Note 60 — Chapter VIII · THE SPREAD OF ISLAM AMONG THE MONGOLS AND TATARS.

That these were no empty words and that the toleration here promised became a reality, may be judged from a letter sent to the K͟hān by Pope John XXII in 1318, in which he thanks the Muslim prince for the favour he showed to his Christian subjects and the kind treatment they received at his hands.60 The successors of Ūzbek K͟hān do not appear to have been animated by the same zeal for the spread of Islam as he had shown, and could not be expected to succeed where he failed. So long as the Russians paid their taxes, they were left free to worship according to their own desires, and the Christian religion had become too closely intertwined with the life of the people to be disturbed, even had efforts been made to turn them from the faith of their fathers; for Christianity had been the national religion of the Russian people for well-nigh three centuries before the Mongols established themselves in Russian territory.