Page:Christianity in China, Tartary, and Thibet Volume I.djvu/195

DISCUSSION ON PAPAL SUPREMACY. 183 reign. Friar Anselm drew his cowl a little back and bent his head. The Mongols then asked how they worshipped God. Anselm replied that they adored him in various ways — sometimes kneeling, sometimes pros- trate, &c. " Since you are Christians," said the Mongol, roughly, " you worship wood and stone, so you need not refuse to worship Baidjou, for it is ordered by the Son of Heaven that the same honours shall be paid to his lieutenant as to himself." Friar Anselm endeavoured to explain that it was the Divinity represented by the wood and stone that Chris- tians worshipped, and that their master could not set up that claim. The Mongol officer then signified to the Dominicans that they were to go to Syra-Ordou, to the imperial court, in order to contemplate the magnificence and glory of the Grand Khan. Anselm replied that the pope had said nothing to them about the Grand Khan, but had merely ordered them to go to the first Tartar army they could find, and that it was enough for them to have accomplished his instructions. " How do you Christians dare," said the officer, " then, to pretend that your pope is superior in dignity to all other men ? Who ever heard that the name of your pope was spread everywhere, — respected and feared by the whole earth, as that of our Khan is ? Who has ever heard that he possessed as many kingdoms as the Son of Heaven has by the favour of God acquired, and who rules from the furthest East to the Mediterranean and Black Sea ? The Khan must be therefore superior in glory and power to your Pope and all other men." " We say," replied Friar Anselm, " that our Lord the Pope is above all other men, because God has granted N 4