Spirit and with Himself without any defect or division the Son of the Father the Son of the very Father without any beginning and at first the Son of the Father without a Mother the Secret and Mystery of whose Nativity is known to none but the Father Son and Holy Spirit This Son in the beginning was the Word and the Word was the Word with God and God was the Word The Spirit of the Father the Holy Spirit the Spirit of the Son the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit it s own Spirit without any diminution or augmentation That Holy Spirit is the Comforter of the living God who proceedeth from the Father and the Son and who spake by the mouth of the Prophets and descended in a flame of fire on the Apostles in the gate of Sion and who preached the word of the Father which Word the very Son was all over the World wherefore as the Father is not first notwithstanding he is the Father nor the Son last notwithstanding he is the Son so likewise the Holy Spirit is neither first nor last but they are Three Persons in One God who seeth and is seen by no-body and who by his only Council created all things The Son did of his own accord the Father being willing and the Holy Ghost consenting descend from his highest Habitation and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit in the Womb of the Virgin Mary who was adorned with a double Virginity the one Spiritual the other Carnal he was born without any Corruption his Mother Mary remaining a Virgin after her delivery and by a Miracle and a secret Flame of the Divinity brought forth her Son Jesus without blood and without pain who was perfectly Innocent and without Sin being perfect God and perfect Man and having only one Aspect he grew by degrees as an Infant sucking the Milk of the Virgin Mary his Mother and coming to Thirty Years of Age he was baptiz'd in Jordan and did walk and was weary and did hunger and thirst as other men do all these things he suffered voluntarily and of his own accord and wrought many Miracles restoring by the power of his Divinity sight to the Blind curing the Lame cleansing the Lepers raising the Dead after all which he himself was apprehended and whipt and scourged and crucified He languished and died for our Sins and by his Death overcame Death and the Devil and by his lively Agony dissolved our Sins and bore our Infirmities By the Baptism of his Blood that is his Death he baptized the Patriarchs and Prophets and descended into Hell where the Souls of Adam and his Sons were as also his own Soul which was from Adam which Soul Christ received from the Virgin Mary who by the power and splendor of his Divinity and the strength of his Cross broke the brazen fiery Gates of Hell binding Satan with Iron Chains and rescuing Adam and his Sons All these things Christ did because he was full of the Divinity and the Divinity it self was with his Soul as it was also with his most holy Body which Divinity gave virtue to the Cross and was what he always had and will have for ever in Trinity and Unity in common with the Father Neither did Christ during the time he was in the Flesh ever want the Divinity and Dignity thereof for one moment He was buried and on the third day Jesus Christ himself the Prince of the Resurrection the most sweet Jesus Christ Jesus Christ the Prince of the Priests Jesus Christ the King of Israel did with great power and strength rise and after having finished all things which were foretold by the holy Prophets he ascended with glory into Heaven and sitteth at the right hand of the Father and will come with glory carrying a Cross before him and in his hand a Sword of Justice to judge the quick and the dead of whose Kingdom there shall be no end I believe one Holy Catholick and Apostolick Church I believe one Baptism which is the Remission of Sins and I do hope for the Resurrection of the Dead and the Life of the Age to come Amen I believe the holy Lady Mary to be a Virgin both in Spirit and Flesh and do reverence her as the Mother of God the Charity of all Nations the Holy of Holies and the Virgin of Virgins I believe in the holy Wood of the Cross the Bed of the Agony of our Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God who is our Salvation for thorough him we are saved which notwithstanding it is an offence to the Jews and to the Gentiles foolishness we do preach believing it to be the power of the Cross of our Lord Christ as our Doctor St. Paul hath commanded I do believe St. Peter to be the Rock of the Law which Law is built upon the holy Prophets and the Foundation and Head of the Catholick and Apostolick Church of the East and West where the Name of Our Lord Jesus Christ is the Power of which Church is in St. Peter as is also the Kingdom of Heaven with which he can open and shut bind and loose and who shall sit with the other Apostles his Companions upon Twelve Seats with honour and praise together with our Lord Jesus Christ who upon the Day of Judgment is to pass Sentence upon us which will be a day of joy to the Saints and of sorrow and gnashing of teeth to Sinners when they shall be thrown into the flames of Hell with their Father the Devil I do believe the holy Prophets Apostles and Martyrs and Confessors to have been true Imitators of Christ whom together with the most holy Angels of God I do venerate and honour and do in the same manner embrace and reverence all their Followers I believe there ought to be an Oral Confession of all Sins made to a Priest by whose Prayers thorough Our Lord Jesus Christ I do hope to obtain the salvation of my Soul I do furthermore acknowledge the Roman Pontiff to be the first Bishop and Pastor of all the Sheep of Christ I do likewise observe and obey all Patriarchs Cardinals Archbishops and Bishops of whom he is the Head of the Ministers of Christ This is my Faith and Law and the Faith and Law of the People of Ethiopia who are under the Empire of Precious John which Faith and Love of Christ are so established among us that neither Death nor Fire nor Sword relying on Christ's assistance shall ever be able to oblige me to deny it this being the Faith we are all to carry on the Day of Judgment before the Face of Our Lord Jesus Christ I come now to explain the Discipline Doctrine and Law which the Apostles assembled together at Jerusalem did lay down in the holy Books of Synods and Canons called by us Manda Abethlis those Books of the Law of holy Church are Eight in number concerning which having had some discourse with several Learned Men here in Portugal I never met
before us but so soon as our back is turned are making inroads upon us again For the destruction of this Enemy it is that we desire to have some troops from you with Artificers of all Trades and Fathers to instruct us that we may be of one heart and one body and that the faith of Christ which is destroyed by the hands of Infidels may be established and that there may be peace and love among us This was formerly desired by our Ancestors but it did not please God it should be accomplished in their times but the Turks who then hindered it may now with ease be driven out of the Island of Matzua for which reason we intreat your Holiness to recommend this our request to our Brother desiring him to comply therewith and to execute it speedily We do not trouble your Holiness with many words being well assured of your readiness to grant what we shall desire See that the Fathers you send hither be learned and holy that so they may be able to instruct us in whatsoever is necessary to our Souls I shall add no more a few words being enough to the wise The Emperor of Ethiopia's Letter to the King of Spain THE Letter writ by the Emperor Asnaf Segued cometh to our Brother Don Philip King of the Kings of Spain Peace be with your Majesty The Peace and Love of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Sign of the Holy Cross be always with your Majesty How is it with you As I returned from the War to the place where I was to reside all the Winter a certain Father whose Name is Peter Pays of whose Learning and Piety I had heard before came to visit me I was very glad to hear the account he gave of the state of your Majesty's Health and the welfare of your Kingdoms and did return Thanks to God for having given you such Prosperity that none of your Enemies are able to disturb it May our Lord increase the number of your Majesty's years and bring what he hath begun to an happy issue Hear Sir your Majesty is not ignorant that in the days of the Emperor Asnaf Segued when a certain Mahometan called Granhe invaded Ethiopia and destroyed all our Churches a Confederacy was concluded and confirmed by an Oath betwixt our two Crowns and that when my Ancestors sent to John King of Portugal for some Succors he sent us some which were Commanded by Don Christopher de Gama and which in conjunction with our Army Conquered that Mahometan The High and Mighty God who exalteth the humble and throws down the proud being our helper After which there was Peace and Quietness the force of the Mahometan who had not the fear of God before his Eyes being broken in pieces The Portugueses remained among us in great Honour wanting for nothing till the day of their Death as their Posterity do not to this day Wherefore we being Christians no less than our Ancestors and under the obligation of the same Oath we ought to have the same Enemies that is the Galls who destroy our Lands and who when we go against them with our Armies do run away from us but so soon as our back is turned do as Banditti make inroads into our Empire for which reason we do desire your Majesty to send us some Soldiers and with them your Daughter to be Married to our Son by which means our Alliance will be firmer and we shall be one Body and of one Heart Our Son is Seven years Old and your Daughter as we are informed is but Three so they shall be bred together with the milk of Wisdom and shall be taught the Holy Scriptures I do also wish that your Majesty would with your Troops send me Artificers of all Professions and that you would do it speedily that so being united in the Faith of Christ there may be Peace and Love betwixt us and that this Empire which is the Land of our Lady and of Christ our Redeemer may not be lost The Mahometans are extreamly Zealous for their Sect and do whenever there is occasion help one another and ought not your Majesty to do the same for your Faith which is above all As to what we write to you concerning your sending your Daughter hither you are not to think that we desire her for any other end than to establish an Alliance between us and that she may be a pledge of Peace for the future May God who can do all things fulfil our wishes Hear farther Brother in order to the establishment of our Affairs Do you send a Viceroy to the Island of Matzua and my General shall be at the same time at Arkiko on the Continent by which means we shall bridle the Power of the Turks and being Masters of those parts we will send our Merchants with all sorts of Goods and Provisions into yoar Conquests and will divide the Customs between us our Countrey is very Rich and wants for nothing and the reason why we have not hitherto sent any Merchants to these parts with Provisions of Honey Gold and Slaves is because we have a mind to pinch the Turks for whom we have no kindness but when your Viceroy is once come with his Portugueses we shall quickly send Merchants to them with all sorts of Commodities May our Lord God bring what we desire and what is grateful to your Majesty to a happy issue that so the Power of the Turk which is a great Stone of Scandal may be utterly broke It does not appear by these Letters that the Emperor was in such a violent fit of Zeal when he wrote them for a Roman Patriarch and for submitting his Church to the Pope immediately as he is reported to have been in when he delivered them to Father Peter for though in both of them he writes very earnestly to have the Infanta and some Troops sent with all possible expedition he does not say one word of his Church's submission or of a Roman Patriarch And in case Father Peter when he acquainted the Emperor with the Infanta's Age did to make his Court the better feed him with hopes of obtaining her for his black Prince it was no more than what his Countreyman Gundamore did here in England either with the same Infanta or her Sister and the restitution of the Palatinate It might have been expected that Father Peter now he had brought the Emperor to be a Bigot for Popery beyond what he desired should have stuck close to him till he had done the work and that no small matter should have made him to have left the Court where his presence was so necessary but whatever was the true cause of it the Father all of a sudden desires leave of the Emperor to go to Nanina a place two days journey from the Court pretending to be called thither by extraordinary business and when the Emperor Father Peter withdraws from Court upon a slight pretence who was very unwilling to part with
to the Habassin Monks at Jerusalem to whom he sent the Collection of Canons which is now at Rome giving them likewise several Lands for uses which the Church of Rome allows to be pious this Monastery of Habassins stands on Mount Gabor Zera Jacob 's Letter to the Habassin Monks at Jerusalem In the name of the Father and Son The Emperor Zera Jacob's Letter to the Habassin Monks at Jerusalem and Holy Ghost one God whom I adore with all my heart and on whom I rely with all my strength and with all my mind to whom I am bound with the tye of sacred Worship which is not to be broken THIS Letter is written in this Book of Canons by us Zera Jacob whose Name since we took the Government upon us is Constantine in the 8th year after the God of Israel in the multitude of his mercies was pleased to place us on the Throne of the Kingdom of Ethiopia being in Seava which is called Teglet Let this come to the hands of my beloved the College of Saints who reside at Jerusalem the Holy City In the peace of the Lord. Amen I do proclaim you very happy for having in the first place obeyed the word of the Gospel which saith He that forsaketh not his father and mother wife and children c. for which reason you have left the world and have taken upon you the Yoke of Monkery the word of the Prophet hath likewise bound you which saith I will not go into the tabernacle of mine house nor climb up to my bed neither will I give sleep to mine eyes nor slumber to mine eyelids until I find the house of the Lord the habitatian of the God of Jacob. Whereupon you determined to repair to Jerusalem the City of the Great King not being discouraged from going thither either by the Incommodities of the Journey or the heat by day or the cold by night nor by the dangers of Robbers where when you arrived what was said by the Prophet was fulfilled in you Let us therefore go into his house and worship in the place where the face of our Lord stood for to you it is given to kiss the place which his Presence hath hallowed from his Nativity to his Ascension For which cause I do very much rely on your Prayers and on the Afflictions you have suffered for God's sake I do salute you from the bottom of my heart saying Health to you the Sons of Ethiopia whom the Earthly Jerusalem hath tyed to her self that she may convey you to the Heavenly Health be to your Faith which is perfect in the Trinity and to your course of life which is like to that of Angels Health be to your Feet which walk to your Hands which touch to your Lips which kiss to your Eyes which do freely behold Galilee where God was Incarnate and Bethlehem where he was born taking our Nature upon him and the Cave where he lay and Nazareth where he was educated and Jordan where he was baptized that he might cleanse us and Corontum where he fasted for our sake and Calvary where he was crucified for our Redemption and Golgotha where he was buried and rose again that he might quicken us and the Mount of Olives where he ascended to his Father and our God that he might introduce us into the Inner Vail of the highest Heavens into which he himself entred and introduced the Apostles who were before us and the Oratory of Sion where the Comforter descended on our Fathers the Apostles Health be likewise to your Eyes which behold the Light that cometh out of the Sepulchre of our Lord on the Old Sabbath to wit on the Eve of our Passover May your Peace and Love and Prayers and Benedictions be with me for ever Amen Behold I have sent you this Book of Synods that you may receive Consolation from it on the Old Sabbath and on the Lord's Day and that they may be a Memorial of me through all Ages Amen I Zera Jacob whose Name since God was pleased to place me on the Throne of the Empire is Constantine in the Eighth Year of my Reign do Bequeath unto you the Land of Zebla and Half of all the Tributes arising from it for Two Years which amounts to an Hundred Ounces of Gold toward your Food and Rayment and do give it to the Monastery of Jerusalem that it may be a Memorial of my self and of our Lady Mary and for the Celebration of Her Feasts to wit That of her Nativity on the 1st of May that of her Death on the 22d of January and that of her Translation on the 15th of August as also of the Feasts of her Son our Lord Jesus on the 29th of December when he was Born to be celebrated by you at Bethlehem together with the Festivities of his Passion and lively Resurrection from Death You shall likewise celebrate all the Festivities of our Lady Mary which in the Book of her Miracles are Thirty two in number And shall furthermore keep a Lamp burning for me in the Sepulchre of our Lord and another in the Entry thereof and on the right side one and on the left another as also at the place of his Burial three three at the Monument of our Lady Mary in Gethsemane and at the place where Mary Magdalen saw him one and in our Chappel three one also at Bethlehem where our Lord was born and another at the place in the Mount of Olives where our Lord ascended Let them he all maintained at my Charge and take care not to suffer them to go out at any time nor to give way to any Person contributing towards them And since I do rely on the Bond of your Love let your Prayers and Benedictions be with me thorough all Ages Amen My Beloved Don't you offer to say Light descendeth only upon us that your glorying in your selves be not in vain since you know that evil attends glorying and blessing humility Peace be with you the Peace of our Lord be with you Amen The Jesuit Guerrira speaking of the forementioned Ethiopick Embassy saith That the whole Story of it was either a mere Fiction not knowing its like of its having been made use of for so great a purpose by a Pope or that it had no manner of effect But it is no matter whether it was a Fiction or a Reality so long as it furnished a good pretence for a present turn and tended to the Disparagement of the Council of Basil which together with the ground it stood upon was blown up purely by Tricks of this nature the Yoke the Council of Constance had laid on the Neck of the Papacy being broke by Pretences of the Greek and all other Churches and Patriarchs having submitted themselves to it This is all that I have been able to meet with in Greek or Latin History concerning the Church of Ethiopia before the Year 1490 when it was first discovered by the Portugueses And as for Histories of
Master May Christ our Lord who is the beginning and end of all things carry on that Amity and Friendship which he hath begun between us The principal cause of my writing to your Majesty at this time is to renew the Familiarity and Correspondence which was between our Ancestors which Friendship together with the Adoption of the Holy Spirit has much enobled us Wherefore we desire your Majesty to send us some strong and stout Soldiers to help us to beat the Enemy out of our Ports your Troops when they arrive will find us provided with Arms and all other necessary Provisions of War and in a readiness to assist them to the utmost It being much fitter that those Ports should be in your Majesty's hands than in the hands of the greatest Enemies of our holy Faith your Majesty's Ancestors sent an Army of Gallant men into Ethiopia at a time when the Enemy was ready to have destroy'd our Faith and Empire We might destroy all our Enemies with great ease if we were assisted by the powerful Kings that profess the Gospel and who do comfort our hearts with the Memory of heavenly things we being all Sons of Heaven as St. John witnesseth saying What is born of the flesh is flesh and what is born of the Spirit is Spirit Furthermore we are at war with another Enemy who are called Gauls and who do give us much trouble Wherefore we beseech your Majesty to send us some stout Troops and such as are Zealous for our holy Apostolical Faith and that with all possible Expedition We on our part have for some time been ready to receive them and if they were once come it will quickly appear that all that we design is feasible For why since Christ our Lord is our Common Head and we are all his Members and the Heavenly Father hath begot us all in one Womb of Baptism and that not with corruptible seed should we not be all tied in one chain of love with one Soul and one Body If these Letters were writ by the Habassin Emperor which I do very much doubt they plainly discover that the Fathers chief Argument to persuade him to submit himself to the Pope was the promise of Portuguese Troops but the reason why I suspect these Letters not to have been writ by the Emperor but by some Missionary in the Indies and who had never so much as been in Ethïopia are 1. That Seltam Saged or Suseneus 's Father was never Emperor as he is said in these Letters to have been 2. Guerreiro in his relation of Ethiopia printed at Lisbon in the Year 1611 sets them down under the name of the Emperor Jacob These Letters were probably forged by some Missionary or Malasequet 3. Their Phraseology excepting an affected sprinkling here and there of uncouth Phrases as also their Complements are so much Spanish that an Habassin has not less of the air of a Spaniard than they have of the Letters that were certainly known to have been writ by some of those Emperors Lastly Pereira tells us That the Habassin Emperors from the time that the remains of Gama 's Troops went over to the Turks and assisted them against Ademas dreaded nothing so much as the coming of Portuguese Soldiers from the Indies but whatever the Emperors did there being nothing that the Jesuits desired so earnestly it is to be feared that they made bold with the Emperor's name in the solliciting of them But there are more Letters behind which whether genuine or suppositious I shall set down leaving them to the censure of the judicious Reader The Letter of Raz Athanateus to the King of Portugal THE Letter of Peace and Love Athanateus's Letter to the King of Portugal sent by Athanateus cometh to the High and Powerful Emperor of Portugal with the Peace of our Lord Christ who was Crucified on the holy Cross for the Redemption of the World May this Peace be always with your Majesty The cause of my writing this Letter to you is the earnest desire that the Emperor and I both have to see some Portuguese Troops in this Countrey We do therefore most earnestly beseech your Majesty to send us a Body of stout well-disciplin'd men in order to there covering of our Ports which are at this time in the hand of the Enemies of our Faith When your Soldiers arrive we will take care that they shall be supplied with Arms and all other Necessaries Your Majesty's Ancestors assisted us when the Mahometans broke in upon us and we do to this day remember what great things Christ wrought for us by their means I must therefore a second time intreat your Majesty to send us a Body of stout Soldiers whom when they arrive I shall be ready to receive with open Arms and my mind gives me they will come at some time or other concerning which affair Father Peter Pays will write more at large to your Majesty Written in Ethiopia the 13th of December 1607. The Letter of Raz Athenateus to the Viceroy of the Indies THE Letter of Peace and Love His Letter to the Viceroy of the Indias sent by Athenateus cometh to the great Viceroy of the Indies with the peace of our Lord Christ who died on the holy Cross for our Redemption may that Peace be always with your Excellency and your whole State Amen Hear Sir My Father was always a great friend to the Portugueses that came into these parts having continually favoured them in all things as I have done ever since his death having on all occasions assisted them both with my Interest and my Purse and saved several of them when condemned to die being willing to preserve the remains of the first Portugueses that came among us until more should come to them for the good of this Empire I have had it for some years in my thoughts to write to you but have still been hindered by the Wars we have of late been so much embroiled in out of which God has been pleased to deliver us at last and to give us an Emperor of a Sound Judgment and who governs all things with great prudence who upon my acquainting him with the great need we stand in of Portuguese Succors was pleased to write himself to the King of Portugal for some commanding me to do the same and to acquaint him how much we desire them and how much their coming will be for God's Service I must therefore intreat your Excellency to lend us your helping-hand in this affair that so it may be brought to a speedy Issue Let there be at least a Thousand Soldiers sent and let it be done with all possible Expedition for which Service you will have honour in the sight of God who will undoubtedly reward you for it and were there but once a way opened for it your Excellency shall want nothing that this Empire affords I shall say no more since Father Peter Pays who is acquainted with all my secrets can disclose
and the good of so many Souls May 1624. Raz Cella Christos's Letter to the Patriarch THE Peace of our Lord Raz Cellas's Letter to the Patriarch the eternal word by whom all things were made and al for his sake who took our humanity in the Womb of the intirely holy Virgin and without grudging did offer himself in the Temple of the Cross for our sake Preserve your Lordships person from all Temporal evils shedding the dew of health so on the fleece of your life as to bring you in safety to that high Dignity to which he hath called you and to which your Predecessor could never attain Your Lordship's Letter when I received it threw me into such an Extasy of joy as that the Souls of the Fathers when they were expecting the Advent of our Saviour were thrown into when that Ray of Divinity appeared to them in so much that I may safely say that from my Childhood to this day I never felt any exultation in my heart equal to that not being able in the ballance of my heart to weigh the gold of the joy I derived from your Lordship's Letter which was purified by a strong flame of love on the arrival of your Lordship's Piety what shall I return to God who is slow to anger and of great mercy and who do's not look upon the countenance of my wickedness with the eyes of a vigoaous Justice though he is a searcher out even of venial Sins for having prolonged my life to hear the joyful news which I have been many years expecting the Nerve of my thoughts having for a long time depended and hung on the Tree of your Lordship's love now as God who is intirely good and of abundant kindness has made me worthy to hear the news of your Lordship and has thereby unburdened me of that load of trouble which had for several years lain so heavy upon me for the sake of the holy faith so he will I hope think me worthy to see your Lordship's face and to kiss your shooes being brim full of Love and Charity I must beg your Lordship to make all the haste you can to us and to bring Multitudes of Fathers with you that so this Land of Ethiopia which is at present in the way of corrupt Doctrine and in the crooked Faith of Dioscorus and abounding with Errors may be wafted into the secure harbor of the true faith of St. Leo the Pope of Rome and Successor of St. Peter and Pastor of Pastors This Countrey is very large and has many Tribes of Heathens in it who do all desire to receive the Christian faith and it is not long since I destroy'd a prodigious Idol whose beginning was not known among them nor the time when it was first Worshipped it was adored by a great many Tribes of Heathens called Agus who since I burnt it to ashes have flocked in great numbers to Baptism and it has been the same among the Caffres neither do we want any thing but Fathers to perfect these Conversions for which reason I beseech you a second time to bring great Numbers of them with you c. What it should be that made the Jesuits et caetera such an Original of their Beu-Clerks if it was not that in the suppressed part of it he writ as vehemently for Portuguese Troops which they thought would not look well in him at a time when he was upon such ill terms with his Brother as he did in the part they have published for Fathers let the Reader discover if he can but however this were it is certain that when he was in disgrace with the Emperor his Nephew that he writ for such Troops at a more vehement rate than he do's here for Jesuits In May the Patriarch landed at Baylar The Patriarch Lands at Baylar from whence he went disguised to the King of Dancalis Court The Dancalians who attended him as his Guard having heard that there was an Abuna or Patriarch among the Fathers were still enquiring which was the Patriarch We told them saith the Patriarch himself That he died at Sea meaning the Bishop of Nice The King entertained the Fathers for the Patriarch was still incognito very courteously and through ignorance refused a Noble Present they would have made him and accepted of a Trisle On the 21st of June the Patriarch arrived at Fremona having one morning by the way seen a Prodigious Star in the Heavens Some of the Fathers were of opinion that it was the Star which Conducted the Wisemen to Bethlehem but the Patriarch desented from them and demonstrated it to be the Figure of the Blessed Virgin Mary who being the Star both of the Morning and the Sea appeared to them to promise them her light which being agreed to by all the Hymn Ave Maria Maris Stella c. and the Antiphona Sub tuum praesidium were sung to it The Patriarch continued at Fremona till November the Emperor having sent him word that so soon as he had made an end of chastising some Jews that were in Arms against him in the Mountains of Cemen he should have orders to come to Court but Raz Cella who would always out-do his Brother in civility to the Roman-Catholicks with his Present and Complement sent the Patriarch a strong Guard to wait upon him whereever he went In December the Patriarch arrived at Gorgora where he ordained Twenty Priests ordaining such of them as were in Habassin Orders with a Condition and permitting such of them as were Married to live with their Wives Not many days after he received an Invitation from the Emperor to come to Dancez where the Court was at that time and being come within half a League of the Royal Camp he was met by most of the Officers of the Court in their best Cloaths and a body of Sixteen Thousand Soldiers who after having made him a profound reverence opened to the Right and Left to make a Lane for him Among the Grandees that went out to meet him were Basilides the Emperor's Eldest Son and his sure Friend Raz Cella Christos In this State the Patriarch was Conducted to a Tent that was prepared for him without the Camp The Patriarch comes to Court where having put on his Pontificials the Princes and Grandees all alighted and kissed his hand When that Ceremony was over he Mounted again and was Conducted to a Tent within the Camp where having put on his Mytre he Mounted a stately Horse richly equipped that the Emperor had presented him with and riding under a sumptuous Canopy that was supported by Six Viceroys he advanced to the Church Jan Jabet having his Horse led all the way by Serca Christos the Steward of the Houshold When the Patriarch entered into the Church he found the Emperor there sitting on his Throne with his Crown on his Head who when the Patriarch drew near to him He is graciously received by the Emperor ris up and embraced him with great
of holy Mother Church In the Second place I do declare That I so long as I do live and am not loosed from that bond of Spiritual Marriage which I have Contracted with the Church of Ethiopia am the true Patriarch and Pastor and Abuna thereof and that whosoever is or shall come from any part is a stranger and cannot enter into it by the door it not being opened to him by the faithful and prudent Steward to whom Christ has delivered the Keys of his House Such a one therefore must be an Adulterer in taking another man's Wife while her lawful Husband is living I have been placed in this Chair by the true Successor of St. Peter and that with the same Authority as St. Peter placed his Disciple St. Mark in the Chair of Alexandria all that are in that Chair and do deny Obedience to the Pope and his Successors being Patriarchs only in name for the branch cannot bear fruit of it self if it continueth not in the vine In the Third place I am to put your Highness and the whole Empire in mind of those words of St. Paul Be not deceived for God no nor men will not be Mocked by your pretending that you have not forsaken the Roman faith but only in some customs for it is plain you have departed from her by divers Heresies namely the using of Circumcision together with Baptism the repeating of Baptism the keeping Saturday and the ceremonial Law about Legal uncleannesses and distinctions of meat and in dissolving Marriages many of you affirming that Christ is the Son of God by grace only Others affirming that there are Two persons in Christ others that he has one person made of Two and that he has not two Wills nor two Operations others that he died without his Divinity others that the Humanity is equal to the Divinity and is every where You do affirm likewise that water squeezed from dry grapes may be Consecrated and that the Souls of Children are derived from their Parents with a great many other things that are repugnant to the holy Scriptures and have been Condemned and Anathematized in divers Councils In the Fourth place I do beseech your Highness by the Precious Blood of Christ and by the Bowels of Our Lady the Virgin Mary and I do in the name of God and by the Authority which he hath given me by the Pontifical Oil that was poured on my head as upon that of Aaron on the day of my Consecration command you neither by force nor promises to endeavour to oblige the Portugueses that shall remain here to renounce the true Roman Faith Nor to set any Captain over them that is not a Catholick by Descent and chosen by Catholicks And I do pronounce the greater Excommunication to be Ipso facto incurred and do invocate the Indignation and Curse of Almighty God and of the holy Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul and of St. Thomas the Patron of India and of St. James the Great the Patron of Spain and Portugal on all that shall any ways offend in this matter or who shall at any time forsake the Roman Faith In the Fifth place I do advertise your Highness and all and every one in your Empire that there is no Nation under Heaven that has the like Obligations to another as Ethiopia has to Portugal The Portugueses not having come among you as the Children of Israel went into Egypt with Asses to have them laden with Provisions to satisfy their hunger but were moved to it purely out of Charity and Zeal for the faith It is not above an Hundred years since they were sent by their King to his great cost laden with Arms and Muskets and accompanied with a train of Artillery which is at this time in your Camp with the Royal Arms of Portugal upon them with their Pockets full of Money and that not to make themselves Masters of Ethiopia nor to Conquer it for their King but to deliver the Habassins out of a Mahometan Captivity and to free them from the Yoke which that cursed Sect had laid upon their necks for which great Service they have been so ill rewarded that their Children and Grandchildren were reduced to that Penury that the King of Portugal was obliged to allow them a yearly Maintenance Wherefore I do beseech your Highness to let them enjoy the Privileges which their Fathers purchased for them with their Blood and which have been granted them by former Kings for their services In the Sixth place I would have your Highness remember that several of the Fathers of the Society who are Eminent for their Piety and Learning have come into Ethiopia at divers times not to seek after Honours or Riches but to serve God and your people in much humility and to teach them the true faith some of them having given the greatest Testimonies of love that are possible in having laid down their Lives for their Friends which Three of them did one after having been several years a prisoner at Matzua and the other two at Adel and those that are now alive have served your Father with all the fidelity of Doctors Servants and Slaves as he himself has many times told me all which notwithstanding after they had built several Churches and Houses they are now turned out of them all and that in the midst of Winter their Churches and Goods being all given to the Enemies of the Roman Faith the Fathers that were at Gorgora having in little more than three Months time been sent from three several places they that were at Dembea and Gojam having been likewise turned out of all notwithstanding all which hard usage they continue to pray to God to Establish your Highness's Empire for ever and that he would give you a House that has the true faith for its Foundation and Heaven for its Roof Furthermore I would have your Highness remember That your Father desired the Bishop of Rome to send a Patriarch and Bishops into Ethiopia at whose request he sent me and a Bishop we were both Masters of Divinity and Readers of the holy Scriptures Neither did the most Catholick Powerful and Munificient King of Portugal expect that your Father should have remitted Gold to him to defray the charges of our Mission or that he should have taxed his Nobles on that account but he took the whole charge thereof upon himself which amounted to several Thousand Oquea's giving us also many rich pieces to make Presents of some of which are at this time in your Royal Palace and in several great Houses in Ethiopia Neither did he so much as charge your Father with the Maintenance of our persons having sent me yearly an Hundred Oquea's to support my Dignity Now all the return you have made to your Brother the King of Portugal and to the Bishop and me for all the charge and trouble that we have been at is to throw us out of all at a blow and to entertain another without knowing who
the Portuguese The Emperor hearing thereof commands the Patriarch and Fathers to leave Ethiopia not to have his Spies upon them having received advice That the Patriarch was caballing with O Kay sent anâ— Express with a precise order to the Patriarch and Fathers immediately to depart his Empire telling them if they would go to Matzua there to embark for the Indies that he would write to the Basham of that Port to treat them civilly and help them to a passage The Order they were served with run thus From the day that Popery came first into Ethiopia our Empire has never had one day of Peace which was what it always enjoy'd before Wherefore since our Empire is very near having been ruined by you we do strictly command you all to depart presently which if you will do quietly and go to Matzua we will recommend you to the Bashaw of that place The Patriarch whose business it was to gain as much time as possible writ thereupon a very submissive Letter to the Emperor begging most passionately of him not to deliver him and the Fathers to the Turks the most inveterate Enemies both of their Religion and Nation which he would do if he forced them to go to Matzua a Port which belonged to those Infidels But the Emperor was so far from being prevailed with to revoke his Order that he renewed it with greater rigor in the following Answer to the Patriarch The Letter of the Emperor Seltem Saged cometh to the Patriarch Bishop Father James and the rest of the Fathers HEAR what we say and write The Emperor's Letter to the Patriarch to depart Asma Guergis Taca Christos and Melch Christos have acquainted us with all that you have said and with all your excuses when they commanded you in our name to return to the place from whence you came In the first place you say You did not come hither of your own accord but were sent hither after you had been invited by divers Letters What have you forgot the reasons I gave you formerly why I was obliged to send you away and I do much wonder that you should offer to give me the trouble of repeating them to you again I need not tell you what hath happened betwixt you and the people of Ethiopia and what a struggle you have had with them to oblige them to embrace your Religion but one thing I must tell you That if you continue not to regard either the power of God who is above or of the Emperor here below that you shall not live Two and Twenty years no nor one year no nor half of one in Ethiopia There is no need of telling you what Infinite Multitudes of people have lost their lives because they would not turn Papists or how great Troubles and Persecutions my Father endured for your sake since you cannot but be sensible of them as you are also of his having given over your Religion when he saw plainly he was not able any longer to support it so that as it was he that first introduced it so it was he that put an end to it After which he returned to the Foundation of his Fathers which is the Rock of the Faith of Alexandria and fortified it so by his Proclamations that it is never to be removed As to your putting us in mind of the valiant Portugueses who came hither in the time of Asnaf Saged to defend the Faith it is what we very well know and we do confess that they did us very good service in helping us to peace but as they never offered to destroy the Religion of Ethiopia which was delivered by the Fathers and the Apostles so our people never offered them any violence but as they deserved much for having delivered us out of the hands of the Mahometans so they were all well rewarded by the Emperor having Lands given them where they had no Inheritance which Lands are enjoyed to this day by their Posterity none ever asking them the question What do you make here As to what you say of your having reserved the Absolution of the Excommunication you have laid upon Ethiopia so to your self that none but you can Absolve her of it That is easily answered For when the Fathers began to Preach Popery in Ethiopa By what means did they oblige the People to embrace it Was it by Excommunications or by doing any thing that looked like a Miracle No it was by neither of those methods but it was purely by the force of the Imperial Authority And did not the same hand that threw them into Prisons set them at liberty again Neither can you but be sensible that there was not so much as one Person in Ethiopia that embraced your Religion voluntarily As to what you have said of Ethiopia being your Wife it was no where ever Written or Decreed That a Woman shall be bound to a Husband contrary to her own Consent only because her Father and her Mother will have it so for which reason your Lordship cannot but be sensible that Ethiopia was never your Spouse since as we have observed There was not one Person that belonged to her that embraced your Faith voluntarily As to the Vow you speak of it admits of several distinctions some make a Vow to relinquish their Estates without turning Monks some Vow to live and die Virgins and others not being Virgins for the Love of God to live Chastly The force of all which Vows is resolved into their having been voluntary which when they are they Sin that do not observe them the faculties of the Will and Consent being so in the nature of the Soul as to Govern its animal Powers which are the Flesh This is a true account of the nature of Vows And as to your pretending that you cannot leave Ethiopia because you are under a Vow to her that need not trouble your Conscience since you have not left her but she has left you neither do you flee from her but she flees from you as a Coward does from a Battel We are ready to be your Lordship's Witnesses that you Loved Ethiopia very much as we are ready to be her Witnesses too that she could never endure you who have given her so many bitter Potions Wherefore what we have to say to you is in a word Be gone all of you to your own Countrey in Peace And we do call God to witness of our having been no ways accessary to any injuries that you may have sustained for as it was the Emperor our Father who invited you hither so it was he that dismissed you we having had no hand neither in the one or other on the contrary we have hitherto Protected you and are at this time fighting with the Xague that Robbed you with an intention of restoring all your Goods to you that we can recover and as you have no reason to complain of us for your having been plundered so that you may not be Robbed a second time