and false in another The Patriarch's Letter having been read in the Council it was Debated therein Whether they should gratifie him with a publick Disputation and though that was carried in the Negative it was judged convenient however that an Answer in the Emperor's Name should be returned to it Which was as followeth The Letter of Seltem Saged cometh to the Patriarch with the Peace of God My Lord HEAR what we say and write to you The Emperor's answer to the Patriarch We have received your Letter and do understand all that it contains As to your desiring to know why we have turned you out of the Post wherein God and the Emperor had placed you Your Lordship cannot but be sensible that so long as we were under our Father the Emperor we never disobeyed him in any one thing nor did we ever so much as open our mouth against any thing that he did but were so submissive to him in all things that we never said I will have this or I will have that or I like this or dislike that insomuch that I do not remember that during his life I ever did any thing of my own head but did still what he Commanded me As to the business of your Religion our Soul never entered into its Councils neither did we ever joyn with any Counsellors either to build it up or destroy it We need not be told that the Emperor sent for your Lordship and that the Fathers likewise came with his Consent as we need not that ever since your coming he has been continually embroiled in Wars for endeavouring to establish your Faith Fighting sometimes with his Sons and at other times with his Slaves whom he had raised from the dunghil to great honours Insomuch that from the first hour we were able to bear Arms we have never done any thing but fight in obedience to our Father's Commands which we always obeyed After the Battel I had in the beginning of this Winter with Ognadega our Learned Monks and People having assembled themselves together in the Camp took the confidence to tell my Father their thoughts freely in the following words Sir How long are we to be plagued thus and to tire our selves about things that are good for nothing We desire to know When we are to give over fighting with our Kinsfolk and Brethren or cutting our right hand off with our left What great difference is there betwixt the Roman Faith and ours For do they of Rome teach That there are Two Natures in Christ and have not we always believed and taught the same in affirming that our Lord Christ is perfect God and perfect Man perfect Man as to his Humanity and perfect God as to his Divinity But whereas those his Two Natures are not separated his Divinity being United to the Flesh and not separated from it and his Flesh to the Divinity we do not for that reason affirm them to be Two but One being made so out of two Causes and that not so as to Confound and Mix those Natures in their Beings but on the account of their being one and the same Principle we call them by the name of that Union so that our Controversie with them in this matter is of small importance Neither was it the cause of our having had so much fighting but it was because they denied us the Blood in the Communion notwithstanding Christ has told us positively in his Gospel that unless we eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood you shall not inherit eternal Life And notwithstanding that Christ himself when he Instituted the Sacrament after having given his Body to his Disciples and received it himself did not say The blood is in my flesh which I have given you but on the contrary he said Take and drink and divide it among you His Disciples doing as he Commanded them and as he gave them to understand by saying Do this in remembrance of me Neither was this the only thing that discontented the People but moreover the prohibiting them to Fast on Wednesdays which St. Peter and St. Paul and no fewer than Eight Synods had Commanded them to do upon pain of Excommunication Neither was that all but because they saw us Eat and Drink in the first week of Lent Eating on the Morning of Good Friday from which time till Easter they do never taste any thing They heard likewise that we received the Sacrament in the Morning on Fasting-days and that the Roman Church permits People on Fasting-days to eat Milk and Butter and to drink Water having changed all the Festivities of the Year and suffering Men and Women promiscuously to enter into the Church without keeping any out for being unclean But the things of all others for which they abhorred us the most was for saying That they Baptized themselves as if they were Heathens and Publicans whereas in truth there is no great difference betwixt the Romanists and them as to that point And because the Romanists treated their Priests and Deacons as if they had not been in Holy Orders giving them Priesthood upon Priesthood and Diaconate upon Diaconate and for burning some of their Altars for no other reason but because they were made of Wood and Consecrating those again that were made of Stone as if they had been Profane before The Monks were also inraged against the Romanists for not living like Monks who are not to be left to their liberty whether they will Fast or not and because the Fathers took state upon them and did not visit them according to the Custom of Monks For these and divers other reasons the People far and near were much discontented and said to the Emperor Hear what we have to say and either give us leave to live quietly or knock us on the head since the War does thicken upon us daily When the Emperor was told this by all his People he without our joyning with them in it finding that there was no other way to quiet their minds and that he would not be able to punish them much longer commanded his Counsellors to advise together what was best to be done who after a serious consult came to this Resolution That they must all return to their Ancient Religion and Customs Your Lordship in being acquainted with this will know the reason why you are turned out of your Place which God and the Emperor had bestowed on you and that the very same Emperor that sent for your Lordship and gave you your Authority was the Person that deprived you of it Wherefore since an Alexandrian Abuna is on his way hither and he has sent us word that he cannot be in the same Countrey with a Roman Patriarch and Fathers we have ordered you to Repair to Fremona and there to remain As to what your Lordship now offers which is That if the People of Ethiopia will but continue in the Obedience of the Roman Church that you will dispense with them as to all matters which are not contrary to the Faith that comes too late now for how is it possible for them to return to that which they have not only forsaken but do abominate now they have had a taste of their Old Religion again
routed 318. The Emperor David's Letter to Emanuel King of Portugal 50. His Titles 50 51. His Letter to King John the Third of Portugal 58. His Letter to the Roman Pontiff 64. His second Letter to the Roman Pontiff 71. He brings a terrible Storm upon himself by seeking to enter into an Alliance with the Portuguese 118. He sends one John Bermudes a Portuguese after having given him a Title to succeed the Abuna when he died to Rome and Lisbon to solicit and hasten some Succors 120. Dembea Lake its Description 4. its Islands ib. Eight Dominicans arrive at Ethiopia and are kindly received by Prester John 467. E. EManuel King of Portugal sends a splendid Embassy to the Emperor of Habassia 47. He sends Almeida with a great Fleet to take Ormus and some other Seaports in the Indies 42. The design of the Habassin Embassy 110. The Emperor being acquainted with the arrival of the Portugueses writes to Gama to come and join him 128. The Emperor being restored to the quiet possession of his Kingdom quarrels with the Portuguese 145. The chief cause of his quarrel was the Abuna urging him to turn Roman Catholick presently 145. He is resolved never to turn Roman Catholick 146. He thereupon writes to the Patriarch of Alexandria to send an Abuna into Ethiopia as formerly 147. He enrages the Portuguese thereby ibid. He receives the Abuna whose Name was Joseph at Deberea 148. He rids himself of the Popish Patriarch Bermudes ibid. His defence of himself and his Faith 167. His Confession of Faith 185. He offers to lay the Debates about Religion before his Council 189. He answers the Coadjutor's Book and writes one in defence of his own Faith 196. He invites Father Peter to Court 239. He greatly admires Father Peter's Sermon and therefore sent him his Dinner from his own Table 248. He discovers his Intention to Father Peter to turn Roman Catholick 250. His Letter to the Pope 251. His Letter to the King of Spain 253. He marcheth against the Rebels 257. He is killed fighting 259. The New Emperor sends to Father Peter to come to him 273. He offers to write to the King of Portugal and the Pope and is encouraged by Father Peter to do it 275. His Letter to the Pope 276. His Letter to the King of Spain 278. These Letters were probably forged by some Missionary 280. A mock Emperor set up and massacred 284. The Emperor and his Brother Raz Cella Christos convinced of Christ's having two Natures 285. He publisheth an Edict prohibiting any to affirm that there is but one Nature in Christ 301. He publisheth a Proclamation commanding all his Subjects to turn Roman Catholicks 303. He is addressed to not to trouble his Subjects about their Religion 304. He is deaf to all such Addresses 305. An Attempt made upon his Life 308. Upon his Victory prohibits his Subjects to observe Saturday 312. A severe Libel comes out against him 312. By a second Proclamation he commands all Subjects to work upon Saturdays 203. A Rebellion breaks out upon it 313. His Speech thereupon 315. He sends an Army against the Rebels and routs them 317. He reconciles himself to the Church of Rome 319. He grows jealous of his Brother Raz Cella 331. He sends him against Gabriel who was at the head of a Croisade 332. His Letter to the Patriarch 333. He is obliged to employ his Brother against them 357. Dom Apolinar d'Almeyda brings Letters and a Jubilee to the Emperor and to the Prince 364. The Emperor's Zeal revived by this Letter and a Jubilee 368. He is defeated by the Peasants of Lasta 372. He is passionately addressed for a Toleration ibid. He speaks to the Patriarch about it and will nor be denied 373. The Toleration proclaimed The Patriarch's Protestation against it 374. The Emperor's Answer to the Patriarch's Protestation 377. He declares his Resolution to continue a Roman Catholick 379. The Patriarch baffled in a great point of his Jurisdiction 380. The Country People in good humour by a Toleration yet not satisfied without re-establishment of their old Religion and banished the Patriarch and Fathers of Ethiopia Raz Cella going against the Peasants with an Army is routed 381. The Romanists have all their Churches and Lands taken from them The Emperor dieth and is succeeded by his Son Basilides 395. The Emperor marcheth against them and obtaineth a Victory 382. He is moved by the passionate Remonstrances of the Grandees and others to restore the Alexandrian Religion 383. The Patriarch and Fathers endeavour to divert him 385. He continues immoveable in his Resolution 388. The Patriarch's Manifesto 392. A Proclamation for restoring the Alexandrian Religion Festivities thereupon 394. The Emperor hearing thereof commands the Patriarch and Fathers to leave Ethiopia 422. He writes to the Bashaw of Suaqhem 454. The Bashaw murthers them all three and sends their heads to the Emperor 454. The Emperor's Library founded by Queen Saba 471. His Treasury 472. The Empress arrives at the Camp 127. The Eucharist is administred to Children when they are baptized 95. Eugenius the Fourth translates the Council from Florence to Rome upon a sham Pretence that the Emperor of Ethiopia was sending an Ambassador with a submission of himself and his Church to him 23. Esimetheus made King of the Homerites deposed by the Habassin Army which put Abraham in his place 17. Ethiopia the Climate 1. The true Title of the Emperor ibid. The Provinces 2. It s several great Rivers beside the Nile 6. It s great mixture of People 7. The Court Language is Amchara ibid. The Emperor names his Successor ib. The Royal Arms ib. The Queen of Sheba reported to have been its Empress Her Son by Solomon said to have introduced Judaism into it 8. The Eunuch that was baptized by Philip is said to have been of this Country and to have introduced Christianity into it 9. Frumentius Bishop of Axum its Apostle 10. Constantius's Letter to the Princes of Axum 11. Nine Monks come into it 14. Justinian sends an Embassy into Ethiopia 15. The business of the Embassy 16. The Ethiopians send an Ambassador to the Patriarch of Alexandria 17. James the Abuna of Ethiopia deposed by the Queen and restored by the King afterwards 18. The seventh place in a general Council given to the Abuna of Ethiopia by the Arabick Canons of the Council of Nice 20. The first Discovery of the Church of Ethiopia by the Portugueses 29. The account of the Succession of their grand Abbots 29. F. TWO Fathers are sent from Fremona to congratulate Suseneus who took the Name of Seltem Saged 272. Seven of the Fathers purchase leave to go to Dio but the Patriarch is detained 433. Four Fathers condemned as Traytors and executed by the Mob 446. Father Fermandes sollicits for Troops 208. The French King's Rage against Protestants superior to that of the Arians against the Orthodox 13. G. GAma enters into Ethiopia with his Troops and the Roman Patriarch 125. He sends
believe Transubstantiation They do not believe Transubstantiation as is plain from their Liturgy in which the Words of Institution are thus set down This Bread is my Body this Cup is my Blood which Propositions the Romanists themselves acknowledge cannot be understood otherwise than siguratively Ludolphus farther tells us That when he asked Gregory the Habassin Whether he did not think that the Substance of the Bread and Wine was changed and converted into the Substance of the Body and Blood of Christ That he made answer That no such sort of Transubstantiation was known or understood by his Countreymen who were not so scrupulous neither did they use to start such thorny Questions Nevertheless it seemed to him probable and likely That the Common Bread and Wine was changed into the mysterious Representation of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ and so was altered from Prophane to Sacred to represent the true Body and Blood of Christ to the Communicants Than which Declaration nothing can be more agreeable to the Doctrine of the Church of England concerning the Eucharist Finally Paul de Roo Secretary to the Dutch East-India Company was in the Year 1691. told by the Habassin Ambassador who was sent to the Governor of Batavia That Transubstantiation and the Adoration of the Consecrated Bread in the Sacrament were what the Habassins abhorred They confess their Sins only in general They have only a general Confession saying Habassea Habassea I have sinned I have sinned without descending to particulars They deny Purgatory They deny Purgatory Confirmation and Extream Unction They condemn Graven Images They keep Saturday and Sunday Their Offices are all in the Vulgar Tongue and know nothing of Confirmation and Extream Unction they condemn Graven Images they keep both Saturday and Sunday and do never fast on either of them no not in Lent nor upon any day betwixt Easter and Whitsuntide their Church Offices are all in the Vulgar Tongue and are performed with extraordinary Devotion but especially their Litanies they go all betimes in the morning to Church to pay their Devotions which they do with great fervour and for the most part leave something of an offering behind them Whenever they come to any place that has a Church They are very devout They never go into a Church with their Shooes on nor sit in it but upon the ground let their Business be never so urgent they repair to it immediately they never go into any Church with their Shooes on nor sit down in it unless it be upon the ground on all occasions they express a deep sense of Religion but chiefly when they visit the Sick which they are very forward to do They are charitable to the Poor and to all Strangers if they are satisfied of their not being of the Roman Church for all whose Members the Cruel Persecutions which were raised and carried on for some years by the Jesuits while the Emperor was at their Devotion have created a perfect detestation in them The whole of their Divine Service consists in reading the Scriptures They seldom preach and some Homilies of the Fathers and the Administration of the Sacrament preaching being a rare Exercise among them at which when Mr. Ludolphus seemed to wonder he was asked by Gregory the Habassin Whether we of the Western Church thought our Preachers could say any thing better than what was written in the Sacred Sacred Scriptures and the Homilies of the Fathers or whether we thought their Sayings more efficacious than the Word of God and whether we did not fear lest those Preachers should utter something which might be repugnant to our Faith and Salvation and which might prove of dangerous consequence to the Peace of the Church An Account of the Discovery of Ethiopia by the Portugueses DON ENRIQUE the Fifth The Infante Don Henry the first and most zealous Promoter of the discovery of unknown Countries Son of Don Joan the first King of Portugal by his Queen the Lady Philipa the Daughter of John of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster being a Prince much addicted to the study of Mathematicks was the first that ever entertained any thought of making Discoveries on the Western Coast of Africa to which he is said to have been encouraged by some Information he receiv'd from the Moors in Barbary when he was a Soldier there under his Father he was Master of the Military Order of Christ which together with his other Ecclesiastical Pensions brought him in a great Revenue all which together with his whole time he resolved to dedicate entirely to the gratification of his Curiosity after new Discoveries And in order to the better carrying on of this his great Design he retired from Court to a place in the Algarves called at that time Terranable but since from him Villa de Infante a few Months after his retirement he fitted out two Ships which having passed the Pillars of Hercules at that time the non ultra of Navigation they sailed to the Promontory of Ganaria but were discouraged from proceeding any further partly by strong Currents and partly by that Promontory running so far into the Sea that they could not discover its Cape This first Voyage was made in the Year 1410. His ill success at first after which it was 10 years before the Infante could prevail with any body to make a second Attempt the first Adventurers having to excuse their Cowardice reported terrible things of the Dangers they had escaped Neither did the Infante during all that time Not discouraged thereby nor by Railery nor by grave Nonsense from going on with his Projects escape the discouragement that new and great Enterprizes do commonly meet withal his Designs for some years having been not only the Jest of the Lazy Buffoon but were also censured as Chimera's or Idle Projects by Men of Speculation and Gravity who said The Countreys the Infante was in quest of were neither better nor worse than the Sandy Deserts of Arabia that God having allotted those Countries to Wild Beasts for their habitation if men should offer to intrude into them they would either die or turn wild like the Natives and that the very sight of them would turn Whites Negroes that there had never wanted younger Brothers among Princes who had sought to remedy the misfortune of their Birth by new Discoveries but which had always miscarried That the Infante's Father who was a wise Prince finding Portugal wanted People had invited Strangers from all parts into it and had given them Lands to cultivate whereas if his Project should take effect it would tend to the depopulating of it with a great many other such idle Reflections But the Infante who had too great a Soul to be discouraged either by Railery or grave Nonsense having with much ado wrought some Mariners up to an Opinion of the feasibleness of the Undertaking in the Year 1420. he equipped several Vessels which after having met with violent Storms discovered
the Roman Pontiff in the Year 1524. In the name of God the Father Almghty maker of Heaven and Earth and of all things visible and invisible in the name of Jesus Christ the Son of God who was the same with him from the beginning of the World and who is Light of Light and very God of very God and in the name of God the Holy Ghost who is true God and proceedeth from the Father I The King at whose Name the Lyons do tremble who am by the Grace of God called Achami Tinghil that is the Frankincense of the Virgin the Son of King David the Son of Solomon the Son of the Hand of Mary the Son of Nau by the Flesh and by Grace the Son of St. Peter and St. Paul do send these Letters Peace be with you O Just Lord and holy powerful pure and sacred Father who art the head of all Bishops and fearest no-body because there is none that hath power to curse thee who art the most watchful Curate of all Souls and the Friend of Pilgrims and the sacred Master and Preacher of the Faith and the Enemy of every thing that offends the Conscience and the lover of all good Manners and a holy Person whom all do bless and praise O happy and holy Father I do obey you with reverence because you are the peace of all and do deserve whatsoever is good so that it is but just that according to the divine Commands of the Apostles all should yield obedience to you This belongs to you but they have likewise commanded us to reverence all Bishops Archbishops and Prelates and to love you as a Father and to reverence you as a King and to believe in you as a God For which cause I do humbly with bended knees and with a sincere heart tell you holy Father That you are my Father and I am your Son Holy and most mighty Father Why have you never sent any Nuncio's to us to be informed of our health for since you are our Pastor and we are your Sheep you ought not to have been unmindful of us nor ought you to have reckoned us to have been too remote from your Territories for your Nuncio's to have visited us seeing from the most remote Kingdom of the Earth that is Portugal your Son King Emanuel has commodiously sent his Ambassadors to us so that if God had deferred calling him to Heaven the things he and I were treating about had undoubtedly had a happy Issue before this time I should be glad to hear healthful things from you by certain Nuncio's having never had a word from your Holiness nor heard of you by any other way but by some of our vowed Pilgrims who neither carried Letters from us to you nor brought any from you to us and who therefore when we enquired of them could only tell us That going from Jerusalem after they had performed their Vows there to visit the Thresholds of the Apostles at Rome they had seen you giving us a general Account of your Affairs I took great pleasure in their Relations beholding in them the Image of your holy Countenance which appeared to me to be like that of an Angel and I must own that I do love and reverence you Nevertheless it would be much more grateful to me devoutly to contemplate your Words and Letters I must therefore beg it of you that you would send a Nuncio to me to exhilerate my heart with your Blessing for since we agree in Faith and Religion that is the thing of the World that I desire most and that my Friendship may be as the Ring you wear on your Finger or as the Gold Chain that is about your Neck that so I may be always in your heart and memory Friendship being much increased by greateful Words and Letters when holy Peace from which all human Joy doth flow naturally embraceth them For as one that is very thirsty is extreamly desirous of cold water as the Scripture has it so Nuncio's and Letters coming to me from remote parts either from your Holiness or any Christian King will fill my heart with extraordinary Pleasures such as theirs are filled with who after a Victory come to gather rich Spoils All this may be done with great ease now the King of Portugal has opened a way to it who some times since sent Ambassadors with other Persons of Quality to us which was a thing had never been done by any Christian King or Pope before to any of our Ancestors Only in the Archives of our Great Grandfather Zera Jacob who was King of all the Kings of Ethiopia and a most Formidable Prince the Copies of some Letters to him from Eugenius the Roman Pontiff are still preserved the purport whereof is as followeth EUgenius the Roman Pontiff to our beloved Son King Zara Jacob the King of all the Kings of Ethiopia and who is mightily dreaded He goes on and tells him That his Son John Paleologus who had been dead two years the King of the Kings of the Romans had been called by him to celebrate a holy Synod to which he came accompanied by Joseph the Patriarch of Constantinople and a great many other Archbishops Bishops and Prelates as also with the Procurators of the Patriarchs of Antioch Alexandria and Jerusalem who had all united themselves to him in the love of the holy Faith and Religion So that now the Unity of the Church was re-established and all the old Controversies thorow God's assistance were ended and whatever was erroneous and contrary to Religion dissipated and right Order restored which had filled all People with joy We do here send you that Letter of Eugenius which has been preserved entire and would likewise have sent you the whole Order and Power of the Pontifical Benediction had it not been so large a Volume it being bigger than the Book of Paul to the Gentiles the Nuncio's that brought these Papers from the Pope hither were Theodore Peter Didimus and George the Servants of Jesus Christ You would do well holy Father to command your Papers to be looked over among which it is like you will meet with some Records of these Matters You may see by this holy Father that if you should be pleased to write any thing to us the memory thereof will be preserved in our Archives thorough all Ages And happy is the Man whose Memory is preserved in the Records of the holy City of Rome the Chair of St. Peter and St. Paul who are the Lords of the Kingdom of Heaven and the Judges of the World and my believing them to be so was the cause of my writing these Letters to your Holiness that I may obtain your Favour and that of your holy Conclave and therewithal all sorts of Blessings and the increase of all good things I do furthermore supplicate your Holiness to send us the Images of some Saints namely that of the blessed Virgin Mary that by that means your Holiness may be frequent
to yield Obedience to your Holiness in that King's Name and in the Name of all his Subjects We have detained him here for some time being willing for divers Reasons that he should accompany our dear Nephew Martin de Portugal our Councellor and Ambassador whom we have ordered to present the said Francis Alvarez Ambassador of the said King of Ethiopia to your Holiness to yield Obedience to you as also to acquaint you with what the Ambassador of the said King that was sent to us has laid before us together with the Copies of that King's Letters to us wherefore your Holiness will do a thing that will be very acceptable unto God if in all this Affair you do give entire Credit to the said Martin our Ambassador for certainly great thanks ought to be returned to God for having in the time of your Pontificate done so great a favour to your Holiness that a Portion of Christians who as to the largness of their Country are nothing inferior to this of ours should consent to the Catholick Faith and to the Roman Church by yielding Obedience to it We for our parts are very thankful to God for having made use of our Ministry in the Reduction of this King There being nothing more for the praise of true Piety than to behold Ethiopia joyned with Europe in the Unity of the Christian Profession May our Lord God be pleased to encrease and preserve the Felicity of your Holiness according to your own desire Dated at Settuval the 28th of May 1532. King John having made the Habassin Emperor's Complements in his Letters to the Pope to amount to a formal submission of himself his Church and Empire to him must make his having detained an Embassage of that Moment and which he himself Magnifies so much so long at Lisbon to be the more wonderful But what it should be that after having slighted this Embassy for five long Years induced him to trump it up thus if it were not to do his Nephew Honor is a Mystery I shall leave to the Reader to unriddle having only observed that there were two Creations of Cardinals soon after it came to Rome The Portuguese and Habassin Ambassadors being arrived at Bononia The Portuguese and Habassin Ambassadors had their Audience of the Pope at Bononia where the Pope and the Emperor Charles the Fifth were together at that time they had the 29th of January given them for the Day of their publick Audience When being introduced into a publick Consistory at which the Emperor was present the Portuguese presented his Master's Letters to the Pope together with the Copies of those which had been sent to him and his Father by the King of Ethiopia When the Portuguese had done the Habassin presented his Master's Letters to the Pope and with them a Gold Cross that weighed about a Pound And having made the submission of the Emperor of Ethiopia and of his whole Church and Empire to his Holiness he was afterwards admitted to kiss his Foot and after that his Hand and at last his Mouth and having delivered the following Speech in Portuguese it was spoke aloud in Latin by the Secretary of the Portuguese Embassy MOST Holy and Blessed Father The Habassiâ— Ambassador's submission to the Pope the most Serene and Potent Lord David King of the Great and High Ethiopia who is commonly called Pretegya and who is no less glorious for the veneration he has for the True Religion than for his Empire Wealth and Kingdoms has sent this Ambassador to your Holiness with the Letters he has delivered to you commanding him to yield obedience and subjection to your Holiness in his Name and in that of his Kingdoms as Christ's Vicar and St. Peter's Successor and the Chief Pontiff of the whole Church and to present you with a Gold Cross which he hopes your Holiness not regarding the value thereof which is but small but the veneration that is due to it for Christ's having suffered thereon for our sakes will be pleased to accept of beseeching your Holiness in the name of the said Prince to accept of all that he has offered with a pious affection of a Father for your most devout Son To which Harangue the Pope's Secretary return'd the following Answer OUR most holy Lord doth receive you The Pope's Answer to the Habassin Ambassador my Lord Francis Alvarez the Ambassador of the most serene David King of Ethiopia together with his Obedience Gift and Letters with a good Will and Paternal Affection and doth return Thanks to God that such Letters and such an Ambassador should come in the time of his Pontificate from so great and remote a Christian Emperor he hath heard what you have said with Attention and great Joy and has with his Venerable Brethren the Cardinals graciously accepted of your Master's Obedience as also of his Gift both for the Honour that is due to the Holy Cross and the good Affection of the Donor And he doth furthermore highly extol in the Lord the most serene King of Portugal who besides the other great Services done by himself and Progenitors to the Common-wealth and Christian Faith has likewise deserved well of King David by having entred into an Alliance with him and having procured your being sent with these Letters to the Pope What remains is his Holiness will endeavour to the utmost of his Power so far as the great distance that is betwixt their Countries will permit so to satisfie the desires of the said King as to make him sensible of his being in the Place of a most dear Son in Christ and in the Affection and Esteem of his Holiness and the Holy Apostolical See no less than other Christian Princes And his Holiness will treat with the Ambassador of Portugal and you concerning these Affairs and will by his Letters and Nuncio's Return an Answer to all that your King has desired Zaga Zaba having nothing else to do at Lisbon Zaga Zaba's the Habassin Ambassador at Lisbon Account of the Religion and Customs of his Countrey and being willing to ingratiate himself with that Court by representing the Habassin Church as agreeing with the Roman in the Chief Doctrines wherein the Reformers contradict her did put Pen to Paper and drew up the following Account of the Religion Customs and Rites of his Countrey An Account of the Habassin Religion and Customs composed by Zaga Zaba the King of Ethiopia's Ambassador and written with his own Hand at Lisbon In the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ Amen WE believe in the Name of the Holy Trinity Father Son and Holy Ghost who are One Lord and Three Names One Divinity and Three Faces though but One Similitude and are an equal conjunction of Persons equal I say in Divinity One Kingdom One Throne One Word One Spirit the Word of the Father and the Son and the Word of the Holy Spirit and the Son is the same Word the Word with God the Word with the Holy
of Affinity or Consanguinity Spiritual or Carnal those only excepted which are prohibited by the Divine Law and Spiritual Affinity in Matrimony shall never be contracted betwixt the Godfather and Godmother and their Godchildren you may also commute Vows into any pious work provided they be not the solemn Vows of Religion and Chastity At three times in the Year to wit Christmas Easter and Whitsuntide you may grant plenary Indulgences to all People of the said Province who being contrite have voluntarily confessed their Sins obliging them before you grant them to Fast and devoutly to beseech God in behalf of all the faithful of the Roman Church and on any other days you may grant Temporary Indulgences and Remission of Sins which must never exceed the term of Ten years you may likewise give license to your Friars to read Heretical Books and may at your pleasure unite annex and incorporate Ecclesiastical Benefices into Churches or other Pious and Religious places for the Spiritual or Temporal advantage of the Neighbours and may erect and found general Universities and Colleges wherein People may take all Degrees of Master and Doctor and likewise Hospitals for the Poor the Sick and Strangers Male and Female as also Monasteries and Colleges for Boys and Girls and Orphans in all which works of Piety and Charity may be exercised You may either in your Person or by your Deputies visit with a Plenary Jurisdiction all the said Universities Colleges Hospitals Monasteries and all other Religious Houses of what Order or Sex soever and reform them as well in the Head as in the Members and Chastise Correct and Punish all that shall be found faulty and may remove them from one place to another You may also if you find it necessary found Religious Houses of both Sexes and approve disprove or extinguish such as are already founded or may reduce divers Religions to one and reform their Constitutions by either adding to them or taking from them as you shall think fit in the Lord. You may give License to the poor Religious or not Religious to beg and desire Alms in the name of any Saint You shall furthermore in our Name and in that of the Holy See declare to the people of your Province the Faith of the Roman Church and which are the Canonical Scriptures that they ought to hold and follow in every thing You must likewise condemn the writings which the Roman Church rejects and condemns and must determine and declare to them which Ecclesiastical precepts do oblige them under the penalty of a mortal sin and which do not You may further by your Authority so that nothing be changed that is decreed by the Divine and Natural Law make Orders concerning all matters which are of positive right even so far as Excommunications Suspensions Interdicts and other Ecclesiastical Sentences Censures Penalties and Irregularities which any may have incurred upon the account of such matters declaring which are Obligatory and which are not until such time as the Apostolical See shall otherwise order You may also grant Dispensations concerning all such matters and may Legitimate Bastards and others that have any defect in their Birth You must create a Notary who by the Apostolical Authority may see all the matters executed which can be done by any Legate de Laterre or Nuncio of the said See You may also make Compositions with any People for Ecclesiastical Fruits or Revenues that have been unjustly received and employ the Money to some Pious use Finally you may lawfully and freely do and execute all things in general and every thing in particular that appertains to the Edification and Salvation of Souls or that are seasonable until such time as you shall receive an answer concerning them from the said See and to you our Son John Elect in case the said Andrew and Melchior or either of them should happen to die before you we do by these Presents and the said Apostolical Authority grant a Faculty and a Plenary and Free Power freely and lawfully to Name and Elect one or more Coadjutors who shall succeed one another in the said Church of Ethiopia and the Kingdoms thereunto belonging and to Institute and Consecrate them Bishops and Successors obliging them to intimate their Election Institution and Consecration to the said See in the manner aforesaid and to take an Oath of Fidelity and Obedience thereunto as is above prescribed and by Letters to acquaint the said See therewith All which must be done with the Approbation of the Council that is to be erected for the handling of all weighty Affairs and which you shall hereafter Constitute All Constitutions and Apostolical Ordinances and Reservatories though of Cathedral Churches or of this Patriarchal Church tho confirmed by Oath or Apostolical Confirmation or by any Confirmation Statutes Customs or any other way to the contrary notwithstanding Given at St. Peters in Rome on the 17th day of February in the year of our Lord 1554 in the 5th year of our Pontificate The Bulls of the three Elects being come to Lisbon the King looking upon it as the greatest honour that had ever been done to Portugal to have a Patriarch consecrated in it The Patriarch and one of his Coadjutors are Consecrated at Lisbon made great Preparations for that Ceremony the Patriarch and the Bishop of Hieropolis were both consecrated in the Church of the Trinity Friars by Don Julian d'Abreu Bishop of Portalegree and Dom Gasper Bishop of the Island of St. Thomas and Dom Peter Bishop of Hippo Melchior Elect of Nice having Sailed from Lisbon for the Indies four days before the arrival of the Bulls But notwithstanding the King and the whole Court honoured this Consecration with their presence yet I do not find that any of the great Prelates of the Kingdom were present at it which together with it s not having been performed in the See Church but in the Chappel of a Convent and that by two Titulars and the Poorest Bishop in Portugal makes me suspect that the great Prelates were not over-well pleased with this upstart Order leaping so soon into such high Dignities For about the time of this Promotion and which it is like enough might contribute something towards it there was a most terrible storm raised both in Spain and France against the whole Order of the Jesuits Don John Archbishop of Toledo The Jesuits leaping so quickly into such high dignities contrary to their Vows creates them Enemies who continued a mortal Enemy to it till his death driving them out of the University of Completum in the year 1555 and prohibiting all his Priests upon pain of Deprivation to make use of any of their Exercises and prohibiting all others upon pain of Excommunication to confess themselves to any of them The Sorbon likewise declared about the same time That the Society of Jesus was dangerous to the Faith a disturber of the Peace of the Church pernicious to Monastical Religion and in a word
Faith of the Gospel and the Synods which do teach That Christ hath two Natures and two Operations and two Wills in one Person and that he is equal to the Father as to his Divinity but inferior to him as to his Humanity They do also keep a Festivity to Dioscorus the Defender of the Heretick Eutyches who together with Eutyches stands condemned by the Church for which reason Dioscorus ought not to be esteemed a Saint in Ethiopia holding divers other things that are contrary to the Roman Faith which ought not to be being there is but one Faith which is that of the Roman Church which by reason of Christ's promise to her can never err We do therefore admonish all our Spiritual Sons to separate themselves from these and all other Errors of Ethiopia c. so as not to fall into any of them And as for the Ethiopians we do remit them to the Judgment of the Church and of the Prelates thereof to Punish them in their Persons or Estates publickly or privately or to use mercy with them in whole or in part as they shall think fit and especially if they should be hereafter Converted which God in his Mercy give them Grace to be Made at Decome in Ethiopia upon the 2d of February 1559. Gancalo Cardozo Notary Apostolick Andrew Bishop of Hieropolis This was published in our Church of Decome on the 2d of February 1559. Whatever ease the publication of this Censure might give the Coadjutor's mind which was strangely exulcerated by the Triumphs of the Habassins it is certain it had no more effect upon the Emperor than his Conferences and Books had had Who the more he knew of Popery and its ways the worse he liked it But while Claudius his thoughts were wholly employed in Disputing with and Writing against the Bishop and Fathers Nur the Son of Madi Ali Guasil and the King of Adel having observed the present weakness of the Habassin Empire and how its Frontiers lay open Invaded it with a great Army and meeting with little or no opposition were got into the bowels of it before Claudius ever so much as dream'd of an Invasion nevertheless when the alarm of it came from all quarters Claudius laying aside his Pen and Books called for his Sword and having sweeped together a confused rabble of an Army he took the Field and being come within sight of the Enemy was so ill advised as to give him Battel in which Claudius was not so successful as he was said to have been in his ergoteering Combats his Army being totally Routed and he himself Slain fighting Manfully against the Infidels The Portugueses though angry with Claudius do him the Justice to acknowledge that he was a Prince of admirable natural Parts and for an Habassin of very good Learning and as he was every way much a Gentleman that he would also have been extraordinary kind to the Portugueses that remained in Ethiopia for the great Service they had done had it not been for two things the one was that they would never let him alone with his Religion which he was extreamly Zealous for and the other was that under a pretence of introducing the Roman Faith into Ethiopia they had a design either to make themselves Masters of its Sea-ports or to have put them into the hands of a Creature of their own as they had done in several parts of India after they had by some plausible pretence or other got footing in them and as the close Correspondence they maintained with Bahurnagays the Hereditary Governor of the Provinces on the Sea-Coast was sufficient to give Claudius some umbrage of this design so if he ever happened to intercept any of the Bishop's or Father's Letters he must have been abundantly satisfied of the truth of it the sending of Missionary Troops into Ethiopia without which the Ecclesiastical Missionaries would be able to do nothing there being as we shall see hereafter the burden of all their Letters So feeble a thing is Popery to make way for it self into any Countrey without the assistance of Apostolical Dragoons Nur after having ravaged and plundered the greatest and richest Provinces in Ethiopia returned home laden with Spoils and Honour but when he came near his Metropolis instead of making a Triumphant entry as was expected he mounted a sorry Mule wretchedly Equipp'd and rid thereon thorough all the Acclamations of his People and being asked the reason why he did so his answer was That since it was God alone that won the late Victory it was but just that he alone should have the whole Glory of it Claudius having left no Sons Adam succeeds Claudius was Succeeded by his Brother Adam who had been a Captive several years in Arabia and who from the day he came to the Crown Adam a fierce Enemy to Popery declared himself an irreconcilable Enemy to the Church of Rome and accordingly as his first act of Government was the prohibiting all Habassins whatsoever under severe Punishments to go into the Latin Church so his first act of severity was the ordering of a Habassin Woman for having turned Papist to be whipped thorough the streets and among other reasons that he gave for the greatness of this his Rage against Popery one was That the having Tolerated it in Ethiopia had cost his Brother his Life and his Empire a vast treasure both of Money and Blood And in order to the extirpating so pernicious an Inmate as he reckoned it to be he first took all the Lands which had been given by his Brother to the Portugueses for their Service from them and afterwards their Children committing them to the care of such as would be sure to Educate them in the Alexandrian Faith After this he Commanded the Coadjutor to be apprehended and thrown into Prison threatning to Burn him and his Jesuits alive if they did not give over corrupting his People with their false Doctrines And having one day ordered the Coadjutor to be brought before him A Dialogue betwixt the Emperor and Coadjutor he fell upon him after a most barbarous manner asking him Whether it was not sufficient that he suffered him to live in his Empire to look after his Portugueses but he must be corrupting his Monks and Subjects with his Heresies adding let me advise you as you love your Life not to tamper any more with my Subjects The Coadjutor made answer That he did nothing but what his Office obliged him to and that he would do whatever it cost him This resolute Answer put Adam into such a fury that after having called the Coadjutor a great many hard Names and asked him How he durst come into Ethiopia to Preach his Lies and Fopperies in it He flew upon him and tore his Robes the Courtiers having much ado to take him off and having sent for him another time he told him after a great deal of foul Language That if he would not promise to give over Corrupting his Subjects his
Alexandrian Faith if it had any such to defend their Religion if they were able before the Emperor Which bold challenge being accepted Several publick Conferences about Religion there were divers publick Conferences about Religion held thereupon before the Emperor In all which the Fathers but by their own Brethren are said to have been Victorious and by their great skill in School-Divinity to whose subtleties the Habassins were utter strangers to have baffled them shamefully at every turn to the admiration of the whole Court When the Monks and Fathers had done Disputing the Emperor with the advice of his Cabinet Council An Edict is published by the Emperor prohibiting any to affirm that there is but one Nature in Christ The Abuna comes to Court and is angry with the Conferences that had been held without his leave put forth a Proclamation prohibiting all his Subjects upon severe Penalties to affirm that there is but one Nature in Christ The Abuna Simon hearing of the Disputations that had been held at Court and of the Proclamation they had ended in made all the speed he could thither and being come to Court he threatned the Emperor with an Excommunication for having held publick Disputations about Religion without his leave The Emperor endeavoured to pacify the angry Old Man by telling him That it was true that he had permitted some Conferences but for no other end but to remove a Schism that was in the Church but now that be was come he might if he pleased have the Conferences renewed again The Abuna though his talent is said not to have lain much that way gave his Consent to have the Disputations renewed and Learned Men having been appointed on both sides to manage the Debate the Fathers in the Conferences did demonstrate the Truth of Christ's having two Natures so evidently The Conferences are renewed before him from the Scriptures Councils and right Reason that the Habassins had nothing that was material to say against it the Abuna himself not having offered one word in defence of his Faith when he saw his Monks most miserably baffled It is remarkable That it was the policy of the Jesuits to make the Doctrine of Christ's having two Natures and not that of the Pope's Supremacy against which by what the Emperor Claudius did we know the Habassins had enough to say the point that was debated in all their publick Conferences which was not so proper considering that the Habassins might have believed that Doctrine as the Reformed and Greek Churches do without being the nearer to the Church of Rome for it for it does not at all follow That because Christ had two Natures that the Pope must therefore he his Vicar upon Earth and that all Christian Churches must submit themselves to him The very Fathers that established that Doctrine in the Council of Calcedon having denied that the Pope had any Supremacy but what he owed to Rome 's being the first City is the Roman Empire as I have observed elsewhere Upon the Habassins being thus baffled upon a point the Church of Rome was no more concerned in than the Church of England the Fathers in the heat of their triumph did drive on the Emperor at a most furious rate persuading him to set forth another Proclamation making it death for any one to deny that there are two Natures in Christ But the Abuna though he had little to say for his Religion at the Conferences The Abuna leaves the Court in wrath and Excommuicates the Emperor endeavoured after he had left the Court to make amends for his silence there by roaring the louder through the Countrey as he went home and being sensible that besides the whole body of the People he had the Emperor's Mother and his half-brother Emana Christos with several other Grandees on his side he was no sooner got home then he thundered out an Excommunication against all not excepting the Emperor that had or should submit themselves to the Pope The Emperor was at first troubled at this Censure The Emperor is provoked thereby to publish a Proclamation Commanding all his Subjects to turn Roman Catholicks The Agau's thereupon take up Arms. The Abuna promotes an Association in desence of their Religion Julius enters into it and takes the Field against the Emperor but being afterwards satisfied by the Fathers of its Nullity he was provoked by it to set forth a Proclamation desiring all his Subjects to embrace the Roman Faith Commanding that Proclamation to be published by the Judges throughout the whole Empire which most of them did notwithstanding it was contrary to their private Judgments This Proclamation having put the whole Empire into a flame and provoked the Agau's to take up Arms the Abuna who waited only for such an opportunity so soon as he found the Emperor engaged in that War writ Circular Letters to all his Confidents exhorting them and all the Nobles and People that were not weary of the Faith of their Forefathers to enter into an Association in Defence of it against the Emperor and his Brother who had now both declared themselves open Enemies to it Julius the Viceroy of Tigre who had Married a Daughter of the Emperor's so soon as he had received the Abuna's Letter did not only begin to Persecute the Fathers that resided at Fremona but seized likewise upon the Estates of all the Habassins within his Province that had turned Roman Catholicks declaring he would Defend his Religion against all the world with the last drop of his blood The Emperor hearing of the Circular Letter and the Association that was going on was very angry with the Abuna wishing he had him in his hands to put a stop to his enflaming his Subjects against him but knowing that if he discovered himself to be displeased with him that he would either not come if he sent for him or come with such a Guard that it would not be safe for him to offer him any violence he thought fit to dissemble his passion so far as to write a kind Letter to him desiring him to repair to him with all possible speed to satisfy some scruples which gave him great disturbance writing at the same time to Father Peter to come likewise which the Father did immediately bringing with him the news of the Persecution that was set on soot in Tigre against the Fathers and their Converts The Queen and several Grandees of the Court seeing what a storm the Emperor was like to raise by endeavouring to introduce Popery into his Empire waited upon him in a body The Emperor is addressed to not to trouble his Subjects about their Religion beseeching him as he loved his Crown and his people to give over that design as a thing not feasible since not only the Monks but the whole body of the Nation did openly declare That they would Defend their Religion against him and all the world with their Lives and Fortunes and would dye a thousand
and Five Fathers standing behind him SIR I thought we had had the Victory in the last Fight but I now begin to understand that we had the worst on 't for notwithstanding in reality the design of the Rebels was to have taken your Crown from you nevertheless what they gave out was that they fought only to have the Religion of their Fathers restored so that if they should gain that point though they were beat they may be reckoned to have been Victorious but as before the Engagement was the proper time for the making of Vows and Promises so now is the time for fulfilling them In order to Engage God to confer more such mercies upon you who by this last Victory has as it were set his seal to all the former and that for no other end but to oblige your Highness to advance his holy Faith under the banner whereof you obtained it Besides it was the Catholicks that are in your Army that did the work and who are not so few as your Highness is told they are The reason why they do not appear to be numerous is because they have no favour shew'd them whereas if your Highness would but be pleased to call them about your Person and bestow all Offices of Honour and Trust upon them you would quickly see how they would multiply and how by that means both your Empire and the faith would flourish whereas of late they have been kept from coming near you none but Serpents having been admitted into your Councils a whole Nest of which Serpents did on Friday last assemble together in the Hall of your Palace where they treated no longer about the out-works of Religion but laid the ax to the root consulting together how they might destroy the Catholick Faith which they agreed at last to put to the Vote by leaving the People and Soldiers to be of which Religion they like best who whenever they are asked whether they will have Christ or Barabbas will certainly prefer Barabbas for having been of their own Office and Profession Sir Matters of Faith are not to be treated in such a manner but are to be setled by Councils consisting of great numbers of Bishops where they may be had or else of Grave and Learned Priests and Friars For though in Matters of State these very men do not think fit to consult with every body but only with persons of known Prudence and Experience nevertheless in Matters of Religion the Otadores Gauls Mahometans and Heathens are reckoned to be good Counsellors and are all called in by them to determine which is the true and which is the false faith I would have your Highness call to mind the many mercies God hath conferred on you since you embraced the Roman Faith and though it is true there have been many Rebellions which is a Plague Ethiopia never was nor never will be free from until the Faith is deeply rooted therein yet God has always been so kind to you as to lay the Rebels at your feet and particularly in the last Fight when your affairs were come to a crisis so that your Arm is not shortned but extended Remember likewise that you did not forsake the Faith of Ethiopia out of fear the Fathers being in no condition to oblige you to do it by force of Arms but you did it purely upon your being convinced of its falshood and of the truth of that of Rome Neither must you forget that I did not come to you of my own head but was sent by the Roman Pontiff and your Brother the King of Portugal upon your having writ to them several time to send you a Patriarch and some Bishops in which affair if there was any delay it was occasioned by the jealousy they had of the fickleness of the Habassins which we now begin to experience and which the King of Portugal had formerly had experience of when he sent Don Christopher De Gama hither with a stout body of Troops by whom this Empire was rescued out of the hands of the Mahometans who had Conquer'd it and that not with an intention of keeping it to themselves but of restoring it to your Ancestors as they did Neither had the King of Portugal ever any other view nor did he expect any other reward for what he did for you but only your Friendship and the union of this Empire with the Roman Church to which end I and the Bishop that is here behind me were sent by his Holiness and his Majesty to you Neither did we come among you as Beggars but well stored with Books and Pontifical Vestments and Ornaments they not being willing to charge your Highness with so much as the Maintenance of our persons Consider Sir how just cause those Princes will have to be displeased with you and though they may be at too great a distance to have due satisfaction God nevertheless who is every where will not fail to require it of you Consider likewise what a blot this will be in the Scutcheon of the Lion of Judah and what an eternal stain both to your own and your Empire 's honour and how many Souls you will ruin by your Apostacy which that I may not live to see nor the Divine Judgments that will befal you thereupon The Emperor continues immoveable in his resolution let me beg it of your Highness to command my head to be here struck off before you At these words the Patriarch Bishop and Five Fathers threw themselves at the Emperor's Feet to receive his answer At which sight notwithstanding the By-standers seemed to be all touched the Emperor himself did not appear to be in the least affected with it in so much that the Patriarch saith those Verses of the Poet were very applicable to him Nec Magis incepto vultum Sermone Movetur Quam si Dura Silex vel stet Marpesia cautes Only making a sign with his hand that they should rise he asked the Patriarch with what face he could say that he had not shewed favour to the Catholicks since he had favoured none else but such but the Hereticks said he are numerous and all that have rebelled against me have given no other reason for their doing it but my having changed the Religion of my Countrey How many Thousands have I killed already in order to introduce Popery And how many Thousands more must I kill before I shall be able to do it My People are all weary of cutting one another's Throats and are all upon the point of deserting me I can do no more than I have done Besides We are not medling with the Faith but only with some Customs or if any are about changing it they have not acquainted me with it if you are told otherwise abroad you must inquire abroad whether it be so or not For my own part I do here Promise That I will never Decree any thing about Religion without first Consulting with your Lordship The Emperor stopping here The
Patriarch Replied That as to the Customs of Fasting on Wednesdays and of using their Old Offices as he had mended them and of Observing the Festivities as formerly which were all that his Highness had desired of him he had granted them all already and was ready to grant them every thing that was in his Power and not contrary to the Faith wherefore since his Highness did not intend that there should be any Alteration made in Matters of Faith he beseeched him to put forth a Proclamation declaring That as he was of the Roman Faith himself so it was his Will and Pleasure That all his Subjects should be of the same and that as to matters of Custom he was ready to comply with them therein so far as the Faith would permit him In which request the Bishop and Five Fathers seconded him with great earnestness but to no purpose the Emperor telling them plainly That he could do no more for Popery than he had done The Patriarch who was for leaving no stone unturned went from the Emperor to wait upon the Prince and having told him the same story he told his Father the Prince seemed to be surprized with the news and returned such Answers as would have imposed upon a weak Man but the Patriarch knowing him to be Master of a most profound Dissimulation and an inveterate Enemy to the Roman Church gathered from his ambiguous Answers That without a Miracle the Roman Faith could not be much longer supported in Ethiopia So they all returned to the Patriarch's Palace desperately afflicted with the present sad prospect of their Affairs The Alexandrians that they might bring the Emperor under a necessity of executing what had been agreed on in Council had industriously spread a report That on St. John Baptist's day their Ancient Faith was to be restored to them which report having brought all the Countrey to the Camp to be present at the Solemnity they then told the Emperor That there was no remedy but he must either Restore to his People the Religion of their Fathers or run a great hazard of his Crown since the Pecple who were come in such vast multitudes in hopes of having it done if they were disappointed would be thrown into such a Fury that no body could tell where it might end The Emperor made answer That he was willing his good Subjects should enjoy their Old Religion but that he might not be worse than his word to the Patriarch he commanded some of his Servants to go and wait upon him and acquaint him with the necessity there was of gratifying his People with a Toleration of the Alexandrian Faith Za Mariam who was in the number of those that were commanded to carry this Message to the Patriarch being admitted to speak with him told him in the Emperor's Name and words We have embraced your Faith and have been at much pains about it but our People do not care for it so though it was really out of hatred to Raz Cella that Julius took up Arms nevertheless the pretence that helped him to an Army was that he would defend the Old Religion who with vast multitudes of People that had flocked in to him was destroyed Cabrael and Guergis used the same pretence and had the same success And Cerca Christos and the Peasants who are now in Arms have no Quarrel with me but for having prohibited them the exercise of their Religion The Faith of Rome is not bad but as I have told you formerly my People do not understand it and are very well contented to live and die in the Religion they were brought up in I am resolved therefore since they are so fond of it to let them alone with it and if there are any that are inclinable to the Roman Faith they shall have free Liberty to Profess it as the Portugueses who have been among us ever since the Reign of Asnaf Saged have had When Mariam had done speaking the Patriarch asked him Whether it was by the Emperor 's Express Order that he had delivered him that Message Mariam told him it was The Patriarch made no other reply But that Ethiopia had never been without Wars before the Roman Faith was known in it and that he would return an Answer to the Emperor after he had advised with his Brethren Who having consulted together drew up the following Manifesto which they sent to the Emperor by Father Manuel YOUR Highness has sent me word The Patriarch's manifesto against it That being upon the point of losing your Empire for your Zeal to establish the Roman Religion you are resolved to let your People alone with their Old Faith and that you will at the same time grant Liberty to all that shall have a mind to embrace Popery Sir My Affection for you is nothing inferior to that I have for the King of Portugal being as ready to condescend to every thing that is for the Interest of your Kingdoms as you can desire provided it do not clash with the Purity of the Faith for as whatever is a Sin can never be for the good of any Kingdom so neither can I grant any such thing neither ought your Highness to desire it of me There are two things to be observed in this great Affair the one concerns the Peasants who having never embraced the Roman Faith your Highness may for some time wink at their living in the Heresie of their Fathers the other concerns those who have embraced the Roman Faith and Communicated with that Church and not only so but have obliged themselves by Oaths to be always Obedient to her Now to these your Highness cannot say You may if you please live in the Faith of your Fathers since it would be a grievous Sin against God in you to do so as it would be in me likewise if I should either advife you to it or consent to your doing it And were it lawful for one that is a Foreigner to meddle with your Government or to give advice about it I would tell you that it is my Opinion That your Highness will certainly Ruin your Empire by granting Liberty of Conscience which must necessarily fill it with Dissentions and Civil Wars For what but Blood and Wars can follow upon one part of your Subjects being for the Roman and the other part for the Alexandrian Faith And must not the having of an Abuna for one Party and a Patriarch for the other infallibly end in Two Kingdoms and Two Kings Whether the Patriarch believed the Popish Party to be so Numerous in Ethiopia as to have made a considerable division therein upon a Toleration or talked so only to terrifie the Emperor it is certain that the Toleration was no sooner published than the whole Body of the Court and Countrey returned to their Old Religion insomuch that Father Manuel happening after he had delivered the Patriarch's Manifesto to the Emperor to tell him That by granting Liberty of Conscience he would undoubtedly
Ruin his Kingdom the Emperor taking him up short asked him How that was possible since he had no Empire left to Ruin And so dismissed him And whereas formerly the Fathers when they left the Emperor used to be conducted out of the Court with Ceremony there was no body now took the least notice of Father Manuel unless it were to make Faces at him as he passed through the Rooms but the Father was not got out of the Court when the Drums beat for the Publishing of the Proclamation which he came to have put a stop to the Proclamation was as followeth HEAR The Proclamation for restoring the Alexandrian Religion Hear We formerly gave you the Roman Faith believing it to be true but innumerable multitudes of my People having been slain upon that account under the Command of Julius Guergis Cerca Christos c. as now also among the Peasants We do therefore Restore the Religion of your Fathers to you so that your Priests are to take Possession of their Churches again and to officiate therein as formerly Never was any Proclamation received with greater expressions of Joy than this was there being nothing to be heard in or about the Camp for some Hours for the noise of the Trumpets Excessive Joy and Festivities thereupon and of innumerable multitudes of People continually ecchoing each other from all quarters of the Camp with acclamations and shouts of God Bless the Emperor and let the Alexandrian Faith Flourish At Night the whole Camp and Countrey was Illuminated with Bonfires into which most if not all of the Popish Converts threw the Beads and Reliques that had been given them by the Fathers and that with so much Contempt and Indignation as abundantly manifested that they had never had any inward Respect for their New Religion but had only profess'd it out of fear The Patriarch and Fathers though mortified to the last degree by this sudden change of things nevertheless since the publick Exercise of the Roman Worship was not prohibited they went on faying their Masses as formerly and on the Sunday following the Proclamation The Patriarch is advised by his friends to give over preaching The Patriarch himself Preached in the Camp with some Passages of whose Sermon for he could not forbear reflecting severely upon what had been done the Alexandrians were so much inraged that he was advised by his Friends to forbear Preaching till the storm the late Proclamation had raifed was a little abated which they said it would be the sooner for its being so extreamly violent But the Alexandrians who could not presently forget how hard they had been rid by the Patriareh and Fathers when they were in the saddle were never satisfied till they had all their Churches and Lands taken from them The Romanists have all their Churches and Lands taken from them The Emperor dieth and is Succeeded by his Son Basilides and had obtained a second Proclamation which Commanded all the People of Ethiopia to be of the Alexandrian and of no other Faith The Emperor did not long survive this Revolution dying the September following of an Hectick Fever in the Sixty first year of his Age. The Fathers will have him to have died in the Communion of their Church But however that were it is certain he was buried by the Habassin Monks and with their Offices in the Church of Ganeta Jesu which they had taken from the Fathers The Prince Basilides being Proclaimed Emperor so soon as the breath was out of his Father's Body Raz Cella coming amongst the rest of the Grandees to Swear Allegiance to him was received by him with all the marks of Honour and Affection that his near Relation to him could pretend to the Emperor among other kind things telling him That hereafter he should look upon him and treat him as his Father rather than as his Uncle But whatever was the matter this kindness betwixt the Nephew and Uncle was not long-liv'd the Fathers pretend that Raz Cella's constant Zeal for their Religion was the cause of it and particularly his having acquainted the Emperor with his Father's having appeared to him and commanded him to tell him that it was a madness to lose an Eternal Kingdom to secure one that was Temporary But what is certain is that the Emperor giving no credit to his Uncle's Vision Basilides throws his Uncle Raz Cella into Prison had him arrested and committed to Prison as a Traytor disarming the Patriarch and Fathers at the same time and commanding them from all parts of the Empire to Fremona in Tigre the Viceroyship of which Kingdom he had bestowed upon one who he was certain would enter into no Cabals with them The Order run thus HEAR He sends for the Patriarch and Fathers Arms and Banisheth them all to Fremona My Lords what We say and write unto you You cannot be ignorant of our being ingaged in a War with the Peasants of Lasta and of our Empires not having had one hours Rest since this War begun You must therefore send us the Muskets and Carabines and all your other Arms together with all the Powder and Bullets that you have in your keeping We have sent Daniel and Miserata Christos to receive them to whom you must not fail to deliver them and when the War is over they shall all be restored to you again or if you are willing to sell them they will give you your price for them There is an Alexandrian Abuna arrived here he has been for some time Incognito in the Kingdom of Narea and who when I desired him to Confer holy Orders made me answer He could not do it so long as there was a Roman Patriarch about us for which reason we command your Lordship to repair to Fremona and to take all your Fathers and Books and Goods with you we shall take care to appoint a Captain to attend you thither with a strong guard with which Orders the Messengers carried a verbal Instruction which was That if any opportunity for the Indies should offer the Patriarch Bishop and Fathers had free leave to make use of it The Patriarch when he was served with this Order complained the Emperor was very hard upon them and that he could not judge otherwise but that his design in taking their Arms from them at the same time he banished them to Fremona was that they should be all Murthered by the way as to the Arms he said they owed nothing to Ethiopia and as he was resolved never to give them away so he was no Gunsmith to sell Arms. Nevertheless if they were resolved to have them from him they might find them in such a place but that he would declare to all the World that he was robbed of them but having before the Messengers had seized the Arms received advice that Father James was likewise served with an order to deliver all the Cannon Muskets and Armour for Man and Horse that were in his Custody He
therein that they hazarded their lives to help them to the Relicks of their Martyr'd Brethren I have not been able to learn whether the abovenamed Congregation did ever give it self the trouble of enquiring into the truth of these reliques but most certain it is that if it did that their want of natural Evidences was abundantly supply'd by such as were Miraculous for they having been as all new-found reliques are undoubtedly much prayed to if Ten out of a Thousand that pray'd to them when they were sick did but happen to recover there were just so many substantial Witnesses of their having a Miraculous Virtue in them to demonstrate them to be true and for the faithless Nine hundred and ninety that died their unsuccessful Prayers were never heard of to confront the Testimony of Ten living Witnesses and being thus attested the Congregation could not have deni'd them its Approbation such Testimonies as these being all the Evidence the Church of Rome has for the greatest part of her Sacred Reliques Neither would its having been afterwards discovered as it was that the Heads of those Three Friars were sent by the Bashaw who cut them off as a Present to the Emperor of Ethiopia have been any argument at all against the truth of those which were lodged at Goa there being nothing more common in the Church of Rome than to have the same individual Reliques and especially Heads at the same time in several Countries and all of them working Miracles in Confirmation of their being genuin The Patriarch that he might not lie at Goa doing nothing for his Title of Illustrissimo in the Year 1650 sent a Banean and an Habassin The Patriarch sends an Habassin and a Banean into Ethiopia with a Commission to a Priest to be his Vicar-General who were both Romanists with a Commission to one Bernard Nogueiro an Habassin Priest but of Portuguese Extraction to be his Vicar-General in Ethiopia during the time of his absence from it The Banean and Habassin having got to Moqha were detained there a whole Year by the War that was broke out betwixt a King in Arabia and the Bashaw of Suaqhem but the Envoys that they might do something for their Money sent the Patriarch some News which notwithstanding it did not agree very well with that Father Torquato had picked up at the same place not long before they knew would be pleasing to him The News was That his Successor Mark had been Deposed for having been guilty of all the Crimes that they could think of namely for having Danced frequently with his Gatar in his hand thorough the Streets with publick Strumpets and that a Monk whose name was Michael was made Abuna in his place In October 1651 the two Envoys having got to Matzua The Priest accepts of it and writes for Portuguese Troops stole by night from thence to a place in Ethiopia called Engana from whence having sent an Express to Father Bernard he was with them in a few days and having gladly accepted of the Commission they brought to him he wrote by them to the Patriarch complaining that the Portugueses seemed to have forgot that there was any such Countrey as Ethiopia where they had been expecting succors from them till they were weary telling a lamentable Story of what Raz Cella Christos had suffered because he would not turn Alexandrian and how his Gout though extreamly violent did not torment him half so much as the disappointment of the Portuguese Troops he had been so long promised But we have that Prince telling his own Story in the following Letter which came to Goa about this time Most Illustrious Bishops and Governors of the Indies The Letter of Raz Cella Christos cometh with Peace and Health in our Lord Jesus Christ To all most Christian Catholicks and to all the faithful of the true Church of our Lord. TO tell you the Truth Raz Cella writes passionately for Troops I do not know with what Tongue or Words to begin to relate to you the Persecutions of our Mother which I am at this time lamenting O Holy and most Merciful Christ Jesus nailed to the Cross do Thou reckon them up and make them to be known to all the Friars Rectors Prelates Bishops Archbishops Viceroys Kings Princes and Governors that Rule on the other side of the Sea I never in the least doubted but that you would so far have concerned your self for the Catholicks that are here as to have delivered them from the Tyranny of this Perverse and Barbarous Nation and that the doing thereof would not have been so long delayed but for my Sins which are Infinite You seem to have been all dissemblers formerly when there was not so much as the name of a Church or of a Catholick in Ethiopia the Portuguese came to our Assistance and delivered us out of the hands of the Mahometans but now notwithstanding there is an Infinite number of faithful people in it there is no body seems to remember us all our Brethren and all those whom the Zeal of the House of the Lord did eat up seeming to be dead What is the Pope our true Pastor and most beloved Father removed from the immoveable Foundation of the Roman Church if he is not Why does he not stretch forth his Rod and Staff of Consolation to these his Sheep before we depart this Miserable Life or before we are eat up by the Alexandrian Hereticks Is it possible that there is not one Prince left in Portugal that has the Zeal of Don Christopher Da Gama for Christianity no nor so much as one Prelate left to procure some remedy for us either from Heaven or Earth I can say no more but though my Mouth is stopt my Tears are not but being covered with Sackcloth and Ashes I do most humbly beg succor from all the Faithful and that with all Expedition before all be lost I am at this time in Chains in a Prison and am daily tempted with promises of liberty if I will but return to the Alexandrian Faith the Hereticks seeking in me to destroy all the Catholicks in Ethiopia and to Extirpate the Roman Faith out of it Wherefore if there be any Christians left beyond Sea or any that have a Zeal for God let them know and understand that we are their Brethren in Christ Jesus and that we shall then and not before believe that they have us in their hearts when they shall deliver us out of the hands of Hereticks and out of this our Egyptian Bondage This Unfortunate Prince is said to have suffered Death not long after this Raz Cella is put to death for his Religion or rather for holding a Correspondence with the Portugueses for whom the Emperor was possessed with so strong an Aversion that he made it Death for any of that Nation or for any of the Roman Faith to come into Ethiopia In the Year 1656 The Patriarch is named to the Archbishoprick of Goa but was
Peterburgh Dr. John Lightfoot's Works in two Vol. Rushworth's Historical Collections 1st Vol. Idem 2d Part in 2 Vol. Idem 3d. Part in 2 Vol. The Laws of the Kingdom of Scotland at large with Skene de Verborum significatione Dr. Towerson's Explication of the Apostles Creed Ten Commandmandments Lord's Prayer and Sacraments in 4 Vol. QUARTO DR Pet. Allix's Remarks upon the Ecclesiastical History of the ancient Churches of Piedmont and Albigenses in 2 Parts Bishop Burnet's Collection of Tracts relating both to Church and State from 1678. to 1694. in 3 Vol. Dr. Cresner of the Judgments of God upon the Roman Cath. 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His Vindication of Archbishop Tillotsons's Sermons against the Socinians and of the Bishop of Worcester's Sermon of the Mysteries of the Christian Religion To which is annexed a Letter from the Bishop of Salisbury to the Author in Vindication of his Discourse of the Divinity of our Saviour 4 to Reflections on a Libel lately printed entituled The Charge of Secianism against Dr. Tillotson considered c. 4 to Dr. Salmon upon the London Dispensatory The 6th Edit 8 vo 1696. A Discourse of the Power and Efficacy of Charity By Mr. John Whitesoot Senior of Norwich A Discourse concerning Coining the New Money lighter In Answer to Mr. Lock 's Considerations about Raising the Value of Money By Nicholas Barbon Esq ADVERTISEMENT HEylin's Cosmography with very large Additions throughout the whole made by Edmund Behun Esq is fitted for the Press and will in short time be begun to be printed by Subscription THE Church-History OF Habassia or Ethiopia Alta. HABASSIA The Climate of Ethiopia or Ethiopia Alta or Ethiopia super Egyptum which are all the same according to the Newest and best Accounts we have of it is 9 Degrees in length reaching from Bergamo in the 8th Degree of Northern Latitude to Focay which is in the 17th Degree of the same Latitude and about 140 Leagues in Breadth taking it from the Shoar of the Red Sea to the Banks of Nile The King or Emperor of Habassia The true Title of the Emperor of Ethiopia is called the Naggasi that is the Lord or Ruler and not Prester Presbyter nor Preto John which Title was first given him by the Portugueses upon their imagining him when they first discovered this Empire to have been the great Christian Prester John who had been so much talked of and so little known in Europe not considering that all that had spoke of that Great Prince had placed his Empire in Asia to the North of China and not in Africa And as to Zaga Zabi calling him in his Relation published at Lisbon Precious John in that he play'd the Embassador rather than the Historian not caring to undeceive Europe at the expence of a Title which made his Master's Name much greater in it than it would have been otherwise Now though our Geographers have in their Maps been very liberal to this Emperor having extended his Empire 30 or 40 Degrees from South to North his Neighbours have not been so kind to him who within these 100 years have very much contracted it The Countries he is at present in possession of are Tigre The Provinces of Ethiopia Gojam Amhara Dembya Bagemeder Enarea part of Zoa Mazaga Salem Ogara Abergal Holcait Salgade Cemen Saloa Ozeca and Doba The Countries that have been taken from him are Anget Doaro Ogge Balli Adea Alam-ale Oxela Ganz Betazamora Gurague Sugama Baharguma Catrbut Boxa Gumer Couch Damota Mora-Aura Habera Oyfal Guedem Marabet Manz Beramo with all the Ports he had formerly on the Coast of the Red Sea Tigre which is the chief Kingdom in the Habassian Empire begins at Matzua a small Island not far from Arkiko a Sea-port Town in the 15th Degree of the Northern Latitude it is 90 Leagues in length and 50 in breadth and is by much the most Fertil and Trading Countrey in Ethiopia for which reason the Jesuits fixed their first and greatest residence in a Town called Maegoga or Fremona which stands near the middle of it The Kingdom of Bagemder lieth
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
unhappily lost in the Voyage So that what I set down was what occurred to my Memory which I have done with great Fidelity Farewell my most beloved Son in Christ Lisbon the 24th of April in the year of our salvation 1534. After having writ this I called to mind the passage wherein I had affirmed That Christ had descended into the lower parts for the sake of Adam's Soul and his own which he receiv'd from his Mother the holy Virgin Mary Of the truth whereof we have a certain Testimony in the Books of Government as we call them which Books were delivered by our Lord Jesus Christ to his Apostles and they are likewise the Mystery of Doctrines insomuch that their Testimony is admitted as infallible among us The Portuguese Divines are of Opinions that are contrary to those Writings but that does not hinder that from being true which these Books affirm viz. That the Souls of men are derived from Adam that is to say As our Flesh is derived from the Flesh of Adam so our Soul as a Burning Light is derived likewise from the Soul of Adam which makes us to be all of the Seed of Adam both as to Body and Soul In this large Confession of Faith A Censure on Zaga Zaba's Confession of Faith albeit Zaga Zaba discovers himself to have been piqued by the Portuguese Clergy having teaz'd him as they did about his Religion and to have disputed himself into some warmth upon several Ceremonial Points yet as to the Doctrines wherein the Roman Church was at that time contradicted by the Reformers namely the Three great ones of the Pope's Supremacy Transubstantiation and Purgatory it is visible that to ingratiate himself with the Pope and King of Portugal and to make his Court the better he did both stretch his Conscience and sacrifice his Resentments to the Publick Character he bore Those Doctrines having never been at any time the Doctrines of the Habassin Church Which Charge of Infidelity is justified both by the Jesuits and his Countreyman Gregory who never spoke of him but with detestation calling him commonly a Beast of the Field And as to his saying that his Emperor's Name was Precious and not Prestor John it was a plain Trick in him designing by such a slight Correction of that word to establish the opinion of his Master being the Prince was meant by Prestor John in Europe For whereas the present Emperor's Name was David so I do not find that there was one of the Name of John in the whole Line of those Princes Neither is there any colour for its having been a constant Title among them But while David's Ambassador was thus detained at Lisbon The Emperor David brings a terrible storm upon himself by seeking to enter into an alliance with the Portugueses disputing Whether it was lawful to eat Black-Puddings he himself continued involved in a rude and cruel War brought upon him by his new Correspondence with the Portugueses whose Name at that time was become very formidable all over the East For whereas the Habassin as is plain from his own Letters did expect nothing less from his new Alliance than the utter extirpation of all his Infidel Neighbours Heathens and Mahometans so natural it is for people to overvalue any new and untry'd advantage and to expect much more from it than it is capable of yielding so his Infidel Neighbours and particularly the Mahometans apprehending that an Alliance betwixt the Habassins and Portugueses might prove a thing of dangerous consequence to them did all conspire to interrupt it by disabling the Habassin before any Portuguese Troops could come to his assistance In prosecution of which Design Granhe a Mahometan Prince obtains several Victories over David one Ahamed whose Nick-name was Granhe or Left Hand a Mahometan Prince having joined his Forces with those of the King of Adel upon whom the Habassin had begun a War he marched against David resolving to give him Battel before he was reinforced by the Portuguese Troops which though they did not come in several years after were expected by every Moncon David being flushed by some former Victories and having an Army superior in number to that of Granhe and Adel joined together was so far from declining to fight that he marched directly towards the Infidels The two Armies no sooner met than they came to blows and after a long and bloody Fight the Habassins were totally routed most of them being either killed or taken Prisoners David having narrowly escaped He drives him at last in a manner out of his Empire retired to the Mountains where he sculked about for Two Years with a small flying Body During which time Granhe made himself Master of all the best Provinces of that Empire burning down the Churches or prophaning them by converting them into Mosques whereever he came David seeing his Empire in imminent danger of being totally conquered David sends one John Bermudes a Portuguese after having given him a Title to succeed the Abuna when he died to Rome and Lisbon to solicite and hasten some Succors dispatched one John Bermudes a Portuguese who had been in Ethiopia ever since the Empress Helena her Government to Rome and Lisbon to acquaint those Courts with the Ill Circumstances he was in and to conjure them as they had any regard to the Preservation of a great Christian Empire to send him some considerable Succors with all possible Expedition for otherwise the Habassin Church and Empire would be speedily lost beyond recovery And in order to make his Court the better with the Pope and that King he obliged the Abuna Mark not only to consecrate the said Bermudes who till then was a pure Layman a Bishop but to declare him also his Successor in the See of Ethiopia Bermudes being thus consecrated a Bishop John Bermudes before he went was consecrated a Bishop by the Abuna His Habassin Ordination by a single Euâ—ychian Bishop was allowed to be valid by the Pope when he came to Rome and declared Successor to the Abuna began his Journey for Rome over land and being arrived at that Court in the year 1538 was graciously received by Paul the IIId who did not only allow his Habassin Orders to be valid but did furthermore confirm his Nomination to the Patriarchate of Ethiopia So that whatever it is that hinders the Popes from allowing the Orders of the Church of England to be good unless their Infallibilities will contradict one another it cannot be what they pretend to wit either the Heresy of her first reformed Bishops or their not having been three to consecrate since in this case the Consecration of a Bishop by a single Heretical Bishop was allowed by the Pope to be valid But England is England and Ethiopia is Ethiopia and Policy may not allow that they should be both treated alike Bermudes having dispatched his own Business at Rome Bermudes having got his title to the Abunaship of Ethiopia
already in a manner submitted himself to the Roman See by having in his Letters both to the present Pope and to Paul the IVth stiled them the Pastor of Pastors and Father of Fathers and Head of the whole Church To which he reply'd That he gave the Pope those Titles only in Civility and that it was not fair to strain Complements that pass betwixt friends to such purposes and if there was any thing in the Letters he sent to the Pope that was not agreeable with the Doctrine of the Church that it was not to be laid at his door but at Abraham the bearer's who to make his Court the better at Rome The Alexandrian after having taken the Pope's Money denies to submit himself to him had foisted several things into those Letters which he knew would be grateful to the Pope Abraham who was present when the Patriarch made this Declaration did not deny his having done it but smiling told the Jesuits That he believed it was lawful on several occasions to dissemble as much as that came to that being no more than what St. Paul himself had done who declared That he became all things to all men He added further A trick of an Alexandrian Monk That he had a Book wherein it was said That St. Paul when he was among the Heathens did act as a Heathen and to ingratiate himself with them the more in order to their Conversion at last did worship their Idols But notwithstanding Pius was thus Defeated as to this Patriarchal Submission he had a Sham-one of a Mock-Patriarch of Babylon ready for the Council of Trent against it Sate next Year Rodriguez as he was returning to the Indies had the following Account sent him by one Alfonso de Franca a Portuguese Captain that belonged to the Court of a Conference he had with the Emperor about Religion His Highness saith Franca intended to have caught me in the same trap he had set for your Reverence and having drawn his water over great flats to his Mill he charged me before all the Portugueses and the whole Court with having called him and Dioscorus Hereticks I made answer That our Sacred Writings of the holy Councils and our other Histories of the Church for 1070 years had still called them so and that the Eastern Churches that were separated from the Roman did the same To this he repli'd That tho our History might call them so A Conference betwixt the Emperor and a Portuguese about Religion yet God knew what his own Scriptures said of them I rejoined I was sensible that the Habassins did look upon us as Nestorian Hereticks pretending that we hold that there are Two Persons in Christ which is what I am told to my face every day and that the Treatise your Reverence Presented to his Highness did not prove the Truth of our Faith by affirming that it was not credible that so many Christian Kings being all united in one Faith and under one Pastor should be all in the Wrong and the Emperor of Ethiopia only in the Right He Answered I have hitherto lived in Peace and Amity with all Christian Kings and that it was I only that endeavoured to bring him to be upon ill terms with them I told him the Pope and my Lord the King of Portugal had sent me to reveal the secret of our Holy Faith to him which was all that I endeavoured and for which if his Highness was displeased with me I had a Religion and a King I would die for sooner than deny them He told me further That I had reported among his Subjects that their Abuna's were sent to them from the Turks I answered that was a great truth since none of them were ever consecrated at Rome or sent from thence He then asked me Why since I was so great a Romanist and a Bigot for my Faith I had desired to be Baptized in Ethiopia and to receive the Eucharist from them As to Baptism I said there was no such thing I having been Baptized when I was but Eight days old but as to the Eucharist it was true that being once dangerously stick I had desired it which was a thing I thought I might lawfully do in the extream necessity I was in at that time and that I would do it again if there were the same occasion and could not have the opportunity of a Roman Priest He told me he would order it not to be given to me St. Paul having said there is but one Faith and one Baptism To that I repli'd If St. Paul saith so why is your Highness Baptized once a year This put him into a great Passion and having given me a great many hard words he put his Hand to his Sword which I having observed I said to him Sir I would not have your Highness defer punishing me for for this Truth of the good Jesus I do not fear all the Kings of the Earth nor none but him whom we desire not to chasten us in his wrath but for you I would have you to chasten me in your anger for as there is nothing so excellent as the Soul so Iregard nothing that is not Infinite I spoke all this to him with an extraordinary courage so that seeing me much more resolute than he had ever done at any time before he went away and left me in the Field so that by what I can perceive by him he will sooner put himself under the Turks and so will his whole people too who are all Dioscoreans as are the Alexandrians than yield obedieace to the Holy Pope I did not care to acquaint you with this sooner for fear of having discouraged your Reverence from using your utmost diligence in your Office But while things were in this Posture in Ethiopia at Rome and Lisbon they still continued to reckon it as good as reduced to the Roman Obedience and that there was nothing wanting to perfect it but the new Patriarch's Presence among them who on the 15th of March 1556 set Sail from Lisbon upon the Ship called the Graca as Bishop Andrew did at the same time upon the St. Vincent and after a Tempestuous Voyage they arrived at Goa on the 13th of September of the same Year It cannot be expressed how much the Patriarch was troubled at the News of the present Posture of Affairs in Ethiopia The new Patriarch arrives at Goa which were brought by Redriguez to Goa a few days before he landed it being a terrible disappointment to him to find that a Work which he had thought would have done it self was next to impossible The Patriarch and Bishop with all their Companions were lodged in the Jesuits Collage where they found the old Patriarch but not a word of what passed betwixt them or of their having ever so much as seen one another tho' undoubtedly they did having been several Months together in the same House The new Patriarch having consecrated Melchior Elect of Nice they begun to
consult with the Viceroy what course they were to take He remains there and sends his Spanish Coadjutor into Ethiopia with a promise of Portuguese Troops to be sent after him the Patriarch notwithstanding Rodriguez melancholy Account of things is said to have been extreamly zealous to have gone to his Province saying He should either be able to effect there what he was sent to do or should have the Honour of dying a Martyr Nevertheless after several Consultations had been held about it it was at last resolved That the Spaniard Bishop Andrew should be first sent thither with some of the Fathers of the Mission but that the Patriarch and the Portuguese Bishop should remain at Goa till things were more promising in Ethiopia than at present they were of which if it ever happened Bishop Andrew was to send them intelligence In pursuance of this Resolution Bishop Andrew embarked in February and towards the latter end of March landed at Arkiko where having made no stay he went on with a good Train of Portuguese to Deboraa and was there received by Bahurnagays the Prince of the Country with great kindness The Bishop so soon as he came to Debora writ the following Letter to the Emperor THE Heavenly Father The Coadjutor's Letter to the Emperor with his Son Consubstantial and Eternal and the Spirit the Comforter one only God and Three Persons be always with your Highness with an abundance of his Divine Graces that so you may in all things know and follow his most Holy Will according to what our Lord Christ hath said in St. John 's Gospel My food is to do the will of him that sent me teaching us likewise in St. Matthew 's Gospel to pray Thy will be done The Catholick and Illustrious Don John the Third King of Portugal after he had prevailed with his Holiness to send a Patriarch with some Associates into Ethiopia being thereunto moved by no worldly Interest but purely by a Zeal for God and the Love he has for your Highness has been at a vast Charge the particulars whereof his Highness might be acquainted with if he pleased to convey them to the Indies where the Patriarch now remains waiting your Highness's Pleasure that when he comes he may serve Christ here the more effectually It was nevertheless thought expedient that I and some of the Fathers of the Society should be sent before the Patriarch having before I left Goa invested me with full Authority as his Coadjutor which I was ordained to by his Holiness and accordingly we are come as far as Deboraa where we have been kindly entertained by Bahurnagays and have met with very good Company namely Francis Jacome and divers other Portugueses Our business here is to serve God and your Highness whose Royal Person and Estate may God preserve for his greater Service and Honour Amen Deboraa the 26th of March 1557. The Coadjutor after having staid three Weeks at Deboraa He goes to Court intriguing with Bahurnagays about the Troops the Viceroy had promised to send after him begun his Journey to Court being waited upon all the way by that Prince and being come within a days Journey of the Camp he was commanded to stop till he received further Orders where having waited two days he received Orders to advance and being come within Cannon-shot of the Camp was commanded to pitch his Tent there where having staid a Day and a Night about Noon a great Troop of the Princes of the Blood and chief Nobility all well-mounted and equipped came to wait on him to his Audience two of which having alighted went into the Coadjutor's Tent and having complemented him in the Name of the Emperor told him His Highness was ready to give him a publick Audience and had sent the splendid Body of Men he saw to wait upon him to it The Coadjutor having returned their Complement he robed himself in his Pontificalibus and mounted a Horse that had been sent to him by the Emperor and besides the Habassins who paid their Respects to him one by one he advanced towards the Royal Tent attended with a numerous Train of Portuguese who to do their Religion and their Country the greater Honour had come from all parts of Ethiopia to be present at this Solemnity The Emperor having contrary to Custom ordered the Coadjutor with his whole Train to ride into the first Court of the Palace had placed himself with his Mother in a Window behind Curtains to see the Cavalcade and after having waited a while in the first Court they were all commanded to alight and to advance to the second where they were not kept long before they were conducted into the Tent He is received with great Ceremony betwixt a Guard of Old Men of the first Quality who with Batoons in their Hands stood all in good order paying their Respects to the Coadjutor as he passed by them with a profound Reverence and Silence from the Antichamber where he did not wait long he was introduced into the Emperor's Presence by two of the Principal Ministers whereof his Friend Bahurnagays was one and having paid the customary Obeisances the Emperor received him with extraordinary Civility asking him several Questions about the King of Portugal and the present State of his Affairs as also concerning himself and his Voyages and Journeys So soon as the Emperor gave over asking him Questions the Coadjutor presented the Pope's Ignatius and the King's Letters to him which the Emperor opened and looked into immediately but he had not read far before the change that was observed in his Countenance did clearly discover that he was not at all satisfied with their Contents and particularly with their supposing him to be a Member of the Roman Church a thing saith a Jesuit who was present at the Ceremony as far from his thoughts as Rome is from Ethiopia nevertheless being a Wise and Well-bred Prince and if they would have let him alone with his Religion a great Friend to the Portugueses he so far dissembled his Resentments as to dismiss the Coadjutor with great demonstrations of Kindness granting him leave to come to him as often as he had any business with him The Coadjutor at all his following Audiences He urges the Emperor to submit himself to the Pope was at the Emperor continually to submit himself and his Kingdoms to the Pope assuring him though he would not be so civil as to believe him That the Pope was Christ's Vicar and St. Peter's Successor upon Earth and that there was no Salvation for any one out of his Obedience The Answer the Emperor returned still to all the Coadjutor's passionate assurances was The Emperor declares his resolution never to do it That the Ethiopick Church had from the beginning been subject to the Chair of St. Mark at Alexandria and that he was so fully satisfied of the Justice of that Obedience that nothing in the world should ever be able to make him throw
than Za Selasse's word And for his farther satisfaction in that matter he sent an eminent Monk to the Army with a Commission to administer an Oath of Allegiance to them and according to the custom of Ethiopia to Excommunicate all that should hereafter withdraw themselves from his Obedience The whole Army having taken the Oath A Message is sent to him by the Army the Monk after having pronounced an Excommunication upon it returned to Suseneus with the good news of his being unanimously Sworn Emperor with all the usual Solemnities and with the Monk there went Ten of the chief Officers from the Army to invite the Emperor to make all the haste he could to come to them The Ten Commissioners from the Army found Suseneus advanced to a place called Begameder where they delivered their Message to him with this assurance That the Army now it had placed the Crown on his head would maintain it there against all pretenders whatsoever particularly Jacob. But while the Commissioners were giving Suseneus these assurances of the good Affection and Fidelity of the Army The Army upon receiving a Letter from Jaceb changeth its mind and declare for him Za Selasse received a Letter from Jacob acquainting him with his being come as far as Dembea and desiring him to March the Army that way to meet him Za Selasse was put into a great plunge by this Letter not knowing what he had best to do whether continue firm to Suseneus to whom he had so lately taken an Oath of Allegiance or to follow his inclinations in declaring for Jacob and having called all his Confidents together and laid the whole matter before them they came to a resolution to declare themselves for Jacob and did so commanding him to be proclaimed Emperor thorough the Army and the Army to march to meet him The Officers and Soldiers who had scarce done Swearing to Suseneus were no less than Selasse for laying him aside and adhering to Jacob now they heard he was coming to them as their rightful and undoubted Emperor Za Selasse having commanded the Army to March sent a Courier in great haste to the Commissiomers that were with Suseneus to acquaint them with the Army 's having declared for Jacob Upon which notice Eight of them stole from Begameder but the other two being stopped paid for all being put to Death publickly as Traitors Suseneus not finding himself strong enough to fight Selasse retreated upon this News to his former Fastness not despairing but that ere long he might be in a capacity of chastising those that had betray'd him thus Jacob was met by the Army near the Lake of Dembea Jacob comes to the Army which together with the whole Countrey strived to atone for their former ill usage of him by the extravagancy of their Joy and Acclamations upon his resuming the Crown But among all the Grandees Raz Athanateus his old Governor was the most graciously received by him being put immediately into places of the greatest Trust and Honour about him Who as he was one day discoursing with the Emperor took occasion to recommend Father Peter to him as a Person of extraordinary Abilities and who if he would employ him was capable of doing him great Service acquainting him likewise with Za Danguil's having a little before his Death writ Letters to the Pope and King of Spain for some Portuguese succors The Emperor upon Athanateus having recommended Father Peter to him so highly sent a Courier to Fremona to invite him to Court The Father taking two Jesuits more with him repaired thither immediately and was very graciously received by the Empress Mariam Cima who was now likewise in great power again as he was by the Emperor also when he returned to the Camp which he had been absent from for some weeks The Emperor is said to have had several Conferences with the Fathers about Religion and to have been persuaded by them into the belief of the Roman Church being the Head and Mistress of all other Churches promising when he returned from an Expedition he was then going upon to submit himself to her and as an earnest of his Affections for the Portugueses he bestowed better Lands upon them than those they had before Jacob Jacob makes Suseneus great offers provided he would give over pretending to the Crown being sensible of the sickleness of the Affections of his people and of the greatness of Suseneus 's Spirit who still continued to look upon himself and act as Emperor made him very honourable Propositions upon condition that he would give over pretending to the Crown and would promise to live quietly as became a good Subject offering him by the Mediation of his Mother the Viceroyship of the Kingdoms of Amara Olear and Xoa together with all the Lands that his Father had dyed possessed of which was all that he had pretended to in the former Reigns But Suseneus having wore the Crown found such charms in it Suseneus will have the Crown or nothing that nothing under it could now satisfy him so his answer to Jacob's Proposition was That since it was God and not men that had bestowed the Crown upon him he only that gave it should take it from him being resolved so long as he had a head to wear it to keep it on it Jacob finding by this bold answer that his Controversy with Suseneus must be decided by the Sword and not by Treaty Marched against him with a great Army but Suseneus hearing of his advancing towards him with a power much Superior to his both in Number and Strength retired again to the Mountains where he knew there was no attacking him but upon such disadvantages as would make their Forces to be equal Jacob being informed thereof divided his Army in order to cut Suseneus off from all Communication with the low Countries from whence he was to be supplied with all necessary Provisions Jacob marcheth towards Suseneus hoping by that means either to starve him or bring down his stomach But Suseneus finding that there was no remedy but that he must either venture out and fight or starve among the Mountains to treat of submitting being a thing he would never once suffer to enter into his thoughts he resolved on the former and being advised of Za Selasse being posted with half of the Army near Montadefer he sallied out of his Fastnesses upon him and like another Scanderbeg cut most of his troops in pieces as they lay dispersed in their Quarters Za Selasse himself having narrowly escaped falling into his hands who having carried the bad News of his own defeat to the Empeperor was so coldly entertain'd by him that he resolved to desert him and go over to Suseneus as a person on whom he thought Providence would one day or other certainly devolve the Crown And in pursuance of this resolution he dispatched a Courier privately to Suseneus with the terms whereon he was ready to declare for him and assist
been Emperor himself for Seven years and that with the Approbation of the People who had also restored him after he had been Deposed for some time neither was his being a Bastard any bar to him since according to the Natural and Civil Law a Bastard may succeed his Father as John the First of Portugal did his Fathor Don Peter besides Suseneus was a Bastard no less than Jacob. On the other side saith Tellez it may be alledged That Jacob having been deposed to make room for Za Danguil who was both the true Heir and was chosen by the Grandees and People upon Danguil 's death the Throne became void and the Election of an Emperor out of the Royal Family devolved to the Commonwealth whereupon Suseneus who was the Grandson of an Infante was chosen Emperor by the Army upon Jacob 's having delayed coming to them Concluding That whatever Princes Titles or Pretences in such cases may be in Speculation according to the Practice of the World he has the best Title that â—â—s the longest Sword But to return to the Fathers who having staid at Court till Winter obtained leave to go to Gorgora to fix a Residence there but they had not been gone a Month before the Emperor writ to them to come to Court again declaring that he could not be without their Company any longer The Fathers obey'd the summons and repaired to Coga a place near the Lake of Dembea where the Emperor at that time had his Camp They were no sooner arrived but the Emperor gave them an Audience and after that was over ordered them to Dine with him that is in the same Room though not at the same Table The Portugueses give a tedious account of the particulars of this Entertainment the main of which are That the Emperor does not feed himself but has his Meat put into his Mouth by his Pages that his Diet was plain and without any thing of Cookery and that he had neither Knife Spoon Table-Cloth nor Napkin and had Bread for his Trencher and never Drank till he had done Eating Father Peter and his Companions never missed the Emperor's Levee the Emperor taking great delight to discourse with them about Religion and the difference that is between the Habassin and Roman Churches which Conferences having continued for some time The Emperor offers to write to the King of Portugal and the Pope and is encouraged by Father Peter to do it the Emperor sent one day to Father Peter to come to him alone and being come he told him That nowithstanding he was convinced that he ought to submit himself and his Empire to the Pope yet it would not be safe for him to attempt it before he had some assurance that the King of Portugal would assist him against those who would oppose him in doing of it That he intended therefore to write a Letter to the Pope and another to the King about it The Father having extolled his good intentions encouraged him to write those Letters assuring him of as good an Answer to them as he could desire The Emperor Seltem Saged's Letter to the Pope THE Letter of the Emperor of Ethiopia The Emperor's Letter to the Pope Malac Eguet cometh to the holy Pope of Rome with the Peace of our Lord Christ who loved us and washed us from our Sins in his blood and hath made us a Kingdom and a Priesthood to God the Father May this Peace be always with your Holiness and the Catholick Church of Christ Amen We have for a long time had a great affection for the Christians of your parts upon the account of the benefits this Empire received from them when it was formerly rescued by the Portugueses out of the hands of Mahometans and restored by them to its ancient estate and quiet most of whose Race died in our Father's Reign who was willing they should enjoy what his Ancestors had given them whereupon so soon as through God's Grace I took the Government of the Empire upon me I determined to renew our Alliance with the Faithful People of Christ in order to remedy the manifest distractions our Empire of late years has been put into by the Mahometans for notwithstanding we have subdued most of our Domestick Enemies we have Enemies still that are much more Powerful that is the Infidel Gauls who have Conquered a great part of our Empire and destroyed many of our Churches and which is worst of all are daily Invading us and exercising unheard-of Cruelties on Old Men Widows and Children whom we are not able to protect without being assisted by our Brother the Emperor of Portugal We do therefore implore his aid as our Ancestors did that of his Predecessors formerly and that there may be no failure we resolved to intreat your Holiness who is the Father and Pastor of all faithful Christians to write to our Brother to grant us what we desire of him before the Gauls grow stronger upon us As to the landing of the Succors he shall send it will be done without any danger they that are the Masters of our Coast being at this time very weak at Sea so being assured that your Holiness will assist us according to our necessities we will trouble you with no more words but shall refer the relation of the state of our Empire and of the kindness wherewith we Treat those of the Portuguese race and of the care we take of the Fathers and their Churches to Father Peter Pays to whom I have recommended the doing of it and to whose account I desire you to give the same credit as you do to this Letter We conclude praying that our Lord Christ would preserve your Holiness for many Years for the good of the Catholick Church Written in Ethiopia on the 14th of October 1607. The Emperor's Letter to the King of Spain THE Letter sent by the Emperor Malac Eguet His Letters to the King of Spain cometh to the Emperor of Spain the Holy Land of St. Peter the Prince of the Doctors and of the Catholick Church of our Lord of which the Apostle St. Paul said I have betrothed thee to one man to present thee a chast Virgin to Christ To whom be glory and in imitation of the most pure Messenger St. Gabriel who saluting our Lady the Virgin said The Lord save thee and of Christ our Lord who on the Evening of the Lord's-day after his Resurrection said to his Apostles being assembled together Peace be among you and as St. Paul writes in all his Epistles The Peace of our Lord be with your Majesty our Brother in the Faith that was preached by St. Peter at the time when our Lord Christ commanded his Apostles to go all over the world and preach the Gospel to all Nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy Ghost How is your Majesty and how is your Empire we are in health thorough the Intercession of St. Peter your and our
greatest Saints that had ever wore a Crown But upon his returning to re-establish the Alexandrian Faith again which he did not many years after we have this great Character recanted being represented on that occasion and that by the same Missionaries as a wretch that had never any thing in him that was good So that Princes are Saints or Devils with some people as they are Friends or Foes to the Pope of which Queen Elizabeth and Mary Queen of Scots are a home instance After the Emperor the Princes Viceroys The Submission of the Prince Grandees and Ecclesiasticks and Ecclesiasticks of the Court made their Submissions saying I. N. do Promise Offer and Swear the same So help me God and these Holy Gospels When the Solemnity of Swearing was ended Raz Cella Christos began an harangue and having talked himself into an heat he drew his Sword and holding it up naked said what is now is now and what is past is past but whosoever shall not do his duty hereafter this shaking his Sword shall be his Judge After this all that were present took an Oath to Prince Basilides as Heir and Successor to his Father which Oath say the Jesuits when the Great Raz Cella Christos came to take he like a true Son of the Roman Church took it with a Condition worthy of his Courage and Christianity saying I Swear to the Prince as Heir to his Father in the Empire and I do promise to Obey him as a Loyal Subject so long as he shall Hold Defend and Favour the Holy Catholick Faith which whensoever he shall cease to do I will be both his first and greatest Enemy All his Officers and Servants taking the Oath to the Prince with the same Condition The Solemnity was concluded with an Excommunication pronounced by the Patriarch aginst those who should at any time violate these Oaths and with two Proclamations the one prohibiting all Habassin Priests to perform any Ecclesiastical Office before they had presented themselves to the Patriarch and the other Commanding all the Subjects of the Empire upon pain of Death to embrace Popery and to discover all such as adhered to their Ancient Religion Commanding them likewise to observe Lent and Easter according to the Roman Stile The next thing to be done A new revenue is setled on the Patriarch was to settle a Revenue on the Patriarch suitable to the heighth of his Dignity to which the Lands and Perquisites of the former Abuna's were not reckoned to be sufficient the Emperor therefore bestowed a great Estate in Land lying upon the shoar of the Lake of Dembea upon him giving him also the Palace of the Empress Mariam Eima and ordering another Palace to be Built for him in Dancaz where the Court resided for the most part The Patriarch having thus feather'd his own Nest begun to look abroad and having got the Emperor to found a College for Sixty Students at Dancaz he begun to send his Missionaries about and not having Fathers enough for so great an harvest he was forc'd to make use of such Habassins as were observed to have the most Zeal for the Roman Church And as it is common with some People to reckon a work done before it is well begun The Jesuits do reckon their work done before it was well begun so when the News of this solemn submission came to Lisbon Ethiopia was reckoned to be the Pope's as sure as Portugal for in a Book Printed there in the year 1623. by one Vega a Jesuit the World was told That the fervour wherewith the Habassins crowded into the bosom of Mother Church was too great to be either expressed or conceived and that there was nothing to be heard all over that vast Empire but Praises of the Roman Faith Old and Young Rich and Poor declaring that there was nothing to be compared to it and that whereas hitherto they had been as blind as Bats and miserably imposed upon they do now behold the Light and are happily rescued from the Blindness and Cheats of false Teachers the Roman being the only Faith that deserved to be maintained and if there should be occasion that is worth the dying for Nay the Patriarch himself as appears from a Letter of his sent to Portugal about this time was pretty sanguine too having assured the Fathers of his Society That he spoke within compass when he said an Hundred thousand had been Converted within a Year to the Roman Church which considering that Ethiopia is no very populous Countrey was an extraordinary Harvest And I do well remember that in the year 1685. he would have been looked upon at Lisbon as one of the greatest lyars in the World that should have denied that in Eight Months time above Six hundred thousand Protestants had been Christened for that was the word in England There were likewise a great many pretty stories Pretty stories sent from Habassia either sent from Ethiopia or made at Lisbon upon this occasion I shall only set down one of them by which the Reader may judge of the rest The Emperor having one day commanded one of his Sons who was but a Child to take up the Cudgels for the Roman Church against one of the most Learned of the Habassin Monks Bellarmine for so the Emperor used to call that Child took the Monk to task presently asking him without any premeditation Whether he Believed Christ to have been God before he was Born The Monk made answer be did Bellarmine then asked him Whether he did not believe God's Nature to be different from Man's Nature The Monk answered It was undoubtedly Hold your hand then said Bellarmine since you acknowledge he was God that took Man's Nature upon him How can you deny that there must be Two Natures in Christ with which argument the poor Monk was struck as mute as a Fish It is no great matter whether this story was true or not it being enough that it was pat for a Sermon upon the Text Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings c. But as all other Orders as we have hinted before do accuse the Jesuit Missionaries of magnifying their own Labours and Successes thus beyond all the bounds of Credibility so they do complain likewise of their disparaging the Labours of all other Friars in their remote Missions Of which Proud and envious carriage the Jesuits resident at Agra do in their Letters of this Year to their Superiors at Goa furnish us with a notable instance where speaking of some Friars who I suppose were Carmelites being come newly to that City they say They were so high-flown as to pretend to nothing under Raising the Dead adding they have begun to work but we do not as yet hear that they have Raised any that were Dead to Life We pray God they may prove true Prophets But though the Roman Church was thus Triumphant at Court the whole Body of the Empire notwithstanding the late bloody Proclamation was extreamly
as in a glass see what treatment they are to expect from Popery when ever the Supream Power is in its hands I have as an Appendix given the Reader an Epitome of the Dominican History of Ethiopia writ by a Friar of that Order and printed at Valentia in the Year 1610. and not only licensed by the Inquisition and all the other Regular and Secular Licensers of the Diocess but recommended likewise by them to the World as a true useful and edifying History As also a Full Account of the Practises and Conviction of Maria of the Annunciation the Famous Lisbon Nun which I take to be two such Originals in their several kinds as are not easily to be met with A Catalogue of the Authors out of whom this History was composed AThanasius Ruffinus Philostorgius Elmirinus Paulus Venetus Damianus Goer Zaga Zabo Francis Alvarez The Patriarch Bermudes John de Barros Antony de Gourea Osorius Pereira Thomas à Jesu Wunsleb Job Ludolphus Baronius Spondanus These that follow were all Jesuits Maffeius Gueriro Pays Godinus Almeyda Fernandez Tellez Rodriguez Vega. The Patriarch Mendes The Missionaries Letters Virichus A TABLE A. THE Abuna or Patriarch never grants any Indulgences pag. 88. A false Account of his Election 111. His Office 112. He comes to Court and is angry with the Conferences that had been held without his leave 301. The Conferences are renewed before him 301. He leaves the Court in wrath and excommunicates the Emperor 302. He promotes an Association in defence of their Religion 303. Being invited to Court goes thither well guarded 305. The Abuna and Monks wait on the Emperor in a Body 306. Upon the Emperor's slighting their Complaints they leave the Camp in a rage 307. He goes against Julius in person 309. and is slain 311. Adam succeeds Claudius 201. a fierce Enemy to Popery 201. is slain in battel 206. is succeeded by his Son Malac Saged who takes no notice of the Missionaries 207. Alaf is succeeded by his Son Adjam Saged the present Emperor of Ethiopia 465. The Agaus take up Arms 303. The Agaus having sent to a Prince of the Royal Family who had taken sanctuary among the Gaules to take the Crown of Ethiopia upon him take up Arms in defence of their Religion 356. Albuquerque sends two Envoys to Helena the Governess of Ethiopia 43. Alelujah the most famous of all their Monasteries 31. The Discoveries were intermitted and revived again by Alphonso The Alexandrian Submission he refers to was a mere Trick 231. They make a Remonstrance of their Case to the Emperor 360. They by a Trick necessitate the Emperor to declare his willingness that his good Subjects should enjoy their old Religion 390. The strong Mountain of Ambucanet is stormed by Gama 130. Father Antony Fernandez's Letter to the Father Visitor of the Indies 320. Ambassadors from the Portuguese and Habassins had their Audience of the Pope at Bononia 78. The Habassin Ambassadors submission to the Pope 79. Ambassadors are sent from Ethiopia to Portugal 289. A particular Account of the Ambassador's Journy 293. They are industriously sent out of the way 294. They are kindly received by the Comical King of Gingiro 297. They are stopt by the Prince of Combute upon an intimation of their not having been sent by the Emperor ibid. They are suffered to proceed on their Journey 299. They are thrown into Jayl by the King of Alaba and afterwards sent home stripped ibid. The Archbishop of Goa sends one Sylva a Secular Priest into Ethiopia 229. The Archbishop of Goa writes to the Abuna to submit himself to the Pope after the Example of the Patriarch of Alexandria 231. Athanateus's Letter to the King of Portugal 281. His Letter to the Viceroy of the Indies 282. B. BAhurnagays takes up Arms against Adam 203. He is routed and goes over to the Turks 205. He brings the Turks into Ethiopia and delivers Matrua and the other Seaport-Towns to them ibid. Bartholomew de Tiroli Founder of the great Dominican Convent Alelujah 470. Basilides throws his Uncle Raz Cella into Prison p. 396. He sendeth for the Patriarchs and Fathers Arms and banisheth them all to Fremona 396. Having extirpated Popery recovers most of his lost Provinces 465. After an happy Reign of Thirty two years he is succeeded by his Son Aelaef Saged 465. John Bermudes before he went was was consecrated a Bishop by the Abuna Habassin Ordination by a single Eutychian Bishop was allowed to be valid by the Pope when he came to Rome 120. Bermudes having his Title to the Abunaship of Ethiopia confirmed by the Pope goes from Rome to Lisbon 121. Where he acted as the Habassin Abuna ibid. He returns to Goa having as 't is said obtained an Order for 400 Soldiers ibid. C. TWO Italian Capuchins come to Suaghem 453. Six French Capuchins are sent by several ways into Ethiopia 450. Don Edward Calvam chief of the Embassy dying in the Island of Camera was succeeded by Lima 48. Cavillam and Payo who both understood Arabick are sent by the way of Memphis to find out Habassia 40. Cavillam Payo dying by the way goes first to the Indies then to the Southern Coast of Africk and at last enters into Habassia 40. He was kindly entertained by the King whose name was Alexander 41. He was detain'd as a Spy by King Nahod ibid. He sends an account of the Country by an Habassin Monk ibid. Cella Christos's Letter to the Pope 291. He turns Roman-Catholick 285. The Cardinal of Portugal prevails with the Pope to call the Patriarch out of Ethiopia 210. The High Chamberlain's Speech 341. The Church that had been turned into a Mosque is consecrated by the Abuna 131. The Churches built by Queen Sheba and Queen Candace 473. Claudius the Emperor invaded by Nur King of Adel 199. Gives him battel in which he was slain 200. Claudius hath some success in the beginning but was quickly after obliged to retire to the Mountains 122. The Coadjutor's Letter to the Emperor 181. He goes to Court 182. He is received with great ceremony 183. He urges the Emperor to submit himself to the Pope 184. The Coadjutor thunders out an Excommunication 197. A Dialogue betwixt the Emperor and Coadjutor 202. The Coadjutor and the Fathers made Prisoners by the Turks 206. The Patriarch dying at Goa the Coadjutor becomes Patriarch 207. A Conference between the Emperor and a Portuguese about Religion 178. Several Conferences about Religion 195 300. The Congregation de Propaganda fide being dissatisfied with the Conduct of the Portuguese Jesuits in Ethiopia takes the Mission from them and gives it to the Capuchins 446. The Congregations answer to the Patriarch 455. The Courtiers finding that none but Papists were favoured turn civil to the Fathers and their Religion 300. The Country is much alarmed therewith ibid. The Croisade is totally defeated and the old Abuna slain 311. A fifth Croisade raised against the Emperor 349. D. THE Damotes take up Arms for their Religion and are
For can a grown Man be born again or enter a second time into his Mother's womb Your Lordship further desires That we would assemble our Learned Men to Dispute with you before you depart about matters of Faith This ought also to have been done in the beginning besides Is that Cause like to be supported by Arguments which has been maintained hitherto only by Force and Violence By taking Estates from some The Cruelty of the Persecutions raised by the Jesuits and throwing others into Prison and Punishing others more severely and that for no other reason but because they would not embrace your Faith And as if that had not been sufficient you have dragg'd great multitudes out of the Desarts who would have been contented to have lived there upon Herbs and confined them to Prisons nay the poor People that would have been glad to have Buried themselves in Caves not having escaped your Persecution Now what a Barbarity would it be to go and tease poor People with Arguments who have suffered so much in Desarts and Banishments It would certainly be a very unjust thing both in the sight of God and Man As to your Lordship's desiring to have a Portuguese Guard to attend you that cannot be but we shall appoint a very Honest Man and who has a great train of Servants to convey your Lordship and all your Goods in safety to the place whither you are to go This Letter gives us a great deal of light into the Affairs of Ethiopia at this time For First We see plainly thereby that Popery as to its Persecuting spirit is the same in all Climates it having no sooner got the Power of the Government of Ethiopia on its side than it made the penalty of not embracing it the loss of Estate Liberty and Life and Herbs were reckoned too high a Diet and Caves and Desarts too good a Dwelling for those that left all and fled to them to preserve a good Conscience Secondly That their denying the Cup in the Sacrament to the Laity and the validity of the Alexandrian Ordinations and not their believing that there were Two Natures in Christ were among the chief causes of the Habassins having such an Aversion for Popery Lastly That Popery owed all the footing that it ever had in Ethiopia to Violence so that it no sooner lost the assistance of the Secular Arm than it came to nothing There are two passages likewise in this Letter which do seem to make it evident That the Habassins do not believe Transubstantiation the one is where they do absolutely deny our Saviour's Blood to be in the Element of Bread and the other is where they seem to intimate That our Saviour made his Disciples understand what he meant by calling the Bread and Wine in the Sacrament his Body and Blood by bidding them Celebrate it in Memory of him The Patriarch finding that there was no remedy but that he must go to Fremona and that the Emperor would neither lend him his own Arms nor appoint him a Portuguese Guard did thereupon desire him to charge some Responsible Man with the Books and every thing else that belonged to the Church declaring that if that was not done That he would not take them with him The Answer the Emperor returned to this petition was very short which was That for his part he did not know how to pack Goods and that he must therefore e'en do it himself and having done it be gone with them And the Patriarch having desired to know who it was that was to be his Convoy he had word sent him on Holy Thursday That they were two Messengers and two Nobles who would go well attended with Servants and that he must begin his Journey next Morning which being come the Patriarch made his Farewel-Sermon and after that was ended The Patriarch begins his Journey to Fremona he took off his Shoes and having shaked the Dust that was on them in the Air he put them on again and begun his Journey on the Second day whereof he dispatched the following Memorial to the Emperor Now that your Highness's Counsellors do reckon that the security of your Empire dos consist in the Extirpation of the Roman Faith His Memorial to the Emperor which is the only true Catholick and Apostolick Faith and in the Banishment of the Patriarch Bishop and Fathers I for my part notwithstanding I know your Highness is most miserably abused by those men do say with Jonas Take me and throw me into the Sea it being better that one man should die than that a whole Nation should perish However your Highness must know that the Roman Faith can never be destroyed it not being founded on the mud wherewith the Nile fills Egypt but on the firm Rock of St. Peter 's Confession to whom Christ hath promised that the gates of hell shall never prevail against it having also said to him at another time Peter I have prayed to my Father for thee that thy faith may not fail Wherefore being now banished for having preached the Gospel I can say with St. Paul I labour even unto bonds nevertheless the Word of God is not bound Wherefore as Fathers when they come to die or when they are to part with their Children for any long time do speak to them as Jacob did to his Twelve Sons or as old Tobit did to the young one and as Christ when he ascended into Heaven did to his Disciples so upon my departure I will speak to your Highness and your whole Empire all the truths which it imports you to be acquainted with In the First place I do testify to your Highness before God and Christ Jesus who is to Judge the quick and the dead That the Church of Rome is the Mother Mistress and Head of all Churches Christ having commanded her in the person of her Founder St. Peter to confirm his brethren and feed his sheep that is all the faithful of the world who are all the Sheep of Christ so that none can have God for their Father but they who have this holy Church for their Mother out of which there is no Salvation no more than there was out of the Ark in the time of the Deluge And I do farther declare That your Highness and all that are in your Empire who have violated the Oath you made in my hands To live and die in the Faith and Obedience of the Roman Church have incurred thereby the Excommunication which was pronounced by me and divers Priests in the name of God at that time and by the Authority of St. Peter and the Roman Pontiff his Successor from which you cannot be absolved before you return to the Obedience and Union