off saith Father Anthony with the following Noble Fable There was upon a time a very ancient man A Lady is put to death for her Religion who being told that a Child was dead made answer Children are tender Creatures and a small matter carries them off and being told afterwards there was a Young man dead he said Considering the rashness of Youth that was no wonder but when be was told that an Old man was dead he wrung his hands and cried as if the world had been at an end imagining death stood ready to arrest him So saith the Emperor you could see Guergis and his Companions suffer without speaking a word in their behalf but now one of your own Sex is to suffer you are all in an uproar to save her but I will have you all know That this Shoestring of Aba Jacob 's whom Guergis had Murthered for being a Roman Priest is strong enough to hang this Sow and all such as she is Father Anthony who was present at all these Executions has in his Relation of them made so true a remark upon the change Popery had wrought on the Emperor's temper The wonderful change Popery had wrought on the tempers of its Converts and on the practice of the Habassins who seldom or never used to put Grandees and much less Ladies to death for Treason or indeed for any other Crime that I shall set it down in his own words Whosoever saith he shall diligently read the History of Ethiopia and shall observe the want of Vindicative Justice that was therein and the Clemency Seltem Saged had used before with all that had Rebelled against him must of necessity reckon his Punishing of Tecla Guergis so severely to have been one of the greatest Miracles that had happened in many years in Ethiopia For let the Church of Rome be what She will as to her working Miracles that are any ways beneficial to Mankind they must be very unjust to her that deny her the honour of working such Miracles as these in the tempers of her Converts But as we shall see hereafter these Miracles of Cruelty did the Fathers no great kindness in Ethiopia at long run Neither were the Cruelties of an unprovoked Persecution at this time in Ethiopia less wonderful than those of War the inhumanity of the former being such as to overtake those An inhumane persecution is raised against the Alexandrians who for Conscience sake had forsaken all that they had in the world and had Buried themselves in Cases and Dens of the Earth out of which when discovered they were either ferreted to be burnt if they would not turn Roman-Catholicks or smoaked to death in them The memory of which Barbarities is to this day so fresh in the minds of the Habassins that as they do still continue to have a great Veneration for those Caves wherein their Brethren suffered Martyrdom so they cannot hear a Jesuit or a Roman-Catholick so much as mentioned but with horror The Patriarch and Fathers reckoning themselves sure of the Emperor after these miraculous cruelties for which they believed the Alexandrians would never be reconciled to him begun to make bolder steps than they had ventured to make before and so the Patriarch having been informed that an Ancient Nobleman who had been of the Council of State and Chamberlain to the Emperor had some Lands which belonged to the Church in his hands he first admonished him to restore them to the Church immediately which the Nobleman having refused to do the Patriarch seeing him afterwards at Mass The Patriarch Excommunicates a great Man for keeping Church-Lands ordered an Excommunication to be pronounced against him the Nobleman having never dreamt of any such Thunderclap is said to have been so astonished by its Curses and Maledictions That he fell upon the ground as if Datham and Abiram to whom the Excommunication had delivered him had been coming upon him like two furies to carry him quick down into Hell but being come to himself again he beseeched the Emperor and the whole Congregation to intercede with the Patriarch in his behalf promising to restore the Lands to the Church immediately which being done the Patriarch absolved him in forma Ecclesiae striking him with a road all the time the Miserere was Singing At which exercise of Discipline though all the true Romanists say the Jesuits rejoiced they that were Hereticks in their hearts were mad to see themselves subjected to such reproachful punishments In this Year the Foundation of the Patriarichal Church was laid at Dancez the Emperor himself having laid the first stone and promised to build it at his own proper cost and as an Earnest of his Devotion for our Lady to whom it was Dedicated he took a Crown of pure Gold off his Head and gave it to be employ'd in gilding the Seats in our Lady's Chappel it was to have been a large Church with three Naves but Popery did not stay long enough in Ethiopia to see it finished For at the same time that its foundations were laid the Emperor's jealousies of his Brother revived again one Melcha Christos who was his first Cousin having assured both the Emperor and the Prince Raz Cella is accused of plotting with the Portugueses to make himself Emperor that Raz Cella was continually plotting with the Patriarch and the Fathers to bring a Portuguese Army into Ethiopia to make himself Emperor in which charge Melcha Christos was seconded by one Lessana Christos who being an Officer of the Army was secured by Raz Cella so soon as he heard of his being one of his accusers and condemned by him to be put to death immediately as an Apostate to the Alexandrian Faith Lessana to prevent the Execution of this Sentence appealed to the Emperor and fearing lest he might be dispatched out of the way before he could have an answer from Court he broke prison but being taken before he could get to the Emperor he had his head chopped off not for Heresy nor for having accused his General but for having broke Jayl But Raz Cella by stopping of Lessana ' s mouth thus did open a Thousand against him and did Confirm the Emperor and the Prince in their former jealousies it being in every body's mouth One of the chief Witnesses against him is murthered by his order that Raz Cella had murther'd Lessana for no other reason but because he was privy to his plotting secretly with the Patriarch and was ready to have proved it upon him if he had been suffered to go to Court The discovery of this plot gave a fatal blow to Popery in Ethiopia every body but especially the Prince being satisfied that considering how odious Raz Cella had rendered himself to the Habassins it could be nothing but his having received some assurances of a Portuguese Army that could have put such fumes into his head so that after this the Prince never gave over persecuting the Patriarch and Fathers
The Emperor joins the Habassins and Portugueses where they had not been Ten Days before the Emperor came to them with a small Army but having after some Months got a Body of 500 Horse and 8000 Foot together he resolved to march and offer the Enemy Battel being strongly urged to it by the Portugueses who tho but 90 in number were mad to revenge the Death of their General Cunha who after the Defeat had retreated with 40 of his Portugueses into Tigre was sent to to come and join the Gross but that not being possible by reason of the Enemy's being posted betwixt them the Emperor advanced with the Forces he had with him and being come within sight of the Enemy encamped himself strongly for some days during which time there were frequent Skirmishes in all of which the Portugueses are said to have done Wonders if not to have wrought Miracles The Habassin General in whose Conduct and Courage the Soldiers placed their chief confidence happening to be slain in an Ambush the Turks had laid for him the Emperor had much ado to keep the Army from dispersing upon that unlucky Accident and to prevent it was obliged to offer the Enemy Battel some days sooner than he had otherwise intended to have done The Portugueses having desired it had the Van given them and were joined with 250 Habassin Horse and 3500 Foot The Rear which was commanded by the Emperor in Person consisted of the same Number of Horse and Foot The Enemies Van which was made up of 200 Turks with Fire-Arms 600 Moorish Horse and 7000 Foot was commanded by Granhe himself and the Rear consisting of 600 Horse and 6000 Foot by a great Turkish Captain The Two Armies were no sooner drawn into the Field He fights and routs Granhe than they ran upon one another with great Fury making a great Slaughter on both sides and the Body of Turks happening to charge the Habassins that were in the Van gave them such a shock as obliged them to retreat in great disorder which having been timely observed by the Portugueses who were hewing their way through the Battalions they were engaged withal they wheeled about and attacked the Victorious Turks with that vigor that they quickly forced them to give ground and with the loss of a great many of their best men to retire to their Gross but the Portugueses not being content with that followed their Blow and with the Assistance of the Habassins who had rallied again broke into the Main Body of the Enemy so as to make it give ground apace which being perceived by Granhe he galloped up to them and having put himself on their Head did act the part both of a great Captain and a stout Soldier till he received a Mortal Wound with a Musket Bullet in his breast Granhe killed fighting His men when they saw him fall from his Horse instead of seeking to revenge his Death or to carry off his Body threw down their Arms and betook themselves to their heels only a Turkish Captain who was near him when he received his Death's Wound defended his Body with his Scimiter in his hand till he fell dead upon it and sold his own life dear The Portugueses and Habassins pursued the Enemy so close that few of them escaped the Turks were all killed to 14 who keeping together in a Body got before it was day to the place where Granhe had left his Queen whom with a vast Treasure in Gold and Jewels they conveyed to a place of safety to the great loss and sorrow of the Habassins It is said there was not one Portuguese killed or wounded in this Fight which they will have to have been a miracle owing to the Standard they had bore ever since Gamas's death which was our Lady of mercy whereas before when they lost men they had fought under the Banner of the five Wounds of Christ which are the Arms of the King of Portugal Upon the news of this Victory all the Princes and Governors of Ethiopia The Emperor being restored to the quiet possession of his Kingdom quarrels with the Portugueses who had sided with Granhe flocked to throw themselves at the Emperor's feet who by pardoning them all to a man was immediately restored to the full and quiet possession of his Empire The Emperor for some time after the Victory caressed the Portugueses highly acknowledging on all occasions that he owed his Crown purely to their Valour But whether it was that the Emperor after the fashion of too many Princes looking upon the Services the Portugueses had done him as too great to be rewarded by him did for that reason begin to hate them as a reproach to him or that the Portugueses overvaluing their Services which is likewise a common fault on the other side did grow troublesome and insolent thereupon The chief cause of this Quarrel was the Abund urging the Emperor to turn Roman-Catholick presently and demanded greater Rewards than were just or than the Emperor could conveniently give them or whether it was the Patriarch's teizing the Emperor instantly to declare himself a Roman-Catholick it is certain they came in a short time to an open rupture the Emperor accusing the Portugueses of Impertinence and Insolence and the Portugueses the Emperor of Ingratitude and breach of Faith pretending he had promised the King of Portugal that whensoever he should be restored to the peaceable possession of his Empire he would immediately declare himself a Roman-Catholick and give the third part of his Dominions to the Portugueses But the Emperor as he absolutely denied his having ever made any such promise so he conjured the Patriarch not to trouble him any more about his Religion being resolved never to change it for that of Popery which he called Nestorianism and accused of worshipping Four Gods The Emperor is resolved never to turn Roman-Catholick adding accused of worshipping Four Gods adding That he was the Pastor and Prelate of all the Franks that were in Ethiopia but had nothing to do with his Subjects who had a Prelate of their own to wit the Patriarch of Alexandria in whose obedience after the Example of his Ancestors he was resolved to live and die The Patriarch finding he was not to be persuaded to embrace Popery was for trying whether he could not terrify him into it by obliging the Portugueses by his Censures not to serve him any longer until he made profession of it The Emperor is said at first to have laughed at this Excommunication as the effect of the impotent Passion of an angry old man who would needs be exercising jurisdiction where he had none and it is more than probable considering his present Circumstances and the small number the Pertugueses were then reduced to that he continued to do so to the last Notwithstanding it is reported That when he found the Portugueses would serve him no longer unless he declared himself a Roman-Catholick that he submitted abjuring
we have appointed Za Mariam and the Nobles of Sararoa and Amestea to convey you safe to Matzua where if you please you may buy a Ship to carry you home having also writ to the Bashaw of that Port in Arabick to use you kindly and to suffer you to part in peace As to the motion you have made of returning to the Indies by the way of Dancaly and the Port of Bahur a way which your self excepted none ever yet came the Fathers and all the other Portugueses having come continually by Matzua we must tell you that now your Expulsion is determined it is to no purpose to alledge reasons why you cannot go and that if you should shuffle any longer with our Orders that it will be your Ruin Have we taken any thing from you that you have got in Ethiopia that you should disobey us and say you will not go this is not right Be gone therefore without making any further reply or excuse your Expulsion being determined as you will understand by the Order you will receive The Patriarch perceiving that if he staid any longer at Fremona he must either go voluntarily to Matzua or be sent thither in Chains the new Abuna who was now got to Court and who I reckon had the chief hand in all all these severe Orders having as little compassion for the Romanists as they when they were in Power had had for the Alexandrians he dispatched a Messenger to O Kay to acquaint him with the danger he was in The Patriarch sends to O Kay foâ— a Guard and to desire him to send some Soldiers presently to help him to make his escape sending the Coadjutor and Six of the Fathers at the same time privately to a discontented Nobleman in the Saroa to try if they could persuade him to joyn with O Kay in protecting them but though that Grandee like a Brutal Man as he was told the Bishop and his Companions That he would have nothing to do with them O Kay according to his promise sent his Brother with a good Body of Men to a passage within a few Leagues of Fremona whither his Confederate Tecla Mariam who had been gained likewise by the Patriarch had undertook to convey them in safety The manner of their escape being concerted the Patriarch and Fathers having put themselves in a disguise so soon as it was dark stole out at their back-door and being come to the place where Tecla waited for them they were conducted by him to O Kay's Brother who conveyed them to O Kay The Patriarch and Fathers are lodged safe in O Kay's Territories by whom they were received with all testimonies of kindness and for their security were lodged by him in an impregnable Mountain in the Province of Bur where they had not been many days before the Coadjutor and his Six Companions came to them not having been able to bring any of the Nobles they had visited into an Association to Secure them The Emperor was much troubled when he heard of O Kay's having undertaken to Protect the Patriarch and Fathers against him in Ethiopia and being sensible that nothing but an assurance from them of a Portuguese Army could have tempted one of his Principles who had on all occasions shewed himself a Zealous Alexandrian The Emperor treats with O Kay to deliver them up to him to have done it he resolved to send to O Kay and to grant him every thing he would desire on condition he would surrender them to him to dispose of them as he should think fit O Kay though overcome by this Proposition when it was made to him yet had too much Honour to deliver People who upon his having promised to Protect them had put themselves into his hands up to the resentments of an inraged Prince neither would he upon any terms yeild to the cutting off of Father Lobo 's Head on which the Emperor insisted much knowing him to have been the most active promoter of an Association against him amongst his Subjects All the Court could bring O Kay to O Kay will not yeild to that but promises to carry them to Matzua was to carry the Patriarch Bishop and Fathers to Matzua and there to leave them to shift for themselves as well as they could and to suffer them to be notified in the Emperor's Name to depart Ethiopia in two days upon pain of Death The Patriarch when the Messenger had notified him and asked him Whether he thought he had not been the cause of bloodshed enough already in Ethiopia Made Answer That he was under an higher obligation to the Emperor of Heaven not to leave his Sheep for whom he was ready to lay down his life among devouring Wolves And having obtained leave to speak with O Kay he asked him What he intended to do with him and the Fathers now he had them in his hands He made Answer Not to deliver you to the Emperor but to convey you in safety to Matzua where you will not be long before you will meet with an opportunity of returning to Dio or some other Port belonging to the Portugueses in the Indies The Patriarch not at all satisfied with this Answer after having told him That it was only to have avoided being sent thither by the Emperor that they had desired his Protection and that he had promised them oftener than once to secure them in his Province until the Portuguese Fleet which they daily expected arrived with Succors Asked him again Whether he had determined to violate his Faith with them To which O Kay returned this short Answer That there was no remedy for it and that they must prepare themselves to begin their Journey to Morrow The Patriarch finding there was no good to be done with O Kay addressed himself to the Company conjuring them in the Name of God To consider what a wicked thing it was to be the Executioners of the expulsion of a true Pastor and Patriarch and of the Preachers of the Gospel and that by having a hand therein they would all incur the greater Excommunication from which the Pope only was able to Absolve them But he could have no other Answer from them But that they would venture that being resolved whatever were the Consequence of it to execute the Emperor's Orders In the Morning the Patriarch being spoke to to begin his Journey instead of that begun an Harangue which was heard quietly by the Company till he came to inveigh bitterly against the Emperor and his Counsellors for what they had done to him Whereupon the Habassins interrupted him telling him They would not hear their Prince railed at so without a cause and that he must come away presently for the Company waited for him to guard him to Matzua and not to hear him Preach or rather Declaim against Ethiopia and its Prince The Patriarch finding there was no staying for him in Ethiopia prevailed with O Kay who it seems had a mind to
Jesuits in Ethiopia are protected by the Peasants of Lasta which they still pretended was in danger had two Roman Priests concealed in his Country sent to Za Mariam either to deliver them up to the Emperor or to put them to Death himself hoping by this discovery to make the Peasants of Lasta jealous of him as a secret Friend to the Roman Church notwithstanding all his high Pretensions to the contrary and upon Za Mariam having denied that he had any such Priests in his Country the Viceroy of Tigre to spoil the Double Game he was playing writes a Letter to the Monks that were among the Peasants to let them know what a Champion for the Alexandrian Faith they had in Za Mariam who had for several years kept two Roman Priests concealed about him in hopes that a Portuguese Army would be sent to conquer Ethiopia to prove the truth of which if they would not take his word for it he offered to send them two unquestionable Witnesses the one an Habassin who had been bred among the Jesuits and the other a Portuguese whom he had intercepted coming with a Message from the Indies to Za Mariam But as God would have it say the Jesuits notwithstanding it was all true that the Viceroy had writ to the Monks yet Za Mariam having lodged the two Fathers privately in the Mountain of Amba Salama did face it down so as a Trick of the Viceroy's to break the Confederacy that the Peasants and Monks not believing a word of it continued still to look upon Za Mariam as a true Alexandrian and on the Emperor and the Court as still Popishly affected for having attempted to create a misunderstanding betwixt him and them Now this was a pleasant turn enough for to bring the Peasants of Lasta when they could get none else to do it to serve the ends of Popery the thing in the World they hated the most and which they thought they were then fighting against The Emperor finding the Peasants were not to be undeceived ordered the Viceroy of Tigre to march against them with a numerous Army who having brought them to a Battel routed them totally and their Head Za Mariam being taken the day after the Fight was cut in pieces by the Soldiers who were so inraged by their General 's being kill'd The Peasant's General is kill'd and the two Fathers taken and hanged that they gave no Quarters In Za Mariam say the Jesuits the last Pillar of the true Faith and the Foundations of all our hopes in Ethiopia fell to the ground The two Fathers having lost their Protector were quickly discovered and being put into the hands of one Lessano a violent Alexandrian he carried them to a great Fair that was in the Neighbourhood where he hanged them both in the Market-place after whose Death there was not a Jesuit of any Nation left in Ethiopia In the Year 1646. Two Italian Capuchins come to Suaqhem the Congregation De propaganda fide sent two Italian Capuchins to Ethiopia who having got to Suaqhem by the way of Grand Cair they found one of the French Fryars of the former Mission there and having consulted together what course they were to take the wise Italians were for writing to the Emperor for leave to come into his Country to preach the Gospel in it which being agreed to they writ a Letter to him wherein contrary to the course that had been taken by the Portuguese who were still for making the difference betwixt the Alexandrian and Roman Faith as wide as they could possibly they were for persuading the Emperor that he and they were of the same Faith and that being so They write to the Emperor for leave to come into his Country they hoped his Highness would not be against their coming into Ethiopia to preach the same Faith that his Highness professed But the Emperor was so far from being overcome by this Capuchin Complement which contradicted all the Jesuits had told him of their Heresies that upon reading the Letter he roared out as if he had been mad saying What is it not enough that I have been persecuted for so many years for my Religion by Portuguese from the East but that I must have Italians come from the West to persecute me for it afresh And instead of returning any Answer to their Letter The Emperor writes to the Bashaw of Snaghem to rid him of them he writ to the Bashaw of Suaqhem who valued himself much upon his being a Renegado Christian To ease him of these and all the Fryars that should come to his Port at any time complaining that he could not have one days quiet for them in his Kingdom and that having rooted out the Portuguese a new set of People were come to disturb him with new pretences The Bashaw being glad of the opportunity of at once gratifying the Emperor and his own Renegado Zeal commanded the two Italians to be murthered in his Presence The Bashaw murthers them all three and sendstheir Heads to the Emperor and the French Fryar who had a Passport from the Grand Signior to be assassinated sending their three Heads to the Emperor who as a Reward made him a Present of three Bags of Gold Dust promising him as many Bags of Gold Dust as he should at any time send him Heads of Roman Pryars Upon which Correspondence betwixt the Emperor and the Governor of Suaqhem a report was raised of Basilides having turned Mahometan not long after he had banished the Patriarch The Patriarch being extreamly desirous to revive if it were possible the Jesuits lost interest in the Habassin Mission in the year 1646. sends and Dedicates a Book he had writ on the Six First General Councils and a Catechism he had made in Ethiopia for the use of that Church to the Congregation de Propaganda fide from whom the year following he received the following Answer Most Illustrious and most Reverend Lord THE Books composed by your Grace with great diligence and study as appears from the frequent testimonies of Scripture which are in them together with your most Elegant Epistle Dedicatory to this Holy Congregation de Propaganda fide have been received by the most Eminent Fathers of the said Congregation with a joyful mind and who have ordered two things concerning them the one is That the said Books be delivered to the Portuguese Assistant of the Jesuits Order that so all that is in them relating to the Habassin Errors and all that your Grace has writ in Confutation of them may be noted and being digested into a Book may be Printed in the Press of the said Holy Congregation for the use of the Missionaries of Ethiopia The other is That some Persons Secular or Regular of which there is great plenty in this City be deputed to Examine them and give in their Opinion of them All which with their Thanks for having Dedicated those Books to them the said most Eminent Fathers have ordered