Page:China- Its State and Prospects.djvu/250

224 David was appointed to be the metropolitan of China. In the time of Genghis-khan, numerous bodies of Nestorian Christians were scattered over Tartary; and the famous Prester John, in the twelfth century, exerted an extensive influence over central Asia. When the Mongul princes ascended the throne of China, A.D. 1280, they afforded toleration to all religions; which enabled the Nestorians to spread themselves, and to establish a flourishing church in the north of China. This continued to exist, according to Mosheim, till the beginning of the fifteenth century; but shortly afterwards, Nestorianism appears to have dwindled away in that country.

The efforts of the Roman Catholics, in behalf of China, commenced in the beginning of the fourteenth century, when Nicholas IV. sent Corvino on an embassy, to Coblai, the first emperor of the Mongul dynasty; and, in 1307, Clement V. constituted him bishop of Cambalu, or Peking. Benedict VI. A.D. 1338, sent new agents into China and Tartary; and, during the whole of the Yuen dynasty, both the Latin and Nestorian Christians had a fine opportunity for propagating their religion in eastern Asia; but, quarrelling amongst themselves, they hindered each others' success; and, towards the close of the century, the Mahomedans, gaining the ascendancy, drove the Christians from those regions.

Nothing more is heard of efforts for the conversion of the Chinese, until the Portuguese rounded the Cape of Good Hope, and established themselves at Goa. In 1511, Alphonso took Malacca; and, eight years afterwards, Andrade sailed for China. The first acts Europeans, in those parts, consisted, mainly of plunder and piracy, which excited the jealousy of the Chinese