IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| Cathay and the Way Thither : vol.2 |
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Citation Information
BY JOHN DE' MARIGNOLLI. 341
as I can calculate, to more than four thousand marks. And we had many and glorious disputations with the Jews and other sectaries ;1 and we made also a great harvest of souls in that empire.
The Minor Friars in Cambalec have a cathedral church immediately adjoining the palace,2 with a proper residence for the Archbishop, and other churches in the city besides, and they have bells too, and all the clergy have their subsistence from the Emperor's table in the most honourable manner.
And when the Emperor saw that nothing would induce me to abide there, he gave me leave to return to the Pope, carrying presents from him, with an allowance for three years' expenses, and with a request that either I or some one else should be sent speedily back with the rank of Cardinal, and with full powers, to be Bishop there ;3 for the office of Bishop is highly venerated by all the Orientals, whether they be Christians or no. He should also be of the Minorite Order, because these are the only priests that they are acquainted with ; and they think that the Pope is always of that Order because Pope Girolamo was so who sent them that legate whom the Tartars and Alans venerate as a saint, viz., Friar John of Monte Corvino of the Order of Minorites, of whom we have already spoken.4
We abode in Cambalec about three years, and then we
1 Of the ancient settlement of Jews in China, said to have taken place in the third century B.C., though others name a later date, some notice will be found in the J. R. G. S., xxvii, 297. See also Sily. de Sacy in Notices et Extraits, vol. iv, and Alvaro Semedo, Rel. della Gina, 1643, p. 193, etc.
2 See the building of this mentioned, by Archbishop John in his letter at p. 206.
3 A cardinal never came to China till the early part of the last century (Mezzobarba), and his mission did not prosper.
4 By Pope Girolamo he means Friar Jerome Musci, Bishop of Palestrina, elected Pope as Nicholas IV, and who sent John of Monte Corvino on his distant mission. Dobner, having taken up the notion that Carpini is meant, says legendum Innocentius ;" but he is quite wrong. The
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