several Tolls pay'd but generally granted to the Nobility for their subsistance except those of the high Mountain Lamalmona over which all the Merchants and Merchandize must pass from the Red Sea into Habessinia which the King reserves to himself He also has his Lands and Farms from whence he is serv'd with Provisions for his Table ten or twelve Horse-Loads at a time Lastly Dembea Gojam and Bagemdra find him Corn and Flesh That which he receives out of Dembea is distributed among the Souldiers which have no Land or else among the Poor But his chief Tribute is from the Graziers who are bound to pay him every Tenth Oxe or Cow every Three Years which is as much as if they should pay the 30th every Year And the whole Empire is so divided that every Year he has his certain Tribute of Cows and Oxen. Besides every Year every Christian Weaver pays him a Fustian Garment Every Mahumetan a Drim or Patach which amounts to a Thousand Imperials every Year Most certainly the Revenues of this Empire seem to be very small if we consider the Extent of so many Large Provinces But on the other side we are to observe That the Prices of all things are very low A huge Oxe may be bought for half a Dollar The Souldiers live upon Flesh and Fish without bread and Servants Wages are paid in necessary Commodities not in money Again if we consider the plenty of all things the Abissine Emperour has enough and to spare not that his Diadem glisters with Gemms or Pearls or that his Treasuries are full of Money or that his Cupboards shine with Silver and Gold Plate or that his Table is spread with Forraign Banquets while his Subjects are in want his Courtiers poor and his Souldiers under penury But he has that which suffices to afford him moderate Dyet and slender Cloathing Then for his Souldiers and his Warlike Subjects that is to say his poor People they detain'd at home by no delicacies are ready still to gird on their Swords Which they who dexterously and courageously know how to weild in a good Cause need never want Gold nor Silver nor what ever Mortals esteem pretious and desireable CHAP. XI Of the Royal City of Axuma and the Inauguration of the King Axuma the Metropolis of Habessinia formerly Now more like a Village Thus the West forsak'n by the Greek Emperours The Situation good The King there formerly Crown'd The Ceremonies of Inauguration Some other Towns of Habessinia They live in Villages No Forts nor Castles They wonder great Cities can last THe Royal City of the Abissines and formerly the Metropolis of the whole Empire is by the (x) Of which Nonnosus in Bibliothec Phot. n 3. p. m. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Auxuma is a very great City and as it were the Metropolis of all Ethiopia erroneously Chaxumo in Alvarez c. 17. Habissines call'd Ascum from whence as we have already observ'd they were formerly call'd Axumites Of old this City was adorn'd with most beautiful Structures a fair Palace and a Cathedral proudly vaunting her Obelisks Sculptures and several sumptuous Edifices Some of the Pillars are still to be seen with Inscriptions of unknown Letters remaining arguments of their Antiquity now demolish'd by the Wars or defac'd with Age. The City it self now totally ruin'd looks more like a Village than a Town of Note so fading and inconstant are those things which men account most durable How many Cities how many Monuments now lye in ashes whose Founders are well known and how many are yet in being whose Founders are unknown As for this it began to fall to decay by degrees presently after that the Kings of Habessinia relinquish'd it and remov'd their Court from thence as being depriv'd of those advantages that attend the abodes of Princes Thus the Seat of the Empire being Translated to Byzantium the West was neglected And the same Fate no doubt had certainly befallen Rome had it not bin sustain'd by the Care of the Bishops now the Roman Pontiffs In the time of the Adelan Warr the Revolt of the Vice-Roy of Tigra in the Raign of King Menas and lastly when the Turks invaded that Country it was totally lay'd wast and now can scarcely shelter a hundred Inhabitants onely the Ruines still remain to testifie that once it was great and populous It is Seated in the Fourteenth degree and a half of Northern Latitude Encircled with pleasant and fertile Fields which afford a Prospect becoming a Royal Mansion It lies distant from the Red-Sea Five and forty Portugal Leagues or six or Seaven tiresom days Journey by reason of the Mountains that lye between The antient things of Ethiopia were wont to be here inaugurated nor would Susneus admit of his Coronation in any other place though when he related the particulars of the Ceremonies to the Commander of the Portugueses he could not but laugh at them as ridiculous himself For many things are to be done by Princes to please the Vulgar which to others may seem superfluous Such as were for the most part the Solemn Ceremonies of the Antients invented by mean Capacities but retain'd by the more prudent Tellezius thus sets them down When Susneus was to be Crown'd first the Masters of the Ceremonies read to the King out of their Memorandums how and in what order every thing was to be perform'd The Army being drawn up the Foot march'd first then follow'd the Horse with their Trappings after them the Courtiers Comb'd and neatly habited presently appear'd the Emperour himself upon a stately Prauncer clad with a close Purple Damascene Tunic and over that a magnificent Attalic Vestment with narrow Sleeves hanging down to the ground When they came to a great Stone engraven with Forraign Characters not far from the Church of Axuma near to which the Solemnities of the Inauguration us'd to be perform'd the Emperour with all the Courtiers alighting from their Horses stood upon the Ground that was spread with rich Carpets At what time the Virgins of Axuma holding a Silken Cord cross the Street stopp'd the Way and as the King press'd to go forwards they hindred him and ask'd him Who he was who answering I am the King of the Israelites They reply'd Surely thou art not our King Which said he retir'd smiling At length being ask'd a third time he reply'd I am the King of Sion and drawing forth his Cimitar cut the Cord which done the Virgin cry'd out Of a certainty thou art our King of Sion Presently all the Guns they have are fir'd and the neighbouring Mountains rang with loud Acclamations the Drums beat to the noise of the Flutes and the Trumpets fill'd the Air with harmonious Levets Which done the Metropolitan Simeon accompany'd with all the Ecclesiastical Orders of Clerks Monks and Canons singing several Songs and Hymns conducted the King to the first Porch of the Church and there set the Diadem upon his Head The King being crown'd if it may be so call'd
retain never pester'd with confusion either marching or sitting still The constant disposal and largeness of the Camp may be understood from hence that the same Dialect and the same words continue in the same Streets and Quarters in other Quarters another sort of words and a different Dialect as for Dala a word used in the Front of the Camp which signifies to put in the Vulgar in the Rear Quarter say Tshammara Of old before the Gallans conquer'd it the Camp was pitch'd in Shewa a fertile and most plentiful Countrey But for the most part in December and that for three or four years together in one place In the beginning of Susneus's Reign in the year 1607 they pitch'd at Coga Thence they remov'd to Gorgora in the year 1612 from thence to Dancaza and lastly to Guendra which place Bernier because he had heard perhaps that it was the Residence of the King calls the Metropolis of Ethiopia of which perhaps in a few years there will be nothing to be seen These Camps take up a vast deal of room as well in the Summer as in the Winter for they do not onely contain the Souldiers but their Wives and their Children whose work it is to bake their Bread and make their Hydromel So that the weak and helpless multitude far exceeds the number of the Souldiery Nor are they without Merchants and Tradesmen of all sorts besides Slaves and Lackeys necessary for such a Multitude So that the Camp looks more like an Ambulatory City and moving Houses then a Martial Camp So many Tents and Pavilions seeming a far off to represent the Prospect of some great Town But less wonderful is that which is reported out of India That near the Island of Sumatra there are certain Cities if they may be so call'd which are always swimming and yet great Markets and Fairs are kept therein and many People live there who have no other Country or Habitation Now for the Camp masters whom the Ethiopians call Sebea Catine they carry a great sway in managing the Succession of the Kings and affairs of greatest moment The Kings also themselves are guided by them in making and abrogating Laws and generally they are the first springs of Faction and Sedition And as formerly the Pretorean Bands gave Laws to Prince and People so among the Habessines the effect of all Consultations good or bad derive themselves from the Camp CHAP. XIV Of the Military Affairs of the Habessines Continual war The Winter causes a Truce The Habessines good Soldiers Strong and active They serve without pay They plunder the Countries as they march The Gallans secur'd by their Poverty The Habessines ignorant in Fire-Arms Few Muskets and fewer Musketeteers Their Armies consist most of Foot Light Armour Drumms us'd by the Horse Their Weapons Bad Discipline because they count it no shame to flie Their Onsets furious Their Rocks are their Fortresses The King Commands in chief Theives unpunish'd THat the Habessines are a Warlike People and continually exercis'd in War we have already declar'd neither is there any respit but what is caus'd by the Winter at what time by reason of the Inundations of the Rivers they are forc'd to be quiet For they have neither Ships nor Boats neither do they know how to make Bridges to command a passage over their violent Streams Concerning which Gregory wrote to me in these words There is no making War in Ethiopia in the Winter time neither does the Enemy attack us nor we them by reason of the great falls of Rain and the Inundations of the Rivers Tellezius also further testifies That the Habessines are good Souldiers They ride and manage a Horse well and readily take Arms as well in obedience to their Soveraign as for other causes already mention'd They are strong They endure hunger and thrist beyond belief and with little sustenance can brook any unseasonable sort of weather They serve without pay contented with honour and applause and such Lands as the King after the Roman Custom bestows upon the well deserving Therefore they must certainly be thought to sight much more generously and faithfully in the defence of their Countrey then Hirelings They expect no part of the Enemies Booty nor no redemption and therefore never serve them in the Field and because they know not the art of protracting a War therefore they never are sparing of themselves to return home rich However the Poverty of the Souldiers impoverishes the Countries through which they march For in regard it is a difficult thing to carry Provisions over such steep and rugged Mountains and long wayes they take by force what is not freely given them and by that means lay wast their own Countries no less then their Enemies whereby the poor Countrey people are constrain'd to turn Souldiers and so taught to deal by others as they were dealt with themselves For which reason they neither can vanquish nor make any long pursuit after the Gallans who being retir'd with their Droves the Pursuers find nothing left behind but Lands untill'd and empty Cottages So invincible a Fortress is Poverty to withstand the stoutest Enemy But as we have said already Those Gallans might easily be vanquish'd did but the Habessines know the use of Muskets Tellezius writes that they have among them about fifteen hundred Musquets but not above four Musqueteers and they but very bad Fire-men neither neither do the Commanders know how to place and order them to the best advantage and therefore after they have once discharg'd the Enemy rushes on so furiously before they can charge again that they they are forc'd to to throw their Musquets away and then another thing is they have but very little Powder The biggest Army which the King brings now into the Field hardly amounts to Forty thousand Men among which he has not above Four or Five thousand Horse the rest are all Foot Their horses are couragious and mettlesome but they never get upon their backs till they are ready to charge the Enemy at other times they ride their Mules and lead their Horses They are slightly arm'd after the manner of the antient Velites and tho their Stirrups are no bigger then onely to thrust in their great Toes least if the Horse should fall their feet should be hung in the Stirup yet they sit very fast Their Weapons are Swords and Darts as also Launces and short Javelins with which they fight at a distance after which they dispute it hand to hand with their Swords or Launces and Bucklers Their War like Musick for the Horse are Drums much bigger then ours and the King 's which are the biggest go by the name of the Bear and the Lyon Besides which several Hornes and Fifes march before Him They for the most part are arm'd with two Spears of which they dart away the one at a distance and maintain a close fight with the other defending themselves with their Bucklers The Horse never fight a foot nor the Foot a
according to the frequent and ancient custom of the Orientals CHAP. VIII Of the Rivers of Habessinia more especially of Nile its Fountains and Course as also of the Lake Tzana Many Rivers there more precious than Metals The Fountains originally from Rain-water An Encomium of Nilus In Scripture it is call'd The River 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Schichor or Niger By some of the ancients Astapus and Astaboras In the Amharic Dialect call'd Abawi or the Patent of Rivers it flows not in Paradise as some of the Fathers thought Admiration caus'd the desire of knowing its Original that the Ancients plac'd in the Mountains of the Moon The Portugals discover'd the true Fountains their description from Peter Pays not different from Gregories It rises in Sicut it has five Heads It mixes with the Lake in Dembea It passes by the principal Kingdoms of Habassia encircles Gojam runs through Egypt and so into the Sea Gregories Ethiopic Description He alledges That all the Rivers of Africa fall into Nile He limits that assertion Some fall into the Sea The true causes of the overflowing of Nile Jovius blam'd A double Channel of Nile Niger the other Channel The old Relation in Herodotus explain'd Whether the King of Hebessynia can divert the Course of Nile Rivers suckt up in the Sand. Zebeus falls into the Indian Sea The Habessines unskill'd in Navigation The Tzanic Lake with its Islands BUT much more excelling and far more precious Gifts of Nature than those of Metals flow from the Mountains of Habessinia that is to say several remarkable Rivers more profitable to the Natives and the neighbouring Nations than Gold it self so much the Subject of human Avarice For the Rain-water soaking through the pores of the Earth and the clefts of the Rocks is receiv'd and as it were cistern'd up in the hidden Caverns of the Mountains where after it has pass'd through many secret conveyances of Nature at length it meets with some hollow place and breaks forth Sometimes oppress'd by its own weight it reascends and seeks for passage at the tops of the Mountains themselves which is the reason that in Countries where there is little or no Rain there are few or no Fountains but where there are frequent Rains the Rivers are large and swelling The Effect demonstrating the Cause (c) No truer opinion concerning the Original of Rivers Aristotle quotes it in his Meteorologies l. 1. s 4. c. 1. but without reason dissents Most Neoterics defend it See Isaac Vossius De Origine Nili Fluminum c. v. But Nilus owing to Habassia for its source for plenty of Water for sweetness wholsomness and fertility of the same excells all other Rivers of the World In sacred Writ by reason of its Excellency it is sometimes call'd Isa 23.3 The River absolutely and particularly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from its black Colour and by the Greeks for the same reason 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because it runs with black a muddy Water Some of the Ancients tell us Plin. 5.9 7.3 that it was then by the Ethiopians call'd Astapus and that the left Channel of it about Meroe was nam'd Astabora which others have understood concerning other Rivers that flow into Nile But this we let pass as obscure and doubtful whether meant of Nilus and our Ethiopians or no for the Habessines in their vulgar Language have no other name for Nile than that of Abawi And that as some think from the word Ab which signifies a Parent as if Nilus were the Parent of all other Rivers But this derivation neither suits with Grammar neither does (d) It is in the form of an Adjective Heavenly Golden So Abawi signifies Paternal Abawi simply signifie a Parent neither if you rightly consider it is it agreeable to Sense for Nilus does not send forth from his own Bowels but receives the Tribute of all other Rivers So that he may be rather said to be their Captain and Prince than the Father of them And therefore the Egyptians out of a vain Superstition call'd him their Preserver their Sun and their God and sometimes Poetically Parent In our Ethiopic or the Language of the Books this River is call'd Gejon or Gewon by an ancient mistake from the (e) For in the time of the 70 Interpreters it was so called who render'd Shichor Jer 2.18 where the Prophet speaks positively of Nile 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gihon The same you shall find in the Book of Syras Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Geon and that from the Hebrew word Gihon because it seem'd to agree with the Description Gen. 2.13 which encompasses the Land of Ethiopia whereas it only encircles Gojam but only glides and passes by all the other Kingdoms of Ethiopia If you object That Gihon had its source in the Terrestrial Paradise 't is twenty to one but that they extol their own Country for Paradise For you must understand that many of the Fathers of the (f) Theodoret in c. 2. Gen. 9.19 Austin l. 8. de gen c. 7. Abulens in c. 2. Gen. 9.15 26.9.2 Church were of the same opinion which that they might defend they brought the River Nile under Ground and under the Sea into Egypt well knowing that no body would follow them thither leaving their Readers to find out the way Certainly the Ancients never inquir'd so curiously into the Nature or Source of any River as they did in that of Nile neither were they ever so deceiv'd for it was a thing altogether unusual for any other Rivers in the World to overflow in the most sultry Season of the year an Inundation so wholsom and profitable to Egypt So that the ignorance of the cause of it fill'd the minds of the Ancients with so much admiration that both Princes and private Persons desired nothing more than to know the Head of that River which was the Original of their Happiness in so much that there were some Emperours and Kings who sent great Armies in quest of the satisfaction of their Curiosity tho with all success (g) As Cambyses Alexander Ptol. Philadelph J. Caesar Nero c. Most of the ancient Geographers by meer conjecture plac'd the Fountains of this River beyond the Equinoctial Line in I know not what Mountains of the Moon to the end they might deduce the cause of its swelling from the Winter Rains of those Regions For they could not persuade themselves that the Sun being in the Northern Signs so much Winter or Rain could be so near to cause so great an increase of the Flood tho there were (h) So Pliny l. 17. c. 18. wherever Summer Rains are not as in India and Ethiopia some who made it out plainly enough but that Credit would not be given to them (i) Photin in Bibl. n. 249. in the Life of Pythag. Agatharchides Strabo and others See Vossius d. l. c. 20. But by the Travels of the Portugals into Habessinia and the sedulity of the Fathers
desires only mending the Ethiopic Mass but with apparent Detriment to his Authority For now the ancient Liturgies were every day read again without Contradiction the Report running abroad that the Emperor was return'd to the Old Religion The Patriarch's Power thus shaken the Courtiers still whisper'd in the King's Ears That the Roman Religion was become odious to all the People and that his Person would be in great Danger unless he also forsook it himself These Insinuations were back't by an Accident which tho ridiculous in it self gave a being to several Rumors and Reports For one day an Enthusiast came into the Palace and cry'd out That he was sent from God and the most Holy Virgin to declare in their own words to the King that unless he forthwith return'd to the antient Religion he should within a Fortnight undergo most severe Chastisements The King made answer That he would live and die in the Roman Religion and that the Messenger might the more speedily return his answer Commanded him to be Hang'd But at the Intercession of several who asserted the poor Fellow to be Frantick he only receiv'd a severe drubbing for the reward of his sawcy Prophesie Howevet tho he were laugh'd at by the Courtiers yet he so strangely stirr'd the minds of the Vulgar that they publickly reported That an Angel had bin sent from Heaven and that he had admonish'd the King to return to the ancient Alexandrian Faith In the mean while the inbred hatred against the Fathers daily increasing was greatly augmented by the envy of the Courtiers For they incens'd the King and his Eldest Son against Ras-Seelax the Fathers chief Friend and Patron of the Portugueses under pretence of their great care admonshing the two Princes To take heed that he did not abuse the Renown he had won in War and the favour of the Portugueses to invade the Royal Dignity That which more heighten'd these growing Jealousies was a misinterpreted act of Ras-Seelax who having order'd one Lecanax to be apprehended for Calumnies and Scandalous Reports thrown upon himself caus'd him afterwards to be put to Death tho he had appeal'd to the King This they said was done by Seelax not that the Person was guilty of the Crimes which were lay'd to his Charge but to remove out of the way one that was Privy to the Treasons and Conspiracies of Seelax Whereupon the King depriv'd him instantly of great part of his Lands remov'd him out of Gojam and took from him his Military Commands In the mean time tho Tecla-George had suffer'd and that the Heads of the Rebellion were taken off yet the Rebellion it self continu'd and the strength of it daily increas'd in such manner that it became the Original of Dismal and Diuturnal Commotions For the Agawi that inhabit the Mountains of Bagemdra had not yet lay'd down their Arms but being as they pretended more and more provok'd by-the King kept them in their hands to revenge their Injuries And the better to defend themselves they call'd to their Aid one Melcax a young Man of the Royal Blood who had bin bred among the Gallans and created him their Leader To him therefore as to a Sanctuary flock'd all those that bare any disaffection to the King all that hated the Roman Religion especially the Monks and lastly several of the Villagers and Country People All these thus embody'd were call'd Lasteners from Lasta a most invincible Rock and the chief Seat of the Rebellion And indeed it seem'd a vast Torrent of War ready to break forth to the utter Extirpation of the Fathers and all those of the Roman Religion if it prov'd so kind to spare the Royal Family it self Against these therefore the King having rais'd an Army of Seven and twenty Thousand Men marches himself in Person but with ill success at first For the Country People defended by the Security of the place as the Royalists came on still beat them off by rolling down whole Quarries at a time of ponderous Stones upon their heads which having put the Royalists into great disorder they came down and surrounded all the King 's Left Wing so that had not Kebax come to their relief with 300 fresh Men they had bin all cut to pieces The Soldiers being discourag'd by this overthrow the King who for that reason durst not adventure any further for that time left part of his Army to defend the Borders and hast'ning home was forc'd to recall See-lax lurking like an Exile in Gojam In the mean time the Tutelar Bands whether for fear or finding themselves too weak forsook their Posts so that the Lastaneers ravag'd all the Country as they pleas'd without Opposition till Seelax being got within their reach drave them back into their former Holes While this Rebellion rag'd in Bagemdra another broke out in Amhara being headed by Luca-Marjam near in Blood to the Royal Family but he being prevented and surpriz'd by the swift March of Ras-Seelax ended his Days and his Design together by falling from the Precipice of a Rock But the same good Fortune did not attend Kebax who impatient of delay and observing the Avenues more negligently guarded than they us'd to be the bait that betray'd him conceiv'd no less than that Opportunity it self had now proffer'd him the Victory So in he marches finding all clear before him for the present but no sooner was he in when those Mountaneers accustom'd to clamber their own Rocks and us'd to the By-ways and conceal'd Passages of that Rock were all on a sudden before and behind him so that after a great Slaughter of his Men deserted by the rest he was himself after a matchless defence oppress'd by Multitudes and Slain His and the Fall of Tegur-Egzi which soon after follow'd gave the Fathers no cause of Thanksgivings but afforded their Enemies great Opportunities and great Arguments to press the King to withdraw his Favours from them For observing their time when they perceiv'd him sad and perplex'd at so much ill Success and so many Revolts Oh Sir said they What will be the Issue of all these Combats and pernicious Wars Those illiterate Swains understand not the Mysteries of the Roman Worship nor any other Service of God then what they have bin bred and brought up to They call us Turks and Mahumetans because we have abandon'd our ancient Liturgies for this reason they have taken Arms and chosen to themselves a King For Melcax pufft up with the Success of his Affairs was arriv'd at that height of boldness that nothing now would serve him but the assum'd Title of a King He had distributed his Court-Employments after the manner of the Kings of Ethiopia among his Friends and daily increas'd in Number For all that abominated the Fathers chiefly the Nobility of Tigra privately gave him Encouragements and exhorted him not to desist from what he had so prosperously begun and that then neither the Affections of the People nor the Assistance of his Friends would be
view taken from the Saracenic History In those days that is in the days of Michael the Patriarch Nilus fail'd extreamly Mustansir therefore a Mahumetan Prince of Egypt sent him to the Country of the Habessines with costly Gifts and other things of high value Whereupon the King of the Country came forth to meet him whom the Patriarch reverenc'd publicly After that the King demanded of him the cause of his coming Then the Patriarch made known to the King how that the Waters of Nile fail'd in Egypt to the unspeakable detriment of the Land and Inhabitants Thereupon in favour of the Patriarch the King commanded the Channel to be open'd through which the Water ran into Egypt which was then stopp'd up Which being done Nilus encreas'd three yards in one night and the River was so fill'd that the Fields of Egypt were water'd and sown So that the Patriarch return'd with great Honour into Egypt I could wish to hear the opinions of those that deny this place The words are clear of themselves that the King commanded the Channel that was stopp'd to be open'd The Historian himself is accounted a credible Author bred and born in Egypt as also Secretary to the Mahometan Princes of that Country So that he could not possibly be ignorant of such an accident and besides he wrote his History above a hundred and twenty years after the thing happen'd And therefore had it been an untruth he durst not have mention'd it for fear of being contradicted which he might easily have been But it may be objected That the Historian does not mention by whom the Channel was obstructed or whether it happen'd as many times it does naturally when the course of a Stream is damm'd up by trunks of Trees Mud and Stones driven by force and heap'd together in the narrow passages of the Water But this Objection does not resolve the doubt for such remarkable stops rarely or never happen in such large or violent Rivers Or if Nature could effect so much what might not be accomplish'd by Art Athanasius Kircher a person not only generally vers'd in the Affair of Egypt but more particularly in what related to the River Nile in his Catalogue of the Patriarchs of Egypt relates That one (t) In Supplement Prod. and Lexic Capt. p. 524. c. 2. This Michael was the 68th Patriarch of the Jacobites and dy'd about the year 1110. Michael was sent into Ethiopia for the restoring of Nile to its Channel from whence the Ethiopians had directed the Course of its Waters tho it be the fault of that learned Man to write much rather than accurately nor does he always commend his Authors The Question being put to Gregory he did not remember the Story of Michael but that he had heard from persons of great Credit That not far from the Cataracts of Nile all the Land toward the East lies level and unless it were for one Mountain that stands in the way Nile would rather flow that way than into Egypt or the Northern Sea So that if that Mountain were digg'd through a thing to be done with pains and difficulty the Course of the River might be turn'd and carry'd into the Red-Sea which is well known to the Turks and many of the Portugals And for this reason have the Emperours of Ethiopia obtain'd those advantagious Conditions from the Saracens Nay it is said That once one of the Ethiopian Emperours had an intention to have done it and had commanded his Subjects to undertake the Work but that he was prevail'd upon to desist at the entreaty of the Egyptian Christians I must confess this thing has very much perplex'd my thoughts nor are the Reasons that are brought against it to be contemn'd For either to raise a Mole or Dam of Stones and then to remove it again are things requiring so much toyl and labour that the Task does no way agree with the nature of the Abessines And it seems somewhat unlikely that so vast a River so long accustom'd to a declining and headlong Course should be diverted and compell'd to change its Channel I consider'd also with my self that if the King of Habessinia had the River Nile so much in his Power he might have all Egypt easily at his Devotion and that the Turk could deny him nothing whatever he demanded Nor would he ever suffer the Christians of his own Religion and the Patriarch who is the Head of his Church to groan under such a miserable Bondage Lastly I did not a little wonder that the Jesuits did not insinuate it into the heads of the Abessines to make use of that Power which Nature had put into their hands and that they did not use Threats rather than Intreaties and Bribes to obtain those conveniencies which they enjoy by the favour of the Turkish Basha who commands the Ports of the Red-Sea But all things consider'd and rejecting the History of Elmacine we may answer Tellez from the Relation of Gregory which is That a new Channel may be carry'd on not from those parts of Abessinia which lie upon the Nile and are so many Leagues distant from the Sea but from that part which is near the Cataracts and formerly perhaps belong'd to Nubia My first Opinion was That the Channel of Nile could no where be so easily alter'd as in that place where it divides it self into two Channels for that there by the direction of Nature her self it seem'd that the whole might be more easily turn'd another way where a part turns naturally without compulsion For tho other Rivers empty themselves into Nile beyond this separation and flow into Egypt yet are they not enough to make the Inundation so great as necessity requires which would not only be the ruin of Egypt but a great diminution of the Turkish Power But however it be this I believe to be certain That the King of Habessinia is now no more Lord of those places where the River Nile ever was or ever can be diverted from Nile nor are the Princes of those places now at his Devotion neither are they indeed Christians but unhappily revolted to Paganism So that whatever formerly might have been done cannot now be brought to pass not that the nature of the place obstructs the design but that the Prince of the Country wants Power or else has no inclination to the Project Otherwise I should not think it either absurd or improbable that some Rivers that make their way through the high Fields of Habessinia might be convey'd another way by the descents of the Hill through the sandy Levels that lye below to a vast diminution of the Egyptian Stream provided that skilful Artists were employ'd to survey the declivities of the places and the places most proper to carry off the Water For though it be a difficult thing to alter the Course and Limits of Rivers which Nature has settl'd yet Examples are not wanting We read in Herodotus L. 1. call'd Clio. That Nitocres King of the Babylonians
of Answers and Replies and Rejoynders and Exceptions but avoid the noise of the Bar and the expences of Pleading And when he inveighs against Adamas Saghed the Prince of the Habessines he adds That he had forgot the Lenity Truth and Christian Piety which wonted to be almost natural to the Abessines But before all the rest he prefers those of Enarea by the Confession of the Habessines themselves For (g) For those are his words L. 4. c. 30. pag. 177. a. those he commends above all others both for their Endowments as well of Body as Mind and for their Courage and Fidelity A Testimony which certainly contains a very high Applause of a Nation otherwise rude and impolish'd so that if they had but the advantages of Education most certain it is that the Abessines would prove the most ingenious and understanding people of all Africa which is well known all over the East And therefore Servants out of this Nation are sold for more and more esteem'd than Slaves out of any other of the Black Nations whatever For which cause some Learned Men are of Opinion that the King of the Abissines was therefore call'd Prester-Chan for that in the Persian Language Prester-Chan signifies (h) Jacob Golius at Blancard alleadges in his Notes upon Curtius A Prince of the best Servants being taken in War or otherwise by Pirates and sold to the Mahumetans If they were not well grounded before in the Christian Religion they are easily seduced to renounce their Christianity for that there is no Circumcision exacted from them as being already Circumciz'd and then again though they be Foreigners and bought with Money yet are they often advanc'd to Dukedoms and Governments and rise to great Preferments above the Natives and Free-men They are most Covetous after Learning and desirous of the knowledg of Arts and Sciences Nor was there any other greater reason of that kindness which was shewed to the Fathers of the Society towards the beginning of this Century in Habessinia but that they were skilled in all sorts of Arts and Sciences and therefore admir'd by the King and Princes of the Nation For they love and reverence all sorts of Forrain Christians that are adorn'd with the Ornaments of Art and Learning Gregory related to me That when the Portuguess Patriarch carried thither a great number of very fair Books sundry of the Nobility and among the rest Tine one of the King's Councellors expressed himself with a Sigh in these words Oh happy he that can understand all these Books And many persons of full years hearing of the excellency and large use of the Latine Language have most Ardently desired to learn it And that indeed seemed to me to be the most prevailing reason why our Gregory though stricken in years undertook so long a journey after me into Germany and why Acalex a young Habessine followed him soon after though not being understood in Germany where he pronounced Ehrfaher instead of Erfurt he had the ill fortune to lose his labour Therefore they neither want ingenuity nor industry but only Opportunity and Assistance for they never travel long Journies our Europeans are hindred by the difficulties of getting into their Country and the tediousness of the Journey whether by Land or Sea and besides all this the Envy of the Turks joyn'd to their implacable Avarice will not permit them to suffer us to Import our Arts of Peace and War to their own and the disadvantage of the rest of the Mahumetans Lastly their continual Civil Broyls and Forraign Wars with the Gallans are such as will not allow the Nobility leisure to mind the Studies of Tranquillity But among such a variety of people it is impossible that the same manners and dispositions should be in all for Nature has brought forth nothing so good in the Universe which has not something of Evil mix'd with it Thus Tellez sets a very bad Character upon the Inhabitants of Tigra who as he says are a People irresolute and faithless inconstant and false-swearer bloody and Vindictive so that Enmities in Families among them remain from Posterity to Posterity Godignus gives the same report saying That in all Ethiopia there is no Nation like them for their vile manner of living and ill Customes But as the Habessines generally excell in generosity of Mind and smartness of Understanding so do they far exceed all other Ethiopians in shape of Body and symmetrie of Lineaments the rest of the Africans being generally mark'd with a Blubber Lipp'd and Flat Nos'd deformity The Habessines saith Tellez are remarkable for the compleat shape of their Bodies of a due procerity free and chearful Countenance and thin Nos'd that is not flat Nos'd nor blubber Lipp'd so that our Europeans exceed them only in Colour in other Perfections of Proportion they differ little or nothing They are generally Black which they most admire Some are Ruddie Complexioned some few White or rather Pale and Wan without any grace or welfavouredness True it is there are some Whites among the Ethiopians in other places but they look like the countenances of Dead Men or as if they had the Leprosie which other Authors also Testifie but write withal that it proceeds for some Disease in the Body and therefore other Ethiopians avoid being (i) The Famous Isaac Vossius in his Book of the Original of Nile and other Rivers believes that those Ethiopians are truly Leprous and that the difference of Colour proceeds from the Disease but with submission to so great a person I should think that a Nation so Infected could not long endure nor that the King of Lovangi would admit Leapers into his Guard breathed upon or touched by them as believing them Contagious Also in the Midland parts of Guiney there is a Nation consisting all of White People which are therefore call'd Leuc-Ethiopes Plin. l. 5. c. 8. or White Ethiopians and of these the ancient Authors make mention However the Ethiopians are pleas'd with their own Blackness and prefer it before the White Colour Neither would Gregory permit himself to be overcome with this Argument That our Children were frighted at the sight of an Ethiopian averring that their Children were as much terrified at the sight of our White Europeans they are not born Black but very Red and in a short time turn Black Some Authors write that the Ethiopians paint the Devil white in disdain of our Complexions Their strength of Body is extraordinary And by reason of the admirable temper of the Air they are extreamly vivacious and patient of Labour nor are they easily wearied with clambering their own Rocks They live till meerly dissolv'd by pure decrepid Age unless they fall by the Sword or are devoured by the Wild Beasts as Salust writes of the Africans in his time I am apt to think that the Macrobii or Long-livers formerly Inhabited some part of Habessinia for that the Ancient Writers report them settl'd beyond Meroe (k) Solin in
was equally Venerable as are most of the Princes of the Royal Blood of Habessinia in the most flourishing years of pleasing Youth and through his Experience of Adversity and Prosperity worthy of the high degree to which he had arriv'd and which was more than all mild and ready to Forgive For among all the crow'd of so many Enemies he never punish'd any as by Law he might have done but without any disgrace suffer'd them to continue in their several Offices and in the same degrees of Honour even the Queen her self so mild and gentle even to a fault is the Disposition of those Kings saith Tellezius Moreover he behav'd himself with an undaunted Courage in all sorts of Danger For he had hardly grasp'd the Helm of Government in his hands when the Gallans understanding the Divisions at Court fell into Habessinia with three Armies and overthrew the Governor of Gojam who presum'd to fight against the King's Command whereupon the King arriving soon after leading an Army tir'd by a long March with a greater Courage than Force he assail'd the Enemy who pufft up with Victory bore down the Habessines with so much Violence that the Captains finding their Battalions recoil perswaded the King to betake himself to an early flight When he disdaining the motion as arguing Effeminacy leapt from his Horse and advancing with his Sword and Buckler cry'd out Here will I die you if you please may flye perhaps you may escape the fury of the Gallans but never the Infamy of deserting your King The Habessines mov'd with such a Speech and the Countenance of their Prince cast themselves into a Globe and with a Prodigious fury like Men prepar'd to dye broke in among the Gallans and constrain'd them to give back which the Fugitives perceiving presently return'd and renewing the Fight gain'd a glorious Victory with such a Slaughter of the Enemy that a greater had not been made among them at any other time The King believing that the Advantages of such a Victory were not to be let slip did not indulge himself to be as soon overcome with Banquets and Luxury under pretence of Refreshment but with a swift March led his Army over Mountains and Rocks against the other Body of the Enemy which with the same success he put to Flight The third Army not daring to withstand the force of the Habessine retreated into the Fastnesses of their Country Of these Four hundred thought themselves secure with their Prey in a steep and almost inaccessible Mountain But the Habessines now contemning their Enemies already terrify'd with the Slaughter of their own People couragiously drave them from their Holds and slew them every Mothers Son About the same time Peter Pays a Jesuit arriving in Habessinia at the Request of the King went to Court and so oblig'd him with several Discourses concerning Matters as well Ecclesiastical as Civil that at first privately then publickly he embrac'd the Latin Religion which he testify'd by Letters as well to the Pope as to the King of Spain then Philip the Third and preferr'd the Portugueses before his own Habessinians But this same Kindness of his to Strangers and a Foreign Religion begat him the Hatred of his People and caus'd his own Destruction For the Nobility of the Kingdom took it in great disdain to see their Ancient Religion chang'd and that the Patriarch of Alexandria should be deserted And they were the more enflam'd out of their Envy to the Portugals and the Rancour which they bore to Laeca-Marjam the King 's principal Friend Therefore they Conspire against him among themselves The Head of the Faction was one Saslac born of mean Parentage but of great fame for his Experience in War and for that reason proud He was exil'd by Jacob but recall'd by Za-Denghel and made Governor of Dembea consequently ungrateful and out of an inbred Stubborness frowardly disdaining Obedience Ras-Athanasius was drawn into this Society a famous Captain and a Man of great Conduct and being first in Dignity frown'd to see that he was but Second in the King's Favour and therefore he proves a Traitor to a most excellent King as one that had forgot who set the Crown upon his Head But the Cause of Religion was the main pretence the most prevalent to put the Minds of People into disorder for they were not ignorant what Preparations were making at Court for the introducing of the Latin Religion Frequent Complaints were therefore divulg'd abroad That the King was Revolted from the Church of Alexandria the Common Mother Church and that there was nothing intended by his frequent Discourses and familiarity with the Jesuits but the Abrogation of the Institutions of their Ancestors and the Introduction of new Ceremonies and Foreign Priests into the Kingdom That the Portugals would come in and establish their Religion by force of Arms and when they had done that would endeavour also to take the Kingdom from them That it behov'd them to succour their Distressed Countrey and that such a King was not to be endur'd who had first deserted the True Worship of God These things were easily inculcated into those that were of the same mind before But there was nothing which alienated so much the minds of the People as that the Portugueses had been heard to say That the Reduction so they call'd the Conversion of Ethiopia was but vainly attempted if it could not be upheld by force of Arms. The King having detected the Conspiracy calls the Portugueses together confiding in them as Foreigners and Men of the Latin Religion then marching with all speed toward Gojam he was deserted by the way first by Ras-Athanasius whom tho he suspected he durst not apprehend then by Jonael one of his Principal Captains Their example many others following forsake the King The King seeing himself left with a slender Guard applying himself to Peter Pays spoke these words This therefore befalls me because I am desirous to shew them the way of Truth and to set free the Weak from the Oppression of the more Powerful Thereupon Peter and the Commander of the Portugueses John Gabriel advis'd him to Protract the War till the heat of the Rebels fury waxed cool that his Friends with his Innocent Subjects would repair to his Assistance that the rest would in time come to themselves and repent their folly That Sedition was like a Torrent violent at first but that it abated by degrees But the King impatient of delay look'd upon Protraction as a Diminution of his Honour and being too full of Courage and in his boyling Youth resolv'd to try the Fortune of War that rarely accompanies rashness before the Rebels should encrease their Numbers So he Marches with a small Army of scarce Twelve thousand Men thinking to fall upon them e're they were aware of his coming This over-hastiness had but ill success For most of his Adversaries were Men experienc'd in War who did not follow their business negligently and besides they were as
eager to come to a Field decision before the King should gather Strength In the mean time the Enemies of the new Religion Rendevouz'd together from all Parts and among the rest Abuna Peter the Alexandrian Metropolitan and chief Head of the Rebellion who by an unheard of President in Ethiopia contrary to the Laws of God and Man absolv'd the Rebels from the tye of their Oaths which they had Sworn to their lawful Prince which they themselves had already broke by virtue of a detestable Excommunication of his Prince Thus more and more embold'nd and contemning the Majesty of the King they turn'd their Veneration into Hatred And so with mutual Animosity they joyn Battel The Portugueses who fought in the right wing maintain'd their ground a long time believing the Kings and the Cause of Religion to be their own But in the left Wing of which the King himself took charge all things went to rack for many fled over to the Enemy many look'd on without striking a stroke resolv'd to follow the Fortune of the Day Thus the King forsaken by his own fought bravely for a long time till Laeca-Marjam and the rest of his Guard being slain he was himself struck down from his Horse with the sling of a Lance. After that getting up again to renew the Fight he was stuck through the body and slain with several Darts thrown at a distance reverence of his person not permitting them to come near to hurt him The third day after the Fight he was taken up and buried without any Funeral Pomp in a little Chappel hard by the Field of the Battel Such was the end of the short Life and Reign of this Famous and Lawful King of Ethiopia A doleful Warning to admonish us that the Cause of Religion ought to be moderately and prudently handled And that it behoves a Prince not to thrust himself rashly into a Battel especially when there is no certain Successor For proof whereof the fatal Example of Sebastian King of Portugal may serve among the rest CHAP. VII Of the Kings of this Centurie To our Times Susneus aspires to the Crown acknowledg'd by Ras-Athanasius He requests the same from Zaslac Who refuses at first then submits But Jacob appearing he takes his part So does Ras-Athanasius Jacob again made King He desires an agreement with Susneus but in vain They take Arms. Zaslac beaten he goes over to Susneus A new War Jacob and Abuna slain The Victor's Clemency Zaslac imprison'd he escapes invades Waleka and Gojam Kill'd by the Pagans Ras-Athanasius dyes Susneus kind to the Portugals and Jesuits He submits to the Pope A Counterfeit Jacob but dares not stand the coming of Susneus An Impostor of the same kind comes into France His Conditions his Epitaph Alibi boasts himself the Son of Arzo Susneus's Nativity Conditions Vertues Vices and Death His Son Basilides drives the Jesuits out of Ethiopia He kills his Brothers A General Table of the last Kings of Habessinia KIng Zadenghel being thus slain the War indeed ceas'd yet Peace did not presently ensue For the Rebels not dreaming of such a speedy Victory had not consider'd of a Successor Wherefore as it were stupid with Emulation Ras-Athanasius departs for Gojam and Zaslac for Dembea without ever holding any common Consultation Thereupon Susneus hearing of the King's death and believing that the Kingdom was now fallen to Him as being the Son of Basilides the Nephew of Jacob and Grandchild of David and then being also a Young man train'd up in the Gallan Wars belov'd and surrounded with the choicest of the Military Bands he conceiv'd no small hopes of his design First therefore he sends before one of the Faithfullest of his Friends to Ras-Athanasius with instructions to declare to him in short That whereas the Kingdom belong'd to him by right of Inheritance he should come presently and joyn Forces with his In the mean time Susneus not expecting an Answer follows the Messenger with the nimblest of his Army and writes to Athanasius as if already made King That he was at hand and that therefore he should come to meet him and pay him the accustom'd honours due to him Athanasius amaz'd at the unexpected approach of Susneus void of Counsel the Danger being Equal on both sides either to refuse or admit him at length finding all assistance far distant and no hopes of delay to give him time to consult with Zaslac he rather chose to be before-hand with the new King's Favours than to hazard the uncertain Fortune of a Battel So that Susneus being honourably receiv'd into the Camp was saluted King Which done he presently writes to Zaslac That by the Providence of God he had recovered the Throne of his Ancestors and was now marching for Dembea therefore he should take Care that there might be Forces there ready to receive him and those deserved Favours which he was ready to bestow upon them But he tho astonish'd at the suddain News was unwilling to acknowledg him for King whom he had not made himself and therefore consulting with his Friends return'd for answer That he would then obey him if Jacob to whom he had already by Message offer'd the Kingdom did not come before June and therefore begg'd that short delay Susneus no way pleas'd with the Condition wrote back to him again That he was King already and therefore would give place neither to Jacob once before adjudg'd unworthy nor to his Father Malec-Saghed though he should return from the other World Zaslac having receiv'd this surly Answer equally mettlesom and diligent turns his Arms upon him and comes on briskly to meet him Susneus finding himself prevented with the speedy March of his Adversary and perceiving himself over-match'd and which was worse not well in health retir'd to the Craggy Mountains of Amhara Ras-Athanasius also whose precipitancy Zaslac had upbraided retreated into other Fastnesses to avoid the Fury of his Associate In the mean time there being no News of Jacob the other Captains and Commanders of the Army began to scatterwords of discontent That they would not be without a King that if Jacob would not come there was no Person fitter than Susneus neither would he be at rest till he had obtain'd by force what they would not give him by fair means Zaslac fearing the Inconstancy of his own People and consequently a Revolt orders Commissioners to be sent and by them surrenders the Scepter to Susneus who presently sent a Person to whom Allegiance should be sworn in his Name Which being done Ten of the chiefest Peers ride forth to meet the new King and to conduct him with a Pomp befitting into the Camp And now Shouts and Acclamations are to be every where heard Neither were Banquets wanting with all other Solemnities usual at the Inaugurations of their Kings when on a sudden new Commissioners from Jacob quite disturb'd their mirth with such a suddain alteration as with which Fortune never more odly mock'd before the hopes of those that
due Priviledges His Prerogative in Ecclesiastical Affairs was most apparently made manifest by the making of that severe Decree for the abrogating the Latin Worship and restoring that of Alexandria Moreover the King summons the Synods of the Clergy as often as need requires he sends for the Metropolitan out of Egypt exercising plenary Jurisdiction over him and all the rest of his Clergy and punishing them according to the nature of their Offences which the Examples recited by Alvarez sufficiently demonstrate In one thing however he differs from our European Kings that he never nominates to Ecclesiastical Benefices For the Patriarch of Alexandria sends a Metropolitan at the request of the King indeed but he knows not who or what he is He also admitted the Patriarch whom the Pope sent tho not he but the King of Portugal nam'd him Neither are there in Ethiopia any other Ecclesiastical Dignities and therefore the Prerogative of nominating Bishops and Archbishops signifies little or nothing In Seculars he acknowledges no positive Laws And well it were that he did not think himself also altogether free from the Fundamental Laws of his Realm upon which the Safety of the Kingdom depends For Naod dispenc'd with the wholesome Constitutions of his Ancestors by vertue of which the Kings Children were sent to the Rock of Amhara And Malec-Saghed would have preferr'd his natural Son Jacob before his Brothers Legitimate Son Zadenghel both which prov'd very disadvantagious presidents to the whole Nation But such things frequently come to pass where the Kingdome is without Estates For they are the most Trusty Guardians of the Law and the true Bulwarks of the Peoples Liberty against the Encroachments of the Ambitious For they have a more vigilant eye and tender care over the Common-weal of which they are themselves Members than the Friends of Princes whose Fortunes hardly descend to their Heirs so that a man may admire at their Counsels who taking away the Priviledges of Estates endeavour to assume the whole Power into their own hands as deeming every slight bond of the Law to themselves heavy and intollerable So that they are forc'd to distribute those Favours and Kindnesses which are due to their fellow Citizens among the Souldiery whose fidelity is brittle and inconstant not caring who are poor so they be rich and many times the Souldiers turn those Arms which were put into their hands for the defence of their Prince against him being put upon the ferment either by the Ambition or the Wealth of some particular person Which in Habessinia as in all other absolute Goverments frequently happens to the destruction of those that bear the sway He has also the sole disposal of Peace or Warr and indeed all the Prerogatives that a King can claim both the greater and the lesser Regalia are solely at his devotion tho he makes no use of many of them merely because he is ignorant of them as the Prerogative in reference to Metals Coyning of Money and the like As for the liberty of Hunting he grants it to all in regard there are such multitudes of Wild Beasts that breed up and down in the over-grown Woods and high Mountains that it is not onely troublesome but dangerous to find out their haunts by which means that which in other Countries is a Pleasure to the Abessines becomes a Toyl and Detriment One thing is much to be admir'd and rare ev'n among the Turks which is that no private person whether Peasant or Lord except some few can call any thing his own All the Lands and Farms in the Country belong to the King and are held by the Subjects onely at the Kings pleasure so that no man takes it amiss if the King takes away their Lands and bestowes them upon another as he pleases himself and that not onely after two or three years but also the same year they were given So that it often happens that one man ploughs and another man sowes Whence it comes to pass that they are more submissive to their Kings then a Servant to his Master or a Vassal to his Lord they serve him in Peace and War and bring him Presents according to their Ability in hopes of obtaining new Farms or for fear of losing those they have For being commanded out of possession they never grumble but presently obey without the least distast against the King or envy to the person that succeeds in their Room Custome and long use prevailing while they see the same happening to others However there are some ancient and Illustrious Families especially in Tigra who enjoy by right of Inheritance not only Lands and Possessions purchas'd by their Ancestors but some certain Prefectures also retaining their ancient Title as Bahr-Nagash Shum Serawè Sirè Temben and others as also Cantiba in Dembea over whom the King claims no other Authority than to confer the public Employments every two year or yearly or as he pleases upon others yet so as that they be of the same Family CHAP. X. Of the Power and Revenues of the Habessine Kings The Power of the Habessine Kings formerly great Formidable to their Neighbours it fail'd after the Saracens came in Play Yet strong at home till the Adelan War and Incursions of the Gallans Easie to be restor'd The wayes and means Our Princes unkind to Forraign Christians Demonstrated by Examples They took no care of their Sea Ports The Kings Revenues the Natural Commodities of the Country what they are His Tribute Farms Herds the Prices of things low The King has enough to supply him both in Peace and War SO great and so absolute a Power and so uncontroulable a Dominion over their Subjects one would think should render the Kings of Ethiopia vastly Potent and so no doubt it would if other things were correspondent Certainly of old it was vastly great when they kept their Courts at (o) Nonnosus in Bibliothec. Phot. n. 3. calls the Ethiopians the Homerites and Saracens 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the stoutest of the Nations at that time Axuma for there was no considerable Empire near then to withstand their Fortune and for that cause the adjoyning petty-Princes were all at the devotion of the Habessinian Kings But as to what several have written through mistake or misapplication of the name (p) Scal. in his notes ad Comp. Eccl. Ethiop but I know not by what Authority of their Expeditions into the North parts of Asia they are all meer fables and figments Yet this cannot be deny'd but that formerly they were very terrible to the neighbouring Nations for they made several Expeditions into (q) The Arabians wont to use this Computation From the Invasions of the Abessines For so Altcodajus They computed their years from the Arabians invading Abessina Arabia We have already mention'd the Famous and Successful War with Caleb made against the Homerites With no less Renown King Cyriacus hearing of the Christian Persecution in Egypt led a very numerous Army against the
horseback a practice very necessary in such a Country where many times there is no use of Horse In brief the Military Discipline of the Habessines is very irregular rather the fault of the Captains that know not how to command them than of the Souldiers For they run away without any fear of Infamy or Punishment neither do they know how to rally when they are once disorder'd so that the first array being broken the rest are carry'd away like a Torrent neither do they strengthen their Wings with Reserves neither do they separate the Veterans from the Raw Souldiers disheartning the Courage of the one by the unequal mixture of the other The fury of the first Onset for the most part wins the Field for which reason the Gallans surpassing the Habessines in heat and violence have so often vanquish'd them They are not easily perswaded to avoid the Combat believing it sloathful and dastardly to tire out an Enemy by delay and wait for opportunities Which has bin the Ruin of many of their Kings that have joyn'd Battel with more Courage than Prudent Advice The Kings themselves for the most part bred up in the field command their own Armies themselves or else they create a Ras to command in their stead One thing more remains behind That this Country is very much infested with Robbers as well as Enemies who many times robb in Troops like Souldiers and very much infest the Roads and this without any searching after or care taken to punish them by reason that the King and the Governours being wholly busied with continual Wars have no time to ridd the Nation of these Vermin who being pursu'd presently shelter themselves among the Rocks and Mountains CHAP. XV. Of the Wars in the last Century Especially of the Fatal War of the Adelans Their ancient Wars incertain the distance between Egypt and our Ethiopia Caleb's Expedition into Arabia The Wars of the last Century First the Adelan dreadful The Lamentations of the Ethiopians at Rome Caus'd by the sloath and voluptuousness of their Princes The assistance of the Turk and Fire-Arms The Portugals assist the Habessines The Enemie vanquish'd by Gomez His Fame His Fidelity tempted by Grainus but in vain They both act warily Grainus fights and his Horse shot under him A second Battel The Enemies Camp taken Gomeus forces the Jews Rock Gomez wounded kill'd his death reveng'd by Claudius Grainus overcome and slain The Kingdom at quiet The Adelans recover strength vanquish and kill Claudius To whom Menas succeeds who is also slain in the Field Serzadenghel vanquishes the Turk Civil Wars after his death WE shall forbear to set down over-ancient or incertain Relations concerning the Expeditions of the Kings of Ethiopia into Egypt in regard it does not appear to us what part of Ethiopia those Writers mean or how far the Empire of the Abessines of old extended For those things which Historians have deliver'd to memory in reference to the Ethiopians adjoyning upon Egypt are not presently to be apply'd to the Ethiopians For that the distance between Egypt and our Ethiopia comprehends Eight or nine degrees or a hunder'd German Miles and more In which wide space Nubia was seated so that there might be Kings of other Ethiopick Nations next to that And therefore till we see the Histories themselves of the Abissines we are unwilling to publish Incertainties for Certainties But that the Habessines did make several Famous Expeditions into Arabia is a thing not to be question'd insomuch that some of them have made a Computation of their Years from thence and that the Kingdom of the Homerites was totally subdu'd by Caleb we have already declar'd To omit then several other Wars wag'd with their Neighbours the Stories of which are to us unknown as for example that with the Nubians in the 25th Year of the former Century recorded by Alvarez the most lamentable and most fatal was that War which they enter'd into with the Adelans their Ancient Enemies True it is indeed that in the beginning of his Raign David vanquish'd them in several Battels But after the Turks had vanquish'd Egypt and some Ports of the Red Sea the Adelans strengthen'd by their assistance turn'd the Scale of Fortune and were always Victors For King Adelis sent one Ahmed a Mahumetan vulgarly call'd Grainus or Grannus that is to say Left-handed with an Army to invade Habessinia and revenge the Losses of the Adelans He about the Year 1526 subdu'd all Fatagara For the first two Years the War was carry'd on with various Success but the next Twelve Years to the Year 1540 at what time King David deceas'd the Habessines had the worst of it The King having lost the choicest of his Kingdoms and his Second Son Menas who was taken Prisoner languish'd out the rest of his days in the Rock Damus And indeed the Habessines were brought to that low and miserable Condition that they began to despair of their Countrey For such are the Lamentations which we find made by those that liv'd at Rome in the Epilogue printed after the Gospel of St. John Not without reason do we weep when we call to mind the Captivity of our Brethren our Countrey layd wast Our Temples Burnt our Books and our Sanctuaries consum'd with Fire and the Profanation of our Monasteries by that wicked and impious Grainus a Companion for Goats a Perscutor and Invader of the Sheep from Waigaci to the Red Sea Among the Causes of such a Torrent of Calamities these may be reck'nd not to be the least for that the King vanquish'd by his own sluggish humour had given himself wholly up to the Temptations of Pleasure so dedicated to Women that he permitted some of them to have their Idols in his Palace Next the Turks out of their inbred hatred to Christianity had supply'd their Mahumetan Friend with Fire-Arms and such as knew well how to use them whose Thunder then by the Abessines first heard they were not able to endure nor did they know how to cure the Wounds which the Bullets made as not being accustom'd to them besides that on the other side the Mahumetans so numerously abounding throughout Abessinia favourably every where entertain'd those of their own Sect. Many also of the Abessines themselves following as is usual the Fortune of the Victor forsook their Native Soveraign So that now every thing threaten'd utter destruction and desolation when the King lurking among the Rocks began to bethink himself of craving Succour from the Portugals To that purpose in the Year 1535 one John Bermudes a Portuguese was sent Who first arriv'd at Rome in the Year 1538 where he was made Patriarch joyntly of Ethiopia and Alexandria and afterwards went into Portugal in the Year 1539 and there obtain'd a Commission from John the Third to the Vice-Roy of India to send Assistance to the Abessines Their Commander was Christopher Gomez a Person of great Valour who in the Month of July in the Year 1541 enter'd the Kingdom
Relation and to be understood of that same ancient Asiatic Prester Chan Neighbouring at that time upon the Persians But he ascribes this passage to the Emperour of the Abessines and that it came to pass Twelve years before his coming Philip Nicolai believ'd him and inserted this Figment into his Book concerning the Raign of Christ adding the Year 1562 at what time the Affairs of the Habessines were in their most afflicted Estate CHAP. XVII Of the Vice-Roys Presidents and Governors of Provinces The various Titles of Vice-Roys and Governors Ded Azmat the Common Title of Presidents The cause and Original of this Variety And of the Imperial Title THE Vice-Roys Presidents and Governours of Countries which the King appoints and layes aside at his pleasure are not call'd by any common sort of Title but according to the several Kingdoms which they govern derive to themselves particular Appellations Some there are who are honour'd with Royal Titles as Negus Gan. King of Gan Enareja Negus King of Enarea Others are thought worthy the ancient appellation of Nagasi in the Amharil Dialect Nagash which word signifies a Ruler Commander or Lord. And was formerly more especially attributed to the Ethiopian Kings by the Arabians as has bin already said as Bahr-Nagash Ruler or Regent of the Sea Coast. Gojam-Nagash Regent of Gojam Walaka Nagash Regent of Walaka The word Ras put absolutely or with the proper name of the person signifies the Chief Commander or General of an Army but if the name of the Kingdom be added it signifies the Governor thereof the same with the Germans Hauptman or Lands-Hauptman as Angot Ras Captain of Angot Bugna Ras Captain of Bugna This Title Tzagazaabus assum'd altho he were but a Monk while he subscrib'd to the Confession of Faith by him set forth as followes Bugna Ras Arch-Presbyter Tzagaza-ab Embassador from Jan Beluli Hatze Lebna Denghel Some suffice themselves with the Title of Shum which is otherwise common to all the Governors of Guraga and Cambata Guraga-Shum Governor of Guraga Cambata-Shum Governor of Cambata whom at other times they call the King of the Hadians The Vice-Roy of Tigra is call'd Macuenen as Tigre Macuenen President or Judge of Tigra The names of the rest are not to be expounded out of the Ethiopic Language being perhaps words significative in the vulgar Dialects as Amhara Tzabfaldam Damota Tzabfaldam Shewa Tzabfaldam Dembea Cantiba Bagender Azmat Gedma-Katen Ifata Walasma Fatagar Asgua Samen Aga-fari The Governor of Diabai is call'd Ded-Asmat which is properly the common Title of all Presidents and signifies the Captain of a Provincial Militia or a Colonel This diversity of Titles seems to arise from hence for that the ancient Possessors of these Kingdoms before they came to be reduc'd under the Power of the Habessines assum'd those Titles of Dignity to themselves which afterwards the Vulgar People gave to their several Governors in their distinct Idiomes Or else the Governors themselves retain'd the ancient names the Kings of Ethiopia conniving at it as esteeming it for their Honour to have so many Persons of several Dignities at their devotion For because the Governors and Vice-Roys of Provinces assum'd to themselves the Titles of Negus and Nagasi therefore the Ethiopic Kings took an occasion to give themselves the Title of Negusa Nagast or King of Kings CHAP. XVIII Of the Princes that are Tributary to the Kings of Ethiopia and of others subject to him that claim absolute Dominion in their own Territories Tributary Princes never Forty much less Sixty Gregory acknowledg'd but Four appointed by the King for a time That Dignity hereditatary to some few The next equally Subject The reason All call'd Servants even the Queen herself which seem'd very severe to the Portugals The same Custom among the Rasses The Kings Pavilion sacred The strange behaviour of Suppliants and various manners of supplicating How the King carries himself toward Suppliants The Ceremonies of Suppliants among the Turks and the Indians The gentleness of the European Princes begets them love THat the Kings of Ethiopia formerly had several Tributary Kings under them we have already declar'd (f) This Dam. de Goez relates of him in his Book concerning the State and Kingdom of Presbyter John 11.11 Matthew the Armenian reckn'd them up tho untruly to the number of Fifty tho most erroneously Nor did they write with more Truth who tell us of Fifty or Forty when as they have not so many Vice-Roys Gregory knew but Four that is so say the Kings of Sennar Dancala Garaga and Enarea As for the King of Sennar he has often revolted and made Warr upon the Abessines The King of Dencala is a firm Allie but oblig'd to no sort of Tribute All the rest whether Kings or Governors are by the King himself appointed to govern such and such Kingdoms and Provinces and are only pro tempore Some few there are that claim a supreme Dignity by right of Inheritance But all of Royal descent and all other of the Nobility who are reputed to derive their Pedigrees from the Israelitish Race are equally subject to the King without any distinction of Dukes Earls Marquesses and Barons as (g) Ibid. n. 13. There are saith he in Abassia Lords Dukes Earls and Barons innumerable I would be willing to know how they are call'd in the Ethiopic Language Matthew fabulously asserts For the Kings of Ethiopia as most of the Eastern Kings deem it not a decent thing to command Illustrious Families Not believâ—ng that Servitude can be expected from those that are accustom'd to Command themselves Moreover they presume that Hereditary Dignity is an obstruction to Vertue that Men are more certainly made than born great and that they will prove more faithful whom they have rais'd from the Dust then such as claim their Fortunes from their Ancestors Therefore the Kings of Ethiopia accompt themselves onely Lords all others they look upon as Servants in that particular not sparing their Brothers or their Kindred So that when they bestow any Government upon them they use this form We have created our Servant such a one Governour of this or that Province Nor do they ever discourse them but in the singular number Thou whereas we generally make use in our Language of the second person plural No other Epithite do they afford their own Queens tho of the highest Rank of Nobility We have caus'd to Raign that is We have taken to Wife our Servant such a one Nor do they disdain these Titles but on the contrary call themselves reciprocally his Servants This word Servant was very ill digested by a generous Portuguese as looking upon the title of Slave to be a disgrace to him that was a Freeman And therefore he offer'd a good Summ of Money to him that according to Custome was to proclaim the Government conferr'd upon him to leave out the word Servant and onely to proclaim his bare name but could not obtain it Nor is the Negus of Ethiopia
Infants are much shorter Males were formerly never Baptiz'd before the Fortieth day Females before the Eightieth day unless upon imminent danger of Death But now they hasten Baptism much sooner especially if the Infant be weak and sickly The Godfathers and Godmothers make answer to the Priest in their behalf Nor are they plung'd in the Water but only Sprinkl'd and Dipp'd and that at the Entrance only of the Church there being no admittance for them into the Church before Baptism Lastly Because the Holy Communion is given to those of riper years presently after Baptism therefore least Infants should be in a worse Condition in former times they dropt two or three drops out of the Sacred Cup having crumbl'd a little piece of the Holy Bread into it before to shew there was the same regard to be had to them as to those of riper Age. Which being long observ'd in the Latin Church the Ethiopians together with the Armenians observe the Custom to this day Gregory told me That they did no more than only dip the top of one of their Fingers in the Wine and moisten the Childs tongue Now that they use the same form of words with us Alvarez is Positive that is to say I Baptize thee in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Nor could I apprehend any otherwise out of their own Liturgies Which makes it more to be admir'd what the Fathers of the Society making no mention at all of this Form have written into Europe That several partly unwonted partly frivolous Forms and quite altering the Essence of Baptism were made use of by the Habessine Clergy For Example I Baptize thee in the Name of the most Holy Trinity I Baptize thee in the Name of Christ I Baptize thee in the Name of the Holy Ghost only I Baptize thee in the Water of Jordan The Lord baptize thee Let God wash thee Let Baptism wash thee Blessed be the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost with several others of the same Nature For which reason they were constrain'd to Rebaptize many People not permitted by the Catholic Church but upon extraordinary occasions So that at length they promiscuously Rebaptiz'd all the Habessinians tho with this Condition That the first Baptism was not rightly perform'd which drew upon them the Hatred and Envy of the Habessinian Clergy Many Writers have believ'd and reported That the Ethiopians were branded with a Mark after Baptism in order to the fulfilling the words of St. John He that cometh after me shall Baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire But Gregory himself deny'd any such Custom nor do the Fathers of the Society make any mention of it in their Writings But this is certain that the People of Africa as well Gentils as Mahumetans do cauterize the Temple-Veins of Children newly Born to preserve them from Catarrhs Which being perhaps done by some of the Habessines to the same end was by some ignorant Foreigners taken for a Religious Ceremony As having heard that formerly there were a sort of silly Heretics who misinterpreting the word Fire properly so taken and wresting it to the Improper signification of Baptism preferr'd the Caustic Signature of Fire before the Ceremony of washing in Water But now for what concerns their Anniversary Baptism with which the Abessines are so much reproach'd we are to give this Light Upon the XI of January which with us is upon the Sixth in the mid'st of their Summer and the Feast of the Epiphany they keep a most joyful Festival in Commemoration of the Baptism of our Saviour which with many of the Ancients they certainly believe was perform'd upon that day By the first Dawn of the Morning Light the Clergy begin the Solemnity with certain loud and chearful Hymns The King with all the Nobility of the Court the Metropolitan with the Clergy Nobles and Plebeians Old and Young before Sun-rise throng into the Rivers and Ponds and there delight themselves in the Water plunging and diving over Head and Ears As they meet any of the Priests they crave a Blessing from them who return them generally their desires in these words God bless thee or God the Father Son and Holy Ghost bless thee Hence it was that many believ'd that the Ethiopians renew'd their Baptism every year But as excess of Joy frequently begets wantonness so is it frequent for the Young men upon this day to leap and dance and swim and duck one another and by and by to fill the neighbouring Fields with Hoopings and Hallowings the usual Consequences of such kind of Sports So that they make of it rather a day of Jollity than a Pious Christian Festival All this I relate from Gregorie's own Lips The Relation of Alvarez is quite different as if it were a real Baptism and that the Men and Women were at that time promiscuously rebaptiz'd Whether they did so or whether Alvarez rightly understood the words of the Baptizer I very much question And yet I cannot but very much wonder at what Tellez reports That at other times and for slight causes both Men and Women cause themselves to be rebaptized and that after a most indecent manner For should such a thing have been customary King Basilides would never have upbraided the Fathers with their reiteration of Baptism so frequently as he did For my part I never read or heard of any such thing However if any such thing were ever practis'd it is to be attributed rather to the stupid ignorance of the Priests then to allow'd Custom For in the last Century such was the most miserable Condition of the Ecclesiastical Affairs in Habessinia that nothing could be more deplorable at what time by reason of the continual Invasions and Irruptions of the Gallans and Adelans the People were dispierc'd and scatter'd up and down the Mountains and Rocks like a Flock without a Shepheard without Law and almost without either King or Metropolitan all Sacred Worship ceas'd their Clergy were dissipated and their Temples and Monasteries every where ruin'd and burnt What wonder then that Ignorance and Sloth should grow upon them and that the illiterate Priests for want of Books not to be supply'd by Printing and through the scarcity of Learned Men should rashly obtrude many things altogether Foreign from the Rites of their Ancestors For such Accidents frequently happen in great Calamities when Bishops and Princes cannot perform or else grow careless of their Offices when little regarding their own Eternal Salvation they leave that to fate or the pleasure of every private Person which should be their chief and principal care Such was the Sluggishness that overwhelm'd all Greece in the time of Maurice the Emperor so that neither Gregory understood Greek nor any one at Constantinople could understand Latin such was the misery of that Age in the Latin Church as Baronius testifies when nothing but meer Barbarism and Ignorance Triumph'd when all Arts and Vertuous Studies were Exil'd and
with Crosses Censors and Holy-water and that with a pace so swift that it is a difficult matter to follow them The Body is for some time set down by the Grave during the reading of a certain Paragraph out of St. John's Gospel after which the Body being found and sprinkl'd with Holy Water is not let down but thrown into the Sepulcher King Claudius being desirous to Solemnize the Exequies of Christopher Gomez upon the Anniversary Day that he had lost his Life for the Recovery of Abassia summon'd together all the Priests Canons Monks and all the Neighbouring Poor People and to the first being about Six hundred he gave a Royal Funeral Supper to the last being about Six thousand he distributed a large and noble Alms. They on the other side recited the whole Psalter quite thorough and made the Sky ring with innumerable Allelujahs a Ceremony that serves alike as well upon sad as joyful Occasions Thus when Marcus the Eldest Son of Susneus was Buried they sounded forth Marcus is Dead Hallelujah Marcus is Dead Hallelujah And this they repeated so often and so loud that the Fathers but newly then arriv'd in Ethiopia were astonish'd to hear such an unwonted cry not being able to tell whether the Ethiopians rejoyc'd or lamented So strangely are all Nations delighted with their own Customs CHAP. VII Of the Constitution and Form of Ecclesiastical Government in Ethiopia as also of the Priviledges of the Clergy The Clergy enjoy no immunity Their Head or Abuna created by the Metropolitan of Alexandria His Place in Councils The present State of the Alexandrian Church deplorable The Clergy ignorant the Patriarch Illiterate The Habessine Metropolitans ordain the Clergy only No Bishops nor Arch-Bishops The Icegue governs the Monks They acknowledge but four Oecumenical Patriarchs The Catalogue of Metropolitans incertain They do not reck'n these sent by the Pope After Mendez one call'd the Cophtit His Successors The Orders of Deacon Presbyter and Sub-Presbyter The Clergy Marry but not twice WE have already declar'd That the Supream Power in Ecclesiastical Affairs is invested in the King Therefore all Ecclesiastical Causes except only in very slight Matters are all determin'd by the King's Judges Neither do the Clergy or Monks enjoy any sort of Ecclesiastical Immunity or Priviledge of Exemption Nor does the Canon Siquis suadente diabolo hujus Sacrilegii reatum incurrerit quod in Clericum vel Monachum violentas manus injecerit c. help them at all but that upon offences committed they are punish'd as Lay Persons by the Secular Judges And many times they are sensible of the rough and violent hands of wicked Men without any fear of Excommunication But as to what concerns the Law of Order or the Diocesan Law those things are left to the Clergy Their Chief Head is call'd Papas or Metropolitan Tho the Title or Sirname of Abuna that is to say Our Father be more frequently given him He by ancient Custom at the King's desire is Consecrated to that Dignity by the Patriarch of Alexandria and sent out of Egypt into Ethiopia For they do not think it fitting for the Patriarch to nominate any one out of their own Nation tho never so skilful in their Language Laws and Customs It being provided by those Nicene Canons extant in the Arabic Language That the Ethiopians shall not Elect or Create a Patriarch but that their chief Chief Prelate shall be under the Jurisdiction of Him that resides at Alexandria And a little after That if the Council be held in Greece and the Prelate of Ethiopia be present he shall have the seventh place next the Prelate of Seleucia For they are very obstinate in maintaining their old Customs tho it happen to be one of their greatest Misfortunes The State and Condition of the Alexandrian Church being quite different now from what it was formerly that is to say altogether miserable and deplorable For both the Patriarch and his Clergy are a poor sort of contemptible and rustic People and void of all common Endowments They are as it were the Servants and Slaves of the Turks whose continual vexations so terrifie them from undertaking Ecclesiastical Employment that many times they receive their Ordination by constraint and with Tears in their Eyes which requires nothing more from them than to read Arabic For the Coptic or ancient Egyptian Language as it was spoken in the times of the Grecian Kings and as Athanasius Kirker has given a view of it to the Europeans is now almost buried in Oblivion Their Churches are either all destroy'd or very near to Ruin the Turks not suffering them either to Rebuild or Repair The Patriarch if he can but only read and write and understand the Scripture after an ordinary manner is thought sufficiently worthy of St. Mark 's Chair Hence it may be easily conjectur'd what sort of Persons are sent into Ethiopia for the Government of so many Churches In the time of the Fathers of the Society there was sent such a sad Tool into Habessinia to be the Abuna that being rejected for his Simplicity he was forc'd to Grind Corn for his living To whom another Succeeding not much better gifted gave occasion to the Courtiers to jest and cry We have a Miller still Now as these Patriarchs know very little so they do as little only in set forms of Words they ordain Under-Clercs just as wise and learned as themselves For this reason the Fathers of the Society little regarded the Ordinations of the Abuna but when any of the Abessine Priests came over to them they ordain'd them again after the Roman manner not without the great resentment and indignation of the rest In none of their Kingdoms or Provinces have they any Bishops or Arch-Bishops So that unless the Icegue with the assistance of his Monks had taken some care of the Church all thought of Religion had fallen to the ground long e're this This Abuna is by some tho improperly call'd Patriarch his truer Title being that of Bik Papas or Bik Papaste Prince or Master of the Metropolitans of whom they acknowledge only Four to be of equal Power and Dignity among themselves Among these they reckon the Roman Patriarch to be the First and call him Bik Papaste Zaromeja or the Roman Patriarch For they have no higher Title to give to any one who may be thought Superior to a Patriarch The first Metropolitan of Habessinia was Frumentius the Ethiopic Apostle From him to Simeon who dy'd with Elius in defence of the Alexandrian Religion they reck'n in order Ninety five Metropolitans We have not yet seen the Catalogue but in the Ethiopic Register they are Number'd up in this Order Abuna Abba Matthew Abba Salama Abba Jacob. Abba Bartholomew Abba Michael Abba Isaac Abba John Abba Mark who was Metropolitan in the Time of David Abba Joseph In the Reign of Claudius was receiv'd into the Kingdom with great Pomp without any regard had to John Bermudes whom the Pope had
would take the pains to come to Matzua he would order some Person to be there both to give them a befitting Reception and Conduct them to his Court. Besides all this the King was no less fearful least the Portugals as it had befallen several other Kings in India should make him their Tributary and under the pretence of Religion powre into his Country a great force of Soldiers Arm'd and furnish'd with Fire-Arms Especially remembring what great Exploits a small Number of Portugals had perform'd in his Kingdom but a few years before A Jealousie that not long after increas'd to that height that when King David had seriously negotiated with Roderigo Limez the Portugal Embassador about the Recovery and Fortification of Matzua and Suaqena and had also offer'd assistance of Forces Provision and Money afterwards the Business was not only no farther mention'd but also the Portuguese Aid so necessary and so much desir'd was utterly refus'd so that he chose rather to leave the Port of Arkiko with the Island adjoyning in the hands of the Turk then to give Admission to the Portugals So prevalent is the fear of Foreign Domination But now Claudius's answer being return'd into India strangely surpriz'd the Patriarch Barret and his Associates who imagin'd that all things would have bin smooth and easie according to their wishes Thereupon after long deliberation they came to this result Lest the Patriarchal Dignity should be hazarded with a Prince ill affected which would be to the Detriment of the Pontifical Authority and a contempt of the King of Portugal by whose recommendation and favour they were sent that the Patriarch should remain in India with Melchior Caymero Bishop of Nice and that Oviedo should go alone to the end he might take his measures by the Event of Oviedo 's Success Oviedo being thus dispatch'd away with Five more Associates was kindly receiv'd by Isaac at that time Bahrnagass or Governor of the Sea-Ports The Common People ignorant of their Errand nor altogether averse to the Romish Ceremonies receiv'd the Bishop and his Associates with great testimonies of Kindness even to the kissing their hands The Romanists laying hold upon the occasion resolv'd upon a Procession from their own to the Habessine Church and were by them beheld with mutual Charity without the least upbrading or reproach of the Novelty The King also entertain'd them with great kindness only he took it ill that they should talk to him of yielding obedience to the Roman Pontiff Nevertheless as he was a most Prudent Person and worthy the high Dignity he enjoy'd he always carry'd himself with so great Moderation toward the Bishop that he still left him with some hopes of Success In the mean time the Roman Religion was every where freely exercis'd and no man forbid who defir'd to embrace it But the Bishop not content with so much favour began to press the King more urgently That at length without more delay he would submit himself to the Roman Pontiff He reply'd That his Ancestors had in sacred things given their Obedience to none but the Successors of St. Mark nor did he see any cause why he should desire Innovation and disturb his People well contented with their Abuna But the Bishop still continuing his Importunity The King told him That since he was come to him from a Region so far distant upon so honest a Negotiation he would consult with his Friends and his Learned Men upon a Matter of so great Importance Oviedo understanding that the King did nothing but spin out delays and hearing withal that the King's Mother and all the Blood Royal together with the Nobility and greatest Doctors of the Nation were utterly averse to any Alterations wrote an Epistle to the King wherein he put him in Mind That his Father had acknowledg'd the Pope of Rome for the Vicar of Christ that several of his Learned men had besought him that Claudius had wrote to the King of Portugal and that his Father had Commanded that they should not desire an Abuna from any other place then from Rome and that He himself had publickly promis'd Obedience to thee See of Rome That if any doubt remain'd concerning any Articles of Faith he should bring those things to a Publick Dispute and hear the Arguments on both sides it being but just that the Party that was foil'd should acknowledge and follow what the other had maintain'd for Truth and that the King should well consider whose advice he took or what Persons he consulted in so important an Affair That the Ends and Interest of Parents or Kindred were not to be regarded That the love of Christ was to be preferr'd before the love of Relations who being busied in Teaching his own Doctrine in the Temple of Jerusalem would not make use of his most Holy Mothers advice by which he shew'd that in the Cause of God no Man is bound to Communicate his Intentions to his nearest Friends Whether the King made any Answer or what it was is not known But Gregory told me That the sence of the King's Commands and Letters was quite different from the Expositions of Alvarez Bermudes and others addicted to the Roman Religion made of them at Rome and that it could not be otherwise in regard that before the Reign of Susneus the Habessines had never known what that Obedience meant Hower the King that he might not seem to distrust the strength of his own Cause and the learning of his own Subjects permitted frequent Disputes not yet made Publick by the Fathers of the Society From this Tellez reports That the Habessine Doctors appear'd very ignorant and illiterate in all their Disputes as never having Study'd Logic Syllogisms nor Enthymemes nor having any knowledge of the Subtleties of Scholastic Divinity From whence the Reader may readily Judge of the Progress and Events of such Disputes Tellez goes on and says That Claudius â—â—ary of the illiterateness of his own People for the most part undertook the Discourse himself and gave Oviedo not a little Trouble Moreover he complains That the Habessines when they were worsted would never acknowledge it but always boasted of the Victory and so all those Disputes came to nothing It was therefore thought more convenient to betake themselves to writing Nor did the King decline the Combat but answer'd them with other Writings tho they have not as yet bin permitted to visit the European Regions Oviedo impatient of his ill Success and finding he could not bring the Ethiopic Prince to do as he would have had him resolv'd to a more severe but unseasonable course And therefore to testifie his Indignation he left the Court and publish'd a Writing Where in he branded the Habessines with several Heresies and exhorted his Portugueses to have a care of them Which did not a little offend Claudius For a mind free and subject to none when once it refuses the persuasion of Argument is the more exasperated by affront and reviling Nor can it be
all Occasions of new Disturbances Some there were that openly resisted and would not permit any Priest under Roman Ordination to officiate in their Churches nay some of them they kill'd out-right As for the Countrey People tho they were passively Obedient to the King's Commands yet they lik'd their own old way best Among the rest there was one who having receiv'd the Cuff of Confirmation as their manner is and being ask'd by his Neighbour how he did Never worse said He than I have bin since I receiv'd the Patriarch's Box o' th' ear More than all this there was a Seminary set up for the Education as well of the Habessine as Portuguese Children for the Encouragement of whom and to invite others they caus'd some of the young Lads to Act a Comedy after the European manner But when they brought in Devils upon the Stage as the Scene requir'd some of the ignorant People believing them real Hobgoblins were so terrify'd that they flung out of the School crying out Wajelan Wajelan Sajetanet ametzea O Dear O Dear they have brought us Devils But the ensuing Tragedies more terrify'd the wiser sort For Tecla-George another of the King's Sons in Law for his Wives sake at difference with his Father having drawn into the same Conspiracy with him two Noblemen Gebra-Marjam and John Acayo revolted openly and by a Cryer solemnly proclaim'd That he renounc'd the Roman Worship and would Protect the Alexandrian by force of Arms. And that the world might believe he was in Earnest he caus'd all the Crucifixes Rosaries and other Ornaments of Popish Superstition to be burnt in a publick fire and to the end there might be no hopes of Reconciliation left for the Expectation of Confederates he took his Chaplain Abba Jacob who officiated after the Roman manner and after he had dispoyl'd him of his Stole and Hood put him to Death The King could not brook so great an Indignity and therefore sent Kebax Viceroy of Tigra with an Army against him who us'd such extraordinary Diligence that he soon surpriz'd the secure and unprovided Rebel overthrew his Army and took him and his Sister Adera Prisoners who because they had so furiously and contemptuously acted against the Roman Religion were both hang'd upon a high Tree Nor could all the Intercessions of the Queen nor of all the Noble Ladies could prevail tho they pleaded hard the disgrace done to their Sex and that it was never before known in Ethiopia that a Noblewoman was Hang'd especially being call'd by the King to behold so sad and infamous a Spectacle For they did not pity her because they thought her Innocent but for the Ignominy of her Punishment After this follow'd several other Accidents which as they brought a very great Odium upon the Patriarch and the Fathers so were they reckn'd to be the Causes of the general aversness of the People to the Roman Religion The Patriarch that he might exercise all his Authority in one single Act and shew the full extent of his Power having taken a pett against the Captain of the King's Guards for some frivolous Business that nothing belong'd to his Jurisdiction publickly in the Church in the presence of the whole Court thunders out an Anathema against him and sent him Post to the Devil It seems he had taken Possession of certain Farms which the Monks lay'd claim to and refus'd to restore them notwithstanding all the Admonitions of the Patriarch The Nobleman tho a Soldier hearing such a most Dreadful Excommunication by vertue whereof he was sent packing to Hell laden with all the Curses of Dathan and Abiram like one Thunder-strook fell into a Sound and lay for Dead But the Storm did not continue long For presently the King stept in to his relief by whose interposition and the Mediation of several of the Nobility he was re-admitted into the state of Grace However it was an Act which the Nobility took most heinously to heart among whom there were some that frown'd and chaf'd out of meer Indignation to see that their Church should be brought to such a degree of Servitude that a Foreign Priest should take upon him with so much Arrogance to Excommunicate and Bequeath to Eternal Damnation one of the Chief Counsellors of their Kingdom an Ancient and Famous Personage for the sake of a Litigious Farm which the King might take when he pleas'd from the Monks themselves if they were the Owners This Flame was fed by the addition of more fuel For the Icegue or Chief Abbot of the Monks being at that time lately Deceas'd who as we have already said is the next in Dignity and Authority to the Abuna he was Buried in a certain Church consecrated after the Roman manner tho he had bin an obstinate Zealot for the Alexandrian Religion Thereupon the Patriarch after he had soundly reprov'd the Rector of the Church Pronounc'd the Church profan'd by the Burial of a Heretic and therefore that Mass could not be said in it The Rector dreading the fatal stroak of the same dismal Dathan and Abiram Thunderbolt that lay'd the Great Commander sprawling without expecting any new Command causes the Carkass to be digg'd up again and thrown by This the Habessines heavily exclaim'd against crying out That the Franks exercised more cruel Severities upon them then their most exasperated Enemies ever practis'd among them to deprive their Dead of decent Burial now they might all see what the Living were to expect Tellez adds That a certain old Woman was cast into Prison upon Suspition of being a Witch but was presently set at liberty because it gave distaste For that the most Learned of the Habessines are of Opinion That there are now no more Magicians or Witches in the World and therefore that the Woman was unjustly wrong'd who was thrown into Prison by the Command of the Patriarch Thus the Minds of the People being generally incens'd the King himself began to look upon these acts of separate Jurisdiction in the Patriarch as Diminutions of his Prerogative the ancient Metropolitans never daring to attempt such things and consequently to alienate his Affections both from him and from the Fathers so that at length he gave ear to their Adversaries Who to bring down and curb the Excessive Power of the Patriarch which seem'd so intolerable to them more especially because they found him still inexorable in Matrimonial Causes prohibited by Divine and Canon-Law but chiefly in cases of Polygamy and Divorce they began their Addresses to him for those things which they knew he could not deny without bringing great mischief upon himself First That they might have liberty to say Mass after the ancient Ethiopian manner for that the Patriarch might mend the ancient forms where Necessity requir'd without abrogating the whole That the People hearing their ancient Services would be the more quiet in regard they would not so much mind the difference between the New and the Ancient form of Worship The Patriarch gave way to their
reason by Argument you can never subdue the Will Eighthly That the Devil had put it into the Heads of several Catholicks to make a corresponding Agreement between the Catholick and the Alexandrinian Religion asserting all to be Christians as well Alexandrians as Romans That all believe in Christ That Christ saves all That there is little Difference between both Religions That both have Conveniencies and Inconveniencies their Truths and their Errors but that the Wheat was to be separated from the Cockle Ninthly That the Ecclesiastical Censures seem'd very heavy to the Habessines especially when they heard the Patriarch name Dathan and Abiram in the Excommunication CHAP. XIII Of the Expulsion of the Patriarch and the Exilement of the Fathers of the Society The Alexandrians quarrel with the Fathers who are accurs'd Their Churches taken from them Susneus Dyes Ras-Seelax renouncing the Alexandrian Religion is Overthrown and Banish'd Others put to Death The Fathers Dispossessed of their Goods Sent to Fremona The Patriarch by Letters Demands of the King the Causes of his Banishment and a New Dispute The King's Answer The Fathers depart for Fremona Afterwards quite thrown out of the Kingdom AFter the Publication of the King's Edict the Alexandrians being now absolute Victors endeavour'd with all their industry to be quit with the Fathers and expel them quite out of Habessinia To which purpose they omitted no occasion of daily quarrel and contention First accusing the Patriarch for endeavouring by Seditious Sermons to stir up the People to Sedition and to turn them from the Alexandrian Religion for that he had openly exhorted his Hearers to Constancy But understanding that Basilides was displeas'd and gave out threatning words they thought it requisite to act more moderately Soon after the Fathers Churches were taken from them believing that would be a means to put a stop to the Roman Worship And first they were constrain'd to quit their Cathedral at Gorgora a stately Structure after the European manner At their departure they carry'd with them all their Sacred Furniture brake all the Sculpture and spoil'd the Pictures that they might not leave them to be the sport of their Adversaries doing that themselves which they thought the Habessines would do And this Example they follow'd in all other places from whence they were expell'd In the mid'st of these Transactions Susnèus's Distemper increasing and more and more augmented by his continual anguish of Mind he ended this Life the 16th day of Decemb. 1632. The King being Dead the Fathers Adversaries set upon Ras-Seelax in the first place as the Principal Favourer and Protector of the Roman Religion and first of all they promise him all his former Dignities all his Possessions and Goods upon Condition he would return to the Alexandrian Religion Upon his refusal they bring him bound in Chains before the King and pronounce him guilty of Death But the King declaring that he would not pollute his hands with the Blood of his Uncle commanded him to be carry'd to a certain remote Place near to Samenar and sequester'd his Goods And as he was great so was he attended in his fall by several others as Atzai-Tino Secretary of State and the King's Historiographer Walata Georgissa the Queens Cousin In short whoever had favour'd the Fathers were all sent into Exile and some put to Death perhaps because they had bin more bitter in their Expressions than others against the Alexandrian Religion For some had call'd it a Religion for Dogs After all this the Enemies of the Fathers still insisted That nothing was yet done so long as the Patriarch and the Fathers were suffer'd to abide within the Confines of the Kingdom Neither would the Lastaneers be quiet till they heard the Fathers were all thrown out of Ethiopia but would look upon all things transacted for the re-establishment of the Alexandrian Religion as fictitious Stories There needed not many words to press him that was already willing First of all therefore their Goods and Possessions were taken from them then all their Arms especially their Musquets and Fire-Arms But before that they were sent to Fremona where as we have already declar'd Oviedo the Patriarch resided for some time But before their Departure the Patriarch wrote a certain Letter to the King to this Effect I did not adventure to come into Habessinia with my Companions of my own accord but by the Command of the Roman Pontiff and the King of Portugal at the request of your Father where having taken the King's Oath of Obedience I officiated the Office of Patriarch in the Name of the Roman Pontiff and the King of Portugal Now because you Command me to depart my humble request is that your Majesty would set down the Causes of my Exilement in Writing subscrib'd with your own and the hands of some of your Counsellors and Peers that all the World may know whether I am compell'd to suffer for my Life and Conversation or for the sake of my Doctrine I granted the Ceremonies desired by your Father except the Communion under both Kinds which only the Pope himself can dispute with The same also I again offer so that you and your Subjects will yield Obedience to the Church of Rome as the head of all other Churches My last request is That as the Matter was Debated at first so it may be referr'd to another Dispute by which means the Truth of the whole affair will more manifestly appear To this Writing the King thus reply'd Whatever was done by me before was done by the Command of my Father whom I was in Duty bound to Obey so that I was forc'd to wage War under his Conduct both with Kindred and Subjects But after the last Battel of Wainadega the Learned and Unlearned Clergy and Layety Civil and Military young and old all sorts of Persons made their Addresses to my Father Crying out How long shall we be perplexed and wearied with unprofitable things How long shall we encounter Brethren and Kindred cutting off the right hand with the left How long shall we thrust our Swords into our own Bowels Especially since we learn nothing from the Roman Religion but what we knew before For what the Romans call the two Natures in Christ his Divinity and his Humanity that we knew from the beginning to this time For we all believe that our Lord Christ is perfect God and perfect Man perfect God in his Divinity and perfect Man in his Humanity But in regard those Natures are not separated nor divided for neither of them subsist of its self but both of them conjoyn'd the one with the other therefore we do not say that they are two things For one is made two yet so as the Natures are not mix'd in their Subsistence This Controversie therefore among us is of little moment neither was it for this that there has bin so much Bloodshed among us but chiefly because the Blood was deny'd to the Layety whereas Christ has said in his Gospel Unless