Page:Christianity in China, Tartary, and Thibet Volume I.djvu/362

350 35G CHRISTIANITY IN CHINA, ETC. and will scarcely allow Christians of another creed to establish an oratory or a church, in which they might preach any doctrine differing from the Nestorian. These Nestorians, either directly or by means of persons whom they have corrupted by money, raised the most determined persecutions against me, saying everywhere that I had not been sent in reality by our Lord the Pope, but that I was a dangerous spy and a seducer of the people ; then they produced false witnesses who maintained that I had killed a foreign ambassador, in India, who had been entrusted with a treasure to take to the emperor, which I had myself seized upon. Their persecutions lasted for nearly five years, during which time I was often in the hands of justice, and was threatened with an ignominious death ; but at last, by the grace of God, the testimony of a certain individual proved my innocence to the emperor, and at the same time showed him the malice of my enemies, who were then exiled with their wives and families. I remained here alone for eleven years, at the end of which time I was joined by brother Arnold, a German of the province of Cologne. I have built a church at Khanbalik, the principal residence of the emperor, which has been finished now for about six years, and in which there is a belfry with three bells. In this church I have altogether baptized nearly 6000 persons, and if it had not been for the calumnies of which I have spoken, the number would have been 13,000 ; I have successively received a hundred and fifty boys, the sons of pagans, whose ages varied from seven to eleven years, who had been hitherto without any religion at all, have baptized them and instructed them in the elements of Greek and Latin literature. I have written for their use Psalters as well