Innocent IV
Pope who wrote from Lyon in March 1245 to the ruler of the Mongols, setting out the Christian faith and protesting at their invasions, and who received the khan’s demand for submission in reply. His bull Ad extirpanda bound the cities of northern Italy to act against heretics.
Two letters of Innocent to “the king and people of the Tartars” are dated at Lyon on 5 and 13 March in the second year of his pontificate, 1245. In the first he writes as the successor of the vicar to whom Christ gave the keys of the kingdom of heaven, responsible for the salvation of all peoples, and sends Franciscans to teach the faith (Innocent IV, Dei patris immensa (no. 102, pp. 72–73)). In the second he urges the Mongols to stop their attacks, warns them of the anger of God, and asks what they intend (Innocent IV, Cum non solum (no. 105, pp. 74–75)). The reply of the khan Güyük told him to come in person with the kings and submit (Güyük Khan, letter to Innocent IV, Persian text, in Pelliot’s translation, pp. 18–23).
His bull Ad extirpanda ordered the city governments of northern Italy to hand arrested heretics to the bishop or the inquisitors and to force them, short of loss of limb or danger of death, to confess and to name others (Innocent IV, Ad extirpanda 24–26). See Franciscan Envoys to the Mongols and the Church of Khanbaliq and the Papal Inquisition Is Established.
In the timeline
- 1245 to 1307, firm dateFranciscan Envoys to the Mongols and the Church of Khanbaliq
Innocent IV sends Franciscans to the Mongol khan in 1245 and is told in reply to come and submit. William of Rubruck debates before the khan’s umpires at the Mongol court in 1254. By 1305 John of Montecorvino has a church and a choir in Khanbaliq.