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Known today as one "of the most fiercely fought and momentous religious debates in Christian history," that largely internecine fight of the Catholic Church has always been perceived by Longobardo's critics as responsible for turning the once thriving Jesuit evangelical cause in China into what Ray R. Noll calls "a chapter in negative missiology"" or what John S. Gregory terms "one of history's magnificent failures."s In the face of all this longstanding resentment, however, it is important to note the oftenoverlooked fact that, in addition to being one of the earliest Jesuit missionaries in China, Longobardo was nominated by Ricci to succeed him as the leader of the Jesuit China mission, and he held that position for twelve long years after Ricci's death. [...]in addition to being similar in the setting and general atmosphere of their places of worship, Buddhism and Christianity resembled one another in the teaching of contempt for sensual pleasure and in the use of rewards and punishments in the next world as an enticement for interest in individual salvation in this world. Only after being in China for several years and after learning the Chinese language and customs well did Ricci gradually realize that Buddhist monks had a very low social standing in Chinese society, and any association with them in the public perception made it more difficult for him to gain Christianity the kind of respect that he needed for his proselytizing work. [...]after maneuvering out of China in 1588 his senior colleague Ruggieri, who still favored a superficially cordial relationship with Buddhism, Ricci decided in 1595 to discard his Buddhist clothes, grow back his beard and hair, and present himself in the garb and guise of a Confucian scholar as Valignano had originally instructed and as his Chinese friends had encouraged him.