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Show 6 S » """‘" et Q M N A THANASIVS KIRCHE mony of Friend(hip, and obferving th r o Babull ife, prudence, and excellent Wit at fudde ‘mperou tion, that he immediately created h Feivy Council. gelours, a Mandorine o the prim rank, and alligned unto him th higheft plac the Aftronomical Tribunal of he Calender, and commande l throughou the whole Empire to obey\his Af ronomical determinations > he ef y wondering at his infallible predi&io of Eclipfes, in which the other did {o muc erre, performed by his accurate C lculation ; he admired hjs skill e Mechanic Arts, efpecially in cafting of gr at Ordnance. The Emperour bein take with thefe things, loved and ho oured him as a Father, for he l oked upon him as more then Man, as havin fomething of Divinity about him any addrefs was {carcely admirted nto fo fublime a Majefty, befide that of th Empref$ and Eunuchs, he obta ned wichout any prohibition yeyr granted unto none, a priviledge of coming i to the Emperours prefence, whet or abroad; and therefore h was efteeme fo the Emperou called him, that is to {ay, Ven rable Father, a Priviledge n read of in th Annals of the Chinefes.. He fo r times in a year vouchfafe to vifi¢ the Houf and Church of our Society ; go ng into all the corners of the H e, he was pleafe to converfe wit the Maffs privately in his lodgin refufing all Ceremo.nies of State befitting fo great' Monarch g upon the Bed Pallae and fome time inthe old decre ding to view {fome of our r2He vifcen Titi€S, NOL refufing t fmell Aowers which he prefente him from hjs own Garden eand wCohrafrhcihpe-s 4nd "never' (eenied mo ecreate himfelf thanin the houf <th the holy poor Priefts; andi Church he wondred at th Images of the Altars, an the elegancy of the European Images curforily enquiring conc ernin their Chara&ers, and Images, with th myfteries thereof; whic when explaine unto him, he woifhipped, efpeci lly the Figures of Chrift and t e Bleffed Vi, in and afferted that the Chriftian R ligion was the beft, and excelle aJj others ; hi Anceftors have formerly been of he fame perfwafion, and that he m ght not fee to efteem of the Chriftian Fait in words only, he refolved t do {omething i honour thereof ; for on a gre t Marble Stone ercted bef re the doors of oy Church, he caufed to He engra en in the Tartar and Chinefian hara&er, his wij and pleafure for the Propagation o the Faith of Chrift, bya Regal Ed &, whic at this day is to be feen Printe ona China fheet of Paper in th Library of th Roman Colledge, which is as followe h ' l ‘HE Heavenly Science o Aftronomy deferveth, which ony regenitors [ highly efteented of, as we alfo de , to be extolled unto (h Skies, efpecially after that the fa e, formerly under digers Empero wbolly collapfed, is reftored and efpecially ba more exalt by Co Xe Kim, i the time of the Ewmpir of Juen, Emperonr of the Tar who formerly rule the Chinefes 400. years: and laf ly, was become very mmch errone part of the rezgn of the forme Emperour Mim und John Adam Schal coming fromthe fartheff part of th Weft i underftandeth not only th Art of Calenlation, bus alfo the T eory of the Flanets, and whatfo wer dosl belong W 1o Aftronomy ; be being brought nto the Emperonr our Anteceffour by bis comman 200k wupon bim the ¢cape of ref oring the Mathematicks an Aftronomy in the Unigser 1ty 5 but becanfe thas many ap rebended not the fruis thas won d redound unto 1 Commompealth from this § cienc 5 be conld not then ¢o nelude t at his Subjects fhoul e;;i;)[oy thewsfelves in that Sc ence, but now [ beipg come un o the Ewmpire, make th orde v of time wy forft care, as onducing unto the profit and ad antage of my Empire or in the Autumne o th firft )' year of m ritle, de andinoO of experiment in that Ar whic |
