The successes of the First Crusade came to naught. Jerusalem, won with such difficulty from the infidels, is about to be lost again. Only now the knights realized what an overwhelming task they had gotten themselves into. Despair, the ultimate sin of true believers, took possession of Christendom. The impoverished Catholic Europe was draining its strength in the war with the mighty Muslim East. And there was nowhere to wait for help.
And suddenly - good news: Europe is not alone, it has a powerful ally! Far in the East, behind enemy lines, there is a great power ruled by the Christian high priest Presbyter John.
Seven Century Message
The first evidence of this power dates back to 1145. The German historian Bishop Otgon Freisingensky writes: "The Bishop of Gabul from Syria said that a few years ago a certain John, the king and priest of the people professing Christianity, went to war against the kings of Media and Persia." But this is not the main thing. Further: "Having won the victory, John moved on to come to the aid of the Holy Church." There was something to rejoice at! Rumors multiplied. It became known that John was descended from the very wise men who, following the Star of Bethlehem, came to the newborn Christ. This king is a Nestorian Christian, that is, a follower of that very Nestorius, the Patriarch of Constantinople, who seven centuries ago, in 431, at the Ecumenical Council in Ephesus, was anathematized. Nestorius argued that God cannot have a mother,in Jesus Christ not only two natures are combined, but also two persons - divine and human. Mary gave birth to man, and she is not the Mother of God, but only the Mother of Christ. The excommunicated patriarch, with many like-minded people, went to the eastern steppes to convert the nomads to his faith. And now the descendants of the heretic hurry to help their elder brothers in Christ in order to return to the bosom of the mother church.
Ruins of Ephesus. Here in 431 the Patriarch of Constantinople Nestorius was anathematized
From the "master of overlords"
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In those distant times, reports of other countries and rulers, in which true geographical and ethnographic facts were intertwined with rumors and inventions, sometimes the most fantastic, were delivered by courageous travelers, merchants or missionaries. This information was taken at the word, there was no way to check it. But even in those days there were skeptics. However, in the case of the Nestorian king, those of little faith were put to shame very soon, they were presented with a crushing proof - a personal letter from Presbyter John to the Byzantine emperor Manuel Comnenus!
For some reason this letter was not written in Greek, but in Arabic. Its original has not survived, there is only a translation into Latin made for the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa and the Pope.
So, "Presbyter John, by the grace of God the king of kings, the sovereign of rulers, wishes his friend Manuel, the prince of Constantinople, good health." At first, such an appeal causes bewilderment: to call the emperor a prince is, to put it mildly, impolite, especially if you want to be friends with him. But then a doubt arises: what if John is so powerful that he considers it possible to call the emperor of Byzantium, at that time the largest and most powerful state, just a prince?
And the truth: the following lines put everything in its place. Indeed, the presbyter is a very powerful ruler. At the table, kings and emperors serve him, and his army is so great that it covers the land for three days on horseback.
John's Palace is decorated with so many precious stones that even rare sandalwood and marble are somehow lost against their background. Children play with diamonds in the streets, and peasants use emeralds as boundary stones.
Beasts and peoples
The vast domains of the presbyter are inhabited by a variety of peoples: ten tribes of Israel, Nubians, Arabs … But, in addition, Ischiapods (one-legged people who lie on the ground in the heat and raise their only foot up, like an umbrella), blogmas (people without a head eyes on the chest and mouth on the belly), pygmies (dwarfs, endlessly at war with cranes), panation (owners of huge ears, with which they glide in the air and in which they wrap themselves in order to hide their nakedness), Ponts (they have horse hooves and no joints) and cyclops (one-eyed giants in three human height).
Animals in the kingdom of John are no less amazing. Some of them were more or less familiar to Europeans: white and red lions, polar bears, the phoenix bird (the one that is reborn from the ashes). But then follows a list of very unusual creatures found only on the pages of medieval bestiaries. These are finsirets - hybrids of a giant worm with a dragon; metacyplenaria - small predators, quite edible when fried; griffins, mantichores and chimeras.
Centaurs, satyrs and fauns live in the possession of the presbyter. It is difficult to say why John classified them as animals and not as rational beings. True, perhaps in his kingdom they were unreasonable.
Fabulous creatures inhabited the domain of presbyter Jonnes
The flora in the kingdom of John is just as varied. It contains all known and unknown plants. There are two harvests a year, and everything grows by the grace of God without human care.
Pledge of friendship
As a token of his friendship, Presbyter John sent to the Emperor of Byzantium a certain sacred relic dating back to the days of the emergence of Christianity. The relic itself is described in the text of the letter very vaguely, therefore in Europe they did not come to a consensus about what exactly it could be: Toli Bratina is the cup from which Christ drank on the day of the Last Supper, or the Grail is a vessel with the blood of the Savior, spilled on the cross … But it is clear that this gift was very valuable. In return, presbyter John wanted little: just visit the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem and - oh, happiness! - to provide military assistance in the fight against the infidels.
Go there - I don't know where
True, it was difficult to understand exactly where the kingdom of the presbyter was located. The nearest river to it is Sambation, which is filled not with water, but with stones. You can cross it only on Saturday, when the flow of stones stops. But how to get to this Sambation?
The capital of the kingdom, John calls the city of Susa, it is itself located in India, but at the same time specifies: "Where the great river Nile flows in the desert." There is another great river in his kingdom - Fizon, she is the Ganges. But if the Ganges is really in India, how did the Nile get there?
In general, from very contradictory explanations, European Christians made the following conclusion: the kingdom of Presbyter John is an earthly paradise, and it is, naturally, in the East. In general, let's get there - we'll see.
Almost with the following instruction: "To go there - I do not know where" in 1177, Pope Alexander III sent the physician-in-chief, Master Philip, with a letter for Presbyter John. Where Philip went is unknown. He did not return back. But for another hundred years, both brave enthusiasts and official messengers tried to find the way to the kingdom of heaven.
By the way, the intelligent Byzantines, unlike the gullible Germans, did not pay attention to the presbyter's letter. The East was closer to them, and they knew that there was no kingdom of John there.
End of the tale
Historians have long concluded that John's letter was written in the office of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa. Its content was consistent with the political goals of the moment.
It was convenient for Barbarossa in that it allowed him to relate himself to the king-priest, to take on some spiritual prerogatives and get rid of the hated power of the pontiff. The Pope, uncompromising towards his "native" Catholic heresies, was very loyal to the Nestorians, as he viewed the problem from the opposite side than Frederick. John is not just a priest, but also a king, therefore, the power of the Pope must combine spiritual and worldly power. And, of course, the letter was intended to raise the morale of the crusaders: one must not become discouraged, one must not retreat from the great goal - the liberation of the Holy Sepulcher, for a great help is coming.
So the years passed. Things were getting worse. The long-awaited ally was not announced. The last lands in Palestine were lost.
For a hundred years Europe has been waiting for help from the depths of Asia. Perhaps this story would have been quietly forgotten, if not for its unexpected ending. Once the army did appear. Only instead of armies under Christian banners in 1242, it was from there that the hordes of Batu Khan (Batu) rolled from there. As the historian wrote, "ruthless, godless, ugly," they marched with fire and sword to the very Adriatic and left back. This is how the beautiful centenary tale ended.
True, then the Mongols defeated the Arabs and took Baghdad, but this did not bring any benefit to the return of the Holy Sepulcher …
Source: Secrets of the XX century, No. 24, June 2010, Daria MIRONOVA