Montecorvino (3)

The good news is that I have completed the draft copy of the chapter about the experience of Montecorvino. I have also realized that it will be my last chapter in this unit as well as in the  entire manuscript. 

While collecting data for this unit, I decided to include genuine travelers who described their own experience with the Far East. I was also interested in people who knew how to tell fact from fiction. My initial list included about 15 names but only three of them meet my criteria: Plano Carpini, William of Rubruck, and John of Montecorvino. I also pondered on John of Marignolli, Odoric of Pordenone, and Jordanus de Severac. However, in spite of their long stay in India, China, or South-Eastern Asia, their writings abound with the "received wisdom" of authors who had never visited these places. 

I would like you to read an additional extract from my last chapter which tells about the Onggut prince who assisted John in his first steps on the Chinese soil.  

"On the way to Khanbalik, the papal legate managed to convert a real prince. The scion from the Onggut ruling house and the son-in-law of the Great Khan, Kuolijisi received baptism, picking up the Christian name George. Born in the “Nestorian” persuasion, like many of his countrymen, this high-profile disciple resolved to cross the lines after the encounter with a gifted preacher.  

To give a personal example to his subjects, Prince George took minor orders which enabled him to assist Montecorvino in celebrating the Mass. To draw more supporters to his new faith, the provincial ruler built a house of worship named the “Roman church”, the maiden Catholic edifice on the Chinese soil. When our friar had to leave for Khanbalik, the beloved disciple gave him a lavish grant to pursue his mission. The potentate even called his son Shu’an [Chinese for “John”] in the memory of his spiritual friend.

The contemporary Chinese sources, who know George as Kuolijisi, Prince of Gaotang, are mum concerning his devotion to Christianity. They depict him within a framework of the Onggut chief and a Chinese intellectual. Well-versed in Confucian studies, he collected a mammoth library containing thousands of manuscripts at his residence, and entertained his court, leading conversations with distinguished scholars. He used to talk with court philosophers about the whole range of cosmological subjects, including yin-yang teaching, astrology, numerology, and zodiac signs.

It might be that Prince George served the two masters, finding no contradiction in the blend of the Confucian philosophy and the Roman Catholicism. The latter would introduce him to universal values while the former would bind him to the native land.

The allegiance of the Onnguts to Rome was short-lived and didn’t outlast Prince George’s death. During the reign of his brother, most of the adepts returned to their mother Church.