<P> It was also reported that competition with the Roman Catholic Church and Islam were also factors in causing Nestorian Christianity to disappear in China; the Roman Catholics also considered the Nestorians as heretical, speaking of "controversies with the emissaries of...Rome, and the progress of Mohammedanism, sapped the foundations of their ancient churches ." </P> <P> The Ming dynasty decreed that Manichaeism and Christianity were illegal and heterodox, to be wiped out from China, while Islam and Judaism were legal and fit Confucian ideology . Buddhist Sects like the White Lotus were also banned by the Ming . </P> <P> By the 16th century, there is no reliable information about any practicing Christians remaining in China . Fairly soon after the establishment of the direct European maritime contact with China (1513) and the creation of the Society of Jesus (1540), at least some Chinese become involved with the Jesuit effort . As early as 1546, two Chinese boys became enrolled into the Jesuits' St. Paul's College in Goa, the capital of Portuguese India . Antonio, one of these two Christian Chinese, accompanied St. Francis Xavier, co-founder of the Jesuits, when he decided to start missionary work in China . However, Xavier was not able to find a way to enter the Chinese mainland and died in 1552 on Shangchuan Island off the coast of Guangdong . </P> <P> With the Portuguese establishing an enclave on Zhongshan Island's Macau Peninsula, Jesuits established a base nearby on Green Island (now the SAR's "Ilha Verde" neighborhood). Alessandro Valignano, the new regional manager ("Visitor") of the order, came to Macau in 1578--1579 and established St. Paul's College to begin training the missionaries in the language and culture of the Chinese . He requested assistance from the orders' members in Goa in bringing over suitably talented linguists to staff the college and begin the mission in earnest . </P>

What did the christian missionaries bring to china