the Church first of all to read the Names of the Holy Martyrs out of the Public Registers as being a Duty owing to the memory of the invincible Testimonies for Christ Which the following Ages strain'd another way as if they had need of our Intercession and others as if we could not be without their Intercession made it a presence to invoke the Holy Saints as if they were present and heard them To which we may add That the Ancient Christian Orators and Writers of Homilies making use of their Rhetorick by vertue of that Figure commonly call'd Prosopopocia bespoke the blessed Saints and introduc'd them as it were returning Answers from whence it is not improbable that Suspition might introduce the Custom of giving the same Adoration to them as to God himself and worshipping them with Temples Altars and other Divine Honours Which nevertheless the Habessines do not do for though they keep Holydaies in memory of their Saints they do not call them Bagnabat Solemnities but Tjabarat Remembrances They also invoke them tho they know not after what manner they may be able to hear them and beg their Intercessions also especially of the most Holy Virgin Mary to whom they bear such an affectionate Reverence that they think whatever the Church of Rome has invented to her Honour all too little and yet they erect no Statues to her memory for all that being contented only with her Pictures When they were in a rage against those of the Roman Religion and pursu'd 'em in their fury with Sticks and Stones they cry'd out Kill Kill whoever is not an Enemy of Marie let him take up a Stone to stone her Enemies to Death But more than this they many times invoke the Angels as having for that perhaps a more specious pretence because they have bin frequently said to appear to good Men and Women and hear their Prayers Of these the Ethiopians reckon no less than Nine Orders which they borrow from their Names and Epithites given them in Sacred Scripture Malaeket Angels particularly so call'd or by another Name Manofsat Spirits Bitean Malaeket Arch-Angels Agaezet Saltanot Manoberet Hujebat Maqinenet Qirubil Surafel Lords 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Magistracies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thrones 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Powers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Princes Cherubims Seraphims Some there are who give them several other Sirnames as Bikanot Primores or Cheiftains and Arbabe or Arbab Asat as much as to say fierie Myriads Others there are who affirm That first of all there were Ten Orders of which the first whose Chieftain was Satanael together with his Associates revolted from God and that the Blessed hereafter shall succeed into their places which they assert to be the cause of the Devils inveterate hatred toward Man As to their forms of Catechizing Youth and Neophytes the following Accompt may afford very great Satisfaction as being written by Gregory with his own hand and all that he could then call to mind A Brief Accompt of the Heads of the Ethiopic Faith in which they usually instruct their Youth and Neophytes They are Extant more at large in Ethiopia but more succinctly as follows What God dost thou Worship The Father Son and Holy Ghost three Persons but one Deity Of these Three Persons which is the first which the last which the greatest which the least Their is no Person first or last no Person Superior or Inferior but all equal in all things How many Persons Three How many Gods One How many Deities One How many Kingdoms One How many Powers One How many Creators One How many Wills One Is God limited by time No For he is from all Eternity and shall endure to all Eternity Where is God Every where and in all things Is not the Father God Yes Is not the Son God Yes Is not the Holy Ghost God Yes Dost thou not therefore say there are Three Gods I do not say Three Gods but Three Persons and One only God Who begat the Son God the Father But the Holy Ghost proceeds from Father and takes from the Son Pray shew me some Similitude how Three Persons can be in one Deity The Sun tho he be but one in Substance yet in him are found three distinct Things Rotundity Light and Heat Thus we also believe that in one God there are three Persons the Father Son and Holy Ghost equal in all things Of those Three Persons which was born for our Redemption The second Person viz. The Son of God our Lord Jesus Christ How many Nativities had he Two Which were they His first Nativity was from the Father without Mother without time The second from the Virgin Mary our Lady without Father in time she always remaining a Virgin Is Jesus Christ our Lord a Man or is he truely God God and Man both in one Person without Separation and without Change without Confusion or Commixture In the same manner do the Habessines Believe and Teach all matters of Faith viz. Concerning the Baptism of Christ his Fasting his Passion his Death his Resurrection his Ascention into Heaven and sending of the Holy Ghost Moreover That he shall return in Glory to Judge the Quick and the Dead That he is present in the Holy Sacrament That the Dead shall rise at the last Day That the Just shall inherit the Kingdom of Heaven but that Sinners shall be condemn'd to Hell They also believe the Catholic Church according to the Creed compil'd by the 318 Orthodox Fathers that met at the Council of Nice We shall not add more at present till more and those Publickly approv'd Books shall come to our hands that we may not imprudently attribute as some have done the Opinions of private persons to the whole Church CHAP. VI. Of the Rites and Ceremonies of the Ethiopic Church as also of the Habessine Temples Sacred Rites often an Occasion of Disturbance in the Church The Prudent Decree of the Apostles Paul's Condescension necessary Judaish Rites retain'd Many new Ceremonies invented by the Pope by the Alexandrian Metropolitan none The most ancient Ceremonies retain'd by the Abessines Their Churches dark like the Synagogues The Divisions of them and Quires The Nobility made Deacons The Bishops Lodgings Much honour'd They admit of Pictures They sign with the Cross Baptism of grown People Vndertakers why so call'd The Eucharist given to baptiz'd Infants Some frivolous forms of the Habessines constrain'd the Fathers to Rebaptize The Custom of Annual Bathing not effectual for Baptism The abuse of it The State of Ecclesiastical Affairs miserable in Habessinia The Reasons General Confession Absolution Before 25 years of Age they believe themselves Innocent Much Preaching Gregorie's Opinion of their Sermons They Read Homilies c. The Sacred Vessels for the Eucharist Why the Stone Consecrated by the Romans is call'd a Chest by the Habessinians A particular Discourse of the Author Leavened Bread The Wine distributed in a Spoon The defect of it supply'd The time and place for the Holy Supper
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-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
Nation and not permitted to have any commerce among them But it has afforded me much more matter of grief that there should be such and so great Animosity nmong the Western Christians that as things stand there is no Counsell or help to be afforded for the ease and restitution of the Eastern Church or for the suppression of those Barbarous Idolaters The HEADS of the several CHAPTERS in the following HISTORY Book I. Of the Nature of the Country and Inhabitants THe Proem contains the Chief Writers of the Habessine Affairs which the Author follows or contradicts where he takes an occasion to give an account of Gregory the Habessinian whom Ernestus Duke of Saxony sent for to his Court at Gota together with the Argument and Method of the whole Treatise Chap. I. Of the various Names of the Habessines and the Original of the Nation from Arabia the Happy Chap. II. Of the true Situation and Bounds of Habessinia and the Kingdoms and Regions bordering on every side upon it Chap. III. Of the Division of Habessinia into several Kingdoms and Regions and what is at this day under the Dominions of the Negus Chap. IV. Of the vulgar Chorographical Table of the Country and the Authors new one with the Authors advice in reference to a Universal Geographical Alphabet Chap. V. Of the temper and nature of the Air and Soyl of the three not four Seasons of the Year the stupendious Winds and other Meteors Chap. VI. Of the high Mountains of Habessinia and their Rocks of a most Miraculous Form their advantages and conveniencie more especially of the Rocks of Amhara Geshen and Ambasel Chap. VII Of their Metals and Minerals more especially their Salt and Stibium Chap. VIII Of the Rivers of Habessinia more especially Nile its Fountains and Course that Niger is a Channel of Nile whether the Course of the River may be altered or turned another way to prevent its overflowing of Aegypt as also of the Lake Tzana Chap. IX Of the Fertility of the Soyl in general double and threefold Harvest Of the Vegitables and Plants Of the Psylli proving their Art of relieving the Poyson'd to be artificial not natural Chap. X. Of the Fourfooted Beasts the Bull Elephants the Unicorn c. Chap. XI Of Amphibious Creatures the River Horse the Water-Lizard and the Torpedo Chap. XII Of Birds the Casawaw and Pipi their tame Geese and Feeders Chap. XIII Of Serpents and Insects the Boa Salamander Hydra Chersydra Locusts and Ants. Chap. XIV Of the Nature and Disposition of the Inhabitants of the Jews and other Nations in Ethiopia Chap. XV. Of the Languages us'd in Ethiopia the Amharic and Gallanic Dialects Chap. XVI Of the bordering Nations more especially of the Gallans and the manners and customs of the Kingdom of Zender and their King who resembles an Ape Book II. Of their Political Government Chap. I. Of the Kings of the Habessines and their various Titles Names and Atchievments both true and fictitious Of the Name of Presbyter John the Stile of their Letters The Queens and the Titles of the Princes and Princesses of the Blood Chap. II. Of the Catalogues of the ancient Kings of the Habessines for the most part Fictitious Of the Royal Families their Antiquity and first of the Ethnic Family Chap. III. Of the Salomonean Family descended from Menihelec Son to Solomon by the Queen of Sheba whose Parentage and Place of Nativity where she Rul'd is discours'd Chap. IV. Of Menihelec the Son of Makeda and his Posterity Of Candace Of Abreha and Atsbeha brothers and of Caleb who Subverted the Kingdom of the Homerites Chap. V. Of the Zagean Family and the Kings that sprung from that Line more especially of Lalibala Chap. VI. Of the Restauration of the Salomonian Family and the Succession from thence David and Claudius c. in whose Reign the Jesuits first entred Habessinia Chap. VII Of the Kings of this Centurie till the present time Of the Counterfeit Jacob and the Impostor Tzaga-Christos in France A genealogical Table of the Habessinian Kings Chap. VIII Of the Royal Succession and Imprisonment of all the Kings Sons but the Eldest in the Rock Geshen Chap. IX Of the Kings Prerogative in Civils and Spirituals Chap. X. Of the Puissance of the Kings of Habessinia and how the Power of the Gallans might be Ecclips'd as also of the Royal Revenues Chap. XI Of the Royal City of Axuma and the Inauguration of their Kings Chap. XII Of the Kings Court his Table and manner of Feeding the Custom of receiving Embassadours and of the Grand Court Employments Chap. XIII Of the Royal Camp which may be compar'd to a Royal City Chap. XIV Of the Militarie Discipline of the Habessines Chap. XV. Of the Wars of the former Century more especially the Fatal Adelan War and how they were relieved by the Portugals Chap. XVI Of their Leagues and Embassies to the Portugheses and the Pope and the King of Portugal's reciprocal Embassies to them Chap. XVII Of the Viceroys Governours and Rulers of Provinces and their various Titles Chap. XVIII Of the Tributaries to the King of Ethiopia and the manner of presenting Petitions and Complements to the King Chap. XIX Of their Courts of Judicature and Law Proceedings their Appeals and Punishments Book III. Chap. I. Of the Ancient Religion of the Habessines and Tzagazaab's idle Confession of Faith their Judaic Rites their Circumcision abstinence from Swines Flesh and observing the Sabbath c. Chap. II. Of the Conversion of the Habessines to the Christian Faith Cedrenus and Callistus Confuted Chap. III. Of the advancement of Christianity by the assistance of Nine Holy Men. Of the Portentous Miracles of their Saints Their rigid Monastical Life of Tecla Haimanot and Eustathius and the Orders and Institutions of their Monks Chap. IV. Of the Holy Book among the Habessines the Translation of the Scripture into their Language their Division of the Bible Their Councils and Epitomie of the Habessine Religion the Book of Enoch and their Magical Prayers Chap. V. Of the present Religion of the Habessines and the Errours imputed to them by the Fathers what they Believe concerning the Trinity the Communion Transubstantiation Purgatory the Immortality of the Soul Angels c. Chap. VI. Of the Modern Rites and Ceremonies of the Ethiopic Church Chap. VII Of their Ecclesiastical Government Chap. VIII Of the separation of the Habessines from the Greek Church Chap. IX Of their first Quarrels with the Jesuits Chap. X. Of Susneus's Submission to the Pope and the Tumults and Rebellions that arose thereupon Chap. XI Of the Arrival of a Patriarch from Rome and the Progress of the Roman Religion during the Reign of Susneus Chap. XII Of the decrease of the Jesuits Power and their fall the Restoration of the Alexandrian Religion and the causes of so great an Alteration Chap. XIII Of the Expulsion of the Patriarch Chap. XIV What happen'd after the Expulsion Book IV. Of their private Affairs Chap. I. Of the Ethiopian
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
as Adnael Adotavi Adotael Tilelmejus Cuercuerjam Flastaslaque With many others more horrid to Pronunciation But from hence it is apparent how much the Habassines resemble the Jews as affecting words of uncouth and unheard of insignificancy by which they thought to command both Heaven and Hell which carrying a kind of a dreadful sound the Habessines also use them in their forms of Anathematizing they cry And let him be accurs'd by Addirion and Actariel by Sandalphon and Hadarmel by Ansiciel and Patchiel by Seraphiel and Zeganzael by Michael and Gabriel and by Raphael and Meschartiel and let him be interdicted by Tzautzeviv and Haueheviv He is the great God and by the Seventy Names of that great King and on the behalf of Tzortak the great Ensign-Bearer CHAP. V. Of the Religion of the Habassines at this Day The Reports of Matthew the Armenian and Tzagazaab false or uncertain The Fathers have omitted their soundest Opinions And fix'd their several Errors upon them The Confession of Claudius Genuine The great Authority of the Synodal Writers They admit the Nicene and other Councils till that of Chalcedon They acknowledge the Trinity one Person of Christ and his sufficient Merit The Proceeding of the Holy Ghost from the Son they deny Gregorie's Dispute and Opinion The Ethiopian interpretation of the word Proceed The Sacraments Baptism Communion under both Kinds The real Presence The words they use in Reference to it Gregorie's Opinion of Transubstantiation Of the Soul after Death They pray for the Dead Deny Purgatory Gregorie's Opinion concerning it The Original of Prayer for the Dead They pray to Saints and Angels Their Catechism for Children and Neophytes WEre the Symbolical Book of the Habessines which they call Hajmanot-Abau to be found in Europe we might easily Collect from thence the true and genuine Sence and Doctrine of the Ethiopic Church concerning the Heads and Articles of the Christian Faith for hitherto we find the most of them uncertainly deliver'd and for the Confession of Faith set down by Matthew the Armenian and Tzagazaab we have already taken notice of the failings in it The Fathers of the Society that have been conversant among the Habessines both in this and the former Century and frequently discours'd with their Learned Men passing by their sound and serious Opinions tax them of many Errors which they have receiv'd from the Greeks and Jews As for Example That the Spirit proceeds only from the Father That the Human Nature of Christ is equal to his Divinity They acknowledge but one Will and one Operation in Christ for which reason they believe that we affirm Four Persons in the Godhead seeing that we confess two Wills and two Natures in Christ. They repeat the Ceremony of Baptism every year upon the Feast of the Epiphany They believe that the Souls of the Just shall not be receiv'd into Heaven before the end of the World nor do they think them to be Created but produc'd out of Matter They neither confess the Number nor the particular Species of their Sins but cry in general I have sin'd I have sin'd They use not the Sacrament of Chrism nor Extream Unction upon the approach of Death nor do they mind the Consolation of the bread of life Insomuch that many of them stick not to say That they who follow the Roman Religion are not only Heretics but worse than the Mahumetans They reject the Council of Chalcedon casting many reproaches upon Leo the Great but highly applauding Dioscurus They deny Purgatory These things I chose to deliver almost in the very words of Godignus who Collected them out of the Relations and Letters of Gonzalez Rodoric Alphonsus de Franca Emanuel Fernandez and others of the Society Neither do they seem to be improbable but how they evade or excuse them we shall shortly declare As to what is said that some of them believe the Followers of the Romish Religion to be worse than Mahumetans I could not hear any such thing from Gregory neither did he think it was to be understood in reference to their Doctrine but their Tyranny over their Subjects it being the Custom of the Mahumetans only to vex and oppress all those who are under their Power professing a Religion contrary to theirs but never to rage against them with Fire and Sword In the mean time we have a Confession set forth by King Claudius but the scope of that Confession was only to clear himself and his Subjects from the Imputation of Judaism which he found to be the only reason that impeded the Amity between him and the Portugals Therefore leaving this Confession by what we can gather from their Publick Liturgies and the Writings and Sayings of Persons both Publick and Private the sum of the Habessinian Doctrine seems to consist of the following Heads First They acknowledge the Holy Scripture to be the sole and only Rule of what they are to believe and what they are to do insomuch that King David said to Alvarez That if the Pope should impose upon Him or His Subjects any thing what the Apostles had not written or permitted he would not obey him nor his own Metropolitan if he should attempt to do the like But with the Scripture they are so much in love that there is nothing more delightful to their Ears than the repetition of it Therefore saith Tellez Nothing more pleas'd the Habessines than to hear the Scripture often quoted in Sermons and the more Citations a man brings out of Scripture the more learned be is accompted Nor do they give much less Credit to the Three Oecumenical Councils as appears by the Confession of Claudius They generally make use of the Nicene Creed which they call Tzalot Hajmanot the Prayer of the Faith That which we use they have not no more than all the rest of the Eastern Churches a strong Argument that it was not compil'd by the Apostles tho' in regard of the Doctrine which it contains it may be truly call'd Apostolic For certainly the Nicene Fathers would not have stifl'd such a Creed or set forth another of their own had the Apostles left such an Epitome of their Doctrine behind them The Ancient Greek Councils then are the Councils which the Habessines have in reverence together with the Eighty four ancient Canons added to those of the Nicene Council till they come to that of Chalcedon which they do not only utterly reject but also Criminally reproach Whatever therefore the Catholic Church admitted and believ'd before that Council concerning God Three in one the Three distinct Persons in one Essence the Eternity of the Son of God the Existence of the Holy Ghost and other Articles of Faith all those things the Habessines willingly consent to and allow condemning those that Dispute against them By the way we are here to observe that the Ethiopic words Sabsatu Gaz Gaz Egza Bahr Three Persons and one God are vulgarly ill Translated being to have bin render'd Three Faces One Lord for the
Two Holydaies in a Week They want Bells Their Music unpleasing yet they Daunce about Fastings and fourth and sixth Holydaies whence None during Easter Of the Fasts of the Protestants in Europe The beginning of the year Their manner of Computation Nuptial Rites Polygamy Marriages of Cousin Germans or first Cousins Divorces Burials HItherto we have set forth what the Habessines believe concerning the Trinity the Principal Articles of the Christian Faith The order of our Story now requires that we should say something of their Rites and Ceremonies For tho it nothing avail at what time or in what manner sound Doctrine be Preach'd so that all things be done decently and in order nevertheless these Rites and Ceremonies have begat great Disputes and produc'd great Disturbances in the Church For indeed from the very Infancy of the Gospel various were the Contentions of Holy and Pious men about Ceremonies Some believ'd that the Judaic Rites not being expresly abrogated by Christ were of necessity to be observ'd together with the Doctrine and Sacraments of the New Testament even as helps to Salvation Others there were who judg'd that they might be profitably retain'd though not of absolute necessity as well in remembrance of the ancient Church of God as to gain the Souls of the Jews The first Opinion the Apostles themselves Condemn'd In other things using Apostolic Prudence and Moderation they made a distinction betwen Jews and Ethnics newly Converted For they not only permitted the Jews to retain their ancient Rites but perswaded Paul to comply with so many Millions of unbelieving Jews who were Zealous Admirers of the Law and accus'd Paul for teaching a Defection from the Law for forbidding Infants to be Circumciz'd and for not living according to the Jewish Customs Paul obey'd and purify'd himself with his Companions shav'd his Head and so entring the Temple together offer'd up an Offering for every one of them Nay more then this what would be now accompted a heinous Crime he caus'd Timothy to be Circumciz'd being induc'd thereto by the Necessity of those times Yet at another time he condemn'd Circumcision if it were done with a Judaic Intention Thus an Action in it self indifferent becomes bad or good from the Reason and Intention of the Agent But then what what was to be done with the Gentiles that embrac'd the Faith of Christ the Apostles took into their Deliberation Nevertheless they would not oblige them to the Observation of the Mosaic Law but only in answer to their Doubts they commanded them only to abstain from those things which might not only create in the Jews a dislike of the Gospel but also very much scandalize those that were already Proselytes and disturb mutual Charity and Friendship in daily Converse and Society For the Jews would not Dyet with those who eat things Sacrific'd to Idols or strangled nor the blood it self From that time some of the Judaic Rites prevail'd as indifferent among most who did not contend against Piety and Christian Doctrine Till at length by degrees they were either abrogated by the Church or worn out of Use Nor had the most ancient Institutions of the Christians any other Originals as the Building of Churches Plunging the whole Body in Baptism Two Fast Dayes in a Week Festivals and the like However there were but few Ceremonies in the troublesome times of the Church but in the times of Peace they increas'd to Infinity and the worse the state of the Church was the more Ceremonies insomuch that St. Austin complain'd in his time That the most wholsom Precepts of Divine Books were not so much regarded as the fictitious Comments and Inventions of Men upon them The Church of Rome by how much more opulent and powerful than the rest so much the more sedulously and industriously it compos'd all things to Splendour and Pomp. The Roman Pontiff being the sole Judge of all things whether convenient or not commodious and what he thought fit to Abrogate or Establish But the Patriarch of Alexandria whom the Ethiopians obey as their High Pontiff what with the unhappy Contentions between the Melchites and Jacobites and the Persecutions of the Saracens has had enough to do to keep his own Station not being at leisure in the midst of so many Storms to think of divulging new Ceremonies Nor would the Habessines out of their wonted simplicity and plain heartedness the best Preserver of ancient Custom attempt to alter or abrogate any thing without his leave or Command Whence it comes to pass that many of the most ancient Customs of the Primitive times in other places out of date or abrogated are still retain'd to this day among them Which makes us hope that our Labour will not be ungrateful to the Reader curious of Ecclesiastic Antiquity if we compare the Old with the New First only their Churches are briefly to be describ'd which formerly were sufficiently Magnificent and by King Ladibela hewn out of the Bodies of the Rocks themselves Some were also Built by the Succeeding Kings but Grainus out of his hatred to Christianity ruin'd the greatest part of them There are yet remaining some Footsteps of that famous Cathedral which Helena David's Grandmother Built In which there is more want of Light than of Gold or Silver The Structure of most resembles the Ancient Architecture For the ancient Christians when first they had obtain'd the Opportunities of building Churches for Public Use choosing rather to imitate the Jews than the Gentiles Built them in imitation of the ancient Temple of Jerusalem or of the Jewish Synagogues nor did they give them the heathenish Names of Temples but call'd them Ilyriacas as it were dedicated to God or else Oratories or Martyria Places of Public Testimony Now as the Temple of Jerusalem being encompassed with a spacious Wall consisted chiefly of three parts that is to say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the wide Porch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the body of the Temple and lastly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Holy of Holies so the Cathedrals of the Ancients had a Porch before the great Folding Dores surrounded with a Wall where the Excommunicated and Penitents and Novices were oblig'd to tarry till the latter more fully instructed in Christianity were admitted to Baptism or the former brought forth the real fruits of Amendment Then there was the Body of the Church in the middle of which was a secret Place screen'd with a Curtain which was call'd the Sacrificatory as also the Suggestum or place where the Pulpit stood in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which represented the Holy of Holies Such a Suggestum or Place of Ascension is still to be seen in the Jewish Synagogues and call'd in imitation of the Greek word Bimah But this the Europeans afterward thought more convenient to remove to the farther end of the Church we call it now the Quire for the most part separated with Iron Lattices from the Body of the Structure These Antique Forms
of Building were accommodated to the ancient Ceremonies For as the Jews were admitted no farther than the Dores and the Priests only suffer'd to pass beyond the Threshold so here none but the Baptiz'd were admitted as it were into the Bosom of the Church the rest like the Gentiles among the Jews prohibited from approaching nearer than the Dores The Quire none but the Ecclesiastical Persons enter'd which was so rigidly observ'd by the Ancients that St. Ambrose commanded the Emperor himself Theodosius to withdraw whereas the Greek Church allow'd that Priviledge to their Emperors and gave them Liberty to enter the Sanctuary when they offer'd to the Sacred Table After the same manner the more famous Churches of the Ethiopians were Built and they have also the same sort of Sanctuaries which they call by the Hebrew Name Heichel at the entry whereof the Layety stand and receive the Communion Least therefore their Nobility and their Children should be forc'd to stand among the Vulgar Croud or they be constrain'd to break their Law and Custom Prohibiting the Layety to enter their Heichel and participate of their Sacred Mysteries they have found out a new Evasion by Creating the Nobility and their Children tho' ne're so young or under Age Deacons or Sub-deacons in that only deviating from their ancient Simplicity The King's Children assume that Dignity of course carrying a Cross as a badge of their Deaconship which they ne'r leave off when they come to the Crown Which the Portugueses looking upon as an Ornament of Priesthood it gave them an occasion to give the Habessine Emperor the Title of Presbyter John There is also a little Chappel adjoyning to the Eastern part of the Church in which the Bread and other Necessaries belonging to the Eucharist are prepar'd Such little Chappels or Rooms were Built of old near to the great Church where the Bishops were wont to put on their Vestments now they are small Apartments made within the Walls of the Church call'd by the Name of Vestries They have no Seats in their Churches for they neither sit nor kneel but always stand during Divine Service according to the ancient Canons which the Greeks and Russes observe to this day as believing it more becoming the Reverence due to the Place and more proper for Attention than to sit The next Age providing more kindly for Infirmity permitted sitting least Attention should be tyr'd by weariness But the Habessines have found out a way between both that is to say little Crutches to lean and rest their Bodies which when they go away they leave in the Church Porch If there be any who out of weakness chance to sit upon the Ground they are in the mid'st of Prayers commanded by the Deacons to rise in these words Eb Tarber Tanse You that sit Rise Nay such is their Reverence to their Churches that tho at this day they are only poor low dark Buildings thatch'd with Straw or Reeds yet when they approach near to any of them in their Travels they alight from their Mules and walk a foot till they are past them They also put off their Shooes at the Door and never spit upon the Pavement No Females are admitted during their Impurities nor Wives that have known their Husbands all the day following In this none more Rigid then the Ancients who only admonish'd such to Abstain from the Holy Communion Pictures they admit into their Churches but as for Statues or Sculptures Engraven or Cast they abominate them with the same antipathy as they do Idols Perhaps because they never had any in the Primitive times of the Church For it was the Saying of the Ancients Why should Men go about to make any likeness of God when Man himself was his Image and no better could be made And therefore it is a heinous Offence for any one to carry about them the Picture of Christ Crucify'd However the Clergy carry bare Crosses in their hands which they who meet them reverence with a Kiss thereby Professing themselves Christians For they often sign both themselves and the things that belong to them with the Sign of the Cross after the Custom of the most ancient Christians who were wont so to do We shall now proceed to the Sacred Ceremonies of the Habessines beginning with the first initiation into Christianity Baptism The Priest being to Baptize a Person or Persons of full Age which there many times happens by reason of the frequent Conversion of the Heathen begins with the 52 Psalm then having Perfum'd the Persons with a Censor of Frankincense he enquires the Names of them that are to be Baptiz'd Then after the Recital of certain Prayers the Deacon at the same time frequently Exhorting the Hearers to joyn with the Priest he Anoints several parts of the Body with the Holy Oyl and lays his Hand upon the Neophyte's Head Which done the Neophytes lifting up their right Hands and looking toward the West abjure Satan as the Prince of Darkness Then turning to the East as to the Sun of Justice and lifting up again their Right hands they make as it were a kind of Vow to Christ which don they say over the Creed after the Priest who putting the Question They answer They do Believe Which ended the Parties again are anointed and some certain pieces of Chapters are read out of the Gospel of St. John the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles of St. Paul At length the Oyl is so pour'd into the Water prepar'd for the Baptism as to resemble in falling the Signature of the Cross and after the Rehearsal of several other Prayers the Priest descends into a certain Pool made on purpose before the Doors of the Church whither the Persons being conducted by the Deacon the Priest takes them and plunges them three times over Head and Ears saying I Baptize thee in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost At the same time the Men have Men the Women Women to assist them who lending their Hands and Arms to their Friends support them in going out of the Pool and were therefore call'd Susceptores or Upholders by the Ancients Being thus wash'd and once more anointed they are first clad with a White Under-garment to signifie the Purity of the Mind and over that with a Red Vestment in token of their Salvation purchas'd by the Blood of Christ and so introduc'd into the Church where being intermixed with Christians they are made Partakers of the Holy Communion At their departure they are presented with Milk and Honey and so the Priest laying his Hand upon their Heads dismisses them with this Benediction Sons of Baptism go in Peace For the Habessines frequently call the Christians Velda Temqet Sons of Baptism All which Circumstances are agreeable to the Rites of the Ancients Let us thrice be plung'd saith Tertullian and thence supported let us tast the Society of Milk and Honey These are the Ceremonies observ'd toward those of ripe years The Ceremonies of Baptizing
only Vice prevail'd in Church and State At that time there was a certain Priest who neither like a Latinist nor a Christian had Baptiz'd several Infants in Nomine Patria Filia Spiritual Sancta which Baptism was however confirm'd by Zacharias the Pope by reason of the good intention of the Baptizer That Sinners after Baptism are reconcil'd to God and the Church they make no Question However they teach that there must be a Repentance for these Sins and that Repentance to be made known by Confession But to enumerate all and singular their particular Sins with all their circumstances they think it neither commanded of God nor at all necessary And therefore they only say in general words to the Priest Absan Absan we have Sinn'd we have Sinn'd So that when the Roman Priests press'd them to particular Confession they never acknowledg'd any more than three if they had been guilty Homicide Adultery and Theft To confess any more they could not be induc'd without great difficulty The Offender is Absolv'd in very few words together with some gentle stripes upon the Side with an Olive twigg which is thought sufficient to deliver him from the Power of Satan But as for them that have committed any of those great Crimes before-named they are not only chastiz'd with severe Reprehension and bitter Language but many times also severely Scourg'd to the end they may not only hear but be sensible of their Absolution Tellez reports That the Metropolitan sometimes hears Confessions himself and that when he understands the heinousness of the Crime he rises up and after a sharp rebuke of the Penitent he cryes out Hast thou done this Dost thou not fear God Go too let him be Scourg'd thirty or forty times Presently the Executioners are ready who streight prepare their Scourges and give the miserable Sinner six or seven cutting lashes the rest being remitted at the Intercession of the Standers by There was one who to avoid so sharp an Absolution of his Crime requested of the Metropolitan sitting in his Seat of Judicature that he might make his Confession in Private to whom the Metropolitan How Shall not thy Sin be made manifest at the last day before all the World Tell therefore what it is The unfortunate Offender believing it his duty to obey openly confess'd it was the stealing of Oxen. By chance the Owner of the Oxen was there who being glad that he had apprehended the Thief presently accus'd him so that the poor Fellow being Convicted of the Fact by his own Confession before so many Witnesses was constrain'd to restore the Oxen and undergo a severe Punishment beside But as the Habessines are generally of a soft and mild Disposition for the most part so soon as they have committed any notable Offence they presently run to their Confessors and confessing they have sinn'd desire to receive the Communion for the quiet of their Consciences But this they do not do till they come to be at least Five and twenty years of Age. For till then they prolong their years of Indiscretion pretending Childish Innocence So that if a Young man die before he be Twenty years old they bewail him in these words Oh! let my Soul be like the Soul of this Innocent So great a Confidence they have in the honest Inclinations of their Youth The whole Divine Service of the Ethiopians is compleated by the sole Administration of the Sacrament and reading some few broken parcels of Chapters out of the New Testament for they neither make use of Sacred Hymns nor of Preaching Which when we seem'd to wonder at Gregory ask'd me Whether we thought our Preachers could speak any thing better then what was written in the Sacred Scripture or the Homilies of the Fathers of the Primitive Church Whether we thought their Sayings more efficacious than the Word of God Whether we did not fear lest those Preachers should utter something which might be repugnant to our Faith and Salvation which might prove of dangerous Consequence especially among the Plebeian and rustic sort of People We answer'd That the Worship of God requir'd it and that the use and end of Preaching was at large set forth in Scripture to the end we might understand the benefit of them But the Ethiopians to supply this defect have Compos'd several Liturgies and Homilies of which mention has been already made To these they add several Portions of Scripture usually appointed to be read which are fourfold out of the Evangelists the Acts the Epistles of St. Paul and the rest of the Canonical Epistles to which they give the Titles of Wengel the Evangils Gheber the Acts Paulus and Hawarja the Apostle But in the general Liturgy which they call Canon Kedasi the Canon of the Mass there are all their Ceremonies to be found with all their Prayers accustom'd to be apply'd to the several Varieties of Duties to be perform'd all their Instruments and Vessels being sanctify'd by certain Prayers and Ejaculations For in the Sanctuary stands the Holy Table which they call Kedesat Terphez vulgarly Manbar It differs from their Common Tables for that you may go round about it and place what you please upon it Only it is cover'd with a Canopy sustain'd with four Pillars at each Corner Upon this they place the Sacred Vessels First the Tabot or Chest A little Table so call'd but the reason why I never yet could find for that it has no resemblance of a Chest it being an Oblong Quadrangular Table upon which the Dish and the Cup are set and therefore I must repair to conjecture which I shall willingly submit to the Judgment of the Learned The most ancient Christians when for almost three Ages together they could not have the Opportunity of Administring or receiving the Communion in Public were constrain'd to take their Opportunities in Dens and Caves but for the most part in the Church-yards in the silence of the Night To which purpose they either carry'd the Bread Wine Cup and other Utensils wrapp'd up in Linnen or otherwise conceal'd to the place where the Congregation met Whence it seems very probable to me that they might make use of the Coffins themselves or some Chest in the fashion of a Bier to conveigh their Sacred Utensils under the pretence of carrying forth their Dead Which Chest being thus conveigh'd into the Church-yard or Cave where they met serv'd also instead of a Table about which the Communicants sate and receiv'd in their Order If they found any Bones of the Holy Martyrs scatter'd about they gather'd them up and put them up in this Chest which Custom in after Ages became a Law If they were driven from their Habitations or constrain'd for fear of Tyrannical fury to seek new abodes this Chest was still carry'd from place to place where the Bishop or Presbyter resided who was to perform the Sacred Duty And thus they came to be call'd either Chests by their proper Names or Tables in reference to their Use
Necessity he permits the cluster it self to be squeez'd into the Cup and the Liquor to be mix'd with water The time of receiving the Sacrament is left to every man's liberty some receive every Week some every Month but always within the Church For they hold it a great Sin to carry the Holy Mysteries out of the Church into private Houses Neither does the King nor the Metropolitan assume to themselves that Priviledge They never spit that day they have receiv'd They also receive Fasting and toward the Evening too if it be a fasting day But now to Administer the Sacrament in large and crowded Churches and upon Solemn days it requires four or five Men at least Bahen the Priest or Kasis the Presbyter Nefek Kasis the Sub-Presbyter Daj-kan the Deacon and Nefeh Dajkan the Sub-Deacon There are also present other Assistants to hold the Candles and to attend upon the Priests These every one taking his particular part perform the whole Duty reading of several Prayers as the variety of Action and the use of distinct Vessels require Lastly they recommend both the Living and the Dead to God which they call receiving the Dapdukon the Diptych or Church Register which among the Ancient Greeks consisted of two Tables wherein the Name of those were written who were to be Pray'd for in the Register There are some that bring their Offerings to the Holy Table as Bread Oyl Tithes first Fruits and the like which at the Conclusion of the Sacrament are distributed to the Poor Which I take to be understood of that ancient Custom mention'd by Claudius in his Confession of Faith Vangaber Bat Mesah that day meaning the Sabbath we make a Charitable Feast These Holydaies they keep two days every Week that is to say upon the Sabaoth and the Lord's-Day That they call Sanbat Ejehude which they say they celebrate in commemoration of the professed Creation and therefore they do not keep it so solemnly as the Lord's-Day But upon the Lord's-Day which they call Sanbat Ehad or the Sabbath of the first Holyday or Ehude the first Holyday singly or Sanbat Christejan the Christians Sabbath they keep after the custom of the Catholic Church and read over all the Offices and Services requir'd They have no Bells of Brass or mix'd Metal like ours instead of which they only use a kind of hollow Vessels resembling Bells made of Iron Stone or Wood more for Noise than delightful to the Ear. Neither is their Church Music any thing more pleasing For besides that the Voices of their Singing Priests whom they call Dabetra are very harsh and ungrateful the Instruments they make use of after the Egyptian manner such as Cimbals Morrice Bells and Kettle Drums which the Grandees themselves think no dishonour to rattle upon those Solemnities are no way agreeable to the Harmony of Europe With their Music they use Skipping and Dancing in imitation of David Dancing before the Ark of the Covenant At what time they make the Floor ring again after such a rude manner that you would believe them rather at a Wedding than at a Christian Solemnity This they call exulting rejoycing and clapping hands to the God of Jacob as they are commanded in the Psalms and this they call Praising God upon the Harp and Organ and with Cymbals tho it cannot be said they are so sweet sounding as those in David's Time may be imagin'd to be Which things tho they seem to us not to correspond with the gravity of Christian Worship yet will not they much admire who well know that in some places among the Latins the Feast of the Body of God was solemniz'd with Dancing which as it could not be done without Music there were others that play'd in disguise before the Dancers upon Harps Fasting days are no where more exactly observ'd Not that they abstain from some Meats and gluttonize upon others For that they look upon as a mockery of Fasting For they keep themselves whole dayes without either Food or Drink even till Sunset of the third Evening Others there are that abstain the two Holydaies of the Passion Week The Monks put themselves upon greater Extremities than all this by which means they not only mortifie but destroy Besides all which they fast twice in seven days upon the Fourth and Sixth Holyday like the rest of the Eastern Churches The reason of which was by Tzagazaab said to be for that the Fourth day the Murther of Christ was concluded upon and the Sixth it was executed according to what many of the Ancients taught But we believe that these two Fasting-days as many other things were admitted and observ'd in imitation of the Jews by the Primitive Christians who were either Jews or else had learn't from the Jews that this Custom was introduc'd and us'd as a Duty both Pious and Necessary for these times For the Jews fasted twice in a Week which is that which the Pharisee boasted I fast twice upon the Sabbath that is within the two days in seven viz. upon the Second and Fifth Holyday which the Christians because they would not fast upon the same day with the Jews alter'd for the Fourth and Sixth Afterwards Innocent and Gregory the Seventh abrogating the Fast of the Fourth Holyday impos'd Abstinence from Flesh upon Sunday not minding the ancient Canon If any Clergy-man shall be known to Fast upon any Sabbath or Lord's-Day one excepted let him be suspended from his Office That one Sabbath is Easter Eve Otherwise to fast upon the Lord's-Day the Ethiopians account it Criminal like the ancient Christians as Tertullian witnesses Besides these and other Fasts of the Eastern Church they observe in the first place the Forty days Lent which they make up Fifty For it begins Ten days before the Roman Lent That is upon the second Holyday after Sexagesima Sunday And this as a Command of God they observe both healthy and sick People most exactly and religiously only as we said before upon Sundays they eat Flesh After Easter they supply the pinching hardship and sobriety of the past Weeks with the Jollity and Mirth of those that succeed For during all the time of Pentecost so formerly was the interval of the Fifty days call'd from the Feast of the Resurrection till the Feast of tending the Holy Gost they spend their time in all manner of Feasting and Jocundry suitable to the Country All that time as of old with the Latins so among the Ethiopians being still observ'd as one continu'd Festival Gregory considering these things and admiring that the Protestants in Germany observ'd no other Fasts but what were commanded by their Princes in case of Public Calamity was answer'd out of St. Ambrose we do not Fast because the Lord abideth with us not only those Fifty days but all the year long nay as long as we live Thus Christ answer'd them who objected to his Disciples Can the Sons of the Bridegroom mourn while the Bridegroom is among them But the time shall come
that the Bridegroom shall be taken from them and then they shall fast Therefore the ancient Christians when those days came that Christ had foretold that is to say the days of Persecution and Affliction did well and truly in that they frequently fasted But we in regard our Bridegroom is return'd with his favour and his Grace and has restor'd Peace and Tranquillity to his Church have no need to observe set Fasts as necessary but to say with St. Ambrose That true Fasting is an alienation from Incontinency of Language Suppression of wrath and ill Desires and Abstinence from Slander and Reproach And with St. Austin The Great and General Fasting is to abstain from Iniquity and the unlawful Pleasures of the Age which is perfect Fasting Besides the Sabbath and Lord's-Day they observe all the chief and ancient Festivals of the Catholic Church The Annunciation Nativity Circumcision Baptism Passion Resurrection Ascension and the Descension of the Holy Ghost call'd Bagnab Arbgna or the Feast of Forty days as also that most ancient Festival of the Primitive Church call'd Rakeb in the Middle of the Pentecost by the Latins call'd Cantate at what time the Bishops are commanded to assemble a Synod by the Canons commonly call'd Apostolical As for the other Festivals which were introduc'd by the Kopts Greeks or Latins after the Variances of the Council of Chalcedon some they admit some they receive according as they think most agreeable to their Religion They begin in the year from the Calends of September with the Greeks Armenians Russians and other Oriental Christians For they believe that the World was created at the time of the Autumnal Equinoctial They farther also compute Five thousand and five hundred years to the Nativity Eight years less than the Greeks and they who follow the Translation of the Seventy Interpreters from whence that Computation was made The Supputation of the Christians is the same which Scaliger says was therefore don because the Christians believe the World to be less ancient by Eight years then the Greeks do but he does not apply his reason home We are apt to believe it came to pass through some erroneous Substraction of the years of the World For that finding perhaps that the Greeks to perfect the Calculation of the Years of Christ had substracted 5508 years of the World they also did the same forgetting that those Eight years were already wanting or else having settl'd the years of Christ according to the Greek Computation and coming afterwards to reform the Age of the World they found these Eight years to be over and above However it fall out let any one year of Christ be granted by them Eight years must be added to their Computation if you desire to know the agreeing time of any certain Transaction Their year consists of Twelve Months as among us But each Month as among the Egyptians having but Thirty days therefore to supply the Solar Year to every Three years they add Five days to every Four years Six days which by a word borrow'd from the Greek they call Pagomen Hence it happens that their Feasts go according to the Julian Accompt and fall upon the same days yet are otherwise number'd For the Feast of the Nativity of Christ is celebrated the same day with us which happens among the Europeans using the Julian Accompt to be upon the 25 of December but with them falls upon the 28 of December Neither did the Catholic Church in any part of the World ever observe it upon any other days So that it is to be admir'd that Scaliger should go about to Translate it into Autumn It is farther observable that to the space of Four years they give the Denomination of one of the Evangelists it being the Custom to finish the reading of one Evangelist quite through in that time Which is the reason that in some of their Chronological Computations you shall find added in the days of Mark in the days of John the Evangelist c. As to what concerns their Nuptial Rites most certain it is that Polygamy is not allow'd by the Habessine Church however it be tolerated by the Civil Magistrate For they that Marry more than one are not punish'd by the Magistrates yet they are prohibited from the Holy Sacrament as being of those sort of People that do no injury to the Common-wealth but only contradict the Rules of Christian Sanctity as if it were not the Office or Duty of Kings and Princes but of the Bishops of the Church to make Men Godly and Christianly vertuous This Alvarez asserts upon his own Knowledge Whose Host at Dobarra had Three Wives which had brought him Seven and thirty Children for which there was no other notice taken of him but only that he was not admitted to the Church or to the Communion until he at last put Two of them away Here it may not be improper to inquire how the Metropolitan behaves himself toward their Kings who have more Wives than one For the Habessinian Kings by vertue of an old Ill custom besides several Wives lawfully Marry'd are not asham'd to keep several Concubines as if they did it in imitation of Solomon from whom they boast their Descent True it is That the Fathers of the Society would not grant Absolution to Susneus before he had dismiss'd all his Supernumerary Wives retaining only the first Indeed it is to me no small wonder that the Laws of the Church and the Kingdom should no better agree that the one should be so loose in point of Marriages the other so strict especially where the dispute arises not so much as to the Matter as to the Name Thus we find the Marriages of Kindred forbidden even to distant degrees for that the Ethiopians wanting terms of distinction call one another all by the Names of Brothers and Sisters Thus a Church-man may not Marry his Brother's Wife but a Lay Person may However no Marriages but those that are approv'd by Divine Authority are honour'd with Sacerdotal Benediction nor those neither publickly in the Church unless they be such Clergy-men to whom the Hallelujah is Sung Other People are Marry'd either at home or before the Dores of the Church However all Secular Persons have also this Priviledge that they can throw off the Yoke when they please For upon any slight Difference between a Man and his Wife if they cannot be reconcil'd the King's Judges presently dissolve the Marriage But as for the Clergy if it be their desire to put away their Wives or to Marry another the first being Deceas'd they are oblig'd to renounce their Function Whereby it happens that their Marriages are much more peaceful and more durable To conclude with their Burials the Dead Bodies being well wash'd and sum'd with Incense they wrap them up in proper Garments If the Party deceas'd be of Noble Extraction he is lay'd upon the Bier cover'd with a Bulls Hide which done the Clergy carry him to the Grave laden
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
they make use for the most part of the word Agal as being less Equivocal tho sometime we shall meet with the word Gaz to signifie Person ill render'd when taken for the Countenance or Face Which Circumstances when I read and consider I find all things to be perplex'd and obscure no certain State of the Question and the words themselves without limitation Equivocal Perhaps Eutyches himself could not explain what sort of Nature was meant how it was made out of the two How it was call'd or what the Qualities of it were But that he was so egregiously stupid as to think the two Natures so mix'd in Christ as Water with Wine and that he had so many Wise and Learned Men to follow him in that Opinion is almost incredible As for the Ethiopians they are most certainly not guilty of so sottish a Heresie For which reason I confess I cannot apprehend what these frequent Disputations were which the Fathers of the Society had with the Habessines wherein they say the Ethiopians were always forc'd to submit as being convicted out of their own Books Which is the more easie to believ'd in regard they so willingly acknowledge the Divinity and Humanity of Christ But that they should out of Contumacy and Heretical Pravity contradict the Fathers and choose to suffer Exilements and other Punishments or run the hazard of Civil Dissentions rather than forego their Opinion is hardly to be credited To me it seems therefore more probable that they could not agree about the words For if a man should first explain his meaning and tell them that by the two Natures in Christ we understand as well his Divinity as his Humanity and then upon this Explanation ask them Which Nature was wanting in Christ seeing they acknowledge but one Certainly they would answer That neither his Divinity nor his Humanity were wanting but that both continue and endure for ever And thus it will appear that they understand the word Nature far otherwise than we do and that the true state of the Question among the Habessines consists in this Whether by any or by what name both the Abstract Natures which undoubtedly they admit are to be call'd Now therefore because Tellez does not say in what Language they Disputed for the Habessines understand neither Latin nor Portuguese how they express'd themselves when they mention'd the words Essence Person and Nature how they explain'd Equivocal words or how the Interpreters render'd them whether they could not agree upon the common word or whether the word Substance displeas'd as fearing that to grant two Substances would be to grant two Persons I leave to farther enquiry Nor can I find out in so much Variety and Ambiguity of words what word is most proper to be us'd in our sense for the word Nature For the Jacobites when they make use of the Arabic Tabia or the Ethiopic Tabaje which answers to the Greek word Physis and by the Copts is call'd D Physis apply it only to things created more especially to the Elements but never to the Godhead which the Melkites and Greeks being destitute of any other make no scruple to do Hence the Contention For thus saith Eutychius Patriarch of Alexandria a Melkite In Christ there are Two Substances a Substance of Divinity and a Substance of Humanity but one Person To every Substance there belongs a Nature and so two Substances two Natures but one Person For this reason in Egypt where this unhappy difference still remains when the Copts cry out in Arabic Mashiah Wahid Tabiah Wahid One Will one Nature the Melkites answer Mashiatan tabiahtan Two Wills two Natures In the year 1634. an European of great Quality residing in Egypt and having vievv'd and read the Books of the Copts deliver'd his Opinion aftervvards That the difference and quarrel of the Parties proceeded more from a fear of the Consequence than from the Thing it self For the Greeks are for the Destruction of those Hereticks that confuse and mix the Divinity and Humanity of Christ. The Cophtites oppugn those that assert two Persons in Christ. Which if it be so that the Contention and Debate either formerly or now is only about the sence of words What Tears and Lamentations can suffice to bewail the sad Effects of such an Unfortunate Pedantic Brabble What breast that lodges a heart so hard that can refrain from bemoaning the sad and calamitous Contentions of those to whom Christ has so earnestly recommended the most strict Bonds of Charity by his own Example Humanity one would think should not be so inhuman for the sake of one word Nature misunderstood to tear up the foundations of Concord between those whose Nature the Eternal Word has assum'd into his most Holy Subsistence But as it is the Infirmity of our most corrupted Nature where Ambition from Ambition Emulation from Emulation Envy from Envy Hatred have taken root that the Mind possess'd with various Passions and Affections seeks no farther after Truth hence it is that Men with Ears obstructed and blinded Eyes pursue disputes to satisfie their private Ends not considering the true end of Arguing and Dispute CHAP. IX Of the Differences which happen'd between the Habessines and the Church of Rome more especially the Fathers of the Society to the beginning of this Century The Patriarch of the Melkites and Jacobites which the Habessines following disunited themselves from the Greeks and Romans They had Knowledge of the Pope Alexander the Third writes to the King of Ethiopia An Embassie to Eugenius the Fourth and Clement the 7th John Bermudes confirm'd by Paul the Third Whence Hopes of subjecting the Habessines to the See of Rome Barret and Oviedo made Patriarchs They send before to sound the King They Dispute with the King concerning Religion The Portugueses suspected Barret stays in India Oviedo kindly receiv'd Claudius acts moderately Grants Liberty to the Latins Oviedo desires more The King delays Mov'd with Oviedo's Epistle Oviedo Attempts Severity but in vain To Claudius his Brother Succeeds The Latins Liberty revok'd Oviedo threaten'd Melech Saghed milder to the Portugueses All their Priests Die THE Horrid flames of Discord being thus broken forth all those Nations that were Subject to the Alexandrian See separated themselves into Parties almost equal in Strength And every Faction chose its particular Faction The Grecian Christians who were in Subjection to the Constantinopolitan Emperor adher'd to the Patriarch of the Melkites The rest who inhabited the innermost Parts of Africa and among them the Axumites follow'd the Patriarch of the Jacobites and thus being rent not only from the Greek but Roman Church they had little or no knowledge of either After this the Power of the Saracens increasing and all Egypt being by them subdu'd all Correspondence and Communication of Arts and Knowledge ceas'd between Them and the Christians of our part of the World Nevertheless some glimpses they had of the Roman Pontiffs from the Acts of the Ancient Councils and reverenc'd them as
Chief among the Oecunomical Patriarchs On the other side the Pope laying hold of the occasion endeavour'd to Re-establish the former Correspondence and Amity not taking any notice of their being Monothelites or Favourers of the condemn'd Dioscurus To this purpose Baronius has set forth an Epistle taken out of Roger's English Annals written by Alexander the Third with this Superscription To our most dear Son in Christ the Illustrious and Magnificent King of the Indians the most Holy of Priests Which Epistle he erroneously believes to have bin written to Prester John whose Dominions were then very large in Ethiopia For that when Baronius wrote the King of the Habessines was reputed and commonly taken for Prester John But when Alexander the Third liv'd the real Prester John was then reigning in Asia Neither is any thing to be gather'd out of that whole Epistle that has any Relation to Africa or Ethiopia or the King of the Habessines nor are the Consequences of that Letter known to Baronius Only upon that occasion he conjectures that the Church of St. Stephen with the Buildings behind St. Peter's Cathedral were thereupon assign'd to the Habessinians though he is not certain by whom that Assignation was made whether by Alexander or any other Succeeding Pope Therefore if the Epistle were real we rather think it was written to the Asiatic Prester John then to the King of the Ethiopians Others there are that believe there was an Abessinian Embassy to Clement the Fifth residing at Avignon Nor is there any doubt made of the Embassy which Zera-Jacob sent to Eugenius the Fourth in the year 1439. toward the Conclusion of the Council of Florence Gregory had known nothing of it had he not seen the Embassador and his Retinue painted at Rome and known his own Countrymen by their Habit. In the former Century Francis Alvarez Priest to the Portugal Ambassadors sent into Ethiopia brought Letters from David to Clement the Seventh which he delivered to the Pope in a public Assembly of the Cardinals Charles the Fifth being there also present promising Reverence and Obedience withal to the Holy See in the Name of the King of Ethiopia It was a thing very grateful to the Pope that at a time when so many Northern Nations had revolted from the Roman See so many Kingdoms of the East and South should voluntarily submit to his Jurisdiction For which reason neither Alvarez's Credentials nor the words of the Epistle were over-nicely examin'd nor any extraordinary Scrutiny made to what Church or what sort of Religion the King himself was enclin'd to the end that had it been needful he might have bin absolv'd from the guilt of Heresie before his Admission into the Bosom of the Church For as we shall afterwards declare the Habessines made quite another Interpretation of their King's Intention In the mean time a certain form of Friendship long remain'd For when John Bermudes came to Rome to crave Assistance from the Europeans in the behalf of David so often vanquish'd by the Adelans Paul the Third hearing that the said Bermudes was by Mark the Metropolitan nominated his Successor and invested with Holy Orders made no scruple to confirm him and to ratifie the Ordination of a Schismatical Prelate There were then residing certain Habessines very good Men who Printed the New Testament with their Liturgies in the Ethiopic Language whom the Pope did not only tolerate but assisted at his own Expences In recompence of which Kindnesses they extoll'd and applauded the Benevolence of the Romans the Munificence of the Chief Pontiff and his Spiritual Daughter Hyeronyma Farnesia and acknowledg'd the Pope as the Head and Supream over all the Orthodox Christians Pius the Fifth also in his Letters to Menas tho a professed Enemy to the Romans call'd him his most dear Son whether he were ignorant of his hatred to the Latins which was a wonder or whether he had hopes to reclaim him by flattering Titles which Godignus rather conjectures to be the Pope's true Intention For this reason some there were who believ'd the Habessines to be Catholicks in the highest perfection and subject to the See of Rome tho Tellez deservedly taxes and derides their Credulity Nevertheless a vain hope had possessed the Minds of many of the more Zealous sort that that vast Kingdom then look'd upon to be four times as big as really it was might in a short time with little difficulty be annexed to the Pontifical Jurisdiction Among the rest the Founder of the Society of Jesus Ignatius Loyola bent all his Study to bring it to pass and to that end he shew'd a most Ardent desire to go himself and win the honour of Converting Ethiopia Which tho Julius the Third would not grant him the liberty to do nevertheless he so far prevail'd with him that by the connivance of John the Third King of Portugal the Patriarchal Dignity was conferr'd upon John Nonius Barret one of his Companions contrary to the Institutions of his Society tho Bermudes were then in Ethiopia already dignify'd with the same Title With him was joyn'd Andrew Oviedo a Bishop that if Barret through Mortality should miscarry he might not want an immediate Successor They Embarking in several Ships sayl'd into India In the mean time Claudius was become Successor to David his Father whose affection they thought it first expedient to sound before the Patriarch should expose himself to Casualties and Indignities Jacobus Dias was therefore sent before together with Gonsales Rodriguez and Fulgentio Freyre Jesuits who toward the beginning of February setting Sail from Goâ and a Month after arriving at the Port of Arkiko were there curteously receiv'd by the President of the Maritime Province and within the space of two Months brought to the King Who understanding that the King of Portugal was about to send Priests and other Ecclesiastical Persons to teach him and his People a new Religion was very much perplex'd in his Mind and long in Suspence what answer to return for he neither thought it convenient to admit them neither was he willing to offend the King of Portugal However he ventur'd upon several Colloquies with the Envoys the sum of which manag'd for the most part by Gonsalez tended to this That the Pope of Rome was Christ's Vicar upon Earth and the Supream Head of all Christianity and therefore if the Habessines were desirous of Eternal Happiness they should once more return and joyn themselves to their Lawful Head for that Christ himself had from his own lips asserted that his Church was but one Fold and over that but one Shepheard c. On the other side the Habessines made answer That an Affair of so great Consequence was to be consider'd and consulted upon with the other Patriarchs for to abandon their ancient Rites and Ceremonies upon private admonition and receive new ones was a thing full of danger and offence At length the King told them That if those Persons whom the King of Portugal should send
word to say And thus a second Victory being won from the Primate of Ethiopia himself a more severe Edict concerning the two Natures was publish'd by the Cryer making it Death for any Person to deny the contrary By this so sharp a Decree as if it had bin the loud signal to Battel it is incredible to think how the minds of the People were incens'd As for the Controversie it self they did not think it of so high a Concernment as to engage divided Parties in Blood and Massacre about it In regard that all acknowledg'd both Divinity and Humanity in Christ so that the Question was only about a word But let the Question be what it would such a severe way of proceeding was never heard of before in Ethiopia as being altogether contradictory to the mildness of Christ and his Apostles and the Lenity of the Primitive times So then if Men were to be scourg'd and whipp'd because they could not apprehend two Natures in Christ what must they expect if other Questions should be started about Innovations of greater difficulty in the Doctrine and Ceremonies of the Fathers Exasperated with these fair pretences Simeon the Metropolitan together with several of the Nobility and among the rest Jamanaxus alias Emana Christos another of the King's Brothers by the Mothers side and lastly almost all the Interested Clergy and Monks met and held Consultations together to prevent the threatning Mischiefs and lastly combin'd to live and dye for the Defence of their ancient and settled Religion To this end Simeon under pretence of incumbent Duty which was to be watchful over the Preservation of the Constantinopolitan Religion fix'd an Excommunication Publickly upon the Dores of the great Church belonging to the Camp against all that embrac'd the Religion of the Franks or ventur'd to Dispute concerning it The King tho highly offended with this unexpected boldness of the Metropolitan durst not adventure to revenge himself However he Publish'd another Edict whereby Liberty was granted to every Person that so pleas'd to embrace and exercise the Fathers Religion already establish'd by fair Disputes and Arguments on their side Which so little terrify'd the undaunted Metropolitan that he thunder'd out his Anathema's against all that maintain'd two Natures in Christ. The Moderate Party bewail'd these Paper Skirmishes which they foresaw would break forth and end in Slaughter and Misery and that the King's Decrees would never be establish'd without the effusion of much Blood Sensible of these Fears several of the great Personages of the Kingdom together with the King's Mother Ite-Hamelmala most earnestly besought the King to desist from what he had begun and not to raise up implacable Seditions to the Ruin of himself and his Kingdom After which the Metropolitan with many Monks and Nuns came to the Camp and implor'd the King not to innovate any thing in Religion otherwise that they were prepar'd to lay down their lives for the Religion of their Ancestors At last the King referr'd the whole Business to another Colloquie which continu'd for Six days one after another but without any Success A clear Testimony that Controversies in Religion are not to be decided by Disputes After that all the Clergy throw themselves at the King's Feet and with Sighs and Tears beseech him Not to change a Religion so quietly Establish'd in Ethiopia for so many Ages by so many of their Emperors But nothing would prevail the King remain'd inexorable and immoveable so that the Petitioners departed full freighted with Exasperation and Rebellion Immediately all hopes of Concord and Agreement being lay'd aside the Sword was next unsheath'd whence follow'd those terrible Commotions and Bloody Wars that have almost ruin'd the most flourishing part of Ethiopia The Chief of the Conspirators were Jamanaxus Aelius the King's Son in Law Viceroy of Tigra the Eunuch Caflo and several others But to give the better Colour to their Rebellion and Design of Killing the King the Metropolitan caus'd a new and more severe Excommunication to be fix'd upon the Chief Church in the Camp by which all the partakers of the Latin Religion were Anathematiz'd In the mean time the Fathers of the Society relying upon the King's Favour hasten'd to get all things ready that might be of advantage to Establish their Doctrine To that end they translated Maldonatus upon the Four Evangelists Toletus upon St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans Ribera upon the Hebrews and some others into the Ethiopic Language which some esteem'd others by reason of the intermixture of Amharic words contemn'd as full of Barbarisms and Soloecisms But as for the Lord's Prayer and the Salutation of Mary being nothing but the Latin written in Ethiopic Characters they abhorr'd 'em as looking upon them to be nothing but Magic Spells On the other side the Alexandrians fell upon the Fathers with all the bitterest Invectives that might be those Paper Skirmishes being generally the fore-runners of more Bloody disputes In pursuance of which Aelius by an Edict Commands all the Franks to depart out of Tigra and the Alexandrians to follow him by which means having muster'd up a compleat Army he openly Rebels Simeon Curses the Franks but loads Aelius with his Blessings upon which he no doubt relying resolv'd to fight his Father in Law then upon his March against him with a strong Force notwithstanding all the Perswasions of his Wife to the contrary Fierce therefore and in the heat of his young Blood and over-confident of his own Faction not staying so much as to take his Breakfast but as it were Drunk with Fury and Rage only with a small Troop about him he leaps his Horse into his Father's Camp asking Where the King was and so what between the astonishment of some and the wonder of others what the Matter should be he rode up without any hurt to the King's Pavilion where at length the Alarum being taken he was soon surrounded Ston'd and Stabb'd to Death and so dearly paid for his rashness The Captain thus Slain the Soldiers betake themselves to their heels Simeon between the Fugitives and the Pursuers stood alone by himself like a man stupifyed whether not at first observ'd or neglected as a Clergy-man but at length being known he was Slain among the Crowd Both their Heads were sent about the Kingdom and expos'd as a Public Spectacle The Eunuch Caflo had his Head struck off Jamanaxus was pardon'd Thus the Kindred of Kings for the most part escape the Punishment of those Rebellions to which they themselves have given Life and Encouragement The King who was never fearful now more emboldened by his Victory now questions other Heads of Religion and soon after by Public Edict prohibits the Observation of the Sabbath as Judaical and Repugnant to Christianity In answer to this Edict some Person without a Name had written contemptuously of the Roman Religion reflecting severely upon the Fathers of the Society whom he call'd the Kindred of Pilate as being a Roman and withal sharply menacing
made a most lofty Panegyric in Praise of the Pope not without some Reflections upon the Blindness of former Ages then he fell to commemorate what had been done of later Times How That the Emperors of Habessinia had sent their Embassadors formerly to Rome and that lately one of them had requested thence a Pastor and Evangelical Preachers that therefore now the Time was come wherein his Majesty was bound to satisfie the desire of his Ancestors and to submit himself and his Subjects to the See of Rome The King Commanded the Grand Chamberlain of his Houshold Melca Christos Prince of Samena to return an Answer who after he had extoll'd the Merits of the Portugueses It is now the King's Intention said he to fulfil the Promises of his Ancestors by yielding Obedience to the Roman Pope But as he was going on the King interrupted him saying That this was not the first day of his Intention to surrender his submission to the Roman Pope as having long before promis'd it to the Superior Father of the Society of Jesus Presently the Patriarch after a short answer unfolded a Book containing the four Evangelists and then the King falling upon his Knees took his Oath after this manner We Sultan-Saghed King of the Kings of Ethiopia believe and confess That St. Peâ—er Prince of the Apostles was by Christ our Lord Constituted Head of the whole Christian Church and that Principality and Power over the whole World was given to him when he said Thou art Peter and upon this Rock will I build my Church and I will give to thee the Keys of Heav'n and at another Time when he said to Him Feed my Sheep In like manner we believe That the Pope of Rome lawfully Elected is the true Successor of St. Peter the Apostle in his Government and that he has the same Power Dignity and Primacy of the whole Church of Christ Therefore we Promise Offer and Swear true Obedience and humbly submit our Person and our Empire at the feet of our Holy Father Urban the VIII of that Name by the Grace of God Pope and our Lord and to his Successors in the Administration of the Church So God help us and these Holy Evangils After the King had done his Son Basilides the King's Brothers all the Viceroys and Peers as also all the Clergy and Monks then present took the same Oath After this Ras-Seelax hastily Drawing forth his Scimiter brake forth into these passionate Expressions What is done let it be done that is to say Let past things be forgotten But whoever for the future shall not do it since it becomes every one so to do shall feel the weight of this An Act which to most that were present seem'd very severe especially to those who had taken part with Gabriel at whom those words were constru'd to be principally levell'd Moreover he added an unusual Clause to his own Oath That he also swore Allegiance to Basilides as Heir and Successor to his Father and that he would also be his faithful Vassal so that he would promise to Protect and Defend the Holy Catholic Faith otherwise that he would be the first and most profess'd of his Enemies As if it had bin lawful for a Subject to impose new Conditions of his Subjection upon a most Absolute Prince and Monarch not bound by any Laws of Man such as is the King of Habessinia However the King said nothing nor durst Basilides as being under the Tuition of his Father take notice of it Nor indeed was this Condition added to his Oath any advantage to the Roman Church but rather serv'd to hasten the Ruin of Ras-Seelax This Solemnity concluded with an Anathema after the Ethiopian manner upon all those that for the future should forget or break this Oath Immediately after several Edicts were Publish'd That none for the future should say Mass or Exercise the Priestly Office except such as were licens'd by the Patriarch Thereupon the Ordinations of the Alexandrian Metropolitan not being accompted lawful most of the Priests were constrain'd to receive new Ordinations from the new Patriarch upon this Condition That they should all observe the Roman Forms of Worship and not give any succour or harbour to Rebels who offended in that Nature was to be severely punish'd It was also farther enjoyn'd that in the Celebration of Easter and Observation of Lent the Canons of the Church of Rome should be faithfully follow'd There was also one thing more than usual exacted by the Patriarch who having a great mistrust of the Ladies of the Royal Blood caus'd a It is still a Proverb among the Ethiopians Zaqon Qawino What is done let it be done Decree to be made that they also upon a prefix'd day as being more zealous for the Alexandrian Opinions than the Men should take the Sacred Oath of Supremacy to the Pope as if they had bin a distinct Body Politic from the Men. But whether it were put in Execution or how done I do not find In the next place great care was taken for Building a Patriarchal Seat and for settling an Annual Revenue for support of the Dignity of the new Primate to which purpose a place was chosen out in the Confines of Bagemdra and Dembea call'd Debsan as also another in the Imperial Camp near Dancaz Residencies also for the Fathers were built in several Provinces of the Empire to stock it with Jesuits Maiguagua or Fremona in Tigra Ganeta Jesus with a fair Church Gorgora in Dembea Azazo Enabeesse vulgarly Nebesse Hadash by the Portugals Adaxa Kolala Leda-Negas Serca Temhhua Atthana in Bagemdra The same year also Lent was kept after the Roman manner with all the Solemnities of the Passion Week as also Easter according to the Roman Calendar Which occasion'd most violent Commotions over all the Empire and more especially among the Clergy and Monks Who being ignorant of the Computation and the Cause thought it a high breach of the Canons of the Nicene Council and the Paschal Cycle therein prescrib'd Neither could the Edict be equally dispers'd over so many far distant Regions for want of Printing In the mean time they were very busie in Baptizing the Converted and ordaining of Ecclesiastical Persons many of which had bin already Baptiz'd and Ordain'd Sermons were also Preach'd in several places after the manner of Europe wherein it was necessary for the Fathers to Cite many places of Scripture if they desir'd to be accompted Learned Thus the Fathers of the Society made a daily and very great Progress insomuch that the Number of Baptiz'd and Converted to the Roman Religion amounted to many Thousands About two years after the Patriarch made a Visitation assisted by some of the Sodality in which vast Numbers of People were some of them Rebaptiz'd others Confirm'd to the great good-liking and applause of the King and his Peers who had never seen such things perform'd by any of their Metropolitans before Others look'd asquint upon these prosperous beginnings seeking
a Christian when Tellez rais'd that report However if any thing of fresher intelligence shall come to our hands at any time we shall freely and truly impart it to Public view The End of the Third Book OF THE Private Affairs OF THE HABESSINIANS More particularly of their OECONOMIES BOOK IV. CHAP. I. Of the Letters used by the Ethiopians They obtain'd the use of Letters with their Divine Worship The Original of the Greek and Latine Letters The Ethiopic more agreeable with the Samaritan then Hebrew Characters The Inventor of theirs ignorant both of the Hebrew and Greek The Letters ancient but not all invented at the same time The Amharic Characters The story of the Chaldaic and Holy Character refuted THat Learning and Divine Worship generally go together we have hinted already For we see it has so happen'd among most Nations of Europe which when they gave the name to the Latine Church entertain'd also its Letters and most of its words Sometimes also New Letters have abolish'd the use of Old ones as we find by the Example of the (a) They are call'd Runer in the North and are to be seen engrav'd upon Stones in several places See Wormias's Runic Literature and the Runic Lexicon Printed at Copenhagen Runic Letters of the Ancient Goths in the time of Christianity Thus the Russians receiv'd their Letters together with their Divine Worship from the Greek Church Over all the East and the greatest part of Africa the Arabic Literature and Language crept in together with Islamism the Ancient Persian being thrown out and all other Nations if there were any that us'd the Arabic Letters before And as for our own Native Characters as we express them in Writing though they seem to differ very much from the Latine and Greek especially while the Letters are so vary'd and transform'd with the strokes and dashes of various hands as fancy and swiftness of Writing guides the Pen yet if we more accurately consider the old Characters and those the same as they appear in Printing we shall find it no great difficulty to derive them from the Ancient Latine It is the Ancient Opinion of the Learned That Cadmus recommended the Phenician Letters to the Greeks and the Greeks to the Latines and they to all the rest of Europe first by means of their Conquests then of their Religion though there be every where a great difference in the shape of the Letters among those Nations also that use the Arabic Letters there is a vast variety of Writing Not to speak of the Persians and Turks but of the Moors and Western People of Africa whose Letters though Originally Arabic you shall hardly understand But as to what concerns our Ethiopic Letters some of them indeed may correspond in Name but in shape there is not the least appearance of similitude so that if an Argument were to be drawn from the Letters we might say that the Ethiopians receiv'd neither their Divine nor Civil Worship from the Israelites Nevertheless they seem to have some correspondence with the Samaritan Characters which many most Judicious Men acknowledge for the Original and Genuine Letters of the Ancient Hebrews and yet neit her will these without a great deal of Labour be brought to any Assimulation We shall give you a view of the two Alphabets both together Samar Ethiop Samar Ethiop Aleph Alf. Lamed Lawi Beth Bet. Mem Maj. Gimel Geml Nun Nahas Daleph Dent. Samech Saat He Haut Ain Ain Wau Waw Pe Af. Zajin Zaj. Trode Tzadai Cheth Hharm Kuf. Kof Teth Tait Resh Rees Jod Jaman Shin Saur Caf. Caf. Tau Tawl In this Scheme we have not follow'd any Samaritan Alphabet but selected them out of the several Figures which the most Famous Walton has produc'd in his preparation for the Polyglotton which seem'd more like our Ethiopians For my part I am not apt to believe that the Inventor of the Ethiopic Letters who is yet to me unknown had any knowledge either of the Ancient Greek or these Samaritan Letters or that he receiv'd them from any other for the certain use of Religion but that they were found and ordered by particular fancy for the use of the Ethiopic Pronunciation which is manifest from the different disposition of the Letters the different Order of the Points and manner of Reading contrary to the Custom of all the Eastern People who begin from the Left to the Right and lastly from the Greek Numerical Characters But that they are very old is apparent from hence for that several Characters carry the same Pronunciation and are therefore by the Abessines promiscuously us'd in their Writing Formerly I am of Opinion they had a different sound for it seems not probable that the first Inventor would accommodate two or three Letters various in shape to one pronunciation Then again they were not invented together nor at the same time for the Greek II or the P of the Latines was wanting of old among the Ethiopians and the other Oriental Languages that were of the same Pedegree (b) Many Learned men make use of Dagesh soft instead of the invented Masoretick one otherwise the Seventy Interpreters who themselves were Jews had expressed the Initial Letter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we now pronounce Pe by a α and not φ in the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Jews at this day utter Peleg Paraoh instead of which they us'd either their Forrain Pait in pronouncing Peter and Paul or else the Letter Bet B. after the manner of the Arabians who say and write Beter Baul Ibraxis or the Acts of the Apostles from the Greek Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Ancient Germans also wanted the Letter P and therefore in Forrain they put forth the Letter F with a kind of straining Pfaff Papa Pfeben A Melon Pfaal A Lake Pfund A Pound Pfan A Peacock Pfrund A Prebendary Or else they used B for P as Babenburgh now Bamburgh for Papenburgh Popes-Town Bapst from the Greek Word Pappas At length the Habessines also receiv'd the Letter Pa and plac'd it last in their Alphabet But after the Amharic Dialect took place of the Native Language seven new Characters were to be added that so the casual Words of this Dialect might be expressed besides these they have no other Letters either in Sacred or Prophane Books The Book of Councils written Two hundred and forty Years ago extant at Rome has no other Characters so that I am constrain'd to admire what those good honest Habessinian Priests living then at Rome otherwise very ignorant meant by talking to Athanasius Kircher concerning a double Character telling him That the Priests and more Learned sort made use of the Ancient Surian and Holy Character but that now all the Habessine promiscuously spoke the Vulgar and Common Habessine For where are any such Ethiopic Books extant written in the Surian or Chaldaic Characters When and where the Sacred Books began to be Written in the Vulgar Character There never
before they Trim and Comb themselves They not only curl their Hair which makes it grow the streighter but also anoint it not with fragrant Balsoms or Oyles of Amber or Musk but with Butter not considering that they who are forc'd to turn their Noses from the stench of their Locks have not the opportunity to admire the lustre of their Matted Tresses yet lest an Ornament so slick and glittering should be rumpl'd or squeez'd in the Night they by means of a most exquisite Invention preserve it resting their Necks in a forked stick that so their Heads may hang at liberty preferring their Pride before Pain and Torture Nor does their Poverty less appear in their Houses for they that belong to the Camp live all either in Tents or in Hurts made up of Reeds and Rubbish daub'd over with Clay or Lome and cover'd with Straw or Sedge which they leave behind them when they remove their Camp with no dammage or condoling for the loss of their Tenement when they can as easily build another at the same rate Not much better are their Villages scarce secure against the Incursions of the Beasts of Prey The Cafers like Wild Beasts lye without any other Curtains or Canopie than that of Heaven in the open Field where Night constrains them to rest The Kings Houses are of two Fashions the Longer which are call'd Sakala and the Rounder which if they be bigger then ordinary are call'd Beta Negus tho Kings Houses They bewail their Dead after a most doleful manner for no sooner do they hear of the Death of any great Personage or any near Friend but they prostrate themselves upon the Ground where they lye knocking and bruising their Heads against it with a cruelty very injurious to their Sculls The Funeral of Susneus as being most Remarkable I shall here set down to shew their solemnities in burying their Kings The Body being wrapt up and covered with a most rich and costly Garment was carryed from Dancaza where the Camp then lay to the Church call'd Ganeta Jesus Before the Hearse the Banners and Ensignes were born not Revers'd as among us but upright and display'd without any Impreses or Motto's but only adorn'd with various Colours the Drums beat slow and mournfully after them followed Three of the best Horses which the King us'd to Ride Magnificently caparison'd as if it had been for some Triumphal Pomp next to them follow'd several of the Noblemens Sons carrying the Kings Royal Robes and Ensigns of Regality as his Diadem his Sword his Belt his Spear his Buckler c. taking their turns and by their gestures and postures using all means to excite the People to Tears and Lamentation To the same End the Queen her self following at a good distance wore upon her Head her Husbands particular Diadem accompanied with her Daughters and all the Ladies and Virgins of Noble Extraction all riding upon Mules and having their Tresses cut off after them followed the Kings Son and Successor with his Brothers and all the Nobility some on Horseback and some on Foot in old tatter'd Habits instead of Mourning no Torches or Flambeaus lighted them along in their Procession no Tapers burning in the Church nor was any thing to be heard from one end to the other of it but Groans and Lamentations till the Body was laid in the Tomb only some few Monks standing before the Doors of the Church read some few of the Psalms of David Next day they return'd to Dancaza and then so soon as they came in sight of the place another sort of Pomp was order'd For the Hearse being brought back again empty was carry'd first by which rode a certain Horseman adorn'd with the Emperours Habit and Robes and before him rode another upon a Horse richly caparison'd and arm'd with Helmet and Spear in which manner after they had proceeded a little way some certain Bands of Armed Soldiers March'd forth of the Camp to meet them testifying their Sorrow by their bitter Lamentations and Howlings Then the Princes of the Kingdome and chiefest Lords of the Court entring the new Kings Pavillion renewed their Moans with all expressions of Sorrow and concluded the Solemnity at length with congratulations and well-wishes for his happy Government and prosperous success in all his undertakings CHAP. V. Of their Mechanic Arts and Trades Very few Handicrafts The Jews Weavers and Smiths No Societies of Trades-men Certain Families of Trumpeters Architecture formerly known now forgotten compar'd with the Ancient Germans Churches and Colledges built by the Fathers of the Societie The Kings Palace Built after the European manner admir'd They are covetous of Learning and Sciences What the King of Ethiopia chiefly wants ALL this while there is nothing of which they stand more in need then of Handicraft Trades for thereby they are destitute of so many conveniencies of Human Life as we abound in by the help of our Arts and Sciences The Jews are almost the only persons that employ themselves among them in weaving of Cotton they also make the Heads of their Spears and several other pieces of Workmanship in Iron for they are excellent Smiths a sort of Trade otherwise abhorr'd by the Habessines which Gregory confirm'd with a smile saying That the silly vulgar people could not endure Smiths as being a sort of Mortals that spit fire and were bred up in Hell As for other things every one takes Care to supply his own wants either by his own or the pains of his Servants which it is no hard matter to do considering how little they have to use And for the great Men they have particular men for all their particular Employments therefore there are no Guilds or Fraternities of Trades-men among them which are so frequent in all our Cities who have their By-laws contriv'd by themselves more for the good of themselves than for the benefit of the Commonweale for amongst us the skilful and unskilfull the just dealer and unjust are all alike as being all under the same By-laws and they exercise a kind of Monopolie of their Trade so that their fellow Citizens are as it were Forraigners among them and compell'd to obey their Injunctions But in Habessinia what ever Art any one Professes that he teaches his Children The Trumpeters and Horn-winders are all of the same Families and have their particular Country and Mansions by themselves Formerly Architecture as it was in request so it was an Art well known among them as is evident by the Ruines of the City of Axuma and the Structures of Magnificent Temples cut out of the Live Stone Rocks but the Imperial Seat being removed into Amhara it grew out of date For the Kings having deserted Axuma by reason of their long and frequent Marches being accustomed to their Camps rather chose to abide in Tents and Pavillions Besides that after the havocks of the Adelan Wars and the Invasions of the Gallans found that the Caverns and Recesses of their Inaccessible Mountains were far more safe
following words Let the Holy Ghost descend and come and shine upon this Bread that it may be made the Body of Christ our Lord and that the taste and savour of this Cup may be chang'd that so it may be made the Blood of Christ our Lord. And when I ask'd him withal the Exposition of the words Majete vat valto to be chang'd or converted and then demanded of him Whether he did not think that the substance of the Bread and Wine was not chang'd and converted into the Substance of the Body and Blood of Christ He made answer That no such sort of Transubstantiation was known or understood by the Habessines That his Countrymen were not so scrupulous nor us'd to start such thorny Questions Nevertheless it seem'd to him probable and like that the vulgar Bread and Wine was chang'd into the mysterious Representation of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ and so was alter'd from Prophane to Sacred to represent the true Body and Blood of Christ to the Communicants Tellez confesses his dissatisfaction touching their Consecration it being their Custom to say over the Body of Christ This bread is my Body and over the Wine This cup is my Blood Which words have not in them the true force of Consecration For the Doctors of the Roman Church are of Opinion That whoever speaks those words does nothing These words This is my Body being only of Efficacy to operate a true Transubstantiation Which being true no man can pretend that the Abessines acknowlege Transubstantiation especially seeing they do not attribute those Divine Honours to the Sacraments which the Consequences of real Transubstantiation require Concerning the state of the Soul after Death there are several Opinions among the Habessines every one having free Liberty of Opinion in those things that do not directly concern Eternal Salvation So that it is no wonder that so many various Sentiments of private persons are brought away by our Doctors as the publick Opinions of the Habessines Some of them believe that the Souls of Men piously deceased shall not behold the Beatifical Vision of God before the Resurrection of the Body which is also the Opinion of many of the Ancient Latins as if the Soul remain'd in Expectation of the Body in some certain third place Others convinc'd by the Authority of the Scripture acknowledge only two Mansions of the Souls Heaven and Hell believing no Damnatinn to those that are in Christ and dye in his Faith Which they gather from the Example of the Penitent Thief and the words of Christ thus Translated by the Ethiopians Verily I say unto thee firmly believe that thou shalt be with me in Paradice Therefore as for those that Piously sleep in Christ they believe them not to be in a worse Condition than this Thief who at the point of Death was sav'd through Penitence actuated by Faith without any satisfaction given for his Thieveries Now to prove that the Soul of Man is not created they produce this Argument That God perfected the whole Work of his Creation upon the Sixth day Nevertheless they believe it to be in its own Nature immortal as being inspir'd into Man by God at his first Creation But on the other side they think it very absurd that God should be ty'd to create new Souls every day for Adulterate and Incestuous Births However the first Opinion seems to be the more vulgarly receiv'd among them in regard of their Prayers for the Dead As for example Remember Lord the Souls of thy Servants and our Father Abba-Matthew and the rest of our Fathers Abba-Salama and Abba-Jacob And a little after Remember Lord the Kings of Ethiopia Abreha and Atzbeha Caleb and Gebra-Meskah c. Then they add Release O Lord our Fathers Abba Antony and Abba Macarius Remember Lord the Soul of thy Servant our Father Tecla-Hajmanot with all his Companions From whence it may be fairly justify'd that the Abessines admit of a Purgatory And yet Gregory constantly deny'd it And Godignus confesses That there are no sacred Services said for the deceas'd among the Habessines The same thing Tellez confirms However he derides them as not constant to themselves for that to pray for the Dead and distribute Alms to the Poor is no other than to assert Purgatory Nor do I see how they can reconcile their Praying for the Rest of happy Souls and at another time their imploring the Intercession of the same Souls But they nothing mov'd with these Arguments and Inferences affirm them to be the Pious Conception of their good wishes and only a Commemoration of the happy Estate of the deceas'd and that it is none of their business to make any farther scrutiny into the Traditions of their Ancestors Gregory added That many Prayers of the Christians were so conceiv'd that many times those things were Petition'd for which were already perform'd and answer'd That the Lord's Prayer contain'd Petitions of that kind For that it would be a thing but badly inferr'd that the Name of God was not Hallow'd or that his Will was not done both in Heaven and Earth because we daily put up those Prayers besides we all begg every day for Daily Bread when most of those that make that Prayer do generally live in wealthy abundance He had heard perhaps among us our general good Wishes for the departed That God would vouchsafe to grant the Interr'd Body a Quiet Repose and at length a joyful Resurrection And thereupon said he Do not you your selves wish the same good wishes for the Dead Do not you believe that the Carkasses of the Dead may be vexed with Spiritual Evils or that a happy Resurrection may be obtain'd by your Prayers And he took so heinously the suspition of his belief of Purgatory that he cry'd out Would it not be an irreverent Injury to so many Kings and Fathers should we interpret the Commemoration of their Souls to that height as to think they should be tormented for so many Ages in Purgatory and want the aid of our indefatigable Prayers to release them after so long an Imprisonment For those Kings and Fathers were men among the Habessines most Innocent and had bin dead above a Thousand years since or more So that whether they be in Paradice or remain in any other place expecting the Resurrection of their Bodies in both cases Prayers of that Nature seem superfluous Besides were there any Question to be made of the happy Condition of Men Piously deceas'd we should rather pray for those whose lives were more loose and vain than for those whose Conversations were without blame And therefore what has bin deliver'd about the Opinions of the Habessines concerning Purgatory leans rather upon Conjecture than any sufficient Authority they being ignorant of the very Name Insomuch that Jacob Wemmers the Carmelite in his Ethiopic Lexicon was constrain'd to forge a Word by calling it Mantzehi Hatate the Purger of Sin But we are to understand that it was the most Ancient Custom of