Page:Christianity in China, Tartary, and Thibet Volume I.djvu/403

391 ZEAL OF POPE JOHN XXII. 391 the propagation of the gospel ; and their words kindled all hearts, and everywhere raised up new apostles. Avignon was the rendezvous of these " Travellers for Jesus Christ" as they were then called ; they came to the feet of the common father of the faithful to offer up their conquests to him, and to derive, from his discourse, encouragement to plunge again into a career so full of labour and danger. There was, at that much decried period of the middle age, an incomparable amount of movement, activity, and energy. Nations were con- tinually brought into communication with one another ; and long journies were then, perhaps, more frequent than in our own day. The means of communication were, it is true, imperfect ; but there was then an element still more powerful than steam in overcoming obstacles, and shortening distances ; this element was religious faith, a faith lively and ardent, which rendered everything possible to those who were animated by it. The papacy was the great motive power whose influence set in ac- tion all other forces for the advantage of Christianity and civilisation. From his palace at Avignon, John XXII. kept alive the sacred flame by an active corre- spondence, which caused the accents of his charity and zeal for the salvation of souls to resound to the four corners of the earth. He wrote to Georgia, to Persia, to China, to Tartary, even to the wildest regions of Turkestan and the mountains of Albors, and seemed to communicate to all Christendom something of the ardour and spirit of proselytism, with which, as a Pope and a Frenchman, his soul was animated.* His Jacques d'Euse; he governed the church from August 7, 1316, until c c 4
 * John XXII. was a native of Cahors ; his family name was