Eight hundred years ago, long before Vasco da Gama reached India, Europeans believed that a Christian priest-king called Prester John ruled India
Eight hundred years ago, long before Vasco da Gama reached India, Europeans believed that a Christian priest-king called Prester John ruled India
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In the 12th century, during the Crusades, when the Christians led by the Pope were struggling to regain control over Jerusalem, occupied by Muslims since the 8th century AD, there were tales circulating in Europe of one of Christ's apostles, St Thomas, who had established in India a Christian community that retained many of the ideals of the original church. This was believed to have blossomed into an almost perfect Christian kingdom, ruled over by the legendary Prester John.
The first authentic mention of Prester John occurred in the 1145 chronicle of Otto of Freising. Otto recounted that the first news of Prester John had been brought to the Holy See by the Bishop of Gabala (near Antioch).
According to the Bishop's report, there was ruling in the East somewhere a Christian king named Prester John, who was descended from the Magi, and who ruled over a fantastically wealthy kingdom. Prester John had recently destroyed the armies of Media, Persia and Assyria, and was heading for the Holy Land to defend Jerusalem against the Muslims, but, according to the report, was prevented from getting there by adverse conditions: his vast army waited in vain for years for the River Tigris to freeze in order to cross it and enter the Muslim lands.
In 1165 the original secondhand report of Otto of Freising's chronicle was overshadowed by the appearance in Europe of a seemingly authentic letter from Prester John (scholars are divided over what was the true source of the letter). Prester John described himself as the ruler of the Three Indias, a realm that extended from the Tower of Babel to the rising of the sun; he gave an elaborate account of the marvels and riches of his kingdom, and declared his intention of visiting Rome after defeating the Muslims.
This is how his army is described: "....When we ride abroad plainly we have a wooden, unadorned cross without gold or gems about it, borne before us in order that we 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 Lordsu2026" This is how his palace is described: "u2026 The palace in which our Superemincency resides is built after the pattern of the castle built by the apostle Thomas for the Indian king Gundoforus." And perhaps the most fantastic of all is the magical mirror that enables him to see and control his vast empire from one spot. "...Before our palace stands a mirror, the ascent to which consists of five and twenty steps of porpyry and serpintine... This mirror is guarded day and night by three thousand men. We look therein and behold all that is taking place in every province and region subject to our sceptre."
Even when most European travelers in Asia failed to find any trace of Prester John, Europeans still wanted to believe in this king so much they simply moved his kingdom to a different place, then a different place again, in order to keep on believing in him.
Traveling friars insisted that they had been to the country of Prester John perhaps because it made their journeys more fantastic and exciting. Some of the sights and societies they encountered in the Far East were so strange that it must have been easy for someone who so desperately wanted to believe that they had found the kingdom of Prester John (even if they had not found the man himself). Their reports once they got home simply lent weight to the argument that Prester John existed. It took several centuries for Europeans to regretfully admit that Prester John was nothing more than a legend.
The legend of Prester John, apart from its curiosity value, helped stimulate exploration of the Far East and Asia.
Numerous explorers and official diplomatic envoys set out in order to make contact with this wonderful king. If it hadn't been for Prester John, then quite possibly some of the European contacts with the Asian world in the medieval period would never have been made, or at least left to a much later date.
Disclaimer > This column attempts to explain sacred beliefs in the spirit of genuine and respectful curiosity without claiming any authority on the same.
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