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PRESTER JOHN

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Originally appearing in Volume V22, Page 307 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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PRESTER See also:

JOHN  , a fabulous See also:medieval See also:Christian monarch of See also:Asia . The See also:history of Prester See also:John no doubt originally gathered See also:round some See also:nucleus of fact, though what that was is extremely difficult to determine . But the name and the figure which it suggested occupied so prominent a See also:place in the mind of See also:Europe for two or three centuries that a real history could hardly have a stronger claim to exposition . Before Prester John appears upon the See also:scene we find the way prepared for his See also:appearance by a kindred See also:fable, which entwined itself with the legends about him . This is the See also:story of the appearance at See also:Rome (1122), in the pontificate of See also:Calixtus II., of a certain See also:Oriental ecclesiastic, whom one See also:account styles " John, the See also:patriarch of the See also:Indians," and another " an See also:archbishop of See also:India." This ecclesiastic related wonderful stories of the See also:shrine of St See also:Thomas in India, and of the miracles wrought there by the See also:body of the apostle, including 1 See See also:Ticknor, Hist. of Span . Lit. i . 422 seq., iii . 366 the See also:distribution of the sacramental See also:wafer by his See also:hand . We cannot regard the appearance at Rome of the personage who related these marvels in presence of the See also:pope as a See also:mere popular fiction : it rests on two authorities apparently See also:independent (one of them a See also:letter from See also:Odo of See also:Reims, See also:abbot of St Remy from 1118 to 1151), for their discrepancies show that one was not copied from the other, though in the See also:principal facts they agree . Nearly a See also:quarter of a See also:century later Prester John appears upon the scene, in the See also:character of a Christian conqueror and potentate who combined the characters of See also:priest and See also:king, and ruled over vast dominions in the Far See also:East . This See also:idea was universal in Europe from about the See also:middle of the r2th century to the end of the 13th or beginning of the 14th . The See also:Asiatic story then died away, but the name remained, and the royal See also:presbyter was now assigned a See also:locus in See also:Ethiopia .

Indeed, it is not improbable that from a very See also:

early date the See also:title was assigned to the Abyssinian king, though for a See also:time this See also:identification was overshadowed by the prevalence of the Asiatic See also:legend . At the bottom of the See also:double allocation there was, no doubt, that confusion of Ethiopia with India which is as old as See also:Virgil and perhaps older . The first mention of Prester John occurs in the See also:chronicle of See also:Otto, See also:bishop of Freisingen . This writer states that when at the papal See also:court in 1145 he met with the bishop of Gabala (Jibal in See also:Syria), who related how "not many years before one John, king and priest (rex et sacerdos), who dwelt in the extreme Orient beyond See also:Persia and See also:Armenia, and was, with his See also:people, a Christian but a Nestorian, had made See also:war against the See also:brother See also:kings of the Persians and .Modes, who were called Samiards (or Sanjards), and captured See also:Ecbatana their See also:capital . After this victory Presbyter John—for so he was wont to be styled—advanced to fight for the See also:Church at See also:Jerusalem; but when he arrived at the See also:Tigris and found no means of transport for his See also:army, he turned northward, as he had heard that the See also:river in that quarter was frozen over in See also:winter-time . After halting on its See also:banks for some years in expectation of a See also:frost he was obliged to return See also:home . This personage was said to be of the See also:ancient See also:race of the Magi mentioned in the See also:Gospel, to See also:rule the same nations that they ruled, and to have such See also:wealth that he used a See also:sceptre of solid See also:emerald . Whatever impression was made by this See also:report, or by other rumours of the event on which it was founded, was far exceeded, about 1165, by the circulation of a letter purporting to be addressed by Prester John to the See also:emperor See also:Manuel . This letter, professing to come from " Presbyter Joannes, by the See also:power and virtue of See also:God and of the See also:Lord Jesus See also:Christ, Lord of Lords," claimed that he was the greatest monarch under See also:heaven, as well as a devout Christian . The letter dealt at length with the wonders of his See also:empire . It was his See also:desire to visit the See also:Holy See also:Sepulchre with a See also:great See also:host, and to subdue the enemies of the See also:Cross . Seventy-two kings, reigning over as many kingdoms, were his tributaries .

His empire extended over the three Indies, including that Farther India, where See also:

lay the body of St Thomas, to the See also:sun-rising, and back again down the slope to the ruins of See also:Babylon and the See also:tower of See also:Babel . All the See also:wild beasts and monstrous creatures commemorated in current legend were to be found in his dominions, as well as all the wild and See also:eccentric races of men of whom See also:strange stories were told, including those unclean nations whom See also:Alexander See also:Magnus walled up among the mountains of the See also:north, and who were to come forth at the latter See also:day—and so were the See also:Amazons and the Bragmans . His dominions contained the monstrous ants that dug See also:gold and the See also:fish that gave the See also:purple; they produced all manner of See also:precious stones and all the famous aromatics . Within them was found the See also:Fountain of Youth; the pebbles which give See also:light, restore sight, and render the possessor invisible; the See also:Sea of See also:Sand was there, stored with fish of wondrous savour; and the River of Stones was there also; besides a subterranean stream whose sands were of gems . His territory produced the See also:worm called " See also:salamander," which lived in See also:fire, and which wrought itself an incombustible envelope from which were manufactured See also:robes for the presbyter, which were washed in flaming fire . When the king went forth to war thirteen See also:reverse and sweeping away their power . Prophecies current among the Christians in Syria ofthe destruction of See also:Mahomet's See also:sect after six centuries of duration added to the excitement attending these rumours . The name.ascribed to the conqueror was See also:David, and some called him the son or the See also:grandson of Prester John of India . He whose conquests and slaughters now revived the legend was in fact no Christian or King David but the famous Jenghiz See also:Khan . The delusion was dissipated slowly, and even after the great Tatar invasion and devastation of eastern Europe its effects still influenced the mind of Christendom and caused popes and kings to send See also:missions to the Tatar hordes with a lingering feeling that their khans, if not already Christians, were at least always on the See also:verge of See also:conversion . Before proceeding further we must go back to the bishop of Gabala's story . M. d'Avezac first showed to whom the story must apply .

The only conqueror whose career suits in time and approximates in circumstances is the founder of Kara-Khitai, which existed as a great empire in Central Asia during the latter two-thirds of the 13th century . This personage was a See also:

prince of the Khitai or Khitaian See also:dynasty of Liao, which had reigned over See also:northern See also:China and the regions beyond the See also:Wall during a great See also:part of the loth and 11th centuries, and from which came the name Khitai (See also:Cathay), by which China was once known in Europe and still is known in See also:Russia . On the overthrow of the dynasty about 1125 this prince, who is called by the See also:Chinese Yeliu Tashi, and had gone through a See also:complete Chinese See also:education, escaped westward with a body of followers . Being well received by the Uighurs and other tribes See also:west of the See also:desert, subjects of his See also:family, he gathered an army and commenced a course of See also:conquest which eventually extended over eastern and western See also:Turkestan . He took the title of Gur Khan or Kor Khan, said to mean " universal " or " supreme " khan, and fixed at Balasaghun, north of the T'ian Shan range, the capital of his empire, which became known as that of Kara-Khitai (See also:Black Cathay) . In 1141 the assistance of this Khitaian prince was invoked by the shah of Kharezm against Sanjar, the Seljuk See also:sovereign of Persia, who had expelled the shah from his See also:kingdom and killed his son . The Gur Khan came with a vast army of See also:Turks, Khitaians, and others, and defeated Sanjar near See also:Samarkand (See also:Sept . 1141) in a See also:battle which the historian See also:Ibn al-Athir calls the greatest defeat that See also:Islam had ever undergone in those regions . Though the Gur Khan himself is not described as having extended his See also:con-quests into Persia, the shah of Kharezm followed up the victory by invading See also:Khorasan and plundering the cities and treasuries of Sanjar . In this event—the defeat of Sanjar, whose brother's son, Mas'ud, reigned over western Persia—occurring four years before the story of the Eastern conqueror was told at Rome to Bishop Otto, we seem to have the destruction of the Samiardi fratres or Sanjar See also:brothers, which was the germ of the story of Prester John . There is no See also:evidence of any profession of See also:Christianity on the part of the Gur Khan, though the daughter of the last of his race is recorded to have been a Christian . The hosts of the Gur Khan are called by Moslem historians Al-Turk-al-Kuffar, the kafir or infidel Turks; and in later days the use of this See also:term " kafir " led to misapprehensions, as when Vasco da Gama's people were led to take for Christians the See also:Banyan traders on the See also:African See also:coast, and to describe as Christian sovereigns so many princes of the Farther East of whom they heard at See also:Calicut .

How the name John arose is one of the obscure points . See also:

Oppert supposes the title " Gur Khan " to have been confounded with Yukhanan or Johannes; and it is probable that even in the See also:Levant the stories of " John the patriarch of the Indies," repeated in the early part of this See also:article, may have already mingled with the rumours from the East . The failure in the history of the Gur Khan to meet all points in the story of the bishop ofGabala led See also:Professor Braun of See also:Odessa to bring forward another See also:candidate for identity with the See also:original Prester John, in the See also:person of the Georgian prince John Orbelian, the " sbasalar," or generalissimo under several kings of See also:Georgia in that See also:age . He shows instances, in documents of the 15th century, of the association of Prester John with the See also:Caucasus . In one at least of these the title is applied to the king of Abassia, i.e. of the Abhasians of Caucasus . Some confusion between Abash (See also:Abyssinia) and Abhas seems to be possibly at the bottom of the imbroglio . An abstract of Professor Bruun's See also:argument will be found in the 2nd edition of See also:Sir H . See also:Yule's Marco See also:Polo, ii . 539-542 . As regards any real See also:foundation for the title of " Presbyter " we may observe that nothing See also:worth mentioning has been alleged on behalf of any candidate . When the Mongol conquests threw Asia open to See also:Frank travellers in the middle of the 13th century their minds were full of Prester John; they sought in vain for an adequate representative, nor was it in the nature of things that they should not find some representative . In fact they found several .

Apparently no real tradition existed among the Eastern Christians of such a personage; the myth had taken shape from the clouds of rumour as they rolled westward from Asia . But the persistent demand produced a See also:

supply; and the See also:honour of identification with Prester John, after hovering over one See also:head and another, settled for a See also:long time upon that of the king of the Nestorian tribe of Kerait, famous in the histories of Jenghiz under the name of Ung or Awang Khan . In See also:Carpini's (1248) single mention of Prester John as the king, great crosses made of gold and jewels were carried in wagons before him as his See also:standards, and each was followed by 1o,000 knights and roo,000 footmen . There were no poor in his dominions, no thief or robber, no flatterer or See also:miser, no dissensions, no lies, and no vices . His See also:palace was built after the See also:plan of that which St Thomas erected for the See also:Indian king Gondopharus . Of the splendour of this details are given . Before it was a marvellous See also:mirror erected on a many-storeyed See also:pedestal (described in detail); in this See also:speculum he could discern every-thing that went on throughout his dominions, and detect conspiracies . He was waited on by 7 kings at a time, by 6o See also:dukes and 365 See also:counts; 12 archbishops sat on his right hand, and 20 bishops on his See also:left, besides the patriarch of St Thomas's, the protopope of the Sarmagantians (Samarkand?), and the archprotopope of See also:Susa, where the royal See also:residence was . There was another palace of still more wonderful character, built by the presbyter's See also:father in obedience to a heavenly command, in the See also:city of Bribric . Should it be asked why, with all this power and splendour, he calls himself merely " presbyter," this is because of his humility, and because it was not fitting for one whose See also:sewer was a See also:primate and king, whose See also:butler an archbishop and king, whose See also:chamberlain a bishop and king, whose See also:master of the See also:horse an See also:archimandrite and king, whose See also:chief See also:cook an abbot and king, to be called by such titles as these . How great was the popularity and See also:diffusion of this letter may be judged in some degree from the fact that See also:Zarncke in his See also:treatise on Prester John gives a See also:list of See also:close on 10o See also:MSS. of it . Of these there are 8 in the See also:British Museum, 10 at See also:Vienna, 13 in the great See also:Paris library, 15 at See also:Munich .

There are also several renderings in old See also:

German See also:verse . Many circumstances of the time tended to render such a letter accept-able . Christendom would welcome gladly the intelligence of a counterpoise arising so unexpectedly to the See also:Mahommedan power; while the statements of the letter itself combined a reference to and corroboration of all the romantic figments concerning Asia which already fed the curiosity of Europe, which figured in the See also:world-maps, and filled that fabulous history of Alexander which for nearly a thousand years supplanted the real history of the Macedonian throughout Europe and western Asia . The only other surviving document of the 12th century bearing on this subject is a letter of which MS. copies are preserved in the See also:Cambridge and Paris See also:libraries, and which is also embedded in the See also:chronicles of several See also:English See also:annalists, including See also:Benedict of See also:Peter-See also:borough, See also:Roger Hovedon and See also:Matthew Paris . It purports to have been indited from the Rialto at See also:Venice by Pope Alexander III. on the 5th day before the calends of See also:October (Sept . 27), data which See also:fix the See also:year as 1177 . The pope addresses it, carissimo in Christo filio Johanni, illustro et magnifico indorum regi [Hovedon's copy here inserts sacerdoti sanctissimo] . He recites how he had heard of the monarch's Christian profession, See also:diligence in See also:good See also:works and piety, by manifold narrators and See also:common report, but also more particularly from his (the pope's) physician and confidant (medicus et familiaris noster), Master See also:Philip, who had received See also:information from See also:honourable persons of the monarch's kingdom, with whom he had intercourse in those (Eastern) parts . Philip had also reported the king's anxiety for instruction in See also:Catholic discipline and for reconciliation with the apostolic see in regard to all discrepancies, and his desire to have a church in Rome and an See also:altar at Jerusalem . The pope goes on to say that he found it too difficult, on account of the length and obstructions of the way, to send any one (of ecclesiastical position?) a latere, but he would despatch Philip to communicate instruction to him . And on accepting Philip's communications the king should send back honourable persons bearing letters sealed with his See also:seal, in which his wishes should be fully set forth . " The more nobly and magnanimously See also:thou conductest thyself, and the less thou vauntest of thy wealth and power, the more readily shall we regard thy wishes both as to the concession of a church in the city and of altars in the church of SS .

Phoenix-squares

Peter and See also:

Paul, and in the church of the Lord's Sepulchre at Jerusalem, and as to other reasonable See also:requests." There is no See also:express mention of the title " Prester John " in what seem the more genuine copies of this letter . But the address and the expression in the italicized passage just quoted (which evidently alludes to the vaunting See also:epistle of 1165) hardly leave See also:room for doubt that the pope supposed himself to be addressing the author of that letter . We do not know how far the imaginations about Prester John retained their vitality in 1221, See also:forty-four years after the letter of Pope Alexander, for we know of no mention of Prester John in the See also:interval . But in that year again a rumour came out of the East that a great Christian conqueror was taking the hated Moslems in of the Christians of India the Greater, who defeats the See also:Tatars by an elaborate stratagem, Oppert recognizes Jalaluddin of Kharezm and his brief success over the See also:Mongols in See also:Afghanistan . In the Armenian prince Sempad's account (1248), on the other hand, this Christian king of India is aided by the Tatars to defeat and harass the See also:Saracens, and becomes the See also:vassal of the Mongols . In the narrative of See also:William See also:Rubruquis (1253), though distinct reference is made to the conquering Gur Khan under the name of See also:Coir Cham of Caracatay, the title of " King John " is assigned to Kushluk, king of the Naimans, who had married the daughter of the last lineal representative of the gur khans.' And from the remarks which Rubruquis makes in connexion with this King John, on the See also:habit of the See also:Nestorians to spin wonderful, stories out of nothing, and of the great tales that went forth about King John, it is evident that the intelligent traveller supposed this king of the Naimans to be the original of the widely spread legend . He mentions, however, a brother of this John called Unc who ruled over the Crit and Merkit (or Kerait and Mekrit, two of the great tribes of See also:Mongolia), whose history he associates with that of Jenghiz Khan . Unc Khan reappears in Marco Polo, who tells much about him as " a great prince, the same that we See also:call Prester John, him in fact about whose great dominion all the world talks." This Unc was in fact the prince of the Kerait, called by the Chinese Tuli, and by the See also:Persian historians of the Mongols Toghral, on whom the See also:Kin emperor of north China had conferred the title of " wang " or king, whence his coming to be known as Awang or Ung Khan . He was long the ally of Jenghiz, but a See also:breach occurred between them, and they were mortal enemies till the See also:death of Ung Khan in 1203 . In the narrative of Marco Polo " Unc Can," See also:alias Prester John, is the See also:liege lord of the Tatars, to whom they paid See also:tribute until Jenghiz arose . And this is substantially the story repeated by other See also:European writers of the end of the 13th century, such as Ricold of Montecroce and the sieur de See also:Joinville, as well as by one Asiatic, the famous Christian writer, See also:Gregory Abulfaraj . We can find no Oriental corroboration of the claims of Ung Khan to supremacy over the Mongols .

But that his power and dignity were consider-able appears from the term " Padshah," which is applied to him by the historian Rashiduddin . We find Prester John in one more phase before he vanishes from Asiatic history, real or mythical . Marco Polo in the latter part of the 13th century, and See also:

Friar John of Montecorvino, afterwards archbishop of See also:Cambaluc, in the beginning of the 14th, speak of the descendants of Prester John as holding territory under the great khan in a locality which can be identified with the See also:plain of Kuku-See also:Khotan, north of the great See also:bend of the Yellow river and about 28o m. north-west of See also:Peking . The prince reigning in the time of these two writers was named King See also:George, and was the " 6th in descent from Prester John," i.e. no doubt from Awang Khan . Friar See also:Odoric, about 1326, visited the See also:country still ruled by the prince whom he calls Prester John; " but," he says, " as regards him, not one-hundredth part is true that is told of him." With this mention Prester John ceases to have any pretension to See also:historical existence in Asia (for we need not turn aside to See also:Mandeville's fabulous revival of old stories or to the barefaced See also:fictions of his contemporary, John of Hese, which bring in the old tales of the miraculous body of St Thomas), and his connexion with that quarter of the world gradually died out of the memory of Europe .2 When next we begin to hear his name it is as an African, not as an Asiatic prince; and the personage so styled is in fact the Christian king of Abyssinia . See also:Ludolf has asserted that this application was an invention of the Portuguese and arose only in the 15th century . But this is a See also:mistake; for in fact the application had begun much earlier, and probably long before the name had ceased to be attached by writers on Asia to the descendants of the king of the Kerait . It is true that the Florentine See also:Simone Sigoli, who visited See also:Cairo in 1384, in his Viaggio at See also:Monte See also:Sinai still speaks of " Presto Giovanni " as a monarch dwelling in India; but it is the India which is conterminous with the dominions of the soldan of See also:Egypt, and whose lord is master of the See also:Nile, to close or open its See also:discharge upon Egypt . See also:Thirty years earlier (c . 1352) the Franciscan Giovanni de' See also:Marignolli, apostolic See also:legate in Asia, speaks in his Chronica of Ethiopia where the Negroes are, and which is called the See also:land of Prester John.' Going back still further, Friar See also:Jordanus It has been pointed out by Alexander See also:Wylie that Kushluk was son of a powerful king of the Naimans, whose name Ta-Yang-Khan is precisely " Great King John " as nearly as that could be expressed in Chinese . 2 The stories of Khitai as a Christian empire, which led the See also: