christian name, but who deviate sadly from the christian religion, have grown so powerful in those parts that they will not allow a chritian of another ritual to have ever so small a chapel, or to publish any doctrine different from
their own.
To these regions there never came any one of the Apostles, nor yet of the Disciples. And so the Nestorians aforesaid, either directly or through others whom they bribed, have brought on me persecutions of the sharpest. For they got tip stories that I was not sent by our lord the Pope, but was a great spy and impostor ; and after a while they produced false witnesses who declared that there was indeed an envoy sent with presents of immense value for the emperor, but that I had murdered him in India, and stolen what he had in charge. And these intrigues and calumnies went on for some five years, And thus it came to pass that many a time I was dragged before the judgment seat with ignominy and threats of death. At last, by God's providence, the emperor, through the confessions of a certain individual, came to know my innocence and the malice of my adversaries ; and he banished them with their wives and children.
In this mission I abode alone and without any associate for eleven years ; but it is now going on for two years since I was joined by Friar Arnold, a German of the province of Cologne.
I have built a church in the city of Cambaliech, in which the king has his chief residence. This I completed six years ago; and I have built a bell-tower to it, and put three bells in it. I have baptised there, as well as I can estimate, up to this time some 6,000 persons ; and if those charges against me of which I have spoken had not been made, I should have baptised more than 30,000. And I am often still engaged in baptising.
Also I have gradually bought one hundred and fifty boys, the children of pagan parents, and of ages varying from
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