lumpen 🍉 III (@scrum)

The Trial of the Jesuits
A Chinese official, Yáng Gu¯ang Xi¯an (í ),
had as his slogan that it was “better to have
a wrong calendar than to have foreigners in
China". Yáng managed to have the Jesuits
arrested in 1664. A solar eclipse was coming
up and while in prison, the Jesuits predicted
it would occur at 3 pm, Yáng predicted 2.15
pm, and the Muslim Wú Míng Xuˇan (ÇÒ®)
predicted 2.30 pm. On the day of the eclipse,
the Jesuits were brought into the palace in
chains, and everybody watched as the eclipse
occurred at 3pm sharp! Unfortunately, the
regents were not impressed and the Jesuits
were sentenced to death. However, the next
day a strong earthquake struck Beijing. This
was taken as a sign from Heaven that the
sentence was unjust, and the sentence of the
Jesuits was first converted to flogging and
eventually to just house arrest.