Page:Christianity in China, Tartary, and Thibet Volume I.djvu/168

156 156 CHRISTIANITY IN CHINA, ETC. faithful subjects who had never resisted him, but served him with zeal, and punctually paid their tribute, must redound rather to the shame than the glory of his em- pire. These remonstrances were taken in good part by the Kha-kan, who, in 1241, sent Simeon himself to Ar- menia, as administrator of all affairs concerning the Christians, and provided him with documents as war- rants of his authority, addressed to the generals who occupied those countries. His arrival put an end for the time to the sufferings of the Christians ; the free exercise of their religion was restored to them in all the countries subject to the Mongols, and not a few of the latter were converted and received baptism. Thence arose a report, generally be- lieved in the Levant, that the Tartars had embraced Christianity, and that their chiefs had been baptized. These barbarians had inspired such terror, and it seemed so impossible to overcome them by arms, that people were glad to suppose that there was some chance of humanising them by the gentle influence of the mo- rality of the Gospel. The Mongols also rejected Mahomet, and persecuted the Mussulmans, and that alone was regarded, at that time, as a step towards Christianity. The very men, who had been taken for magicians or demons incarnate, when they attacked the Christians of Poland and Hun- gary, passed for half-converted, when they were seen making war on the Turks and Saracens. The religious ideas of the Mongols of that period did not appear unfavourable to their conversion. It was known that they acknowledged one Almighty God, whom they named Tengri * (heaven), and that to this
 * " L'Histoirc Merveilleuse du Grant Caan," fol. 296.