Biography of Alvaro de Benavente OSA, China mis- sionary, Bishop ...

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Professional Career:
In 1680, Benavente arrived together with his confrere Nicolás de Ribera
(1642-1711) in China and became the founder of the China mission of the
Augustians. In the same year he was sent as Procurator of the Augustinians
on the Philippines to Rome and Madrid on behalf of the Chinese Rites. He
returned to the Philippines, where he stayed from 1690 till 1699, in 1695
he was made provincial. Still during his stay on the Philippines Benavente
was appointed Bishop Titular of Ascalon by the Propaganda Fide on 20th
of October 1696, an on 22nd of October 1696 Vicar Apostolic of the Chinese
province Jiangxi.
Benavente arrived in China on January 1, 1700. He worked then for several
years in Nanchang in the province of Jiangxi/China. Like most Augustians,
also Benavente was an adherent of the method of accommodation of the Jesuits
and therefore stood on their side in the Rites Controversy. Especially he
did not like that Charles Maigrot MEP (1652-1730) alone had started again
the controversy with his Mandate of 1693, without consulting the other bishops
and Vicars Apostolic in China. Maigrot had a.o. forbidden all Chinese
names for God without Tianzhu and he forbade that the Chinese Christians
took part at the Rites for the ancestors and for Confucius. Therefore there
was a meeting of the three Vicars Apostolic in April or May 1700: Benavente,
Artus de Lionne MEP (1655-1713), Vicar Apostolic of Sichuan, and Basilio
Brollo da Gemona OFM (1648-1704), Vicar Apostolic of Shaanxi. They met
in Nanjing where Benavente stayed because he was consecrated there as a
bishop, and they made spoke about how to deal with the question of the
Rites. De Lionne, an adversary of accommodation and of the Rites, submitted
a scripture of 92 propositions to his colleagues, which contained his objections
against the Chinese religion and teachings. He wanted his colleagues
to join him with their signature. Basilio Brollo approved all propositions
besides one, whereas Benavente wanted to have half a year for consideration.
On 28 October 1700 he said that the did no approve the propositions nor
de Lionne’s attitude. In June 1701 de Lionne and Benavente met again in
Nanxiongfu/Guangdong, but came to no common conclusion.
When the papal legate Charles-Thomas Maillard de Tournon (1668-1710)
arrived in Canton in April 1705, Benavente as one of the Vicars Apostolic
was invited by him to live with him in the house of the Augustinians there.
After some days, Benavente gave his treatise on the Rites to Tournon, namely
his “Analecta argumentorum...” (s. below), which was refuted by Tournon.
But the emperor Kangxi, who received Tournon in three audiences, could not