of the Jews Error who were learned in the Books of the Mosaic Law Most Nations have a particular Dyet some by custome some through superstition Not to speak of the Mahumetans who abstain not only from Swines flesh but from Wine is not the custom of the Bannians not much different from the ancient Pythagoreans to be strangely admir'd who onely feed upon Herbs and Meats made of Milk which we hardly believe sufficient to sustain Nature Others there are that devour all sorts of Creatures which the flesh consuming Beasts themselves refuse and otherwise nauseous to the most part of Men. The Oriental Tartars feed upon Camels Foxes and all sorts of wild Beasts Some of our Europeans indulging their appetites please their palats with a sort of Dyet abominated by all other People as Frogs Cockles and I know not what sort of Insects Gregory had an utter aversion to Lobsters Crabbs Crayfish and Oysters which we accompt our chiefest Delicacies and it turn'd his stomach to see Turkies Hares and several other Dishes to which he was unaccustom'd brought to our Tables Being ask'd why he abstain'd from Swines flesh he retorted still and why we from Horse-flesh And most certainly were we to banquet with the Tartars there are but very few of us that would easily be induc'd to eat Horse-flesh with an Appetite tho it be one of their principal junkets Nay their Embassadors to our Princes desire fat Horses for their Kitchins However they abstain from blood and things strangl'd not out of any observance of the Mosaic Law but an Apostolic Decree always in force in the Eastern Church which was also for many Ages observ'd in the Western Church and reviv'd in some Councils They also rebuke us for that we suffer'd that Decree to be laid aside Nor do they allow the Jews Sabboth out of a respect to Judaism or that they learnt it from some certain Nations that kept the Seventh day holy But because the ancient Custom of the Primitive Church who observ'd that day perhaps out of complacency to the Jews being long retain'd in the East was at length carry'd into Ethiopia For thus we find it written in some ancient Constitutions which they call the Constitutions of the Apostles Let the Servants labour five days but let them keep the Holydays the Sabboth and the Lords Day in the Church for the sake of Pious Instruction The Council of Laodicea decreed that the Gospels with other parts of Scripture should be read upon the Sabboth when before the Paragraphs of the Law of Moses were onely read upon the Sabboth and the Gospels upon the Sunday the Texts of the old Law being thought most agreeable to the Old Sabboth and the Texts of the New Testament to the New Sabboth Socrates also farther testifies that the People us'd to assemble at Church upon the Sabboth and Lords Day And Gregory Nyssen whose Writings the Ethiopians have among them saith With what Eyes dost thou behold the Lords Day who hast defil'd the Sabboth Know'st thou not that these two days are Twins and that if thou injur'st the one thou dost injury to the other But Claudius makes so much difference between both days that he prefers the Lords day before the Sabaoth But as to what pertains to our Celebration of the ancient Sabaoth we do not celebrate it as the Jews did who Crucify'd Christ saying Let his blood be upon Us and our Children For those Jews neither draw water nor kindle fires nor dress meat nor bake bread neither do they go from house to house But we so celebrate it that we administer the Sacrament and relieve the Poor and the Widow as our Fathers the Apostles commanded Us. We Celebrate it as the Sabaoth of the first Holiday which is a new day of which David saith This is the day which the Lord made let us rejoyce and exult therein For upon that day our Lord Jesus Christ rose and upon that day the Holy Ghost descended upon the Apostles in the Oratory of Sion And in that day Christ was incarnated in the Womb of the Perpetual Virgin St. Mary and upon that day he shall come again to reward the Just and punish the Evil. Gregory also testify'd That the Habessines abstain from no sort of Labour upon the Sabaoth but from the most servile sorts of Labour This Custom continu'd long in the Church till it was abrogated by degrees for by the 22d Canon of the said Council of Laodicea the Christians are forbid to work upon the Sabaoth Nevertheless the Sacred Lectures were continu'd for a time as appears by the Canon above mention'd till at length those were also left off perhaps because that the People having a licence to work there were but few that repair'd to Church Moreover according to the Custom of the Jews it is lawful in Abessinia to marry the Widow of the Brother deceas'd as Alvarez testifies Adding That the Habessinian defend their so doing by the Laws of the Old Testament But Gregory positively deny'd that it was lawful but onely conniv'd at by the Magistrate However that such Wives are also prohibited from coming to the Holy Communion wherein Alvarez agrees with him However it does not therefore follow that this Custom was translated from the Jews to the Habessines no more then if any one should assert that the Laws of Polygamie and Divorce were deriv'd from the Jews And yet this is somewhat strange I must confess that they abstain from that Muscle which the Hebrews call Ghid Hannesheh or the Sinew mutilated the Ethiopians Sereje Berum the forbidden Nerve the Amharies Shalada Which very probably they might learn from the Jews in their own Country of which Nation there are several Colonies in Ethiopia But as to what is reported concerning Queen Candaces Eunuch we have already shew'd that she was not Queen of Habessinia but of the Ethiopians that inhabited the Iland of Meroe and if the Eunuch were a Jew it does not follow that his Lady the Queen shall be so too Others there are who tell us That Menilehec's Successors in a short time return'd to the worship of Idols Which if it be true the assertion of the Continuation of the Jewish Religion till the time of the Apostles will prove altogether vain tho in Europe most certainly the Habessines were long suspected of Judaisme and so are many to this day Which King Claudius observing by his Disputations with Gonsalo Rodriguez and the Writings which he compos'd to refute the Errors of the Habessines set forth a Confession of which we have already cited several parcels as they related to our business The chief Scope of which was to remove that Suspition of Judaism from himself and his Subjects which in my opinion he very effectually did CHAP. II. Of the Conversion of the Habessines to the Christian Faith The Conversion of the Habessines attributed to Queen Candace's Eunuch but contrary to authentic Histories Candace no Habessinian Other Traditions nothing better Demonstrated when and by
The next is Drubbing if the Crime be not Capital The punishment of the Nobility is Exilement into the Zanic Lake or into their high and steep Rocks which are in a manner like Ilands from whence however they frequently escape by reason that the People are easily corrupted by Bribery Homicides are deliver'd up to the next of (l) A Custome still us'd in Persia as you may read in Tavernier and Olearius Kin to the Party murder'd at whose free will it is to pardon the Malefactors sell them to forraign Merchants or put them to what death they please If the Homicide escape unknown the Inhabitants of the place and all the Neighbourhood are oblig'd to pay a Fine by which means many Murthers are either prevented or discover'd Most certainly the Law of Like for Like was always and still is accompted the most just and plainest among several Nations Hence that of Moses An Eye for an Eye and a Tooth for a Tooth But because there is not the same use of all members among men some men according to their various Callings having more use of one Member than another some being better able to lose their Hands than their Leggs others theâ—r Leggs than their Hands therefore among the Civiliz'd Nations this Law grew out of custome And it seems unjust to surrender the Offender to the Malice and Fury of the Offended Party when they may have unbyass'd Judges to give Sentence without Favour or Affection The End of the Second Book OF THE Ecclesiastical Affairs OF THE ABISSINES BOOK III. CHAP. I. Of the ancient Religion of the Abissines and their Judaic Rites The Ecclesiastical History of the Abissines corrupt and why The first Relation of Matthew the Armenian false Tzagazaabus's Confession as little to be credited Those of the Fathers and Tellezius more certain Ecclesiastical History commended The Tradition of some concerning the Original of the Judaic Rites Circumcision us'd by many How it differs from the Judaic No piece of holy Worship among the Habessines Females circumcis'd Why the Abissines abstain from Swines Flesh The Various Customs of Nations concerning Meats The Sabboth observ'd in the Primitive Church Different from the Lords Day and how Whether lawful to marry a Brothers Wife They abstain from the shrunck sinew What to be thought of Candaces Eunuch Menihelec's Posterity revolted from the true Religion Claudius disclaims the Judaic Religion NOw we proceed to the Ecclesiastical History of the Habessinians then which there is not any other more corrupt For whatever we find scatter'd in our Relations were neither collected out of the Books which are publickly authentic in Habessinia nor taken from the report of any persons there skill'd in the Ecclesiastical Affairs of that Country but partly ill related through the Rashness of the Writers themselves partly by the same persons or others ill understood through their ignorance of the Ethiopic Language The first Relation concerning the Religion of the Habessines was set forth by Damianus a Goez a noble Lusitanian from the Report of Matthew the Armenian First Ethiopic Embassador to Emanuel King of Portugal which Narrative of his (a) In a little Treatise often quoted Of the Embassie of the Great Emperor of the Indians contains many things ambiguous many other things altogether false Insomuch that Tzagazaabus the second Habessinian Embassador plainly tax'd the Author of it (b) For thus he sayes in his Confession of Faith Matthew in regard he was an Armenian could not so perspicuously understand our affairs especially those that related to our Faith And therefore he reported many things to King Emanuel which are not in use among Vs Which he did not out of desire to tell an untruth because he was a good man but because he knew little concerning our Religion But in my opinion that good man Matthew spake many things which he knew much better for his ignorance Tho he himself in the Confession of his Faith which the same (c) Extant in the 2. Tom. of Spain illustrated p. 1302. Goez set forth did not much excel him either for truth or probability for which reason Tellezius not undeservedly reprehends him Certainly Gregory was very much offended with him And when he heard his following Doctrines 1. That Jesus Christ was the Son of the Father and the beginning of himself in the same manner that the Holy Ghost was the Spirit of himself and proceeded from the Father and the Son 2. That he descended into Hell where was the Soul of Adam and Christ himself which Soul of Adam Christ received from the Virgin Mary and toward the latter end of the Book That Christ descended into Hell for the Soul of Adam and not for his own 3. That the Souls of men piously deceas'd are not crucify'd in Purgatory upon the Sabaoth and Lords Day 4. That by the Decree and Commandment of Queen Maqueda the Women were also to be Circumcis'd as having a certain glandulous piece of Flesh not unfit to receive the Impression and mark of Circumcision I say when Tellezius heard these things and many other of the same mixture in no small heat and Passion he cry'd out That they were Fictions Dreams nay meer Lyes frequently repeating these words If he said this he was a Beast of the Field Yet out of these Books most of those Stories have flow'd which our Writers have made public concerning the Religion of the Abessines But the Fathers of the Society having bin conversant so long in Ethiopia and view'd the Habessine Books after several Disputations and Discourses with them have bin able to afford us more Truth whose Acts and Writings being free for the perusal of Tellezius we shall cull the choicest of his accurate Relations and what he has reported more ambiguous or more partially out of his dislike of the Alexandrian Religion we shall correct out of their own Writings or from the Discourses of Gregory himself Certainly to Christians no History can be more pleasant than that of Ecclesiastical affairs especially if we look back to the Primitive Church For whom would it not ravish into a high admiration of the wonderful Providence of God as well in founding as preserving his Church when he shall consider that it grew up and increas'd not by the Propagation of Arms or human Arts but by the Oppression of Heathenish persecution To whom can it be unpleasing to consider with a Pious Contemplation the undaunted Courage of the Martyrs the Constancy of her Doctors the Sincerity of the Christian People the Purity of the Faith the Strife of Good Works the Patience of the Weak the plainness of the Rites and Ceremonies Which when they once began to be alter'd with the reverence to the Church be it spoken then also enter'd in Pride instead of Modesty Ambition instead of Charity together with Faction and Contention As if our leisure and our Quiet were therefore granted us by Heaven to consume that time in making Scrutinies into all the misteries of
this Encomium Peace be to Michael Aragawi nam'd Wisdom his Life his Death true Prudence fam'd With him was God the Holy Three in One. To all those Saints an everlasting Crown Who by their Prayers true Concord did enjoy That they might Arwe's Kingdom quite destroy By Arwè which signifies a Serpent he either means in general the Kingdom of Satan which was destroy'd by the propagation of Christianity or in particular the Ethiopic Gentilism For as we have already said the most ancient Ethiopians worship'd a Serpent as their supream Deitie to which the Poet seems to allude There are to be seen to this day the Cells wherein those holy Men sequester'd themselves by the names of Beta Pantaleon the Domicil of St. Pantaleon in Tigra where his Sepulcher also remains Of whom the Poet thus Peace to Pantaleon's Bones who study'd here In th'inner Cell next to his Sepulcher Who by the aid of Heavens most pretious Word Speech to the dead miraculously restor'd Who by his Prayers and his Soul-saving Voice Made the afflicted Widow soon rejoyce Her Sins were dead but he unlock'd the grave And freed those Souls which Death did late enslave He also makes mention of the Nine Saints in his Hymn to Likanos Peace be to Likanos who of the Nine Makes one who did their Lives to God resign With lasting wreaths would they my Temples crown How should I then set forth their high renown Like lighted Lamps his fingers burn'd in prayer His Hand was pierc'd when he the Staff did bear Besides these there are several other great Doctors among them who have highly merited for propagating the Christian Religion as also many Martyrs frequently celebrated by the Ethiopians and Coptices in their Religious Panegyricks But as to their Saints they relate of them several Miracles more than Extraordinary as the removing Mountains appeasing the rage of most Tempestuous Seas raising the Dead causing Water to spring from smitten Rocks and walking over Rivers which are reported for common Miracles among them so that if the Truth of the Ethiopic Church were to be grounded upon such Wonders there could be no purer Religion in the World For tho we have a St. Martin that gave a piece of his Cloak to one in necessity they have among 'em a Saint that parted with his whole Garment to relieve the distressed There are among them not onely several Stories of persons that have walk'd upon the Asp and the Basilisk and trampled upon the Dragon and the Lyon but also those who have rode upon those Beasts as upon Horses and Mules Never were the Ascetae more austere There are some who have liv'd for whole days together upon three little Dates others upon no more than one poor little dry Bisket But there is not one more renowned for Sanctity among them then Gabra-Menfes-Keddus or the Servant of the Holy Ghost in honour of whom they keep a Holyday every month Next to him is Tecla-Haimanot or the Plant of Faith who restor'd the Monastical way of Living in Ethiopia about the Year of Christ 600. Whom the Ethiopic Poet extolls in a most singular manner All hail to thy Navity great Saint It was at first thy Mothers great Complaint That she should barren dye till th' Angels Voice Declar'd thy Birth and made her Son rejoyce Then Tecla-Haimanot Thou didst appear Like to the Sun that rules the Day and Year Thy Glory fill'd the Earth from end to end And to the Heavens thy Luster did ascend This Austere way of Living was first practiz'd in Thebais a Desert of Egypt whither many Pious men had retir'd themselves from the Persecution of the Heathen that through abstinence and temperance they might be more intent upon the Duty of Prayer Among the rest St. Antonie as it were the Captain of the Hermites prescrib'd certain Lawes to be observ'd by the Professors of this sort of severity for which reason next to Paul he was look'd upon as its first Institutor The Affairs of the Church being settl'd many Anchorites in imitation of him voluntarily chose a solitary way of Living for that reason call'd Monachi Monks or People that liv'd alone by themselves Some meerly out of a Pious and godly end some out of an opinion of merit some out of vain-glory and a desire of worldly fame because they found that austerity of life as being a thing hard to be undergone was vulgarly much admir'd and highly applauded Many also did not think it sufficient to abstain from lawful enjoyments or to bridle and restrain the ordinary desires of Nature but voluntarily tormented themselves with new invented Tortures or macerated themselves with hunger and famine This Custome spread it self also into Ethiopia where some without any advantage to themselves or others invented several ways of afflicting their own Carcasses as for example To stand whole days together in cold water to gird their Loyns with a heavy Chain to feed onely upon Pot-herbs and Roots and that very sparingly too Nay which is hardly to be credited some there were who would thrust themselves into the clefts of Trees and so as those clos'd together again suffer'd themselves to be bury'd alive To Antonie succeeded Macarius after whom liv'd St. Pachom to whom in Ethiopia succeeded Aragawi the first Abbot or Ruler over Monks among the Abessinians His Successors were Abba Christos Bezana Abba Mesket Moa Abba Johanni Who left bequeath'd his Asqema that is the Badge of his Abbotship or his Monastical Habit to Tecla-Haimanot For the Tradition is among them That the Arch-Angel St. Michael brought that Habit to St. Antonie for which reason it was afterwards deliver'd from Successor to Successor as it were from one hand to another The Greek word it self is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Schema Alphonsus the Patriarch compares it to a Scapulary The Life of this Saint is extant in Ethiopia written at large and stufft with several Miracles and render'd famous for several Apparitions and Pilgrimages Mention is also made of him in the Ethiopic Church Registers after this manner Remember Lord the Soul of thy Servant our Father Tecla-Haimanot and all his Companions This Tecla-Haimanot gave new Rules and Precepts to his Monks and order'd them to submit themselves to a Governour who is call'd Icegue and is always of highest authority and dignity next to the Abuna He either Visits his fellow Monks himself or sends some one in his stead to reform Errors and punish transgressions Before the Kingdom of Shewa was won by the Gallans he had his habitation in a place call'd Debra Libanos or the Mountain of Libanus which was afterwards translated into Bagemdra And hence it is that Tesfa-tzejon who set forth the Ethiopic New Testament in the Epilogue to St. Matthew thus speaks of himself and his fellow Monks We are all the Sons of our Father Tecla Haimanot of the Monastery of Mount Libanus The other Abbot or Governour of the Monks call'd Eustathius is no less famous than he nor is his Memory
word Gaz signifies as well the Face or Countenance as it bears the force of the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Person The Nestorian Heresie asserting two Persons in Christ they so abhor that for that very reason they will not admit of his two Natures and two Wills tho they positively acknowledge his Divinity and Humanity For they affirm Christ to be true and perfect God and also true and perfect Man and to consist in one Individual Person of Divinity and Humanity without Confusion and Commixtion Farthermore They acknowledge the most Sacred Merits of Christ to be most sufficient and efficacious for the Sins of the whole world and consequently of all Mankind and this Gregory himself affirm'd to be true nor have I found in any of their Books which I have happen'd to see any thing that contradicts what he asserted However as the Greeks do they deny the Proceeding of the Holy Ghost from the Son yet all this while they acknowledge him to be equally the Spirit of the Father and the Son and to be a Person subsisting of himself For thus they declare in their Liturgy We believe the Father sending that the Father is in his own Person And we believe the Son who is sent that the Son is in his own Person and we believe the Holy Ghost who descended upon Jordan and upon the Apostles that the Holy Ghost is in his own Person Three Names One God Not as Abraham who is elder than Isaac nor as Isaac who is Elder than Jacob. It is not so The Father is not Elder than the Son because he is the Father nor the Son Elder than the Holy Ghost nor the Holy Ghost lesser or Younger than the Father and the Son nor is the Son Younger than the Father because he is the Son Not as Abraham who commanded over Isaac in respect of Generation because he begat him nor as Isaac who commanded Jacob. It is not so in Divinity The Father does not command the Son because he is the Father neither is the Son greater than the Holy Ghost because he is the Son The Father the Son and the Holy Ghost are Equal One God one Glory one Kingdom one Power one Empire But concerning the Hypostasis or Person of the Holy Ghost really distinct from the Father and the Son the Author of the Organon thus discourses But least any one from what has been already said should infer that the Holy Ghost is not a perfect and distinct Person therefore said Christ to his Apostles I will send you another Comforter By which we know that the Holy Ghost doth exist together with the Father and the Son and also together in his own proper Subsistance or Person Not that the Holy Ghost is partly in the Son partly in his own Person but one and the same existent in his proper Person and existent with the Father and the Son Gregory being ask'd whether this were the unanimous and constant Opinion of all the Ethiopian Doctors reply'd It was I thereupon urg'd Why they deny'd that the Holy Ghost proceeded from the Father seeing they asserted that he was equally the Spirit of the Father and the Son He desir'd That I would first expound what was meant by Proceeding from the Father and then he would give the reason of the Denyal and that for his part he kept to the words of the Scripture John 15.26 and 16.24 Who goeth out from the Father and takes from the Son and that he sought no farther For that it was not lawful in Disputes concerning the most abstruse Mysteries of the Holy Trinity to argue by Consequences but to stick close to the very words and Expressions of Scripture themselves That I should consider what would follow if we should argue from the Unity and Equality of Essence to the Characteristical Proprieties of the Persons As if any one should undertake to averr That Christ is the Son of the Holy Ghost because the Holy Ghost is one and Coeternal God with the Father Some such kind of Argument his Countryman Tzagazaab may be thought to have had in his Brain when he wrote That Christ was the Son of himself and the Beginning of himself because he was co-essential with the Father whose Son he was By the way we are to understand That the Ethiopians instead of the word Vazzea went forth or proceeded and in the Preterperfect tense use the word Saraz to budd or sprout forth Thus Claudius in his Confession I believe in the Holy Ghost reviving Lord Zasratz em Ab who proceeded or sprung from the Father They never add from the Son altho the Liturgy Printed at Rome and Tzagazaab's Confession runs thus Zasraz em Ab vavalde who sprouted forth or proceeded from the Father and the Son Where 't is much to be doubted that from the Son was inserted by another hand We proceed to the Sacraments of which they neither have the common name nor number For they are utterly ignorant of Confirmation and Extreme Unction They make use of the word Mastar for a Mysterie whenever they go about to intimate the Mysterie of the Participation of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ Otherwise they do not think it necessary to signifie the Seals of Faith by any other Vulgar name not us'd in Scripture or to make much dispute about the Number Only said Gregory They make use of Baptism according to the Institution of Christ and with the Ceremonies anciently made use of by the Church But the Fathers of the Society reported That the Ceremonies of Baptism were so deprav'd and corrupted among the Habessines that they were constrain'd to Rebaptize great Numbers under a Condition As for the Holy Communion they Administer it indifferently to all both Layety and Clergy as it is the Custom in all the Churches of the East Neither has any thing more alienated their minds from the Fathers than their finding the Layety to be depriv'd of the Cup by the Latins Gregory being demanded what he thought of the real Presence of the Body and Blood in the Lord's Supper made answer That he acknowledged it Adding withal according to his manner when any Discourses arose of Matters more difficult and abstruse than ordinary Retzitze nagare vet 't is a nice business or Mastar vet It is a Mystery When I produc'd him these words in the Liturgies Lord now lay thy hand upon this Dish Bless it Sanctifie it and Purifie it that so thy Body may be made holy therein Again Lay thy hand upon this Cup and now bless it sanctifie it and purifie it that thy Blood may become holy therein In another place Lay thy hand upon this Spoon of the Cross to prepare the Body and Blood of thy only Son our Lord and God And in another place Convert this Bread that it may become thy pure Body which is joyn'd with this Cup of thy most precious Blood And out of the Eucharistic Prayer which bears the Title of the 318 Orthodox Divines these
made a most lofty Panegyric in Praise of the Pope not without some Reflections upon the Blindness of former Ages then he fell to commemorate what had been done of later Times How That the Emperors of Habessinia had sent their Embassadors formerly to Rome and that lately one of them had requested thence a Pastor and Evangelical Preachers that therefore now the Time was come wherein his Majesty was bound to satisfie the desire of his Ancestors and to submit himself and his Subjects to the See of Rome The King Commanded the Grand Chamberlain of his Houshold Melca Christos Prince of Samena to return an Answer who after he had extoll'd the Merits of the Portugueses It is now the King's Intention said he to fulfil the Promises of his Ancestors by yielding Obedience to the Roman Pope But as he was going on the King interrupted him saying That this was not the first day of his Intention to surrender his submission to the Roman Pope as having long before promis'd it to the Superior Father of the Society of Jesus Presently the Patriarch after a short answer unfolded a Book containing the four Evangelists and then the King falling upon his Knees took his Oath after this manner We Sultan-Saghed King of the Kings of Ethiopia believe and confess That St. Peâ—er Prince of the Apostles was by Christ our Lord Constituted Head of the whole Christian Church and that Principality and Power over the whole World was given to him when he said Thou art Peter and upon this Rock will I build my Church and I will give to thee the Keys of Heav'n and at another Time when he said to Him Feed my Sheep In like manner we believe That the Pope of Rome lawfully Elected is the true Successor of St. Peter the Apostle in his Government and that he has the same Power Dignity and Primacy of the whole Church of Christ Therefore we Promise Offer and Swear true Obedience and humbly submit our Person and our Empire at the feet of our Holy Father Urban the VIII of that Name by the Grace of God Pope and our Lord and to his Successors in the Administration of the Church So God help us and these Holy Evangils After the King had done his Son Basilides the King's Brothers all the Viceroys and Peers as also all the Clergy and Monks then present took the same Oath After this Ras-Seelax hastily Drawing forth his Scimiter brake forth into these passionate Expressions What is done let it be done that is to say Let past things be forgotten But whoever for the future shall not do it since it becomes every one so to do shall feel the weight of this An Act which to most that were present seem'd very severe especially to those who had taken part with Gabriel at whom those words were constru'd to be principally levell'd Moreover he added an unusual Clause to his own Oath That he also swore Allegiance to Basilides as Heir and Successor to his Father and that he would also be his faithful Vassal so that he would promise to Protect and Defend the Holy Catholic Faith otherwise that he would be the first and most profess'd of his Enemies As if it had bin lawful for a Subject to impose new Conditions of his Subjection upon a most Absolute Prince and Monarch not bound by any Laws of Man such as is the King of Habessinia However the King said nothing nor durst Basilides as being under the Tuition of his Father take notice of it Nor indeed was this Condition added to his Oath any advantage to the Roman Church but rather serv'd to hasten the Ruin of Ras-Seelax This Solemnity concluded with an Anathema after the Ethiopian manner upon all those that for the future should forget or break this Oath Immediately after several Edicts were Publish'd That none for the future should say Mass or Exercise the Priestly Office except such as were licens'd by the Patriarch Thereupon the Ordinations of the Alexandrian Metropolitan not being accompted lawful most of the Priests were constrain'd to receive new Ordinations from the new Patriarch upon this Condition That they should all observe the Roman Forms of Worship and not give any succour or harbour to Rebels who offended in that Nature was to be severely punish'd It was also farther enjoyn'd that in the Celebration of Easter and Observation of Lent the Canons of the Church of Rome should be faithfully follow'd There was also one thing more than usual exacted by the Patriarch who having a great mistrust of the Ladies of the Royal Blood caus'd a It is still a Proverb among the Ethiopians Zaqon Qawino What is done let it be done Decree to be made that they also upon a prefix'd day as being more zealous for the Alexandrian Opinions than the Men should take the Sacred Oath of Supremacy to the Pope as if they had bin a distinct Body Politic from the Men. But whether it were put in Execution or how done I do not find In the next place great care was taken for Building a Patriarchal Seat and for settling an Annual Revenue for support of the Dignity of the new Primate to which purpose a place was chosen out in the Confines of Bagemdra and Dembea call'd Debsan as also another in the Imperial Camp near Dancaz Residencies also for the Fathers were built in several Provinces of the Empire to stock it with Jesuits Maiguagua or Fremona in Tigra Ganeta Jesus with a fair Church Gorgora in Dembea Azazo Enabeesse vulgarly Nebesse Hadash by the Portugals Adaxa Kolala Leda-Negas Serca Temhhua Atthana in Bagemdra The same year also Lent was kept after the Roman manner with all the Solemnities of the Passion Week as also Easter according to the Roman Calendar Which occasion'd most violent Commotions over all the Empire and more especially among the Clergy and Monks Who being ignorant of the Computation and the Cause thought it a high breach of the Canons of the Nicene Council and the Paschal Cycle therein prescrib'd Neither could the Edict be equally dispers'd over so many far distant Regions for want of Printing In the mean time they were very busie in Baptizing the Converted and ordaining of Ecclesiastical Persons many of which had bin already Baptiz'd and Ordain'd Sermons were also Preach'd in several places after the manner of Europe wherein it was necessary for the Fathers to Cite many places of Scripture if they desir'd to be accompted Learned Thus the Fathers of the Society made a daily and very great Progress insomuch that the Number of Baptiz'd and Converted to the Roman Religion amounted to many Thousands About two years after the Patriarch made a Visitation assisted by some of the Sodality in which vast Numbers of People were some of them Rebaptiz'd others Confirm'd to the great good-liking and applause of the King and his Peers who had never seen such things perform'd by any of their Metropolitans before Others look'd asquint upon these prosperous beginnings seeking