The  faith  could  not  fail  to  make  considerable  pro-
gress in  High  Asia,  as  the  Friars  of  St.  Francis  were
now  scattered  over  these  vast  countries,  preaching
the  gospel  with  zeal  and  perseverance.  They  had
founded  several  miaeiona,  to  which  new  apostles  were
continually  proceeding,  who  counted  as  nothing,  the


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feitigues  and  dangers  of  these  long  and  toilsome  jour-
neys, if  only  they  conld  make  God  known,  and  effect
the  aalyation  of  souls.  And  we  find  Pope  Nicholas
writing  to  Denis,  Bishop  of  Touris,  recommending  to
him  the  Franciscan  missionaries.
In  1289,  important  and  interesting  news  was  received
at  Rome,  concerning  the  state  of  the  Christian  rehgion
in  "Upper  Asia,  brought  by  missionaries  who  had  been
sent  into  Tartary  by  Bonagratia,  general  of  the  Fran-
ciscans, and  who  came  to  give  a  verbal  account  of  their
apostlesMp  to  the  Sovereign  Pontiff,  after  a  residence
of  ten  years  in  those  distant  regions.
These  indefatigable  apostles  had  travelled  the  whole
of  the  countries  subject  to  the  Mongol  power ;  they
had  seen,  face  to  face,  those  Tartar  Khans  whose
names,  exploits,  and  atrocities,  filled  the  world ;  and
they  had  preached  the  gospel  to  those  innumerable
populations  whom  the  fury  of  war  had  collected  from
every  point  of  the  far  east,  to  mingle  there  together,
and  crush  them  in  their  frightful  straggles.  The  tes-
timony of  these  friars,  of  these  priests,  of  these  "travel-
lers for  Jesus  Christ,"  as  they  were  called — "peregri-
mmtium  propter  Christum'' — was  in  the  highest  degree
interesting.
The  chief  of  these  Franciscan  missionaries  was  John
de  Monte  Corvjno,  a  friar  of  singular  piety,  great
learning,  and  indefatigable  zeal  for  tlie  propagation  of
the  faith,  who  had  already  become  famous  through  all
the  east,  for  his  eminent  abilities.
