PRESTER JOHN
About the middle of the twelfth century, a rumour circulated through
Europe that there reigned in Asia a powerful Christian Emperor,
Presbyter Johannes. In a bloody fight he had broken the power of the
Mussulmans, and was ready to come to the assistance of the Crusaders.
Great was the exultation in Europe, for of late the news from the East
had been gloomy and depressing, the power of the infidel had increased,
overwhelming masses of men had been brought into the field against the
chivalry of Christendom, and it was felt that the cross must yield
before the odious crescent.
The news of the success of the Priest-King opened a door of hope to the
desponding Christian world. Pope Alexander III. determined at once to
effect a union with this mysterious personage, and on the 27th of
September, 1177, wrote him a letter, which he intrusted to his
physician, Philip, to deliver in person.
Philip started on his embassy, but never returned. The conquests of
Tschengis-Khan again attracted the eyes of Christian Europe to the East.
The Mongol hordes were rushing in upon the West with devastating
ferocity; Russia, Poland, Hungary, and the Eastern provinces of Germany
had succumbed, or suffered grievously; and the fears of other nations
were roused lest they too should taste the misery of a Mongolian
invasion. It was Gog and Magog come to slaughter, and the times of
Antichrist were dawning. But the battle of Liegnitz stayed them in their
onward career, and Europe was saved.
Pope Innocent IV. determined to convert these wild hordes of barbarians,
and subject them to the cross of Christ; he therefore sent among them a
number of Dominican and Franciscan missioners, and embassies of peace
passed between the Pope, the King of France, and the Mogul Khan,
The result of these communications with the East was, that the
travellers learned how false were the prevalent notions of a mighty
Christian empire existing in Central Asia. Vulgar superstition or
conviction is not, however, to be upset by evidence, and the locality of
the monarchy was merely transferred by the people to Africa, and they
fixed upon Abyssinia, with a show of truth, as the seat of the famous
Priest-King. However, still some doubted. John de Piano Carpini and
Marco Polo, though they acknowledged the existence of a Christian
monarch in Abyssinia, yet stoutly maintained as well that Prester John
of popular belief reigned in splendour somewhere in the dim Orient.
But before proceeding with the history of this strange fable, it will be
well to extract the different accounts given of the Priest-King and his
realm by early writers; and we shall then be better able to judge of the
influence the myth obtained in Europe.
Otto of Freisingen is the first author to mention the monarchy of
Prester John, with whom we are acquainted. Otto wrote a chronicle up to
the date 1156, and he relates that in 1145 the Catholic Bishop of Cabala
visited Europe to lay certain complaints before the Pope. He mentioned
the fall of Edessa, and also "he stated that a few years ago a certain
King and Priest called John, who lives on the farther side of Persia and
Armenia, in the remote East, and who, with all his people, were
Christians, though belonging to the Nestorian Church, had overcome the
royal brothers Samiardi, kings of the Medes and Persians, and had
captured Ecbatana, their capital and residence. The said kings had met
with their Persian, Median, and Assyrian troops, and had fought for
three consecutive days, each side having determined to die rather than
take to flight. Prester John, for so they are wont to call him, at
length routed the Persians, and after a bloody battle, remained
victorious. After which victory the said John was hastening to the
assistance of the Church at Jerusalem, but his host, on reaching the
Tigris, was hindered from passing, through a deficiency in boats, and he
directed his march North, since he had heard that the river was there
covered with ice. In that place he had waited many years, expecting
severe cold; but the winters having proved unpropitious, and the
severity of the climate having carried off many soldiers, he had been
forced to retreat to his own land. This king belongs to the family of
the Magi, mentioned in the Gospel, and he rules over the very people
formerly governed by the Magi; moreover, his fame and his wealth are so
great, that he uses an emerald sceptre only.
"Excited by the example of his ancestors, who came to worship Christ in
his cradle, he had proposed to go to Jerusalem, but had been impeded by
the above-mentioned causes."
At the same time the story crops up in other quarters; so that we cannot
look upon Otto as the inventor of the myth. The celebrated Maimonides
alludes to it in a passage quoted by Joshua Lorki, a Jewish physician to
Benedict XIII. Maimonides lived from 1135 to 1204. The passage is as
follows: "It is evident both from the letters of Rambam (Maimonides),
whose memory be blessed, and from the narration of merchants who have
visited the ends of the earth, that at this time the root of our faith
is to be found in the lands of Babel and Teman, where long ago Jerusalem
was an exile; not reckoning those who live in the land of Paras and
Madai, of the exiles of Schomrom, the number of which people is as the
sand: of these some are still under the yoke of Paras, who is called the
Great-Chief Sultan by the Arabs; others live in a place under the yoke
of a strange people ... governed by a Christian chief, Preste-Cuan by
name. With him they have made a compact, and he with them; and this is a
matter concerning which there can be no manner of doubt."
Benjamin of Tudela, another Jew, travelled in the East between the years
1159 and 1173, the last being the date of his death. He wrote an account
of his travels, and gives in it some information with regard to a
mythical Jew king, who reigned in the utmost splendour over a realm
inhabited by Jews alone, situate somewhere in the midst of a desert of
vast extent. About this period there appeared a document which produced
intense excitement throughout Europe--a letter, yes! a letter from the
mysterious personage himself to Manuel Comnenus, Errmeror of
Constantinople (1143-1180). The exact date of this extraordinary epistle
cannot be fixed with any certainty, but it certainly appeared before
1241, the date of the conclusion of the chronicle of Albericus Trium
Fontium. This Albericus relates that in the year 1165 "Presbyter
Johannes, the Indian king, sent his wonderful letter to various
Christian princes, and especially to Manuel of Constantinople, and
Frederic the Roman Emperor." Similar letters were sent to Alexander
III, to Louis VII of France, and to the King of Portugal, which are
alluded to in chronicles and romances, and which were indeed turned into
rhyme, and sung all over Europe by minstrels and trouveres. The letter
is as follows:
"John, Priest by the Almighty power of God and the Might of our Lord
Jesus Christ, King of Kings, and Lord of Lords, to his friend Emanuel,
Prince of Constantinople, greeting, wishing him health, prosperity, and
the continuance of Divine favour.
"Our Majesty has been informed that you hold our Excellency in love, and
that the report of our greatness has reached you. Moreover, we have
heard through our treasurer that you have been pleased to send to us
some objects of art and interest, that our Exaltedness might be
gratified thereby.
"Being human, I receive it in good part, and we have ordered our
treasurer to send you some of our articles in return.
"Now we desire to be made certain that you hold the right faith, and in
all things cleave to Jesus Christ, our Lord, for we have heard that your
court regard you as a god, though we know that you are mortal, and
subject to human infirmities....Should you desire to learn the greatness
and excellency of our Exaltedness and of the land subject to our
sceptre, then hear and believe: I, Presbyter Johannes, the Lord of
Lords, surpass all under heaven in virtue, in riches, and in power;
seventy-two kings pay us tribute....In the three Indies our Magnificence
rules, and our land extends beyond India, where rests the body of the
holy Apostle Thomas; it reaches toward the sunrise over the wastes, and
it trends toward deserted Babylon near the tower of Babel. Seventy-two
provinces, of which only a few are Christian, serve us. Each has its own
king, but all are tributary to us.
"Our land is the home of elephants, dromedaries, camels, crocodiles,
meta-collinarum, cametennus, ten-sevetes, wild asses, white and red
lions, white bears, white merules, crickets, griffins, tigers, lamias,
hyenas, wild horses, wild oxen and wild men, men with horns, one-eyed,
men with eyes before and behind, centaurs, fauns, satyrs, pygmies,
forty-ell-high giants, Cyclopses, and similar women; it is the home,
too, of the phoenix, and of nearly all living animals. We have some
people subject to us who feed on the flesh of men and of prematurely
born animals, and who never fear death. When any of these people die,
their friends and relations eat them ravenously, for they regard it as a
main duty to munch human flesh. Their names are Gog and Magog, Anie,
Agit, Azenach, Fommeperi, Befari, Conei-Samante, Agrimandri, Vintefolei,
Casbei, Alanei. These and similar nations were shut in behind lofty
mountains by Alexander the Great, toward the North. We lead them at our
pleasure against our foes, and neither man nor beast is left undevoured,
if our Majesty gives the requisite permission. And when all our foes are
eaten, then we return with our hosts home again. These accursed fifteen
nations will burst forth from the four quarters of the earth at the end
of the world, in the times of Antichrist, and overrun all the abodes of
the Saints as well as the great city Rome, which, by the way, we are
prepared to give to our son who will be born, along with all Italy,
Germany, the two Gauls, Britain and Scotland. We shall also give him
Spain and all the land as far as the icy sea. The nations to which I
have alluded, according to the words of the prophet, shall not stand in
the judgment, on account of their offensive practices, but will be
consumed to ashes by a fire which will fall on them from heaven.
"Our land streams with honey, and is overflowing with milk. In one
region grows no poisonous herb, nor does a querulous frog ever quack in
it; no scorpion exists, nor does the serpent glide amongst the grass,
nor can any poisonous animals exist in it, or injure any one.
"Among the heathen, flows through a certain province the River Indus;
encircling Paradise, it spreads its arms in manifold windings through
the entire province. Here are found the emeralds, sapphires, carbuncles,
topazes, chrysolites, onyxes, beryls, sardius, and other costly stones.
Here grows the plant Assidos, which, when worn by any one, protects him
from the evil spirit, forcing it to state its business and name;
consequently the foul spirits keep out of the way there. In a certain
land subject to us, all kinds of pepper is gathered, and is exchanged
for corn and bread, leather and cloth....At the foot of Mount Olympus
bubbles up a spring which changes its flavour hour by hour, night and
day, and the spring is scarcely three days' journey from Paradise, out
of which Adam was driven. If any one has tasted thrice of the fountain,
from that day he will feel no fatigue, but will, as long as he lives, be
as a man of thirty years. Here are found the small stones called
Nudiosi, which, if borne about the body, prevent the sight from waxing
feeble, and restore it where it is lost. The more the stone is looked
at, the keener becomes the sight. In our territory is a certain
waterless sea, consisting of tumbling billows of sand never at rest.
None have crossed this sea; it lacks water altogether, yet fish are cast
up upon the beach of various kinds, very tasty, and the like are nowhere
else to be seen. Three days' journey from this sea are mountains from
which rolls down a stony, waterless river, which opens into the sandy
sea. As soon as the stream reaches the sea, its stones vanish in it, and
are never seen again. As long as the river is in motion, it cannot be
crossed; only four days a week is it possible to traverse it. Between
the sandy sea and the said mountains, in a certain plain is a fountain
of singular virtue, which purges Christians and would-be Christians from
all transgressions. The water stands four inches high in a hollow stone
shaped like a musselsheil. Two saintly old men watch by it, and ask the
comers whether they are Christians, or are about to become Christians,
then whether they desire healing with all their hearts. If they have
answered well, they are bidden to lay aside their clothes, and to step
into the mussel. If what they said be true, then the water begins to
rise and gush over their heads; thrice does the water thus lift itself,
and every one who has entered the mussel leaves it cured of every
complaint.
"Near the wilderness trickles between barren mountains a subterranean
rill, which can only by chance be reached, for only occasionally the
earth gapes, and he who would descend must do it with precipitation, ere
the earth closes again. All that is gathered under the ground there is
gem and precious stone. The brook pours into another river, and the
inhabitants of the neighbourhood obtain thence abundance of precious
stones. Yet they never venture to sell them without having first offered
them to us for our private use: should we decline them, they are at
liberty to dispose of them to strangers. Boys there are trained to
remain three or four days under water, diving after the stones.
"Beyond the stone river are the ten tribes of the Jews, which, though
subject to their own kings, are, for all that, our slaves and tributary
to our Majesty. In one of our lands, hight Zone, are worms called in our
tongue Salamanders. These worms can only live in fire, and they build
cocoons like silk-worms, which are unwound by the ladies of our palace,
and spun into cloth and dresses, which are worn by our Exaltedness.
These dresses, in order to be cleaned and washed, are cast into
flames.... When we go to war, we have fourteen golden and bejewelled
crosses borne before us instead of banners; each of these crosses is
followed by 10,000 horsemen, and 100,000 foot soldiers fully armed,
without reckoning those in charge of the luggage and provision.
"When we ride abroad plainly, we have a wooden, unadorned cross, without
gold or gem about it, borne before us, in order that we may meditate on
the sufferings of Our Lord Jesus Christ; also a golden bowl filled with
earth, to remind us of that whence we sprung, and that to which we must
return; but besides these there is borne a silver bowl full of gold, as
a token to all that we are the Lord of Lords.
"All riches, such as are upon the world, our Magnificence possesses in
superabundance. With us no one lies, for he who speaks a lie is
thenceforth regarded as dead; he is no more thought of, or honoured by
us. No vice is tolerated by us. Every year we undertake a pilgrimage,
with retinue of war, to the body of the holy prophet Daniel, which is
near the desolated site of Babylon. In our realm fishes are caught, the
blood of which dyes purple. The Amazons and the Brahmins are subject to
us. The palace in which our Super-eminency resides, is built after the
pattern of the castle built by the Apostle Thomas for the Indian king
Gundoforus. Ceilings, joists, and architrave are of Sethym wood, the
roof of ebony, which can never catch fire. Over the gable of the palace
are, at the extremities, two golden apples, in each of which are two
carbuncles, so that the gold may shine by day, and the carbuncles by
night. The greater gates of the palace are of sardius, with the horn of
the horned snake inwrought, so that no one can bring poison within.
"The other portals are of ebony. The windows are of crystal; the tables
are partly of gold, partly of amethyst, and the columns supporting the
tables are partly of ivory, partly of amethyst. The court in which we
watch the jousting is floored with onyx in order to increase the courage
of the combatants. In the palace, at night, nothing is burned for light
but wicks supplied with balsam....Before our palace stands a mirror, the
ascent to which consists of five and twenty steps of porphyry and
serpentine." After a description of the gems adorning this mirror, which
is guarded night and day by three thousand armed men, he explains its
use: "We look therein and behold all that is taking place in every
province and region subject to our sceptre.
"Seven kings wait upon us monthly, in turn, with sixty-two dukes, two
hundred and fifty-six counts and marquises: and twelve archbishops sit
at table with us on our right, and twenty bishops on the left, besides
the patriarch of St. Thomas, the Sarmatian Protopope, and the Archpope
of Susa....Our lord high steward is a primate and king, our cup-bearer
is an archbishop and king, our chamberlain a bishop and king, our
marshal king and abbot."