Page:Christianity in China, Tartary, and Thibet Volume I.djvu/386

374 374 CHRISTIANITY IN CHINA, ETC. CHAP. X. CHRISTIANITY AMONGST THE TARTARS OP PERSIA. — CORRESPONDENCE OP KHAN (EULDJAITOU WITH PHILIP THE FAIR, EDWARD I., AND CLEMENT V. 2. USBECK AND THE PROVINCE OP KIPTCHAK. ERECTION OF THE ARCHIEPISCOPAL SEE OF SOULTANIYE. 3. ZEAL OF POPE JOHN XXII. FOR THE PROPAGATION OF THE FAITH. DEATH OF THE ARCHBISHOP OF PEKIN, JOHN DE MONTE CORVINO. — DE- PARTURE OF MISSIONARIES FOR CHINA. 4. APOSTASY AND MAR- TYRDOM OF STEPHEN OF HUNGARY. — 5. MISSION OF PEKIN. PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY IN CHINA, AND IN THE STEPPES OF TARTARY. NARRATIVE OF PASCAL OF SPAIN. 6- VIOLENT PER- SECUTION OF THE CHRISTIANS OF TARTARY. REVOLUTION IN CHINA. THE MISSIONS ARE DESOLATED. TAMERLANE. HIS RELI- GIOUS PRINCIPLES. — CHRISTIANITY ECLIPSED IN UPPER ASIA. Whilst Christianity was progressing in China, Tartary, and Thibet, under the very eyes of the grand Lama, the Christians of Persia were a mark for the cruel per- secutions of the Khan, who had become an apostate. We have seen that Gazan, respecting whom the Chris- tians and the missionaries had so much cause to con- gratulate themselves, died of grief in 1302, after his sanguinary defeat by the Sultan of Egypt. Gazan's successor was his brother Kharbende, who had been baptized in his infancy, by the name of Nicholas. We have quoted the letter which the sove- reign pontiff wrote to him in 1291 to congratulate him, and to give him advice as to the way in which he ought to live in the midst of pagans and Mus- sulmans. His mother Erouk-Khatoune was a Chris-