Page:Christianity in China, Tartary, and Thibet Volume I.djvu/240

228 228 CHRISTIANITY IN CHINA, ETC. jewels. There was also a great silver cross with pearls at the centre and corners, many ornaments, and a lamp with eight branches was burning before the altar. In the sanctuary there was seated an Armenian monk, of a swarthy complexion and attenuated form, and clothed in a tunic that reached only to the mid-leg, and a black fur cloak, fastened with an iron clasp. We entered, but before saluting the monk we knelt down and began chanting the ' Ave Regina ccelorum,' and he then rose and began to pray with us. After saluting one another we seated ourselves near a little brasier in which there was fire. " This Armenian monk had been a hermit in the Holy Land, not far from Jerusalem, and it was solely by Divine inspiration, he said, that he had undertaken this journey to Tartary. God had commanded him to go and convert the Grand Khan ; and as soon as he had reached Kara-Koroum he had presented himself to Mangou, exhorting him to become a Christian, and promising that if he embraced the faith the whole world should be subjected to 'him, and even the French and the sovereign pontiff acknowledge his sway. " The worthy monk entreated Rubruk to speak to the emperor to the same effect, but the envoy of St. Louis replied, ' My brother, I am certainly very willing that the Khan should become a Christian, since that is the very object of my journey hither ; and I will promise him that if he will be baptized, the Pope and the French will rejoice greatly, and will recognise him for a brother and a friend ; but not that they should ever become his subjects or pay him tribute, for to say that would be against my conscience and against the mission with which I am charged.' « The Armenian monk found this answer so categorical