PRESTER JOHN, a fabulous mediaeval Christian monarch of Asia. The history of Prester John no doubt originally gathered round some nucleus of fact, though what that was is extremely difficult to determine. Before Prester John appears upon the scene we find the way prepared for his appearance by a kindred fable, which entwined itself with the legends about him. This is the story of the appearance at Rome in the pontificate of Calixtus II., of a certain Oriental ecclesiastic, whom one account styles "John, the patriarch of the Indians," and another "an arch bishop of India." This ecclesiastic related wonderful stories of the shrine of St. Thomas in India, and of the miracles wrought there by the body of the apostle, including the distribution of the sacra ' mental wafer by his hand.
Nearly a quarter of a century later Prester John appears upon the scene, in the character of a Christian conqueror and potentate who combined the characters of priest and king, and ruled over vast dominions in the Far East. This idea was universal in Europe from about the middle of the 12th century to the end of the 13th or beginning of the i4th. The Asiatic story then died away, but the name remained, and the royal presbyter was now assigned a locus in Ethiopia. Indeed, it is not improbable that from a very early date the title was assigned to the Abyssinian king, though for a time this identification was overshadowed by the prevalence of the Asiatic legend. At the bottom of the double allocation there was, no doubt, that confusion of Ethiopia with India which is as old as Virgil and perhaps older.
The first mention of Prester John occurs in the chronicle of Otto, bishop of Freisingen. This writer states that when at the papal court in 1145 he met with the bishop of Gabala (Jibal in Syria), who related how "not many years before one John, king and priest (rex et sacerdos), who dwelt in the extreme Orient be yond Persia and Armenia, and was, with his people, a Christian but a Nestorian, had made war against the brother kings of the Persians and Medes, who were called Samiards (or Sanjards), and captured Ecbatana their capital. After this victory Presbyter John —for so he was wont to be styled—advanced to fight for the Church at Jerusalem ; but when he arrived at the Tigris and found no means of transport for his army, he turned northward, as he had heard that the river in that quarter was frozen over in winter time. After halting on its banks for some years in expectation of
a frost he was obliged to return home." About 1165, a letter was circulated purporting to be addressed by Prester John to the emperor Manuel. This letter, professing to come from "Pres byter Joannes, by the power and virtue of God and of the Lord ' Jesus Christ, Lord of Lords," claimed that he was the greatest monarch under heaven, as well as a devout Christian. The letter dealt at length with the wonders of his empire. It was his desire to visit the Holy Sepulchre with a great host, and to subdue the enemies of the Cross. Seventy-two kings, reigning over as many kingdoms, were his tributaries. His empire extended over the three Indies, including that Farther India, where lay the body of St. Thomas, to the sun-rising, and back again down the slope to the ruins of Babylon and the tower of Babel. In war thirteen great crosses made of gold and jewels were carried in wagons before him as his standards, and each was followed by 1 o,000 knights and 1 oo,000 footmen. There were no poor in his dominions, no thief or robber, no flatterer or miser, no dissensions, no lies, and no vices. His palace was built after the plan of that which St. Thomas erected for the Indian king Gondopharus. Before it was a marvellous mirror erected on a many-storeyed pedestal; in this speculum he could discern everything that went on through out his dominions, and detect conspiracies. He was waited on by 7 kings at a time, by 6o dukes and 365 counts ; 12 archbishops sat on his right hand, and 20 bishops on his left, besides the patriarch of St. Thomas's the protopope of the Sarmagantians (Samar cand?), and the archprotopope of Susa, where the royal residence was. 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 chamber lain was a bishop and king, and whose chief cook was an abbot and king, to be called by such titles as these.