When the Mongols first appeared in the West, Pope Innocent IV (1243–1254) quickly wrote two letters to their “emperor”—as he thought of their Great Khan—to express his “surprise” that they would invade Christian territories. He outlined the basic beliefs of Christianity, and he called on them to do penance. Excerpt 1 is the reply of Guyuk Khan (r. 1246–1248), leader of the Mongols. A few years later (c. 1250) the king of Hungary, Béla IV (r. 1235–1270), wrote (Excerpt 2) a letter to the pope to beg him for help. His country had already been invaded by the Mongols (he called them Tartars), and he feared another assault.

1. The Mongols as God’s instrument

When Guyuk Khan wrote his reply to Pope Innocent IV in 1246, he belittled the Pope’s standing and claimed to conquer by the favor of God.

We, by the power of the eternal heaven,

Khan of the great Ulus^*

Our command:—

If he reaches [you] with his own report, you who are the great Pope, together with all the Princes, come in person to serve us. At that time I shall make known all the commands of the Yasa [our customs and laws].

You have also said that supplication and prayer have been offered by you, that I might find a good entry into baptism. This prayer of yours I have not understood. Other words which you have sent me: “I am surprised that you have seized all the lands of the Magyar and the Christians. Tell us what their fault is.” These words of yours I have also not understood. The eternal God has slain and annihilated these lands and peoples because they have neither adhered to Chinghis Khan, nor to the Khagan [supreme ruler], both of whom have been sent to make known God’s command, nor to the command of God. Like your words, they also were impudent; they were proud and they slew our messenger-emissaries. How could anybody seize or kill by his own power contrary to the command of God?

Though you also say that I should become a trembling Nestorian Christian, worship God, and be an ascetic, how do you know whom God absolves in truth, to whom He shows mercy? How do you know that such words as you speak are with God’s sanction? From the rising of the sun to its setting, all the lands have been made subject to me. Who could do this contrary to the command of God?

Now you should say with a sincere heart: “I will submit and serve you.” You yourself, at the head of all the Princes, come at once to serve and wait upon us! At that time I shall recognize your submission.

If you do not observe God’s command, and if you ignore my command, I shall know you as my enemy. Likewise I shall make you understand. If you do otherwise, God knows what I know.

At the end of Jumada the second in the year 644 [1246].

The Seal

We, by the power of the eternal Tengri [the Mongolian great god], universal Khan of the great Mongol Ulus—our command. If this reaches peoples who have made their submission, let them respect and stand in awe of it.

Source: The Mongol Mission: Narratives and Letters of the Franciscan Missionaries in Mongolia and China in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries, ed. Christopher Dawson (New York: Sheed and Ward, 1955), 85–86.

2. The Mongols as Cruel Invaders

Hungary considered itself to be a “frontier region,” poised between greedy Germans (though Christians) to the west and pagans and heretics to the east. In his letter to Pope Innocent IV, King Béla portrayed Hungary as the fortress of Europe; if it fell, all of Europe would fall. Already the Mongols (Tartars) had invaded Hungary in 1241–1242. Béla painted the Mongols in lurid colors. In the event, the pope did not aid Béla and the Mongols did not in fact attack again.

To the most holy father in Christ and Lord Innocent, by divine providence Supreme pontiff of the Holy Roman and Universal Church, Béla, king of Hungary by the same grace, with the respect both due and devoted. Most of the kingdom of Hungary has been reduced to a desert by the scourge of the Tartars, and it is surrounded like a sheepfold by different infidel peoples . . . and the Bulgarians and Bosnian heretics against whom we have been fighting until now with our armies on the southern side. On the western and northern side there are Germans, from whom, because of our common faith, our kingdom should gain the fruit of some aid. However, it is not any fruit, but rather the thorns of war that our land is forced to endure as they snatch away the wealth of the country by unexpected plundering. For this reason—and especially because of the Tartars, whom the experience of war has taught us to fear in the same way as all the other nations that they have passed through have learned—after having asked for advice from the prelates [bishops] and princes of our kingdom, we hasten to flee to the worthy vicar of Christ [the pope] and to his brethren, as to the sole and very last true protector of Christian faith in our ultimate need, so that what we all fear will not happen to us, or rather, through us, to you and to the rest of Christendom. Day after day news of the Tartars comes to us: that they have unified their forces—and not only against us, with whom they are the most enraged, because we refuse to submit to them even after all that injury, while all the other nations that they put to the test became their tributaries [states that pay tribute], especially the regions which are at the east of our kingdom . . . It is rather against the whole of Christendom that their forces are unified, and, insofar as it is deemed certain by several trustworthy people, they have firmly decided to send their countless troops against the whole of Europe soon. Thus we are afraid that, if their people arrive, our subjects will be unable or even unwilling to withstand the cruelty of the Tartar ferocity in battle and, against our will, guided by fear, they will end up by submitting to their yoke, just as the above-mentioned neighbors have already done, unless by its careful consideration the farsighted Apostolic see securely and powerfully fortifies our kingdom in order to comfort the peoples living in it.

. . . We very much hope that it is clear to the Sanctity of your Supreme pontiff, that in these oppressive times we have received no useful aid from any prince or people of the whole Christian Europe. . . . If—God forbid!—this territory were possessed by the Tartars, the door would be open for them to [invade] the other regions of the Catholic faith. This is in part because there is no sea to hamper their passage from here to other Christians, and in part it is because they can settle their families and animals—in which they abound—marvelously well here, better than elsewhere. . . . We take God and man as our witness that our necessity and the gravity of our situation are so great that, if the various dangers of the roads did not prevent us, we would send not only messengers, as we have done so far, but would personally come as a servant and fall down at your feet to proclaim before the face of the whole Church—so that we may be justified and excused—that, if your fatherly sanctity does not send us help and the need becomes overwhelming, against our will, we may reach an arrangement with the Tartars. So we humbly beseech you that the Holy Mother Church consider, if not ours, at least the merits of our predecessors, the holy kings who, full of devotion and reverence submitted themselves and their people, preaching to them the orthodox faith, and serving you with purity of faith and in obedience. That is why the Apostolic see promised to them and to their successors all grace and favor if any necessity threatened, at a moment when they did not even ask for it, as the course of things was prosperous for them. Alas, now this heavy constraint seems to be imminent. Thus open your fatherly heart, and in this time of persecution, extend your hand with the necessary support for the defense of the faith and for the public utility. Otherwise, if our petition—which is so necessary and so universally favorable for the faithful of the Roman Church—suffers a refusal (which we cannot believe) then we should be obliged by necessity, not like sons but like step-sons, excluded from the flock of the father, to beg for aid elsewhere.

Source: Reading the Middle Ages: Sources from Europe, Byzantium, and the Islamic World, ed. Barbara H. Rosenwein, 2d ed. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2014), 381–83.

Questions to Consider