FRESHENS^ 



PRESTER JOHN 



exUU in most European states. There i- often no 

 direct super* ision previous to publication, Imt the 

 ollicial censor ha it in his power to stop any publi- 

 cation which lie deems objectionable, to confiscate 

 tin- edition, mill to prosecute (lie author anil editor. 

 Newspapers and pamphlet* are generally subjected 

 to a Htricter censorship tluin larger works. See 

 INHKX : also Odgers on Libel, and Paterson on the 

 I.il-i i y of the Press. For Correction of the Press, 

 we PROOFS. 



PreKens#, EDMOND DE, a prominent French 

 Protestant theologian, was 1mm in {'aria, January 

 24, 1824, studied at the university there, next 

 under Vinet at Lausanne, and Tholuek and 

 Neander at Halle and Berlin, and in 1847 became 

 a pastor at Paris. He was deputy to the National 

 Assembly for the Seine department in 1871-76, and 

 was elected a senator for life in 1883. He receive*! 

 the D.L). degree from Breslau in 1869 and Edin- 

 burgh in 1884. He died April 8, 1891. A strong 

 thinker and vigorous writer, as well as eloquent 

 preacher, Pressense took a foremost part in the 

 great theological as well as ecclesiastical con- 

 troversies of the day ; published many learned and 

 important books, most of which have been trans- 

 lated into English and German ; and contributed 

 to the theological and literary magazines on both 

 sides of the Channel the article on CHRISTIANITY 

 in the present work is from his pen. 



The following are the most important books : Lt 

 Kfdtmpttur ( 1854 ; Eng. trans. 1864 ) ; Hitloire det Trait 

 J'rtmiert SVeln de CEglite C/trttiennt (4 vols. 1858-77 ; 

 ling, trans. 1869-78 ; a thoroughly revised and extended 

 ilition had reached its third volume in 1890); L'&ilitc 

 tt. la Rtvolution franfaine (1864; Kng. trans. 1869); 

 )(n ChrM, *m Tempt, ta Vie, ion OSurre (186ti; 

 tag. trans. 1866); Ktudtt Conlemporainet (1880; Eng. 

 trans. New York, 1880); and Let Oriyiar* (1882; Eng. 

 t tan*. 1883). 



l'r'sxt;;iiiii. Impre men! wa- the tnoile for- 

 merly resorted to for manning the British navy. 

 The practice had not only the sanction of custom, 

 but the force of law. It may be traced in English 

 legislation from the days of Edward I. ; and many 

 acts of parliament, from the reign of Philip and 

 Mary to that of George III., were passed to 

 /emulate the system of impressment. Impressment 

 consisted in seizing by force, for service in the 

 royal navy, seamen, river-watermen, and at time- 

 landsmen, when state emergencies rendered them 

 necessary. The pressgang, an armed party of reli- 

 able men commanded by officers, usually proceeded 

 to such houses in the seaport towns ax were -up 

 posed to be the resort of tlie seafaring population, 

 'aid violent hands on all eligible men, and conveyed 

 them forcibly to the ships of war in the harlHiiir. 

 As it was not in the nature of sailors to yield with 

 out a struggle many terrible lights took place 

 between the pressgangs and their intended \i.-tiin- 

 combats in which lives were often lost. In jmint 

 of justice there is little, if anything, to lie said for 

 impressment, which hud not even the merit of an 

 impartial selection from the whole available popu- 

 lation. I" mler the laws all eligible men of seafaring 

 habit* were liable lietween the ages of eighteen and 

 fifty-five ; but exemption- were made in favour of 

 apprentices who hod not l>een two year- appren- 

 ticed, fishermen at sea, a proportion of able sea- 

 men in each collier, hariiootierx in whalers, and a 

 few others. A pressgang could board a merchant- 

 renel or a privateer of its own nation in any part 

 of the world, and carry oil' as many of the best 

 men as could be removed without actually endanger- 

 ing the vessel. The exercise of this power made a 

 privateer dread a friendly man-of-war more than an 

 enemy, and often led to ax exciting a chase as when 

 enemies were in pursuit of each other; for the 

 privateer's men were the best sailors, for their 



purpose, that the naval officers could lay hold on. 

 Mitigations of the hai-h laws on the subject were 

 frequently introduced. As early ax l"><).'< the naval 

 authorities had to secure the -auction of the local 

 jn-tice* of jK-ace ; in 1835 the term of an impressed 

 man's service was limited to live years save in urgent 

 national necessity. By that time the system was 

 becoming olwolete ; the navy is now manned by 

 voluntary service. In recent times, when volunteers 

 fail, a system of bounties has been resorted to. 

 But the laws sanctioning impressment slumber, 

 without being re]>ealed. 



Pressing to Death. See PKINE FORTE rr 

 DURE. 



Prester John, the name applied by mediirval 

 credulity for two hundred years to the supposed 

 Christian sovereign of a vast but ill-defined empire 

 in central Asia. The idea of a powerful Christian 

 potentate in the far East, at once priest and kin;;, 

 was universal in Europe from about the middle of 

 the 12th to the beginning of the 14th century, when 

 it was transferred to Ethiopia and finally found a 

 fancied historical justification in identification with 

 the Christian king of Abyssinia. 



The first mention of a Prester John, sprung from 

 the ancient race of the Magi of the Gospels, occurs 

 in the Chronicle of Otto, bishop of Freisingen. 

 Here, on the authority (1145) of the bishop of 

 Cabala (Jibal in Syria), we find a circumstantial 

 account of his power, his Christianity after the 

 Nc-torian pattern, his victories over the Medes and 

 Persians, and how his progress to Jerusalem was 

 stayed by the intervening Tigris, which refused to 

 freeze over to give him passage. Again, about 1 165, 

 there was widely current in Europe an extravagant 

 epistle supposed to be addressed by Prester John 

 to the Greek emperor Manuel. Herein we read 

 astounding wonders enough : how that he ruled 

 over the three Indies and countless hordes of men, 

 among them those unclean races which Alexander 

 the Creat shut up within the northern mountains ; 

 that thirteen great crosses of gold and jewels were 

 borne before as many armies, each of 10,000 knights 

 and 100,000 foot; that all his subject* were virtu- 

 ous and happy ; attendant upon him were seven 

 kind's, sixty dukes, and .'in'.") counts, twelve arch- 

 bishops, and twenty bishops, while seventy-two 

 kind's with their kingdoms were his tributaries; 

 liefore his throne stood a wondrous mirror, in wliich 

 he saw everything that was happening in all his 

 vast dominions ; his kingdom contained the Foun- 

 tain of Youth, the Sea of Sand, the Kiver of 

 Stones, and the river whose sand was precious gems, 

 ante that dug gold, fish that yielded purple, pebbles 

 that give light and make invisible, and the sala- 

 mander which lives in lire, from the incombustible 

 covering of wliich were fashioned robes for the 

 presbyter to wear. There is also extant a letter 

 of dale 1177, written by Pope Alexander III. and 

 evidently addressed to the imaginary author of 

 the grandiloquent epistle of I H',.Y 



A nou t the year 1221 the distant rumour of the 

 conquests of Genghis Khan again gave strength to 

 the lielief in such a mighty Christian |K>tenUte. 

 M. d'.\\e/ac first pointed out the true historical 

 source, of the story in the Chinese Yeliu Tashi, 

 founder of the empire of Kara-Khitai, who assumed 

 the title of Gur Khan ( supposed by < Ippert to have 

 been confounded with FMMMM or ,/////<*), and 

 fixed his capital at Balasaghun, north of the T'iau 

 Shan range. He defeated Sanjar the Seljuk 

 sovereign of Persia in 1141 at a great Iwttle near 

 Samarkand, but, though hateful to the Moslem 

 historians, of course never made any profession of 

 Christian faith. Professor Bruun of < Messa identifies 

 Prester John with the 12th-century Georgian prince 

 John Orbelion, a redoubtable enemy of the Turks 



