would sooner put themselves under the Mahometans than turn Papists This put me upon writing all that I could have Preached to them if I could have spoke their Language that so I might by the answer the King returned to it clearly discover his thoughts which he had so long dissembled when we heard of the King 's being returned to the Camp we went presently to wait upon him and were told by several Portugueses that belonged to the Court That the King had not so much as once mentioned our Names since our Audience Now the Treatise I had composed being in Portuguese it was necessary if I would have the King to read it to get it Translated into Chaldee whereupon I writ a Letter to the King himself to desire him to let me have a couple of Learned Monks to Translate the Truths of our Faith into Chaldee I having put them together on purpose to shew how little reason his people had to call us of the Roman Communion Hereticks and to affirm that we were worse than Mahometans and being informed that the Habassins had a Book among them written by the Schismaticks and Hereticks of Alexandria from whence they have their Abuna's having paid a Tribute to the Turk for that priviledge Entituled The Adultery of the Franks wherein among other things the Council of Calcedon is condemned pretending that it taught that there were Four Persons in the Holy Trinity and we are likewise charged with divers Errors I begg'd of the King that I might have a sight of that Book The King would not let me have the Book and was very angry that I had been told of it but as to the Monks I had desired he ordered a couple to come to me but they had not well begun the Translation before either out of fear that the King would be displeased with them if they went on with it or because he had privately Commanded them not to do it they gave it over so that I was obliged to repair to a Portuguese Captain to speak to them to finish it who with much ado prevailed with them to go on The Interpreter on my side was a worthy Portuguese who understood both the Languages well Having at last got my Treatise Translated the next thing I had to do was to get it written out fair and having desired an Amanuensis of the King to do it for me after having granted me one he repented presently and sent me word That if I would let him see my Treatise as it was he would read it over and that otherwise he would never trouble himself with it so I was obliged to carry it to him as it was having first dated it and put my name to it it bore date the 20th of August When I delivered it to him I was accompanied by a Portuguese Captain and Seven or Eight more of the same Nation and after having paid the customary Obeisances I began a short speech concerning the occasion of my coming into Ethiopia but the King interrupted me and began to talk of other things as one prepared to ward off the blows that I had designed to have given him when I had put my Treatise into his hand he begun to read in it but had read but a little way before he was put into such a passion by it as made him vomit out the poison he had so long concealed telling me I had desired leave to set down the Truths of my own Faith and to have some Monks to Translate them into Chaldee but instead of that I had charged those with Errors who had none he told me further That that was a work no ways proper for a simple Priest like me but was the work of some Great Bishop or Prelate like the Pope I made answer It was true I was but a mean man but the things I had set down were nevertheless the Truths of the Gospel and of the Holy Councils whom and not me I desired his Highness to hear He told me I had imposed several things upon them which they never held I replied I knew very well that his Highness was in no Error of Faith but that his Subjects were and that I had set down nothing but what was true and what I was ready to demonstrate to him He said He was no friend to Disputations but there was one thing he was certain of which was that Ethiopia had always held the same Faith that it did now or at least that it had for above a Thousand years that Disputations were never to be used but with Heathens and that his Faith being thus Ancient there was no body before me had ever presumed to say it was Erroneous To this I answered That God did sometimes for peoples Sins suffer such things and that his Highness had reason to thank God for having in his time visited Ethiopia with the truth of the Gospel He said the Catholick Church was divided into four Chairs and that they had from the beginning been subject to one of them I repli'd it was true but so it was likewise that all Churches were Anciently subject to the Roman Bishop who was above all the rest as his Highness was above his Subjects insomuch that the three other Chairs for having denied obedience to the Roman were all become Schismatical together with all those who were subject to them That his Highness if he would be pleased to peruse my Treatise would therein meet with full Answers to all his Objections exhorting him to take care not to make himself of that number of People the Prophet speaks of who would not understand that they might do well The Emperor's defence of himself and his Faith After a great deal of arguing I told him that my design in writing that Paper was to discover how his mind stood disposed towards the Pope and the Learned Friars which his Brother the King of Portugal was about to send to him for that if he was not willing that they should come it would be to no purpose for the King to send them so far I did therefore beseech his Highness to declare whether he intended to submit himself to the Pope as he had promised he said he had learned Friars enough in his Kingdom and that it was needless for the King of Portugal to trouble himself to send him any more and as for the Pope That he had never yielded him any obedience that Submission that was carried to him by Gasper de Magalhaens being what he had never made and was either a trick or mistake of the Monk who Translated his Letters to the King of Portugal concluding That he was resolved never to yield Obedience to any Patriarch but the Patriarch of Alexandria whom he would always obey as all his Ancestors had done before him When I found the King thus absolutely determined I took my leave of him who after I was gone begun to extol me for a mighty Scholar saying He wondered how it was possible for so
THE Church-History OF ETHIOPIA WHEREIN Among other things The Two Great Splendid ROMAN MISSIONS into That Empire are placed in their true Light To which are Added An Epitome of the Dominican History of That Church And an Account of the Practices and Conviction of MARIA of the Annunciation the Famous NUN of Lisbon Composed By MICHAEL GEDDES D.D. Chancellor of the Cathedral Church of SARUM LONDON Printed for Ri. Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard MDCXCVI To the Right Honourable AND Right Reverend Father in God HENRY Lord Bishop of LONDON One of the Lords of His MAJESTY's Privy Council May it please Your Lordship THE following Book being the History of a Church that was never at any time under the Papal Yoke and which when its Princes instead of being Nursing Fathers struggled hard of late years to have brought its Neck under it never rested until it had both broke that insupportable Yoke asunder and secured it self from ever having the like Attempts made again upon its Liberty To whom can it so naturally go for Patronage as to a Noble and Great Prelate who had the Courage when Popery was in the heighth of its last Triumph among us in his own single Person to give it the first Publick Check that it met with a kindness the Church and State of England will I hope never forget I am sure they ought not and who has furthermore for near these Twenty Years made it his chief Study by creating a right understanding betwixt all Antipapal Churches to unite them all into one Body that so they may be the better able to withstand their common Enemy who is still indefatigable in his Endeavours to bring all Churches yet into bondage Which Consideration together with the great Obligation the Compiler of this History is under to neglect no opportunity of owning to the World how much he has been beholden to your Lordship as they have put me upon dedicating it to You so I cannot but hope that a Person of Your Lordship's High Birth and admirable Benignity and sweetness of Temper will both pardon my Presumption in so doing and pass by any weaknesses that may discover themselves in the Composure and also accept it as a small Testimony of my being Your Lordship 's Devoted and most humble Servant Michael Geddes THE PREFACE WHEN in the Preface to the Synod of Diamper I promised from Portuguese Relations to give some Account of the Churches which were never within the Bounds of the Roman Empire I intended to have begun with the Church of Mosul or Babylon but not having hitherto been able to procure those Informations of it which I had then some reason to expect and having during my nine Years Residence at Lisbon furnished my self with all the Portuguese Books which do any ways treat of Ethiopia I was perswaded by some Friends to alter my mind and to begin with That Church which of all others till within these Two hundred years had had the least Communication with the Roman and which notwithstanding all the pains its Princes and the Jesuits have been at of late to bring her under the Bondage of the Papacy has tho with a terrible struggle maintained her Primitive Liberty and Independency on that Ambitious and Usurping See and does to this day with greater Zeal than ever assert them And that I may not seem Actum agere in publishing an History of Ethiopia after the Learned Mr. Ludolphus I am to acquaint the Reader That whereas the two great Splendid Roman Missions into that Empire are the most remarkable things that have come to our knowledge in the History of that Church so if some of my Learned Friends are not mistaken Those Two Missions with all their Steps and Circumstances are here placed in a truer Light than they were ever seen in before And tho I will not promise that my Conjectures upon the dark and hidden things of those Missions are all true as who indeed that makes many and especially in matters which have been industriously disguised by men of Art will venture to promise yet this I can safely say that I have not made one but what I thought I had some ground for And as to matters of fact I do assure the Reader that in the matter of the Missions I have set down few or none but what I had out of Roman-Catholick Writers and licensed by the Inquisition and who for the most part were Jesuits There are Four things whereof if I am not mistaken this History will abundantly satisfy the Impartial Reader The First is That the Roman Missionaries but especially the Jesuits having neither the gift of Miracles nor of Patience to wait for the slow issues of the old method of converting Nations by preaching the Faith to them are every where where they can come at them for dispatching it with Dragoons or by some other violent and sanguinary way The Jesuits being all to a man of the same opinion with their great Apostle of the Indies Francis Xaveir whose Maxim as Ravarette informs us was Mientras no estiuveron debaxo del Mosquete no avia de ver Christiano de provecho that is to say Missionaries without Muskets do never make Converts to any purpose The truth of which Maxim John Bolunte a Missionary Jesuit tells us is confirmed by universal Experience Niâ—enâ—el Brasil saith he Peru Mexico Florida Philipinas y Maluca ha havido Christianidad ni Conversion sinla sombra de vel Poder Secular that is Neither in the Brasils Peru Mexico Florida the Philipins or Maluca have any Conversions been made without the help of the Secular Power affirming in another place of his Book Que en nenguna parte se ha hecho fruto sin Armas that is That Missionaries have done nothing any where without Military Arms. The Second is That there is no Tyranny in the World equal to that which the Roman Prelates where they have the Secular Arm at their command do continually exercise and that without the common relentings of humanity upon all sorts of people that will not turn to their Religion The Third is That Missionaries when ever they have inspired a Prince the main Body of whose Subjects are Anti-papists with a bigotry to introduce their Religion into his Country do commonly before they have done with him either run him out of breath or make him run his head against a wall The Fourth is That Ambition did very early take possession of the Jesuits Order that Society not being above ten years standing in the World when it had engrossed a Mission to it self which did promise both greater and cheaper Honours to its Ministers than ever any Mission had done before The clear discovery of which Truths together with that of the true Spirit and Temper of Missionaries and the Precipices they put Princes upon who are so unhappy as to be their Converts must make This History to be of some use to all Protestant Countreys which may therein
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
short time to the Indies or Portugal there to be affronted by every body that shall see me since they cannot but think that I who was so kindly entertain'd in Ethiopia must have done some very ill thing to deserve to be thus banished from thence But supposing you should not send me to the Indies but should suffer me to have my grave at the foot of the Patriarch Don Andrew D' Oviedo 's Tomb in Fremona all the Indies and Europe any all the world when they shall come to hear of my being banished thither will and must conclude that it is for some great Miscarriage that I have been guilty of Wherefore that I may be able to give some account of my self to the world I do in the name of God and Truth beg and require it of your Highness and of all your Nobles That you would be pleased to let me have the reasons in writing why you have thought fit to banish me the Court whether it be for my having preached any false Doctrine or for having been guilty of any scandalous Crime or for not having punctually compli'd with the obligations of my Pastoral function or for having been Insolent in my words or too rigorous in punishing or for having been slothful or careless or for what other cause Your Highness may remember that when your Father desired that his Subjects might be permitted to return to some of their ancient customs that I gratify'd him fully in that matter and that he happening at the end of our Treaty to mention some other customs that he had not spoke of before I told him That I was ready to yield to every thing that was not contrary to the Law of God one thing only excepted which was the giving the Cup to the Laicks which though not contrary to the Law of God the concession thereof being reserved to the chief Roman Pontiff the Successor of St. Peter and Christ's Vicar upon Earth it was not in my power to grant it I promised nevertheless at the same time to write to his Holiness about it and to lay the whole matter before him with great sincerity that so he as a faithful and prudent Steward might Ordain what was most profitable What I did then offer to your Father I do now again offer to your Highness and do declare That if your Highness and your Empire will but continue in the Obedience of the Roman Church the head of all Churches and will but follow her faith that I will grant you all that I can with a good Conscience in the form aforesaid Finally I do beseech your Highness before you send me away to assemble all your Learned men to Treat and Dispute with me about their doubts in Matters of Faith for confiding in the Mercy of God and their good Judgments I do not in the least doubt but that I shall be able to convince them of their being in several errors and to oblige them to confess that the Chair of St. Petor is such That the gates of hell can never prevail against it This in my opinion would be the best course you could take to quiet the minds of your people for that if this should not be yielded to what can the common people say but that the Learned men of Ethiopia were afraid to appear before the Light of the Roman Doctors but having shut their eyes do throw themselves into utter darkness What is offered in justification of their not yielding to this to wit that they shall incur an Excommunication if they do it is intolerable since the Patriarch of Alexandria no nor the Pope himself has not power to lay an Excommunication upon his Subjects on that account and the reason is because such an Excommunication would tend to the Destruction of the Faith which is known and made manifest by the Disputations of Learned men It is likewise contrary to the express command of God and his Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul Christ having commanded his Disciples and in them his whole Church to go and teach all Nations Jews Gentiles and Hereticks and again to seek and they should find knock and it should be opened unto them And how is truth sought or how are its gates knocked at but by Disputations It is also contrary to what St. Peter ordered who commands all Christians to be always prepared to give satisfaction to all that should desire a reason of the hope that is in them and in the last place it is a contradiction to St. Paul who told his Disciple Timothy that a Bishop ought to be a Doctor and writing to Titus he declares wherein that Doctorship consists and that it does in being so powerful in sound Doctrine as to be able to convince Gainsayers Wherefore if your Learned men do think that we contradict the truth why do they not endeavour to convince us of it and not seek to excuse their not endeavouring it by pretending that by ingaging in a Disputation with us they should fall under the Excommunication of Three hundred and Eighteen Fathers there being no manner of foundation for that pretence since Hosius Victor and Vincentius the Presidens of that Council were all the Legates of Pope Sylvester the Master of Constantine the Great who undoubtedly never drew the Sword of Excommunication against themselves to thrust it into their own Bowels wherefore to flee to Excommunication in such a case is to trust to a covering that cannot hide the ignorance of him that seeks to cover himself with it Since your Highness has been pleased to take all my Arms from me if I must go to Fremona I desire the favour of you to let my Servants have the Muskets to Guard me thither and they sholl be sent back to you again and if this should be denied I hope your Highness will appoint a strong Guard of Portuguese Soldiers with Fire-Arms to see me out of danger O. Patriarcha Though one cannot but be touched to see a Person who but a few Months before was in so high a Post treated thus rudely yet at the same time one can scarce forbear smiling to find a Roman Prelate advancing the Principle of the Seekers so high The Principle of the Seekers is advanced by the Patriarch as to make it to be destructive of Religion and contrary to the Commands of Christ and his Apostles to forbid People under pain of Excommunication to dispute about Matters of Faith denying it to be in the Pope's Power to rob People of this Liberty notwithstanding he could not but be sensible that it is what the Pope does every where and that there is no Doctrine whatsoever for which the Inquisition would sooner Burn a man than for maintaining such a liberty of Inquiry into the truth of Doctrines of Faith to be the undoubted Privilege and Duty of every Christian But this is not the only instance we have of the Jesuits affirming That the very same Doctrine may be true in one Countrey
he is or from whence he comes threatening us like Caterpillars against whom when they come the whole Countrey is up in Arms so that according to the word of David I am cast out like a locust you in what you do fulfilling what Christ said to the Jews I came in my Father's name and you received me not another will come in his own name and him you will receive the Children of Israel when they went out of Egypt carried not only their own goods but the Egyptians also which they had borrowed whereas we are forced to leave a great part of our own goods behind us but since we must leave them all when we come to die that gives us but little trouble but what afflicts us most is that your Highness should send the same Message to us which another King delivered with his own Mouth to Moses and Aaron in the Twelfth of Exodus Arise and go from among my people and that with the same haste as he forced the Jews out of Egypt by night it being said the Egyptians pressed the Hebrews to depart suddenly saying if they do not depart this night we are all dead men imputing the death of their First-born to the presence and detention of the Children of Israel whereas in Justice they should have attributed it to the hatred they bore to the Hebrews who had been their deliverers and to their own cruelty in having thrown their Sons into the Nile After the same manner Ethiopia ought to impute the just punishments they have received at the hand of God to the unjust hatred they have for the Portugueses their restorers and to their Manifold publick and scandalous Sins some whereof I shall just mention Most of their men are for having several Wives and their Women are for changing their Husbands Their Monks care not to have any thing more of Monks than the habit chusing the Houses of the Court of Ladies for their Monasteries The Nobles are for making themselves Lords of the Church and her Lands indulging the flesh in all things and would have their Pastors to be as so many Statues in having neither Eyes to see their Sins nor Mouths to reprove them nor hands to chastise them Nâ—w so long as these Sins continue in Ethiopia the Sword will never depart from it Open your Eyes Sir and follow the truth according to your knowledge thereof and suffer not the good Nature and Understanding which God has given you to be ruin'd by evil Counsellors but do justice to your Subjects remembering what God hath said by the Ecclesiasticus That Kingdoms are Translated from one to another and from one Family to another by reason of Injustice And since we are not to see one another again before we meet at the Tribunal of God's Justice I must tell you plainly That though I should not accuse you there you will accuse your self your Empire the Gospel the Councils and the Books of the Fathers and Doctors of the Church which I brought for your Instruction and you have rejected will all accuse you there Nevertheless I the Bishops and Fathers imitating our Master Jesus Christ who when he was on the Cross prayed for his Murtherers not attending to the hatred wherewith they persecuted him but to the precept of his Father's and his own willingness to die for them do from our hearts pray that God of his great Mercy would pardon you and your whole Empire and remove from you and it the Scourges of his wrath which the examples in holy Scripture threaten them withal who will go on in their Sins And whereas the Gauls since the time your Ancestors broke the Oath they made to the Portugueses That they would receive the Roman Faith have become Masters of the greatest part of your Empire so I pray God that the remaining part thereof may not be lost on this occasion wherein there have been so many Oaths and Excommunications with such a clear knowledge of the truth insomuch that what Saint Stephen said of the Jews â—ay be truly appli'd to you You do always resist the holy Spirit after the Example of your Fathers May that Divine Spirit which is the Temple and Fortress of Truth enlighten and strengthen your Highness to know and love the Roman Catholick Faith which is the true way and life Offonso Patriarch of Ethiopia Banished for Jesus Christ The Patriarch having been rifled by the way by a company of Banditties arrived at Fremona on the 24th of April and not being able to think of returning to the Indies to live there as a Private Friar and where he knew his Conduct would be censured if for no other reason for its having been unsuccessful he began to consider whether he might not in case the Emperor should command him to depart his Kingdoms which he every day expected he would do find some Nobles that would undertake to protect him against him but being sensible that that was not to be done any other way but by giving assurances that a Portuguese Army would come in a short time to succor them he immediately dispatched four Fathers to Goa The Patriarch so soon as he arrived at Fremona sends Four Jesuits to the Indies to sollicit for Troops to sollicit the sending of an Army to them as the greatest Service that could be done either to God or the Crown of Portugal and having done this he thought he might very well encourage some of the Grandees to take them under their protection by promises of a Portuguese Army being ready to embark at Goa to come to their assistance and being informed that Prince John Kay the Heir of their old friend Bahurnagays was living discontented upon his own Lands which were Mountainous and not far from the Sea Coast he sent two Fathers to him to try if they could persuade him to undertake their protection by promises of great things the Portuguese Army that was coming would do for him The Envoys managed matters so that they brought O Kay to promise to protect them it being agreed betwixt him and them He sues to O Kay a discontenred Lord for protection against the Emperor That whensoever the Emperor should command the Patriarch and Fathers to leave Ethiopia that he should send a Troop of Horse to fetch them from Fremona into his own Lands where when he had them once he promised to defend them till the Portuguese Army arrived This O Kay you must know was one of the chief Leaders in Guergis's Croisade for the extirpation of Popery O Kay undertakes to protect him which though the Patriarch knew well enough yet being sensible that he was discontented with the Emperor and the Court and believing Ambition to be much stronger in him than Religion he thought he might be a man proper enough for his purpose the very Peasants of Lasta being made use of by the Fathers against me Emperor as we shall see hereafter The Emperor who was too jealous of the Patriarch and
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
confirmed the Truth of the Gospel conquered Tyrants triumphed over Wild Beasts and with your hands full of Palms and your Heads crowned with Laurels are entered into the Palaces of Heaven pardon my Ignorance and pray for us Sacred Virgins shining Religious the Glory of the World the Honour of Heaven the Beauty of Humane Nature and the singular Ornaments of the Order of St. Dominick Pardon all the Defects of this Book in relation to your Praises and pray for us Amen After this studied Prayer which is a sufficient Indication of the Romantick Genius of the Man he imagining I suppose that Protestants notwithstanding all his Apologies and begging of Pardons for having said so little of his Heroes would not be so civil as to believe one half of what he has said of them falls foul upon them and thanks God that he did not write these things to Luther and Calvin or any other excommunicated Hereticks who do ignorantly brutally rashly and blasphemously deny the profitable Intercession of the most glorious Saints with God but to most Catholick Spaniards whose Cridulity having never been tainted with the Heresies of their Neighbours of France and England he hoped would swallow his Book of Prodigies without chewing and especially coming recommended to them by all its Licenses as a Book of wonderful Edification to all pious Souls most of them vouching likewise for the truth of it Its Licensers and Vouchers being no less Men than Don Batasar de Boria Doctor of Law Archdeacon of Xativa Canon of the Church of Valentia and Vicar-General and Official of the Archbishoprick of Valentia Juan Pasqual Rector of the Church of St. Martin and Licenser of the Patriarch of Antioch and Archbishop of Valentia Fryar Raphael Riphez Prior Provincial of the Dominicans in the Kingdom of Arragon Fryar Lupero de Huette and Fryar Jeronymo Mos Licensers of the Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition who do all in their Licenses give great Commendations both to this History and its Author But this History having been written chiefly to blast the rising-Reputation of the Jesuits and the credit of all their Reports it s having so many and so great Vouchers for its Truth and the Master of the Sacred Palace likewise to whom it is Dedicated for its Patron was not enough to hinder the Jesuits from exposing it so soon as ever it crept out of its cell to the world in its true colours whole Battalions of them falling upon it at once at such an unmerciful rate that as I have been told they made the Dominicans so much ashamed of this Romance which they had endeavoured to have obtruded upon the world for a true History that they have laboured ever since to get all the Copies of it into their hands to destroy them for which reason I shall do all that I can to preserve that which I have by giving it to a Library which next to that of the Emperor of Ethiopia 's is the greatest in the World But this is not the only pious fraud the Dominicans have miscarried in after having promised their Order great honour from them History of the Lisbon Nun called Maria of the Annunciation but above all is that of the Nun at Lisbon the History whereof I shall here set down more at length than I have seen it any where in one Book Maria of the Annunciation was Born at Lisbon and at the age of Thirteen was put into the Dominican Convent of the Annunciation in that City in which so soon as she was of age to do it she professed her self a Nun which she had not done long before she begun to have Miraculous Visions and to be daily visited by Christ in Person whom she still saluted with the Doxology thus Glory be to the Father and to Thee and to the Holy Spirit Whenever she received the Sacrament her Soul was in a Rapture and was honoured with the Vision of the Heavenly Coire of Angels and when she embraced the Crucifix which she still called her Husband it constantly darted out beams of Light much brighter and stronger than those of the Sun One day as she was at her Devotion Christ appeared to her and made her a promise to visit her again upon St. Thomas Aquinas's day and thereon to do her the greatest honour that any Creature was capable of Maria having acquainted Antonio de la Cerda the Provincial of her Order who upon her Name being so high for Miracles was become her Confessor with the Promise had been made her she was directed by him how to prepare her self for the reception of so great a favour whose Directions she punctually observed for never was any creature more submissive to a Confessor Thomas Aquinas's day being come and all the Nuns and Friars being assembled to Mattins while Maria was in a most profound fit of Devotion Christ Crucified appeared to her and in the sight of the whole Congregation printed all the Wounds of his Head Side Hands and Feet upon the same parts of her Body she had Two and thirty Wounds such as Thorns use to make on her Head and in her Side a Gash that resembled a Wound made with a Spear and on her Hands and Feet the Wounds were of a Triangular Figure as if made by a Nail and in order to excite the Devotion of the absent as well as present the Rags she laid to the Wounds on Thursdays had always the Five Wounds of Christ printed on them in the form of a Cross and happy was the Roman Catholick Prince or Princess who could obtain some of those Sacred Rags The Pope he had one and the King of Spain who was strangely devoted to her had another and the Empress had one sent her against she lay in neither was there a Roman Catholick Prince or Princess in Europe but what had obtained one of them by some interest or other Paramus in his History of the Inquisition saith That he being at that time an Inquisitor in Sicily saw one of them which had been sent to the Viceroy Don Henrique de Gusman's Lady who he saith adored it as the most Sacred Relick in the World And Philip the IId. to satisfie the World that he firmly believed all that was reported of the Sanctity and Miracles of the Lisbon Nun had the Royal Standard of the Armada which came against England in the year 1588. Blessed by her The Inquisition whose business it is to enquire severely into the truth of things which are reported to be Miracles having summoned her Confessor and all the rest of the Friars who belonged to the Convent to appear before them was fully satisfied by their Depositions and Oaths as Eye-Witnesses of the Truth of the whole matter as it was reported Whereupon Gregory the XIIIth writ her a very Godly Letter exhorting her to Humility Thankfulness and Perseverance in her Devotions and as there was no Roman Catholick that did in the least doubt of the truth of what
Belly There is a great mixture of People in Habassia There is a great mixture of People in Ethiopia from which the Countrey is said by some to have had its Name As Heathens Jews and Mahometans of sever Nations but the Main Body of its People are Christians The Jews speak Hebrew or rather Syriack the Heathens as many different Languages as there are Kingdoms but the Court-Language and which is spoke by all Persons of any Quality is the Amehara The Empire does not descend to the Eldest Son but to him whom the Emperor at his death is pleased to Name for his Successor The Emperors formerly kept their Court in the City of Axum from which the African Ethiopians were commonly called Axumites which is at present reduced to a Village of about a hundred Families The Royal Arms of Habassia are a Lyon holding a Cross with this Motto The Lyon of the Tribe of Judah is Victorious I do but just mention these things my Intention in this Work being to write the Ecclesiastical and not the Natural or Civil History of Ethiopia Of the Religion of the Habassins IT is a constant Tradition among the Habassins The Queen of Sheba is reported to have been Empress of Ethiopia That the Queen of Sheba that went to Visit Solomon was Empress of their Countrey whose Name they say was Maqueda and who within a few weeks after she returned home was delivered of a Son Begat by Solomon whom she Named Menileher Menileher so soon as he was of Age to undertake so long a Journey was sent by his Mother to Jerusalem to receive his Father's Blessing and to be Instructed by him in the Law of Moses and all other useful Sciences Solomon having received his Son when he arrived at Jerusalem with great Tenderness and Affection made him change the Name of Menileher for that of David and having thoroughly Instructed him in the Jewish Religion Her Son by Solomon is said to have introduced Judâ—ism into it and made him promise to introduce it into his Empire he dismissed him with Noble Presents giving him also several Priests and Levites to take home with him to assist him in so good a Work David being returned home did with the help of the Priests and Levites set immediately about introducing the Mosaical Law into his Empire and was so successful that in a few years it was embraced by the whole Body of his People and continued to be professed by them until the Publication of the Gospel among them Upon which Fable for I cannot look upon it as any other they have built an hundred more which are much sitter for a Legend than an History Neither is the Habassins having used Circumcision any argument at all of their having been ever of the Jewish Law since there is nothing more certain than that that Rite was the ancient usage of the Ethiopians and divers other Nations who were always Enemies both to the Jews and their Religion And as the Habassins will have their Forefathers to have been of the Jewish Faith from the days of Solomon till the Preaching of the Gospel so they will have Christianity to have come among them early in the Apostles time It being a Tradition among them The Eunuch that was baptized by Philip is said to have been of this Countrey and to have introduced Christianity into it That the Eunuch that was Baptized by Philip the Deacon was Steward to their Empress and who returning home after he was Christened Converted his Mistress and her whole Empire to the Christian Faith in the Profession whereof they have ever since continued stedfast Which Story notwithstanding I take it to be of a piece with that of the Queen of Sheba and her Son yet this may be said for it That it has a greater Air of probability than most of the Traditional Histories of the first Conversions of Countries What is known from History of the first Introduction of Christianity into Ethiopia is That in the beginning of the Fourth Century one Meropius a Christian Philosopher going into India with Two of his Scholars whose Names were Frumentius and Aedesius Frumentius Bishop of Axum was the Apostle of Ethiopia had the misfortune to touch on the Coast of Ethiopia where Meropius was inhumanly Murthered by the Natives but his Two Scholars having their Lives spared and being found to be Youths of fine Parts as well as Beauty they were carried to Court where Frumentius was put into the Secretaries Office and Aedesius into the Buttery When the Emperor who had always been very kind to them came to Die he gave them both their Liberty but as they were preparing to make use of it and return home the Queen Regent was importunate with them to stay and to undertake the Tutelage of her Son till he was of Age which they having consented to did during that time write to all the Roman Merchants residing in the ports of Ethiopia that were Christians to assemble together to Worship God as they themselves and the Converts they had made at Court did Daily When their Pupil came to take the Administration of the Government upon himself they both desired Leave to return home which having obtained with great difficulty they left Ethiopia Aedesius went to Tire to live with his Relations but Frumentius having a greater love for his Religion repaired directly to Alexandria with an intention to acquaint the Bishop thereof who at that time was the Great Athanasius with the footing Christianity had taken in Ethiopia St. Athanasius who was overjoyed at this good news having consulted with his Clergy what was fit to be done persuaded Frumentius whom he observed to be a Person of great Zeal and Piety to be Consecrated a Bishop by him and to return into Ethiopia with that Character to accomplish a Work he had so happily begun and accordingly he was Consecrated a Bishop by St. Athanasius and going back to Ethiopia did in a short time Convert both the Emperor and the main Body of his People to the Christian Faith This Account of the Introduction of Christianity into Ethiopia is to be met with in the 9th Chapter of the 1st Book of Ruffinus who saith he had not this Story from the chat of the People but from Aedesius's own mouth who was Ordained a Presbyter at Tire And as Frumentius was undoubtedly Orthodox as to the Doctrine of our Lord's Divinity when he was Consecrated a Bishop by St. Athanasius so the World coming afterwards to complain of its being turned Arian could not shake his Constancy in the True Faith as appears from Constantius's Letters to the Princes of Axum whose Names were Abra and Azba which Letter I shall here set down as I find it in St. Athanasius's Apology to that Emperor AS there is nothing we study so much as the knowledge of the Truth Constantius's Letter to the Princes of Axum so we reckon our selves obliged to recommend the same diligence and
industry to all sorts of people that we may all think so of the Divinity as to pass our lives in hope and without dissention concerning what is true and just Wherefore since we do think fit to extend this our Care to you no less than to the Romans we do enjoin you to maintain the same Doctrines with them in your Churches and to that end to send Bishop Frumentius into Egypt with all possible expedition there to be judged by the most Venerable George and the other Egyptian Prelates in whom is the Supreme Authority of Ordaining and Judging af Bishops For unless you will pretend to be ignorant of what all the world knows you must be sensible that Frumentius was consecrated by Athanasius a man made up of wickedness and who not being able in the least to vindicate himself as to any of the Crimes he stands charged withal was thereupon deposed and has since that turned a Vagabond roving from one Countrey to another as if he hoped to lose his Guilt by shifting his dwelling In case Frumentius should yield a ready obedience and give a full account of the whole Conspiracy so that it shall be certified that he does not dissent from the Ecclesiastical Laws and the Faith that is now established and it doth appear that he is a Person of a Good Life he may then be ordained a Bishop which at present he is not of Right Whereas if he shall seek delays and decline coming to Judgment that will be an undeniable Proof of his having been seduced by the words of the most Profligate Athanasius as also of his acting impiously against God and of his being involved in the same Crimes whereof Athanasius stands convicted In which case if he should be suffered to go on without controul as he will do all that he can to corrupt your People with his Wicked and Impious Words and not only disturb and destroy the Church and belch out Blasphemies against the Supreme God so he will likewise bring Ruin and Destruction upon all Nations Whereas if he could be persuaded to come and converse familiarly with Venerable George and other Learned Men he would reap great Benefits thereby and return to his Bishoprick well instructed in all Ecclesiastical Discipline God preserve you my most dear Brethren As this Letter is a clear demonstration of the greatness of the Arian Rage against the Orthodox which not being satisfied with having Persecuted them with the utmost Barbarities in all parts of the Roman Empire pursued them beyond its bounds so such a boundless Rage was never more conspicuous in Constantius or any other Persecutor of the Professors of the True Faith than it was in a Modern Prince The French King's Rage against Protestants superior to that of the Arians against the Orthodox who not being contented with having harass'd and destroyed several Thousands of Protestant Families within his own Kingdom did within these Ten Years write to all his most dear Brethren the Great Turk not excepted to drive all his Protestant Subjects if they did not presently turn Roman Catholicks out of their Territories or which was worse did by Solemnly withdrawing his Protection from them in Popish Countries leave them at the mercy of the Inquisition Baronius in his Roman Martyrology according to his humour of multiplying Saints has made Two of a single Frumentius for whereas in the Martyrology it is said among the Indians for so the Habassins were called anciently of St. Frumentius who was there first a Captive and afterwards Ordained a Bishop by St. Athanasius and did propagate the Gospel thorough that Countrey the Cardinal in his Notes adds At the same time there lived another Frumentius who was Bishop of Axum in Egypt whereas Axum is in Ethiopia and not in Egypt and was the City Frumentius mentioned in the Martyrology was Bishop of Philostorgius who was himself an Arian speaking of Theophilus Indus having been sent by Constantius on this Embassy insinuates as if the Ethiopians had been turned by him to the Arian Sect. But Philostorgius being the only Historian that insinuates any such thing we have little reason to believe it upon his bare word About the Year 480. Nine Monks come into Ethiopia Nine Monks are said to have been sent from Rome into Ethiopia their Names were Araguai or Michel Alef Gavi Afe Adimata Cuba Garima Saham Lebanos Pantaleon the Patriarch Mendez who quotes the Chronicon Axumense for this truly observes That by Rome here is meant Greece which after the Roman Emperors had fixed their Court in it was called in these remote parts by that name but the Dominicans in their History of Ethiopia of which the Reader will meet with an Epitome in the Appendix will have all these Monks though dead near a Thousand Years before Dominick was born to have been Friers of his Order sent from Old Rome and having turned Adimata whom they call Imata into a Woman they have made her likewise a Holy Sister of their Order that accompanied the Eight Brothers in their Mission Metaphrastes and after him the whole herd of Legendaries do speak of one Elesbean a Christian King of Ethiopia in the time of Justin the Emperor of whom and of his having Vanquished a Jewish Tyrantin Arabia who had been a Cruel Persecutor of his Christian Subjects they have framed a tedious blind Story that is not fit to be offered to any Reader that has not a Legendary Nose But as most Fables have something of History for their foundation so if this of Elisbean has any it must be the following History that is met with in Procopius's Persian War Justinian the Emperor being engaged in a War with the Persians in the Year 530. Justinian sends an Embassy into Ethiopia sent one Julian Embassador to the King of the Axumites or the African Ethiopians and to the King of the Homerites a Nation Inhabiting the Asiatick Coast of the Red-Sea that is opposite to Ethiopia to engage them being Christians to joyn with him against the Persians the common Enemy of their Religion The King of Ethiopia's Name at that time was Hellesteus who a few years before had out of Zeal for Christianity the Christian Homerites having complained to him of their being miserably oppressed by the Jews and Heathens they lived among crossed the Red-Sea with a Numerous Fleet and Army and having in a pitch'd Battel Defeated and Killed the King of the Homerites who had been a Cruel Persecutor of Christians he advanced one Esimetheus an Homerite Christian to the Throne but upon Condition that he and his Successors for ever should pay a yearly Tribute to the Crown of Ethiopia The main thing proposed by the Ambassador to the Ethiopian for the incommoding of the Persians The business of the Embassy was to open a Trade for Silk to the Indies which the Romans who used to buy those Silks of the Persians would promise to take off his Merhants hands But for the Homerites the