CARPPNI, JOFIANNES DE PLANO. Early biographers and historians are so silent with regard to this remarkable monk of the 13th century, that we can neither discover the time nor the place of his birth. Indeed little is known of him except through his own account of hie travels, and this account was probably not all written by himself. The probabilities ore that he was born at a village in the province of Capitanata, in the kingdom of Naples (Plano di Carpino), about 1210. He became a friar of the order of St. Francis, or of the Slinerites—an order which was then recently established, and which was distinguished in its earlier stages by the zealous, enterprising, and fearless spirit of its members. In 1246, when Europe was thrown into consternation by the irruptions of the Mongols, who had ravaged Russia, Poland, Hungary, and other countries, Pope Innocent 1V., after holding a grand council of the church at Lyon (1215), resolved to send legates to these formidable conquerors, in order to pacify them, and if possible to convert them to the Christian faith. For this purpose six monks or friars were selected from the new and severe orders, namely, two from the Franciscan order and four from the Dominican order. Johannes de Plano Carpini (as his name is Latinised) appears to have been the first chosen by the pope, on account of hie abilities and courage; and his companion, a monk of his own order, was one Benedict, a Pole, whose knowledge of some of the north-eastern countries of Europe was very useful. These two friars were iustructed to take their routs through Bohemia, Poland, and Russia, and then by the north of the Caspian Sea. The other four friars, Asceline and Alexander, Albert and Simon de St. Quintin, were ordered to proceed through Syria, Persia, and Khoraxsan by the south of the Caspian Sea. The most fearful accounts prevailed of the ferocity and indomits able courage of these Asiatic invaders. A letter had been recently circulated, written by one Yvo of Narbona, or Narbonne, to the Arch bishop of Bordeaux, containing the confession of an Englishman (who had lived among them), touching the barbarous demeanour of these Tartars. The Englishman, according to his confession, or according to this letter, hod been perpetually banished out of the realm of Eugland for certain notorious crimes, and had betaken himself to the Holy Land. Not long after his banishment, being at Aeon (Acre, or St. J6au d'Acre), and thirty yearn old, he there lost all his money at dice. Then, having nothing but a shirt of sackcloth, a pair of shoes, and a hair-cap, and being shaven like a fool, he set out on his travels through Syria and Asia Minor ; and, to prosper the better, he feigned idiotcy and dumbness, for idiots have been at all times objects of superstitious reverence with the Turks; and the pretence of being dumb aided in concealing the fact that he was a Oiaour, or Christian. After long wandering be fell among the Mongol Tartars, learned their language, and went with them when they began to march upon Europe. The horde which he followed was defeated and driven back by a mighty army collected by the Duke of Austria, the Duke of Bohemia, the patriarch of Aquileia, and others, including the Prince of Dalmatia, who took eight prisoners, and among them this strange Englishman. The letter describes our countryman as being " somewhat learned," and as having been employed as interpreter and ambassador by the Tartan in their communications with the Christian princes. The account this man gave to his captors was flimsy and vary short, and full of horror and exaggeration. Matthew Paris records this famous letter under the date of the year 1243.
lint the intrepid monks of the two new orders were not deterred by any prospect of danger. "And although," says the introductory epistle to the travels of Carpini and his comrade friar Benedict, "wo personally dreaded from these Tartars and other nations that we might be slain or reduced to perpetual slavery, or should sutler hunger and thirst, the extremes of heat and cold, reproach, and excessive fatigue beyond our strength (all of which, except death rind captivity, we have endured, even beyond our first fears); yet did wo not spare ourselves, in order that we might obey the will of Clod, according to rho orders of our lord the pope, and that we might be useful in some things to the Christians, or at least, that the will and intention of these people might be assuredly known and made manifest to Christendom, lest suddenly invading us, they should find us unpre pared, and so make incredible slaughter of the Christian people." In Poland and Russia, and wherever the widely-spread Slavonian language was spoken, Friar Benedict the Pole served the Italian as interpreter. The two monks ran great danger of being murdered by the people of Lithuania, who appear to have been at this time many degrees less civilised than the Mongols. In Russia they were upon the whole hospitably and kindly entertained. As the Russians adhered to the Greek or Eastern church, Carpini in a public meeting exhorted the grand duke and his bishops to abandon their heresy, and boldly read to them the letters of Pope Innocent, wherein they were admonished to return into the unity of the Roman Catholic church. Although our Franciscan effected no conversion, he raised no animosity by this boldness. He and his companion Benedict received good advice as to the best means of dealing with the Tartars, and were sent forward to Kiow, then the chief city of Russia, and not very far from the uncertain moveable frontier of the Mongols. At Kiow they hired an interpreter; but they afterwards found reason to lament that this man was unequal to the duties be had undertaken to perform. The Mongols at this time occupied all the country between China, Siberia, and the Caspian Sea, the van of this nomadic pastoral army being on the river Dnieper, and its rear under the great wall of China. The subordinate khans or chiefs passed the two monks onward from post to post until they came to the head-quarters of the great Baatu. These posts were far apart. The country where Baatu had his camp (called by the travellers Comania) was far beyond the Caspian Sea. But their toils were net yet over : Baatu ordered them to proceed to the court of his sovereign, the Khan of khans and Emperor of all men. They then entered a country called by them 'the country of the pagan Naymani,' where they travelled for many days, till they came to the proper lands of the Mongols. Through this latter country they journeyed for about three weeks, contiuually riding with great expedition. "In the whole of this journey," say the monks, "we lured extraordinary exertion, as our Tartar guides were commanded to bring us on with all expedition: on which account we always travelled from early morning till night, without stopping to take food; and we often came to our quarters eo late, as not to get any food that night, hut were forced to est in the morning whet we ought to have had for supper. We changed horses frequently every day, and travelled
constantly as hard as our horses could go." It is not easy to name the places or even to trace the route which they followed; but they appear to have passed by the head of the Baikal Lake, and to have traversed great part of the country vaguely denominated Chinese Tartary, going in the direction of the Everlasting Wall,' or the great wall of China. In all the vast regions occupied by the Mongols and their flecks and herds there was not one fixed town, there was scarcely a house; for the people of all degrees, and even their khans and the very emperor himself, lived constantly in tents, and moved from place to place as pasturage, or war, or other business required. Wherever the great chiefs were, the assemblage of tents and the camp had a name, which the monks set down; hut iu all probability, within a short time after their passage, these tents were all struck and removed to a distant quarter, and the populous spot was left a solitude in the vast surrounding wilderness. They must have found the Emperor or Great Khan somewhere to the north of the sandy desert which spreads itself between the Great Wall and Tartary, as there is no mention made of their travelling on camels, or of their entering upon that desert. Here they do not attempt to name the place, merely calling it the Court of the Emperor. This great potentate, whom they call Kujak or Cayne Khan, had many spacious tents, one being so vast that it could have contained 2000 men. Princes and great lords from China, a duke from Russia, two sons of the King of Georgia, and an envoy of the Kalif of Baghdad, were waiting submissively upon the Mongol conqueror. In these circumstances, scarcely intelligible letters and an admonitory message from the pope delivered by two poor bare legged friars were not likely to make much impression upon the great shepherd-warrior. While the friars stayed about the gilded tent, a warlike ceremony was performed, which they interpreted into a defiance against the Church of Rome, the Roman empire, and all the Christian kingdoms and nations of the West; and they were other. wise Informed that it was the intention of these Mongols to subdue all the kingdoms of the earth, as Zinghin (Geughie) Khan bad com manded them to do. The Lord of the World however admitted them to an audience, received from them the letters of the pope, and gave them in return lettere for his Holiness written in the Mongol language and also in Arabic. The monks complain that during their stay there, which continued a whole month, they were in such extreme distress for victuals and drink that they could hardly keep themselves alive ; adding that they must verily have perished at last if God had not sent to their aid a Russian goldsmith, who was in favour with the emperor, and who procured them some food. At last, on the feast of St. Brice (the 13th of November 1247), they received permission to depart from this inhospitable court. They returned by the same route, travelling the whole winter through the desert, and often sleeping at night on the snow. Ou the 9th of June 1248 they reached Kiow, where their Russian friends joyfully received them. In all they had past sixteen months entirely among the Mongols and the people that had been conquered by them. Pope Innocent had enjoined them to be diligent and accurate in their observations, and faithful in reporting what they saw and heard of these strange people who had mado all Europe tremble. The friars acted up to these instructions, and, allowance being made for the state of geography and other sciences, and for the condition and superstitions of the time, the account which Carpini or his friends gave to the world was an admirable little book of travels, the accuracy of which has been confirmed by John Bell of Anton. mony [BELL, JOHN], and other and later travellers through the vast regions which intervene between European Russia and China. Carpini was the first to uproot a set of monstrous fables, and to give a true and striking picture of the peculiar civilisation of the Tartars. But at the same time he revealed their number, warlike strength, and close political union ; and warned the disunited and distracted king doms of Christendom that if these hordes moved westward they would be found irresistible, unless a league of Christian princes were previously formed for the single purpose of opposing them. Tho chapter entitled 'How the Tartars are to be resisted,' is full of good sense.
It appears that Friar John returned to Italy, and that there, with some assistant°, he published his plain unvarnished account of his travels in a Libellus; or small book, in Latin. Of this book or manu script (of which no doubt there were once many copies) we have never been able to obtain a sight. It seems to be known solely through the 'Speculum Historiale ' of Vincentius Belvacensis, where it is inserted at full length, together with some information about their journey, which the author or editor, Vinceutius, says he received from Simon de St. Quintin, one of the four friars who had gone by the south of the Caspian, and whose iufermatioo was very meagre com pared with that of Carpiui. From the Speculum Historiale' ltamusio transferred all this matter, together with an Italian translation to fellow the Latin text, into the second volume of his 'Raccolta di Navigazioni e Visggi,' which was printed by Giunti at Venice, in the year 1556. From this admirable work of Rat:nu:lie, our own good compiler, Richard Hakluyt, copied the matter into the first volume of his Navigations and Discoveries,' which was published in London towards the doss of Queen Elizabeth's reign, in the year 1599. Hakluyt, who of course only transfers the Latin text, gives a good sterling translation of his own ; but he omits several passages which are given by Ramusio. From Ramusio or from Hakluyt all modern and indeed all existing accounts of Carpini and Friar Benedict have been drawn. Bergeron gave an abridgment of the matter in his 'Voyages faits principalement en Asie dens lea 12s, 13., 14e et 15' par Benjamin de Tudele, Carpin, Rubruquis, &c.,' la Haye, 1729-55. A somewhat modernised translation of the Latin text of Hakluyt is giveu in R. Kerr's 'History and Collections of Voyages and Travels,' Edinburgh, 1824.