Benedict the Pole, Relatio

Benedict the Pole, Relatio , 1 ed. Anastasius Van den Wyngaert, in Sinica Franciscana , I: Itinera et relationes Fratrum Minorum saeculi XIII et XIV ( Quaracchi-Firenze , 1929), pp. 133-43 [ 135 ] In the year of the Lord 1245 Friar John, known as John of Plano Carpini, of the Order of Friars Minor, was sent by the lord Pope to the Tartars, along with another friar of that Order. 2 Having left Lyons in Gaul, where the Pope was, at Easter 3 and headed for Poland, he took on at Vratislavia 4 a third friar of that Order, named Benedict, by race a Pole, as his partner in the task and its responsibilities and as his interpreter. Through the mediation of Conrad, duke of the Poles, 5 they reached Kiev, a city in Russia that is currently in thrall to the Tartars. The chief men of the city gave them an escort for six days, as far as the first Tartar guard detachment [ custodia ] around the entrance into Cumania. When the commanders of this guard detachment, learning that they were envoys of the Pope, had demanded and received gifts from them, the two friars John and Benedict left behind at that place the third friar, who was ill, 6 with the horses and attendants they had brought with them, as they were [ 136 ] ordered, and were escorted on Tartar horses, with the baggage they had retained, to a second guard detachment; and so too through several guard detachments with changes of horses. On the third day they reached the commander of an army who was in charge of eight thousand armed men, and whose servants, after demanding and receiving gifts, took them to their commander, Corenza. He questioned them regarding the reason for their journey and the nature of their business; and having ascertained it, he attached to them three of his own Tartars, to obtain horses and provisions for them from each army to the next, until they reached a prince named Bati, 7 one of the chief Tartar princes – he it was who ravaged Hungary.In the course of the journey they crossed rivers called the Dnieper and the Don. They took five weeks and more to make the journey, namely from Invocavit Sunday [25 February 1246] until the Thursday [5 April] in Holy Week, the day they reached Bati; 8 they came upon him by the large river Ethil, which the Russians call the Volga and which is believed to be the Tanais. 9 And so Bati's servants received from them the gifts they had demanded, namely forty beaver skins and eighty badger skins. These gifts were carried between two fires that they had consecrated, and the friars [ 137 ] were compelled to follow in the wake of the gifts, because it is the Tartars' practice to purify envoys and gifts by means of fire. 10 Beyond the fires stood a wagon containing a golden statue of the Emperor, 11 which it is likewise customary to venerate; but the friars utterly refused to do so and were merely obliged to bow their heads. 12 Having given the embassy a hearing and scrutinized [the letter] word by word, Bati despatched them, with his own letter and with their abovementioned Tartar guides, five days later – namely on the Tuesday [10 April] after Easter 13 – to the son of the great Emperor, whose name is Cuyuc Chan, 14 in the Tartars' original homeland. Having thus been given leave by Prince Bati, and with their limbs bandaged to enable them to endure the ordeal of riding, they left Cumania two weeks later. In Cumania they came upon a very great quantity of wormwood. For this territory was once called Pontus, and Ovid relates of Pontus: ‘The empty plains bristle with acrid wormwood.’ 15 As they made their way through Cumania, the friars had on their right the territory of the Saxi , 16 whom we believe to be Goths and who are Christians; next, the Alans , who are Christians; and then the Gazari , 17 who are Christians. In this country lies Ornam , 18 a rich city that the Tartars captured by dint of [ 138 ] flooding it with water. Next [come] the Circassians , who are Christians; and then the Georgians, who are Christians. But in Russia they had ahead of them, to the left, the Mordvani , who are pagans and have the rear of the head for the most part shaven; then the Byleri , 19 who are pagans; then the Bascardi , who are the ancient Hungarians; 20 next the Cynocephali, who have dog's heads; and lastly the Parocitae , who have a small and narrow mouth and are unable to chew anything, but partake of liquids and live off the steam of meat and fruit. 21 On the far border of Cumania, they crossed a river called the Iajach , 22 where the territory of the Kangits 23 begins. Here they spent twenty days, and came across few people but numerous marshes, many of them salted, and salt streams, which we believe are the Marshes of Maeotis. They passed eight days in a vast sandy wasteland totally parched by drought. After the Kangit territory they reached Turkia, where they first came upon a large city named Iankynt, 24 and they tookaround ten days to cross Turkia, which observes the law of Mahomet. Following Turkia they came upon the territory known as Karakitai , namely of the Black Kitai , 25 [ 139 ] who are pagans. Here they found no cities, 26 but to their left they came upon a lake which we believe to be the Caspian Sea. 27 Beyond this territory they reached the country of the Naimans, where they found no towns or cities; these were formerly the Tartars' overlords. 28 Then, on the feast of Mary Magdalene [22 July], 29 they arrived in the territory of the Tartars, where they found the Emperor in a large pavilion called the Syra Orda . Here they stayed for four months and were present at the election of Cuyuc Kan as their Emperor. This Friar Benedict the Pole reported to us with his own mouth that they both saw there around five thousand men, grandees and rulers, 30 who were all present on the first day for the election of the king, dressed in baldachin . Neither on that day nor the following, when they appeared in white samite , did they agree; but on the third day, clothed in reddish samite , they reached agreement and celebrated the election. The friar further testified that around three thousand envoys, sent from divers parts of the world, 31 were likewise present and had brought to this assembly replies and letters or tribute or gifts of various kinds and in great quantities. The friars were reckoned among their number and were clothed in baldachin over their habits as necessity required, because no envoy may set eyes on the face of the elected and crowned King unless in the correct apparel. 32 Having been admitted, then, to the Syra Orda, namely the Emperor's quarters, they saw him, crowned and resplendent in marvellous finery, seated in the centre of the pavilion, on a dais fashioned from beams, raised aloft 33 and decorated with gold and silver in many patterns. One mounted this [dais] by four different stairways. There were three stairways in front [ 140 ] of the dais. Only the Emperor mounted or descended by the middle one; by the other two, at the sides, high-ranking and minor officials; and his mother, his wife and his kinsmen mounted by the fourth, which lay to his rear. Similarly, the Syra Orda has three entrances, in the form of doors, of which that in the middle – the largest, far surpassing the others – is always open and completely unguarded, and the King alone enters and leaves by it. Were anyone else to go in that way, he would be put to death without hesitation. The remaining two at each side, firmly barred, have the most zealous armed guards to keep watch over them, and [all] others enter by that way in deferential manner, from fear of the penalty stipulated. On the third day the lord Pope's embassy was given a hearing through officials and interpreters, in the course of a full discussion, and the friars were then sent to the Emperor's mother, 34 whom they found in another locality, also seated in a large and extremely fine tent. She treated them in a most courteous and friendly manner and sent them back to her son. While they were staying there, they were often in contact with Georgians who lived among the Tartars and who enjoy some respect from them because they are vigorous and warlike. These people are called Georgians because they call upon Saint George in their wars, holding him to be their patron, and honour him above other saints. They employ the Greek language for the Holy Scriptures, and have crosses on their dwellings and wagons; they observe the rites of the Greeks in matters of worship among the Tartars. When the business on which the friars had come was completed, they were given leave by the Emperor to depart, with a letter bearing his seal that was to be taken back to the lord Pope. They left with the envoys of the Sultan [ 141 ] of Babylonia, 35 heading in a westerly direction, and after travelling together for fifteen days these envoys left them, turning to the south. The friars continued westwards, crossing the Rhine at Cologne, 36 and rejoined the lord Pope at Lyons, presenting him with the letter of the Emperor of the Tartars, of which the sense, in translation, is as follows:- [ 142 ] [Here follows a Latin translation of Güyüg 's letter] 37