PROTECTORATE
### I. NATURE AND ORIGIN
The protectorate, or missionary protectorate, consists of an agreement by which Christian powers protect Christians or Christian institutions in non-Christian countries. Its scope is not always the same and may extend only to the missions of the protecting state, or to all missions regardless of nationality, or finally to all Christians of the respective non-Christian country. Juridically, therefore, the protectorate is a kind of state servitude, which grants the protecting state the right to intervene on behalf of the protected persons and objects, such as religious buildings, charitable institutions, schools, and missions. The missionary protectorate originated from agreements or customary law, generally due to deficient administration of justice in certain countries or the need to protect the Christian religion.
Although the missionary protectorate may easily give rise to abuses, from a theological standpoint it is justified because missionary activity can be protected by international agreements. The theological foundations, as well as the limits and conditions of the protectorate, were established by Suárez in the treatise *De fide* against P. Sánchez, who advocated military intervention to convert China. The Holy See, while not excluding the protectorate (AAS, 18 [1926], p. 306 ff.), has always sought to safeguard the national interests of non-Christian peoples and to protect missionary work from political interference, as evidenced by efforts to secure its own representation for the establishment of a vicariate in Peking in 1895 and 1918; for the formation of a native clergy and the introduction of an indigenous hierarchy (Message of Pius XI to China, in AAS, 20 [1928], p. 245 ff.). In international law, the protection of the Christian religion, previously in force (cf. Acts of the Congo, 1895), has gradually been replaced by the principle of freedom of conscience and religion (cf. Revision of the Acts of the Congo, 1919).
### II. HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT
The foundation of the international law of the protectorate is found in the so-called capitulations between Christian states and Muslim princes, dating back to the Middle Ages. Through these, the state sovereignty of the host country is abolished in favor of the personal sovereignty of the representatives and citizens of the stipulating state. They arose following the increase in commercial relations with the East after the Crusades. J. Dindinger in the *Bibliotheca Missionum*, XV (Freiburg in Br. 1951, pp. 74-79) provides a complete list of capitulations for Africa. Pisa was the first state to conclude a pact (1133) with a Muslim prince (Morocco). It was followed by Venice (1217), Genoa (1236), France (1270), Aragon (1274), and Florence (1422). In none of these capitulations is there mention of missions in the strict sense, i.e., the right to propagate the Christian faith. Therefore, the term "missionary protectorate" must be understood in a broad sense, as it concerned missionary countries. The persons protected in the pacts with Italian cities and Aragon were exclusively the citizens of the stipulating countries. The French pact, however, extended to all priests and religious. In modern times, France made efforts to obtain a universal protectorate over all Christians in the Near East and North Africa. In the pact with Turkey (1604), for the first time in clear terms, it was stated that all pilgrims to Jerusalem were to travel with the permission and under the protection of the King of France. In the pact of Louis XIV with Turkey (1673), the French consul was granted precedence over all other consuls. In a subsequent treaty (1685), Article 19 established France’s right of protectorate over all Christian missionaries. France acted on its own initiative and not by mandate of the Holy See, which merely recognized the fait accompli. In gratitude, Propaganda granted French consuls in the Levant the so-called honors (procession before and after High Mass on Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost from the church door to the honorary seat and vice versa, the honor of incense before the other faithful). Despite this, France never had exclusive missionary protectorate rights. Of great importance was also the Austrian protectorate of a supranational character (1615), Russia’s over the Orthodox (1681, 1774), Prussia’s (1761), and Germany’s (1878): the latter, however, only in favor of their own citizens. The missionary protectorate came to an end in the Near East in 1914 and 1923, respectively, with the abolition of the capitulations. In the Treaty of Lausanne (1923), Turkey assumed the protection of religious minorities under the supervision of the League of Nations. The liturgical honors, reorganized in two agreements of December 4, 1926 (AAS, 19 [1927], p. 9 ff.), do not signify a return to the protectorate but are a free recognition of services rendered in the past.
### III. THE MISSIONARY PROTECTORATE IN CHINA
The first capitulation imposed on China by a Christian power was the article of the Russo-Chinese Peace Treaty of 1727, in which the Russians were granted the right to erect a church in Peking. In the Treaties of 1844, following the Opium War, the United States and France obtained the right to establish churches, hospitals, and cemeteries in the five open ports for their subjects. At the instance of Lagrené, extraordinary envoy of France, an imperial decree was issued on February 20, 1846, permitting the profession of the Catholic religion; authorizing Catholics to build places of worship throughout China, pray, venerate crucifixes and images, and preach without hindrance; ordering that churches built under K’ang-hsi be returned to worship; and that local authorities who persecuted true Catholics be punished. It was, however, forbidden for foreigners to penetrate into the interior to preach outside the five open ports. The decree, however, was not published in due form, and France could not intervene officially in this regard. Thus, the situation remained unchanged. In 1851, Russia obtained the same rights for its subjects in the commercial cities of the province of Ili. Under the Treaties of Tientsin in 1858 between China and the United States, England, and France, religious freedom was extended to the interior, and Chinese were permitted to embrace the Christian religion. Article 13 of the French Treaty stipulated that effective protection would be given to missionaries peacefully entering the interior of the country, provided they were furnished with passports, according to Article 2. No obstacle could be placed by Chinese authorities in the way of the right of any Chinese to freely embrace Christianity, nor could any penalty be inflicted for this reason. This was followed by the formal repeal of all previous anti-Christian laws. Since France was the only Catholic power among the signatories, it obtained the missionary protectorate covering all Catholic missionaries with French passports, regardless of nationality. In the Treaty of Peking (1860), France secured the right for missionaries to own real estate. One thing was overlooked in all these agreements: the right of the mission to establish a school. France, however, did not obtain from the Holy See the extension of liturgical honors to China. After the arrival of the first German missionaries in China (1882), the German government informed the French government that it would itself take charge of the protection of its missionaries. After some hesitation, Propaganda in 1889 left German missionaries free to choose between French or German protectorate. In the Treaty of Versailles (1919), Germany renounced all claims to protectorate rights in China.
At the same time as Germany, Italy too (1888) assumed the protectorate over its missionaries. At first Propaganda did not agree (Letter from Propaganda of 11 Feb. 1890 to the Apostolic Vicar of Hong Kong), but then from 1902 onwards it tacitly consented. To maintain its protectorate France prevented in the years 1881, 1885 and 1918 the attempts at diplomatic relations between China and the Holy See requested by China. The Apostolic Delegation set up in 1922 had no diplomatic character and nothing changed in the state of the protectorate then in force. In February 1943 China sent an ambassador to the Holy See.
The Holy See set up an internunciature in China in 1946, France having on 28 Feb. 1946 in the Chungking pact renounced all rights deriving from the unequal treaties. This fact and the démarche of the Holy See abolished the protectorate.