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heaven_n	church_n	key_n	peter_n	5,807	5	7.9067	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49450	A new history of Ethiopia being a full and accurate description of the kingdom of Abessinia, vulgarly, though erroneously called the empire of Prester John : in four books ... : illustrated with copper plates / by ... Job Ludolphus ... ; made English, by J.P., Gent.; Historia Aethiopica. English	Ludolf, Hiob, 1624-1704.; J. P., Gent.	1682 (1682)	Wing L3468; ESTC R9778	257,513	339

made a most lofty Panegyric in Praise of the Pope not without some Reflections upon the Blindness of former Ages then he fell to commemorate what had been done of later Times How That the Emperors of Habessinia had sent their Embassadors formerly to Rome and that lately one of them had requested thence a Pastor and Evangelical Preachers that therefore now the Time was come wherein his Majesty was bound to satisfie the desire of his Ancestors and to submit himself and his Subjects to the See of Rome The King Commanded the Grand Chamberlain of his Houshold Melca Christos Prince of Samena to return an Answer who after he had extoll'd the Merits of the Portugueses It is now the King's Intention said he to fulfil the Promises of his Ancestors by yielding Obedience to the Roman Pope But as he was going on the King interrupted him saying That this was not the first day of his Intention to surrender his submission to the Roman Pope as having long before promis'd it to the Superior Father of the Society of Jesus Presently the Patriarch after a short answer unfolded a Book containing the four Evangelists and then the King falling upon his Knees took his Oath after this manner We Sultan-Saghed King of the Kings of Ethiopia believe and confess That St. Pe●er Prince of the Apostles was by Christ our Lord Constituted Head of the whole Christian Church and that Principality and Power over the whole World was given to him when he said Thou art Peter and upon this Rock will I build my Church and I will give to thee the Keys of Heav'n and at another Time when he said to Him Feed my Sheep In like manner we believe That the Pope of Rome lawfully Elected is the true Successor of St. Peter the Apostle in his Government and that he has the same Power Dignity and Primacy of the whole Church of Christ Therefore we Promise Offer and Swear true Obedience and humbly submit our Person and our Empire at the feet of our Holy Father Urban the VIII of that Name by the Grace of God Pope and our Lord and to his Successors in the Administration of the Church So God help us and these Holy Evangils After the King had done his Son Basilides the King's Brothers all the Viceroys and Peers as also all the Clergy and Monks then present took the same Oath After this Ras-Seelax hastily Drawing forth his Scimiter brake forth into these passionate Expressions What is done let it be done that is to say Let past things be forgotten But whoever for the future shall not do it since it becomes every one so to do shall feel the weight of this An Act which to most that were present seem'd very severe especially to those who had taken part with Gabriel at whom those words were constru'd to be principally levell'd Moreover he added an unusual Clause to his own Oath That he also swore Allegiance to Basilides as Heir and Successor to his Father and that he would also be his faithful Vassal so that he would promise to Protect and Defend the Holy Catholic Faith otherwise that he would be the first and most profess'd of his Enemies As if it had bin lawful for a Subject to impose new Conditions of his Subjection upon a most Absolute Prince and Monarch not bound by any Laws of Man such as is the King of Habessinia However the King said nothing nor durst Basilides as being under the Tuition of his Father take notice of it Nor indeed was this Condition added to his Oath any advantage to the Roman Church but rather serv'd to hasten the Ruin of Ras-Seelax This Solemnity concluded with an Anathema after the Ethiopian manner upon all those that for the future should forget or break this Oath Immediately after several Edicts were Publish'd That none for the future should say Mass or Exercise the Priestly Office except such as were licens'd by the Patriarch Thereupon the Ordinations of the Alexandrian Metropolitan not being accompted lawful most of the Priests were constrain'd to receive new Ordinations from the new Patriarch upon this Condition That they should all observe the Roman Forms of Worship and not give any succour or harbour to Rebels who offended in that Nature was to be severely punish'd It was also farther enjoyn'd that in the Celebration of Easter and Observation of Lent the Canons of the Church of Rome should be faithfully follow'd There was also one thing more than usual exacted by the Patriarch who having a great mistrust of the Ladies of the Royal Blood caus'd a It is still a Proverb among the Ethiopians Zaqon Qawino What is done let it be done Decree to be made that they also upon a prefix'd day as being more zealous for the Alexandrian Opinions than the Men should take the Sacred Oath of Supremacy to the Pope as if they had bin a distinct Body Politic from the Men. But whether it were put in Execution or how done I do not find In the next place great care was taken for Building a Patriarchal Seat and for settling an Annual Revenue for support of the Dignity of the new Primate to which purpose a place was chosen out in the Confines of Bagemdra and Dembea call'd Debsan as also another in the Imperial Camp near Dancaz Residencies also for the Fathers were built in several Provinces of the Empire to stock it with Jesuits Maiguagua or Fremona in Tigra Ganeta Jesus with a fair Church Gorgora in Dembea Azazo Enabeesse vulgarly Nebesse Hadash by the Portugals Adaxa Kolala Leda-Negas Serca Temhhua Atthana in Bagemdra The same year also Lent was kept after the Roman manner with all the Solemnities of the Passion Week as also Easter according to the Roman Calendar Which occasion'd most violent Commotions over all the Empire and more especially among the Clergy and Monks Who being ignorant of the Computation and the Cause thought it a high breach of the Canons of the Nicene Council and the Paschal Cycle therein prescrib'd Neither could the Edict be equally dispers'd over so many far distant Regions for want of Printing In the mean time they were very busie in Baptizing the Converted and ordaining of Ecclesiastical Persons many of which had bin already Baptiz'd and Ordain'd Sermons were also Preach'd in several places after the manner of Europe wherein it was necessary for the Fathers to Cite many places of Scripture if they desir'd to be accompted Learned Thus the Fathers of the Society made a daily and very great Progress insomuch that the Number of Baptiz'd and Converted to the Roman Religion amounted to many Thousands About two years after the Patriarch made a Visitation assisted by some of the Sodality in which vast Numbers of People were some of them Rebaptiz'd others Confirm'd to the great good-liking and applause of the King and his Peers who had never seen such things perform'd by any of their Metropolitans before Others look'd asquint upon these prosperous beginnings seeking

wanting Elated with these golden Promises his Temerity carry'd him so far as to send as if he had now bin the undoubted King of Ethiopia a Viceroy into Tigra To this Viceroy he allow'd a Select Band of Soldiers for his Convoy but they neglectful and careless of their Military Duties took their Pleasure so much that at length surpriz'd in the midst of their Jollity by the Royalists they were forc'd to leave Four thousand of their Party behind them Slain upon the Spot while the shatter'd Remainders speeded back to lay the blame of their ill Success upon the unwary Conduct of their Leaders But the Lastaneers intent upon revenge had at length the same advantage against the Royalists who were stragling to destroy the approaching Harvest and pay'd them home with equal Slaughter for Slaughter Thus Fortune ballancing both sides the Author of these Miscarriages was enquir'd after and as soon found by those that watched their Opportunities For presently Ras-Seelax was accus'd as if he had bin negligent in Executing the King's Orders and had not sent timely Succors to the over-power'd Combatants And his Enemies so far prevail'd that Articles were fram'd against him to which he was compell'd to answer which he did and justify'd himself so well that in words indeed he was acquitted but in Fact condemn'd For he was again degraded and all his feudary Possessions and Military Employments granted away to Basilides Thus Ras-Seelax being once more lay'd by it was no difficult matter to undermine the Patriarch and the Fathers For against them the general Complaint was made That they had no other Design but as they had subjected the Empire in Ecclesiastical Affairs to the Roman Pope so to bring it under the Dominion of the King of Portugal in Seculars To this end under the pretence of Temples and Residencies they rear'd up Castles and Walls from whence they could never be expell'd with Spears and Arrows Many other things of the same Nature they suggested which if the King now through Age more jealous did not absolutely believe yet he hearken'd to them with a more easie Attention However outwardly and publick he shew'd the same Kindness and Affability to the Fathers as before and kindly receiv'd the Bishop sent from Rome to be a Coadjutor to the Patriarch But when he brought the Diploma's of the Jubilee open'd at Rome in the year 1625. and then granted to Ethiopia he was derided by most Men who could not comprehend those great Vertues of Indulgencies which the Bishop boasted of For some began to Discourse among themselves like the Pharisees Who is this who also forgives Sins Who can forgive Sins but only God To which the King made answer with a severe Countenance That the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven were given to Peter and that the use of those Keys belong'd to the Pope for the Granting Indulgencies However the Habessines as if those Indulgencies had afforded Materials for Sin bent themselves still more and more to Sedition and Tumult For the Revolt of the Lastaneers so well succeeding Sertzazax newly made Viceroy of Gojam so ill repay'd the King for his new favours that he not only revolted from him himself but which was more detestable to think he would have drawn in the young Basilides to have conspir'd with him against his own Father And when he could not prevail upon the young Prince he endeavour'd to have advanc'd another young Noble Gentleman of the Blood Royal to the end he might have reign'd himself under his Name But being overthrown and taken he was drubb'd to Death Seven of his Accomplices lost their Heads One of his chief Agents because he had vented horrid Blasphemies against the See of Rome and opprobrious words against the King was hung up upon an Iron Hook driven into a high Stake upon which after he had hung a whole Day because he repeated the same Provocations in the midst of his Torment he was at length run thorough the Body with several Spears and so ended his miserable Life So many and such lamentable Accidents as these pierc'd the very hearts of most People and the Lastaneers dispairing of Pardon hearing of such horrid Executions were the more resolute in their Rebellion Thereupon the King undertook a new Expedition with all his Forces against them and had taken the very Head and Ring-leader of all the Rebels had he not with a small Retinue made a shift to Escape yet he left behind him great store of rich Plunder But he could not be utterly Subdu'd in regard that so many Sculking Holes so many wide and spacious Rocks where those Savages liv'd and hid themselves like so many wild Beasts could neither be assail'd nor taken It happen'd therefore that Fortune wheeling about the Rebels overthrew a Select Party of the King's Forces and by and by with all their force lay hovering about the King's Army which they foresaw would in a short time want Provision The King therefore fearing to be clos'd up in those narrow Streights retir'd into Dembea before the War was at an end Which he did with so much hast more then it was thought he needed to have done that as it diminish'd his own fame so it gave Courage to the Rebels And now the Fathers great Enemies beholding the King 's Melancholly redoubled their Complaints That there would never be peaceful Days in Ethiopia so long as the Roman Religion bare so much sway That it was a very good Religion but above the Capacity of the People who would still prefer the Worship of their Ancestors to which they had bin bred from their Infancy before foreign Innovations which they understood not For who should perswade them That Circumcision was evil That the Holydaies of the Sabbath are not pleasing to God that the ancient Liturgy cannot be prov'd That the Roman Calendar is better then the Ethiopic That the Fasts of the Fourth Holyday are less acceptable to God then the Fasts of the Seventh How much more expedient and profitable were it to retain the ancient Ceremonies in such things as do not contradict the Substance of Faith But as for Ras-Seelax and others that endeavour the Contrary it was apparent they did it meerly to advance their own Designs against the King and Kingdom With these and such like Expostulations the King being overcome especially finding no other way of appeasing and quietting the Lasteneers and that Bagemdra was almost all in the Hands of the Enemy and at the same time all his Friends especially the Ladies of Quality laying before him the Danger he would be in should he be deserted by his Soldiers he at length press'd the Patriarch to remit whatever possibly might be remitted He foreseeing a terrible Storm tho sore against his Will thought 't was high time to lower his Sails for fear of Losing all while he hazarded the Saving of all Whereupon he submitted to the King's request nevertheless upon Condition That nothing Decreed should be remitted by Publick Acts

The next is Drubbing if the Crime be not Capital The punishment of the Nobility is Exilement into the Zanic Lake or into their high and steep Rocks which are in a manner like Ilands from whence however they frequently escape by reason that the People are easily corrupted by Bribery Homicides are deliver'd up to the next of (l) A Custome still us'd in Persia as you may read in Tavernier and Olearius Kin to the Party murder'd at whose free will it is to pardon the Malefactors sell them to forraign Merchants or put them to what death they please If the Homicide escape unknown the Inhabitants of the place and all the Neighbourhood are oblig'd to pay a Fine by which means many Murthers are either prevented or discover'd Most certainly the Law of Like for Like was always and still is accompted the most just and plainest among several Nations Hence that of Moses An Eye for an Eye and a Tooth for a Tooth But because there is not the same use of all members among men some men according to their various Callings having more use of one Member than another some being better able to lose their Hands than their Leggs others the●r Leggs than their Hands therefore among the Civiliz'd Nations this Law grew out of custome And it seems unjust to surrender the Offender to the Malice and Fury of the Offended Party when they may have unbyass'd Judges to give Sentence without Favour or Affection The End of the Second Book OF THE Ecclesiastical Affairs OF THE ABISSINES BOOK III. CHAP. I. Of the ancient Religion of the Abissines and their Judaic Rites The Ecclesiastical History of the Abissines corrupt and why The first Relation of Matthew the Armenian false Tzagazaabus's Confession as little to be credited Those of the Fathers and Tellezius more certain Ecclesiastical History commended The Tradition of some concerning the Original of the Judaic Rites Circumcision us'd by many How it differs from the Judaic No piece of holy Worship among the Habessines Females circumcis'd Why the Abissines abstain from Swines Flesh The Various Customs of Nations concerning Meats The Sabboth observ'd in the Primitive Church Different from the Lords Day and how Whether lawful to marry a Brothers Wife They abstain from the shrunck sinew What to be thought of Candaces Eunuch Menihelec's Posterity revolted from the true Religion Claudius disclaims the Judaic Religion NOw we proceed to the Ecclesiastical History of the Habessinians then which there is not any other more corrupt For whatever we find scatter'd in our Relations were neither collected out of the Books which are publickly authentic in Habessinia nor taken from the report of any persons there skill'd in the Ecclesiastical Affairs of that Country but partly ill related through the Rashness of the Writers themselves partly by the same persons or others ill understood through their ignorance of the Ethiopic Language The first Relation concerning the Religion of the Habessines was set forth by Damianus a Goez a noble Lusitanian from the Report of Matthew the Armenian First Ethiopic Embassador to Emanuel King of Portugal which Narrative of his (a) In a little Treatise often quoted Of the Embassie of the Great Emperor of the Indians contains many things ambiguous many other things altogether false Insomuch that Tzagazaabus the second Habessinian Embassador plainly tax'd the Author of it (b) For thus he sayes in his Confession of Faith Matthew in regard he was an Armenian could not so perspicuously understand our affairs especially those that related to our Faith And therefore he reported many things to King Emanuel which are not in use among Vs Which he did not out of desire to tell an untruth because he was a good man but because he knew little concerning our Religion But in my opinion that good man Matthew spake many things which he knew much better for his ignorance Tho he himself in the Confession of his Faith which the same (c) Extant in the 2. Tom. of Spain illustrated p. 1302. Goez set forth did not much excel him either for truth or probability for which reason Tellezius not undeservedly reprehends him Certainly Gregory was very much offended with him And when he heard his following Doctrines 1. That Jesus Christ was the Son of the Father and the beginning of himself in the same manner that the Holy Ghost was the Spirit of himself and proceeded from the Father and the Son 2. That he descended into Hell where was the Soul of Adam and Christ himself which Soul of Adam Christ received from the Virgin Mary and toward the latter end of the Book That Christ descended into Hell for the Soul of Adam and not for his own 3. That the Souls of men piously deceas'd are not crucify'd in Purgatory upon the Sabaoth and Lords Day 4. That by the Decree and Commandment of Queen Maqueda the Women were also to be Circumcis'd as having a certain glandulous piece of Flesh not unfit to receive the Impression and mark of Circumcision I say when Tellezius heard these things and many other of the same mixture in no small heat and Passion he cry'd out That they were Fictions Dreams nay meer Lyes frequently repeating these words If he said this he was a Beast of the Field Yet out of these Books most of those Stories have flow'd which our Writers have made public concerning the Religion of the Abessines But the Fathers of the Society having bin conversant so long in Ethiopia and view'd the Habessine Books after several Disputations and Discourses with them have bin able to afford us more Truth whose Acts and Writings being free for the perusal of Tellezius we shall cull the choicest of his accurate Relations and what he has reported more ambiguous or more partially out of his dislike of the Alexandrian Religion we shall correct out of their own Writings or from the Discourses of Gregory himself Certainly to Christians no History can be more pleasant than that of Ecclesiastical affairs especially if we look back to the Primitive Church For whom would it not ravish into a high admiration of the wonderful Providence of God as well in founding as preserving his Church when he shall consider that it grew up and increas'd not by the Propagation of Arms or human Arts but by the Oppression of Heathenish persecution To whom can it be unpleasing to consider with a Pious Contemplation the undaunted Courage of the Martyrs the Constancy of her Doctors the Sincerity of the Christian People the Purity of the Faith the Strife of Good Works the Patience of the Weak the plainness of the Rites and Ceremonies Which when they once began to be alter'd with the reverence to the Church be it spoken then also enter'd in Pride instead of Modesty Ambition instead of Charity together with Faction and Contention As if our leisure and our Quiet were therefore granted us by Heaven to consume that time in making Scrutinies into all the misteries of