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
unhappily lost in the Voyage So that what I set down was what occurred to my Memory which I have done with great Fidelity Farewell my most beloved Son in Christ Lisbon the 24th of April in the year of our salvation 1534. After having writ this I called to mind the passage wherein I had affirmed That Christ had descended into the lower parts for the sake of Adam's Soul and his own which he receiv'd from his Mother the holy Virgin Mary Of the truth whereof we have a certain Testimony in the Books of Government as we call them which Books were delivered by our Lord Jesus Christ to his Apostles and they are likewise the Mystery of Doctrines insomuch that their Testimony is admitted as infallible among us The Portuguese Divines are of Opinions that are contrary to those Writings but that does not hinder that from being true which these Books affirm viz. That the Souls of men are derived from Adam that is to say As our Flesh is derived from the Flesh of Adam so our Soul as a Burning Light is derived likewise from the Soul of Adam which makes us to be all of the Seed of Adam both as to Body and Soul In this large Confession of Faith A Censure on Zaga Zaba's Confession of Faith albeit Zaga Zaba discovers himself to have been piqued by the Portuguese Clergy having teaz'd him as they did about his Religion and to have disputed himself into some warmth upon several Ceremonial Points yet as to the Doctrines wherein the Roman Church was at that time contradicted by the Reformers namely the Three great ones of the Pope's Supremacy Transubstantiation and Purgatory it is visible that to ingratiate himself with the Pope and King of Portugal and to make his Court the better he did both stretch his Conscience and sacrifice his Resentments to the Publick Character he bore Those Doctrines having never been at any time the Doctrines of the Habassin Church Which Charge of Infidelity is justified both by the Jesuits and his Countreyman Gregory who never spoke of him but with detestation calling him commonly a Beast of the Field And as to his saying that his Emperor's Name was Precious and not Prestor John it was a plain Trick in him designing by such a slight Correction of that word to establish the opinion of his Master being the Prince was meant by Prestor John in Europe For whereas the present Emperor's Name was David so I do not find that there was one of the Name of John in the whole Line of those Princes Neither is there any colour for its having been a constant Title among them But while David's Ambassador was thus detained at Lisbon The Emperor David brings a terrible storm upon himself by seeking to enter into an alliance with the Portugueses disputing Whether it was lawful to eat Black-Puddings he himself continued involved in a rude and cruel War brought upon him by his new Correspondence with the Portugueses whose Name at that time was become very formidable all over the East For whereas the Habassin as is plain from his own Letters did expect nothing less from his new Alliance than the utter extirpation of all his Infidel Neighbours Heathens and Mahometans so natural it is for people to overvalue any new and untry'd advantage and to expect much more from it than it is capable of yielding so his Infidel Neighbours and particularly the Mahometans apprehending that an Alliance betwixt the Habassins and Portugueses might prove a thing of dangerous consequence to them did all conspire to interrupt it by disabling the Habassin before any Portuguese Troops could come to his assistance In prosecution of which Design Granhe a Mahometan Prince obtains several Victories over David one Ahamed whose Nick-name was Granhe or Left Hand a Mahometan Prince having joined his Forces with those of the King of Adel upon whom the Habassin had begun a War he marched against David resolving to give him Battel before he was reinforced by the Portuguese Troops which though they did not come in several years after were expected by every Moncon David being flushed by some former Victories and having an Army superior in number to that of Granhe and Adel joined together was so far from declining to fight that he marched directly towards the Infidels The two Armies no sooner met than they came to blows and after a long and bloody Fight the Habassins were totally routed most of them being either killed or taken Prisoners David having narrowly escaped He drives him at last in a manner out of his Empire retired to the Mountains where he sculked about for Two Years with a small flying Body During which time Granhe made himself Master of all the best Provinces of that Empire burning down the Churches or prophaning them by converting them into Mosques whereever he came David seeing his Empire in imminent danger of being totally conquered David sends one John Bermudes a Portuguese after having given him a Title to succeed the Abuna when he died to Rome and Lisbon to solicite and hasten some Succors dispatched one John Bermudes a Portuguese who had been in Ethiopia ever since the Empress Helena her Government to Rome and Lisbon to acquaint those Courts with the Ill Circumstances he was in and to conjure them as they had any regard to the Preservation of a great Christian Empire to send him some considerable Succors with all possible Expedition for otherwise the Habassin Church and Empire would be speedily lost beyond recovery And in order to make his Court the better with the Pope and that King he obliged the Abuna Mark not only to consecrate the said Bermudes who till then was a pure Layman a Bishop but to declare him also his Successor in the See of Ethiopia Bermudes being thus consecrated a Bishop John Bermudes before he went was consecrated a Bishop by the Abuna His Habassin Ordination by a single Euâ—ychian Bishop was allowed to be valid by the Pope when he came to Rome and declared Successor to the Abuna began his Journey for Rome over land and being arrived at that Court in the year 1538 was graciously received by Paul the IIId who did not only allow his Habassin Orders to be valid but did furthermore confirm his Nomination to the Patriarchate of Ethiopia So that whatever it is that hinders the Popes from allowing the Orders of the Church of England to be good unless their Infallibilities will contradict one another it cannot be what they pretend to wit either the Heresy of her first reformed Bishops or their not having been three to consecrate since in this case the Consecration of a Bishop by a single Heretical Bishop was allowed by the Pope to be valid But England is England and Ethiopia is Ethiopia and Policy may not allow that they should be both treated alike Bermudes having dispatched his own Business at Rome Bermudes having got his title to the Abunaship of Ethiopia
Alexandrian Faith if it had any such to defend their Religion if they were able before the Emperor Which bold challenge being accepted Several publick Conferences about Religion there were divers publick Conferences about Religion held thereupon before the Emperor In all which the Fathers but by their own Brethren are said to have been Victorious and by their great skill in School-Divinity to whose subtleties the Habassins were utter strangers to have baffled them shamefully at every turn to the admiration of the whole Court When the Monks and Fathers had done Disputing the Emperor with the advice of his Cabinet Council An Edict is published by the Emperor prohibiting any to affirm that there is but one Nature in Christ The Abuna comes to Court and is angry with the Conferences that had been held without his leave put forth a Proclamation prohibiting all his Subjects upon severe Penalties to affirm that there is but one Nature in Christ The Abuna Simon hearing of the Disputations that had been held at Court and of the Proclamation they had ended in made all the speed he could thither and being come to Court he threatned the Emperor with an Excommunication for having held publick Disputations about Religion without his leave The Emperor endeavoured to pacify the angry Old Man by telling him That it was true that he had permitted some Conferences but for no other end but to remove a Schism that was in the Church but now that be was come he might if he pleased have the Conferences renewed again The Abuna though his talent is said not to have lain much that way gave his Consent to have the Disputations renewed and Learned Men having been appointed on both sides to manage the Debate the Fathers in the Conferences did demonstrate the Truth of Christ's having two Natures so evidently The Conferences are renewed before him from the Scriptures Councils and right Reason that the Habassins had nothing that was material to say against it the Abuna himself not having offered one word in defence of his Faith when he saw his Monks most miserably baffled It is remarkable That it was the policy of the Jesuits to make the Doctrine of Christ's having two Natures and not that of the Pope's Supremacy against which by what the Emperor Claudius did we know the Habassins had enough to say the point that was debated in all their publick Conferences which was not so proper considering that the Habassins might have believed that Doctrine as the Reformed and Greek Churches do without being the nearer to the Church of Rome for it for it does not at all follow That because Christ had two Natures that the Pope must therefore he his Vicar upon Earth and that all Christian Churches must submit themselves to him The very Fathers that established that Doctrine in the Council of Calcedon having denied that the Pope had any Supremacy but what he owed to Rome 's being the first City is the Roman Empire as I have observed elsewhere Upon the Habassins being thus baffled upon a point the Church of Rome was no more concerned in than the Church of England the Fathers in the heat of their triumph did drive on the Emperor at a most furious rate persuading him to set forth another Proclamation making it death for any one to deny that there are two Natures in Christ But the Abuna though he had little to say for his Religion at the Conferences The Abuna leaves the Court in wrath and Excommuicates the Emperor endeavoured after he had left the Court to make amends for his silence there by roaring the louder through the Countrey as he went home and being sensible that besides the whole body of the People he had the Emperor's Mother and his half-brother Emana Christos with several other Grandees on his side he was no sooner got home then he thundered out an Excommunication against all not excepting the Emperor that had or should submit themselves to the Pope The Emperor was at first troubled at this Censure The Emperor is provoked thereby to publish a Proclamation Commanding all his Subjects to turn Roman Catholicks The Agau's thereupon take up Arms. The Abuna promotes an Association in desence of their Religion Julius enters into it and takes the Field against the Emperor but being afterwards satisfied by the Fathers of its Nullity he was provoked by it to set forth a Proclamation desiring all his Subjects to embrace the Roman Faith Commanding that Proclamation to be published by the Judges throughout the whole Empire which most of them did notwithstanding it was contrary to their private Judgments This Proclamation having put the whole Empire into a flame and provoked the Agau's to take up Arms the Abuna who waited only for such an opportunity so soon as he found the Emperor engaged in that War writ Circular Letters to all his Confidents exhorting them and all the Nobles and People that were not weary of the Faith of their Forefathers to enter into an Association in Defence of it against the Emperor and his Brother who had now both declared themselves open Enemies to it Julius the Viceroy of Tigre who had Married a Daughter of the Emperor's so soon as he had received the Abuna's Letter did not only begin to Persecute the Fathers that resided at Fremona but seized likewise upon the Estates of all the Habassins within his Province that had turned Roman Catholicks declaring he would Defend his Religion against all the world with the last drop of his blood The Emperor hearing of the Circular Letter and the Association that was going on was very angry with the Abuna wishing he had him in his hands to put a stop to his enflaming his Subjects against him but knowing that if he discovered himself to be displeased with him that he would either not come if he sent for him or come with such a Guard that it would not be safe for him to offer him any violence he thought fit to dissemble his passion so far as to write a kind Letter to him desiring him to repair to him with all possible speed to satisfy some scruples which gave him great disturbance writing at the same time to Father Peter to come likewise which the Father did immediately bringing with him the news of the Persecution that was set on soot in Tigre against the Fathers and their Converts The Queen and several Grandees of the Court seeing what a storm the Emperor was like to raise by endeavouring to introduce Popery into his Empire waited upon him in a body The Emperor is addressed to not to trouble his Subjects about their Religion beseeching him as he loved his Crown and his people to give over that design as a thing not feasible since not only the Monks but the whole body of the Nation did openly declare That they would Defend their Religion against him and all the world with their Lives and Fortunes and would dye a thousand
industry to all sorts of people that we may all think so of the Divinity as to pass our lives in hope and without dissention concerning what is true and just Wherefore since we do think fit to extend this our Care to you no less than to the Romans we do enjoin you to maintain the same Doctrines with them in your Churches and to that end to send Bishop Frumentius into Egypt with all possible expedition there to be judged by the most Venerable George and the other Egyptian Prelates in whom is the Supreme Authority of Ordaining and Judging af Bishops For unless you will pretend to be ignorant of what all the world knows you must be sensible that Frumentius was consecrated by Athanasius a man made up of wickedness and who not being able in the least to vindicate himself as to any of the Crimes he stands charged withal was thereupon deposed and has since that turned a Vagabond roving from one Countrey to another as if he hoped to lose his Guilt by shifting his dwelling In case Frumentius should yield a ready obedience and give a full account of the whole Conspiracy so that it shall be certified that he does not dissent from the Ecclesiastical Laws and the Faith that is now established and it doth appear that he is a Person of a Good Life he may then be ordained a Bishop which at present he is not of Right Whereas if he shall seek delays and decline coming to Judgment that will be an undeniable Proof of his having been seduced by the words of the most Profligate Athanasius as also of his acting impiously against God and of his being involved in the same Crimes whereof Athanasius stands convicted In which case if he should be suffered to go on without controul as he will do all that he can to corrupt your People with his Wicked and Impious Words and not only disturb and destroy the Church and belch out Blasphemies against the Supreme God so he will likewise bring Ruin and Destruction upon all Nations Whereas if he could be persuaded to come and converse familiarly with Venerable George and other Learned Men he would reap great Benefits thereby and return to his Bishoprick well instructed in all Ecclesiastical Discipline God preserve you my most dear Brethren As this Letter is a clear demonstration of the greatness of the Arian Rage against the Orthodox which not being satisfied with having Persecuted them with the utmost Barbarities in all parts of the Roman Empire pursued them beyond its bounds so such a boundless Rage was never more conspicuous in Constantius or any other Persecutor of the Professors of the True Faith than it was in a Modern Prince The French King's Rage against Protestants superior to that of the Arians against the Orthodox who not being contented with having harass'd and destroyed several Thousands of Protestant Families within his own Kingdom did within these Ten Years write to all his most dear Brethren the Great Turk not excepted to drive all his Protestant Subjects if they did not presently turn Roman Catholicks out of their Territories or which was worse did by Solemnly withdrawing his Protection from them in Popish Countries leave them at the mercy of the Inquisition Baronius in his Roman Martyrology according to his humour of multiplying Saints has made Two of a single Frumentius for whereas in the Martyrology it is said among the Indians for so the Habassins were called anciently of St. Frumentius who was there first a Captive and afterwards Ordained a Bishop by St. Athanasius and did propagate the Gospel thorough that Countrey the Cardinal in his Notes adds At the same time there lived another Frumentius who was Bishop of Axum in Egypt whereas Axum is in Ethiopia and not in Egypt and was the City Frumentius mentioned in the Martyrology was Bishop of Philostorgius who was himself an Arian speaking of Theophilus Indus having been sent by Constantius on this Embassy insinuates as if the Ethiopians had been turned by him to the Arian Sect. But Philostorgius being the only Historian that insinuates any such thing we have little reason to believe it upon his bare word About the Year 480. Nine Monks come into Ethiopia Nine Monks are said to have been sent from Rome into Ethiopia their Names were Araguai or Michel Alef Gavi Afe Adimata Cuba Garima Saham Lebanos Pantaleon the Patriarch Mendez who quotes the Chronicon Axumense for this truly observes That by Rome here is meant Greece which after the Roman Emperors had fixed their Court in it was called in these remote parts by that name but the Dominicans in their History of Ethiopia of which the Reader will meet with an Epitome in the Appendix will have all these Monks though dead near a Thousand Years before Dominick was born to have been Friers of his Order sent from Old Rome and having turned Adimata whom they call Imata into a Woman they have made her likewise a Holy Sister of their Order that accompanied the Eight Brothers in their Mission Metaphrastes and after him the whole herd of Legendaries do speak of one Elesbean a Christian King of Ethiopia in the time of Justin the Emperor of whom and of his having Vanquished a Jewish Tyrantin Arabia who had been a Cruel Persecutor of his Christian Subjects they have framed a tedious blind Story that is not fit to be offered to any Reader that has not a Legendary Nose But as most Fables have something of History for their foundation so if this of Elisbean has any it must be the following History that is met with in Procopius's Persian War Justinian the Emperor being engaged in a War with the Persians in the Year 530. Justinian sends an Embassy into Ethiopia sent one Julian Embassador to the King of the Axumites or the African Ethiopians and to the King of the Homerites a Nation Inhabiting the Asiatick Coast of the Red-Sea that is opposite to Ethiopia to engage them being Christians to joyn with him against the Persians the common Enemy of their Religion The King of Ethiopia's Name at that time was Hellesteus who a few years before had out of Zeal for Christianity the Christian Homerites having complained to him of their being miserably oppressed by the Jews and Heathens they lived among crossed the Red-Sea with a Numerous Fleet and Army and having in a pitch'd Battel Defeated and Killed the King of the Homerites who had been a Cruel Persecutor of Christians he advanced one Esimetheus an Homerite Christian to the Throne but upon Condition that he and his Successors for ever should pay a yearly Tribute to the Crown of Ethiopia The main thing proposed by the Ambassador to the Ethiopian for the incommoding of the Persians The business of the Embassy was to open a Trade for Silk to the Indies which the Romans who used to buy those Silks of the Persians would promise to take off his Merhants hands But for the Homerites the
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
fit to make publick in which notwithstanding there is not one word of the Patriarch Bermudes yet that does not hinder it from having been Rodriguez's chief if not only business in Ethiopia to fetch him from thence Rodriguez frights the old Patriarch out of his Province to make room for his Successor For in a Letter of that Patriarch's printed at Lisbon in the year 1568 it is said That Father Rodriguez was with him several days before he went to Court and that when he returned from thence he came to him again in a most desperate fright pretending he had narrowly escaped having been murthered for having asserted the Roman Doctrines adding That it was a madness for any one to think of reducing Ethiopia to the Roman Church till the Heat they were in at present against it was over Now what can be the meaning of the Jesuits having so industriously suppressed all this Rodriguez's Relation as they have printed it beginning immediately after his having left the Patriarch and breaking off abruptly just before he returned to him again but that they were not willing that the world should know that the first Prelate of their Order was an Usurper The first Prelate of the Jesuits Order was an Usutper and that they were forc'd to make use of art to vacate a Province for him which as it was no good beginning so their Ethiopick Missions as we shall see hereafter succeeded accordingly Besides what other design could Rodriguez have in pretending to return to the Patriarch in such a mortal fright as if he had narrowly escaped having been murthered for defending the Roman Church which according to his own relation was false and in representing the Reduction of Ethiopia to him as a thing not to be thought of but only to fright him away which it did For by that means Rodriguez carried him with him to Goa The old Patriarch was lodged at the Jesuits College in Goa where he lodged him in the Jesuits College a Civility that Order seldom or never pays to any Foreigner that they have not some design upon where after having kept him a Year they embarked him for Lisbon not taking any notice of his ever having seen or spoke with his Successor notwithstanding they were for some Months together in the same College But the poor old Patriarch Sent home and dropt in the Island of St. Helena the Jesuits know best by what accident was dropt in the Voyage in the solitary Island of St. Helena where after having done Penance a Year which was long enough any one would have thought to have sent such an old man into the next world he met with an opportunity of proceeding on his Voyage and in the year 1558 arrived safe at Lisbon where he lived some years after never resigning his Patriarchate but with his last breath Tellez the Jesuit apprehending that this Blot of their first Prelate's having been an Usurper might at some time or other come to be hit has endeavoured to cover it by affirming that Bermudes was never Patriarch of Ethiopia but of Alexandria for which he quotes both a Treatise of his own and his Tombstone in the Church of St. Sebastian Pedreiro in Lisbon in both which saith Tellez he is stiled Patriarch of Alexandria But if this be not to cut a knot that he is not able to untye nothing is so for besides that all the Historians of his time speak of him still as Patriarch of Ethiopia all of them the Jesuits not excepted agreeing that the Pope gave Bermudes no new Orders or Title but only confirm'd those that had been conferr'd on him by the Abuna and Emperor of Ethiopia who it is certain did never pretend to make a Patriarch of Alexandria It is a Jest for any one to think that the Pope would bestow the second Title in the Church upon an obscure Itinerant and who was ordained per saltum by a single Ethiopian Bishop As to Tellez's two Authorities for Bermudes having been Patriarch of Alexandria all that can be said to them is That if there be any such things they must have been foisted into those Monuments by those who were concerned to have him pass for Patriarch of Alexandria and not of Ethiopia Tho by the way it is somewhat strange that Tellez who lived most of his time within a Mile of the Church of St. Sebastian Pedreira should not quote that Tombstone upon his own knowledge but upon the Authority of a Book Farthermore supposing Bermudes to have had the Title of Alexandria given him by the Pope that does not hinder but that he might have been Abuna of Ethiopia too it being the Pope's common practice to confer the Oriental Patriarchates upon Prelates that are possessed of other great Bishopricks So Cardinal Boniface was Bishop of Tusculum and Patriarch of Constantinople and Cardinal Cajetanus was Archbishop of Capua and Patriarch of Antioch And I do not believe there is one President for the Popes having ever conferred any of those high Titles upon any Prelate that had not another Bishoprick Finally Pius the IVth during the time Bermudes was Patriarch treated with Gabriel Patriarch of Alexandria about his Submission to him as Patriarch of that See The History of which Treaty as not being foreign to my purpose I shall here set down As the Popes when they are in any straits which they do always reckon themselves to be in while there is any thing that looks like a General Council sitting are after the example of Eugenius the IVth for making a noise with Eastern Submissions to them which is done on purpose to make the Latin Prelates ashamed to go about to lessen a Power to which Foreign Churches and Patriarchs are for yielding Obedience The Pope endeavours to hire the Patriarch of Alexandria to submit himself and his Church to him Accordingly Pius the IVth in the year 1561 finding a Session of the Council of Trent could not be put off much longer dispatched a couple of Jesuits whose names were Rodriguez and Elianus with Bills for a considerable Sum of Money to Grand Cairo there to treat with Gabriel Patriarch of Alexandria about his submitting himself and his Church to the Roman See Gabriel till he had received all the Money of the Venetian Consul entertained the Jesuits with promises but after he had fingered all that he was to expect he told them plainly when they urged him to make his solemn Submission and to deliver them an Instrument thereof to carry to the Pope That he would never do it nor in the least violate the Establishment of the Council of Calcedon which made all the Patriarchs Independent one of another and the Heads of their respective Churches and that the Patriarch of Rome if he should fall into any Errors was no less than the other Patriarchs to be judged by his Brethren Complements strained to promises The Jesuits upon the Patriarch having changed his Note thus alledged That he had
already in a manner submitted himself to the Roman See by having in his Letters both to the present Pope and to Paul the IVth stiled them the Pastor of Pastors and Father of Fathers and Head of the whole Church To which he reply'd That he gave the Pope those Titles only in Civility and that it was not fair to strain Complements that pass betwixt friends to such purposes and if there was any thing in the Letters he sent to the Pope that was not agreeable with the Doctrine of the Church that it was not to be laid at his door but at Abraham the bearer's who to make his Court the better at Rome The Alexandrian after having taken the Pope's Money denies to submit himself to him had foisted several things into those Letters which he knew would be grateful to the Pope Abraham who was present when the Patriarch made this Declaration did not deny his having done it but smiling told the Jesuits That he believed it was lawful on several occasions to dissemble as much as that came to that being no more than what St. Paul himself had done who declared That he became all things to all men He added further A trick of an Alexandrian Monk That he had a Book wherein it was said That St. Paul when he was among the Heathens did act as a Heathen and to ingratiate himself with them the more in order to their Conversion at last did worship their Idols But notwithstanding Pius was thus Defeated as to this Patriarchal Submission he had a Sham-one of a Mock-Patriarch of Babylon ready for the Council of Trent against it Sate next Year Rodriguez as he was returning to the Indies had the following Account sent him by one Alfonso de Franca a Portuguese Captain that belonged to the Court of a Conference he had with the Emperor about Religion His Highness saith Franca intended to have caught me in the same trap he had set for your Reverence and having drawn his water over great flats to his Mill he charged me before all the Portugueses and the whole Court with having called him and Dioscorus Hereticks I made answer That our Sacred Writings of the holy Councils and our other Histories of the Church for 1070 years had still called them so and that the Eastern Churches that were separated from the Roman did the same To this he repli'd That tho our History might call them so A Conference betwixt the Emperor and a Portuguese about Religion yet God knew what his own Scriptures said of them I rejoined I was sensible that the Habassins did look upon us as Nestorian Hereticks pretending that we hold that there are Two Persons in Christ which is what I am told to my face every day and that the Treatise your Reverence Presented to his Highness did not prove the Truth of our Faith by affirming that it was not credible that so many Christian Kings being all united in one Faith and under one Pastor should be all in the Wrong and the Emperor of Ethiopia only in the Right He Answered I have hitherto lived in Peace and Amity with all Christian Kings and that it was I only that endeavoured to bring him to be upon ill terms with them I told him the Pope and my Lord the King of Portugal had sent me to reveal the secret of our Holy Faith to him which was all that I endeavoured and for which if his Highness was displeased with me I had a Religion and a King I would die for sooner than deny them He told me further That I had reported among his Subjects that their Abuna's were sent to them from the Turks I answered that was a great truth since none of them were ever consecrated at Rome or sent from thence He then asked me Why since I was so great a Romanist and a Bigot for my Faith I had desired to be Baptized in Ethiopia and to receive the Eucharist from them As to Baptism I said there was no such thing I having been Baptized when I was but Eight days old but as to the Eucharist it was true that being once dangerously stick I had desired it which was a thing I thought I might lawfully do in the extream necessity I was in at that time and that I would do it again if there were the same occasion and could not have the opportunity of a Roman Priest He told me he would order it not to be given to me St. Paul having said there is but one Faith and one Baptism To that I repli'd If St. Paul saith so why is your Highness Baptized once a year This put him into a great Passion and having given me a great many hard words he put his Hand to his Sword which I having observed I said to him Sir I would not have your Highness defer punishing me for for this Truth of the good Jesus I do not fear all the Kings of the Earth nor none but him whom we desire not to chasten us in his wrath but for you I would have you to chasten me in your anger for as there is nothing so excellent as the Soul so Iregard nothing that is not Infinite I spoke all this to him with an extraordinary courage so that seeing me much more resolute than he had ever done at any time before he went away and left me in the Field so that by what I can perceive by him he will sooner put himself under the Turks and so will his whole people too who are all Dioscoreans as are the Alexandrians than yield obedieace to the Holy Pope I did not care to acquaint you with this sooner for fear of having discouraged your Reverence from using your utmost diligence in your Office But while things were in this Posture in Ethiopia at Rome and Lisbon they still continued to reckon it as good as reduced to the Roman Obedience and that there was nothing wanting to perfect it but the new Patriarch's Presence among them who on the 15th of March 1556 set Sail from Lisbon upon the Ship called the Graca as Bishop Andrew did at the same time upon the St. Vincent and after a Tempestuous Voyage they arrived at Goa on the 13th of September of the same Year It cannot be expressed how much the Patriarch was troubled at the News of the present Posture of Affairs in Ethiopia The new Patriarch arrives at Goa which were brought by Redriguez to Goa a few days before he landed it being a terrible disappointment to him to find that a Work which he had thought would have done it self was next to impossible The Patriarch and Bishop with all their Companions were lodged in the Jesuits Collage where they found the old Patriarch but not a word of what passed betwixt them or of their having ever so much as seen one another tho' undoubtedly they did having been several Months together in the same House The new Patriarch having consecrated Melchior Elect of Nice they begun to
to him as a thing not feisable The Pope who at that time was Pius the Vth. believing what the Cardinal had writ to him in the Name of the King of Portugal dispatched the following Letters of Revocation to the Patriarch which the Cardinal took care to forward with all possible expedition To our Venerable Brother Andrew Oviedo Patriarch of Ethiopia Venerable Brother Health and Apostolical Benenediction c. BY Letters from our Beloved Son Sebastian The Pope's Letters of Revocation the Illustrious King of Portugal his Ambassador resident at our Court and by other Persons of good Credit we are informed That you having been sent by this Apostolical See into Ethiopia to reduce the People thereof to the knowledge of the Orthodox Faith have not after having spent several years therein been able by reason of the hardness of their hearts and their obstinacy in their ancient Errors to reap that fruit which might justly have been expected of your pious Labours whereas if you were employed in the Island of Japan on the Province of China Countries inhabited by Heathens and who at this time seem well disposed to receive the Faith of Christ it is to be hoped that with God's Assistance your Labours would be profitable in those parts where the Harvest is great and the Labourers are few We having been thus informed and being moved by brotherly Charity suffering together with you since there is no likelihood of your reaping that fruit where you are which might justly be expected from your great Labours and so long a Peregrination and finding our selves placed though without our Merits in this holy See and being sensible of our being debtors to all and by our Office bound to promote the Glory and Honour of Almighty God and the Salvation of Souls saluting you with the Charity of a Brother and having received ample testimonies of your Zeal and Affection to promote the Catholick Religion we do exhort you in the Lord and in virtue of holy Obedience and the remission of all your Sins Command you by the first opportunity you shall have of Sailing after the receipt of these our Letters to depart forthwith to the Island of Japan or China there to Preach the word of God according to the Doctrine of the Holy Roman Church who is the Mother and Mistress of all the Faithful and there to administer all the Sacraments which do properly belong to the Episcopal Function so as trusting in the Divine Mercy to endeavour to gain all the Souls you can to God and in order to the enabling you thereunto we do by our Apostolical Authority give you free leave and full power to exercise all Episcopal Offices in those parts or any other that have not a proper Bishop So as to moke use of all those Faculties and Indults which were granted to you by Pope Julius the IIId of happy Memory or by any other Roman Bishop our Predecessors with relation to the Kingdom of Ethiopia And we do likewise by the same Authority dispense with you so far that you may without any scruple of Conscience live and remain in the aforesaid parts unless there should happen to be more hopes of reducing Ethiopia to the Union of the Catholick Faith than there is at present Dated at Rome in St. Peter's and Signed with the Seal of the Fisherman on the 1st of February 1560. The Patriarch though Sick of Ethiopia The Patriarch is unwilling to return to the Indies yet seems to have had no great stomach for the China or Japan Mission which to speak the Truth was a hard imposition upon one of his years And so though in his Answer which is here subjoined he assures the Pope of his readiness to submit to all his Commands yet he sufficiently intimates that he was as willing to resign his Dignity and serve him or the Jesuits in their Kitchens as to keep it and carry it to China or Japan in which affair it is to be feared that the Patriarch's being a Spaniard was of no advantage to him it being the custom of the Portugueses when they have got any Foreign Friars among them in the Indies to put them upon the forlorn of all dangerous Missions as they did Oviedo on this and Father Peter who was likewise a Spaniard on that of the Second Habassin Mission as we shall see hereafter The Patriarch's Answer to the Pope Andrew d'Oviedo to Pope Pius the Vth. Most Blessed Father IN this present year 1567 His Answer to the Pope with some Letters from the College of St. Paul at Goa a Copy of an Apostolical Brief from your Holiness to me came to my hands wherein among other pious devout and holy things are these words We do exhort you in the Lord and in virtue of holy Obedience and Remission of your Sins do command you by the first opportunity you shall have of sailing after the receit of these our Letters to depart for the Island of Japan or the Kingdom of China And a little lower there are these words We do furthermore by the same Apostolical Authority dispense with you so that in case there is no hopes of reducing Ethiopia to the Church you may go into those parts and there remain without any s … ple of Conscience To which Apostolical L … no less than if I had received their original I prepared my self to yield obedience as it is fit just and healthful that we should at all times and in whole and in part obey your Holiness for in obeying you Most Holy Father we obey Christ the only begotten Son of God in whose place you are upon earth our Head and Father and the Master of all faithful Christians all the Indulgence Order and Power of the Church of Christ being derived from you to all others The holy Mother-Church of Rome whose Faith never did nor never will fail and who is the Mother and Mistress of all the Churches in the world and of all faithful Christians being continued in your Pontificate As to your having commanded me to go to the Island of Japan by the first convenience I have had no opportunity since I received your Commands and so am excused for not being gone neither in truth can I embark here with any safety there being a thousand Turkish Ships and not one Christian in the Port of Matzua at this time As to what is said of having any hopes of the reducing of Ethiopia I should quickly have such hopes could we but have Five or Six hundred Portugueses sent hither from the Indies according to what was agreed before I left Goa upon the advice they had received there of the obstinacy of the King of Ethiopia and which we have been now long expecting Were this once done I should not only hope to see Ethiopia quickly reduced but should be infallibly certain of it With which Troops we should not only be able to convert all this Empire but innumerable multitudes of Heathens also into whose
my whole heart to you May our Lord God bring all to an happy Issue and grant your Excellency many years of Life Amen Had the Jesuits been so kind as to have published those Letters of Father Peter that these refer to we might then probably have known the true cause of that Father's having left Za Danguil's Court so abruptly as he did but however that were it is plain from what Athenateus writes of the Father's being acquainted with all his Secrets so as to be able to disclose his whole heart to the Viceroy that they two had been plotting together so that had the Thousand Portugueses Athenateus wrote for so earnestly come it is more than probable that he would have made use of them for his own Service the getting the Ports of Matzua and Arkiko into the hands of the Portugueses and the erecting of Tigre by their Assistance into a Kingdom Independent of that of Ethiopia being a thing the Fathers even when most in favour with the Emperors were continually labouring to bring about For Athenateus was not only never in favour with the Emperor whose name he made use of in these Letters but on the contrary as the Jesuits themselves confess he was reduced by him to the Miserable condition of a probre escudero or poor Waiting-man Neither is it unlikely that it was Athenateus having ruined himself and his Family by intrieguing with the Fathers that made him when he was upon his Death-bed reject their Assistance when they offered themselves to him and that with indignation not caring it is like to have any thing more to do with people that had deceived him so often Tho to do the Fathers Justice it was none of their fault that the Soldiers did not come by the first fair wind after they had promised them But the Habassin Empire notwithstanding all its late great bleedings was too full of bad humours to continue long quiet A Mock Emperor set up and Murthered For Seltam Saged was not well warm in his Throne when a Fellow of base extraction was set up for the Emperor Jacob and though he is said not to have resembled him in the least either in Face or Person yet he acted him so well that he was followed by vast Multitudes This Perkin after having cost Ethiopia a vast quantity of blood was killed at last by some of the Grandees of his own Party being grown weary of maintaining a Mock Prince at so great a charge Father Peter is said to have made himself very Popular on this occasion by having persuaded the Emperor to pardon all the Common People and most of the Nobles that had been engaged in this Rebellion as likewise to Pardon a great herd of Peasants who had provoked him more by their Rudeness and Insolence than by their having taken up Arms against him The Emperor having thus rid his hands of his Sham-Rival removed his Camp from Coja The Emperor and his Brother Ras Cella Christos convinced of Christ having two Natures to a place called Deqhana on the North-Side of the Lake of Dembea which was not far from Gorgora the new Residence of the Jesuits by which means the Fathers had daily opportunities of waiting on him and of Discoursing with him about Matters of Religion The argument of all others that persuaded the Emperor the most effectually of the truth of Christ's having two Natures was the Fathers shewing him a place in his own Hamanot Abea a Book of the same nature with the Bibliotheca Patrum wherein it was affirmed That that Doctrine was believed by all the Ancient Doctors of the Church and that Dioscorus the Patriarch of Alexandria was the first Bishop that had ever denied it Raz Cella Christos a Prince of great heat and who was made Viceroy of Gojam by his Brother the Emperor at this time Cella Christos turns a Zealous Roman Catholick thereupon was likewise convinced of the truth of that Doctrine by the same argument and being once convinced of it nothing would serve him but he would publickly declare himself a Roman Catholick upon it reckoning that the Alexandrians who had so grosly imposed upon him in one particular had Mislead him in every point wherein they differ'd from the Roman Church He would gladly have made his Abjuration and first Confession at the feet of Father Peter but the Father not happening to be in the way when he was called to go against the Gauls who had made a great inroad into his Provinces he would defer the doing of it no longer and so made them at the feet of Father Francis whom for that reason he ever after called his Master Nevertheless after the Expedition was over he made a general Confession of his whole Life to Father Peter and with it a Solemn and Publick Declaration of his resolution to Live and Dye in the Roman Faith His Example is said to have been followed by most of his Officers and by several of the Grandees of the Court. In the year 1607. Father Peter having writ a Letter to the K. of Spain to acquaint him with Seltem Saged being Established in the Throne of Ethiopia and to desire him to send to Congratulate his accession to it and to thank him for his kindness to the Fathers that King complied so far with the Father's request as in the Year 1609 to write the following Letter to the Emperor MOST Powerful Emperor of Ethiopia The King of Spain's Letter to Emperor of Ethiopia I Don Philip by the Grace of God King of Portugal and Algarves Lord of Guinea and of the Conquest Navigation and Commerce of Ethiopia Arabia Persia and India c. Do send you much Health as my Brother whom I love and prize much Now since there has always been a good Correspondence and Amity between the Emperors your Ancestors and the Kings of Portugal to me it seemed just and fitting to write this to you to let you know how much I rejoice at the News of your accession to the Empire and shall always rejoice to hear of your Prosperity being ready as occasions shall offer to satisfy you in all things and accordingly I have recommended your affairs to these my Kingdoms and to my State of India and the Viceroy thereof that they knowing how acceptable it will be to me may be sure to comply with all your desires and that this our Amity may continue I do most passionately desire you to write all your News to me as I shall do mine to you I do earnestly recommend the Friars that are in your Kingdom to you which is my chief Obligation namely Father Peter Pays desiring that they no less than the Portugueses may be Treated as it is reasonable Most Powerful Emperor whom I love and prize as my Brother May our Lord have your Royal Person and State in his holy Protection Written at Madrid the 15th of March 1609. The Emperor is said to have been very proud of this Letter and the
that was more than flesh and blood could well do very discreetly prevents the objection by telling us they came back nothing but Skin and Bone These two Monasteries have been the greatest Seminaries of Martyrs that have ever been in the world above Three hundred thousand of their Friars having suffered Martyrdom in several parts which is more than any other Order besides the Dominicans can boast of For in the Empress Helena's time who was her self a Dominican Beata Eight hundred Friars of the Alelujah alone suffered death in several Provinces for preaching the Gospel at which the good Beata was so much troubled that she sent to all the Mahometan and Heathen Merchants that were within her Empire to let them know that they should Trade no longer in Ethiopia if they did not take more care to preserve her Friars lives in their Missions The Priors of these two Convents are by the Pope's Letter Constituted the chief Inquitors of Ethiopia where the Inquisition is more rigorous than in Spain for it relaxeth all Hereticks and Apostates to the Secular Arm for their first fault though never so penitent who being relaxed are always thrown without mercy to the Lyons But the wonder of the world is the Emperor's Library founded by Queen Saba upon the Mountain of Amara where the Convent of the holy Cross stands its Foundress hand-selled it with Solomon's own Works and the other Books he Presented her withal among which are the Books of Enoch Noah Abraham Job c. And the Emperors have been ever since buying all the Books they could hear of to put into it so that at present it contains above a Million of Books all very fairly written and richly bound an hundred and Thirteen thousand of which are Hebrew and Arabick Neither is there any Book whose loss is bewailed here in Europe but what is to be met with there of which Gregory the Thirteenth being informed he sent Antonio Grico and Lorenco Cremones into Ethiopia to see whether that Library was so great and rich as it was reported to be who having seen it found it much greater than Fame had made it and returning home brought the Talmud and Cabala with them to compare them with those the Jews of Italy had in their hands It is not very well stored with Latin Ecclesiastical Authors having none of the Ancients beside St. Hierom and Saint Ambrose translated into Greek and St. Austin translated into Arabick and of the Moderns only Thomas Aquinas St. Antonio the Directory of the Inquisitors and Lewis de Granada who were all Dominicans and if our Author sent them his History the Librarians who are Two hundred if they did not give it one of the best places in their Library were very unjust to him since if it had not been for him their Library in all probability had never been heard of in Europe the two unworthy men who had been sent to visit it by Gregory the XIIIth having made no noise at all of it when they returned The Key of this Library as of the Richest Treasure in Ethiopia is always put into the Emperor's hand when he is Crowned who delivers it to the Abbot of the Monastery of Sancta Cruz with a strict charge to look carefully after it as the chief Jewel of his Empire The Emperor's Treasury which may very well be reckoned the second if not the first Wonder of the World is upon the same Mountain into which ever since Queen Sheba's time they have been amassing vast quantities of Gold and Silver and Precious Stones without having at any time taken one Farthing out so that if the whole world were to be sold there is more Money in this Treasury than would buy the Fee-simple of it Ethiopia has but Twelve Archbishops and Seventy two Bishops which small number considering the vastness of the Empire they cannot be persuaded to increase because it represents that of the Twelve Apostles and Seventy two Disciples so in all their Cathedrals likewise they have never more nor fewer than a Dean and Twelve Canons who do all live in Community with their Bishop who has the whole Tithes of his Diocess when a Canon dies he is succeeded by the Eldest Priest of the Diocess and the Bishop when he dies by the Eldest Canon and the Archbishop by the Eldest Bishop of the Province the Eldest Archbishop is always the Pope's Legat that Office having been annexed to that Dignity by Clement the VIIth Besides these they have a great number of Titular Archbishops and Bishops who are all named by the Emperor Empow'red thereunto by several Popes Briefs The Archbishops and Bishops visit their whole Provinces every Sixth year whose Excommunications are so formidable that none can despise them longer than they can fast such as are Excommunicated not being suffered to eat or drink any thing before they have made their submission Their Churches namely that of the Allelujah which was built by Queen Sheba in imitation of Solomon's Temple in form of a Cross and is now Dedicated to St. Humphrey and that which was built by Queen Candace mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles and Dedicated by her to the Virgin Mary are excessively Rich and Magnificent some of them having Three some Five Naves and all richly adorned with various Pictures and precious Stones but chiefly Granata's As to the Doctrine of the Habassin Church in all matters of Faith they are and were ever or at least since the time that the Eight Dominican Friars went among them the very same with those of the Church of Rome all that has been reported within these Two hundred years by the Jesuits and Portugueses of their being Hereticks being notoriously false The occasion of which false Reports was as followeth Most of the Four hundred Portugueses who went into Ethiopia with Gama being Jews in their hearts were not long there before imagining themselves to be out of the reach of the Inquisition they openly professed Judaism to the great scandal of the Portuguese Nation but they quickly found themselves deceived for the Dominican Inquisitors having heard of this Apostacy did with great secrecy order them all to be apprehended by their Familiars but the Jews having their Familiars too our Author upon this occasion affirming the whole race of them to be all Magicians and in Confederacy with the Devil made their escape before the Inquisition or its Familiars could lay their hands on them some of them running into the Kingdom of Berno where notwithstanding they taught the Natives how to make Gunpowder it had been well that they had all gone for then there would have been none left to have run to Goa to have raised such lyes of the Habassins as those who went thither did who purely to justify themselves and to be revenged on the Habassin Inquisitors reported that the Habassins were all Mortal Enemies to the Pope and his Supremacy and did hold several Heresies which was the reason why they did not care to live