THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
logo Bourbon and the College Sainte Foy ; and after studying theology at Lausanne (1842—45), he became, in 1S47, assistant pastor of the Chapelle Taitbout in Paris, becoming pastor two years later and retaining this position until 1871. He was elected to the National Assembly for the Department of the Seine in 1871, where he joined the Republican Left, and fought with Gambetta against the monarchist and clerical restoration. On the dissolution of the assembly he retired from political life until 1SS3, when he became a member of the Senate for life, being president of the Left Center after 1888. Pressens6's political career did not interfere with his religious duties. Though he had resigned his pastorate in 1871 he preached continually both in his old pulpit and throughout France and French Switzerland, while he was long the president of the Commission synodale de l'union des t'glises libres eVangdliques de France. An enthusiastic advocate of the free-church system, he was as catholic in church relations as in theology. Throughout his life he cultivated all forms of Protestantism, and many Roman Catholics were among his friends. Amid all his activities he found time for authorship. He published, among other works, eight Conferences sur le christianisme dans ses applications aux questions sociales (Paris, 1849); Dn catholicisme en France (1851); Histoire des trois premiers siecles de Veglise chretienne (4 vols., 1858- 1877; Eng. transl., The Early Years of Christianity. London, 1869-78); Discours religieux (1859); L'Ecole critique et Jesus-Christ (1863); L'lUglise et la revolution francaise (1864, new ed., 1889; Eng. transl., Religion and the Reign of Terror, New York, 1869); Jesus-Christ, son temps, sa vie, son eeuvre (1865, new ed., 1884; Eng. transl., Jesus Christ: His Times, Life, and Work, 4th ed., London, 1871); Etudes evangeliques (1867; Eng. transl., Mystery of Suffering and Other Discourses, London, 1868); Le Concile du Vatican, son histoire et ses consequences politique^ et religieuses (1872); La Liberie religicuse en Europe depuis 1870 (1874) ; Le Devoir (1875); La Question ecclesiastique en 1877 (1878); Etudes contemporaines (1880; Eng. transl., Contemporary Portraits, New York, 1880); Les Origincs (1S83; Eng. transl., A Study of Origins, London, I8N3); Varictes morales et politiques (1886); Les Eglises libres de France et la riforme francaise (1887); and A. Vinci, d'apres ses correspondances ineditcs (1890). He was also a prolific contributor to the periodical press, and in 1854 founded the Rcrue chretienne, of which he was editor at the time of his death. (Eugen Lachenmann.)
•Bibliography: Hyacinthe Loyson, Edmond de Pressense', Paris, 1S9 1; Lichtenberger, ESR, xiii. 164. A very full list of the works is found in H. P. Thieme, Guide bibliographique de la literature francaise, pp. 324-325, Paris, 1907.
PRESSLY, JOHN TAYLOR: United Presbyterian; b. in Abbeville District, S. C, Mar. 28, 1795; d. at Allegheny, Pa., Aug. 13, 1870. He was graduated at Transylvania University, Ky., 1812, and studied theology under John Mitchell Mason (q.v.); he was ordained and installed, 1816, pastor of the (Vdar Spring congregation, the one in which he had been brought up; and was professor
of theology in the theological seminary, and pastor at Allegheny, Pa., after 1832. He took a leading part in organizing the United Presbyterian Church, which in 1858 was formed out of the Associate and Associate Reformed Presbyterian Churches; and the strength of this denomination in Pittsburg and its neighborhood is largely due to him. As preacher, pastor, and professor, he exerted a lasting influence upon his denomination. Bibliography: F. Piper, Lives of the Leaders of our Church Universal, ed. H. M. MacCracken, pp. 778-783, Philadelphia, 1879.
PRESTER JOHN: A legendary Christian king of Asia, who in the twelfth century was supposed to have conquered the Mohammedans in a bloody battle and to have protected the crusaders. Bishop Otto of Freising, followed by Alberic, in his chronicle for 1145, relates that a bishop of Gabula told Pope Eugene III. of a Nestorian king and priest named Presbyter Johannes, who ruled " beyond Persia and Armenia," the double office being due to a confusion of ham (" priest ") with khan (" prince "). In his chronicle on 1165, moreover, Alberic states that Prester John, " the king of the Indians," sent letters to various Christian rulers, especially to Manuel of Constantinople and the Roman Emperor Frederick. Influenced by rumors of such a king, Alexander III. sent his physician in ordinary in search of the monarch, directing his letter, dated at Venice Sept. 27, 1177, " to the king of the Indians, the most holy of priests," but the messenger disappeared without leaving a trace.
A new epoch for the legend began with the Dominican and Franciscan missions to the East after 1245. The majority of reports agreed that Prester John no longer lived, but had fallen in battle with Genghis Khan, the chief authority for this form of the legend being the Franciscan Wilhelmus Rubruquis. On Jan 8, 1305, the archbishop of Peking, John of Monte Corvino (q.v.), told of a King George of the Nestorian sect, a descendant of the famous Prester John of India. This monarch had ruled in a land called Tenduch, twenty days distant, had become a convert to the Roman Catholic faith, and, after receiving minor orders, had ministered in his royal robes. This king, termed by Marco Polo the sixth after Prester John, had died in 1299. The fall of the Mongol dynasty in China in 1368 put an end to the missions in the East, but the way was already prepared for the third, or African, phase of the legend by the vague use of the term " India " and the accounts of a Christian kingdom of " Abascia " in middle India. This transfer from Asia to Africa was aided by the similarity of the names of the Abchases in the Caucasus (also called Abasi and Abassini) and the Abyssinians. The Roman Catholic Jordanus, bishop of Quilon in southern India, called the king of Ethiopia simply John. Envoys of this monarch appeared in Europe c. 1400, and when the Portuguese undertook to voyage to the East Indies, they were encouraged in great part by the fame of the realm of Prester John, and when they found the Christians of St. Thomas in Malabar, they fancied that region a Christian kingdom.
A careful study of medieval travels led to the