Page:Christianity in China, Tartary, and Thibet Volume I.djvu/190

178 178 CHRISTIANITY IN CHINA, ETC. Rhine at Cologne, continued his route by Liege and Champagne, and finally at Lyons placed in the Pope's hands the letter which he had brought from the Em- peror of Tartary. The pontiff kept near his person for three months the courageous Franciscans who had encountered so many fatigues and perils to fulfil his mission. Friar Salimbeni saw Piano Carpini in France shortly after his return, and found him " a pleasant man, of lively wit, eloquent, well instructed, and skilful in many things. He had written a large book concerning the things he had seen among the Tartars and elsewhere; and when people fatigued him with questions on the subject, he made them read his narrative ; as many times," adds the chronicler, "I have myself seen and heard."* The archbishopric of Antivari, in Dalmatia, having become vacant during his absence, Friar John was raised to it. "Be thou blessed by the Lord, and by me his vicar," says Pope Innocent; "for I see that in thee are fulfilled the saying of the wise man : ' As the cold of snow in- the time of harvest, so is a faithful messenger to them that send him ; for he refresheth the soul of his masters.' f Well done, thou good and faithful servant ; since thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will confide unto thee many things." The new archbishop was sent some time afterwards on a mission to St. Louis, but he did not survive long his return from the East ; and if we consider that he was sixty-five years old when he undertook the perilous mission to Tartary, and that he was afflicted by painful corpulence, it will seem surprising that he should not
 * Sbaraglia, p. 452. f Prov. xxv. 3.