Cardim | Res Sinicae

ENCYCLOPEADIA OF AUTHORS

António Francisco Cardim

(1596-1659)

António Cardim was born, in Viana do Alentejo in 1596 according to tradition, but the Catalogue of the Province of Japan of 1659 refers Porto as his place of birth (ARSI, Jap. Sin 25, fl. 169). His father's family belonged to the gentry serving the Crown, had connections with the Society of Jesus, as three of his brothers, the well-known Fernão Cardim, Lourenço Cardim e Diogo Fróis were Jesuits. This connection sheds light on the recruitment made by the Jesuits among the privileged social strata in Catholic Europe. It also reveals a family environment that led three of the four sons of Jorge Cardim Fróis and D. Catarina de Andrade to become Jesuits (João, António and Diogo Cardim), whilst a fourth, Fr. Plácido, professed in the Order of Christ (ANTT, Mesa da Consciência e Ordens, Habilitações da Ordem de Cristo, letra P, maço 12, n.º 23), and five of the six daughters took vows as nuns.

Though tradition and his biographers, like the Jesuit Fr. António Franco, gives

Viana do Alentejo as his place of birth (as his father's family were originally from

this small town), the "Catalogue of the Province of Japan" of 1659 gives Porto

instead, coinciding with his father's residence there as a Judge (Desembargador)

of the local Relação (1593-1597) (ARSI, Japonica Sinica 25, fl. 169).

Jorge Fróis Cardim death in 1605 and the extremely devout family environment must have influenced his children to opt for a religious career, particularly after the choice made by the eldest son: João Cardim (1585-1615). He became a model for his brothers and sisters, but only António managed to fulfill his dream to be a missionary in Asia, as João and Diogo never managed to do so, with Diogo failing to sail to India for three times. António Cardim entered in the Society of Jesus in February 24 1611, at the College of the Holy Ghost in Évora (A. Franco, Imagem da virtude…, p. 485), taking the name he became known for — António Francisco Cardim —, given his devotion for S. Francis Xavier, though he is always named "António Cardim" in the catalogues of the Province of Japan (cf. ARSI, Jap. Sin., 25, fl. 141). The devotion for Xavier could reveal his wish to work as a missionary in Asia, probably in Japan, which was at the time the most sought-after Jesuit mission in the world, partly due to the martyrdom associated with it since 1597, something that the anti-Christian edict of 1614 had increased (A. Curvelo & A. Fernandes Pinto, "O martírio de cristãos no Japão, …", pp. 147-153). Cardim sailed for India in Abril 1618 in the same ship as D. Diogo Valente, the recently appointed Bishop of Funai, and lived in Goa until 1622, where he finished his studies of Philosophy and Theology. The Catalogue of the Province of Japan of 1623 puts him already in Macau and as having finished his studies (ARSI, Jap. Sin. 25, fl.130v). Cardim nourished the wish to work in Japan as a missionary, but his desire was never fulfilled and, consequently, ended up working in Southeast Asian missions belonging to the jurisdiction of the Province of Japan. After an initial sojourn in Guangzhou (1623-1625) (A. Franco, Imagem da virtude…, p. 486), Cardim left China for Thailand in 1625, via de Manila, having Laos as his final objective (A. Francisco Cardim, Batalhas da Companhia de Jesus, p. 260).

Never managing to enter in Laos, Cardim left Thailand for good in 1629 in poor health, sailing to Manila, from where it was supposed he would try to enter Japan accompanied with two Japanese Jesuits. Lacking the necessary language skills (the knowledge of Japanese was deemed crucial for the clandestine missionary work in Japan), Cardim was prevented from achieving his dream again, and he was ordered to return to Macau. He arrived in Macau in 1630 (A. Francisco Cardim, Batalhas da Companhia de Jesus, pp. 78-79, 261) and took the four vows in August 15 (ARSI, Jap. Sin. 25, fl. 169). Cardim left Macau again in February 13 1631 to go to Tonquin (Đông Kinh) with the objective of reaching Laos once again. His failure to enter Laos and a new bout of ill health forced him to return to Macau in 1632 (A. Francisco Cardim, Batalhas da Companhia de Jesus, pp. 79, 102). Cardim's sojourn in Macau coincided with his appointment as rector of the local Jesuit College (from August 31 1632 to May 23 1636) (J. Dehergne, Répertoire des jésuites de Chine, p. 44) and the Catalogue of the Province of Japan of 1635 puts him as the second figure in its hierarchy, as well as its consultant (ARSI, Jap. Sin. 25, fl. 141).

Though tradition and his biographers, like the Jesuit Fr. António Franco, gives

Viana do Alentejo as his place of birth (as his father's family were originally from

this small town), the "Catalogue of the Province of Japan" of 1659 gives Porto instead,

coinciding with his father's residence there as a Judge (Desembargador) of the local

Relação (1593-1597) (ARSI, Japonica Sinica 25, fl. 169).

This period of his life in Macau until 1639 turned around the defense of the Province of Japan from the onslaught of the Jesuits of the Vice-Province of China, who desired to be autonomous. Cardim centered its safeguard on the value of martyrdom in Japan since the late sixteenth-century (comprising missionaries and Japanese Christians), for which he wrote an Informatio in 1635 addressed to the Jesuit's General Muzio Vitelleschi (A. Francisco Cardim, Elogios, e ramalhetes, pp. 1-2). Alarm grew in 1636 with the election of Álvaro Semedo as Procurator of Japan and China, as the defenders of the Province of Japan feared that he would fight for the autonomy of the Chinese Vice-Province in Rome, as he did. It was against this background that Cardim was elected Procurator of Japan in 1638 to thwart Semedo's action in Rome, thus amputating the powers given to him in 1636, and opening a conflict that would take place between the two in Europe (I. Murta Pina, "Álvaro Semedo e António Francisco Cardim", pp. 100-101).

Cardim left for Portugal in 1639, arriving only in September 1642 and finding a totally different political situation, as the Portuguese Restoration (1640) had taken place meanwhile. In Lisbon he found Semedo, whose two years sojourn in Rome had failed to produce the desired autonomy for the Vice-Province of China. Both men engaged in a protracted clash until April 1644, when Semedo returned to Asia, with Cardim fighting to maintain the status quo of the East Asian missions and to preserve the Province of Japan sources of income from being taken by the Vice-Province of China (I. Murta Pina, "Álvaro Semedo e António Francisco Cardim", pp. 104-105). He left for Rome in 1644, where he lived until 1648 to defend the rights and jurisdiction of the Province of Japan through printing books and writing reports to his superiors. While in Rome he participated in the election of the new General, Vincenzo Carafa, in 1646, and fought to canonise the Martyrs of Japan (men like Carlo Spinola, Marcello Mastrilli and Sebastião Vieira). Ultimately, the victory of the Province of Japan was also won through the action of the Jesuits living in Europe, whose efforts to defend it had begun before the arrival of Cardim through propaganda and outdoing Álvaro Semedo in Rome.

The writings of António Francisco Cardim had an enormous impact in Europe,

as attested by the translation of the "Relação da Província do Japão, printed in

Tournay (Flanders) in 1645, which mentions the original Italian edition printed

that same year.

On his return to Portugal, he managed to obtain more income for his Province (A. Franco, Imagem da virtude…, p. 491) and sailed to Goa aboard the galleon São Lourenço in April 1649. The vessel shipwrecked off the coast of Mozambique and Cardim faced many adventures until he reached Goa in May 1650 (A. Francisco Cardim, Relação da viagem…, pp. 3-7, 41-42). He left Goa for Macau in 1652, but was captured by the Dutch off Melaka in June 15 1652 (J. Dehergne, Repértoire…, p. 44), and remained their prisoner for three years, being kept most of the time in harsh conditions in a goal in Negombo (Sri Lanka). Freed around 1655, Cardim returned to Macau, where he died as a relatively old man of 69 years old in April 30 1659.

António Francisco Cardim was a prolific author very published for a short period of time (1643-1651), whose writings circulated in Europe influencing the vision and iconography associated with martyrdom in Japan for a very long time. As a Jesuit he also wrote letters and reports for his superiors, some of which, as the Informatio of 1635, had a wider circulation in Europe. As an author, Cardim was closely connected with the Society of Jesus narrative traditions (apologetic writings, historical works, lexicographic treatises, etc.), as well as with the culture and literary taste of his time (with its baroque style and metaphors, as shown in the titles of his books and in their dramatic content). Sixteenth and seventeenth-century Europe had a literary and iconographic tradition (both Catholic and Protestant) turning around martyrologies, as people thought they were living a new Apostolic age. Cardim was far from being an isolated case, though his writings were apologetic of the Jesuits and of the Province of Japan, being used as a weapon for its preservation.

Lastly, Cardim used in his texts all the information he had access to as a missionary of the Province of Japan, mixing it with his own personal experience of the ground.

T Borges in Japan (1633), used in the Italian edition of Fasciculus (1646)

and in the Portuguese edition of Elogios (1650), whose iconography

influenced the subsequent production of images on martyrdom in East Asia

until the nineteenth-century.

His first known texts, excepting the letters, were made in Thailand between 1625-1629, including a Catechism and an Apologetic Treatise (cf. J. Vaz de Carvalho, "António Francisco Cardim", p. 655), and were probably written in Ayutthaya's Thai. His first long text was the Informatio made for Fr. Vitelleschi in 1635, whose information was used by some of his brethren like Fr. Bartolomeu Pereira (1640), Fr. Bartolomeu Guerreiro (1642) and Fr. Juan Eusebio Nieremberg (1640), and by himself during the 1640s. His works are, by chronological printing order:

Relação da gloriosa morte de quatro Embaixadores Portuguezes da Cidade de Macao com 57. Christãos da sua companhia degolados todos pela Fè de Christo em Nangasachi Cidade do Japão a 3. de Agosto de 1640 (Lisbon: In Lourenço de Anveres Printing House, 1643; reprinted in Lisbon: In Manuel da Silva Printing House, 1650). This work shows how Cardim continued to have access to events taking place in Japan after leaving Macau in 1639, and the way he used this information to preserve the pre-eminence of his Province in the fight against Álvaro Semedo. There is a translation in Latin made three years later Mors felicissima quattuor Legatorum Lusitanorum & Sociorum, quos Japoniæ Imperator occidit in odium Christianæ Religionis (Rome: Typis heredum Corballeti, 1646), printed in the same house that published his remaining Italian books (since it was connected with the Jesuits); as well as French translation and adaptation intitled La Mort glorieuse de soixante et un chrestiens de Macao, decapitez pour la confession de nostre sainte foy à Nangazaqui, au royaume du Japon, le 4 d'aoust l'an M. DC. XL. Extraite de la relation faicte en langue portugaise par le R. P. Antoine François Cardin, de la Compagnie de Jésus, procureur général de la province du Japon. Imprimée à Lisbone l'an M. DC. XLIII. Avec la copie d'une lettre de Hollande touchant la glorieuse confession de quatre Pères de la mesme compagnie & de trois autres chrestiens mis à mort au mesme royaume du Japon, sur la fin de l'an 1642. Le tout mis en françois par un Père de ladicte compagnie (Rouen: Chez Jean de Manneville, 1643);
Relatione de la Provincia del Giappone (Rome: nella Stamperie di Andrea Fei, 1645), is probably based in the Informatio written by him ten years earlier and updated with new information. Translated from Portuguese to Italian by the Jesuit Fr. Giacomo Diaceti, it was Cardim's first book printed in Rome to defend the pre-eminence of the Province of Japan vis-à-vis the Chinese Vice-Province desire of autonomy. It was also translated from Italian to French by the Jesuit Fr. François Lahier and printed in Tournay (Flanders) with the title Relation de la Province du Japon (Tournay: Imprimerie de Adrien Quinque, 1645). There is also a translation from the Portuguese to the French by the Jesuit Fr. Jacques de Machault printed in Paris in 1645 together with a Relation of the Province of Malabar written by Fr. Francisco Barreto, intitled Relation de ce qui s'est passé depuis quelques siècles, jusques à l'an 1644, au Japon, à la Cochinchine, au Malabar, en l'isle de Ceilan et en plusieurs autres isles et royaumes de l'Orient compris sous le nom des provinces du Japon et du Malabar, de la Compagnie de Jésus (Paris: M. et J. Hénault, 1645-46). These editions showed the irradiation of information from Rome to other Jesuit colleges in Europe, coupled with a consistent and coherent policy to divulge what happened in the major Jesuit missions in the world, particularly in those belonging to the Portuguese Assistancy;
The Catalogus regularium et secularium qui in Japponiae regnis usque à fundata ibi à S. Francisco Xaverio Gentis Apostolo Ecclesia ab Ethnicis in odium Christianæ Fidei sub quatuor tyrannis violenta morte sublati sunt (Rome: Typis heredum Corbelletti, 1646);
1646 saw the publication of his most known and impactful work, the baroquely intitled Fasciculus e Iapponicis floribus, suo adhuc madentibus sanguine (Rome: Typis heredum Corbelletti, 1646), edited with prints made by Pierre Miotte (a French artist often employed by the Jesuits in Rome, where he worked since 1637, being also the author of a print of Fr. João Cardim published in his hagiography written by the Jesuit Fr. Pierre Alegambe in 1645). These prints left an indelible mark in the iconography of martyrdom in Japan;
The two previous books were translated and printed as one in Lisbon under the baroque title Elogios, e ramalhete de flores borrifado com o sangue dos religiosos da Companhia de Iesu, a quem os tyrannos do Imperio de Iappão tirarão as vidas… com o catalogo de todos os religiosos, & seculares, que por odio da mesma fé forão mortos naquelle imperio, até o anno de 1640 (Lisbon: Manuel da Silva Printing House, 1650, and the same printer took the occasion to reprint the Relação da gloriosa morte de quatro Embaixadores Portuguezes… that same year). Manuel da Silva used the prints made in Rome and the book was published after the return of Cardim to Asia, revealing again the Jesuits articulated and scheduled editorial policy to defend the rights of the Province of Japan;
The adventures of his return to Asia are told in the Relaçam da viagem do galeam São Lourenço e sua perdição nos bayxos de Moxincale em 3. de Setembro de 1649 (Lisbon: Domingues Lopes Rosa Printing House, 1651), showing Cardim's writing speed, as it was probably written between May and December 1650, since it was sent to Portugal aboard a ship of the Indian Run to be printed the following year.

António Francisco Cardim "authored" a map of the Japanese Archipelago included in the editions of Fasciculus (1646) and of Elogios (1650), which had a cartographic genealogy intertwined with the Jesuit tradition in Japan (cf. Angelo Cattaneo “Geographical Curiosities…"), as his remaining writings had a similar connection. He reworked constantly his own materials and those of others for the sake of editing new works, as seen in one of his last writings, the Batalhas da Companhia de Jesus na sua gloriosa Província do Japão, made in 1651 (after writing the Relaçam da viagem…, cf. A. Francisco Cardim, Batalhas da Companhia de Jesus, Dedicatory to King D. João IV, s/p), with the objective to update what had happened in the Province of Japan until 1649. This work finished in 1652, before leaving Goa for Macau, was published only in 1894, revealing the probable exhaustion of its subject and the weakening of the information channels irradiating from Portugal to other Jesuit provinces in Europe. The manuscript fell into oblivion, so much so that Diogo Barbosa Machado failed to mention it among Cardim's works in 1741 (cf. Bibliotheca Lusitana, vol. I, pp. 279-280); only referring to it as being kept in the library of the Jesuit College of Évora in the supplement printed in 1759 (cf. Bibliotheca Lusitana, vol. IV, p. 36). The pre-eminence and survival of the Province of Japan had been achieved, therefore Cardim's "mission" was finished, as much as his capability to find patrons, financiers and printers to print the new works. His three-year incarceration could have made difficult the edition of works authored after 1651, as he wrote a report about it, which is still kept as a manuscript in the Biblioteca da Ajuda (cf. códice 49-IV-61, fls. 532 and following ff.).

Cartouche of the "new and accurate" map of Japan made by Fr. António Francisco Cardim,

which is actually based in older cartographic models and whose influence was felt in

European map making until the eighteenth-century.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

CARDIM (1894); CARVALHO (2001), pp. 655-656; CATTANEO (2014); CURVELO, PINTO (2009), pp. 147-159; DEHERGNE (1973); FRANCO (1714); MACHADO (1965); MACHADO (1967), PINA (2022), pp. 97-112.

The entry, with scientific review should be cited as follows: João Teles e Cunha, "António Francisco Cardim (1596-1659)", in Res Sinicae, Enciclopédia de Autores, Arnaldo do Espírito Santo, Cristina Costa Gomes and Isabel Murta Pina (Coord.). ISBN: 978-972-9376-56-6.

URL: "https://www.ressinicae.letras.ulisboa.pt/cardim?lang=en". Última revisão: 28.04.2023.