Small communities and monasteries were founded, but disappeared after the edict proscribing foreign religions, enacted by the Emperor Tang Wuzong. Christianity only subsisted in a few Northern communities, but benefitted from certain Mongol Sovereigns’ rise to power. In 1289 the Pope Nicolas IV, having learnt of the existence of Christians among the Great Khan’s entourage, sent a Legate to China, the Franciscan Jean de Montecorvino, who founded a few churches and was named Bishop of Peking (Kambaliq) in 1309. But in 1368, the collapse of the Mongol Empire and the advent of the Ming dynasty brought about the ruin of these first Catholic settlements.

On December 3, 1552, Saint François-Xavier died in the Island of Sancian, off Canton, without having been able to return to China. During the following decades, European Missionaries managed to gain a foothold on the continent: Jesuits from Macao, led by Matteo Ricci, won the trust of a few scholars and were accepted at the Court of Peking as learned men, while the Spanish Franciscans and Dominicans from Manilla started evangelizing Fujian. They all began spreading into the neighboring provinces, but their differences of method and rivalries soon led to quarrels over rites, which complicated the relations between Christians and the Imperial authorities.

In 1644, the Mandchus took advantage of a period of disorders to take over Peking. Hostile to Christianity, they had the Dominican François de Capillas executed in Fuzhou, but authorized Jesuits to remain by the Emperor for their scientific work. In 1659, Rome named three French Apostolic Vicaries, whose jurisdiction extended over China, Cochin China and Tonkin. His Lordship François Pallu only reached Fujian in 1683, shortly before dying. His successor, Lordship Maigrot rekindled the quarrel over rites; the latter were finally entirely forbidden by Rome in 1704.

In 1724, the Emperor Yong Zhing enacted an edict outlawing the preaching of Christianity, under the risk of being sentenced to death. Half a century later, His Lordship Pierre Diaz and four other Dominicans were executed in Fujian. At the other end of China, in the Province of Sichuan, evangelization progressed despite recurring persecutions. In 1784, Gabriel Taurin-Dufresse was arrested, transferred to Peking, and then expelled to Macao. Having returned to his mission secretely and having been nominated Apostolic Vicary in 1801, he was arrested once again and decapitated in Chengdu, on September 14, 1815. He was the first Martyr from the Paris Foreign Missions.<span />