Responses and Aftermath

It was Güyüg 's desire to send back his own envoys with the Franciscans. Carpini, however, keen to deny the Mongols any opportunity to spy in the very heart of the Christian world, persuaded them to employ himself and his colleagues as the Qaghan 's return embassy. 1 For some unknown reason, Ascelin took no such precaution, and the Dominicans were accompanied back to Lyons by Baiju's envoys, Aybeg and Sargis. The meeting that ensued between these emissaries and Innocent IV is reported only by the English chronicler Matthew Paris, who offers two different versions. In one, he makes out that the Mongol envoys proposed an attack on the Emperor John Vatatzes of Nicaea, Frederick II's son-in-law; 2 in the other, he alleges that this suggestion emanated from the Pope himself. 3