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A67490
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A brief account of the rebellions and bloudshed occasioned by the anti-Christian practices of the Jesuits and other popish emissaries in the empire of Ethiopia collected out of a manuscript history written in Latin by Jo. Michael Wansleben, a learned papist.
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Wansleben, Johann Michael, 1635-1679.
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1679
(1679)
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Wing W710; ESTC R15140
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23,426
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44
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tedious imprisonment In a word Susnejos the Father was not more zealous and active to plant the Roman Faith in Abissinia than Fasilades his Son and Successor was to extirpate and abolish it As soon as these affairs were throughly made known and impartially stated at Rome the Colledge de propagandâ fide upon mature consideration of their ill success and it s as just as apparent occasion resolve to lay aside the Jesuits as improper instruments for that enterprise and in their stead made choice of some Religious persons of the Order of Mendicant Friers to manage their design upon Ethiopia Accordingly certain Capuchins namely Agat-Angelus and Cassianus were deputed for that Charge and order'd to proceed on their journey thither an 1636. While these things were transacted in Italy the Patriarch of Alexandria at the Request of Fasilades who in the year 1634. had re-setled his Empire in its pristine State and Condition had ordained one Arminius a Copti of the Monastery of S. Macarius Metropolitan of Ethiopia according to the ancient usage whom the Italian Friers upon their arrival at Grand Cairo found ready to depart to his new Charge as soon as he should receive the Patriarch's Benediction and his Letters Patents and understanding that they were also designed for Abissinia he made the Fathers a civil invitation to be his Companions in Travel but Arminius having obtained his dispatches before they were fitted for so great a journey proceeds on his way without them At the same time there was in Cairo one Peter Heyling a Lutheran of Lubec who for his better security among the Roman Catholicks passed under the name of Petrus Nolingus an Hollander * An Enterprise worthy of the Protestant Religion This man as is credibly reported with Ten others of the same Perswasion emulating the industry of the Roman Church concurred in a joynt resolution to disperse the Christian Doctrine according to the Principles of the Reformed Religion over the whole earth and that the distribution of their Labours might be the better regulated they cast the several Provinces of the World into a proportionable division among them each of them obliging himself to undertake that part which should fall to him by Lot In pursuance of which agreement and design the forenamed Peter was advanced as far as Cairo The Lot having destined Egypt and Ethiopia to his charge A person by my Authors own confession of eminent Prudence well skilled in History experienc'd in Physick and in many Languages as Greek Hebrew Arabic Ethiopic inferiour to none From Cairo he travelled sevent days journey to Siút a City in the upper Egypt but was constrained to return thence by the means of Agat-Angelus wherefore to prevent the like affront and disappointment a second time he determined to procure Licence to accompany Arminius the Ethiopick Metropolitan in his journey towards his new Province for which purpose that he might ingratiate himself with the chief of the Copties at least as my * With those of his Religion 't is no sin to bely an Heretick to blast his Reputation Author saith he not only professed their Religion but privately suffer'd himself to be Circumcised and by these means obtained commendatory Letters from the Alexandrian Patriarch to the Emperor of Ethiopia as well as Permission to joyn with Arminius in his Travels who left Cairo in the year 1637. And yet the Co-herence of my Author's discourse seems to imply that Heylings great parts and abilities recommended him to Arminius who that he might the better veil his own want of Learning under the covert of such a mans company and assistance had a private inducement to obtain the Patriarch's Grant for his Protection and Society without having recourse to any such indirect means or base compliances as are above specified Peter Heyling thus arrived in Abissinia under the Metropolitans Favour took up his abode in a Church not far from Court And as soon as he was setled in his new Mansion he began to practise Physick and profess the Instruction of Youth in the Greek and Hebrew tongues wherein he quickly became so famous that even the principal Nobility accounted it a singular priviledge to have their Sons educated under his Tuition so that he might easily have amassed a very considerable Treasure had he been disposed to accept or hoord up all the Gratuities that were offer'd him But he either generously refused the Presents when tendered or else in ease they were urgently pressed upon him liberally distributed the over-plus among the poor after he had made himself a very moderate allowance out of it for Food and Raiment A sufficient evidence as my Author notes of his great Abstinence or self-denial These remarkable qualities and endowments could not long brook the concealment of a private life but brake out into such an advantageous report of him as reached the Emperors Ears and won him so high an esteem at Court that after some Trial had been made of his Capacity for publick employments he was by large steps and degrees quickly raised to the principal Charge of the Empire in which great Office and Trust he acquitted himself with such a prudent address that his Great Master obliged him with a courteous violence to accept of a Revenue and Attendance equal to the Chief of the Nobility with a most delightful Apartment in a place accounted the Paradise of Ethiopia called Genéte Christos yea and designed him as 't is commonly and positively affirmed his own Daughter in marriage Peter Heyling sinding himself so deeply interested in the Prince's Favour and Affection began to remind his Imperial Majesty of all those deplorable Troubles wherein his Dominions had been so often involved especially in the days of his Father and so effectually represented to him that those dreadful Commotions and all their pernicious consequences were solely occasioned by the Jesuits and Popish Emissaries warning him of the sudden approach of others on the same Errand together with the firm Resolution of their Party to persist in the like Treasonable attempts that at last his Remonstrance prevailed with the Ethiopian Monarch and his Council to establish a Penal Law against all * With regard no doubt to a certain old Prophecy which our learned Dr. Ed. Castelcites out of Sandoval thus Que gente blanca haziendo los labradores los han de echar sucra de Etiopia importing That a White People under some disguise should dispossess them of their Countrey the people of Europe of what Countrey or perswasion soever forbidding any person bearing the native distinction of a white Complexion to enter his Territories upon pain of death In the mean time the Roman Fathers an 1638. proceed on their journey by Suaquem an Isle of the Red Sea thence to Enquiquum and so on towards the Abissin Court in the Company of certain Merchants who had liberty of Traffick in those parts When they came to Seráve where Barnagassi the Vice-Roy of Midrebahr had his ordinary
the Abissins flocked thither where they abode till they had throughly learnt and espoused the Rites and customs of the Latin Church and then these New proselytes were sent home again sit Instruments to induce their Countreymen to a milder Opinion of the Roman Religion And to further this Design Vide Spondan an Ch. 1253. N. 3. 1321. N. 3. 1329. N. 10. which had so auspicious a beginning Innocent the IVth sent divers of the Order of S. Dominic into the Abissin Territories to second the endeavours of those converted Natives now returned thither and to perfect if possible the subjection of that Mighty Prince and people to the papal Chair Afterwards Eugenius the IVth having in the Council of Ferrara reconciled at least as was pretended the Greeks Armenians and Copties that nothing might be wanting to compleat so glorious an acquest sent express messengers to Zera Jacob then raigning in Ethiopia by whom he did earnestly invite and solicit him to enter into the Catholick Communion And he being loth to frustrate so tedious and chargeable an Embassy especially since t was the first made into those parts by an European Prince sent some of his subjects to Rome where they did not only complement the Pope but in their Emperor's name made a Confession of Faith according to the Articles receiv'd and establish'd in the Church of Rome and thereupon carried back with them Letters of Union from his Holiness as the Acts of that Council signifie which was continued at Florence and ended in Rome in the close whereof this great affair was transacted a little before the death of Pope Eugenius But the short continuance of that fair correspondence and the few acts of Union or Obedience put in practice thereupon may sufficiently evidence to the world that what the * A fair Confession from a Papist Ethiopian Monarchs did of this nature in their Transactions with the Popes of Rome was never heartily approved or generally entertained by their subjects About this time John the II. King of Portugal desirous to make some new discoveries that might employ and inrich his Subjects whose experience and success in the Art of Navigation extended their Renown and Dominion farther toward the East than any other People of Europe in that Age resolved to send some able persons with his Credential Letters as to the most remarkable Provinces thereabouts so especially to the Emperor of Ethiopia that if no other Advantage should accrue thereby he might at least be gratified with a more exact Information concerning those parts of the World In this enterprise Alphonsus à Pavia and Johannes Petrus à Covilham both Portugueses were the chief They began their Voyage from Lisbon on the 7th of May 1486. and having passed through Neapolis Egypt Tor and Suaquem at last Johannes Alphonsus being dead by the way arrived at the Imperial Court of Ethiopia where then raigned Alexander who was Successor to Bete Mariam the son of Zera Jacob by whom they were entertained with all demonstrations of Humanity and Kindness especially Johannes Petrus who grew into so much Favor and esteem there that he was never permitted to return into his own Countrey He therefore omitted not upon all fair Occasions which his abode and interest in that Court allowed him to discourse of the great Atchievements happily undertaken and accomplish'd by the Crown of Portugal the relation whereof so won upon the mind of Hellen the Empress that she rested not satisfied till an Embassy was sent to conclude a League of Friendship with Emanuel who then sate on the Throne of his Father K. John deceased some time before And on that errand one Matthew an Armenian whom they made choice of as the fittest person for such an employment came to Lisbon in the year 1513. This was the first Embassy which any Prince of Europe ever receiv'd from the Ethiopian Court For those Abissins who were sent to Rome upon the Mediation of Pope Alexander's Physician as is before related came not immediately from Ethiopia but were recommended from a Monastery which they then had in Jerusalem Hereupon King Emanuel of Portugal returned an honourable Embassy to the Abissin Emperor which he committed to the management of Edward Galvan a very sage experienc'd person and Francis Alvarez his own Chaplain a devout learned Priest and with them sent back the Armenian also But Galvan dying in Cameran an Isle of the Red Sea Rhoderic Lima was appointed his Substitute who with Alvarez and the rest of their company except Matthew the Armenian who likewise dyed by the way presented themselves at the Court of Ethiopia before David then raigning See the History written by Francis Alvarez who gave them most splendid and obliging entertainment not only at their first Reception but during the whole time of their Residence After six years a great part whereof they spent against their wills in that Court they were licensed to return Alvarez having so well acquitted himself in his Negotiation there that the Emperor deputed him to be his Ambassador to the Pope with a command as was pretended to tender Obedience to his Holiness in his Name But Claudius David successor did afterwards tell Oviedus to his face that this was * This Forgery is owned by the Pen of a Rom. Cath. added to the Emperor's Letters as well contrary to his intention as without his knowledge He sent also with them Christopher Licanatus aliàs Zega Zeab with kind Letters both to the King of Portugal and the Pope These Embassadors left Ethiopia in the Month of April an 1526. and arrived at Lisbon in July the same year But Francis Alvarez came not to Rome till the 29th of January an 1533. at which time he deliver'd the Ethiopian Letters to the Pope then Clemens the VIIth who caused them to be read in the presence of that puissant Emperor Charles the Vth. and many other Worthies King Emanuel was very desirous this friendly correspondence already so well initiated might be brought to perfection and though he did not live to see his Wishes fully answer'd yet this design of his was afterwards much facilitated by another Message from Claudius the Son and Successor of David wherein he earnestly requested aids from the King of Portugal against one * Against whom Tessa Zion inveighs bitterly terming him a Companion of the Goats and Persecutor of the Sheep because of the devastation of his Native Countrey Grain King of Adel a more successful than potent Neighbour who at that time miserably wasted his Dominions and to render this request the more successful and avaialable he not only sent a Confession of his Faith since published by Job Ludolfus but in the same Letters further craved an understanding person invested by the Pope with the Authority of a Patriarch and some other able Divines to be sent under his Conduct into Abissinia In Answer to this proposal John King of Portugal demanded of Ignatius de Loyola some Members of his