Cap. lxxvii.—How the Prester John sent to call me, the priest Francisco Alvarez, and to take to him wafers and vestments, and of the questions which he asked me.
Then on Monday, at the hour of vespers, the Prester sent to summon me, Francisco Alvarez, to bring to him wafers, as he wished to see them. I carried eleven wafers very well made (and I did not carry them in a box, because I already knew the reverence with which they respect them, that is to say their own which are only a roll, and these had a very neat crucifix). I carried them in a very good porcelain, covered over with tafeta. He saw them, and (according to what they told me) he rejoiced greatly at seeing them, and again ordered that they should bring the instruments in order to compare their opening with the figure on the wafers: and also that I should show him all the other things with which we say mass. I brought to him the full vestments, the chalice, corporals, altar stone, and cruets. He saw all, piece by piece, and ordered me to take it and unsew the altar stone, which was sewn up in a clean cloth, and I unsewed half of it, and had it again covered up. This altar stone was very smooth and square and well made on the upper part, the lower part was little squared, and of the nature and fashion of the stone. They returned it to me, saying that since there were such good workmen in Portugal how had they made this thus rough? I answered that the upper part was very well made and smooth and square and well wrought, and that below it had a good foundation: they still said that it was not well, that the things of God ought to be perfect, and not imperfect. When it was night they told me to go to the tent and to enter it. I entered, and they placed me in the middle of the tent, which was spread with carpets for a space of two fathoms from where the Prester John was. He then bade me dress myself as if to say mass; and I dressed myself in his presence, first putting on my surplice which I had brought with the vestments. When I was dressed he asked me who had given us that habit, whether it was the apostles or any other saints. I answered him that the church had taken it from the passion of Jesus Christ. He told me to tell him what each of the pieces signified. I at once commenced with the surplice, saying that it was the habit of the clergy, and putting on the amice, I said that it denoted the linen or cloth with which they covered the eyes of Jesus Christ; and putting on the alb, I said that it signified the shirt which our Lady had made for her Son, for which the knights of Pilate had cast lots: and that the girdle signified the chastity and purity of the priests; and that the maniple denoted a small cord with which they tied the hands of Jesus Christ. Here the Prester spoke with his mouth, and the interpreters told me that he said that we were good Christians since we thus esteemed the Passion of Christ. Coming to the stole, I told him that it signified the great cord which they fastened to Christ’s neck when they led Him hither and thither; and the mantle signified the vesture which they put upon Him in derision. Here he again spoke, and the interpreters told me that he said that we were true Christians since we had got the entire Passion. He again spoke to the interpreters, and they said that he bade me take off the vestments, and tell him over again what each piece denoted. On divesting myself I commenced with the mantle and concluded with the amice, and there remained only the surplice upon me. He told me to dress another time, and to explain as before, and so I again explained to him, beginning with the amice and ending with the mantle. Here he affirmed with a very loud voice that we were Christians who possessed all the Passion entirely; and he said to us that since I said that the Church had taken this from the Passion of Jesus Christ, which then was this Church, because two were at the head of Christendom, the first, Constantinople in Greece, and then Borne in Frankland. I replied to him that here there was only one Church, and although at the beginning Constantinople had been the head, it had ceased to be so, because the head of the church was where St. Peter was, by reason of what Jesus Christ had said: Tu es Petrus, super hanc petram edificabo ecclesiam meam. And when St. Peter was at Antioch there was the church, because there was the head, and as he came to Borne it remained and always will be the head. And this Church, ruled by the Holy Spirit, ordained what was necessary for saying mass; and besides I affirmed more of this Church, telling him that in the articles of our faith, which the apostles had composed or declared, the apostle St. Simon said: I believe in the Holy Catholic Church. And in the great Creed which was composed at the Council of Vierapollos,[159] three hundred and eighteen bishops who agreed against the heresy of Arius say: “Et unam sanctam catolicam et apostolicam ecclesiam.” They do not say I believe in the churches, but only in the Catholic and Apostolic Church: this is the holy Roman Church in which is St. Peter, upon whom God founded his Church, as he says, and St. Paul a chosen vessel, and teacher of the nations. So it is called Catholic and Apostolic, for in it are all the apostolic powers which God gave to St. Peter, and to all the apostles to bind and to loose. They answered me that I gave good reason for the Church of Rome, but they said that the Church of Constantinople was of Mark, and that of Greece was of Joannes, Patriarch of Alexandria.[160] To this I replied that his reasoning assisted mine, because St. Peter was the godfather and master of St. Mark, and he had sent him to those parts: and thus, neither Mark nor Joannes could make houses except in the name of him who sent them, and thus their houses were members of the head which sent them, to which all the powers were given. And after that, not so long ago, that St. Jerome, and many other saints, separated themselves, and ordained separation from the world with hard lives to serve God, and that these separations they did not nor could not carry out without authority of the apostolic Church, which is that of Rome. How could they make churches to the prejudice of the great head, unless they were built and made for Jesus our Lord. They agreed fully to this, and the interpreters said that the Prester was much pleased. Then they asked me whether the priests were married in Portugal, I told them they were not. They also asked me whether we held to the council of Pope Leon, which took place at Viera;[161] I answered, Yes, that I had already spoken of it, and that there the great creed was composed. They asked me how many bishops were with the Pope there; I said I had already told them there were three hundred and eighteen. Then they said that at this Council it was ordained that the clergy should marry, and that the Council was sworn, how then did we not marry. I replied that of this Council I knew nothing, except that in it the Creed had been made, and it had been ordained that Our Lady should be called Mother of God. Then they told me that many things were there ordained and sworn, which Pope Leon had broken, and that I should tell them what these were. I answered that I did not know of them, but it seemed to me that if he had broken any of them, they would be such as touched the heresy which was extensive at that time, and that he would approve those which were necessary and profitable to the faith, and that otherwise he would not have been approved and canonized as a saint, as he was. Again they returned to the marriage of priests, saying that the apostles were married. I replied to them that I had never read in a book, nor had heard say that the apostles, after going in the company of Jesus, had had wives, or had been married; and that although St. Peter had a daughter, he had her of his wife before he was an apostle of Jesus Christ; and St. John the Evangelist was at the marriage of Cana in Galilee, where was Our Lady and Jesus Christ her son; and afterwards St. John the Evangelist left this marriage and followed Christ our Lord, and was a virgin: and also that I had read and heard tell that after the death of Christ the apostles and disciples zealously preached the faith of Jesus Christ until their deaths, and did not weary in it, and preached chastity; and thus the Roman Church in truth established and ordained that no priest should have a wife, so as to be more pure in their consciences, and not take up their time with wives and children, flocks, tillage, and property. They replied to this that their books ordered that they should marry, and that so St. Paul had spoken. They put a great many other questions to me whilst I was still in my vestments, and last of all they asked me if we had the song of the angels when Christ was born. I answered, Yes; and they asked if we said it in the mass. I said, Yes we did. They then asked me to say the beginning of it. I then began, “Gloria in excelsis Deo”. They told me to say it chaunting it; I then sung two verses of it. Then they asked if we had the Credo: I replied that I had already quoted it. Then they asked me to say something in chaunt, and I sung two other verses. Then they asked me to say some recited, and I said the Gloria and the Credo. There was there an interpreter, and also the friar who guided us on the road. This friar had been in Italy, and knew some little Latin. The Prester asked him if he understood, and he replied that he did, and that I had said the Gloria and Credo like them, and that the only difference was in the language. The interpreter who was there also told me that at each question and answer which I gave, chiefly with regard to the portions of the vestments, the Prester said that we had got all the matters of the Passion, and that we were Christians, as though as yet he had doubted it. Here the Prester asked me why we did not say mass according to our use; I told him that we did not say it because we had not got a tent for a church. The Prester said that next morning he would send for a tent, and would order it to be given to us, and that we might say mass every day. Then he bade me divest myself of my vestments, which I had worn up to this time, and to tell him again what each piece signified. I told it him like the first time, and he gave us our dismissal; and it was past midnight when we went away; and all the evening was employed in what has been related, without an idle moment.
Cap. lxxviii.—Of the robbery which took place at the ambassador’s, and of the complaint made respecting it to Prester John, and how we were robbed, and how Prester John sent a tent for a church.
This night which I thus passed with the Prester, towards morning of the following day a great robbery of the ambassador took place in the tent where we lodged: from it they carried off two cloaks and two rich jerkins, seven shirts, and a cap, all good pieces, and other less valuable pieces; and they took them all from a leather bag as large as a trunk, in which he kept his clothes. They carried off from Manuel de Moraes another leather bag with all that he had; and from one of the Franks whom we found here they took seven pieces of cloth, which he had brought the day before to be kept. They estimated the robbery done that night at two hundred cruzados. On the morning that this happened, the ambassador requested me and the factor and the clerk to go to the tent of the Prester to make a complaint, and ask justice of him for the great robbery committed against him. That night, whilst we were close to the tent with the pages, taking this message of the complaint we came to make, and to ask justice, since the ambassador had made prisoner one of the thieves who committed the robbery, a woman came crying out and demanding justice, saying that the night before the ambassador of Portugal and his company, by means of an Arab, who knew the language of the country, had by force robbed her of her daughter, and taken her to the tent where they lodged, and had done what they pleased with her, and because her son had complained of their stealing his sister and forcing her they kept him a prisoner with the Arab who had deceived and carried off the said girl, and they accused him of having committed a great robbery. Thus we found ourselves waylaid and robbed and we and the woman having been heard, one answer was given to all, that is, that justice should be done, and that we might go in peace.
On this day, during the night that we were making this complaint, the friar who was with me the night before in the presence of Prester John, came with a rich tent, already half worn, saying that the Prester sent it for us to say mass, and that it should be pitched at once, because the next day was the great feast of the archangel Raphael, and that we should say mass on this feast, and likewise every day, and pray to God for him. This tent was of brocade and Mekkah velvet, lined inside with fine stuffs of Chaul; so that the tent would have been a splendid one if it had been new, and it was still good. They said that four years ago the Prester had taken it in the camp of the King of Adel, who is the Moorish King, lord of Zeila and Barbara; and so the Prester sent to say that we should bless the tent before saying mass in it, lest there should have been any sin of Moors in it. It was at once pitched that night, and in the morning we said mass in it; there came to it as many Franks as had been at the court these forty years, and also some men of the country.
Cap. lxxix.—How the Prester sent to call the ambassador, and of the questions he put to him, and how he sent to beg for the swords which he had, and some pantaloons, and how they were sent.
On Thursday, the 8th day of November, Prester John sent to call us, and we went at once. The ambassador decided on ordering the chests and loads of pepper to be sent which he had already promised him. When we arrived at the entrance of the first enclosure, they detained us with cold inquiries, and all about the negroes who were prisoners on account of the robbery done to the ambassador: and such was the discussion and inquiry that they bade us let go the negroes without any conclusion or remedy for the theft: and finally he ordered three hundred loaves, and thirty jars of wine, and certain dishes of meat from his table to be given us, and so we returned to our tent. They sent another time to call us, and after we had gone, we were a long time engaged with questions, among which was whether the ambassador came by order of the King of Portugal, or of his captain-major, and whether, when the captain-major had come to Masuwa, he had killed all the Moors, or whether any of them had already returned there: and why we did not travel from the sea to Damute, which was nearer; and, why, if we were servants of the King, we did not wear crosses on our shoulder, that is on the skin, for it is the custom of all the servants of the Prester to have a cross on the right shoulder, both the great lords and small people: and after that, that we should give him the pepper which we had for our provisions for the road. The ambassador replied that we should eat much gold and silver and stuffs, all of which we had brought from the King of Portugal; and so he replied to each of the questions as was fitting; and, moreover, he requested him to give him leave and dismissal for our journey. Upon this there came a reply, that we were not to fear, that we should soon have leave to depart. The ambassador answered: What fear could we have, being in the presence of his highness and in his court, kingdoms and lordships, and all of us Christians. With this we were sent to our lodging.
On the Friday next following Prester John sent the swords which he had got. The ambassador sent to tell him that if they seemed good to him he should take them, and the ambassador would take it as a favour that he should make use of them. An answer was sent that if he took them, the King of Portugal would say that he took from his people the swords which they stood in need of. Again the ambassador sent to tell him to be pleased to take them, and that they had many in the fortresses in India belonging to the King, and in his factories, and that the King would be glad that His Highness should use the arms of his vassals. While this message was going, they came on the part of Prester John to beg for some pantaloons, and the ambassador sent him some of his own and others of Lopo da Gama, and sent him word that the pantaloons and clothes and swords, and other pieces which he had seen, and knew were in the possession of the ambassador and his companions, were all at his service, and he would do him a favour in sending for all that seemed good to him, because if he made use of his things the captain-major and King of Portugal would give the ambassador and his companions recompenses for this. This day he made many inquiries which were replied to, which are not written to avoid prolixity.