China.- de Tournon (Charles Thomas Maillard) Memoires pour Rome sur l'Etat de la Religion Chretienne dans la Chine, avec le Decret de... Pape Clement XI sur l'Affaire des Cultes Chinois, et le Mandement de M le Cardinal de Tournon, first edition, stamps and small ink ownership initials to front free endpaper and B5, contemporary speckled morocco, rebacked by Chivers of Bath, library number to spine, [Cordier 912], 8vo, n.p., 1709.

⁂ Fascinating work relating to the Chinese Rites Controversy - a dispute among Roman Catholic missionaries over the religiosity of Confucianism and Chinese rituals during the 17th and 18th centuries. The controversy arose as the Jesuits argued that the Chinese rituals and Confucianism were secular customs, and thus should be tolerated, while the Dominicans and the Franciscans disagreed and urged Rome to condemn and ban these rites. This work stands as Tournon's decree to communicate the prohibition of Chinese rites. Eventually the Pope favored Tournon's side and issued a bill which officially condemned the Chinese rites in 1715. As a response, Kangxi Emperor revoked his edict of tolerance in 1717 and in 1721 the Christian missionaries were expelled from China.