Honour nor Authority of a Patriarch And if it should so happen that a Couneil should be assembled in Greece and this Prelate should be present at it he shall have the seventh Place therein next after the Bishop of Seleucia and in case he should have at any time power given him to ordain Archbishops in his Province it shall not be lawful for him to advance any of the Natives to that Dignity whosoever does not yield obedience to this is excommunicated by the Synod If there were nothing else to prove these Arabick Canons to be spurious this Canon alone would do it abundantly it being plain from Ecclesiastical History that the Title of Patriarch was not known in the Church for some time after the Celebration of the First Nicene Council neither was there any Bishop or Christian in Ethiopia at that time Frumentius who was the Apostle or first Bishop thereof having been consecrated a Bishop by Athanasius when he was Primate of Alexandria which he was not till after the Nicene Council In the Year 1177. Pope Alexander the IIId Pope Alexander the III d pretends to have received an Ambassador from Prester John while he was at Venice whither the Emperor Frederick had driven him either received or pretended to receive a Message from the Great Christian Emperor Prester John desiring to submit himself to his obedience and to have a College at Rome and an Altar at Jerusalem for the use of his Subjects The Pope having made a noise with this Message pretended to send Philip a Physician who was said to have brought it back again with a Letter to Prester John I shall not trouble the Reader with that Letter for besides that it contains little else than Hyperbolies of St. Peter and the Pope's Supremacy it is probable that that whole Affair was a mere Fiction invented on purpose to make the Roman Emperor ashamed of persecuting the Pope at the same time when so remote a Christian Emperor was ready to throw himself at his feet For had this Message of Philip's whom some call Peter been a real thing it would certainly have taught the Court of Rome in what part of the World Prester John's Empire lay whether in Asia near Tartary or in Africk beyond Egypt Whereas long after this that Empire though called Ethiopia was still supposed to lie somewhere in the North of Asia for which reason it was still joined in the same Missions with the Tartars and Ruthens and committed to the Charge of the Dominican Provincial of Poland as being its next Neigbour In the Year 1308. Pope Clement pretended to have received an Embassy from the same Prince Prester John was brought upon the stage again Pope Clement the Vth being said to have received a most splendid Embassy from him consisting of 30 Ambassadors by whom he was assured that their Master had no less than 74 Kings under him and who excepting five of the smallest that were Mahometans were all Christians and that he had likewise within his Dominions an 127 Archbishops every one of which had 20 Bishops under his Jurisdiction Which pious Fraud was spread about at that time on purpose to encourage the Latins to undertake a new Expedition to the Holy Land being assured of the Assistance of this mighty Christian Emperor whose Dominions were still reported to lie convenient enough for the carrying on of a Holy War in Syria It is probable that there was never any such Emperor insomuch that I am apt to think that the whole Story of this Enchanted Asiatick Christian Empire was invented and kept up by the Trumpeters of the Holy War for that very purpose no such Empire having ever to this day been discovered in Asia what is reported by the Portuguese Missionaries of the Kingdom of Thybot amounting to no more at most than that those People were formerly Christians but without the least Evidence of any Prester John or Great Christian Empire having ever been in those Parts But how they come to call a Countrey which they supposed to lie towards Scythia Ethiopia is one of the unaccountable Blunders of those Ignorant though Fraudulent Ages unless we will say That they having heard something of a Christian Empire in Ethiopia did either for the foresaid Ends industriously transiate it into Asia or were so ignorant in Geography as not to know what part of the World Ethiopia lay in In the Council of Florence for so low we must come before we meet with any thing more of the Ethiopick Church Eugenius the IVth after he had dismissed the Greeks Eugenius the IVth translates the Council from Florence to Rome upon a sham Pretence that the Emperor of Ethiopia was sending an Ambassador with a submission of himself and his Church to him finding it necessary for his Affairs to have the name of a Council still sitting so long as that of Basil which had deposed him and chosen the Duke of Savoy Pope was on foot against him but being withal desirous to have it at Rome for want of a better gave this for the reason of his translating it from Florence thither That it was convenient that the splendid Embassy from Zerah Jacob the High and Mighty Emperor of Ethiopia which was on its way to that Council with the submission of that Church and Empire to the Pope should not find the Council sitting in such a paultry Town as Florence but in the Metropolis of Christendom which would add something of Authority to it and accordingly it was translated But as it is certain that no such splendid Ethiopick Embassy ever came to Rome so it is as certain that it was never so much as thought of in Habassia on the contrary Zera Jacob when he was solicited by some Jerusalem Monks on this Occasion did absolutely refuse to submit his Church to that of Rome for which denial the Jesuits above 200 years after his death made Sultan Saged his Great Grandson Sultan Saged curseth his Grandfather's Soul for not having submitted himself to the Romish Church and their Convert to curse his Soul to the Pit of Hell saying A curse on King Zera Jacob who was the cause of our not being at this time in the Portuguese or Roman Faith for which he is now tormented in Hell Now though this Convert had been never so certain of Zera Jacob's being in Hell for having deny'd to submit himself to the Pope yet considering he was his Great Granfather he might very well have spared his Curses such impious Expressions of Zeal for I can call them no other being much fitter for the Mouths of Profligate Algerine Renegadoes with whom they are said to be common than for a Prince who turns from one Sect of Christianity to another Besides Zera Jacob abating him that one thing of his having refused to submit the Ethiopick Church to the Roman was no such Miscreant as to deserve to be thus cursed by his Posterity as appears by a Letter written by him
Furthermore If you shall think fit to marry either your Daughters to our Sons or your Sons with our Daughters it will be extreamly acceptable to us She desires a Daughter of Portugal for her Black Prince and will be much for both our Advantages by laying a foundation of a Brotherly Alliance betwixt us Which Marriages we are and shall always be ready to enter into with you What remains is That the Health and Grace of our Redeemer Christ Jesus and of our Holy Lady the Virgin Mary may extend themselves to you your Sons and Daughters and your whole Family Amen We do furthermore certify you That in case you and we join our Forces we shall with God's assistance be strong enough to destroy the Enemies of our Holy Faith for at Sea where by reason of our Empire 's lying so much within Land we are not able to do any thing You praised be God are the most powerful of all Jesus Christ being your Helper for in truth the things done by you in the Indies are miraculous and more than humane If you will set out a Fleet of a 1000 Ships we will take care to furnish them with all Necessaries Upon the Emperor of Habassin's having made this glorious Proposition to him King Emanuel resolved to send a splendid Embassy to his Court named Don Edward Calvam who had been Secretary of State to two Kings and Ambassador at the Courts of Vienna France and Rome and one Rodriguez de Lima and Francis Alverez one of his Chaplains in Ordinary to go Ambassadors sending rich Presents by them both to the Emperor and his Grandmother These Ambassadors with Matthew in their Company went to Goa on the Fleet that carried the Viceroy Lopez Suares by whom they were sent in the Year 1520. with a strong Convoy to Arkiko a Port in the Red-Sea belonging at that time to the Habassins Galvam who was the first in Commission dying by the way in the Island of Camara was succeeded by Lima who having made but a short stay at Arkiko begun his Journey towards the Habassin Court where when he arrived he was received by the Emperor with extraordinary joy and kindness Matthew who died in the way betwixt Arkiko and the Court having been splendidly interr'd by the Ambassadors in the Monastry of Bisoym The Ambassadors who were to have returned to the Indies by the same Fleet they came upon having brought their Negotiation to a speedy issue made what haste they could back to Arkiko where to their great mortification they found the Fleet they were to have embarked upon gone the Moncons or Trade-Winds which in those Seas blow six Months from one Point and six months from the opposite not permitting them to wait any longer for them And to encrease the mortification of this Disappointment they met with Letters which had been left for them by the Admiral that advised them of the Death of King Emanuel the greatest and most fortunate Prince that ever wore the Crown of Portugal The Ambassadors not knowing how long it might be before they should have a Fleet to carry them to Goa and being certain that by reason of the Moncon it must be at least six months before one could possibly come to them they returned to the Court again where they remained four years before any opportunity for Goa offered it self But at the end of four years they embarked upon a Fleet at Arkiko sent on purpose to fetch them carrying an Habassin Ambassador home with them with Letters to the King of Portugal and the Pope The Ambassadors did not arrive at Lisbon before the Year 1527. where the Habassin Ambassador whose name was Zaga Zabo was received with all the marks of friendship and kindness but whatever was the cause of it he was to his great sorrow detained above 10 years in that Court He hath given the World a large Account of the Faith and Customs of the Habassins which though false in abundance of Particulars I shall set down at length having first translated the Habassin Emperor's Letters to the Pope and the King of Portugal The Letters of the most Serene David Emperor of Ethiopia to Emanuel King of Portugal writ in the Year 1521. In the name of God the Father as it was always and who has no beginning In the name of God the only Son who was like unto him before the light of the Stars was seen and before he laid the foundations of the Sea but who in time was conceived in the Womb of a Virgin without Human Seed and without Marriage for after this manner was the knowledge of his Office In the name of the Comforter the Spirit of Holiness who knoweth all Secrets that are or ever were and all the height of Heaven which is sustained and upheld without Pillars and who enlarged the Earth which before was not known nor created from the East to the West and from the South to the North neither are they First and Second but a Trinity join'd in One Eternal Creator and One Council and One Word thorow all Ages Amen THESE Letters are sent by Mani Tinghil that is the Frankincense of the Virgin which was the name that was given me at my Baptism but the name I assumed when I took the Government upon me is David the Beloved of God the Pillar of the Faith of the Race of Judah the Son of David the Son of Solomon the Son of the Pillar of Sion the Son of the Seed of Jacob the Son of the Hand of Mary the Son of Nau by the Flesh Emperor of the Great and High Ethiopia and of Mighty Kingdoms and Provinces King of Xoa and Affate and of Fatigar and of Angote and Bara and of Baaligaura and of Adea and of Vangue and of Goiam where the Nile riseth and of Damarua and of Vaquem Edri Ambea Vagni Tigri Mahon and Sabaym where Queen Saba lived and of Barnagaes and Lord of all the Countries as far as Nubia on the Confines of Egypt These Letters are addressed to the most Potent and Excellent King Emanuel who liveth in the love of God and who continues stedfast in the Catholick Faith the Son of the Apostles Peter and Paul King of Portugal and Algarves the Friend of Christians the Enemy Judge and Conqueror of the Mahometans and Heathens of Africk and Guinea from the Promontory and Island of the Moon to the Red-Sea of Arabia Persia and Ormus and of the whole Indies and of all the Provinces Islands and Lands belonging to them the Destroyer of the Mahometans and of all the mighty Heathens the Lord of Towers and of High Castles and Walls the Propagator of the Faith of Jesus Christ Peace be with you King Emanuel who relying uton God's Assistance do slaughter the Mahometans and with your Fleet and Armies every where drive the Infidels out as Dogs Peace be with the Queen your Wife the Friend of Jesus Christ and the Servant of the Virgin Mary the Mother of the Saviour
either with his Neighbours or Subjects and as to the main was Victorious still Adam is succeeded by his Son Malac Saged who takes no notice of the Missionaries and tho he hated the Roman Church no less than his Father nevertheless having his thoughts wholly taken up with War he gave the Coadjutor and the Jesuits after they returned to Fremona no manner of Molestation unless they were troubled at his taking no more notice of them than if there had been no such persons in his Countrey Neither did the Coadjutors declaring himself Patriarch upon his having received advice of the Patriarch Baretto's death who died at Goa on the Twentieth of December 1562 ingage the Emperor to have ere the more regard for him and as the Emperor gave the Patriarch no trouble in his retirement so neither did the Patriarch give him any The Patriarch dying at Goa the Coadjutor becomes Patriarch who despairing of being able to do any good in Ethiopia without the assistance of the Portuguese-Troops made the solliciting of them his whole business So in a Letter to the General of the Jesuits bearing date the 3d of June 1566. he tells him There was one thing he and the Fathers were all agreed in which was That nothing but a good body of Portuguese Soldiers would ever be able to reduce Ethiopia to the Obedience of the Roman Church and in one of the same date to the Rector of the Jesuits College at Goa he tells him There was one thing he might be certain of The Patriarch sollicits hard for Troops which was that there was no other remedy for Ethiopia but a good body of Portuguese Troops adding that if they had but 5 or 600 stout Musketeers he would undertake for the reducing of Ethiopia to the Roman Church in a short time Concluding his Letter with a complaint that more men were daily exposed to greater dangers for things of much less Importance even to the State Father Fermandes do's the same and where the success was infinitely more doubtful And Manuel Fernandes in a Letter to the Provincial and Jesuits of Goa chimes exactly with his Patriarch in this note What shall I say saith Fernandes my dearest Fathers and Brethren to blame your Reverences who are in India for the great neglect of not having sent the Troops whereon the Reduction of this Empire depends intirely I know would be unjust being certain that if it had been in your Reverence's power to have appli'd it that we had had that remedy long before this time Nevertheless there is one thing I must beg of you and that is That since your Reverences do heartily wish that we had those Soldiers tho it is not in your yower to send them to us that you would pray earnestly to Christ to put it into their hearts in whose power it is to do it effectually I am likewise certain that if your Reverences did but see what is lost here in Ethiopia for want of a handful of men who would also be able to protect those who have already embraced our Faith that you would run howling and lamenting so great a loss thorough all the streets of the City Your Reverences may think of this what you please but I do say and affirm That the Order of Jesuits has no where so noble and glorious an enterprize upon their hands as this of Ethiopia if they could but finish it Neither ought it to seem strange to you that we should say That a body of Soldiers is necessary to the reduction of this Church considering that there is nothing more certain than that at the same time you lose the favour of the King the work of conversion goes on but very dull and no wonder since even in Portugal the Prelates if they had not the assistance of the Secular Arm would not be able to do their duties and though it is true that we pretend to have no other business here but the service of God and the promotion of the good of peoples Souls yet it is certain that those Troops if they were once here would quickly clear this Empire of all its Foreign and Domestick Enemies chiefly of the Turks and Galls by whom it is at this time so miserably harassed and against whom the unhappy Natives are not able to make head who as they contradict our Lord so our Lord contradicts them in chastising them with flies for the Galls are no better It being an unconceivable thing how such a sorry naked People should be able to do the things that they do against the Habassins who have both Arms and Horses were it not that God makes and will make Wur against them until such time as they shall give over making War against his Divine Majesty Wherefore since a good body of Soldiers would remedy all our wants Spiritual and Temporal let me again beg it of your Reverences to beseech God to send us this necessary Succour I would have your Reverences likewise remember with how great Zeal and Charity our holy Father Ignatius commanded our Superiors in Portugal nos to fail to speak to the King who is now with God once a Month at least concerning the Habassin Mission But though my intent in putting you in mind of this should not be to engage you to do the same with the Viceroy yet this I will affirm That since this is the Cause of God and the Society and so great a Cause too that you ought never to give over soliciting both God and Princes about this affair So that it may never be said of us They begun to build but could not finish Finally I do assure you That if we had but those Troops once that not only Ethiopia but another Europe would be brought quickly to the Knowledge of Christ and the Obedience of the Roman Church The Jesuits of Goa Lisbon and Rome were so inflamed by these passionate Letters that the Cardinal Don Henry who during the Minority of his Nephew Don Sebastian governed Portugal could not be quiet day nor night for them his not ordering so small a body of Men to be sent where they would infallibly do both the Church and Crown so great service being every where roared at by them as both the most ungodly and impolitick thing that any Government had ever been guilty of The Cardinal and Council of State The Cardinal of Portugal prevails with the Pope to call the Patriarch our of Ethiopia who weighed things a little more soberly than the distressed Jesuits in Ethiopia finding they could not well spare so many Soldiers at that time from the more profitable Conquests they were going on with in the Indies resolved since they could not comply with the loud clamours of the Jesuits to remove the cause of them by writing to the Pope to recal the Patriarch and his Friars and to send them somewhere else where they might do more good and make less noise by representing the Conversion of the Habassins
Master May Christ our Lord who is the beginning and end of all things carry on that Amity and Friendship which he hath begun between us The principal cause of my writing to your Majesty at this time is to renew the Familiarity and Correspondence which was between our Ancestors which Friendship together with the Adoption of the Holy Spirit has much enobled us Wherefore we desire your Majesty to send us some strong and stout Soldiers to help us to beat the Enemy out of our Ports your Troops when they arrive will find us provided with Arms and all other necessary Provisions of War and in a readiness to assist them to the utmost It being much fitter that those Ports should be in your Majesty's hands than in the hands of the greatest Enemies of our holy Faith your Majesty's Ancestors sent an Army of Gallant men into Ethiopia at a time when the Enemy was ready to have destroy'd our Faith and Empire We might destroy all our Enemies with great ease if we were assisted by the powerful Kings that profess the Gospel and who do comfort our hearts with the Memory of heavenly things we being all Sons of Heaven as St. John witnesseth saying What is born of the flesh is flesh and what is born of the Spirit is Spirit Furthermore we are at war with another Enemy who are called Gauls and who do give us much trouble Wherefore we beseech your Majesty to send us some stout Troops and such as are Zealous for our holy Apostolical Faith and that with all possible Expedition We on our part have for some time been ready to receive them and if they were once come it will quickly appear that all that we design is feasible For why since Christ our Lord is our Common Head and we are all his Members and the Heavenly Father hath begot us all in one Womb of Baptism and that not with corruptible seed should we not be all tied in one chain of love with one Soul and one Body If these Letters were writ by the Habassin Emperor which I do very much doubt they plainly discover that the Fathers chief Argument to persuade him to submit himself to the Pope was the promise of Portuguese Troops but the reason why I suspect these Letters not to have been writ by the Emperor but by some Missionary in the Indies and who had never so much as been in Ethïopia are 1. That Seltam Saged or Suseneus 's Father was never Emperor as he is said in these Letters to have been 2. Guerreiro in his relation of Ethiopia printed at Lisbon in the Year 1611 sets them down under the name of the Emperor Jacob These Letters were probably forged by some Missionary or Malasequet 3. Their Phraseology excepting an affected sprinkling here and there of uncouth Phrases as also their Complements are so much Spanish that an Habassin has not less of the air of a Spaniard than they have of the Letters that were certainly known to have been writ by some of those Emperors Lastly Pereira tells us That the Habassin Emperors from the time that the remains of Gama 's Troops went over to the Turks and assisted them against Ademas dreaded nothing so much as the coming of Portuguese Soldiers from the Indies but whatever the Emperors did there being nothing that the Jesuits desired so earnestly it is to be feared that they made bold with the Emperor's name in the solliciting of them But there are more Letters behind which whether genuine or suppositious I shall set down leaving them to the censure of the judicious Reader The Letter of Raz Athanateus to the King of Portugal THE Letter of Peace and Love Athanateus's Letter to the King of Portugal sent by Athanateus cometh to the High and Powerful Emperor of Portugal with the Peace of our Lord Christ who was Crucified on the holy Cross for the Redemption of the World May this Peace be always with your Majesty The cause of my writing this Letter to you is the earnest desire that the Emperor and I both have to see some Portuguese Troops in this Countrey We do therefore most earnestly beseech your Majesty to send us a Body of stout well-disciplin'd men in order to there covering of our Ports which are at this time in the hand of the Enemies of our Faith When your Soldiers arrive we will take care that they shall be supplied with Arms and all other Necessaries Your Majesty's Ancestors assisted us when the Mahometans broke in upon us and we do to this day remember what great things Christ wrought for us by their means I must therefore a second time intreat your Majesty to send us a Body of stout Soldiers whom when they arrive I shall be ready to receive with open Arms and my mind gives me they will come at some time or other concerning which affair Father Peter Pays will write more at large to your Majesty Written in Ethiopia the 13th of December 1607. The Letter of Raz Athenateus to the Viceroy of the Indies THE Letter of Peace and Love His Letter to the Viceroy of the Indias sent by Athenateus cometh to the great Viceroy of the Indies with the peace of our Lord Christ who died on the holy Cross for our Redemption may that Peace be always with your Excellency and your whole State Amen Hear Sir My Father was always a great friend to the Portugueses that came into these parts having continually favoured them in all things as I have done ever since his death having on all occasions assisted them both with my Interest and my Purse and saved several of them when condemned to die being willing to preserve the remains of the first Portugueses that came among us until more should come to them for the good of this Empire I have had it for some years in my thoughts to write to you but have still been hindered by the Wars we have of late been so much embroiled in out of which God has been pleased to deliver us at last and to give us an Emperor of a Sound Judgment and who governs all things with great prudence who upon my acquainting him with the great need we stand in of Portuguese Succors was pleased to write himself to the King of Portugal for some commanding me to do the same and to acquaint him how much we desire them and how much their coming will be for God's Service I must therefore intreat your Excellency to lend us your helping-hand in this affair that so it may be brought to a speedy Issue Let there be at least a Thousand Soldiers sent and let it be done with all possible Expedition for which Service you will have honour in the sight of God who will undoubtedly reward you for it and were there but once a way opened for it your Excellency shall want nothing that this Empire affords I shall say no more since Father Peter Pays who is acquainted with all my secrets can disclose
Ambassador desired Esimethus who was their King at that time to enter into a League Offensive and Defensive with their Neighbours the Madaans who were Sarazens and having joined their Armies for to invade Persia The Kings did both promise to do what the Romans had desired of them but when they came to execution they found their parts not to be feasible the Silks that were brought by the Indians being all constantly bought up by the Persian Merchants who lay much nearer to them than the Ethiopians and for the Homerites the vast Deserts they were to pass thorough before they could come at the Persians discouraged them at this time from attempting it though King Abraham did attempt it afterwards but with no success But as it is the common Fate of Nations The Homerites conquered by the Ethiopians their Deliverers that invite their Neighbours into their Countrey to be conquered by their Deliverers so it fared with the Homerites at this time for the Servants and Thieving part of the Ethiopian Army finding Arabia a much better Country than their own they resolved to remain where they were and not being long contented to live among the Homerites as Inmates they set up to be their Masters and having by force of Arms deposed Esimetheus Esimetheus made King of the Homerites deposed by the Habassine Army which put Abraham in his place they bestowed the Crown upon one Abraham a Christian but who had formerly been a Slave to a Roman Merchant that resided at the Port of Adel in Ethiopia Hellenesteus having received Advice of the Pranks his Subjects that remained in Arabia were playing dispatched 3000 Soldiers thither to chastise their Insolence and restore his Creature Esimetheus to his Royal Dignity which those Troops were so far from doing that having been corrupted by some Emissaries sent among them by Abraham so soon as they landed when they came to engage the Rebels after having slain their Chief Commander who was a Prince of the Blood they all went over to them with a Resolution to stand by Abraham to the last Hellenestens being much troubled at this Loss sent a greater Army than the former against Abraham which coming to blows was totally routed by him after which Hellenesteus growing weary of the Charge of the War gave it over leaving the unfortunate Esimetheus to his unkind Stars Elmicinus in his Sarazen History reports The Ethiopians send an Ambassador to the Patriarch of Alexandria That in the 39th year of the Hegira which is 659 of Our Lord an Ambassador was sent from Ethiopia to Simon Syrus the Jacobite Patriarch of Alexandria to intreat him to ordain them a Bishop and some Presbyters which the Patriarch having I know not for what reason deny'd to do the Ambassador complained of him to Adulmelius the Sarazen King of Egypt who commanded the Patriarch to ordain him as many as he desired but the Ambassador did so highly resent Symon's denial that when he offered him his Service he would not make use of him but employed another Bishop which was the cause of great Disturbances in the Church In the 561st year of Diocletian James the Abuna of Ethiopia deposed by the Queen and restored by the King afterwards which is the 845th of our Lord saith the same Historian there was a Bishop in Ethiopia whose name was James whom the Queen taking advantage of her Husband's absence in the Wars banished Ethiopia substituting another Bishop in his room for which the Kingdom was plagued with a great Drought and Pestilence but the King returning home and being much dissatisfied with the Queen for what she had done sent to the Patriarch of Egypt whither the deposed Prelate was retired to command him back to his Province which the Patriarch did and the Bishop when he return'd was received with the general joy of the whole People In the Eighth year of Chalifatus Mutamidi or as others will have it A Tribute laid on the Patriarch of Alexandria by the Calif of Egypt in his Seventh year which was the 265th year of the Hegira one Michael being Patriarch of the Alexandrian Jacobites he had a Tribute of 20000 Crowns laid upon him for the advancing of which Sum he was obliged to sell to the Jews the fourth part of all the Churches in Alexandria and the Lands belonging to him in Habassia as also the Church in the Neighbourhood of Malaca in Cosvoim in the City of Misra and to tax every Christian at a Kirati yearly all which amounted to but half the Sum of the Tribute In the 807th year of the Martys The Nile diverted from coming down to Egypt and turned into its old Channel again upon the Intercession of the Bishop of Alexandria which is the 1165th of Christ the Nile being extreamly low in Egypt the King thereof whose name was Mustausirus sent the Patriarch Michael with rich Presents to the King of Ethiopia who having received the Patriarch with great respect did at his request order the Nile to be turned into its old Channel again out of which he had diverted it whereupon the Nile rose in one night to its usual heighth in Egypt to the great joy of the King and the whole Countrey who when the Patriarch returned home did him great honours Paulus Venetus reports that in the year 1258. an Habassin King having been hindered by his Councellors from going in person to Jerusalem did send a Bishop thither The King of Habassia victorious over the King of Aden with rich Offerings who was not only robbed of all he had as he passed thorough the Kingdom of Aden but upon his refusal to turn Mahometan was sent home with a mark of infamy upon his Body at which barbarous Treatment the Habassin was so much incensed that having got together a great Army he marched against that Sarazen Tyrant and having beat him in a pitched Battel and made great Desolations in his Countrey for some Weeks he returned home laden with Spoils and Honours Haiton Armenus in his Directions to the Christians how to recover the Holy Land adviseth them to write to the King of the Nubians meaning the Habassins to invade Egypt with a numerous Army which would divert the Sarazens from coming with their whole force against them into Syria When or wheresoever the Arabick Canons falsly attributed to the first Council of Nice were made the 36th of them relates wholly to the Bishop of Ethiopia and runs as follows THE Ethiopians have no power to create or chuse a Patriarch The 7th place in a General Council given to the Abuna of Ethiopia by the Arabick Canons of the Council of Nice whose Prelate must be rather under the Jurisdiction of the Patriarch of Alexandria or in case they should come at any time to have one among them in the place of Patriarch and who should be stiled Catholicus he shall not notwithstanding that have a right to ordain Archbishops as other Patriarchs have having neither the
their own I do not find they have any besides some Fabulous Legends of the Lives of their Monks of which I shall only give the Reader a Taste In the Life of Tecla Haymanot the most famous of all their Monks both for Piety and Miracles the following Account of the Succession of their Grand Abbots is given The Angel St. Michael gave the Cowl to St. Anthony St. Anthony gave it to St. Macarius Macarius gave it to Pachomius Pachomius to Abbot Araguni or Michael who was one of the Nine Monks that came into Ethiopia Araguni gave it to Bazana Bazana to Mazralmoa Mazralmoa to Abbot John John to Abbot Jesus Jesus to Tecla Haymanot to whom Christ appeared and promised that whosoever should kill a Serpent upon a Friday should be pardoned all the Sins he had committed in Forty Years But notwithstanding the Lives of the Habassin Monks are all of a piece with the Lives of all the other Monks that are extant that is extreamly fabulous yet this must be said for them that Monkery continues to this day much the same among them as it was in the beginning from which in the Church of Rome it is so strangely degenerated For in Habassia Monkery much the same in Habassia as it was in the beginning any one that has a mind to be a Monk retires thereupon to the Desart where he puts on what Habit he pleaseth or judgeth to be most sutable to his pretensions Their Obligation so long as they profess themselves Monks which they are always at their liberty to give over is to fast every day in the Year till three a Clock in the Afternoon and to Assemble together at Midnight and at other certain Hours to perform their Devotions they do generally exercise great Austerities upon themselves being very strict in their Fasts many of them eating but once in two days and some never but upon Sundays some of them are said to have made Holes in the Trunks of Trees and to have lodged in them till the Trees have grown to shut them in Their Monastries are more like Villages than Roman Convents Their Monastries are little Villages every Monk having his distinct dwelling House with as much Land laid to it as a Man is able to cultivate and when they come to dye they dispose of their Goods as they please only the Land remains still to the Monastries Now this course falls in exactly with that of the Primitive Monks who always lived in Deserts where they work'd hard and were under no Vows whereas the Roman Monks have their Monastries in or near Princes Courts and in all Populous Cities and tho generally hurried into that Profession either by their Parents or by some sudden fit of Melancholy are fettered in it by Vows for their Lives and are so far from putting their Hand to any work that they are every where become proverbial for Laziness and as for their Buildings they are much more like Palaces than the Dwellings of People that have renounced the World and taken a Vow of Poverty upon them The most famous of all their Monastries is that of Alelujah wherein formerly there are said to have been 40000 Monks together all the Country about having been given to the Monks thereof to cultivate I do not find that any sort of Learning did ever flourish among the Habassins so that they have but few Books besides the Bible the Canons of the first Councils the Homilies of the Greek Fathers and the Lives of their Saints The Habassins do hold the Scriptures to be the perfect Rule of the Christian Faith The Habassins hold the Scriptures to be the perfect Rule of Faith insomuch that they deny it to be in the Power of a General Council to oblige People to believe any thing as an Article of Faith without an express warrant from thence Their Canon of Scripture consists of 85 Books the Old Testament consisting of 46 and the New of 39. As to the Doctrine of our Saviour's Incarnation They are Eutychians they are all Eutychians holding that there is but one Nature in Christ which is the Divine by which they will have the Humane to have been swallowed up they were led into this Heresy by Dioscorus Patriarch of Alexandria who was condemned with Eutyches for it by the General Council of Calcedon whose Authority they for that reason reject pretending that its Decrees were imposed on the Church by Marcian the Emperor on which account they call all those who have yielded Obedience to it Mellites or Royalists as they themselves are called Jacobites from one James a Syrian who was a great Stickler for the Eutychian Heresy They allow the Bishop of Rome to be the first Patriarch They deny the Popes Supremacy but condemn his pretending to a Supremacy over the whole Church as Antichristian and do detest Popery to that degree as to declare That of the two they would sooner turn Mahometans than Roman Catholicks The Supream Authority in all Causes Ecclesiastical and Civil The Emperor is Head of the Church is in the Emperor They have but one Bishop at a time who is stiled the Abuna that is our Father he is always an Alexandrian Monk and upon notice of a Vacancy is consecrated and sent into Ethiopia by the Alexandrian Patriarch to whom this Church hath always been subject he has the seventh place in a General Council he Ordains only by Imposition of Hands he hath Lands both in the Kingdom of Dembea and Tigre from which besides several Perquisites he receives a considerable Revenue Their Priests Marry Their Priests may Marry after they are in Orders and as often as they are Widowers They are said to have divers Forms of Baptism viz. I baptize thee in the Holy Spirit They have divers Forms of Baptism I baptize thee in the Water of Jordan Let God Baptize thee Come thou to Baptism They Circumcise both Males and Females and all are Baptized every Year on the Feast of Epiphany they hold that Men derive their Souls no less than their Bodies from their Parents and that the Children of Christian Parents and especially of a Christian Mother are saved notwithstanding they dye without Baptism They celebrate the Eucharist but once a day in a Church All that are present at the Celebration of the Sacrament must communicate They do not elevate nor adore the Host nor keep it after the Communion They break it after it is consecrated They reckon the receiving of it breaks their Fast at which none must be present without communicating the Laity as well as the Clergy receive the Cup they do not elevate nor Worship the consecrated Elements neither are they kept after the Communion they consecrate unleavened Bread which they break after it is consecrated they reckon the receiving of the Sacrament breaks their Fast for which reason they never receive it on Fasting-days till after Three a Clock in the Afternoon They do not
the Roman Pontiff in the Year 1524. In the name of God the Father Almghty maker of Heaven and Earth and of all things visible and invisible in the name of Jesus Christ the Son of God who was the same with him from the beginning of the World and who is Light of Light and very God of very God and in the name of God the Holy Ghost who is true God and proceedeth from the Father I The King at whose Name the Lyons do tremble who am by the Grace of God called Achami Tinghil that is the Frankincense of the Virgin the Son of King David the Son of Solomon the Son of the Hand of Mary the Son of Nau by the Flesh and by Grace the Son of St. Peter and St. Paul do send these Letters Peace be with you O Just Lord and holy powerful pure and sacred Father who art the head of all Bishops and fearest no-body because there is none that hath power to curse thee who art the most watchful Curate of all Souls and the Friend of Pilgrims and the sacred Master and Preacher of the Faith and the Enemy of every thing that offends the Conscience and the lover of all good Manners and a holy Person whom all do bless and praise O happy and holy Father I do obey you with reverence because you are the peace of all and do deserve whatsoever is good so that it is but just that according to the divine Commands of the Apostles all should yield obedience to you This belongs to you but they have likewise commanded us to reverence all Bishops Archbishops and Prelates and to love you as a Father and to reverence you as a King and to believe in you as a God For which cause I do humbly with bended knees and with a sincere heart tell you holy Father That you are my Father and I am your Son Holy and most mighty Father Why have you never sent any Nuncio's to us to be informed of our health for since you are our Pastor and we are your Sheep you ought not to have been unmindful of us nor ought you to have reckoned us to have been too remote from your Territories for your Nuncio's to have visited us seeing from the most remote Kingdom of the Earth that is Portugal your Son King Emanuel has commodiously sent his Ambassadors to us so that if God had deferred calling him to Heaven the things he and I were treating about had undoubtedly had a happy Issue before this time I should be glad to hear healthful things from you by certain Nuncio's having never had a word from your Holiness nor heard of you by any other way but by some of our vowed Pilgrims who neither carried Letters from us to you nor brought any from you to us and who therefore when we enquired of them could only tell us That going from Jerusalem after they had performed their Vows there to visit the Thresholds of the Apostles at Rome they had seen you giving us a general Account of your Affairs I took great pleasure in their Relations beholding in them the Image of your holy Countenance which appeared to me to be like that of an Angel and I must own that I do love and reverence you Nevertheless it would be much more grateful to me devoutly to contemplate your Words and Letters I must therefore beg it of you that you would send a Nuncio to me to exhilerate my heart with your Blessing for since we agree in Faith and Religion that is the thing of the World that I desire most and that my Friendship may be as the Ring you wear on your Finger or as the Gold Chain that is about your Neck that so I may be always in your heart and memory Friendship being much increased by greateful Words and Letters when holy Peace from which all human Joy doth flow naturally embraceth them For as one that is very thirsty is extreamly desirous of cold water as the Scripture has it so Nuncio's and Letters coming to me from remote parts either from your Holiness or any Christian King will fill my heart with extraordinary Pleasures such as theirs are filled with who after a Victory come to gather rich Spoils All this may be done with great ease now the King of Portugal has opened a way to it who some times since sent Ambassadors with other Persons of Quality to us which was a thing had never been done by any Christian King or Pope before to any of our Ancestors Only in the Archives of our Great Grandfather Zera Jacob who was King of all the Kings of Ethiopia and a most Formidable Prince the Copies of some Letters to him from Eugenius the Roman Pontiff are still preserved the purport whereof is as followeth EUgenius the Roman Pontiff to our beloved Son King Zara Jacob the King of all the Kings of Ethiopia and who is mightily dreaded He goes on and tells him That his Son John Paleologus who had been dead two years the King of the Kings of the Romans had been called by him to celebrate a holy Synod to which he came accompanied by Joseph the Patriarch of Constantinople and a great many other Archbishops Bishops and Prelates as also with the Procurators of the Patriarchs of Antioch Alexandria and Jerusalem who had all united themselves to him in the love of the holy Faith and Religion So that now the Unity of the Church was re-established and all the old Controversies thorow God's assistance were ended and whatever was erroneous and contrary to Religion dissipated and right Order restored which had filled all People with joy We do here send you that Letter of Eugenius which has been preserved entire and would likewise have sent you the whole Order and Power of the Pontifical Benediction had it not been so large a Volume it being bigger than the Book of Paul to the Gentiles the Nuncio's that brought these Papers from the Pope hither were Theodore Peter Didimus and George the Servants of Jesus Christ You would do well holy Father to command your Papers to be looked over among which it is like you will meet with some Records of these Matters You may see by this holy Father that if you should be pleased to write any thing to us the memory thereof will be preserved in our Archives thorough all Ages And happy is the Man whose Memory is preserved in the Records of the holy City of Rome the Chair of St. Peter and St. Paul who are the Lords of the Kingdom of Heaven and the Judges of the World and my believing them to be so was the cause of my writing these Letters to your Holiness that I may obtain your Favour and that of your holy Conclave and therewithal all sorts of Blessings and the increase of all good things I do furthermore supplicate your Holiness to send us the Images of some Saints namely that of the blessed Virgin Mary that by that means your Holiness may be frequent
head should pay for it The Coadjutor without answering a word Crossed his Arms and hung down his Head making a tender of his Neck to him this put Adam in such a rage That he drew his Cimiter in great fury with an intention of gratifying the Coadjutor But behold a Miracle say the Jesuits When Adam 's Arm was lifted up to have given the fatal blow his Cimiter dropt out of his hand to the great mortification of the Coadjutor who had flattered himself with the hopes of dying a Martyr presently But though Adam was hindered by that Miracle from executing what he had designed he was so far from being any ways softened by it that he told the Coadjutor with great disdain What I warrant you you are ambitious of being made a Martyr by my hand go get you gone out of my presence and let me hear no more of you and your false Doctrines for if I do I shall find a baser hand somewhere that shall gratifie you in making you a Martyr since you have a mind to be one But the chief cause of Adam treating the Coadjutor and Portugueses thus discovered it self in a sudden Rebellion that brake out against him at this time Bahurnagays takes up Arms against Adam of which their old friend Bahurnagays was one of the chief who having retired from Court to his Government kept upon the Sea-coast in expectation of the Portuguese Succors which the Viceroy had promised to send after the Coadjutor into Ethiopia which not coming so soon as they were expected the Coadjutor had sent one Andrew Galdamas a Spanish Jesuit to the Indies to hasten them over by assuring the Viceroy That there was no Conversion to be made in Ethiopia without the assistance of some Catholick Troops But Father Andrew being discovered at Arkiko as he was ready to have embarked on a Ship belonging to the Baneans was hewed in pieces by the Mahometans Father Teller after having pronounced Father Andrew a Martyr justifies the cause of his death by affirming Que esta sempre à pratica dosque tem experientia de Ethiopia que sem as armas namam que defendam Authorizem à os pregadores Catholicos nam poderam nunqua ter ò Successo deseiado entre aquelles Schismaticos that is to say It had always been the opinion of such as had any experience in the Affairs of Ethiopia that unless the Catholick Preachers were defended and authorized by Dragoons they would never have the success that was desired among those Schismaticks Adam being sensible of this and dreading nothing so much as the coming of Portuguese Troops into his Empire notwithstanding the gross of the Rebellion was in an Inland Province where they had Proclaimed one Tascaro a Son of Adam's elder Brother Emperor He marched first against Bahurnagays resolving if it were possible to break his Army before it received a Portuguese Reinforcement Adam had two Battels with Bahurnagays In the first he is said to have been worsted by him but to have routed Bahurnagays to that degree in the last that he was forc'd to sculk about the Sea-coast with a handful of Portugueses all of that Nation that were at liberty in Ethiopia having run into him when he first took up Arms. Adam having thus quelled Bahurnagays and being inform'd that now the Mosons were over He is routed and goes over to the Turks there was no fear of Ethiopia being troubled with any Portuguese Troops for one six Months at ieast He marched back to find out his Nephew who had been Proclaimed Emperor and being come up with him he obliged him to come to a Battel the Fight continued obstinate for some hours but in the conclusion the Rebels were overthrown and Tascaro being taken Prisoner had his head chopped off immediately by his Uncle's order Adam after these Victories thought to have taken some rest when intelligence was brought him that Bahurnagays despairing of finding mercy at his hands and of the coming of the Portuguese which had been promised him had with the handful of Portugueses that stuck to him taken Sanctuary among the Mahometans and was incouraging them to invade Ethiopia The honest Author of the Asia Portuguese saith This trick of the Portugueses going over with Bahurnagays to the Turks was so ill taken by the Habassin Emperors that they could never after that endure to hear of having any Soldiers of that Nation in their Countrey but as we shall see hereafter that did not hinder the Missionaries who desired to see such Troops in Ethiopia above all things in the world He brings the Turks into Ethiopia and delivers Matrua and the other Sea-Port Towns to them from making bold to send for them in their Names The Mahometans having at Nagay's instigation Marched into Ethiopia with a great Army had Arkiko and Matzua the only Sea-Ports of that Empire delivered to them by Nagay's creatures which places as they were of more importance to them than the whole Countrey besides by making them Masters of the whole Coast of the Red-Sea so having once got them into their hands they have taken care to keep them continuing Masters of them to this day Adam not being able to brook this loss and the great devastations that were made by the Infidels in the best Provinces of his Empire resolved to venture it all or to recover what he had lost and so tho he was sensible of his Armies being in all respects inferior to that of the Enemy yet being pushed on by his rage he determined to bid them Battel Adam is slain in Battel which the Infidels having accepted of did maul the Habassins so with their Artillery that they presently gave ground Adam himself being overthrown upon heaps of his slain Men most of the rest that fled being either made Prisoners or put to the Sword The whole Habassin Baggage having upon this total rout fallen into the hands of the Mahometans among it the Coadjutor and his Jesuits whom Adam had carried along with him as Hostages in all his Marches The Coadjutor and the Fathers are made Prisoners by the Turks were found and were all stripped with the slain before Bahurnagays and his Portuguese could come to their Relief So that notwithstanding the Bishop and his Fathers had their full revenge of Adam for having treated them so barbarously yet I do not find that they much bettered their condition by it One of the Fathers in a Letter that was writ after Adam was slain telling his Brethren at Goa that at the writing thereof they were in as lamentable an estate as it is almost possible for men to be in having neither Clothes Bread nor Credit and that the poor Coadjutor was in such a Garb that it was enough to make a Christian's heart bleed to see him in it Adam being slain was succeeded by his Son Malac Saged who was Crowned and Anointed at Axun and who tho he Reigned Thirty Years was never one day out of War
to him as a thing not feisable The Pope who at that time was Pius the Vth. believing what the Cardinal had writ to him in the Name of the King of Portugal dispatched the following Letters of Revocation to the Patriarch which the Cardinal took care to forward with all possible expedition To our Venerable Brother Andrew Oviedo Patriarch of Ethiopia Venerable Brother Health and Apostolical Benenediction c. BY Letters from our Beloved Son Sebastian The Pope's Letters of Revocation the Illustrious King of Portugal his Ambassador resident at our Court and by other Persons of good Credit we are informed That you having been sent by this Apostolical See into Ethiopia to reduce the People thereof to the knowledge of the Orthodox Faith have not after having spent several years therein been able by reason of the hardness of their hearts and their obstinacy in their ancient Errors to reap that fruit which might justly have been expected of your pious Labours whereas if you were employed in the Island of Japan on the Province of China Countries inhabited by Heathens and who at this time seem well disposed to receive the Faith of Christ it is to be hoped that with God's Assistance your Labours would be profitable in those parts where the Harvest is great and the Labourers are few We having been thus informed and being moved by brotherly Charity suffering together with you since there is no likelihood of your reaping that fruit where you are which might justly be expected from your great Labours and so long a Peregrination and finding our selves placed though without our Merits in this holy See and being sensible of our being debtors to all and by our Office bound to promote the Glory and Honour of Almighty God and the Salvation of Souls saluting you with the Charity of a Brother and having received ample testimonies of your Zeal and Affection to promote the Catholick Religion we do exhort you in the Lord and in virtue of holy Obedience and the remission of all your Sins Command you by the first opportunity you shall have of Sailing after the receipt of these our Letters to depart forthwith to the Island of Japan or China there to Preach the word of God according to the Doctrine of the Holy Roman Church who is the Mother and Mistress of all the Faithful and there to administer all the Sacraments which do properly belong to the Episcopal Function so as trusting in the Divine Mercy to endeavour to gain all the Souls you can to God and in order to the enabling you thereunto we do by our Apostolical Authority give you free leave and full power to exercise all Episcopal Offices in those parts or any other that have not a proper Bishop So as to moke use of all those Faculties and Indults which were granted to you by Pope Julius the IIId of happy Memory or by any other Roman Bishop our Predecessors with relation to the Kingdom of Ethiopia And we do likewise by the same Authority dispense with you so far that you may without any scruple of Conscience live and remain in the aforesaid parts unless there should happen to be more hopes of reducing Ethiopia to the Union of the Catholick Faith than there is at present Dated at Rome in St. Peter's and Signed with the Seal of the Fisherman on the 1st of February 1560. The Patriarch though Sick of Ethiopia The Patriarch is unwilling to return to the Indies yet seems to have had no great stomach for the China or Japan Mission which to speak the Truth was a hard imposition upon one of his years And so though in his Answer which is here subjoined he assures the Pope of his readiness to submit to all his Commands yet he sufficiently intimates that he was as willing to resign his Dignity and serve him or the Jesuits in their Kitchens as to keep it and carry it to China or Japan in which affair it is to be feared that the Patriarch's being a Spaniard was of no advantage to him it being the custom of the Portugueses when they have got any Foreign Friars among them in the Indies to put them upon the forlorn of all dangerous Missions as they did Oviedo on this and Father Peter who was likewise a Spaniard on that of the Second Habassin Mission as we shall see hereafter The Patriarch's Answer to the Pope Andrew d'Oviedo to Pope Pius the Vth. Most Blessed Father IN this present year 1567 His Answer to the Pope with some Letters from the College of St. Paul at Goa a Copy of an Apostolical Brief from your Holiness to me came to my hands wherein among other pious devout and holy things are these words We do exhort you in the Lord and in virtue of holy Obedience and Remission of your Sins do command you by the first opportunity you shall have of sailing after the receit of these our Letters to depart for the Island of Japan or the Kingdom of China And a little lower there are these words We do furthermore by the same Apostolical Authority dispense with you so that in case there is no hopes of reducing Ethiopia to the Church you may go into those parts and there remain without any s … ple of Conscience To which Apostolical L … no less than if I had received their original I prepared my self to yield obedience as it is fit just and healthful that we should at all times and in whole and in part obey your Holiness for in obeying you Most Holy Father we obey Christ the only begotten Son of God in whose place you are upon earth our Head and Father and the Master of all faithful Christians all the Indulgence Order and Power of the Church of Christ being derived from you to all others The holy Mother-Church of Rome whose Faith never did nor never will fail and who is the Mother and Mistress of all the Churches in the world and of all faithful Christians being continued in your Pontificate As to your having commanded me to go to the Island of Japan by the first convenience I have had no opportunity since I received your Commands and so am excused for not being gone neither in truth can I embark here with any safety there being a thousand Turkish Ships and not one Christian in the Port of Matzua at this time As to what is said of having any hopes of the reducing of Ethiopia I should quickly have such hopes could we but have Five or Six hundred Portugueses sent hither from the Indies according to what was agreed before I left Goa upon the advice they had received there of the obstinacy of the King of Ethiopia and which we have been now long expecting Were this once done I should not only hope to see Ethiopia quickly reduced but should be infallibly certain of it With which Troops we should not only be able to convert all this Empire but innumerable multitudes of Heathens also into whose
defend it with the last drop of his blood This Proclamation brought the whole Countrey in to Julius out of which having formed a numerous Croisade he marched directly towards the Nile with an intention to have fallen first upon Raz Cella the great Champion of Popery He Marcheth with a great Croisade against the Emperor but happening in his March to come near the place where the Abuna resided he went to wait on him to have his Blessing the Abuna who was glad to see him was not satisfied with giving him a Thousand Blessings for being so valiant for the truth but though he was above a Hundred Years of Age he would go in person in the Croisade The Abuna goes against him in person telling Julius That as he should partake of the benefits of that holy War if it had success so he was resolved likewise to partake of its dangers And whereas Julius was for beginning with Raz Cella the Abuna diverted him from it by telling him That since he was at the head of so great and zealous an Army he ought not to spend its first heats which were always the strongest in lopping off Branches but in striking at the Root which being once destroyed the Branches would wither of themselves He likewise encouraged the Soldiers by telling them That they fought for the best Cause in the world that is the true Religion which the Emperor and his Brother if let alone would certainly destroy assuring them That whosoever was slain in this holy War would die a Martyr and go straight to Heaven thundering out his Excommunications at the same time against the Emperor and his Brother and all that adhered to them as Apostates from the Faith The Emperor hearing that Julius was Marching towards him with a numerous and Zealous Croisade sent to his Brother to make all the haste he could to come and join him with his Army but fearing lest Julius who made long Marches might be up with him before his Brother could join him He incamped his Army so that the Enemy's Horse in which their main strength consisted if they should attack him in his Camp would be of little use to them When the Armies were within sight of one another the Emperor sent his Daughter who was Wife to Julius to try if she could persuade her Husband to lay down his Arms promising him not only a pardon for what he had done but every thing that a subject could reasonably desire of his Prince And in case she should not be able to bring him to submit she was then to try if she could obtain a Cessation of Arms of him for a few days but Julius either reckoning himself secure of a Victory that would have the Crown for its reward or being fearful to take the Emperor's word after he had provoked him so much would hear of nothing but of Fighting saying He would either die a Martyr for his Religion or by Conquering its Enemies secure it from being ever destroy'd And that he might lose no time He fights the Emperor's Army and is killed he attacked the Emperor's Camp before his Princess was well got back to her Father and having put himself at the head of a brisk body of men be advanced towards his out-guards who though they did not come in to him would not strike a stroke telling their Officers flatly That they would never draw their Swords against a man who was fighting in Defence of their Religion Julius observing this asked aloud all the way he went where the Emperor was that was resolved to destroy the Religion of their Forefathers which he was there with his Sword in his hand ready to defend against him and all Mankind with which as if it had been the word of the Imperialists he advanced within sight of the Royal Tent without having met with the least opposition until a body of Tigrians who were posted not far from it put a full stop to his Career thorough whom as he was hacking his way he was knocked off his Horse with the blow of a stone under the left Eye and as he lay on the ground had his head presently chopped off which was carried to the Emperor by a private Sentinel The Body that advanced with Julius having as it were lost their Soul in their Commander was presently hewed all in pieces and the Tigrians following their blow The Croisaide is totally defeated and the old Abuna slain and the other Imperialists who would not strike a stroke before joining with them now that Julius was slain they put the whole Croisade immediately to the rout every man of them so soon as they heard of their General 's being killed throwing down their Arms and crying out for Quarter The old Abuna was stunned so with this sudden turn of things that he was not able to stir from the place where he had posted himself but though several of the Imperialists knowing him to be the Abuna had out of Reverence to his character and great Age passed by him without offering him any violence yet a true Roman Catholick say the Jesuits whose name was Za Michael having found him out gave him such a blow in the neck with his Lance that he laid his head at his foot with whose and Julius's death this great Croisade vanished having had no other effect than to enrage the Emperor more than he was before against the Alexandrians The Emperor upon this Victory prohibits his Subjects to observe Saturday and their Religion who immediately upon this Victory set forth a Proclamation prohibiting all his Subjects upon severe penalties to observe Saturday any longer This Impious Proclamation as the Habassins reckoned it produced a bitter Libel directed by way of a Letter to the Emperor wherein he was told That his Subjects were all amazed at his wickedness in commanding the violation of that Sacred day advising him not to be rid by the Jesuits A severe Libel comes out against the Emperor who were an Ignorant little sort of people and who being of the race of Pontius Pilate and Uncircumcised did teach that there are Two Natures in Christ Adding That they were men swallowed up in the Gulph of their own Fopperies and did run headlong like an unbridled Horse without looking before them and did well deserve to have a Milstone tied about their Necks and to be thrown into the Sea and to be made partakers of the Curse that befel Pope Leo for having deni'd the Unity of Christ's Nature and after a great huddle of Texts of Scripture in favour of their Doctrines it at last admonisheth the Emperor that in case he was not weary of his Crown and the high Dignity he had received from the Popes of Egypt who wore the holy and new Ephod and bore the badge of the Cross to give over trying such new Experiments concluding thus Ah! We do here send this precious stone which enlightens the eyes of the blind May it be for an offering
with this Protestation complied so far with the Patriarch's desires as with the concurrence of Father James to publish a second Proclamation wherein he declared That there was nothing he desired so much as to have all his Subjects of the Roman Faith and that his intention in his former Proclamation was only to Tolerate Three Customs that were not contrary to that Faith and that he would never have done that had not the Patriarch given his consent to it Nevertheless he reckoned he was bound in Honour to return a sharp Answer to the Patriarch for his having made so bold with him in his Protestation which he did in the following Letter The Letter of the Emperor Seltem Saged cometh to the Patriarch with the Peace of God who is Blessed for ever HEAR The Emperor's answer to the Patriarch's Protestation We have received a Paper from Your Lordship and do understand all that is contained therein relating to the matters your Lordship gave us leave to do in order to put a stop to Rebellions and to quiet the minds of our People that they may no longer fight against the Faith The particulars were That they might Fast on Wednesdays and observe their Festivities as formerly and use their old Offices with your Corrections And being at Dancas we were desired by our whole Camp since your Lordship had been pleased to Dispense with our People as to those Customs to acquaint them therewith by our Proclamation which we consented to the rather that the Rebels might not think that they had frighted us into such a compliance with them which they would have done had we delayed the publishing of it any longer but being now informed that their minds are pretty well quieted by what I have done I have published a second Proclamation according to your Directions neither in this whole matter have we done any thing but what was concerted between us As to what your Lordship saith of their publishing what they please that publish Proclamations and of their understanding them as they please that hear them that can proceed from nothing but from your Lordship's having been misinformed for How dare they who publish our Proclamations publish them any otherways than as they are or they that hear them understand them otherwise So that I cannot imagine that any body should have the impudence to say That Thad changed the Faith to the great mortification of Catholicks when it is so plain that I have not made the least alteration therein neither did the Hereticks rejoyce so much as you speak of they having been all told before that they were not to use their former Offices without your Emendations of them They must therefore have been People of Factious Spirits and of Ill designs that have put such stories in your head since we have done nothing but what your Lordship had agreed to neither did they who published our Proclamation either add or diminish any thing Things being thus your Lordship might very well have spared your bidding us Remember Ozias and comparing us with one who was Punished by God with the Leprosie for having taken the exercise of the Priestly Function upon himself which as he ought not to have done so we have never offered to do it having only published a Proclamation wherein there was nothing that you had not agreed to when the Roman Faith first took footing in Ethiopia The Jesuits never wrought any Miracles in Ethiopia it was neither introduced into it by the Preaching of the Jesuits nor by any Miracles that were wrought by them nor by no other means but by our being convinced that your Faith agreed with our Books and that the Church of Ethiopia must therefore be in an Error it was this induced us to Establish the Roman Faith by our Commands and Proclamations contrary to the Humour of our People because we believed it to be true all which we did of our own accord despising a visible Kingdom in hopes of one that is invisible As to your Lordship's admonishing us to fix our Eyes not on a Temporal but on a Heavenly Kingdom How many Subjects have I had Slaughtered And how many Provinces have I lost for having done so I need not tell you their Numbers you know them as well as I do my self so that I cannot for my life see wherein I have offended God in this whole matter Had we been forced to have embraced your Faith you might then have had some cause to be jealous that we have a mind to forsake it but having voluntarily embraced it we cannot undo what we have done nor destroy what we have built The Emperor declares his Resolution to continue a Roman Catholick I would therefore advise your Lordship for the future not to have your Ears open to false and wicked men that put such things into your head This Letter though it gave the Patriarch several Reprimands as it did also his whole Order in denying that any of them had ever wrought any Miracles in Ethiopia which is very strange considering how many they pretend to work on all such occasions Yet for the notice it gave him of a second Proclamation and the assurance of the Empeperor's resolution to continue stedfast in the Roman Faith he was so well satisfied with it that he judged all things to be set pretty well to rights again and resuming his ancient courage thereupon ventured to do a thing which gave a terrible blow to his Patriarchal Authority The Patriarch is baffled in a great point of Jurisdiction The case was this A certain Judge having turned Monk denied to pay a yearly Pension which some Lands which he kept still in his hands were charged with to a certain Parish Priest of which the Priest having complained to the Patriarch he presently commanded the Monk to pay the Priest his dues but the Monk instead of obeying denied that he had any Jurisdiction over him appealing from him to the General of his Order as the proper Prelate in all such cases and the Cause coming to be Tried at Court the Patriarch was cast the Judges having given their Opinion That the Patriarch having no more Power than their former Abuna 's had no Authority over the Monks which the Patriarch had hitherto pretended to and had constantly exercised having in this and an hundred things besides extended his Jurisdiction beyond what any of the Abuna's had done The Country being put in a pretty good humour by the Toleration which according to the Patriarch's fears was every where extended beyond its intention the Emperor sets about raising a great Army to go against the Peasants who would not be satisfied with any thing under the Re-establishment of their Old Religion and the Banishing the Patriarch and the Fathers out of Ethiopia as the Causes of all the Blood that had been shed in it for several Years But the raising of such an Army as the Emperor designed requiring time his Brother by the advice