William of Tripoli

 

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English Translation

s. 76

… he limited his 'Halter of the Jews' to the Jewish controversy, but directed his 'Dagger of Faith' against the Jews and Muslims. I also compile an Arabic dictionary. Ricoldo di Montecroce, who works in Mesopotamia and Syria, enriches Western thought in his Itinerary with a wealth of ethnic and religious information on the Tartars, Kurds, Sabeans, Jacobites, Flestorians and Muslims. He also wrote a 'Refutation of the Koran’. His five letters, sent after the fall of Acre in 1291, are a beautiful and unforgettable homage to the Dominican missionary ideal. William of Tripoli shows great tolerance and a spirit of conciliation in his study of Islam and this explains why he could boast of having baptized more than a thousand Muslims. Burchard's description of Mount Zion in his volume on the 'Holy Land', a veritable mine of news, was for three centuries the classic manual of the topography of Palestine and the Near East. The 'Itineraries' of Felice Fabri, who went as a pilgrim twice to the Near East in the late century, describes the Holy Land as a place for locals rather than missionaries. William Adam and Raymond Stephen's treatises on the Crusaders were not missionary books, but were intended to advance "the interests of the cross".

Mission fields

The friars preferred certain mission places to others. The French and Italian Dominicans sought the Near East and Asia; the French friars were mostly in Palestine in the thirteenth century. In the 14th century, the Italians were at the forefront of Mesopotamia and Persia. Every now and then some English, German or Spanish friars went to the East. After 1300, the desire to travel or the thirst for adventure, more than zeal, led some friars to join the Peregrinant Friars. The frontier provinces - Scandinavia, Germany, Poland, Hungary, Greece and Palestine - had primary duties to the mission territories that were within their borders. But from these outposts their friars and volunteers from other provinces leaped to mission land. The efforts of the Spanish, Scandinavian and Hungarian provinces mirror Dominic's zeal: he had sent the first men to Spain and Scandinavia. During his last days, the friars designated by the second general chapter left for Poland and Hungary. In 1225 other groups headed to Greece and the Holy Land, areas that the chapter of 1221 had indicated as future provinces.

The Spanish Dominicans struggled a lot among the Jews and Moors who lived in their country, beyond the southern frontier of the peninsula and in Africa. They entered Morocco before 1225 and Tunis before 1230.

Alexander IV revived interest in the mission of Tunisia when he asked for Dominican and Franciscan volunteers in 1254 and 1258. On his deathbed King Luigi IX chose Andrea Longjumeau, who had preached in Tunis, as the most suitable to lead the apostolate of preaching in Tunisia. Louis's crusade stopped missionary work for a while, but the subsequent treaty and trade agreements between Athelian cities and Tunis created more favorable conditions for evangelization. However, this was still very limited. James I of Aragon in 1242 he prescribed - apparently on the advice of Raymond of Penafort - that Jews and Moors were to be present at the sermons preached by bishops and friars. A similar line of conduct was resumed in 1263 at the insistence of Pablo Christiani, a Dominican converted from Judaism.

s.78

In southern Italy, the Order was commissioned, in 1233, to preach to the Saracen soldiers of the army of Frederick II.

The Scandinavian Dominicans not only worked to complete the Christianization of their country but also pushed east towards the pagan populations around the Baltic Sea. They entered Finland following the Swedish conquests in 1239. Ten years later they founded a convent in Åbo, which was still the only religious house in Finland more than 150 years later. The pope instructs the Dominicans to preach in central Europe, to enlist recruits and to raise funds for the crusade in Finland led by the Teutonic Knights. The treaty with the Finns provided for their co-conversion, but the laborious task required the co-operation of bishops, parish priests and friars. The Dominicans were assigned to three of the four founded bishoprics; the Order had such an influence that the Finnish dioceses adopted its liturgy.

The Polish friars worked hard in Kiev among the Russian Orthodox. Li Giacinto, who had introduced the Order in Poland, had founded a convent in 1222. Unfortunately, the history of the convents founded in Russia in the years between 1250 and 1260 is not known to us. Giacinto established a strategic point for the evangelization of Prussians, Lithuanians and Latvians when he opened a house in Gdansk (Danzig). The provinces of Poland and Germany played a prominent role in the organization of the Church of Lithuania, following the conversion of King Mindone. The premature death of the latter (and perhaps his apostasy in 1235) interrupted this missionary attempt for a century.

The Hungarian friars, after initial difficulties, made such progress in the conversion of the Cumans that Fra Teodoro was appointed their bishop in 1227 and was the first Dominican to be part of the hierarchy. The Tatar invasion of 1241 submerged the areas of the Cumans and Hungary. Ninety friars were killed and two convents set on fire. The Cumans were dispersed and only after the invasions did they return to their territory, promoting their missionary work again. In 1256, Umberto di Romans spoke of a great multitude of Cumans who had been converted, even though the work among them was not generally encouraging. In 1339, almost a hundred years later, most of the Cumans were still pagan.

The provincial of Hungary, John of Wildeshausen, participates in unsuccessful attempts to reunite the Bulgarians to the faith of Rome. His versatility appears from the ability he had to speak five languages ​​and from the offices he held. He was subsequently bishop of Bosnia (then resigned), provincial of Lombardy and master general.

The most difficult and most romantic undertaking of the Hungarian Dominicans was the search for the remains of their people who had remained in the primitive area called Greater Hungary in the middle Volga. The friars had read in the chronicles that part of the clan had migrated and part had remained behind "sunk in the error of disbelief". They knew that Greater Hungary was in the East but no one knew where. From 1232 to 1237 four groups set out in search. After enormous difficulties, only Fra Giuliano reached Great Hungary. The population received it with royal honors but when I return there a second time in 1237 it cost that the Tartars had overpowered them and saw that a mission work was impossible. Giuliano's reports, which describe this research, have an epic character due to the pure heroism they hand down and have a great value for the freshness of the news with which they speak of Russia and the Tartars.

s. 80

The Order also works in Albania where I found some convents. The Order's commitment in the 13th century in Russia remains shrouded in shadow: a foundation appears in Tiflis, Georgia, before 1238. The continuity of the work in the Near East is documented by the preaching and debates of Ricoldo di Montecroce among the Jacobites, Nestorians, Jews and Arabs in Mosul and Baghdad during the twelve years he was in Mesopotamia. In 1289 I met other Dominicans in Baghdad, where the Order had no homes.

In 1228 the Order founded provinces in Greece and the Holy Land. Both always remained small provinces with at most six or seven convents and suits and two saw their effectiveness as a missionary group destroyed by the action of the enemy already at the beginning of their existence. The Dominicans of the Greek province worked among Western Christians residing in the Latin Empire of Constantinople, in the colonies of Venice and among dissident Christians in Greece and its islands. When the Byzantine Empire was re-established in 1261, the Order lost the main convent in Constantinople and the remaining convents, except Candia, fell to the Turks who occupied Constantinople, in 1453. The province continued on Crete until the island fell under the Turks in 1669.

s. 81

The Dominicans of the Holy Land evangelized Western Christians and dissidents, Muslims and Jews, both in their territory and in the east. After the fall of Acre in 1291, the province continued to exist with three monasteries in Cyprus until the Turks conquered the island in 1571. Its friars reconciled several prelates of the separated Churches with Rome during the generalate of Jordan of Saxony and converted many Saracens.

The most lasting contribution of the friars to the union of the Greek and Latin Churches is probably to be found in the field of writings. Many of the friars who had personal contact with the Orientals, or scholars with other sources of information, published in the Middle Ages writings relating to the problems of the East. At the request of Urban IV, Thomas Aquinas interrupted the writing of the 'Summa contra gentiles' to write the 'Contra errores graecorum'. In the book he examined the procession of the Holy Spirit and the statements of the Greek Fathers on the subject.

Nicholas of Vicenza and William of Tripoli, who had done an excellent job in Palestine, lost the opportunity to achieve undying fame when Pope Gregory gave them letters for the Great Khan in Central Asia and sent them along with the Polo brothers. The nephew of these, Marco Polo, after spending many years in China, I return with a reputation that has never failed. In any case, the friars turned around shortly after their departure, frightened by the hostility of the sultan Bibars of Egypt.

s. 82

The Tartars of Asia and the Dominicans

The relationship between Dominicans and Tartars extended following a project by Innocent IV. Thinking of containing Muslims and perhaps helping them to accept Christianity more easily, the pope initiated a project to make an alliance with the Tartars in Asia and for their conversion. In 1245 I sent four embassies, two of Dominicans and two of Franciscans, to the Tartars of South and Central Asia. The Franciscans, led by Giovanni da Pian del Carpine, reached the Great Khan in Karakorum. The picturesque account of their travels written by Giovanni is well known. The Dominican groups made contact with the Tatar generals in Mesopotamia. Simon of San Quentin described the experiences of a Dominican group. The writing is included in the 'Speculum maius' of Vincent of Beauvais but does not stand up to comparison with the Franciscan account. Andrew of Longjumeau, who had headed one of the two groups, had just returned when Louis IX was sending him back to the Tartars. He reached the court in Karakorum.

Innocenzo's great projects lead to nothing. It testified to his missionary zeal, but assumed that the objectives and political situation of Asia coincided with those of Europe. Even if the goals of the Tartars and Innocent had been in harmony with each other, the practical obstacles to achieving them would have been insurmountable. The San Quentin account shows that at least one of Innocent's embassies was wholly devoid of diplomatic finesse when he inquired of the Tartar general as if he were a subject of the pope. The Dominican ambasassors were lucky to save their lives. In any case, the anger of the Tartars subsided and the long stay of the friars among them ended with more relaxed tones.

All kinds of missionaries worked in Asia. In 1254, returning from China, the Franciscan Guglielmo Ruba met two groups of Dominicans who were trying to enter the territory of the Tartars. In 1274 two Dominicans made their appearance, perhaps as interpreters, following a Tatar embassy to the Council of Lyons. In the 15th century, the Dominican archbishop in eastern Armenia John of Sultania met Tamerlane, the khan of the Tartars, and I lead an embassy to Europe on his behalf.

The congregation of the Peregrinating Friars

The missions of the Order came to a halt for some time after the Saracens conquered Acre in 1291 and closed the trade routes from Palestine. The friars could not travel to the East and were thus forced to leave the interior and settle in Cyprus. However, a new organization brought together the missionaries of the Order in the East.

Founded between 1300 and 1304, the Society of the Peregrinating Friars for Christ among the Infidels, later called the Congregation of the Peregrinating Friars, began to work from the outposts of the changing frontiers between Christianity, Islam and paganism. Rulers by a vicar general, according to statutes established by the master general Begengario of Landorra, the Peregrinanti had more agility than a province. They had no specific territory and recruited their men from what remained of the Order there. The congregation

he reached the peak of his activity around 1330, when he had missions in Tebizonda and Khios, and two in Turkey, Georgia, Turkestan, Persia and India. The Wanderers tried in vain to enter China. Before they were founded, Nicola da Pistoia left for China with the Franciscan Giovanni da Montecorvino, but died while he was predating in India. Montecorvino reached Perchino, where he founded a thriving mission. One of the Peregrinants, Guordano of Catalyni, founded a mission in Quilon in India, becoming its first bishop.

After Poland conquered Red Russia in 1340, the Polish friars founded convents in that area, but after a quarter of a century they aggregated them to the Peregrinant Friars.

The Black Death destroyed all the missions of the Peregrinanti except three: Pera, Kaffa and Prebizonda and forced the general chapter of 1363 to unite these houses to the province of Greece. Having recovered in 1373, the Peregrinanti evangelized in Russia, Poland, Lithuania and in the Danubian principalities of Molsavia, Wallachis and Tuthenia. The congregation was suppressed a second time (1456-1464) following the fall of Constantinople. Returned to life, lasted until 1857 (from 1603 with the name of the Congregation of the East and Constantinople). At this point the remaining houses were annexed to the province of Piedmont. In the house of Pera-Galata, on the outskirts of Istanbul, the Dominicans of Piedmont are currently engaged in Islamic studies.

s. 85

The United Friars of San Gregorio

Great Armenia (on the Black Sea in Iran) was one of the lands evangelized by the Peregrinating Friars. They supplied the bishops of the ecclesiastical province of Sultania in western Persioa, erected by John XXII in 1318. Their most striking success was the conversion of the oriental monks of Qrna in 1330. Only the abbot John Qrna, they adopted the Dominican liturgy, the Constitutions (except perpetual abstinence and absolute poverty) and the habit of the lay brothers (white cassock with black scapular and hood). Other monasteries taken joined Qrna. Under the leadership of the Dominicans, the Abbot John then constituted the United Friars of San Gregorio Illuminatore. Their purpose was to work, with preaching, teaching and writing, for the union of the Armenian and Latin Churches. Aided by Dominican translators, especially James Targman (the Translator), the Armenian friars translated the Dominican institutions and liturgical texts as well as many Western theological works, in particular those of Tomasso d'Aquino. When Innocent VI approved the United Friars in 1356, he placed them under the care and jurisdiction of the general master of the Dominicans. Their convents arose in Armenia, Georgia and Crimea.

During the last twenty-five years of the century, it seems that the United Friars had recruited seven hundred members who lived in fifty convents. If these cigars are real, they quickly declined after 1381, when zealous nationalists opposed the United Friars and began the new Tartar raids. When the Dominicans mitigated perpetual abstinence and absolute poverty, in the second half of the fifteenth...