less esteem'd in their Sacred Registers while they cry Remember Lord our Father Eustathius with all his Children Of him the Ethiopic Poet thus sings Hail to thy pretious Mantle once the Boate Which with thy Burden on the Sea did floate Thy Pilgrimage a mighty Wonder shew'd Th'Obedient Ocean smooth and smiling slow'd And Rocks remov'd abandon'd ancient Rest To give free Passage where thy footsteps prest He also prescrib'd Laws to his followers but impos'd no Governour upon them neither are they very solicitous about that neglect pretending That Eustathius went into Armenia having nam'd no Successor and that therefore it is not lawful for them to appoint any one Every Abbot therefore is Supreme in his own Monastery and if any one dye another is chosen by the Suffrages of the rest of the Monks Habessinia is full of these sort of people to the great burthen of the Common-wealth to which they are no way profitable as being useless in the Field and free from Tribute However their Rules and Orders are very much different both from the Greeks and Latins For excepting their Sheemas and Crosses which they carry you can hardly distinguish them from the Laitie in regard they neither wear any Coat or Monastical Habit. Nor do they live in Monasteries but in some Village in scatter'd Cottages near to some Church or Temple They have certain Prayers of which they say such a number believing their Piety fully satisfy'd if they finish their Task which that they may make the more hast to accomplish they huddle over the Psalms of David with such a dextrous celerity that I who have heard 'em at Rome holding the same Copy in my hand could never follow them with my voice and hardly with my eyes Every one manures his own Ground and lives upon the product of his Labours of which they are also very liberal Otherwise they go and come every one without controul as they please themselves So that by no means their Farms can be call'd Cloysters nor they be said to be really Monks but onely unmarried Husbandmen and that onely while they preserve their Continency intire However they are branded with infamy if they forsake their Monastical way of living to marry Wives Nor are their Children capable of being admitted into the Clergy and it is taken for an affront to call any man the Son of a Monk Nevertheless they bear Civil Offices and are sometimes made Governors of Provinces as is apparent by the Example of Tzagazaabus who was a Monk as appears from Alvarez's Itinerary Of such as these the Question may be ask'd with St. Jerome If thou desirest to be accompted a Monk what doest thou do in the Cities what in the Camp or why dost thou undertake Civil Employments They could not choose but highly displease the Fathers of the Society which is the reason that they have always spoken of them with contempt on the other side the Monks have bin the main Obstacles of the Fathers Successes for which Reason Tellezius calls them Persecutors of the Catholic Faith Their Monasteries if we may so call their Villages are very numerous and dispierc'd over all Parts of the Kingdom and commonly go by the name of Daber a Mountain in the plural number Adebaruti Mountains as Dabra Bizen Dabra Hallelujah Dabra Damo Albamata and the like as being formerly built upon steep Hills Beside which they possess all the Ilands in the Tzanic Lake except Deka An Addition to the Third Chapter concerning their Nuns THat there are also Nuns in Ethiopia I gather from Tellezius But they are very ignorant and therefore the more obstinate in their devotion For proof of which the same Tellezius produces a very remarkable Story of one who by chance becoming blind was admonish'd by one of the Fathers to make Confession and embrace the Latin Religion unless she intended to go headlong to Hell To which the Nun made answer That she was willing to go thither of her own accord for that she found there was no Room for her in Heaven as being a person with whom God was displeas'd and had therefore depriv'd her of her sight without any cause of offence by her committed Upon which the Father press'd her the more urgently in hopes to deliver her from that more dangerous blindness of her Mind But finding her to continue obstinate after all his pains Since then said he thou refusest Heav'n get thee to Hell with all the Devils with Dathan and Abiram But I would not have thee take thy Religious Habit along with thee which is onely proper for those that desire the Joyes of Heaven And so saying he presently order'd her to put off her Nuns Vestments and to put on a sordid Vulgar Habit which wrought in her such a sadness and contrition that she soon after made her confession and reconcil'd her self to the Church of Rome CHAP. IV. Of the Sacred Books of the Habessines The Ethiopians together with the Christian Religion receiv'd the Holy Scripture according to the Version of the 70 Interpreters the New Testament from an Imperfect Copy and ill Printed The Old Testament divided into four parts The New Testament into as many The Revelation added as an Appendix To the New Testament are added the Constitutions and Canons of the Apostles as they call them divided into Eight parts Therefore they reckon several Sacred Books Three Oecumenical Councils A fair Manuscript of the Councils at Rome Books therein contain'd A Counterfeit Book of Enoch Magical Prayers Wherein Monstrous words seeming to be taken from the Jews The Form of the Jewish Anathematizing DIvine Worship is seldom found among any sort of Nations in the World to be without Books by which we apprehend from whence every particular kind of worship derives it self and by what means it got footing among the People for the words and the worship generally go together Which is the reason there are so many Hebrew and Greek words in all the Versions of the Bible and that we have so many Latin words in our Theologie The Habessines together with the Christian Religion receiv'd the holy Scripture And this Scripture was translated into that Idiom of the Ethiopic Language which was at that time more peculiar to the Inhabitants of Tigra from the Greek Version of the Seventy Interpreters according to a certain Copy us'd in the Church of Alexandria which the innumerable various Readings that are inserted into the English Polyglòtton Bibles from one of the same Copies plainly demonstrate with which the Ethiopic Translation perfectly agrees Especially in the 35 39 Chapter of Exodus which in other Copies are wonderfully mutilated Nor is it without reason that a Colonie as it were of the Alexandrian Church should follow the Sacred Copies of their Metropolis As for the Author and Time of the Translation I find nothing certainly deliver'd concerning either however it is most probable that it was begun at the time when the Habessines were (f) There is one who
among the Europeans for her Letters sent to Emanuel the First King of Portugal of which we shall hereafter speak more at large David at the beginning of his Reign very prosperous in his Undertakings for he had won several Victories from the Adelans after his Grandmothers Decease as if he had now the Curb in his teeth giving himself up to Luxury and the love of Women was very Unfortunate toward the end of his days For being driven out of all his Kingdoms and Territories he was forc'd to betake himself with some few Soldiers to the Rock Damo where he dy'd in the Forty sixth year of his Age. In this the more unhappy that during his Reign the Nation of the Gallans the Scourge of Habessinia made their first Incursions out of Bali He had four Sons of whom the first Victor dy'd before the Father of the other three we shall have occasion to speak in due place He was very well vers'd in Holy Writ and in the three first Councils as may be understood by his Discourses with Alvarez Claudius by his other Name call'd Atznaff-Saghed the Son of David came to a Kingdom miserably shatter'd and over-burthen'd with Calamity and lurking in the utmost Confines of his Dominions there attended some miraculous assistance from Heaven which soon after answer'd his Expectation John the Second King of Portugal sending him Succour under the Conduct of that most Valiant and Noble Portuguese Christopher Gamas who with a small Band of Four hundred Portuguese Foot Soldiers overthrew vast Armies of the Barbarians and laid the Foundations of regaining the Habessinian Empire Claudius was a man of a most Princely Port. For besides the outward Grace of his Person he was endu'd with many Virtues of the Mind which made him judg'd by all worthy of the Royal Dignity The Fathers of the Society applauded him for a most Prudent Prince though otherwise not so well pleased with him because he had not shew'd that Affection to the Roman See as they requir'd though he did not prohibit the Divine Worship of the Latin Church nor hinder'd the Roman Priests from the free Exercise of their Religion He was also Learned and well instructed in Ecclesiastical Antiquity So that as Tellezius witnesses his Teachers seem'd illiterate in comparison of their Scholar For in Disputes with the Fathers of the Society he himself for the most part would argue with so much vehemence that sometimes he put them hard to it to make him an Answer And when he observ'd that the Habessines were blam'd for retaining certain Judaic Rights contrary to the Christian Laws he put into Writing a succinct Confession of Faith by which he clear'd all Objections and excus'd himself and his Subjects That Confession we formerly (f) In England Anno 1667. It is also added to our Ethiopic Lexicon and Grammar set forth and shall publish again in our Commentary So that the Fathers of the Society could object nothing but Schism against so great and famous a Monarch He reign'd Eighteen years and some Months with great toil and trouble by reason of his continual Wars with the Adelans who mindful of the overthrows they had receiv'd frequently attempted Revenge The King stout of hand and indefatigable never refus'd Battel till at last in the Month of March 1559. fighting against Nurus the Captain of the Adelans his Army being vanquish'd guarded only with Eighteen Portugueses and Combating more furiously than warily he fell by an Immature but not unrevenged Death He left no Children behind him whence it came to pass that the Right of Succession being very ambiguous in Ethiopia the Contention was long dubious between his Brother Menas and Tascar the Natural Son of Jacob the second Brother deceased For this claim'd the Kingdom in right of his Father while he liv'd the Elder Brother the other alledg'd himself to be the nearer in Blood than he who was Illegitimate The Controversie being decided by the Sword Tascar was taken in the Battel and thrown headlong down a Rock Menas otherwise (g) Erroneous here some Historians ignorant that the word signifies a Gem call him Adam Adamas-Saghed having obtain'd the Kingdom by Arms being of a Cruel Disposition degenerated altogether from the Lenity Sincerity and Piety of the Habessines as if he had learnt the savageness of the Tvrks and Arabians among whom he had been long a Captive For he hated the Portugueses as minding their own Affairs and forbid the use of the Roman Religion not suffering any of the Habessines to go into the Latin Churches He also revok'd the Liberty which his Predecessor Claudius had granted to the Wives and Families of the Portugueses to frequent the Roman Chappels which caus'd many to wish again for the Clemency of Claudius with which they were not contented however before He despis'd the Romish Bishop Andrew Oviedo who in the Reign of Claudius was sent to make way for the new Patriarch and for some Months kept him in Prison Nor was he much more kind to his own Subjects For which reason out of an aversion to his Proceedings they revolted from him in several Parts Among the rest Isaac Bahrnagassus a man in great Power and skill'd in Military Discipline calling the Turks to his Assistance upon the Twentieth of April 1562. overcame the King in Battel and slew him to the great detriment of Habessinia For ever since that time the Turks have been Masters of the Coast of the Red Sea He left three Sons Sarza-Denghel Lesanax and Tazcar Of which the last dy'd without Children Sarza-Denghel taking the Government upon him call'd himself Malac-Saghed and was Inaugurated after the ancient manner at Axuma His Fortune was equal to his Vertues for he was stout of Hand and wise in Counsel And first he drave the Turks who were Masters of Dobarva the Metropolis of the Maritime Province out of Tigra He would also have driven them out of the Port of Arkiko and the Isle of Matzua had he not been recall'd to defend his Upland Dominions from the Incursions of the Galans These People by the Rapines and Plunder of five and twenty years while the Habessines were busied in so many other Wars increased to that power that now they over-ran Habessinia not with scattering Troops but with compleat Armies So that all the time of his Reign though otherwise prosperous in War he was forc'd to struggle with them However he subdu'd Enarea and caus'd the Prince thereof to turn Christian For he carefully observ'd the Christian Religion according to the Constitutions of the Church of Alexandria The Latin Rites he left indifferent And for the Fathers of the Society he often commended their Conversation of Life and their Studies but despised their Doctrine saying That their Manners and not their Doctrine was to be imitated Certainly Manners and Doctrine do not always accord And therefore sometimes the Doctrine is to be approv'd where the Manners are not Correspondent and sometimes the Manners are to be imitated
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
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
with Crosses Censors and Holy-water and that with a pace so swift that it is a difficult matter to follow them The Body is for some time set down by the Grave during the reading of a certain Paragraph out of St. John's Gospel after which the Body being found and sprinkl'd with Holy Water is not let down but thrown into the Sepulcher King Claudius being desirous to Solemnize the Exequies of Christopher Gomez upon the Anniversary Day that he had lost his Life for the Recovery of Abassia summon'd together all the Priests Canons Monks and all the Neighbouring Poor People and to the first being about Six hundred he gave a Royal Funeral Supper to the last being about Six thousand he distributed a large and noble Alms. They on the other side recited the whole Psalter quite thorough and made the Sky ring with innumerable Allelujahs a Ceremony that serves alike as well upon sad as joyful Occasions Thus when Marcus the Eldest Son of Susneus was Buried they sounded forth Marcus is Dead Hallelujah Marcus is Dead Hallelujah And this they repeated so often and so loud that the Fathers but newly then arriv'd in Ethiopia were astonish'd to hear such an unwonted cry not being able to tell whether the Ethiopians rejoyc'd or lamented So strangely are all Nations delighted with their own Customs CHAP. VII Of the Constitution and Form of Ecclesiastical Government in Ethiopia as also of the Priviledges of the Clergy The Clergy enjoy no immunity Their Head or Abuna created by the Metropolitan of Alexandria His Place in Councils The present State of the Alexandrian Church deplorable The Clergy ignorant the Patriarch Illiterate The Habessine Metropolitans ordain the Clergy only No Bishops nor Arch-Bishops The Icegue governs the Monks They acknowledge but four Oecumenical Patriarchs The Catalogue of Metropolitans incertain They do not reck'n these sent by the Pope After Mendez one call'd the Cophtit His Successors The Orders of Deacon Presbyter and Sub-Presbyter The Clergy Marry but not twice WE have already declar'd That the Supream Power in Ecclesiastical Affairs is invested in the King Therefore all Ecclesiastical Causes except only in very slight Matters are all determin'd by the King's Judges Neither do the Clergy or Monks enjoy any sort of Ecclesiastical Immunity or Priviledge of Exemption Nor does the Canon Siquis suadente diabolo hujus Sacrilegii reatum incurrerit quod in Clericum vel Monachum violentas manus injecerit c. help them at all but that upon offences committed they are punish'd as Lay Persons by the Secular Judges And many times they are sensible of the rough and violent hands of wicked Men without any fear of Excommunication But as to what concerns the Law of Order or the Diocesan Law those things are left to the Clergy Their Chief Head is call'd Papas or Metropolitan Tho the Title or Sirname of Abuna that is to say Our Father be more frequently given him He by ancient Custom at the King's desire is Consecrated to that Dignity by the Patriarch of Alexandria and sent out of Egypt into Ethiopia For they do not think it fitting for the Patriarch to nominate any one out of their own Nation tho never so skilful in their Language Laws and Customs It being provided by those Nicene Canons extant in the Arabic Language That the Ethiopians shall not Elect or Create a Patriarch but that their chief Chief Prelate shall be under the Jurisdiction of Him that resides at Alexandria And a little after That if the Council be held in Greece and the Prelate of Ethiopia be present he shall have the seventh place next the Prelate of Seleucia For they are very obstinate in maintaining their old Customs tho it happen to be one of their greatest Misfortunes The State and Condition of the Alexandrian Church being quite different now from what it was formerly that is to say altogether miserable and deplorable For both the Patriarch and his Clergy are a poor sort of contemptible and rustic People and void of all common Endowments They are as it were the Servants and Slaves of the Turks whose continual vexations so terrifie them from undertaking Ecclesiastical Employment that many times they receive their Ordination by constraint and with Tears in their Eyes which requires nothing more from them than to read Arabic For the Coptic or ancient Egyptian Language as it was spoken in the times of the Grecian Kings and as Athanasius Kirker has given a view of it to the Europeans is now almost buried in Oblivion Their Churches are either all destroy'd or very near to Ruin the Turks not suffering them either to Rebuild or Repair The Patriarch if he can but only read and write and understand the Scripture after an ordinary manner is thought sufficiently worthy of St. Mark 's Chair Hence it may be easily conjectur'd what sort of Persons are sent into Ethiopia for the Government of so many Churches In the time of the Fathers of the Society there was sent such a sad Tool into Habessinia to be the Abuna that being rejected for his Simplicity he was forc'd to Grind Corn for his living To whom another Succeeding not much better gifted gave occasion to the Courtiers to jest and cry We have a Miller still Now as these Patriarchs know very little so they do as little only in set forms of Words they ordain Under-Clercs just as wise and learned as themselves For this reason the Fathers of the Society little regarded the Ordinations of the Abuna but when any of the Abessine Priests came over to them they ordain'd them again after the Roman manner not without the great resentment and indignation of the rest In none of their Kingdoms or Provinces have they any Bishops or Arch-Bishops So that unless the Icegue with the assistance of his Monks had taken some care of the Church all thought of Religion had fallen to the ground long e're this This Abuna is by some tho improperly call'd Patriarch his truer Title being that of Bik Papas or Bik Papaste Prince or Master of the Metropolitans of whom they acknowledge only Four to be of equal Power and Dignity among themselves Among these they reckon the Roman Patriarch to be the First and call him Bik Papaste Zaromeja or the Roman Patriarch For they have no higher Title to give to any one who may be thought Superior to a Patriarch The first Metropolitan of Habessinia was Frumentius the Ethiopic Apostle From him to Simeon who dy'd with Elius in defence of the Alexandrian Religion they reck'n in order Ninety five Metropolitans We have not yet seen the Catalogue but in the Ethiopic Register they are Number'd up in this Order Abuna Abba Matthew Abba Salama Abba Jacob. Abba Bartholomew Abba Michael Abba Isaac Abba John Abba Mark who was Metropolitan in the Time of David Abba Joseph In the Reign of Claudius was receiv'd into the Kingdom with great Pomp without any regard had to John Bermudes whom the Pope had
sent into Abessinia with the Titles of Patriarch of Alexandria and Ethiopia As little respect did the Habessines give to John Nonius Barret and Andrew Ovieda Portugueses dignify'd at Rome with the Titles of Patriarch and sent into Ethiopia by the King of Portugal About the beginning of this last Century one Peter upheld by the Factious Party withstood Za-Denghel who favour'd the Romanists In the Time of Susneus Simeon already mention'd came into the Kingdom who being Slain and the Miller depos'd Alphonsus Mendez was by the Pope at the Instance of the Fathers of the Society preferr'd and by the Abessinians admitted to be their Patriarch tho not acknowledg'd under any other Title then that of Abuna Zaromeja or the Roman Abuna But he together with his Companions being soon after expell'd another call'd the Cophtit was sent in whose Company Peter Heyling of Lubeck travelled to the Habessine Court. To him succeeded one John and about the year 1651. another call'd Mark who being depos'd for his vitious life Michael succeeded him Lastly about the year 1662. one Gabraxos was order'd to supply his Decease As for the Cathedrals or Principal Churches they have their chief Overseers which they call Komasat Such a Komos was Peter the Ethiopian whose acquaintance was courted by Paulus Jovius It is their Duty to take care of the Secular Matters of the Churches and to compose the differences between the Clergy-men so far as their Jurisdiction extends Over the Churches that belong to the Camp the Debtera Gueta Presides as much as to say the Ruler of the Canons The Debterat or Canons being those Persons who are particularly employ'd in those Offices that require the addition of Hymns and Sacred Melody The Nebrat seems to be their Dean Next to whom in Dignity are the Kasis or Presbyter and the Nepheh Kasis or Sub-Presbyter the Dejakon or Deacon and Nepheh Dejakon or Sub-Deacon As for those Under-Ministers which in the Primitive Church were known by the Name of Readers they are quite out of Use as are also Deaconesses of which however they have the greatest need by reason of the frequent Baptizings of full-grown Women to whom their assistance while the Ceremony of their Baptism requires them to be naked is most necessary All Ecclesiastical Persons when they walk publickly abroad carry a Cross in their hands and offer it to all they meet to be Kiss'd having hardly any other note of Distinction from the Layety The same sort of Cross the Seculars also carry who to the end they may be admitted into the Sanctuary desire to be ordain'd Deacons as also most young Children All the Clergy except the Monks are permitted to Marry Neither will any man deny but that it was Lawful for the Catholic Bishops of the Primitive Church the Presbyters and Deacons to do the same which was also upon the Persuasion and Arguments of Paphnutius a most Holy Man allow'd of and approv'd by the Fathers of the Nicene Council as both Socrates and Sozomenus testifie whose Credit justify'd by all Antiquity was never yet call'd in question especially being confirm'd by the practice and so many clear and undeniable Presidents of the Primitive Church till Siricius and Innocent the First took upon them to order it otherwise in the Latin Church Among the Eastern Churches honest and lawful Matrimony was in much more high esteem than faithless Batchelorship obnoxious to perpetual concupiscence Wherefore the Grecians Armenians Russians but more especially our Ethiopians not only permitted their Presbyters to Marry but soonest prefer the Husbands of Wives insomuch that the nearest way to that Preferment is to Marry For they take the words of the Apostle Let him be the Husband of one Wife for a Precept yet understand it only so as not to extend any farther but to one single Marriage And therefore their Clergy never offer to covet repeated Wedlocks which even by the Seculars were not approv'd in the Eastern Churches The Novatians detested a second Wedlock after Baptism as equal to the Crime of Adultery The Latin Fathers also gave it an Ignominious Character reproaching it with the Scandalous Title of honest Adultery But in after Ages the Matter being more wisely consider'd it was not thought material whether the same Person Married one or more Wives after Death had once made the Seperation so that the Matrimony were lawful since there appear'd no reason to the contrary For which was alleadg'd the famous example of one Woman at Rome that had surviv'd the Two and twentieth Wedlock But the Habessines still observe their ancient Laws in regard that by the ancient Canons they that Marry twice are accompted unworthy of Holy Orders CHAP. VIII Of the Separation of the Habessines from the Greek Church in the Time of the Council of Chalcedon The Council of Chalcedon Dioscurus Condemn'd From thence the Melchites and Jacobites The great Damage to the Church by that Schism The Ethiopians defend Dioscurus The Ethiopians Condemn the Council of Chalcedon and call Timotheus and Eutyches Hereticks They acknowledge two Natures in Christ The words Essence Substance Person and Nature ambiguous to the Abessines A doubt concerning the Disputations of the Fathers with the Abessines about the two Natures How they are to be Disputed with The Jacobites abstain from the Arabic word for Nature which the Eutychians use The Dissention deplor'd THE Alexandrian Church remain'd in Unity with it self and with the Greek Church till the Council of Chalcedon by us call'd the Fourth Universal Council which Marcian the Emperor Summon'd to appease the Discords and Dissentions that were risen among the Bishops and Divines by reason of the Doctrine of Eutyches This Eutyches a Constantinopolitan Abbot asserted That both the Natures of Christ the Divine and Human upon his Incarnation immediately became one and the same and that therefore there was but one Nature and one Will in Christ For which reason they that held this Opinion were call'd Monothelites Thereupon it was Decreed in this Council That Christ was of the same Substance with the Father according to his Deity but Sin excepted of the same Substance and like to us in all things according to his Humanity One and the same in two Natures united yet without mixture mutation division or distance both Natures acting that which was proper to it by Communion with each other Dioscurus also the Patriarch of Alexandria was condemn'd as a Heretic Defender of Eutyches and not only so but being publickly whipp'd he was sent into Exile and another put up in his room who because he follow'd the Emperors or the Royal Religion was therefore call'd a Melchite or Royalists according to the Arabic word The Contradicters of this Opinion were call'd Eutychians afterwards Jacobites from one Jacob a Syrian who stoutly defended the Doctrine of Eutyches Hence arose a most fierce and outragious Schism in the Church of Alexandria defil'd with Blood and Slaughter which was the reason that not only the greatest part of the
That being most graciously and kindly entertain'd by the King he dy'd in Habessinia Others that being honourably dismiss'd by the King he was murder'd by certain Arabian Thieves As for the Patriarch after a long Captivity and very bad Usage from the Turks he was at length set at Liberty after he had pay'd for himself and his Companions a Ransom of 4000 German Dolars and so at length got safe to Goa Where tho he were advis'd to go himself into Portugual and give an accompt of the afflicted State of Ethiopia he thought it the better way to send Jeronymo Lobo with order to desire the Aid of a sufficient Military Power to restore him to his lost See Thereupon the diligent Jesuit not only went into Portugal but also to Mantua to Philip the Fourth and from thence to Rome But all his Negotiations prov'd ineffectual whether it were that they did not think it at that instant so Apostolical a way to propagate the Gospel by force of Arms or whether it were that they did not like the Charge of an Expedition from whence they could hope for little good there being no considerable Party in the Kingdom to give them footing and the encouragement of Assistance For the King watchful over all casualties put all to Death that favour'd the Roman Fathers Which occasion'd the Ruin of many of the Nobility among the rest Tecla-Selax and several Priests that had taken Roman Orders and all the Fathers except Bernard Nogueyra whom the Patriarch had created his Vicar For tho the Patriarch attempted afterwards to send several other Fathers yet all their Endeavours were in vain so that for a long time he could learn no News concerning the State of Ecclesiastical Affairs in Habessinia For the King fearing lest the Portugueses should invade his Dominions in revenge of the Fathers had brib'd the Turkish Basha's of Suaqena and Matzua willing enough to that of themselves not to admit entrance to any of the Franks The News of which coming to Rome the Minds of men were variously affected The greatest part were sorry that all their fair hopes of retaining Ethiopia in Pontifical Obedience were quite cut off Others blam'd the Fathers of the Society that through their Arrogance and Imprudence in managing the Temper and Disposition of the Habessines they had ruin'd both themselves and the Roman Religion whereas they ought to have made it their Business to have acted chiefly and in the first place for the Majesty and Authority of the Pope over the Universal Church and willingly to have suffer'd all Miseries and Martyrdoms rather than have quitted their Station Tellez involves these particulars in a general Relation saying That several Malevolent Reports were spread about in Rome and some there were who gave out That the Fathers out of meer detestation of their Persons and hatred of the whole Nation of Portugal were ejected out of Habessinia and that if other Preachers were sent the Habessines would willingly embrace both them and their Doctrine Which was a thing to be done with much less Expence and more probable to come to effect than Lobo's Project of sending an Army Therefore the Congregation for propagating the Faith took another Course and sent Six Capuchin Fryers all Frenchmen with Letters of Recommendation and safe Conduct from the Emperor of the Turks himself with Orders to try what they could do in Habessinia Two of these going by Sea landed at Magadoso seated upon the Eastern Coast of Africa but before they could get many Leagues up into the Countrey they were knock't o' the head by the Cafers Two of them got as far as the Confines of Habessinia but being discover'd they were presently Commanded either to return back or make Profession of the Alexandrian Religion and upon their refusal to do either were presently ston'd to Death Of which when the other two that stay'd at Matzua had notice they rather chose to return home again than suffer Martyrdom to no purpose Book 3. Chap. 14. P 369 Three Capuchins beheaded in the yeare 1648 by the Comand of Basilides King of the Habessines 1 The Citie and Iland of Suaqin 2. The red Sea 3. The Turkish Basha Gouernour of the Iland 4. F. Felix de S. Severino 5. F. Antonio de Patra Pagana 6. F. Joseph Tortulano from the Italian Originall At length also Bernard Nogueira was apprehended the last of all the Fathers and fairly Hang'd As for the Patriarch Mendez he liv'd in India till the year 1656. Where in the 22d of his Exile and the 77th of his Age he dy'd upon the 29 day of January He was endu'd with most accomplish'd gifts both of Body and Mind very Tall and of a firm Constitution of Body well read both in the Greek and Latin and every way fitted for his Employment Neither had he wanted Prudence had not the King's Favour and Success which oftentimes intoxicate the Wisest of Men transported him out of the way to act with that violence and severity where gentleness and caution were so requisite By which means instead of gaining he was forc'd to suffer the shameful detriment of that Authority which he had too far extended Others as Gregory told me excus'd him for that upon his arrival he found things so far driven on by the Missionaries that he could not with Honour recede from what they had done Since the Death of the Patriarch we have had no certain Relations out of Habessinia In the year 1652. a new Metropolitan was sent into Ethiopia who had bin seen by many Europeans in Egypt and was succeeded afterwards by several others as we have gather'd from certain Relation From whence we may infer That the report of Tellez was a thing fram'd out of Envy as if the King of the Habessines had sent his Ambassadors into Arabia to desire thence Mahometan Doctors with an intention to embrace Turcism which no man can think probable from what has bin already related For how is it likely that he who could not Protect the splendid Religion of the Romish Church and the specious Doctrines of the Fathers because they were thought by the Habessines to be repugnant to Scripture and the Decrees of the Primitive Church should be able to admit of the Vanity and Absurdity of Mahumetism the Original and Progress of which is so well known to the Habessines already A Religion that did not prevail by suffering and well-doing like the Christian Religion but by force of Arms was obtruded upon Barbarous and Discording Nations The Clergy and Monks so wedded to their Alexandrian Religion would no more endure it than they did the superstition of Susneus So that should the King and his Peers be so vain as to attempt a thing so detestable to his People he could not expect but to be more vigorously and generally oppos'd than ever his Father was But lastly the King's Letters of the last Date to the Governor of Batavia beginning with a Christian Preface sufficiently demonstrate that he was