Prester John

[Goldngrifn@aol.co]

Prester John was the "Monk" who led the "Peasant's Crusade" in the 11th
century.
They were slaughtered.

Golden Griffon

[Robert Harper]

At 05:30 PM 8/1/97 -0400, you wrote:
>Prester John was the "Monk" who led the "Peasant's Crusade" in the 11th
>century.
>They were slaughtered.

I'm not sure what this has to do with Birthright, but I think you are
thinking of Peter the Hermit, who lead an ill fated pilgrim army wiped out
by Muslims in Anatolia (don't feel too sorry for them, they were massacring
jews as they marched east to fight the Muslims). This is called the
Peasant's Crusade, and happened during the First Crusade of 1096-1099, the
only 11th Century Crusade. The main Crusade itself was successful and lead
to the creation of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, or Outremer.

Prester John is connected, indirectly, with the crusades. He was a mythical
Christian ruler in Africa. The product of wishful thinking from the era of
the Crusades.

Europe's Christian rulers sought to form an anti-Muslim alliance with the
realm of Prester (or Presbyter) John, a legendary Christian king whose
domain was believed to be somewhere in southwest Asia or northeast Africa,
just beyond the Islamic empire. (Mistaken) accounts of his heroic struggles
against the Muslims were first recorded by Bishop Otto of Freising in 1145.
Around 1165 a letter was circulated in Europe in which "Prester John"
addressed various European rulers. Early in the age of European
exploration, overland and maritime missions from Portugal sought to find the
kingdom of Prester John. When Ethiopia was reached in 1493 by Pero da
Covilha, its rulers, who were Coptic Christians, were quickly identified
with Prester John. Portuguese missions to Ethiopia in the 16th century
reinforced the Prester John legend, but it subsequently died out as
geographical knowledge improved and interest in Christian alliances declined.

__________________________________________________ _________________
| |
| We ask ourselves if there is a God, how can this happen? |
| Better to ask, if there is a God, must it be sane? |
| |
| Lucien LaCroix |
|_________________________________________________ __________________|

[Goldngrifn@aol.co]

In a message dated 97-08-02 02:00:54 EDT, you write: