Through their conquests, the Mongols encountered religions and cultures as varied as the Hindus of India, and the Christians of Europe. The journeys of Marco Polo and his father to the court of Genghis Khan in the late 13th century introduced Christianity to the court of Genghis Khan in the form of letters from the Pope in Rome requesting the conversion of the Mongols. The response the Khan sent to the pope underscores the cultural rift between Europe and Asia, and characterizes the nature of medieval power politics as being influenced as much by a ruler’s religion as his ego.
A War of Words
Through their conquests, the Mongols encountered religions and cultures as varied as the Hindus of India, and the Christians of Europe. The journeys of Marco Polo and his father to the court of Genghis Khan in the late 13th century introduced Christianity to the court of Genghis Khan in the form of letters from the Pope in Rome requesting the conversion of the Mongols. The response the Khan sent to the pope underscores the cultural rift between Europe and Asia, and characterizes the nature of medieval power politics as being influenced as much by a ruler’s religion as his ego.
Between Pope and Khan there existed a clear misunderstanding, or refusal to acknowledge, who had the upper hand. The Christians never defeated the Mongols in open battle and this gave Genghis Khan excellent grounds to claim superiority in a short and terse note to the Pope:
"… if you wish to have peace with us, You Pope and all kings and potentates, in no way delay to come to me to make terms of peace and then you shall hear alike our answer and our will."
One can only imagine what a stir such a response would engender in Rome when made to arguably the most influential man in the European world. There is clearly a greater-to-lesser relationship between these two leaders in the mind of Genghis Khan. After all, he had been the one to win battles and build an empire, why should he even consider becoming part of the people he had defeated? In his mind, there is no benefit. Conversion and baptism would be very presumptuous for the Pope to suggest unless he desired peace, which the Khan orders him to agree on.
From what we know of the Pope’s letter through this correspondence, we can see the presumed misunderstanding that the Pope was encountering thousands of miles away in Rome. This Khan was heathen and should be baptized along with his subjects. His ignorance of the gospel made him somewhat less powerful. This was a fatal miscalculation in Western thought at the time, which considered all non-Christian rulers as somehow less human, or less capable of anything; a misconception that occurred not only with the Mongols, but also during the Crusades, and caused no shortage of pain and frustration, between East and West.
God's Avenging Angel?
Much of these problems grew out of the understanding each party had of where they derived their power. By the very nature of the Pope’s office as head of the Christian church, he claimed a “Heavenly Mandate” of sorts, and ruled by the will of God. However, Genghis Khan came from a similar angle, believing he also was divinely appointed to rule:
"…if God had not done this, what could man do to man …they did not obey the word of God and the command of Chingis Chan and the Chan [sic], but took council to slay our envoys, therefore God ordered us to destroy them and gave them up into our hands."
Genghis Khan put his command at the level of the very word of God, and this led to his justification of his atrocious and barbarous attacks on Christians who resisted his westward advance in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. He evidently saw himself as a minister of God’s wrath and this gave him perfect grounds to charge the Pope and western princes to “surrender your fortresses to us…in no way delay[ing] coming to me to conclude peace.” The Khan’s view of his heavenly mission makes him stand in disbelief at the seemingly forward attitude of the church: “…how can you know to whom God deigns to confer His grace?” Genghis Khan puts on the hat of a theologian in order to rebut the entreaties of the Pope to convert, as he seems to see this as a ploy by the west to avoid making a peace treaty and being subject to his rule.
A Legacy of Conflict
Because of this opposition to the assumed, and affirmed, arrogance of the Church, the East was largely separated from the West and the cultural influence its missionaries brought to other lands in the Western Hemisphere, and the rest of Europe. Indeed, China was not fully penetrated by missionaries until the mid-19th century when Hudson Taylor began his missionary work there. And even then, in the Boxer Rebellion of 1902 the mistrust and anger of the East for the religion of the West that had been planted in the early contacts between Pope and Khan came to their full, bitter ripeness, reaping the lives of many missionaries.
Sources
Raymond Hylton, ed., The World’s History Document Set, (Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 2001), 213.
Tim Milosch - Tim Milosch writes from Southern California and welcomes comments on his articles. If you'd like to read more his writing, please view his ...
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