John of Salisbury 411Medieval Political Thought, 300–1450(New York: Rout-
ledge, 1996).
John of Plano Carpini (di Carpine) (ca. 1180–1252)
Franciscan traveler, papal envoy to the Mongols
John was born at Piano di Carpine, near Perugia in ITA LY,
in about 1180. Saint FRANCISsent him to SAXONYas a
warden of the FRANCISCAN ORDERin 1221. He became the
head of the Franciscan provinces of GERMANYby 1228,
SPAINby 1230, and finally Saxony by 1233. He further
played a strong role in the establishment and spread of
the order into Scandinavia, BOHEMIA,POLAND,DENMARK,
and HUNGARY. Despite his age and obesity, and because of
his experience and his knowledge of Holy Scripture, he
was sent by Pope Innocent IV (r. 1243–54) to Russian
princes inviting them to join the Western Church and to
the MONGOLSto explain the Christian faith and propose a
nonaggression pact with the West and cooperation
against ISLAM. John left LYON in FRANCE, picked up a
companion at CRACOW(Benedict of Poland), and passed
through PRAGUE, Cracow, and KIEVby February 3, 1246.
The Mongol khan Batu (d. 1255) sent him on to his
nephew, the Khan Guyuk (d. 1248). On July 22, 1246, he
arrived at Sira Ordu near the Mongol capital at Karako-
rum, where he was present at Guyuk’s coronation, after
completing a 3,000-mile journey. He had talks with
Guyuk’s advisers, several of whom were Christians, and
received from them an offer to the pope and the kings to
accept Mongol sovereignty. He set out on November 13,
crossed Asia in misery in midwinter, reached Kiev on
June 9, 1247, and arrived back at Lyon in November.
INNOCENTIV then sent him to King LOUISIX and made
him archbishop of Antivari in DALMATIAin 1248. He died
in that office on August 1, 1252.
During his journey and his sojourn, John had gath-
ered, by interrogating people along the long way as he
had been assigned to do a great deal of information on
the armaments, tactics, religious beliefs, and customs of
the Mongols. A new attack on the West was feared. On
returning to Lyon, he wrote his History of the Mongols.He
added to that a short account of his journey, in which he
listed witnesses who would attest to its truthfulness. A
brave and relentless traveler, Plano Carpini was a well-
informed observer to whom western Europe owed its first
detailed knowledge of the Mongols and Central Asia.
Further reading: Christopher Dawson, Mission to
Asia(1955; reprint, Toronto: University of Toronto Press,
1980); Igor de Rachewiltz, Papal Envoys to the Great
Khans (London: Faber and Faber, 1971); Leonardo
Olschki, Marco Polo’s Precursors(Baltimore: Johns Hop-
kins University Press, 1943); J. J. Saunders, “John of
Plano Carpini: The Papal Envoy to the Mongol Con-
querors Who Traveled through Russia to Eastern Asia in
1245–1247,” History Today,22 (1972): 547–555.
John of Salisbury (Parvus)(ca. 1115–1180)English
bishop, humanist
Born in Old Sarum near Salisbury about 1115, he began
in 1136 a career as a gifted but not rich student and then
scholar in the schools of PARIS. There he studied with
Peter ABÉLARD. He also studied with William of Conches
(d. 1160) at CHARTRES, a center of humanistic studies of
the arts and of the LATINclassics. He became well edu-
cated in RHETORIC, literary analysis, LOGIC, and LAW, both
ecclesiastical and Roman or civil. In 1148 John probably
entered the service of Theobald (d. 1161), archbishop of
CANTERBURY, in which he remained until 1150. From
there he moved to ROME, assuming a post in the papal
court. By 1153 or 1154 he was back at Canterbury,
employed as Theobald’s private secretary.
In 1159 John completed his first major work,
The Stateman’s Book (Policraticus). It was the first
medieval study of the relationship between a state and a
prince. John’s analyses of the conduct of good and
bad princes exemplified his understanding of the power
then being exercised by the newly centralized monar-
chies and princely regimes of the 12th century. The
Metalogiconwas written shortly after The Statesman’s
Bookand was a work of educational theory, which eval-
uated and defended the value of the SEVEN LIBERAL ARTS.
In it John referred to the newly discovered works of
ARISTOTLE.
About 1162 Thomas BECKET, whom John had
befriended while Becket was still chancellor of ENGLAND,
succeeded Theobald as archbishop of CANTERBURY. John
enthusiastically sided with Becket in his controversy
with HENRYII of England and in 1164 went into exile
with him. Early in 1170 he returned to England and was
present at Becket’s murder or martyrdom on December- While in exile, he wrote the Papal History,an unfin-
ished but fascinating account of the papal court during
the years 1148–52. John remained at Canterbury, at
work on an unfinished biography of Becket, until 1176,
when he was elected bishop of Chartres, an office he
held until his death on October 25, 1180. Charitable,
honest, and reasonable, he has long been considered as a
model Christian humanist of the 12th century whose
innovative political theory distinguished between the
physical person of the king and the power he repre-
sented for the state.
See alsoKINGS AND KINGSHIPS; POLITICAL THEORY AND
TREATISES.
Further reading:John of Salisbury, Memoirs of the
Papal Court,trans. Marjorie Chibnall (London: Thomas
Nelson, 1956); John of Salisbury, Policraticus: Of the
Frivolities of Courtiers and the Footprints of Philosophers,
trans. Cary J. Nederman (Cambridge: Cambridge Univer-
sity Press, 1990); John of Salisbury, The Metalogicon, a
Twelfth-Century Defense of the Verbal and Logical Arts of
the Trivium,trans. Daniel D. McGarry (1955; reprint,