On this episode of five minutes in church history we are going to the 12 hundreds to the 1230s in the 1240s to be exact

These decades were a time of the Mongol armies raiding Russian towns and cities.

These armies even made their way into modern day Poland and modern day Hungary.

There were more raids than occupations. They would come, they would take whatever they can, they would leave a lot of death and carnage in their wake and then they'd move on.

It was quite enough to leave Eastern Europe and of course Russia rather unsettled and it set about

a panic throughout the rest of Europe and throughout the Holy Roman Empire.

And that is when the Pope got involved.

The Pope at this time was Pope Innocent the 4th.

He was Pope from 1243 to 1254,

and right after he became Pope, he called a church council.

The council was held at the town of Lyon and France in 1244.

Of course, that's a town with a rich history.

There was significant martyrdom there in the early church.

In 1244 there was a council there and the main issue was to rein in the Holy Roman Emperor.

At the time it was Frederick II and he had well overstepped his bound,

at least as far as the church was concerned.

And so the Pope and the bishops and the cardinals and all that were gathered there at Leon were successful

and reigning in Frederick II and putting some limits on his power as the Holy Roman Emperor.

Well that was the domestic issue at the time,

and perhaps emboldened by his success on a domestic front,

Pope Innocent IV thought he could now engage foreign affairs and so he set off some

letters with some emissaries to the Khan. The Khan at this time was Gaiuk Khan. He was the grandson of Genghis Khan and he would be followed probably by one of the most

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