Page:Christianity in China, Tartary, and Thibet Volume I.djvu/291

279 Clement's letter to abaga. 279 Christian kings in the expedition they were preparing, in order that he might concert measures in accordance with them. Clement replied in the following terms : — " We have received lately a noble messenger from your greatness, who presented to us letters from you, and from which we have learned what he has verbally reported to us. No person in our palace being capable of reading those letters, since you did not, according to your custom, write in the Latin tongue, we were obliged to depend upon the words of your messenger, and reply accordingly to your magnificence. " Before all things, we return thanks to God, the giver of all good, that he has been pleased to enlighten the eyes of your heart, and cause you humbly to adore his only Son, crucified for the salvation of the human race. You rejoice, you say, at the victory we have gained in the kingdom of Sicily over Manfred, the natural son of the ex-Roman emperor. This rash usurper fell on the field of battle, with a multitude of perfidious Christians and Saracens, losing at the same time his life and his throne, by the powerful hand of our dear Son in Jesus Christ, Charles of Anjou, on whom we had bestowed the kingdom. This is what the kings of France and Navarre *, followed by a considerable number of counts, barons, and knights, have determined to do with respect to the Holy Land. Having taken the sign of the cross, they are preparing to combat, valiantly and powerfully, the enemies of religion. Already in other countries many lords and men of the common sort, animated by their example, have resolved to exalt with all their might t 4
 * Thibaud, King of Navarre.