By Sabine Baring-Gould, M.A.
(Born 28th June, 1834, in Exeter, Baring-Gould was an antiquarian, novelist,
travel writer and collector of folk songs.)
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 the Prester John of popular belief reigned in splendor 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." [1]
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[2] and
Madai[3] 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 splendor 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, Emperor 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 Joannes, 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 tuned into
rhyme, and sung all over Europe by minstrels and trouvères. 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 towards the sunrise over the wastes, and it trends towards 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, metacollinarum,
cametennus, tensevetes, 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 phnix, 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 him
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, towards 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 flavor 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 atones 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 mussel-shell. 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 Supereminency 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 a king and abbot."
I may be spared further extracts from this extraordinary letter, which
proceeds to describe the church in which Prester John worships, by enumerating
the precious stones of which it is constructed, and their special virtues.
Whether this letter was in circulation before Pope Alexander wrote his,
it is not easy to decide. Alexander does not allude to it, but speaks
of the reports which have reached him of the piety and the magnificence
of the Priest-King. At the same time, there runs a tone of bitterness
through the letter, as though the Pope had been galled at the pretensions
of this mysterious personage, and perhaps winced under the prospect of
the man-eaters overrunning Italy, as suggested by John the Priest. The
papal epistle is an assertion of the claims of the See of Rome to universal
dominion, and it assures the Eastern Prince-Pope that his Christian professions
are worthless, unless he submits to the successor of Peter. "Not every
one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord," &c., quotes the Pope, and then
explains that the will of God is that everv monarch and prelate should
eat humble pie to the Sovereign Pontiff.
Sir John Maundevil gives the origin of the priestly title of the Eastern
despot, in his curious book of travels.
"So it befelle, that this emperour cam, with a Cristene knyght with him, into
a chirche in Egypt: and it was Saterday in Wyttson woke. And the bishop made
orders. And he beheld and listened the servyse fulle tentyfly: and he asked the
Cristene knyght, what men of degree thei scholden ben, that the prelate had before
him. And the knyght answerede and seyde, that thei scholde ben prestes. And then
the emperour seyde, that he wolde no longer ben clept kyng ne emperour, but preest
and that he wolde have the name of the first preest, that wente out of the chirche;
and his name was John. And so evere more sittiens, he is clept Prestre John."
It is probable that the foundation of the whole Prester-John myth lay
in the report which reached Europe of the wonderful successes of Nestorianism
in the East, and there seems reason to believe that the famous letter
given above was a Nestorian fabrication. It certainly looks un-European;
the gorgeous imagery is thoroughly Eastern, and the disparaging tone
in which Rome is spoken of could hardly have been the expression of Western
feelings. The letter has the object in view of exalting the East in religion
and arts to an undue eminence at the expense of the West, and it manifests
some ignorance of European geography, when it speaks of the land extending
from Spain to the Polar Sea. Moreover, the sites of the patriarchates,
and the dignity conferred on that of St. Thomas, are indications of a
Nestorian bias.
A brief glance at the history of this heretical Church may be of value
here, as showing that there really was a foundation for the wild legends
concerning a Christian empire in the East, so prevalent in Europe. Nestorius,
a priest of Antioch and a disciple of St. Chrysostom, was elevated by
the emperor to the patriarchate of Constantinople, and in the year 428
began to propagate his heresy, denying the hypostatic union. The Council
of Ephesus denounced him, and, in spite of the emperor and court, Nestorius
was anathematised and driven into exile. His sect spread through the
East, and became a flourishing church. It reached to China, where the
emperor was all but converted; its missionaries traversed the frozen
tundras of Siberia, preaching their maimed Gospel to the wild hordes
which haunted those dreary wastes; it faced Buddhism, and wrestled with
it for the religious supremacy in Tibet; it established churches in Persia
and in Bokhara; it penetrated India; it formed colonies in Ceylon, in
Siam, and in Sumatra; so that the Catholics or Pope of Bagdad exercised
sway more extensive than that ever obtained by the successor of St. Peter.
The number of Christians belonging to that communion probably exceeded
that of the members of the true Catholic Church in East and West. But
the Nestorian Church was not founded on the Rock; it rested on Nestorius;
and when the rain descended, and the winds blew, and the floods came,
and beat upon that house, it fell, leaving scarce a fragment behind.
Rubruquis the Franciscan, who in 1253 was sent on a mission into Tartary,
was the first to let in a little light on the fable. He writes, "The
Catai dwelt beyond certain mountains across which I wandered, and in
a plain in the midst of the mountains lived once an important Nestorian
shepherd, who ruled over the Nestorian people, called Nayman. When Coir-Khan
died, the Nestorian people raised this man to be king, and called him
King Johannes, and related of him ten times as much as the truth. The
Nestorians thereabouts have this way with them, that about nothing they
make a great fuss, and thus they have got it noised abroad that Sartach,
ManguKhan, and Ken-Khan were Christians, simply because they treated
Christians well, and showed them more honor than other people. Yet; in
fact, they were not Christians at all. And in like manner the story got
about that there was a great King John. However, I traversed his pastures,
and no one knew anything about him, except a few Nestorians. In his pastures
lives Ken-Khan, at whose court was Brother Andrew, whom I met on my way
back. This Johannes had a brother, a famous shepherd, named Unc, who
lived three weeks' journey beyond the mountains of Caracatais."
This Unk-Khan was a real individual; he lost his life in the year 1203.
Kuschhik, prince of the Nayman, and follower of Kor-Khan, fell in 1218.
Marco Polo, the Venetian traveller (1254-1324), identifies Unk-Khan with
Prester John; he says, "I will now tell you of the deeds of the Tartars,
how they gained the mastery, and spread over the whole earth. The Tartars
dwelt between Georgia and Bargu, where there is a vast plain and level
country, on which are neither cities nor forts, but capital pasturage
and water. They had no chief of their own, but paid to Prester Johannes
tribute. Of the greatness of this Prester Johannes, who was properly
called Un-Khan, the whole world spake; the Tartars gave him one of every
ten head of cattle. When Prester John noticed that they were increasing,
he feared them, and planned how he could injure them. He determined therefore
to scatter them, and he sent barons to do this. But the Tartars guessed
what Prester John purposed . . . and they went away into the wide wastes
of the North, where they might be beyond his reach." He then goes on
to relate how Tschengis (Jenghiz)Khan became the head of the Tartars,
and how he fought against Prester John, and, after a desperate fight,
overcame and slew him.
The Syriac Chronicle of the Jacobite Primate, Gregory Bar-Hebræus (born
1226, died 1286), also identifies Unk-Khan with Prester John. "In the
year of the Greeks 1514, of the Arabs 599 (A. D. 1202), when Unk-Khan,
who is the Christian King John, ruled over a stock of the barbarian Hunns,
called Kergt, Tschingys-Khan served him with great zeal. When John observed
the superiority and serviceableness of the other, he envied him, and
plotted to seize and murder him. But two sons of Unk-Khan, having heard
this, told it to Tschingys; whereupon he and his comrades fled by night,
and secreted themselves. Next morning Unk-Khan took possession of the
Tartar tents, but found them empty. Then the party of Tschingys fell
upon him, and they met by the spring called Balschunah, and the side
of Tschingys won the day; and the followers of Unk-Khan were compelled
to yield. They met again several times, till Unk-Khan was utterly discomfited,
and was slain himself; and his wives, sons, and daughters carried into
captivity. Yet we must consider that King John the Kergtajer was not
cast down for nought; nay, rather, because he had turned his heart from
the fear of Christ his Lord, who had exalted him, and had taken a wife
of the Zinish nation, called Quarakhata. Because he forsook the religion
of his ancestors and followed strange gods, therefore God took the government
from him, and gave it to one better than he, and whose heart was right
before God."
Some of the early travellers, such as John de Plano-Carpini and Marco
Polo, in disabusing the popular mind of the belief in Prester John as
a mighty Asiatic Christian monarch, unintentionally turned the popular
faith in that individual into a new direction. They spoke of the black
people of Abascia in Ethiopia, which, by the way, they called Middle
India, as a great people subject to a Christian monarch.
Marco Polo says that the true monarch of Abyssinia is Christ; but that
it is governed by six kings, three of whom are Christians and three Saracens,
and that they are in league with the Soudan of Aden.
Bishop Jordanus, in his description of the world, accordingly sets down
Abyssinia as the kingdom of Prester John; and such was the popular impression,
which was confirmed by the appearance at intervals of ambassadors at
European courts from the King of Abyssinia. The discovery of the Cape
of Good Hope was due partly to a desire manifested in Portugal to open
communications with this monarch,[4] and King John II. sent two men learned
in Oriental Ianguages through Egypt to the court of Abyssinia. The might
and dominion of this prince, who had replaced the Tartar chief in the
popular creed as Prestcr John, was of course greatly exaggerated, and
was supposed to extend across Arabia and Asia to the wall of China. The
spread of geographical knowledge has contracted the area of his dominions,
and a critical acquaintance with history has exploded the myth which
invested Unk-Khan, the nomad chief, with all the attributes of a demigod,
uniting in one the utmost pretensions of a Pope and the proudest claims
of a monarch.
Notes:
[1] Otto, Ep. Frising., lib. vii. C. 33.
[2] Persia
[3] Media.
[4] Ludolfi Hist. Æthiopica lib. ii. cap. 1, 2. Petrus, Petri fiIius
Lusitanæ princeps, M. Pauli Veneti librum (qui de Indorum rebus multa:
speciatim vero de Presbytero Johanne aliqua magnifice scripsit) Venetiis
secum in patriam detulerat, qui (Chronologicis Lusitariorum testantibus)
præcipuam Johanni Regi ansarn dedit Indicæ navigationis, quam Henricus
Johannis I. filius, patruus ejus. tentaverat, prosequendæ, &c.
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