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The International Prester John Project: How A Global Legend Was Created Across Six Centuries

Jacques de Vitry

Born in central France, Jacques de Vitry (c. 1160-1240) served as bishop of Acre from 1214 and then cardinal from 1229 until his death. He was one of the foremost crusade historians and propagandists in Latin Europe during the thirteenth century and campaigned vigorously for the Albigensian Crusade and, later, the Fifth (or Egyptian) Crusade.

In addition to his histories of the Holy Land (Historia Orientalis / Historia Hierosolymitana) and the West (Historia Occidentalis), Jacques was well known for his sermons.

Jacques was interested in prophecy and apocalyptic history and produced/collected two texts in particular that were important to the early spread of the Prester John legend, a 1217 Letter sent from Acre to western ecclesiastics and a 1221 Letter relating the story of the History of the Deeds of David.

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History of the Deeds of David, King of the Indies Historia Gestorum David regis Indorum // Relatio de Davide (1220)

Brewer (p. 107) usefully describes the muddled story behind this text supposedly derived from an Arabic source, but popularized in the West by Jacques de Vitry:
This confused text is a Latin translation of what is thought to be a tract originally written in Arabic by a Christian in Baghdad in 1220-21, but some of the material here was certainly added by its Latin translators. It describes in essence the conquests of Chingis Khan, but instead he is presented as a Christian king named David, great grandson of Prester John, a figure who becomes from this point on a regular feature of the Prester John legend... [A]lthough the text does display some intimate knowledge of the initial movements of the Mongols, the details became so distorted by the time they reached the crusaders that those initial facts became grossly misunderstood.
The text itself attests to how this King David had attacked the King of Persia and conquered several cities along the Asian Steppe, including Bukhara, Samarkand, Khurasan, and Ghazna.

In the first version of the text, King David is identified as "the son of King Israel, the son of King Sarkis, the son of King John, the son of Bulgaboga" (qtd. in Brewer, p. 107). Importantly, King David is not linked to Prester John until the third and final version of the Relatio de Davide begins to circulate.

Silverberg (p. 71) summarizes:
This King David was a Christian, the bishop reported, and was either the son or the grandson of Prester John—although, Bishop Jacques pointed out, “King David was himself commonly called Prester John.” His kingdom was deep in Asia. His involvement in the affair of the Near East had come about because the Caliph of Baghdad had been threatened with war by a fellow Moslem prince, the Shah of Khwarizm; seeing no other ally at hand, the caliph had requested the Nestorian Catholicos—or Patriarch—of Baghdad to summon King David to his aid, and the king had agreed to defend the caliph against the Khwarizmians” (71).

In addition to fueling belief in the kingdom of Prester John, this text had a huge impact on the outcome of the Fifth Crusade. Jacques de Vitry, preacher and crusade propagandist, reaches shared the information contained within the text with crusaders in Damietta. The text promises the dissolution of Islam at a time when King David joins forces with a king in the west. Jacques has the report translated immediately. He then sends letters containing parts of this text to Pope Honorius, King Henry III of England, Duke Leopold of Austria, and to several academics at the University of Paris. Spirits lift within and without the crusader camp, essentially renewing the hope for a Christian recovery of Jerusalem. Buoyed by prophecy and heedless of local conditions, the crusaders at Damietta decide to invade Cairo immediately to fulfill the prophecy, rejecting an agreement with the Sultan Al-Kamil that would have given Jerusalem back to the crusaders in exchange for Damietta. The Nile rises, turning the invasion of Cairo into defeat. The armies of the Fifth Crusade surrender to the Sultan of Egypt, Al-Kamil, Saladin’s nephew, a few weeks later.

Brewer (101-125) collects three versions of this text, all of which tell of a King David prophecied to help the west defeat Islam.

For more on the historical reality animating the Relatio, see Richard.

For a close account of the entire Fifth Crusade, see Powell.
Liber Bellorum Domini Brewer catalogues this text in his textual chronology table at the end his book. He comments,
This appears to be a pedagogical text. It circulated anonymously for a long time, but a case has been put forward for the author as Pierre de la Palu (a .k.a. Petrus de Palude or Peter Paludanus). The date given here is based on de la Palu's date of death, and is therefore tentative. In any case, the section on Prester John is largely based on Jacques de Vitry's Letter VII... Edited in Ignazio Giorgi (ed.), in the Archives de "Orient Lalin. vol. I (Paris, 188 1), pp. 302- 3. For the attribution to Pierre de la Palu, see J.F. Benton, 'Theocratic History in Fourteenth-Century France: The Liber Bellorum Domini by Pierre de la Palu." University 0f Pennsylvania Library Chronicles, vol. 40 (Philadelphia, 1974), p. 43 If. No translation is known.
Book of Clement Jacques de Vitry refers to this text in his "Letter 7" of his "Letters from Acre". (qtd. in Brewer, p. 132):
Accordingly, last year, a certain book of the Saracens, of great authority to them, came to our hands. A certain astrologer of theirs, who the Saracens consider to be a great prophet, had written it from the beginning of their law with the greatest devotion.
As Brewer observes in a footnote, the work is now lost, "but several similar texts in Latin and Old French have been preserved." These, he notes, are edited in Reinhold Röhricht.

This book, included in what would later be called "The Revelations of the blessed Peter the apostle by his disciple Clement, brought together in one volume" helped link the deeds of the Fifth Crusade to ancient prophecy and used Prester John as the point of connection. Attributed to Pope Clement I (35-99), the text

Oliver of Paderborn identifies the aforementioned text as the Book of Clement in his History of Damietta (qtd. in Brewer, p. 138):
Certainly, after the capture of Damietta, the legate to the apostolic seat [i.e. Pelagius] ordered the book written in Arabic to be briefly read aloud by an interpreter to the ears of the multitude; examining and observing its bindings along with the pages, we found it to be beyond ancient. It is entitled "The Book of Clement," written so they say from tbe mouth of the prince of the apostles by Clement himself about the revelations made to Peter between the resurrectionand the ascension by the Lord. This book begins with the creation of the world and concludes with the end of time; the teachings and precepts for salv tion are read in it. It also mentions prophecies, some of which have evidently n w been completed, and some of which hang in the future. Amongst other things, it is said that a city abounding in water would be captured by the Christians along with one city of Egypt. It mentions the capture of Alexandria, nor is Damascus left unmentioned, which greatly tormented and [still] torments God's servants. It thereafter discusses two kings who will come to Jerusalem, one of which it is said will come from the East, the other from the West, and which will take in the year in which Easter will fall on the third day of April.
Liber Fidelium Crucis Written by Venetian geographer Marino Sanudo Toresello, the Liber Fidelium Crucis functions mainly as crusading propaganda in which the author advocates for a crusade in Egypt as a means of taking back Jerusalem, hearkening back to the Fifth Crusade.

In it, Marino relays a story about Prester John almost identical to that of Simon of St. Quentin.

As for the rest of the book, Sanudo adeptly discusses 13th-century Mediterranean history, especially those episodes that feature Louis IX of France and Charles of Anjou, king of Naples. The first two books outline the rationale of and logistics for his crusading plan, whereas the third book offers a history of the Crusades up the point of composition. Sanudo draws on other Prester John writers, including Jacques de Vitry, to supplement Sanudo's first-hand accounts.

Read the full text in a recent translated edition.
Chronicon Sancti Martini Turonensis Brewer (p. 276) relates that this anonymous chronicle, dated to 1225, contains "a short mention of King David and the armies of the Fifth Crusade at Damietta. It also mentions that Jacques de Vitry 'publice predicabat, quod David rex utriusque lndie ad christianorum auxilium festinabat, adducens secum ferocissimos populos, qui more beluini Sarracenos sacrilegos devorarent ' [publicly predicted that David, King of both indias, was hurrying to the aid of the Christians, bringing with him the most ferocious peoples, who were devouring the impious Sarracens like beasts]."
Jacques de Vitry's Letter VII Dated April 18th, 1221, this letter sent by Jacques de Vitry in Damietta to crusading leaders back in Europe conveys King David's strong belief in the King David stories that had circulated around the crusader camp.

This letter supplements Jacques initial hopes about eastern Christians led by Prester John by integrating the deeds of the Relatio de Davide to Prester John and the future capture of Acre, Damietta, Cairo, Babylonia, and other regions in Egypt.

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