XII PARTII

CEN Trather have been delivered over to the physicians, than placed in the list of heretics. He ended his days in a miserable prison, and left a considerable number of followers and adherents, whom persecution and death in the most dreadful forms could not persuade to abandon his cause, or to renounce an absurdity, which one would think could never have gained credit, but in such a place as Bedlam [s]. This remarkable example is sufficient to shew, not only the astonishing credulity of the stupid multitude, but also how far even the rulers of the church were destitute of judgment, and strangers to the knowledge of true and genuine religion.

[s] MATTH. PARIS, Historia Major. p. 68.-GUIL. NEUBRIGENSIS, Historia rerum Anglicarum, lib. i. p. 50.-BeuLAY, Historia Acad. Paris. tom. ii. p. 241.

THE

THE

THIRTEENTH CENTURY.

PART I.

The External HISTORY of the CHURCH.

CHAPTER I.

Conerning the prosperous events that happened to the church during this century.

I.

HOUGH the successors of GENGIS-CENT.

XIII.

THON, the mighty emperor of the Tartars, p Al

KAN,

The state

I.

parts of A

China.

or rather of the Mogols, had carried their vic-, torious arms through a great part of Asia, and of Christiahaving reduced China, India, and Persia, under nity in the their yoke, involved in many calamities and suf-northern ferings the Christian assemblies which were esta-sia and in blished in these vanquished lands [a]; yet we learn from the best accounts, and the most respectable authorities, that both in China, and in the Northern parts of Asia, the Nestorians continued to have a flourishing, church, and a great number of adherents. The emperors of the Tartars and Mogols had no great aversion to the Christian religion; nay, it appears from authentic records, that several kings and grandees of these nations had either been instructed in the doctrines of the gospel by their ancestors, or were converted to Christianity by the ministry K 2 and

[4] GREGOR. ABULPHARAIUS, Historia Dynastiar. p. 281

PARTI.

CEN T. and exhortations of the Nestorians [6]. But the XIII. religion of MAHOMET, which was so adapted to flatter the passions of men, infected, by degrees, these noble converts, opposed with success the progress of the gospel, and, in process of time, triumphed over it so far, that not the least glimpse or remains of Christianity were to be perceived in the courts of these eastern princes.

Tartars.

A papal II. The Tartars having made an incursion embassy is sent to the into Europe in the year 1241, and having laid waste, with the most unrelenting and savage barbarity, Hungary, Poland, Silesia, and the adjacent countries, the Roman pontifs thought it incumbent upon them to endeavour to calm the fury, and soften the ferocity, of these new and formidable enemies. For this purpose, INNOCENT IV. sent an embassy to the Tartars, which consisted in a certain number of Dominican and Franciscan friars [c]. In the year 1274, ABAKA, the emperor of that fierce nation, sent ambassadors to the council of Lyons, which was held under the pontificate of GREGORY X. [d]. About four years after this, Pope NICOLAS III. paid the same compliment to COBLAI, emperor of the whole Tartar nation, to whom he sent a solemn embassy of Franciscan monks, with a view to render that prince propitious to the Christian cause. The last expedition of this kind that we shall mention at present, was that of JOHANNES à MONTE

[b] See MARC. PAUL. VENETUS, De Regionibus Oriental. lib. i. c. iv. lib. ii. c. vi.-HAYTHO the Armenian's Histor. Oriental. cap. xix. p. 35. cap. xxiii. p. 39. cap. xxiv. p. 41.Jos. SIM. ASSEMANNI Biblioth. Orient. Vatic. tom. III. part II. p. 526. See particularly the Ecclesiastical History of the Tartars, published in Latin at Helmstadt, in the year 1741, in 4to. [c] See Luc. WADDINGI Annal. Minor. tom. ïï. P. 116. 149. 175. 256.

[d] WADDING, loc. cit. tom. iv. p. 35. tom. v. p. 128. See particularly an accurate and ample account of the negotiations that passed between the pontifs and the Tartars, in the Historia Ecclesiastica Tartarorum, already mentioned.

XIII. PARTI.

MONTE CORVINO, who was sent in company with C E N T. other ecclesiastics to the same emperor, by NICOLAS IV. and who carried letters to the Nestorians from that zealous pontif. This mission was far from being useless, since these spiritual ambassadors converted many of the Tartars to Christianity, engaged considerable numbers of the Nestorians to adopt the doctrine and discipline of the church of Rome, and erected churches in different parts of Tartary and China. In order to accelerate the propagation of the gospel among these darkened nations, JOHANNES à MONTE CORVINO translated the New Testament and the Psalms of DAVID into the language of the Tartars [e].

III. The Roman pontifs employed their most Crusades zealous and assiduous efforts in the support of the renewed. Christian cause in Palestine, which was now in a most declining, or rather in a desperate state. They had learnt, by a delicious experience, how much these Asiatic wars, undertaken from a principle, or at least carried on under a pretext of religion, had contributed to fill their coffers, augment their authority, and cover them with glory; and therefore they had nothing more at heart than the renewal and prolongation of these sacred expeditions [f]. INNOCENT III. therefore, sounded the charge; but the greatest part of the European princes and nations were deaf to the voice of the holy trumpet. At length, however, after many unsuccessful attempts in different countries,

K 3

[e] ODOR. RAYNALDUS, Annal. Ecclesiastic. tom. xiv. ad A. 1278. sect. 17. p. 282. & ad A. 1289. sect. 59. p. 419. edit. Colon.-PIERRE BERGERON. Traité des Tartares, chap. xi. p. 61. See also the writers mentioned in the Historia Ecclesiastica Tartalorum.

[f] This is remarked by the writers of the twelfth century, who had soon perceived the avaricious and despotic views of the pontifs, in the encouragement they gave to the crusades. See MATTH. PARIS, Hist. Major, p. 174. 364. et passim.

XIII. PARTI

CENT countries, a certain number of French nobles entered into an alliance with the republic of Venice, and set sail for the east with an army that was far from being formidable. Besides; the event of this new expedition was by no means answerable to the expectations of the pontif. The French and Venetians, instead of steering their course towards Palestine, sailed directly for Constantinople, and, in the year 1203, took that imperial city by storm, with a design to restore to the throne ISAAC ANGELUS, who implored their succour against the violence of his brother ALEXIUS, who had usurped the empire. The year following, a dreadful sedition was raised at Constantinople, in which the emperor ISAAC was put to death, and his son, the young ALEXIUS, was strangled by ALEXIUS DUCAS, the ringleader of this furious faction [g]. The account of this parricide no sooner came to the ears of the chiefs of the crusade, than they made themselves masters of Constantinople for the second time, dethroned and drove from the city the tyrant DUCAS, and elected BALDWIN, count of Flanders, emperor of the Greeks. This proceeding was a source of new divisions; for about two years after this the Greeks resolved to set up, in opposition to this Latin emperor, one of their own nation, and elected for that purpose, THEODORE LASCARIS, who chose Nice in Bithynia for the place of his imperial residence. From this period until the year 1261, two emperors reigned over the Greeks; the one of their own nation, who resided at Nice; and the other of Latin or French extraction, who lived at Constantinople, the ancient metropolis of the empire. But, in the year 1261, the face of things was changed by the Grecian emperor, MICHAEL PALEOLOGUS, who, by the valour and stratagems

[g] The learned authors of the Universal History call this ringleader, by mistake, JOHN Duças,