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Chapter 1
THE PROLOGUE
FOR as much as the land beyond the sea, that is to say the Holy
Land, that men call the Land of Promission or of Behest, passing
all other lands, is the most worthy land, most excellent, and lady
and sovereign of all other lands, and is blessed and hallowed of
the precious body and blood of our Lord Jesu Christ; in the which
land it liked him to take flesh and blood of the Virgin Mary, to
environ that holy land with his blessed feet; and there he would of
his blessedness enombre him in the said blessed and glorious Virgin
Mary, and become man, and work many miracles, and preach and teach
the faith and the law of Christian men unto his children; and there
it liked him to suffer many reprovings and scorns for us; and he
that was king of heaven, of air, of earth, of sea and of all things
that be contained in them, would all only be clept king of that
land, when he said, REX SUM JUDEORUM, that is to say, 'I am King of
Jews'; and that land he chose before all other lands, as the best
and most worthy land, and the most virtuous land of all the world:
for it is the heart and the midst of all the world, witnessing the
philosopher, that saith thus, VIRTUS RERUM IN MEDIO CONSISTIT, that
is to say, 'The virtue of things is in the midst'; and in that land
he would lead his life, and suffer passion and death of Jews, for
us, to buy and to deliver us from pains of hell, and from death
without end; the which was ordained for us, for the sin of our
forme-father Adam, and for our own sins also; for as for himself,
he had no evil deserved: for he thought never evil ne did evil:
and he that was king of glory and of joy, might best in that place
suffer death; because he chose in that land rather than in any
other, there to suffer his passion and his death. For he that will
publish anything to make it openly known, he will make it to be
cried and pronounced in the middle place of a town; so that the
thing that is proclaimed and pronounced, may evenly stretch to all
parts: right so, he that was former of all the world, would suffer
for us at Jerusalem, that is the midst of the world; to that end
and intent, that his passion and his death, that was published
there, might be known evenly to all parts of the world.
See now, how dear he bought man, that he made after his own image,
and how dear he again-bought us, for the great love that he had to
us, and we never deserved it to him. For more precious chattel ne
greater ransom ne might he put for us, than his blessed body, his
precious blood, and his holy life, that he thralled for us; and all
he offered for us that never did sin.
Ah dear God! What love had he to us his subjects, when he that
never trespassed, would for trespassers suffer death! Right well
ought us for to love and worship, to dread and serve such a Lord;
and to worship and praise such an holy land, that brought forth
such fruit, through the which every man is saved, but it be his own
default. Well may that land be called delectable and a fructuous
land, that was be-bled and moisted with the precious blood of our
Lord Jesu Christ; the which is the same land that our Lord behight
us in heritage. And in that land he would die, as seised, to leave
it to us, his children.
Wherefore every good Christian man, that is of power, and hath
whereof, should pain him with all his strength for to conquer our
right heritage, and chase out all the misbelieving men. For we be
clept Christian men, after Christ our Father. And if we be right
children of Christ, we ought for to challenge the heritage, that
our Father left us, and do it out of heathen men's hands. But now
pride, covetise, and envy have so inflamed the hearts of lords of
the world, that they are more busy for to dis-herit their
neighbours, more than for to challenge or to conquer their right
heritage before-said. And the common people, that would put their
bodies and their chattels, to conquer our heritage, they may not do
it without the lords. For a sembly of people without a chieftain,
or a chief lord, is as a flock of sheep without a shepherd; the
which departeth and disperpleth and wit never whither to go. But
would God, that the temporal lords and all worldly lords were at
good accord, and with the common people would take this holy voyage
over the sea! Then I trow well, that within a little time, our
right heritage before-said should be reconciled and put in the
hands of the right heirs of Jesu Christ.
And, for as much as it is long time passed, that there was no
general passage ne voyage over the sea; and many men desire for to
hear speak of the Holy Land, and have thereof great solace and
comfort; I, John Mandeville, Knight, albeit I be not worthy, that
was born in England, in the town of St. Albans, and passed the sea
in the year of our Lord Jesu Christ, 1322, in the day of St.
Michael; and hitherto been long time over the sea, and have seen
and gone through many diverse lands, and many provinces and
kingdoms and isles and have passed throughout Turkey, Armenia the
little and the great; through Tartary, Persia, Syria, Arabia, Egypt
the high and the low; through Lybia, Chaldea, and a great part of
Ethiopia; through Amazonia, Ind the less and the more, a great
part; and throughout many other Isles, that be about Ind; where
dwell many diverse folks, and of diverse manners and laws, and of
diverse shapes of men. Of which lands and isles I shall speak more
plainly hereafter; and I shall devise you of some part of things
that there be, when time shall be, after it may best come to my
mind; and specially for them, that will and are in purpose for to
visit the Holy City of Jerusalem and the holy places that are
thereabout. And I shall tell the way that they shall hold thither.
For I have often times passed and ridden that way, with good
company of many lords. God be thanked!
And ye shall understand, that I have put this book out of Latin
into French, and translated it again out of French into English,
that every man of my nation may understand it. But lords and
knights and other noble and worthy men that con Latin but little,
and have been beyond the sea, know and understand, if I say truth
or no, and if I err in devising, for forgetting or else, that they
may redress it and amend it. For things passed out of long time
from a man's mind or from his sight, turn soon into forgetting;
because that mind of man ne may not be comprehended ne withholden,
for the frailty of mankind.
Index | Chapter 1