La construction d'une utopie: l'Empire de Prêtre Jean

Abstract

In the face of the political difficulties, social tensions and material limitations of feudal society, exacerbated by the conflict between papacy and Empire, Western Christendom dreamt of a perfect social organisation. This empire, directed by a Christological figure, both rex et sacerdos, Prester John, was politically tranquil, had an affluent economy, and an irreproachable morality. It was an utopian place, which would be located in the immensity of Asia, near to the terrestrial Paradise. An utopia originally emanating from forgery in the chancellery of Frederick Barbarossa, it was nevertheless the starting-point of mythical ideas known by everybody, from which developed widespread acceptance of this imaginary state which Europeans continued to search for until the eve of the discovery of America.

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