Page:Christianity in China, Tartary, and Thibet Volume I.djvu/321

Rh to the custom of the time, the name of the place of his birth. After having passed the greater part of his life in the duties of his mission in Tartary, he was at length appointed Archbishop of Pekin, where he died; but we shall speak, at a future time, of the labours and the success of this valiant apostle.

After a very short stay in the West, John de Monte Corvino and his companions set out again to resume their holy and laborious ministry in Upper Asia. Pope Nicholas IV. gave them letters for Argoun and for Kublai, Emperor of the Tartars and Chinese, who had established his court at Khan Balik, or Pekin. We do not quote his letters, because they contain nothing remarkable. They resemble most of those, the translation of which we have already given, and contain only urgent and paternal exhortations to receive baptism, and to favour the Christians. Several authors (and, amongst others, Wadding, the celebrated historiographer of the Franciscan order) have asserted that Argoun and Kublai had been baptized; but this is improbable, as the sovereign pontiff, who doubtless knew the truth of the matter, would not, in that case, have insisted so much, in his letters, on the necessity of not deferring baptism. Nicholas IV. did not fail to write, by the same opportunity, to the noble Pisan Jole, a letter in which the Pope praises his piety, and thanks him for his zeal in favouring the work of the missions. Notwithstanding the urgent exhortations of the sovereign pontiff, and the constant endeavours of the missionaries, we must confess, that the conversion of the Tartars did not yet make any very rapid or striking progress; still the apostolate was not struck with barrenness, and there were favoured spirits to whom God granted such a