YflK 930.272
WESTERN MISSIONARIES AND MERCHANTS:
AN EXAMPLE OF COOPERATION WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF THE MONGOL EMPIRE*
Roman Hautala
Sh.Marjani Institute of History, Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Tatarstan Kazan, Republic of Tatarstan, Russian Federation University of Oulu Oulu, Finland romanhautala@gmail.com
Abstract. Research objectives: to consider the interaction between Italian merchants and representatives of the Dominican Order, and more importantly the Franciscans, in the territory of the Mongol Empire (mainly the Juchid and Chaghadaid uluses) in the first half of the 14th century. The author focuses on the circumstances of the wide distribution of Latin missionary work in Asia and especially on the invaluable financial support of Italian merchants, without which the missionary work of the Mendicants could hardly have achieved such an unprecedented scale. In addition, the author of this article attempts to clarify the reasons that Italian merchants donated large amounts of money to support the activities of Western missionaries. At the end of this study, the author tries to explain the reason for a special favor of the Mongol rulers toward the missionaries from Europe.
Research materials: a number of synchronous Latin sources (including Papal bulls and missionary reports from the East) which provide information on the activities of European missionaries within the boundaries of the Mongol Empire.
Research results and novelty: the sources examined in this study suggest that the Mongol rulers& favor toward the Italian merchants was related to the patronage of the Papal curia to certain extent - something which the Avignon Popes insistently pointed out in their letters to the khans of the Golden Horde and Chaghadaid ulus. The same sources equally clearly indicate that the favorable attitude of the khans extended to the Western missionaries who carried out their
First published in Crusaders, Missionaries and Eurasian Nomads in the 13th-14th Centuries: A Century of Interactions, Victor Spinei (ed.), Florilegium Magistrorum Historiae Archaeologiaeque Antiquitatis et Medii Aevi, XXI, Bucuresti, Editura Academiei Romane; Brailei, Editura Istros a Muzeului Brailei "Carol I", 2017, no. 10, p. 221-243.
I express my special gratitude to Stephen Pow who did not spare his valuable time to carefully proofread the draft of this article. Of course, only the author of this article remains fully responsible for those potential errors that can be identified after its publication.
activity in their territories. Probably this favor originated from a desire to please Italian merchants who brought significant revenues to the treasury of the Mongol rulers. At the same time, the khans& favor emerged from the fact that Western missionaries were official representatives of the pontiffs in the territories. The Mongol rulers, in turn, sought to use the missionaries& influence to maintain diplomatic relations with the Avignon curia. Thus, the Western missionaries& presence in the East proved beneficial both for Italian merchants and the Mongol rulers. By this consideration one can explain the widespread presence of Dominican and especially Franciscan convents in the vast Mongol Empire.
For citation: Roman Hautala. Western Missionaries and Merchants: an Example of Cooperation Within the Framework of the Mongol Empire Tyurkologicheskie issledovaniya =Turkological Studies. 2018; Vol. 1, no. 4: 42-66.
One can hardly see it as a mere coincidence that European missionary "expansion" in the Mongol Empire coincided with the most favorable period for the development of Italian trade in the East in the first half of the 14th century1. As will be illustrated on the basis of synchronous sources, the Oriental apostolate of the Dominicans, and especially of the Franciscans, experienced its heyday roughly during the reign of Golden Horde&s Uzbek Khan (1313-1341), although the activities of Western missionaries also affected the territory of the Chaghadaid ulus and the Yuan Empire. Here, however, I will not discuss the details of the Latin missionary work, but will focus on the circumstances of its proliferation in Asia and the invaluable financial support of Italian merchants, without which missionary activity of the Mendicants could hardly have achieved such an unprecedented scale. In addition, I will try to clarify the motivations of Italian merchants to donate large amounts of money to support the activities of Western missionaries. At the end of this study, I will try to explain the reasons for the special favor of the Mongol rulers which they showed in relation to the missionaries from Europe.
The financial support provided by the Genoese or, more likely, Venetian merchant named Peter of Lucalongo2 to the future Latin Archbishop of Khanbaliq, John of Montecorvino, is the most prominent example of the interaction between Western missionaries and merchants in the Mongol Empire. According to the Italian prelate, Peter bought at his own expense a plot of land in the capital of the Yuan Empire and contributed to the construction of the Catholic Cathedral there:
"Master Peter of Lucalongo, a faithful Christian and a great merchant who was my companion from Tauris, himself bought the site for the place of which I have spoken and gave it to me by the love of God and the working of the divine grace. For a more useful and suitable place for building a Catholic Church could not be had in the whole empire of the lord Kaan"1.
Yet, Peter was not the only Italian merchants who supported the Western prelate in distant northern China. This is indicated by the fate of his letter addressed 8 January, 1305 to the Franciscans of Gazaria, that is, of the Northern Black Sea region. In this letter, John of Montecorvino urged his fellows to come to his aid for the deployment of a more effective apostolate in the Yuan Empire and he specified that the most convenient way route would be an overland route from the dominion of the Golden Horde&s Toqta Khan:
"With regard to the way I make known that through the land of Toctai, emperor of the northern Tartars, is the shorter way and safer, so that they will be able to come with the envoys within five or six months. But the other road2 is very long and very dangerous, with two voyages of which the first is like the distance between Acre and the province of Provence, but the other is like the distance between Acre and England, and it might happen that they would scarcely accomplish that route in two years"3.
In his next letter addressed 13 February, 1306 to vicars of the Franciscans and Dominicans in Persia, Friar John wrote that his previous letter had reached its destination, and even was forwarded later in Tabriz by a "friend" who arrived in northern China and then returned to the Golden Horde, in both cases as part of Toqta Khan&s embassy. Furthermore, Friar John wrote that he learned this fact from other "good persons" who arrived in northern China with a new embassy sent by Toqta Khan:
"But now I tell you that last year at the beginning of January I sent a letter in few words about my state and position to the Father Vicar and to Brothers of the province of Gazaria by a certain friend of ours who was among the retinue of lord Toctai Khan who came to the lord Kaan of Cathay. In which letter I asked the same Vicar that they would send on copies of it to you. And now I [am assured] by good
persons who are now come with the envoys of the aforesaid lord Toctai to the lord Kaan of Cathay that my letter reached you, and that that same messenger who carried my letter came to Tauris afterwards from the city of Sarai"1.
The Umbrian Franciscan Giovanni Elemosina confirmed in his "Chronicon" of 1336 that in fact the first letter of Friar John of 1305 was brought to Saray by Venetian merchants (one of whom, apparently, was that "friend" mentioned in the friar&s subsequent letter)2.
Apparently, the Venetian merchants arrived with a second embassy of Toqta Khan as well and probably these were the ones who informed Friar John that his letter had reached his fellows in the Golden Horde and Ilkhanate. It is evident that Italian merchants took advantage of the establishment of peaceful relations between the Mongol rulers in the early 14th century and they immediately tried to reach northern China. In any case, John of Montecorvino clearly pointed out that previously the Trans-Eurasian route "had not been safe for a long time on account of wars"3, and he urged the Franciscans to immediately take advantage of short-term period of peace to reach distant northern China. However, according to the same Giovanni Elemosina, although the Franciscans had responded to his call, they were forced to stay in Caffa in Crimea4 because of the resumption of hostilities between the Mongol rulers5.
Perhaps, their movement eastward was hindered by the conflict between the son of Qaidu, an Ögedeid Chapar, and the Yuan emperor Temür Öljeytü, mentioned by Hayton: "Chapar dominium suum tenet in regno Turquesten. Et iste potest congregare ad pugnam, ut dicitur, quatuor c. m. equitum armatorum. Et illi de patria illa sunt homines ad arma strenui et audaces; et armorum tamen et bonorum equorum copiam non habent, sicut neccessarium esset eis. Multociens gentes magni imperatoris movent istis guerram, volentes terram ipsorum aliquam occupare, sed ipsi viriliter se defendunt" [15, liber III, caput xlvi, p. 335].
Thus, John of Montecorvino did not get that abundant support of his fellows which he requested in his letters. The Franciscans, in turn, were to limit themselves to the western regions of the Golden Horde in their missionary work, postponing its deeper expansion into Asia to better times. However, it is more important to note here the desire of missionaries to travel along the newly opened trade route through the Asian expanses with merchant caravans. Thus, three decades later -in a period of relative calm in the Mongol Empire and the corresponding activation of international trade - the Spanish Franciscan Paschal of Vittoria wrote in his letter in 1338 that he was able to reach Almalyk, going from Saray in the company of Armenian merchants and reaching Saraychuk along the Volga, Caspian Sea and Yaik, and continuing from there with a caravan of Muslim merchants through Urgench and probably Otrar:
"I had now been staying more than a year in the aforesaid Sarray, a city of the Saracens of the Tartar empire, in the Vicariat of the North, where three years before1 a certain friar of ours, Stephen by name2, suffered honourable martyrdom at the hands of the Saracens. Embarking on a certain vessel with some Armenians, I departed thence by the river called Tygris, and then along the shore of the sea which is called Vatuk, till I came in twelve days& travel to Sarachik. From that place I got on a cart drawn by camels (for to ride those animals is something terrible), and on the fiftieth day reached Urganth, which is a city at the extremity of the empire of the Tartars and the Persians. The city is otherwise called Hus, and the body of the blessed Job is there. Thence I again mounted a camel-cart, and travelled with a party of accursed Hagarens and followers of Mahomet, I being the only Christian among them, with a certain servant called Zinguo3, until by God&s grace we reached the empire of the Medes4"5.
Those Western merchants who sought to reach wealthy regions of northern China had to use the same overland route. In any case, the "Practice of Commerce" of the Florentine Francesco Balducci Pegolotti, written around the same time as
the letter of Paschal of Vittoria, recommended Italian merchants follow the same exact route:
"Information regarding the journey to Cathay1, for such as will go by Tana and come back with goods. In the first place, from Tana to Gintarchan2 may be twenty-five days with an ox-waggon, and from ten to twelve days with a horse-waggon. On the road you will find plenty of Moccols3, that is to say, of gens d&armes. And from Gittarchan to Sara4 may be a day by river, and from Sara to Saracanco5, also by river, eight days. You can do this either by land or by water; but by water you will be at less charge for your merchandize. From Saracanco to Organci6 may be twenty days& journey in camel-waggon. It will be well for anyone travelling with merchandize to go to Organci, for in that city there is a ready sale for goods. From Organci to Oltrarre7 is thirty-five to forty days in camel-waggons. But if when you leave Saracanco you go direct to Oltrarre, it is a journey of fifty days only, and if you have no merchandize it will be better to go this way than to go by Organci. From Oltrarre to Armalec8 is forty-five days& journey with packasses, and every day you find Moccols. And from Armalec to Camexu9 is seventy days with asses, and from Camexu until you come to a river called [...] is forty-five days on horseback; and then you can go down the river to Cassai10, and there you can dispose of the sommi11 of silver that you have with you, for that is a most active place of business. After getting to Cassai you carry on with the money which you get for the sommi of silver which you sell there; and this money is made of paper, and is called balishi. And four pieces of this money are worth one sommo of silver in the province of Cathay. And from Cassai to Gamalec12, which is the capital city of the country of Cathay, is thirty days& journey"13.
It is also important to note that in contrast to movement throughout the territory of the formerly united Mongol Empire, which, according to Balducci Pegolotti, could be hindered by the sudden change of the local ruler - "And there is another danger: this is when the lord of the country dies, and before the new lord who is to have the lordship is proclaimed; during such intervals there have sometimes been irregularities practiced on the Franks, and other foreigners. (They call Franks all the Christians of these parts from Romania1 westward.) And neither will the roads be safe to travel until the other lord be proclaimed who is to reign in room of him who is deceased"2 - Western missionaries reached Golden Horde territory relatively easily thanks to the fact that Italian merchants established almost uninterrupted maritime traffic between Europe and Crimea.
The same Paschal of Vittoria offers on this occasion the most characteristic description of his journey from Spain to Saray (which preceded his departure to Almalyk) first through Avignon to Venice, with an intermediate visit to St. Francis Basilica in Assisi, and then on the Venetian cargo ship to Pera. From there, he took a Genoese galley to Tana, from whence the Spanish Minorite reached Saray in the company of Greek merchants, while his unnamed companion went to Urgench:
"Dearly beloved fathers, your sanctities3 are aware that when I quitted you I proceeded to Avignon in company with the dear father Friar Gonsalvo Transtorna.
perche la e spacciativa terra di mercatantia. E d&Organci in Ioltrarre si a da 35 in 40 giornate di cammello con carro. E chi si partisse di Saracanco e andasse dritto in Oltrarre si va 50 giornate, e s&egli non avesse mercatantia gli sarebbe migliore via che d&andare in Organci. E di Oltrarre in Armalecco si a 45 giornate di some d&asino, e ogni die truovi moccoli. E d&Armalecco insino in Camesu si a 70 giornate d&asino, e di Camesu insino che vieni a una fiumana che si chiama [...] si a 45 giornate di cavallo. E dalla fiumana te ne puoi andare in Cassai e la vendere i sommi dell&argento che avessi, pero che lae e spacciativa terra di mercantia. E di Cassai si va colla muneta che si trae de& sommi dell&argento venduti in Cassai, ch&e moneta di carta che s&appella la detta moneta balisci, che gli quattro di quella moneta vagliono uno sommo d&ariento per le contrade del Gattaio. E di Cassai a Gamalecco, che e la mastra citta del paese del Gattaio, si va 30 giornate" [30, p. 146-149 (English text); 11, p. 21 (Italian text)].
Paschal of Vittoria faced similar obstacles in the Chaghadaid ulus due to the death of Jankeshi Khan: "However, the Emperor of the [Middle Asian] Tartars had been slain by his natural brother, and the caravan of Saracens with which I travelled was detained by the way in the cities of the Saracens, for fear of war and plunder" ("Quia enim imperator Medorum per fratrem suum carnalem est interfectus, caravana Saracenorum, cum qua ibam, detenta est per viam in civitatibus Saracenorum timentibus guerram et suorum exspoliationem") [30, p. 86 (English text); 2, p. 533 (Latin text)].
Thence we went, with the blessing of the reverend the general1, to get the benefit of the Indulgence at Assisi; and after that we embarked at Venice on board a certain carrack, and sailed down the Adriatic sea. We next sailed through the sea of Pontus2, leaving Sclavonia3 to the left and Turkey to the right, and landed in Greece at Galata near Constantinople, where we found the father Vicar of Cathay4 in the Vicariat of the East. Then, embarking on another vessel, we sailed across the Black Sea, whose depth is unfathomable, to Gazaria in the Vicariat of the North, and in the empire of the Tartars. Then traversing another sea which has no bottom5, we landed at Tana. And having got thither sooner than my comrade, I found my way with some Greeks by wagons as far as Sarray; whilst my comrade, with some other friars, was carried on further to Urganth"6.
In their letter of 1323, the Franciscans of Caffa, too, encouraged their fellows in the West to get to Crimea in the company of Venetian merchants, taking the sea route instead of the "difficult and dangerous" way by land:
"So thus you may know that you must come to places which it would be made difficult and dangerous to reach by land, but safer and easier to reach by sea and in the company of Venetian merchants"7.
Thus, Catholic missionaries jorneyed to the East alongside Western merchants and ostensibly they appeared in Golden Horde territory in parallel with the establishment of Genoese trading station in Caffa. In any case, the Latin translation of the yarlik granted by Uzbek Khan to the Franciscans in 13148 pointed
to the fact that the first time such a yarlik was granted to the Minorites by Mengu-Timur Khan (1266/67-1280)1, apparently at the beginning of his reign [14, p. 33-34].
After they had settled in Caffa, the Franciscans continued to follow the Western merchants both in the territory of the Golden Horde and beyond. They established their footholds in those large commercial centers which were visited by Italian merchants. According to the report "About the Residences of the Friars Minor and the Friars Preachers in Tartaria" (De locis Fratrum Minorum et Predicatorum in Tartaria), compiled by the anonymous Dominican between 1314 and 1318, in addition to Cherson, Cembalo, Karasu Bazaar, Soldaia and Caffa in Crimea the Franciscans established their residences in Vicina, Maurocastro, Tana, Majar, Saray and Ukek2. At the end of the 14th century, Bartholomew of Pisa mentioned among the Franciscans& achievements the foundation of additional residences in Hajji-Tarkhan and Urgench3. The anonymous Aquitaine author of the "Chronicle of the 24 Generals of the Order of the Friars Minor" (Chronica XXIV Generalium Ordinis Minorum) testified to the existence of the Franciscan convent in Almalyk4.
Undoubtedly, the wide spread of Franciscan convents within the vast Mongol Empire was the result of financial support of their well-wishers. Therefore, it is necessary to dedicate some space here for identification of the source of this material welfare and primarily focus on European support of the Catholic missionaries in the East.
The famous Catalan theoretician of Catholic missionary activity, Ramon Llull, addressed in 1294 the Papal curia with "Raymund&s Petition regarding the Conversion of the Infidels Directed to Pope Celestine V" (Petitio Raimundi pro conversione infidelium ad Coelestinum V papam), where he urged the Pope to establish a special fund at the Curia in order to finance the Eastern apostolate and paid particular attention to the need to organize specialized language training for the European missionaries5. However, Ramon&s appeal was not heard, and five
years later, abandoning all hope of centralizing the Eastern apostolate&s funding, he insisted only on linguistic training of the missionaries in his address to the University of Paris, while stressing all the dangers to which Europe could be subjected owing to insufficient support of the Christian missionaries and the corresponding conversion of the Mongols to Islam1.
No doubt, the Avignon Popes of the 14th century devoted certain funds for sending the Catholic prelates to the East or, for example, in order to purchase religious books for the Franciscan Vicariates in Asia [28, p. 538-540; 26, p. 135— 136, nota 54]. The leadership of the Order of the Friars Minor was likely to do the same while sending the missionaries to the "lands of the infidels"2. However, these
mundum; et quod vos sancte Pater, et vos Domini Cardinales assignaretis unum Dominum Cardinalem, qui tractaret hoc negotium, et quod tales faceret quaeri per omnes terras Christianorum, qui huic sanctae praedicationi essent convenientes et vellent esse, et quod illis monstrarentur omnia linguagia mundi, et quod de illis fierent studia in terris Christianorum et Tartarorum, et quod ille Dominus Cardinalis, qui hoc officium haberet, faceret missionem studiorum et studentium, et hoc continuo, usque dum totus mundus esset Christianorum" [12, p. 373-374].
funds were, on a large extent, only sufficient to cover travel expenses1. From this perspective, the Franciscans in the Mongol Empire had no choice but to rely on the material support given to them in the eastern regions, where they developed their missionary work. In essence, the nature of their activities in the East was not very different from the initial period of the Order&s expansion in Europe during the life of St. Francis of Assisi. Thus, the Franciscans of Caffa reported in the above-mentioned letter of 1323 that local nomads gratuitously supplied the missionaries with everything that was most necessary:
"But - and we had almost been silent about this at the dictation of conscience, lest perhaps any alleviation and lightness of suffering should attract in a small degree some weak men - you may know that we often find an appearance of greater devotion among the pagans themselves than we do in many Christians; and they gladly give us food and suitable clothing such as they possess, of hemp and linen and mixed with certain waste silk and woven with goats& hair"2.
with the promise from the same judge to build churches and houses for missionaries "anywhere in Sybur"1.
While Iohanca was compelled to reject the request of the Tatar judge because of the small number of friars, the Franciscans who preached Christianity in Middle Asia achieved much greater success due to the fact that one of them, according to Bartholomew of Pisa, was able to cure the Chaghadaid Eljigidei Khan from cancer2. Giovanni Elemosina for his part pointed out that thanks to the benevolence and material support of Eljigidei Khan, the Minorites were able to build their Cathedral in Samarkand3. In his letter of June 13, 1338 Pope Benedict XII thanked the Christian relatives of the Chaghadaid Jankeshi Khan for the fact that they had provided the Franciscans a plot of land in Almalyk, where the Latin Bishop Richard of Burgundy built the Cathedral4.
Thus, Western missionaries enjoyed some support of individual Mongol rulers in the East. However, they probably received the most substantial help from Italian merchants. Thus, John of Hildesheim emphasized in his description of the "Deeds and Doings of the Three Holy Kings" that Western merchants tended to
bring with them to the Mongol Empire friars of different Mendicant orders, contribute to the construction of their convents, and even supply them the slave boys for the education of future preachers of local origin1.
Of course, the relations between European merchants and missionaries in the East were not always cloudless and from time to time conflicts erupted around the property granted to the Franciscans. In particular, a special bull of Pope John XXII addressed to the Vicar of the Minorites in the Golden Horde and the Guardians of two their convents in Caffa mentions the "grave and enormous injuries" inflicted by the local Genoese to the Franciscans and provided the letter&s recipients the powers to excommunicate the offenders of the Minorites in the case of refusal of compensation for damages2. This Papal bull emphasized the extraordinary privileges and powers given to the leaders of the Franciscans in the East, which could be used within Europe only by the highest-ranking prelates. The Franciscans in the Golden Horde were clearly aware of their privileged position and pointed to it as an additional incentive in their appeals addressed to their fellows in the West to devote themselves to the Oriental apostolate:
"And think again, Brothers, of the very great indulgence granted to those who come by the Bull1, and how free a hand you will have from the commission of delegation lately made to you by the Lord Pope, as very clearly appears in the Bull. But from this progress you are now in your native lands, through the council and the Bishops, sufficiently restrained and perilously disturbed2. And let this also (with regards to merit alone) be an enticement, that it will be our duty by the terms of the privilege granted to you to perform almost all episcopal functions; not that it will be any honour here, but a very great burden and immense labour"3.
Franciscans headed by their prelates acted as representatives of the Pope in the East. Their primary task was to keep an eye on moral character, adherence to the Christian faith and the Catholic canons& observance of those Europeans who happened to be beyond the jurisdiction of the European secular rulers. In particular this applied to western merchants and European residents of Golden Horde towns whom local missionaries had to protect from the "pernicious" influence of alternative world religions. Thus, the Papal letter addressed March 28, 1318 to the Latin Bishop of Caffa, Jerome of Catalonia, reflects the extreme concern of John XXII in relation to the practice of mixed marriages in Caffa between Catholics and "schismatics and other enemies of the faith". After having mentioned this widespread and reprehensible, from the point of view of the Pontiff, phenomenon caused by the small number of local Catholics, John XXII conceded to the request of the Bishop of Caffa and provided him extraordinary powers to allow the local Catholic residents to intermarry within a degree of kinship which was forbidden in Europe by canon law4.
It is obvious that in this case the Bishop of Caffa acted as an intercessor of the local Italian residents, and as the person who enjoyed the confidence in the Papal curia he was able to convince the Pontiff to take into account the particular conditions of their stay in the East and to make concessions. At the same time, this bull displayed the desire of Europeans to follow the moral leadership of the representatives of the Pope in the Golden Horde. Italian merchants and settlers from Europe, as well as the local inhabitants of the Golden Horde who converted to Catholicism certainly needed the Catholic priests for the consecration of the essential rituals (particularly of weddings1) as well as for regular church services. Pope John XXII, for his part, fully approved of these aspirations, abundantly providing with quotations from the "Second Letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians" his bull addressed January 22, 1330 to the Catholics in the Golden Horde and the Chaghadaid ulus2.
Europeans who found themselves within the boundaries of the Mongol Empire wished to participate in religious services, which were held in Catholic churches by Catholic priests. The consequence of these desire was their propensity to contribute to the construction of Catholic churches in the East and to the spread
sollicitus nobis humiliter supplicasti, ut providere ipsorum saluti iuris moderando rigorem de benignitate apostolica dignaremur. Tuis itaque in hac parte supplicationibus inclinati, volentes eorum statui et saluti de solita sedis apostolicae gratia consulere, fraternitati tuae dispensandi cum illis ex eisdem partibus catholicis, ubi huius dispensationis id necessitas exigit et tibi videbitur expedire, super quo tuam conscientiam oneramus, qui inter se quarto consaguinitatis vel affinitatis gradu contingunt, ut impedimentis hiis nequaquam obstantibus, singuli videlicet cum singulis mulieribus, matrimonium inter se libere contrahere valeant et in sic contracto licite remanere, plenam et liberam concedimus tenore praesentium facultatem" [6, no. 317, p. 148].
of the missionary activity of the Franciscans. At the same time they could afford to lay claim to a special status in the territory of the Mongol Empire1 and to assert their primary dependence on the Supreme Pontiff unlike other subjects of the local Mongol rulers. In any case, the Avignon Popes consistently stressed the protection provided to the Catholics in the East in their letters addressed to these Mongol rulers. In his first letter to Uzbek Khan of March 28, 1318 Pope John XXII warmly thanked the Golden Horde ruler for the favorable treatment of Christians in his empire and insistently urged him to adhere to this attitude in the future with a special appeal to favorably treat the preachers of "the word of God"2. Five years later, Pope John XXII reproduced almost unchanged the content of this letter [9, a. 1323, § 2, p. 202], and 20 years later his successor, Pope Benedict XII, thanked the khan for the same favorable attitude both in his letter addressed to Uzbek June 13, 1338 [7, no. 91, p. 60] as well as in the bull of October 31, 13383. In his next
letter to Uzbek of August 17, 1340, Pope Benedict XII yet again thanked khan for the favorable attitude to the "Catholic Christians obeying the Roman Church" as well as for the permission to "build churches and preach the word of God" granted to missionaries - something which was granted, according to the Pope, in response to his own "exhortations and requests"1.
Nor did the Pontiffs miss an opportunity to express their gratitude to those close relatives of Uzbek who stood out for their supportive attitude towards Catholics. Thus, in his letter of November 22, 1321 addressed to a Christian Abusqa, a cousin of Uzbek (the son of Kutukan who was Uzbek&s uncle), Pope John XXII urged him to both favorably receive the Latin Bishop of Caffa, Jerome of Catalonia, and his unnamed companion and provide adequate protection to the local Catholics2. In his letter of October 31, 1338, Pope Benedict XII, in turn, thanked Uzbek&s son Tinibek for patronage extended to Catholics and urged him to patronize them in the future as well3. In a parallel letter addressed on the same date to the Franciscan Elia the Hungarian, Benedict XII pointed out that Tinibek&s benevolence toward Catholics was not in the least a consequence of Elia&s exhortations4. Two years later, Benedict XII again appealed to Tinibek with the
same gratitude and exhortations, expressing, among other things, the certainty that Tinibek&s benevolence toward Catholics was the result of his "respect and honor" of the Pontiff1. Simultaneously, the Pope addressed a separate letter to Uzbek&s senior wife, Taydula, urging her to continue to patronize the Catholics "obeying the Roman Church" as she had done it before "out of devotion" to the Apostolic See2.
Furthermore, the same Pontiffs sent similar letters to the khans of the Chaghadaid ulus, as we see with Benedict XII directing on 31st October, 1338 to Jankeshi Khan the same message that was found in the parallel letter to Uzbek Khan [7, no. 97b, p. 64] and addressing the letter of June 13, 1338 to the Christian relatives of Jankeshi Khan (calling them by the names of "Carasmon and Iohanan") with a request to continue to intercede for local Catholics before the Chaghadaid
khan1. Nine years earlier, Pope John XXII addressed a letter to Eljigidei Khan with thanks for the favor toward Catholics in Middle Asia as well as with an appeal to treat the new Latin Bishop of Samarkand and friars from the orders of the Dominicans and Franciscans with the same favor2.
Undoubtedly, the favor of the Mongol rulers was primarily caused by the material advantage which was brought by Italian merchants who paid taxes on commercial transactions carried out in their territories. However, the intercession of the Pontiffs should serve as an additional stimulus for the manifestation of this favor. Although it should be recognized that the patronage of the Pontiffs was limited, as, for example, in attempts to stand up for Christian residents of Soldaia who were mainly Greeks [10, p. 194, nota 205]. In his message addressed to Uzbek Khan on September 27, 1323, Pope John XXII regretted the fact that shortly before this, local Christian residents were expelled from Soldaia and their churches were turned into mosques. He called on the Golden Horde ruler to allow them to return to their hometown and get back their churches3.
1 "Nos autem vos super tot et tantis operibus meritoriis mu