Page:Christianity in China, Tartary, and Thibet Volume I.djvu/115

103 PRESTER JOHN. 103 ous obstacles to the propagation of the gospel in those countries ; but a strong presumption is afforded that the progress of the faith, thus obstructed in the Central Empire, extended beyond the Great Wall, amongst the Tartar tribes, who were preparing to play so great a part on the theatre of the world. Towards the commencement of the eleventh century, a prodigious sensation was excited in Europe, Asia, and Africa, by the conversion to Christianity of a prince known by the name of Priest, or Prester John. The renown of this monarch went on increasing through the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, — for this partly real and partly fanciful personage appeared not to be subject to the law of mortality. The type still re- mained, and was continually receiving new embellish- ments. It was agreed that this sacerdotal person surpassed in power and riches all the potentates of the earth ; on that point there was no difference of opinion. But as to whereabout this wonderful priestly Croesus, this kingly pontiff, was to be found, there were very wide differences indeed. Some placed him in Africa, — in Ethiopia ; others proclaimed that his incomparable kingdom was situated in Asia, but could not decide whether it was in India, Tartary, or Thibet. The country, as well as the title and the religion of this mysterious potentate, furnished the erudite of the time, and also the tellers of stories, with materials for dis- sertations without end, and a monstrous heap of fables and contradictions. There was, indeed, so much written in the middle ages about Prester John, that it is not very easy to discover what little portion of truth may exist amidst the thousand accounts, which scarcely agree in any u 4