In adjusting the feudal relations of his vassals in Kiushiu, Iyeyas[)u] made great changes, and thus the political status of the Christians was profoundly altered.  The new daimi[=o]s, carrying out the policy of their predecessors who had been taught by the Jesuits, but reversing its direction, began to persecute their Christian subjects, and to compel them to renounce their faith.  One of the leading opposers of the Christians and their most cruel persecutor, was Kato, the zealous Nichirenite.  Like Brandt, the famous Iroquois Indian, who, in the Mohawk Valley is execrated as a bloodthirsty brute, and on the Canadian side is honored with a marble statue and considered not only as the translator of the prayer-book but also as a saint; even also as Claverhouse, who, in Scotland is looked upon as a murderous demon, but in England as a conscientious and loyal patriot; so Kato, the vir ter execrandus of the Jesuits, is worshipped in his shrine at the Nichiren temple at Ikegami, near T[=o]ki[=o],[13] and is praised by native historians as learned, brave and true.

The Christians of Kiushiu, in a few cases, actually took up arms against their new rulers and oppressors, though it was a new thing under the Japanese sun for peasantry to oppose not only civil servants of the law, but veterans in armor.  Iyeyas[)u], now having time to give his attention wholly to matters of government and to examine the new forces that had entered Japanese life, followed Hideyoshi in the suspicion that, under the cover of the western religion, there lurked political designs.  He thought he saw confirmation of his theories, because the foreigners still secretly or openly paid court to Hideyori, and at the same time freely disbursed gifts and gold as well as comfort to the persecuted.  Resolving to crush the spirit of independence in the converts and to intimidate the foreign emissaries, Iyeyas[)u] with steel and blood put down every outbreak, and at last, in 1606, issued his edict[14] prohibiting Christianity.

The Quarrels of the Christians.

About the same time, Protestant influences began to work against the papal emissaries.  The new forces from the triumphant Dutch republic, which having successfully defied Spain for a whole generation had reached Japan even before the Great Truce, were opposed to the Spaniards and to the influence of both Jesuits and Franciscans.  Hollanders at Lisbon, obtaining from the Spanish archives charts and geographical information, had boldly sailed out into the Eastern seas, and carried the orange white and blue flag to the ends of the earth, even to Nippon.  Between Prince Maurice, son of William the Silent, and the envoys of Iyeyas[)u], there was made a league of commerce as well as of peace and friendship.  Will Adams,[15] the English pilot of the Dutch ships, by his information given to Iyeyas[)u], also helped much to destroy the Jesuits influence and to hurt their cause, while both the Dutch and English were ever busy in disseminating both correct information and polemic exaggeration, forging letters and delivering up to death by fire the padres when captured at sea.