A postscript to Kublai Khan

IN REGARD to Charterhouse, Frances Gumley, March 5, Rome did not in fact miss the bus so much as catch the last one. •
Soon after the death of Kublai Khan there was a flourishing mission in China. John of Monte Corvino had set out from Rome while Kublai was still alive, but did not arrive until after his death.
John worked alone for some years, until in 1307 Rome appointed him Archbishop of Khanbalic (Peking) and sent him some help.
The mission then lasted for some 60 years, with an ecclesiastical province and several bishoprics.
what eventually wrecked this mission was the decline of the Mongol Empire in China and the revival of Man which made it almost impossible to travel to Cathay.
In 1362 the last Archbishop of Zaytun, James of Florence. ■NaS martyred and in 1369 Christians were expelled from Peking.
Those who wish to know more can read a full accomit• in Beazley's The Dawn of Modern Geography, Vol. III, or the more easily obtained, The Mongol Mission, edited by Christopher Dawson.
Rt. Rev. Mgr. David Norris Archbishop's House, Westminster, London