ABSTRACT
After enumeration of the officials and servants whom the papal stable supplies with forage and harness, unexpectedly find a passage that refers to the Franciscan mission to the Tartars. The Franciscans were thus provided with four horses and seven mules, using which they traveled across the sea with Tartars to the Il-khanate in Iran. The papal court, regarded Gerard and his Franciscan colleagues who were far away from it to be its essential members like the officials and servants working daily inside it. It was in the spring of 1278 that the Franciscan mission set out for the Il-khanate in Iran. It was probably in April of that year because the mission was entrusted with several letters from Pope Nicholas III issued in April. At the point of their departure, Nicholas issued several letters: one to Il-khan Abaqa, another to the great khan Qubilai, four privileges to five Franciscans about religious matters, and a letter addressed to all the Christians.
