following words Let the Holy Ghost descend and come and shine upon this Bread that it may be made the Body of Christ our Lord and that the taste and savour of this Cup may be chang'd that so it may be made the Blood of Christ our Lord. And when I ask'd him withal the Exposition of the words Majete vat valto to be chang'd or converted and then demanded of him Whether he did not think that the substance of the Bread and Wine was not chang'd and converted into the Substance of the Body and Blood of Christ He made answer That no such sort of Transubstantiation was known or understood by the Habessines That his Countrymen were not so scrupulous nor us'd to start such thorny Questions Nevertheless it seem'd to him probable and like that the vulgar Bread and Wine was chang'd into the mysterious Representation of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ and so was alter'd from Prophane to Sacred to represent the true Body and Blood of Christ to the Communicants Tellez confesses his dissatisfaction touching their Consecration it being their Custom to say over the Body of Christ This bread is my Body and over the Wine This cup is my Blood Which words have not in them the true force of Consecration For the Doctors of the Roman Church are of Opinion That whoever speaks those words does nothing These words This is my Body being only of Efficacy to operate a true Transubstantiation Which being true no man can pretend that the Abessines acknowlege Transubstantiation especially seeing they do not attribute those Divine Honours to the Sacraments which the Consequences of real Transubstantiation require Concerning the state of the Soul after Death there are several Opinions among the Habessines every one having free Liberty of Opinion in those things that do not directly concern Eternal Salvation So that it is no wonder that so many various Sentiments of private persons are brought away by our Doctors as the publick Opinions of the Habessines Some of them believe that the Souls of Men piously deceased shall not behold the Beatifical Vision of God before the Resurrection of the Body which is also the Opinion of many of the Ancient Latins as if the Soul remain'd in Expectation of the Body in some certain third place Others convinc'd by the Authority of the Scripture acknowledge only two Mansions of the Souls Heaven and Hell believing no Damnatinn to those that are in Christ and dye in his Faith Which they gather from the Example of the Penitent Thief and the words of Christ thus Translated by the Ethiopians Verily I say unto thee firmly believe that thou shalt be with me in Paradice Therefore as for those that Piously sleep in Christ they believe them not to be in a worse Condition than this Thief who at the point of Death was sav'd through Penitence actuated by Faith without any satisfaction given for his Thieveries Now to prove that the Soul of Man is not created they produce this Argument That God perfected the whole Work of his Creation upon the Sixth day Nevertheless they believe it to be in its own Nature immortal as being inspir'd into Man by God at his first Creation But on the other side they think it very absurd that God should be ty'd to create new Souls every day for Adulterate and Incestuous Births However the first Opinion seems to be the more vulgarly receiv'd among them in regard of their Prayers for the Dead As for example Remember Lord the Souls of thy Servants and our Father Abba-Matthew and the rest of our Fathers Abba-Salama and Abba-Jacob And a little after Remember Lord the Kings of Ethiopia Abreha and Atzbeha Caleb and Gebra-Meskah c. Then they add Release O Lord our Fathers Abba Antony and Abba Macarius Remember Lord the Soul of thy Servant our Father Tecla-Hajmanot with all his Companions From whence it may be fairly justify'd that the Abessines admit of a Purgatory And yet Gregory constantly deny'd it And Godignus confesses That there are no sacred Services said for the deceas'd among the Habessines The same thing Tellez confirms However he derides them as not constant to themselves for that to pray for the Dead and distribute Alms to the Poor is no other than to assert Purgatory Nor do I see how they can reconcile their Praying for the Rest of happy Souls and at another time their imploring the Intercession of the same Souls But they nothing mov'd with these Arguments and Inferences affirm them to be the Pious Conception of their good wishes and only a Commemoration of the happy Estate of the deceas'd and that it is none of their business to make any farther scrutiny into the Traditions of their Ancestors Gregory added That many Prayers of the Christians were so conceiv'd that many times those things were Petition'd for which were already perform'd and answer'd That the Lord's Prayer contain'd Petitions of that kind For that it would be a thing but badly inferr'd that the Name of God was not Hallow'd or that his Will was not done both in Heaven and Earth because we daily put up those Prayers besides we all begg every day for Daily Bread when most of those that make that Prayer do generally live in wealthy abundance He had heard perhaps among us our general good Wishes for the departed That God would vouchsafe to grant the Interr'd Body a Quiet Repose and at length a joyful Resurrection And thereupon said he Do not you your selves wish the same good wishes for the Dead Do not you believe that the Carkasses of the Dead may be vexed with Spiritual Evils or that a happy Resurrection may be obtain'd by your Prayers And he took so heinously the suspition of his belief of Purgatory that he cry'd out Would it not be an irreverent Injury to so many Kings and Fathers should we interpret the Commemoration of their Souls to that height as to think they should be tormented for so many Ages in Purgatory and want the aid of our indefatigable Prayers to release them after so long an Imprisonment For those Kings and Fathers were men among the Habessines most Innocent and had bin dead above a Thousand years since or more So that whether they be in Paradice or remain in any other place expecting the Resurrection of their Bodies in both cases Prayers of that Nature seem superfluous Besides were there any Question to be made of the happy Condition of Men Piously deceas'd we should rather pray for those whose lives were more loose and vain than for those whose Conversations were without blame And therefore what has bin deliver'd about the Opinions of the Habessines concerning Purgatory leans rather upon Conjecture than any sufficient Authority they being ignorant of the very Name Insomuch that Jacob Wemmers the Carmelite in his Ethiopic Lexicon was constrain'd to forge a Word by calling it Mantzehi Hatate the Purger of Sin But we are to understand that it was the most Ancient Custom of
word Gaz signifies as well the Face or Countenance as it bears the force of the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Person The Nestorian Heresie asserting two Persons in Christ they so abhor that for that very reason they will not admit of his two Natures and two Wills tho they positively acknowledge his Divinity and Humanity For they affirm Christ to be true and perfect God and also true and perfect Man and to consist in one Individual Person of Divinity and Humanity without Confusion and Commixtion Farthermore They acknowledge the most Sacred Merits of Christ to be most sufficient and efficacious for the Sins of the whole world and consequently of all Mankind and this Gregory himself affirm'd to be true nor have I found in any of their Books which I have happen'd to see any thing that contradicts what he asserted However as the Greeks do they deny the Proceeding of the Holy Ghost from the Son yet all this while they acknowledge him to be equally the Spirit of the Father and the Son and to be a Person subsisting of himself For thus they declare in their Liturgy We believe the Father sending that the Father is in his own Person And we believe the Son who is sent that the Son is in his own Person and we believe the Holy Ghost who descended upon Jordan and upon the Apostles that the Holy Ghost is in his own Person Three Names One God Not as Abraham who is elder than Isaac nor as Isaac who is Elder than Jacob. It is not so The Father is not Elder than the Son because he is the Father nor the Son Elder than the Holy Ghost nor the Holy Ghost lesser or Younger than the Father and the Son nor is the Son Younger than the Father because he is the Son Not as Abraham who commanded over Isaac in respect of Generation because he begat him nor as Isaac who commanded Jacob. It is not so in Divinity The Father does not command the Son because he is the Father neither is the Son greater than the Holy Ghost because he is the Son The Father the Son and the Holy Ghost are Equal One God one Glory one Kingdom one Power one Empire But concerning the Hypostasis or Person of the Holy Ghost really distinct from the Father and the Son the Author of the Organon thus discourses But least any one from what has been already said should infer that the Holy Ghost is not a perfect and distinct Person therefore said Christ to his Apostles I will send you another Comforter By which we know that the Holy Ghost doth exist together with the Father and the Son and also together in his own proper Subsistance or Person Not that the Holy Ghost is partly in the Son partly in his own Person but one and the same existent in his proper Person and existent with the Father and the Son Gregory being ask'd whether this were the unanimous and constant Opinion of all the Ethiopian Doctors reply'd It was I thereupon urg'd Why they deny'd that the Holy Ghost proceeded from the Father seeing they asserted that he was equally the Spirit of the Father and the Son He desir'd That I would first expound what was meant by Proceeding from the Father and then he would give the reason of the Denyal and that for his part he kept to the words of the Scripture John 15.26 and 16.24 Who goeth out from the Father and takes from the Son and that he sought no farther For that it was not lawful in Disputes concerning the most abstruse Mysteries of the Holy Trinity to argue by Consequences but to stick close to the very words and Expressions of Scripture themselves That I should consider what would follow if we should argue from the Unity and Equality of Essence to the Characteristical Proprieties of the Persons As if any one should undertake to averr That Christ is the Son of the Holy Ghost because the Holy Ghost is one and Coeternal God with the Father Some such kind of Argument his Countryman Tzagazaab may be thought to have had in his Brain when he wrote That Christ was the Son of himself and the Beginning of himself because he was co-essential with the Father whose Son he was By the way we are to understand That the Ethiopians instead of the word Vazzea went forth or proceeded and in the Preterperfect tense use the word Saraz to budd or sprout forth Thus Claudius in his Confession I believe in the Holy Ghost reviving Lord Zasratz em Ab who proceeded or sprung from the Father They never add from the Son altho the Liturgy Printed at Rome and Tzagazaab's Confession runs thus Zasraz em Ab vavalde who sprouted forth or proceeded from the Father and the Son Where 't is much to be doubted that from the Son was inserted by another hand We proceed to the Sacraments of which they neither have the common name nor number For they are utterly ignorant of Confirmation and Extreme Unction They make use of the word Mastar for a Mysterie whenever they go about to intimate the Mysterie of the Participation of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ Otherwise they do not think it necessary to signifie the Seals of Faith by any other Vulgar name not us'd in Scripture or to make much dispute about the Number Only said Gregory They make use of Baptism according to the Institution of Christ and with the Ceremonies anciently made use of by the Church But the Fathers of the Society reported That the Ceremonies of Baptism were so deprav'd and corrupted among the Habessines that they were constrain'd to Rebaptize great Numbers under a Condition As for the Holy Communion they Administer it indifferently to all both Layety and Clergy as it is the Custom in all the Churches of the East Neither has any thing more alienated their minds from the Fathers than their finding the Layety to be depriv'd of the Cup by the Latins Gregory being demanded what he thought of the real Presence of the Body and Blood in the Lord's Supper made answer That he acknowledged it Adding withal according to his manner when any Discourses arose of Matters more difficult and abstruse than ordinary Retzitze nagare vet 't is a nice business or Mastar vet It is a Mystery When I produc'd him these words in the Liturgies Lord now lay thy hand upon this Dish Bless it Sanctifie it and Purifie it that so thy Body may be made holy therein Again Lay thy hand upon this Cup and now bless it sanctifie it and purifie it that thy Blood may become holy therein In another place Lay thy hand upon this Spoon of the Cross to prepare the Body and Blood of thy only Son our Lord and God And in another place Convert this Bread that it may become thy pure Body which is joyn'd with this Cup of thy most precious Blood And out of the Eucharistic Prayer which bears the Title of the 318 Orthodox Divines these
friendship cannot long remain in one and the same Brest and that the fruit of Treason being reap'd there is no farther need of the Traitor the King commanded him to be apprehended and carried away into the steep Mountain of Gueman in the Kingdom of Gojam He would not put him to death as not believing it became a noble Prince to take away a mans life for fear of a future crime But he making his Escape about a year after invaded Waleka where having gather'd together some Troops of Vagabonds and dissolute Persons he supported himself by Robbery and Rapine till at last making his Incursions into Gojam he was there slain by the Pagans His head being brought to the King was fix'd upon a Lance and set up before the Royal Pavillion to be view'd by all the World no man pitying his misfortune in regard that all people knew his advancement had cost the loss of so many innocent lives Not so inglorious was the end of Ras-Athanasius and yet sufficiently miserable For he every day losing more and more of the Kings favour was at length the contempt of all men Insomuch that his wife the daughter of Malec-Saghed unaccustom'd to brook indignities forsook his bed Thus once the next to Supream authority now the next to most dejected misery not able to o'recome the anguish of his mind he fell into a Fever of which he dy'd But Susneus to establish himself in his Dominion by all ways courted the friendship of the Portugueses as being skilful in the art of Gunnery and Fire-arms the chiefest terror of those Nations hoping that not without reason by their assistance to defend himself as well against his own Subjects too much addicted to Tumults and Seditions as the Kindred and Friends of the slain Kings And not only so but to render himself formidable to the Gallans To that purpose he kindly receiv'd the Fathers of the Society then living in Dembea He sent for Peter-Pays and most courteously gave ear to him and treated him as his familiar Friend And as he was favourable and bountiful to them so did he dayly afford many testimonies of his kindness to the rest of the Portugueses and the more to oblige them he set up the Latin Religion nothing terrify'd by the example of Za-denghel And indeed the Fathers had such a power over him that at length he surrender'd himself to the Pope and together with his Son sware obedience to him as Universal Bishop and Vicar of Christ abrogating the Religion of Alexandria Which was afterwards the occasion of horrid uproars bloody wars and the slaughter of many great Personages But the possession of a Kingdom won by the Sword seldom enjoys a perfect tranquility especially when the death of the Predecessor comes be in question For presently that is to say the very next year up starts a counterfeit Jacob who alarum'd all Habessinia with the fear of a new War Some there were that acknowledg'd they both knew and saw the dead body of King Jacob after the blood was wip'd away but no man durst assert himself to be the Person that kill'd him The Counterfeit therefore addresses himself to the Monks of the famous Monastery of Bizan in the prefecture of Bahrnagassus where he remain'd and to hide the fraud as if his face had bin disfigur'd with his wounds went always vail'd Nor was it long before his Story was believ'd Not so much out of respect to his own Person as out of malice to Susneus whom they hated as a Person that was unknown to them and by his exilement inur'd to the Savage Customs of the Gallans Neither were they pleas'd with Raas-Seelech his brother by the Mother's side whom he had made Viceroy of Tigra whom they look'd upon also as a forraigner So that he not being able himself to quell the Disturbances the King was forc'd to advance himself But the Rebels having intelligence of his coming fled several ways to avoyd fighting Their Captain with only four of his Associates and some few Goats which he carry'd with him for their milks sake secur'd themselves by a painful Pilgrimage through the most wild and uncouth concealments of Nature that the Rocks could afford him where it was impossible to trace him So that the King dispairing after a tedious search to find him out return'd to Dembea and having solemniz'd his Inauguration at Axuma after the ancient Custom of the Country he made Ansalax Governor of Tigra in the room of his Brother who afterwards by the help of two Noblemen that counterfeited themselves their friends having apprehended the Rebels put them to death But what was more strange our Europe it self could not some time after discern an Aethiopian Counterfeit of the same name For in the Year 1631. a certain Impudent Counterfeit by the names of (i) For so the Ethiopic word Tzaga Christos is pronounced There is a Relation of this Person extant Entitl'd The Strange Accidents of the Travels of His Highness Prince Zaga-Christ of Ethiopia c. very absurd and full of Fables Tzagax assuming to himself to be the Son of Jacob came into France and producing several Recommendatory Letters and Certificates from the Credulous Monks of Palestine was taken for a Great Prince and expell'd Heir to the Kingdom of Ethiopia and Entertain'd with a large Pension from the King after the Example of some of the Princes of Italy which is to consider what may be Correspondent with their Munificence toward an Exile of so great Dignity rather then to enquire who he really is Which was to be admir'd For that both at Rome and in Portugal there were at that time extant several annual Relations by which it was apparent that Jacob was slain in Battel Young and never marry'd above Twenty years before But that which added to the Credit of the Impostor was his graceful Presence with a Countenance wherein Seriousness and Frankness were wonderfully intermix'd that while he kept company with other Princes as Bochart himself told me he seem'd to excel them all both for beauty of form and sweetness of disposition and particularly that his Majestick Aspect strook all his beholders with admiration Whether that Beauty were really in his Person or whether the Novelty of the thing or the Opinion that he was of the Race of Salomon byass'd their Judgments Tho otherwise no reason could be given why he acted the part of the Son of an Ethiopian King unless it were to contend with (k) Relating to the Daughters of Thespius Hercules or (l) See Suetonius in Claud. Juvenal Sat. 6. Tacit. Annal. l. XI Plin. X. 23. Messalina for the prize of most enormous Lust And indeed it may be thought that fearing his Imposture should be discover'd he rather chose to bring himself to his end by the pleasing debaushes of Luxury than to fall under the Hangman Being dead he was branded with this Epitaph Cy gist le Roy d'Ethiopie L'Original ou la Copie Here lyes the King
was any such thing either written or said by any Person of Credit CHAP. II. Of the Books and Learning of the Ethiopians Books not holy reckon'd Ethiopic Their Studies what No written Laws Lamentable Physicians Nor better Philosophers Of the mixture of the Elements in Humane Bodies They hold two Souls In Mathematicks not absurd They love Poetry but only Divine all in Rhime various sorts Riddles and Proverbs Desirous of the Latine The Fathers would not teach them Arabic frequent Their Epistolary Style BEsides Sacred Books the Habessines have but very few others For the Story of (f) Vrreta did not think worth while to tell so modest an untruth The most celebrated Libraries saith he that ever had Renown were nothing in respect of Presbyter John's the Books are without Number richly and artificially bound Many to which Solomon's and the Patriarchs Names are Affixt Godignus explodes him l. 1. c. 17. Yet Gallesius in his late Discourse concerning Libraries averrs the same and adds That Chancellor Seguiers Library contains more Books than any Ethiopic Library Barratti who chatters of a Library containing Ten Thousand Volumes 't is altogether vain and frivolous Some few we had an Account of One call'd the Glory of Kings already mention'd I know not whether it be that of which Tellez Writes because it is of high Authority among the Habessines and as it were a Second Gospel and preserv'd in the Pallace of Axuma In that is Recorded the History of the Queen of Sheba and others to which the Habessines give great Credit A Chronicle cited by King Claudius in his Confession of Faith The Book of Philosophy much esteem'd in Ethiopia The Ladder a Vocabulary in that the most difficult words are Expounded in Amharic and Arabic but very unfortunately and perversly As the following Example about Gemms will Testifie It was sent me by Gregory The Jasper in the Pentateuch and Apocalyps in the Arabic the Colour of it is White and Red. The Saphyr in the Pentateuch and Apocalyps in Arabic The Colour of it is like a burning Cole he meant the Carbuncle now call'd the Ruby They meddle with no Studies but those of their own Learned Language and Sacred Matters Most believe they have enough if they can but Read and Write and that either the Parents teach their Children to do or else certain of their Monks for a small stipend They have no written Laws Justice and Right is determined by Custom and the Examples of their Ancestors and most differences are ended by the Will of the Judge Their manner of Administring Physick is most Deplorable They Cure Men by cutting and burning as they do Horses They cure the Yellow Jaundies by applying a hot burning Iron in manner of a Semicircle toward the upper end of the Arm laying a little Cotton upon the Wound that the Humour may issue forth so long as the Disease remains In most Distempers every Person is his own Physitian and uses such Herbs as he learnt were useful from his Parents Some are of Opinion that it is not a Pin matter whether they make use of Physitians or Apothecaries or no not believing it worth their while to be recover'd at so great Expences If the King be sick they come to him ask him as if it were out of pity What he ayles and what is his Distemper And if any one have been ill of the same Distemper he tells what did him good deeming the same Remedies applicable to all Constitutions If a Pestilence chance to break out they leave their Houses and Villages and retire with their Heards into the Mountains putting all their Security in flying from the Contagion Tertian Agues they Cure by applying the Cramp-fish to the Patient which is an unspeakable Torture Wounds they Cure by the help of Myrrhe which is very plentiful among them I have not as yet ever seen the Treatise of Philosophy which I mention'd at the beginning of the Chapter but it appears by the Theological Disputations of their Divines that they are none of the Acutest Logicians nor have they any knowledge of Natural Philosophy as is apparent to any one that reads their Books concerning the mixture of the Four Elements in the Creation of Man as also concerning the Soul the Author of the Organum gives this accompt God made a Miracle when he Created our Father Adam and Formed him of the Four Elements he mixed the Elements yet so that they should not disagree among themselves the First with the Second and the Third with the Fourth he mix'd the dry with the Moist and the Hot with the Cold the Visible with the Invisible the Palpable with the Impalpable He made Two out of the Palpable and Two out of the Impalpable He made Three of the Dry and One of the Moist He made Three out of the Visible and One out of the Invisible The great Architect knew where the Inner Chamber was to be Seated and plac'd the Corners of the House in the Four Elements and understanding that a vessel of Clay could not move nor speak without the mixture of a Spirit that must come from Himself therefore he Breath'd upon his Face and made him Rational and Self-moving as saith the most Holy Law He Breath'd into the Face of Adam the breathing place of Life and he became Man by the Breath of Life Therefore the Soul dies not with the Body for that proceeding out of the Mouth of the Lord it was mixt with the Body as saith our Lord in the Gospel Fear not those who kill the Body but cannot kill the Soul Now as to what he said Thou shalt not kill the Soul be spoke concerning the sensitive Soul because there are two Souls in Man one the Spirit of Life which proceeded out of the Mouth of God not reckon'd among the Elements and which never dyes The other is the Blood of the Body that is to say the Sensitive Soul which has its Original from the Elements and that is Morral Wherefore God said Thou shalt not eat the Flesh with the Blood because the Blood is the Sensitive Soul But the Pillar of the House of God is the Spirit of Life Now after the Spirit of Life is departed the Body becomes a Carcass therefore the Law pronounc'd the Carcass Unclean because the Spirit of Life is departed from it But among us we reckon the Dead Body of a Christian to be clean because the Human Body was mix'd with the Blood of Divinity besides that the Grace of Baptism departs not from it and concerning the Carcass of the Son of the Virgin David said They cast away their Brother as an unclean Carcass That is they did not understand it to be holy because the Jews were his Brethren in respect of his Mother and by their Law the Carcass was reputed unclean It is to be wondred that the Habessines who cannot understand two Natures in Christ united in one Existence should find out two Souls in the body of Man And yet