Page:Christianity in China, Tartary, and Thibet Volume I.djvu/294

282 282 CHRISTIANITY IN CHINA, ETC. Asia Minor. He attacked him with a powerful army, and drove him from the kingdom of Turkey, which he offered, it is said, to Hayton, King of Armenia. But the latter was wise enough to refuse so dangerous a present, which would only have served to irritate the Sultan of Egypt against him. He contented himself with asking Abaga to cooperate in delivering the Holy Land from the Saracen yoke ; and the Khan agreed to a proposal so conformable to the in- terests of his policy, and again sent ambassadors to the Pope and other Christian sovereigns, in order to come to an understanding with them upon the projected ex- pedition. These ambassadors, six in number, arrived at Lyons at the beginning of 1274, for the second council, where, thanks to the exertions of the Franciscan Nuncios, re- peatedly sent to Constantinople, the Greeks and Latins came to a harmonious agreement in matters of faith. Gregory X. hastened to announce to Abaga the arrival of his ambassadors, and the good reception they had met with ; he said also that he had read the letters of which they were the bearers, and that before the Christian army set out on its march, he would send precise information on all points. The Tartar envoys were then introduced to the Council at its fourth sitting on the 6th of July, 1274 ; and the Pope made them sit opposite him at the feet of the patriarchs. The letters they had brought were read, apparently according to the version they had themselves given of the contents ; and at the next meeting of the Council on the 16th of July, the envoy who had acted as spokesman to the rest, and two of the most distinguished Tartars who accom- panied them, were baptized by Pierre de Tarentaise,