196 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [N.S., XIX, 
‘* Before Prester John, eo nomine, appears upon the scene, 
we find the way prepared for his appearance by the presenta- 
tion of a kindred fable, and one which certainly entwined 
itself with the legends about Prester John after his figure me 
lodged itself in the popular imagination of Kurope. This 
the : story of the appearance at Rome (1122), in the nontifiesti 
of Pope Calixtus II., of a certain Guanval ecclesiastic, whom 
one account styles ‘John, the Patriarch of the Indians,’ and 
another ‘an Archbishop of India.’ This ecclesiastic related 
the most wonderful stories of the shrine of St. Thomas in 
India, and of the posthumous and still recurring miracles 
which were wrought there periodically by the body of the apos- 
tle, including the distribution of the sacramental wafer by his 
gs. We cannot regard 
a letter from Odo of Rheims, abbot of St. Remy from 1118 to 
1151): for their discrepancies show that one was not copied 
from the other, though in the principal facts they agree.’ 
To proceed. 
mention is made of the tomb of St. Thomas. Some other 
passages in it bear resemblance to cpio made by Mar 
John IIT. and to our quotations about St. Clar 
In fact, if it could be proved that the letter was addressed 
to Alexius Comnenus, Emperor of Constantinople, who died 
in A.D. 1118, we might think that ee John III. had been 
somehow connected with its composition. We shall quote of 
it, translated as literally as possible, winnie we find in Asse- 
mani.’ 
93, and with Austen Henry Layard’s in Nineveh and its pea London, 
1849, I, 250-254. The reference to Assemani in Huc is Bibl. 0 rient., Vol. 
90 55 0 
IIT, Pt. II, Ch. IX, p. oo refers to Assemani, at p. 255 of 
his volume *s reference is correct enoug owever, a friend ot 
ine who searched for : Calcutta at my request could not 
equest ¢c 
find it. * Vol. IL” of Assemani’s Bibl. Orientalis is ies 4th 
volume of that collab ind: 
uc thought with Assemani that the letter might have been ecg er 
to Emperor Alexius Comnenus ({1118). Mgr. Zaleski, after —— that 
the MS. (used by mani) is in the Vatican Library, Codex egius Alez- 
andrin p. 37, asserts that it was written to Emperor Alexius Com- 
nenus, who died in 11 Layard also states that it was r o 
ree Alexius Comnenus (loc. cit., p ). The short extract 
hich Mgr. Zaleski mak om it gave me the impression that 
Prester John had his palace near St. > tomb. Cf. Zaleski. 
es origines du Christianisme aux Indes, p. ae and his The Saints 
India, p. 111. To spare to fisted investigato the serious ropa: £7 sh 
were under until we found an ———— nity ae. consulting Ass gi 
quote the letter as fully as we'ca’ 
