11. PERSECUTION BREAKS OUT

An old imperial edict from 1794, forbidding the practice of the Catholic religion in China, was occasionally used as an excuse for persecution. According to it. any foreign Christ¬ian could be put to death and any Chinese condemned to exile. This had been applied before in 1805 and 1820 at the time of Blessed Clet. In 1839, a persecution broke out in Hu-pei, where a young Christian of Nan-kiang informed on the Christians and missionaries. The mandarin sent troops to round them up. On Sept 15, 1839, four Vincentian priests had just finished Mass, when they were informed that the persecution had broken out and the soldiers were just a short distance away. First Fr. Perboyre saw that everyone else was safe, before he too escaped to a nearby bamboo forest. The soldiers and mandarins were angry on seeing that all had gone and completely plundered the mission and burned it down.