of Affinity or Consanguinity Spiritual or Carnal those only excepted which are prohibited by the Divine Law and Spiritual Affinity in Matrimony shall never be contracted betwixt the Godfather and Godmother and their Godchildren you may also commute Vows into any pious work provided they be not the solemn Vows of Religion and Chastity At three times in the Year to wit Christmas Easter and Whitsuntide you may grant plenary Indulgences to all People of the said Province who being contrite have voluntarily confessed their Sins obliging them before you grant them to Fast and devoutly to beseech God in behalf of all the faithful of the Roman Church and on any other days you may grant Temporary Indulgences and Remission of Sins which must never exceed the term of Ten years you may likewise give license to your Friars to read Heretical Books and may at your pleasure unite annex and incorporate Ecclesiastical Benefices into Churches or other Pious and Religious places for the Spiritual or Temporal advantage of the Neighbours and may erect and found general Universities and Colleges wherein People may take all Degrees of Master and Doctor and likewise Hospitals for the Poor the Sick and Strangers Male and Female as also Monasteries and Colleges for Boys and Girls and Orphans in all which works of Piety and Charity may be exercised You may either in your Person or by your Deputies visit with a Plenary Jurisdiction all the said Universities Colleges Hospitals Monasteries and all other Religious Houses of what Order or Sex soever and reform them as well in the Head as in the Members and Chastise Correct and Punish all that shall be found faulty and may remove them from one place to another You may also if you find it necessary found Religious Houses of both Sexes and approve disprove or extinguish such as are already founded or may reduce divers Religions to one and reform their Constitutions by either adding to them or taking from them as you shall think fit in the Lord. You may give License to the poor Religious or not Religious to beg and desire Alms in the name of any Saint You shall furthermore in our Name and in that of the Holy See declare to the people of your Province the Faith of the Roman Church and which are the Canonical Scriptures that they ought to hold and follow in every thing You must likewise condemn the writings which the Roman Church rejects and condemns and must determine and declare to them which Ecclesiastical precepts do oblige them under the penalty of a mortal sin and which do not You may further by your Authority so that nothing be changed that is decreed by the Divine and Natural Law make Orders concerning all matters which are of positive right even so far as Excommunications Suspensions Interdicts and other Ecclesiastical Sentences Censures Penalties and Irregularities which any may have incurred upon the account of such matters declaring which are Obligatory and which are not until such time as the Apostolical See shall otherwise order You may also grant Dispensations concerning all such matters and may Legitimate Bastards and others that have any defect in their Birth You must create a Notary who by the Apostolical Authority may see all the matters executed which can be done by any Legate de Laterre or Nuncio of the said See You may also make Compositions with any People for Ecclesiastical Fruits or Revenues that have been unjustly received and employ the Money to some Pious use Finally you may lawfully and freely do and execute all things in general and every thing in particular that appertains to the Edification and Salvation of Souls or that are seasonable until such time as you shall receive an answer concerning them from the said See and to you our Son John Elect in case the said Andrew and Melchior or either of them should happen to die before you we do by these Presents and the said Apostolical Authority grant a Faculty and a Plenary and Free Power freely and lawfully to Name and Elect one or more Coadjutors who shall succeed one another in the said Church of Ethiopia and the Kingdoms thereunto belonging and to Institute and Consecrate them Bishops and Successors obliging them to intimate their Election Institution and Consecration to the said See in the manner aforesaid and to take an Oath of Fidelity and Obedience thereunto as is above prescribed and by Letters to acquaint the said See therewith All which must be done with the Approbation of the Council that is to be erected for the handling of all weighty Affairs and which you shall hereafter Constitute All Constitutions and Apostolical Ordinances and Reservatories though of Cathedral Churches or of this Patriarchal Church tho confirmed by Oath or Apostolical Confirmation or by any Confirmation Statutes Customs or any other way to the contrary notwithstanding Given at St. Peters in Rome on the 17th day of February in the year of our Lord 1554 in the 5th year of our Pontificate The Bulls of the three Elects being come to Lisbon the King looking upon it as the greatest honour that had ever been done to Portugal to have a Patriarch consecrated in it The Patriarch and one of his Coadjutors are Consecrated at Lisbon made great Preparations for that Ceremony the Patriarch and the Bishop of Hieropolis were both consecrated in the Church of the Trinity Friars by Don Julian d'Abreu Bishop of Portalegree and Dom Gasper Bishop of the Island of St. Thomas and Dom Peter Bishop of Hippo Melchior Elect of Nice having Sailed from Lisbon for the Indies four days before the arrival of the Bulls But notwithstanding the King and the whole Court honoured this Consecration with their presence yet I do not find that any of the great Prelates of the Kingdom were present at it which together with it s not having been performed in the See Church but in the Chappel of a Convent and that by two Titulars and the Poorest Bishop in Portugal makes me suspect that the great Prelates were not over-well pleased with this upstart Order leaping so soon into such high Dignities For about the time of this Promotion and which it is like enough might contribute something towards it there was a most terrible storm raised both in Spain and France against the whole Order of the Jesuits Don John Archbishop of Toledo The Jesuits leaping so quickly into such high dignities contrary to their Vows creates them Enemies who continued a mortal Enemy to it till his death driving them out of the University of Completum in the year 1555 and prohibiting all his Priests upon pain of Deprivation to make use of any of their Exercises and prohibiting all others upon pain of Excommunication to confess themselves to any of them The Sorbon likewise declared about the same time That the Society of Jesus was dangerous to the Faith a disturber of the Peace of the Church pernicious to Monastical Religion and in a word
Spirit and with Himself without any defect or division the Son of the Father the Son of the very Father without any beginning and at first the Son of the Father without a Mother the Secret and Mystery of whose Nativity is known to none but the Father Son and Holy Spirit This Son in the beginning was the Word and the Word was the Word with God and God was the Word The Spirit of the Father the Holy Spirit the Spirit of the Son the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit it s own Spirit without any diminution or augmentation That Holy Spirit is the Comforter of the living God who proceedeth from the Father and the Son and who spake by the mouth of the Prophets and descended in a flame of fire on the Apostles in the gate of Sion and who preached the word of the Father which Word the very Son was all over the World wherefore as the Father is not first notwithstanding he is the Father nor the Son last notwithstanding he is the Son so likewise the Holy Spirit is neither first nor last but they are Three Persons in One God who seeth and is seen by no-body and who by his only Council created all things The Son did of his own accord the Father being willing and the Holy Ghost consenting descend from his highest Habitation and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit in the Womb of the Virgin Mary who was adorned with a double Virginity the one Spiritual the other Carnal he was born without any Corruption his Mother Mary remaining a Virgin after her delivery and by a Miracle and a secret Flame of the Divinity brought forth her Son Jesus without blood and without pain who was perfectly Innocent and without Sin being perfect God and perfect Man and having only one Aspect he grew by degrees as an Infant sucking the Milk of the Virgin Mary his Mother and coming to Thirty Years of Age he was baptiz'd in Jordan and did walk and was weary and did hunger and thirst as other men do all these things he suffered voluntarily and of his own accord and wrought many Miracles restoring by the power of his Divinity sight to the Blind curing the Lame cleansing the Lepers raising the Dead after all which he himself was apprehended and whipt and scourged and crucified He languished and died for our Sins and by his Death overcame Death and the Devil and by his lively Agony dissolved our Sins and bore our Infirmities By the Baptism of his Blood that is his Death he baptized the Patriarchs and Prophets and descended into Hell where the Souls of Adam and his Sons were as also his own Soul which was from Adam which Soul Christ received from the Virgin Mary who by the power and splendor of his Divinity and the strength of his Cross broke the brazen fiery Gates of Hell binding Satan with Iron Chains and rescuing Adam and his Sons All these things Christ did because he was full of the Divinity and the Divinity it self was with his Soul as it was also with his most holy Body which Divinity gave virtue to the Cross and was what he always had and will have for ever in Trinity and Unity in common with the Father Neither did Christ during the time he was in the Flesh ever want the Divinity and Dignity thereof for one moment He was buried and on the third day Jesus Christ himself the Prince of the Resurrection the most sweet Jesus Christ Jesus Christ the Prince of the Priests Jesus Christ the King of Israel did with great power and strength rise and after having finished all things which were foretold by the holy Prophets he ascended with glory into Heaven and sitteth at the right hand of the Father and will come with glory carrying a Cross before him and in his hand a Sword of Justice to judge the quick and the dead of whose Kingdom there shall be no end I believe one Holy Catholick and Apostolick Church I believe one Baptism which is the Remission of Sins and I do hope for the Resurrection of the Dead and the Life of the Age to come Amen I believe the holy Lady Mary to be a Virgin both in Spirit and Flesh and do reverence her as the Mother of God the Charity of all Nations the Holy of Holies and the Virgin of Virgins I believe in the holy Wood of the Cross the Bed of the Agony of our Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God who is our Salvation for thorough him we are saved which notwithstanding it is an offence to the Jews and to the Gentiles foolishness we do preach believing it to be the power of the Cross of our Lord Christ as our Doctor St. Paul hath commanded I do believe St. Peter to be the Rock of the Law which Law is built upon the holy Prophets and the Foundation and Head of the Catholick and Apostolick Church of the East and West where the Name of Our Lord Jesus Christ is the Power of which Church is in St. Peter as is also the Kingdom of Heaven with which he can open and shut bind and loose and who shall sit with the other Apostles his Companions upon Twelve Seats with honour and praise together with our Lord Jesus Christ who upon the Day of Judgment is to pass Sentence upon us which will be a day of joy to the Saints and of sorrow and gnashing of teeth to Sinners when they shall be thrown into the flames of Hell with their Father the Devil I do believe the holy Prophets Apostles and Martyrs and Confessors to have been true Imitators of Christ whom together with the most holy Angels of God I do venerate and honour and do in the same manner embrace and reverence all their Followers I believe there ought to be an Oral Confession of all Sins made to a Priest by whose Prayers thorough Our Lord Jesus Christ I do hope to obtain the salvation of my Soul I do furthermore acknowledge the Roman Pontiff to be the first Bishop and Pastor of all the Sheep of Christ I do likewise observe and obey all Patriarchs Cardinals Archbishops and Bishops of whom he is the Head of the Ministers of Christ This is my Faith and Law and the Faith and Law of the People of Ethiopia who are under the Empire of Precious John which Faith and Love of Christ are so established among us that neither Death nor Fire nor Sword relying on Christ's assistance shall ever be able to oblige me to deny it this being the Faith we are all to carry on the Day of Judgment before the Face of Our Lord Jesus Christ I come now to explain the Discipline Doctrine and Law which the Apostles assembled together at Jerusalem did lay down in the holy Books of Synods and Canons called by us Manda Abethlis those Books of the Law of holy Church are Eight in number concerning which having had some discourse with several Learned Men here in Portugal I never met
an hundred of his men to fetch the Empress to his Camp 126. He is intercepted in his march towards the Emperor by Granhe 132. An huffing Message with a ridiculous Present is sent to Gama by Granhe ib. Gama returns Granhe a Message with a Present no less huffing than ridiculous 133. Gama besieged on all sides by Granhe 134. He opens a passage to himself with the bravery of his men being assisted with Artillery ib. He obligeth Granhe to retreat Gama conducted by a Jew to a Mountain of which and a great drove of Horses he makes himself Master 137. He routed and taken Prisoner 140. Is beheaded 141. The Gauls invade Ethiopia surprize Buco the Viceroy and are driven home by Raz Cella 348. Granhe a Mahometan Prince obtains several Victories over David 119. He drives him at last in a manner out of his Empire ib. Granhe being reinforced by a Body of Turks and a Train of Artillery forceth Gama to come to a Battel 139. Granhe killed fighting 144. H. THE King of Habassia victorious over the King of Aden 19. Pretty Stories sent from Habassia 346. The Habassins hold the Scriptures to be the perfect Rule of Faith 31. Their Monasteries little Villages 30. Monkery much the same in Habassia as it was in the beginning ib. They are Eutychians ib. They deny the Pope's Supremacy ib. The Emperor is Head of the Church 32. Their Priests marry ib. They have divers Forms of Baptism ib. 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 't is consecrated ib. They reckon the receiving of it breaks their Fast ib. They do not believe Transubstantiation 33. They have only a General Confession 34. They deny Purgatory Confirmation and Extreme Unction They condemn Graven Images They keep Saturday and Sunday Their Offices are all in the Vulgar Tongue 34. They are devout They never go into a Church with their Shoes on nor sit in it but upon the ground 35. They seldom preach ib. The Habassin Embassy to the Pope little regarded 74. After having lay'n five years neglected at Lisbon it was sent to Rome as an honourable Appendix to a Portuguese Embassy 75. The Habassins believe Original Sin 89. Their Clerks may marry ib. The Habassins have a great Veneration for their Churches 91. They are all baptized every year on the day of the Epiphany 92. They circumcise both Men and Women 93. They give the Eucharist to Children when they are baptized 95. Circumcision is not observed by them as a Sacrament but a Civil Custom 96. Children of Christian Parents before baptized called half Christians 98. Confirmation and Extreme Unction no Sacraments The Scripture the perfect Rule of Faith 100. They all receive the Sacrament in both Elements It is not kept in their Churches it is never received but in the Church 101. It is never administred but once a day in a Church it is not shew'd to the People No Masses said for the Dead 102. Justification of their abstaining from Meats made unclean by the Law 103. An expression of the greatness of the Habassin Zeal against Popery 164. The Empress Helena sends two Envoys to Albuquerque 44. Father Hierom is sent into Europe to solicit for Troops and to justify the Jesuits Conduct in Ethiopia 443. He obtains nothing at Rome but Blessings and at Madrid and Lisbon but fair Promises 444. The Homerites conquered by the Ethiopians Their Deliverers 16. I. A Ridiculous Imposture does Popery some disservice 362. The Infante Don Henry the first and most zealous Promoter of the discovery of unknown Countries 36. Ignatius Loyola labours to engross the Habassin Mission to his new Order 149. The Jesuits leaping so quickly into such high Dignities contrary to their Vows create them Enemies 159. Two Jesuits are sent in a disguise to Ethiopia 226. They were discovered and made Slaves in Arabia 227. A Maronite Jesuit is sent in disguise to Ethiopia ibid. He is discovered and put to death for having professed himself a Mahometan 228. The Jesuits erect a College at Diâ— 233. Jacob the Natural Son of Malac Sagued was then Emperor 237. Jacob is deposed and Za Danguil made Emperor 239. Some Instances of the Jesuits sacrificing all other Interests to that of their own Order 241. Upon Jacob's delay of coming to the Army he is chosen Emperor by them 264. A Message is sent to him by the Army 265. The Army upon receiving a Letter from Jacob declare for him 266. Jacob comes to the Army 267. Jacob makes Susunaeus great Offers provided he would give over pretending to the Crown 268. Jacob marcheth towards Susunaeus 269. His General goes over to Susunaeus 270. Jacob and Susunaeus come to a Battel 271. Jacob is killed fighting ibid. The General of the Jesuits makes the Emperor's Submission to the Pope without any Commission from him to do it 323. He sends a Nuntio to acquaint him therewith ibid. The Jesuits reckon their work done before it was well begun 345. They never wrought Miracles in Ethiopia 379. The Cruelty of the Persecutions raised by them 410. The two remaining Jesuits in Ethiopia are protected by the Peasants of Lasta 451. Julius enters into an Association and takes the Field against the Emperor 303. Julius the Emperor's Son-in-law takes up Arms for the defence of their Religion 308. He marcheth with a great Croisade against the Emperor 309. K. THE great Champion Kebo is sent into Tigre to be sacrificed 359. The King of Spain's Letter to the Emperor of Ethiopia 286. L. A Lady put to death for her Religion 351. The History of the Lisbon Nun called Maria of the Annunciation 481. The Imposture discovered 485. Her Penances assign'd 486. M. THE Island of Madera first discovered No Masses are said for the Dead by the Habassins 102. A long Justification of their abstaining from Meats that are made unclean by the Law 103. The King of Mombucca's Speech to his Subjects after he had massacred all the Portugueses that were in the City 436. He is justified in part by a Portuguese Historian 442. The Portuguese are baffled before Mombucca 443. N. RIver Nile its Original 3. Cause of its Rising 5. It was known by the Ancients ibid. Diverted from coming down to Egypt and turned into its old Channel again upon the intercession of the Bishop of Alexandria 19. O. O Kay undertakes to protect the Patriarch 422. He promises to carry the Patriarchs and Fathers to Matzua 429. Okay finding no Portuguese Succors come delivers the Bishop of Nice and three Fathers who by his Connivence remain'd behind in his Country to the Emperor 445. They are all Four condemned as Traytors and executed by the Mob 446. P. A Patriarch two Bishops Coadjutors with ten Fryars all of the Jesuits Order are nominated to go into Ethiopia 150. The Patriarch and one of his Coadjutors are consecrated at Lisbon 158. The old Patriarch was lodged at
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
believe Transubstantiation They do not believe Transubstantiation as is plain from their Liturgy in which the Words of Institution are thus set down This Bread is my Body this Cup is my Blood which Propositions the Romanists themselves acknowledge cannot be understood otherwise than siguratively Ludolphus farther tells us That when he asked Gregory the Habassin Whether he did not think that the Substance of the Bread and Wine was changed and converted into the Substance of the Body and Blood of Christ That he made answer That no such sort of Transubstantiation was known or understood by his Countreymen who were not so scrupulous neither did they use to start such thorny Questions Nevertheless it seemed to him probable and likely That the Common Bread and Wine was changed into the mysterious Representation of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ and so was altered from Prophane to Sacred to represent the true Body and Blood of Christ to the Communicants Than which Declaration nothing can be more agreeable to the Doctrine of the Church of England concerning the Eucharist Finally Paul de Roo Secretary to the Dutch East-India Company was in the Year 1691. told by the Habassin Ambassador who was sent to the Governor of Batavia That Transubstantiation and the Adoration of the Consecrated Bread in the Sacrament were what the Habassins abhorred They confess their Sins only in general They have only a general Confession saying Habassea Habassea I have sinned I have sinned without descending to particulars They deny Purgatory They deny Purgatory Confirmation and Extream Unction They condemn Graven Images They keep Saturday and Sunday Their Offices are all in the Vulgar Tongue and know nothing of Confirmation and Extream Unction they condemn Graven Images they keep both Saturday and Sunday and do never fast on either of them no not in Lent nor upon any day betwixt Easter and Whitsuntide their Church Offices are all in the Vulgar Tongue and are performed with extraordinary Devotion but especially their Litanies they go all betimes in the morning to Church to pay their Devotions which they do with great fervour and for the most part leave something of an offering behind them Whenever they come to any place that has a Church They are very devout They never go into a Church with their Shooes on nor sit in it but upon the ground let their Business be never so urgent they repair to it immediately they never go into any Church with their Shooes on nor sit down in it unless it be upon the ground on all occasions they express a deep sense of Religion but chiefly when they visit the Sick which they are very forward to do They are charitable to the Poor and to all Strangers if they are satisfied of their not being of the Roman Church for all whose Members the Cruel Persecutions which were raised and carried on for some years by the Jesuits while the Emperor was at their Devotion have created a perfect detestation in them The whole of their Divine Service consists in reading the Scriptures They seldom preach and some Homilies of the Fathers and the Administration of the Sacrament preaching being a rare Exercise among them at which when Mr. Ludolphus seemed to wonder he was asked by Gregory the Habassin Whether we of the Western Church thought our Preachers could say any thing better than what was written in the Sacred Sacred Scriptures and the Homilies of the Fathers or whether we thought their Sayings more efficacious than the Word of God and whether we did not fear lest those Preachers should utter something which might be repugnant to our Faith and Salvation and which might prove of dangerous consequence to the Peace of the Church An Account of the Discovery of Ethiopia by the Portugueses DON ENRIQUE the Fifth The Infante Don Henry the first and most zealous Promoter of the discovery of unknown Countries Son of Don Joan the first King of Portugal by his Queen the Lady Philipa the Daughter of John of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster being a Prince much addicted to the study of Mathematicks was the first that ever entertained any thought of making Discoveries on the Western Coast of Africa to which he is said to have been encouraged by some Information he receiv'd from the Moors in Barbary when he was a Soldier there under his Father he was Master of the Military Order of Christ which together with his other Ecclesiastical Pensions brought him in a great Revenue all which together with his whole time he resolved to dedicate entirely to the gratification of his Curiosity after new Discoveries And in order to the better carrying on of this his great Design he retired from Court to a place in the Algarves called at that time Terranable but since from him Villa de Infante a few Months after his retirement he fitted out two Ships which having passed the Pillars of Hercules at that time the non ultra of Navigation they sailed to the Promontory of Ganaria but were discouraged from proceeding any further partly by strong Currents and partly by that Promontory running so far into the Sea that they could not discover its Cape This first Voyage was made in the Year 1410. His ill success at first after which it was 10 years before the Infante could prevail with any body to make a second Attempt the first Adventurers having to excuse their Cowardice reported terrible things of the Dangers they had escaped Neither did the Infante during all that time Not discouraged thereby nor by Railery nor by grave Nonsense from going on with his Projects escape the discouragement that new and great Enterprizes do commonly meet withal his Designs for some years having been not only the Jest of the Lazy Buffoon but were also censured as Chimera's or Idle Projects by Men of Speculation and Gravity who said The Countreys the Infante was in quest of were neither better nor worse than the Sandy Deserts of Arabia that God having allotted those Countries to Wild Beasts for their habitation if men should offer to intrude into them they would either die or turn wild like the Natives and that the very sight of them would turn Whites Negroes that there had never wanted younger Brothers among Princes who had sought to remedy the misfortune of their Birth by new Discoveries but which had always miscarried That the Infante's Father who was a wise Prince finding Portugal wanted People had invited Strangers from all parts into it and had given them Lands to cultivate whereas if his Project should take effect it would tend to the depopulating of it with a great many other such idle Reflections But the Infante who had too great a Soul to be discouraged either by Railery or grave Nonsense having with much ado wrought some Mariners up to an Opinion of the feasibleness of the Undertaking in the Year 1420. he equipped several Vessels which after having met with violent Storms discovered
with one that had ever heard of them before The Observances prescribed in those Books are as followeth 1. That we are to fast upon all Wednesdays in memory of its having been decreed by the Jewish Council upon that day That Christ should be put to death We are commanded likewise to fast upon all Fridays because Christ was crucify'd and died for our Sins on that day upon which two days we are commanded to eat nothing till Sun-set During the 40 days of Lent we are commanded to fast with Bread and Water and to be employed seven hours in the day in Divine Service by the same Edicts we are commanded to Administer the Sacraments in the Evenings of Wednesdays and Fridays because our Saviour expired at that time on the Cross We are furthermore commanded to assemble together unanimously on the Lord's Day in the Church three hours after Sun-rising to read and hear the Books of the Prophets and afterwards to preach the Gospel and Administer the Sacrament they have furthermore appointed Nine days to be observed as Festivities in honour of Christ to wit the Annunciation the Nativity the Circumcision the Purification or Day of Candles of Baptism of Transfiguration Palm-Sunday until the Octaves of Good-Friday which are twelve days of the Ascension and Pentecost with their Festivities according to these Books We are without exception to eat Flesh every day from Easter to Pentecost neither are we bound to fast till after the Octaves of Pentecost which is observed for the greater honour and veneration of the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ they command us likewise to celebrate the Days of the Death and Assumption of the Virgin Mary with great honour But besides the Precepts of the Apostles a certain Precious John whose name was Zara Jacob ordained 33 days in every year to be kept in honour of the said Blessed Virgin and a day in every Month in honour of Christ's Nativity which is always the 25th of the Month and a day likewise in every Month to be observed in honour of St. Michael Furthermore in obedience to the said Synod of the Apostles we do celebrate the day of St. Stephen and other Martyrs and are bound by the Institution of the Apostles to observe two days to wit the Sabbath and Lord's-Day on which it is not lawful for us to do any work no not the least on the Sabbath-Day because God after he had finished the Creation of the World rested thereon Which Day as God would have it called the Holy of Holies so the not celebrating thereof with great honour and devotion seems to be plainly contrary to God's Will and Precept who will suffer Heaven and Earth to pass away sooner than his Word and that especially since Christ came not to dissolve the Law but to fulfil it It is not therefore in imitation of the Jews but in obedience to Christ and his holy Apostles that we observe that Day the favour that was shewed herein to the Jews being transferred to us Christians so that excepting Lent we eat Flesh every Saturday in the Year but in the Kingdoms of Barnagaus Tigre and Mahon the Christians according to ancient custome do eat Flesh on all Saturdays and Sundays even in Lent We do observe the Lord's-Day after the manner of all other Christians in memory of Christ's Resurrection But as we are sensible that we have the observation of the Sabbath-Day from the Books of the Law and not from those of the Gospel A Falsehood so we are not ignorant that the Gospel is the end of the Law and the Prophets On those forementioned Days we believe the Souls of the Just departed this Life not to be tormented in Purgatory which ease will be granted by God to them upon those two most holy Days until the term of their suffering for their Sins is expired and they are entirely delivered to the shortning and mitigating of which Torments we believe the Alms that are given for the relief of the Souls in Purgatory do contribute much towards the remission of which Souls the Patriarch grants no Indulgences The Abuna never grants any Indulgences which we believe belongs to God only and that he only constitutes the time of their punishment neither does the Patriarch grant Indulgences on any occasion The Gospel obligeth us to observe only the Six Precepts which Christ with his own mouth has explained as follows I was hungry and you gave me meat I was thirsty and you gave me drink I was a stranger and you entertained me naked and you covered me sick and you visited me in prison and you came unto me which are all words that will be spoke by Christ at the Day of Judgment For the Law as St. Paul says sheweth us our sins which Law without Christ The Habassins believe Original Sin none is able to keep Paul witnesseth likewise that we are all born in sin by reason of the Transgression and Curse of our Mother Eve Paul saith furthermore that we died thorough Adam and do live thorough Christ who of his infinite mercy gave us these Six Precepts that when he comes in Majesty to judge the Quick and Dead we may be saved With which Words and Precepts he will on the Tremendous Day of Judgment allot everlasting Glory to the Righteous and to the Wicked Fire and Everlasting Damnation We do reckon only five mortal Sins as they call them which are gathered out of the last Chapter of the Revelations where it is said Without are dogs and witches and unclean persons and murtherers and idolaters and every one who loveth and maketh a lye It is constituted by the holy Apostles Clerks may marry in the Book of Synods that it is lawful for Clerks to marry and that even after they have some knowledge of Divine Matters who after they are married are received into the Order of Presbyter to which none are admitted before they are 30 years of Age neither are Bastards ever admitted to it Holy Orders are conferred by none but the Patriarch and after the death of their first Wives neither Bishops nor Presbyters are permitted to marry a second time unless the Patriarch shall think fit to dispence with them which he does sometimes to eminent Persons and when it is for the Publick good Neither are they suffered to keep Concubines unless they do voluntarily give over officiating after which they must no more meddle with holy things and this is so strictly observed that the Presbyters who marry a second time must not presume so much as to take a consecrated Candle in their hands and if any Bishop or Clerk is found to have had a Bastard he is deprived of his Orders and all his Ecclesiastical Benefices and his Goods if he dies without Children lawfully begotten do all go to Precious John and not to the Patriarch That it is lawful for Presbyters to have Wives we have received from St. Paul who would rather have both Clergy and Laity
to marry than to burn who saith likewise that a Bishop must be the Husband of one Wife that is unblameable and sober and in the same manner the Deacons and all Ecclesiasticks as well as Secular ought to have their own lawful Wives Our Monks notwithstanding this do not marry and neither Laicks nor Clerks among us can have above one Wife at a time With us Marriages are not celebrated at the Door of the Church but in private Houses we are taught likewise by the Constitution of the Apostles That if a Priest is convicted of Adultery Murther Theft or of having given false Testimony that he ought to be deprived of his Orders and punished as other Malefactors in the same kind and that an Ecclesiastick or Layman after having known his Wife or having been polluted in his sleep ought not in 24 hours after that to enter into the Church which Women are not to enter into till the 7th day after their menstrua's are over and until they have washed all the Clothes they had on at that time Furthermore a Woman that is delivered of a Man-child is not suffered to enter into the Church till after 40 days and of a Female not till about 80 days which Custom of the Old Law is commanded likewise by the Apostles whose Laws Constitutions and Precepts we do so far as we are able observe in all Cases It is likewise forbidden among us to suffer Heathens or Dogs or any other such Creatures The Habassins have a great veneration for their Churches to come within our Churches neither is it lawful for us to go into them otherwise than barefoot or to laugh walk or spit or speak of secular things in them For the Churches of Ethiopia are not like the Land wherein the People of Israel did eat the Paschal Lamb as they were going out of Egypt where God commanded them to eat with their shooes on and with their loins girt because of the pollution of the land But they are like the Mount Sinai where the Lord spoke to Moses saying Moses Moses put off thy shooes for the ground whereon thou treadest is holy Now this Mount Sinai was the Mother of our Churches from which they derive their original as the Apostles did from the Prophets and the New Testament from the Old Furthermore it is not lawful for a Priest or Layman or any other Person of what condition soever after the receiving of the Venerable Sacrament to Spit from Morning till Sun-set The Habassins are all Baptized every year on the day of the Epiphany and whoever does it is severely Punished In Memory of Christ we are also Baptized every Year on the day of Epiphany which is not done by us as a thing necessary to Salvation but only for the Praise and Glory of our Lord Neither is there any Feast that we Celebrate with so great Solemnities as this because it was on this day that the Most Holy Trinity first appeared manifestly when our Lord Jesus Christ was Baptized in the River of Jordan on whose Head the Holy Spirit Descended at that time in the Figure of a Dove and a Voice from Heaven said This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased Which Holy Spirit being in the Shape of a White Dove did appear with the Face and Figure of the Father and Son in One Divinity After the same manner Christ was seen by the Prophets under various Forms and Similitudes first in the Figure of a White Ram for the preservation of Isaac the Son of Abraham after the same manner he called Jacob Israel and Jacob called Judah to whom he gave power over his Brethren A lions whelp saying My son thou wentest up to the prey and resting didst lie down as a lion and as a lioness who shall rouze thee He manifested himself likewise to Moses in the Figure of a flame of fire on mount Sinai and in the likeness of a Rock to the Holy Prophet Daniel and to Ezekiel as the Son of man and to Isaias in the Form of an Infant he appeared to King David and Gideon in dew upon a fleece and besides the forementioned was seen under divers other Similitudes by the Holy Prophets under all which various Figures he still bore the Similitude of the Father and the Holy Ghost and since God when he Created the World said Let us make man after our own image and similitude and he did make Adam after his own Similitude ahd Image we do for that reason say That the Father Son and Holy Ghost are Three Faces in one Similitude and Divinity We have also retained Circumcision from the time of Queen Saba till this day They Circumcise both Men and Women this Queen 's true Name was Maqueda who had Worshipped Idols after the manner of her Ancestors until having heard much of the Wisdom of Solomon she sent a Prudent Person to Jerusalem to certifie her whether that King's Wisdom was so great as it was reported and after being satisfied that it was so she took a Journey to Jerusalem her self where among other things she was Instructed by Solomon in the Law and the Prophets and had the Books thereof bestowed upon her As she was on her Journey home she was Delivered of a Son begot by Solomon whom she Named Meilech and carried with her into Ethiopia where having remained till he was Twenty Years Old he went up to Jerusalem to Visit his Father and to learn Knowledge and Wisdom by him the Queen by Letters intreated Solomon to Consecrate his Son Meilech King of Ethiopia A blind story of the Queen of Sheba and her Son before the Ark of the Covenant and the Testament of the Lord and that after such a manner as to make it Unlawful for the future for a Woman to Reign in Etoiopia as was then the Custom and that the Males only in a direct Line should Inherit the Crown Meilech when he came to Jerusalem did with ease obtain all his Mother had desired and instead of Meilech was Named David by Solomon who having sufficiently Instructed him in the Law and other Sciences sent him home to his Mother in much greater State and Splendor than he came with sending several of the Nobles and of their Sons in his Train to serve him and together with them Azarias a Prince among the Priests the Son of Sadock who was likewise a Sacerdotal Prince whereupon Azarias put David upon asking leave of his Father for him to offer Sacrifice before the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord for a prosperous Journey which he obtained Azarias after having with great speed and secrecy got Tables made in imitation of the Tables of the Covenant of the Lord did whilst he was offering Sacrifice with great dexterity steal the true Tables of the Ark of the Covenant and put his new ones in the place of them none but God and himself being conscious to what he had done this among us in Ethiopia is declared
body and drinketh my blood shall be with me Paul likewise speaketh to the same purpose when he saith the unbelieving husband is justified by the believing wife and the unbelieving wife by the believing husband otherwise your children would be unclean whereas now they are holy Now if the Children of an Unbelieving Mother are notwithstanding that Sanctified by the Faith of their Father how much more holy must they be whose Father and Mother are both Believers For which reason it is much more pious to call such Infants before they are Baptized Half-Christians than Pagans The Apostles in their Book of Synods do likewise affirm That all who had Faith though they were not Baptized may be called Half-Christians in which Books it is said that if a Jew or Gentile or Mahometan do embrace the Faith he shall not be received presently but must first come to the door of the Church there to hear Sermons and the words of our Saviour Christ and that being disposed to Believe he may understand what Christ's yoke is after which he may be called an Half-Christian even before he is admitted to Baptism which is also according to the Gospel which saith He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved but he that believeth not shall be condemned It is also the custom among us for Women when they are with Child to Confess their Sins and receive the Lord's Body before they are Delivered and they who neglect to do this are looked upon as Wicked and Impious Christians as are also their Husbands for not having obliged them to it Confirmation and Extream Unction are not reckoned Sacraments among us Confirmation and Extream Unction no Sacraments neither are they in use in our Church as I see they are in the Roman We do surthermore reckon it contrary to the Law of Moses and the Institutions of the Apostles to eat unclean Meats from all which we do abstain merely in Obedience to the Law and the Scriptures which with us consists of Eighty one Books that is to say the Old Testament consists of Forty one Books The Scripture the perfect Rule of Faith and the New of Thirty five which Canon or Number of Books we have expresly delivered to us by the Apostles themselves and to which it is not lawful for us to Add or Diminish any thing no not though an Angel from Heaven should persuade us to it and we do look upon him as Accursed that shall offer to do any such thing so that neither our Patriarch nor our Bishop do reckon that they can either by themselves or in a Council make any Laws That People are under an Obligation of a Mortal Sin to observe In the Books of our Synods it is ordained by the Holy Apostles That we must confess our selves before we can receive Penance from a Confessor according to the greatness of our Sin They teach us likewise how we ought to Pray and Fast and how to exercise Charity Confession is much in use among us for we have no sooner committed a Sin than we run and throw our selves at the feet of a Confessor this is the constant practice of all Men and Women of whatsoever Quality or Condition and whenever we Confess we do receive the Body of our Lord under both Species They all receive the Sacrament in both Elements It is not kept in their Churches and in Wheaten and Unleavened Bread so that if we Confess our selves daily we do daily receive the Sacrament as well Layicks as Ecclesiasticks The Sacrament of the Eucharist is not kept in our Churches as it is here in Europe neither is it at any time Administred to the Sick until after they are recovered All among us Layicks as well as Clerks do receive the Sacrament at least Three times a Week which is never received any where but in the Church It is never received but in the Church no not by the Patriarch or Precious John himself We do always make use of the same Confessor and do never go to any other but when our own is absent to whom when he returns we are bound to repair The Confessors do in the Name of the Church absolve from all Sins there being no cases no not the most heinous reserved to the Bishop or Patriarch Presbyters are not allowed to Confess themselves to those that they Confess and among us all Presbyters and Monks and all Officers of the Church do live by their own Labour for the Church hath no Tythes it has Lands which are Cultivated by the Priests and Monks either in Person or by their servants and as for Alms they receive none but those that are offered in the Church for the Burial of the dead and other Holy Offices it not being lawful for any of them to beg about the streets or to extort Alms from the common people Furthermore The Sacrament is never administred above once a day in a Church It is not shewed to the People No Masses are said for the Dead in our Churches there is never but one Mass a day which we do reckon to be a Sacrifice neither is it lawful for us according to ancient Custom to Celebrate more for which Mass we never receive any Money the Sacrament of the Eucharist is not shewed to the People among us as I observe it is here and all Priests Deacons and Subdeacons and all People whatsoever that are present at the Celebration are obliged to Communicate We say no Masses for the remission of Souls but our Dead are Buried in a Consecrated Place with Prayers and Crosses over whom among other things we recite the beginning of St. John's Gospel and do offer Alms for them the day after they are Buried and at certain other times when we have Funeral Feasts This is what I have to say of our Faith and Religion But whereas since my coming to Portugal I have had several Debates with some Doctors namely with Didacus Ortis Bishop of the Island of St. Thomas and Dean of the King's Chappel and Pedro Magalho concerning the distinction of Meats it will not be improper for me to say something of it in this place It is to be observed that it is in obedience to the Old Testament that we observe a distinction of meats which distinction is ordained by the Word of God who was afterwards born of the Virgin Mary and walked and conversed with his Apostles which Living Word of God had always an entire and irrevocable Speech or Word and who did no where in his Gospel say that such things might be eat as were before prohibited as unclean For as to those words in the Gospel That whatsoever entreth into the mouth doth not defile the man but that which cometh forth of the mouth Christ's intent therein was not to dissolve the Law he had formerly enacted but only to confute the Superstition of the Jews who blamed the Apostles for having eat Bread with unwashen hands neither did the Apostles
Bishopricks nor any other Ecclesiastical Benefices which are all in the Gift of Precious John who bestows them as he thinks good When the Patriarch whose Revenues are very great dieth the Emperor is his sole Heir It is furthermore the business of the Patriarch to excommunicate all such as are obstinate to which Censures there is so great a Respect paid that all who slight them are condemned for their whole life to a strict and perpetual Fast He grants no Indulgences neither are the Sacraments of the Church denied to any Sinners but Murtherers The Patriarch in our Tongue is called Abuna only he who at present is in possession of that Dignity is called by his Baptismal Name which is Mark he is an Hundred Years of Age and upward With us the Year begins on the First day of September which falls always on the Vigil of John the Baptist the other Holidays as the Nativity Easter c. are observed at the same time as they are in the Roman Church The Gospel and Faith of our Lord Jesus Christ was first preached among us by Philip the Apostle If you would know the name of our Emperor it is always Precious John and not Presbyter John as it is here falsly reported to be in our Language It is John Belul and in the Chalde John Encoo or Precious or High John Neither is he ever called as Matthew falsly reported Emperor of the Habassins but of the Ethiopians for he being an Armenian did not thoroughly understand our Affairs and least of all those relating to our Faith which made him report several things to the wise King Emanuel of happy Memory that were false which was not done by him with an intention to deceive for he was an honest Man but because he was not well Instructed in the Matters of our Religion The Empire does not of right descend to the Eldest Son but to him on whom the Emperor is pleased to bestow it So the present Emperor was the third Brother and got the Crown by a Pious piece of Reverence For the last Emperor having when he was upon his Death-Bed commanded all his Sons to sit down by him on Royal Thrones they all did so except my Master who said Far be it from me to sit in the Chair of my Lord for which act of Piety his Father bestowed the Empire upon him His Name is David and his Dominions of Christians and Heathens are very large in which there are divers Kings Princes Earls Barons and Nobles who are all extreamly submissive to his commands He hath no other than Foreign Coin within his Territories Gold and Silver being paid and received among us by Weight We have a great many Cities and Towns tho not built as they are here in Portugal Precious John keeps his Court perpetually in the Camp which he does on purpose to accustom the Nobility to the Hardships and Exercises of War Neither is it to be omitted that we are Besieged on all Sides by the Enemies of our Faith with whom we have frequent Battels but are always Victorious which Victories we Attribute to the Divine Assistance A Written Law is not in use among us neither are the Complaints of Litigants Transacted by Papers but by word of Mouth which makes that Law-Suits are not Protracted by the Avarice of the Judges and Advocates to any great length I am to tell you likewise that Matthew was not sent by our Emperor David to the Invincible and Powerful King Emanuel of happy Memory but by Queen Helena who was Dowager to the Emperor The Hand of Mary who was Grandfather to David and who David being under Age at that time was Regent of Ethiopia She was undoubtedly a most Wise and Religious Princess and was Mistress of so much Learning that she Composed two Books in the Chaldee Tongue The Title of the first was Euzara Clebaa that is to say Praise the Lord with Organs in which she discoursed Learnedly concerning the Trinity and the Virginity of the Blessed Virgin The Second is called Chedale Câ—ay that is the Beam of the Sun in which she has divers accurate Discourses concerning the Law of God All these things relating to the Faith Religion and State of our Countrey I Zaga Zabo that is the Grace of the Father a Bishop Presbyter and Bagama Raz that is to say a Soldier and Viceroy of the Province of Bagana could not deny to Thee Damianus my dearest Son in Christ nor indeed to any one that should have desired it of me And that for two Reasons 1. Because I was commanded by the Most Potent Lord Precious John Emperor of Ethiopia not to conceal any thing relating to our Faith and Countrey from such as should desire to have an account thereof but to Communicate the whole truth of all such matters to them both by Writing and word of Mouth 2. Because I judged it convenient to acquaint this part of the World with our Manners Rites and Institutions and that the rather because I had neither said nor writ any thing thereof before not that I grudged my labour but because no Christian Soul since I came into Portugal had ever desired me to do it which is a thing I cannot wonder at enough I do therefore knowing you to be extreamly curious to be acquainted with our Affairs beseech you by the Wounds and Cross of Christ to Translate this Confession of Faith and Religion into the Latin Tongue that so the Integrity of our Manners and Rites may be known to all European Christians and if you should at any time happen to go to Rome I must intreat you to Salute the Pope Cardinals Patriarchs Archbishops Bishops and all the other Worshippers of Christ in my Name with the Kiss of Peace And to desire the Pope to send Francis Alvarez back to me with an Answer to the Letters of my Most Potent Lord the Emperor of Ethiopia that so I may at last return to my own Country and once more see my own House having been detained here too long already and that before I am arrested by Death which by reason of my great Age I must be in a short time I may carry back an Answer to my Master and having finished my Embassy may Dedicate the remainder of my Days to God and Divine Matters And in case this Treatise should not be so accurately Composed as it ought to be I must beseech you to Correct it and Adapt it to the Latin Phrase but so as not to alter the sense Finally I must intreat you in the Translation thereof to consult the Old and New Testaments that you may the better understand out of what Books I have taken my Quotations and may be able to translate them the more faithfully And in case matters should not be so curiously handled therein as to satisfy Critical Readers the fault thereof must be imputed to my want of Chaldee Books of which I have not one by me those I brought from home with me having been
the Alexandrian Faith and making profession of that of Rome in the hands of the Patriarch But however that were it is certain that the Emperor at this time did not only declare That he would never submit himself and his Empire to the Pope who besides that he was a Nestorian Heretick had nothing to do with a Church which from its very first foundation had been all along subject to the Patriarch of Alexandria but to shew the World that he was in earnest he writ to the Patriarch of Alexandria to send an Abuna into Ethiopia according to the custom of his Predecessors The Patriarch and Portugueses when they came to hear of this Message did storm and threaten at such a rate that the Emperor began to consider how he might rid his Countrey of Guests who would be satisfied with nothing less than the extirpation of its Ancient Religion and the establishment of Popery the toleration of their own Religion which he reckoned a great favour being what they despised and reckoned to be no kindness at all Whereupon the Emperor is said to have given secret Orders for 2000 Soldiers to be sent to disarm if not massacre all the Portugueses that were in Ethiopia as a People not to be endured any longer but the Portugueses having had timely notice of this Plot against their Lives did by keeping still together in a body prevent the execution of it The Emperor having the news brought him of the Abuna he had sent for being on his Journey to manifest his great Zeal for his Religion went as far as Deboroa on purpose to meet him Where when the Abuna whose name was Joseph arrived he was received by him with the greatest Festivities that had ever been seen before in Ethiopia on the like occasion The Patriarch Bermudes who could not endure to think of any Abuna in Ethiopia besides himself posted after the Emperor to try to prevent it but the Emperor hearing he was coming after him and not caring to be schooled by him any longer ordered him to be apprehended and carried Prisoner to one of his strong Mountains from whence after some Months confinement he was rescued by his Countrymen and carried by them into Tigre where he lived under the protection of Bahurnagays the great Patron of the Portugueses until he was carried off to the Indies by the Jesuits to make room for a Successor of their own Order as we shall see hereafter The Emperor now he had rid himself of the Popish Patriarch who would never let him be quiet day nor night with his Religion began to express great kindness again to all the Portugueses that remained employing several of them about his Person and giving such Estates to the rest that there was not one of them but what kept his Horse or Mule and lived with the Equipage of a Gentleman insomuch that there was but one hard thing whereof they could accuse the Emperor which was That he would not suffer them after he had told them above an hundred times that he would never change his Religion to trouble him any more about it But while things stood thus as to Religion in Ethiopia The King of Portugal thinks of sending a new Patriarch into Ethiopia all the News in Portugal and Rome was that the Portugueses had restored the Emperor to all his Dominions and had thereby obliged him to that degree that he was not contented with declaring that he would submit himself to the Roman Church but that he would make his whole Empire to do the same which News so slow was their Intelligence from thence continued to be believed by most people in Europe as undoubtedly true for at least three years after Claudius had made a solemn declaration to the contrary and that nothing in the world should ever oblige him to change his Ancient Faith for that of Rome Ignatius Loyola being sensible that his new Order had every-where a great many Enemies Ignatius Loyala labours to engross the Habassin Mission to his new Order and especially among the other Orders of Friars who were all grown jealous of its over-topping them was casting about to find some great work for them to do whereby they might for ever establish their Reputation in the Roman Church and believing all that was reported of the greatness of the Habassin Empire and of the good disposition it was in to submit it self to the Pope he laboured day and night to obtain that Province for his Fryars and that he might interest himself therein with the better grace he begged leave solemnly of the Pope to go into Ethiopia in person to promote the submission of that Church to him which being denied him to his great grief he begged that since he himself was not thought worthy of that honour that a Mission of his Friars might be sent thither and this he plied so close as to carry it For besides that he himself was indefatigable in the pursuit thereof he commanded all the Jesuits that were at Lisbon to wait upon the King at least once a Month about it and one Lewis Goncalves da Camara a Jesuit who was of a Noble Family in Portugal not to fail to speak to the Portuguese Embassador at the Court of Rome once in three days concerning it which that Father observed so punctually and teized the Embassador so much about it that the Embassador's Servants when they saw him coming used to say of him Here comes our Lord's Tertian Ague By these indefatigable diligences Ignatius carried both his points which were That a splendid Mission should be sent into Ethiopia to take the submission of that Church to the Roman and that none but his Friars should be imployed in it and having the Nomination of them left to himself A Patriarch two Bishops Coadjutors with 10 Friars all of the Jesuits order are nominated to go into Etniopia he named one John Nunes Baretto a Portuguese to go Patriarch and Andrew Oviedo a Spaniard and Melchior Carneiro a Portuguese who were to be both made Bishops the first of Hieropolis and the second of Nice and to be Coadjutors to the Patriarch and who in case they Survived him were in their turns to succeed him in that Dignity to which he added ten Jesuits more having as he told the Emperor in his Letter to him pitched upon that number that the Patriarch and his twelve Companions might represent Christ and his twelve Apostles Upon Ignatius Nomination of these Missionaries the Pope's Bulls for Authorizing them were dispatched to Lisbon the Bull of the Patriarch Elect was as followeth Julius Bishop the Servant of the Servants of God To my Beloved Son John Elect of Ethiopia and of all the Kingdoms subject to Precious John the Illustrious Emperor of Ethiopia Health and Apostolical Benediction WHEREAS we have been lately sollicited in your Name which to us and our Brethren is very acceptable The Pope's Bull for the Consecrating of the new Habassin Patriarch we
with the Council of our said Brethren have by our Apostolical Authority promoted you to the Patriarchal Church of Ethiopia and of all the Kingdoms belonging to our beloved Son in Christ Precious John the Illustrious Emperor of the said Ethiopia which is at this time in a manner destitute of the Consolation of a Pastor Making and Constituting you by the said Council and Authority Patriarch and Pastor thereof during your Life or for so long as you shall keep the Charge Government and Administration of all the Affairs Spiritual and Temporal of the said Church as we do also Constitute our Beloved Son Andrew Elect of Hieropolis and Melchior Elect of Nice your Coadjutors with full free and entire faculty power and authority to make treat exercise and procure all things in general and every thing in particular which do of right and custom belong to such Coadjutors from this time forward in all matters of Jurisdiction and after they are consecrated in all matters of Order likewise and in case of accidents we have provided that the said Elects Andrew and Melchior shall after a certain form or manner be successively Pastors and Patriarchs of the said Church and we have sent you by a certain Messenger your Pall which is the Ensign of the perfect power of the Pontifical Office taken from the body of the blessed St. Peter which was desired of us in your behalf with that instance as is fitting and as was signified by you after the manner and form as was therein declared and as is more amply contained in our Letters And we having considered the great distance of the said Church from the Court of Rome and how difficult a thing it is to come from thence hither and how great and dangerous either by Sea or Land the Voyage is and being for that reason desirous so far as we are able with a good Conscience to ease you and your Successors the Patriarchs of Ethiopia and of all the Kingdoms belonging thereunto of such a Journey we do grant to you and the said Elects Andrew and Melchior upon their ceasing to be Coadjutors and to all your other Successors of the said Patriarchal Church of Ethiopia and the Kingdoms thereunto belonging for all times to come the privilege of wearing the foresaid Pall within the Church of Ethiopia and all the Kingdoms thereof upon the Festivities of Easter Whitsuntide and Christmas as also upon those of Circumcision Epiphany and Ascension of our Lord as also upon the Feast of Corpus Christi St. Stephen St. John Palm-Sunday the Thursday and Saturday in the holy Week and of the invention of the Cross and of John the Baptist and on all the days of the Apostles and on the Three Festivities of the Blessed Virgin and on all-saints-All-Saints-day and on the days of the Consecration of the Chief Churches under their jurisdiction and on the days whereon you ordain Priests or Consecrate Bishops and if it should so happen which God forbid that the said Pall should either be lost by the way or be stolen or should be any other way embezeled you may in that case make and bless such another Pall which you and your Successors by us instituted may use as is above prescribed you shall likewise cause a Cross to be carried before you in all places of your Province When the Archbishops and Bishops of the said Province shall be Elected by our beloved Sons the Chapters of Churches or according to the custom of the place but so that it shall always be in your power to supply all defects if any should happen to be in the Forms of their Elections and be approved of and Confirmed and Instituted by you they shall then be obliged with all possible expedition to intimate their Election Confirmation and Institution to the Apostolical See taking an Oath of due fidelity to it in the form hereafter prescribed and having given the customary obedience shall send the said Oath likewise to the said See And you being assisted by the said Andrew and Melchior Elects if they are present The Pope allows of the Consecration of a Bishop by one Bishop and two Presbyters or otherwise you they not being to be had or they being out of the Office of Coadjutor may being assisted by two lawful Priests ordained according to the custom of the Church of Rome until such time as you can have two Bishops lawfully Consecrated in which case you must be assisted by two Bishops and not by two Presbyters Consecrate the said Archbishops and Bishops so Elected Confirmed and Instituted they having first presented to you or to others their Letters certifying their Election Confirmation and Institution as also the form of the Oath of obedience that they have taken And the Archbbishops thus Consecrated after they have the Pall given them may use all the Insignia of Archbishops as the Bishops so ordained may likewise all those of Bishops and may likewise consecrate the holy Oil and confirm and confer holy Orders and perform all the other Offices appertaining to a Bishop and may likewise respectively exercise the ordinary power and whatsoever is preper and customary for Archbishops and Bishops to exercise you may also give to Archbishops thus Consecrated the Pall which is the sign of Pontifical Perfection which they shall use after the manner above prescribed you may likewise divide and distinguish the Provinces and Dioceses of the said Archbishops and Bishops which have not hitherto been divided and may also grant Licenses to all such as you shall judge fit to Preach and Declare the word of God to the People and if they are Priests to administer all the Sacraments excepting those of Confirmation and holy Orders and to Consecrate Altars with all their Ornaments together with the Sacerdotal Vestments and all other things save Chalices and Patins you may likewise absolve all persons whatsoever within your Province or that are any other way your Subjects by a Diocesan as well as Patriarchal right from all manner of Sins and Excommunications which they may have incurred and from all Suspensions Interdicts and other Censures and Ecclesiastical Penalties how great soever nay tho of that number which are reserved by the Bulla Caena Domini in joining them healthful penances in all such cases in proportion to the nature of their faults you may likewise Communicate faculties to Bishops to absolve in all such cases as you or the Patriarchs of Ethiopia for the time being shall judge convenient and if it shall be thought fit you may by your self or others dispense with all persons as to any irregularities they have contracted by Bigamy provided it was not true or Homicide so it was not voluntary which when they are so must never be dispenced withal but on great occasions and for the publick good and for want of Age also and with any of the other impediments to holy Orders or the exercise thereof as also as to the Sacrament of Matrimony in whatsoever degree
the 10th of St. Matthew Flesh and blood saith he hath not revealed this unto thee And the Prophet Micah in the 9th Chapter saith A man's enemies are those of his own house And in the 10th of St. Matthew Christ saith Think not that I came to bring peace on the earth I tell you nay but a sword for I came to set a man at variance with his Father and the Daughter with the Mother and the Daughter-in-law with the Mother-in-law and a man's enemies shall be those of his own house for he that loveth Father or Mother more than me is not worthy of me And in the 12th of St. Luke he saith again Think you that I came to bring peace upon the earth And in the 14th Chapter of the same Gospel he saith If any man come to me and hate not Father and Mother c. From all which we may learn That Parents and Relations are commonly Spiritual Enemies Christ himself having said A man's enemies are those of his own house and that he came to divide the one from the other and that whosoever hateth not Father and Mother in such cases cannot be his Disciple And what he taught others as to this matter he confirmed by his own Example when without asking his Holy Mothers advice who undoubtedly would never have counselled him to have done any thing that was amiss he remained disputing in the Temple and understanding his Mother had been in great Pain for him and had been seeking after him he made her answer when she told him of it Wist you not that I must be about my Father's business intimating to us by this Carriage That in Matters appertaining to God we are not bound to advise with our Friends and Parents and especially when they endeavour to hinder us from doing what is good for in such cases he commands us to hate them May our Lord give your Highness good and true Counsel in all things and Grace always do his Will and hereafter to enjoy his Holy Glory Amen The 22d of June in the Year 1557. Now were ever a poor Empress and Council of State libelled so out of Scripture or pelted out of a Concordance before Or was the folly of a Peoples being obliged to be of a Religion because it was the Religion of their Ancestors for several Ages ever more severely exposed Besides there is one thing remarkable in this Letter which is the Bishop's affirming positively That Bermudes was and did act for some years as Patriarch of Ethiopia and as such had the Lands belonging to that Dignity setled upon him by the Emperor After this Letter Several Conferences about Religion the Emperor and the Bishop had divers Conferences about Religion but without any effect the Emperor growing daily more zealous for his Ancient Faith and averse to that of Rome The Bishop being piqued with this ill success challenged all the Learning of Ethiopia to a publick Disputation which being accepted the Emperor himself bore a great part in it defending the Habassin Faith with that Dexterity and Learning that the Jesuits themselves confess he did sometimes put the Bishop hard to it to answer him The Habassins were so encouraged by having such a Champion on their side that the Bishop was never denied a publick Disputation when he desired it and tho he is said by his Brethren to have still come off victorious the Habassins did always triumph the Bishop being laughed at by them as the most baffled Man that ever pretended to weild an Argument The Bishop growing weary of disputing betook himself to his Pen again and having Composed a Treatise against all the Habassin Errors he Presented it to the Emperor conjuring him to read it without Prejudice The Emperor promised to do so but was so far from being converted by it that if it were possible he was setled in his Ancient Faith thereby more than he was before The Emperor answers the Coadjutor's Book and writes one in defence of his own Faith Writing a Book not only in Answer to that of the Bishop's but one also in Defence of his own Church declaring in them both that he had seen nor heard nothing to convince him that as a Christian he was bound to submit himself and his Empire to the Pope The Bishop finding his Writings were as Unsuccessful as his Conferences and Disputations left the Court in Wrath retiring to a place called Decome where he had not been long before he thundred out the following Excommunication Andrew d' Oriedo by the Grace of God and the Apostolical See Bishop of Hieropolis and Coadjutor to the most Reverend Father in Christ and Lord John Nunes Baretto Patriarch of Ethiopia AS it is profitable to Publish and Praise such things as are Good The Coadjutor thunders out an Excommunication on purpose to ingage People to follow them so it is likewise necessary to Declare and Censure publick Evils that People may avoid them Wherefore since the People of Ethiopia notwithstanding their having had all the Articles of the Roman Faith preached to them in such a manner that all that were disposed to learn it cannot but be thorowly acquainted therewith do with great Obstinacy continue to deny Obedience thereunto and not only so but did on the Ogge of the last Year cause a Proclamation to be made at the Market-Cross prohibiting all Persons upon pain of Death to go into any of our Churches adhering still to the Customs of their Fore-fathers and that as appears to us not out of Ignorance for that cannot be considering how many things they hold that are notoriously Evil and contrary to the Service of our Lord. We do therefore define and by Sentence declare That all the People of Ethiopia Great and Small Learned and Unlearned do deny to yield that Obedience to the Holy Roman Church which they and all other Churches are in Duty bound to yield the Roman Church being the Head of all Churches and the Pope of Rome the Father Pastor and Superior of all Christians They do likewise on divers Occasions repeat Baptism which is contrary to the Faith And do also publickly observe Saturday which they did not formerly in Ethiopia And do Circumcise themselves and their Slaves as also all the Converts they do make at any time to Christanity forcing many of them to submit to it They also hold it to be a Sin to eat Hare or Swines Flesh or any of the Meats prohibited by the Mosaical Law which Law was abolished by the Death of Christ and is contrary to what he has commanded in his Gospel Several among them holding it likewise to be a Sin to go into a Church on the day on which they have known their Wives which is no where prohibited by Christ or his Church Their Learned Men do also with great Zeal maintain That there is but one Nature and one Operation in Christ and that Christ's Humamanity is equal with his Divinity which is contrary to the
Faith of the Gospel and the Synods which do teach That Christ hath two Natures and two Operations and two Wills in one Person and that he is equal to the Father as to his Divinity but inferior to him as to his Humanity They do also keep a Festivity to Dioscorus the Defender of the Heretick Eutyches who together with Eutyches stands condemned by the Church for which reason Dioscorus ought not to be esteemed a Saint in Ethiopia holding divers other things that are contrary to the Roman Faith which ought not to be being there is but one Faith which is that of the Roman Church which by reason of Christ's promise to her can never err We do therefore admonish all our Spiritual Sons to separate themselves from these and all other Errors of Ethiopia c. so as not to fall into any of them And as for the Ethiopians we do remit them to the Judgment of the Church and of the Prelates thereof to Punish them in their Persons or Estates publickly or privately or to use mercy with them in whole or in part as they shall think fit and especially if they should be hereafter Converted which God in his Mercy give them Grace to be Made at Decome in Ethiopia upon the 2d of February 1559. Gancalo Cardozo Notary Apostolick Andrew Bishop of Hieropolis This was published in our Church of Decome on the 2d of February 1559. Whatever ease the publication of this Censure might give the Coadjutor's mind which was strangely exulcerated by the Triumphs of the Habassins it is certain it had no more effect upon the Emperor than his Conferences and Books had had Who the more he knew of Popery and its ways the worse he liked it But while Claudius his thoughts were wholly employed in Disputing with and Writing against the Bishop and Fathers Nur the Son of Madi Ali Guasil and the King of Adel having observed the present weakness of the Habassin Empire and how its Frontiers lay open Invaded it with a great Army and meeting with little or no opposition were got into the bowels of it before Claudius ever so much as dream'd of an Invasion nevertheless when the alarm of it came from all quarters Claudius laying aside his Pen and Books called for his Sword and having sweeped together a confused rabble of an Army he took the Field and being come within sight of the Enemy was so ill advised as to give him Battel in which Claudius was not so successful as he was said to have been in his ergoteering Combats his Army being totally Routed and he himself Slain fighting Manfully against the Infidels The Portugueses though angry with Claudius do him the Justice to acknowledge that he was a Prince of admirable natural Parts and for an Habassin of very good Learning and as he was every way much a Gentleman that he would also have been extraordinary kind to the Portugueses that remained in Ethiopia for the great Service they had done had it not been for two things the one was that they would never let him alone with his Religion which he was extreamly Zealous for and the other was that under a pretence of introducing the Roman Faith into Ethiopia they had a design either to make themselves Masters of its Sea-ports or to have put them into the hands of a Creature of their own as they had done in several parts of India after they had by some plausible pretence or other got footing in them and as the close Correspondence they maintained with Bahurnagays the Hereditary Governor of the Provinces on the Sea-Coast was sufficient to give Claudius some umbrage of this design so if he ever happened to intercept any of the Bishop's or Father's Letters he must have been abundantly satisfied of the truth of it the sending of Missionary Troops into Ethiopia without which the Ecclesiastical Missionaries would be able to do nothing there being as we shall see hereafter the burden of all their Letters So feeble a thing is Popery to make way for it self into any Countrey without the assistance of Apostolical Dragoons Nur after having ravaged and plundered the greatest and richest Provinces in Ethiopia returned home laden with Spoils and Honour but when he came near his Metropolis instead of making a Triumphant entry as was expected he mounted a sorry Mule wretchedly Equipp'd and rid thereon thorough all the Acclamations of his People and being asked the reason why he did so his answer was That since it was God alone that won the late Victory it was but just that he alone should have the whole Glory of it Claudius having left no Sons Adam succeeds Claudius was Succeeded by his Brother Adam who had been a Captive several years in Arabia and who from the day he came to the Crown Adam a fierce Enemy to Popery declared himself an irreconcilable Enemy to the Church of Rome and accordingly as his first act of Government was the prohibiting all Habassins whatsoever under severe Punishments to go into the Latin Church so his first act of severity was the ordering of a Habassin Woman for having turned Papist to be whipped thorough the streets and among other reasons that he gave for the greatness of this his Rage against Popery one was That the having Tolerated it in Ethiopia had cost his Brother his Life and his Empire a vast treasure both of Money and Blood And in order to the extirpating so pernicious an Inmate as he reckoned it to be he first took all the Lands which had been given by his Brother to the Portugueses for their Service from them and afterwards their Children committing them to the care of such as would be sure to Educate them in the Alexandrian Faith After this he Commanded the Coadjutor to be apprehended and thrown into Prison threatning to Burn him and his Jesuits alive if they did not give over corrupting his People with their false Doctrines And having one day ordered the Coadjutor to be brought before him A Dialogue betwixt the Emperor and Coadjutor he fell upon him after a most barbarous manner asking him Whether it was not sufficient that he suffered him to live in his Empire to look after his Portugueses but he must be corrupting his Monks and Subjects with his Heresies adding let me advise you as you love your Life not to tamper any more with my Subjects The Coadjutor made answer That he did nothing but what his Office obliged him to and that he would do whatever it cost him This resolute Answer put Adam into such a fury that after having called the Coadjutor a great many hard Names and asked him How he durst come into Ethiopia to Preach his Lies and Fopperies in it He flew upon him and tore his Robes the Courtiers having much ado to take him off and having sent for him another time he told him after a great deal of foul Language That if he would not promise to give over Corrupting his Subjects his
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
before us but so soon as our back is turned are making inroads upon us again For the destruction of this Enemy it is that we desire to have some troops from you with Artificers of all Trades and Fathers to instruct us that we may be of one heart and one body and that the faith of Christ which is destroyed by the hands of Infidels may be established and that there may be peace and love among us This was formerly desired by our Ancestors but it did not please God it should be accomplished in their times but the Turks who then hindered it may now with ease be driven out of the Island of Matzua for which reason we intreat your Holiness to recommend this our request to our Brother desiring him to comply therewith and to execute it speedily We do not trouble your Holiness with many words being well assured of your readiness to grant what we shall desire See that the Fathers you send hither be learned and holy that so they may be able to instruct us in whatsoever is necessary to our Souls I shall add no more a few words being enough to the wise The Emperor of Ethiopia's Letter to the King of Spain THE Letter writ by the Emperor Asnaf Segued cometh to our Brother Don Philip King of the Kings of Spain Peace be with your Majesty The Peace and Love of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Sign of the Holy Cross be always with your Majesty How is it with you As I returned from the War to the place where I was to reside all the Winter a certain Father whose Name is Peter Pays of whose Learning and Piety I had heard before came to visit me I was very glad to hear the account he gave of the state of your Majesty's Health and the welfare of your Kingdoms and did return Thanks to God for having given you such Prosperity that none of your Enemies are able to disturb it May our Lord increase the number of your Majesty's years and bring what he hath begun to an happy issue Hear Sir your Majesty is not ignorant that in the days of the Emperor Asnaf Segued when a certain Mahometan called Granhe invaded Ethiopia and destroyed all our Churches a Confederacy was concluded and confirmed by an Oath betwixt our two Crowns and that when my Ancestors sent to John King of Portugal for some Succors he sent us some which were Commanded by Don Christopher de Gama and which in conjunction with our Army Conquered that Mahometan The High and Mighty God who exalteth the humble and throws down the proud being our helper After which there was Peace and Quietness the force of the Mahometan who had not the fear of God before his Eyes being broken in pieces The Portugueses remained among us in great Honour wanting for nothing till the day of their Death as their Posterity do not to this day Wherefore we being Christians no less than our Ancestors and under the obligation of the same Oath we ought to have the same Enemies that is the Galls who destroy our Lands and who when we go against them with our Armies do run away from us but so soon as our back is turned do as Banditti make inroads into our Empire for which reason we do desire your Majesty to send us some Soldiers and with them your Daughter to be Married to our Son by which means our Alliance will be firmer and we shall be one Body and of one Heart Our Son is Seven years Old and your Daughter as we are informed is but Three so they shall be bred together with the milk of Wisdom and shall be taught the Holy Scriptures I do also wish that your Majesty would with your Troops send me Artificers of all Professions and that you would do it speedily that so being united in the Faith of Christ there may be Peace and Love betwixt us and that this Empire which is the Land of our Lady and of Christ our Redeemer may not be lost The Mahometans are extreamly Zealous for their Sect and do whenever there is occasion help one another and ought not your Majesty to do the same for your Faith which is above all As to what we write to you concerning your sending your Daughter hither you are not to think that we desire her for any other end than to establish an Alliance between us and that she may be a pledge of Peace for the future May God who can do all things fulfil our wishes Hear farther Brother in order to the establishment of our Affairs Do you send a Viceroy to the Island of Matzua and my General shall be at the same time at Arkiko on the Continent by which means we shall bridle the Power of the Turks and being Masters of those parts we will send our Merchants with all sorts of Goods and Provisions into yoar Conquests and will divide the Customs between us our Countrey is very Rich and wants for nothing and the reason why we have not hitherto sent any Merchants to these parts with Provisions of Honey Gold and Slaves is because we have a mind to pinch the Turks for whom we have no kindness but when your Viceroy is once come with his Portugueses we shall quickly send Merchants to them with all sorts of Commodities May our Lord God bring what we desire and what is grateful to your Majesty to a happy issue that so the Power of the Turk which is a great Stone of Scandal may be utterly broke It does not appear by these Letters that the Emperor was in such a violent fit of Zeal when he wrote them for a Roman Patriarch and for submitting his Church to the Pope immediately as he is reported to have been in when he delivered them to Father Peter for though in both of them he writes very earnestly to have the Infanta and some Troops sent with all possible expedition he does not say one word of his Church's submission or of a Roman Patriarch And in case Father Peter when he acquainted the Emperor with the Infanta's Age did to make his Court the better feed him with hopes of obtaining her for his black Prince it was no more than what his Countreyman Gundamore did here in England either with the same Infanta or her Sister and the restitution of the Palatinate It might have been expected that Father Peter now he had brought the Emperor to be a Bigot for Popery beyond what he desired should have stuck close to him till he had done the work and that no small matter should have made him to have left the Court where his presence was so necessary but whatever was the true cause of it the Father all of a sudden desires leave of the Emperor to go to Nanina a place two days journey from the Court pretending to be called thither by extraordinary business and when the Emperor Father Peter withdraws from Court upon a slight pretence who was very unwilling to part with
more because it was writ before the King had received the Letter he is said to have sent to him in the year 1607. In the year 1611 the Emperor received the following Letter from the Pope in answer to that he is said to have writ to him in the year 1607. Paul the Vth 's Letter to the Emperor of Ethiopia To our most dear Son in Christ Health ad Apostolical Benediction WE give thanks to God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ The Pope's Letter to the same Emperor for having been so merciful to you as to restore you to your Royal Throne as you write he has done We do Congratulate your success and do commend you mightily for your Zeal in Defence of the Christian Faith for which as we understand by your first and second Letters you are very fervent We have according to your desires recommended the necessity of your Kingdoms to our most dear Son in Christ Philip the Catholick and Powerful King of Spain who we hope will be induced by his Magnanimity and Zeal for the Christian Faith to assist you powerfully having order'd our Apostolical Nuncio that is with his Catholick Majesty to sollicit what you have desired with great diligence What remains dear Son is to exhort you to persevere constantly and immoveably in the fear of God and Stoutly and Zealously to defend the Christian name and to continue always devoted to the holy Roman Catholick and Apostolick Church your most loving Mother as we in our Prayers which we make to God before the Most holy Bodies of the Apostles for our Sons the Christian Kings and Catholick Princes shall always be sure to remember you and to beg of him from whom all good things do proceed that he would so enlighten your Understanding with the Light of his holy Spirit that you may do his will and from the inward Bowels of our Charity we do most tenderly give our Blessing to your Majesty Written at Rome at St. Peter's under the Ring of the Fisherman on the 4th of January in the Year 1611 and in the Sixth year of our Pontificate It is plain from this Letter that the Popes do not stand so much upon their Punctilio's with remote Heretick Princes The Popes are civiler to remote Hereticks than Domestick ones as they do with those in Europe they reckon to be Hereticks Paul in this Letter calling a Prince who was a Professed Euâ—ychian Heretick his most dear Son in Christ a Title neither Urban would bestow upon King James nor Gregory the Fifteenth upon the Prince of Wales in their answers to the unhappy Letters wherein those Princes had been so civil as to give them the title of The most blessed Father The Emperor growing every day more and more inclinable to the Roman Church for which his Brother Cella Christos had declared himself openly a Champion suffering none to be about him that were not either actually of her Communion or that appeared not to be well disposed for it did upon the Receipt of this kind Letter from the Pope begin to think of Professing himself a Roman Catholick too but being sensible that that could not be done without raising such a storm in his Empire as it would not be possible for him to weather without Portuguese Troops Embassadors are sent from Ethiopia to Partugel He is said to have resolved to send an Embassy to the King of Spain to Sollicit that Affair by the way of Melinde and Goa The persons named for this Employment were Father Anthony Fernandes and one Tecur Egzy an Habassin of Quality by whom the following Letters were sent to the Pope The Emperor's Letter to the Pope The Letter of the Emperor Seltem Saged cometh with the Peace of the good Pastor Jesus to the Holy Roman Pope Paul the Vth. the Head and Pastor of the Universal Church Holy and Loving Father WE have received your Letter of January 1611 The Emperor's Letter to the Pope which is full of that love wherewith a tender Father is inflamed when he receives a penitent Prodigal Son and not having been able by reason of the sudden departure of the India Ships to return you an answer so soon as we desired we have now determined to do it by another way which we hope God will open unto us and to that end we have sent Father Antonio Fernandes of the Society of Jesus who has for some time resided at our Court and with him our Embassador Tecur Egzy desiring that your Holiness may have speedy notice of our being brought by the preaching of the Fathers of the Society who are resident in our Empire to the Knowledge of the truth of the faith of the Chair of the Blessed St. Peter and of our being resolved to embrace the same and to yield obedience to your Holiness as the Head of the Universal Church so as for the future to be governed by a Patriarch of your sending and that we may be put into a condition of yielding this obedience publickly it will be necessary for us to have some Troops from Don Philip the Powerful King of Portugal without which we shall never be able to do it openly We do therefore most humbly beseech your Holiness that since as you have writ to us you have been pleased to order your Apostolick Nuncio residing at his Catholick Majesty's Court to sollicit this Affair with great diligence that you will renew your Orders to him that so they may be both effectually and speedily executed and so good an occasion may not be lost and that in our days and during his happy years our Empire may find this necessary remedy And since you are the Father of all Catholick Kings hold us in the number of such and as you offer Prayers to God for them before the most holy Bodies of the Apostles do the same for us your humble Son Written at our Court of Dembea on the 13th of January 1613. But as the Emperor's Brother Ras Cella Christos was the chief promoter of this Embassy so he likewise writ a Letter to the Pope by it which was as followeth The Letter of Cella Christos Viceroy of Gojam cometh with the Peace of the Eternal Father to the Holy Father Paul the Vth. the chief Pontiff the Successor of St. Peter and Head of the Church Most Beloved Father IF according to the Holy Scriptures Cella Christos's Letter to the Pope they who were far off are come near I who was at a vast distance am now brought near by the Preaching of the Fathers of the Society of Jesus that reside in this Empire for I having been commanded by my Brother Seltem Saged my Lord the Emperor to be present at several Conferences between the Fathers and our Learned men I came at last to the Knowledge of the Truth of the Faith of the Chair of St. Peter and of that Chair's being the Head of the Universal Church which faith I thereupon embraced and obliged my Brother the
changeable than the wind to abandon what they have so lately embraced Wherefore your Reverence would do well to send us all the Fathers you can spare let them be at least Twenty whom we shall endeavour to accommodate the best we can until it shall please God to raise up a Cardinal or Prince to have compassion upon these poor people and to succor those who labour in their Conversion No day passeth wherein the Emperor do's not speak to us to send for Two hundred Fathers saying God will provide for them when they come I am sensible the Society cannot furnish us with so many though if it could the Corn here is so ripe for the Harvest that they would all find work enough We did at first accommodate our selves to the customs of the Countrey that we might with the more ease gain them to the Lord having besides the Fasts that are commanded kept Wednesdays and observed Lent and Easter and the other principal Feasts according to their stile according to which Easter falls sometimes a Month sooner than with us reciting our Offices likewise after their custom on the Evening of fasting-Fasting-days but so soon as we found them disposed for it we proposed to them the Rites Customs and Ceremonies of the Latin Church and the decrees of the Pope which they have now universallly agreed to so that of late we have without any contradiction kept Easter and the other Feasts according to the Roman stile For the settlement whereof they have earnestly demanded the Tables of our Moveable Feasts and the Ecclesiastical Epact to prevent their being mistaken I have by Letter desired our Provincial to send us such Tables that any one of a common capacity may accommodate the names that are in them to the names of this Countrey To which end I have sent him a Table that was made here by a Catholick who is very expert in Arithmetick that he may examine it and alter it as he shall think convenient And I do earnestly beseech your Reverence to get this affair dispatched as soon as it is possible and to order continual Prayers to be made to God in our behalf and in behalf of this Countrey We have lost two good Fathers here God take us under his Protection for this Mission has sustained a great loss by their deaths this Empire which wants I do not know how many Priests at present has only Father James Matos and Father Anthony Bruno who have the sole charge of Gojam and Father Lewis d' Azevedo who is gone lately to Ambra and my self who am fixt at Court Praised be God we are all in health at present but Father Lewis 's ordinary distempers are such as demand a writ of ease for him but Charity and a Zeal for Souls overcomes all difficulties I do recommend my self to your Reverence's Prayers and holy Sacrifices March 3d. 1623. How far Popery was from having got such footing in Ethiopia as this Letter represents it to have had will appear from the sequel of the Story Such Reports as these of the Conversion of Ethiopia being transmitted to Rome Mutio Vitelesci the General of the Jesuits to secure the honour of that Conversion to his own Order waited upon the Pope The General of the Jesuits makes the Emperor's submission from the Pope without any commission from him to do it and without any Commission or Order from the Emperor to do it made a submission to the Pope in his name with all the usual Solemnities and not being able to obtain leave no more than Ignatius though he begg'd it of the Pope with the same earnestness as his Patriarch had done to go in person to Ethiopia to finish that great work he contented himself with sending a Nuncio to do it the Jesuit he employed in this Embassy was one Manuel d' Almeyda who at that time resided at Bacaim in the Indies who with Three other Fathers arrived at Fremona in Ethiopia in the Year 1624. where having staid a Month with his Brethren to inform himself of the true state of Affairs he begun his Journey to Court where when he arrived he was received with great Ceremony by the Emperor who when the Nuncio at his first audience offered to have kissed his hand would not suffer him to do it He sends a Nuncio to him to acquaint him therewith but having commanded him to sit down by him he asked him several Questions concerning the Pope and the King of Portugal and the state of Affairs in Europe the Nuncio perceiving that he took no notice of his Master Vitellesci stood up and told him That his Reverend General Mutio Vitellesci not having to his great sorrow been able to obtain leave of the Pope to come in person to wait upon his Highness had sent him to kiss his hand in his name and to return his Highness his thanks for the favours he had shew'd to the Friars of his Order and to acquaint him furthermore with his having made his Highness submission to the Pope who is the head of the Church and Christ's Vicar on Earth by having kissed his Holinesse's feet in his name The Emperor though surprized did not seem to be displeased with the General for having been so officious but having commanded his Letters to be read presently by Father Anthony he was so well satisfied with them that he ordered his Historiographer who was present at the reading of them not to forget to insert them into his life The Emperor reckoning he had so far subdued the Spirits of his Subjects that he might now do what he pleased with them begun to make bolder steps towards the introducing of Popery than he had ventured to make before and in order to make the Alexandrian Faith odious to his People he set forth the following Manifesto on purpose to blacken the Memories of their former Abuna's The Manifesto of the Emperor Saltem Saged cometh to the whole world of his Empire HEAR what we say and write in favour of the holy Faith which is true The Emperor publisheth a reproachful Manifesto against the Alexandrians and has no crookedness in it of the great City of Rome the Chair of St. Peter whom our Lord Jesus Christ Constituted the Prince of the saithful telling him from his own holy mouth from whence no error could flow Thou art Peter c. as he did also when he was ready to be crucifi'd for the Redemption of the world Simon behold Satan hath designed to winnow thee as Wheat but I have pray'd that thy faith may not fail commanding him likewise after his Resurrection and before his Ascension in the flesh into Heaven to feed his Rams his Sheep and his Lambs meaning by Rams men by Ews women and by Lambs children and thus St. Peter had Authority given him over all Christians This venerable Prince of the Apostles when he was about to leave the world that he might go to his Creator to receive his reward bequeathed this
greatest Saints that had ever wore a Crown But upon his returning to re-establish the Alexandrian Faith again which he did not many years after we have this great Character recanted being represented on that occasion and that by the same Missionaries as a wretch that had never any thing in him that was good So that Princes are Saints or Devils with some people as they are Friends or Foes to the Pope of which Queen Elizabeth and Mary Queen of Scots are a home instance After the Emperor the Princes Viceroys The Submission of the Prince Grandees and Ecclesiasticks and Ecclesiasticks of the Court made their Submissions saying I. N. do Promise Offer and Swear the same So help me God and these Holy Gospels When the Solemnity of Swearing was ended Raz Cella Christos began an harangue and having talked himself into an heat he drew his Sword and holding it up naked said what is now is now and what is past is past but whosoever shall not do his duty hereafter this shaking his Sword shall be his Judge After this all that were present took an Oath to Prince Basilides as Heir and Successor to his Father which Oath say the Jesuits when the Great Raz Cella Christos came to take he like a true Son of the Roman Church took it with a Condition worthy of his Courage and Christianity saying I Swear to the Prince as Heir to his Father in the Empire and I do promise to Obey him as a Loyal Subject so long as he shall Hold Defend and Favour the Holy Catholick Faith which whensoever he shall cease to do I will be both his first and greatest Enemy All his Officers and Servants taking the Oath to the Prince with the same Condition The Solemnity was concluded with an Excommunication pronounced by the Patriarch aginst those who should at any time violate these Oaths and with two Proclamations the one prohibiting all Habassin Priests to perform any Ecclesiastical Office before they had presented themselves to the Patriarch and the other Commanding all the Subjects of the Empire upon pain of Death to embrace Popery and to discover all such as adhered to their Ancient Religion Commanding them likewise to observe Lent and Easter according to the Roman Stile The next thing to be done A new revenue is setled on the Patriarch was to settle a Revenue on the Patriarch suitable to the heighth of his Dignity to which the Lands and Perquisites of the former Abuna's were not reckoned to be sufficient the Emperor therefore bestowed a great Estate in Land lying upon the shoar of the Lake of Dembea upon him giving him also the Palace of the Empress Mariam Eima and ordering another Palace to be Built for him in Dancaz where the Court resided for the most part The Patriarch having thus feather'd his own Nest begun to look abroad and having got the Emperor to found a College for Sixty Students at Dancaz he begun to send his Missionaries about and not having Fathers enough for so great an harvest he was forc'd to make use of such Habassins as were observed to have the most Zeal for the Roman Church And as it is common with some People to reckon a work done before it is well begun The Jesuits do reckon their work done before it was well begun so when the News of this solemn submission came to Lisbon Ethiopia was reckoned to be the Pope's as sure as Portugal for in a Book Printed there in the year 1623. by one Vega a Jesuit the World was told That the fervour wherewith the Habassins crowded into the bosom of Mother Church was too great to be either expressed or conceived and that there was nothing to be heard all over that vast Empire but Praises of the Roman Faith Old and Young Rich and Poor declaring that there was nothing to be compared to it and that whereas hitherto they had been as blind as Bats and miserably imposed upon they do now behold the Light and are happily rescued from the Blindness and Cheats of false Teachers the Roman being the only Faith that deserved to be maintained and if there should be occasion that is worth the dying for Nay the Patriarch himself as appears from a Letter of his sent to Portugal about this time was pretty sanguine too having assured the Fathers of his Society That he spoke within compass when he said an Hundred thousand had been Converted within a Year to the Roman Church which considering that Ethiopia is no very populous Countrey was an extraordinary Harvest And I do well remember that in the year 1685. he would have been looked upon at Lisbon as one of the greatest lyars in the World that should have denied that in Eight Months time above Six hundred thousand Protestants had been Christened for that was the word in England There were likewise a great many pretty stories Pretty stories sent from Habassia either sent from Ethiopia or made at Lisbon upon this occasion I shall only set down one of them by which the Reader may judge of the rest The Emperor having one day commanded one of his Sons who was but a Child to take up the Cudgels for the Roman Church against one of the most Learned of the Habassin Monks Bellarmine for so the Emperor used to call that Child took the Monk to task presently asking him without any premeditation Whether he Believed Christ to have been God before he was Born The Monk made answer be did Bellarmine then asked him Whether he did not believe God's Nature to be different from Man's Nature The Monk answered It was undoubtedly Hold your hand then said Bellarmine since you acknowledge he was God that took Man's Nature upon him How can you deny that there must be Two Natures in Christ with which argument the poor Monk was struck as mute as a Fish It is no great matter whether this story was true or not it being enough that it was pat for a Sermon upon the Text Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings c. But as all other Orders as we have hinted before do accuse the Jesuit Missionaries of magnifying their own Labours and Successes thus beyond all the bounds of Credibility so they do complain likewise of their disparaging the Labours of all other Friars in their remote Missions Of which Proud and envious carriage the Jesuits resident at Agra do in their Letters of this Year to their Superiors at Goa furnish us with a notable instance where speaking of some Friars who I suppose were Carmelites being come newly to that City they say They were so high-flown as to pretend to nothing under Raising the Dead adding they have begun to work but we do not as yet hear that they have Raised any that were Dead to Life We pray God they may prove true Prophets But though the Roman Church was thus Triumphant at Court the whole Body of the Empire notwithstanding the late bloody Proclamation was extreamly
Countreymen only for defending the Religion of their Forefathers and which they themselves were of no less than the Peasants The Emperor promised them to speak to the Patriarch about it and having accordingly sent for him he told him again That he could not but be sensible of his having done all that lay in his power for to have established the Roman Faith in his Empire He speaks to the Patriarch about it and will not be deni'd and that whereas he had endeavoured to force his Subjects to embrace it he was now satisfied that there was no bringing them to it by that Method it being visible to every body that his having used it had had no other effect but to increase his peoples aversion for that Religion He told him farther that he had reason to fear That if he did not quickly grant a Toleration that he should be Deserted by his whole Court and Army but not being willing to do any thing in that matter without his consent he had therefore sent for him to advise with him about the manner of it adding Something must be done and that speedily to quiet the minds of the people The Patriarch who was extreamly troubled to hear the Emperor speak of a Toleration again made answer That his Highness was miserably misled by evil Counsellors who under pretence of a Toleration designed the utter Extirpation of the Roman Faith but the Emperor urging still the necessity there was thereof the Patriarch was forc'd to promise to give way to the Toleration of all such Habassin Customs as were not contrary to the Roman Faith but upon condition that the said Toleration should not be proclaimed that so it might look more like a Connivence than a Toleration Whereupon it was concerted betwixt them that the Habassins should be Tolerated as to Three things one was the observation of Saturday the Second the Fasting on Wednesdays and not on Saturdays and the third was that they might use their ancient Offices according to his Emendations of them The Alexandrians being acquainted by the Emperor with what the Patriarch was willing to grant them seemed to accept of it very thankfully only they told him it must be proclaimed for if that were not done it would have no effect at all on the minds of the people which was the only end for which they had desired it and not for their own sakes who pretended to be so abundantly satisfi'd with the Doctrines and Customs of Popery as to wish the people could without disturbing the Peace of the Empire be brought to embrace it And so having prevailed with the Emperor that it should be proclaimed proclaimed it was and that with extraordinary Solemnities first in the Camp The Toleration is proclaimed and afterwards over the whole Empire to the great Joy of the people they that understood how it truly was reckoning it however a good beginning but for the generality they believed it to be a Toleration of the whole of their Religion The Patriarch hearing of the Toleration having been proclaimed The Patriarch's protestation against it and of the people rejoicing at it as a Toleration of their whole Religion he immediately drew up the following protestation against it and sent it to the Emperor NOtwithstanding I told your Highness That your Subjects might be allowed to fast on Wednesdays instead of Saturdays and might use their Offices as by me amended and excepting Easter and the Festivities depending thereon that they might observe their Holidays as formerly nevertheless I declared to your Highness at the same time that it was not to be done by Proclamation which as he that publisheth them publisheth them as he thinks fit so all that hear them do understand and interpret them as they like best as we see it has happened in the present case for though I am satisfi'd that your Highness designed to grant no more by your Proclamation but what was agreed on between us yet as I am told all the news every where is that your Highness hath by a Proclamation commanded all your Subjects to return to the Alexandrian Faith upon which conceit there have been extravagant rejoicings in your Highness's own Camp to the great Mortification of all true Catholicks Whatever it was that induced your Highness to do this know you certainly that God will one day call you to a strict account for it And that I and the Bishop to whom the Holy Ghost hath committed the Government of this Church which Christ purchased with his blood as it is said in the Acts of the Apostles may not be partakers of the same Condemnation We do jointly declare to your Highness That in this Proclamation you have not observed that order that you ought to have done which being a business of an Ecclesiastical nature the publication thereof did not belong to your Highness but to us Your Highness would do well to remember what the high Priest Azarias said to King Ozias in the Twenty Sixth Chapter of the second Book of Chronicles O Ozias it is not your Office to offer Incense to the Lord but it is the Office of the Priests and the Sons of Aaron who were Consecrated to that Ministry Therefore come forth of the Sanctuary and despise not for this thing will not be for your Honour in the sight of God Your Highness would do well likewise to remember the punishment which immediately befel that King thereupon And since it was not thought sufficient to have these Proclamations published only in the Church but it must be done also in the Camp your Highness before you ordered that ought to have consulted with some of the Fathers or some other of your Chaplains or with some person authorized by us to that purpose who would have taken care to have prevented the offence that it has given for we are informed by some that were present at the Solemnity that the people after the Proclamation were heard to say openly That now they were to have all their old Offices again without our amendments of them and were to observe all their old Holidays not excepting Easter and the Festivities that depend thereon and that they were not left to their liberty but were commanded not to fast on Saturdays but on Wednesdays Wherefore that the last error may not be worse than the first your Highness must set forth a Second Proclamation with all necessary Explanations of your mind at the framing whereof I do appoint Father James Mattos to be present in my place and whereas it is not convenient that it should be done without the concurrence of Abeto Basilides I do in the name of God require your Highness to acquaint him with it and I do farther admonish you to pray to the Father of Light for Light that so you may not fix your eyes so much on an Earthly Kingdom which is transitory as to lose that of Heaven which is Eternal and that on Earth likewise The Emperor though nettled
and false in another The Patriarch's Letter having been read in the Council it was Debated therein Whether they should gratifie him with a publick Disputation and though that was carried in the Negative it was judged convenient however that an Answer in the Emperor's Name should be returned to it Which was as followeth The Letter of Seltem Saged cometh to the Patriarch with the Peace of God My Lord HEAR what we say and write to you The Emperor's answer to the Patriarch We have received your Letter and do understand all that it contains As to your desiring to know why we have turned you out of the Post wherein God and the Emperor had placed you Your Lordship cannot but be sensible that so long as we were under our Father the Emperor we never disobeyed him in any one thing nor did we ever so much as open our mouth against any thing that he did but were so submissive to him in all things that we never said I will have this or I will have that or I like this or dislike that insomuch that I do not remember that during his life I ever did any thing of my own head but did still what he Commanded me As to the business of your Religion our Soul never entered into its Councils neither did we ever joyn with any Counsellors either to build it up or destroy it We need not be told that the Emperor sent for your Lordship and that the Fathers likewise came with his Consent as we need not that ever since your coming he has been continually embroiled in Wars for endeavouring to establish your Faith Fighting sometimes with his Sons and at other times with his Slaves whom he had raised from the dunghil to great honours Insomuch that from the first hour we were able to bear Arms we have never done any thing but fight in obedience to our Father's Commands which we always obeyed After the Battel I had in the beginning of this Winter with Ognadega our Learned Monks and People having assembled themselves together in the Camp took the confidence to tell my Father their thoughts freely in the following words Sir How long are we to be plagued thus and to tire our selves about things that are good for nothing We desire to know When we are to give over fighting with our Kinsfolk and Brethren or cutting our right hand off with our left What great difference is there betwixt the Roman Faith and ours For do they of Rome teach That there are Two Natures in Christ and have not we always believed and taught the same in affirming that our Lord Christ is perfect God and perfect Man perfect Man as to his Humanity and perfect God as to his Divinity But whereas those his Two Natures are not separated his Divinity being United to the Flesh and not separated from it and his Flesh to the Divinity we do not for that reason affirm them to be Two but One being made so out of two Causes and that not so as to Confound and Mix those Natures in their Beings but on the account of their being one and the same Principle we call them by the name of that Union so that our Controversie with them in this matter is of small importance Neither was it the cause of our having had so much fighting but it was because they denied us the Blood in the Communion notwithstanding Christ has told us positively in his Gospel that unless we eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood you shall not inherit eternal Life And notwithstanding that Christ himself when he Instituted the Sacrament after having given his Body to his Disciples and received it himself did not say The blood is in my flesh which I have given you but on the contrary he said Take and drink and divide it among you His Disciples doing as he Commanded them and as he gave them to understand by saying Do this in remembrance of me Neither was this the only thing that discontented the People but moreover the prohibiting them to Fast on Wednesdays which St. Peter and St. Paul and no fewer than Eight Synods had Commanded them to do upon pain of Excommunication Neither was that all but because they saw us Eat and Drink in the first week of Lent Eating on the Morning of Good Friday from which time till Easter they do never taste any thing They heard likewise that we received the Sacrament in the Morning on fasting-Fasting-days and that the Roman Church permits People on fasting-Fasting-days to eat Milk and Butter and to drink Water having changed all the Festivities of the Year and suffering Men and Women promiscuously to enter into the Church without keeping any out for being unclean But the things of all others for which they abhorred us the most was for saying That they Baptized themselves as if they were Heathens and Publicans whereas in truth there is no great difference betwixt the Romanists and them as to that point And because the Romanists treated their Priests and Deacons as if they had not been in Holy Orders giving them Priesthood upon Priesthood and Diaconate upon Diaconate and for burning some of their Altars for no other reason but because they were made of Wood and Consecrating those again that were made of Stone as if they had been Profane before The Monks were also inraged against the Romanists for not living like Monks who are not to be left to their liberty whether they will Fast or not and because the Fathers took state upon them and did not visit them according to the Custom of Monks For these and divers other reasons the People far and near were much discontented and said to the Emperor Hear what we have to say and either give us leave to live quietly or knock us on the head since the War does thicken upon us daily When the Emperor was told this by all his People he without our joyning with them in it finding that there was no other way to quiet their minds and that he would not be able to punish them much longer commanded his Counsellors to advise together what was best to be done who after a serious consult came to this Resolution That they must all return to their Ancient Religion and Customs Your Lordship in being acquainted with this will know the reason why you are turned out of your Place which God and the Emperor had bestowed on you and that the very same Emperor that sent for your Lordship and gave you your Authority was the Person that deprived you of it Wherefore since an Alexandrian Abuna is on his way hither and he has sent us word that he cannot be in the same Countrey with a Roman Patriarch and Fathers we have ordered you to Repair to Fremona and there to remain As to what your Lordship now offers which is That if the People of Ethiopia will but continue in the Obedience of the Roman Church that you will dispense with them
play a double Game before he began his Journey to wink at the Coadjutor and Father Jacinto stealing away to Cafla Mariam and Father Luis and Father Bruno to Cantibazard who had both promised to suffer them to abscond in their Lands till a Portuguese Army should come to relieve them and upon the Journey he persuaded O Kay himself by the same argument to carry two of the Fathers back with him to abscond in his Territories promising so soon as he got to the Indies to hasten the sending of a Fleet that would make them all Princes quickly O Kay having conducted the Patriarch to the Gates of Arkice The Patriarch and most of the Fathers are put into the hands of the Turks at Matzua and delivered him to the Governor of that Port returned home with the two Fathers that were to abscond with him and the Turk having been told that the Patriarch had a vast Treasure with him did in hopes of a great Prey not only receive him at the Gate with Ceremony but carried him home with him to his House where he treated him with a Respect that is not usually paid by Men of his Nation and Religion to Christians of whatsoever Quality they are but this Complaisance was too unnatural to last long for upon the Officers whom he had appointed to search the Baggage returning and whispering him in the Ear that they had met with nothing of any value besides two small Silver Chalices he dismissed his Guests very abruptly commanding them to be carried straitways to the Custom-house to be searched there which having been done with less success than the Baggage there being nothing found upon them besides two small Silver Crosses and a few Reyals of Plate the Governor was put into such a rage by the disappointment that he commanded them to be conveyed immediately to Matzua where having landed about Midnight they were conducted by the Baneans the Friends of Mankind in general to a house which they upon having received notice that they were coming had provided for them but they had not been many hours in their Lodging before the Governor who was resolved to squeeze something out of them before they went to Suaqhem the Bashaw whereof had upon the same Information of their having a great Treasure in Gold and Jewels sent an Order immediately to bring them before him arrived in the Island and the Fathers very well knowing what it was that had brought him thither went by times in the Morning to wait upon him with a Present of Six hundred Pieces of Eight which they had borrowed of the Baneans the Governor though he took the Present did it after such a contemptuous manner as sufficiently intimated that he expected a great deal more from them before he parted with them But finding there was no more came he upon some pretence or other ordered a Boy that was in the Patriarch's Train to be taken up threatning to sell him to the Arabians if he were not ransomed with Sixty peices of Eight within half an hour which Sum was likewise borrowed of the Baneans The Governor having squeezed all that he could out of them sends them to Squqhem and paid within the time After a Months stay at Matzua they were all embarked for Suaqhem where when they arrived the stately Bashaw would not so much as see them but having ordered their Persons and Baggage to be searched he sent them word That under Thirty thousand Crowns they were not to think of having leave from him to go to the Indies Nevertheless after much Bartering the Baneans having brought him down to Four thousand paid the Money and having provided a Ship to carry them all to Dio as they were upon the shoar ready to have Imbarked word came from the Bashaw That he had given leave only to Seven to depart of which number the Patriarch was not to be one pretending to detain him till he had advice from Dio how matters stood there as to their Commerce Seven of the Fathers Seven of the Fathers purchase leave to go to Dio but the Patriarch is detained Two remaining behind with the Patriarch embarked on the 6th of August 1634. and after a Voyage of Eight days during which time they suffered a thousand affronts from their fellow-Passengers who were going Pilgrims to Mecha and who reckoned it to be meritorious to abuse Christian Priests they were put ashoar at Dio where two of the Fathers who were sent by the Patriarch from Fremona to solicit for Troops were arrived but a few days before the other two having died in the Voyage which had been extreamly tedious By the first opportunity that offered Father Manuel and Father Jerom embarked for Goa The Fathers being got to Goa do solicit the the Viceroy hard to take Matzua and Arkâ—co where being arrived they were at the Viceroy Don Michael de Noronha day and night for to send a Fleet with some Troops to Ethiopia representing the taking of the Ports of Suaqhem and Matzua as a thing that Five hundred Soldiers with Two Men of War would do with ease and magnifying the advantages the Crown as well as the Church would reap from the Portugueses being Masters thereof But though there was never any thing pressed with greater heat and zeal than this Expedition was by the whole Clergy of Goa Secular and Regular who were all possessed by the Two Fathers That the Reduction of another Europe to the Obedience of the Church of Rome would infallibly be the consequence of it But can obtain nothing but fair promises Yet all they could obtain of the Viceroy was only Commendations of their Zeal with a general promise of undertaking that work so soon as the posture of his Affairs would allow him to do it But the Fathers knowing where their business stuck endeavoured to obviate all the Political Arguments that could be brought against it affirming with the greatest confidence That the conquest of those two Ports would open another Indies to the Portugueses and that the Customs of them alone would do much more than defray the Charges of Conquering and Keeping them and that there was no reason to think that the Turks would not sit down quietly with the loss of two such important places since they had lately lost the whole Kingdom of Gemen and the Ports of Moqha Odieda and Cameran which were all places of greater moment to them than Suaqhem or Matzua without ever so much as attempting to recover them again But tho the Viceroy had neither Ships nor Troops to spare at this time for an Habassin Expedition he no sooner heard of the loss of Momboca a Port belonging to the Portugueses upon the same Coast with Suaqhem but which is much nigher to Goa and more in the way of Trade than he found * The Viceroy who had no Ships nor Troops to spare for Ethiopia finds both for Momboca upon its having revolted Both to send thither the History of
amongst them any longer Here our Historian falls into a most violent fit of Railing against those Portuguese Jews and for their sake against their whole Race calling them an Impious Cruel Malicious Pestilent Contagious Infamous Vile Nasty Loathsome Generation and at last desires all the Devils in Hell to fetch the whole Race of them for having dared to report such impudent lies of an Empire that was much more Catholick than France in having received both the Inquisition and the Council of Trent which was what France could never yet be perswaded to do he likewise blames the old Christians among the Portuguese for having been so easy as to give Credit to such malicious and groundless Reports and as to what the Popes and the Kings of Portugal have said and done upon supposition of the Habassins being Enemies to the Roman Church he saith they had been miserably imposed upon by the stories which were raised by those Villanous Jews as they were also in the case of the Patriarch Oviedo who at the same time that he was revoked by the Pope because there was no hopes of his doing any good in Ethiopia by reason of the Emperor and the Peoples obstinacy in the Alexandrian Faith was reverenced by all the Habassins as a Saint and beloved by them as a Father and listned to as a wise Man and reckoned as an Apostle sent by God to them and was so far from being in Disgrace with the Emperor that he was President of his Latin Council It is true the Portuguese Patriarchs and Fathers having done several indiscreet things whereby they had disobliged the Habassin Clergy grew sick of Ethiopia quickly and returned to the Indies The Portuguese saith he being a People who cannot live long out of their own Country or at least from among their Countrymen whereas Bishop Andre Oviedo being a Spaniard and one who weighed and considered things would neither leave his Flock nor quarrel with them about Trifles and so lived and died in Ethiopia with great Honour his Memory being precious amongst them to this day of the truth of which the Pope was quickly afterwards fully satisfied for the Habassins of St. Stephen's Colledge at Rome understanding how their Church was misrepresented sent one of their Body immediately to acquaint the Emperor Menna who succeeded Claudius therewith who was put into such a Rage by the news of his being represented not to be a Roman-Catholick by the Portuguese Jews that he presently made a Law prohibiting all Portuguese upon pain of Death to come into Ethiopia without a Certificate of their being Old Christians from the Inquisitions of Lisbon and Goa He writ also immediately to Goa Lisbon and Rome to disabuse those Courts and to let them know that none but rascally Jews would have had the Impudence to have reported That he and his Empire were not true Roman Catholicks He writ also to the Colledge of Cardinals and particularly to the Protector of his Empire obliging his Council of State to do the same with passionate Declarations of their great Zeal for the Roman Faith and to give the Pope yet further satisfaction he made a new Submission of himself and his Empire to him Alexander the Third who succeeded Menna in the Empire reckoning that his Predecessor had not done enough in sending only one Ambassador to the Pope sent an Embassy to Rome which consisted of Twenty four Priests and Two Gentlemen to yield Obedience in his Name to the Holy See So much of the Dominican History of Ethiopia In which though it is an Octavo of 1130 odd Pages and a small Print there is not one syllable of truth from the beginning to the end yet notwithstanding that I do not know that I ever saw an History in any Language that had more of the Magisterial Air of Truth in it the Author seeming every where to value himself extreamly upon his Fidelity and his care of setting down nothing without being first well assured of its Truth appealing constantly to Authentick Records though a great way off for such falshoods as had the least of the Colours of Truth in them insomuch that in the beginning of his Book he saith with the greatest assurance imaginable That none could doubt of the truth of any thing he had reported in his History but Scepticks who called the truth of all things into question as in another place he reflects severely upon the Jesuits Maffenis and Mariana accusing them both of not having had that sacred regard for Truth in their Writings which all who write Histories ought to have and as if he had a mind to impose his Fictions upon God as well as Man for Truths he concludes his Legend of the Lives of several Habassin Dominican Saints some of which we have reason to believe were never in Nature or if they were were undoubtedly neither Dominicans nor Papists with the following Prayers to them MOST Glorious Illustrious and Holy Saints who being now in the Caelestial Palaces cloathed with Robes of Immortality do enjoy the clear Vision of the most Holy Trinity and being disarmed of your bodily Weapons wherewith you fought so manfully in the World are now seated under the Shades of the Victorious Palms and of the Triumphant Laurel in the Pavillions and Tabernacles of Glory Pardon me all my Faults pardon all my Errors pardon my weak Capacity pardon the Injury I have done the height of your Triumph worthy of all Immortal Trophy by my rude Pen and pray for us O most Glorious Saints who in Company of the Angelical Spirits and in the Caelestial Quire of God do Sing the Sanctus of the Mass of the most Holy Trinity and are perpetually employed in the Praises of God pardon the unpolishedness shortness and grossness of my Tongue your Prowesses being so Great your Works so Heroick and your Victory so Glorious that nothing but the Tongues of Angels are fit to celebrate them Pray for us O high exalted Princes who do live as Grandees in the Palace of the King of Glory and are as Cavaliers of the Golden Key in the Cabinet of God being always in his Presence Pardon that little that I have writ of your Feats your Glories being so great that no Pen without it be taken from the Wings of Archangels is fit to celebrate them Pray for us Most Glorious Stars of Heaven most Resplendent Meteors of the Earth Golden Artizans of the Church and the bright Light of the Predicant Order who out of the Pulpits did astonish the World like Thunder confounding Hereticks and Pagans and converting Souls to God Pardon me if the brightness of your Virtues is eclipsed by the little I have said of them and pray for us Apostolical Preachers who are in Glory about the Father of Light pardon me if your Travels Missions Peregrinations Sermons and Labours Virtues and Prodigies or if the Glory of your Glory is not aggrandized as it ought to be And pray for us Valiant Martyrs who with your Blood
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