William Adams (sailor) - Religious Rivalries

Religious Rivalries

Adams, a Protestant, was seen as a rival by the Portuguese and other Catholic religious orders in Japan. After Adams' power had grown, the Jesuits attempted first to convert him, then offered to secretly bear him away from Japan on a Portuguese ship. The fact that the Jesuits were willing to disobey the orders set down by Ieyasu—that Adams might not leave Japan—betray the degree to which they feared his influence—for good reason.

Catholic priests insisted that he was using his influence on Ieyasu to discredit them:

"In his character of heretic, he constantly endeavoured to discredit our church as well as its ministers".. He and others "by false accusation ... have rendered our preachers such objects of suspicion that Ieyasu fears and readily believes that they are rather spies than sowers of the Holy Faith in his kingdoms." (Padre Valentim Carvalho).

Ieyasu, influenced by Adams' counsels and social trouble caused by the numerous Catholic converts, expelled the Jesuits from Japan in 1614 and demanded the Japanese Catholics abandon their faith.

Adams also apparently warned Ieyasu against Spanish approaches.