390 CHRISTIANITY IN CHINA, ETC. In the number of the missionaries who seconded the zeal of Franco, must not be forgotten Jourdain de Severac* Jourdain was a Frenchman like Guillaume Adam, and a Frenchman zealous for his country ; for, in his " De- scription des merveilles oVune par tie d'Asie" he expresses himself thus : I believe that the King of France might, without any assistance, subdue and convert the whole world. f After having evangelised the inhabitants of Soultaniye, Jourdain was preparing to depart for China, when he received a brief from John XXII. appointing him Bishop of Colomban, in India. He repaired to his post, but it is not known whether he remained there long, or even whether he had any successor. J III. The pontificate of John XXII. was celebrated for the great movement which was effected in the missions of Upper Asia. The orders of St. Francis and St. Do- minic sent into those distant regions a considerable number of missionaries, who went with the cross in their hands to announce a religion of peace, concord, and fraternity, to those barbarous populations, which seemed to be happy only in the midst of the horrors of war. These intrepid and zealous priests returned, sometimes after a long absence, to their brethren in Europe ; they related their travels and their apostolic labours, the manners of foreign nations, the wonders of
- Probably Sevevac in Rouergue ; for Jourdain loves to compare
to Toulouse, the cities of which he speaks in his narration. ■f" Coquebert Montbret, Recueil de Voyages et de Memoires, pub- lished by the Geographical Society, t. iv. p. 1. if " Quid postea egerit Jordanis iste nos latet ut et similiter an habu- erit successores." ■ — P Lcquren, Oriens Christianus.
