Editing Pope Clement V (section)

===Crusades and relations with the Mongols===
{{See also|Franco-Mongol alliance}}
Clement sent [[John of Montecorvino]] to Beijing to [[Catholic Church in China|preach in China]].<ref>{{Catholic |wstitle=John of Montecorvino |first=Otto |last=Hartig |volume=8 |inline=1 |prescript=}}</ref>

[[File:Hayton of Corycus before Pope Clement V.jpg|thumb|[[Hayton of Corycus]] remitting his report on the Mongols ''La Flor des Estoires d'Orient'', to Pope Clement V in 1307.]]
Clement engaged intermittently in communications with the [[Mongol Empire]] towards the possibility of creating a [[Franco-Mongol alliance]] against the Muslims. In April 1305, the Mongol [[Ilkhanate|Ilkhan]] ruler [[Öljaitü]] sent an embassy led by [[Buscarello de Ghizolfi]] to Clement, [[Philip IV of France]], and [[Edward I of England]]. In 1307, another Mongol embassy led by [[Tommaso Ugi di Siena]] reached European monarchs. However, no coordinated military action was forthcoming and hopes of alliance petered out within a few years.{{citation needed|date=June 2021}}

In 1308, Clement ordered the preaching of a crusade to be launched against the [[Mamluk Sultanate]] in the Holy Land in the spring of 1309. This resulted in the unwanted [[Crusade of the Poor]] appearing before Avignon in July 1309. Clement granted the poor crusaders an indulgence but refused to let them participate in the professional expedition led by the [[Knights Hospitaller|Hospitallers]]. That expedition set off in early 1310, but instead of sailing for the Holy Land, the Hospitallers [[Hospitaller conquest of Rhodes|conquered the city of Rhodes]] from the [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantines]].<ref name=Badacs>Gábor Bradács, "Crusade of the Poor (1309)", in Jeffrey M. Shaw and Timothy J. Demy (eds.), ''War and Religion: An Encyclopedia of Faith and Conflict'', 3 vols. (ABC-CLIO, 2017), vol. 1, pp. 211–212.</ref>

On 4 April 1312, a Crusade was promulgated by Pope Clement V at the Council of Vienne. Another embassy was sent by Oljeitu to the West and to [[Edward II of England]] in 1313. The same year, [[Philip IV of France|Philip IV]] "took the cross", making the vow to go on a Crusade in the [[Levant]].<ref>Jean Richard, "Histoire des Croisades", p. 485</ref>