The Asian World; or; Gerard Empel's Travels through Asia

The Asian World; or Gerard Empel’s Travels through Asia

With the decline of Latin in the recent years there has been a greater need than ever for the availability of classic texts in the regional languages of Europe. Directed efforts have been made, particularly by French and German academics, to translate many Latin texts for which no translation had ever been considered or required before. Trailing behind, we English academics have also begun our work, and already the Holy Bible, along with the writings of Augustinian, have been translated and been made widely available for the English reading public. Last year the works of Aristotle and Plato were published by Cambridge University, but still much of ancient literature – not to mention the writings of the later Church – remain untranslated. The vast tradition of European literature seems to be out of the reach of the wider public for perhaps a few decades longer.

Here we can present the first English translation of that key work of nineteenth century Catholic writing, Orbis Asianus, or The Asian World (also known as Gerard Empel’s Travels through Asia). A cornerstone of the genre of travel writing, and a text that came to influence the foreign policy of the late Church directly, it remains today one of the most widely read texts in the world.

Gerard Empel (1822-1879), born into a bourgeois family, began his life modestly in Amsterdam. He did not excel in his studies, nor did he show any remarkable talents. He did, however, express an early admiration for the New Devout, whose presence in Amsterdam made a great early impression on him. He found them “sombre in their devotion,” which, reflected in their practices as well in their teachings which praised modesty and denounced vanity appealed to him greatly. In 1838 he joined them in their communal way of life, where he studied intently the works of Thomas à Kempis and those of the Church Fathers.

Despite the importance Kempis attached to turning away from the outside world, he found himself interested in the unexplored and the barbaric, and in the course of his studies of these subjects came to reject many of the teachings of the New Devout, and to regard its insistence on naming every urge vain, as vain itself. More and more he was convinced that the virtues of the Church, in order to remain legitimate, would have to continue spreading the Word of God to those who had not heard it, or would not hear it.

At the age of 30, in 1852, he wrote the first pages of the book and left the House of the Brothers of the Communal Life for good, without knowing how or if he would complete the text. He was to remain travelling for the remainder of his life.

In this book we have translated the full work, in addition to selected letters from his life, which we present without annotation, but with extensive commentaries where we feel the text cannot speak for itself and requires contextualisation.

We hope that this edition will not only present the text to an audience unfamiliar with it, but also provide them with the guidance necessary to properly understand its significance. We lastly hope that it will not only shed light on an individual in the last great days of the Church, but also provide a pleasurable reading experience.

Robert D. Pike

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Orbis Asianus

I

The Word has reached far on our world and has penetrated even the deepest jungles and the remotest of oases of the desert; it is carried on vessels over the wide seas and on every peak over the clouds His Word is praised aloud. We thank the Lord for the triumphs he has given us over the barbarians and heathens who now worship Him, above whose cities now rise steeples that sound with bells.

The world that was once so wretched is now aglow with the mild light of Heaven, and every man walks with the sweet trumpets of angels in his mind. The glory and dignity of His Word has descended from Heaven and made again a Holy Empire, in whose lands there reigns a pax Christa.

Yet, shadows loom on the peripheries of this empire, and though they know the Word there are still kings that have not bowed before Christ, and even more horrid, are the heretics that skulk in these lands and pervert the teachings of the Lord. Preachers in our lands have taught their congregations to close their minds against the heretics – whose great learning have made them vain enough to oppose the teachings of Christ, or whose meager learning never made the truth apparent to them – and make their hearts into stone when they must speak with them, as our merchants who venture into their violent lands must do. Our great populace, meek and pious in their disposition, has obeyed, and we have enjoyed the unerring procession of the Church since the Great Rebellion of Martin Luther, which marked the end of heretical uprisings in Europe.

But to the learned men of the Church this rule cannot be enough. The vast and remote kingdoms of Asia have eluded the touch of His Word for too long; the evils and perversions of the unchristian kings and the masses under their rule are an insult to His Majesty the Pope, and an abomination in the world of the Lord. These jealous realms, who eye our splendor with contempt, or our piety with the boredom of a true sinner, guard too well against our missionaries and resist to such degrees our armies that we have not made any progress in converting their subjects or rulers in the last fifty years, excepting our one great Asian success.

The Great Crusade has stalled; our armies, wearied by unceasing combat, have faltered and even let slip whole peoples into the hands of the heathens; and our missionaries, worn by unending sermons, have grown stale in their speech and have lost the ears of the Asiatic people, who have grown bored of truth.

If we do not resume our efforts with vigor, the whole continent will fortify against our efforts, and millions of souls will be lost in the vanity of their resistance, which will flatter them and make permanent their belief in the superiority of their idolatry, or their heretical and wrongful notions of His Word.

To take up arms against this petrifying state, and set once more our Faith into motion, I have taken it upon myself to travel through the Orient to learn of the state of affairs; to bring back news of every wrongful belief and practice that permeates those societies of light’s periphery, and by an infusion of evil into our minds, spur us into action.

I will travel by road to Egypt, where I will procure a ship and travel along the coast of India to that haven of the dark world; Ceylon. Much will have happened by then, and how the latter part of the journey will take shape will be determined then. Until I reach the uncivilized world, I will write of our great successes in the Americas, began by St. Columbus, and of our work in Africa. It is much to cover, and I hope in my historical work that the efforts I hope to inspire might begin with understanding our successes, before we can come to understand our failures.

Amsterdam, Anno Domini MDCCCLII, Gerard Empel
 
Interesting. I hope the Dharma and the Dar al-Islam put up the good fight to the Catholics. There must also be some syncretic heresy out there- the Church couldn't monitor such massive global territories in regards to faith without modern communications and transportation.
 
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