China. He invaded Tibet, and pillaged the monasteries as far
as Lhasa; but was ultimately driven back by a Manchu army to Sungaria,
where he was murdered in 1727.

The question of the calendar early attracted attention under the reign
of K`ang Hsi. After the capture of Peking in 1644, the Manchus had
employed the Jesuit Father, Schaal, upon the Astronomical Board, an
appointment which, owing to the jealousies aroused, very nearly cost him
his life. What he taught was hardly superior to the astronomy then in
vogue, which had been inherited from the Mongols, being nothing more
than the old Ptolemaic system, already discarded in Europe. In 1669, a
Flemish Jesuit Father from Courtrai, named Verbiest, was placed upon the
Board, and was entrusted with the correction of the calendar according
to more recent investigations.

Christianity was officially recognized in 1692, and an Imperial edict
was issued ordering its toleration throughout the empire. The discovery
of the Nestorian tablet in 1625 had given a considerable impulse, in
spite of its heretical associations, to Christian propagandism; and it
was estimated that in 1627 there were no fewer than thirteen thousand
converts, many of whom were highly placed officials, and even members of
the Imperial family. An important question, however, now came to a head,
and completely put an end to the hope that China under the Manchus might
embrace the Roman Catholic faith. The question was this: May converts
to Christianity continue the worship of ancestors? Ricci, the famous
Jesuit, who died in 1610, and who is the only foreigner mentioned by
name in the dynastic histories of China, was inclined to regard worship
of ancestors more as a civil than a religious rite. He probably foresaw,
as indeed time has shown, that ancestral worship would prove to be an
insuperable obstacle to many inquirers, if they were called upon to
discard it once and for all; at the same time, he must have known
that an invocation to spirits, coupled with the hope of obtaining some
benefit therefrom, is _worship_ pure and simple, and cannot be explained
away as an unmeaning ceremony.

Against the Jesuits in this matter were arrayed the Dominicans and
Franciscans; and the two parties fought the question before several
Popes, sometimes one side carrying its point, and sometimes the other.
At length, in 1698, a fresh petition was forwarded by the Jesuit order
in China, asking the Pope to sanction the practice