^{page 534 note 1} Wadding has the following entry in his Scriptures Ordinis Minorum, Rome, 1650, p. 270:Google Scholar

“Odoricvs de Poktv Naono, oppido Fori Julij, prouincise S. Antonij, … Scripsit

Historiam suœ peregrinationis sexdecim annorum.

Librum de mirabilibus mundi.

Chronica compendiosa à mundi exordio ad finem fermè Pontificatus Ioannis XXII. quo tempore ipse decessit. Aocepi ab amico M.S. & ex ijs plura in rem nostram decerpsi.

Sermones diuersos.

Epistolas multas.

Obijt anno 1331. die 14. Ianuarij in vrbe Vtinensi sepultus apud suos consodales.”—with the marginal note: “Vide to. 3 Annal, an. 1331. nu. 11.” (The reference for Odoric to the 2nd edition of the Annales Minorum is tom, vii, an. 1331. nu. 13–20.) The Chronica compendiosa is the book in question, though whether Latin 5006 is the actual copy used by Wadding's friend is not so certain (cf. p. 555, n. 1 below). Wadding's persistent ascription of the book to Odoric (based perhaps on such passages as that quoted in n. 2, p. 557 below) is not accepted by others. Sbaralea in his Supplementum ad Scriptures Trium Ordinum S. Francisci, printed 1806, p. 444Google Scholar, has the following note: “Joannes A Mortiliano oppido diœces Utinensis cognomento Longus … obiit in urbe Forojuliensi anno 1363. …

“Ioannis de Vtino Summa de œtatibus extare dicitur ms. in Biblioth. Paris. Colbert, cod. 3601., & creditur hujus Joannis, qui modo de Vtino a Conventu, modo a Mortiliano a loco nativitatis dicebatur: in ead. Biblioth. habetur alter codex ms. num. 5496. hoc titulo: Incipit liber, de etatibus. & generationibus procedentibus a primo homine. & de principijs regnorum, & regum ueteris testamenti. Et precipite de Regibus. Israel. & Iuda: & post 4. folia [fol. 5 r°] legitur: In isto libro annotate sunt sub breuitate. ystorie plurime ueteris testamenti. De hebreis, iudeis. & gentilibus. paganis. orientalibus. & occidentalibus. & ytalicis & Romanis. & precipue de bellis & uictorijs. romanorum consulum. Regum. & imperatorum. & senatorum. in tribus partibus mundi geste fuerunt. In Asya. Africa & Europha. postea de nouo testamento. ystorie. de ortu. & profectu religionis xpistiane. & sancte ecclesie. & conuersione Romanj imperij. ad dominum ihesum xpistum. & pontificum romanorum. & imperatorum producte usque ad annos domini m.ccc.xxxj. Usus est hoc Chronico Waddingus in Annal. Min. ad an. 1307. num. 6., dicitque brevi modo concinnatum perductum usque ad initium Pontificatus Benedicti XII., seu an. 1335.; & ad an. 1321. n. 1. ait deduci ab oriente mundo usque ad mortem Joannis XXII., nempe usque ad annum 1334., illudque attribuit citatis locis, & in hoc Opere [Scriptores Ord. Min.] B. Odorico Forojuliensi, nescio quo auctore; sed hoc negant Baluzius [in notis ad Papas Avenioneuses], & post eum Echard de Scriptor. Ord. Prædic. to. 1. pag. 550., eo quod legatur pag. 184 [fol. 184 r°]. Sanctus frater Odoricus passionem sanctorum iiij^or. fratrum minorum sic descripssid; varia quoque continet, quæ non habet B. Odoricus, & varia B. Odoricus, quae non sunt apud istum: putant tarnen esse alioujus Franciscani, eo quod multa, & quidem præclara de hoc Ordine commemorat. Num idem [sc. Joannes a Mortiliano], ac Pantheon, de quo supra?”

The two MSS. are respectively those now numbered Latin 3473 (olim Colbert 3600, not 3601), a parchment codex of the fifteenth century containing (on ff. 94 to 103) only the beginning of the Chronicles, viz. from the Creation to the Christian era, and Latin 5006 (olim Colbert 5496), which has been described. Cf. also Catalogua cod. man. Bibliothecœ Regiœ, pars tertia, 1744, tom, iii, p. 423Google Scholar, iiiMcdlxxiii; tom, iv, p. 29, vMvi. Sbaralea's extracts have been corrected from the original.

Further evidence against Odoric's authorship is found in the mention on fol. 185 v° of the death of Dominic and Stephen of Hungary “circa annis dominj. m.ccc.xxx.iii uel. xxxiiij.”. The date of Stephen's death is given in Wadding, 's Scriptores as 22 04, 1334Google Scholar, as Mr. L. Giles has kindly ascertained.

^{page 536 note 1} Monumenta, Historica Boemiœ, tom, ii, 1768, p. 85Google Scholar: qui primo miles, judex & doctor Friderici Imperatoria post lxxii annos factus frater Minor. The learned editor (G. Dobner) says that John of Monte Corvino must be the same as John of Piano Carpini, who was in Central Asia in the middle of the thirteenth century, and it is possible that this strange confusion existed also in the mind of John of Florence. Yule, Colonel writes in Cathay (vol. i, p. 166)Google Scholar that John, already a Franciscan, was sent by Michael Palæologus as a messenger to Gregory X in 1272. His authority is no doubt Wadding (Annal. Min., tom, iv, p. 345 (an. 1272) )Google Scholar, who says: Opportune tamdem supervenit ex eodem Ordine [Minorum] Joannes de Monte Corvino (quod oppidum est in Apulia Daunia) missus ab Imperatore litteris & verbo, Gregoru assumptioni gratulaturus, dolorem item expressurus, quod eum videre non licuerit antequam e Syria regrederetur, & impense Imperatoria nomine acturus de repetita toties unione Ecclesiarum: cujus demum verbis tamquam ex ipsius Imperatoris ore prolatis, plenam adhiberi fidem in epistola rogabat.

As to John's birth-place, Wadding says he knew of no evidence to decide between Monte Corvino “in Apulia Daunia situm” and “nobilius oppidum Montis Corvini non longe a Salerno” (Ann. Min., tom, vi, p. 94).Google Scholar But from the passage quoted above and from another (tom, v, p. 194) where he says: Monte Corvino (quod oppidum baud ignobile est in Apulia Daunia, non longe a Luceria civitate, juxta latus Apennini, versus Orientem), he seems to have preferred the claims of Apulia. Montecorvino, about 19 km. east of Salerno, is marked in Stielers Handatlas, 1907Google Scholar, No. 25, and under the name of Rovella in Andrees Allgemeiner Handatlas, 1899Google Scholar, No. 103/4, but I have not found the Apulian Monte Corvino on any map, though its position may be judged from that of Luceria or Lucera.

^{page 537 note 1} Frater Bonagratia de Sancto loanne in Persiceto was elected to be Minister General at Whitsuntide, 1279, and died at Avignon on Sunday, October 3, 1283. Cf. Annales Minorum, tom, v, pp. 72, 127Google Scholar; Bullarium Franciscanum, tom, iii, pp. 191Google Scholar (c), 417 (a), 501 (b).

^{page 537 note 2} Nicholas IV, the first Minor Friar to be made Pope. He was elected 20 February, 1288, and crowned on the 25th of the same month.

^{page 537 note 3} Les voyages … du frère Odoric, ed. Cordier, H., 1891, p. 375.Google Scholar

^{page 538 note 1} Journal Asiatique, sér. II, tom, vi, 1830, pp. 68, 69.Google Scholar

^{page 539 note 1} Journal Asiatique, sér. II, tom, vi, 1830, pp. 69, 70.Google Scholarfiable is the modern fidèle.

^{page 539 note 2} Annales Minorum, tom, vii, pp. 209, 210.Google Scholar Hoc autem sanctitati vestræ sit notum, quod longo tempore fuimus informati in fide Catholioa, & salubriter gubernati, et consolati plurimum per Legatum vestrum fratrem Joannem, valentem, sanctum, & sufficientem virum, qui tamen mortuus est ante octo annos. of. Cathay, etc., vol. ii, p. 314.Google Scholar

^{page 539 note 3} Mortuo sub hoc tempore [anno mcccxxxiii] optimo viro & vere Evangelico Ministro Joanne de Monte Corvino primo Archiepiscopo Cambalien. in Dominio, & Emporio Tartarorum, cujus unius opera conversa sunt ad veram fidem plusquam triginta millia Sarracenorum, teste beato Oderico de Foro-Julio … maturo consilio … substituitur hoc anno frater Nicolaus Minorita … datisque … viginti Fratribus Sacerdotibus, & sex laicis … (Ann. Min., toni. vii, p. 138)Google Scholar.

Ecce igitur nos … venerabilem fratrem nostrum Nicolaum Archi-episcopum Cambaliensem Ordinis Fratrum Minorum … providimus destinandum. … Data Avenione Kalend. Octobris anno xviii [1 October, 1333] (ibid., p. 139). This is an extract from the letter of commendation sent with Nicholas, the successor of John of Monte Corvino, to the great Khan. On pp. 456, 457 of the same tome Wadding prints the Pope's mandate to Nicholas dated Avenione xiv. Kal. Oct. an. xviii (18 September, 1333). News of Nicholas' arrival at Almalig had reached Europe in 1338, in which year he is said to have died; he had certainly not reached Khanbalig in June, 1336.

^{page 540 note 1} Annales Minoram, tom, vi, pp. 92, 94Google Scholar; Bullarium Franciscanum, tom, v, pp. 38, 39.Google Scholar

^{page 540 note 2} Annales Minorum, tom, vi, pp. 467–9.Google Scholar

^{page 540 note 3} “Hoc eodem anno frater Jacobus de Florentia Archiepiscopus Zaitonensis, & frater Guillelmus Campanus Minoritæ pro fidei Christianæ confessione occisi sunt a Sarracenis in Medorum imperio, & alii duo ejusdem Instituti in odium nominis Romani interempti sunt ab hæreticis Nestorinis” (Ann. Min., tom, viii, p. 154Google Scholar [an. 1362], with marginal reference to Marian. citat. and Chron. antiq.). Marian, is Marianus Florentinus, of whose works Wadding has the following notices: Scriptures Ordinis Minorum, Rome, 1650, p. 249Google Scholar, “Marianvs Florentinvs … Scripsit Fasciculus Chronicarum Ordinis Minorum. Libris quinque opus distinxit. Autographum penes me est, magnoque fuit adiumento Annalibus scribendo.” Ibid., Index Materiarum, p. xxxvii, “Mariani Florentini. Fasciculus Chronicorum Ordinis Minorum. Catalogus piorum Laicorum eiusdem Ordinis. Catalogus illustrium Fœminarum Ordinis S. Clarœ. Catalogus virorum illustrium Tertij Ordinis. (p. xlj) Historia Montis Alvernœ.” The Fasciculus, which was not (in 1900) known to be extant, was a history of the Order from its foundation down to the beginning of the sixteenth century. The account of James' martyrdom seems to have been in lib. iv, c. 13. Marianus died while nursing the plague patients at Florence in 1523 or 1527. Cf. Collection d'études et de documents sur l'histoire du Moyen Age, tom, ii, Paris, 1900, pp. 137Google Scholar sqq.

“Iacobvs de Florentia, Archiepiscopus Zaitonensis, & frater Gulielmus Campanus pro fidei Christianæ confessione in Medorum imperio à Saracenis interfecti sunt, cum aliis duobus Minoritis. vide Tom. 4. Annal. 1362. num. 4. …

“Thomas Tolentinas, Iacobus de Padua, & De metrius laicus, anno 1321. die 13. Aprilis, apud Thamnam Saracenorum ciuitatem plurimis pro Christi fide tormentis toleratis, ac superatis, victores migrarunt in cœlum” (Scriptures Ord. Min., Appendix (not paged), Martyres Ordinis Minorum). In the index nationum is the entry, under Itali, “Iacobus de Florentia, in Oriente.” The place of James' martyrdom, here vaguely called “the East”, and in the passages above “the Empire of the Medes”, must have been not at Zaitun but somewhere in Central Asia, “Medorum imperio” being, as Colonel Yule pointed out, a mistake probably for “medio imperio”, the Middle Kingdom, not of China but of the house of Chagatai.

^{page 541 note 1} In printing the various texts I have tried to copy the originals literally and exactly, with the exception that the abbreviated words of the MS. are printed out in full. While I remain responsible for all mistakes which may be found, I am very greatly indebted not only to the Librarians at the Bibliothèque Nationale but to many friends in England for help in various points, and especially to the unsurpassed scholarship and kindness of Mr. C. W. Moule, President of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, who has corrected and revised all the English versions, and lastly to the late Colonel Sir H. Yule, to whom, directly or indirectly, almost every statement and every reference in this article is owed. The Editor and printers have earned my best thanks by the wonderful patience and accuracy with which they have helped me in a troublesome piece of work. The Roman numbers in the margin are intended to make reference from the Latin to the corresponding place in the English version more easy.

^{page 543 note 1} Ann. Min., tom, v, pp. 196, 197Google Scholar; Reg. Vat., tom. 44, c. 55, fol. 314 r°.

^{page 543 note 2} Ann. Min., tom, v, p. 198.Google Scholar

^{page 544 note 1} Ann. Min., tom, v, pp. 195, 196Google Scholar; Reg. Vat., tom. 44, c. 54, fol. 313r°.

^{page 545 note 1} Chabot, , Hist. de Mar Jabalaha III, pp. 218, 219Google Scholar; Reg. Vat., tom. 44, c. 48, fol. 312 r°.

^{page 545 note 2} Clement V was elected 5 June, 1305, crowned 14 November, 1305 (1306 is his annus primus), and died 20 April, 1314.

^{page 546 note 1} Tauris, or Tabriz, in Persia.

^{page 546 note 2} John must have reached Khanbalig in 1294, after the death of Kubilai. When Kubilai died on 18 February, 1294, his successor, Temur or Ch'êng Tsung, was absent in the north. He reached Shang-tu (the northern summer capital) on 28 April and was enthroned there on 10 May, but does not seem to have come to Khanbalig until 21 October, 1294 (cf. Yüan Shih, c. xviii, ff. l r°, 3 v°). John may have gone to the Khan at Shang-tu, as Marco Polo had done, or may have seen him first in October or November, on his return to Khanbalig. In any case, Khanbalig is the city referred to in the course of his letters.

^{page 547 note 1} This sentence, coming from one who had spent a year at the Church of St. Thomas in India, has an interesting bearing on the question of the date at which the legend of St. Thomas' mission to China originated. Cf. pp. 568, 569 below.

^{page 548 note 1} King George is a person of great interest, well known to readers of Marco Polo, who, like John of Monte Corvino, calls him a descendant of Prester John. He was in fact chieftain of a quite different tribe, the Onguts, called in Chinese Wang-ku or Pai Ta-ta, “White Tartars,” who inhabited the country about the great northern reach of the Ho or Yellow River. Through this territory John might have passed, as Marco Polo did (calling it Tendue, i.e. T'ien-tê), on his way to the Mongol court, and so have made friends with King George before he had aroused the hostility of the Nestorians at Khanbalig; but Colonel Yule had very good ground for his view that he came from India by sea. We hear of King George's father and uncle, Künbuga and Aïbuga, as the governors of the city of Koshang in that most interesting but little - known book Histoire de Mar Jabalaha III, translated from the Syriac by DrChabot, J.-B. (p. 19).Google Scholar They are there described as sons-in-law of the Khan (Khoubilaï is Dr. Chabot's not quite accurate addition), and Marco Polo states that the family had an hereditary right to marry a princess of the Imperial family (George himself had married two princesses, a granddaughter of Kubilai and a daughter of Temur). This statement of these two contemporary Western authors is exactly confirmed by the Chinese histories, which also tell us of George's pathetic death. He had been taken prisoner in 1298. The Khan sent an envoy to obtain his release, but while the king was in the act of asking this envoy about the welfare of his wives and of his infant son he was hurried away and never seen again. George was succeeded by his brother Chu-hu-nan. The biographies of Ai-pu-hua and Chün-pu-hua (as well as of their father and grandfather), K'o-li-chi-ssǔ (Gorgis or George) and his son Chu-an (John), will be found in the Yüan Shih, c. cxviii, ff. 4 v° - 6 r°; cf. cc. cviii, cix, also. The identification of Marco Polo's Tendue (the city), Koshang of the Syriac history, and the unnamed place in which we are told below that King George built a church, is extremely difficult. The most important city in the neighbourhood was Ta-t'ung, at that time known as Hsi-ching (William of Rubruquis' Segin) or the Western Capital, and the fact that William describes Segin as the see of a Nestorian Bishop is perhaps significant. Colonel Yule, who does not seem to have considered the fact that King George's capital is called Tendue by Marco Polo and must necessarily have been ignorant of the Syriac Koshang, says that King George's Church was “probably in Tathung [Ta-t'ung]”. The confusion between King George and Prester John is commonly ascribed to the likeness between Wang-ku (Ongut) and Wang-han (Ung Khan, or Prester John); but it is to be observed that there was also some connexion between the two tribes. M. H. Cordier, who has kindly allowed me to see rough proofs of the new edition of Gathay, says that a branch of the old Kerait still occupies the country adjoining Ta-t'ung, and a Chinese author (Yüan ch'ao pi shih chu, 1903Google Scholar, c. viii, fol. 6 v°, note) says that “the Ougut tribe was formerly subject to the Kerait tribe”.

^{page 550 note 1} Wadding transcribed this word Gothorum, and, in the second letter, Kathan. It probably stands (as M. Pelliot suggests) for Marco Polo's Toctai, the Chinese T'o-t'o, descended from Chingis' eldest son Chu-ch'ih, Khan of Kipchak, whose capital was at Saraï on the Volga, north of the Caspian Sea. Cf. Marco Polo, vol. i, pp. 5, 72Google Scholar; vol. ii, p. 492, etc.; Yüan Shih, c. cvii, fol. 5 r°. Toctai seems to have been Khan A.D. 1291–1312; cf. Bretschneider, , JNCBKAS., 1876, p. 180.Google Scholar

^{page 550 note 2} A sentence should begin at Quia prima and end with suscepi noua. “Because the first road has not been safe … therefore it is twelve years …” Colonel Yule, misled by Wadding's punctuation, took it to mean that the missionaries must after all come by the second, tedious route, because the first was not open, and then began a new paragraph: “It is twelve years …”

^{page 551 note 1} As lately as in the seventeenth century (January 25, 1615) permission was given to the Jesuits to celebrate Mass in the Chinese language. Cf. Havret, , La, Stèle Chrétienne de Si-nyan-fou, pt. ii, p. 57, n. 3.Google Scholar

^{page 552 note 1} Gazaria, or the Crimea.

^{page 553 note 1} read Wadding this word (perhaps rightly) Tarsicis. Tarsia is marked on the famous Catalan map. Tarsā appears to be a Persian word applied in contempt primarily to Christians but also to persons of other religions, so that Tarsica lingua might mean “the language of the idolaters”, i.e. Mongol. From this word as applied to Christians is derived probably the term Tieh-hsieh by which Christians were known in the thirteenth century, and indeed until the seventeenth, when it appears in the form T'ê-êrh-sa in Moslem books, and as Terzai in Trigault, 's Christiana Expedido, p. 124.Google Scholar

^{page 553 note 2} 4 October. The chronology is not perfectly clear. Colonel Yule supposed that the site was received in August, 1304, and that some building was begun at once, so that, speaking rather loosely, John was able to say in January, 1305, that he was in the act of building a new church; by 4 October, 1305, the buildings, including an oratory, were finished, but the principal church could not be completed until the summer of 1306. All building in Peking is stopped by the severe frost, which does not break until about the end of February. The fact that Quinquagesima fell on 5 March in 1307 precludes the simple solution of the difficulties which would be obtained by supposing that John dated his letters in the old style, saying 1305, 1306 where we should say 1306, 1307.

^{page 554 note 1} In the margin below this column is written “per iactum unius baliste”, intended no doubt to explain “per iactum lapidis” in the text above (p. 553).

^{page 555 note 1} Wadding separated the following paragraphs from the preceding by about twenty pages, and introduced them with a sentence which made Colonel Yule suppose that he (Wadding) considered them to be part of a third letter, whereas he himself perceived that they formed the end of the second letter. Wadding's words are: Ex nostris Seriptoribus nullus est qui exacte aut plena historia hujus optimi Viri assumptionem ad prædictum Archiepiscopatum, & res præclare gestas recenseat: solus inter omnes beatus Odericus de Foro-Julio in Chronicis, quæ a principio mundi, usque ad initium Pontificatus Benedicti XII. brevi methodo concinnavit, largius de his tractavit, ex quo potiora hic exscribo: Ultra ea quæ scripsit anno superiori frater Joannes a Monte Corvino, inquit beatus Odoricus, hoc anno narrat in alia a se scripta Epistola quod solemnes Nuncii venerunt ad eum de quadam parte Aethiopiœ, rogantes, ut illuc pergeret etc.: with the marginal reference:—B. Oder, ad an. 1306. This passage, with its definite quotation (Ultra ea, etc.) and marginal reference, is a rather serious objection to our supposition that the Paris MS. (Latin 5006) is the actual book which Wadding used. The words “ad an. 1306.” refer back perhaps to the first part of the letter in Wadding, 's own Annales, tom, vi, pp. 71, 72.Google Scholar The passage just quoted is on p. 91. Monsieur H. Cordier tells me that he knows of no other copy of the Chronicles, but at the same time is inclined to doubt that the Paris MS. (Latin 5006) is the copy used by Wadding. I therefore give the variations between the MS. and Wadding's text which occur in that part of the first letter of which a facsimile accompanies this article, omitting all mere differences of spelling. The reading of the MS. comes first in each case, followed by that of Wadding's text (2nd edition): Fol. 170 v°. indie, et in ecclesia: Indiæ ad Ecclesiam; Socius fuit vie mee: socius fuit mese vise; Jpsum uero Jmperatorem cum: ipsum vero cum; inueteratus est in ydolatria: inveteratus est idololatria; ego sum apud eum iam est annus duodecimus. Nestorianj quidem: ego sum apud eum jam ante duos annos. Nestoriani quidam; quod non permiserunt: quod non permittant; nee aliam quam Nestorianj: nee aliam, quam Nestorianam; prefati Nestorinj: prsefati Nestoriani; explorator magus et dementatorum hominum: magnus explorator et dementator hominum; facto aliquanto interuallo: facto aliquo intervallo; fol. 171 r°. quod alius nuntius fuerit: quod aliquis nuntius fuit; quinque annis: quinque annos; Jta quod sepe: Ita persæpe: Tandem per quorumdam: Tandem per cujusdam; emulorum et ipsos: æmulorum, quos; sine confessione: sine socio; supradicte infamationes: supradictæ informationes; xl. pueros: CL. pueros; litteris latinis et ritu nostro: litteris Latinis, & Grsecis ritu nostro; in conuentu siue sim presens: in Conventibus fit, sive præsens siru; imperator delectatur multum: Imperator delectat multum; tamen secundum usum: & secundum usum; de bono Rege Georgio: omitted; de Septa nestorianorum: Georgius de secta Nestorianorum; de genere illius magni Regis: de genere illustri Magni Regis; sacris uestibus iridutus ministrauit. Jta quod alij: regiis vestibus indutus ministravit: sed quidam alii; pape, et nomen meum vocans: Papæ, vocans; herede in cunabulis: hærede ferme incunabilis. To these may be added one passage from Andrew's letter, fol. 186 v°—et sum sano corpore et quantum longeuitas uite patitur vigorosus et agilis. nichil quidem preter Canitiem habens de defectibus naturalibus et proprietatibus senectutis: &. sum sano corpore, & quantum longævitas vitæ patitur, aliquibus adhuc annis in hac messe laborare potero, licet canitiem habeam ex defectibus naturalibus & proprietatibus seneetutis. None of these differences (except possibly the one to which this note primarily refers) seem to me to make it unlikely that Wadding used or made a rather hurried copy of the actual MS. which is now at Paris and was formerly, according to Yule, Colonel (Cathay, vol. i, p. 17)Google Scholar, at Rome; and in any case the differences have to be accounted for, and they may as well be due to Wadding (or his friend) as to any other scribe. Apart from clerical errors like “explorator magus et dementatoram”, “uia breuior et securioram”, “aduenientibus … et uidentes”, etc., the reading of the MS. is, I believe, in no instance inferior to that of Wadding's text.

^{page 556 note 1} Ethyopia no doubt represents some part of Asia rather than Abyssinia or any other part of Africa, but its exact situation seems to be hard to fix. Yule, Colonel (Cathay, vol. i, p. 168)Google Scholar points out that this deputation probably reached John in India, and suggests that Ethiopia may mean Socotra. Herodotus (bk. vii, 70) speaks of the straighthaired “Ethiopians from the sun-rising”.

^{page 557 note 1} Quinquagesima fell on 13 February in 1306.

^{page 557 note 2} Thomas suffered martyrdom in April, 1321, at Tana in India, together with three others. Our MS. speaks on fol. 185 v° of the landing of the bones of these martyrs at Zaitun by Odoric and his companions as follows:—“Et cum ab ejs [i.e. the scrutinizing officials] euasissemus. per dei gratiam ad ciuitatem Zaitan ad locum fratrum nostrorum peruenimus. Et cum alijs fratribus nostris congaudentes de glorioso martirio sanctorum fratrum nostrorum et gratias deo agentes simul cum alijs xpistianis. ossa sacra. Sanctorum fratrum. Thome, de marchia [?]. de oppido tulentino. Et fratris Jacobj. de Padua. Et fratris petrj de senis [Siena]. Et ffratris Demetrij layci. qui linguas nouerat plures. cum ipse in tartaria natus esset, et adultus. in ecclesia nostrorum fratrum recondita sunt reuerenter. et ibj cum multa deuotione conservantur.” Cf. p. 541, n. 3.

^{page 557 note 3} Johannes de Muro Valus was elected Minister General in June, 1296, made Cardinal and Bishop of Ostia in 1302, and died in 1312 or 1313. Cf. Annales Minorum, tom, vi, pp. 7, 200Google Scholar; Sbaralea, , Bullarium Franciscanum, tom, iv, pp. 423 (6), 429 (d).Google Scholar

^{page 558 note 1} “Hoc anno [1304] in festo Pentecostes celebratum est Assisii Capitulum Generale trigesimum quartum, præsidente Cardinale Joanne de Muro, Ordinis Vicario. Electus est in Ministrum Generalem frater Gondisalvus de Valle-bona, vulgo Balbona Gallæcus, uti aliqui volunt, Lusitanus vero Ulyssiponensis apud Willotum, provinciæ sancti Jacobi alumnus, sed provincias Castellæ Minister….” Gondisalvus died in 1313. Cf. Annales Minorum, tom, vi, pp. 39, 200.Google Scholar

^{page 559 note 1} This passage enclosed in brackets and similar passages below are taken from Sbaralea, (Eubel), Buttarium Franciscanum, tom, v, 1898, p. 37, etc.Google Scholar

^{page 560 note 1} Bullarium Franciscanum, tom, v, pp. 37, 38.Google Scholar

^{page 561 note 1} Here follow in the MS. letters ad regem tartarorum, occupying the greater part of fol. 172 v°, col. 2, and epistola domini dementis, pape, fratribus minoribus euntibus in tartariam ad predicandum fidem xpisti. occupying the first twenty-two lines of fol. 173 r°, col. 1.

^{page 561 note 2} Raynaldus, (Ann. Eccles., tom, xv, p. 26Google Scholar, an. 1307. n. 29) begins this letter thus: Clemens etc. Dilecto filio fratri Andreœ de Perusio Ordinis Fratrum Minorum, per nos assumpto in Episcopum suffraganeum archiepiscopalis sedis Cambaliensis in dominio Tartarorum.

Nuper considerantes attentius clara sanctæ operationis studia, quæ dilectus films frater Joannes de Monte Corvino in Archiepiscopum Cambaliensem per nos assumptus in partibus Tartarorum, secum Domino faciente virtutem, operatus est hactenus, ac in partibus ipsis existens assiduè operatur, ipsum fratrem Joannem Ordinis fratrum Minorum proiessum, & in dictis partibus existentem de fratrum nostrorum consilio & Apostolicæ plenitudine potestatis in civitate Cambaliensi, magna utiq; & honorabili regni magnitici principis magni Regis Tartarorum in Archiepiscopum assumpsimus & præfecimus in pastorem, curam & solicitudinem animarum omnium existentium in toto dominio Tartarorum sibi plenariam committentes; eiq; exercendi omnia, quas ad jura archiepiscopalia spectare noscuntur, prout permittunt canonicse sanctiones, eadem auctoritate pienam & liberara potestatem. Ut autem …

Wadding, (Ann. Min., tom, vi, p. 86)Google Scholar mentions the letter Nuper considerantes etc. addressed to Andrew on July 23, but does not give the text. It is evidently from this letter that Eubel restored the lost letter to John (p. 560 above). Mosheim, (Hist. Tart. Eccles., p. 123)Google Scholar gives a similar letter, beginning Considerantes olim, addressed to William of Villa-nova, and (on p. 126) a letter beginning “Rex regum” (cf. p. 559 above) addressed to Peter of Florence. It seems to be impossible to say exactly how the text of these various letters stands in the Vatican Registers without access to the Registers themselves.

^{page 562 note 1} i.e. loannes de Muro; cf. p. 557, n. 3.

^{page 563 note 1} Bull. Franc., tom, v, pp. 38, 39.Google Scholar

^{page 564 note 1} This date is manifestly wrong, but whether Wadding's Mcccviii is the right correction is very doubtful. Mcccxiii is perhaps more plausible, as Andrew says that he spent five years in Khanbalig and went to Zaitun four years before 1322.

^{page 565 note 1} This is one of many indications in this letter of the many foreigners and of the prevalence of foreign languages in China under the Mongol rule. Yule, Colonel (Cathay, vol. i, p. 222)Google Scholar says that Qtiatremère, (Rashideddin, p. 371)Google Scholar points out that Rashid ed-Din uses 'alafah to signify (1) the allowance made by the prince for the keep of animals such as elephants, and (2) an allowance for the entertainment of ambassadors and other like personages. Yule himself compares the Arabic 'alaf, fodder, and 'tiluf, a soldier's wages, a stipend or provision.

^{page 565 note 2} The identity of Zaitun is much disputed, but the weight of evidence appears to be in favour of it being Ch'üan-chou in Fukien. Among other evidence which has been neglected is the discovery at or near Ch'üan-chou in 1619 and 1638 of three stones carved with crosses. In the date below (p. 567) “in Zaito in Zayton” is perhaps a copyist's error.

^{page 571 note 1} Corpus Historicum Medii Aevi etc., a Jo. Georgio Eccardo, Leipsic, 1723; No. XXIV (beginning at col. 1734). Johannis Vitodurani Chronicon a Friderico II. Imp. ad an. 1348. procedens, cols. 1895–7. John of Winterthur was a Minor Friar and his Chronicle seems to be in a fourteenth century MS. at St. Gall.

^{page 572 note 1} Ann. Min., tom, v, pp. 196, 197Google Scholar; Reg. Vat., tom. 44, c. 55, fol. 314r°. This is followed by a letter to Kaidu, in which again there is no hint of John or any other missionary having gone to his domains before.

^{page 573 note 1} Ann. Min., tom, v, p. 198.Google Scholar

^{page 574 note 1} Ann. Min., tom, v, pp. 195, 196Google Scholar; Beg. Vat., tom. 44, c. 54, fol. 313 r°.

^{page 575 note 1} Chabot, , Hist, de Mar Jabalaha, pp. 218, 219Google Scholar; Reg. Vat., tom. 44, c. 48, fol. 312 r°. Chabot copies the text from Langlois, col. 391, No. 2218. Jabalaha III, Patriarch from 1281 to 1317, was a Uigur born in 1245 at Koshang in China. He travelled to the West with his master Bar Sauma (or Rabban Sauma), a native of Khanbalig, about the year 1275. Bar Sauma was sent by Arghun on an embassy to the Pope, the Kings of France and England, and other European potentates in 1287.

^{page 577 note 1} Infra here and below is perhaps meant for intra, t and f being sometimes confused.

^{page 577 note 2} The following notes are kindly supplied by Canon Christopher Wordsworth: —

“In a Minorite Breviary printed at Rome in 1829 Hebdomadarias and Chorus correspond (roughly speaking) to our ‘Priest’ or ‘Minister’ and ‘Answer’ or ‘the People’. The Sarum rubrics have for the former either Hebdomadarius or Excellencior persona, scilicet Sacerdos. But there are boys of the week as wells as priests, vicars, etc., of the week. Puer hebdomadarius occurs occasionally in the Temporale rubrics of the Salisbury Breviary (ed. Cantab.), e.g., col. xxi. Solus puer ebdomadarius ex parte Chori stans dicat primum versum Responsorii (post i. lectionem ad matutinas). Chorus respondeat … & in col. clxvii. puer ebdomadarius served the thurible or censer of the principal officiant at Christmas Evensong, when he and the priest next in seniority went out at the beginning of Magnificat to cense the altars round the church.

“The Sarum Custom book or Consuetudinary distinguishes the puer ebdomadarius responsorii, or responsoriorum, already mentioned, from the puer ebdomadarius lectionis, whose special duty it was to carry and hold the book for the priest to read the collect after Magnificat at Evensong.—Cf. W. H. Frere's Use of Sarum, i, pp. 45, 52. Presumably the Minorite boys had some weekly duties in their turn similar to those at Salisbury and elsewhere.”

Of the service books mentioned only the Psalters with Hymnals and the Short Lessons need any comment.

(1) Mr. H. Littlehales says: “Psalters sometimes have hymns appended to them, as in the seventh-century MS., Brit. Mus. Vesp., A.1.; the thirteenth-century MS., Brit. Mus., Harl., 2,888; and the printed Psalter of 1524” (The Old Service Books of the English Church, p. 110).Google Scholar And among the books at Mere in Wilts (a.d.c. 1220) was a new Antiphoner, so called, containing psalter, chapter-book, and hymnary.

(2) The Short Lesson is attached to the daily office of Prime in Chapter for persons living in community or under a religious rule. A set of five is printed in the Franciscan Breviary (Rome, 1829), viz. II Thess. iii, 5—after Epiphany to the 1st Sunday in Lent, and after Trinity; Isaiah xxxiii, 2—Advent; Isaiah lv, 6—1st Sunday in Lent to Palm Sunday Eve; Isaiah 1, 6, 7—Holy Week; Col. iii, 1, 2— Easter to the Ascension. They are printed in the Psalter at the end of the order for Prime on Sundays. The same set is in the Roman but not, apparently, in the Sarum Breviary.

^{page 578 note 1} This and similar headings below were probably added by the compiler of the Chronicle, or sometimes by a later hand. Cf. p. 548, n. 1.

^{page 579 note 1} The words nomen meum, which cannot be translated as they stand, are indistinct in the original and were omitted by Wadding. I have translated them provisionally as if they were nominis mei.

^{page 579 note 2} See n. 1, p. 550.

^{page 581 note 1} Archiepiscopo should probably be Archiepisoopi.

^{page 582 note 1} See n. 1, p. 550.

^{page 583 note 1} October 4. See n. 2, p. 553.

^{page 583 note 2} Or “hence”.

^{page 585 note 1} A third letter (anonymous, but certainly by John of Monte Corvino) exists. As it does not mention China or missionary work it does not seem necessary to print it here. It is in Italian and the MS. (? of the fourteenth century) is in the Laurentian Library. The text was printed by Kunstmann in the Gelehrte Anzeigen, 41r Band. München: Iuli bis December, 1855; Bulletins der drei Classen, München, Nr. 22. 25 Dezembers, 1855, col. 171—Allo in Christo Frate Bartolomeo … col. 175—Iscritta fù questa lettera in Mabar cittade della Provincia di Sizia dell'India di sopra die xx. Dicembre anno Domini mccx. The English version will be found in Yule, Colonel's Cathay, vol. i, pp. 209–218.Google Scholar The date of the letter was probably 1292 or 1293.

Other letters from John are mentioned by Sbaralea, in his Supplementum, p. 443Google Scholar, as having been extracted by Wadding from the Vatican Registers. I have not yet been able to trace these in Wadding, and Mr. J. A. Twemlow kindly informs me that it is improbable that such letters would be found in the Papal Registers at Rome.

^{page 586 note 1} Johannes de Muro Vallis was elected Minister General in June, 1296, made Cardinal and Bishop of Ostia in 1302, and died in 1312 or 1313. Cf. Sbaralea, , Bull. Franc., tom, iv, pp. 423Google Scholar (b), 429 (d); Ann. Min., tom, vi, p. 200.Google Scholar John presided at the general chapter held at Assisi at Whitsuntide, 1304, when Gondisalvus de Vallebona, a Portuguese, was elected Minister General. Gondisalvus died in 1313. Cf. Ann. Min., tom, vi, pp. 39, 200.Google Scholar

^{page 586 note 2} “Et ipsos fratres auctoritate sua. Episcopos ordinare et consecrare faceret.” Perhaps we should read “ordinari et consecrari”.

^{page 588 note 1} The passage in brackets is added from Sbaralea, Bull, Franc. (continued by Eubel), tom, v, p. 37, No. 85. The Vatican Registers for the year 1307 appear to be lost or at least to be incomplete, and Eubel (l.c., n. 4) says: “The mutilated text of this bull has been restored from the bull which follows. Cf. Ann. Min., an. 1307., Raynaldi, Ann. Eccles.Google Scholar an. 1307, no. 20.”

^{page 589 note 1} Bull. Franc., tom, v, p. 37.Google Scholar

^{page 590 note 1} These bulls, numbered 86, 87, 88, are taken from the Bull. Franc., tom, v, pp. 38, 39.Google Scholar The original references are given as follows:—86: Registrum Vaticanum, tom. 54, fol. 138, ep. 652 (nn. 2216–2221); 87: id., tom. 54, fol. 108, ep. 45 de Curia (n. 2300); 88: ibid., ep. 46 de Curia (n. 2301). The opening sentences of 86 are transferred by Eubel to the bull granted to John of Corvino, Monte; see p. 587 above.Google Scholar

^{page 591 note 1} This name seems to be Soyfridstorf in the MS. here, and Seistdstorf where it occurs below.

^{page 592 note 1} The MS. reads Kontra.

^{page 592 note 2} It seems to be better to take the two short paragraphs of the original as forming in this way one sentence. Throughout the Latin text the original has been copied as exactly as possible, with no attempt to correct the many blunders, the erratic use of capital letters, or the misleading punctuation.

^{page 593 note 1} Ch'üan-chou in Fukien, ; of. p. 565, n. 2.Google Scholar

^{page 594 note 1} July 7.

^{page 594 note 2} Less than £50 sterling according to Colonel Yule.

^{page 595 note 1} Cf. p. 557, n. 2.

^{page 596 note 1} This letter on fol. 186 of the MS. is written in a hand slightly more easy to read but less accurate than that of fols. 171–3. On fol. 185 v° Zaitun is written Zaitan. Cf. p. 557, n. 2.