John of Plano Carpini

Marco Polo is known for traveling to the Far East from Europe and observing things unknown to Europeans, but there were many travelers from Western Europe who went into unfamiliar lands for various reasons. One of these reasons was to bring Christianity to the inhabitants. The Franciscan John of Plano Carpini was one of those.

Carpini (c.1185 - 1 August 1252) was from central Italy. He was a companion of St. Francis of Assissi. In 1245, he was sent by Pope Innocent IV to the east with a letter for Ögedei Khan, who had defeated European forces four years earlier at the Battle of Legnica and almost took over all of Eastern Europe. The pope's intention was to protest the Mongol intrusion into Christendom, and to bring Christianity to the East. Incidentally, the mission could learn more about the enemy's intentions and strength.

Carpini had been at that time the Franciscan provincial in Germany. He set out with the pope's letter on Easter Day 1245 (16 April), with a fellow Franciscan, Stephen of Bohemia. They passed through Kyiv, where Stephen became ill and was left behind. They passed the rivers Dnieper, Don, and Volga; those names were first recorded by Carpini.

At the Volga they came to the camp of Batu Khan, a grandson of Genghis Khan, where they were made to walk between two fires (similar—but not as dangerous—as the Ordeal of Fire endured by Peter Bartholomew) to remove any impure thoughts or poisons before they were bought before Batu. Batu sent them on to the court in Mongolia. This second part of the journey set off on Easter Day 1246 (8 April).

This was arduous, and they had suffered through Lent, melting snow for water and eating millet with salt for their sustenance. Their journey of 3000 miles took 106 days. Before they arrived at their destination, Ögedei died, and the envoys were in time to witness the instatement of the new Supreme Khan, Güyük Khan. You can see his response to the pope's letter here.

Güyük kept Carpini and his party until November, and then sent them on their way during winter. Carpini records that they often slept on ground after scraping away the snow. It took them until 10 June 1247 to reach Kyiv. From that point their journey became easier: Slavonic Christians welcomed them and treated them hospitably.

Carpini was given the archbishopric of Serbia and became papal legate to Louis IX of France, a much more comfortable task after his grueling journey eastward. He wrote a record of his trip, the Ystoria Mongalorum ("History of Mongol People"), the first European history of the Mongols. Not long after, a much more accurate account of Mongols was written by William Rubruck.

Rubruck, like Carpini, was a Franciscan. Tomorrow I will start an account of the life of their founder.

Möngke Khan Ascends

Möngke Khan (11 January 1209 - 11 August 1259) was the son of Tolui (c.1190 - c.1232), the youngest son of Genghis Khan. Möngke had been successful between 1237 and 1241 while commanding the part of the Mongol army that campaigned in southern Russia and Eastern Europe. He was very effective at getting his point across: when he conquered the tribes north of the Caspian, and the tribal leader Bacman refused to kneel before him, Möngke simply had him cut in half.

After the leader of the Mongol Empire, Ogedei Khan, died in December 1241, there was disagreement over which of Genghis' descendants was fit to rule. After a five-year regency by Ogedei's widow, Toregene, Ogedei's oldest son Guyuk was chosen.

But Guyuk was not a popular choice for everyone; he reversed several edicts from his mother's time as ruler, and executed for treason several of her high-ranking officials. In 1246, he ordered an empire-wide census, after which he imposed a tax on everything, and a poll tax on males in Georgia and Armenia. His reign lasted only 2 years, and there is suspicion that he was poisoned on the eve of his plan to attack the western part of his own empire who had not supported his ascension to the throne.

Möngke came to the throne after some similar familial rivalry, but the clan of Genghis' eldest son, Batu, supported Möngke. They were the clan in the west whom Guyuk had planned to attack. Möngke's mother had done them a favor by warning them of Guyuk's scheme.

The new Khan purged his empire of those who might have been more loyal to previous administrations. The most prominent execution was that of Guyuk's wife, Oghul Qaimish, who had been regent between Guyuk's death and Möngke's accession: she was wrapped in felt and thrown into the river. Others across the empire deemed not suitably loyal or trustworthy due to their connection to different descendants of Genghis who might feel their claim to the throne was stronger, were punished by having hands and feet cut off, or having their mouths filled with stones, or simply being trampled by horses.

Relations with Batu and his tribe remained good, however. And he placed his loyal brothers in charge of parts of the empire: Hulegu in Iran and Kublai (yes, that Kublai in northern China.

We know more about Möngke's reign thanks to the Itinerarium of a Franciscan monk, William Rubruck, about whom I've written here. And you can learn more about Möngke's reign in previous posts here and here, and of course about Kublai, and even more about Guyuk. I have not written in the past about Toregene, whose years ruling the empire were not just a place-holder until a male came along. I'll talk about her next.

Mamluks & Mongols

[source]

The Mongols were expanding westward. Under Genghis Khan they had taken a huge chunk out of Asia, from what is now the Koreas, Mongolia, and Kazakhstan and the areas south of it, all the way to the Caspian Sea. Twenty years later, under Ögedei and Güyük and Möngke, they held most of what is now China in the east, and had extended into Ukraine and Belarus in the west and south to the Persian Gulf. Through conquering Turkey, they had control of the northeastern shores of the Mediterranean.

Mongol hordes were ruthless when taking over a new territory. Iran's resistance required such force to subdue that much of the country's agrarian infrastructure was destroyed, causing famine and serious population loss in the years following the wars.

The Mongol Empire had benefits, however, to others as well as itself: an enforced peace throughout this realm made travel and trade safe for foreigners as well as residents. Given time, they might have conquered—and therefore united—North Africa and Europe as well. For the first time in their history, however, they were stopped, defeated when they encountered the Mamluks.

Hulagu, a grandson of Genghis and brother to Kublai and Möngke, managed the southwestern front of the Mongol Empire, moving from Persia toward Egypt. He took down the Assassins, and conquered Baghdad by defeating the Abbasid Caliphate. He then sent a message to Qutuz in Cairo, advising him to submit to Mongol rule. Qutuz killed the messengers and stuck their heads on one of Cairo's gates.

Then word came that Möngke Khan had died, and Hulagu took much of his army back home to lobby for the throne. When Qutuz learned that a much smaller military force had been left behind in the Middle East, he gathered his Mamluk army and marched out of Cairo. Two armies of about 20,000 men each met on 3 September 1260 at Ain Jalut ["Spring of Goliath"] in Galilee.

The Mongol army did not know the territory as well as the Mamluks did (Qutuz had allied himself with a Mamluk leader from the region who knew it well and planned their strategy). The Mamluks played a "hit-and-run" game, then pretended to retreat, luring the Mongol army to follow them into the highlands where the largest part of the army was hidden, its archers waiting to ambush the Mongols. Although the Mongols rallied somewhat, they were unable to gain the upper hand. For the first time, their forward advance to expand their territory was stopped, placing a western border in the face of Genghis Khan's dream of a worldwide Mongol empire.

The Mamluks had another advantage: explosives, specifically hand cannons. Hand cannons were metal cylinders packed with gunpowder and set off with a flame. They were not good for aiming projectiles with any kind of accuracy, but in the Battle of Ain Jalut they were used to startle the opposing cavalry mounts and create confusion.

Dear Khan, Dear Pope

Ögedei Khan, who never got the letter

Relations between the East and West have always been strained, generally because of radically different world views, and because neither saw any benefit in submitting to what the other offered.

One example is the letter sent from Pope Innocent IV (you can read about him setting down guidelines for torture) to Ögedei Khan. Word had reached Innocent that the Mongols were attacking Christian territories, and Innocent wanted to broach this subject. Dated on 13 March 1245, it goes a little like this:

Seeing that not only men but even irrational animals, nay, the very elements which go to make up the world machine, are united by a certain innate law after the manner of the celestial spirits, [...] it is not without cause that we are driven to express in strong terms our amazement that you, as we have heard, have invaded many countries belonging both to Christians and to others and are laying them waste in a horrible desolation, [...].
We, therefore, following the example of the King of Peace, and desiring that all men should live united in concord in the fear of God, do admonish, beg and earnestly beseech all of you that for the future you desist entirely from assaults of this kind and especially from the persecution of Christians, and that after so many and such grievous offences you conciliate by a fitting penance the wrath of Divine Majesty, which without doubt you have seriously aroused by such provocation; [link]

Innocent makes clear in the letter that he expects the "King of the Tartars" to obey him in this. Before the letter could receive a reply, Ögedei Khan died and was succeeded by Güyük Khan (whose reign began 24 August 1246). Here is part of his message back to the pope:

A Letter from Kuyuk Khan to Pope Innocent IV
By the power of the Eternal Heaven, we are the all-embracing Khan of all the Great Nations.  It is our command:
This is a decree, sent to the great Pope that he may know and pay heed.
After holding counsel with the monarchs under your suzerainty, you have sent us an offer of subordination which we have accepted from the hands of your envoy.
If you should act up to your word, then you, the great Pope, should come in person with the monarchs to pay us homage and we should thereupon instruct you concerning the commands of the Yasak.
Furthermore, you have said it would be well for us to become Christians. You write to me in person about this matter, and have addressed to me a request. This, your request, we cannot understand.

There is more, but the essence is: "You want to talk? Then come here yourself and subordinate yourself to me, so I can explain things to you, like the Yasak (tribute) that you can give to me."

Neither of these rulers was about to "give in" to the demands of someone thousands of miles away, when each felt he had the god-given right to be doing what he was doing. Nor, given the distances involved, was it likely that either would ever be able to influence or affect the other.

Here's a question: given the distances involved, how does one deliver a letter across thousands of miles to someone whose address you probably don't even know? Tomorrow we will talk about the postman, a Franciscan named Giovanni da Pian del Carpine.

Canon Law and Muslims

Today picks up from the previous post.

Although canon law did not apply to non-Christian populations, that attitude changed when Europe came into greater contact with Muslims. The reason is explained by James Brundage:

European Jewry had furnished the model upon which early canonists had formed their views about the legal relationship between non-Christians and canon law. Jewish populations, however, tended to be relatively small, stable (save when one ruler or another decided to expel them from his territories), and peaceful. They certainly posed no military threat to Christian rulers and only an occasional fanatic could seriously maintain that they menaced the Christian religious establishment.
Muslims in  the Mediterranean basin and pagans along Latin Christendom's eastern frontiers, however, were an altogether different matter. Many Christians considered them a serious threat to Christianity's goal of converting the world... . [Medieval Canon Law, p.163]

This interaction with the Muslim world caused canonists to re-examine the self-imposed limits of canon law and its application to non-Christians, especially when it came to whether it was proper for Christians to conquer and take Muslim territory. This may seem an odd concern to the modern reader, but remember that this was a time when ownership of property was not open to everyone. If Muslims fell into a category that was not allowed property—such as slaves or minors—then taking their lands was not an issue.

In the 13th century, Pope Innocent IV (c.1195-1254; pope from 1243 until his death) declared that ownership of property was a human right, as part of the natural law established by God. He also declared, however, that although non-Christians may not be part of Christ's church, they were still part of Christ's flock, and therefore they should fall under the rule of Christ's vicar on Earth. (Innocent even sent a message to Güyük Khan, "Emperor of the Tartars" (c.1206-1248), to tell the Mongol ruler to convert to Christianity and stop fighting Europeans. The response from the Khan was that European rulers should submit to his rule.)

This view of the popes prevailed, reaching a peak in 1302 with Boniface VIII's papal bull, Unam Sanctam. For the next several centuries, Christian rulers had the license they needed to attack non-Christians and take their lands.