Prester John Essay Example

assist the Church of Jerusalem but was unable to cross the Tigris river with his army. The frozen north seemed to offer a solution, but he and his forces were unprepared for the temperate weather and suffered many losses. Nevertheless, Presser John is known for enjoying great glory and wealth, ruling over the same people as the Magi who came to adore Christ in the manger. Although he intended to travel to Jerusalem himself, he ultimately had to turn back due to the aforementioned difficulties. As a legendary Christian ruler of the East, he was looked upon as a potential ally against the Muslims in medieval times.Presser John was a king-priest who was believed to be an Insertion, member of an independent Eastern Christian Church that rejected the authority of the patriarch of Constantinople. He was the focus of various legends that traced back to the writings of "John the Elder" in the New Testament. In the Chronicle of Otto of Freeing, Presser John was depicted as a mythical medieval Christian priest-king commanding a vast empire in the Far East beyond Persia and Armenia. In 1145, a Syrian bishop who had arrived at the Papal Court in Bittier informed Otto of Freeing about a powerful Christian sovereign reigning in the East. In 1177, Pope Alexander III sent a letter to "Presbyter Oneness," hoping to enlist his aid in halting the Muslim advance in Mediterranean regions. At that time, it was assumed that Presser John ruled over an Asian country near India. During the Fifth Crusade, information about Ethiopia was gathered by Crusaders in Egypt, and therefore, the Christian monarchs of Nubia and Ethiopia became known

in Europe as they fought to defend their faith. It was a natural progression for the Indian "Presser John" of old lore to be associated with the Emperor of Ethiopia since India and Ethiopia were often confused in the Middle East.Before the Renaissance, it was thought that Ethiopia was separated from the Indian sub-continent by a narrow strait, which Far Amour, a Venetian cartographer, called "el cave De Dib". Thus, in 1329, Jordan Catalane, a Dominican friar, referred to the King of Christian Ethiopia as "Presser John" in his descriptive work Memorabilia. Gradually, the kingdom of Presser John became associated with Africa, and became the subject of legends that were enriched over time with information about Ethiopia that was later discovered. For instance, it was believed that Presser John had the power to cut off the flow of the Nile towards Egypt, which was an ancient tradition of Ethiopians. Additionally, it was said that in Presser John's country, children were baptized with fire instead of water. During the Middle Ages, Presser John became synonymous with an exotic far east empire at the outermost fringes of the known world. The imagery conjured up included a celebrated monarch who ruled over a vast multitude of loyal subjects, a palace brimming with immense riches and marvelous beings filling every corner of the country. Moreover, what made the tales even more fascinating was that Presser John was a powerful Christian king ruling over an impressive empire. No one knows for sure where this myth of Presser John originated.Several theories have been put forth concerning the origins of the belief in Christian priest-kings ruling in the Orient, one of which

suggests that it may have been influenced by the three wise men from the gospel of SST Matthew. However, in 1165 a letter claiming to be from Presser John began circulating in Europe. The letter was addressed to Manuel Comments, Emperor of Byzantium, and in it Presser John described his rule over the Three Indies, a vast territory stretching from the Tower of Babel to the place where the sun rises. He declared his intention to vanquish Christ's enemies and boasted of his kingdom's wealth and marvels. After the failure of the Crusading armies, it is not surprising that Europeans sought to establish contact with this splendid Christian leader and that both mercantile and missionary travelers journeyed eastward in search of Presser John's kingdom.