# Prester John explained — Bulfinch’s Mythology

> Chapter companion for Bulfinch’s Mythology by Thomas Bulfinch.

## What happens

This chapter recounts the European legend of Prester John, a mythical Christian priest-king said to rule in Upper Asia. The story traces how reports of a Lama among the Tartars sparked the belief, leading to papal and French missions that found only Nestorian Christians. Finally, a Portuguese traveler identified the Negus of Abyssinia as Prester John, a notion referenced by Milton in Paradise Lost.

## Themes in this chapter

### Cultural Transmission and Education

The chapter illustrates how cultural and religious beliefs about a Christian king in Asia were transmitted through merchants, missions, and literature, shaping European imagination.

## Key lines

> An early account, communicated probably by travelling merchants, of a Lama or spiritual chief among the Tartars, seems to have occasioned in Europe the report of a Presbyter or Prester John, a Christian pontiff resident in Upper Asia.

A story brought back by merchants about a Tartar spiritual leader likely sparked the European legend of Prester John, a Christian priest-king living in Upper Asia.

_Explains the origin of the Prester John myth._

> The Pope sent a mission in search of him, as did also Louis IX of France, some years later, but both missions were unsuccessful, though the small communities of Nestorian Christians, which they did find, served to keep up the belief in Europe that such a personage did exist somewhere in the East.

Both the Pope and King Louis IX of France dispatched missions to find Prester John, but they failed; however, the discovery of Nestorian Christian communities kept the legend alive.

_Describes the historical search and its outcome._

> At last in the fifteenth century, a Portuguese traveller, Pedro Covilham, happening to hear that there was a Christian prince in the country of the Abessines (Abyssinia), not far from the Red Sea, concluded that this must be the true Prester John.

In the 15th century, Portuguese explorer Pedro Covilham heard of a Christian ruler in Abyssinia near the Red Sea and decided he was the real Prester John.

_Identifies the resolution of the legend in Abyssinia._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/bulfinch_s_mythology_se/chapters/prester-john
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/bulfinch_s_mythology_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/bulfinch_s_mythology_se/chapters