6)Z CHRISTIANITY IN CHINA, ETC. apostolic letters were sent in all directions to exhort infidels and pagans to come forth from their darkness, and open their eyes to the light of the gospel, and to encourage the neophytes and fortify them in the faith, while using the most affecting and persuasive ex- pressions to the Jacobites and Nestorians to induce these wandering children to return to their mother the Catholic church, who thus affectionately stretched out her arms towards them. The indefatigable solicitude of John XX. multiplied apostles of the faith in every region then attainable of infidel countries ; and it gave fresh life to the congrega- tion of the travellers for Jesus Christ, formed from the two families of St. Francis and St. Dominic. In 1324 he enjoined the master-general of the Brothers Preachers to place the missionaries of his order belonging to that society under the direction of a vicar-general, who should send them into the countries whose spiri- tual wants made their presence the most necessary. All the Dominicans being authorised to join this congrega- tion, they resorted to it in such numbers, that the pro- vinces of the order were almost depopulated, and the convents nearly deserted. The master-general sent infor- mation of this to John XXII., who, admiring the ardent charity of these monks, cried, " They have truly been placed as shining torches in the church of God." * However, he thought it necessary to moderate this zeal, which might be prejudicial to the order, and perhaps unfavourable to the missions also. He wrote to the his death, which happened December 4, 1334. His tomb is still seen in the cathedral of Avignon.
- Fontana, " Monumenta Dominicana, Ann. 1325."
