in the Church that they consecrate with Leavened bread which before the Consecration they all Baraca that is to say Benediction and Corban or Communion and Eucharist after it is consecrated that they make use of little Loaves about the Bigness of somewhat less than a Crown piece whereof they bake a great Number the Night before the Liturgy and that they distribute them at the End of Mass to those who have been present He farther says that they use not Tavern-wine because they think it profane and that in Places where no Wine is to be had they infuse Rasins in water that they never confess and communicate but in Lent that the Laicks communicate in both kinds and that they receive the Wine in a Spoon from the Hands of the Priest that they give the Communion also to Children so soon as they are baptized that all reade the Holy Scripture in the Arabick Tongue which is the Language of the Countrey that they celebrate on Saturday as well as Sunday and that in one Year they have two and thirty Festivals of the Virgin which are reckoned up by the Authour and amongst others he takes notice of the Festival of a certain Image of the Virgin which miraculously was changed into Flesh the History whereof is written in an Ethiopian Book which treats of the Miracles of the Virgin The same Father Vanslebio relates at large the Ceremonies which they observe in Baptism and are performed in this manner for that purpose they celebrate a Mass after Midnight accompanied with many Prayers and after they have sung for some time the Deacons carry the Children to the Altar who are anointed with Holy Oil and then they say that the Children are become new Spiritual Men. This being done they begin to sing and the Children are anointed a second time making upon them the sign of the Cross seven and thirty times which serves them for Exorcism Again they continue to sing and the Women who are present at the Ceremony make a loud Noise in token of Joy In the mean time water is put into the Baptismal Fonts and the Priests draw near He that baptises blesses the water pouring in Form of a Cross Holy Oil into the same then with one Hand he takes the Child by the Right Arm and Left Leg and with the other Hand by the left Arm making a kind of a Cross with the Limbs of the Child which they cloath in a little white Garment and during all this the Priests still continue to reade and sing and the Women to cry or rather to houl At length the Priest breaths three times in the Child's face to the end say they that he may receive the Holy Ghost No sooner is the Child baptized but the Priest gives it the Communion which he doth by dipping his Finger into the Chalice and putting it into the Child's Mouth All these Ceremonies being ended they light the Tapers and make a Procession singing in the Church The Deacons carry the Children in their Arms and the Priests goe before them after them follow the Men and Women who have been present at the Ceremony the Women houling after their ordinary manner They have according to the same Authour four great Fasts in the Year the first whereof begins before Christmas and lasts 24 days The second is Lent which lasts 60 days The third is called the Fast of our Lord's Disciples which begins the third Holy Day of Pentecost and lasts 31 days And the fourth which lasts fifteen days is the Fast of our Lady in August Images are held in great Veneration amongst them though they have no Statues and the most usual Images are those of Our Lord of the Virgin of St. George of Angels to wit St. Michael St. Gabriel St. Raphael and many others They kiss those Images and burn Lamps before them with the Oil of which they anoint themselves when they are sick It is probable they have no other Sacrament of Extreme Unction but that kind of anointing unless perhaps they do it with a little more Ceremony It is to be observed that Father Vanslebio in his relation speaks of the Abyssines aswell as of the true Cophties or Egyptians because in effect they are both Cophties in Religion and Subject to the same Patriarch who commonly resides in Cairo and because there are but a few Cophties in Alexandria which ought to be the Place of his Residence This Patriarch takes the Title of Patriarch of Alexandria and Jerusalem and calls himself the Successour of St. Mark He extends his Jurisdiction over both Egypts over Nubia and Abyssinia He hath besides eleven Cophty-Bishops depending on him to wit the Bishops of Jerusalem Behnese Atfih Fiur Moharrak Montfallot Sÿut Abutig Girgium Negade on Girge and lastly the Metropolitan of Abyssinia After the Bishops the Archpriests are next in degree and are very numerous amongst them next to them come in order the Priests Deacons Readers and Chanters As to their Office on Saturday in the Evening after Sun set the Priest attended by his Ministers goes to Church to sing Vespers which last about an Hour and those who are present sleep afterwards in the Church They who do not sleep smoke Tobacco and drink Coffee or otherwise discourse about what they please Two Hours after Midnight they say matins and afterwards Mass to which many do resort When they enter the Church they take off their shoes and kiss the ground near the Door of the Sanctuary then drawing near to the Archpriest they kiss his Hand bowing that they may receive his Blessing If the Patriarch be present and do not officiate he sits on a Throne raised above the Priests having a Copper Cross in his Hand and after all have made the usual Reverence before the Sanctuary they make it again before the Patriarch and kiss the ground near him afterwards they rise and kiss the Cross and Patriarch's Hand Seeing most of these Ceremonies are common to all the Orientals I shall insist no longer upon them nor upon their way of celebrating Mass which may be seen in the Relation of Father Vanslebio besides they differ but little from the Greeks from whom they have borrowed a great Part of their Ceremonies That which is observeable and which might be brought into practice in the Latin Churches is that they have a Book of Homilies taken out of the Chief Fathers of which they reade somewhat after the reading of the Gospel and that serves as an Explication or Paraphrase upon the same Gospel so that there is no need of Preachers to instruct them CHAP. XI Of the Belief and Customs of the Abyssines or Ethiopians SEEING we have treated at large of the Religion of the Cophties and that the Abyssines differ not from them therein we shall not be long on that Subject Ancient Ethiopia is at present called Abassia and the People who inhabit it Abyssines They have but one Bishop to govern them who is sent to them by the Patriarch
miserably poor that having nothing to purchase a piece of Land with are obliged to work and labour for the Monastery and to apply themselves to the basest employments These do all for the profit of the Convent and therefore the Convent supplies them with Necessaries and if they have any spare time after their work is done they employ it in Prayers There is a third Order of these Monks who goe by the Name of Anchorites These not being able to work nor support the other Duties of the Monastery have notwithstanding a mind to live in the repose of solitude They buy a Cell out of the Monastery with a little piece of Land on which they may live and never goe to the Monastery but on Holy days to assist at the Office after which they return to their Cells where they mind their own Affairs having no hours appointed them for Prayers There are nevertheless some of these Anchorites who have left their Monastery with the Consent of their Abbot that they may lead a more retired life and apply themselves more to Meditation and Prayer The Monastery sends them once a month Provisions to live on because they possess neither Lands nor Vineyards but those who will not depend upon the Abbot hire some Vineyard near to their Cell of which they eat the Grapes others live on Cherries or such like Fruit. They also sow Beans in the Season of the year and some gain their living by transcribing Books Besides the Monks there are Nuns also who live in Community and are shut up in Monasteries under the Institution of St. Basil They are no less strict than the Monks as to Fasting Praying and the other Offices of the Monastick Life They chuse one of the Ancientest and most virtuous of their Community to supply the place of Abbess and these Abbesses are the same with them as the Abbots are with the Monks Nevertheless that Monastery of Women depends always on an Abbot who assigns them one of the oldest and most virtuous Monks to confess and administer the Sacraments to them This Monk lives near their Monastery that he may be at hand to assist them readily in their occasions He says likewise Mass for them and orders the other Offices These Nuns wear all the same Habit and a Cloak of the same colour Their Arms and Hands are covered to their Fingers ends and their Habit is of plain Woollen Cloth Their Heads besides are shaven and every one hath a Cell apart where they lodge conveniently The richer sort have a Maid and sometimes they bring up in their Houses young Girles whom they bring up in the Duties of Piety and Devotion When they have performed their ordinary Duties they work with their Needle and the Turks who bear a respect towards these Nuns come to their Monasteries to buy Girdles of their making The Abbesses willingly open the Doors of their Convent to the Turks who come to buy the Manufacture of these good Nuns who return to their Appartment so soon as they have sold their Wares I have read a Manuscript Relation that speaks not so much to the advantage of these Nuns The Authour of that Relation observes that the Nuns called Caloyeres who live at Constantinople are Widows some of which have had several Husbands and that they embrace not that Profession but when they are well stricken in years Then he adds that they make no Vows that all their Sanctity consists in wearing a Black Veil upon their Head and declaring that they will Marry no more that after all they live most commonly at home where they mind their House-wifery their Children and Relations He confesses nevertheless that there are some of them who live in Community but that these are more miserable than the former that both go about wheresoever they please and that in fine they have more Liberty under that Religious Habit than they had before The Fasts of the Greeks are different enough from those of the Latins for the Fasts of the latter would be Festival Days and Days of good Cheer amongst the Orientals in regard they not onely abstain from Flesh and all that comes from it as Butter and Cheese but they eat not so much as Fish contenting themselves with Fruits and Pulse with some small portion of Oil and drink very little Wine The Monks are more strict in their Fasting because they never taste Wine nor Oil unless on Saturdays and Sundays Yet the Moscovites are allowed to eat Fish because they have neither Wine nor Oil. Wednesdays and Fridays they abstain from Flesh and all that comes of it but on these days they are allowed to eat Fish I shall say nothing of their Lent nor private Fasts onely must observe that the Greeks and other Eastern Nations exceedingly blame the Saturdays Fast of the Latins because they say that Day is a Festival as well as Sunday which they prove by the Ancient Canons and the practice of the first Ages In fine as to their Ceremonies it may be said in general that no Nation in Christendom hath so many Their Euchology or Ritual with the Notes of P. Goar may be consulted as to that point So excessive is the Worship they render to Images that in a Manuscript which I have read concerning the Errours of the Latins they upbraid them (1) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 MS. Biblioth Bodlei Oxon. Tit. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with want of respect to Images which cannot well be understood unless it be that the Latins omit an infinite number of Ceremonies before their Images which are observed by the Greeks On the Festival day of a Saint (2) Metroph Critop they place his Image in the middle of the Church and that Image or Picture represents the History of the Festival that is Celebrated for instance of the Nativity or Resurrection of our Lord Then they that are present kiss the Image which in their Language is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in Latin Adorare That Adoration is not performed by Kneeling Bowing or any other Gesture of Body but onely by kissing the Image If it be the Image of our Lord they commonly kiss the Feet if an Image of the Virgin they kiss the Hands and in a word if it be the Image of some Saint they kiss the Face These and many other Ceremonies which the Greeks observe in the Adoration of their Images have been much augmented since the second Council of Nice where the Patrons of Images obtained a great Victory over the Iconoclasts And it is chiefly since that time that the Greeks have published the Miraculous Histories of their Images of which their Books are full and as if they had not had enough amongst themselves at home they have searched at Rome and other places for Miracles that have been wrought by virtue of Images After all the Greeks ground most of their Ceremonies upon their Traditions They take no great care to examine whether these Traditions be Ancient or
Holy Ghost proceeds only from the Father that the Souls of the Saints deceased goe not to Heaven nor those of the damned to Hell before the last Day of Judgment that there is no place called Purgatory and Hell and that the Church of Rome hath no Supremacy over other Churches He farther adds that the Armenians detest the Memory of Pope Leo and of the Council of Chalcedon that they observe not the Festivals of Our Lord after the Manner of the Church of Rome nor Fasts according to the Canons of the Church that they acknowledge not seven Sacraments inasmuch as they use not Confirmation nor Extreme Unction and more that they are ignorant of the real essece of the other Sacraments that at Mass they put no water into the Chalice that they pretend that the Eucharist is not to be given to the People but in both kinds He objects to them also their Custome of consecrating in Wooden and Earthen Chalices that all Priests indifferently give absolution for all Sins there being no reserved Cases amongst them that they are subject to two Patriarchs who severally take the Title of Patriarch of all Armenia that the Curates and Bishops succeed to one another as if their Dignities were Inheritances that the Sacraments are bought and sold amongst them that Divorces are given for Money without any reason that they make no Holy Oil for Baptism and Extreme Unction and that in fine they give the Communion to Children before they attain to the use of reason From this whole Catalogue it appears that the Armenian who is the Authour of all these pretended errours was Latinized for as we have observed before most part of these Opinions are common to all the Christians of the East in the Manner as we have explained them when we treated of the Greeks The Armenians are indeed to be blamed that they are too scrupulously addicted to certain Fasts which they have in great Number and that they are not exactly enough instructed in the Mysteries of Religion There are none in the Eastern Church that set a greater Value upon Fasts than the Armenians and to hear them speak one would say that their whole Religion consisted in fasting As to their obstinate Perseverance in celebrating the Festival of Our Lord's Nativity and the Epiphany always on one and the same day they seem not to be blameable therein because it was a Custome long practised in the Church and in effect the Epiphany or Apparition of Our Lord is properly nothing but his Birth The Title of Master or Doctour is so great amongst the Armenians that they give it with the same Ceremonies that they confer Orders (1) Galan in Concil Eccles Armen cum Rom. and they say that that Dignity imitates the Title of Our Lord who was called Rabbi or Master These are the Doctours who are consulted in Points of Religion and who decide in them The Bishops being lookt upon rather as Persons proper for administring Orders than as Doctours These are also the Doctours who Preach in the Churches and who are the Judges of Differences that happen betwixt private Persons In a word they hold the same rank amongst them as the Rabbins did amongst the Jews The Monastick Order hath been also in great reputation amongst the Armenians since the time that Nierses one of their Patriarchs introduced that of St. Basil but since their Reunion with the Church of Rome they have wholly altered their Rule accommodating themselves to that of the Latins and the Armenian whom we mentioned before to have made a Catalogue of Errours which he imputes to his Nation being come to Rome made a Vow that so soon as he returned home into the East he and his Companions would live according to the Rule of St. Austin and the Constitutions of St. Dominick One Bartholomew a Monk of St. Dominick was the first that gave occasion to this Reformation not onely in Religion but Monachism He made great Progresses in Armenia in the time of Pope John XXII having by his Preaching drawn many Monks over to his Party who were usefull to him in reuniting the two Churches About that time was the Order of St. Dominick setled in Armenia and these Monks were called United Friars because of the new Reunion This Order which was onely established to destroy the Ancient got in a short time great Reputation insomuch that the United Friars built Monasteries not onely in Armenia and Georgia but also on the other side of the Euxine Sea especially at Caffa which at that time was subject to the Genoese But since the Turks and Persians are become Masters of that Countrey the Number of the United Friars is much decreased and there remains but a few of them at present who have retired into the Province of Nascivan in the greater Armenia where being at length reduced to utmost Extremity they have united themselves with the Dominican Monks of Europe and are at present subject to the General of that Order who sends thither a Superiour Provincial They perform their Office in the Armenian Language which is a rough Tongue and but little known Yet the Modern Armenian is different from the Ancient and the People have much adoe to understand the Liturgy and other Offices that are written in Armenian They have the whole Bible also Translated into their Language and that from the Septuagint Greek This Translation of the Bible was made about the time of St. John Chrysostome by some of their Doctours who had Learned the Greek Language and amongst others by one named Moses the Grammarian and another called David the Philosopher We may observe that the Armenians make one Mesrop and Holy Hermite to be the Authour of their Characters who invented them in the Town of Balu near Euphrates and lived in the time of St. John Chrysostome CHAP. XIII Of the Belief and Customs of the Maronites THE Jesuit (1) Girolamo Dandini nella sua missione Apostolica Dandini who was sent by Clement VII in Quality of Nuncio to the Maronites of Mount Libanus hath written a Relation of his Travels in Italian which hath been lately Translated into French with Notes declaring at large the Religion of those People Seeing the Authour of these Notes hath played the Critick upon the Mistakes of that Jesuit and of many others who have spoken of the Maronites I thought I could not doe better than here to give an Abridgement aswell of the Relation of the Jesuit Dandini as of the Critical Remarks from whence we may learn the Belief and Present State of those People It is hard to know exactly the Original of the Maronites They who bear that Name pretend they derive it from one Maron an Abbot whose life Theodoret hath written and who lived about the beginning of the fifth Century This Opinion which is followed by Brerewood is strongly confirmed by the Jesuit (1) Sacchini in hist Societ Sacchini who pretends aswell as the Modern Marcnites do that