Ambassador desired Esimethus who was their King at that time to enter into a League Offensive and Defensive with their Neighbours the Madaans who were Sarazens and having joined their Armies for to invade Persia The Kings did both promise to do what the Romans had desired of them but when they came to execution they found their parts not to be feasible the Silks that were brought by the Indians being all constantly bought up by the Persian Merchants who lay much nearer to them than the Ethiopians and for the Homerites the vast Deserts they were to pass thorough before they could come at the Persians discouraged them at this time from attempting it though King Abraham did attempt it afterwards but with no success But as it is the common Fate of Nations The Homerites conquered by the Ethiopians their Deliverers that invite their Neighbours into their Countrey to be conquered by their Deliverers so it fared with the Homerites at this time for the Servants and Thieving part of the Ethiopian Army finding Arabia a much better Country than their own they resolved to remain where they were and not being long contented to live among the Homerites as Inmates they set up to be their Masters and having by force of Arms deposed Esimetheus Esimetheus made King of the Homerites deposed by the Habassine Army which put Abraham in his place they bestowed the Crown upon one Abraham a Christian but who had formerly been a Slave to a Roman Merchant that resided at the Port of Adel in Ethiopia Hellenesteus having received Advice of the Pranks his Subjects that remained in Arabia were playing dispatched 3000 Soldiers thither to chastise their Insolence and restore his Creature Esimetheus to his Royal Dignity which those Troops were so far from doing that having been corrupted by some Emissaries sent among them by Abraham so soon as they landed when they came to engage the Rebels after having slain their Chief Commander who was a Prince of the Blood they all went over to them with a Resolution to stand by Abraham to the last Hellenestens being much troubled at this Loss sent a greater Army than the former against Abraham which coming to blows was totally routed by him after which Hellenesteus growing weary of the Charge of the War gave it over leaving the unfortunate Esimetheus to his unkind Stars Elmicinus in his Sarazen History reports The Ethiopians send an Ambassador to the Patriarch of Alexandria That in the 39th year of the Hegira which is 659 of Our Lord an Ambassador was sent from Ethiopia to Simon Syrus the Jacobite Patriarch of Alexandria to intreat him to ordain them a Bishop and some Presbyters which the Patriarch having I know not for what reason deny'd to do the Ambassador complained of him to Adulmelius the Sarazen King of Egypt who commanded the Patriarch to ordain him as many as he desired but the Ambassador did so highly resent Symon's denial that when he offered him his Service he would not make use of him but employed another Bishop which was the cause of great Disturbances in the Church In the 561st year of Diocletian James the Abuna of Ethiopia deposed by the Queen and restored by the King afterwards which is the 845th of our Lord saith the same Historian there was a Bishop in Ethiopia whose name was James whom the Queen taking advantage of her Husband's absence in the Wars banished Ethiopia substituting another Bishop in his room for which the Kingdom was plagued with a great Drought and Pestilence but the King returning home and being much dissatisfied with the Queen for what she had done sent to the Patriarch of Egypt whither the deposed Prelate was retired to command him back to his Province which the Patriarch did and the Bishop when he return'd was received with the general joy of the whole People In the Eighth year of Chalifatus Mutamidi or as others will have it A Tribute laid on the Patriarch of Alexandria by the Calif of Egypt in his Seventh year which was the 265th year of the Hegira one Michael being Patriarch of the Alexandrian Jacobites he had a Tribute of 20000 Crowns laid upon him for the advancing of which Sum he was obliged to sell to the Jews the fourth part of all the Churches in Alexandria and the Lands belonging to him in Habassia as also the Church in the Neighbourhood of Malaca in Cosvoim in the City of Misra and to tax every Christian at a Kirati yearly all which amounted to but half the Sum of the Tribute In the 807th year of the Martys The Nile diverted from coming down to Egypt and turned into its old Channel again upon the Intercession of the Bishop of Alexandria which is the 1165th of Christ the Nile being extreamly low in Egypt the King thereof whose name was Mustausirus sent the Patriarch Michael with rich Presents to the King of Ethiopia who having received the Patriarch with great respect did at his request order the Nile to be turned into its old Channel again out of which he had diverted it whereupon the Nile rose in one night to its usual heighth in Egypt to the great joy of the King and the whole Countrey who when the Patriarch returned home did him great honours Paulus Venetus reports that in the year 1258. an Habassin King having been hindered by his Councellors from going in person to Jerusalem did send a Bishop thither The King of Habassia victorious over the King of Aden with rich Offerings who was not only robbed of all he had as he passed thorough the Kingdom of Aden but upon his refusal to turn Mahometan was sent home with a mark of infamy upon his Body at which barbarous Treatment the Habassin was so much incensed that having got together a great Army he marched against that Sarazen Tyrant and having beat him in a pitched Battel and made great Desolations in his Countrey for some Weeks he returned home laden with Spoils and Honours Haiton Armenus in his Directions to the Christians how to recover the Holy Land adviseth them to write to the King of the Nubians meaning the Habassins to invade Egypt with a numerous Army which would divert the Sarazens from coming with their whole force against them into Syria When or wheresoever the Arabick Canons falsly attributed to the first Council of Nice were made the 36th of them relates wholly to the Bishop of Ethiopia and runs as follows THE Ethiopians have no power to create or chuse a Patriarch The 7th place in a General Council given to the Abuna of Ethiopia by the Arabick Canons of the Council of Nice whose Prelate must be rather under the Jurisdiction of the Patriarch of Alexandria or in case they should come at any time to have one among them in the place of Patriarch and who should be stiled Catholicus he shall not notwithstanding that have a right to ordain Archbishops as other Patriarchs have having neither the
Furthermore If you shall think fit to marry either your Daughters to our Sons or your Sons with our Daughters it will be extreamly acceptable to us She desires a Daughter of Portugal for her Black Prince and will be much for both our Advantages by laying a foundation of a Brotherly Alliance betwixt us Which Marriages we are and shall always be ready to enter into with you What remains is That the Health and Grace of our Redeemer Christ Jesus and of our Holy Lady the Virgin Mary may extend themselves to you your Sons and Daughters and your whole Family Amen We do furthermore certify you That in case you and we join our Forces we shall with God's assistance be strong enough to destroy the Enemies of our Holy Faith for at Sea where by reason of our Empire 's lying so much within Land we are not able to do any thing You praised be God are the most powerful of all Jesus Christ being your Helper for in truth the things done by you in the Indies are miraculous and more than humane If you will set out a Fleet of a 1000 Ships we will take care to furnish them with all Necessaries Upon the Emperor of Habassin's having made this glorious Proposition to him King Emanuel resolved to send a splendid Embassy to his Court named Don Edward Calvam who had been Secretary of State to two Kings and Ambassador at the Courts of Vienna France and Rome and one Rodriguez de Lima and Francis Alverez one of his Chaplains in Ordinary to go Ambassadors sending rich Presents by them both to the Emperor and his Grandmother These Ambassadors with Matthew in their Company went to Goa on the Fleet that carried the Viceroy Lopez Suares by whom they were sent in the Year 1520. with a strong Convoy to Arkiko a Port in the Red-Sea belonging at that time to the Habassins Galvam who was the first in Commission dying by the way in the Island of Camara was succeeded by Lima who having made but a short stay at Arkiko begun his Journey towards the Habassin Court where when he arrived he was received by the Emperor with extraordinary joy and kindness Matthew who died in the way betwixt Arkiko and the Court having been splendidly interr'd by the Ambassadors in the Monastry of Bisoym The Ambassadors who were to have returned to the Indies by the same Fleet they came upon having brought their Negotiation to a speedy issue made what haste they could back to Arkiko where to their great mortification they found the Fleet they were to have embarked upon gone the Moncons or Trade-Winds which in those Seas blow six Months from one Point and six months from the opposite not permitting them to wait any longer for them And to encrease the mortification of this Disappointment they met with Letters which had been left for them by the Admiral that advised them of the Death of King Emanuel the greatest and most fortunate Prince that ever wore the Crown of Portugal The Ambassadors not knowing how long it might be before they should have a Fleet to carry them to Goa and being certain that by reason of the Moncon it must be at least six months before one could possibly come to them they returned to the Court again where they remained four years before any opportunity for Goa offered it self But at the end of four years they embarked upon a Fleet at Arkiko sent on purpose to fetch them carrying an Habassin Ambassador home with them with Letters to the King of Portugal and the Pope The Ambassadors did not arrive at Lisbon before the Year 1527. where the Habassin Ambassador whose name was Zaga Zabo was received with all the marks of friendship and kindness but whatever was the cause of it he was to his great sorrow detained above 10 years in that Court He hath given the World a large Account of the Faith and Customs of the Habassins which though false in abundance of Particulars I shall set down at length having first translated the Habassin Emperor's Letters to the Pope and the King of Portugal The Letters of the most Serene David Emperor of Ethiopia to Emanuel King of Portugal writ in the Year 1521. In the name of God the Father as it was always and who has no beginning In the name of God the only Son who was like unto him before the light of the Stars was seen and before he laid the foundations of the Sea but who in time was conceived in the Womb of a Virgin without Human Seed and without Marriage for after this manner was the knowledge of his Office In the name of the Comforter the Spirit of Holiness who knoweth all Secrets that are or ever were and all the height of Heaven which is sustained and upheld without Pillars and who enlarged the Earth which before was not known nor created from the East to the West and from the South to the North neither are they First and Second but a Trinity join'd in One Eternal Creator and One Council and One Word thorow all Ages Amen THESE Letters are sent by Mani Tinghil that is the Frankincense of the Virgin which was the name that was given me at my Baptism but the name I assumed when I took the Government upon me is David the Beloved of God the Pillar of the Faith of the Race of Judah the Son of David the Son of Solomon the Son of the Pillar of Sion the Son of the Seed of Jacob the Son of the Hand of Mary the Son of Nau by the Flesh Emperor of the Great and High Ethiopia and of Mighty Kingdoms and Provinces King of Xoa and Affate and of Fatigar and of Angote and Bara and of Baaligaura and of Adea and of Vangue and of Goiam where the Nile riseth and of Damarua and of Vaquem Edri Ambea Vagni Tigri Mahon and Sabaym where Queen Saba lived and of Barnagaes and Lord of all the Countries as far as Nubia on the Confines of Egypt These Letters are addressed to the most Potent and Excellent King Emanuel who liveth in the love of God and who continues stedfast in the Catholick Faith the Son of the Apostles Peter and Paul King of Portugal and Algarves the Friend of Christians the Enemy Judge and Conqueror of the Mahometans and Heathens of Africk and Guinea from the Promontory and Island of the Moon to the Red-Sea of Arabia Persia and Ormus and of the whole Indies and of all the Provinces Islands and Lands belonging to them the Destroyer of the Mahometans and of all the mighty Heathens the Lord of Towers and of High Castles and Walls the Propagator of the Faith of Jesus Christ Peace be with you King Emanuel who relying uton God's Assistance do slaughter the Mahometans and with your Fleet and Armies every where drive the Infidels out as Dogs Peace be with the Queen your Wife the Friend of Jesus Christ and the Servant of the Virgin Mary the Mother of the Saviour
in our Mouths and Memories and that I may be always delighting my self in your Gifts For the same reason I do earnestly intreat you to send me some Learned Men and Artificers namely Carvers of Images Sword-Cutlers and Gunsmiths and Gilders and Carpenters but especially Artificers who knew how to Build Houses with Stone and to cover them with Lead and Copper I should be glad likewise to have some that understand how to make Glass and Musical Instruments and how to play well upon them with some Pipers and Trumpeters These Artificers I desire chiefly from your Holiness but in case you should have none to spare I must intreat you to order some of the Christian Kings your Sons who are all at your Commands to send them unto me Which Artificers when they arrive here shall be treated honourably and rewarded according to their deserts they shall also have good Wages and whenever they shall desire it they shall have free leave to return home and be well rewarded for their pains for I will detain no body against his will how beneficial soever his stay should be to me But to pass to other things I must expostulate with you holy Father Why do you not exhort the Christian Kings your Sons to lay down their Arms as becomes Brethren and to agree among themselves seeing they are all your Sheep and you are their Pastor Your Holiness is not ignorant of the Gospel-Commands and of its having said A kingdom divided against it self cannot stand but will become desolate For if those Kings would but all join together they would quickly destroy all the Mahometans and with ease demolish the Sepulchre of their False Prophet Apply your self therefore to this holy Father that so there may be a firm Peace and Confederacy established among them and exhort them to assist us who are besieged on all sides by Wicked Mahometans and Moors The Turks and Moors can assist one another and their Kings and Rulers do all agree together I have a Mahometan for my Neighbour who is constantly supplied with Arms Horses and all Military Weapons by Princes of his own Sect namely the Kings of India Persia and Egypt this is a great mortification to me to see the Enemies of the Christian Religion enjoy Peace and live together like Brethren and at the same time to see Christian Kings my Brethren not in the least concerned at the Injuries I endure not one of them offering to succour me as becomes a Christian notwithstanding the filthy Sons of Mahomet are always ready to succor one another not that I desire any Soldiers of them for I have enough of my own and to spare but all that I desire of them is only their Prayers and Supplications and your Holiness and my Brethren's Favour The reason why I want your Friendship is that I may be furnished by you with such things as are necessary to terrify the Mahometans the Enemies of the Name of Christ And that my Neighbours may be made sensible of my being favoured by the Christian Kings my Brethren and of their being ready to assist me whenever there shall be occasion which would be much for the honour of all of us that are of the same Faith and Religion and do intend to persist therein God fulfil your Desires to the praise of Jesus Christ and of God our Father who is praised by all thorow all Ages and you my Lord and holy Father with all the Saints of Christ at Rome embrace me and let all my Subjects and all that dwell in Ethiopia be received with the same Embraces and let thanks be returned to Christ with your Spirit These Letters your Holiness will receive from my Brother John King of Portugal the most Powerful Son of King Emanuel who will send them to you by our Ambassador Francisco Alvarez A Second Letter of David Emperor of Ethiopia to the Roman Pontiff written in the Year 1524. HAppy and holy Father who art made by God the Conservator of the Nations and who dost sit in the Chair of St. Peter To thee are given the keys of the kingdom of heaven so that whatsoever thou binded or loosest on earth is bound and loose in heaven according to what Christ hath said in St. Matthew 's Gospel I the King at whose Name the Lyons tremble who at my Baptism was called Atami Tinghil that is the Frankincense of the Virgin but who when I took the Administration of my Empire upon me assumed the Names of David the Beloved of God the Pillar of Faith the Prince of Judah the Son of Solomon the Son of the Pillar of Sion the Son of Zara Jacob the Son of the Hand of Mary the Son of Nau by the Flesh Emperor of the Great and High Ethiopia and of vast Kingdoms and Dominions King of Xoa and Caffate and Fatigar Angot Baru Baaltinganze Adea Vanga and Mahon and Saba from whence the Queen of Saba went and Barnagays the Lord of all Nubia to the Confines of Egypt All which Countries and a great many more not here mentioned are under our Dominion neither have I mentioned the fore-named out of Pride or Vaingloy or for any other reason but that the Great God may be the more praised who of his singular bounty has been pleased to bestow the foresaid Christian Empires upon my Ancestors and who hath likewise been gracious to me after a special manner that I might constantly do service to his Religion making me Lord of Adel and the Scourge of the Mahometans and Gentiles who do worship Idols I do after the manner of other Christian Kings my Brethren to whom I am no-ways inferior either in Power or Religion send to kiss your Holiness's Feet Within my own Territories I am the Fillar of Faith neither am I assisted with any Foraign Succors but I do place my whole trust and confidence in God as my Ancestors did before me who have all been sustained and governed by him ever since his Angel spoke to Philip who instructed the Eunuch of the powerful Queen Candace Empress of Ethiopia in the Faith as he was coming from Jerusalem to Gaza Philip then baptized the Eunuch and the Eunuch afterwards baptized the Queen with the greatest part of her Court and People who from that day to this have continued Christians and strong in the Faith My Ancesters without any other than Divine Assistance have propagated the Faith thorow vast Regions which I likewise labour daily to do being fixed between the large Borders of my Kingdoms as a Lyon encompassed within a Wood and strongly fortified against the Mahometans and other Nations that are Enemies to the Christian Faith and who will not give ear to the Word of God and my Exhortation For which reason I with my Sword girt about me do persecute them and will by degrees expel them relying on the Divine Assistance which is never wanting to me which is more than all Christan Kings can say who if they would but agree together might with
to yield Obedience to your Holiness in that King's Name and in the Name of all his Subjects We have detained him here for some time being willing for divers Reasons that he should accompany our dear Nephew Martin de Portugal our Councellor and Ambassador whom we have ordered to present the said Francis Alvarez Ambassador of the said King of Ethiopia to your Holiness to yield Obedience to you as also to acquaint you with what the Ambassador of the said King that was sent to us has laid before us together with the Copies of that King's Letters to us wherefore your Holiness will do a thing that will be very acceptable unto God if in all this Affair you do give entire Credit to the said Martin our Ambassador for certainly great thanks ought to be returned to God for having in the time of your Pontificate done so great a favour to your Holiness that a Portion of Christians who as to the largness of their Country are nothing inferior to this of ours should consent to the Catholick Faith and to the Roman Church by yielding Obedience to it We for our parts are very thankful to God for having made use of our Ministry in the Reduction of this King There being nothing more for the praise of true Piety than to behold Ethiopia joyned with Europe in the Unity of the Christian Profession May our Lord God be pleased to encrease and preserve the Felicity of your Holiness according to your own desire Dated at Settuval the 28th of May 1532. King John having made the Habassin Emperor's Complements in his Letters to the Pope to amount to a formal submission of himself his Church and Empire to him must make his having detained an Embassage of that Moment and which he himself Magnifies so much so long at Lisbon to be the more wonderful But what it should be that after having slighted this Embassy for five long Years induced him to trump it up thus if it were not to do his Nephew Honor is a Mystery I shall leave to the Reader to unriddle having only observed that there were two Creations of Cardinals soon after it came to Rome The Portuguese and Habassin Ambassadors being arrived at Bononia The Portuguese and Habassin Ambassadors had their Audience of the Pope at Bononia where the Pope and the Emperor Charles the Fifth were together at that time they had the 29th of January given them for the Day of their publick Audience When being introduced into a publick Consistory at which the Emperor was present the Portuguese presented his Master's Letters to the Pope together with the Copies of those which had been sent to him and his Father by the King of Ethiopia When the Portuguese had done the Habassin presented his Master's Letters to the Pope and with them a Gold Cross that weighed about a Pound And having made the submission of the Emperor of Ethiopia and of his whole Church and Empire to his Holiness he was afterwards admitted to kiss his Foot and after that his Hand and at last his Mouth and having delivered the following Speech in Portuguese it was spoke aloud in Latin by the Secretary of the Portuguese Embassy MOST Holy and Blessed Father The Habassiâ— Ambassador's submission to the Pope the most Serene and Potent Lord David King of the Great and High Ethiopia who is commonly called Pretegya and who is no less glorious for the veneration he has for the True Religion than for his Empire Wealth and Kingdoms has sent this Ambassador to your Holiness with the Letters he has delivered to you commanding him to yield obedience and subjection to your Holiness in his Name and in that of his Kingdoms as Christ's Vicar and St. Peter's Successor and the Chief Pontiff of the whole Church and to present you with a Gold Cross which he hopes your Holiness not regarding the value thereof which is but small but the veneration that is due to it for Christ's having suffered thereon for our sakes will be pleased to accept of beseeching your Holiness in the name of the said Prince to accept of all that he has offered with a pious affection of a Father for your most devout Son To which Harangue the Pope's Secretary return'd the following Answer OUR most holy Lord doth receive you The Pope's Answer to the Habassin Ambassador my Lord Francis Alvarez the Ambassador of the most serene David King of Ethiopia together with his Obedience Gift and Letters with a good Will and Paternal Affection and doth return Thanks to God that such Letters and such an Ambassador should come in the time of his Pontificate from so great and remote a Christian Emperor he hath heard what you have said with Attention and great Joy and has with his Venerable Brethren the Cardinals graciously accepted of your Master's Obedience as also of his Gift both for the Honour that is due to the Holy Cross and the good Affection of the Donor And he doth furthermore highly extol in the Lord the most serene King of Portugal who besides the other great Services done by himself and Progenitors to the Common-wealth and Christian Faith has likewise deserved well of King David by having entred into an Alliance with him and having procured your being sent with these Letters to the Pope What remains is his Holiness will endeavour to the utmost of his Power so far as the great distance that is betwixt their Countries will permit so to satisfie the desires of the said King as to make him sensible of his being in the Place of a most dear Son in Christ and in the Affection and Esteem of his Holiness and the Holy Apostolical See no less than other Christian Princes And his Holiness will treat with the Ambassador of Portugal and you concerning these Affairs and will by his Letters and Nuncio's Return an Answer to all that your King has desired Zaga Zaba having nothing else to do at Lisbon Zaga Zaba's the Habassin Ambassador at Lisbon Account of the Religion and Customs of his Countrey and being willing to ingratiate himself with that Court by representing the Habassin Church as agreeing with the Roman in the Chief Doctrines wherein the Reformers contradict her did put Pen to Paper and drew up the following Account of the Religion Customs and Rites of his Countrey An Account of the Habassin Religion and Customs composed by Zaga Zaba the King of Ethiopia's Ambassador and written with his own Hand at Lisbon In the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ Amen WE believe in the Name of the Holy Trinity Father Son and Holy Ghost who are One Lord and Three Names One Divinity and Three Faces though but One Similitude and are an equal conjunction of Persons equal I say in Divinity One Kingdom One Throne One Word One Spirit the Word of the Father and the Son and the Word of the Holy Spirit and the Son is the same Word the Word with God the Word with the Holy
Countries they might march from hence without crossing any Sea Which Heathens being a simple sort of people and not much addicted to Idolatry might be converted with great ease We have been told that great numbers of them have petitioned the King of Ethiopia to be made Christians but have been denied out of temporal respects the Ethiopians reckoning that after they are Christians it is not lawful to make them Slaves as they do now in vast numbers The Heathens that desired this were of Damut a Countrey that abounds with Pure Gold and is said to reach to the King of Portugal 's Territories which are about Mosambique and Sefalia There are Heathens likewise in another Countrey called Sinaxi which is also full of Fine Gold and who about three years ago offered to a Prince who is nearly related to the King of Ethiopia if he would but desist from the War he had begun upon them both to turn Christians and to pay him a Yearly Tribute It is from among these Heathens but chiefly those of Dambut that the Mahometan Merchants who are in great numbers in these parts do daily buy vast numbers of Slaves which they sell to the Moors and Turks These Heathens would turn Christians with all their hearts for they cry and take on lamentably when they are carried to the Ships to which they are driven in such herds that I am persuaded that the Turks have had at least an Hundred thousand of them who make them all Mahometans and who afterwards are known by experience to become stout Soldiers and to do the Saracens great Service both by Sea and Land All which mischiefs Five or Six hundred Portuguese Soldiers if we had them here would remedy and would do extraordinary service to the state of India and to all the Christians thereof for if the Turks should once make themselves Masters of Ethiopia it would be of fatal consequence to the Portuguese Interest in the Indies there being divers things in this Countrey that would be serviceable to them in reference to their Galleys as Slaves Iron and other Provisions The King that first began to persecute our Holy Faith and all his Ministers are now in their Graves and his Son who now reigns is not Absolute the Royal Authority having been much shaken and impaired of late God in his Justice having so ordered things that he that refused to obey him and submit himself to the Roman Church from which all that have separated themselves obstinately have been destroyed and have fallen under the yoke of Infidels should not be obeyed by his own Subjects The people here are all in pieces and are so cowed by the devastations the Turks have made among them that they think of nothing but how to live and keep their Estates But tho the late King and his Ministers were possessed with a strange Rage against the Catholick Faith and us Catholicks the common people and some others seemed to be well enough disposed towards it For our part we have not been sparing of our pains to preach to them and besides divers Conferences and Disputations both private and publick that we have had with them we have written divers Treatises against their Errors and have got them translated into Habassin so that all the Doctrines of Faith have been sufficiently promulgated to them if they could but be persuaded to embrace them not but that there are great numbers of them who are satisfied of the truth of our Faith but who either out of shame or fear of punishment are afraid to profess it For which reason there are several that would be glad to see some Portuguese Troops here to defend them in the Faith after they have professed it out of which by reason of their being but weak therein they are now easily terrified as a great many have been tho there are some who notwithstanding all the contradiction they have met withal do continue stedfast therein It is a common Tradition here That the Portugueses are to come among them to make them of the same Faith with themselves and they say further and we believe it to be true That this distracted Empire will never be in peace or any tolerable order until they come which though they should and with an intention of offering Violence would give no offence to any body not to Catholicks to be sure there being no reason why they should be offended at it no nor the Habassins neither for I am persuaded that if such a number of Portuguese Troops were here their name without striking a stroke would do the work so that they would look more like Friends than Enemies and I am certain that if they had come when we expected them this whole Empire had been in the Obedience of the Roman Church before this time and it will be the same thing if they should come now Wherefore most holy Father since all these things do belong to your Office who are the Universal Pastor feed these your sheep with wholsome food and provide a necessary remedy for them by writing to the most Serene King of Portugal for some Troops and by acquainting his Ambassador at your Court with the necessity there is of sending them hither for to tell your Holiness my mind frankly I am of opinion That Ethiopia ought not to be deserted But after all if there is no persuading the King of Portugal to send a body of Soldiers hither for which for the good of Ethiopia let me beg it of your Holiness a second time to write to him he must then be desired to send a good Fleet hither to carry off the Catholicks for should it be such a one as is talked of it would not be able to carry one of them to the Indies the Turks being very strong at present in Matzua and all these Sea-ports and whatever is done let us not lose any of the Catholicks that are here by leaving them in the hands of Hereticks and Infidels who after the Heads of their Families and Priests who are mortal as well as other men are dead will be in danger of being lost Finally I desire to be advised of what your Holiness would have done and as to what concerns my own Person most holy Father I am by God's Grace prepared to Obey your Will by either continuing where I am or by going to Japan or to the Turks if your Holiness should Command me or by laying down my Patriarchal Dignity to serve my Fathers the Jesuits or your Holiness in your Kitchen or in any other post And if it shall seem good to your Holiness I do beg some Indulgences of you for the remission of our Sins Farewel great Father From Ethiopia the 15th of June 1566. Andrew Patriarch of Ethiopia This Letter of the Patriarch's gives the Reader a clear view of the true temper of the Roman Missionaries and of the methods they are for making use of in the Conversion of Heretical Kingdoms to the Roman Church it discloseth
routed 318. The Emperor David's Letter to Emanuel King of Portugal 50. His Titles 50 51. His Letter to King John the Third of Portugal 58. His Letter to the Roman Pontiff 64. His second Letter to the Roman Pontiff 71. He brings a terrible Storm upon himself by seeking to enter into an Alliance with the Portuguese 118. He sends one John Bermudes a Portuguese after having given him a Title to succeed the Abuna when he died to Rome and Lisbon to solicit and hasten some Succors 120. Dembea Lake its Description 4. its Islands ib. Eight Dominicans arrive at Ethiopia and are kindly received by Prester John 467. E. EManuel King of Portugal sends a splendid Embassy to the Emperor of Habassia 47. He sends Almeida with a great Fleet to take Ormus and some other Seaports in the Indies 42. The design of the Habassin Embassy 110. The Emperor being acquainted with the arrival of the Portugueses writes to Gama to come and join him 128. The Emperor being restored to the quiet possession of his Kingdom quarrels with the Portuguese 145. The chief cause of his quarrel was the Abuna urging him to turn Roman Catholick presently 145. He is resolved never to turn Roman Catholick 146. He thereupon writes to the Patriarch of Alexandria to send an Abuna into Ethiopia as formerly 147. He enrages the Portuguese thereby ibid. He receives the Abuna whose Name was Joseph at Deberea 148. He rids himself of the Popish Patriarch Bermudes ibid. His defence of himself and his Faith 167. His Confession of Faith 185. He offers to lay the Debates about Religion before his Council 189. He answers the Coadjutor's Book and writes one in defence of his own Faith 196. He invites Father Peter to Court 239. He greatly admires Father Peter's Sermon and therefore sent him his Dinner from his own Table 248. He discovers his Intention to Father Peter to turn Roman Catholick 250. His Letter to the Pope 251. His Letter to the King of Spain 253. He marcheth against the Rebels 257. He is killed fighting 259. The New Emperor sends to Father Peter to come to him 273. He offers to write to the King of Portugal and the Pope and is encouraged by Father Peter to do it 275. His Letter to the Pope 276. His Letter to the King of Spain 278. These Letters were probably forged by some Missionary 280. A mock Emperor set up and massacred 284. The Emperor and his Brother Raz Cella Christos convinced of Christ's having two Natures 285. He publisheth an Edict prohibiting any to affirm that there is but one Nature in Christ 301. He publisheth a Proclamation commanding all his Subjects to turn Roman Catholicks 303. He is addressed to not to trouble his Subjects about their Religion 304. He is deaf to all such Addresses 305. An Attempt made upon his Life 308. Upon his Victory prohibits his Subjects to observe Saturday 312. A severe Libel comes out against him 312. By a second Proclamation he commands all Subjects to work upon Saturdays 203. A Rebellion breaks out upon it 313. His Speech thereupon 315. He sends an Army against the Rebels and routs them 317. He reconciles himself to the Church of Rome 319. He grows jealous of his Brother Raz Cella 331. He sends him against Gabriel who was at the head of a Croisade 332. His Letter to the Patriarch 333. He is obliged to employ his Brother against them 357. Dom Apolinar d'Almeyda brings Letters and a Jubilee to the Emperor and to the Prince 364. The Emperor's Zeal revived by this Letter and a Jubilee 368. He is defeated by the Peasants of Lasta 372. He is passionately addressed for a Toleration ibid. He speaks to the Patriarch about it and will nor be denied 373. The Toleration proclaimed The Patriarch's Protestation against it 374. The Emperor's Answer to the Patriarch's Protestation 377. He declares his Resolution to continue a Roman Catholick 379. The Patriarch baffled in a great point of his Jurisdiction 380. The Country People in good humour by a Toleration yet not satisfied without re-establishment of their old Religion and banished the Patriarch and Fathers of Ethiopia Raz Cella going against the Peasants with an Army is routed 381. The Romanists have all their Churches and Lands taken from them The Emperor dieth and is succeeded by his Son Basilides 395. The Emperor marcheth against them and obtaineth a Victory 382. He is moved by the passionate Remonstrances of the Grandees and others to restore the Alexandrian Religion 383. The Patriarch and Fathers endeavour to divert him 385. He continues immoveable in his Resolution 388. The Patriarch's Manifesto 392. A Proclamation for restoring the Alexandrian Religion Festivities thereupon 394. The Emperor hearing thereof commands the Patriarch and Fathers to leave Ethiopia 422. He writes to the Bashaw of Suaqhem 454. The Bashaw murthers them all three and sends their heads to the Emperor 454. The Emperor's Library founded by Queen Saba 471. His Treasury 472. The Empress arrives at the Camp 127. The Eucharist is administred to Children when they are baptized 95. Eugenius the Fourth translates the Council from Florence to Rome upon a sham Pretence that the Emperor of Ethiopia was sending an Ambassador with a submission of himself and his Church to him 23. Esimetheus made King of the Homerites deposed by the Habassin Army which put Abraham in his place 17. Ethiopia the Climate 1. The true Title of the Emperor ibid. The Provinces 2. It s several great Rivers beside the Nile 6. It s great mixture of People 7. The Court Language is Amchara ibid. The Emperor names his Successor ib. The Royal Arms ib. The Queen of Sheba reported to have been its Empress Her Son by Solomon said to have introduced Judaism into it 8. The Eunuch that was baptized by Philip is said to have been of this Country and to have introduced Christianity into it 9. Frumentius Bishop of Axum its Apostle 10. Constantius's Letter to the Princes of Axum 11. Nine Monks come into it 14. Justinian sends an Embassy into Ethiopia 15. The business of the Embassy 16. The Ethiopians send an Ambassador to the Patriarch of Alexandria 17. James the Abuna of Ethiopia deposed by the Queen and restored by the King afterwards 18. The seventh place in a general Council given to the Abuna of Ethiopia by the Arabick Canons of the Council of Nice 20. The first Discovery of the Church of Ethiopia by the Portugueses 29. The account of the Succession of their grand Abbots 29. F. TWO Fathers are sent from Fremona to congratulate Suseneus who took the Name of Seltem Saged 272. Seven of the Fathers purchase leave to go to Dio but the Patriarch is detained 433. Four Fathers condemned as Traytors and executed by the Mob 446. Father Fermandes sollicits for Troops 208. The French King's Rage against Protestants superior to that of the Arians against the Orthodox 13. G. GAma enters into Ethiopia with his Troops and the Roman Patriarch 125. He sends
Belly There is a great mixture of People in Habassia There is a great mixture of People in Ethiopia from which the Countrey is said by some to have had its Name As Heathens Jews and Mahometans of sever Nations but the Main Body of its People are Christians The Jews speak Hebrew or rather Syriack the Heathens as many different Languages as there are Kingdoms but the Court-Language and which is spoke by all Persons of any Quality is the Amehara The Empire does not descend to the Eldest Son but to him whom the Emperor at his death is pleased to Name for his Successor The Emperors formerly kept their Court in the City of Axum from which the African Ethiopians were commonly called Axumites which is at present reduced to a Village of about a hundred Families The Royal Arms of Habassia are a Lyon holding a Cross with this Motto The Lyon of the Tribe of Judah is Victorious I do but just mention these things my Intention in this Work being to write the Ecclesiastical and not the Natural or Civil History of Ethiopia Of the Religion of the Habassins IT is a constant Tradition among the Habassins The Queen of Sheba is reported to have been Empress of Ethiopia That the Queen of Sheba that went to Visit Solomon was Empress of their Countrey whose Name they say was Maqueda and who within a few weeks after she returned home was delivered of a Son Begat by Solomon whom she Named Menileher Menileher so soon as he was of Age to undertake so long a Journey was sent by his Mother to Jerusalem to receive his Father's Blessing and to be Instructed by him in the Law of Moses and all other useful Sciences Solomon having received his Son when he arrived at Jerusalem with great Tenderness and Affection made him change the Name of Menileher for that of David and having thoroughly Instructed him in the Jewish Religion Her Son by Solomon is said to have introduced Judâ—ism into it and made him promise to introduce it into his Empire he dismissed him with Noble Presents giving him also several Priests and Levites to take home with him to assist him in so good a Work David being returned home did with the help of the Priests and Levites set immediately about introducing the Mosaical Law into his Empire and was so successful that in a few years it was embraced by the whole Body of his People and continued to be professed by them until the Publication of the Gospel among them Upon which Fable for I cannot look upon it as any other they have built an hundred more which are much sitter for a Legend than an History Neither is the Habassins having used Circumcision any argument at all of their having been ever of the Jewish Law since there is nothing more certain than that that Rite was the ancient usage of the Ethiopians and divers other Nations who were always Enemies both to the Jews and their Religion And as the Habassins will have their Forefathers to have been of the Jewish Faith from the days of Solomon till the Preaching of the Gospel so they will have Christianity to have come among them early in the Apostles time It being a Tradition among them The Eunuch that was baptized by Philip is said to have been of this Countrey and to have introduced Christianity into it That the Eunuch that was Baptized by Philip the Deacon was Steward to their Empress and who returning home after he was Christened Converted his Mistress and her whole Empire to the Christian Faith in the Profession whereof they have ever since continued stedfast Which Story notwithstanding I take it to be of a piece with that of the Queen of Sheba and her Son yet this may be said for it That it has a greater Air of probability than most of the Traditional Histories of the first Conversions of Countries What is known from History of the first Introduction of Christianity into Ethiopia is That in the beginning of the Fourth Century one Meropius a Christian Philosopher going into India with Two of his Scholars whose Names were Frumentius and Aedesius Frumentius Bishop of Axum was the Apostle of Ethiopia had the misfortune to touch on the Coast of Ethiopia where Meropius was inhumanly Murthered by the Natives but his Two Scholars having their Lives spared and being found to be Youths of fine Parts as well as Beauty they were carried to Court where Frumentius was put into the Secretaries Office and Aedesius into the Buttery When the Emperor who had always been very kind to them came to Die he gave them both their Liberty but as they were preparing to make use of it and return home the Queen Regent was importunate with them to stay and to undertake the Tutelage of her Son till he was of Age which they having consented to did during that time write to all the Roman Merchants residing in the ports of Ethiopia that were Christians to assemble together to Worship God as they themselves and the Converts they had made at Court did Daily When their Pupil came to take the Administration of the Government upon himself they both desired Leave to return home which having obtained with great difficulty they left Ethiopia Aedesius went to Tire to live with his Relations but Frumentius having a greater love for his Religion repaired directly to Alexandria with an intention to acquaint the Bishop thereof who at that time was the Great Athanasius with the footing Christianity had taken in Ethiopia St. Athanasius who was overjoyed at this good news having consulted with his Clergy what was fit to be done persuaded Frumentius whom he observed to be a Person of great Zeal and Piety to be Consecrated a Bishop by him and to return into Ethiopia with that Character to accomplish a Work he had so happily begun and accordingly he was Consecrated a Bishop by St. Athanasius and going back to Ethiopia did in a short time Convert both the Emperor and the main Body of his People to the Christian Faith This Account of the Introduction of Christianity into Ethiopia is to be met with in the 9th Chapter of the 1st Book of Ruffinus who saith he had not this Story from the chat of the People but from Aedesius's own mouth who was Ordained a Presbyter at Tire And as Frumentius was undoubtedly Orthodox as to the Doctrine of our Lord's Divinity when he was Consecrated a Bishop by St. Athanasius so the World coming afterwards to complain of its being turned Arian could not shake his Constancy in the True Faith as appears from Constantius's Letters to the Princes of Axum whose Names were Abra and Azba which Letter I shall here set down as I find it in St. Athanasius's Apology to that Emperor AS there is nothing we study so much as the knowledge of the Truth Constantius's Letter to the Princes of Axum so we reckon our selves obliged to recommend the same diligence and
industry to all sorts of people that we may all think so of the Divinity as to pass our lives in hope and without dissention concerning what is true and just Wherefore since we do think fit to extend this our Care to you no less than to the Romans we do enjoin you to maintain the same Doctrines with them in your Churches and to that end to send Bishop Frumentius into Egypt with all possible expedition there to be judged by the most Venerable George and the other Egyptian Prelates in whom is the Supreme Authority of Ordaining and Judging af Bishops For unless you will pretend to be ignorant of what all the world knows you must be sensible that Frumentius was consecrated by Athanasius a man made up of wickedness and who not being able in the least to vindicate himself as to any of the Crimes he stands charged withal was thereupon deposed and has since that turned a Vagabond roving from one Countrey to another as if he hoped to lose his Guilt by shifting his dwelling In case Frumentius should yield a ready obedience and give a full account of the whole Conspiracy so that it shall be certified that he does not dissent from the Ecclesiastical Laws and the Faith that is now established and it doth appear that he is a Person of a Good Life he may then be ordained a Bishop which at present he is not of Right Whereas if he shall seek delays and decline coming to Judgment that will be an undeniable Proof of his having been seduced by the words of the most Profligate Athanasius as also of his acting impiously against God and of his being involved in the same Crimes whereof Athanasius stands convicted In which case if he should be suffered to go on without controul as he will do all that he can to corrupt your People with his Wicked and Impious Words and not only disturb and destroy the Church and belch out Blasphemies against the Supreme God so he will likewise bring Ruin and Destruction upon all Nations Whereas if he could be persuaded to come and converse familiarly with Venerable George and other Learned Men he would reap great Benefits thereby and return to his Bishoprick well instructed in all Ecclesiastical Discipline God preserve you my most dear Brethren As this Letter is a clear demonstration of the greatness of the Arian Rage against the Orthodox which not being satisfied with having Persecuted them with the utmost Barbarities in all parts of the Roman Empire pursued them beyond its bounds so such a boundless Rage was never more conspicuous in Constantius or any other Persecutor of the Professors of the True Faith than it was in a Modern Prince The French King's Rage against Protestants superior to that of the Arians against the Orthodox who not being contented with having harass'd and destroyed several Thousands of Protestant Families within his own Kingdom did within these Ten Years write to all his most dear Brethren the Great Turk not excepted to drive all his Protestant Subjects if they did not presently turn Roman Catholicks out of their Territories or which was worse did by Solemnly withdrawing his Protection from them in Popish Countries leave them at the mercy of the Inquisition Baronius in his Roman Martyrology according to his humour of multiplying Saints has made Two of a single Frumentius for whereas in the Martyrology it is said among the Indians for so the Habassins were called anciently of St. Frumentius who was there first a Captive and afterwards Ordained a Bishop by St. Athanasius and did propagate the Gospel thorough that Countrey the Cardinal in his Notes adds At the same time there lived another Frumentius who was Bishop of Axum in Egypt whereas Axum is in Ethiopia and not in Egypt and was the City Frumentius mentioned in the Martyrology was Bishop of Philostorgius who was himself an Arian speaking of Theophilus Indus having been sent by Constantius on this Embassy insinuates as if the Ethiopians had been turned by him to the Arian Sect. But Philostorgius being the only Historian that insinuates any such thing we have little reason to believe it upon his bare word About the Year 480. Nine Monks come into Ethiopia Nine Monks are said to have been sent from Rome into Ethiopia their Names were Araguai or Michel Alef Gavi Afe Adimata Cuba Garima Saham Lebanos Pantaleon the Patriarch Mendez who quotes the Chronicon Axumense for this truly observes That by Rome here is meant Greece which after the Roman Emperors had fixed their Court in it was called in these remote parts by that name but the Dominicans in their History of Ethiopia of which the Reader will meet with an Epitome in the Appendix will have all these Monks though dead near a Thousand Years before Dominick was born to have been Friers of his Order sent from Old Rome and having turned Adimata whom they call Imata into a Woman they have made her likewise a Holy Sister of their Order that accompanied the Eight Brothers in their Mission Metaphrastes and after him the whole herd of Legendaries do speak of one Elesbean a Christian King of Ethiopia in the time of Justin the Emperor of whom and of his having Vanquished a Jewish Tyrantin Arabia who had been a Cruel Persecutor of his Christian Subjects they have framed a tedious blind Story that is not fit to be offered to any Reader that has not a Legendary Nose But as most Fables have something of History for their foundation so if this of Elisbean has any it must be the following History that is met with in Procopius's Persian War Justinian the Emperor being engaged in a War with the Persians in the Year 530. Justinian sends an Embassy into Ethiopia sent one Julian Embassador to the King of the Axumites or the African Ethiopians and to the King of the Homerites a Nation Inhabiting the Asiatick Coast of the Red-Sea that is opposite to Ethiopia to engage them being Christians to joyn with him against the Persians the common Enemy of their Religion The King of Ethiopia's Name at that time was Hellesteus who a few years before had out of Zeal for Christianity the Christian Homerites having complained to him of their being miserably oppressed by the Jews and Heathens they lived among crossed the Red-Sea with a Numerous Fleet and Army and having in a pitch'd Battel Defeated and Killed the King of the Homerites who had been a Cruel Persecutor of Christians he advanced one Esimetheus an Homerite Christian to the Throne but upon Condition that he and his Successors for ever should pay a yearly Tribute to the Crown of Ethiopia The main thing proposed by the Ambassador to the Ethiopian for the incommoding of the Persians The business of the Embassy was to open a Trade for Silk to the Indies which the Romans who used to buy those Silks of the Persians would promise to take off his Merhants hands But for the Homerites the
Honour nor Authority of a Patriarch And if it should so happen that a Couneil should be assembled in Greece and this Prelate should be present at it he shall have the seventh Place therein next after the Bishop of Seleucia and in case he should have at any time power given him to ordain Archbishops in his Province it shall not be lawful for him to advance any of the Natives to that Dignity whosoever does not yield obedience to this is excommunicated by the Synod If there were nothing else to prove these Arabick Canons to be spurious this Canon alone would do it abundantly it being plain from Ecclesiastical History that the Title of Patriarch was not known in the Church for some time after the Celebration of the First Nicene Council neither was there any Bishop or Christian in Ethiopia at that time Frumentius who was the Apostle or first Bishop thereof having been consecrated a Bishop by Athanasius when he was Primate of Alexandria which he was not till after the Nicene Council In the Year 1177. Pope Alexander the IIId Pope Alexander the III d pretends to have received an Ambassador from Prester John while he was at Venice whither the Emperor Frederick had driven him either received or pretended to receive a Message from the Great Christian Emperor Prester John desiring to submit himself to his obedience and to have a College at Rome and an Altar at Jerusalem for the use of his Subjects The Pope having made a noise with this Message pretended to send Philip a Physician who was said to have brought it back again with a Letter to Prester John I shall not trouble the Reader with that Letter for besides that it contains little else than Hyperbolies of St. Peter and the Pope's Supremacy it is probable that that whole Affair was a mere Fiction invented on purpose to make the Roman Emperor ashamed of persecuting the Pope at the same time when so remote a Christian Emperor was ready to throw himself at his feet For had this Message of Philip's whom some call Peter been a real thing it would certainly have taught the Court of Rome in what part of the World Prester John's Empire lay whether in Asia near Tartary or in Africk beyond Egypt Whereas long after this that Empire though called Ethiopia was still supposed to lie somewhere in the North of Asia for which reason it was still joined in the same Missions with the Tartars and Ruthens and committed to the Charge of the Dominican Provincial of Poland as being its next Neigbour In the Year 1308. Pope Clement pretended to have received an Embassy from the same Prince Prester John was brought upon the stage again Pope Clement the Vth being said to have received a most splendid Embassy from him consisting of 30 Ambassadors by whom he was assured that their Master had no less than 74 Kings under him and who excepting five of the smallest that were Mahometans were all Christians and that he had likewise within his Dominions an 127 Archbishops every one of which had 20 Bishops under his Jurisdiction Which pious Fraud was spread about at that time on purpose to encourage the Latins to undertake a new Expedition to the Holy Land being assured of the Assistance of this mighty Christian Emperor whose Dominions were still reported to lie convenient enough for the carrying on of a Holy War in Syria It is probable that there was never any such Emperor insomuch that I am apt to think that the whole Story of this Enchanted Asiatick Christian Empire was invented and kept up by the Trumpeters of the Holy War for that very purpose no such Empire having ever to this day been discovered in Asia what is reported by the Portuguese Missionaries of the Kingdom of Thybot amounting to no more at most than that those People were formerly Christians but without the least Evidence of any Prester John or Great Christian Empire having ever been in those Parts But how they come to call a Countrey which they supposed to lie towards Scythia Ethiopia is one of the unaccountable Blunders of those Ignorant though Fraudulent Ages unless we will say That they having heard something of a Christian Empire in Ethiopia did either for the foresaid Ends industriously transiate it into Asia or were so ignorant in Geography as not to know what part of the World Ethiopia lay in In the Council of Florence for so low we must come before we meet with any thing more of the Ethiopick Church Eugenius the IVth after he had dismissed the Greeks Eugenius the IVth translates the Council from Florence to Rome upon a sham Pretence that the Emperor of Ethiopia was sending an Ambassador with a submission of himself and his Church to him finding it necessary for his Affairs to have the name of a Council still sitting so long as that of Basil which had deposed him and chosen the Duke of Savoy Pope was on foot against him but being withal desirous to have it at Rome for want of a better gave this for the reason of his translating it from Florence thither That it was convenient that the splendid Embassy from Zerah Jacob the High and Mighty Emperor of Ethiopia which was on its way to that Council with the submission of that Church and Empire to the Pope should not find the Council sitting in such a paultry Town as Florence but in the Metropolis of Christendom which would add something of Authority to it and accordingly it was translated But as it is certain that no such splendid Ethiopick Embassy ever came to Rome so it is as certain that it was never so much as thought of in Habassia on the contrary Zera Jacob when he was solicited by some Jerusalem Monks on this Occasion did absolutely refuse to submit his Church to that of Rome for which denial the Jesuits above 200 years after his death made Sultan Saged his Great Grandson Sultan Saged curseth his Grandfather's Soul for not having submitted himself to the Romish Church and their Convert to curse his Soul to the Pit of Hell saying A curse on King Zera Jacob who was the cause of our not being at this time in the Portuguese or Roman Faith for which he is now tormented in Hell Now though this Convert had been never so certain of Zera Jacob's being in Hell for having deny'd to submit himself to the Pope yet considering he was his Great Granfather he might very well have spared his Curses such impious Expressions of Zeal for I can call them no other being much fitter for the Mouths of Profligate Algerine Renegadoes with whom they are said to be common than for a Prince who turns from one Sect of Christianity to another Besides Zera Jacob abating him that one thing of his having refused to submit the Ethiopick Church to the Roman was no such Miscreant as to deserve to be thus cursed by his Posterity as appears by a Letter written by him
believe Transubstantiation They do not believe Transubstantiation as is plain from their Liturgy in which the Words of Institution are thus set down This Bread is my Body this Cup is my Blood which Propositions the Romanists themselves acknowledge cannot be understood otherwise than siguratively Ludolphus farther tells us That when he asked Gregory the Habassin Whether he did not think that the Substance of the Bread and Wine was changed and converted into the Substance of the Body and Blood of Christ That he made answer That no such sort of Transubstantiation was known or understood by his Countreymen who were not so scrupulous neither did they use to start such thorny Questions Nevertheless it seemed to him probable and likely That the Common Bread and Wine was changed into the mysterious Representation of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ and so was altered from Prophane to Sacred to represent the true Body and Blood of Christ to the Communicants Than which Declaration nothing can be more agreeable to the Doctrine of the Church of England concerning the Eucharist Finally Paul de Roo Secretary to the Dutch East-India Company was in the Year 1691. told by the Habassin Ambassador who was sent to the Governor of Batavia That Transubstantiation and the Adoration of the Consecrated Bread in the Sacrament were what the Habassins abhorred They confess their Sins only in general They have only a general Confession saying Habassea Habassea I have sinned I have sinned without descending to particulars They deny Purgatory They deny Purgatory Confirmation and Extream Unction They condemn Graven Images They keep Saturday and Sunday Their Offices are all in the Vulgar Tongue and know nothing of Confirmation and Extream Unction they condemn Graven Images they keep both Saturday and Sunday and do never fast on either of them no not in Lent nor upon any day betwixt Easter and Whitsuntide their Church Offices are all in the Vulgar Tongue and are performed with extraordinary Devotion but especially their Litanies they go all betimes in the morning to Church to pay their Devotions which they do with great fervour and for the most part leave something of an offering behind them Whenever they come to any place that has a Church They are very devout They never go into a Church with their Shooes on nor sit in it but upon the ground let their Business be never so urgent they repair to it immediately they never go into any Church with their Shooes on nor sit down in it unless it be upon the ground on all occasions they express a deep sense of Religion but chiefly when they visit the Sick which they are very forward to do They are charitable to the Poor and to all Strangers if they are satisfied of their not being of the Roman Church for all whose Members the Cruel Persecutions which were raised and carried on for some years by the Jesuits while the Emperor was at their Devotion have created a perfect detestation in them The whole of their Divine Service consists in reading the Scriptures They seldom preach and some Homilies of the Fathers and the Administration of the Sacrament preaching being a rare Exercise among them at which when Mr. Ludolphus seemed to wonder he was asked by Gregory the Habassin Whether we of the Western Church thought our Preachers could say any thing better than what was written in the Sacred Sacred Scriptures and the Homilies of the Fathers or whether we thought their Sayings more efficacious than the Word of God and whether we did not fear lest those Preachers should utter something which might be repugnant to our Faith and Salvation and which might prove of dangerous consequence to the Peace of the Church An Account of the Discovery of Ethiopia by the Portugueses DON ENRIQUE the Fifth The Infante Don Henry the first and most zealous Promoter of the discovery of unknown Countries Son of Don Joan the first King of Portugal by his Queen the Lady Philipa the Daughter of John of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster being a Prince much addicted to the study of Mathematicks was the first that ever entertained any thought of making Discoveries on the Western Coast of Africa to which he is said to have been encouraged by some Information he receiv'd from the Moors in Barbary when he was a Soldier there under his Father he was Master of the Military Order of Christ which together with his other Ecclesiastical Pensions brought him in a great Revenue all which together with his whole time he resolved to dedicate entirely to the gratification of his Curiosity after new Discoveries And in order to the better carrying on of this his great Design he retired from Court to a place in the Algarves called at that time Terranable but since from him Villa de Infante a few Months after his retirement he fitted out two Ships which having passed the Pillars of Hercules at that time the non ultra of Navigation they sailed to the Promontory of Ganaria but were discouraged from proceeding any further partly by strong Currents and partly by that Promontory running so far into the Sea that they could not discover its Cape This first Voyage was made in the Year 1410. His ill success at first after which it was 10 years before the Infante could prevail with any body to make a second Attempt the first Adventurers having to excuse their Cowardice reported terrible things of the Dangers they had escaped Neither did the Infante during all that time Not discouraged thereby nor by Railery nor by grave Nonsense from going on with his Projects escape the discouragement that new and great Enterprizes do commonly meet withal his Designs for some years having been not only the Jest of the Lazy Buffoon but were also censured as Chimera's or Idle Projects by Men of Speculation and Gravity who said The Countreys the Infante was in quest of were neither better nor worse than the Sandy Deserts of Arabia that God having allotted those Countries to Wild Beasts for their habitation if men should offer to intrude into them they would either die or turn wild like the Natives and that the very sight of them would turn Whites Negroes that there had never wanted younger Brothers among Princes who had sought to remedy the misfortune of their Birth by new Discoveries but which had always miscarried That the Infante's Father who was a wise Prince finding Portugal wanted People had invited Strangers from all parts into it and had given them Lands to cultivate whereas if his Project should take effect it would tend to the depopulating of it with a great many other such idle Reflections But the Infante who had too great a Soul to be discouraged either by Railery or grave Nonsense having with much ado wrought some Mariners up to an Opinion of the feasibleness of the Undertaking in the Year 1420. he equipped several Vessels which after having met with violent Storms discovered
of the World Peace be with your Sons who are as flourishing Lillies in a Spring-Garden and are as a Table furnished with Meat Peace be with your Daughters whose Attire adorns them as Tapistry does a Palace Peace be with all your Kindred who are procreated out of the Seed of the Saints as the holy Scripture saith The Sons of the Holy are blessed and are great both at home and abroad Peace be with your Councellors Officers Magistrates and Judges Peace be with the Governors of your Castles and Frontiers and of all your strong Places Peace be with all Nations People and Cities and all their Inhabitants excepting Mahometans and Jews Peace be with all Parishes and with all that are faithful to Christ and you Amen O Lord King and my Father I am informed That when the fame of my Name first reached your ears by the Voice of my Ambassador Matthew that you forthwith assembled all your Archbishops Bishops and Prelates to return thanks to God for so good News and that you did also receive Matthew with great kindness and respect When I came to hear of this I was overjoy'd likewise and did return thanks to God for it as did also all my People I was much troubled at Matthew 's Death who dyed in the Monastery of Basayn within my Dominions as he was returning home he was not sent by me for I was then but a Boy of 11 years of Age and had not taken the Government upon me after my Father's death but by Queen Helena whom I reverenced as my Mother and who at that time administred the Affairs of the Empire Matthew was by Profession a Merchant and his true name was Abraham which he changed that he might travel thorow the Turkish Dominions with the more security But having notwithstanding his Disguise been discovered to be a Christian at Dabul he was cast into Prison where he lay till he was taken out by some of your stout Soldiers upon his having acquainted them with his Confinement and his being our Ambassador The General of your Army after he had rescued him out of the hands of the Enemy took care to convey him to your Court at which as Matthew was punctual in acquainting you with all that he had in Commission to say so he was the same in sending me word how honourably he was entertained by you and how you had loaded him with Gifts all which was confirmed by your Ambassadors who were conveyed hither by Didacus Lopez de Segueiea the Admiral of your Fleet and by the Letters which were to have been delivered to me by Edward Golvam who died in the Island of Camera and were delivered by the surviving Ambassadors I rejoyced exceedingly at the sight of your Letters and did return thanks to God for them I was overjoy'd likewise to see your Ambassadors have Crosses on their breasts and did enquire of them concerning the Rites of the Christian Faith being desirous to know which are the True But the thing that affected me with the most devotion was the Story your Ambassadors told me of Ethiopia having been first discovered to your Fleet by a Miracle Which after it had given over all hopes of finding it was conducted to one of our Ports by a Red Cross that appeared one morning in the Heavens as this appears to me to have been a Miracle so undoubtedly the Admiral of your Fleet who had such an extraordinary honour done to him must be exceedingly beloved of God This mutual Embassy of ours was foretold by the Prophet in the Book of Life and in the Passion of St. Victor and in the Writings of the Holy Fathers which do all testify That a great Christian King should conclude a Peace with the Emperor of Ethiopia But little did I expect that this prophecy would have been fulfilled in my days But God knew it certainly praised be his Name who first brought Ambassadors from you to me that I might likewise send Ambassadors to you My Father in Christ and Friend it is my desire that we should be of the same Religion I never had an Embassy sent to me before by any Christian King neither was I certain that there was a Christian King any where besides my self having been always encompassed with Moors the Sons of Mahomet and with Heathens and Slaves who do not acknowledge God and with some who worship Wood and Fire and with others that worship Serpents as Gods with whom I have never lived well because though the Faith has been preached to them they refuse to come to the Truth I am now at ease God having given me rest from all your and my own Enemies against whom when I march with my Armies they turn their backs toward us my Captains are also every-where victorious over them So that God is not angry with me but as the Psalmist has it He hath fulfilled the desire of Kings who desire nothing but what is righteous For which no praise is due to us but all thanks ought to be returned to God for it is he that hath given us the World and the Land of the Gentiles for ever and all the Countries from your own Borders to those of Ethiopia For which I do give great thanks to God and do proclaim his mighty Power hoping the Sons of the Gentiles will be brought under the Yoke and to the knowledge of the true Faith for I do not in the least doubt but that your Sons and you and I shall abundantly rejoice in our Victories and you must never give over praying to God until he has put you in Possession of the Holy Temple of Jerusalem which at present is in the hands of the Enemies of Christ that is of Mahometans Heathens and Hereticks which work if you could perform your hand will be full of praise Of the Ambassadors you sent unto me with Matthew Three died by the way the Admiral of your Fleet after having had a Conference at Matrua with the King of Bernagays who is our Vassal dispatched the surviving Ambassadors with great Gifts to our Court Your Gifts were acceptable to me but your Name is more precious to me than all Jewels and Treasures But let us pass over these things and begin to Treat how we may Invade and Conquer the Countries of the Infidels I for my part will Contribute a Hundred thousand Drachms of Gold and as many Thousand Armed Men and moreover Timber and Iron and Copper towards the Building and Equipping of a Fleet with abundance of Provisions of all sorts let us therefore joyn together And whereas it is not our Custom nor agreeable to our Dignity to send Ambassadors to any Prince to sue for Peace you did therefore first send Ambassadors to desire a Peace with me wherein you verified the Words of Christ for it is written Blessed are the feet which bring peace for which I am also prepared after the manner of the Apostles who were unanimous and of one Heart O King and my Father
the help of your Blessing easily enlarge the Bounds of their Empires of which Blessing I do partake Among our Books there being Letters which were sent by Pope Eugenius with his Blessing to Zera Jacob which Blessing having descended to me I do now enjoy it and rejoyce in it mainly The Holy Temple of Jerusalem is a place I have great Veneration for and do frequently send Oblations to it by our Pilgrims and I would send both more and greater were I not Besieged on all sides by Mahometans and Infidels who besides that they Rifle our Messengers will not allow them a free passage whereas if the ways were but once opened I should then be able to Correspond with the Roman Church as well as other Christians to whom as to the Christian Religion I am nothing inferior for as they believe One Right Faith and One Church so I do profess the same and do most sincerely believe in the Holy Trinity and in One God and in the Virginity of our Lady the Virgin Mary I do also hold all the Articles of the Christian Faith and do keep them as they were writ by the Apostles And now that our good God has been pleased by the hand of the most Potent and Christian King Emanuel to open a way by which we may Correspond by Amdassadors since we are joyned in the Faith let us likewise with all other Christians joyn together in the service of God During the time the Ambassadors of that King were at our Court we received the News of his Death and of his Son and my Brother John having Succeeded to the Crown and as I was extremely afflicted at the News of the Death of the Father so I did very much rejoyce to hear of his Son 's having succeeded him for I do hope that by joyning our forces we shall be able to open a passage both by Sea and Land thorow the Regions of the Wicked Mahometans and to terrifie them to that degree as to drive them quite out of those Countries so that Christians may go to and return from Jerusalem without any molestation and I do most vehemently desire to partake of the Divine Love in the Temple of the Apostles Peter und Paul I do likewise desire to receive the most Holy Blessing of Christ's Vicar which your Holiness is undoubtedly And as the things I hear of your Holiness by our Pilgrims which go from hence to Jerusalem and from thence to Rome and that not without a Miracle do fill me with incredible Joy and Pleasure so there is nothing I would rejoyce in so much as to have a shorter way found out for my Ambassadors that so I might hear from you before I die which I trust in God I shall do by some means or other I beseech God to preserve you in Health and and Holiness I Kiss your holy Feet and do humbly beg your Blessing Your Holiness will receive these Letters from our Brother John King of Portugal who will send them to you by our Ambassador Francis Alvarez We may judge what mean thoughts King John had of these Letters and Ambassadors to the Pope The Habassin Embassy to the Pope little regarded by their lying unregarded Five Years at Lisbon before they were sent to Rome and by his sending them at last only to do Honour to his Nehpew Don Martin de Portugal when he sent him Ambassador to that Court with the following Letter To the most Holy Father in Christ and the most Blessed Lord Pope Clement the IIId by Divine Providence presiding over the whole Church To the most Holy Father in Christ and the most Blessed Lord the most devout Son of the same Holiness John by the Grace of God King of Portugal and Algarves on this side and the other side of the Sea of Africk Lord of Guinea and of the Conquests Navigation and Commerce of Ethiopia Arabia Persia and India After having most humbly kissed your Holy feet MOST Holy Father in Christ After having lain five years neglected at Lisbon it was sent to Rome only as an honourable Appendixto a Portuguese Embassy and most Blessed Lord The King my Lord and Father being sensible how acceptable it would be to God that the most remote Regions of Ethiopia and India which in these parts had been only heard of by a doubtful fame should be Sailed to by the industrious Navigation of Christians did at the beginning of his Reign send divers of his Captains and Subjects with great Fleets to discover the Coasts of those Countries which he did to that end that the Mahometans and Heathens of those Climates might be brought to acknowledge the Truth of the Christian Faith not knowing but that some Nations which were Christians already for such there were reported to be might be found out in the Course of such Discoveries thus thorough the Divine Direction the whole Country of Guinea was travelled over in which the King of Manicongo with vast numbers of his Subjects was Baptized as were several other Nations in India Persia and Arabia by the Industry and Piety of our Subjects and even those Provinces which were not forward at first to embrace Christianity do now begin to follow the Example of their Neighbours who notwithstanding the great Losses he sustained in his Ships Captains Nobles and other Subjects was not as becomes a Pious Christian discouraged thereby so as to give over those Voyages in the Progress whereof our Fleets have penetrated into the Red-Sea in which no Christian Ship had ever been before that Sea being wholly in the hands of the Turks and did after a long and sharp War discover the Coasts of the most Potent King of Ethiopia who is commonly called Pretegya and who with all his Subjects is a Worshipper of Christ to which King our Father immediately dispatched an Ambassador with an intention to reduce him to the Obedience of the Holy Apostolical See by certifying him That your Holiness sits in the Chair of St. Peter and are the only Vicar of Christ upon Earth to whom all Christian Kings do with great Veneration use to yield Obedience And not long after the said King of Ethiopia sent two Ambassadors in Company with ours when they returned home one of which was his Natural-born Subject and the other a Stranger during which time God was pleased to take our Father's Soul to himself and we having succeeded him in the Throne did without delay endeavour by our Captains that were in India to certify the said King of Ethiopia of our Father's Death and of our Resolution to carry on and finish what he had so gloriously begun for the Service of Christianity This our Declaration having been highly extolled by the said King he thereupon dispatched an Ambassador to us who is still Resident at our Court and with him our Chaplain Francis Alvarez who was one of the Ambassadors sent into Ethiopia by our Father This Francis Alvarez is now sent by the said King to Rome
confirmed by the Pope goes from Rome to Lisbon which was all that was to be done at that Court which seldom or never takes the expence of any Missions or holy Wars upon it self further than its Blessings will go He began his Journey for Lisbon and being arrived there he was kindly entertained by the King to whom the Pope had left the honour of the whole expence and trouble of succoring Ethiopia and was acknowledged by him and the whole Court as Habassin Patriarch in Possession and not in Reversion and as such though I cannot learn for what Misdemeanor Where he acted as the Habassin Abuna he threw the Ambassador Zaga Zaba into Prison loading him with Chains in which he intended to carry him home had not the King interceeded for his Liberty The Patriarch Bermudes having as it is said He returns to Goa having as it is said obtained an Order for 400 Soldiers obtained an Order from the King to the Viceroy of the Indies for four or five hundred Portuguese Musketeers embarked upon the Fleet that was bound for Goa where he arrived in the Year 1539. but however the King's Orders were if there were ever any it was two years after his landing at Goa before any Portuguese Succors set their Feet in Ethiopia During this time David by some means or other is said to have got so considerable an Army together as to have ventured with it out of his Fastnesses and to have beat Granhe in a pitched Battel but however this were in the progress of the War which lasted from the Year 1528. until the Year 1540. in which David died it is certain he was driven by Granhe out of the greatest part of his Empire he having no other Countries left him at his death but such as defended themselves purely by their barrenness and inaccessibleness such Countries being the common Receptacles of all conquered Nations that have the conveniency of them David died in the 47th year of his Age David dies and is succeeded by his Son Claudius and the 36th of his Reign leaving his Son Claudius a broken and distressed Empire and all Princes an Example of the folly of depending upon remote Foreign Succors and of being encouraged by the hopes of them to provoke their Neighbours or to make them jealous of them Upon Claudius's coming to the Crown Claudius has some success in the beginning but was quickly after obliged to retire to the Mountains the Empire as if its Ill Genius had departed with David began to revive a little For he having got a small Army together marched from among the Mountains and having surprized a Mahometan Prince whose name was Amirizmon and defeated him in a pitced Battel he recovered the Province that Infidel had in the late Scramble made himself master of But the Joy of this Success lasted not long for Amirizmon having recruited his Army with Mahometan Auxiliaries obliged Claudius to come to a Battel wherein he beat him to that degree that he forced him to retire to a remote mountainous Countrey called Zaa only with 70 men in his Company Cabelo Oanguel the Queen-Mother The Queen Mother leaving of a Portuguese Fleet being in the Red-Sea sends two Envoys to the Admiral to implore some Succors The Envoys meet the Portuguese Fleet at Matzua taking sanctuary at the same time in an impregnable Mountain that was at no great distance from the Red-Sea where she had not been long before she received advice of a great Portuguese Fleet being come into those Seas whereupon she dispatched two Envoys who were Bahurnagays and the Grandee Robel to the Portuguese Admiral to beseech him if they met with him to spare her Son some Troops and a Train of Artillery to drive the Mahometans out of Ethiopia of which they were in a manner become absolute Masters The Envoys not knowing any place where they were so like to meet with the Portuguese Fleet as at Matzua repaired thither to wait for it and the Fleet not having been able to execute the Design that had brought it into those Seas which was to have burnt the Turkish Gallies in the Port of Sues happened for it does not appear that it was by Order to touch as they were returning home at Matzua to the great joy of the Habassin Envoys Who having waited on the Admiral and delivered the Empress's Letters to him told him plainly That if he did not spare them a good Body of Troops and a Train of Artillery Ethiopia was for ever a lost Empire adding That the Fortune of a great Christian Empire was now entirely in his hands and as it would be for his immortal honour to save it and the rather because it was nothing so much as its new Correspondence with the Portuguese that had brought this dreadful Storm upon it from all Quarters so they were certain his Master would not thank him for suffering it to be utterly lost when it was so much in his power for to have saved it Upon these Passionate Remonstrances of the Empress and her Envoys the Admiral called a general Council of War to consult what was best to be done in so important an Affair and after some Debates it was unanimously agreed That something must be done to preserve a sinking Empire and the rather because it was visible its new Alliance with Portugal had brought this great storm upon it The Council of War having come to this Resolution They obtain 400 Soldiers of the Portuguese Admiral which were commanded by Don Christopher da Gama several Persons of Quality offered themselves voluntarily to command the Troops that were to be employed in the Expedition as to give the Portuguese Gentlemen their due they are seldom or never backward to go whither their honour calls them The Person that was named to command in Chief was Don Christopher da Gama Brother to the then Viceroy Don Stephen da Gama and Son to the Famous Don Vasvo da Gama the Discoverer of the Indies The Portugueses say The Council of War agreed to send a 1000 Men under Gama but the Envoy would not hear of so great a number Bahurnagays having generously declared That he would never be guilty of carrying Brave Men into a Countrey to starve them that for 400 sufficient Provisions would be found but not for more but whether this was so or not the Portuguese Historians have made the 400 that were sent to have done the work of 4000 Stout men the common fault both of the Portuguese and Spanish Writers who by their Romantick way of magnifying the Feats of their Countreymen do render the truth of the whole of them suspicious On the 9th of July 1541. Gama enters into Ethiopia with his Troops and the Roman Patriarch Gama with his 400 Select Men and a small Train of Artillery were put ashore at Arkiko having the Habassin Envoys and the Patriarch Bermudes in their Company they had a tiresome March over Rocks and Mountains
not to be persuaded to lay down their Arms he thought the best way to deal with such desperate People would be to starve them which he reckoned would be easie for him to do they being at that time but 350 fighting Men whereas his Army consisted of 15000 Foot and 1500 Horse besides 200 Turks with Fire-Arms But the Mahometans after having besieged Gama at a distance for some days being ashamed of taking such a course with a Body of men which they reckoned would not be a Breakfast to them did oblige Granhe to change his Measures and to lead them up to the Enemy whom when they came near they found strongly encamped Gama besieged on all sides by Granhe Granhe finding the Enemy thus posted and being neither willing to discourage his Men by marching back again nor to hazard them by making an Assault ordered a Breast-work to be run up within Musket-shot of them from behind which he for some day mauled the Portugueses with his Fire-Arms Gama whose number could not long endure this sport resolved whatever it cost him next night to dislodge the Infidels which with the help of his Artillery he did in a few hours obliging them to keep their former distance which was without Cannon Shot of his Camp in which Action he had several wounded but not one killed He opens a passage to himself with the bravery of his Men being assisted with Artillery After this Gama was more at ease for the present yet being sensible that this would not do his business the Enemy as they lay keeeping him from supplies of Provisions he was forced to decamp which he did before day and in very good order bringing up the Rear himself The Infidels perceiving so soon as it was light that the Portugueses had left their Camp pursued them with great fury reckoning now they had got them upon plain ground to have made short work with them But Gama when they were come near him plied them so with his Artillery that he made them retreat in disorder leaving several of their best men dead or wounded behind them Granhe himself having his Horse shot under him and receiving a wound in his Thigh with a Musket-bullet there were 11 Portugueses one of whom was an Ensign killed in this Action and several wounded Gama himself having received a slight wound in the Leg who having lain still 12 days to cure his wounded men and observed that the Enemy had resumed his first method of starving them he determined to fall upon them in their Quarters which he did with good success driving them from their Posts and making a great slaughter among them in this Attack Gama lost 14 more of his Portugueses besides two that were blown up by a Barrel of Gunpowder which took fire by accident the noise of which was of no small advantage to him the Enemies Horses being put into such a disorder therewith that the Officers were not able to bring them together again he had likewise 70 wounded two whereof died of their Wounds Granhe finding there was no breaking this Body of Portugueses by reason of their Discipline and Artillery He obligeth Granhe to retreat the noise whereof neither his Men nor Horse could bear he retreated for eight days together into a Mountainous Countrey leaving the Portugueses to the mercy of the heat and barrenness of Ethiopia which he hoped would make an end of them in a little time Gama having thus rid himself of the Enemy removed his Camp to the Banks of a large and pleasant River where he had been but two days when the Portugueses he had sent to Matzua returned to him but without bringing any thing of that they were sent for the Ships that brought the Arms and Ammunition having been frighted away before they got to Matzua by some Intelligence they had received of a Fleet of Turkish Gallies making towards them Bahurnagays likewise came back to him at the same time with a Body of 500 Habassin Foot and 30 Horse Gama though much troubled at this disappointment yet that he might lose no time resolved with this small Reinforcement to pursue Granhe and if it were possible to drive him out of the Fastnesses he was retired to And so instead of marching towards the Emperor as he had been desired that he might engross the whole glory of overcoming Granhe to himself he marched from the Emperor after him for eight days but as we shall see by the sequel of the Story was at all this pains to catch a Tartar He had fallen upon Granhe as soon as he came up with him had he not been hindred by the Empress who protested against coming to a Battel before they had their whole Army together and with much a-do persuaded him to expect the Emperor with his Troops which were reported to be much greater than they were While Gama was in these quarters a certain Jew who was Governor of a strong Mountain called Oaty in the Province of Cemen came to wait on him and to let him know That in the neighbouring Mountains there were great numbers of curious Horses which were but weakly guarded offering if he would send any of his men to seize them to be their Guide himself he further told him Gama conducted by a Jew to a Mountain of which and a great drove of Horses he makes himself master That it was absolutely necessary for him to make himself Master of all the Passes of that Countrey for otherwise it would not be possible for the Emperor who he knew was not strong enough to force his way to come at him Gama was much concerned at the last part of the Jew's Intelligence having imagined the Emperor to have been much stronger than he assured him he was whereupon he asked the Empress what she thought of the Jew's report concerning her Son's Army She told him frankly That she thought it was but too true hereupon he determined to go and either make himself Master of those Horses and Passes or die in the Attempt In pursuance of which resolution that he might not alarm Granhe he marched secretly out of his Camp by night with a 100 of his Portugueses and never halted till he came to the great River Tavaze over which he was forced to waft his men upon Boracho's or Hides full of Wind but what was worst of all when they came near the Mountain his design was upon he found the Garison much stronger than the Jew had represented it to have been there being no fewer than 3000 Foot and 400 Horse in it but Gama was gone too far to think of Retreating and therefore Fight he must and did and after having killed the Governor Cid Ahamed with his own hand the Infidels being but raw men dispersed upon it and were most of them knocked on the head by the Jews who are the Natives of that Countrey the Jew who was the Guide is said to have been so struck with this Victory and particularly
the following Letter To the High and Powerful Emperor SUch as are in Office have two ways of speaking the one is as in their own Person and the other as in the Post they are in So that tho as to what concerns their own Persons they ought to be humble and patient when they are contradicted as our Lord himself was when he was upon earth both in his Life and Death nevertheless as to what concerns their Office and Embassy they must speak the truth without respect of persons as Christ did when he answered the President in a matter wherein his Father's Honour was concerned What I have to tell your Highness as a Publick Person is to lay before you the business that brought me into Ethiopia with which notwithstanding your Highness has been already acquainted both by Letter and by other ways I do now tell you again That I come from Rome being sent by the Pope to be Coadjutor to the Patriarch who is now in the Indies with whose Authority I am invested that as our case is at present being what his Holiness was pleased to bestow upon me as appears from a Bull that I have brought with me and which your Highness may see when you please I do intend therefore at present to give an account of my having been sent hither by the Pope and of what moved his Holiness to send a Patriarch with two Episcopal Coadjutors and several Jesuits of great Learning and Piety into Ethiopia When the Pope sends a Legat or Patriarch to any Kingdom he does not pretend thereby to make it his own neither can he sell such Dignities for that would be Simony but he is always moved thereunto merely by the prospect of doing good to their Souls as Christ hath commanded him in the Gospel bidding him Feed his Sheep And it was thus in our present case wherein the Pope without having any temporal view but purely for the service of Christ and the spiritual good of these Kingdoms has done your Highness this Favour being thereunto moved both by the great love he hath for your Highness and for all Christian Kings who are many in number and are all much concerned for your Highness and the Grandeur of your State having a great affection for you and by the good desires and disposition he was informed were in this Empire and which he had a mind to improve Now your Highness is to take notice that these motives are things of great moment and no slight matters betwixt such Eminent Persons Your Father writ a Letter to the Pope a Copy whereof I my self have seen at Rome wherein he did acknowledge his Holiness to be Christ's Vicar desiring him to send him some of his Learned Men And besides the King of Portugal who is a Prince of great Truth said in my hearing That your Highness had writ to him that your Father had commanded you never to suffer any Abuna or Patriarch to come into Ethiopia but who should be sent from Rome and that he was furthermore informed from hence That your Highness had publickly yielded Obedience to the Pope which notwithstanding it was done during the War He acknowledges Bermudes to have been Patriarch of Ethiopia yet after the War was over Dom John Bermudes continued Patriarch here for three years your Highness having bestowed all the Lands belonging to that Dignity upon him For which reason notwithstanding his Holiness should have demanded something of you considering his good intentions and what he hath done in order to the sending of this Mission together with the Trouble and Dangers whereunto we have exposed our Persons your Highness would have had no cause to have been displeased with him upon that account how much less then ought you to be so when he desires nothing from you and hath without any thing of self-interest sent into your Empire the largest Powers of Spiritual Graces that so far as I know were ever sent before into any Christian Countrey and has furthermore in his Bulls called your Highness My Beloved Son giving you also the Title of The Illustrious Emperor of Ethiopia Your Highness must therefore let me have your Answer to what I have desired of you in his Holiness's Name that I may take my measures accordingly And in case your Highness has any Scruples about Matters of Faith you would then do well to call a Convocation of your Learned Men whose Objections I shall endeavour to answer in the Name of Christ for since the Faith of Christ is but one as St. Paul saith in the 4th Chapter to the Ephesians one God one Faith one Baptism why should there be any differences among Christians And why should they not all agree in all Matters of Faith so as to hold nothing that is contrary to the Gospel of Christ And if there is any thing wherein you think we are mistaken and will offer any reason for it either out of the Gospel or the General Councils of the Church we shall be ready to follow the Truth as on the other side if you should be made sensible of our being in no Error you ought then together with us to follow the Truth of the Faith according to what St. Paul saith in his first Chapter of his first Epistle to the Corinthians See that you all say the same things that so there may be no Schisms and not to follow the customs of your forefathers when they are contrary to the Truth So when the Doctrine of Truth was preached by our Lord Christ to the Gentiles and Pagans which he converted ought not they to have received his Doctrines alledging they were contrary to the Customs of their Ancestors and so have never believed in Christ to their utter Perdition neither is the known Truth to be forsaken for fear or shame of the World for our Lord Christ hath said He that is ashamed of me and of my words c. David likewise in the 94th Psalm saith To day if you will hear his voice c. Your Highness would do well therefore to consider how much it imports you to take good Advice in an Affair of so high a nature in which seeing all your People do depend upon you our Lord will call you to a strict Account for their Souls Consider how dangerous a thing evil Councellors are as appears from the Case of Rehoboam and Jacob speaking of such said of Simeon and Judah they were Vessels of Iniquity my Soul enter not into their councils and David They have taken evil Council against his People And Isaiah saith The wise counsellers of Pharoah have given foolish counsel for which reason Solomon in the 6th of Ecclesiasticus saith Be in peace with mrny nevertheless have but one counseller of a thousand And in the first Psalm David saith Blessed is the man that entereth not into the counsel of the wicked furthermore Parents and Relations are seldom good Counsellers in Spiritual Matters As our Lord Christ told St. Peter in
head should pay for it The Coadjutor without answering a word Crossed his Arms and hung down his Head making a tender of his Neck to him this put Adam in such a rage That he drew his Cimiter in great fury with an intention of gratifying the Coadjutor But behold a Miracle say the Jesuits When Adam 's Arm was lifted up to have given the fatal blow his Cimiter dropt out of his hand to the great mortification of the Coadjutor who had flattered himself with the hopes of dying a Martyr presently But though Adam was hindered by that Miracle from executing what he had designed he was so far from being any ways softened by it that he told the Coadjutor with great disdain What I warrant you you are ambitious of being made a Martyr by my hand go get you gone out of my presence and let me hear no more of you and your false Doctrines for if I do I shall find a baser hand somewhere that shall gratifie you in making you a Martyr since you have a mind to be one But the chief cause of Adam treating the Coadjutor and Portugueses thus discovered it self in a sudden Rebellion that brake out against him at this time Bahurnagays takes up Arms against Adam of which their old friend Bahurnagays was one of the chief who having retired from Court to his Government kept upon the Sea-coast in expectation of the Portuguese Succors which the Viceroy had promised to send after the Coadjutor into Ethiopia which not coming so soon as they were expected the Coadjutor had sent one Andrew Galdamas a Spanish Jesuit to the Indies to hasten them over by assuring the Viceroy That there was no Conversion to be made in Ethiopia without the assistance of some Catholick Troops But Father Andrew being discovered at Arkiko as he was ready to have embarked on a Ship belonging to the Baneans was hewed in pieces by the Mahometans Father Teller after having pronounced Father Andrew a Martyr justifies the cause of his death by affirming Que esta sempre à pratica dosque tem experientia de Ethiopia que sem as armas namam que defendam Authorizem à os pregadores Catholicos nam poderam nunqua ter ò Successo deseiado entre aquelles Schismaticos that is to say It had always been the opinion of such as had any experience in the Affairs of Ethiopia that unless the Catholick Preachers were defended and authorized by Dragoons they would never have the success that was desired among those Schismaticks Adam being sensible of this and dreading nothing so much as the coming of Portuguese Troops into his Empire notwithstanding the gross of the Rebellion was in an Inland Province where they had Proclaimed one Tascaro a Son of Adam's elder Brother Emperor He marched first against Bahurnagays resolving if it were possible to break his Army before it received a Portuguese Reinforcement Adam had two Battels with Bahurnagays In the first he is said to have been worsted by him but to have routed Bahurnagays to that degree in the last that he was forc'd to sculk about the Sea-coast with a handful of Portugueses all of that Nation that were at liberty in Ethiopia having run into him when he first took up Arms. Adam having thus quelled Bahurnagays and being inform'd that now the Mosons were over He is routed and goes over to the Turks there was no fear of Ethiopia being troubled with any Portuguese Troops for one six Months at ieast He marched back to find out his Nephew who had been Proclaimed Emperor and being come up with him he obliged him to come to a Battel the Fight continued obstinate for some hours but in the conclusion the Rebels were overthrown and Tascaro being taken Prisoner had his head chopped off immediately by his Uncle's order Adam after these Victories thought to have taken some rest when intelligence was brought him that Bahurnagays despairing of finding mercy at his hands and of the coming of the Portuguese which had been promised him had with the handful of Portugueses that stuck to him taken Sanctuary among the Mahometans and was incouraging them to invade Ethiopia The honest Author of the Asia Portuguese saith This trick of the Portugueses going over with Bahurnagays to the Turks was so ill taken by the Habassin Emperors that they could never after that endure to hear of having any Soldiers of that Nation in their Countrey but as we shall see hereafter that did not hinder the Missionaries who desired to see such Troops in Ethiopia above all things in the world He brings the Turks into Ethiopia and delivers Matrua and the other Sea-Port Towns to them from making bold to send for them in their Names The Mahometans having at Nagay's instigation Marched into Ethiopia with a great Army had Arkiko and Matzua the only Sea-Ports of that Empire delivered to them by Nagay's creatures which places as they were of more importance to them than the whole Countrey besides by making them Masters of the whole Coast of the Red-Sea so having once got them into their hands they have taken care to keep them continuing Masters of them to this day Adam not being able to brook this loss and the great devastations that were made by the Infidels in the best Provinces of his Empire resolved to venture it all or to recover what he had lost and so tho he was sensible of his Armies being in all respects inferior to that of the Enemy yet being pushed on by his rage he determined to bid them Battel Adam is slain in Battel which the Infidels having accepted of did maul the Habassins so with their Artillery that they presently gave ground Adam himself being overthrown upon heaps of his slain Men most of the rest that fled being either made Prisoners or put to the Sword The whole Habassin Baggage having upon this total rout fallen into the hands of the Mahometans among it the Coadjutor and his Jesuits whom Adam had carried along with him as Hostages in all his Marches The Coadjutor and the Fathers are made Prisoners by the Turks were found and were all stripped with the slain before Bahurnagays and his Portuguese could come to their Relief So that notwithstanding the Bishop and his Fathers had their full revenge of Adam for having treated them so barbarously yet I do not find that they much bettered their condition by it One of the Fathers in a Letter that was writ after Adam was slain telling his Brethren at Goa that at the writing thereof they were in as lamentable an estate as it is almost possible for men to be in having neither Clothes Bread nor Credit and that the poor Coadjutor was in such a Garb that it was enough to make a Christian's heart bleed to see him in it Adam being slain was succeeded by his Son Malac Saged who was Crowned and Anointed at Axun and who tho he Reigned Thirty Years was never one day out of War
Father Peter came to Fremona he continued there till the New Government was thoroughly settled during which time he employed himself in translating a Book of the Christian Doctrine composed by one Mark Jorge a Jesuit which is said to have been a Piece much admired in Ethiopia The Emperor being naturally curious The Emperor invites Father Peter to Court and hearing great things of Father Peter's Wisdom and Learning from some of the Grandees who had a great mind to have him at Court to cabal with him about Portuguese Troops he writ the following Letter to him to invite him to come to him THE Letter of the Emperor Asnaf Sagued cometh to the Honourable Father and Master of the Portugueses How do you Hear the good things God hath done for us We were seven years a Prisoner and did suffer innumerable Troubles but God taking compassion of our Misery has delivered us out of Prison and made us the Head of All according to that of David The Stone which the Builders rejected is made the Head of the Corner May the same God that hath begun this Work bring it to a good Issue Hear more We are very desirous to see you here and would have you bring the Books of the Laws of the King of Portugal if you have them along with you for we should be glad to see them As the Father was preparing upon the receipt of this Letter to have gone to the Court with the Viceroy of Tigre he was stopped by the News of the Gauls having invaded Ethiopia with Three Armies at once having been encouraged to do it by the unsettled Posture they expected to find the Affairs of that Empire in after so sudden a Revolution But they quickly found themselves deceived for notwithstanding they defeated the Viceroy of Tigre who had contrary to the King's Order come to blows with them their Two other Armies were both totally routed by the Emperor The Emperor being returned victorious to his Camps the Viceroy of Tigre sent to Father Peter to come to him that they might go to Court together who before he left Fremona took care to pack the Secular Priest Belchior de Sylva to the Indies Father Peter sends the Secular Priest home before he went to Court Some Instances of the Jesuits sacrificing all other Interests to that of their own Order which was somewhat strange considering that when he was gone there was not a Roman Priest left at Fremona to officiate to the Portugueses the Father himself being on the wing for the Court But the truth of the matter is the Jesuits knowing that with the assistance of 4 or 500 Portugueses Soldiers they should be able at any time to reduce Ethiopia to the Roman Church and not despairing in some juncture or other of obtaining such a Succor they studied nothing so much as the engrossing the whole Honour of so great a reduction to their own Order and for that reason they did all they could to hinder Foreigners from intruding themselves into it which made Father Peter choose to leave the Portugueses at Fremona without any Roman Priest rather than with one who was no Jesuit But however it were in those early days Luis Sotelo a Spanish Franciscan in his Letter written from Omura in Japan where he was a Prisoner to Pope Urban the VIIIth and James Collado a Dominican of the same Nation in a Memorial presented by him in the year 1631. to the King of Spain have proved beyond contradiction That the Souls of the Jesuits are wrapped up so entirely in their own Order that they will sacrifice all other Interests that of Converting Heretical and Infidel Kingdoms not excepted to its Interest and Honour Which Letter and Memorial tho extreamly well worth the reading being too long to be here inserted I shall only set down so much of them as is sufficient to justify this Charge Sotelo about the middle of his Letter delivers what follows IF a Friar of any other Order do either out of a Zeal of Charity or being called by the Faithful come into these Parts to give Spiritual Consolation or to administer the Sacraments of the Church after he has heard the Confessions of great numbers of persons who have not seen a Priest in Twenty years to Confess themselves to and Confirmed such as were wavering in the Faith and restored such as had Apostatised from it the Provincial of the Jesuits shall no sooner hear thereof let the Province be at never so great a distance from him and notwithstanding he had never set his foot in it before than he shall immediately fly thither to oppress so good a Minister To whom he will represent That that Countrey being a Parish under his Jurisdiction he ought not to have administred the Sacraments therein and upon pretence of the Peoples being his Sheep will hinder him from performing any more Religious Offices to them And if the Priest should happen to have the courage to ask him Why if those People are under his care he had abandoned them for so long a time And whether he thought that one who had so deserted his Flock ought any longer to be esteemed its Pastor The Jesuit will answer him with What Authority have you to ask me any such question Or to meddle with things that do not belong to you And having affirmed that he has a right to what he pretends to he will produce the Council of Trent and read the Constitution to him Which prohibits Priests upon pain of Excommunication to administer the Sacraments in any Parish without the Curate's leave Neither will he content himself with that but will render that Constitution into Japan and publish it to all the People And in case the said Father should reply That the words of the Council have no relation to the Countries of Infidels or to places which are newly Converted or to Christians who are Novices in the Faith but are to be understood only of Countries which have been under Christian Princes for divers Ages and of ancient Parishes where People have been long Christians The Jesuit shall notwithstanding that treat him publickly as a Transgressor of the Council and do all that is in his power to drive him away forbidding the People to take any notice of him or to have any communication with him and if after that any Christian should either out of Compassion or Devotion receive him into his House or should enter himself into the Brotherhood of the Rosary or of the Cord of St. Francis he shall be reprimanded for it as boisterously and be treated by the Jesuit with as much contempt as if he had intirely renounced the Christian Faith And as to the places where the Jesuits are ordinarily resident the Faithful dare not so much as offer to entertain a Friar that is not of their Order nor have the least communication with such a one unless it be privately and if the Jesuits come to hear of it they will Chastise
but may the Swine never see it that so they may not trample it under their unclean feet for it is written You shall not throw Jewels before Swine This Libel galled the Emperor so terribly that to be revenged on its Authors he published a Second Proclamation by which he commanded all his Subjects to work on Saturdays being to pay a Crown for the first fault The Emperor by a Second Proclamation commands all his Subjects to work upon Saturdays and to forfeit their whole Estate for the second to which penalty the Offenders were to continue liable Seven Years after the fault was committed by which time the Fathers hoped that Popery might have got strength enough in Ethiopia to execute this Law as they should see occasion being sensible that there would be few or none of any Estate that would not be under its lash This rigorous Proclamation being sent to Joanel the Viceroy of Begameder who waited for such an opportunity to raise the people against the Emperor to publish he commanded it to be done presently with great Solemnity taking care at the same time to declare to all the World that it was what he abominated from his Soul Neither was Joanel deceived in his thoughts of the effects of this Proclamation for the people no sooner heard of the Emperor's having commanded them under severe Penalties for to work upon Saturdays than they began to rail at him as one who had no Religion and who for that and other reasons was become so intolerable to his Subjects that they must be Beasts of Burden to endure him any longer and hearing that Joanel had declared himself openly in all Companies against what the Emperor had commanded A Rebellion breaks out upon it they flocked to him from all Quarters beseeching him as he had any love for God and his Countrey not to suffer their Religion to be thus trampled on promising to die by his side in the defence of it Joanel having foreseen what the Emperor by his Zeal for Popery would quickly bring things to had obtained a promise of considerable Succours from the Gauls whenever he should take the Field upon the strength of which and the fury the Emperor's late Proclamation had put the whole Empire into he formed a great Army out of the people that flocked in to him assuring them now he had taken up Arms that he would never lay them down until he had secured their Religion to them When the news of this second Croisade came to Court great numbers of the first Quality of both Sexes set upon the Emperor again An address is made to the Emperor not to trouble his people with Popery beseeching him as he loved himself and his Empire to give over all thoughts of introducing Popery into a Countrey that of all things in the world could not endure it The Emperor though much troubled to find that Joanel and his Cause had so many friends in his Court yet not being willing to do any thing that might intimmedate his Converts The Addressers are punished he told the Grandees that had addressed to him with an angry countenance That it was his Subjects duty to obey and not to dispute his Commands and that he would teach them better manners than to fly thus in their Prince's face when he did any thing that displeased them and hoping to have terrifi'd the Grandees from troubling him with any more Addresses he commanded one of the most forward Addressers to be put to death banishing another of them for his life to the Kingdom of Narea which cruelty was so far from having the effect that was expected from it that it did but Exasperate peoples spirits and put them into a greater rage against Popery than they were in before The Emperor though he could not but see the storm thicken upon him on all sides yet was so far from seeking to divert it by any Compliances that having called a full Assembly of the Grandees Monks and Military Officers together in the great Hall of the Palace he made the following Speech to them YOU Ris against the Emperor Jacob and having Deposed him for several Misdemeanors The Emperor's Speech thereupon you advanced my Cousin Za Danguil to the Throne whom for having forsaken your Religion and embraced that of the Portugueses you afterwards Murthered and after having conferred the Crown upon me you made Jacob King a Second time but though you intended to have Deposed me God was pleased to give me Victory from that day to this I have done wrong to no body but on the contrary have pardoned great numbers having been prodigal of my favours to a fault but all this has not been sufficient to keep you from Rebelling upon a pretence that I am endeavouring to destroy your Religion when in truth I do only seek to reform it for as I do profess with you That our Lord Christ is true God and true Man so I do moreover affirm That as he cannot be perfect God without having the Nature of God so neither can he be perfect Man without a Human Nature now since it is evident by the light of reason That the Divine and Human Nature are really distinguished it must follow therefore that there are two Natures in Christ and since there can be no Confusion in the Godhead those two Natures must necessarily be united in one and the same Person of the Eternal Word so that what I am doing is not to forsake the Faith but to profess it in truth And I do further affirm That the Divine Nature is Superior to the Human. It is true I have forbid you to observe Saturday any longer and it is an amazing thing that you who value your selves upon being Christians should be for keeping the Sabbath of the Jews what is this but as the Prophet Elias said to go halting c. As this is my Faith so I do not follow it because it is the Faith of the Portugueses or of the Roman Church but because it is the Faith that was established by Six hundred Fathers in the Council of Calcedon which Condemn'd Dioscorus and Eutyches and for being a truth founded on the Scriptures and derived from the Apostles who were the Teachers of the World Undeceive your selves therefore for for this Faith I am ready to lay down my life if there should be occasion though I must tell you at the same time it shall cost them their Lives first that shall dare to contradict me therein How seasonable a Speech of this strain was in which Father Peter who was now become the first Minister had a hand undoubtedly for one in the Emperor's Circumstances let the world judge The Emperor having received an insolent Letter from Joanel wherein he insisted upon having the Jesuits all turned out of Ethiopia and his being declared Viceroy of Begameder for his Life was so incensed that he marched against him in Person but Joanel having advice thereof The Emperor
sends an Army against the Rebels and routs them and knowing himself not to be strong enough to deal with him he Retreated to the Mountains where his Army's Zeal being allayed by the want of Provisions it moulder'd to nothing in a short time so that he was obliged with a small Party to take fanctuary among the Gauls who having been hired to it by the Emperor put him to death The Emperor being returned to Doncaz where he intended to spend the Winter was invited by the Fathers to come and visit the new Church they had built at Gorgora which he did with great Devotion putting his Shoes off when he entered into it but the late Proclamation had bred too much ill blood in Ethiopia for to let it be long quiet The Damotes a People inhabiting the banks of Nile being thrown into such a rage by Raz Cella their Viceroy's rigorous Execution thereof that they all flew to their Arms as one Man being likewise instigated so to do by great droves of Hermits who being alarmed by the late Proclamation flocked to them from all parts of the Desarts railing all the way they came at the Emperor and his Brother as Apostates and at the Jesuits as the Authors of all their troubles several of them running over the Countrey as men distracted and roaring as they went That all People were bound in Conscience to take up Arms against the Emperor and his Brother in defence of their Religion which they seemed to be resolved to destroy The Viceroy hearing of the mad work the Hermits were making among the Damotes writ to some of his Friends in those parts not to suffer themselves and the People to be any longer abused by such a pack of Ignorant and Hypocritical Rascals who taught them nothing but Lies but he could have no other answer from them than That unless he would burn all his Popish Books and deliver up all his Jesuits to them The Damotes take up Arms for their Religion and are routed that they might hang them all upon one great Tree for the mischiefs they had done in Ethiopia they would have nothing more to do with him being all to a man resolved to live and die in the Alexandrian Faith The Viceroy not caring to part with his Books and Jesuâ—â—s so easily advanced towards them with an Army of Seven Thousand well-disciplin'd Men the Damotes were near double the Number having Four hundred Hermits who had devoted their Lives to their Religion well Armed with Targets and Launces this great inequality in numbers did not hinder the Viceroy from offering them Battel so soon as he came up with them which they having accepted of the two Armies quickly came to blows but the Damotes being raw men and not well Armed were at the first onset put to the rout and besides a great slaughter that was made among the Soldiers as they fled towards the Mountains there were One hundred and eighteen of the Monks with their famous Captain Batare found slain upon the spot where the Fight was the Viceroy is said to have lost but One Man in the Action and he too which made the loss the less was a Heathen A Miraculous Evidence say the Jesuits of the Truth of the Roman and of the falshood of the Alexandrian Faith The Emperor when Father Peter Congratulated him upon this Victory told him He had great reason to thank God for it for that had the Damotes gained the least advantage he should have had the whole Empire presently in Arms against him whose Spirits he believed were now pretty well subdued and that after such a blow it would not be soâ—eâ—â—y for the Monks or Hermits to Roar them into any more Rebellions and whereas he had hitherto been with-held by his fear and his Wife 's The Emperor reconciles himself to the Church of Rome which he was very unwilling to have parted withal from Reconciling himself formally to the Church of Rome he told the Father he would delay to do it no longer the Father over-joyed to hear this upon his having first Abjured all the Alexandrian Errors and made a Confession of his whole Life to him gave him Absolution and Reconciled him to the Pope But the Father overcome it is like by the Joy of this Conversion outlived it but a few days his Death was much Lamented by the Emperor and his Brother to whom the Father was become a perfect Oracle in all State no less than Church-matters Presently after Father Peter's death there were Three Letters writ from Ethiopia to the Provincial and Visitor of the Jesuits in the Indies to send them a Patriarch with as many Fathers as they could spare The first was writ by the Emperor to the Provincial the second and third to the Visitor by Father Luis de Azevedo and Father Antony Fernandez The Contents of which Letters being much the same I shall set down that of Father Antony's only which is the shortest of them Father Antony Fernandez Letter to the Father Visitor of the Indies I Write this with the good News of this Kingdom to your Reverence to engage you to order Processions to be made and to have Masses said and the Te Deum sung to return Thanks to God for the favour he has shewed us in the Conversion of this Empire the doing whereof will very much refresh the Fathers and Brethren who labour here with me and will sweeten the great hardships they undergo The Emperor with his whole Court and all the Grandees and Princes Ecclesiastical and Secular of this Empire have abjured their Errors and made a publick Profession of their Obedience to the holy See of Rome The general Administration of all Churches and Parishes being put into my hands I have Established Curates in them all having made such new Laws as were necessary and abolished all the old ones that were contrary to the Roman Church I have had some thoughts of coming to you and have been ready to begin my Journey but have been still hindered by the Glory of God which obligeth me to keep close to the Emperor The thing we stand most in need of here at present is a Patriarch with a good number of Fathers to help us to carry on these good beginnings Your Reverence cannot but be sensible of this our want without my enlarging upon it Our Fathers and Brethren ought to run thorough fire and water Pikes and Swords for to assist this Countrey lest having the promised Land shewed us we may be excluded it thorough our own fault They ought to flock hither with all possible speed for notwithstanding the Heirs apparent of the Empire and all the Princes and Nobles thereof are at present true Catholicks Nevertheless should we happen to be deprived of the Emperor and his Brother Zela Christos by death it is to be feared that the Monks and Habassins might raise seditions to the pulling down of all that we have built and may persuade the people who are more
of the Alexandrians was sent before to streighten them with a Flying Army Raz Cella upon his being denied his Old Troops which were intirely at his devotion would fain have been excused from going on this Expedition but the Emperor pressed him so hard that he saw he must either break with him or do it and as his heart misgave him all the way he went so his Success was answerable to his forebodings for he was no sooner got among the Mouniains Raz Cella is routed by the Pesants than he was fallen upon by a Body of Twenty thousand Peasants and being Deserted by his own Men most of which went over to the Enemy he narrowly escaped being made Prisoner The Alexandrians who it is probable had sent him against the Peasants on purpose to be beat by them could not conceal their joy on the occasion of this Defeat the blame whereof they laid wholy at his door which sunk him so low that he was never able to rise again to do the Roman Church any service The Emperor fearing least the Peasants might upon this advantage have advanced towards Dancas retired from thence to Gojam to be at a greater distance from them where having made up an Army that consisted chiefly of Gauls being afraid to trust his own Subjects any longer he went to offer the Peasants a Battel who since their late Victory over Raz Cella had ventured down into the Low Countries reckoning themselves strong enough to Fight any Army the Emperor could bring against them The Two Armies having looked each other in the face for some Hours the Emperor The Emperor marcheth against them who had placed a stout Body of Gaulish Horse in the Front ordered them to fall on which they did so furiously that at the first Onset which is commonly the last too with the Habassin Armies they broke through the Peasants main body which Dispersed immediately and Throwing down their Arms fled towards the Mountains the Gauls pursued them till night came on He obtains a great Victory so that though few or none of them were killed Fighting there were Eight thousand of them found dead next morning whereas had they had the Courage to have fought it out they might with half that loss have had a Victory for had they but routed the Gauls who charged them first it is certain the Imperial Habassins would either have gone over to them or have thrown down their Arms. The Court Alexandrians though they were extreamly mortified by this great blow yet did so manage the matter that they gained their point by it for having persuaded the Emperor to go next morning to view the Field which was covered all over with dead bodies and observing him to be touched with so direful a sight they came about him and with Tears in their eyes told him Six You see how many dead bodies are lying here Whose were all these Were they the Bodies of Mahometans or Heathens No not so much as one of them but they were all to a man your Highness's Natural-born Subjects and our own Blood and Kindred we do therefore beg of your Highness to consider That this is a War in which whether you Conquer or are Beat you thrust a Sword into your own Bowels Neither were these poor wretches you see lying here dissatisfied with your Highness for any thing but for forcing a New Religion upon them How many Thousands have already lost their Lives in this Quarrel and how many Thousands more must be Massacred before Popery can be established in Ethiopia Wherefore for God's sake Sir He is moved by the passionate Remonstrances of the Grandees and others to restore the Alexandrian Religion let your People alone with the Religion of their Fathers which you must either do or resolve to destroy your Empire with your own hands We must tell your Highness farther That the very Gauls and Heathens do condemn us for what we are doing calling us Apostates and Renegado's for having forsaken the Religion of our Ancestors And that they might clinch the matter the Prince and Amana Christos had got the Gauls as the Emperor passed by them to cry out That they would serve him no longer being quite weary of Cutting poor Mens Throats for no other reason but because they would not leave the Religion they had been Born and Bred in The Empress interposed likewise and desired him for God's sake and his own and his Posterities not to go on destroying his Subjects at such a merciless rate and to consider that in all his Wars with them he did as it were but cut off his left hand with his right and whether any thing could be more dishonourable than for a Prince to employ Foreigners and Heathens to Massacre his Christian Subjects and all this to introduce a Religion into Ethiopia which it was plain to all the World it would never be reconciled to These passionate Remonstrances one upon the neck of another together with the sad sight of so many dead bodies did affect the Emperor so much that instead of returning to Dancaz in triumph after so great a Victory he returned thither so extreamly disconsolate that he did not care to see or speak with any body The Patriarch Bishops and Fathers hearing how things went hastened to Court not to Congratulate the Emperor upon his late Victory for that their Friends had told them he could not bear but to see if they could get him out of the hands of the Alexandrians who at present were in full possession of him the Champions of the Roman Faith being all either Dead or in Disgrace at Court We are not told what passed betwixt the Emperor and the Patriarch at his first Audience but whatever it was a great Council was called a few days after to consider the state of the Empire and by what means the Peace thereof might be restored in which it was quickly agreed That there was no other way of doing it but by restoring all the Alexandrian Rites and Customs and by leaving People to their Liberty to be of which of the two Religions they pleased This Resolution is said to have been opposed by one Abithaca Johanes a Nephew of the Empeperor's who told the Council boldly That all the Miseries of Ethiopia were owing to their Sins and not to Popery's having been Established in it To whom the Council gave no other answer but that something must be done to restore the Empire to its former peace and that there was nothing would do it but what they had agreed to do The Patriarch being alarm'd with this resolution of the Council The Patriarch and Fathers wait upon him to divert him from doing it sent immediately to demand an audience of the Emperor and having obtained one with some difficulty he went on the Twentieth of June 1632 attended by the Bishop of Nice and Five Fathers to wait upon him to whom lying in Bed very pensive he deliver'd the following Speech the Bishop
therein that they hazarded their lives to help them to the Relicks of their Martyr'd Brethren I have not been able to learn whether the abovenamed Congregation did ever give it self the trouble of enquiring into the truth of these reliques but most certain it is that if it did that their want of natural Evidences was abundantly supply'd by such as were Miraculous for they having been as all new-found reliques are undoubtedly much prayed to if Ten out of a Thousand that pray'd to them when they were sick did but happen to recover there were just so many substantial Witnesses of their having a Miraculous Virtue in them to demonstrate them to be true and for the faithless Nine hundred and ninety that died their unsuccessful Prayers were never heard of to confront the Testimony of Ten living Witnesses and being thus attested the Congregation could not have deni'd them its Approbation such Testimonies as these being all the Evidence the Church of Rome has for the greatest part of her Sacred Reliques Neither would its having been afterwards discovered as it was that the Heads of those Three Friars were sent by the Bashaw who cut them off as a Present to the Emperor of Ethiopia have been any argument at all against the truth of those which were lodged at Goa there being nothing more common in the Church of Rome than to have the same individual Reliques and especially Heads at the same time in several Countries and all of them working Miracles in Confirmation of their being genuin The Patriarch that he might not lie at Goa doing nothing for his Title of Illustrissimo in the Year 1650 sent a Banean and an Habassin The Patriarch sends an Habassin and a Banean into Ethiopia with a Commission to a Priest to be his Vicar-General who were both Romanists with a Commission to one Bernard Nogueiro an Habassin Priest but of Portuguese Extraction to be his Vicar-General in Ethiopia during the time of his absence from it The Banean and Habassin having got to Moqha were detained there a whole Year by the War that was broke out betwixt a King in Arabia and the Bashaw of Suaqhem but the Envoys that they might do something for their Money sent the Patriarch some News which notwithstanding it did not agree very well with that Father Torquato had picked up at the same place not long before they knew would be pleasing to him The News was That his Successor Mark had been Deposed for having been guilty of all the Crimes that they could think of namely for having Danced frequently with his Gatar in his hand thorough the Streets with publick Strumpets and that a Monk whose name was Michael was made Abuna in his place In October 1651 the two Envoys having got to Matzua The Priest accepts of it and writes for Portuguese Troops stole by night from thence to a place in Ethiopia called Engana from whence having sent an Express to Father Bernard he was with them in a few days and having gladly accepted of the Commission they brought to him he wrote by them to the Patriarch complaining that the Portugueses seemed to have forgot that there was any such Countrey as Ethiopia where they had been expecting succors from them till they were weary telling a lamentable Story of what Raz Cella Christos had suffered because he would not turn Alexandrian and how his Gout though extreamly violent did not torment him half so much as the disappointment of the Portuguese Troops he had been so long promised But we have that Prince telling his own Story in the following Letter which came to Goa about this time Most Illustrious Bishops and Governors of the Indies The Letter of Raz Cella Christos cometh with Peace and Health in our Lord Jesus Christ To all most Christian Catholicks and to all the faithful of the true Church of our Lord. TO tell you the Truth Raz Cella writes passionately for Troops I do not know with what Tongue or Words to begin to relate to you the Persecutions of our Mother which I am at this time lamenting O Holy and most Merciful Christ Jesus nailed to the Cross do Thou reckon them up and make them to be known to all the Friars Rectors Prelates Bishops Archbishops Viceroys Kings Princes and Governors that Rule on the other side of the Sea I never in the least doubted but that you would so far have concerned your self for the Catholicks that are here as to have delivered them from the Tyranny of this Perverse and Barbarous Nation and that the doing thereof would not have been so long delayed but for my Sins which are Infinite You seem to have been all dissemblers formerly when there was not so much as the name of a Church or of a Catholick in Ethiopia the Portuguese came to our Assistance and delivered us out of the hands of the Mahometans but now notwithstanding there is an Infinite number of faithful people in it there is no body seems to remember us all our Brethren and all those whom the Zeal of the House of the Lord did eat up seeming to be dead What is the Pope our true Pastor and most beloved Father removed from the immoveable Foundation of the Roman Church if he is not Why does he not stretch forth his Rod and Staff of Consolation to these his Sheep before we depart this Miserable Life or before we are eat up by the Alexandrian Hereticks Is it possible that there is not one Prince left in Portugal that has the Zeal of Don Christopher Da Gama for Christianity no nor so much as one Prelate left to procure some remedy for us either from Heaven or Earth I can say no more but though my Mouth is stopt my Tears are not but being covered with Sackcloth and Ashes I do most humbly beg succor from all the Faithful and that with all Expedition before all be lost I am at this time in Chains in a Prison and am daily tempted with promises of liberty if I will but return to the Alexandrian Faith the Hereticks seeking in me to destroy all the Catholicks in Ethiopia and to Extirpate the Roman Faith out of it Wherefore if there be any Christians left beyond Sea or any that have a Zeal for God let them know and understand that we are their Brethren in Christ Jesus and that we shall then and not before believe that they have us in their hearts when they shall deliver us out of the hands of Hereticks and out of this our Egyptian Bondage This Unfortunate Prince is said to have suffered Death not long after this Raz Cella is put to death for his Religion or rather for holding a Correspondence with the Portugueses for whom the Emperor was possessed with so strong an Aversion that he made it Death for any of that Nation or for any of the Roman Faith to come into Ethiopia In the Year 1656 The Patriarch is named to the Archbishoprick of Goa but was