off saith Father Anthony with the following Noble Fable There was upon a time a very ancient man A Lady is put to death for her Religion who being told that a Child was dead made answer Children are tender Creatures and a small matter carries them off and being told afterwards there was a Young man dead he said Considering the rashness of Youth that was no wonder but when be was told that an Old man was dead he wrung his hands and cried as if the world had been at an end imagining death stood ready to arrest him So saith the Emperor you could see Guergis and his Companions suffer without speaking a word in their behalf but now one of your own Sex is to suffer you are all in an uproar to save her but I will have you all know That this Shoestring of Aba Jacob 's whom Guergis had Murthered for being a Roman Priest is strong enough to hang this Sow and all such as she is Father Anthony who was present at all these Executions has in his Relation of them made so true a remark upon the change Popery had wrought on the Emperor's temper The wonderful change Popery had wrought on the tempers of its Converts and on the practice of the Habassins who seldom or never used to put Grandees and much less Ladies to death for Treason or indeed for any other Crime that I shall set it down in his own words Whosoever saith he shall diligently read the History of Ethiopia and shall observe the want of Vindicative Justice that was therein and the Clemency Seltem Saged had used before with all that had Rebelled against him must of necessity reckon his Punishing of Tecla Guergis so severely to have been one of the greatest Miracles that had happened in many years in Ethiopia For let the Church of Rome be what She will as to her working Miracles that are any ways beneficial to Mankind they must be very unjust to her that deny her the honour of working such Miracles as these in the tempers of her Converts But as we shall see hereafter these Miracles of Cruelty did the Fathers no great kindness in Ethiopia at long run Neither were the Cruelties of an unprovoked Persecution at this time in Ethiopia less wonderful than those of War the inhumanity of the former being such as to overtake those An inhumane persecution is raised against the Alexandrians who for Conscience sake had forsaken all that they had in the world and had Buried themselves in Cases and Dens of the Earth out of which when discovered they were either ferreted to be burnt if they would not turn Roman-Catholicks or smoaked to death in them The memory of which Barbarities is to this day so fresh in the minds of the Habassins that as they do still continue to have a great Veneration for those Caves wherein their Brethren suffered Martyrdom so they cannot hear a Jesuit or a Roman-Catholick so much as mentioned but with horror The Patriarch and Fathers reckoning themselves sure of the Emperor after these miraculous cruelties for which they believed the Alexandrians would never be reconciled to him begun to make bolder steps than they had ventured to make before and so the Patriarch having been informed that an Ancient Nobleman who had been of the Council of State and Chamberlain to the Emperor had some Lands which belonged to the Church in his hands he first admonished him to restore them to the Church immediately which the Nobleman having refused to do the Patriarch seeing him afterwards at Mass The Patriarch Excommunicates a great Man for keeping Church-Lands ordered an Excommunication to be pronounced against him the Nobleman having never dreamt of any such Thunderclap is said to have been so astonished by its Curses and Maledictions That he fell upon the ground as if Datham and Abiram to whom the Excommunication had delivered him had been coming upon him like two furies to carry him quick down into Hell but being come to himself again he beseeched the Emperor and the whole Congregation to intercede with the Patriarch in his behalf promising to restore the Lands to the Church immediately which being done the Patriarch absolved him in forma Ecclesiae striking him with a road all the time the Miserere was Singing At which exercise of Discipline though all the true Romanists say the Jesuits rejoiced they that were Hereticks in their hearts were mad to see themselves subjected to such reproachful punishments In this Year the Foundation of the Patriarichal Church was laid at Dancez the Emperor himself having laid the first stone and promised to build it at his own proper cost and as an Earnest of his Devotion for our Lady to whom it was Dedicated he took a Crown of pure Gold off his Head and gave it to be employ'd in gilding the Seats in our Lady's Chappel it was to have been a large Church with three Naves but Popery did not stay long enough in Ethiopia to see it finished For at the same time that its foundations were laid the Emperor's jealousies of his Brother revived again one Melcha Christos who was his first Cousin having assured both the Emperor and the Prince Raz Cella is accused of plotting with the Portugueses to make himself Emperor that Raz Cella was continually plotting with the Patriarch and the Fathers to bring a Portuguese Army into Ethiopia to make himself Emperor in which charge Melcha Christos was seconded by one Lessana Christos who being an Officer of the Army was secured by Raz Cella so soon as he heard of his being one of his accusers and condemned by him to be put to death immediately as an Apostate to the Alexandrian Faith Lessana to prevent the Execution of this Sentence appealed to the Emperor and fearing lest he might be dispatched out of the way before he could have an answer from Court he broke prison but being taken before he could get to the Emperor he had his head chopped off not for Heresy nor for having accused his General but for having broke Jayl But Raz Cella by stopping of Lessana ' s mouth thus did open a Thousand against him and did Confirm the Emperor and the Prince in their former jealousies it being in every body's mouth One of the chief Witnesses against him is murthered by his order that Raz Cella had murther'd Lessana for no other reason but because he was privy to his plotting secretly with the Patriarch and was ready to have proved it upon him if he had been suffered to go to Court The discovery of this plot gave a fatal blow to Popery in Ethiopia every body but especially the Prince being satisfied that considering how odious Raz Cella had rendered himself to the Habassins it could be nothing but his having received some assurances of a Portuguese Army that could have put such fumes into his head so that after this the Prince never gave over persecuting the Patriarch and Fathers
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
little respect to the most Potent Precious John and his Subjects as to load them with Reproaches calling us Jews and Mahometans because we circumcise and sanctify the Sabbath after the manner of the Jews and do continue our Fasts till Sunset as the Mahometans do They do likewise object to us with great bitterness That our Priests do marry after the manner of the Lay-men and that mistrusting our first Baptism we are baptized yearly and that we circumcise not only Males but Females also which the Jews never did lastly that we observe a distinction of Meats with great strictness and that we call Children Half-Christians before they are baptized To which things I was obliged to return an Answer to vindicate our people from the Calumnies that are cast upon them and to render the Roman Doctors more affable to us who how piously I will not say have ever since I came into Portugal which is now Seven Years deny'd me the Sacrament so that I cannot speak it but with extreme Grief and Tears I am treated by my Christian Brethren as a Heathen and an Anathema He that enliveneth all things to whom I commit it does take notice of these matters I was not sent by the most Potent Lord the Emperor of Ethiopia to the Roman Pontiff and to the most Serene John King of Portugal to brangle and dispute but to contract a Friendship and Alliance betwixt them not to increase or diminish Human Traditions but to enquire diligently into the Errors of Arius the Prince of Hereticks and to learn whether the European Christians do agree with us in confuting his Opinions upon account of whose Errors a Council of Three hundred and eighteen Bishops were assembled at Nice under Pope Julius And that I might learn likewise whether what the Apostles have commanded in their Book of Synods was observed among the European Christians to wit That Two Councils be celebrated every Year in the Christian Church to treat concerning Matters of Faith the first whereof they ordered to be assembled at the Feast of Pentecost and the second on the 10th of October And to learn also how it stood betwixt us as to the Errors of Macedonius upon whose account a Council of an Hundred and Fifty Bishops was assembled at Constantinople under Pope Damasus And also the Errors of Nestorius against whom a Council of Two hundred were assembled at Ephesus under Pope Celestine And lastly That I might be informed of the Fourth and Great Council of Chalcedon assembled upon the account of the Errors of Eutyches at the time when St. Leo was Bishop of Rome from which Council after having had hot Disputes the Bishops returned without having concluded any thing for the Peace of the Church both Parties maintaining their own Opinions The Books of which Synods and of divers others that were afterwards celebrated my Lord the Emperor of Ethiopia hath by him who is very much troubled as are also all his Christian Subjects at the Tares which the Devil the Enemy of Truth has sown among Christians Our people from the beginning have acknowledged the Roman Pontiff to be the first Bishop to whom as the Vicar of Christ we do at this time submit our selves and in whose Court we would be frequently were it not for the great distance we are at from it and our being denied a free passage through the Mahometan Kingdoms which lye betwixt us insomuch that many times after having exposed our Persons to great dangers we are not able to get thither The most Prudent and Invincible King Emanuel of happy memory was the first that by Divine Direction opened a Passage by his Navigation to the East-Indies which for the future gives us great hopes of a commodious Correspondence Emanuel made himself Master of the Red Sea with his Fleets not being discouraged from doing it by the greatness of the Charge that so he might augment the Faith of Christ and open a Passage for us to correspond with him and to make use of each other's assistance by which means we do hope with our united Forces to drive all the Mahometans and Heathens not only from the Coasts of the Red-Sea but also out of Arabia Persia and India And as we do not in the least doubt but that we shall be able to do this so we do wish that all European Christians were in Peace with one another that so they might join together The design of this Habossin Embassy in order to expel the Enemies of the Cross of Christ out of the Mediterranean Countries and Pontus and other Provinces that according to the Word of Christ there may be but one Law one Shepherd and one Pastor upon the face of the whole earth of which we have two Prophecies one in the Prophecies of St. Ficator and another of St. Synoda a Hermit born among the Rocks in the extremities of Egypt both which Prophecies do agree in this matter For which reason we have reckoned the Events of those Prophecies to be drawing near ever since my most Potent Lord had Ambassadors sent to him by the Serene and Wise King Emanuel And it is certain that ever since that time my Prince hath thought of nothing so much as of destroying the Mahometans from off the Face of the earth for the advancing of which design and of some other matters which I have laid before the most Serene King John the Son of Emanuel I was sent hither by my most Potent Lord and not to engage in frivolous and empty Disputations I do wish the great God may bring the Intentions and Endeavours of my Prince which I was sent hither to promote to an happy Issue so as to be for his Glory Amen Having given some Account of these things I will now with great Brevity say something of the state of our Patriarch and Empire When our Patriarch dies Precious John our Emperor immediately dispatcheth a Messenger to the Monks that live at Jerusalem A false account of the Election of the Abuna who having received notice and the Presents that are sent to the Holy Sepulchre by the Emperor do straightways chuse a Patriarch by a Majority of Voices who must always be an Alexandrian Monk of an unblameable life When they have chosen a Patriarch they seal up their Votes and transmit them by the Emperor's Messenger to the Patriarch of Alexandria residing at Grand Cairo who immediately consecrates the Monk that is chosen to that great Dignity and sends him with the Messenger into Ethiopia The Person elected according to ancient custom must be a Monk of the Order of St. Anthony the Hermit and who when he arrives in Ethiopia is there received with great Joy and Honour This Affair is not sometimes finished under a Year or two during which Vacancy all the Rents of the Patriarch are paid to Precious John The chief business of the Patriarch is to confer Holy Orders which none besides him can either give or take away He collates to no
short time to the Indies or Portugal there to be affronted by every body that shall see me since they cannot but think that I who was so kindly entertain'd in Ethiopia must have done some very ill thing to deserve to be thus banished from thence But supposing you should not send me to the Indies but should suffer me to have my grave at the foot of the Patriarch Don Andrew D' Oviedo 's Tomb in Fremona all the Indies and Europe any all the world when they shall come to hear of my being banished thither will and must conclude that it is for some great Miscarriage that I have been guilty of Wherefore that I may be able to give some account of my self to the world I do in the name of God and Truth beg and require it of your Highness and of all your Nobles That you would be pleased to let me have the reasons in writing why you have thought fit to banish me the Court whether it be for my having preached any false Doctrine or for having been guilty of any scandalous Crime or for not having punctually compli'd with the obligations of my Pastoral function or for having been Insolent in my words or too rigorous in punishing or for having been slothful or careless or for what other cause Your Highness may remember that when your Father desired that his Subjects might be permitted to return to some of their ancient customs that I gratify'd him fully in that matter and that he happening at the end of our Treaty to mention some other customs that he had not spoke of before I told him That I was ready to yield to every thing that was not contrary to the Law of God one thing only excepted which was the giving the Cup to the Laicks which though not contrary to the Law of God the concession thereof being reserved to the chief Roman Pontiff the Successor of St. Peter and Christ's Vicar upon Earth it was not in my power to grant it I promised nevertheless at the same time to write to his Holiness about it and to lay the whole matter before him with great sincerity that so he as a faithful and prudent Steward might Ordain what was most profitable What I did then offer to your Father I do now again offer to your Highness and do declare That if your Highness and your Empire will but continue in the Obedience of the Roman Church the head of all Churches and will but follow her faith that I will grant you all that I can with a good Conscience in the form aforesaid Finally I do beseech your Highness before you send me away to assemble all your Learned men to Treat and Dispute with me about their doubts in Matters of Faith for confiding in the Mercy of God and their good Judgments I do not in the least doubt but that I shall be able to convince them of their being in several errors and to oblige them to confess that the Chair of St. Petor is such That the gates of hell can never prevail against it This in my opinion would be the best course you could take to quiet the minds of your people for that if this should not be yielded to what can the common people say but that the Learned men of Ethiopia were afraid to appear before the Light of the Roman Doctors but having shut their eyes do throw themselves into utter darkness What is offered in justification of their not yielding to this to wit that they shall incur an Excommunication if they do it is intolerable since the Patriarch of Alexandria no nor the Pope himself has not power to lay an Excommunication upon his Subjects on that account and the reason is because such an Excommunication would tend to the Destruction of the Faith which is known and made manifest by the Disputations of Learned men It is likewise contrary to the express command of God and his Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul Christ having commanded his Disciples and in them his whole Church to go and teach all Nations Jews Gentiles and Hereticks and again to seek and they should find knock and it should be opened unto them And how is truth sought or how are its gates knocked at but by Disputations It is also contrary to what St. Peter ordered who commands all Christians to be always prepared to give satisfaction to all that should desire a reason of the hope that is in them and in the last place it is a contradiction to St. Paul who told his Disciple Timothy that a Bishop ought to be a Doctor and writing to Titus he declares wherein that Doctorship consists and that it does in being so powerful in sound Doctrine as to be able to convince Gainsayers Wherefore if your Learned men do think that we contradict the truth why do they not endeavour to convince us of it and not seek to excuse their not endeavouring it by pretending that by ingaging in a Disputation with us they should fall under the Excommunication of Three hundred and Eighteen Fathers there being no manner of foundation for that pretence since Hosius Victor and Vincentius the Presidens of that Council were all the Legates of Pope Sylvester the Master of Constantine the Great who undoubtedly never drew the Sword of Excommunication against themselves to thrust it into their own Bowels wherefore to flee to Excommunication in such a case is to trust to a covering that cannot hide the ignorance of him that seeks to cover himself with it Since your Highness has been pleased to take all my Arms from me if I must go to Fremona I desire the favour of you to let my Servants have the Muskets to Guard me thither and they sholl be sent back to you again and if this should be denied I hope your Highness will appoint a strong Guard of Portuguese Soldiers with Fire-Arms to see me out of danger O. Patriarcha Though one cannot but be touched to see a Person who but a few Months before was in so high a Post treated thus rudely yet at the same time one can scarce forbear smiling to find a Roman Prelate advancing the Principle of the Seekers so high The Principle of the Seekers is advanced by the Patriarch as to make it to be destructive of Religion and contrary to the Commands of Christ and his Apostles to forbid People under pain of Excommunication to dispute about Matters of Faith denying it to be in the Pope's Power to rob People of this Liberty notwithstanding he could not but be sensible that it is what the Pope does every where and that there is no Doctrine whatsoever for which the Inquisition would sooner Burn a man than for maintaining such a liberty of Inquiry into the truth of Doctrines of Faith to be the undoubted Privilege and Duty of every Christian But this is not the only instance we have of the Jesuits affirming That the very same Doctrine may be true in one Countrey