 In 1336 , an embassy to the French Pope Benedict XII in Avignon was sent by Toghun Temür , the last Yuan emperor in Dadu . The embassy was led by two Genoese travelers in the service of the Mongol emperor , who carried letters representing that the Mongols had been eight years ( since Archbishop John of Montecorvino 's death ) without a spiritual guide , and earnestly desired one . Pope Benedict appointed four ecclesiastics as his legates to the khan 's court . In 1338 , a total of 50 ecclesiastics were sent by the pope to Peking , among them John of Marignolli , who returned to Avignon in 1353 with a letter from the Yuan emperor to Pope Innocent VI . But soon , the Han Chinese rose up and drove the Mongols out of China , establishing the Ming Dynasty in 1368 . By 1369 , all foreign influences , from Mongols to Christians , Manichaeans , and Buddhists , were expelled by the Ming Dynasty . 
