Spanish Dominican Fernández de Navarrete and the Chinese Rites Controversy

Spanish Dominican Fernández de Navarrete played a pivotal role in the Chinese Rites Controversy. Not only did he bring the controversial manuscript by Nicolò Longobardi to wider attention, thereby intensifying the debate over Chinese rituals, but he also further interpreted and reinforced its contents, amplifying the manuscript’s influence. This, in turn, attracted both internal and external forces within the Church to challenging the Jesuits. In addressing the issue of Chinese rituals, Fernández de Navarrete relied on Thomas Aquinas’ theological framework to evaluate Confucian practices, categorizing the act of offering sacrifices to ancestors and to Confucius as idolatrous. He subsequently demanded that believers refrain from participating in Chinese ritual practices.