Leaving this doubtful point, it has been plausibly suggested that
the title of Presbyter Johannes was connected with the legends of the
immortality of John the Apostle ([Greek: ho presbyteros], as he calls
himself in the 2nd and 3rd epistles), and the belief referred to by some
of the Fathers that he would be the Forerunner of our Lord's second
coming, as John the Baptist had been of His first.
A new theory regarding the original Prester John has been propounded by
Professor Bruun of Odessa, in a Russian work entitled The Migrations of
Prester John. The author has been good enough to send me large extracts
of this essay in (French) translation; and I will endeavour to set forth
the main points as well as the small space that can be given to the matter
will admit. Some remarks and notes shall be added, but I am not in a
position to do justice to Professor Bruun's views, from the want of access
to some of his most important authorities, such as Brosset's History of
Georgia, and its appendices.
It will be well, before going further, to give the essential parts of the
passage in the History of Bishop Otto of Freisingen (referred to in vol i.
p. 229), which contains the first allusion to a personage styled Prester
John:
