am also deeply appreciative of my second reader, Rady Roldán-Figueroa. He not only helped sharpen my research into the early modern world but also insisted on a high standard of historical rigor. I am also thankful to the members of my dissertation committee: Eugenio Menegon and Adam Seligman who provided important insights and Daryl Ireland who has been a compassionate scholar and friend. I also wish to give thanks to the associates at the Center for Global Christianity & Mission, and the Graduate Program in Religion at Boston University for their support. My appreciation goes to Hajung Lee, Gina Zurlo, Michèle Sigg, Michel Chambon, M. Thomas Thangaraj, Christopher Lehrich, and Stephen Prothero. A special thanks also goes to the Boston University Center for the Humanities for their grant support to complete the dissertation. The Center for the Humanities provided a valuable scholarly v community and feedback, and their late director James Winn helped in the improvement of my writing. Friends and family have also helped in the completion of my studies. Donald Swearer has been a source of support and inspiration and who steered me to pursue doctoral studies. I am grateful to my friend Linn Tonstad for carefully reading through this dissertation, and providing encouragement. My immediate family has provided needed emotional support and understanding. Finally, my partner, Claire Brown, deserves a very special thanks for being an incalculable source of generosity and patience. Thank you! vi MARCELO DE RIBADENEIRA’S HISTORIA DE LAS ISLAS DEL ARCHIPIELAGO Y REYNOS DE LA GRAN CHINA: FRANCISCAN MISSIONS AND REPRESENTATIONS OF BUDDHISM, 1577-1601 EVA M. PASCAL Boston University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, 2019 Major Professor: Dana L. Robert, Truman Collins Professor of World Christianity and History of Mission, Director of the Center for Global Christianity and Mission ABSTRACT This dissertation analyzes Friar Marcelo de Ribadeneira’s Historia de las Islas del Archipielago y Reynos de la Gran China, Tartaria, Cuchinchina, Malaca, Sian, Camboxa y Iappon (1601), a Spanish document that chronicles the work of Discalced Franciscan missionaries centered in the Philippines as well as their accounts of non-European cultures in Southeast and East Asia. This dissertation argues for reading the Historia as a regional history that reinforced Franciscan identity and influence in Asia. A reassessment of the Historia as a synthetic regional history reveals that the Franciscans developed the first comprehensive missionary ethno-history of the region and used Manila to enable a substantial geographic reach. Most importantly, the Historia documents that they were some of the first Europeans to identify the basic features of Buddhism. This study situates Ribadeneira’s Historia within the context of early modern literature. It shows that the document went beyond sacred history in providing ethnographic descriptions that contributed to European knowledge of Asia. It illustrates vii the establishment of Manila in the Philippines as a center for missionary activity, cultural preparation and exposure, and point of departure to other locations in the region. Analysis of the Historia also reveals that Franciscan missionaries identified Buddhism as a distinct religion. This dissertation argues that Franciscans not only perceived a single founder behind the various names used for the Buddha in different locations in Asia; they also recognized religious features that were similar to Catholicism. As mendicants, friars were uniquely positioned to perceive direct analogies between Franciscan spiritual practices and values, and Buddhist monastic practices. Further, this study argues that Siam played an important role in encounters between Buddhist monks and Franciscan friars in Marcelo Ribadeneira’s Historia. Missionary reports suggested that the social and political strength of institutionalized Buddhism in Siam, coupled with the recognition of parallels with their own religious lives and ascetic values, catalyzed the identification of a newly discovered tradition. The significance of this study is that it challenges the common historiography that Franciscans in the sixteenth century were negative toward other cultures and did not have a major impact in Asia. The dissertation prompts a reconsideration of the Franciscan missionary contributions to early modern history. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION ...............................................................................................................iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ............................................................................................... v ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS................................................................................................ix LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................ xv LIST OF FIGURES ...................................................................................................... xvi CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION TO RIBADENEIRA’S HISTORIA DEL ARCHIPIELAGO Y OTROS REYNOS ............................................................................. 1 Introduction ................................................................................................................. 1 Reassessing Ribadeneira’s Historia: Challenges to a Synthetic Reading ...................... 3 The Historia as a Multi-Purpose Volume ................................................................. 4 Selective and Reductionist Approaches to Reading the Historia ............................... 7 The Historia read as Franciscan Polemic .................................................................. 8 Early Jesuit Perspectives on Franciscans .................................................................. 9 Modern Historiographical Challenges .................................................................... 13 Friars and Imperialism ........................................................................................... 15 The Impact of the Historia ......................................................................................... 18 Printings and Editions ............................................................................................ 18 Pioneer Work in Regional Mission History ............................................................ 21 Ethnographic Source about non-European Cultures................................................ 23 Circulation of the Historia ..................................................................................... 24 ix Limitations and Scope of the Study ............................................................................ 25 Structure and Content of the Study ............................................................................ 26 CHAPTER TWO: MARCELO DE RIBADENEIRA’S HISTORY OF ASIA ................ 29 Introduction ............................................................................................................... 29 The Many Purposes of the Historia ............................................................................ 31 The Author, Structure, and Content of the Historia .................................................... 32 Witness to The Martyrdom at Nagasaki ..................................................................... 37 The Religious Climate in Japan in the Late Sixteenth Century ............................... 38 The Aftermath of the Twenty-Six Martyrs Incident ...............................................