When the conquests of Genghis khan and his descendants threw all Asia into commotion, this Prester John, ruler of the Kara Kitai Tartars in northern China, fell before him, A. D. 1203. The Nestorians suffered much, but maintained a precarious footing in China during the time of the Yuen dynasty, having been cut off from all help and intercourse with the mother church since the rise of the Moslems. They had ceased long before this period to maintain the purity of the faith, however, and had apparently done nothing to teach and diffuse the Bible, which the tablet intimates was in part or in whole translated by Olopun, under the Emperor's auspices.
At the present time no works composed by their priests, or remains of any churches belonging to them or buildings erected by them, are known to exist in the Empire, though perhaps some books may yet be found. The buildings erected by the Nestorians for churches and dwellings were, of course, no better built than other Chinese edifices, and would not long remain when deserted; while, to account still further for the absence of books, the Buddhists and other opposers may have sought out and destroyed such as existed, which even if carefully kept would not last many generations. The notices of the tablet in Chinese authors, which Mr. Wylie has brought together, prove that those writers had confounded the King kiao with Zoroastrianism and Manicheism, and such a confusion is not surprising. The records of futurity alone will disclose to us the names and labors of the devoted disciples and teachers of true Christianity in the Nestorian church, who lived and died for the gospel among the Chinese.
[Williams further states that during the thirteenth century Roman Catholic missionaries came to China and the history of their zealous and successful work can be learned from their own writings, especially their Lettres Edifiantes and Annales de la foi as well as in the works of Huc and Marshall in later times. Corvino, a Roman Catholic missionary, arrived in India in 1291 and thence proceeded in 1292 with a caravan to China where he was kindly received by Kublai Khan. He came in contact with the native Chinese Christians, but they were by no means pleased at his arrival. The Nestorians opposed his progress for eleven years and hampered him in his work whenever they could, but he built churches and baptized nearly 6000 persons in spite of their opposition.
Little or nothing is known concerning the further history of the Nestorians. The Roman Catholics made some progress, and the last Mongol Emperor Shun Ti sent a European by the name of André as ambassador to the Pope with a letter from the Alain
