SIMON OF ST. QUENTIN (fl. 1247), Dominican mission traveller and diplomatist, accompanied, and wrote the history of the Dominican embassy under Friar Ascelin or Anselm, which Pope Innocent IV. sent in 1247 to the Mongols of Armenia and Persia. Large sections of Simon's history have been preserved in Vincent of Beauvais's Speculum historiale, where 19 chapters are expressly said to be ex libello fratris Simonis, or entitled frater Simon. The embassy proceeded to the camp of Baiju or Bachu Noyan (i.e., "General" Baiju, Noyan signifying a commander of o,000) at Sitiens in Armenia, lying between the Aras river and Lake Gokcha, 59 days' journey from Acre. The papal letters were translated into Persian, and thence into Mongol, and so presented to Baiju; but the Tatars were irritated by the haughti ness of the Dominicans. The Frankish visitors were treated with contempt : for nine weeks all answer to their letters was refused. Thrice Baiju even ordered their death. At last, on July 25, 1247, they were dismissed with the Noyan's reply, dated July 20, which complained of the high words of the Latin envoys, and commanded the pope to come in person and submit to the Master of all the Earth (the Mongol emperor). The mission thus ended in com
plete failure.
See Vincent of Beauvais, Speculum historiale, book xxxii. (sometimes quoted as xxxi.), chaps. 26-29, 32, 34, 40-52 (cf. PP. 453 A-454 B in the Venice edition of 1591) ; besides these, several other chapters of the Spec. hist. probably contain material derived from Simon, e.g., bk. xxxi. (otherwise xxx.), chaps. 3, 4, 7, 8, 13, 32 ; and bk. xxx. (otherwise xxix.), chaps. 69, 71, 78, 80. See also d'Ohsson, Histoire des Mongols, ii. 200-201, 221-233 ; iii. 79 (edition of 1852) ; Fontana, Monumenta Dominicana, p. 52 (Rome, 1675) ; Luke Wadding, Annales Minorum, iii. 116-118 ; E. Bretschneider, Mediaeval Researches from Eastern Asiatic Sources, vol. i., notes 455, 494 (London, 1888) ; M. A. P. d'Avezac's Introduction to Carpini, pp. 404-405, of vol. iv. of the Paris Geog. Soc.'s Recueil de Voyages, etc. (Paris, 1839) ; W. W. Rockhill, Rubruck, pp. xxiv.—xxv. (London, Hakluyt Soc., 1900) ; C. R. Beazley, Dawn of Modern Geography, ii. 277, and Carpini and Rubruquis, 269-270.