Now, About The Time That They Reached Layas, Bendocquedar, The Soldan Of
Babylon, Invaded Hermenia With A Great Host Of
Saracens, and ravaged the
country, so that our Envoys ran a great peril of being taken or slain.
[NOTE 3]
And when the Preaching Friars saw this they were greatly
frightened, and said that go they never would. So they made over to Messer
Nicolas and Messer Maffeo all their credentials and documents, and took
their leave, departing in company with the Master of the Temple.[NOTE 4]
NOTE 1. - Friar William, of Tripoli, of the Dominican convent at Acre,
appears to have served there as early as 1250. [He was born circa 1220, at
Tripoli, in Syria, whence his name. - H. C.] He is known as the author of a
book, De Statu Saracenorum post Ludovici Regis de Syria reditum,
dedicated to Theoldus, Archdeacon of Liege (i.e. Pope Gregory). Of this
some extracts are printed in Duchesne's Hist. Francorum Scriptores.
There are two MSS. of it, with different titles, in the Paris Library, and
a French version in that of Berne. A MS. in Cambridge Univ. Library, which
contains among other things a copy of Pipino's Polo, has also the work of
Friar William: - "Willelmus Tripolitanus, Aconensis Conventus, de Egressu
Machometi et Saracenorum, atque progressu eorumdem, de Statu
Saracenorum," etc. It is imperfect; it is addressed THEOBALDO
Ecclesiarcho digno Sancte Terre Peregrino Sancto. And from a cursory
inspection I imagine that the Tract appended to one of the Polo MSS. in
the British Museum (Addl. MSS., No. 19,952) is the same work or part of
it. To the same author is ascribed a tract called Clades Damiatae.
(Duchesne, V. 432; D'Avezac in Rec. de Voyages, IV. 406; Quetif,
Script. Ord. Praed. I. 264-5; Catal. of MSS. in Camb. Univ. Library, I.
22.)
NOTE 2. - I presume that the powers, stated in this passage from Ramusio to
have been conferred on the Friars, are exaggerated. In letters of
authority granted in like cases by Pope Gregory's successors, Nicolas III.
(in 1278) and Boniface VIII. (in 1299), the missionary friars to remote
regions are empowered to absolve from excommunication and release from
vows, to settle matrimonial questions, to found churches and appoint
idoneos rectores, to authorise Oriental clergy who should publicly
submit to the Apostolic See to enjoy the privilegium clericale, whilst
in the absence of bishops those among the missionaries who were priests
might consecrate cemeteries, altars, palls, etc., admit to the Order of
Acolytes, but nothing beyond. (See Mosheim, Hist. Tartar. Eccles. App.
Nos. 23 and 42.)
NOTE 3. - The statement here about Bundukdar's invasion of Cilician Armenia
is a difficulty. He had invaded it in 1266, and his second devastating
invasion, during which he burnt both Layas and Sis, the king's residence,
took place in 1275, a point on which Marino Sanuto is at one with the
Oriental Historians. Now we know from Rainaldus that Pope Gregory left
Acre in November or December, 1271, and the text appears to imply that our
travellers left Acre before him.
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