text:
. August 29. Anagni. Pope Innocent IV writes to King Sartaq (Sattach) of the Mongols (Tartari), relating that he gives thanks and praise to God the Father, the Creator of all things seen and unseen, to His Only Son, coeternal with Him, the Lord Jesus Christ the Redeemer and the Saviour of men, expressing at length his joy that God has inspired the king in his heart and revealed to him His light so that he accepts the faith and enjoys immortality. The entirety of the Christian faithful joins him in rejoicing at the king's departure from the shadows of ignorance of those who are alienated from God. The king sent his chaplain, the priest Johannes (the bearer of the pope's present letter), to the pope informing him that the king along with many of his people left the error of infidelity, stripped the old man of the gentiles and, through the holy cleansing of Christian baptism, clothed a new man through faith and confession in the Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God, the benefits of which the pope describes. Now the king's name is written in the Book of Life, and he should rejoice at replacing the old errors of eternal death with resurrection and immortality. The pope describes his own powers, of which he is unworthy, and considers the king his most beloved son, for whom he will do that he can spiritually. Still, the king must strive to declare the faith in Christ that he has taken up in a clear and public confession. Finally, the pope asks the king to excuse his chaplain's long absence, since when he was making his way to the pope, he was captured in the Kingdom of Sicilia by the late Conradus, son of the late Frederick (Fridericus), former emperor of the Romans (Romani), at the instigation of evil men, and only after the death of Conradus was he was able to proceed on his journey, restored to liberty, but having lost the things and letters that he carried.
Sources:
RRH, 1215; Lupprian, pp. 209-212, no. 39