This method of presentation attracted several immediate attacks from enemies within the church even before a reaction from the Chinese.

Sometime after 1610, one critic, Father Longobardo, said that even with all the references to that of a supreme deity, the Chinese had never differentiated the moral regularities of society and the physical regularities which were that of the material universe. The Chinese had also never understood or accepted any spiritual substance separate from matter. This criticism was increased by emphasizing on the lack of reference to that of the divine powers in Confucius and other thinkers of his school. The argument went on saying that whatever the most ancient Chinese had thought of and considered their classical tradition had been influenced through truly atheist lines. What is most interesting is that Confucian thought accepts the passivity of Heaven and searches for the problems on earth elsewhere especially in the...
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