Page:Christianity in China, Tartary, and Thibet Volume I.djvu/170

158 CHRISTIANITY IN CHINA, ETC Wherever the successors of Tchinguiz-Khan estab- lished their sovereignty, they adopted the dominant mode of worship, and thus became Buddhists in China, Mus- sulmans in Persia, and in Germany or Italy would doubtless have embraced Christianity, so that Europe might have a second time disarmed and civilised by her religion the barbarians whom she had not been able to repulse by her arms. The conversion of the Tartars was, therefore, a subject that greatly occupied the minds of the Christian kings of Europe, and more especially that of the sove- reign pontiff. The first missionaries were soon to be sent from France, the country privileged above all others to effect the germination of the seeds of religion and civilisation. In 1245, a Council general was assembled at Lyons, and Pope Innocent IV. mentioned among the principal mo- tives that had induced him to convoke it, the urgent necessity of deliberating upon the methods of defending Europe against the Tartars. In the first instance, he ordered some solemn fasts and prayers, in order a to ap- pease the anger of God;" and afterwards it was resolved that the nations exposed to the irruptions of the Mongols, should be advised to fortify their towns, and block up their roads, and that missionaries should be sent to the chiefs of the barbarians with letters from the Pope, en- treating them to shed no more Christian blood, and to be converted to the true faith. Such were the measures of the Council of Lyons, to ward off from Christianity the threatened danger. The Church of Jesus Christ, always faithful to her mission, never ceased to watch over her children with maternal solicitude, whilst her apostolic