I Trow That Ye Know Well Enough, And Have Heard Say,
Wherefore This Emperor Is Clept Prester John.
But, natheles, for
them that know not, I shall say you the cause.
It was sometime an emperor there, that was a worthy and a full
noble prince, that had Christian knights in his company, as he hath
that is now. So it befell, that he had great list for to see the
service in the church among Christian men. And then dured
Christendom beyond the sea, all Turkey, Syria, Tartary, Jerusalem,
Palestine, Arabia, Aleppo and all the land of Egypt. And so it
befell that this emperor came with a Christian knight with him into
a church in Egypt. And it was the Saturday in Whitsun-week. And
the bishop made orders. And he beheld, and listened the service
full tentively. And he asked the Christian knight what men of
degree they should be that the prelate had before him. And the
knight answered and said that they should be priests. And then the
emperor said that he would no longer be clept king ne emperor, but
priest, and that he would have the name of the first priest that
went out of the church, and his name was John. And so ever-more
sithens, he is clept Prester John.
In his land be many Christian men of good faith and of good law,
and namely of them of the same country, and have commonly their
priests, that sing the Mass, and make the sacrament of the altar,
of bread, right as the Greeks do; but they say not so many things
at the Mass as men do here.
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