Franciscan Envoys to the Mongols and the Church of Khanbaliq

In March 1245 Innocent IV, then at Lyon, addressed two letters to the king and people of the Tartars. The first sets out the Christian faith: the Father sent his Son, who was born of a virgin, died on the cross, rose, and left on earth a vicar holding the keys of the kingdom of heaven. It commends the Franciscan Laurence of Portugal and his companions (Innocent IV, Dei patris immensa (no. 102, pp. 72–73)). The second says that the pope is astonished to hear that they have invaded many countries, Christian and other, and laid them waste, sparing neither sex nor age. It urges them to stop, above all to stop persecuting Christians, and to say through his envoys what they intend (Innocent IV, Cum non solum (no. 105, pp. 74–75)).

John of Plano Carpini, a Franciscan, writes that he told the first Mongol chiefs he met what the pope asked of them: to become Christians, to cease the slaughter and to write what they intended (John of Plano Carpini, History of the Mongols, Rockhill, pp. 5–7). He reached the camp of Güyük on 22 July and saw him enthroned as emperor on 24 August (John of Plano Carpini, History of the Mongols, Rockhill, pp. 18–22). Christians of the khan’s household told him they believed that Güyük was about to become a Christian; he kept Christian clerks, John writes, and a chapel stood before his tent (John of Plano Carpini, History of the Mongols, Rockhill, p. 29). On 11 November the khan’s secretaries went through the reply with the friars word by word while they put it into Latin, and it was written out “in Saracenic” as well (John of Plano Carpini, History of the Mongols, Rockhill, pp. 27–28). A Persian text of the letter, found in the Vatican archives in 1920 (Güyük Khan, letter to Innocent IV, Pelliot, p. 15), says that the request that the khan be baptised has not been understood; that God destroyed the peoples the pope speaks of, because they disobeyed God’s order and killed Mongol envoys; and that the pope must come in person with the kings to offer service and homage. If they do not, the Mongols will know them as enemies (Güyük Khan, letter to Innocent IV, Persian text, in Pelliot’s translation, pp. 18–23).

William of Rubruck, also a Franciscan, sailed into the Black Sea in May 1253 (William of Rubruck, Journey, Rockhill, p. 41). He had preached in Saint Sophia that he was no one’s envoy, but was going among unbelievers as the rule of his order directed (William of Rubruck, Journey, Rockhill, p. 48). He reached the camp of the khan Möngke, his “Mangu Chan”, on 27 December (William of Rubruck, Journey, Rockhill, pp. 165–175). In Karakorum, he writes, there were twelve temples of idols, two mosques and one Christian church (William of Rubruck, Journey, Rockhill, pp. 220–221). On the eve of Pentecost 1254, by the khan’s order and before three umpires, he argued with one of those he calls Tuins, or idolaters; at the end, he writes, nobody said “I believe; I want to become a Christian” (William of Rubruck, Journey, Rockhill, pp. 228–235). Next day Möngke told him that as God gave the hand different fingers, so he gave men different ways (William of Rubruck, Journey, Rockhill, pp. 235–236). William left with a letter from the khan to King Louis of France, which told the king to send envoys if he would obey (William of Rubruck, Journey, Rockhill, pp. 248–251); he had baptised, he records, six people (William of Rubruck, Journey, Rockhill, p. 254).

John of Montecorvino says that he left Tabriz in 1291, spent thirteen months in India and went on to Cathay with a letter from the pope to the great khan. Writing from Khanbaliq in January 1305, he reports a church with a bell-tower, some six thousand people baptised by his own estimate, and a choir of boys whom he had bought, baptised and taught. The Nestorians, he says, had accused him for five years of being a spy and an impostor (John of Montecorvino, first letter (8 January 1305), in Yule, vol. 3, pp. 45–51). Andrew of Perugia, a bishop sent out by the Apostolic See, writes that he reached the city in 1308, by his reckoning, and that John was consecrated archbishop there (Andrew of Perugia, letter of 1326, Yule, vol. 3, pp. 71–72).

William met priests of the Church of the East at Möngke’s court, and John found them powerful in Cathay; both call them Nestorians (William of Rubruck, Journey, Rockhill, pp. 168, 171) (John of Montecorvino, first letter (8 January 1305), in Yule, vol. 3, pp. 45–51). For that church’s coming to China in the seventh century see the mission of Aluoben.