Giovanni di Monte Corvino (ca. 1247-1328), Franciscan missionary, traveller and statesman, was founder of the earliest Roman Catholic missions in India and China, and archbishop of Peking. In 1272 he was commissioned by the Byzantine emperor Michael Palaeologus to Pope Gregory X to negotiate for the reunion of Greek and Latin churches. From 1275 to 1289 he labored incessantly as a missionary in the Nearer and Middle East. In 1289 he revisited the Papal Court, and was sent out as Roman legate to the Great Khan, the Ilkhan of Persia, and other leading personages of the Mongol world. The Order of Friars Minor and other Franciscan movements are disciples of Saint Francis of Assisi. ... In Christianity, an archbishop is an elevated bishop heading a diocese of particular importance due to either its size, history, or both, called an archdiocese. ... Beijing (Chinese: 北京; pinyin: Běijīng; Wade-Giles: Pei-ching; Postal System Pinyin: Peking), is the capital city of the Peoples Republic of China. ... Michael VIII (1225 - December 11, 1282) was the founder of the Palaeologos dynasty that would rule the Byzantine Empire to the Fall of Constantinople in 1453. ... Gregory X, né Theobald Visconti (ca. ... A map showing countries commonly considered to be part of the Middle East The Middle East is a region comprising the lands around the southern and eastern parts of the Mediterranean Sea, a territory that extends from the eastern Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf. ... Persia and Persian can refer to: the Western name for Iran. ...

This article incorporates text from the public domain 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica. The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ... The Eleventh Edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica (1911) in many ways represents the sum of knowledge at the beginning of the 20th century. ...