Of the Religion of the Habassins.

IT is a constant Tradition among the Ha­bassins, The Queen of Sheba is reported to have been Em­press of Ethiopia. That the Queen of Sheba that went to Visit Solomon, was Empress of their Countrey, whose Name, they say, was Ma­queda; and who, within a few weeks after she returned home, was delivered of a Son, Begat by Solomon, whom she Named Meni­leher.

Menileher, so soon as he was of Age to undertake so long a Journey, was sent by his Mother to Jerusalem to receive his Father's Blessing, and to be Instructed by him in the Law of Moses, and all other useful Sciences.

Solomon having received his Son when he arrived at Jerusalem, with great Tenderness and Affection, made him change the Name of Menileher, for that of David; and having tho­roughly Instructed him in the Jewish Religion, Her Son by Solo­mon is said to have introdu­ced Ju­d [...]ism in­to it. and made him promise to introduce it into his Empire, he dismissed him with Noble Presents, giving him also several Priests and Levites to take home with him to assist him in so good a Work. David being returned home, did with the help of the Priests and Levites, set immediately about introducing the Mosaical Law into his Empire, and was so successful, that in a few years it was embraced by the whole Body of his People, and continued to be professed by them, until the Publication of [Page 9]the Gospel among them. Upon which Fable, for I cannot look upon it as any other, they have built an hundred more, which are much sitter for a Legend than an History.

Neither is the Habassins having used Cir­cumcision, any argument at all of their ha­ving been ever of the Jewish Law; since there is nothing more certain, than that that Rite was the ancient usage of the Ethiopians, and divers other Nations, who were always Enemies both to the Jews and their Religion.

And as the Habassins will have their Forefa­thers to have been of the Jewish Faith, from the days of Solomon till the Preaching of the Go­spel; so they will have Christianity to have come among them early in the Apostles time.

It being a Tradition among them, The Eu­nuch that was bapti­zed by Philip, is said to have been of this Countrey, and to have in­troduced Christi­anity into it. That the Eunuch that was Baptized by Philip the Deacon, was Steward to their Empress; and who returning home after he was Chri­stened, Converted his Mistress and her whole Empire to the Christian Faith, in the Profes­sion whereof they have ever since continued stedfast. Which Story, notwithstanding I take it to be of a piece with that of the Queen of Sheba and her Son, yet this may be said for it, That it has a greater Air of pro­bability than most of the Traditional Histo­ries of the first Conversions of Countries.

What is known from History of the first Introduction of Christianity into Ethiopia, is, That in the beginning of the Fourth Century, one Meropius, a Christian Philosopher, going into India with Two of his Scholars, whose [Page 10]Names were Frumentius and Aedesius, Frumentius Bishop of Axum, was the Apo­stle of Ethiopia. had the misfortune to touch on the Coast of Ethiopia; where Meropius was inhumanly Murthered by the Natives, but his Two Scholars having their Lives spared, and being found to be Youths of fine Parts, as well as Beauty, they were carried to Court, where Frumentius was put into the Secretaries Office, and Aedesius into the Buttery.

When the Emperor, who had always been very kind to them, came to Die, he gave them both their Liberty; but as they were pre­paring to make use of it and return home, the Queen Regent was importunate with them to stay, and to undertake the Tutelage of her Son till he was of Age, which they having consented to, did during that time, write to all the Roman Merchants residing in the ports of Ethiopia, that were Christians, to assemble together to Worship God, as they themselves, and the Converts they had made at Court, did Daily.

When their Pupil came to take the Admi­nistration of the Government upon himself, they both desired Leave to return home, which having obtained with great difficulty, they left Ethiopia; Aedesius went to Tire to live with his Relations; but Frumentius ha­ving a greater love for his Religion, repaired directly to Alexandria, with an intention to acquaint the Bishop thereof, who at that time was the Great Athanasius, with the footing Christianity had taken in Ethiopia.

St. Athanasius, who was overjoyed at this good news, having consulted with his Clergy [Page 11]what was fit to be done, persuaded Frumen­tius, whom he observed to be a Person of great Zeal and Piety, to be Consecrated a Bishop by him, and to return into Ethiopia with that Character, to accomplish a Work he had so happily begun; and accordingly he was Consecrated a Bishop by St. Athanasius; and going back to Ethiopia, did in a short time Convert both the Emperor and the main Body of his People to the Christian Faith.

This Account of the Introduction of Christianity into Ethiopia, is to be met with in the 9th. Chapter of the 1st. Book of Ruffi­nus, who saith he had not this Story from the chat of the People, but from Aedesius's own mouth, who was Ordained a Presbyter at Tire.

And as Frumentius was undoubtedly Ortho­dox as to the Doctrine of our Lord's Divinity when he was Consecrated a Bishop by St. Atha­nasius; so the World coming afterwards to complain of its being turned Arian, could not shake his Constancy in the True Faith, as appears from Constantius's Letters to the Princes of Axum, whose Names were Abra and Azba; which Letter I shall here set down as I find it in St. Athanasius's Apology to that Emperor.

AS there is nothing we study so much as the knowledge of the Truth, Constan­tius's Let­ter to the Princes of Axum. so we reckon our selves obliged to recommend the same diligence and industry to all sorts of people, that we may all think so of the Divinity, as to pass our lives in hope, and without dissention, concerning what is true and just.

Wherefore since we do think fit to extend this our Care to you no less than to the Romans, we do en­join you to maintain the same Doctrines with them in your Churches; and to that end to send Bishop Frumentius into Egypt with all possible expedition, there to be judged by the most Venerable George, and the other Egyptian Prelates, in whom is the Supreme Authority of Ordaining and Judging af Bishops. For unless you will pretend to be ignorant of what all the world knows, you must be sensible that Frumentius was consecrated by Athanasius, a man made up of wickedness, and who not being able in the least to vindicate himself as to any of the Crimes he stands charged withal, was thereupon deposed, and has since that turned a Vagabond, roving from one Countrey to another, as if he hoped to lose his Guilt by shifting his dwelling.

In case Frumentius should yield a ready obedi­ence, and give a full account of the whole Conspi­racy, so that it shall be certified that he does not dissent from the Ecclesiastical Laws, and the Faith that is now established, and it doth appear that he is a Person of a Good Life, he may then be ordain­ed a Bishop; which at present he is not of Right.

Whereas if he shall seek delays, and decline coming to Judgment, that will be an undeniable Proof of his having been seduced by the words of the most Profligate Athanasius; as also of his acting impiously against God, and of his being involved in the same Crimes whereof Athanasius stands con­victed: In which case if he should be suffered to go on without controul, as he will do all that he can to corrupt your People with his Wicked and Impious Words, and not only disturb and destroy the Church, and belch out Blasphemies against the Supreme God; [Page 13]so he will likewise bring Ruin and Destruction upon all Nations. Whereas if he could be persuaded to come and converse familiarly with Venerable George and other Learned Men, he would reap great Bene­fits thereby, and return to his Bishoprick well in­structed in all Ecclesiastical Discipline. God pre­serve you, my most dear Brethren.

As this Letter is a clear demonstration of the greatness of the Arian Rage against the Orthodox, which not being satisfied with having Persecuted them with the utmost Bar­barities in all parts of the Roman Empire, pursued them beyond its bounds; so such a boundless Rage was never more conspicuous in Constantius, or any other Persecutor of the Professors of the True Faith, than it was in a Modern Prince, The French King's Rage against Prote­stants, su­perior to that of the Arians a­gainst the Ortho­dox. who not being contented with having harass'd and destroyed several Thousands of Protestant Families within his own Kingdom, did within these Ten Years write to all his most dear Brethren, the Great Turk not excepted, to drive all his Protestant Subjects, if they did not presently turn Roman Catholicks, out of their Territories; or which was worse, did by Solemnly withdrawing his Protection from them in Popish Countries, leave them at the mercy of the Inquisition.

Baronius in his Roman Martyrology, accord­ing to his humour of multiplying Saints, has made Two of a single Frumentius; for where­as in the Martyrology, it is said among the Indians, for so the Habassins were called anci­ently, of St. Frumentius, who was there first a Captive, and afterwards Ordained a Bishop by [Page 14]St. Athanasius, and did propagate the Gospel thorough that Countrey; the Cardinal in his Notes adds, At the same time there lived ano­ther Frumentius, who was Bishop of Axum in Egypt; whereas Axum is in Ethiopia, and not in Egypt; and was the City Frumentius men­tioned in the Martyrology was Bishop of.

Philostorgius, who was himself an Arian, speaking of Theophilus Indus, having been sent by Constantius on this Embassy, insinuates as if the Ethiopians had been turned by him to the Arian Sect. But Philostorgius being the only Histo­rian that insinuates any such thing, we have little reason to believe it upon his bare word.

About the Year 480. Nine Monks come into Ethiopia. Nine Monks are said to have been sent from Rome into Ethiopia; their Names were Araguai or Michel, Alef, Gavi, Afe, Adimata, Cuba, Garima, Saham, Lebanos, Pantaleon; the Patriarch Mendez, who quotes the Chronicon Axumense for this, truly observes, That by Rome here, is meant Greece; which after the Roman Emperors had fixed their Court in it, was called in these remote parts by that name; but the Domini­cans in their History of Ethiopia, of which the Reader will meet with an Epitome in the Appendix, will have all these Monks, though dead near a Thousand Years before Dominick was born, to have been Friers of his Order sent from Old Rome, and having turned Adi­mata, whom they call Imata, into a Woman; they have made her likewise a Holy Sister of their Order that accompanied the Eight Bro­thers in their Mission.

Metaphrastes, and after him the whole herd of Legendaries, do speak of one Elesbean a Christian King of Ethiopia in the time of Justin the Emperor; of whom, and of his having Vanquished a Jewish Tyrantin Arabia, who had been a Cruel Persecutor of his Christian Subjects, they have framed a tedious blind Story, that is not fit to be offered to any Reader that has not a Legen­dary Nose.

But as most Fables have something of History for their foundation, so if this of Elisbean has any, it must be the following History that is met with in Procopius's Persian War.

Justinian the Emperor being engaged in a War with the Persians in the Year 530. Justinian sends an Embassy into Ethiopia. sent one Julian Embassador to the King of the Axumites, or the African Ethiopians, and to the King of the Homerites, a Nation Inhabiting the Asiatick Coast of the Red-Sea that is opposite to Ethiopia, to engage them, being Christians, to joyn with him against the Persians, the com­mon Enemy of their Religion.

The King of Ethiopia's Name at that time was Hellesteus, who a few years before had out of Zeal for Christianity, the Christian Homerites having complained to him of their being miserably oppressed by the Jews and Heathens they lived among, crossed the Red­Sea with a Numerous Fleet and Army, and having in a pitch'd Battel Defeated and Killed the King of the Homerites, who had been a Cruel Persecutor of Christians, he advanced one Esimetheus, an Homerite Christian to the [Page 16]Throne, but upon Condition that he and his Successors for ever should pay a yearly Tribute to the Crown of Ethiopia.

The main thing proposed by the Ambassa­dor to the Ethiopian for the incommoding of the Persians, The busi­ness of the Embassy. was to open a Trade for Silk to the Indies, which the Romans, who used to buy those Silks of the Persians, would promise to take off his Merhants hands: But for the Homerites, the Ambassador desired Esimethus, who was their King at that time, to enter in­to a League Offensive and Defensive with their Neighbours the Madaans, who were Sarazens; and having joined their Armies, for to invade Persia. The Kings did both promise to do what the Romans had desired of them; but when they came to execution, they found their parts not to be feasible; the Silks that were brought by the Indians being all con­stantly bought up by the Persian Merchants, who lay much nearer to them than the Ethio­pians; and for the Homerites, the vast Deserts they were to pass thorough before they could come at the Persians, discouraged them, at this time, from attempting it, though King Abraham did attempt it afterwards, but with no success.

But as it is the common Fate of Nations, The Home­rites con­quered by the Ethio­pians, their Delive­rers. that invite their Neighbours into their Coun­trey, to be conquered by their Deliverers, so it fared with the Homerites at this time; for the Servants, and Thieving part of the Ethio­pian Army, finding Arabia a much better Country than their own, they resolved to re­main where they were; and not being long [Page 17]contented to live among the Homerites as In­mates, they set up to be their Masters; and having by force of Arms deposed Esimetheus, Esimetheus made King of the Home­rites, de­posed by the Habas­sine Army, which put Abraham in his place. they bestowed the Crown upon one Abraham a Christian, but who had formerly been a Slave to a Roman Merchant that resided at the Port of Adel in Ethiopia.

Hellenesteus having received Advice of the Pranks his Subjects, that remained in Arabia, were playing, dispatched 3000 Soldiers thi­ther to chastise their Insolence, and restore his Creature Esimetheus to his Royal Dignity; which those Troops were so far from doing, that having been corrupted by some Emissa­ries sent among them by Abraham so soon as they landed, when they came to engage the Rebels, after having slain their Chief Com­mander, who was a Prince of the Blood, they all went over to them, with a Resolution to stand by Abraham to the last.

Hellenestens being much troubled at this Loss, sent a greater Army than the former a­gainst Abraham, which coming to blows, was totally routed by him; after which Hellenesteus growing weary of the Charge of the War, gave it over, leaving the unfortunate Esimetheus to his unkind Stars.

Elmicinus, in his Sarazen History, reports, The Ethio­pians send an Ambas­sador to the Patri­arch of A­lexandria. That in the 39th year of the Hegira, which is 659 of Our Lord, an Ambassador was sent from Ethiopia to Simon Syrus, the Jacobite Pa­triarch of Alexandria, to intreat him to ordain them a Bishop, and some Presbyters; which the Patriarch having, I know not for what reason, deny'd to do, the Ambassador com­plained [Page 18]of him to Adulmelius the Sarazen King of Egypt, who commanded the Patriarch to ordain him as many as he desired; but the Ambassador did so highly resent Symon's de­nial, that when he offered him his Service, he would not make use of him, but employed another Bishop; which was the cause of great Disturbances in the Church.

In the 561st year of Diocletian, James the Abuna of Ethiopia deposed by the Queen, and resto­red by the King af­terwards. which is the 845th of our Lord, saith the same Histo­rian, there was a Bishop in Ethiopia whose name was James, whom, the Queen, taking advantage of her Husband's absence in the Wars, banished Ethiopia, substituting another Bishop in his room, for which the Kingdom was plagued with a great Drought, and Pesti­lence; but the King returning home, and be­ing much dissatisfied with the Queen for what she had done, sent to the Patriarch of Egypt, whither the deposed Prelate was retired, to command him back to his Province; which the Patriarch did, and the Bishop, when he return'd, was received with the general joy of the whole People.

In the Eighth year of Chalifatus Mutamidi, or as others will have it, A Tri­bute laid on the Patriarch of Alexan­dria by the Calif of Egypt. in his Seventh year, which was the 265th year of the Hegira, one Michael being Patriarch of the Alexandrian Jacobites, he had a Tribute of 20000 Crowns laid upon him; for the advancing of which Sum, he was obliged to sell to the Jews the fourth part of all the Churches in Alexandria, and the Lands belonging to him in Habassia, as also the Church in the Neighbourhood of Malaca in Cosvoim, in the City of Misra, [Page 19]and to tax every Christian at a Kirati yearly; all which amounted to but half the Sum of the Tribute.

In the 807th year of the Martys, The Nile diverted from com­ing down to Egypt; and turn­ed into its old Chan­nel again upon the Intercessi­on of the Bishop of Alexan­dria. which is the 1165th of Christ, the Nile being extream­ly low in Egypt, the King thereof, whose name was Mustausirus, sent the Patriarch Mi­chael with rich Presents to the King of Ethio­pia, who having received the Patriarch with great respect, did, at his request, order the Nile to be turned into its old Channel again, out of which he had diverted it; whereupon the Nile rose in one night to its usual heighth in Egypt, to the great joy of the King and the whole Countrey, who, when the Patriarch returned home, did him great honours.

Paulus Venetus reports, that in the year 1258. an Habassin King having been hindered by his Councellors from going in person to Jeru­salem, did send a Bishop thither, The King of Habassia victorious over the King of Aden. with rich Of­ferings, who, was not only robbed of all he had as he passed thorough the Kingdom of Aden, but upon his refusal to turn Mahometan, was sent home with a mark of infamy upon his Body; at which barbarous Treatment the Habassin was so much incensed, that having got together a great Army, he marched a­gainst that Sarazen Tyrant; and having beat him in a pitched Battel, and made great De­solations in his Countrey for some Weeks, he returned home laden with Spoils and Honours.

Haiton Armenus in his Directions to the Christians, how to recover the Holy Land, adviseth them to write to the King of the Nubians, meaning the Habassins, to invade [Page 20] Egypt with a numerous Army, which would divert the Sarazens from coming with their whole force against them into Syria.

When, or wheresoever the Arabick Canons, falsly attributed to the first Council of Nice, were made, the 36th of them relates wholly to the Bishop of Ethiopia, and runs as follows,

THE Ethiopians have no power to create or chuse a Patriarch, The 7th place in a General Council given to the Abuna of Ethiopia by the Arabick Canons of the Coun­cil of Nice. whose Prelate must be rather under the Jurisdiction of the Patri­arch of Alexandria; or in case they should come at any time to have one among them in the place of Patriarch, and who should be stiled Ca­tholicus, he shall not, notwithstanding that, have a right to ordain. Archbishops, as other Patri­archs have, having neither the Honour nor Authority of a Patriarch: And if it should so happen that a Couneil should be assembled in Greece, and this Prelate should be present at it, he shall have the seventh Place therein, next after the Bishop of Seleucia; and in case he should have at any time power given him to ordain Archbishops in his Province, it shall not be lawful for him to advance any of the Natives to that Dignity; whosoever does not yield obedience to this, is excommunicated by the Synod.

If there were nothing else to prove these Arabick Canons to be spurious, this Canon alone would do it abundantly; it being plain from Ecclesiastical History, that the Title of Patriarch was not known in the Church for some time after the Celebration of the First [Page 21] Nicene Council; neither was there any Bishop or Christian in Ethiopia at that time: Frumen­tius, who was the Apostle, or first Bishop thereof, having been consecrated a Bishop by Athanasius, when he was Primate of Alexan­dria, which he was not till after the Nicene Council.

In the Year 1177. Pope Alexander the IIId, Pope Alex­ander the III ^d pre­tends to have re­ceived an Ambassa­dor from Prester John. while he was at Venice, whither the Emperor Frederick had driven him, either received, or pretended to receive, a Message from the Great Christian Emperor Prester John, desiring to submit himself to his obedience, and to have a College at Rome, and an Altar at Jeru­salem for the use of his Subjects.

The Pope having made a noise with this Message, pretended to send Philip a Physici­an, who was said to have brought it, back again with a Letter to Prester John; I shall not trouble the Reader with that Letter; for besides that it contains little else than Hyper­bolies of St. Peter and the Pope's Supremacy, it is probable that that whole Affair was a mere Fiction, invented on purpose to make the Ro­man Emperor ashamed of persecuting the Pope, at the same time, when so remote a Christian Emperor was ready to throw him­self at his feet. For had this Message of Phi­lip's, whom some call Peter, been a real thing, it would certainly have taught the Court of Rome in what part of the World Prester John's Empire lay, whether in Asia, near Tartary; or in Africk, beyond Egypt: Whereas, long after this, that Empire, though called Ethiopia, was still supposed to lie somewhere in the [Page 22]North of Asia; for which reason it was still joined in the same Missions with the Tartars and Ruthens, and committed to the Charge of the Dominican Provincial of Poland, as being its next Neigbour.

In the Year 1308. Pope Cle­ment pre­tended to have re­ceived an Embassy from the same Prince. Prester John was brought upon the stage again; Pope Clement the Vth being said to have received a most splendid Embassy from him, consisting of 30 Ambassa­dors, by whom he was assured, that their Ma­ster had no less than 74 Kings under him, and who, excepting five of the smallest that were Mahometans, were all Christians; and that he had likewise within his Dominions an 127 Archbishops, every one of which had 20 Bishops under his Jurisdiction: Which pi­ous Fraud was spread about at that time on purpose to encourage the Latins to undertake a new Expedition to the Holy Land, being as­sured of the Assistance of this mighty Christi­an Emperor, whose Dominions were still re­ported to lie convenient enough for the car­rying on of a Holy War in Syria; It is pro­bable that there was never any such Em­peror. insomuch, that I am apt to think, that the whole Story of this Enchanted Asiatick Christian Empire was invented and kept up by the Trumpeters of the Holy War for that very purpose; no such Empire having ever to this day been dis­covered in Asia; what is reported by the Por­tuguese Missionaries of the Kingdom of Thybot, amounting to no more at most, than that those People were formerly Christians, but without the least Evidence of any Prester John, or Great Christian Empire having ever been in those Parts, But how they come to call a [Page 23]Countrey which they supposed to lie towards Scythia, Ethiopia, is one of the unaccountable Blunders of those Ignorant, though Fraudu­lent Ages; unless we will say, That they ha­ving heard something of a Christian Empire in Ethiopia, did either, for the foresaid Ends, industriously transiate it into Asia; or were so ignorant in Geography, as not to know what part of the World Ethiopia lay in.

In the Council of Florence (for so low we must come before we meet with any thing more of the Ethiopick Church) Eugenius the IVth, after he had dismissed the Greeks, Eugenius the IV ^th 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. find­ing it necessary for his Affairs to have the name of a Council still sitting, so long as that of Basil, which had deposed him, and chosen the Duke of Savoy Pope, was on foot against him; but being withal desirous to have it at Rome, for want of a better, gave this for the reason of his translating it from Florence thi­ther: That it was convenient that the splen­did Embassy from Zerah Jacob the High and Mighty Emperor of Ethiopia, which was on its way to that Council, with the submission of that Church and Empire to the Pope, should not find the Council sitting in such a paultry Town as Florence, but in the Metro­polis of Christendom, which would add some­thing of Authority to it, and accordingly it was translated.

But as it is certain that no such splendid Ethiopick Embassy ever came to Rome, so it is as certain, that it was never so much as thought of in Habassia; on the contrary, Zera Jacob, when he was solicited by some Jerusalem [Page 24]Monks on this Occasion, did absolutely re­fuse to submit his Church to that of Rome; for which denial, the Jesuits above 200 years after his death, made Sultan Saged, his Great Grandson, Sultan Sa­ged cur­seth his Grandfa­ther's Soul for not having submitted himself to the Romish Church. and their Convert, to curse his Soul to the Pit of Hell, saying, A curse on King Ze­ra Jacob, who was the cause of our not being at this time in the Portuguese or Roman Faith, for which he is now tormented in Hell.

Now though this Convert had been never so certain of Zera Jacob's being in Hell for having deny'd to submit himself to the Pope; yet considering he was his Great Granfather, he might very well have spared his Curses; such impious Expressions of Zeal, for I can call them no other, being much fitter for the Mouths of Profligate Algerine Renegadoes, with whom they are said to be common, than for a Prince who turns from one Sect of Chri­stianity to another. Besides, Zera Jacob, abating him that one thing of his having refused to sub­mit the Ethiopick Church to the Roman, was no such Miscreant as to deserve to be thus cur­sed by his Posterity: as appears by a Letter written by him to the Habassin Monks at Je­rusalem, to whom he sent the Collection of Canons which is now at Rome, giving them likewise several Lands for uses which the Church of Rome allows to be pious; this Mo­nastery of Habassins stands on Mount Gabor.

The Jesuit Guerrira, speaking of the fore­mentioned Ethiopick Embassy, saith, That the whole Story of it was either a mere Fiction, not knowing its like, of its having been made use of for so great a purpose by a Pope, or that it had no manner of effect.

But it is no matter whether it was a Fiction [Page 29]or a Reality, so long as it furnished a good pretence, for a present turn, and tended to the Disparagement of the Council of Basil, which, together with the ground it stood upon, was blown up purely by Tricks of this nature; the Yoke the Council of Constance had laid on the Neck of the Papacy, being broke by Pre­tences, of the Greek and all other Churches and Patriarchs having submitted themselves to it.

This is all that I have been able to meet with in Greek or Latin History concerning the Church of Ethiopia before the Year 1490, when it was first discovered by the Portugueses. And as for Histories of their own, I do not find they have any, besides some Fabulous Legends of the Lives of their Monks; of which I shall only give the Reader a Taste.

In the Life of Tecla Haymanot, the most fa­mous of all their Monks both for Piety and Miracles, the following Account of the Suc­cession of their Grand Abbots is given.

The Angel St. Michael gave the Cowl to St. Anthony; St. Anthony gave it to St. Macari­us; Macarius gave it to Pachomius; Pachomius to Abbot Araguni, or Michael, who was one of the Nine Monks that came into Ethiopia; Araguni gave it to Bazana; Bazana to Maz­ralmoa; Mazralmoa to Abbot John; John to Abbot Jesus; Jesus to Tecla Haymanot, to whom Christ appeared, and promised, that whosoever should kill a Serpent upon a Friday, should be pardoned all the Sins he had com­mitted in Forty Years.

But notwithstanding the Lives of the Ha­bassin Monks are all of a piece with the Lives of all the other Monks that are extant, that is, extreamly fabulous; yet this must be said for them, that Monkery continues to this day much the same among them, as it was in the beginning, from which in the Church of Rome it is so strangely degenerated.

For in Habassia, Monkery much the same in Habassia, as it was in the begin­ning. any one that has a mind to be a Monk, retires thereupon to the Desart, where he puts on what Habit he pleaseth, or judgeth to be most sutable to his pretensions. Their Obligation so long as they profess themselves Monks, which they are always at their liberty to give over, is to fast every day in the Year till three a Clock in the After­noon, and to Assemble together at Midnight, and at other certain Hours to perform their Devotions; they do generally exercise great Austerities upon themselves, being very strict in their Fasts, many of them eating but once in two days, and some never but upon Sun­days; some of them are said to have made Holes in the Trunks of Trees, and to have lodged in them till the Trees have grown to shut them in.

Their Monastries are more like Villages than Roman Convents, Their Mona­stries are little Vil­lages. every Monk having his distinct dwelling House with as much Land laid to it, as a Man is able to cultivate, and when they come to dye they dispose of their Goods as they please, only the Land re­mains still to the Monastries. Now this course falls in exactly with that of the Primitive Monks, who always lived in Deserts, where [Page 31]they work'd hard, and were under no Vows; whereas the Roman Monks have their Mona­stries in or near Princes Courts, and in all Populous Cities; and tho generally hurried into that Profession, either by their Parents, or by some sudden fit of Melancholy, are fet­tered in it by Vows for their Lives, and are so far from putting their Hand to any work, that they are every where become proverbial for Laziness; and as for their Buildings, they are much more like Palaces than the Dwel­lings of People that have renounced the World, and taken a Vow of Poverty upon them.

The most famous of all their Monastries, is that of Alelujah, wherein formerly there are said to have been 40000 Monks together, all the Country about having been given to the Monks thereof to cultivate.

I do not find that any sort of Learning did ever flourish among the Habassins, so that they have but few Books besides the Bible, the Canons of the first Councils, the Homilies of the Greek Fathers, and the Lives of their Saints.

The Habassins do hold the Scriptures to be the perfect Rule of the Christian Faith, The Ha­bassins hold the Scrip­tures to be the per­fect Rule of Faith. inso­much, that they deny it to be in the Power of a General Council to oblige People to be­lieve any thing as an Article of Faith, with­out an express warrant from thence.

Their Canon of Scripture consists of 85 Books; the Old Testament consisting of 46, and the New of 39.

As to the Doctrine of our Saviour's Incar­nation, They are Eutychians they are all Eutychians, holding that there is but one Nature in Christ, which is the Divine, by which they will have the Hu­mane to have been swallowed up; they were led into this Heresy by Dioscorus, Patriarch of Alexandria, who was condemned with Eutyches for it, by the General Council of Calcedon, whose Authority they for that rea­son reject, pretending that its Decrees were imposed on the Church by Marcian the Em­peror; on which account they call all those who have yielded Obedience to it, Mellites or Royalists, as they themselves are called Ja­cobites from one James, a Syrian, who was a great Stickler for the Eutychian Heresy.

They allow the Bishop of Rome to be the first Patriarch, They de­ny the Popes Su­premacy. but condemn his pretending to a Supremacy over the whole Church as Antichristian; and do detest Popery to that degree, as to declare, That of the two, they would sooner turn Mahometans than Roman Catholicks.

The Supream Authority in all Causes Ec­clesiastical and Civil, The Em­peror is Head of the Church. is in the Emperor. They have but one Bishop at a time, who is stiled the Abuna, that is, our Father; he is always an Alexandrian Monk, and upon notice of a Vacancy, is consecrated and sent into Ethiopia by the Alexandrian Patriarch, to whom this Church hath always been subject; he has the seventh place in a General Council; he Or­dains only by Imposition of Hands; he hath Lands both in the Kingdom of Dembea and Tigre, from which, besides several Perquisites, [Page 33]he receives a considerable Revenue. Their Priests Marry. Their Priests may Marry after they are in Orders, and as often as they are Widowers.

They are said to have divers Forms of Bap­tism, viz. I baptize thee in the Holy Spirit; They have divers Forms of Baptism. I baptize thee in the Water of Jordan; Let God Baptize thee; Come thou to Baptism. They Circumcise both Males and Females, and all are Baptized every Year on the Feast of Epiphany; they hold that Men derive their Souls, no less than their Bodies, from their Parents; and that the Children of Christian Parents, and especially of a Christian Mother, are saved notwithstanding they dye without Baptism.

They celebrate the Eucharist but once a day in a Church, All that are present at the Celebration of the Sacrament must communicate. They do not elevate nor a­dore the Host, nor keep it after the Com­munion. They break it after it is consecra­ted. They reckon the receiving of it breaks their Fast. at which none must be present without com­municating; the Laity as well as the Clergy receive the Cup; they do not elevate, nor Worship the con­secrated Elements, neither are they kept after the Communion; they consecrate unleavened Bread, which they break after it is consecrated; they reckon the receiving of the Sacrament breaks their Fast, for which reason they never receive it on Fasting-days till after Three a Clock in the After­noon. They do not 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 [Page 35] 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 [Page 36]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 [Page 37] 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, [Page 38]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 Island of Madera; after which he went on discovering more and more yearly, The Island of Made­ra first discover­ed. The Pope gives a Title to the Crown of Portu­gal to all the New Countries they shall discover. until they made the Mountains of Leaena, which lie 360 Leagues to the Southward of Ganaria.

The Infante, to encourage the Portugueses to go on with the Discoveries he had so happily begun, obtained a Bull from Pope Martin the Vth, and which was afterwards confirmed by divers other Popes, whereby he gave to the Crown of Portugal a Title to all the Countries that should be discovered by its Subjects from the Promontory of Ganaria, to the farthest Indies.

But notwithstanding this Grant, The Dis­coveries were in­termitted, and revi­ved again by Al­phonso V. after the Infante's Death, these Discoveries were for some years at a stand, until they were renew­ed again by Alphonso the Vth, whose Captains sailed first beyond the Mountain of Leaena, as far as Caboverde, and afterwards advanced as far as the Promontory of St. Catherin, which is two degrees and an half to the South of the Equator.

John II. who succeeded Alphonso, set his heart extreamly on carrying on those Disco­veries; and having got some Eminent Ma­thematicians about him, he commanded them to consult together to see whether they could invent any thing that might be of use in long Voyages; the most eminent of them, were Rodrigo and Josephe, his two Physicians, and one Martin Bohemo, The Astrolabe and Ta­bles of Declina­tion were found out by the Portugues. At the Ri­ver Zaires in the Kingdom of Congo, the Portu­gurses first heard of the Habas­sins. who had been Scholar to Johannes Monteregius. These Learned Men, after divers Conferences, invented the Astro­labe, and the Tables of Declination.

With the help of this Instrument, one Canus, a famous Sea-Commander, carried on the Discoveries as far as the River Zaires in the Kingdom of Congo. This River is said to rise in the same Mountains with the Nile, and in the Winter to run into the Sea with that vio­lence, as to make the Water fresh for 80 miles: Here it was the Portugueses first heard of the Habassins, and of their being Christians; of whom, when King John came to be in­formed, he resolved to send some by the way of Egypt, to try to get into that Countrey; the first that were sent being ignorant of the Ara­bick Tongue, were quickly discouraged, who having visited Jerusalem, returned home with­out doing any thing.

Only to excuse themselves, they raised Sto­ries that were enough to have daunted others from attempting that Voyage a second time.

But the King understanding what it was that had made his first Attempt miscarry, and having found two men who were both great Masters of the Arabick Tongue, whose names [Page 40]were Petro Cavilham, Cavilham and Payo, who both under­stood Ara­bick, are sent by the way of Mem­phis to find out Habassia. and Alphonso Payo; he sent them on the same Errand, with a strict charge not to come back without an Account of the Scituation and State of the Habassin Empire and Religion, promising them great Rewards if they did it effectually.

They went first to Alexandria, and from thence to Memphis, and from thence to Me­dena, where being informed of the Indies be­ing on the left hand, and Habassia on the right, they agreed to part there; and having cast lots, it fell to Payo's share to go to Habas­sia, and to Cavilham to go to the Indies, having appointed to meet at Memphis, after they had made all the Discoveries they were able in their several Provinces. Payo, whose Province was Habassia, died by the way before he got thither; Cavilham, Payo dy­ing by the way, goes first to the Indies, then to the Sou­thern Coast of Africk, and at last enters in­to Habas­sia. but Cavilham had better luck, and arrived safe in the Indies, where having ob­served all the Chief Ports and Commodities of those Countries, he made Maps of the one, and set down an exact Account of the other, which were afterwards of great use to the Portugueses, as well as an encouragement to them to go on in their Discoveries. After having finished what he had to do in the In­dies, he failed to the Coast of Africk, where having touched at Oramata, and the Promon­tory of Prasus, and at Rapti which stands on the Mouth of the River Sengi, as also at Melin­de, Quiloa, and Cephala, he was there certain­ly informed by the Merchants and Mariners, that there was a passage to the Indies, in the Latitude where the Cape of Good Hope was since discovered to be.

Cavilham being overjoy'd at this Intelli­gence, made all the haste he could to Memphis, where being arrived, he met with the bad news of Payo's Death; and tho he was wil­ling to have returned to Portugal with the In­telligence he had got, yet remembring how much the King's heart was set on the disco­very of Habassia, of which he was able to give him little or no Account, he resolved to take a Journey thither, which he did, having first sent the King in writing an exact Infor­mation of all the Discoveries he had made in the Indies, and on the Coast of Africk, by some Merchants that traded from Memphis to Lisbon.

In the Year 1490. Cavilham enters in­to Habassia, and was kindly en­tertained by the King, whose Name was Alexander. Cavilham first entred in­to Habassia, of which at that time one Escan­der or Alexander was Emperor, who being sa­tisfi'd of the truth of what Cavilham had told him, of his having been sent to him by the King of Portugal, and of the Greatness of that King; he entertained him civilly, and was preparing to have sent an Ambassador along with him to Portugal, but was prevented from doing it by Death.

But Nahod, who succeeded Alexander, He was detained as a Spy by King Nahod. was so far from executing what his Father had de­signed, that he would neither send himself, nor suffer Cavilham to return home, whom he looked upon and treated as a Spy. He sends an account of the Country to Portugai by an Ha­bassin Monk.

Cavilham finding that there was no hopes of his ever getting out of Ethiopia, persuaded an Habassin Monk, who was going to Jerusalem, to take a Journey to Lisbon, by whom he sent the King a full Information of the State of [Page 42]the Habassin Church and Empire, which com­ing safe to the King's hand, gave him abun­dant Satisfaction.

Nahod having reigned 13 Years, was suc­ceeded by his Son Lebna Danguil, or David, who being a Child at his Father's Death, the Empire during his Minority was managed by his Grand-mother Helena, who had been Wife to the Emperor Beda Mariam, and who for her admirable Wisdom and Learning, was highly esteemed by all sorts of People. She had a great Dowry in the Kingdom of Goiam, where she built the most stately Church that had ever been seen in Ethiopia.

This King had three Names; his Baptismal Name was Lebna Danguil; his second Name, which he took when he assumed the Govern­ment, was David; his third was Onay Segued; he was a Prince of great Courage; but as we shall see hereafter, was ruined by the vast hopes he had conceived of the Advantages that would accrue to him by his new Alli­ance with the Portuguese.

Emanuel succeeding John, Emanuel, King of Portugal, sends Al­meida with a great Fleet to take Or­mus, and some o­ther Sea-Ports in the Indies. both in the Kingdom of Portugal, and in his heat for car­rying on the Discovery of the Indies; after the Great Gamas having got thither, and en­tred into Alliances with the several Princes, did reckon that there was no security to his Trade in those Parts, without getting some of the best and strongest of its Ports into his own Hand; he thereupon sent Francisco de Almeida with the greatest Fleet that ever was sent before or since to the Indies, to take Adenum, Ormus, Malaca, &c. to which and all [Page 43]that he was able to Conquer in those Parts, the Popes, who pretend to a right to dispose of all Infidel, as well as Heretical Kingdoms, had given him a Title.

Almeida sailed from Lisbon with his great Fleet on the 26th of March in the Year 1502. and after a troublesom Voyage arrived at Quiola, where he deposed the King, and bestowed the Crown upon the most popular Man he could hear of; and having found a convenient Sci­tuation for a Castle, he run one up in twenty Days, and left a good Garison in it, which commanded both the Port and the Town; from Quiola he sailed to Mombacca, which having taken by Assault, after having plundered the Town, he burnt it to the ground; after that he sailed to Cranganor, where he likewise built a Castle which commanded both the Port and the Town.

In the Year 1507. Alphonso Albequerque ha­ving plundered most of the Towns upon the Coast of Melinde, sailed to the Island of Soca­tora, the Inhabitants whereof are Christians of the Jacobite Sect, as the Habassins are, where having taken the Fort of Benninum by Storm, he entred into the Persian Gulph; Albuquer­que sends two En­voys to Helena the Governess of Ethio­pia. and after having destroyed the Ports of Curiate and Mascat, and taken Zaor, Orfazana, and Or­mus, he sent two Envoys, whose Names were Joan Barmudes, and Joan Gomez, to the Emperor of Habassia, who was well-known in those Parts, to desire some Troops of him.

The Empress Helena, who was still Go­verness of that Empire, having heard of the [Page 44]great things that had been done by the Portu­guese Captains every where in the Indies, re­ceived those Envoys with great Ceremony, and expecting to reap great Advantages from an Alliance with a Nation that was so power­ful at Sea, she dispatched one Matthew an Armenian, Ambassador in her Grand-Son's Name to the King of Portugal, joyning an Habassin of some Quality in Commission with him; their Business was to conclude a League offensive and defensive betwixt the Crowns of Ethiopia and Portugal, and that in order to drive the Turks out of all the Ports they were possessed of on the Coast of the Red-Sea.

The Ambassadors having got to Goa, were there very kindly received by Albuquerque, who had taken that City but a little before, and were carried to Lisbon by the Fleet that went thither in the Year 1513. where they were splendidly received by the King; Matthew, besides his Letters of Credence, carried a piece of the true Cross from that Empress to the King, which had been sent her, for Names sake, it is like, by the Habassin Monks at Jeru­salem.

Upon the Emperor of Habassin's having made this glorious Proposition to him, King Emanuel resolved to send a splendid Embassy to his Court, named Don Edward Calvam, who had been Secretary of State to two Kings, and Ambassador at the Courts of Vienna, France and Rome, and one Rodriguez de Lima, and Francis [Page 48]Alverez, one of his Chaplains in Ordinary, to go Ambassadors, sending rich Presents by them, both to the Emperor, and his Grandmother.

These Ambassadors, with Matthew in their Company, went to Goa, on the Fleet that carried the Viceroy Lopez Suares; by whom they were sent in the Year 1520. with a strong Convoy to Arkiko, a Port in the Red-Sea, be­longing at that time to the Habassins. Galvam, who was the first in Commission, dying by the way, in the Island of Camara, was succeeded by Lima; who having made but a short stay at Arkiko, begun his Journey towards the Ha­bassin Court, where when he arrived, he was received by the Emperor with extraordinary joy and kindness; Matthew, who died in the way betwixt Arkiko and the Court, having been splendidly interr'd by the Ambassadors in the Monastry of Bisoym.

The Ambassadors who were to have retur­ned to the Indies by the same Fleet they came upon, having brought their Negotiation to a speedy issue, made what haste they could back to Arkiko, where, to their great mortification, they found the Fleet they were to have em­barked upon, gone, the Moncons or Trade-Winds, which in those Seas blow six Months from one Point, and six months from the op­posite, not permitting them to wait any lon­ger for them: And to encrease the mortifica­tion of this Disappointment, they met with Letters which had been left for them by the Admiral, that advised them of the Death of King Emanuel, the greatest and most fortunate Prince that ever wore the Crown of Portugal.

The Ambassadors not knowing how long it might be before they should have a Fleet to carry them to Goa; and being certain, that by reason of the Moncon it must be at least six months before one could possibly come to them, they returned to the Court again, where they remained four years before any opportu­nity for Goa offered it self. But at the end of four years they embarked upon a Fleet at Arkiko, sent on purpose to fetch them, carry­ing an Habassin Ambassador home with them with Letters to the King of Portugal and the Pope.

The Ambassadors did not arrive at Lisbon before the Year 1527. where the Habassin Ambassador, whose name was Zaga Zabo, was received with all the marks of friendship and kindness; but whatever was the cause of it, he was, to his great sorrow, detained above 10 years in that Court. He hath given the World a large Account of the Faith and Cu­stoms of the Habassins, which, though false in abundance of Particulars, I shall set down at length, having first translated the Habassin Emperor's Letters to the Pope, and the King of Portugal.

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, [Page 75]when he sent him Ambassador to that Court with the following Letter.

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 [Page 79]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.

To which Harangue the Pope's Secretary return'd the following Answer.

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 Spirit, and with Himself, without any defect, or division; the Son of the Father, the Son of the very Father, without any beginning, and at first the Son of the Father without a Mo­ther; the Secret and Mystery of whose Na­tivity [Page 82]is known to none but the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This Son in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was the Word with God, and God was the Word: The Spirit of the Father, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of the Son the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit its own Spirit; without any diminution or augmentation: That Holy Spirit is the Comforter of the living God, who proceedeth from the Father and the Son, and who spake by the mouth of the Prophets, and des­cended in a flame of fire on the Apostles in the gate of Sion, and who preached the word of the Father, which Word the very Son was all over the World; wherefore as the Father is not first, notwithstanding he is the Father; nor the Son last, notwithstanding he is the Son; so likewise the Holy Spirit is neither first nor last, but they are Three Persons in One God, who seeth, and is seen by no-body; and who by his only Council created all things. The Son did of his own accord, the Father being willing, and the Holy Ghost consenting, des­cend from his highest Habitation, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit in the Womb of the Virgin Mary; who was adorned with a double Virginity, the one Spiritual, the other Carnal; he was born without any Corrup­tion, his Mother, Mary, remaining a Virgin after her delivery; and by a Miracle, and a secret Flame of the Divinity brought forth her Son Jesus, without blood, and without pain; who was perfectly Innocent, and without Sin; being perfect God, and perfect Man; and having only one Aspect, he grew by de­grees [Page 83]as an Infant, sucking the Milk of the Virgin Mary, his Mother; and coming to Thirty Years of Age, he was baptiz'd in Jor­dan, and did walk, and was weary, and did hunger and thirst, as other men do; all these things he suffered voluntarily, and of his own accord, and wrought many Miracles; resto­ring, by the power of his Divinity, sight to the Blind, curing the Lame, cleansing the Lepers, raising the Dead; after all which, he himself was apprehended, and whipt, and scourged, and crucified: He languished and died for our Sins, and by his Death over­came Death, and the Devil; and by his lively Agony dissolved our Sins, and bore our Infir­mities: By the Baptism of his Blood, that is, his Death, he baptized the Patriarchs, and Prophets, and descended into Hell, where the Souls of Adam and his Sons were, as also his own Soul, which was from Adam, which Soul Christ received from the Virgin Mary, who by the power and splendor of his Divi­nity, and the strength of his Cross, broke the brazen fiery Gates of Hell, binding Satan with Iron Chains, and rescuing Adam and his Sons. All these things Christ did, because he was full of the Divinity; and the Divinity it self was with his Soul, as it was also with his most holy Body, which Divinity gave vir­tue to the Cross, and was what he always had, and will have for ever, in Trinity and Unity in common with the Father: Neither did Christ, during the time he was in the Flesh, ever want the Divinity and Dignity thereof for one moment. He was buried, and [Page 84]on the third day Jesus Christ himself, the Prince of the Resurrection, the most sweet Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ the Prince of the Priests, Jesus Christ the King of Israel, did with great power and strength rise, and after having finished all things which were foretold by the holy Prophets, he ascended with glory into Heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of the Father, and will come with glory, carry­ing a Cross before him, and in his hand a Sword of Justice, to judge the quick and the dead, of whose Kingdom there shall be no end. I believe one Holy Catholick and Apo­stolick Church; I believe one Baptism, which is the Remission of Sins; and I do hope for the Resurrection of the Dead, and the Life of the Age to come. Amen.

I believe the holy Lady Mary to be a Vir­gin both in Spirit and Flesh, and do reverence her as the Mother of God, the Charity of all Nations, the Holy of Holies, and the Virgin of Virgins. I believe in the holy Wood of the Cross, the Bed of the Agony of our Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God, who is our Salva­tion, for thorough him we are saved; which, notwithstanding it is an offence to the Jews, and to the Gentiles foolishness, we do preach, believing it to be the power of the Cross of our Lord Christ, as our Doctor St. Paul hath com­manded. I do believe St. Peter to be the Rock of the Law, which Law is built upon the ho­ly Prophets, and the Foundation and Head of the Catholick and Apostolick Church of the East and West, where the Name of Our Lord Jesus Christ is; the Power of which [Page 85]Church is in St. Peter, as is also the King­dom of Heaven, with which he can open and shut, bind and loose, and who shall sit with the other Apostles, his Companions, upon Twelve Seats with honour and praise, together with our Lord Jesus Christ; who upon the Day of Judgment is to pass Sentence upon us, which will be a day of joy to the Saints, and of sorrow and gnashing of teeth to Sinners, when they shall be thrown into the flames of Hell, with their Father the Devil. I do be­lieve the holy Prophets, Apostles, and Mar­tyrs, and Confessors, to have been true Imi­tators of Christ, whom, together with the most holy Angels of God, I do venerate, and honour, and do in the same manner embrace and reverence all their Followers.

I believe there ought to be an Oral Con­fession of all Sins made to a Priest, by whose Prayers, thorough Our Lord Jesus Christ, I do hope to obtain the salvation of my Soul: I do furthermore acknowledge the Roman Pontiff to be the first Bishop and Pastor of all the Sheep of Christ. I do likewise observe and obey all Patriarchs, Cardinals, Archbishops, and Bi­shops, of whom he is the Head of the Mini­sters of Christ.

This is my Faith, and Law, and the Faith and Law of the People of Ethiopia, who are under the Empire of Precious John; which Faith and Love of Christ are so established among us, that neither Death, nor Fire, nor Sword, re­lying on Christ's assistance, shall ever be able to oblige me to deny it, this being the Faith [Page 86]we are all to carry on the Day of Judgment before the Face of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

I come now to explain the Discipline, Do­ctrine, and Law, which the Apostles, assem­bled together at Jerusalem, did lay down in the holy Books of Synods and Canons, called by us Manda Abethlis, those Books of the Law of holy Church are Eight in number; concerning which, having had some discourse with seve­ral Learned Men here in Portugal, I never met with one that had ever heard of them before. The Observances prescribed in those Books are as followeth. (1.) That we are to fast upon all Wednesdays, in memory of its ha­ving been decreed by the Jewish Council up­on that day, That Christ should be put to death: We are commanded likewise to fast upon all Fridays, because Christ was crucify'd, and died for our Sins on that day; upon which two days we are commanded to eat nothing till Sun-set. During the 40 days of Lent we are commanded to fast with Bread and Water, and to be employed seven hours in the day in Divine Service; by the same Edicts we are commanded to Administer the Sacraments in the Evenings of Wednesdays and Fridays, because our Saviour expired at that time on the Cross: We are furthermore com­manded to assemble together unanimously on the Lord's Day in the Church three hours af­ter Sun-rising, to read and hear the Books of the Prophets, and afterwards to preach the Gospel, and Administer the Sacrament; they have furthermore appointed Nine days to be ob­served [Page 87]as Festivities in honour of Christ, to wit, the Annunciation, the Nativity, the Cir­cumcision, the Purification, or Day of Candles, of Baptism, of Transfiguration, Palm-Sunday, until the Octaves of Good-Friday, which are twelve days, of the Ascension and Pentecost, with their Festivities according to these Books: We are without exception to eat Flesh every day from Easter to Pentecost, neither are we bound to fast till after the Octaves of Pentecost, which is observed for the greater honour and vene­ration of the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ; they command us likewise to celebrate the Days of the Death and Assumption of the Virgin Mary with great honour: But besides the Precepts of the Apostles, a certain Precious John, whose name was Zara Jacob, ordained 33 days in every year to be kept in honour of the said Blessed Virgin; and a day in every Month in honour of Christ's Nativity, which is always the 25th of the Month; and a day likewise in every Month to be observed in ho­nour of St. Michael.

Furthermore, in obedience to the said Synod of the Apostles, we do celebrate the day of St. Ste­phen, and other Martyrs, and are bound by the In­stitution of the Apostles to observe two days, to wit, the Sabbath, and Lord's-Day, on which it is not lawful for us to do any work, no not the least, on the Sabbath-Day, because God, after he had finished the Creation of the World, rested thereon: Which Day, as God would have it called the Holy of Holies, so the not celebrating thereof with great honour and devotion, seems to be plainly contrary to God's [Page 88]Will and Precept, who will suffer Heaven and Earth to pass away sooner than his Word; and that especially, since Christ came not to dissolve the Law, but to fulfil it. It is not therefore in imitation of the Jews, but in obedience to Christ, and his holy Apostles, that we observe that Day, the favour that was shewed herein to the Jews being transferred to us Christians; so that, excepting Lent, we eat Flesh every Saturday in the Year; but in the Kingdoms of Barnagaus, Tigre, and Mahon, the Christians, according to ancient custome, do eat Flesh on all Saturdays and Sundays, even in Lent. We do observe the Lord's-Day after the manner of all other Christians, in memory of Christ's Re­surrection: But as we are sensible that we have the observation of the Sabbath-Day from the Books of the Law, and not from those of the Go­spel, A False­hood. so we are not ignorant that the Gospel is the end of the Law and the Prophets: On those forementioned Days, we believe the Souls of the Just departed this Life, not to be tormented in Purgatory, which ease will be granted by God to them upon those two most holy Days, until the term of their suffering for their Sins is expired, and they are entirely delivered; to the shortning and mitigating of which Torments, we believe the Alms that are given for the relief of the Souls in Purga­tory do contribute much; towards the remis­sion of which Souls, the Patriarch grants no In­dulgences, The Abu­na never grants any Indulgen­ces. which we believe belongs to God only, and that he only constitutes the time of their punishment; neither does the Patriarch grant Indulgences on any occasion. The Gospel obligeth [Page 89]us to observe only the Six Precepts, which Christ with his own mouth has explained, as follows, I was hungry, and you gave me meat; I was thirsty, and you gave me drink; I was a stranger, and you entertained me; naked, and you covered me; sick, and you visited me; in prison, and you came unto me; which are all words that will be spoke by Christ at the Day of Judgment; For the Law, as St. Paul says, sheweth us our sins, which Law, without Christ, The Ha­bassins be­lieve Ori­ginal Sin. none is able to keep: Paul witnesseth likewise, that we are all born in sin, by reason of the Transgression and Curse of our Mother Eve; Paul saith fur­thermore, that we died thorough Adam, and do live thorough Christ, who of his infinite mercy gave us these Six Precepts, that when he comes in Majesty to judge the Quick and Dead, we may be saved: With which Words and Precepts he will on the Tremendous Day of Judgment allot everlasting Glory to the Righteous, and to the Wicked Fire and Ever­lasting Damnation. We do reckon only five mortal Sins, as they call them, which are ga­thered out of the last Chapter of the Revela­tions, where it is said, Without are dogs, and witches, and unclean persons, and murtherers, and idolaters, and every one who loveth and maketh a lye.

It is constituted by the holy Apostles, Clerks may mar­ry. in the Book of Synods, that it is lawful for Clerks to marry, and that even after they have some knowledge of Divine Matters; who after they are married, are received into the Or­der of Presbyter, to which none are admitted before they are 30 years of Age; neither are [Page 90]Bastards ever admitted to it. Holy Orders are conferred by none but the Patriarch; and after the death of their first Wives, neither Bi­shops nor Presbyters are permitted to marry a second time, unless the Patriarch shall think fit to dispence with them, which he does sometimes, to emi­nent Persons, and when it is for the Publick good: Neither are they suffered to keep Concu­bines, unless they do voluntarily give over of­ficiating, after which they must no more med­dle with holy things; and this is so strictly observed, that the Presbyters, who marry a second time, must not presume so much as to take a consecrated Candle in their hands; and if any Bishop or Clerk is found to have had a Bastard, he is deprived of his Orders, and all his Ecclesiastical Benefices; and his Goods, if he dies without Children lawfully begotten, do all go to Precious John, and not to the Patri­arch: That it is lawful for Presbyters to have Wives, we have received from St. Paul, who would rather have both Clergy and Laity to marry, than to burn; who saith likewise, that a Bishop must be the Husband of one Wife, that is unblameable and sober, and in the same manner the Deacons; and all Ecclesiasticks as well as Secular ought to have their own law­ful Wives. Our Monks, notwithstanding this, do not marry, and neither Laicks nor Clerks among us can have above one Wife at a time.

With us Marriages are not celebrated at the Door of the Church, but in private Houses; we are taught likewise by the Constitution of the Apostles, That if a Priest is convicted of [Page 91] Adultery, Murther, Theft, or of having given false Testimony, that he ought to be deprived of his Orders, and punished as other Malefa­ctors in the same kind; and that an Ecclesi­astick, or Layman, after having known his Wife, or having been polluted in his sleep, ought not in 24 hours after that to enter into the Church, which Women are not to enter into, till the 7th day after their menstrua's are over, and until they have washed all the Clothes they had on at that time: Furthermore, a Woman that is delivered of a Man-child, is not suffered to enter into the Church till after 40 days, and of a Female, not till about 80 days, which Custom of the Old Law is com­manded likewise by the Apostles, whose Laws, Constitutions and Precepts, we do, so far as we are able, observe in all Cases.

It is likewise forbidden among us to suffer Heathens, or Dogs, or any other such Creatures, The Ha­bassins have a great ve­neration for their Churches. to come within our Churches; neither is it law­ful for us to go into them otherwise than bare­foot; or to laugh, walk, or spit, or speak of se­cular things, in them: For the Churches of Ethiopia are not like the Land wherein the People of Israel did eat the Paschal Lamb, as they were going out of Egypt, where God commanded them to eat with their shooes on, and with their loins girt, because of the pollution of the land: But they are like the Mount Sinai, where the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Moses, Moses, put off thy shooes, for the ground whereon thou treadest, is holy: Now this Mount Sinai was the Mother of our Churches, from which they derive their original, as the Apostles did [Page 92]from the Prophets, and the New Testament from the Old.

Furthermore it is not lawful for a Priest, or Layman, or any other Person of what condi­tion soever, after the receiving of the Vene­rable Sacrament, to Spit from Morning till Sun­set, The Ha­bassins are all Bapti­zed every year on the day of the Epiphany. and whoever does it, is severely Punished. In Memory of Christ we are also Baptized every Year on the day of Epiphany; which is not done by us as a thing necessary to Salvation, but only for the Praise and Glory of our Lord; Neither is there any Feast that we Ce­lebrate with so great Solemnities as this, be­cause it was on this day that the Most Holy Trinity first appeared manifestly, when our Lord Jesus Christ was Baptized in the River of Jordan, on whose Head the Holy Spirit Descended at that time, in the Figure of a Dove, and a Voice from Heaven said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased: Which Holy Spirit being in the Shape of a White Dove, did appear with the Face and Figure of the Father and Son in One Divinity: After the same manner Christ was seen by the Prophets under various Forms and Simi­litudes; first in the Figure of a White Ram, for the preservation of Isaac the Son of Abra­ham; after the same manner he called Jacob Israel; and Jacob called Judah, to whom he gave power over his Brethren, A lions whelp, saying, My son thou wentest up to the prey, and resting didst lie down as a lion, and as a lioness, who shall rouze thee? He manifested himself likewise to Moses in the Figure of a flame of fire on mount Sinai; and in the likeness of a [Page 93] Rock to the Holy Prophet Daniel; and to Ezekiel as the Son of man; and to Isaias in the Form of an Infant; he appeared to King David and Gideon in dew upon a fleece; and besides the forementioned, was seen under di­vers other Similitudes by the Holy Prophets; under all which various Figures, he still bore the Similitude of the Father and the Holy Ghost; and since God, when he Created the World, said, Let us make man after our own image and similitude, and he did make Adam after his own Similitude ahd Image; we do for that reason say, That the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, are Three Faces in one Similitude and Divinity.

We have also retained Circumcision from the time of Queen Saba till this day; They Cir­cumcise both Men and Wo­men. this Queen's true Name was Maqueda, who had Worshipped Idols after the manner of her Ancestors, until having heard much of the Wisdom of Solomon, she sent a Prudent Per­son to Jerusalem to certifie her whether that King's Wisdom was so great as it was reported; and after being satisfied that it was so, she took a Journey to Jerusalem her self, where among other things, she was Instructed by Solomon in the Law and the Prophets, and had the Books thereof bestowed upon her: As she was on her Journey home, she was Deli­vered of a Son begot by Solomon, whom she Named Meilech, and carried with her into Ethiopia; where having remained till he was Twenty Years Old, he went up to Jerusalem to Visit his Father, and to learn Knowledge and Wisdom by him; the Queen by Letters [Page 94]intreated Solomon to Consecrate his Son Mei­lech King of Ethiopia, A blind story of the Queen of Sheba and her Son. before the Ark of the Covenant and the Testament of the Lord, and that after such a manner, as to make it Unlawful, for the future, for a Woman to Reign in Etoiopia, as was then the Custom, and that the Males only in a direct Line should Inherit the Crown; Meilech when he came to Jerusalem, did with ease obtain all his Mother had desired, and instead of Mei­lech, was Named David by Solomon; who having sufficiently Instructed him in the Law and other Sciences, sent him home to his Mother, in much greater State and Splendor than he came with, sending several of the Nobles, and of their Sons, in his Train to serve him, and together with them Azarias a Prince among the Priests, the Son of Sadock, who was likewise a Sacerdotal Prince; where­upon Azarias put David upon asking leave of his Father for him to offer Sacrifice before the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord for a prosperous Journey, which he obtained; Aza­rias after having with great speed and secrecy got Tables made in imitation of the Tables of the Covenant of the Lord, did whilst he was offering Sacrifice, with great dexterity steal the true Tables of the Ark of the Cove­nant, and put his new ones in the place of them, none but God and himself being con­scious to what he had done; this among us in Ethiopia is declared to be a most certain and sacred Truth, being delivered to us in the History of the said King David, which is a Book about the bigness of St. Paul's Epistles, and [Page 95]very pleasant to read: When David was come to the Borders of Ethiopia, Azarias going one day into his Tent, discovered to him what he had so industriously concealed, telling him he had brought the Tables of the Covenant of the Lord along with him; whereupon David went straightways with him to the place where those Tables were kept, and after the example of his Grandfather David, danced before them with great exultation, as did also the whole Company: When he returned home, his Mo­ther resigned the Empire to him immediately, from which time, which is now near 2600 Years to this day, the Empire of Ethiopia has desecended from Male to Male in a Right Line. We have also ever since retained the Law of God and Circumcision, and the Mi­nistries prescribed by Solomon to his Son for the Government of the Court; all which do to this day continue in the same Families, and in the same Order; neither is it lawful for the Emperor to put People of another Race into any of those Offices. Furthermore, at the Command of the said Queen Maqueda, Wo­men are Circumcised also among us: Men and Women are Circumcised on the Eighth day, but Male-Children are not Baptized till the Fortieth, The Eu­charist is Admini­stred to Children when they are Baptized. nor Female till the Eightieth day after their Birth, without it be in case of Sickness, and when that happens the Chil­dren are not allowed to Suck their Mothers until after they are purified; the Water where­in Children are Baptized is Consecrated by Exor­cisms; and on the same day they are Christned, they Receive the Venerable Body of Christ under the Element of Bread.

We were among the first Christians that received Baptism, that Sacrament having been brought among us by the Eunuch of Candace Queen of Ethiopia, who is spoke of in the Acts of the Apostles; his Name, according to our Tradition, was Indick, from which time to this day, both Baptism and Circumcision have been in use among us, and most Reli­giously and Christianly observed, and thorough God's Grace will be so for ever. We do observe nothing but what we find in the Law and the Prophets, and in the Books of the Synods of the Apostles; or if any thing else is observed by us, it is done only for the sake of Order, and for the Peace of the Church, so as not to reckon it to be a Sin not to observe it; Circumci­sion is not observed by them as a Sacra­ment, but as a civil Custom. wherefore our Circumcisi­on is not Uncleanness, but it is the Law and Grace, which was given to our Father Abra­ham, and which he received from God as a Sign, not that he or his Sons should be Saved by Circumcision, but that his Posterity might be distinguished thereby from all other Nati­ons; and as for what is signified by Circumci­sion, we do observe it exactly by having our Hearts Circumcised; neither do we Glory upon the account of Circumcision, or prefer our selves to other Christians thereupon, or reckon our selves for it the more acceptable to God, with whom there is no acceptance of Persons, as Paul testifies; who tells us likewise, that we cannot be Saved by Circumcision, but by Faith; for in Christ Jesus neither circumci­sion availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature; now by this, Paul did not in­tend [Page 97]to destroy the Law, but to establish it, for he himself was Circumcised, being of the Seed of Benjamin; he Circumcised Timothy likewise after he was made a Christian, his Mother being a Jewess, notwithstanding his Father was a Gentile, knowing that God ap­proves both of Circumcision that is in Faith, and of Uncircumcision which is by Faith, for as he himself tells, he was made all things to all men, that he might save all; to the Jews he became a Jew, that he might gain the Jews; and to those that were under the law, as if he had been under the law, which he was not, that he might gain those who were under the law; and to those who were without the law, as if he had been without the law, whereas he was not with­out the Law of God, but was in the Law of Christ, that he might gain them who were with­out the law; he also became weak, that he might gain the weak; which he did, that he might shew that it was not by Circumcision, but by Faith that we must be Saved; and so when he Preached to the Hebrews, he spoke to them as Hebrews, saying, God hath at sundry times, and in divers manners spoke to our forefathers by the Prophets; and from thence proved to them that Christ was of the Seed of David ac­cording to the Flesh; he Preached likewise to them, That Christ was with our Fathers in their Tents in the Desart, and did lead them by the hand of Joshua into the Land of Pro­mise; he furthermore testified, That Christ was the Prince of the Priests, and had entered into the Holy of Holies, which is the New Ta­bernacle; and had by the Sacrifice of his [Page 98]Body and Blood, abolished the blood of Goats and Bulls, by which none that came, could be justified; and that he had spoke to the Jews in divers manners, and did suffer him­self to be Worshipped by his People with divers rites, and an holy and uncorrupt Faith.

Furthermore, The Chil­dren of Christian Parents before they are Baptized are called Half-Chri­stians. Those Children are looked upon by us as Half-Christians; who, as I am told, are reckoned to be Heathens by the Ro­man Church, upon account of their dying without Baptism; whereas being the Children of the holy Blood of Parents, who have been Sanctified by Baptism and the Holy Spirit, and the Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, up­on which Three Testimonies, all that are Christians are reputed to be such, they ought to be esteemed Half-Christians; for there are Three who bear Witness on Earth, the Spirit, the Water, and the Blood, as St. John testi­fieth in his first Canonical Epistle; the Gospel saith likewise, That a good tree bringeth forth good fruit, and an evil tree evil fruit; wherefore the Children of Christians are not as the Chil­dren of the Gentiles, Jews, and Mahometans, who are dry Trees without Fruit, but are chosen in the Womb of their Mothers, as the Prophet Jeremy and John the Baptist were.

The Children of Christian Women are furthermore Chosen and Sanctified by the Communication of the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, received by their Mo­thers, from whom they derive their Nourish­ment, during the time they are in their Wombs; for as an Infant in the Womb re­joyceth [Page 99]or is sorrowful, according as its Mo­ther is affected, so it is nourished likewise by its Mother's nutriment; for as our Lord saith in his Holy Gospel, Whosoever shall eat my body and drink my blood, shall never tast death; and again, He that eateth my body, and drinketh my blood, shall be with me: Paul likewise speak­eth to the same purpose, when he saith, the unbelieving husband is justified by the believing wife, and the unbelieving wife by the believing husband, otherwise your children would be unclean, whereas now they are holy. Now if the Children of an Unbelieving Mother are notwithstanding that, Sanctified by the Faith of their Father, how much more holy must they be, whose Father and Mother are both Believers? For which reason it is much more pious to call such Infants before they are Baptized, Half-Christians, than Pagans.

The Apostles in their Book of Synods do likewise affirm, That all who had Faith, though they were not Baptized, may be called Half-Christians; in which Books it is said, that if a Jew, or Gentile, or Mahometan, do em­brace the Faith, he shall not be received pre­sently, but must first come to the door of the Church, there to hear Sermons, and the words of our Saviour Christ, and that being disposed to Believe, he may understand what Christ's yoke is, after which he may be called an Half-Christian, even before he is admitted to Baptism; which is also according to the Gospel, which saith, He that believeth, and is baptized, shall be saved; but he that believeth not, shall be condemned.

It is also the custom among us, for Women when they are with Child to Confess their Sins and receive the Lord's Body before they are Delivered; and they who neglect to do this, are looked upon as Wicked and Impious Christians, as are also their Husbands for not having obliged them to it.

Confirmation and Extream Unction are not reckoned Sacraments among us, Confirma­tion and Extream Unction no Sacra­ments. neither are they in use in our Church, as I see they are in the Roman.

We do surthermore reckon it contrary to the Law of Moses, and the Institutions of the Apostles, to eat unclean Meats, from all which we do abstain merely in Obedience to the Law and the Scriptures; which with us consists of Eighty one Books; that is to say, the Old Testament consists of Forty one Books, The Scri­pture the perfect Rule of Faith. and the New of Thirty five; which Canon, or Number of Books, we have ex­presly delivered to us by the Apostles them­selves, and to which it is not lawful for us to Add or Diminish any thing, no not though an Angel from Heaven should persuade us to it; and we do look upon him as Accursed, that shall offer to do any such thing; so that neither our Patriarch nor our Bishop do reckon that they can either by themselves, or in a Council, make any Laws, That People are under an Obligation of a Mortal Sin to ob­serve.

In the Books of our Synods it is ordained by the Holy Apostles, That we must confess our selves before we can receive Penance from a Confessor, according to the greatness [Page 101]of our Sin: They teach us likewise how we ought to Pray, and Fast, and how to exer­cise Charity. Confession is much in use a­mong us; for we have no sooner committed a Sin, than we run and throw our selves at the feet of a Confessor; this is the constant pra­ctice of all Men and Women of whatsoever Quality or Condition; and whenever we Confess, we do receive the Body of our Lord under both Species, They all receive the Sacra­ment in both Ele­ments. It is not kept in their Churches. and in Wheaten and Unleavened Bread; so that if we Confess our selves daily, we do daily receive the Sacra­ment, as well Layicks as Ecclesiasticks. The Sacrament of the Eucharist is not kept in our Churches, as it is here in Europe; neither is it at any time Administred to the Sick, until after they are recovered. All among us Layicks, as well as Clerks, do receive the Sa­crament at least Three times a Week; which is never received any where but in the Church, It is never received but in the Church. no not by the Patriarch, or Precious John him­self.

We do always make use of the same Con­fessor, and do never go to any other, but when our own is absent, to whom when he returns we are bound to repair. The Confessors do in the Name of the Church, absolve from all Sins, there being no cases, no not the most heinous, reserved to the Bishop or Patriarch; Presbyters are not allowed to Confess them­selves to those that they Confess; and among us all Presbyters and Monks, and all Officers of the Church, do live by their own Labour; for the Church hath no Tythes, it has Lands which are Cultivated by the Priests and [Page 102]Monks, either in Person, or by their servants; and as for Alms, they receive none but those that are offered in the Church for the Burial of the dead, and other Holy Offices; it not being lawful for any of them to beg about the streets, or to extort Alms from the com­mon people.

Furthermore, The Sa­crament is never admini­stred above once a day in a Church. It is not shewed to the Peo­ple. No Masses are said for the Dead. in our Churches there is ne­ver but one Mass a day, which we do reckon to be a Sacrifice; neither is it lawful for us, according to ancient Custom, to Celebrate more; for which Mass we never receive any Money; the Sacrament of the Eucharist is not shewed to the People among us, as I ob­serve it is here; and all Priests, Deacons, and Subdeacons, and all People whatsoever that are present at the Celebration, are obliged to Communicate. We say no Masses for the re­mission of Souls, but our Dead are Buried in a Consecrated Place with Prayers and Crosses, over whom, among other things, we recite the beginning of St. John's Gospel, and do offer Alms for them the day after they are Buried, and at certain other times, when we have Funeral Feasts.

This is what I have to say of our Faith and Religion.

But whereas since my coming to Portugal, I have had several Debates with some Doctors, namely with Didacus Ortis Bishop of the Island of St. Thomas, and Dean of the King's Chappel, and Pedro Magalho, concerning the distincti­on of Meats, it will not be improper for me to say something of it in this place.

It is to be observed, that it is in obedience to the Old Testament that we observe a di­stinction of meats, which distinction is or­dained by the Word of God, who was after­wards born of the Virgin Mary, and walked and conversed with his Apostles; which Living Word of God had always an entire and ir­revocable Speech or Word, and who did no where in his Gospel say, that such things might be eat, as were before prohibited as un­clean. For as to those words in the Gospel, That whatsoever entreth into the mouth doth not defile the man, but that which cometh forth of the mouth; Christ's intent therein, was not to dissolve the Law he had formerly enacted, but only to con­fute the Superstition of the Jews, who blamed the Apostles for having eat Bread with unwashen hands; neither did the Apostles, A long Justifica­tion of their ab­staining from Meats that are made unclean by the Law. while they conversed with Christ, make use of unclean Meats, or so much as taste any thing that was prohibited by the Law, which was what none of them offered to transgress, no not after the time of our Lord's Passion, when they began to preach the Gospel; there being nothing in their Writings from whence it can be gathered, that they did ever kill or eat any thing that is unclean. It is true, Paul saith, Eat all that is sold in the shambles, asking nothing for conscience sake; and again, If any that are infidels invite you to a feast, and you are disposed to go, eat whatsoever is set before you, asking no que­stions for conscience sake: And again, If any one shall say, This is offered to idols, do not eat for his sake that told you so, and for conscience sake, &c. All which Paul spoke in compliance with those [Page 104]who are weak in the Faith, betwixt whom and the Jews there were frequent Debates; and in order to the putting a stop to those Disputes, the Apostle complied much with the weaker Christians, which he did not do that he would have the Law broke, but that by gratifying such People in the relaxation of Rites, he might allure them to the Faith.

The same Apostle saith likewise, Let not him that eateth, despise him that eateth not; for he that eateth, eateth unto the Lord; and he that eareth not, eateth not unto the Lord. It is there­fore an unworthy thing to reprove Christians, who are Strangers, with so much bitterness, as I have been reproved here, concerning this very matter, and other little things, which do no ways belong to Faith: It would certainly be much wiser for Christians, whether Greeks, Armenians, Ethiopians, or of any of the Seven Christian Churches, to bear with one ano­ther in Charity, and in the Bowels of Christ, in all such matters, and to suffer one another to live and converse with their Christian Bre­thren, being all Sons of Baptism, and unani­mous in the true Faith; neither is there any cause why they should debate so sharply about Ceremonies; or why every one should not be suffered to observe his own, and that without hating and persecuting others for theirs; nei­ther ought any one in a strange Countrey to be debarred the Communion of the Church for observing his own Church-Ceremonies.

As to that we meet with in the Acts, of Peter's seeing a Cloth let down from Heaven by the corners, wherein were all Four-footed [Page 105]Beasts, and all creeping Creatures, and Birds of the Air; and of his having heard a Voice that commanded him, to rise, and kill, and eat; to which Peter replied, Far be it from me, Lord, for I have never eat any thing that is common and unclean; to whom the Voice answered, What God has purified, that do not thou call unclean; which having been done three several times, the Vessel was then immediately taken up in­to Heaven; whereupon the Spirit sent him straightways to Cesarea to Cornelius, a holy Man, fearing God, to whom when Peter spake, the Holy Spirit descended on all who heard the Word of God: After which Peter baptized Cornelius and his whole Family: Now when the Apostles and Brethren, who were in Ju­dea, came to hear of what Peter had done, they were angry, and asked him, How he came to go to men who were uncircumcised, and to eat with them? but after Peter had de­clared to them the whole Vision, they were satisfied, and returned thanks to God, saying, He hath given repentance unto life to the Gen­tiles; and they remembred the word of the Lord, which he spoke when he ascended into Heaven, Go over all nations, and preach the Gos­pel to all creatures, in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; and he that believeth, and is baptized, shall be saved; and he that believeth not, shall be condemned: Then the Apostles be­gun to preach the Gospel over the whole World to every Creature, in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, insomuch that their sound went thorough the whole Earth: Now this Vision, wherein things clean and [Page 106]unclean appeared, we of Ethiopia interpret thus: The clean living Creatures were the People of Israel, the unclean were the Gentiles; who were therefore said to be unclean, because they worshipped Idols, and did the Works of the Devil, which are unclean. So that the Voice saying, Peter kill, was the same as if it had said, Teach and preach the Faith, and the Law of Christ, both to the People of Israel, and the Gentiles; besides, it is most cer­tain, that we read no where in the Scriptures of Peter, or of any other of the Apostles, killing or eating any thing that was unclean after this Vision: We are to observe likewise, That when the Scriptures speak of Bread, it is not to be understood of a Corporal Food, but of the Doctrine of the Gospel.

It is therefore adviseable for all Doctors and Preachers to teach high and sublime things of this Linen Cloth which was shewed to Peter, and not low things, which do no way apper­tain to Salvation; and least of all to draw Ar­guments from thence, to prove it to be law­ful for us to eat things that are unclean, see­ing no such matter can be gathered from the Scripture; but that is not all, for the Apostles themselves, in their Book of Synods, have forbid us to eat any thing that is strangled or tore, or half eaten by Beast, or Blood, he­cause the Lord loveth cleanness and sobriety, and hateth gluttony and pollution; and loveth those much who abstain from Flesh, and those more who fast with Bread, and Water, and Herbs, as John the Baptist did, who eat nothing else: As also Paul the Hermite, who [Page 107]lived in the Desert, and fasted 80 years; as St. Anthony, and St. Macarius, and a great number of their Spiritual Sons, who never so much as tasted Flesh.

Wherefore, Brethren, we ought not to con­temn and persecute our Neighbours; for St. James saith, He that speaketh evil of his bro­ther, or judgeth his brother, speaketh evil of the law: Paul teacheth likewise, That it is much better for people to rest satisfied with their own tra­ditions, than to contend with their Christian bre­thren about the law; and that in such matters they ought not to be wiser than is necessary, but to be wise to sobriety, according as God hath dealt to every man a measure of faith. Wherefore it is a very undecent thing to contend with our brethren about the law and distinction of meats, since meat cannot commend us to God; A chari­table Ad­monition. and especially since St. Paul hath said, Whether ye eat plentifully, or do not eat, ye are never the worse: Let us therefore look after higher things, and the food that is heavenly, and for­bear such low and empty disputations. What I have writ concerning Traditions, I have not writ out of a spirit of contention, but to defend my Countreymen against the violent reproofs of those who paid so little respect to the most Potent Precious John and his Subjects, as to load them with Reproaches, calling us Jews and Mahometans, because we circumcise, and sanctify the Sabbath, after the manner of the Jews, and do continue our Fasts till Sunset, as the Mahometans do: They do likewise object to us with great bitterness, That our Priests do marry, after the manner of the Lay-men; [Page 108]and that mistrusting our first Baptism, we are baptized yearly; and that we circumcise not only Males but Females also, which the Jews never did; lastly, that we observe a distincti­on of Meats with great strictness; and that we call Children Half-Christians before they are baptized: To which things I was obliged to return an Answer, to vindicate our people from the Calumnies that are cast upon them, and to render the Roman Doctors more affable to us, who, how piously I will not say, have ever since I came into Portugal, which is now Seven Years, deny'd me the Sacrament; so that, I cannot speak it but with extreme Grief and Tears, I am treated by my Christian Bre­thren as a Heathen and an Anathema: He that enliveneth all things, to whom I com­mit it, does take notice of these matters.

I was not sent by the most Potent Lord the Emperor of Ethiopia, to the Roman Pontiff, and to the most Serene John King of Portugal, to brangle and dispute, but to contract a Friend­ship and Alliance betwixt them; not to in­crease or diminish Human Traditions, but to enquire diligently into the Errors of Arius the Prince of Hereticks; and to learn whether the European Christians do agree with us in confuting his Opinions; upon account of whose Errors a Council of Three hundred and eighteen Bishops were assembled at Nice under Pope Julius: And that I might learn likewise whether what the Apostles have com­manded in their Book of Synods, was obser­ved among the European Christians; to wit, That Two Councils be celebrated every Year [Page 109]in the Christian Church, to treat concerning Matters of Faith; the first whereof they or­dered to be assembled at the Feast of Pente­cost, and the second on the 10th. of October: And to learn also how it stood betwixt us as to the Errors of Macedonius; upon whose ac­count a Council of an Hundred and Fifty Bishops was assembled at Constantinople under Pope Damasus: And also the Errors of Nesto­rius, against whom a Council of Two hun­dred were assembled at Ephesus under Pope Celestine: And lastly, That I might be inform­ed of the Fourth and Great Council of Chal­cedon, assembled upon the account of the Er­rors of Eutyches, at the time when St. Leo was Bishop of Rome; from which Council, after having had hot Disputes, the Bishops returned, without having concluded any thing for the Peace of the Church; both Parties maintain­ing their own Opinions.

The Books of which Synods, and of divers others that were afterwards celebrated, my Lord the Emperor of Ethiopia hath by him, who is very much troubled, as are also all his Christian Subjects, at the Tares which the De­vil, the Enemy of Truth, has sown among Christians.

Our people from the beginning have ac­knowledged the Roman Pontiff to be the first Bishop, to whom, as the Vicar of Christ, we do at this time submit our selves; and in whose Court we would be frequently, were it not for the great distance we are at from it, and our being denied a free passage through the Mahometan Kingdoms which lye betwixt [Page 110]us; insomuch that many times after having exposed our Persons to great dangers, we are not able to get thither.

The most Prudent and Invincible King Emanuel, of happy memory, was the first that by Divine Direction opened a Passage by his Navigation to the East-Indies; which for the future gives us great hopes of a commodious Correspondence: Emanuel made himself Ma­ster of the Red Sea with his Fleets; not being discouraged from doing it by the greatness of the Charge, that so he might augment the Faith of Christ, and open a Passage for us to correspond with him, and to make use of each other's assistance; by which means we do hope, with our united Forces, to drive all the Mahometans and Heathens not only from the Coasts of the Red-Sea, but also out of Arabia, Persia, and India. And as we do not in the least doubt but that we shall be able to do this, so we do wish that all European Christians were in Peace with one another, that so they might join together, The de­sign of this Habossin Embassy. in order to expel the Enemies of the Cross of Christ out of the Mediterranean Countries, and Pontus, and other Provinces; that according to the Word of Christ, there may be but one Law, one Shepherd, and one Pastor, upon the face of the whole earth; of which we have two Prophecies, one in the Prophecies of St. Ficator, and another of St. Sy­noda a Hermit, born among the Rocks in the extremities of Egypt; both which Prophecies do agree in this matter: For which reason we have reckoned the Events of those Prophe­cies to be drawing near, ever since my most [Page 111]Potent Lord had Ambassadors sent to him by the Serene and Wise King Emanuel. And it is certain, that ever since that time my Prince hath thought of nothing so much, as of de­stroying the Mahometans from off the Face of the earth; for the advancing of which design, and of some other matters which I have laid before the most Serene King John, the Son of Emanuel, I was sent hither by my most Potent Lord, and not to engage in frivolous and empty Disputations. I do wish the great God may bring the Intentions and Endeavours of my Prince, which I was sent hither to promote, to an happy Issue, so as to be for his Glory. Amen.

Having given some Account of these things, I will now with great Brevity say something of the state of our Patriarch, and Empire.

When our Patriarch dies, Precious John our Emperor immediately dispatcheth a Messenger to the Monks that live at Jerusalem; A false ac­count of the Electi­on of the Abuna. who having received notice, and the Presents that are sent to the Holy Sepulchre by the Emperor, do straightways chuse a Patriarch by a Majori­ty of Voices, who must always be an Alexan­drian Monk, of an unblameable life.

When they have chosen a Patriarch, they seal up their Votes, and transmit them by the Emperor's Messenger, to the Patriarch of Alexandria, residing at Grand Cairo, who im­mediately consecrates the Monk that is chosen to that great Dignity, and sends him with the Messenger into Ethiopia. The Person elected, [Page 112]according to ancient custom, must be a Monk of the Order of St. Anthony the Hermit; and who when he arrives in Ethiopia, is there re­ceived with great Joy and Honour. This Af­fair is not sometimes finished under a Year or two; during which Vacancy, all the Rents of the Patriarch are paid to Precious John. The chief business of the Patriarch is to con­fer Holy Orders, which none besides him can either give or take away. He collates to no Bi­shopricks, nor any other Ecclesiastical Bene­fices; which are all in the Gift of Precious John, who bestows them as he thinks good. When the Patriarch, whose Revenues are ve­ry great, dieth, the Emperor is his sole Heir. It is furthermore the business of the Patriarch to excommunicate all such as are obstinate; to which Censures there is so great a Respect paid, that all who slight them are condemned for their whole life to a strict and perpetual Fast. He grants no Indulgences, neither are the Sacraments of the Church denied to any Sinners, but Murtherers.

The Patriarch in our Tongue is called Abu­na; only he who at present is in possession of that Dignity, is called by his Baptismal Name, which is Mark; he is an Hundred Years of Age and upward.

With us the Year begins on the First day of September, which falls always on the Vigil of John the Baptist; the other Holidays, as the Nativity, Easter, &c. are observed at the same time as they are in the Roman Church.

The Gospel and Faith of our Lord Jesus Christ was first preached among us by Philip the Apostle. If you would know the name of our Emperor, it is always Precious John, and not Presbyter John, as it is here falsly reported to be in our Language: It is John Belul, and in the Chalde, John Encoo, or Pre­cious or High John: Neither is he ever called, as Matthew falsly reported, Emperor of the Habassins, but of the Ethiopians; for he being an Armenian did not thoroughly understand our Affairs, and least of all those relating to our Faith; which made him report several things to the wise King Emanuel of happy Memory, that were false; which was not done by him with an intention to deceive; for he was an honest Man, but because he was not well Instructed in the Matters of our Reli­gion.

The Empire does not of right descend to the Eldest Son, but to him on whom the Em­peror is pleased to bestow it. So the present Emperor was the third Brother, and got the Crown by a Pious piece of Reverence: For the last Emperor having when he was upon his Death-Bed commanded all his Sons to sit down by him on Royal Thrones, they all did so, except my Master, who said, Far be it from me to sit in the Chair of my Lord; for which act of Piety, his Father bestowed the Empire up­on him. His Name is David, and his Domi­nions of Christians and Heathens are very large, in which there are divers Kings, Prin­ces, Earls, Barons and Nobles, who are all extreamly submissive to his commands. He [Page 114]hath no other than Foreign Coin within his Territories, Gold and Silver being paid, and received among us by Weight: We have a great many Cities and Towns, tho not built as they are here in Portugal. Precious John keeps his Court perpetually in the Camp, which he does on purpose to accustom the Nobility to the Hardships and Exercises of War: Neither is it to be omitted, that we are Besieged on all Sides, by the Enemies of our Faith, with whom we have frequent Battels, but are always Victorious; which Victories we Attribute to the Divine Assistance.

A Written Law is not in use among us, neither are the Complaints of Litigants Tran­sacted by Papers, but by word of Mouth; which makes, that Law-Suits are not Protracted by the Avarice of the Judges and Advocates to any great length.

I am to tell you likewise, that Matthew was not sent by our Emperor David, to the Invinci­ble and Powerful King Emanuel of happy Me­mory, but by Queen Helena, who was Dowager to the Emperor; The Hand of Mary, who was Grandfather to David, and who, David being under Age, at that time was Regent of Ethiopia: She was undoubtedly a most Wise and Religious Princess, and was Mistress of so much Learning, that she Composed two Books in the Chaldee Tongue: The Title of the first was Euzara Clebaa, that is to say, Praise the Lord with Organs; in which she dis­coursed Learnedly concerning the Trinity, and the Virginity of the Blessed Virgin: The Second is called Chedale C [...]ay, that is, the Beam of the [Page 115]Sun, in which she has divers accurate Discour­ses concerning the Law of God.

All these things relating to the Faith, Reli­gion, and State of our Countrey, I Zaga Zabo, that is, the Grace of the Father; a Bishop Presbyter, and Bagama Raz, that is to say, a Soldier and Viceroy of the Province of Bagana, could not deny to Thee Damianus my dearest Son in Christ, nor indeed to any one that should have desired it of me: And that for two Reasons.

1. Because I was commanded by the Most Potent Lord, Precious John, Emperor of Ethiopia, not to conceal any thing relating to our Faith and Countrey, from such as should desire to have an account thereof, but to Communicate the whole truth of all such matters to them, both by Writing and word of Mouth.

2. Because I judged it convenient to ac­quaint this part of the World with our Man­ners, Rites and Institutions; and that the ra­ther because I had neither said, nor writ any thing thereof before; not that I grudged my labour, but because no Christian Soul since I came into Portugal, had ever desired me to do it, which is a thing I cannot wonder at enough.

I do therefore, knowing you to be extreamly curious to be acquainted with our Affairs, be­seech you by the Wounds and Cross of Christ, to Translate this Confession of Faith and Re­ligion into the Latin Tongue, that so the In­tegrity of our Manners and Rites may be [Page 116]known to all European Christians; and if you should at any time happen to go to Rome, I must intreat you to Salute the Pope, Cardinals, Patri­archs, Archbishops, Bishops and all the other Worshippers of Christ in my Name with the Kiss of Peace: And to desire the Pope to send Francis Alvarez back to me with an Answer to the Letters of my Most Potent Lord the Em­peror of Ethiopia, that so I may at last return to my own Country, and once more see my own House, having been detained here too long already; and that before I am arrested by Death, which by reason of my great Age I must be in a short time, I may carry back an Answer to my Master; and having finished my Embassy, may Dedicate the remainder of my Days to God, and Divine Matters: And in case this Treatise should not be so accurately Composed as it ought to be, I must beseech you to Correct it, and Adapt it to the Latin Phrase, but so as not to alter the sense.

Finally I must intreat you, in the Transla­tion thereof to consult the Old and New Te­staments, that you may the better understand out of what Books I have taken my Quota­tions, and may be able to translate them the more faithfully. And in case matters should not be so curiously handled therein, as to satisfy Cri­tical Readers, the fault thereof must be impu­ted to my want of Chaldee Books, of which I have not one by me; those I brought from home with me, having been 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 [Page 117]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 [Page 118]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 [Page 119]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 Eu [...]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 [Page 121]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, confirmed by the Pope, goes from Rome to Lisbon. which was all that was to be done at that Court, which seldom or never takes the ex­pence of any Missions, or holy Wars upon it self, further than its Blessings will go. He began his Journey for Lisbon, and being arrived there, he was kindly entertained by the King, to whom the Pope had left the honour of the whole expence and trouble of succoring Ethiopia, and was acknow­ledged by him, and the whole Court, as Ha­bassin Patriarch in Possession, and not in Re­version; and as such, though I cannot learn for what Misdemeanor, Where he acted as the Habas­sin Abuna. he threw the Ambas­sador Zaga Zaba into Prison, loading him with Chains, in which he intended to carry him home, had not the King interceeded for his Liberty.

The Patriarch Bermudes having, as it is said, He re­turns to Goa, ha­ving, as it is said, ob­tained an Order for 400 Sol­diers. obtained an Order from the King to the Vice­roy of the Indies, for four or five hundred Por­tuguese Musketeers, embarked upon the Fleet that was bound for Goa, where he arrived in the Year 1539. but however the King's Orders were, if there were ever any, it was two years after his landing at Goa, before any Portuguese Succors set their Feet in Ethiopia.

During this time, David by some means or other, is said to have got so considerable an Army together, as to have ventured with it out of his Fastnesses, and to have beat Granhe in a pitched Battel; but however this were, in the progress of the War, which lasted from [Page 122]the Year 1528. until the Year 1540. in which David died, it is certain he was driven by Granhe out of the greatest part of his Empire, he having no other Countries left him at his death, but such as defended themselves purely by their barrenness and inaccessibleness, such Countries being the common Receptacles of all conquered Nations, that have the conve­niency of them.

David died in the 47th year of his Age, David dies, and is succeeded by his Son Clau­dius. and the 36th of his Reign, leaving his Son Claudius a broken and distressed Empire, and all Princes, an Example of the folly of depend­ing upon remote Foreign Succors, and of be­ing encouraged by the hopes of them, to pro­voke their Neighbours, or to make them jea­lous of them.

Upon Claudius's coming to the Crown, Claudius has some success in the be­ginning, but was quickly after ob­liged to retire to the Moun­tains. the Empire, as if its Ill Genius had departed with David, began to revive a little; For he having got a small Army together, marched from a­mong the Mountains, and having surprized a Mahometan Prince, whose name was Amiriz­mon, and defeated him in a pitced Battel, he recovered the Province that Infidel had in the late Scramble made himself master of.

But the Joy of this Success lasted not long, for Amirizmon having recruited his Army with Mahometan Auxiliaries, obliged Claudius to come to a Battel, wherein he beat him to that degree, that he forced him to retire to a remote mountainous Countrey called Zaa, only with 70 men in his Company; Cabelo [Page 123]Oanguel the Queen-Mother, The Queen Mother leaving of a Portu­guese Fleet, being in the Red-Sea, sends two En­voys to the Ad­miral to implore some Suc­cors. The En­voys meet the Portu­guese Fleet at Matzua. taking sanctuary at the same time in an impregnable Mountain that was at no great distance from the Red-Sea; where she had not been long, before she re­ceived advice of a great Portuguese Fleet being come into those Seas, whereupon she dis­patched two Envoys, who were Bahurnagays, and the Grandee Robel, to the Portuguese Admi­ral to beseech him, if they met with him, to spare her Son some Troops, and a Train of Artillery, to drive the Mahometans out of Ethi­opia, of which they were in a manner become absolute Masters.

The Envoys not knowing any place where they were so like to meet with the Portuguese Fleet, as at Matzua, repaired thither to wait for it; and the Fleet not having been able to execute the Design that had brought it into those Seas, which was to have burnt the Tur­kish Gallies in the Port of Sues, happened, for it does not appear that it was by Order, to touch as they were returning home, at Mat­zua, to the great joy of the Habassin Envoys; Who having waited on the Admiral, and de­livered the Empress's Letters to him, told him plainly, That if he did not spare them a good Body of Troops, and a Train of Artillery, Ethio­pia was for ever a lost Empire; adding, That the Fortune of a great Christian Empire was now entirely in his hands; and as it would be for his immortal honour to save it, and the rather, because it was nothing so much as its new Correspondence with the Portuguese that had brought this dreadful Storm upon it from all Quarters, so they were certain his Master [Page 124]would not thank him, for suffering it to be utterly lost, when it was so much in his power for to have saved it.

Upon these Passionate Remonstrances of the Empress, and her Envoys, the Admiral called a general Council of War, to consult what was best to be done in so important an Affair; and after some Debates, it was una­nimously agreed, That something must be done to preserve a sinking Empire; and the rather, because it was visible its new Alliance with Portugal had brought this great storm up­on it.

The Council of War having come to this Resolution, They ob­tain 400 Soldiers of the Por­tuguese Admiral, which were comman­ded by Don Christopher da Gama. several Persons of Quality offered themselves voluntarily to command the Troops that were to be employed in the Expedition; as, to give the Portuguese Gentlemen their due, they are seldom or never backward to go whither their honour calls them. The Person that was named to command in Chief, was Don Chri­stopher da Gama, Brother to the then Viceroy Don Stephen da Gama, and Son to the Famous Don Vasvo da Gama, the Discoverer of the In­dies.

The Portugueses say, The Council of War agreed to send a 1000 Men under Gama, but the Envoy would not hear of so great a number, Bahurnagays having generously de­clared, That he would never be guilty of carrying Brave Men into a Countrey to starve them; that for 400, sufficient Provisions would be found, but not for more; but whether this was so or not, the Portuguese Historians have made the 400 that were sent, to have [Page 125]done the work of 4000 Stout men; the com­mon fault both of the Portuguese and Spanish Writers; who by their Romantick way of mag­nifying the Feats of their Countreymen, do render the truth of the whole of them suspi­cious.

On the 9th. of July 1541. Gama en­ters into Ethiopia with his Troops, and the Roman Patriarch. Gama with his 400 Select Men, and a small Train of Artil­lery, were put ashore at Arkiko, having the Habassin Envoys, and the Patriarch Bermudes in their Company; they had a tiresome March over Rocks and Mountains for the first six days, being many times forced for want of Mules and Horses, to draw their Ar­tillery by strength of Arm; at which work Gama is said to have been still one of the foremost: After a continued fatigue of six days they arrived at Deboroa, a Province be­longing to Bahurnagays, where the Monks and Christians, who were retired into the Moun­tains for fear of the Mahometans, having heard of their arrival, flocked in to them from all parts, Praising God, and giving Ga­ma and his Men a thousand blessings for ha­ving come to deliver them out of the grievous bondage they were brought under by the Ma­hometans: Gama seeing them all in tears, en­deavoured to comfort them, by telling them, That as it was nothing but the strong desire he had to restore their Prince and them to their former free and happy state, that had brought him into Ethiopia, so he did not doubt, but with God's Assistance, to do it both speedily and effectually for them, and to make the Infidels repent of their having inva­ded [Page 126]a Brother and Ally of the King of Por­tugal, and of the Ravage they had made in a Christian Empire. The People, being much comforted by these assurances, waited upon Gama to a Church that was not far off, where having all performed their Devotions, Gama with his men, repaired to the Tents that were provided for them by Baburnagays, where they were entertained with all the dainties the Countrey did afford.

The day following Gama divided his men into Six Companies, putting 50 in a Compa­ny, and ordered the other 100 to be a Guard to the Royal Standard, He sends an 100 of his men to fetch the Empress to his Camp. and to be immediate­ly under his own Command; the Captains were John O Affonso, Manuel da Curnha, Hum­phrey da Abreu, and Francis Velha; Curnha and Velha were dispatched immediately with their Companies to wait upon the Empress with Gama's Complement to her, and to guard her to the Camp: The Empress when she heard of their being at the foot of her Pre­cipice, for such it was, rather than a Moun­tain, ordered the Baskets to be let down, and when she saw them, she weeped for joy, and thanked God, and the King of Portugal for so seasonable a succor; and having enquired after the state of Gama's health, and some other particulars, she ordered them to be conducted to the Lodgings that were provided for them, where they were entertained as handsomely as the place and the Empress's Circumstances would afford. The next Morn­ing the Empress, who was quite sick of her Confinement, was let down from the Rock, [Page 127]and having mounted a Mule richly equipped, she marched with her Portuguese Guard towards Gama, The Em­press ar­rives at the Camp. who when he had notice of her being near, rode out to meet her, having first or­dered his men to stand to their Arms, and upon a signal given, to salute her with three Vollies: The Empress to do Gama the great­er honour, Unvailed her head when he came up to her, receiving him with extraordinary respects.

Gama after having done the Obeisances that were due to her Character, told her, That as he and all the Men she saw, were sent by the King of Portugal to her and her Son's Assi­stance, so they were all to a man resolved to sacrifice their Lives for the Faith of Christ, and in defence of that Christian Empire. The Empress thanked him very cordially, and told him God would certainly reward him for such a service, though her Son and she should happen never to be in a condition to do it, not but that she hoped, that his Valour and Conduct would raise them to a capacity of being bountiful to their Benefactors.

After the Compliments were over, the Empress with the Ladies that attended her, went to the Tent that was provided for them, being waited upon to it by Gama, and most of his Officers. On the second day after her arrival in the Camp, Gama drew all his Men up in a body before her Tent, and ex­ercised them before her; she was extreamly pleased with their Persons and Discipline, and promised her self great things from so well Disciplined a body.

In a Council of War, at which the Empress and Baburnagays were present, it was agreed, That their Camp should remain where it was till the end of October, and that in the mean time they should send to the Emperor to ac­quaint him with the arrival of the Portuguese Troops. The Em­peror be­ing ac­quainted with the arrival of the Portu­gueses, writes to Gama to come and joyn him. The Emperor, so soon as he received advice thereof, writ immediately to Gama, desiring him to March towards him with all the haste he could make, to prevent the Ene­mies putting himself betwixt them to hinder their conjunction.

But whatever was the cause of it, it was the 5th. of December before Gama decamped from Debora; when taking the Empress along with him, and being joyned by 2000 Ha­bassins, he Marched toward the Emperor in as good order as the nature of the Countrey would permit him; the Mahometans, who were employed by Granhe to raise Money, flying before him as he Marched; and the Habassins, so soon as their Lord Dans were gone, running in to him from all parts for Protection, supplying him with all Necessa­ries. On the 1st. of February 1542. they came before a strong Mountain which Granhe had got into his hands by Treachery, into which by reason of its Commanding all the Coun­trey about, he had put a Garison of 1500 men; this Mountain is not above Three days March in a right line from Debora; but what made them to be near Two Months in getting to it, was their having fetched a great Com­pass in order to the reducing of several of the best Provinces to the Emperor's Obedience, [Page 129]which they did only by Marching thorough them.

Gama finding all they had done, if they did not make themselves Masters of this Moun­tain, would signify nothing, did resolve, what­ever it cost him, to attempt it; the Empress was much against his doing it, and gave this for her Reason, That should the Portugueses be baffled in that Attempt, as considering the Strength of the Place and the Garison, it was too likely they might, the Mahometans to whom at present their Name was become ter­rible, would recover their courage again: But Gama offered such strong reasons for their not leaving such a Garison behind them, that the Empress was overcome by them, and gave her consent to its being Attaqued.

The Mountain was both High and Steep, and on the top of it was a Plain of near a League in compass, in which was water sufficient for the Garison: It had Three Entries which were all strongly fortified both by Art and Nature; The Chief of them was called Amba Cane [...], which is the Name of the Mountain it self: The Second is called Amba Xambut: The Third Amba Gadalet. They had all of them Governors, with a Guard of Five Hundred Men well Armed, with Bows and Scimiters to defend them.

Gama after having strictly Survey'd it, judged it the best way to make an Assault upon all the Entries at once; and accordingly charged Francis Velho, and Manoel da Cunha with the First, and John de Fanseca, and Francis d' Abrew, with the Second; who had each of [Page 130]them Three Field-Pieces, taking the Third, which was by much the strongest, to himself. In the Night he ordered several false Attacks to be made, on purpose to make the Enemy spend their Arrows, which they did in great showers, without Killing or Wounding one of the Portugueses; who having performed their Devotions, and received the Patriarch's Bles­sing, advanced so soon as it was Day with their Artillery; with which having plaid for some time upon the Entry, they afterwards fell palmall upon those that Guarded them, by whom they were warmly received and repulsed twice: Gama, who little expected to have met with such a stout Resistance, was much con­cerned to see his Men beat off so; neverthe­less resolving since he had begun it, either to carry his Point, The strong Moun­tain of Amba Ca­net, is stormed by Gama. or to lose his Life in the En­terprise; he made a Third Attack, in which after a long struggle, he obliged the Enemy to leave the Pass, and Retreat with a great loss of Men to the top of the Mountain: The other two Passes were likewise opened by his Men much about the same time; but the Ga­rison after this was so far from offering to Ca­pitulate, that they disputed every Inch of the top of the Mountain with the Portugueses, fighting it out to the last man: Of the Por­rugueses there were but 7 Killed, and 40 wound­ed in all this Action.

Gama so soon as he was absolute Master of the Place, sent down one to wish the Empress Joy of it; and to desire her, to do her Mountain Amba Camet the honour to visit it, assuring her that she might now safely do it; [Page 131]there being not one Mahometan left alive upon it; the Empress was over-joy'd at the News, and having magnified the Portuguese Valour and Conduct beyond measure, she returned her Thanks to Gama for the great Service he had done her Son in reducing such a strong Place, but desired to be excused from visiting of it: For besides that it was very steep, she had not courage enough to behold the Car­casses it must be covered withal. He sent like­wise to the Patriarch to come up and Conse­crate the Mosque, which he did, The Church that had been turn­ed into a Mosque, is con­secrated the by Abun [...]. Dedicating it to our Lady of Victory, in which after he heard Mass, and Buried his Dead, he went down to wait upon the Empress, who received him with the greatest Joy and Respect imaginable, extolling his Courage and Conduct to the Skies. She gave the Government of the Mountain to a Captain that was in her train, whose Ancestors had formerly been Governors of it.

The Camp continued near this Mountain all the Month of February, for the sake of the wounded men; during which time, Gama re­ceived a Message brought by two Portugueses from Manuel de Vasconselho, who had been sent by the Viceroy with Five Ships, to learn where the Turkish Galleys were, and with a fresh Supply of Arms and Ammunition. Up­on this advice Gama sent Francisco Velho with a Guard of 40 Portugueses well armed and mounted, to Matzua, where Vasconselho was with his Fleet, with an Order to receive the Arms and Ammunition that was sent to him by his Brother; to whom he gave a full ac­count [Page 132]by Letter, of the State of Affairs in Ethiopia, and of all that he had done in it. Having dispatched this business, and their wounded men being all either dead or cured, the Empress and Gama marched into a fertile Countrey, whose Prince was a Christian, by whom they were joyfully entertained, want­ing for nothing that was necessary for their Camp. But they had not been many days in these good Quarters, before Gama received Letters from the Emperor, desiring him to march towards him with all the haste he could, he being informed that Granhe had resolved to get betwixt them with an Army, which neither of them alone could be able to deal with.

Upon this Advice Gama made long Marches to have got to the Emperor, Gama is intercept­ed in his March to­wards the Emperor by Granhe. but was notwith­standing that intercepted by Granhe; from whom, upon Palm-Sunday, he received a Mes­sage, telling him, That he wondred at his having the Impudence to come as he did into his Kingdom with a Handful of men, A Huffing Message, with a ri­diculous Present is sent to Gama by Granhe. for which, tho he well deserved to be chastised, to discourage others from making such mad Adventures; yet considering he was but a Boy, and had been wheedled into it by the Empress, who was certainly the falsest Woman in the world; he was ready not only to pardon him, but to convey him and his men safe back to their Ships; desiring him withal to accept of the Present he had sent him, which was a Monk's Cowl, and a Rosary of Beads, as much more proper for him than a Sword and Armour. Gama treated the Messenger civilly, presenting him with a Silk Vest and a Medal, bidding him tell his Master, [Page 133]That he should have an Answer from him in a day or two.

A Council of War having been called thereupon, it was agreed that Gama should return the following Answer to Granhe, That he was sent into Ethiopia by the great Lyon of the Sea, and the most powerful Lord of the Earth, whose cu­stom it was to succor all that are in distress; and who having been informed that the most Christian Em­peror of Ethiopia, his Brother in Arms, was con­quered, and in a manner driven out of his Em­pire by Infidels, and the Enemies of the holy Catho­lick Faith, had sent him with some Troops to restore him to his Empire, which tho they were but few in number, yet he did not doubt but they were enough to fight the greatest Armies of one who had been so wicked, as without any reason or colour of Justice, to dispossess a Prince of his Empire, and that not with his own strength, but because the true God was pleased to permit it to be so for the chastisement of the Sins of the Habassins, whose Wrath he hoped was now abundantly satisfied with what they had already suffered, so that he would now in his great mercy restore them again to their Ancient Liberties, and give them the Lands of their Forefathers, of which he had so unjustly robbed them. With this Answer he sent him a large Looking-glass with a pair of Pinchers, such as Women use. Gama re­turns Granhe a Message, with a Present no less huffing than ridi­culous. Granhe though desperate mad at this Answer and Present, yet could not forbear saying, That Captains who had the courage to fight Armies with handfuls of men, deserved to have great honours done them by all Princes: But perceiving the Portugueses were not to be persuaded to lay down their Arms, he thought the best way to deal with [Page 134]such desperate People, would be to starve them; which he reckoned would be easie for him to do, they being at that time but 350 fighting Men, whereas his Army consisted of 15000 Foot, and 1500 Horse, besides 200 Turks with Fire-Arms.

But the Mahometans, after having besieged Gama at a distance for some days, being asha­med of taking such a course with a Body of men, which they reckoned would not be a Breakfast to them, did oblige Granhe to change his Measures, and to lead them up to the Enemy, whom when they came near, they found strongly encamped. Gama be­sieged on all sides by Granhe. Granhe finding the Enemy thus posted, and being neither willing to discourage his Men by marching back again, nor to hazard them by making an As­sault, ordered a Breast-work to be run up within Musket-shot of them, from behind which he for some day mauled the Portugueses with his Fire-Arms; Gama, whose number could not long endure this sport, resolved whatever it cost him, next night to dislodge the Infidels, which with the help of his Artil­lery he did in a few hours, obliging them to keep their former distance, which was with­out Cannon Shot of his Camp, in which Action he had several wounded, but not one killed. He opens a passage to himself with the bravery of his Men, being as­sisted with Artillery.

After this Gama was more at ease for the present; yet being sensible that this would not do his business, the Enemy, as they lay, keeeping him from supplies of Provisions, he was forced to decamp, which he did before day, and in very good order, bringing up the Rear himself.

The Infidels perceiving so soon as it was light, that the Portugueses had left their Camp, pursued them with great fury, reckoning now they had got them upon plain ground, to have made short work with them.

But Gama, when they were come near him, plied them so with his Artillery, that he made them retreat in disorder, leaving several of their best men dead, or wounded, behind them, Granhe himself having his Horse shot under him, and receiving a wound in his Thigh with a Musket-bullet; there were 11 Portu­gueses, one of whom was an Ensign, killed in this Action, and several wounded; Gama himself having received a slight wound in the Leg; who having lain still 12 days to cure his wounded men, and observed that the Ene­my had resumed his first method of starving them, he determined to fall upon them in their Quarters, which he did with good success, driving them from their Posts, and making a great slaughter among them; in this Attack Gama lost 14 more of his Portugueses, besides two that were blown up by a Barrel of Gun­powder, which took fire by accident; the noise of which was of no small advantage to him, the Enemies Horses being put into such a dis­order therewith, that the Officers were not able to bring them together again; he had likewise 70 wounded, two whereof died of their Wounds.

Granhe finding there was no breaking this Body of Portugueses by reason of their Discipline and Artillery, He obli­geth Gran­he to re­treat. the noise whereof neither his Men nor Horse could bear, he retreated for [Page 136]eight days together into a Mountainous Countrey, leaving the Portugueses to the mercy of the heat, and barrenness of Ethiopia, which he hoped would make an end of them in a little time.

Gama having thus rid himself of the Ene­my, removed his Camp to the Banks of a large and pleasant River, where he had been but two days, when the Portugueses he had sent to Matzua returned to him, but without bringing any thing of that they were sent for, the Ships that brought the Arms and Ammu­nition having been frighted away before they got to Matzua, by some Intelligence they had received of a Fleet of Turkish Gallies ma­king towards them. Bahurnagays likewise came back to him at the same time with a Body of 500 Habassin Foot and 30 Horse.

Gama, though much troubled at this dis­appointment, yet that he might lose no time, resolved with this small Reinforcement to pursue Granhe, and if it were possible, to drive him out of the Fastnesses he was retired to: And so instead of marching towards the Em­peror, as he had been desired, that he might engross the whole glory of overcoming Granhe to himself, he marched from the Emperor af­ter him for eight days; but as we shall see by the sequel of the Story, was at all this pains to catch a Tartar. He had fallen upon Granhe as soon as he came up with him, had he not been hindred by the Empress, who protested against coming to a Battel before they had their whole Army together, and with much a-do persuaded him to expect the Emperor [Page 137]with his Troops, which were reported to be much greater than they were.

While Gama was in these quarters, a certain Jew, who was Governor of a strong Moun­tain called Oaty, in the Province of Cemen, came to wait on him, and to let him know, That in the neighbouring Mountains there were great numbers of curious Horses which were but weakly guarded, offering if he would send any of his men to seize them, to be their Guide himself; he further told him, Gama con­ducted by a Jew to a Moun­tain, of which, and a great drove of Horses, he makes himself master. That it was absolutely necessary for him to make himself Master of all the Passes of that Countrey, for otherwise it would not be pos­sible for the Emperor, who he knew was not strong enough to force his way to come at him; Gama was much concerned at the last part of the Jew's Intelligence, having ima­gined the Emperor to have been much stronger than he assured him he was; where­upon he asked the Empress what she thought of the Jew's report concerning her Son's Ar­my? She told him frankly, That she thought it was but too true; hereupon he determined to go, and either make himself Master of those Horses and Passes, or die in the Attempt. In pursuance of which resolution, that he might not alarm Granhe, he marched secretly out of his Camp by night with a 100 of his Por­tugueses, and never halted till he came to the great River Tavaze, over which he was forced to waft his men upon Boracho's, or Hides full of Wind; but what was worst of all, when they came near the Mountain his design was upon, he found the Garison much stronger [Page 138]than the Jew had represented it to have been, there being no fewer than 3000 Foot and 400 Horse in it; but Gama was gone too far to think of Retreating, and therefore Fight he must, and did; and after having killed the Governor Cid Ahamed with his own hand, the Infidels being but raw men, dispersed up­on it, and were most of them knocked on the head by the Jews, who are the Natives of that Countrey; the Jew who was the Guide, is said to have been so struck with this Victo­ry, and particularly with there not having been one Portuguese Killed or Wounded in the whole Action, that looking upon it as a Miracle, he immediately turned Christian, and thereupon had the Government of the Mountain conferred upon him by Gama, be­ing ordered to send word to the Emperor of the Passes being opened for him and his Ar­my: There were 300 Mules, and 800 good Horses taken, all which Gama ordered to be brought after him to the Camp, whither he with the greatest part of his Men Rode Post, fearing lest he might have been intercepted by Granhe.

Neither was Granhe Idle all this Winter, who having observed that his Army, besides that it would require time to bring them to endure the Thunder of Cannon, were strange­ly cowed by their having been Beat so often by a handful of Portugueses, writ to the Bashaw of Zebid, a Province in Arabia, for some Turk­ish Troops, and a Train of Artillery, to en­able him to deal with the Portugueses; repre­senting the driving of them out of Ethiopia, [Page 139]as one of the best Services that could be done the Grand Seignior: The Bashaw having 3000 Turks, all Veteran Soldiers, for the Guard of the Red-Sea, sent him 600, some say 900 of them, with several Peices of Ordnance; and besides these, he is said to have received con­siderable Supplies from some of his other Friends in Arabia.

These Foreign Troops came up to Granhe the very night that Gama returned to the Camp; Granhe being re­inforced by a Body of Turks and a Train of Artillery, forceth Gama to come to a Battel. with which Auxiliaries he instantly advanced towards the Portugueses, and En­camped so near them, as to make them both hear and feel that he had now got Cannon as well as they.

Upon this new scene of Affairs, Gama called a Council of War to consult what was fit to be done, and it being agreed on all hands, That there was now no possibility of Retreating, no, nor of waiting where they were till the Emperor came up with them, they had therefore nothing to think of but of Fighting it out, so as either to Con­quer, or to sell their lives dear; only, that they should do all that they were able to avoid coming to Battel before the Mules and Horses that had been taken lately by Gama arrived in the Camp.

But Granhe having now got men that were not afraid to go upon the mouth of a Cannon, advanced next day within Musket-shot of the Portugueses, resolving if they did not come out to Fight, to storm their Camp, which he reckoned himself strong enough to do: Gama perceiving their design, Sally'd out to demo­lish [Page 140]a Mount Granhe was raising to plant his Cannon upon, and which would have com­manded his whole Camp; in which Sally he made the Turks give ground, until over­powered by Number, he was forced to retreat; having lost some Officers, and several of his Soldiers in the Action; Gama made several other brisk Sallies, but was still repulsed with loss, Gama routed and taken Prisoner. and in one of them was himself Wound­ed: When night came on, the Empressand all the Officers were at Gama to retire to the Mountains, it not being possible for them to hold out another day against so great and well­disciplin'd an Army: Gama was put into such a rage by the motion, that he drew his Sword, and brandishing it, cri'd out, They that will steal away by night may do it, but for my own part I am resolved to stay and fight the Infidels; and if his Countreymen would be so base as to de­sert him and leave him alone to defend the Camp, he could not hinder them, but out of it he was re­solved not to stir unless it was to Fight the Enemy. The Officers finding there was no persuading of Gama to go with them, laid violent hands on him, and having set him upon a Mule, car­ried him with them as a Prisoner. They were not well got out of their Camp with Gama, (the Empress and Patriarch having de­parted some time before) when the Turks broke into it, where finding 40 Portugueses, who by reason of their Wounds had been left behind, they knocked them all on the head; and understanding that Gama could not be got far, a Body of Turks was ordered immediately to pursue him, who having before Sun-rising [Page 141]got between him and the Mountains, by noon they found them lying under a Tree quite spent with the loss of Blood, and the Fatigue of the Battel; and having mounted him on a Horse, they carried him to Granhe.

The Portuguese Historians, as if they reckon­ed that to have neither Fear nor Wit, were the true Character of a Hero, do according to their cu­stom, on this occasion sacrifice Gama 's discreti­on to the Reputation of his Courage: Who, they say, upon Granhe's asking him, How he would have treated him, had the Fortune of War made him his Prisoner? made answer, That he would have cut off his Head, and have sent it as a Pre­sent to the Emperor. The foolish Bravery of which Answer was so far from obliging Granhe to give him his Life, that he gave him Lex talio­nis; having, after he had treated him barba­rously for a day or two, Gama be­headed. order'd his Head to be chopped off in his presence; at which the Turks, who design'd to have made a Present of him to their Bassa, are said to have been very angry.

A Portuguese who was a Prisoner, and pre­sent when Gama was murthered, having af­terwards made his escape, gave an ample ac­count of all the Particulars of Gama's carriage at his death; and among other things, affirm­ed, that he saw with his own eyes a great foun­tain of most delicate water gush out of the earth Gama 's Head fell upon, when it was chopped off. This Miracle was the easier swallowed, it being no more than what the Heads of all Le­gendary Saints have done, who have happened to be beheaded.

This is the substance of the so much celebra­ted Expedition of Don Christopher Da Gama, which as I have related it, is I doubt big enough for the belief of any indifferent person, but is much too great for that of the most cre­dulous, if impartial, as it is magnified by his Countreymen; to whose Romantick way of writing their Lives, the Memory of their Heroes (of which Race few Kingdoms of its bigness have produced either more or greater than Portugal) is little beholden: Which common Fault in the Spa­nish and Portuguese Writers, I do not in the least attribute to any defect of Natural Judg­ment in them, that being a talent that few Nati­ons excel them in; but purely to their reading Ro­mances so much when they are young, and especially Ecclesiastical ones, that is, the Lives and Legends of their Saints, the Writers whereof, instead of trou­bling themselves to collect Informations, do shut them­selves up in a Cell, and say every thing of their Hero that they think will make for his Honour.

After this Rout, the Empress and Patriarch retreated to the strong Mountain Gama had made himself Master of a little before; The Em­peror joins the Habassins and Portu­gueses. where they had not been Ten Days, before the Em­peror came to them with a small Army; but having after some Months got a Body of 500 Horse and 8000 Foot together, he resolved to march and offer the Enemy Battel, being strongly urged to it by the Portugueses, who tho but 90 in number, were mad to revenge the Death of their General.

Cunha, who after the Defeat had retreated with 40 of his Portugueses into Tigre, was sent to to come and join the Gross; but that not [Page 143]being possible, by reason of the Enemy's being posted betwixt them, the Emperor advanced with the Forces he had with him; and being come within sight of the Enemy, encamped himself strongly for some days; during which time there were frequent Skirmishes; in all of which the Portugueses are said to have done Wonders, if not to have wrought Miracles. The Habassin General, in whose Conduct and Courage the Soldiers placed their chief con­fidence, happening to be slain in an Ambush the Turks had laid for him, the Emperor had much ado to keep the Army from dispersing upon that unlucky Accident; and to prevent it, was obliged to offer the Enemy Battel some days sooner than he had otherwise in­tended to have done.

The Portugueses having desired it, had the Van given them, and were joined with 250 Habassin Horse, and 3500 Foot: The Rear, which was commanded by the Emperor in Person, consisted of the same Number of Horse and Foot.

The Enemies Van, which was made up of 200 Turks with Fire-Arms, 600 Moorish Horse, and 7000 Foot, was commanded by Granhe himself; and the Rear, consisting of 600 Horse, and 6000 Foot, by a great Turkish Captain.

The Two Armies were no sooner drawn into the Field, He fights and routs Granhe. than they ran upon one ano­ther, with great Fury, making a great Slaugh­ter on both sides; and the Body of Turks happening to charge the Habassins that were in the Van, gave them such a shock as obliged [Page 144]them to retreat in great disorder; which having been timely observed by the Portu­gueses, who were hewing their way through the Battalions they were engaged withal, they wheeled about, and attacked the Victo­rious Turks with that vigor, that they quickly forced them to give ground, and with the loss of a great many of their best men to re­tire to their Gross; but the Portugueses not being content with that, followed their Blow, and with the Assistance of the Habassins who had rallied again, broke into the Main Body of the Enemy, so as to make it give ground apace; which being perceived by Granhe, he galloped up to them, and having put himself on their Head, did act the part both of a great Captain, and a stout Soldier, till he received a Mortal Wound with a Musket Bullet in his breast: Granhe killed fighting. His men when they saw him fall from his Horse, instead of seeking to revenge his Death, or to carry off his Body, threw down their Arms, and betook themselves to their heels; only a Turkish Captain who was near him when he received his Death's Wound, defended his Body with his Scimiter in his hand till he fell dead upon it, and sold his own life dear.

The Portugueses and Habassins pursued the Enemy so close, that few of them escaped; the Turks were all killed to 14, who keeping together in a Body, got before it was day to the place where Granhe had left his Queen, whom with a vast Treasure in Gold and Jew­els, they conveyed to a place of safety, to the great loss and sorrow of the Habassins.

It is said there was not one Portuguese kil­led or wounded in this Fight, which they will have to have been a miracle, owing to the Standard they had bore ever since Gamas's death, which was our Lady of mercy; whereas before, when they lost men, they had fought under the Banner of the five Wounds of Christ, which are the Arms of the King of Portugal.

Upon the news of this Victory all the Princes and Governors of Ethiopia, The Em­peror be­ing resto­red to the quiet pos­session of his King­dom, quar­rels with the Portu­gueses. who had sided with Granhe, flocked to throw themselves at the Emperor's feet, who by pardoning them all to a man, was immediately restored to the full and quiet possession of his Empire.

The Emperor for some time after the Vi­ctory, caressed the Portugueses highly, acknow­ledging on all occasions that he owed his Crown purely to their Valour: But whether, it was that the Emperor, after the fashion of too many Princes, looking upon the Services the Portugueses had done him, as too great to be rewarded by him, did for that reason begin to hate them; as a reproach to him; or that the Portu­gueses overvaluing their Services, which is likewise a common fault on the other side, did grow trou­blesome and insolent thereupon, The chief cause of this Quar­rel was the Abund urging the Em­peror to turn Ro­man-Ca­tholick presently. and demanded greater Rewards than were just, or than the Em­peror could conveniently give them; or whether it was the Patriarch's teizing the Emperor in­stantly to declare himself a Roman-Catholick; it is certain they came in a short time to an open rupture, the Emperor accusing the Portugueses of Impertinence and Insolence, and the Portu­gueses the Emperor of Ingratitude, and breach of Faith, pretending he had promised the King [Page 146]of Portugal, that whensoever he should be resto­red to the peaceable possession of his Empire, he would immediately declare himself a Roman-Catholick, and give the third part of his Do­minions to the Portugueses.

But the Emperor, as he absolutely denied his having ever made any such promise, so he conjured the Patriarch not to trouble him any more about his Religion, being resolved never to change it for that of Popery, which he called Nestorianism, and accused of worship­ping Four Gods; The Em­peror is resolved never to turn Ro­man-Ca­tholick. adding accused of worship­ping Four Gods; adding, That he was the Pastor and Prelate of all the Franks that were in Ethiopia, but had nothing to do with his Subjects, who had a Prelate of their own, to wit the Patriarch of Alexandria, in whose obe­dience, after the Example of his Ancestors, he was resolved to live and die.

The Patriarch finding he was not to be persuaded to embrace Popery, was for trying whether he could not terrify him into it, by obliging the Portugueses by his Censures, not to serve him any longer until he made profes­sion of it.

The Emperor is said at first to have laughed at this Excommunication, as the effect of the impotent Passion of an angry old man, who would needs be exercising jurisdiction where he had none; and it is more than probable, considering his present Circumstances, and the small number the Pertugueses were then re­duced to, that he continued to do so to the last: Notwithstanding it is reported, That when he found the Portugueses would serve him no longer, unless he declared himself a [Page 147]Roman-Catholick, that he submitted, ab­juring the Alexandrian Faith, and making profession of that of Rome in the hands of the Patriarch.

But however that were, it is certain, that the Emperor at this time did not only declare, That he would never submit himself and his Empire to the Pope, who besides that he was a Nestorian Heretick, had nothing to do with a Church, which from its very first foundation had been all along subject to the Patriarch of Alexandria; but to shew the World that he was in earnest, he writ to the Patriarch of Alexandria to send an Abuna into Ethiopia, according to the custom of his Pre­decessors.

The Patriarch and Portugueses, when they came to hear of this Message, did storm and threaten at such a rate, that the Emperor be­gan to consider how he might rid his Countrey of Guests who would be satisfied with nothing less than the extirpation of its Ancient Reli­gion, and the establishment of Popery; the toleration of their own Religion, which he reckoned a great favour, being what they de­spised, and reckoned to be no kindness at all: Whereupon the Emperor is said to have given secret Orders for 2000 Soldiers to be sent to disarm, if not massacre all the Portugueses that were in Ethiopia, as a People not to be endu­red any longer; but the Portugueses having had timely notice of this Plot against their Lives, did by keeping still together in a body, pre­vent the execution of it.

The Emperor having the news brought him of the Abuna he had sent for, being on his Journey, to manifest his great Zeal for his Re­ligion, went as far as Deboroa on purpose to meet him: Where, when the Abuna, whose name was Joseph, arrived, he was received by him with the greatest Festivities that had ever been seen before in Ethiopia on the like oc­casion.

The Patriarch Bermudes, who could not endure to think of any Abuna in Ethiopia be­sides himself, posted after the Emperor to try to prevent it; but the Emperor hearing he was coming after him, and not caring to be schooled by him any longer, ordered him to be apprehended, and carried Prisoner to one of his strong Mountains, from whence, after some Months confinement, he was rescued by his Countrymen, and carried by them into Tigre, where he lived under the protection of Bahurnagays, the great Patron of the Portu­gueses, until he was carried off to the Indies by the Jesuits to make room for a Successor of their own Order, as we shall see hereafter.

The Emperor, now he had rid himself of the Popish Patriarch, who would never let him be quiet day nor night with his Religion, began to express great kindness again to all the Portugueses that remained, employing se­veral of them about his Person, and giving such Estates to the rest, that there was not one of them but what kept his Horse or Mule, and lived with the Equipage of a Gentleman; insomuch that there was but one hard thing whereof they could accuse the Emperor, [Page 149]which was, That he would not suffer them, after he had told them above an hundred times that he would never change his Religion, to trouble him any more about it.

But while things stood thus as to Religion in Ethiopia, The King of Portu­gal thinks of sending a new Pa­triarch in­to Ethio­pia. all the News in Portugal and Rome was, that the Portugueses had restored the Em­peror to all his Dominions, and had thereby obliged him to that degree, that he was not contented with declaring that he would sub­mit himself to the Roman Church, but that he would make his whole Empire to do the same; which News, so slow was their In­telligence from thence, continued to be be­lieved by most people in Europe as undoubted­ly true, for at least three years after Claudius had made a solemn declaration to the con­trary, and that nothing in the world should ever oblige him to change his Ancient Faith for that of Rome.

Ignatius Loyola being sensible that his new Order had every-where a great many Ene­mies, Ignatius Loyala la­bours to engross the Habas­sin Mission to his new Or­der. and especially among the other Orders of Friars, who were all grown jealous of its over-topping them; was casting about to find some great work for them to do, whereby they might for ever establish their Reputation in the Roman Church; and believing all that was reported of the greatness of the Habassin Empire, and of the good disposition it was in to submit it self to the Pope, he laboured day and night to obtain that Province for his Fryars; and that he might interest himself therein with the better grace, he begged leave solemnly of the Pope to go into Ethiopia [Page 150]in person to promote the submission of that Church to him; which being denied him to his great grief, he begged that since he him­self was not thought worthy of that honour, that a Mission of his Friars might be sent thi­ther, and this he plied so close, as to carry it: For besides that he himself was indefatigable in the pursuit thereof, he commanded all the Jesuits that were at Lisbon, to wait upon the King at least once a Month about it, and one Lewis Goncalves da Camara, a Jesuit, who was of a Noble Family in Portugal, not to fail to speak to the Portuguese Embassador at the Court of Rome once in three days concerning it; which that Father observed so punctually, and teized the Embassador so much about it, that the Embassador's Servants when they saw him coming, used to say of him, Here comes our Lord's Tertian Ague.

By these indefatigable diligences, Ignatius carried both his points, which were, That a splendid Mission should be sent into Ethiopia to take the submission of that Church to the Ro­man, and that none but his Friars should be imployed in it; and having the Nomination of them left to himself, A Patri­arch, two Bishops, Coadju­tors, with 10 Friars all of the Jesuits order, are nomina­ted to go into Etnio­pia. he named one John Nunes Baretto a Portuguese to go Patriarch, and Andrew Oviedo a Spaniard, and Melchior Car­neiro a Portuguese, who were to be both made Bishops; the first of Hieropolis, and the se­cond of Nice; and to be Coadjutors to the Patriarch, and who in case they Survived him, were in their turns to succeed him in that Dig­nity; to which he added ten Jesuits more, ha­ving, as he told the Emperor in his Letter to [Page 151]him, pitched upon that number, that the Pa­triarch and his twelve Companions might repre­sent Christ and his twelve Apostles: Upon Igna­tius Nomination of these Missionaries, the Pope's Bulls for Authorizing them were dispatched to Lisbon; the Bull of the Patriarch Elect was as followeth:

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 its not ha­ving been performed in the See Church, but in the Chappel of a Convent, and that by [Page 159]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, was for Destruction, and not for Edification.

There were two things, one would think, might have been some rubs in the way of this promotion, though we do not find they were in the least.

The first was, That there was a Patriarch, and one of the Pope's own Confirming, then living in Ethiopia, of whom we shall hear more hereafter.

The second was, the Vow that is taken by the Jesuits, never directly nor indirectly to seek after any Ecclesiastical Promotion, either [Page 160]within or without their Order; which they had violated with a witness, in seeking after a Mission of this nature, which was not to be performed without some high Prelates. Neither do we any where read, that Ignatius, when he laboured so hard to get his Friars employed therein, did desire only the Ministry of it for them, leaving the Prelacy thereof to such as were under no Vows to the contrary.

But however the Clergy stood affected, the King was extreamly pleased with this Promotion, and presented the Patriarch with extraordinary rich Vestments, and with a noble set of Plate for his own Altar; all which, upon this Mission miscarrying, was afterwards given by King Sebastian to the Jesuits College at Goa, where the Patriarch had lodged it.

The Patriarch, by reason of his Bulls not having come till some days after the India Fleet departed, was obliged to wait a year for the next Fleet; The King of Portugal wisely sus­pecting that things were not so ripe in Ethiopia as they were re­ported to be, sends an Envoy for true Intelli­gence. during which time he lived for the most part at St. Rocks, the House of the professed Jesuits at Lisbon, of whose Chappel he laid the first Stone.

But notwithstanding it was generally be­lieved both at Rome and Lisbon, that the Ha­bassin Church and Empire were as good as re­conciled to the Pope; yet there did not want some sober Heads at Lisbon, who doubted whe­ther all things were so well in Ethiopia as they were reported to be, and as it is plain the Pope and Ignatius thought they were; the former in his Bull, calling the Emperor his [Page 161] Beloved Son, and the latter calling him his Lord in Christ, in his long Letter that he writ to him, and in a style as if he had been a second Pope of Rome. This Letter of Ignatius is set down at length by Maffeus, and all the other Writers of his Life, in which there are but two things that are remarkable; the one is, his quoting the First Council of Constantinople, and the Coun­cil of Chalcedon for the Authoritative Supremacy of the Pope; whereas those Councils do place the Pope's primacy of Order, which was all they al­lowed him, on a bottom that quite destroys the Florentine Supremacy, founding it purely upon the Secular consideration, of Old Rome be­ing the first City in the Roman Empire. And the second is, his proving from Pope Marcellus's Decretal Epistle, which is acknowledged by all Learned Roman-Catholicks to have been a Spurious Brat of the Eighth or Ninth Cen­tury, That God did expresly command St. Pe­ter to fix his See at Rome.

But to return to the thread of my Story.

The King having been made jealous by some of his Ministers, that Ethiopia might not be altogether so well disposed to submit it self to the Pope, as was commonly believed, gave Orders to Don Peter Mascarenhas, who Com­manded the Fleet that Sailed for the Indies four days before the coming of the Pope's Bulls to Lisbon, so soon as he arrived at Goa, to dispatch an Envoy thither to bring certain tidings of the present state of its Affairs; who accordingly so soon as he was arrived [Page 162]at Goa, sent one James Dias Oprestes, joyning Father Gancalre Rodriguez, a Jesuit, with him, into Ethiopia, to bring Intelligence how mat­ters stood there; this Jesuits chief, if not on­ly business in Ethiopia, as we shall see here­after, was, if he found the Patriarch Bermu­des alive, to fetch him off, to make a clear stage for his Successor; since it would not have looked well to have had two Popish Pa­triarchs together in Ethiopia.

These Envoys sailed from Goa in February 1555, and in 30 days landed safe at Arkiko, where having rested themselves for some time, they continued their Journey by Land till they came to the place where their old Friend Ba­hurnagays resided, who having received them with great kindness, sent them with a good Convoy to the Court. But

The Jesuit Rodriguez having given the World a very particular relation of all this Negotiation at the Habassin Court, I shall set it down word for word as he reports it.

On the 26th. Rodriguez the Jesuit, who went with the Envoy in­to Ethio­pra, his ac­count of their Voyage and Ne­gotiation. of May we came to the King of Ethiopia's Court, which is nothing but a Camp full of Tents; the King was pleased to give us a publick Audience the second day after our Arrival, into whose presence when we were introduced, we found him seated in a Chair hung round with Silk Curtains, as indeed the whole Tent was, the Floor of the Room being covered with a rich Carpet. James Dias having delivered our Letters to the King, he Commanded them to be Read in the hearing of all the Portugueses that belonged [Page 163]the Court, who were all permitted to be pre­sent at the Ceremony. In which Letters our Lord the King having acquainted him with his intention of sending one of his Courtiers, with a certain number of Friars of Good lives and found Doctrine next year to him; the King when he heard that, was all of a sudden in a great disorder, and had his thoughts so taken up with it, that when we spoke to him, he never returned us any an­swer that was to the purpose, but dismissed us to return to our Tents. Within two or three days after this Audience, the King took a Progress to visit his Grandmother, who lived at a place that was Eight or Ten days Journey from the Camp, in which he left us, without having given any order about our Entertainment, and without sending us so much as any thing of a Complement: So that I do not know what would have become of us, had not an honourable Portuguese car­ried us to his House, which was Two or Three Leagues from the Camp, and Enter­tained us there till the King returned, which he did not in a Month.

During that time I composed a Treatise of the Errors of Ethiopia, and of the Truth of our Holy Faith, with an intention to have presented it to the King; who, as I was told by a Potuguese that was much in his Favour, had no kindness for the Roman Pontiff, and had said openly, That he stood in no need of the Friars the King of Portugal was so forward to send him, being fully resolved never to submit him­self to the Roman Church.

I was informed likewise by all the Portu­gueses of the Court, That several of the Gran­dees had been heard to say, An ex­pression of the great­ness of the Habassin Zeal against Popery. That they would sooner put themselves under the Mahometans, than turn Papists: This put me upon writing all that I could have Preached to them, if I could have spoke their Language, that so I might by the answer the King returned to it, clearly discover his thoughts which he had so long dissembled: when we heard of the King's being returned to the Camp, we went presently to wait upon him, and were told by several Portugueses that belonged to the Court, That the King had not so much as once men­tioned our Names since our Audience.

Now the Treatise I had composed being in Portuguese, it was necessary if I would have the King to read it, to get it Translated into Chaldee; whereupon I writ a Letter to the King himself, to desire him to let me have a couple of Learned Monks to Translate the Truths of our Faith into Chaldee, I having put them together on purpose to shew how little reason his people had to call us of the Roman Communion, Hereticks; and to affirm that we were worse than Mahometans; and being informed that the Habassins had a Book among them, written by the Schismaticks and Hereticks of Alexandria, from whence they have their Abuna's, having paid a Tribute to the Turk for that priviledge, Entituled, The Adultery of the Franks; wherein, among other things, the Council of Calcedon is condemned, pretending that it taught that there were Four Persons in the Holy Trinity; and we are [Page 165]likewise charged with divers Errors, I begg'd of the King that I might have a sight of that Book.

The King would not let me have the Book, and was very angry that I had been told of it; but as to the Monks I had desired, he order­ed a couple to come to me, but they had not well begun the Translation, before either out of fear that the King would be displeased with them if they went on with it, or because he had privately Commanded them not to do it, they gave it over; so that I was obliged to repair to a Portuguese Captain to speak to them to finish it; who with much ado pre­vailed with them to go on: The Interpreter on my side was a worthy Portuguese, who un­derstood both the Languages well.

Having at last got my Treatise Translated, the next thing I had to do, was to get it writ­ten out fair, and having desired an Amanuen­sis of the King to do it for me, after having granted me one, he repented presently, and sent me word, That if I would let him see my Treatise as it was, he would read it over, and that otherwise he would never trouble himself with it; so I was obliged to carry it to him as it was, having first dated it, and put my name to it; it bore date the 20th. of Au­gust. When I delivered it to him, I was ac­companied by a Portuguese Captain, and Seven or Eight more of the same Nation: and af­ter having paid the customary Obeisances, I began a short speech concerning the occasion of my coming into Ethiopia; but the King in­terrupted me, and began to talk of other [Page 166]things, as one prepared to ward off the blows that I had designed to have given him; when I had put my Treatise into his hand, he be­gun to read in it, but had read but a little way, before he was put into such a passion by it, as made him vomit out the poison he had so long concealed, telling me, I had de­sired leave to set down the Truths of my own Faith, and to have some Monks to Translate them into Chaldee, but instead of that, I had charged those with Errors who had none; he told me further, That that was a work no ways proper for a simple Priest, like me, but was the work of some Great Bishop, or Pre­late, like the Pope. I made answer, It was true I was but a mean man, but the things I had set down were nevertheless the Truths of the Gospel, and of the Holy Councils, whom, and not me, I desired his Highness to hear. He told me, I had imposed several things up­on them which they never held. I replied, I knew very well that his Highness was in no Error of Faith, but that his Subjects were; and that I had set down nothing but what was true, and what I was ready to demon­strate to him. He said, He was no friend to Disputations, but there was one thing he was certain of, which was that Ethiopia had always held the same Faith that it did now, or at least that it had for above a Thousand years; that Disputations were never to be used but with Heathens, and that his Faith being thus Ancient, there was no body before me had ever presumed to say it was Erroneous.

To this I answered, That God did some­times for peoples Sins suffer such things, and that his Highness had reason to thank God, for having in his time visited Ethiopia with the truth of the Gospel: He said the Catholick Church was divided into four Chairs, and that they had from the beginning been subject to one of them: I repli'd, it was true, but so it was likewise, that all Churches were Anci­ently subject to the Roman Bishop, who was above all the rest, as his Highness was above his Subjects; insomuch that the three other Chairs for having denied obedience to the Ro­man, were all become Schismatical, together with all those who were subject to them; That his Highness if he would be pleased to peruse my Treatise, would therein meet with full Answers to all his Objections, exhorting him to take care not to make himself of that number of People the Prophet speaks of, who would not understand, that they might do well. The Em­peror's de­fence of himself and his Faith. Af­ter a great deal of arguing, I told him that my design in writing that Paper, was to discover how his mind stood disposed towards the Pope, and the Learned Friars which his Brother the King of Portugal was about to send to him; for that if he was not willing that they should come, it would be to no purpose for the King to send them so far; I did therefore beseech his Highness to declare whether he intended to submit himself to the Pope as he had promi­sed; he said he had learned Friars enough in his Kingdom, and that it was needless for the King of Portugal to trouble himself to send him any more; and as for the Pope, That he had [Page 168]never yielded him any obedience; that Submis­sion, that was carried to him, by Gasper de Magalhaens, being what he had never made, and was either a trick or mistake of the Monk who Translated his Letters to the King of Por­tugal; concluding, That he was resolved never to yield Obedience to any Patriarch, but the Patriarch of Alexandria, whom he would al­ways obey, as all his Ancestors had done be­fore him. When I found the King thus abso­lutely determined, I took my leave of him; who after I was gone, begun to extol me for a mighty Scholar, saying, He wondered how it was possible for so young a man to have attained to so great a stock of Learning: I was told like­wise that he read my Treatise over, and that after he had once read it, it was seldom out of his Hand, and that he was still shewing it to his Mother, and Brothers, and the Grandees of the Court; and that upon the Abuna's ha­ving denounced an Excommunication against all that should read it, the King had sent to him for leave to read it again, and was put in­to such a Passion, by the Abuna's having de­ny'd it to him, that he called him Mahometan, and Heretick, saying, He would read the Alco­ran of Mahomet himself, and at the same time not give him leave to read a godly Book; com­manding him thereupon since he was their Abuna, to answer a Book that was written by a poor Clerk who had no Dignity: To which the Abuna's answer was, That he did not come into Ethiopia to dispute, but to confer holy Or­ders.

The Court however being divided about this Affair, some seeming to favour the Roman, but most, and especially the Queen-Mother, and all her Creatures stickling for the Alexan­drian Faith; the King resolved to call together some of the most Learned among his Monks, to have their Opinion in the matter; and in order thereunto he commanded my Treatise to be Translated into Habassin, leaving out those Passages he was displeased with when he first looked into it; namely, that where I spoke of the Pope St. Leo, and of Dioscorus Pa­triarch of Alexandria, whom they reckon a Saint, as they do Leo, to be Excommunicated and Accursed, and for whom they have such a detestation, that they cannot endure so much as to have him named, rejecting the Council of Calcedon and its Decrees, which they say er­red in the Faith, in condemning St. Dioscorus as they unjustly Stile him: Since which time they have always been separated from the Ro­man Church, having now for 1067 years been involved in the Heresy of Sergius, Paulus, and Pyrhus, who were all condemned in the Sixth Council of Constantinople; and in that of Euty­ches likewise, which holds that there is but one nature in Christ.

The time being come when I was to receive the King's Answer, I sent to know when I should wait upon him; he sent me back word, his Father's Embassador waited Ten years in Portugal before he could be dispatched. I un­derstood by this the King was for entertaining me with delays, on purpose to keep me from returning with the Fleet which waited for us, [Page 170]for fear least we might discover the weakness of his Empire to them; and so when I went to have my Conge from him, in order to my returning to Debora, he commanded one to tell me, That so great a man as I was, and who had come so far, was not to be dismissed quick­ly: Besides, that I could go no where, where I could do so much good, as where I was, in confessing the Portugueses; nevertheless if I was resolved not to remain in Ethiopia, he would then desire me only to wait a month longer for his Answer; and if I did not receive it then, I might look upon my self as dismissed. Presently after this he removed his Camp to a place that was two days journey from the place where it was; we followed the Camp; and being in the Field on Saturday and Sunday, we set up an Altar whereon we said Mass on both those days, where I was visited by three Monks, who desired to have some Discourse with me about Matters of Religion: One of them who was a Scholar, told me, That all that we did, ap­peared well to him, excepting that of our not obser­ving Saturday, and that of our cating Hare and Swine's Flesh. Nevertheless after this he dis­gorged several Errors in Faith, namely, That the Souls when they leave the Body cannot presently behold the Divine Essence, but are placed in a Ter­restrial Paradise. That the Holy Spirit does not pro­ceed from the Son, but from the Father only. That the Son as to his Humanity was equal to the Father. That none but Mahometans and Infidels were damned eternally in Hell. I returned answers to all these Errors, and declared the contrary Truths to him, both from Scripture and Rea­son; [Page 171]with which he was so fully satisfied, that whispering me in the Ear, that the two other Monks who were illiterate might not hear him, he said, What I had told him was the truth, and that he believed it to be so in his heart.

The Month being expired, I went to wait upon the King for his Answer, and for leave to return home; he bid me go in a good hour; and as for the Fathers the King of Portugal designed to send to him, he said, He had appoint­ed one to wait at Matrua to receive them when they landed, being desirous to hear what they had to say to him. With this I took my leave of him, and passing thorough the Countries where divers of the Portugueses lived, I confessed them and their Families, and Married several of them to their Concubines, having first reduced them to our holy Faith. There was one among them who was nearly related to the King. And whereas the Churches of that Countrey, besides that they belong to Schismaticks, have no Altars accommodated to our Service, whereever we went, we carried an Altar with us to celebrate on.

While I was in one of these places, I recei­ved a Complement from a Prelate of a great Monastery of Monks of the Order of St. An­thony, and one likewise from the Prelate of a Nunnery, which were two Leagues off. This Monastery of Monks is one of the biggest in Ethiopia, it is called Debra Libanus, and is of such Credit, that all the Faith of Ethiopia de­pends upon it in a manner; for which reason the Prelate thereof is in high Esteem; I went to give him a Visit, being attended by all the [Page 172] Portugueses of the place, but he happened to be from home; we nevertheless took a view of the Monastery, which is no ways like ours, neither as to Building, nor as to their way of li­ving; every Monk having his distinct Dwelling-House and Land belonging to it, which he cultivates with his own Hands; so that the Habassin Monasteries look like Villages, the Monks having their Houses on one side of the Street, and the Nuns theirs on the other; but not being kept asunder, the Nuns are fre­quently troubled with Great Bellies.

These Monks are neither of the Order of St. Francis, No menti­on of Ro­driguez having seen the old Patri­arch, tho his chief business in Ethiopia was to fetch him from thence, if he found him alive. nor St. Austin, but were founded by one Tecla Haymanot, that is, The Plant of the Faith, who was of the Order of St. An­thony. This Haymanot is a great Saint among them, and is said to have killed a prodigious Serpent that was worshipped by the Heathens as a God, whom he converted by that means to the Faith that is still taught in Ethiopia.

Thus much of Rodriguez's Relation the Je­suits have thought fit to make publick; in which, notwithstanding there is not one word of the Patriarch Bermudes; yet that does not hinder it from having been Rodriguez's chief if not only business in Ethiopia, to fetch him from thence. Rodriguez frights the old Patri­arch out of his Province, to make room for his Suc­cessor.

For in a Letter of that Patriarch's, printed at Lisbon in the year 1568, it is said, That Fa­ther Rodriguez was with him several days be­fore he went to Court; and that when he returned from thence, he came to him again in a most desperate fright, pretending he had narrowly escaped having been mur­thered [Page 173]for having asserted the Roman Do­ctrines; adding, That it was a madness for any one to think of reducing Ethiopia to the Roman Church, till the Heat they were in at present against it, was over.

Now what can be the meaning of the Je­suits having so industriously suppressed all this; Rodriguez's Relation, as they have printed it, beginning immediately after his having left the Patriarch, and breaking off abruptly just before he returned to him again; but that they were not willing that the world should know that the first Prelate of their Order was an Usurper, The first Prelate of the Jesuits Order was an Usut­per. and that they were forc'd to make use of art, to vacate a Province for him; which, as it was no good beginning, so their Ethiopick Missions, as we shall see here­after, succeeded accordingly. Besides, what other design could Rodriguez have in pretend­ing to return to the Patriarch in such a mor­tal fright, as if he had narrowly escaped ha­ving been murthered for defending the Roman Church, which according to his own relation was false; and in representing the Reduction of Ethiopia to him as a thing not to be thought of? but only to fright him away, which it did. For by that means Rodriguez carried him with him to Goa, The old Patriarch was lodg­ed at the Jesuits College in Goa. where he lodged him in the Je­suits College; a Civility, that Order seldom or never pays to any Foreigner that they have not some design upon; where after ha­ving kept him a Year, they embarked him for Lisbon, not taking any notice of his ever ha­ving seen or spoke with his Successor, not­withstanding they were for some Months to­gether [Page 174]in the same College. But the poor old Patriarch, Sent home and dropt in the Island of St. Helena. the Jesuits know best by what ac­cident, was dropt in the Voyage, in the soli­tary Island of St. Helena; where after having done Penance a Year, which was long enough, any one would have thought, to have sent such an old man into the next world, he met with an opportunity of proceeding on his Voyage, and in the year 1558, arrived safe at Lisbon, where he lived some years after, never resigning his Patriarchate, but with his last breath.

Tellez the Jesuit apprehending that this Blot of their first Prelate's having been an Usur­per, might at some time or other come to be hit, has endeavoured to cover it, by affirm­ing that Bermudes was never Patriarch of Ethiopia, but of Alexandria; for which he quotes both a Treatise of his own, and his Tombstone in the Church of St. Sebastian Pe­dreiro in Lisbon, in both which, saith Tellez, he is stiled Patriarch of Alexandria: But if this be not to cut a knot that he is not able to un­tye, nothing is so; for besides that all the Hi­storians of his time speak of him still as Patri­arch of Ethiopia, all of them, the Jesuits not excepted, agreeing that the Pope gave Bermu­des no new Orders or Title, but only con­firm'd those that had been conferr'd on him by the Abuna and Emperor of Ethiopia; who it is certain did never pretend to make a Pa­triarch of Alexandria. It is a Jest for any one to think that the Pope would bestow the second Title in the Church upon an obscure Itinerant, and who was ordained per saltum by a single Ethiopian Bishop.

As to Tellez's two Authorities for Bermudes having been Patriarch of Alexandria, all that can be said to them is, That if there be any such things, they must have been foisted into those Monuments, by those who were con­cerned to have him pass for Patriarch of Alexandria, and not of Ethiopia: Tho by the way, it is somewhat strange, that Tellez, who lived most of his time within a Mile of the Church of St. Sebastian Pedreira, should not quote that Tombstone upon his own know­ledge, but upon the Authority of a Book. Farthermore, supposing Bermudes to have had the Title of Alexandria given him by the Pope, that does not hinder but that he might have been Abuna of Ethiopia too; it being the Pope's common practice to confer the Oriental Patriarchates upon Prelates that are possessed of other great Bishopricks: So Cardinal Bo­niface was Bishop of Tusculum, and Patriarch of Constantinople; and Cardinal Cajetanus was Archbishop of Capua, and Patriarch of Anti­och: And I do not believe there is one Presi­dent for the Popes having ever conferred any of those high Titles upon any Prelate that had not another Bishoprick.

Finally, Pius the IVth, during the time Bermudes was Patriarch, treated with Ga­briel Patriarch of Alexandria, about his Sub­mission to him as Patriarch of that See: The History of which Treaty, as not being fo­reign to my purpose, I shall here set down.

As the Popes when they are in any straits, which they do always reckon themselves to [Page 176]be in while there is any thing that looks like a General Council sitting, are, after the exam­ple of Eugenius the IVth. for making a noise with Eastern Submissions to them; which is done on purpose to make the Latin Prelates ashamed to go about to lessen a Power to which Foreign Churches and Patriarchs are for yielding Obedience: The Pope endea­vours to hire the Patriarch of Alexan­dria to submit himself and his Church to him. Accordingly, Pius the IVth, in the year 1561, finding a Session of the Council of Trent could not be put off much longer, dispatched a couple of Jesuits, whose names were Rodriguez and Elianus, with Bills for a considerable Sum of Money to Grand Cairo, there to treat with Gabriel Patri­arch of Alexandria, about his submitting him­self and his Church to the Roman See.

Gabriel till he had received all the Money of the Venetian Consul, entertained the Jesuits with promises; but after he had fingered all that he was to expect, he told them plainly, when they urged him to make his solemn Sub­mission, and to deliver them an Instrument thereof to carry to the Pope, That he would never do it, nor in the least violate the Esta­blishment of the Council of Calcedon, which made all the Patriarchs Independent one of another, and the Heads of their respective Churches; and that the Patriarch of Rome if he should fall into any Errors was no less than the other Patriarchs to be judged by his Bre­thren. Comple­ments strained to promises. The Jesuits, upon the Patriarch having changed his Note thus, alledged, That he had 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 [Page 177]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 [Page 179]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 [Page 181]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 [Page 182]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, [Page 183]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 [Page 184]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 [Page 185]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 it off; and whereas he had been pleased to charge the Ethiopick Church with holding divers Er­rors in Faith, if he would be at the pains to read over a Confession of Faith which he had Published lately, he would see how unjust that Charge of Heresy was, there being nothing in that Confession that was not taught by Christ and his Apostles.

The Emperor finding that no declarations he could make of his Resolution never to forsake the Religion of his Countrey, The Em­peror of­fers to lay the De­bates a­bout Re­ligion be­fore his Council. were able to make the Coadjutor give over teizing him, for quietness sake told him one day, That notwithstanding he was fully satisfied with the Religion of his Ancestors in every point, never­theless since a Person of his Character and Autho­rity had come so far to persuade him to submit him­self to the Pope, he was willing to lay that whole matter before his Council, that he might have their Opinion about it.

The Coadjutor being sensible that this was only to put him off with delays, and at last to lay the blame of his not turning Roman-Catholick on his Councellors, whom, and especially the Queen-Mother, and the Offi­cers of her Court, he knew to be mortal Enemies to Popery, he endeavoured to di­vert him from a course from which he ex­pected no good, by the following Letter. The Co­adjutor endea­vours to divert him from that course by the fol­lowing Letter.

Now were ever a poor Empress, and Coun­cil of State libelled so out of Scripture, or pelted out of a Concordance before? Or was the folly of a Peoples being obliged to be of a Religion, because it was the Religion of their Ancestors for several Ages, ever more severely exposed? Besides, there is one thing remarkable in this Letter, which is the Bi­shop's affirming positively, That Bermudes was, and did act for some years as Patriarch of Ethiopia, and as such had the Lands belong­ing to that Dignity setled upon him by the Emperor.

After this Letter, Several Conferen­ces about Religion. the Emperor and the Bi­shop had divers Conferences about Religion, but without any effect, the Emperor growing daily more zealous for his Ancient Faith, and averse to that of Rome. The Bishop being piqued with this ill success, challenged all the Learning of Ethiopia to a publick Disputation; which being accepted, the Emperor himself bore a great part in it, defending the Habassin Faith with that Dexterity and Learning, that the Jesuits themselves confess he did some­times put the Bishop hard to it to answer him. The Habassins were so encouraged by having such a Champion on their side, that the Bi­shop was never denied a publick Disputation when he desired it; and tho he is said by his [Page 196]Brethren to have still come off victorious, the Habassins did always triumph, the Bishop be­ing laughed at by them as the most baffled Man that ever pretended to weild an Argu­ment.

The Bishop growing weary of disputing, betook himself to his Pen again; and having Composed a Treatise against all the Habassin Errors, he Presented it to the Emperor, conjuring him to read it without Prejudice. The Emperor promised to do so, but was so far from being converted by it, that if it were possible he was setled in his Ancient Faith thereby more than he was before; The Em­peror an­swers the Coadju­tor's Book; and writes one in defence of his own Faith. Writing a Book not only in Answer to that of the Bi­shop's, but one also in Defence of his own Church; declaring in them both, that he had seen nor heard nothing to convince him, that as a Christian he was bound to submit himself and his Empire to the Pope.

The Bishop finding his Writings were as Unsuccessful as his Conferences and Dispu­tations, left the Court in Wrath, retiring to a place called Decome, where he had not been long before he thundred out the following Excommunication.

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 [Page 200]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 [Page 201]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 [Page 202]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 head should pay for it. The Coadjutor without answering a word, Crossed his Arms, and hung down his [Page 203]Head, making a tender of his Neck to him; this put Adam in such a rage, That he drew his Cimiter in great fury with an intention of gratify­ing the Coadjutor: But behold a Miracle, say the Jesuits, When Adam 's Arm was lifted up to have given the fatal blow, his Cimiter dropt out of his hand, to the great mortification of the Coadjutor, who had flattered himself with the hopes of dying a Martyr presently: But though Adam was hin­dered by that Miracle from executing what he had designed, he was so far from being any ways softened by it, that he told the Co­adjutor with great disdain, What I warrant you, you are ambitious of being made a Martyr by my hand; go get you gone out of my presence, and let me hear no more of you and your false Doctrines; for if I do, I shall find a baser hand somewhere that shall gratifie you in making you a Martyr, since you have a mind to be one.

But the chief cause of Adam treating the Coadjutor and Portugueses thus, discovered it self in a sudden Rebellion that brake out a­gainst him at this time, Bahurna­gays takes up Arms against Adam. of which their old friend Bahurnagays was one of the chief, who having retired from Court to his Government, kept upon the Sea-coast in expectation of the Portuguese Succors which the Viceroy had pro­mised to send after the Coadjutor into Ethio­pia; which not coming so soon as they were expected, the Coadjutor had sent one Andrew Galdamas, a Spanish Jesuit, to the Indies to hasten them over, by assuring the Viceroy, That there was no Conversion to be made in Ethiopia without the assistance of some Ca­tholick Troops. But Father Andrew being [Page 204]discovered at Arkiko, as he was ready to have embarked on a Ship belonging to the Baneans, was hewed in pieces by the Mahometans. Fa­ther Teller after having pronounced Father An­drew a Martyr, justifies the cause of his death, by affirming, Que esta sempre à pratica dosque tem experientia de Ethiopia, que sem as armas na­mam que, defendam & Authorizem à os pregado­res Catholicos, nam poderam nunqua ter ò Successo deseiado entre aquelles Schismaticos; that is to say, It had always been the opinion of such as had any experience in the Affairs of Ethiopia, that unless the Catholick Preachers were defended and au­thorized by Dragoons, they would never have the success that was desired among those Schisma­ticks.

Adam being sensible of this, and dreading nothing so much as the coming of Portuguese Troops into his Empire, notwithstanding the gross of the Rebellion was in an Inland Pro­vince, where they had Proclaimed one Tasca­ro, a Son of Adam's elder Brother, Emperor; He marched first against Bahurnagays, resolving if it were possible, to break his Army before it received a Portuguese Reinforcement. Adam had two Battels with Bahurnagays: In the first he is said to have been worsted by him; but to have routed Bahurnagays to that degree in the last, that he was forc'd to sculk about the Sea­coast with a handful of Portugueses, all of that Nation that were at liberty in Ethiopia, having run into him when he first took up Arms.

Adam having thus quelled Bahurnagays, and being inform'd, that now the Mosons were [Page 205]over, He is rou­ted, and goes over to the Turks. there was no fear of Ethiopia being trou­bled with any Portuguese Troops for one six Months at ieast. He marched back to find out his Nephew, who had been Proclaimed Emperor, and being come up with him, he obliged him to come to a Battel; the Fight continued obstinate for some hours, but in the conclusion the Rebels were overthrown, and Tascaro being taken Prisoner, had his head chopped off immediately by his Uncle's order.

Adam after these Victories thought to have taken some rest; when intelligence was brought him, that Bahurnagays despairing of finding mercy at his hands, and of the coming of the Portuguese which had been promised him, had with the handful of Portugueses that stuck to him, taken Sanctuary among the Mahome­tans, and was incouraging them to invade Ethiopia.

The honest Author of the Asia Portuguese, saith, This trick of the Portugueses going over with Bahurnagays to the Turks, was so ill taken by the Habassin Emperors, that they could ne­ver after that endure to hear of having any Soldiers of that Nation in their Countrey; but as we shall see hereafter, that did not hinder the Missionaries, who desired to see such Troops in Ethiopia above all things in the world, He brings the Turks into Ethio­pia, and delivers Matrua, and the other Sea-Port Towns to them. from making bold to send for them in their Names.

The Mahometans having at Nagay's instigati­on Marched into Ethiopia with a great Army, had Arkiko and Matzua the only Sea-Ports of that Empire delivered to them by Nagay's crea­tures; which places as they were of more im­portance to them than the whole Countrey [Page 206]besides, by making them Masters of the whole Coast of the Red-Sea; so having once got them into their hands, they have taken care to keep them, continuing Masters of them to this day.

Adam not being able to brook this loss, and the great devastations that were made by the Infidels in the best Provinces of his Empire, resolved to venture it all, or to recover what he had lost; and so tho he was sensible of his Armies being in all respects inferior to that of the Enemy; yet being pushed on by his rage, he determined to bid them Battel; Adam is slain in Battel. which the Infidels having accepted of, did maul the Habassins so with their Artillery, that they presently gave ground, Adam himself being overthrown upon heaps of his slain Men, most of the rest that fled being either made Prisoners, or put to the Sword. The whole Habassin Baggage having upon this total rout fallen into the hands of the Mahometans, among it the Coadjutor and his Jesuits, whom Adam had carried along with him as Hostages in all his Marches, The Coad­jutor and the Fa­thers are made Pri­soners by the Turks. were found, and were all strip­ped with the slain, before Bahurnagays and his Portuguese could come to their Relief.

So that notwithstanding the Bishop and his Fathers had their full revenge of Adam for having treated them so barbarously; yet I do not find that they much bettered their condition by it. One of the Fathers in a Letter that was writ after Adam was slain, telling his Brethren at Goa, that at the wri­ting thereof, they were in as lamentable [Page 207]an estate as it is almost possible for men to be, in having neither Clothes, Bread, nor Cre­dit; and that the poor Coadjutor was in such a Garb, that it was enough to make a Christian's heart bleed to see him in it.

Adam being slain, was succeeded by his Son Malac Saged, who was Crowned and Anointed at Axun, and who tho he Reigned Thirty Years, was never one day out of War either with his Neighbours or Subjects, and as to the main was Victorious still; Adam is succeeded by his Son Malac Sa­ged, who takes no notice of the Mis­sionaries. and tho he hated the Roman Church no less than his Father; nevertheless having his thoughts wholly taken up with War, he gave the Coadjutor and the Jesuits, after they returned to Fremo­na, no manner of Molestation, unless they were troubled at his taking no more notice of them than if there had been no such per­sons in his Countrey: Neither did the Coad­jutors declaring himself Patriarch, upon his having received advice of the Patriarch Baret­to's death, who died at Goa on the Twenti­eth of December, 1562, ingage the Emperor to have ere the more regard for him; and as the Emperor gave the Patriarch no trouble in his retirement, so neither did the Patriarch give him any, The Pa­triarch dying at Goa, the Coadjutor becomes Patriarch. who despairing of being able to do any good in Ethiopia, without the assistance of the Portuguese-Troops, made the solliciting of them his whole business. So in a Letter to the General of the Jesuits bearing date the 3d of June, 1566. he tells him, There was one thing he and the Fathers were all agreed in, which was, That nothing but a good body of Portuguese Soldiers would ever be able to reduce Ethiopia to [Page 208]the Obedience of the Roman Church; and in one of the same date to the Rector of the Jesuits College at Goa, he tells him, There was one thing he might be certain of, The Pa­triarch sollicits hard for Troops. which was, that there was no other remedy for Ethiopia, but a good body of Portuguese Troops, adding, that if they had but 5 or 600 stout Musketeers, he would undertake for the reducing of Ethiopia to the Roman Church in a short time: Concluding his Letter with a complaint, that more men were daily exposed to greater dangers for things of much less Importance, even to the State, Father Fermandes do's the same. and where the success was infinitely more doubtful. And Manuel Fernandes in a Letter to the Provincial and Jesuits of Goa, chimes exactly with his Patriarch, in this note. What shall I say, saith Fernandes, my dearest Fa­thers and Brethren! to blame your Reverences who are in India for the great neglect of not having sent the Troops whereon the Reduction of this Empire depends intirely, I know would be unjust; being certain, that if it had been in your Reverence's power to have appli'd it, that we had had that remedy long before this time: Nevertheless there is one thing I must beg of you, and that is, That since your Reverences do heartily wish that we had those Soldiers, tho it is not in your yower to send them to us, that you would pray ear­nestly to Christ to put it into their hearts, in whose power it is to do it effectually. I am likewise cer­tain, that if your Reverences did but see what is lost here in Ethiopia for want of a handful of men, who would also be able to protect those who have al­ready embraced our Faith, that you would run how­ling and lamenting so great a loss thorough all the streets of the City: Your Reverences may think of this what you please, but I do say and affirm, That [Page 209]the Order of Jesuits has no where so noble and glori­ous an enterprize upon their hands as this of Ethio­pia, if they could but finish it: Neither ought it to seem strange to you, that we should say, That a bo­dy of Soldiers is necessary to the reduction of this Church, considering that there is nothing more cer­tain, than that at the same time you lose the fa­vour of the King, the work of conversion goes on but very dull; and no wonder, since even in Portu­gal, the Prelates, if they had not the assistance of the Secular Arm, would not be able to do their du­ties; and though it is true that we pretend to have no other business here but the service of God, and the promotion of the good of peoples Souls; yet it is certain, that those Troops, if they were once here, would quickly clear this Empire of all its Foreign and Domestick Enemies, chiefly of the Turks and Galls, by whom it is at this time so miserably harassed, and against whom the unhappy Natives are not able to make head; who as they contradict our Lord, so our Lord contradicts them in chastising them with flies, for the Galls are no better: It be­ing an unconceivable thing, how such a sorry naked People should be able to do the things that they do against the Habassins, who have both Arms and Horses, were it not that God makes, and will make Wur against them, until such time as they shall give over making War against his Divine Ma­jesty: Wherefore since a good body of Soldiers would remedy all our wants, Spiritual and Temporal, let me again beg it of your Reverences, to beseech God to send us this necessary Succour.

I would have your Reverences likewise remember, with how great Zeal and Charity our holy Father Ignatius commanded our Superiors in Portugal, [Page 210] nos to fail to speak to the King, who is now with God, once a Month, at least, concerning the Ha­bassin Mission: But though my intent in putting you in mind of this, should not be to engage you to do the same with the Viceroy; yet this I will affirm, That since this is the Cause of God, and the Society, and so great a Cause too, that you ought never to give over soliciting both God and Princes about this affair: So that it may never be said of us, They begun to build, but could not finish. Finally, I do assure you, That if we had but those Troops once, that not only Ethiopia, but another Europe would be brought quickly to the Knowledge of Christ, and the Obedience of the Roman Church.

The Jesuits of Goa, Lisbon, and Rome, were so inflamed by these passionate Letters, that the Cardinal Don Henry, who during the Mi­nority of his Nephew Don Sebastian, govern­ed Portugal, could not be quiet day nor night for them, his not ordering so small a body of Men to be sent where they would infallibly do both the Church and Crown so great ser­vice, being every where roared at by them, as both the most ungodly and impolitick thing that any Government had ever been guilty of.

The Cardinal and Council of State, The Car­dinal of Portugal prevails with the Pope to call the Patriarch our of Ethiopia. who weighed things a little more soberly than the distressed Jesuits in Ethiopia, finding they could not well spare so many Soldiers at that time, from the more profitable Conquests they were going on with in the Indies, resolved, since they could not comply with the loud clamours of the Jesuits, to remove the cause of them, by writing to the Pope to recal the [Page 211]Patriarch and his Friars, and to send them somewhere else, where they might do more good, and make less noise; by representing the Con­version of the Habassins to him as a thing not feisable.

The Pope, who at that time was Pius the Vth. believing what the Cardinal had writ to him in the Name of the King of Portugal, dispatched the following Letters of Revoca­tion to the Patriarch, which the Cardinal took care to forward with all possible expedition.

The Patriarch, though Sick of Ethiopia, The Pa­triarch is unwilling to return to the In­dies. yet seems to have had no great stomach for the China or Japan Mission, which, to speak the Truth, was a hard imposition upon one of his years: And so, though in his Answer which is here subjoined, he assures the Pope of his readiness to submit to all his Com­mands; yet he sufficiently intimates, that he was as willing to resign his Dignity, and serve him or the Jesuits in their Kitchens, as to keep it, and carry it to China or Japan; in which affair, it is to be feared that the Patriarch's be­ing a Spaniard, was of no advantage to him, it being the custom of the Portugueses when they have got any Foreign Friars among them in the Indies, to put them upon the forlorn of all dangerous Missions, as they did Oviedo on this, and Father Peter, who was likewise a Spaniard, on that of the Second Habassin Mis­sion; as we shall see hereafter.

This Letter of the Patriarch's gives the Reader a clear view of the true temper of the Roman Missionaries, and of the methods they are for making use of in the Conversion of Heretical Kingdoms to the Roman Church; it discloseth likewise the true secret of Bahurnagays's Rebellion, [Page 220]which was of such fatal consequence to Ethiopia; it being said in this Letter, That the Coadjutor before he left Goa, had a pro­mise that a good Body of Portugueses should be sent after him; as it is also, that if these Troops had arrived when they were expected, which was when Bahurnagays was first in Arms, the Habassin Church had been reduced to the Obedience of the Roman before the writing of that Letter.

Now what should it be that hindered the Portuguese Government, which still pretended that the propagating of the Ro­man Faith, was its chief aim in all its remote Conquests, and whose title to them all, was founded solely on that pretence, from sending such a handful of Men, to do the Church so signal a service as the Con­verting of another Europe to it?

It was not that they were fearful that the Number of Soldiers that was desired, The rea­son why the Portu­gueses sent no Troops into Ethio­pia, when so strong­ly solici­ted to do it. would not have been able to have done that great work, for that considering what was done by Gama with a smaller number, and that it is not common with the Portugueses to distrust their own strength in such cases; whatever was, this could not be the cause of it; and if this was not, one may venture to say, it was not that they reckoned it a scandalous thing to go about to Convert an Heretical King­dom by Dragoon Missionaries, that being a thing, as the Patriarch truly observes in his Letter, That no true Roman Catholick could be offended at.

The true cause therefore of their de­nying so inconsiderable an aid to do so great a work, though so vehemently soli­cited to do it, was, that though at first they had promised themselves great mat­ters from the reduction of Ethiopia to the Obedience of the Roman Church, they found afterwards that the doing of it would be of little or no advantage to them, by reason of its lying quite out of the way of their great Indian Trade, and its having no native Commodities to countervail the great Charge, its remote­ness, and the neighbourhood of the Turks, would necessarily put them too, to main­tain an interest in it.

Neither were the Patriarch and Fathers such weak Men as not to know at what their business stuck, who therefore took care in all their Letters to assure the Go­vernment, that besides divers other Commodi­ties, there was abundance of Fine Gold in some parts of Ethiopia; and that Damut, which might easily be Converted by 600 Soldiers, and which was likewise full of Gold, did reach to Mosambique and Sefala, the best Portuguese Plantation in the Indies; but the Government, it seems, either did not believe these reports, or thought they should Buy fine Gold there too dear to turn to any account.

So that the Spanish Minister had this among other Instances undoubtedly in his eye, who told Philip the IVth. That it was a vain conceit the World had entertained of [Page 222]the Zeal of the Portugueses upon the ac­count of the Conversions which had been made by them in the Indies; for it was Covetousness and not Zeal that had engaged them to make all those Conquests; the Con­versions that had been made in those parts having been performed by the Divine Power, and the Charity of a few particular Friars, the Crown and Government having had no other aim therein, but the Robbing of King­doms and Cities; and there were still the greatest Conversions where there was most to gratifie their Covetousness; but where there was nothing to be had, there the People were Obdurate and not to be wrought upon. And so we see their Zeal expired quickly where it was not animated by Covetousness; and how they who had nothing else to say, but Lord open unto us, were not thought fit to enter into Heaven.

The Cardinal-Regent having prevailed with the Pope to recal the Patriarch, did order Ruy Laurenco de Tavara, who went Viceroy to the Indies in the year 1567. so soon as he arrived at Goa, to send some Ships to Ethiopia to fetch off the Patriarch and the Fathers; but Tavara happening to die in the Voyage, those Orders, whatever was the reason, were never executed; though if they had, so soon as it was possible, the Ships would have come too late for the Patriarch, who died at Fremona on the 9th. The Pa­triarch dieth. of July in the year 1567.

Thus ended the First great Habassin Mission, The un­happy issue of this Mis­sion. from which Ignatius had promi­sed so much Honour to himself and his Order: Which, as it was no happy thing for the Jesuits; so, excepting the Second Mission, it was the worst thing that ever befel Ethiopia.