The Belgian Congo and the Berlin act

Abstract

The Pope, Paul V, dispatched a mission to the King at San Salvador; Urban VIII, in 1640, erected the Congo kingdom into an apostolic prefecture depending directly on Eome, and missions of Capuchin monks proceeded to the Congo in 1644, 1646, 1650, and 1651: the fourth of these missions was accompanied by a Belgian priest, while two Belgians, one of whom met his death at the hands of the natives, were included in the fifth Capuchin mission of 1653. An independent mission of Franciscan Eecollets, including a Belgian priest and a Frenchman, arrived between 1673 and 1675, but stayed only two years. The interest of the Popes in the Congo was unflagging: Innocent X sent a special mission in 1652, and not only did the Capuchins labour unceasingly for the propagation of the faith, but they rendered service to knowledge by accounts of the state of the Congo, and study of its language. Father Giacinto Brusciotta, once Apostolic Prefect of the Congo, published at Eome in 1650 and 1659 a vocabulary of the language with renderings in Latin, Portuguese, and Italian, while accounts of the customs of the peoples of the Lower Congo were issued by Fathers Cavazzi, Merolla, and Zucchelli, whose work, however, was largely based on hear say and decidedly uncritical.

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