Authority, poverty, and vanity: Jesuit missionaries and the use of silk in Early Modern East Asia

Abstract

This essay examines the debates surrounding the use of silk by Jesuit missionaries in East Asia between 1551 and 1630. The focus is on the tension between the Jesuits’ vow of poverty and their commitment to a missionary strategy of accommodation to indigenous cultures. Relying on little-used archival sources, this discussion demonstrates how missionaries adopted used silk to gain authority in Japan and China, and how their superiors twice insisted on its prohibition. A broader consideration is of the image of the missionary in silk in European publications and how the Society of Jesus attempted to control its meaning.