The Portable Medieval Reader

by James Bruce Ross

  Toward the middle of Lent, the son of Master William arrived bringing a beautiful crucifix, made in French style, with a silver image of the Christ fixed on it. Seeing it, the monks and priests stole it, though he was to have presented it from his master to Bulgai, the grand secretary of the court; when I heard of this I was greatly scandalized.

  This young man also informed Mangu Chan that the work he had ordered to be done was finished; and this work I shall here describe to you. Mangu had at Caracarum a great palace, situated next to the city walls, enclosed within a high wall like those which enclose monks’ priories among us. Here is a great palace, where he has his drinkings twice a year: once about Easter, when he passes there, and once in summer, when he goes back (westward). And the latter is the greater (feast), for then come to his court all the nobles, even though distant two months’ journey; and then he makes them largess of robes and presents, and shows his great glory. There are there many buildings as long as barns, in which are stored his provisions and his treasures. In the entry of this great palace, it being unseemly to bring in there skins of milk and other drinks, Master William the Parisian had made for him a great silver tree, and at its roots are four lions of silver, each with a conduit through it, and all belching forth white milk of mares. And four conduits are led inside the tree to its tops, which are bent downward, and on each of these is also a gilded serpent, whose tail twines round the tree. And from one of these pipes flows wine, from another caracosmos, or clarified mare’s milk, from another bal, a drink made with honey, and from another rice mead, which is called terracina; and for each liquor there is a special silver bowl at the foot of the tree to receive it. Between these four conduits in the top, he made an angel holding a trumpet, and underneath the tree he made a vault in which a man can be hid. And pipes go up through the heart of the tree to the angel. In the first place he made bellows, but they did not give enough wind. Outside the palace is a cellar in which the liquors are stored, and there are servants all ready to pour them out when they hear the angel trumpeting. And there are branches of silver on the tree, and leaves and fruit. When then drink is wanted, the head butler cries to the angel to blow his trumpet. Then he who is concealed in the vault, hearing this, blows with all his might in the pipe leading to the angel, and the angel places the trumpet to his mouth, and blows the trumpet right loudly. Then the servants who are in the cellar, hearing this, pour the different liquors into the proper conduits, and the conduits lead them down into the bowls prepared for that, and then the butlers draw it and carry it to the palace to the men and women....

  Finally, the letters he [Mangu Chan] sends you being finished, they called me and interpreted them to me. I wrote down their tenor, as well as I could understand through an interpreter, and it is as follows:

  “The commandment of the eternal God is, in Heaven there is only one eternal God, and on Earth there is only one lord, Chingis Chan, the Son of God, Demugin, (or) Chingis, ‘sound of iron.’” (For they call him Chingis, “sound of iron,” because he was a blacksmith; and puffed up in their pride they even say that he is the son of God.) “This is what is told you. Wherever there be a Moal [Mongol], or a Naiman, or a Merkit or a Musteleman, wherever ears can hear, wherever horses can travel, there let it be heard and known; those who shall have heard my commandments and understood them, and who shall not believe and shall make war against us, shall hear and see that they have eyes and see not; and when they shall want to hold anything they shall be without hands, and when they shall want to walk they shall be without feet: this is the eternal command of God....

  “This, through the virtue of the eternal God, through the great world of the Moal, is the word of Mangu Chan to the lord of the French, King Louis, and to all the other lords and priests and to all the great realm of the French, that they may understand our words. For the word of the eternal God to Chingis Chan has not reached unto you, either through Chingis Chan or others who have come after him.” ...

  Master William, once your subject, sends you a girdle ornamented with a precious stone, such as they wear against lightning and thunder; and he sends you endless salutations, praying always for you; and I cannot sufficiently express to God or to you the thanks I owe him. In all I baptized VI persons there.

  So we separated with tears, my companion remaining with Master William, and I alone with my interpreter going back with my guide and one servant, who had an order by which we were to receive every four days one sheep for the IIII of us.

  In two months and ten days we came to Baatu, and (on the way there) we never saw a town, nor the trace of any building save tombs, with the exception of one little village, in which we did not eat bread; neither did we ever take a rest in those two months and x days, except for one day only, when we could not get horses. We came back for the most part of the way through the same peoples, though generally through different districts; for we went in winter and came back in summer by parts farther to the north, fifteen days excepted, when both in going and in coming back we had to keep along a river between mountains, where there is no grass except close to the river. We had to go for two days—sometimes for three days—without taking any other nourishment than cosmos. Sometimes we were in great danger, not being able to find any people, at moments when we were short of food, and with worn-out horses.

  It seems to me inexpedient to send another friar to the Tartars, as I went, or as the preaching friars go; but if the lord pope, who is the head of all Christians, wishes to send with proper state a bishop, and reply to the foolishness they have already written three times to the Franks (once to Pope Innocent the Fourth of blessed memory, and twice to you: once by David, who deceived you, and now by me), he would be able to tell them whatever he pleased, and also make them reply in writing. They listen to whatever an ambassador has to say, and always ask if he has more to say; but he must have a good interpreter—nay, several interpreters—abundant travelling funds, etc.

  From Journey of William of Rubruck, William Woodville Rock-bill, ed. (London: Hakluyt Society, 2nd ser., vol. 4, 1900).

  The Labours of a Friar in Cathay

  JOHN OF MONTE CORVINO

  1305

  I Friar JOHN of Monte Corvino, of the order of Minor Friars, departed from Tauris, a city of the Persians, in the year of the Lord 1291, and proceeded to India. And I remained in the country of India, wherein stands the church of St. Thomas the Apostle, for thirteen months, and in that region baptized in different places about one hundred persons. The companion of my journey was Friar Nicholas of Pistoia, of the order of Preachers, who died there, and was buried in the church aforesaid.

  I proceeded on my farther journey and made my way to Cathay, the realm of the emperor of the Tartars who is called the grand cham. To him I presented the letter of our lord the pope, and invited him to adopt the Catholic faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, but he had grown too old in idolatry. However he bestows many kindnesses upon the Christians, and these two years past I am abiding with him.

  The Nestorians, a certain body who profess to bear the Christian name, but who deviate sadly from the Christian religion, have grown so powerful in those parts that they will not allow a Christian 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 anyone 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 up 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 baptized there, as well as I can estimate, up to this time some six thousand persons; and if those charges against me of which I have spoken had not been made, I should have baptized more than thirty thousand. And I am often still engaged in baptizing.

  Also I have gradually bought one hundred and fifty boys, the children of pagan parents, and of ages varying from seven to eleven, who had never learned any religion. These boys I have baptized, and I have taught them Greek and Latin after our manner. Also I have written out psalters for them, with thirty hymnaries and two breviaries. By help of these, eleven of the boys already know our service, and form a choir and take their weekly turn of duty as they do in convents, whether I am there or not. Many of the boys are also employed in writing out psalters and other things suitable. His majesty the emperor moreover delights much to hear them chaunting. I have the bells rung at all the canonical hours, and with my congregation of babes and sucklings I perform divine service, and the chaunting we do by ear because I have no service book with the notes.

  A certain king of this part of the world, by name George, belonging to the sect of Nestorian Christians, and of the illustrious family of that great king who was called Prester John of India, in the first year of my arrival here attached himself to me, and being converted by me to the truth of the Catholic faith, took the lesser orders, and when I celebrated mass he used to attend me wearing his royal robes. Certain others of the Nestorians on this account accused him of apostasy, but he brought over a great part of his people with him to the true Catholic faith, and built a church on a scale of royal magnificence in honour of our God, of the Holy Trinity, and of our lord the pope, giving it the name of the “Roman church.”

  This King George six years ago departed to the Lord a true Christian, leaving as his heir a son scarcely out of the cradle, and who is now nine years old. And after King George’s death his brothers, perfidious followers of the errors of Nestorius, perverted again all those whom he had brought over to the church, and carried them back to their original schismatical creed. And being all alone, and not able to leave his majesty the cham, I could not go to visit the church above-mentioned, which is twenty days’ journey distant.

  Yet, if I could but get some good fellow-workers to help me, I trust in God that all this might be retrieved, for I still possess the grant which was made in our favour by the late King George before mentioned. So I say again that if it had not been for the slanderous charges which I have spoken of, the harvest reaped by this time would have been great!

  Indeed if I had had but two or three comrades to aid me ’tis possible that the emperor cham would have been baptized by this time! I ask then for such brethren to come, if any are willing to come, such I mean as will make it their great business to lead exemplary lives, and not to make broad their own phylacteries.

  As for the road hither I may tell you that the way through the land of the Goths, subject to the emperor of the Northern Tartars, is the shortest and safest; and by it the friars might come, along with the letter-carriers, in five or six months. The other route again is very long and very dangerous, involving two sea-voyages; the first of which is about as long as that from Acre to the province of Provence, whilst the second is as long as from Acre to England. And it is possible that it might take more than two years to accomplish the journey that way. But, on the other hand, the first-mentioned route has not been open for a considerable time, on account of wars that have been going on.

  It is twelve years since I have had any news of the papal court, or of our order, or of the state of affairs generally in the West. Two years ago indeed there came hither a certain Lombard leech and chirurgeon, who spread abroad in these parts the most incredible blasphemies about the court of Rome and our order and the state of things in the West, and on this account I exceedingly desire to obtain true intelligence. I pray the brethren whom this letter may reach to do their possible to bring its contents to the knowledge of our lord the pope, and the cardinals, and the agents of the order at the court of Rome.

  I beg the minister general of our order to supply me with an antiphonarium, with the legends of the saints, a gradual, and a psalter with the musical notes, as a copy; for I have nothing but a pocket breviary with the short lessons, and a little missal: if I had one for a copy, the boys of whom I have spoken could transcribe others from it. Just now I am engaged in building a second church, with the view of distributing the boys in more places than one.

  I have myself grown old and grey, more with toil and trouble than with years; for I am not more than fifty-eight. I have got a competent knowledge of the language and character which is most generally used by the Tartars. And I have already translated into that language and character the New Testament and the psalter, and have caused them to be written out in the fairest penmanship they have; and so by writing, reading, and preaching, I bear open and public testimony to the law of Christ. And I had been in treaty with the late King George, if he had lived, to translate the whole Latin ritual, that it might be sung throughout the whole extent of his territory; and whilst he was alive I used to celebrate mass in his church, according to the Latin ritual, reading in the before-mentioned language and character the words of both the preface and the canon.

  And the son of the king before-mentioned is called after my name, John; and I hope in God that he will walk in his father’s steps.

  As far as I ever saw or heard tell, I do not believe that any king or prince in the world can be compared to his majesty the cham in respect of the extent of his dominions, the vastness of their population, or the amount of his wealth. Here I stop.

  Dated at the city of Cambalec in the kingdom of Cathay, in the year of the Lord 1305, and on the 8th day of January.

  From Cathay and the Way Thither, H. Yule, ed.,2nd ed., rev. H. Cordier (London: Hakluyt Society, 2nd Ser., vol. 37, 1914).

  A Last Mission to Cathay

  JOHN OF MARIGNOLLI

  1338-1353

  I, FRIAR JOHN [of Marignolli] of Florence, of the order of Minors, and now unworthy bishop of Bisignano, was sent with certain others, in the year of our Lord one thousand three hundred and thirty [eight], by the holy pope Benedict the Eleventh, to carry letters and presents from the apostolic see to the kaan or chief emperor of all the Tartars, a sovereign who holds the sway of nearly half the eastern world, and whose power and wealth, with the multitude of cities and provinces and languages under him, and the countless number, as I may say, of the nations over which he rules, pass all telling.

  We set out from Avignon in the month of December, came to Naples in the beginning of Lent, and stopped there till Easter (which fell at the end of March), waiting for a ship of Genoa, which was coming with the Tartar envoys whom the kaan had sent from his great city of Cambalec to the pope, to request the latter to despatch an embassy to his court, whereby communication might be established, and a treaty of alliance struck between him and the Christians; for he greatly loves and honours our faith. Moreover the chief princes of his whole empire, more than thirty thousand in number, who are called alans, and govern the whole Orient, are Christians either in fact or in name, calling themselves “the Pope’s slaves,” and ready to die for the “Franks.” For so they term us, not indeed from France, but from Frank-land. Their first apostle was Friar John, called de Monte Corvino, who seventy-two years previously, after having been soldier, judge, and doctor in the service of the Emperor Frederic, had become a Minor Friar, and a most wise and learned one.

  Howbeit on the first of May we arrived by sea at Constantinople
, and stopped at Pera till the feast of St. John Baptist. We had no idle time of it however, for we were engaged in a most weighty controversy with the patriarch of the Greeks and their whole council in the palace of St. Sophia. And there God wrought in us a new miracle, giving us a mouth and wisdom which they were not able to resist; for they were constrained to confess that they must needs be schismatics, and had no plea to urge against their own condemnation except the intolerable arrogance of the Roman prelates.

  Thence we sailed across the Black Sea, and in eight days arrived at Caffa, where there are Christians of many sects. From that place we went on to the first emperor of the Tartars, Usbec, and laid before him the letters which we bore, with certain pieces of cloth, a great warhorse, some strong liquor, and the pope’s presents. And after the winter was over, having been well fed, well clothed, loaded with handsome presents, and supplied by the king with horses and travelling expenses, we proceeded to ARMALEC [the capital] of the Middle Empire. There we built a church, bought a piece of ground, dug wells, sung masses, and baptized several; preaching freely and openly, notwithstanding the fact that only the year before the bishop and six other Minor Friars had there undergone for Christ’s sake a glorious martyrdom, illustrated by brilliant miracles. The names of these martyrs were Friar Richard the Bishop, a Burgundian by nation, Friar Francis of Alessandria, Friar Paschal of Spain (this one was a prophet and saw the heavens open, and foretold the martyrdom which should befall him and his brethren, and the overthrow of the Tartars of Saray by a flood, and the destruction of Armalec in vengeance for their martyrdom, and that the emperor would be slain on the third day after their martyrdom, and many other glorious things); Friar Laurence of Ancona, Friar Peter, an Indian friar who acted as their interpreter, and Gillott [Gilottus], a merchant.