ABSTRACT
It is so common in Portugal and Europe for the Emperor ofthe Abyssinians to be called by this name that anyonewho undertakes to write the history of Ethiopia and of the Abyssinian empire must necessarily give some explana tion of it. Since, however, almost all the historians who have written about this country have argued about this matter and examined and given different explanations and versions of this name, I do not feel myself obliged to stop and repeat what can easily be found in their works. I merely remark that among the rest Father Nicolao Godinho of our Society, in the 5th chapter of his first book on the Abyssinians, treated this question with greater learning and riper judgment than I bring to its consideration.1 He makes two certain and very well established assertions. The first is that the name Prester or Presbyter John was at first given to a Christian, but Nestorian, emperor, who ruled in the interior of Asia. His ordinary name or title was Jonanam, derived from the pro phet Jonah (whom they so name in their language; Euro peans have changed it to John in error). This name was com mon to the rulers of that monarchy as that of Pharaoh was to the Kings of Egypt. They called him Presbyter because of the cross that he always carried aloft before him, as among us Archbishops and Primates do. It is said that when he
went to war he took two, one of gold and another of precious stones, signifying by the crosses the Christian religion which he professed, and by the precious material of which they were made that, by so much as precious stones and gold are greater than silver, copper, iron and any other metals, by so much was he greater in power and glory than all the Kings of the world.
