Page:Christianity in China, Tartary, and Thibet Volume I.djvu/419

NUNCIOS FROM THE TOPE. 407 they may be well received, and listened to with patience and kindness, in order that the seeds of life that they soav may produce abundant fruit. The pope wrote, at the same time, to Fodein Jovens, the principal of the five Alains, to recommend him and the other princes his compatriots to exert themselves to obtain for the Christians permission to build churches and for their spiritual directors to preach freely the word of God. A third letter, addressed to the five Alain princes collectively, instructs them in the principal dogmas of the Christian faith. Benedict XII. did not forget the promise he had made to the neophytes of China and the emperor, to send missionaries ; and in the month of November of the same year he sent off, as apostolic nuncios to High Asia, the four Franciscans, Nicholas Bonnet, professor of theology, Nicholas de Molano, John of Florence, and Gregory of Hungary. They performed this long journey by short stages, stopping a little in each country they traversed, visiting the most renowned princes of the East, and never neglecting any opportunity of scatter- ing on their route the seeds of Christian truth. They reached China at last in the year 1342, received a most favourable reception from the emperor, and wondered at the progress the Catholic faith was making in those countries. The Christian communities were numerous and flourishing, and the Franciscans, whose learning, prudence, and sanctity had made a great im- pression on the people, were rapidly increasing their establishments. Those who inhabited the monastery of Monte Corvino, near the imperial palace, were treated with so much attention, that the emperor frequently admitted them to his table, allowed them to present D r» 4