r PRESBYTER JOHN, was the name given by the Europeans of the middle ages to a dynasty of supposed eastern potentates. The following account is the history of this legend:—About the beginning of the eleventh century, it began to be reported in Christendom that a certain king beyond Persia and Armenia had been met by the spirit of a departed saint in a forest; that he had been overawed into becoming a true believer; and that he had ordered all his subjects, to the number of 200,000, to adopt the same faith. As time passed by, the report seemed to receive corroboration. Envoys pretending to come from the land in question arrived at Rome. Additional rumours, by what means nobody knew, found their way to the West. The manners and customs of this newly-Christianized people were said to retain many traces of the old patriarchal times. The chief was both priest and king, and was known on that account by the name of Prester or Presbyter John. His tribe lived a peaceful pastoral life, following their flocks through the desert, feeding upon flesh and milk, and being so destitute of corn and wine that they were unable in the prescribed manner to observe the fast-days, or to partake of the eucharist. Nor was the exquisite primitive simplicity of his kingdom unadorned by substantial wealth and majesty. Unbounded treasures were at his command; many neighbouring nations were his tributaries; and he swayed supremely with a sceptre of emerald.

Such pleasing reports as these continued to be greedily swallowed by the superstitious in Europe, until investigations commenced to be made. It then began to appear doubtful whether this happy land were not a mere Utopia, and whether this admirable Prester John were not a mere creature of the popular fancy. Carpini, a Franciscan friar who was sent by Pope Innocent IV. in 1246 on an embassy to the Mongols, failed to discover the celebrated nation of Christians. Not long afterwards another Franciscan, William de Rubruquis, who penetrated into Asia as far as Karakorum, could find none but a few Nestorians, who had even heard of the great priest-king. Equally unsuccessful were the Portuguese explorers who reached India by the way of the Cape of Good Hope about the end of the fifteenth century. After fruitlessly seeking for the Prester in Asia, they were fain to suppose, on few or no grounds, that they had found him in Africa in the person of an Abyssinian prince. The result of all these explorations was, that investigators ceased to inquire into the truth of the story of Prester John, and turned their attention to an explanation of its origin. The most plausible solution is that given by Mosheim in his Church History. He supposes that a certain Nestorian priest named John gained possession of a throne in Asiatic Tartary; that he still retained the name of Presbyter after his accession; and that the title of Prester John was inherited by his descendants, along with the throne, until his dynasty was extirpated by the mighty Tartar emperor Genghiskan.