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
an hundred of his men to fetch the Empress to his Camp 126. He is intercepted in his march towards the Emperor by Granhe 132. An huffing Message with a ridiculous Present is sent to Gama by Granhe ib. Gama returns Granhe a Message with a Present no less huffing than ridiculous 133. Gama besieged on all sides by Granhe 134. He opens a passage to himself with the bravery of his men being assisted with Artillery ib. He obligeth Granhe to retreat Gama conducted by a Jew to a Mountain of which and a great drove of Horses he makes himself Master 137. He routed and taken Prisoner 140. Is beheaded 141. The Gauls invade Ethiopia surprize Buco the Viceroy and are driven home by Raz Cella 348. Granhe a Mahometan Prince obtains several Victories over David 119. He drives him at last in a manner out of his Empire ib. Granhe being reinforced by a Body of Turks and a Train of Artillery forceth Gama to come to a Battel 139. Granhe killed fighting 144. H. THE King of Habassia victorious over the King of Aden 19. Pretty Stories sent from Habassia 346. The Habassins hold the Scriptures to be the perfect Rule of Faith 31. Their Monasteries little Villages 30. Monkery much the same in Habassia as it was in the beginning ib. They are Eutychians ib. They deny the Pope's Supremacy ib. The Emperor is Head of the Church 32. Their Priests marry ib. They have divers Forms of Baptism ib. All that are present at the Celebration of the Sacrament must communicate They do not elevate nor adore the Host nor keep it after the Communion They break it after 't is consecrated ib. They reckon the receiving of it breaks their Fast ib. They do not believe Transubstantiation 33. They have only a General Confession 34. They deny Purgatory Confirmation and Extreme Unction They condemn Graven Images They keep Saturday and Sunday Their Offices are all in the Vulgar Tongue 34. They are devout They never go into a Church with their Shoes on nor sit in it but upon the ground 35. They seldom preach ib. The Habassin Embassy to the Pope little regarded 74. After having lay'n five years neglected at Lisbon it was sent to Rome as an honourable Appendix to a Portuguese Embassy 75. The Habassins believe Original Sin 89. Their Clerks may marry ib. The Habassins have a great Veneration for their Churches 91. They are all baptized every year on the day of the Epiphany 92. They circumcise both Men and Women 93. They give the Eucharist to Children when they are baptized 95. Circumcision is not observed by them as a Sacrament but a Civil Custom 96. Children of Christian Parents before baptized called half Christians 98. Confirmation and Extreme Unction no Sacraments The Scripture the perfect Rule of Faith 100. They all receive the Sacrament in both Elements It is not kept in their Churches it is never received but in the Church 101. It is never administred but once a day in a Church it is not shew'd to the People No Masses said for the Dead 102. Justification of their abstaining from Meats made unclean by the Law 103. An expression of the greatness of the Habassin Zeal against Popery 164. The Empress Helena sends two Envoys to Albuquerque 44. Father Hierom is sent into Europe to solicit for Troops and to justify the Jesuits Conduct in Ethiopia 443. He obtains nothing at Rome but Blessings and at Madrid and Lisbon but fair Promises 444. The Homerites conquered by the Ethiopians Their Deliverers 16. I. A Ridiculous Imposture does Popery some disservice 362. The Infante Don Henry the first and most zealous Promoter of the discovery of unknown Countries 36. Ignatius Loyola labours to engross the Habassin Mission to his new Order 149. The Jesuits leaping so quickly into such high Dignities contrary to their Vows create them Enemies 159. Two Jesuits are sent in a disguise to Ethiopia 226. They were discovered and made Slaves in Arabia 227. A Maronite Jesuit is sent in disguise to Ethiopia ibid. He is discovered and put to death for having professed himself a Mahometan 228. The Jesuits erect a College at Diâ— 233. Jacob the Natural Son of Malac Sagued was then Emperor 237. Jacob is deposed and Za Danguil made Emperor 239. Some Instances of the Jesuits sacrificing all other Interests to that of their own Order 241. Upon Jacob's delay of coming to the Army he is chosen Emperor by them 264. A Message is sent to him by the Army 265. The Army upon receiving a Letter from Jacob declare for him 266. Jacob comes to the Army 267. Jacob makes Susunaeus great Offers provided he would give over pretending to the Crown 268. Jacob marcheth towards Susunaeus 269. His General goes over to Susunaeus 270. Jacob and Susunaeus come to a Battel 271. Jacob is killed fighting ibid. The General of the Jesuits makes the Emperor's Submission to the Pope without any Commission from him to do it 323. He sends a Nuntio to acquaint him therewith ibid. The Jesuits reckon their work done before it was well begun 345. They never wrought Miracles in Ethiopia 379. The Cruelty of the Persecutions raised by them 410. The two remaining Jesuits in Ethiopia are protected by the Peasants of Lasta 451. Julius enters into an Association and takes the Field against the Emperor 303. Julius the Emperor's Son-in-law takes up Arms for the defence of their Religion 308. He marcheth with a great Croisade against the Emperor 309. K. THE great Champion Kebo is sent into Tigre to be sacrificed 359. The King of Spain's Letter to the Emperor of Ethiopia 286. L. A Lady put to death for her Religion 351. The History of the Lisbon Nun called Maria of the Annunciation 481. The Imposture discovered 485. Her Penances assign'd 486. M. THE Island of Madera first discovered No Masses are said for the Dead by the Habassins 102. A long Justification of their abstaining from Meats that are made unclean by the Law 103. The King of Mombucca's Speech to his Subjects after he had massacred all the Portugueses that were in the City 436. He is justified in part by a Portuguese Historian 442. The Portuguese are baffled before Mombucca 443. N. RIver Nile its Original 3. Cause of its Rising 5. It was known by the Ancients ibid. Diverted from coming down to Egypt and turned into its old Channel again upon the intercession of the Bishop of Alexandria 19. O. O Kay undertakes to protect the Patriarch 422. He promises to carry the Patriarchs and Fathers to Matzua 429. Okay finding no Portuguese Succors come delivers the Bishop of Nice and three Fathers who by his Connivence remain'd behind in his Country to the Emperor 445. They are all Four condemned as Traytors and executed by the Mob 446. P. A Patriarch two Bishops Coadjutors with ten Fryars all of the Jesuits Order are nominated to go into Ethiopia 150. The Patriarch and one of his Coadjutors are consecrated at Lisbon 158. The old Patriarch was lodged at
the Jesuits College in Goa 173. Sent home and dropt in the Island of St. Helena 174. The Patriarch's Answer to the Pope 214. The Patriarch arrives at Goa 333. The Patriarch lands at Baylar 336. He comes to Court 338. He is graciously received by the Emperor ibid. He preacheth before the Emperor 339. A new Revenue is setled upon him 344. He excommunicates a great Man for keeping Church-Lands 353. He hastens the downful of Popery by two indiscreet Acts 361. He opposes a Toleration when proposed to him by the Emperor 363. A Toleration is proclaimed The Patriarch's Protestation against it 374. Is baffled in a great Point of Jurisdiction 380. Is advised by his Friends to give over Preaching 395. The Romanists have all their Churches and Lands taken from them ibid. The New Emperor disarms the Patriarch and Fathers and banisheth them all to Frenona 396. The Patriarch's Letter to the Emperor thereupon 398 The Emperor renews his Orders for banishing and disarming them 400. The Patriarch's second Letter to the Emperor 401. The Principle of the Seekers is advanced by the Patriarch 405. The Patriarch so soon as arrived at Fremona sends Four Jesuits to the Indies to solicit for Troops 421. He sues to Okay a discontented Lord for Protection against the Emperor 422. Okay undertakes to protect him ibid. The Patriarch sends to Okay for a Guard 427. The Patriarch and Fathers are lodged safe in Okay's Territories 428. The Patriarch and most of the Fathers are put into the hands of the Turk at Matzua 431. He gets to Gea 445. He sends and dedicates a Book written on the Six first General Councils with a Catechism to the Congregation De Propaganda Fide 455. He gives Sacred Reliques to the Capuchins of Goa 460. He sends an Habassin and a Banean into Ethiopia with a Commission to a Priest to be his Vicar-General 461. The Patriarch is named to the Archbishoprick of Goa but was dead before his Nomination arrived 464. An inhumane Persecution is raised against the Alexandrians 353. Father Peter a Spanish Jesuit steals into Ethiopia 237. He sends the Secular Priest home before he went to Court 241. He is highly complimented by the King and the whole Court 247. He withdraws from Court upon a slight pretence 256. A Rebellion breaks out presently after He repairs to the Victorious Rebels 261. Finding them divided he retires to wait to see where the Crown would fix ibid. He builds the Emperor a standing Palace 307 Pope Alexander the Third pretends to have received an Ambassador from Prester John 21. Pope Clement pretended to have received an Embassy from the same Prince 22. The Pope gives a Title to the Crown of Portugal to all the new Countries they shall discover 38. The Pope's Answer to the Habassin Ambassador 80. The Pope sends an Italian Bishop to Ethiopia 229. The Pope's Letter to the Emperor 288. The Popes are civiller to remote Hereticks than domestick ones 289. The wonderful change Popery had wrought on the tempers of its Converts 352. Pope Urban the Eighth's Letter to Seltem Saged Emperor of Ethiopia 364. The King of Portugal thinks of sending a new Patriarch into Ethiopia 149. Wisely suspecting that things were not so ripe in Ethiopia as they were reported to be sends an Envoy for true intelligence 160. The Astrolabe and Tables of Declination found out by the Portugueses 39. At the River Zaires in the Kingdom of Congo the Portugueses first heard of the Habossins 39. The Reason why the Portugueses sent no Troops into Ethiopia when so-strongly solicited to do it 220. The Prelate of the Jesuit's Order was an Usurper 173. It is probable that there never was any such Emperor as Prester John 22. The Rigor of the Priors of Plurimanos and Allelujah who are the chief Inquisitors of Ethiopia 471. The Proclamation for restoring the Alexandrian Religion 394. Q. THE Queen-Mother hearing of a Portuguese Fleet being in the Red Sea sends two Envoys to the Admital to implore some Succors 123. They obtain 400 Soldiers of the Portuguese Admiral which were commanded by Don Christopher de Gama 124. R. RAZ Cella Christos's Letter to the Patriarch 334. He is accused of plotting with the Portuguese to make himself Emperor 354. He is routed by the Peasants 381. He writes passionately for Troops 462. He is put to death 464. Rodriguez the Jesuit who went with the Envoy into Ethiopia his account of their Voyage and Negotiation 162. No mention of Rodriguez having seen the old Patriarch thô his chief business in Ethiopia was to fetch him from thence if he found him alive 172. Rodriguez frights the old Patriarch out of his Province to make room for his Successor 172. The Romanists lose ground at Court daily 359. The Romanists have all their Churches and Lands taken from them 195. S. STory of the Queen of Sheba and her Son 94. Seltem Saged curseth his Grandfather's Soul for not having submitted himself to the Romish Church 24. Susunaus proclaims himself Emperor 262. He will have the Crown or nothing 268. Sylva under the disguise of a Banean Sailor gets into Ethiopia 230. T. TEcla Haymonot his Miracles 468. He founded the Monastery of Plurimanos 469. Father Torquato is sent by the Patriarch to Suaqhem for to bring him intelligence 456. He meets with the News at Moqua of Basilides being turned Mahometan 457. At Suaqhem he hears of the three Capuchins having been murthered 458. He is fortunate in finding the Skulls of the two Italian Fryars and a Bone of the French 459. A Tribute laid on the Patriarch of Alexandria by the Cailiff of Egypt 18. A Trick of an Alexandrian Monk 177. V. THE Viceroy of Gojam proclaims the Prince Basilides Emperor of Ethiopia 369. The Viceroy first wheedles and next threatens the Fathers and the Portuguese to surrender themselves and Arms but is hindred by the news of a great Army advancing towards him 369. He commands a Monk his own first Cousin to be put to death for having turned Roman Catholick 370. The Viceroy's Servants being tortured for railing against Popery the Viceroy is secretly put to death soon after 371. The Viceroy who had no Ships nor Troops to spare for Ethiopia finds both for Mombucea upon its having revolted 434. Z. ZAgazabas the Habassin Ambassador at Lisbon his account of the Religion and Customs of his Countrey 81. A Censure on Zagazabas Confession of Faith 117. Za Mariam carries the message thereof to the Patriarch 391. The Emperor Zera Jacob's Letter to the Habassin Monks at Jerusalem 25. BOOKS Printed for Rich. Chiswell FOLIO WHarton's Anglia Sacra in two Volumes Dr. Tho. Brown's Vulgar Errors and other Works His Religio Medici alone With Digby's Annotations Tho. Pope Blount Censura Celebriorum Authorum Clark's Annotations upon the Bible Fasciculus Rerum Expetendarum Fugiendarum in two Vol. per Edvardum Brown History of the Island of Ceilou by Capt. Knox. Of the State and City of Geneva And Antiquities of the Church of
with one that had ever heard of them before The Observances prescribed in those Books are as followeth 1. That we are to fast upon all Wednesdays in memory of its having been decreed by the Jewish Council upon that day That Christ should be put to death We are commanded likewise to fast upon all Fridays because Christ was crucify'd and died for our Sins on that day upon which two days we are commanded to eat nothing till Sun-set During the 40 days of Lent we are commanded to fast with Bread and Water and to be employed seven hours in the day in Divine Service by the same Edicts we are commanded to Administer the Sacraments in the Evenings of Wednesdays and Fridays because our Saviour expired at that time on the Cross We are furthermore commanded to assemble together unanimously on the Lord's Day in the Church three hours after Sun-rising to read and hear the Books of the Prophets and afterwards to preach the Gospel and Administer the Sacrament they have furthermore appointed Nine days to be observed as Festivities in honour of Christ to wit the Annunciation the Nativity the Circumcision the Purification or Day of Candles of Baptism of Transfiguration Palm-Sunday until the Octaves of Good-Friday which are twelve days of the Ascension and Pentecost with their Festivities according to these Books We are without exception to eat Flesh every day from Easter to Pentecost neither are we bound to fast till after the Octaves of Pentecost which is observed for the greater honour and veneration of the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ they command us likewise to celebrate the Days of the Death and Assumption of the Virgin Mary with great honour But besides the Precepts of the Apostles a certain Precious John whose name was Zara Jacob ordained 33 days in every year to be kept in honour of the said Blessed Virgin and a day in every Month in honour of Christ's Nativity which is always the 25th of the Month and a day likewise in every Month to be observed in honour of St. Michael Furthermore in obedience to the said Synod of the Apostles we do celebrate the day of St. Stephen and other Martyrs and are bound by the Institution of the Apostles to observe two days to wit the Sabbath and Lord's-Day on which it is not lawful for us to do any work no not the least on the Sabbath-Day because God after he had finished the Creation of the World rested thereon Which Day as God would have it called the Holy of Holies so the not celebrating thereof with great honour and devotion seems to be plainly contrary to God's Will and Precept who will suffer Heaven and Earth to pass away sooner than his Word and that especially since Christ came not to dissolve the Law but to fulfil it It is not therefore in imitation of the Jews but in obedience to Christ and his holy Apostles that we observe that Day the favour that was shewed herein to the Jews being transferred to us Christians so that excepting Lent we eat Flesh every Saturday in the Year but in the Kingdoms of Barnagaus Tigre and Mahon the Christians according to ancient custome do eat Flesh on all Saturdays and Sundays even in Lent We do observe the Lord's-Day after the manner of all other Christians in memory of Christ's Resurrection But as we are sensible that we have the observation of the Sabbath-Day from the Books of the Law and not from those of the Gospel A Falsehood so we are not ignorant that the Gospel is the end of the Law and the Prophets On those forementioned Days we believe the Souls of the Just departed this Life not to be tormented in Purgatory which ease will be granted by God to them upon those two most holy Days until the term of their suffering for their Sins is expired and they are entirely delivered to the shortning and mitigating of which Torments we believe the Alms that are given for the relief of the Souls in Purgatory do contribute much towards the remission of which Souls the Patriarch grants no Indulgences The Abuna never grants any Indulgences which we believe belongs to God only and that he only constitutes the time of their punishment neither does the Patriarch grant Indulgences on any occasion The Gospel obligeth us to observe only the Six Precepts which Christ with his own mouth has explained as follows I was hungry and you gave me meat I was thirsty and you gave me drink I was a stranger and you entertained me naked and you covered me sick and you visited me in prison and you came unto me which are all words that will be spoke by Christ at the Day of Judgment For the Law as St. Paul says sheweth us our sins which Law without Christ The Habassins believe Original Sin none is able to keep Paul witnesseth likewise that we are all born in sin by reason of the Transgression and Curse of our Mother Eve Paul saith furthermore that we died thorough Adam and do live thorough Christ who of his infinite mercy gave us these Six Precepts that when he comes in Majesty to judge the Quick and Dead we may be saved With which Words and Precepts he will on the Tremendous Day of Judgment allot everlasting Glory to the Righteous and to the Wicked Fire and Everlasting Damnation We do reckon only five mortal Sins as they call them which are gathered out of the last Chapter of the Revelations where it is said Without are dogs and witches and unclean persons and murtherers and idolaters and every one who loveth and maketh a lye It is constituted by the holy Apostles Clerks may marry in the Book of Synods that it is lawful for Clerks to marry and that even after they have some knowledge of Divine Matters who after they are married are received into the Order of Presbyter to which none are admitted before they are 30 years of Age neither are Bastards ever admitted to it Holy Orders are conferred by none but the Patriarch and after the death of their first Wives neither Bishops nor Presbyters are permitted to marry a second time unless the Patriarch shall think fit to dispence with them which he does sometimes to eminent Persons and when it is for the Publick good Neither are they suffered to keep Concubines unless they do voluntarily give over officiating after which they must no more meddle with holy things and this is so strictly observed that the Presbyters who marry a second time must not presume so much as to take a consecrated Candle in their hands and if any Bishop or Clerk is found to have had a Bastard he is deprived of his Orders and all his Ecclesiastical Benefices and his Goods if he dies without Children lawfully begotten do all go to Precious John and not to the Patriarch That it is lawful for Presbyters to have Wives we have received from St. Paul who would rather have both Clergy and Laity
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
any opportunity of a passage for Ethiopia did offer during which time they went but little abroad and when they did it was always in a Turkish Habit in which they had so disguised themselves that Monserrate was pelted with stones in the street by the Boys for a Turk and Father Peter had like to have been shot by a Centinel for walking too near the Ordnance But at last a Mahometan Pilot being spoke to by the Governor of Mascate whither the Fathers went from Dio did undertake to put them both ashoar at the Port of Zeyla whereupon they embarked on the 6th of December and after a few days Sail meeting with a violent storm They were discovered and made Slaves in Arabia were driven ashoar on the Coasts of Arabia where being discovered to be Christian Priests they were both sent by the Governor of Defar to his Master the King of Zeal who keeps his Court in a City of Arabia Felix called Tarim wherein they were both kept Slaves Seven years The Superiors at Goa having received advice of this named one Abraham de Georgys a Maronite Jesuit and James Gonsalves A Maronite Jesuit is sent in disguise to Ethiopiá to go into Ethiopia but Father Abraham when he came to Goa from Malabar instead of Father James who was a Portuguese had an Habassin Youth given him for his Companion The Maronite and Habassin being arrived at Dio found a Ship belonging to the Baneans ready to set Sail for Matzua whereon they embarked as Turks and when they landed at Matzua were kindly received as true Musselmen by the Governor who himself was a Christian Renegado These are the Inventions as the Viceroy Albuquerque told Father Abraham at Goa when he first saw him in his Turkish Habit wherewith the Jesuits seek to serve God and to bring Souls to their Creator The Governor not having the least suspicion of Father Abraham being a Christian and much less a Priest gave him leave to go into Ethiopia at the first word but being told by the Skipper that brought him He is discovered and put to death for having professed himself a Mahometan that he had some reason to think that he was a Portuguese Priest he sent a hue and cry after him which having overtook him before he was got to Arkiko brought him back to Matzua the Governor when Abraham was brought before him being in a great rage at him for his having imposed upon him as he had done after he had given him a great many hard words asked him Whether he was a Musselman or a Christian Abraham not thinking fit to dissemble any longer told him boldly he was a Christian Are you so said the Governor then by the Great God if you do not turn Mahometan immediately you shall lose your head for having pretended to be one Abraham made answer My Life it is true is in your Power but to make me turn Mahometan is not neither will I ever do it Whereupon the Governor with a Renegado fury commanded him to be tortured which being done he ordered his head to be Chopped off but without raising a spring of fresh water for that would have been a great benefit to the Island which is much incommoded for want of it but instead thereof a prodigious Fire was seen for Forty Nights together over the place where his Body was Buried Gregory the XIIIth having been informed of the great want the Portugueses that were in Ethiopia were in of a Priest did order one John Baptista an Italian to be Consecrated a Bishop The Pope sends an Italian Bishop to Ethiopia with an intention of sending him to them This John Baptista had been sent by Gregory before with Letters to Amba John Patriarch of Alexandria to persuade him to submit himself to the Roman Church as he was afterwards by Sixtus the Vth. to Gabriel Patriarch of the said See on the same errand it is not said whether Bishop Baptista returned to Rome with Gabriel's answer to Sixtus or having delivered his Letters at Cayr and finding all the Avenues to Ethiopia by Land stopped by the Turks did go to Goa for a Passage but certain it is that he got thither and that he had not been there long before the Viceroy Don Edward de Menezes embarked him upon a small Portuguese Vessel which had orders to put him ashoar somewhere in Ethiopia but the Ship he was upon happening to touch at the Island of Camera and it being discovered there that Baptista was a Christian Bishop bound for Ethiopia Who being discocovered was Murthered by the Turks he was thereupon Murthered by the Turks But though the Jesuits do not in any of their Histories that I have seen so much as mention this Bishop's Name not caring it 's like that it should be known that any that was not of their Order was employed in this Mission yet I hope his not having been a Jesuit nor sent by their Superiors did no ways contribute to his end his being sent to Habassia at that time The Archbishop of Goa sends one Sylva a Secular Priest into Ethiopia and after such a manner being a thing that does not look very well In the year 1597. Dom Alexo de Menezes the most politick Prelate that ever was in those parts looking upon himself now there was no Patriarch of Ethiopia as the ordinary Prelate thereof as he was Primate of the Indies did take the Habassin Affair into his own hands and having cast about how to have Intelligence from thence and to supply the Portugueses that were there with a Priest he did at last fall upon the following expedient There was one Belchior de Sylva a Converted Bramen who was Vicar of the Church of St. Ann in Goa whom the Archbishop after he had determined to send him into Ethiopia ordered upon some Informations he pretended to have received against him to be thrown into Prison threatening him with severe Censures if what he was accused of should be proved having at the same time so concerted the matter with Sylva that he was to break Jayl on a certain night and come to him in a disguise at a place called Bardez which he was then going to visit being in the mean time to let his Hair and Beard grow the better to disguise himself When the night agreed upon was come Sylva having broke Jayl went directly to Bardez where the Archbishop kept him private and to blind the matter the more seemed to be very angry at his having made his escape and to use extraordinary diligence to catch him again Sylva having received his Instructions Sylva under the disguise of a Banean Sailor gets into Ethiopia and being put into a Turkish Habit with Pendants in his Ears was sent privately by the Archbishop to Dio where he remained Incognito till a Ship offered for Ethiopia on board which he listed himself a Sailer and during the whole Voyage he behaved himself so among the Mariners as
than Za Selasse's word And for his farther satisfaction in that matter he sent an eminent Monk to the Army with a Commission to administer an Oath of Allegiance to them and according to the custom of Ethiopia to Excommunicate all that should hereafter withdraw themselves from his Obedience The whole Army having taken the Oath A Message is sent to him by the Army the Monk after having pronounced an Excommunication upon it returned to Suseneus with the good news of his being unanimously Sworn Emperor with all the usual Solemnities and with the Monk there went Ten of the chief Officers from the Army to invite the Emperor to make all the haste he could to come to them The Ten Commissioners from the Army found Suseneus advanced to a place called Begameder where they delivered their Message to him with this assurance That the Army now it had placed the Crown on his head would maintain it there against all pretenders whatsoever particularly Jacob. But while the Commissioners were giving Suseneus these assurances of the good Affection and Fidelity of the Army The Army upon receiving a Letter from Jaceb changeth its mind and declare for him Za Selasse received a Letter from Jacob acquainting him with his being come as far as Dembea and desiring him to March the Army that way to meet him Za Selasse was put into a great plunge by this Letter not knowing what he had best to do whether continue firm to Suseneus to whom he had so lately taken an Oath of Allegiance or to follow his inclinations in declaring for Jacob and having called all his Confidents together and laid the whole matter before them they came to a resolution to declare themselves for Jacob and did so commanding him to be proclaimed Emperor thorough the Army and the Army to march to meet him The Officers and Soldiers who had scarce done Swearing to Suseneus were no less than Selasse for laying him aside and adhering to Jacob now they heard he was coming to them as their rightful and undoubted Emperor Za Selasse having commanded the Army to March sent a Courier in great haste to the Commissiomers that were with Suseneus to acquaint them with the Army 's having declared for Jacob Upon which notice Eight of them stole from Begameder but the other two being stopped paid for all being put to Death publickly as Traitors Suseneus not finding himself strong enough to fight Selasse retreated upon this News to his former Fastness not despairing but that ere long he might be in a capacity of chastising those that had betray'd him thus Jacob was met by the Army near the Lake of Dembea Jacob comes to the Army which together with the whole Countrey strived to atone for their former ill usage of him by the extravagancy of their Joy and Acclamations upon his resuming the Crown But among all the Grandees Raz Athanateus his old Governor was the most graciously received by him being put immediately into places of the greatest Trust and Honour about him Who as he was one day discoursing with the Emperor took occasion to recommend Father Peter to him as a Person of extraordinary Abilities and who if he would employ him was capable of doing him great Service acquainting him likewise with Za Danguil's having a little before his Death writ Letters to the Pope and King of Spain for some Portuguese succors The Emperor upon Athanateus having recommended Father Peter to him so highly sent a Courier to Fremona to invite him to Court The Father taking two Jesuits more with him repaired thither immediately and was very graciously received by the Empress Mariam Cima who was now likewise in great power again as he was by the Emperor also when he returned to the Camp which he had been absent from for some weeks The Emperor is said to have had several Conferences with the Fathers about Religion and to have been persuaded by them into the belief of the Roman Church being the Head and Mistress of all other Churches promising when he returned from an Expedition he was then going upon to submit himself to her and as an earnest of his Affections for the Portugueses he bestowed better Lands upon them than those they had before Jacob Jacob makes Suseneus great offers provided he would give over pretending to the Crown being sensible of the sickleness of the Affections of his people and of the greatness of Suseneus 's Spirit who still continued to look upon himself and act as Emperor made him very honourable Propositions upon condition that he would give over pretending to the Crown and would promise to live quietly as became a good Subject offering him by the Mediation of his Mother the Viceroyship of the Kingdoms of Amara Olear and Xoa together with all the Lands that his Father had dyed possessed of which was all that he had pretended to in the former Reigns But Suseneus having wore the Crown found such charms in it Suseneus will have the Crown or nothing that nothing under it could now satisfy him so his answer to Jacob's Proposition was That since it was God and not men that had bestowed the Crown upon him he only that gave it should take it from him being resolved so long as he had a head to wear it to keep it on it Jacob finding by this bold answer that his Controversy with Suseneus must be decided by the Sword and not by Treaty Marched against him with a great Army but Suseneus hearing of his advancing towards him with a power much Superior to his both in Number and Strength retired again to the Mountains where he knew there was no attacking him but upon such disadvantages as would make their Forces to be equal Jacob being informed thereof divided his Army in order to cut Suseneus off from all Communication with the low Countries from whence he was to be supplied with all necessary Provisions Jacob marcheth towards Suseneus hoping by that means either to starve him or bring down his stomach But Suseneus finding that there was no remedy but that he must either venture out and fight or starve among the Mountains to treat of submitting being a thing he would never once suffer to enter into his thoughts he resolved on the former and being advised of Za Selasse being posted with half of the Army near Montadefer he sallied out of his Fastnesses upon him and like another Scanderbeg cut most of his troops in pieces as they lay dispersed in their Quarters Za Selasse himself having narrowly escaped falling into his hands who having carried the bad News of his own defeat to the Empeperor was so coldly entertain'd by him that he resolved to desert him and go over to Suseneus as a person on whom he thought Providence would one day or other certainly devolve the Crown And in pursuance of this resolution he dispatched a Courier privately to Suseneus with the terms whereon he was ready to declare for him and assist
but may the Swine never see it that so they may not trample it under their unclean feet for it is written You shall not throw Jewels before Swine This Libel galled the Emperor so terribly that to be revenged on its Authors he published a Second Proclamation by which he commanded all his Subjects to work on Saturdays being to pay a Crown for the first fault The Emperor by a Second Proclamation commands all his Subjects to work upon Saturdays and to forfeit their whole Estate for the second to which penalty the Offenders were to continue liable Seven Years after the fault was committed by which time the Fathers hoped that Popery might have got strength enough in Ethiopia to execute this Law as they should see occasion being sensible that there would be few or none of any Estate that would not be under its lash This rigorous Proclamation being sent to Joanel the Viceroy of Begameder who waited for such an opportunity to raise the people against the Emperor to publish he commanded it to be done presently with great Solemnity taking care at the same time to declare to all the World that it was what he abominated from his Soul Neither was Joanel deceived in his thoughts of the effects of this Proclamation for the people no sooner heard of the Emperor's having commanded them under severe Penalties for to work upon Saturdays than they began to rail at him as one who had no Religion and who for that and other reasons was become so intolerable to his Subjects that they must be Beasts of Burden to endure him any longer and hearing that Joanel had declared himself openly in all Companies against what the Emperor had commanded A Rebellion breaks out upon it they flocked to him from all Quarters beseeching him as he had any love for God and his Countrey not to suffer their Religion to be thus trampled on promising to die by his side in the defence of it Joanel having foreseen what the Emperor by his Zeal for Popery would quickly bring things to had obtained a promise of considerable Succours from the Gauls whenever he should take the Field upon the strength of which and the fury the Emperor's late Proclamation had put the whole Empire into he formed a great Army out of the people that flocked in to him assuring them now he had taken up Arms that he would never lay them down until he had secured their Religion to them When the news of this second Croisade came to Court great numbers of the first Quality of both Sexes set upon the Emperor again An address is made to the Emperor not to trouble his people with Popery beseeching him as he loved himself and his Empire to give over all thoughts of introducing Popery into a Countrey that of all things in the world could not endure it The Emperor though much troubled to find that Joanel and his Cause had so many friends in his Court yet not being willing to do any thing that might intimmedate his Converts The Addressers are punished he told the Grandees that had addressed to him with an angry countenance That it was his Subjects duty to obey and not to dispute his Commands and that he would teach them better manners than to fly thus in their Prince's face when he did any thing that displeased them and hoping to have terrifi'd the Grandees from troubling him with any more Addresses he commanded one of the most forward Addressers to be put to death banishing another of them for his life to the Kingdom of Narea which cruelty was so far from having the effect that was expected from it that it did but Exasperate peoples spirits and put them into a greater rage against Popery than they were in before The Emperor though he could not but see the storm thicken upon him on all sides yet was so far from seeking to divert it by any Compliances that having called a full Assembly of the Grandees Monks and Military Officers together in the great Hall of the Palace he made the following Speech to them YOU Ris against the Emperor Jacob and having Deposed him for several Misdemeanors The Emperor's Speech thereupon you advanced my Cousin Za Danguil to the Throne whom for having forsaken your Religion and embraced that of the Portugueses you afterwards Murthered and after having conferred the Crown upon me you made Jacob King a Second time but though you intended to have Deposed me God was pleased to give me Victory from that day to this I have done wrong to no body but on the contrary have pardoned great numbers having been prodigal of my favours to a fault but all this has not been sufficient to keep you from Rebelling upon a pretence that I am endeavouring to destroy your Religion when in truth I do only seek to reform it for as I do profess with you That our Lord Christ is true God and true Man so I do moreover affirm That as he cannot be perfect God without having the Nature of God so neither can he be perfect Man without a Human Nature now since it is evident by the light of reason That the Divine and Human Nature are really distinguished it must follow therefore that there are two Natures in Christ and since there can be no Confusion in the Godhead those two Natures must necessarily be united in one and the same Person of the Eternal Word so that what I am doing is not to forsake the Faith but to profess it in truth And I do further affirm That the Divine Nature is Superior to the Human. It is true I have forbid you to observe Saturday any longer and it is an amazing thing that you who value your selves upon being Christians should be for keeping the Sabbath of the Jews what is this but as the Prophet Elias said to go halting c. As this is my Faith so I do not follow it because it is the Faith of the Portugueses or of the Roman Church but because it is the Faith that was established by Six hundred Fathers in the Council of Calcedon which Condemn'd Dioscorus and Eutyches and for being a truth founded on the Scriptures and derived from the Apostles who were the Teachers of the World Undeceive your selves therefore for for this Faith I am ready to lay down my life if there should be occasion though I must tell you at the same time it shall cost them their Lives first that shall dare to contradict me therein How seasonable a Speech of this strain was in which Father Peter who was now become the first Minister had a hand undoubtedly for one in the Emperor's Circumstances let the world judge The Emperor having received an insolent Letter from Joanel wherein he insisted upon having the Jesuits all turned out of Ethiopia and his being declared Viceroy of Begameder for his Life was so incensed that he marched against him in Person but Joanel having advice thereof The Emperor
sends an Army against the Rebels and routs them and knowing himself not to be strong enough to deal with him he Retreated to the Mountains where his Army's Zeal being allayed by the want of Provisions it moulder'd to nothing in a short time so that he was obliged with a small Party to take fanctuary among the Gauls who having been hired to it by the Emperor put him to death The Emperor being returned to Doncaz where he intended to spend the Winter was invited by the Fathers to come and visit the new Church they had built at Gorgora which he did with great Devotion putting his Shoes off when he entered into it but the late Proclamation had bred too much ill blood in Ethiopia for to let it be long quiet The Damotes a People inhabiting the banks of Nile being thrown into such a rage by Raz Cella their Viceroy's rigorous Execution thereof that they all flew to their Arms as one Man being likewise instigated so to do by great droves of Hermits who being alarmed by the late Proclamation flocked to them from all parts of the Desarts railing all the way they came at the Emperor and his Brother as Apostates and at the Jesuits as the Authors of all their troubles several of them running over the Countrey as men distracted and roaring as they went That all People were bound in Conscience to take up Arms against the Emperor and his Brother in defence of their Religion which they seemed to be resolved to destroy The Viceroy hearing of the mad work the Hermits were making among the Damotes writ to some of his Friends in those parts not to suffer themselves and the People to be any longer abused by such a pack of Ignorant and Hypocritical Rascals who taught them nothing but Lies but he could have no other answer from them than That unless he would burn all his Popish Books and deliver up all his Jesuits to them The Damotes take up Arms for their Religion and are routed that they might hang them all upon one great Tree for the mischiefs they had done in Ethiopia they would have nothing more to do with him being all to a man resolved to live and die in the Alexandrian Faith The Viceroy not caring to part with his Books and Jesuâ—â—s so easily advanced towards them with an Army of Seven Thousand well-disciplin'd Men the Damotes were near double the Number having Four hundred Hermits who had devoted their Lives to their Religion well Armed with Targets and Launces this great inequality in numbers did not hinder the Viceroy from offering them Battel so soon as he came up with them which they having accepted of the two Armies quickly came to blows but the Damotes being raw men and not well Armed were at the first onset put to the rout and besides a great slaughter that was made among the Soldiers as they fled towards the Mountains there were One hundred and eighteen of the Monks with their famous Captain Batare found slain upon the spot where the Fight was the Viceroy is said to have lost but One Man in the Action and he too which made the loss the less was a Heathen A Miraculous Evidence say the Jesuits of the Truth of the Roman and of the falshood of the Alexandrian Faith The Emperor when Father Peter Congratulated him upon this Victory told him He had great reason to thank God for it for that had the Damotes gained the least advantage he should have had the whole Empire presently in Arms against him whose Spirits he believed were now pretty well subdued and that after such a blow it would not be soâ—eâ—â—y for the Monks or Hermits to Roar them into any more Rebellions and whereas he had hitherto been with-held by his fear and his Wife 's The Emperor reconciles himself to the Church of Rome which he was very unwilling to have parted withal from Reconciling himself formally to the Church of Rome he told the Father he would delay to do it no longer the Father over-joyed to hear this upon his having first Abjured all the Alexandrian Errors and made a Confession of his whole Life to him gave him Absolution and Reconciled him to the Pope But the Father overcome it is like by the Joy of this Conversion outlived it but a few days his Death was much Lamented by the Emperor and his Brother to whom the Father was become a perfect Oracle in all State no less than Church-matters Presently after Father Peter's death there were Three Letters writ from Ethiopia to the Provincial and Visitor of the Jesuits in the Indies to send them a Patriarch with as many Fathers as they could spare The first was writ by the Emperor to the Provincial the second and third to the Visitor by Father Luis de Azevedo and Father Antony Fernandez The Contents of which Letters being much the same I shall set down that of Father Antony's only which is the shortest of them Father Antony Fernandez Letter to the Father Visitor of the Indies I Write this with the good News of this Kingdom to your Reverence to engage you to order Processions to be made and to have Masses said and the Te Deum sung to return Thanks to God for the favour he has shewed us in the Conversion of this Empire the doing whereof will very much refresh the Fathers and Brethren who labour here with me and will sweeten the great hardships they undergo The Emperor with his whole Court and all the Grandees and Princes Ecclesiastical and Secular of this Empire have abjured their Errors and made a publick Profession of their Obedience to the holy See of Rome The general Administration of all Churches and Parishes being put into my hands I have Established Curates in them all having made such new Laws as were necessary and abolished all the old ones that were contrary to the Roman Church I have had some thoughts of coming to you and have been ready to begin my Journey but have been still hindered by the Glory of God which obligeth me to keep close to the Emperor The thing we stand most in need of here at present is a Patriarch with a good number of Fathers to help us to carry on these good beginnings Your Reverence cannot but be sensible of this our want without my enlarging upon it Our Fathers and Brethren ought to run thorough fire and water Pikes and Swords for to assist this Countrey lest having the promised Land shewed us we may be excluded it thorough our own fault They ought to flock hither with all possible speed for notwithstanding the Heirs apparent of the Empire and all the Princes and Nobles thereof are at present true Catholicks Nevertheless should we happen to be deprived of the Emperor and his Brother Zela Christos by death it is to be feared that the Monks and Habassins might raise seditions to the pulling down of all that we have built and may persuade the people who are more
the Emperor's Zeal so for Popery again that the Discourse of a Toleration seemed to be quite laid aside by him The new Viceroy of Gojam Raz Cella having been quickly turned out of that Government was so enraged at this change in the Emperor's mind that he was for deposing him presently as an irreconcileable Enemy to their Religion and for declaring the Prince who was a hearty Friend to it Emperor in his room and being encouraged so to do by the Monks and Alexandrians that were about him The Viceroy of Gojam thereupon proclaims the Prince Emperor he proclaimed the Prince Basilides Emperor of Ethiopia at the head of his Army and having done it dispatch'd a Courier to him to acquaint him therewith and to desire him to join the Army he had the command of with his that they might be able to subdue all the Enemies of their Religion but the Prince was so far from being pleased with the Viceroy's having proclaimed him Emperor that to satisfy his Father of his having had no hand in it The Prince is displeased with the Viceroy for what he had done he sent the Courier that had brought him the first news of it to him in chains to punish him as he should think fit The Fathers whose Church of Collela was but at a small distance from the Viceroy's Camp were put into such a terrible fright by this Proclamation that they immediately shut their Gates and their Convent being built very strong as indeed all their Houses in Ethiopia were more like Castles than Monasteries they resolved to defend themselves until an Army should come from the Emperor to relieve them The Viceroy hearing how much the Fathers were alarm'd and of their having taken all the Portugueses of the Neighbourhood into their Garison he sent them word That they had no reason to be so affrighted for seeing they did not come into Ethiopia before they were sent for no body could blame them for having come or for what the Emperor had done since their Arrival and being extreamly desirous to have wheedled them out of their strong-hold he bid the Messenger whisper them in the Ear That notwithstanding all he had done he was still a true Roman-Catholick in his heart having been forc'd to set forth he late Proclamation to quiet the Minds of the People if it were possible desiring them likewise to send him the Horses and Muskets that had been left in their Convent by Raz Cella but the Fathers not believing a syllable of what he said refused to open their Gates or to deliver their Arms to the Messenger which provoked the Viceroy to that degree that he changed his note and sent them word That if they did not deliver the Arms and Horses to him presently he would come for them himself and that if they did give him that trouble he would be at a little more for to teach them better manners than to disobey his Commands And he had certainly been as good as his word had he not been hindered by the news of a great Army advancing towards him apace The Monks who were got in shoals about the Viceroy advised him to do something to satisfy the people that he was in no Correspondence with the Court but was in earnest to defend their Faith adding that there was no such way of doing that as by making Examples of some of those who to please the Emperor had changed their Religion the Viceroy approving of their advice commanded a Monk who was his own first Cousin to be put to death publickly for having turned Roman-Catholick The Prince who Commanded his Father's Army having received advice that the Viceroy was Marching with all the speed he could to join the Peasants of Lasta crossed the Nile He marcheth against him and by doing so put himself betwixt him and them and having brought him to an Engagement had an absolute Victory over him After which He routs the Croisade and sends the Viceroy prisoner to his Father that he might fully satisfy his Father of the Viceroy's not having had the least encouragement from him to proclaim him Emperor he sent him with several of his Chief Officers Prisoners to him that if he would give himself the trouble he might examine that matter to the bottom The Emperor who could not but take this extreamly well of the Prince having examined the Viceroy and his Officers commanded Seven of them to be presently put to death Six of which are said to have died Roman-Catholicks which the Seventh was so far from doing that when one of the Fathers told him at the place of Execution That he would be Damned for him if he were not Damned if he died out of the Communion of the Roman Church he bid the Father look to himself that he be not Damned upon his own account for he was resolved to venture his Soul with the Alexandrian Faith by dying in it Behold a Miracle say the Jesuits the Seven bodies being after they were Executed thrown to the Dogs they all fell presently upon the Alexandrian body and eat it up bones and all without so much as offering to touch or smell at any of the Six Roman-Catholicks bodies that lay before them One of the Viceroy's Chief Servants continuing to rail against Popery and the Emperor for forcing it upon his Subjects was hanged by the thigh upon an Iron hook that was driven into a Tree and after having hung thereon for some time for persisting in his railing he had his Tongue cut out the Viceroy himself being secretly put to death a few days after The Emperor having none now to deal with but the Peasants of Lasta advanced towards them in person with a great Army and having beat them out of three or four of their strongest Mountains was in hopes to have reduced them all to his obedience in a short time but the sturdy Peasants were so far from being terrified into a submission by those ill successes that they fell upon the Viceroy of Begameder in his Quarters and having made a great slaughter among his men The Emperor is defeated by the Peasants of Lasta obliged him to retreat in great disorder The Emperor who was grown old and timerous apprehending the Peasants to have been much stronger than they were and fearing lest he might be hemmed in by them among the Mountains retired in a great Consternation his Rear being closely pursued by the Peasants for some Leagues The Alexandrians observing the Emperor's Spirits to be much dejected by the disgrace of this Campaign renewed their Remonstrances to him some of them asking him He is passionately addressed to for a Toleration Whether he thought it made a Prince look great in History to have been continually fighting with his own Subjects and especially his Peasants Others telling him plainly That if he did not speedily grant his Subjects a Toleration that he would be Deserted by his whole Army who would fight no longer against their
sent for the Messengers and told them That he now saw plainly what the Emperor's design was in demanding their Arms and that he would therefore write to his Highness about it before he parted with them but the Messengers being very urgent to have the Arms out of his Custody he agreed that they should be deposited in the hands of any person they would name till he had an answer from the Emperor The Patriarch's Letter to the Emperor DAniel Miserata Christos The Patriarch's Letter to the Emperor thereupon and Danaceos have by Virtue of an Order from your Highness demanded all my Guns Muskets and other Arms I presently shewed them all the Arms I had and which are now deposited in safe hands until I have an answer from your Highness On the same Ships with these Arms there came several Cannons and Muskets which were all carried back to the Indies only for the guard of my person the King's Officers gave me Twenty four Muskets and a few Carabines of the Carabines I have not one left having parted with them all to your Father and some of the Grandees and of the Muskets I gave Fourteen to your Father Two to Raz Cella Christos one to Caba Christos and one to Guergis keeping Six only for the guard of my own House and Person which as they are all I have so they are all very much at your Highness's service though at the same time I cannot forbear telling your Highness that your Father on several occasions sent Catabines both to me and the Fathers with which we never did harm to any body nor were they of any other use to us but to affright Robbers and other ill-disposed people And whereas your Highness is pleased to Banish us to a place to which we cannot go but thorough vast Deserts we might reasonably have expected that you would have done us the same favour but instead of that to take the Six Muskets from me which are my whole guard is in effect to take away all my Church-Ornaments and Books which are my whole Treasure if not my Life this being to give the world to understand that they have free leave to Murther the Bishop and the Fathers This I know very well is the design of those that gave you this advice though they will not let your Highness know so much for though I am sensible how pure an heart lodgeth in your Highness's breast and how like you are to your Father yet you have undoubtedly those about you that are contriving how they may have us all Murthered and as there are several things which they have Extorted from your Highness by their Importunities so this of banishing us to Fremona is one of them which is done by them with an Intention of having us all Murthered either by the way or when we are there of which your Highness is to know nothing until it will be too late to remedy it The Lion when his Teeth and Claws are broke becoming the sport of the Monkies and notwithstanding the guilt of our Blood may lie upon others the disgrace thereof will fall upon your Highness For what can the world say but that you disarmed us on purpose that we might be Robbed and Murthered and that after having ty'd us hand and foot you threw us in the way of Soldiers and Robbers I am informed likewise that your Highness has sent the same Orders to all the Fathers which is really to treat us as Rebels none but such having their Arms taken from them by the Government so that with our Arms you take away our Honour and Lives Now this being our case your Highness would do us a great favour if you would command us all to be slain here where our bodies will not be devoured by Wolves or if you would be so kind as to command us to be put to death in the Camp I do promise to come in my richest Pontificals to undergo that Blow which would I hope be precious in the Sight of God May the same God preserve your Highness O. Patriarcha This Letter having had no effect upon the Emperor whom the Patriarch for all his giving him such sweet words The Emperor renews his orders for banishing and disarming them and throwing all the blame of things upon his Counsellors knew to be the most inveterate Enemy the Roman Church had in Ethiopia Miserata Christos was sent back with a verbal Order commanding the Patriarch immediately to surrender his Arms and to declare upon Oath that he had delivered all he had The Patriarch took this so heinously that he told the Messenger That he neither could nor would take any such Oath Bishops being prohibited by the Sacred Canons to swear adding His Highness might venture to take his Muskets from him who being a Clerk was to make use of no other than spiritual Arms but that it was more than he durst do to a private Portuguese Centinel who do not use to part with their Arms but with their Lives The Messenger perceiving the Patriarch was not to be persuaded to Swear to the Delivery of the Arms desired that Two of the Fathers might do it which being granted the Fathers delivered all their own and the Patriarchs Arms declaring upon Oath that they had delivered all they had but when the Messenger urged the Patriarch after he had Disarmed him to begin his journey to Fremona He made answer That he would neither go nor promise to go thither before he had an Answer to a Letter he designed to write to his Highness The Patriarch's Letter to the Emperor DAniel Miserata Christos and Danaceos The Patriarch's second Letter to the Emperor have in your Majesty's name commanded me and all the Fathers to go straightways into the Province of Tigre and have given us the reason why your Highness has thought fit to banish us to that Kingdom My Answer to them was That I would neither go nor promise to go thither before I had your Highness's Answer to this Letter Sir I did not come into Ethiopia of my own head but was sent hither by the Roman Pontiff who is the Supream Governor of the Church and by your Brother the King of Portugal after your Father had intreated him by several Letters to send a Patriarch and as it was at your Father's request that I was sent so when I arrived here I was received by him and the whole Empire as their Pastor and Father all of them Swearing in my hands to be always obedient to the Roman Church I have served you all now these Seven Years as Jacob kept the flock of Laban according to the Talents God has bestowed on me by Preaching Administring the Sacraments and visiting Churches as is known to all the world by several Books that have given an account thereof and now all of a sudden you are for removing me from the Post God and your self placed me in and for banishing me to Tigre and from thencein a
which loss was in short as followeth The Governor of the Citadel of Momboca a place saith our Historian that seemed to have Tyrannical Governors entailed upon it having upon some pretence or other in the year 1614. put the King of that Countrey who was a Mahometan to death he sent the Prince his eldest Son who was but a Boy with his Father's Head to Goa where being put into the hands of the Austin Friars he was Converted by them and Christened by the Name of Hierom and after Thirteen years residence among them was Married to a Portuguese Lady and having solemnly Submitted himself and his Kingdom to the Pope was sent home with his Queen with a promise of having his Crown restored to him again But the Governor of Momboca though he allowed Don Hierom the Title of King treated him much more like a Slave than a Prince not suffering him to exercise the least Authority nor to have a hand in any publick business The Royal Title without any thing of Power making Don Hierom uneasie and having nothing else to do he stole frequently by night to the place where his Father's Corps lay buried where after having bitterly bewailed his unfortunate end he still performed some Mahometan Ceremonies to his Ghost which having been observed one night by a Portuguese he went presently and acquainted the Governor therewith who concluding from thence as well he might that Don Hierom though he professed himself a Christian was a Mahometan in his heart intended to have him apprehended in order to send him to the Inquisition of Goa as an Apostate But the King having by some way or other had advice of what the Governor intended resolved to be beforehand with him and either to send him to the Inquisition of Heaven next morning to answer for his Tyranny or to lose his Life in the Attempt which knowing what the Inquisition of Goa was he reckoned to be preferable to being lodged in it and having in pursuance of this resolution by night with great secrecy got Three hundred of the stoutest and faithfullest of the Caffrees together in a Body he surprized the Citadel betimes next Morning where having Killed the Governor Peter Leytam de Gambaa with his own hand he put the whole Garison not sparing the Governor's Lady and Daughter to the Sword and having done his work in the Citadel he Marched into the Town and before night had not left one Portuguese Ecclesiastick or Laick alive that he could lay his hands on So soon as the Massacre was over he went to the Lady Church where having mounted the Pulpit and commanded all the Natives who had turned Christians to be brought before him he made the following Discourse to them The King of Momboca's Speech to his Subjects after he had Massacred all the Portuguese that were in the City THE High Ala hath for many years suffered the Insults of Men but the time appointed for their period being come he would endure them no longer having now in one hour revenged the Crimes of several Ages The Portugueses came from the dark shades of the day into this Countrey where the true light shines who after having destroyed great numbers of African and Asiatick Kingdoms and having been Pyrates in both Seas had the impudence to pretend that they had no other business with us but to teach us Policy for the Earth and to instruct us in the way to Heaven As if either Divine or Human Laws did direct the destroying and robbing of men on purpose to bring them to embrace true Doctrines is not this wonderful Doctrine to put a Cross into our Hands that they may take our Scepters out of them and our Crowns from off our Heads and to rob us as they have done all other Nations of our Liberty Their coming at first into these Parts though drawn hither by nothing else but their unsatiable covetousness and desiring to have a Trade with us was well enough but to force us to it whether we would or not and instead of helping us to Goods and Honour to encourage us to trade with them to fleece us to our very Souls if we did it or refused it is such an Heavenly or earthly Law as I must own I do not understand Let us for once grant them That we are as they say without the Knowledge of the True God What then Can there be any such God as shall command us to be Robbed of our Lands Crowns Lives and Liberties and of our Wives Children Brethren and Kinsfolk that so we may be brought to the Knowledge of him No most certain it is that there can be no such God since to be God is to be Just So that the Robberies which we of Africk and Asia do daily suffer at the hands of these enormous Strangers are Injustices which will infallibly be punished at his Divine Tribunal for the very Men that do plunder us do at the same time teach us That when the Son of God sent his Ministers to Preach his new Law over the World that one of his Instructions to them was that they should propose it to the Gentiles and if some refused to hear them that they should go then and tender it to others For had this work been to have been done by Viclence their Master was sufficiently able to have done one of these two things for his Ministers either to have endued them with such a Divine Power as could not be resisted but must have obliged all People to have surrendred themselves to them or have given them Armies to have forced the World to a submission Whereas it is most certain that those Ministers had no order to take any thing from any body or to compel any to receive their Doctrines Which makes me wonder how the Portugueses who pretend to be such Singular Ministers of those Doctrines should first force us by War to embrace them and after we have embraced them should Rob us What shall I call such People as these The Preachers of the Divine Law or the Doctors of Human Covetousness Who call us Barbarians before we hear them and after we have heard them make us their Slaves With what plausible pretenees did they first come ashoar here And how did they afterwards make themselves so far Masters of this City as to oblige my Ancestors to accept of their own Crown from their hands and who after they had served them faithfully were rewarded by them with Reproaches Treachery Violence and Death But to pass over what is ancient and to go no higher than my Father Who among you though your Bowels were nests of Scorpions or of worse creatures if there be any do not lament the Memory of what he suffered at their hands even to the taking away of his life by barbarous and tyrannical Methods I have a thousand times and a thousand to that visited the Tomb of my good but unhappy Father and I never did it once but I heard his blood crying
Weeks they obliged the Portugueses The Portugueses are baffled before Momboca after having lost most of their Soldiers to return to Goa with disgrace The Habassin Solicitors who had desired the same number of Ships and Men for Matzua having put down this loss in their Book of Judgments and finding there was nothing to be done for them at Goa resolved to send Father Hierom to the Courts of Lisbon Madrid and Rome to see what could be done there as also to give such a Narrative of the Change in Ethiopia as would vindicate the Jesuits Conduct in that Empire which they had reason to fear would be blamed for it in Europe Father Hierom Father Hierom is sent into Europe to solicite for Troops and to justify the Jesuits Conduct in Ethiopia after a tedious Voyage from Goa to Angola and from Angola to Brasil and from Brasil to Cartbagena in the West-Indies and from Carthagena to Cales arrived at last at Lisbon on the Eighteenth of December 1636 where having given in a Memorial to the Infanta Dona Margaret who was Governess of Portugal at that time and finding there was nothing to be had at that Court on the Twentieth of January he begun his Journey to Madrid where the King and the Conde Duke having given his long story the hearing sent him back to Lisbon with some though small hopes of doing something for Ethiopia but being returned to Lisbon he found a Letter from the Portuguese Assistant of the Jesuits at Rome commanding him to repair thither with all possible expedition a true narrative of the late Revolution in Ethiopia being a thing their Order stood in great need of at that Court The Father being got to Rome gave his General Mutio Vitelleschi a full account of that whole affair and after that was admitted to kiss the Pope's foot to whom he delivered a long Memorial of all that had passed in Ethiopia and of all that was to be done for the recovery of it and the Pope having laid that whole business before a Junto of Cardinals the Father solicited them continually to come to some effectual resolution about it but to little purpose he being able to obtain nothing of them but good wishes and blessings of which the Pope himself too is said to have been very liberal But the Father He obtains nothing at Rome but Blessings and at Madrid and Lisbon but fair promises who was a great Traveller knowing that Matzua and Suaqhem as weak as he had represented them to be were not to be taken by such Ordinance and finding that there was no other to be expected from that spiritual Court trudged back again to Madrid where by his Incessant Sollicitations he obtained a Letter to the Viceroy recommending the business of Ethiopia to him so soon as the affairs of the Government would permit with which Letter which signify'd just nothing the Father returned to Goa upon whose illsuccess Father Tellez makes the following Exclamation This was an occasion wherein all the precious Jewels of Spain ought to have been sold and all the sacred Treasures of Rome to have been opened but for our Sins those fervors of Christianity which discovered themselves in the Croisado's which were undertaken for the recovery of the Holy Land and the Zeal of Converting the world and of reducing Ethiopia are now in a manner extingiushed The Patriarch gets to Goa But what reflected the most on the Devotion of the State of the Indies was their taking no care to Ransom the poor Patriarch and Fathers who remained Slaves still at Suaqhem and who finding they were forgot at home were forced at last to give Commission to the Baneans to treat with the Bashaw about their Ransom who having brought him down to Four thousand pieces of Eight they advanced the Money and embark'd the Patriarch and his two Companions on a Ship that was bound for Dio where being arrived after a months Voyage and finding a Ship ready to Sail for Goa they went on Board and being got thither revived the business of Ethiopia again but with no better success than its former Solicitors But to cast our Eye back upon Ethiopia O Kay finding no Portuguese Succours come delivers the Bishop of Nice and three Fathers who by his connivence remained behind in his Country to the Emperor O Kay in whose Lands the Bishops of Nice and the three Fathers had absconded for near five Years finding the Promises of a Portuguese Army he had been so long fed withal came to nothing he treacherously deliver'd them all into the hands of the Emperor who having ordered them to be brought in Chains to the Camp they were all four try'd and condemn'd to Death as Traytors But it not being the Custom of Ethiopia say the Jesuits to put People to Death though condemned to it for Treason they should have excepted the time when they govern'd the Court for then no Body was spared that was convicted of it that Sentence was changed into Banishment They are all four condemned as Traytors and executed by the Mob a Favour that was but of little use to them for being sent into the Country of the Agau's the Mob ris upon them and hanged them all four upon one Tree pelting them furiously with Stones as they hung But notwithstanding Father Hierom's Narrative of this Revolution which was undoubtedly favourable enough to his Order The Congregation De propaganda fide being dissatisfied with the Conduct of the Portuguese Jesuits in Ethiopia takes the Mission thereof from them and gives it to the Capuchins there did not want those at Rome who imputed it chiefly to the rash and furious Conduct of the Portuguese Jesuits who they say by not following Father Peter's Example of introducing Popery by degrees but having got the Emperor and his Brother on their side were for doing it in a day had ruin'd that whole Design by their Precipitation Neither was it only the Enemies of that Order of which it never yet wanted good store among the Clergy that talked thus the Cardinals De propaganda fide having themselves declared That they had the same thoughts of it by taking that Mission out of the hands of the Portuguese Jesuits and committing it to French and Italian Capuchins Neither were the Cardinals much mistaken in this matter for in truth the thing that ruined the Interest of Popery in Ethiopia was the Portuguese Fathers even when they were most in favour with the Emperor caballing still with Princes and Governors who were their Converts to Canton Ethiopia into several Independent Kingdoms together with their presuming that with four or five Hundred Portuguese Soldiers they should be able at any time to reduce Ethiopia to the Roman Church which conceit made them the less fearful of committing Errors or of precipitating things This design of breaking the Habassin Empire into several Independent Principalities however they might condemn it at Rome for not having succeeded they could not
in general condemn it either as impolitick or sinful it being visible to all the World that the great Fabrick of the Papacy was erected and established by the same course that is by its having broke the Roman Empire into a great many Independent Kingdoms for which reason the keeping of those Kingdoms from ever consolidating again into one great Monarchy is visibly the chief care of the Court of Rome which let the most Catholick or the most Christian express never so much Zeal for their Religion immediately turns their Enemy whenever they begin to think of being Universal Monarch Now though I cannot say That the great Palafox Archbishop of La Pueba de los Angeles had the miscarriage of this Mission in his eye when he called upon Innocent the 10th in his second Letter to him bearing date the 8th of January 1649. to weigh the Services and Disservices the Jesuit Order had done the Church in an equal Ballance nevertheless considering how the Fathers by caballing with Princes and plunging themselves over head and ears into Politicks in Ethiopia did as it were in one day destroy all the Effects of their long and great Labours in that Empire what that Learned and Pious Prelate has said is so very pat on this occasion that I shall lay it before the Reader As I do voluntary confess saith Palafox about the middle of the Letter That the Jesuits have by their Virtues no less than their Writings and both by their Words and Examples done great Service and Honour to the Church of God so I do assure your Holiness that by some troublesome Qualities not to speak of Defects which belong to them they have done the Church more harm than good it is therefore your Holiness's business to weigh the one against the other in your Apostolical Balance to see which does preponderate For as a Prebend or Benefice is unprofitable to him that injoys it when its Charges exceed its Revenue so a Religious Order may be said to be prejudicial to the Church when it brings more damage than profit to it and especially when there are other Orders and Ecclefiasticks who may be as serviceable to the Church without being prejudicial to her Suppose all the Jesuits to labour hard in the Service of the Church yet what do all their labours signify if they themselves destroy all the effects of them or make them groan under the feet of the Grandure and Authority they have usurped to themselves What advantage can a Bishop derive from their Assistance if they dishonour and persecute him whenever he does any thing that they do not like What fruit can the People reap by their Instructions if they raise Troubles and Commotions among them Of what advantage is it to Parents to have their Children taught by them if they rob them of their sweet Company by taking their Children from them and afterwards throwing them many times off shamefully for trivial reasons Furthermore What advantage have Ministers of State Grandees and Princes by being sometimes well-served by them in their Courts if the greater part of them are so far from being ingaged by necessity in such Affairs that they intrude themselves into them of their own accord with a Presumption which is prejudicial to the State and does very much diminish that esteem Spiritual Ministers ought to be had in rendering themselves thereby odious to the Laity by entering into all the Intrigues and Secrets of Families which they pretend to govern no less than the Masters thereof and all this under the colour of the Spiritual Government of their Consciences tumbling no less scandalously than perniciously from Spiritual to Politick Matters from Politick to Prophane and from Prophane to Criminal What does it signify that the Jesuit is more flourishing than any of the other Orders if out of a secret jealousy it darkens and oppresses all its Credit and all its Power Riches Learning and Pens by publishing Books that do it And what is the Church profited by its Books if at the same time she is disturbed by the many dangerous Opinions introduced by its Fryars who have transformed if not destroy'd the Wisdom which is truly Christian and have rendred the truth of Christianity it self doubtful What the Apostle teacheth being certainly true which is That the Knowledge of those who will learn things which do not belong to them is destructive Which lesson ought to teach both them and us not to seek after a Knowledge that will not be governed by Charity In a word If it please your Holiness what other Religious Order has ever been so prejudicial as this to the Catholick Church or has filled all Christian Countrys with so great Commotions The Cardinals De propaganda fide being resolved it seems That neither the Portuguse Jesuits nor Government should have any thing more to do with the Conversion of Ethiopia named six French Capuchins to go thither Six French Capuchins are sent by several ways into Ethiopia who having by their King's Interest at the Port obtained Letters of Safe Conduct from the Grand Signior to pass through Egypt four of them repairied thither the other two being ordered to try if they could find a passage into Ethiopia by the way of Magadaxo and Pale but those two having as the Jesuits tell us more Fervour than Experience came short home and were murthered by the Caffrees so soon as they came among them two of the four that went to Egypt Four of them are murthered and the other two continue at Matzua having got into the Kingdom of Tigre by the way of Matzua in the Habit of Merchants upon their being discovered to be Popish Priests were presently put to Death the Emperor having made a Law requiring those that discovered any to be Popish Priests or Fryars immediately to kill them without troubling his Court with them The other two who had landed at Suaqhem finding there was no getting into Ethiopia from thence returned to Matzua where hearing of the Death of their two Companions they thought it was better to stay where they were than to go any further so that the French Capuchins as the Jesuits who I doubt were not over-well-pleased with their being employ'd tell their story made a very short business of their Habassin Mission But though they would send no more Jesuits from Rome to Ethiopia there were two of the old Fathers remaining still in the Country and who had ever since the Patriarch's Departure absconded in the Lands of Za Mariam the Prince of Dembea a Province in the Kingdom of Tigre and who now John O Kay had served them such a dirty Trick was to be King of Tigre when the long-look'd for Portuguese Fleet and Army came they were Father Bruno an Italian and Father Luis Cardegra a Portuguese the Court having had intelligence that Za Mariam nothwithstanding he was in Arms in Confederacy with the Peasants of Lasta to defend the Alexandrian Faith The two remaining
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
therein that they hazarded their lives to help them to the Relicks of their Martyr'd Brethren I have not been able to learn whether the abovenamed Congregation did ever give it self the trouble of enquiring into the truth of these reliques but most certain it is that if it did that their want of natural Evidences was abundantly supply'd by such as were Miraculous for they having been as all new-found reliques are undoubtedly much prayed to if Ten out of a Thousand that pray'd to them when they were sick did but happen to recover there were just so many substantial Witnesses of their having a Miraculous Virtue in them to demonstrate them to be true and for the faithless Nine hundred and ninety that died their unsuccessful Prayers were never heard of to confront the Testimony of Ten living Witnesses and being thus attested the Congregation could not have deni'd them its Approbation such Testimonies as these being all the Evidence the Church of Rome has for the greatest part of her Sacred Reliques Neither would its having been afterwards discovered as it was that the Heads of those Three Friars were sent by the Bashaw who cut them off as a Present to the Emperor of Ethiopia have been any argument at all against the truth of those which were lodged at Goa there being nothing more common in the Church of Rome than to have the same individual Reliques and especially Heads at the same time in several Countries and all of them working Miracles in Confirmation of their being genuin The Patriarch that he might not lie at Goa doing nothing for his Title of Illustrissimo in the Year 1650 sent a Banean and an Habassin The Patriarch sends an Habassin and a Banean into Ethiopia with a Commission to a Priest to be his Vicar-General who were both Romanists with a Commission to one Bernard Nogueiro an Habassin Priest but of Portuguese Extraction to be his Vicar-General in Ethiopia during the time of his absence from it The Banean and Habassin having got to Moqha were detained there a whole Year by the War that was broke out betwixt a King in Arabia and the Bashaw of Suaqhem but the Envoys that they might do something for their Money sent the Patriarch some News which notwithstanding it did not agree very well with that Father Torquato had picked up at the same place not long before they knew would be pleasing to him The News was That his Successor Mark had been Deposed for having been guilty of all the Crimes that they could think of namely for having Danced frequently with his Gatar in his hand thorough the Streets with publick Strumpets and that a Monk whose name was Michael was made Abuna in his place In October 1651 the two Envoys having got to Matzua The Priest accepts of it and writes for Portuguese Troops stole by night from thence to a place in Ethiopia called Engana from whence having sent an Express to Father Bernard he was with them in a few days and having gladly accepted of the Commission they brought to him he wrote by them to the Patriarch complaining that the Portugueses seemed to have forgot that there was any such Countrey as Ethiopia where they had been expecting succors from them till they were weary telling a lamentable Story of what Raz Cella Christos had suffered because he would not turn Alexandrian and how his Gout though extreamly violent did not torment him half so much as the disappointment of the Portuguese Troops he had been so long promised But we have that Prince telling his own Story in the following Letter which came to Goa about this time Most Illustrious Bishops and Governors of the Indies The Letter of Raz Cella Christos cometh with Peace and Health in our Lord Jesus Christ To all most Christian Catholicks and to all the faithful of the true Church of our Lord. TO tell you the Truth Raz Cella writes passionately for Troops I do not know with what Tongue or Words to begin to relate to you the Persecutions of our Mother which I am at this time lamenting O Holy and most Merciful Christ Jesus nailed to the Cross do Thou reckon them up and make them to be known to all the Friars Rectors Prelates Bishops Archbishops Viceroys Kings Princes and Governors that Rule on the other side of the Sea I never in the least doubted but that you would so far have concerned your self for the Catholicks that are here as to have delivered them from the Tyranny of this Perverse and Barbarous Nation and that the doing thereof would not have been so long delayed but for my Sins which are Infinite You seem to have been all dissemblers formerly when there was not so much as the name of a Church or of a Catholick in Ethiopia the Portuguese came to our Assistance and delivered us out of the hands of the Mahometans but now notwithstanding there is an Infinite number of faithful people in it there is no body seems to remember us all our Brethren and all those whom the Zeal of the House of the Lord did eat up seeming to be dead What is the Pope our true Pastor and most beloved Father removed from the immoveable Foundation of the Roman Church if he is not Why does he not stretch forth his Rod and Staff of Consolation to these his Sheep before we depart this Miserable Life or before we are eat up by the Alexandrian Hereticks Is it possible that there is not one Prince left in Portugal that has the Zeal of Don Christopher Da Gama for Christianity no nor so much as one Prelate left to procure some remedy for us either from Heaven or Earth I can say no more but though my Mouth is stopt my Tears are not but being covered with Sackcloth and Ashes I do most humbly beg succor from all the Faithful and that with all Expedition before all be lost I am at this time in Chains in a Prison and am daily tempted with promises of liberty if I will but return to the Alexandrian Faith the Hereticks seeking in me to destroy all the Catholicks in Ethiopia and to Extirpate the Roman Faith out of it Wherefore if there be any Christians left beyond Sea or any that have a Zeal for God let them know and understand that we are their Brethren in Christ Jesus and that we shall then and not before believe that they have us in their hearts when they shall deliver us out of the hands of Hereticks and out of this our Egyptian Bondage This Unfortunate Prince is said to have suffered Death not long after this Raz Cella is put to death for his Religion or rather for holding a Correspondence with the Portugueses for whom the Emperor was possessed with so strong an Aversion that he made it Death for any of that Nation or for any of the Roman Faith to come into Ethiopia In the Year 1656 The Patriarch is named to the Archbishoprick of Goa but was
amongst them any longer Here our Historian falls into a most violent fit of Railing against those Portuguese Jews and for their sake against their whole Race calling them an Impious Cruel Malicious Pestilent Contagious Infamous Vile Nasty Loathsome Generation and at last desires all the Devils in Hell to fetch the whole Race of them for having dared to report such impudent lies of an Empire that was much more Catholick than France in having received both the Inquisition and the Council of Trent which was what France could never yet be perswaded to do he likewise blames the old Christians among the Portuguese for having been so easy as to give Credit to such malicious and groundless Reports and as to what the Popes and the Kings of Portugal have said and done upon supposition of the Habassins being Enemies to the Roman Church he saith they had been miserably imposed upon by the stories which were raised by those Villanous Jews as they were also in the case of the Patriarch Oviedo who at the same time that he was revoked by the Pope because there was no hopes of his doing any good in Ethiopia by reason of the Emperor and the Peoples obstinacy in the Alexandrian Faith was reverenced by all the Habassins as a Saint and beloved by them as a Father and listned to as a wise Man and reckoned as an Apostle sent by God to them and was so far from being in Disgrace with the Emperor that he was President of his Latin Council It is true the Portuguese Patriarchs and Fathers having done several indiscreet things whereby they had disobliged the Habassin Clergy grew sick of Ethiopia quickly and returned to the Indies The Portuguese saith he being a People who cannot live long out of their own Country or at least from among their Countrymen whereas Bishop Andre Oviedo being a Spaniard and one who weighed and considered things would neither leave his Flock nor quarrel with them about Trifles and so lived and died in Ethiopia with great Honour his Memory being precious amongst them to this day of the truth of which the Pope was quickly afterwards fully satisfied for the Habassins of St. Stephen's Colledge at Rome understanding how their Church was misrepresented sent one of their Body immediately to acquaint the Emperor Menna who succeeded Claudius therewith who was put into such a Rage by the news of his being represented not to be a Roman-Catholick by the Portuguese Jews that he presently made a Law prohibiting all Portuguese upon pain of Death to come into Ethiopia without a Certificate of their being Old Christians from the Inquisitions of Lisbon and Goa He writ also immediately to Goa Lisbon and Rome to disabuse those Courts and to let them know that none but rascally Jews would have had the Impudence to have reported That he and his Empire were not true Roman Catholicks He writ also to the Colledge of Cardinals and particularly to the Protector of his Empire obliging his Council of State to do the same with passionate Declarations of their great Zeal for the Roman Faith and to give the Pope yet further satisfaction he made a new Submission of himself and his Empire to him Alexander the Third who succeeded Menna in the Empire reckoning that his Predecessor had not done enough in sending only one Ambassador to the Pope sent an Embassy to Rome which consisted of Twenty four Priests and Two Gentlemen to yield Obedience in his Name to the Holy See So much of the Dominican History of Ethiopia In which though it is an Octavo of 1130 odd Pages and a small Print there is not one syllable of truth from the beginning to the end yet notwithstanding that I do not know that I ever saw an History in any Language that had more of the Magisterial Air of Truth in it the Author seeming every where to value himself extreamly upon his Fidelity and his care of setting down nothing without being first well assured of its Truth appealing constantly to Authentick Records though a great way off for such falshoods as had the least of the Colours of Truth in them insomuch that in the beginning of his Book he saith with the greatest assurance imaginable That none could doubt of the truth of any thing he had reported in his History but Scepticks who called the truth of all things into question as in another place he reflects severely upon the Jesuits Maffenis and Mariana accusing them both of not having had that sacred regard for Truth in their Writings which all who write Histories ought to have and as if he had a mind to impose his Fictions upon God as well as Man for Truths he concludes his Legend of the Lives of several Habassin Dominican Saints some of which we have reason to believe were never in Nature or if they were were undoubtedly neither Dominicans nor Papists with the following Prayers to them MOST Glorious Illustrious and Holy Saints who being now in the Caelestial Palaces cloathed with Robes of Immortality do enjoy the clear Vision of the most Holy Trinity and being disarmed of your bodily Weapons wherewith you fought so manfully in the World are now seated under the Shades of the Victorious Palms and of the Triumphant Laurel in the Pavillions and Tabernacles of Glory Pardon me all my Faults pardon all my Errors pardon my weak Capacity pardon the Injury I have done the height of your Triumph worthy of all Immortal Trophy by my rude Pen and pray for us O most Glorious Saints who in Company of the Angelical Spirits and in the Caelestial Quire of God do Sing the Sanctus of the Mass of the most Holy Trinity and are perpetually employed in the Praises of God pardon the unpolishedness shortness and grossness of my Tongue your Prowesses being so Great your Works so Heroick and your Victory so Glorious that nothing but the Tongues of Angels are fit to celebrate them Pray for us O high exalted Princes who do live as Grandees in the Palace of the King of Glory and are as Cavaliers of the Golden Key in the Cabinet of God being always in his Presence Pardon that little that I have writ of your Feats your Glories being so great that no Pen without it be taken from the Wings of Archangels is fit to celebrate them Pray for us Most Glorious Stars of Heaven most Resplendent Meteors of the Earth Golden Artizans of the Church and the bright Light of the Predicant Order who out of the Pulpits did astonish the World like Thunder confounding Hereticks and Pagans and converting Souls to God Pardon me if the brightness of your Virtues is eclipsed by the little I have said of them and pray for us Apostolical Preachers who are in Glory about the Father of Light pardon me if your Travels Missions Peregrinations Sermons and Labours Virtues and Prodigies or if the Glory of your Glory is not aggrandized as it ought to be And pray for us Valiant Martyrs who with your Blood