RRR: Correspondence/envoy
2284
year: 1237
initiator: Frater Philippus fratrum Praedicatorum prior
recipient: Pope Gregory IX
text: Beginning of year. Frater Philippus fratrum Praedicatorum prior reports to Pope Gregory IX that the patriarcha Jacobitarum Orientalium with a great company of prelates and monks made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. After an exposition of the Latin faith, Philippus and the patriarch met in the procession on Palm Sunday [in Ramis palmarum] that on this day descends from the Mt of Olives. The patriarch promised obedience to the Roman church, abjured heresy and handed Philippus his confession written in Chaldean and Arabic, receiving the habit of the Dominicans. Philippus describes the patriarch as the religious leader of the Caldaei, Medii, Persi and Armenii, whose lands have been devastated by the Mongols. The Christians in 70 provinces obey him. They are subject to the Sarraceni, although their monks are freed from the payment of tribute. 2 other archbishops, a Jacobite from Egypt and a Nestorian from the East, with flocks living in Syria and Phoenicia, made the same profession of faith. At the request of the king and barones, Philippus is sending 4 Dominicans to Armenia to learn the language. He has had a letter from the church leader of all Nestorian heretics, who have spread through Greater India and the kingdom of Prester John and much of the Orient, promising frater Willelmus de Monte Ferrato and 2 other Dominicans who know the language obedience and reunion with the Church. Philippus has sent Dominicans to Egypt, to the patriarch of the Jacobites there, whose errors including the practice of circumcision like the Sarraceni. This patriarch has also promised to return to the Church. Subject to him are Christians in Lesser India, Ethiopia, Libya and Egypt. Philippus believes that Ethiopia and Libya are not subject to the Sarraceni. The Maronites [Maronidae] in Lebanon are already united to the Holy See. Only the Graeci, whose errors are described, persevere in their malice. Philippus stresses how he and his brothers have concentrated on learning the languages of the indigenous, establishing the study of language in every Dominican community, with a stress on Arabic, which is most commonly spoken. 3 preachers have been sent to the Sarraceni. He is sending brothers to inform the pope. He reports that along with the magister [of the Dominicans in the Holy Land?], his companions frater Geraldus clericus and frater Juvanus conversus have died.
Beginning of year. Frater Philippus fratrum Praedicatorum prior reports to Pope Gregory IX that the patriarcha Jacobitarum Orientalium with a great company of prelates and monks made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. After an exposition of the Latin faith, Philippus and the patriarch met in the procession... more
sources: Matthew Paris, Chronica maiora 3:396-399 (RRH no. 1075)