The Catholic Church sent several missions to the Far East during the Renaissance with varying degrees of success. There are several reasons it took until the Renaissance to send missions to the East. Portuguese and Spanish sailors made many discoveries in search of trade. Along with discovering the Americas they also established ports in China, India, and Japan. The Mongolian hordes led by Genghis Khan had made travel through Europe to Asia possible. A third reason was the founding of the Jesuit order. The Society of Jesus(Jesuits) was started by Ignatius Loyala and several others in the 1520-30s. They were well educated, charismatic, and most important, willing to incorporate the customs of the local people into Church Doctrine. Francis Xavier was one of the original Jesuits and one of the first missionaries to the far east. He worked out of Portuguese ports in China and Japan and tried to get them to broaden their minds to new missionary methods. Unbendingness was a problem that would plague the Catholic church in all its missions, both in the Far East and the New World. Xavier's travels in the service of the Portuguese king took him to Goa, Japan, and Malacha. In 1552, at the age of 46 Xavier died while on a ship to China.

One of the first colonies in India was started at Melapore by Father John of Montecorvino, a member of the Franciscans. In the 1300s he traveled to India and began a church. He translated the Bible into the local language and converted thousands. He was allowed to preach the current ruler, although he was unable to convert him. He faced the problem of Nestorian Christians trying to keep him from teaching, and eventually, bringing charges against him to the emperor. Father John, even with these problems and very limited supplies, managed to convert several thousand, a number which continued to grow. A Jesuit, Robert de Nobili, made the next major progress in India. In 1605 he moved there and lived as one of them, not associating with any Europeans. He added the Gospels as another part of their religion translated into the vernacular. This was a successful tactic and it gained him many converts. Pope Gregory XV grudgingly allowed him to do this. By 1650 he had over 40,000 converts, due to the fact he had allowed them to retain many of their religious and secular customs and ideas. In 1742 Pope Benedict XIV condemned their practices and destroyed Catholicism as a major religion on the Indian subcontinent.

Brother John from India was also one of the first in China. He was named Archbishop of Peking and had gained over 30,000 followers. This would last until destroyed by the Ming Dynasty later during the Fourteenth century. Matteo Ricci, the Jesuit sent to China had a great deal of success. By using the Jesuit method of integrating local customs he was able to convert many of the leader and people of China. He was a member of the court as the emperor's advisor. Shall van Bell was his heir. Van Bell built churches and got Christianity accepted as an official religion in China. At the peak of Christianity here there were a quarter million followers. Rivalries with the Dominicans and Franciscans brought about the demise of Christianity in China. Accusations in Rome resulted in many changes in policy, but eventually ended in the verdict that the adaption into Chinese was wrong. This signalled the beginning of persecutions and the eventual death of the Church in China.

The reason these missions did not succeed was mainly prejudice. Europeans thought that they were always right and everyone else was wrong. Both in the East and in the New World missions failed because Church Doctrine could not be modified. Also the stance of Europeans as above the other cultures showed clearly the unbendingness of the church. It would not be until this century that the church gained many converts in the East.