198 CHRISTIANITY IN CHINA, ETC. the Baptism, the Passion, the Ascension, and the coining of the Holy Spirit. He also sent books, chalices, or- naments, and all things needful for the celebration of the Mass, and he did so to try whether he could not attract the King of Tartary and his people to our faith and creed." * King Louis even bestowed on the Mongol sovereign, and his general Iltchikadai, a much-valued relic, namely, a piece of the wood of the true cross. The letters he addressed to them are said by some to have invited the Khan, hitherto a pagan, to follow the example of his mother and his grandfather, and embrace the true faith. Others, who assume that the Khan's conversion had already been effected, say that they merely exhorted him and Iltchikadai to fulfil the duties owed to him, who by his grace had called them to the knowledge of his holy name, and to persevere in them with fervour. The Pope's legate also wrote to the Grand Khan, his mother and his commander in Persia, to announce to them that the Holy Roman Church had heard with joy of their conversion, and receiving them into the number of her dear children, exhorted them to preserve inviolate the orthodox faith, to acknowledge the Church of Rome as the mother of all churches, and its head as the Vicar of Jesus Christ, whom all who profess the Christian faith are bound to obey. Provided with these documents, which were certainly likely to astonish not a little the court of Kara-Koroum, the monks set off from Cyprus, accompanied by the Tartar envoys, on the 27th of January, 1248.
- Joinville, " Hist, de St. Louis," p. 25.
