Giovanni da Pian del Carpini

Italian religious leader

• Born: c. 1180
• Birthplace: Pian del Carpini (modern Piano della Magione), Umbria, Italy
• Died: August 1, 1252
• Place of death: Italy, possibly Perugia

Carpini extended the work of the Franciscans to Saxony, Germany, northern Europe, Spain, and North Africa. After returning from the first formal Christian mission to the Mongols, he wrote an important work on the history of the peoples of Central Asia.

Early Life

Giovanni da Pian del Carpini (jyoh-VAHN-nee dah pyahn dehl kawr-PEE-nee) was born in Pian del Carpini (now Piano della Magione), northwest of the Umbrian city of Perugia, which was on the route to Cortona, Italy. In the Umbrian countryside, fields and low hills were often covered in a light haze; the blue sky was reflected in nearby Lake Trasimene. The area was dominated by the ancient city of Perugia, proud and warlike, near the Tiber River. Here passed the famous and the not-so-famous, from emperors to Provençal minstrels, on their way to Rome. Across the Tiber River lay the city of Assisi, an ancient enemy.

The rising middle class in Assisi had ended the domination of the feudal nobility and sent many aristocratic families into exile in 1198. The refuge that Perugia gave these exiles resulted in a battle fought near the Tiber River in November, 1202, in which Assisi was defeated. The contentious spirit of the times was also reflected in disputes among church officials, noblemen, and city officials over property rights and sources of income.

In this unsettled, economically depressed time, young Carpini grew up. It is possible that he took part in the battle against Assisi, or he may have been studying at Bologna. In any case, he would soon have been aware of young Francis of Assisi at Portiuncula. A band of youthful followers had gathered around Francis, attracted by his spirit of simplicity, penance, and prayer. By spring, 1209, the group, now numbering twelve, went to Rome. Pope Innocent III gave his approval to the rule establishing the Order of Friars Minor to preach penance to the people.

Amid the political turbulence of the early thirteenth century, the number of Francis's disciples grew rapidly. One, Brother Giles, was assigned to the small hermitage of San Paola di Favarone outside Perugia between 1215 and 1219. Here he developed a life combining contemplation, meditation, and action. He attended the great spring, 1217, general chapter (conference) at Portiuncula, where great crowds gathered to hear Francis and the Franciscan missions were organized.

Carpini may have become a follower of Francis at this gathering or at the one in the spring of 1219 during which, according to the chronicler Giordino di Giano, ten new members were added to Francis's order. The first extant mention of Carpini notes his 1221 appointment, because of his eloquence and proficiency in Latin, to be part of a mission to Germany under Caesar of Speyer. Carpini was about forty years of age.

Life's Work

The mission to Germany was no easy assignment, for the missionaries sent out in 1219 had been badly treated and those who had gone to Morocco had been martyred. After a rocky start, however, the 1221 mission to Germany fared better. The Franciscans’ first center was established in Trent. In October, the brothers met at Augsburg. Carpini and a German friar, Barnaby, were sent as missionaries to Würzburg.

In September, 1223, when Germany was divided into four administrative units, Carpini was placed in charge of Saxony as custos (warden). According to the chronicle of the mission, his preaching was very effective. As warden of Saxony, Carpini preached Franciscan ideals in towns along the Elbe River, at the frontier of European Christianity.

At the chapter gathering on August 12, 1224, at Würzburg, he was assigned to be the provincial's envoy at Cologne. In this post, Carpini was responsible for directing Franciscan activities in Germany. It was he who reported Francis of Assisi's death at Portiuncula in 1226 to the brothers.

At the Pentecostal Chapter at Cologne in 1228, the same year that Francis was canonized by Gregory IX, Carpini was designated provincial (minister) of Germany. The chronicles describe Carpini as being very fat, so fat that he had to ride about on a donkey. This man of courage and talent defended the faith before bishops and princes with a sweet nature and carried out his leadership role in a manner that his contemporaries compared to the way a mother deals with her children or a hen her chicks. He was diligent in extending the Franciscan mission, sending brothers into areas of eastern and northern Europe and establishing a convent at Metz and others in Lorraine.

In 1230, Carpini was appointed minister of Franciscans in Spain. In 1232, at the general chapter in Rome, he was named minister of Saxony. In mid-May, 1235, Pope Gregory IX sent a letter to the king of Tunis designating “Giovanni” as the papal ambassador and Franciscan provincial in Barbary. The reference may have been to Carpini. The appointments to Spain and possibly Barbary enabled him to develop some knowledge of Islam and the Arab world. He returned to Germany, was removed on May 15, 1239, by a general chapter, and returned again in 1241, overseeing the province of Cologne during the Mongol invasions of Eastern Europe.

After the Western losses at the Battle of Liegnitz in Silesia near the Oder River on April 9, 1241, Pope Gregory IX preached a crusade to save Poland and end the attacks of the Mongols. Although the struggle between the pope and rulers of the Holy Roman Empire prevented any such action, fear of the Mongols continued. Further, while the death of the Great Khan Ogatai in December, 1241, together with rivalry among Mongol princes, had the effect of reducing the pressure on Western Europe, Christian Russia became a province of the Mongols. Various plans were made in the West for defense and for establishing contact with the Mongols. In 1245, the new pope, Innocent IV, chose Carpini to lead a mission to the Mongols. At this time, Carpini was about sixty-five years old and had been serving as penitentiary at the Papal Court.

Carpini left Lyon on Easter Day, April 16, 1245, with Stephen of Bohemia. In their journey across Germany and Eastern Europe, they were aided by church officials and various princes. At Breslau, Benedict the Pole joined the mission. By stages, they made their way to Cracow, where they were provided with beaver skins to present as gifts to the Mongols. At Volhynia, the Russian prince provided them with envoys to conduct them across Lithuanian territory to Kiev, then under Mongol control. The friars were unable, however, to obtain from the Russian rulers promises regarding escorts for their return trip.

Battling illness, Carpini's band continued on their mission, arriving at Kiev, where they exchanged their horses for Mongol ponies. Leaving early in February, 1246, they traveled south on the Dnieper River, reaching the first Mongol outpost on February 23. Here they left the ill Stephen of Bohemia and their servants. Using the Mongol post system and Mongol escorts, they continued down the Dnieper on the ice, then headed east to the Sea of Azov and the Don River, reaching Batu's center at Sarai on the Volga River on April 4. Batu received them, read the pope's letters (translated by a Russian in the entourage of Prince Alexander Nevsky), and arranged for them to go on to the great council in central Asia for the election and enthroning of the next supreme khan.

The Franciscans left on Easter Monday, April 8, full of uncertainty. Their legs were wrapped in puttees to protect against the friction of riding. Having fasted during Lent, they were weak and had had nothing to drink but snow melted in a kettle. They arrived at the Mongols’ imperial summer station, Sira Ordu, on July 22. Since leaving Sarai, Carpini and his band had covered nearly three thousand miles (nearly five thousand kilometers) in 106 days. The fact that they had survived such a journey was a marvel in itself.

At the great council, there were three thousand envoys from all the Mongol subject peoples of Russia and China. The friars had little status among the host. By the time they were finally admitted to see the Great Khan Güyük , they had no gifts left to offer and were shunted off to the outskirts of the camp. Only the help of Cosmos, a Russian who was Güyük's favorite goldsmith, prevented them from starving. Not until November would the khan receive the friars. This delay, however, gave them the time to talk to other envoys and make the observations of the Mongols that would later be so important to the West. The khan prepared a rather belligerent answer to the pope's letter, indicating that if the West wanted peace, the pope, emperors, kings, and all the important men would have to come to him to learn his will.

The friars received the khan's letter on November 13 and were sent on their way four days later. They traveled all winter, often sleeping in the snow, not reaching Sarai until May 9, 1247. Batu gave them safe conduct to Mochi's camp, where they found Stephen of Bohemia and their servants safe. They reached Kiev in late spring and were received with great joy. The Russian princes Daniel and Basil received them at Vladimir and charged them with letters to the pope acknowledging the supremacy of the pope and the Roman church. The mission then returned to Western Europe, reaching Cologne late in September. From there they traveled to Liège and Champagne, reporting to the pope at Lyon on November 18, 1247.

As they traveled through Western Europe, Carpini gave lectures on their experiences based on an incomplete written version of their travels, of which five early manuscripts have survived. These lectures were attended by many who were eager to hear a firsthand account of the feared Mongols. Benedict the Pole also wrote an account of the trip while they were at Cologne.

The pope was quite pleased with the results of Carpini's mission and kept him at Lyon for about three months. Here Carpini wrote a fuller account, Historia Mongalorum quos nos Tartaros appellamus . This version exists in two manuscripts, one at Corpus Christi College, University of Cambridge, and the other at Leyden University Library. Carpini's accounts were the first of the Mongols available to the West.

Early in 1248, the pope sent Carpini to Louis IX in Paris. The French king was preparing for the Seventh Crusade (1248-1254); the pope hoped to delay the king's departure, but this mission was unsuccessful. It was probably at this time that the chronicler Vincent of Beauvais, who was frequently at the court of Louis IX, acquired Carpini's manuscript and, with abridgments, included it in the last section of his work. This ensured the survival and distribution of Carpini's work. It was also in France in the spring of 1248 that the historian Salimbene heard a reading of Carpini's work at Sens.

After the mission to France, the pope appointed Carpini as bishop of Antivari (Bar) in Dalmatia. His jurisdiction was disputed, however, by the archbishop of Ragusa. After Carpini was ousted, he traveled to Italy to appeal to the Roman Curia and to Innocent IV, who had gone to Perugia. It was here apparently that he died on August 1, 1252, around the age of seventy-two.

Significance

Carpini's history was the most widely known of the early Western accounts of the Mongols. His information was vital to the West. The short version was published by Richard Hakluyt in his 1598 compilation of travel writings, but the complete version was not published until 1839 by M. A. P. d’Avezac for the Société de Géographie of Paris. Although others such as William of Rubrouck and Marco Polo traveled to the East later in the thirteenth century, Carpini was the first to offer a new understanding of the size of Asia and accurate information on the Mongols. His journey was undertaken after he had spent twenty-five years helping to establish the Franciscan order in Spain and northern and eastern Europe. The chroniclers refer to him as a fine preacher and a learned man, yet one of great humility. Carpini was a true practitioner of the original ideals of Saint Francis of Assisi.

Bibliography

Beazley, C. Raymond, ed. The Texts and Versions of John de Plano Carpini and William de Rubruquis, as Printed for the First Time by Hakluyt in 1598 Together with Some Shorter Pieces. London: Hakluyt Society, 1903. The introduction includes comments on the five existing Carpini manuscripts of the shorter version of his account of the Mongols. His work appears here in both Latin and English. A brief account of the main events in Carpini’s life is included in the notes. Index.

Dawson, Christopher, ed. The Mongol Mission: Narratives and Letters of the Franciscan Missionaries in Mongolia and China in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries. New York: Sheed and Ward, 1955. This work, part of the Makers of Christendom series, presents a brief account of the conditions of the thirteenth century and of Western Europeans’ interest in the Mongols, followed by accounts of the key Franciscan travels. Helpful bibliography and genealogy tables. Includes translations of the writings of Carpini, several papal bulls, and other letters. Index and map.

Morgan, David. The Mongols. 1986. Reprint. Cambridge, Mass.: Blackwell, 1990. An overview of the history of the Mongols. Illustrated.

Reid, Robert W. A Brief Political and Military Chronology of the Mediaeval Mongols, from the Birth of Chinggis Qan to the Death of Qubilai Qaghan. Bloomington, Ind.: Mongolia Society, 2002. Reid’s account shows what the Mongols would soon become after the missions.

Rockhill, William Woodville, ed. and trans. The Journey of William of Rubruck to the Eastern Parts of the World, 1253-55, with Two Accounts of the Earlier Journey of John of Pian de Carpine. London: Hakluyt Society, 1900. Reprint. Nedeln, Liechtenstein: Kraus Reprint Limited, 1967. An introduction summarizes the history of the early thirteenth century. There is an extensive bibliography to 1900, a good index, and an excellent route map showing Carpini’s and Rubrouck’s travels. The translations include explanatory footnotes.

Skelton, R. A., Thomas E. Marston, and George D. Painter. The Vinland Map and the “Tartar Relation.” New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1965. This work represents the most complete version and discussion printed to date of Carpini’s travels among the Mongols. The Tartar Relation manuscript, another account of the history and culture of the Mongols, was apparently finished by a Franciscan friar, C. de Bridia, in 1247, around the same time that Carpini was recording his observations. This volume contains valuable maps, analyses, notes, an extensive bibliography, and indexes.