IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| Cathay and the Way Thither : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
172 REPORTS OF MISSIONARY FRIARS.
of this venerable man's life, excepting the anecdote related by Odoric,l and what can be gathered out of the letter of Bishop Andrew given below.
John died, aged upwards of eighty years, sometime about the year 1328, as we gather from a letter addressed to the Pope by certain christians of Cathay, which will be quoted in another section of this book.N Pagans as well as Christians followed him to the grave with demonstrations of the deepest grief and veneration.3 No character so worthy of respect, except Benedict Goes in later days, appears among the ecclesiastical travellers with whom our subject brings us into contact.
He appears to have been not only the first, but the last effective Archbishop of Cambalec. In 1333, after the news of John's death had reached Avignon, one Friar Nicholas was appointed to the See, and was sent forth accompanied by twenty friars and six laymen. But it is not known what became of the party. Their arrival at Almalig and civil treatment there were heard of,' but nothing beyond ; there is no indication of their having ever reached the Court of Cathay.
The mission of John de' Marignolli and his companions succeeded, but there was no bishop at Cambalec in their time. Some time before 1370 a certain Cosmas had been appointed, for we find that in that year he was transferred from the see of Cambalec to that of Saray, and Friar William of Prato (Du Prè ?) named in his place.5 Probably the Pope was not aware of the revolution which had recently ejected the Mongol family, and he could not be aware of its full effect on European intercourse. Gulielmus Pratensis and the friars who followed him are heard of no more.
A list embracing several other Archbishops or Bishops of Cambalec is indeed to be found in Le Quien's Oriens Christiauus. Some of these it is probable were in fact prelates titularly named
1 Ante, p. 1.60. 2 See Introductory Notices of Marignolli.
3 See the Livre du Grant Caeca, infra.
4 See a letter from Pope Benedict XII to the Khan of Chagatai, thank-
ing him for his good reception of Nicholas. (Mosheim, p. 111, and App. No. lxxix.)
5 VIOSheim, p. 120.
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