Ricci’s successor, Adam Schall, carried the scholarly work to an even higher level. He won the admiration of the Chinese scholar class by accurately predicting the time of an eclipse of the moon and became the Director of the Imperial Astronomical Service. In 1650 Schall built a public church in Peking and gained religious freedom for Christianity in the whole of the empire (1657). At Schall’s death there were almost 270,000 Christians in China. The imperial edict of toleration in 1692 rewarded the service of the Jesuits on behalf of China and the imperial house, and thus an independent
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