HABASSIA, or Ethiopia Alta, or Ethiopia super Egyptum, which are all the same, according to the Newest and best Accounts we have of it, is Degrees in length, reaching from Bergamo in the 8th Degree of Northern Latitude, to Focay, which is in the 17th Degree of the same Latitude; and about 140 Leagues in Breadth, taking it from the Shore of the Red Sea to the Banks of the Nile. [A league is 3.0 statute miles or 4.8 kilometers.] The King or Emperor of Habassia, is called the Naggasi, that is, the Lord or Ruler, and not Prester, Presbyter, nor Preto John, which Title was first given him by the Portugueses, upon their imagining him, when they first discovered the Empire, to have been the great Christian Prester John, who had been so much talked of, and so little known in Europe; not considering, that all that had spoke of that Great Prince, had placed his Empire in Asia, to the North of China, and not in Africa: And as to Zaga Zabi, calling him in his Relation published at Lisbon, Precious John, in that he played the Embassador, rather than the Historian, not caring to undeceive Europe at the expense of a Title which made his Master’s name much greater in it, than it would have been otherwise.

Now though our Geographers have in their Maps been very liberal to this Emperor, having extended his Empire 30 or 40 Degrees from South to North, his Neighbors have not been so kind to him, who within these years have very much contracted it.

The Countries he is at present in possession of, are Tigre, Gojam, Amhara, Dembya, Bagemeder, Enarea, part of Zoa, Mazaga, Salem, Ogara, Abergal, Holcait, Salgade, Cemen, Saloa, Ozeca, and Doba: The Countries that have been taken from him, are Anget, Doaro, Ogge, Balli, Adea, Alam-ale Oxela, Ganz Betazamora, Gurague, Sugama, Baharguma, Catrbut, Boxa, Gumer, Couch, Damota, Mora-Aura, Habera, Oyfal, Guedem, Marabet, Manz, Beramo, with all the Ports he had formerly on the Red Sea. Tigre, which is the chief Kingdom in the Habassian Empire, begins at Matzua, a small Island not far from Arkiko, a Seaport Town in the 15th Degree of the Northern Latitude; it is 90 Leagues in length, and 50 in breadth, and is by much the most Fertile and Trading Country in Ethiopia, for which reason the Jesuits have fixed their first and greatest residence in a Town called Maegoga, or Fremona, which stands near the middle of it.

The Kingdom of Bagemder lieth to the North of Tigre, and reacheth to Amhara, and to the Banks of the Nile; it is about 60 Leagues in length, and at present not above 20 in breadth, several Provinces having lately been torn from it, which when united, made its breadth to be near equal to its length.

The Kingdom of Gojam is 50 Leagues in length, and 30 in breadth, and is in a manner encompassed by the River Nile, whose Head is near the middle of it, in a Country called Sacahala; it is either the Island of Meroe, so much celebrated by the Ancients, or else there was never any such place.

The Head of Nile, which was so long reckoned among the Chief Secrets of Nature, is now known certainly to be in a Lake in this Kingdom of Gojam; the Lake which gives birth to it, is not above a Stones throw over, and so full of Bushes, that in the Summer one may step upon them to two deep and clear Fountains, which are near the middle of it, and not 40 yards from one another; the Streams of which Fountains, as is visible from the Verdure of the Herbage, doth run under ground for near half a mile, where they break out; and being joined, do make a good large Brook; and then bending Northward, after a Course of 15 Leagues, the River Jama runs into it; after which Conjunction it bends it course towards the East, and is presently joined by two Rivers more, whose names are Kelti, and Branti; after this it runs directly East, till it enters the great Lake of Dembea, which is about 20 Leagues distant from its Head in a right Line; and without intermixing its water with those of the Lake, runs into the Channel it hath opened to it self on the North side of it.

This Lake, which the Habassins call the Sea of Dembea, lieth in the Latitude of 13 Degrees and a half, and on its South-shore is about Leagues in length, and on its North 35, not reckoning its windings, which make it a great deal more; near its middle, and where it is deepest, it may be about 10 or 12 Leagues over: Its Waters are very clear and wholesome; it abounds with Fish of all sorts, and has great herds of Sea-Horses, which come ashore daily and graze on the Plains; but for Snakes and Crocodiles it is a free from them, as it is from Tritans and Mermaids, by which it has been reported to be inhabited.

Divers great Rivers beside the Nile discharge themselves into this Lake, which is the common Receptacle of all the Prodigious Floods of Rain which in the Winter Months do tumble down from the high Mountains of Dembea; and this Lake having no other source for this vast body of Water but the Channel of the Nile, it makes bold with that, and thereby increaseth its Stream prodigiously.

The Lake of Dembea is adorned with One and twenty Islands, some of which are pretty large, namely that of Dek, which contains as much Arable Land as 40 Yoke of Oxen can plough; there are several Monasteries in seven or eight of these Islands, which were anciently very great; they do all abound with Oranges, and other delicious Fruits. Even within Habassia, the Nile has some Cataracts, its first is near a place called Depeqem, which is about 9 or 10 Leagues above the Lake of Dembea; the second is 6 or Leagues below it in the Kingdom of Begamder, at which it makes a prodigious noise; the fall of the first is about 50 Palms, and that of the second about twice or thrice as much.

The cause of the rising and falling of the Thames at Oxford, is not more certainly known, than that of the Nile in Egypt is now; for the Winter in Ethiopia, which is one continued Storm of Rain, being in the Months of June, July and August, by sending a vast body of water into the Lake of Dembea, which has no other vent for its Waters than the Channel of the Nile, doth swell that River to a prodigious height, all which Torrent of water being kept together by steep Mountains on both sides, until it comes down into Egypt, which is a flat open Country; it there expands itself, impregnating the Land thereof with its Mud, which was hindered from subsiding before by the unconceivable rapidity of that River, while it was pent in on all sides by high Mountains.

This is the true Cause of the rising of the Nile; which though the world would not, it seems, believe, was told by Nearchus, Pliny, Strabo, and others; neither is their calling them the Summer-Rains any Argument at all of those Learned Men having been ignorant of the time of the Year when they fell, but rather the contrary; for notwithstanding the Habassins upon the account of those great Rains do reckon June, July, and August, their Winter Months, yet in Egypt and all other Places without the Northern Tropic, they are reckoned Summer.

Besides the Nile, there are several other great Rivers that rise in Habassia; namely, Pacaza, whose Head is in the Mountain of Axgua, in the Kingdom of Angot; and the River Zabee, which is much bigger and swifter than the Nile; it riseth in the Kingdom of Narea, and taking its Course Southward falls into the Sea at Momboca; Haoa is likewise bitter than the Nile; it riseth in the Kingdom of Zaoa, and running North-East, doth the same good office to the parched and thirsty Countries of Adeld and Zegla, that the Nile does to Egypt; and as the River Maceb, which riseth within Two Leagues of Fremona in the Kingdom of Tigre, does to the dry Province of Derqhem.

Now that Countries wherein it seldom or never rains, should have that great want thus supplied by the overflowing of Rivers, is a clear evidence both of the Goodness and Wisdom of Providence.

Habassia is reported by the Jesuits to abound with pure Gold; which we have reason to think was represented by them to be much finer and more plentiful than it really is, on purpose to prevent the Kings of Portugal and Spain growing weary of the great Charges of their Missions. Where the Land is Arable, it is said to produce good Wheat and Barley; and in several places to have Three Harvests in a year. It produceth likewise Silk, which is gathered off the Bushes, as it is in India; and in some places extraordinary Sugar Canes. Its Horses and Cows, with which it is said to be well stocked, are much larger than the Europeans. It has also great store of Lions and Elephants, and those of the best Cast; but the Wild Beast that is the most remarkable in it, is the Giratacahem, that is to say, the Smoothhead, which is reported to be so tall, that a Man on Horseback may ride under its Belly.

There is a great mixture of People in Habassia, from which the country is said by some to have had its Name.

As Heathens, Jews, and Mahometans of sever[al] Nations; but the Main Body of its People are Christians. The Jews speak Hebrew, or rather Syriack; the Heathens as many different Languages as there are Kingdoms; but the Court-Language, and which is spoke by all Persons of any Quality, is the Amehara [Amharic]. The Empire does not descend to the Eldest Son, but to him whom the Emperor at his death is pleased to Name for his Successor. The Emperors formerly kept their Court in the city of Axum, from which the African Ethiopians were commonly called Axumites; which is at present reduced to a Village of about a hundred Families. The Royal Arms of Habassia are a Lion holding a Cross, with this Motto, The Lion of the Tribe of Judah is Victorious. I do but just mention these things, my Intention in this Work being to write the Ecclesiastical, and not the Natural or Civil History of Ethiopia.

OF THE RELIGION OF THE HABASSINS.

IT is a constant Tradition among the Habassins, That the Queen of Sheba that went to Visit Solomon, was Empress of their Country, 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, 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 the Gospel among them. Upon which Fable, for I cannot look upon it as any other, they have built a hundred more, which are much fitter 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 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, 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 steadfast. 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 Names were Frumentius and Aedesius, had the misfortune to touch on the Coast of Ethiopia; where Meropius was inhumanly Murdered by the Natives, but his Two Scholars having the 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 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’ 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’ 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’ Apology to that Emperor.

AS there is nothing we study so much as the knowledge of the Truth, 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 of 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 Country 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 control, 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; 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 Bishopric 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, who not being contented with having harassed 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 Catholics, 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 humor 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 St. Athanasius, and did propagate the Gospel through that Country; 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 [but the author names ten] are said to have been sent from Rome into Ethiopia; their Names were Araguai or Michel, Alef, Gavi, Ase, 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 Friars 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 Tyrant in 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’ Persian War.

Justinian the Emperor being engaged in a War with the Persians in the Year 530, 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 Asiatic Coast of the Red-Sea that is opposite to Ethiopia, to engage them, being Christians, to join 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 Red-Sea with a Numerous Fleet and Army, and having in a pitched Battle 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 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, 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 Merchants 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 Neighbors 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 through 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, that invite their Neighbors into their Country, 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 contented to live among the Homerites as Inmates, they set up to be their Masters; and having by force of Arms deposed Esimetheus, 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.

Hellenesteus 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, 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 entreat him to ordain them a Bishop, and some Presbyters; which the Patriarch having, I know not for what reason, denied to do, the Ambassador complained 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, 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 returned, was received with the general joy of the whole People.

In the Eighth year of Chalisatus Mutamidi, or as others will have it, 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 Neighborhood of Malaca in Cosvoim, in the City of Misra, 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, which is the 1165th of Christ, the Nile being extremely 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 height in Egypt, to the great joy of the King and the whole Country, who, when the Patriarch returned home, did him great honors.

Paulus Venetus reports, that in the year 1258, an Habassin King having been hindered by his Counsellors from going in person to Jerusalem, did send a Bishop thither, with rich Offerings, who, was not only robbed of all he had as he passed through 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 Battle, and made great Desolations in his Country for some Weeks, he returned home laden with Spoils and Honors.

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 Egypt with a numerous Army, which would divert the Sarazens from coming with their whole force against them into Syria.

When, or wheresoever the Arabic Canons, falsely 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 choose a Patriarch, 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 styled Catholicus, he shall not, notwithstanding that, have a right to ordain Archbishops, as other Patriarchs have, having neither the Honor nor Authority of a Patriarch:

And if it should so happen that a Council 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 Arabic 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 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, 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 his 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 Hyperboles of St. Peter and the Pope’s Supremacy, it is probable that the 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 Africa, beyond Egypt: Whereas, long after this, that Empire, though called Ethiopia, was still supposed to lie somewhere in the 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 Dominical Provincial of Poland, as being its next Neighbor.

In the Year 1308, 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; insomuch, that I am apt to think, that the whole Story of this Enchanted Asiatic 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 Country 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 translate 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 Ethiopic Church) Eugenius the IVth, after he had dismissed the Greeks, 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 paltry 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 Ethiopic 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 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, 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 denied to submit himself to the Pope; yet considering he was his Great Grandfather, 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 to turn from one Sect of Christianity to another. Besides, Zera Jacob, abating him that one thing of his having refused to submit the Ethiopic 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.

ZERA JACOB’S LETTER TO THE HABASSIN MONKS AT JERUSALEM In the name of the Father, and Son, and Holy Ghost, one God, whom I adore with all my heart, and on whom I rely with all my strength, and with all my mind, to whom I am bound with the tie of sacred Worship, which is not to be broken. THIS Letter is written in this Book of Canons by us Zera Jacob, whose Name, since we took the Government upon us, is Constantine, in the 8th year after the God of Israel in the multitude of his mercies was pleased to place us on the Throne of the Kingdom of Ethiopia, being in Seava, which is called Teglet.

Let this come to the hands of my beloved, the College of Saints who reside at Jerusalem the Holy City.

In the peace of the Lord. Amen.

I do proclaim you very happy, for having in the first place obeyed the word of the Gospel, which saith, He that forsaketh not his father and mother, wife and children, &c. for which reason you have left the world, and have taken upon you the Yoke of Monkery; the word of the Prophet hath likewise bound you, which saith, I will not go into the tabernacle of mine house, nor climb up to my bed; neither will I give sleep to mine eyes, nor slumber to mine eyelids, until I find the house of the Lord, the habitation of the God of Jacob. Whereupon you determined to repair to Jerusalem, the City of the Great King, not being discouraged from going thither, either by the Incommodities of the Journey, or the heat by day, or the cold by night, nor by the dangers of Robbers; where when you arrived, what was said by the Prophet was fulfilled in you: Let us therefore go into his house, and worship in the place where the face of our Lord stood; for to you it is given to kiss the place which his Presence hath hallowed, from his Nativity to his Ascension: For which cause I do very much rely on your Prayers, and on the Afflictions you have suffered for God’s sake.

I do salute you from the bottom of my heart, saying, Health to you the Sons of Ethiopia, whom the earthly Jerusalem hath tied to her self, that she may convey you to the Heavenly.

Health be to your Faith which is perfect in the Trinity; and to your course of life, which is like to that of Angels.

Health be to your Feet which walk, to your Hands which touch, to your Lips which kiss, to your Eyes which do freely behold Galilee where God was Incarnate, and Bethlehem where he was born, taking our Nature upon him, and the Cave where he lay, and Nazareth where he was educated, and Jordan where he was baptized, that he might cleanse us, and Corontum where he fasted for our sake, and Calvary where he was crucified for our Redemption, and Golgotha where he was buried and rose again, that he might quicken us, and the Mount of Olives where he ascended to his Father and our God, that he might introduce us into the Inner Vail of the highest Heavens, into which he himself entered, and introduced the Apostles who were before us, and the Oratory of Sion where the Comforter descended on our Fathers the Apostles.

Health be likewise to your Eyes, which behold the Light that cometh out of the Sepulchre of our Lord on the Old Sabbath, to wit, on the Eve of our Passover. May your Peace, and Love, and Prayers, and Benedictions be with me for ever, Amen.

Behold I have sent you this Book of Synods, that you may receive Consolation from it on the Old Sabbath, and on the Lord’s Day, and that they may be a Memorial of me through all Ages. Amen.

I Zera Jacob, whose Name, since God was pleased to place me on the Throne of the Empire, is Constantine, in the Eighth Year of my Reign, do Bequeath unto you the Land of Zebla, and Half of all the Tributes arising from it, for Two Years, which amounts to an Hundred Ounces of Gold, toward your Food and Raiment; and do give it to the Monastery of Jerusalem, that it may be a Memorial of my self and of our Lady Mary, and for the Celebration of Her Feasts, to wit, That of her Nativity on the 1st of May, that of her Death on the 22d of January, and that of her Translation on the 15th of August; as also of the Feasts of her Son, our Lord Jesus, on the 29th of December, when he was Born, to be celebrated by you at Bethlehem, together with the Festivities of his Passion, and lively Resurrection from Death. You shall likewise celebrate all the Festivities of our Lady Mary, which in the Book of her Miracles are Thirty two in number. And shall furthermore keep a Lamp burning for me in the Sepulchre of our Lord; and another in the Entry thereof; and on the right side one, and on the left another; as also at the place of his Burial three; three at the Monument of our Lady Mary in Gethsemane; and at the place where Mary Magdalen saw him one; and in our Chapel three; one also at Bethlehem where our Lord was born; and another at the place in the Mount of Olives where our Lord ascended. Let them be all maintained at my Charge, and take care not to suffer them to go out at any time, nor to give way to any Person contributing towards them. And since I do rely on the Bond of your Love, let your Prayers and Benedictions be with me through all Ages. Amen.

My Beloved, Don’t you offer to say, Light descendeth only upon us, that your glorying in your selves be not in vain; since you know that evil attends glorying, and blessing humility. Peace be with you, the Peace of our Lord be with you, Amen.

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

But it is no matter whether it was a Fiction or a Reality, so long as it furnished a good pretense, 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 Pretenses, 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 the 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 other Monks that are extant, that is, extremely 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, any one that has a mind to be a Monk, retires thereupon to the Desert, where he puts on what Habit he pleaseth, or judgeth to be most suitable 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 Monasteries are more like Villages than Roman Convents, 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 die they dispose of their Goods as they please, only the Land remains still to the Monasteries. Now this course falls in exactly with that of the Primitive Monks, who always lived in Deserts, where they worked hard, and were under no Vows; whereas the Roman Monks have their Monasteries in or near Princes Courts, and in all Populous Cities; and though 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 Monasteries, 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, 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 all Eutychians, holding that there is but one Nature in Christ, which is the Divine, by which they will have the Human 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, Melkites 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, 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 Catholics.

The Supreme Authority in all Causes Ecclesiastical and Civil, is in the Emperor. They have but one Bishop at a time, who is styled 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, he receives a considerable Revenue.

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; I baptize thee in the Water of Jordan; Let God Baptize thee; Come thou to Baptism. They Circumcise both Males and Females, and are all 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 die without Baptism.

They celebrate the Eucharist but once a day in a Church, 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, 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 figuratively.

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 Countrymen, 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 Profane 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, saying, Habassea, Habassea, I have sinned, I have sinned, without descending to particulars.

They deny Purgatory, and know nothing of Confirmation and Extreme Unction; they condemn Graven Images; they keep both Saturday and Sunday; and do never fast on either of them, no, not in Lent, nor upon any day betwixt Easter and Whitsuntide; their Church Offices are all in the Vulgar Tongue; and are performed with extraordinary Devotion, but especially their Litanies; they go all betimes in the morning to Church to pay their Devotions, which they do with great fervor, and for the most part leave something of an offering behind them.

Whenever they come to any place that has a Church, let their Business be never so urgent, they repair to it immediately; they never go into any Church with their Shoes 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, 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 Preacher could say any thing better than what was written in the 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, 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 Mathematics, 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 received from the Moors in Barbary, when he was a Soldier there under his Father; he was Master of the Military Order of Christ, which together with his other Ecclesiastical Pensions, brought him in a great Revenue; all which, together with his whole time, he resolved to dedicate entirely to the gratification of his Curiosity after new Discoveries.

And in order to the better carrying on of this his great Design, he retired from Court to a place in the Algarves, called at that time Terranable, but since, from him, Villa de Infante; a few Months after his retirement, he fitted out two Ships, which having passed the Pillars of Hercules, at that time the non ultra of Navigation, they sailed to the Promontory of Ganaria, but were discouraged from proceeding any further, partly by strong Currents, and partly by that Promontory, running so far into the Sea, that they could not discover its Cape.

This first Voyage was made in the Year 1410, 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, escape the discouragement that new and great Enterprises 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 Countries the Infante was in quest of, were neither better, nor worse, than the Sandy Deserts of Arabia; that God having allotted those Countries to the Wild Beasts for their habitation, if men should offer to intrude into them, they would either die, or turn wild like the Natives; and that the very sight of them would turn Whites, Negroes; that there had never wanted younger Brothers among Princes, who had sought to remedy the misfortune of their Birth, by new Discoveries, but which had always miscarried: That the Infante’s Father, who was a wise Prince, finding Portugal wanted People, had invited Strangers from all parts into it, and had given them Lands to cultivate; whereas, if his Project should take effect, it would tend to the depopulating of it; with a great many other such idle Reflections.

But the Infante, who had too great a Soul to be discouraged either by Railery, or grave Nonsense, having with much ado wrought some Mariners up to an Opinion of the feasibleness of the Undertaking, in the Year 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, until they made the Mountains of Leaena, which lie 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, 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 a half to the South of the Equator.

John II. who succeeded Alphonso, set his heart extremely 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, 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 Saires 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 Country; the first that were sent being ignorant of the Arabic 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 Arabic tongue, whose names were Petro Cavillam, and Alphonso Payo; he sent them on the same Errand, with a strict charge not to come back without an Account of the Situation 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; 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 sailed to the Coast of Africa, 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 overjoyed 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 though he was willing to have returned to Portugal with the Intelligence he had got, yet remembering 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 Africa, by some Merchants that traded from Memphis to Lisbon.

In the Year 1490, Cavilham first entered into Habassia, of which at that time one Escander or Alexander was Emperor, who being satisfied 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, 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.

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 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 Grandmother 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 Gojam, 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, 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 entered 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 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 in a Title.

Almeida sailed from Lisbon with his great Fleet on the 26th of March in the Year 1502, and after a troublesome 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 Situation for a Castle, he run one up in twenty Days, and left a good Garrison 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 Cocatora, the Inhabitants whereof are Christians of the Jacobite Sect, as the Habassins are, where having taken the Fort of Benninum by Storm, he entered into the Persian Gulf; 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 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, joining 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.

THE LETTERS OF HELENA, GRAND-MOTHER OF DAVID, THE PRECIOUS JOHN, TO EMANUEL, KING OF PORTUGAL, WRITTEN IN THE YEAR 1509. In the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, one only God in Three Persons: The Health, Grace, and Benedictions of our Lord and Redeemer Jesus Christ, the Son of the Virgin Mary, Born in the House of Bethlehem, be upon our beloved Brother, the most Christian King Emanuel, Lord of the Sea, and Conqueror of the cruel Infidels, the Mahometans. THE Lord Prosper you, and give you Victory over all your Enemies, and may your Kingdoms and Dominions be spread far and wide by the devout Prayers of the Messengers of Christ, our Redeemer, the Four Evangelists, St. John, St. Luke, St. Mark, and St. Matthew, whose Holiness and Prayers preserve you.

We do certify you, most beloved Brother, That your two Envoys are arrived at our Court, the one is named John, who saith he is a Priest; the other is named John Gomez, upon whose having desired Succor and Provisions of us, we sent our Ambassador Matthew, a Brother of our Service, with the good leave of our Patriarch, Mark, who gives us Blessing, and sends Presbyters to Jerusalem, and who is our Father, and the Father of our Kingdoms, and the Pillar of the Faith of Christ, and of the Holy Trinity, to your great Captain, who fighteth for the Faith of our Lord Jesus Christ in India, to let him know how ready we are to supply him with what Soldiers and Provisions he stands in need of.

We are informed that the Prince of Cair is bringing together a great Fleet to go against yours, to be revenged on you for the damages he has sustained by your Captains in the Indies, whom may God so prosper daily, that all Infidels may be brought under the Yoke; we have determined to send Forces to your assistance against the said Prince; they shall be ordered to the Straits of Mecha, namely to Babel, or Mendel, unless it should be more convenient for your Service that they should be sent to the Ports of Jidda, or Thur, that so we may drive the Mahometans and Infidels out of the World, and that the Gifts and Oblations which are sent to the holy Sepulchre may no longer be devoured by Dogs.

The promised time, which was foretold by Christ to his Mother, is now come, who said, That in the last days a King should rise among the Franks that would destroy the whole Race of Mahometans, and Barbarians; now this must undoubtedly be that very time.

Whatever our Ambassador Matthew shall say to you, you may give credit to, as if it were spoken by us in person; he is one of our chief Ministers, for which reason we sent him to your Court.

We had committed this Message to the Envoys you sent us, had we not been afraid lest by that means our Affairs might not have come so perfectly to your knowledge, as we desire they should.

We send you by this our Ambassador Matthew, a Cross that is undoubtedly made out of the Cross whereon our Saviour Christ was crucified at Jerusalem: We made two Crosses out of a piece thereof that was sent to us; one whereof we keep to our selves, and the other we have sent to you by our Ambassador; the Wood is of a black color, and it hangs by a small Silver Ring.

Furthermore, If you shall think fit to marry, either your Daughters to our Sons, or your Sons with our Daughters, it will be extremely acceptable to us, and will be much for both our Advantages, by Laying a foundation of a Brotherly Alliance betwixt us. Which Marriages we are and shall always be ready to enter into with you: What remains is, That the Health and Grace of our Redeemer Christ Jesus, and of our Holy Lady the Virgin Mary, may extend themselves to you, your Sons and Daughters, and your whole Family. Amen.

We do furthermore certify you, That in case you and we join our Foces, we shall, with God’s assistance, be strong enough to destroy the Enemies of our Holy Faith; for at Sea, where by reason of our Empire’s lying so much within Land, we are not able to do any thing, You, praised be God, are the most powerful of all, Jesus Christ being your Helper; for in truth, the things done by you in the Indies are miraculous, and more than human: If you will set out a Fleet of 1000 Ships, we will take care to furnish them with all Necessaries.

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 Alvarez, 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 interred by the Ambassadors in the Monastery 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 Monsoons 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 increase 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 Monsoon 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 itself. 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.

THE LETTERS OF THE MOST SERENE DAVID, EMPEROR OF ETHIOPIA, TO EMANUEL KING OF PORTUGAL; WRIT IN THE YEAR 1521.

In the name of God the Father, as it was always, and who has no beginning; In the name of God the only Son, who was like unto him before the light of the Stars was seen, and before he laid the foundations of the Sea; but who in time was conceived in the Womb of a Virgin without Human Seed, and without Marriage, for after this manner was the knowledge of his Office: In the name of the Comforter, the Spirit of Holiness, who knoweth all Secrets, that are, or ever were, and all the height of Heaven, which is sustained and upheld without Pillars, and who enlarged the Earth, which before was not known, nor created, from the East to the West, and from the South to the North, neither are they First and Second, but a Trinity joined in One Eternal Creator, and One Council, and One Word through all Ages. Amen.

THESE Letters are sent by Mani Tinghil, that is, the Frankincense of the Virgin, which was the name that was given me at my Baptism; but the name I assumed when I took the Government upon me, is David, the Beloved of God, the Pillar of the Faith, of the Race of Judah, the Son of David, the Son of Solomon, the Son of the Pillar of Sion, the Son of the Seed of Jacob, the Son of the Hand of Mary, the Son of Nau, by the Flesh, Emperor of the Great and High Ethiopia, and of Mighty Kingdoms and Provinces, King of Xoa and Affate, and of Fatigar, and of Angote and Bara, and of Baaligaura, and of Adea, and of Vangue, and of Goiam, where the Nile riseth; and of Damarua, and of Vaquem Edri, Ambea, Vagni, Tigri, Mahon, and Sabaym, where Queen Saba lived, and of Barnagaes, and Lord of all the Countries as far as Nubia on the Confines of Egypt.

These Letters are addressed to the most Potent and Excellent King Emanuel, who liveth in the love of God, and who continues steadfast in the Catholic Faith, the Son of the Apostles Peter and Paul, King of Portugal and Algarves, the Friend of Christians, the Enemy, Judge and Conqueror of the Mahometans, and Heathens of Africa and Guinea, from the Promontory and Island of the Moon, to the Red-Sea of Arabia, Persia and Ormus, and of the whole Indies, and of all the Provinces, Islands and Lands belonging to them, the Destroyer of the Mahometans, and of all the mighty Heathens; the Lord of Towers, and of High Castles and Walls, the Propagator of the Faith of Jesus Christ.

Peace be with you, King Emanuel, who relying upon God’s Assistance, do slaughter the Mahometans, and with your Fleet and Armies every where drive the Infidels out as Dogs: Peace be with the Queen your Wife, the Friend of Jesus Christ, and the Servant of the Virgin Mary, the Mother of the Saviour of the World: Peace be with your Sons, who are as flourishing Lilies in a Spring Garden, and are as a Table furnished with Meat: Peace be with your Daughters, whose Attire adorns them, as Tapestry does a Palace:

Peace be with all your Kindred, who are procreated out of the Seed of the Saints, as the holy Scripture saith, The Sons of the Holy are blessed, and are great both at home and abroad: Peace be with your Councillors, Officers, Magistrates and Judges: Peace be with the Governors of your Castles, and Frontiers, and of all your strong Places: Peace be with all Nations, People, and Cities, and all their Inhabitants, excepting Mahometans and Jews; Peace be with all Parishes and with all that are faithful to Christ and you. Amen.

O, Lord King, and my Father, I am informed, That when the fame of my Name first reached your ears, by the Voice of my Ambassador Matthew, that you forthwith assembled all your Archbishops, Bishops and Prelates, to return thanks to God for so good News, and that you did also receive Matthew with great kindness and respect: When I came to hear of this, I was overjoyed likewise, and did return thanks to God for it, as did also all my People. I was much troubled at Matthew’s Death, who died in the Monastery of Basayn, within my Dominions, as he was returning home; he was not sent by me, for I was then but a Boy of 11 years of Age, and had not taken the Government upon me after my Father’s death, but by Queen Helena, whom I reverenced as my Mother, and who at that time administered the Affairs of the Empire. Matthew was by Profession a Merchant, and his true name was Abraham, which he changed, that he might travel through the Turkish Dominions with the more security.

But having, notwithstanding his Disguise, been discovered to be a Christian, at Dabul he was cast into Prison, where he lay till he was taken out by some of your stout Soldiers, upon his having acquainted them with his Confinement, and his being our Ambassador. The General of your Army, after he had rescued him out of the hands of the Enemy, took care to convey him to your Court; at which, as Matthew was punctual in acquainting you with all that he had in Commission to say, so he was the same in sending me word how honorably he was entertained by you, and how you had loaded him with Gifts; all which was confirmed by your Ambassadors, who were conveyed hither by Didacus Lopez de Segueiea, the Admiral of your Fleet; and by the Letters which were to have been delivered to me by Edward Golvam, who died in the Island of Camera, and were delivered by the surviving Ambassadors. I rejoiced exceedingly at the sight of your Letters, and did return thanks to God for them. I was overjoyed likewise to see your Ambassadors have Crosses on their breasts, and did inquire of them concerning the Rites of the Christian Faith; being desirous to know which are the True. But the thing that affected me with the most devotion, was the Story your Ambassadors told me, of Ethiopia having been first discovered to your Fleet by a Miracle: Which after it had given over all hopes of finding it, was conducted to one of our Ports by a Red Cross that appeared one morning in the Heavens; as this appears to me to have been a Miracle, so undoubtedly the Admiral of your Fleet, who had such an extraordinary honor done to him, must be exceedingly beloved of God.

This mutual Embassy of ours was foretold by the Prophet in the Book of Life, and in the Passion of St. Victor, and in the Writings of the Holy Fathers, which do all testify, That a great Christian King should conclude a Peace with the Emperor of Ethiopia: But little did I expect that this prophecy would have been fulfilled in my days. But God knew it certainly, praised be his Name, who first brought Ambassadors from you to me, that I might likewise send Ambassadors to you.

My Father in Christ, and Friend, it is my desire that we should be of the same Religion; I never had an Embassy sent to me before by any Christian King, neither was I certain that there was a Christian King any where besides my self, having been always encompassed with Moors, the Sons of Mahomet, and with Heathens and Slaves, who do not acknowledge God, and with some who worship Wood and Fire, and with others that worship Serpents as Gods; with whom I have never lived well, because, though the Faith has been preached to them, they refuse to come to the Truth. I am now at ease, God having given me rest from all your and my own Enemies; against whom when I march with my Armies, they turn their backs toward us; my Captains are also every-where victorious over them: So that God is not angry with me, but as the Psalmist has it, He hath fulfilled the desire of Kings, who desire nothing but what is righteous: For which, no praise is due us, but all thanks ought to be returned to God, for it is he that hath given us the World, and the Land of the Gentiles for ever, and all the Countries from your own Borders to those of Ethiopia: For which I do give great thanks to God, and do proclaim his mighty Power, hoping the Sons of the Gentiles will be brought under the Yoke, and to the knowledge of the true Faith; for I do not in the least doubt, but that your Sons, and you, and I, shall abundantly rejoice in our Victories; and you must never give over praying to God until he has put you in Possession of the Holy Temple of Jerusalem, which at present is in the hands of the Enemies of Christ, that is, of Mahometans, Heathens, and Heretics; which work if you could perform, your hand will be full of praise.

Of the Ambassadors you sent unto me with Matthew, Three died by the way; the Admiral of your Fleet, after having had a Conference at Matrua with the King of Bernagays, who is our Vassal, dispatched the surviving Ambassadors with great Gifts to our Court: Your Gifts were acceptable to me, but your Name is more precious to me than all Jewels and Treasures.

But let us pass over these things, and begin to Treat how we may Invade and Conquer the Countries of the Infidels; I for my part will Contribute a Hundred thousand Drachms of Gold, and as many Thousand Armed Men, and moreover Timber, and Iron, and Copper, towards the Building and Equipping of a Fleet, with abundance of Provisions of all sorts; let us therefore join together. And whereas it is not our custom, nor agreeable to our Dignity, to send Ambassadors to any Prince to sue for Peace, you did therefore first send Ambassadors to desire a Peace with me, wherein you verified the Words of Christ, for it is written, Blessed are the feet which bring peace; for which I am also prepared after the manner of the Apostles, who were unanimous and of one Heart.

O King, and my Father Emanuel; the Only God, who is the God of Heaven, and is always the same, growing neither older no younger, preserve and protect you.

The Envoy, of those that arrived, who was first in Commission, was named Rodrigo Lima, with whom was joined one Francis Alvarez, who for the singular Piety and Probity of his Life, was very dear to me; he did also return very proper answers to all the questions I put to him concerning Religion; you ought therefore to prefer him, and to call him Master, and to employ him in the Conversion of the people of Matrua and Zeila, and of all the other Islands of the Red-Sea, all which are on the Coast of our Empire; I have bestowed a Cross and a Staff upon him, as Badges of Authority, and would have you to do the same, and to make him Bishop of those Countries, for he well deserves it, and is very fit for that office. God be propitious to you, that so you may always be Valiant against your Enemies, and may bring them all under your Feet.

God grant you a long life, and make you partaker of as good Places in the Kingdom of Heaven as I wish for my self; for I have heard many good things of you, and have seen with my eyes what I never expected to have seen: May God make things succeed from good to better, and may your place be over the Tree of Life, which is the place of the Saints.

I as your little Son, have done what you Commanded me; and if you will send Ambassadors to me, I will always obey you, that so we may help one another; and whenever your Ambassadors shall arrive, as these did at Matrua, or at Dalacam, I will be sure to take that care of them that you desire I should, there being nothing I am so ambitious of, as that we should be united in Councils and Actions; and whensoever your Fleet shall come upon my Coast, I shall join them immediately with an Army: And whereas on my Borders there are no Christians, nor Christian Churches, I am willing to give all those Provinces, which Border upon the Mahometans, to your Subjects to Inhabit; make haste therefore to execute what you have begun.

In the mean time I would have you send me some of your Learned Men, as also some Gravers of Images of God and Silver, and some Lead, Copper and Iron Smiths, as also some Printers, that understand our Letters, to Print Books for our Churches, and some that know how to make Bracelets, and how to Gild Metals, they shall be all well entertained in my Palace, and whenever they shall have a mind to return home, they shall be well Rewarded for their Pains; and I do Swear by Christ Jesus, who is God, and the Son of God, that they shall have free leave to depart.

This I do desire and expect from your known Virtue and Goodness, being sensible that you have a great kindness for me, by your having treated Matthew so Honorably and Liberally, and by having sent him back as you did.

I do most earnestly desire to have all the forementioned Artificers sent hither, and do promise that you shall never have any cause to repent of your having sent them; for I will take care that they shall all be well rewarded; wherefore since a Father ought not to deny what his Son desires of him, and you are my Father, and I am your Son, let us be joined together as two Bricks are in a Wall, that so we may be two with one Heart, and may agree in the Love of Christ Jesus, who is the Head of the World, all that are in him being as Bricks joined together in a Wall. Amen.

THE LETTERS OF THE SAME DAVID EMPEROR OF ETHIOPIA, TO KING JOHN THE IIID. OF PORTUGAL, WRITTEN IN THE YEAR 1524.

In the Name of God the Father Almighty, Maker of Heaven and Earth, and of all things that are made, visible and invisible: In the Name of God the son, the Council and Prophet of the Father; and in the Name of the Holy Ghost, the Comforter and living God: Who is equal to the Father and the Son, and who spoke by the mouth of the Prophets, and inspired the Apostles, that they might Thank and Praise the Perfect Trinity in Heaven and on Earth, and in the Depths always. Amen.

I The Frankincense of the Virgin, for that was my Baptismal Name, but who with the Scepter of my Kingdom have taken the Name of David. The Beloved of God, the Pillar of the Faith, the Offspring of Judah, the Son of David, the Son of Solomon, Kings of Israel, the Son of the Pillar of Sion, of the seed of Jacob, the Son of the hand of Mary, the Son of Nau by the Flesh; do send these Letters and this Ambassador, to the Greatest, most Powerful, and High, John Emanuel: Peace be with you, the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you always. Amen.

When I heard of the Power of the King your Father, by whom the Moors, the Sons of the filthy Mahomet, were subdued, I gave great Thanks to God for the Increase and the Greatness of the Crown of Conservation in the House of Christianity. I did likewise take great pleasure in the arrival of the Ambassadors who brought that King’s words to us, because by that means a singular Love, Friendship, and Correspondence, was established betwixt us, in order to the Extirpating of all the Wicked Mahometans and the Unbelieving Heathens that lie betwixt our two Kingdoms. But while I was full of this Joy, before I had sent any Ambassador to him, I received the News of your and my Father’s Death, which turned my Joy suddenly into Sorrow, whereof our Court, Prelates, and Monks, and, in a word, all our Faithful Subjects, did deeply partake: Our Sorrow upon this News becoming equal to our former Joy.

Sir, From the beginning of my Reign there was no Ambassador nor Envoy sent to me by the King or Kingdom of Portugal, but by your Father, who sent some of his Captains hither, and with them some of his Nobles, and Clarks, and Deacons, who brought with them all the Utensils of a Solemn Mass.

I must tell you, I was overjoyed at their arrival, and did receive them with great Affection, dismissing them after they had done their Business, that so they might return home in Peace and with Honor: But being come to the Port of the Red-Sea that is on my Borders, they found the Admiral of their Fleet gone; who, as he certified me himself, could wait no longer for them, by reason of a Custom that you have, of changing your Admiral every Third Year, which, together with no other Fleets having touched at any of my Ports for some Years after, was the cause of your Ambassador’s having staid so long at my Court.

I do now send, what I desire of you, by Brother Christopher Licanot, whose Baptismal Name is Zaga Zabo, that is to say, The Grace of the Father, who will lay my Demands before you. I do likewise send Francis Alvarez to the Pope, to yield obedience to him in my Name, as it is just I should.

O Lord my Brother King, attend and apply your self to the Friendship that was begun betwixt us by your Father, and do not neglect to send Letters and Ambassadors to us frequently; for I am extremely desirous to receive them from you, as from my Brother: And since we are both Christians, and the Mahometans, though Wicked, are still in Peace with all of their own Sect, it is fit it should be the same betwixt us. And I do declare, That for the future, I will receive no Embassy from the King of Egypt, nor from any of those Kingdoms, which have formerly sent Ambassadors to us, nor from no other King but only from your Highness, from whom I do earnestly desire to have them come; for the Mahometan Kings, by reason of the difference that is betwixt us in Religion, do never look upon me as their Friend, and do only pretend to have a Kindness for me, that they may Trade with the more conveniency and security within my Dominions, from whence they draw great Profit, exporting Yearly great Quantities of Gold, whereof they are extremely Covetous, while at the same time they have no real Friendship for me, for which reason I take no pleasure in their Gain; but this having been a Custom of my Ancestors, was to be endured; though after all, the only thing that hinders me from making War upon them, and Confounding them, is the fear of provoking them thereby to violate and destroy the Temple of Jerusalem, where the Sepulchre of Christ is, which God hath been pleased to leave in the hands of those filthy Mohametans, and to demolish the Churches that are in Egypt and Syria; this is the only cause why I do not Invade and Conquer them, which I am sorry I am not at liberty to do.

O King, I can by no means rejoice in the Christian Kings of Europe, who, as I am informed, do not agree in one heart, but are at War one with another; be you all Unanimous, and in Friendship one with another; for my own part, had I a Christian King in my Neighborhood, I would never be absent from him. I do not know what to say of these matters, nor what to do, since God seems to have ordained things to be as they are.

My Lord, let me have Ambassadors from you frequently; for when I see your Letters I think I behold your face; there being a greater Friendship betwixt those that live far asunder, than betwixt Neighbors, by reason of the stronger desire they have one for another; for he that has hid his Treasure thinks the oftener of it, and loves it the more for not seeing it, according to what Christ saith in his Gospel, Where your treasure is there will your hearts be also; my heart is therefore with you, because you are my Treasure, and you ought also to make me your Treasure, so as sincerely to join your Heart with ours.

O Lord and Brother, observe this word, for I am told you are very Wise, and in Wisdom like your Father, of which, when I was informed, I returned Thanks to God for it, and throwing away Sorrow, did put on Joy, and said, Blessed be the Son that is Wise, and who has a great Head; the Son of King Emanuel who sits upon the Throne of his Kingdoms.

Sir, Have a care you do not grow weary, since you are no less Valiant than your Father, and do not discover your self to be Weak against the Mahometans and Gentiles, whom, with God’s Assistance, you may easily Conquer; and have a care how you say, The Forces left me by my Father are small; for they are abundantly sufficient, and God will always help you:

I have Men, Gold, and Provisions, like the Sand of the Sea, and the Stars of Heaven; so that we two being United, may with ease destroy the whole Barbarous Race of Mahometans; I desire nothing of you, but Experienced Officers to Discipline and Command my Soldiers.

O King, thou art of a just Age, whereas Solomon took the government upon himself when he was but 12 years old, and notwithstanding that had great Power, and was wiser than his Father. I also when Nau my Father died, was but 11 years of Age, and have, notwithstanding that, with God’s assistance, acquired more Power and Riches since I sat on the Throne of my Father, than ever he had; having conquered all the Neighboring Nations and Kingdoms; we have both cause therefore to thank God for so singular a benefit. Hearken to me, Brother, and Lord; for there is one thing I must request of you, which is, That you would send me some of your learned Men, as also some Artificers, that understand how to make Images, and how to Print Books, and to make Swords, and all sorts of Military Weapons, with some Masons, Carpenters, and Physicians and Surgeons, and some who skill to beat Gold, and gild, and how to work in Mines: I would also have some that know how to cover Houses with Lead, and to make Tile; in a word, all sorts of Artificers shall be welcome to me, namely, such as make Pistols. Help me, I beseech you, to all these things, as one Brother ought to help another, and then God will help you out of your Troubles.

The Lord hear your Prayers, and Petitions, as he has received holy Sacrifices at all times, namely, the Sacrifices of Abel, and of Noah when he was in the Ark, and that of Abraham when he was in the Land of Madiam, and of Isaac when he went from the Trench of the Oak, and of Jacob in the House of Bethlehem, and that of Moses in Egypt, and of Aaron in the Mount, and of Joshua the Son of Nun in Galgala, and of Gideon on the Rock, of Sampson when he was in a dry and thirsty Land, and of Samuel in Rama of the Prophets, and of David in Naceea, and of Solomon in the city of Gabeono, and of Elias in Mount Carmel, when he raised the Daughter of the Widow over the Pit to life; and of Jehosaphet in Battle, and of Manasses when he turned to God after having sinned, and of Daniel in the Den of Lions, and of the three Companions, Sidrach, Mesack and Abednego, in the fiery Furnace, and of Hannah before the Altar, and of Nehemiah, who together with Zerobabel built the Wall; and of Matathias with his Sons, on the fourth part of the Earth; and of Esau upon the Blessed: In the same manner may God receive your Sacrifices, and Supplications; and assist you, and be on your side against all wickedness, at all times.

Peace be with you; I do embrace you with the Arms of Holiness; as I do also your whole Council, and all your Archbishops, Bishops, Priests and Deacons, and all Men and Women; the Grace of God, and the Blessing of the Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, be with you, and with all People.

Amen.

THE LETTER OF DAVID, EMPEROR OF ETHIOPIA, TO THE ROMAN PONTIFF, IN THE YEAR 1524.

In the name of God, the Father Almighty, maker of Heaven and Earth, and of all things visible and invisible; in the name of Jesus Christ the Son of God, who was the same with him from the beginning of the World, and who is Light of Light, and very God of very God; and in the name of God the Holy Ghost, who is true God, and proceedeth from the Father.

I The King, at whose Name the Lions do tremble, who am by the Grace of God called Achami Tinghil, that is the Frankincense of the Virgin; the Son of King David, the Son of Solomon, the Son of the Hands of Mary, the Son of Nau by the Flesh, and by Grace the Son of St. Peter and St. Paul; do send these Letters.

Peace be with you.

O Just Lord, and holy, powerful, pure and sacred Father, who art the head of all Bishops, and fearest no-body, because there is none that hath power to curse thee, who art the most watchful Curate of all Souls, and the Friend of Pilgrims, and the sacred Master and Preacher of the Faith, and the Enemy of every thing that offends the Conscience, and the lover of all good Manners, and a holy Person, whom all do bless and praise.

O happy and holy Father, I do obey you with reverence, because you are the peace of all, and do deserve whatever is good; so that it is but just, that according to the divine Commands of the Apostles, all should yield obedience to you : This belongs to you; but they have likewise commanded us to reverence all Bishops, Archbishops and Prelates, and to love you as a Father, and to reverence you as a King, and to believe in you as a God.

For which cause I do humbly with bended knees, and with a sincere heart, tell you, holy Father, That you are my Father, and I am your Son.

Holy and most mighty Father, Why have you never sent any Nuncio’s to us, to be informed of our health; for since you are our Pastor, and we are your Sheep, you ought not to have been unmindful of me, nor ought you to have reckoned us to have been too remote from your Territories, for your Nuncio’s to have visited us; seeing from the most remote Kingdom of the Earth, that is Portugal, your Son, King Emanuel, has commodiously sent his Ambassadors to us; so that if God had deferred calling him to Heaven, the things he and I were treating about, had undoubtedly had a happy Issue before this time.

I should be glad to hear healthful things from you by certain Nuncio’s, having never had a word from your Holiness, nor heard of you by any other way, but by some of our vowed Pilgrims, who neither carried Letters from us to you, nor brought any from you to us; and who therefore, when we enquired of them, could only tell us, That going from Jerusalem, after they had performed their Vows there, to visit the Thresholds of the Apostles at Rome, they had seen you, giving us a general Account of your Affairs. I took great pleasure in their Relations, beholding in them the Image of your holy Countenance, which appeared to me to be like that of an Angel; and I must own, that I do love and reverence you: Nevertheless, it would be much more grateful to me, devoutly to contemplate your Words and Letters: I must therefore beg it of you, that you would send a Nuncio to me, to exhilarate my heart with your Blessing; for since we agree in Faith and Religion, that is the thing of the World that I desire most, and that my Friendship may be as the Ring you wear on your Finger, or as the Gold Chain that is about your Neck, that so I may be always in your heart and memory: Friendship being much increased by grateful Words and Letters, when holy Peace, from which all human Joy doth flow naturally, embraceth them: For as one that is very thirsty is extremely desirous of cold water, as the Scripture has it; so Nuncio’s from your Holiness, or any Christian King, will fill my heart with extraordinary Pleasures; such as theirs are filled which, who after a Victory, come to gather rich Spoils: All this may be done with great ease, now the King of Portugal has opened a way to it; who some times since sent Ambassadors, with other Persons of Quality, to us, which was a thing had never been done by any Christian King, or Pope, before to any of our Ancestors: Only in the Archives of our Great Grandfather Zera Jacob, who was King of all the Kings of Ethiopia, and a most Formidable Prince, the Copies of some Letters to him from Eugenius the Roman Pontiff are still preserved, the purport whereof is as followeth. “Eugenius the Roman Pontiff, to our beloved Son King Zara Jacob, the King of all the Kings of Ethiopia, and who is mightily dreaded:

He goes on, and tells him, That his Son John Paleologus, who had been dead two years, the King of the Kings of the Romans, had been called by him to celebrate a holy Synod, to which he came accompanied by Joseph the Patriarch of Constantinople, and a great many other Archbishops, Bishops, and Prelates, as also with the Procurators of the Patriarchs of Antioch, Alexandria, and Jerusalem, who had all united themselves to him, in the love of the holy Faith, and Religion: So that now the Unity of the Church was reestablished, and all the old Controversies, through God’s assistance, were ended; and whatever was erroneous, and contrary to Religion, dissipated, and right Order restored, which had filled all People with joy.”

We do here send you that letter of Eugenius, which has been preserved entire, and would likewise have sent you the whole Order and Power of the Pontifical Benediction; had it not been so large a Volume, it being bigger than the Book of Paul to the Gentiles; the Nuncio’s that brought these Papers from the Pope hither, were Theodore, Peter, Didimus, and George, the Servants of Jesus Christ: You would do well, Holy Father, to command your Papers to be looked over, among which, it is like, you will meet with some Records of these Matters. You may see by this, holy Father, that if you should be pleased to write any thing to us, the memory thereof will be preserved in our Archives through all Ages: And happy is the Man whose Memory is preserved in the Records of the holy City of Rome, the Chair of St. Peter, and St. Paul, who are the Lords of the Kingdom of Heaven, and the Judges of the World; and my believing them to be so, was the cause of my writing these Letters to your Holiness, that I may obtain your Favor, and that of your holy Conclave, and therewithal all sorts of Blessings, and the increase of all good things.

I do furthermore supplicate your Holiness, to send us the Images of some Saints, namely, that of the blessed Virgin Mary, that by that means your Holiness may be frequent in our Mouths, and Memories, and that I may be always delighting my self in your Gifts: For the same reason I do earnestly entreat you, to send me some Learned Men, and Artificers, namely, Carvers of Images, Sword-Cutlers, and Gunsmiths, and Gilders, and Carpenters, but especially Artificers who know how to Build Houses with Stone, and to cover them with Lead and Copper; I should be glad likewise, to have some that understand how to make Glass, and Musical Instruments, and how to play well upon them, with some Pipers and Trumpeters: These Artificers I desire chiefly from your Holiness; but in case you should have none to spare, I must entreat you to order some of the Christian Kings, your Sons, who are all at your Commands, to send them unto me: Which Artificers, when they arrive here, shall be treated honorably, and rewarded according to their deserts; they shall also have good Wages, and whenever they shall desire it, they shall have free leave to return home, and be well rewarded for their pains; for I will detain no body against his will, how beneficial soever his stay should be to me: But to pass to other things.

I must expostulate with you, holy Father: Why do you not exhort the Christian Kings, your Sons, to lay down their Arms, as becomes Brethren, and to agree among themselves; seeing they are all your Sheep, and you are their Pastor? Your Holiness is not ignorant of the Gospel-Commands, and of its having said, A kingdom divided against it self cannot stand, but will become desolate. For if those Kings would but all join together, they would quickly destroy all the Mahometans, and with ease demolish the Sepulchre of their False Prophet: Apply your self therefore to this, holy Father, that so there may be a firm Peace and Confederacy established among them, and exhort them to assist us, who are besieged on all sides by Wicked Mahometans, and Moors: The Turks and Moors can assist one another, and their Kings and Rulers do all agree together: I have a Mahometan for my Neighbor, who is constantly supplied with Arms, Horses, and all Military Weapons, by Princes of his own Sect, namely, the Kings of India, Persia and Egypt; this is a great mortification to me, to see the Enemies of the Christian Religion enjoy Pease, and live together like Brethren; and at the same time, to see Christian Kings, my Brethren, not in the least concerned at the Injuries I endure; not one of them offering to succor me as becomes a Christian, notwithstanding the filthy sons of Mahomet are always ready to succor one another; not that I desire any Soldiers of them, for I have enough of my own, and to spare; but all that I desire of them, is, only their Prayers and Supplications, and your Holiness, and my Brethren’s Favor: The reason why I want your Friendship, is, that I may be furnished by you with such things as are necessary to terrify the Mahometans, the Enemies of the Name of Christ: And that my Neighbors may be made sensible of my being favored by the Christian Kings, my Brethren, and of their being ready to assist me whenever there shall be occasion; which would be much for the honor of all of us that are of the same Faith and Religion, and do intend to persist therein.

God fulfil your Desires to the praise of Jesus Christ, and of God our Father, who is praised by all through all Ages; and you, my Lord, and holy Father, with all the Saints of Christ at Rome, embrace me; and let all my Subjects, and all that dwell in Ethiopia, be received with the same Embraces; and let thanks be returned to Christ with your Spirit.

These Letters your Holiness will receive from my Brother, John, King of Portugal, the most Powerful Son of King Emanuel, who will send them to you by our Ambassador Francisco Alvarez.

A SECOND LETTER OF DAVID, EMPEROR OF ETHIOPIA, TO THE ROMAN PONTIFF, WRITTEN IN THE YEAR 1524.

Happy and holy Father, who art made by God the Conservator of the Nations, and who dost sit in the Chair of St. Peter; To thee are given the keys of the kingdom of heaven; so that whatsoever thou binded or loosest on earth, is bound and loose in heaven, according to what Christ hath said in St. Matthew’s Gospel.

I the King, at whose Name the Lions tremble, who at my Baptism was called Atami Tinghil, that is the Frankincense of the Virgin, but who, when I took the Administration of my Empire upon me, assumed the Names of David the Beloved of God, the Pillar of Faith, the Prince of Judah, the Son of Solomon, the Son of the Pillar of Sion, the Son of Zara Jacob, the Son of the Hand of Mary, the Son of Nau by the Flesh, Emperor of the Great and High Ethiopia, and of vast Kingdoms and Dominions; King of Xoa, and Caffate, and Fatigar, Angot, Baru, Baaltinganze, Adea, Vanga, and Mahon, and Saba, from whence the Queen of Saba went, and Barnagays; the Lord of all Nubia, to the Confines of Egypt: All which Countries, and a great many more not here mentioned, are under our Dominion; neither have I mentioned the fore-named out of Pride, or Vainglory, or for any other reason, but that the Great God may be the more praised, who of his singular bounty has been pleased to bestow the foresaid Christian Empires upon my Ancestors; and who hath likewise been gracious to me, after a special manner, that I might constantly do service to his Religion; making me Lord of Adel, and the Scourge of the Mahometans, and Gentiles, who do worship Idols: I do after the manner of other Christian Kings, my Brethren, to whom I am no-ways inferior, either in Power or Religion, send to kiss your Holiness’s Feet: Within my own Territories, I am the Pillar of Faith, neither am I assisted with any Foreign Succors, but I do place my whole trust and confidence in God, as my Ancestors did before me, who have all been sustained and governed by him, ever since his Angel spoke to Philip, who instructed the Eunuch of the powerful Queen Candace, Empress of Ethiopia, in the Faith, as he was coming from Jerusalem to Gaza; Philip then baptized the Eunuch, and the Eunuch afterwards baptized the Queen, with the greatest part of the Court, and People, who from that day to this, have continued Christians, and strong in the Faith; My ancestors, without any other than Divine Assistance, have propagated the Faith through vast Regions, which I likewise labor daily to do; being fixed between the large Borders of my Kingdoms, as a Lion encompassed within a Wood; and strongly fortified against the Mahometans, and other Nations, that are Enemies to the Christian Faith, and who will not give ear to the Word of God, and my Exhortation: For which reason, I with my Sword girt about me, do persecute them, and will by degrees expel them, relying on the Divine Assistance, which is never wanting to me, which is more than all Christian Kings can say, who, if they would but agree together, might with the help of your Blessing, easily enlarge the Bounds of their Empires; of which Blessing I do partake. Among our Books there being Letters which were sent by Pope Eugenius with his Blessing to Zera Jacob; which Blessing having descended to me, I do now enjoy it, and rejoice in it mainly.

The Holy Temple of Jerusalem is a place I have great Veneration for, and do frequently send Oblations to it by our Pilgrims; and I would send both more and greater, were I not Besieged on all sides by Mahometans and Infidels; who besides that they Rifle our Messengers, will not allow them a free passage; whereas if the ways were but once opened, I should then be able to Correspond with the Roman Church, as well as other Christians, to whom, as to the Christian Religion, I am nothing inferior; for as they believe One Right Faith, and One Church, so I do profess the same, and do most sincerely believe in the Holy Trinity, and in One God, and in the Virginity of our Lady the Virgin Mary; I do also hold all the Articles of the Christian Faith, and do keep them as they were writ by the Apostles.

And now that our good God has been pleased, by the hand of the most Potent and Christian King Emanuel, to open a way by which we may Correspond by Ambassadors; since we are joined in the Faith, let us likewise with all other Christians join together in the service of God.

During the time the Ambassadors of that King were at our Court, we received the News of his Death, and of his Son, and my Brother John, having Succeeded to the Crown; and as I was extremely afflicted at the News of the Death of the Father, so I did very much rejoice to hear of his Son’s having succeeded him; for I do hope that by joining our forces, we shall be able to open a passage both by Sea and Land, through the Regions of the Wicked Mahometans, and to terrify them to that degree, as to drive them quite out of those Countries, so that Christians may go to, and return from Jerusalem without any molestation; and I do most vehemently desire to partake of the Divine Love in the Temple of the Apostles Peter and Paul: I do likewise desire to receive the most Holy Blessing of Christ’s Vicar, which your Holiness is undoubtedly. And as the things I hear of your Holiness by our Pilgrims, which go from hence to Jerusalem, and from thence to Rome, and that not without a Miracle, do fill me with incredible Joy and Pleasure; so there is nothing I would rejoice in so much, as to have a shorter way found out for my Ambassadors, that so I might hear from you before I die, which I trust in God I shall do by some means or other. I beseech God to preserve you in Health and Holiness.

I Kiss your holy Feet, and do humbly beg your Blessing. Your Holiness will receive these Letters from our Brother, John King of Portugal, who will send them to you by our Ambassador Francis Alvarez.

We may judge what mean thoughts King John had of these Letters and Ambassadors to the Pope, by their lying unregarded Five Years at Lisbon before they were sent to Rome; and by his sending them at last, only to do Honor to his Nephew Don Martin de Portugal, when he sent him Ambassador to that Court with the following Letter.

To the most Holy Father in Christ, and the most Blessed Lord, Pope Clement the IIId. by Divine Providence presiding over the whole Church. To the most Holy Father in Christ, and the most Blessed Lord, the most devout Son of the same Holiness, John, by the Grace of God, King of Portugal and Algarves on this side and the other side of the Sea of Africk, Lord of Guinea, and of the Conquests, Navigation, and Commerce of Ethiopia, Arabia, Persia, and India: After having most humbly kissed your Holy feet. MOST Holy Father in Christ, and most Blessed Lord: The King, my Lord and Father, being sensible how acceptable it would be to God, that the most remote Regions of Ethiopia and India, which in these parts had been only heard of by a doubtful fame, should be Sailed to by the industrious Navigation of Christians, did at the beginning of his Reign, send divers of his Captains and Subjects with great Fleets, to discover the Coasts of those Countries; which he did to that end, that the Mahometans and Heathens of those Climates might be brought to acknowledge the Truth of the Christian Faith, not knowing but that some Nations which were Christians already, (for such there were reported to be) might be found out in the Course of such Discoveries; thus through the Divine Direction, the whole Country of Guinea was travelled over, in which the King of Manicongo, with vast numbers of his Subjects, was Baptized; as were several other Nations in India, Persia, and Arabia, by the Industry and Piety of our Subjects; and even those Provinces which were not forward at first to embrace Christianity, do now begin to follow the Example of their Neighbors; who notwithstanding the great Losses be sustained in his Ships, Captains, Nobles, and other Subjects, was not, as becomes a Pious Christian, discouraged thereby, so as to give over those Voyages, in the Progress whereof our Fleets have penetrated into the Red-Sea, in which no Christian Ship had ever been before, that Sea being wholly in the hands of the Turks; and did after a long and sharp War discover the Coasts of the most Potent King of Ethiopia, who is commonly called Pretegya, and who with all his Subjects is a Worshipper of Christ; to which King our Father immediately dispatched an Ambassador, with an intention to reduce him to the Obedience of the Holy Apostolical See; by certifying him, That your Holiness sits in the Chair of St. Peter, and are the only Vicar of Christ upon Earth, to whom all Christian Kings do with great Veneration use to yield Obedience. And not long after, the said King of Ethiopia sent two Ambassadors, in Company with ours when they returned home; one of which was his Natural-born Subject, and the other a Stranger; during which time, God was pleased to take our Father’s Soul to himself; and we having succeeded him in the Throne, did without delay endeavor by our Captains that were in India, to certify the said King of Ethiopia of our Father’s Death, and of our Resolution to carry on and finish what he had so gloriously begun for the Service of Christianity: This our Declaration having been highly extolled by the said King, he thereupon dispatched an Ambassador to us, who is still Resident at our Court, and with him our Chaplain Francis Alvarez, who was one of the Ambassadors sent into Ethiopia by our Father. This Francis Alvarez is now sent by the said King to Rome, to yield Obedience to your Holiness in that King’s Name, and in the Name of all his Subjects: We have detained him here for some time, being willing for divers Reasons, that he should accompany our dear Nephew, Martin de Portugal, our Counsellor and Ambassador, whom we have ordered to present the said Francis Alvarez, Ambassador of the said King of Ethiopia, to your Holiness, to yield Obedience to you; as also to acquaint you with what the Ambassador of the said King that was sent to us has laid before us, together with the Copies of that King’s Letters to us; wherefore your Holiness will do a thing that will be very acceptable unto God, if in all this Affair you do give entire Credit to the said Martin, our Ambassador; for certainly great thanks ought to be returned to God, for having in the time of your Pontificate done so great a favor to your Holiness, that a Portion of Christians, who as to the largeness of their Country, are nothing inferior to this of ours, should consent to the Catholic Faith, and to the Roman Church, by yielding obedience to it. We for our parts are very thankful to God, for having made use of our Ministry in the Reduction of this King: There being nothing more for the praise of true Piety, than to behold Ethiopia joined with Europe in the Unity of the Christian Profession. May our Lord God be pleased to increase and preserve the Felicity of your Holiness according to your own desire.

Dated at Settuval the 28 th of May, 1532.

King John having made the Habassin Emperor’s Complements, in his Letters to the Pope, to amount to a formal submission of himself, his Church and Empire, to him, must make his having detained an Embassage of that Moment, and which he himself Magnifies so much, so long at Lisbon, to be the more wonderful: But what it should be, that after having slighted this Embassy for five long Years, induced him to trump it up thus, if it were not to do his Nephew Honor, is a Mystery I shall leave to the Reader to unriddle; having only observed, that there were two Creations of Cardinals soon after it came to Rome.

The Portuguese and Habassin Ambassadors, being arrived at Bononia [Bologna], 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 public Audience. When being introduced into a public Consistory, at which the Emperor was present; the Portuguese presented his Master’s Letters to the Pope, together with the Copies of those which had been sent to him and his Father by the King of Ethiopia. When the Portuguese had done, the Habassin presented his Master’s Letters to the Pope, and with them a Gold Cross that weighed about a Pound. And having made the submission of the Emperor of Ethiopia, and of his whole Church and Empire, to his Holiness, he was afterwards admitted to kiss his Foot, and after that his Hand, and at last his Mouth; and having delivered the following Speech in Portuguese, it was spoke aloud in Latin by the Secretary of the Portuguese Embassy. MOST Holy and Blessed Father, the most Serene and Potent Lord David, King of the Great and High Ethiopia, who is commonly called Pretegya, and who is no less glorious for the veneration he has for the True Religion, than for his Empire, Wealth, and Kingdoms, has sent this Ambassador to your Holiness with the Letters he has delivered to you, commanding him to yield obedience and subjection to your Holiness, in his Name, and in that of his Kingdoms, as Christ’s Vicar, and St. Peter’s Successor, and the Chief Pontiff of the whole Church, and to present you with a Gold Cross, which he hopes your Holiness, not regarding the value thereof, which is but small, but the veneration which is due to it, for Christ’s having suffered thereon for our sakes, will be pleased to accept of; beseeching your Holiness, in the name of the said Prince, to accept of all that he has offered, with a pious affection of a Father, for your most devout Son.

To which Harangue the Pope’s Secretary returned the following Answer. OUR most holy Lord doth receive you, my Lord Francis Alvarez, the Ambassador of the most serene David, King of Ethiopia, together with his Obedience, Gift and Letters, with a good Will, and Paternal Affection, and doth return Thanks to God that such Letters, and such an Ambassador should come in the time of his Pontificate, from so great and remote a Christian Emperor; he hath heard what you have said, with Attention and great Joy, and has with his Venerable Brethren, the Cardinals, graciously accepted of your Master’s obedience, as also of his Gift, both for the Honor that is due to the Holy Cross, and the good Affection of the Donor.

And he doth furthermore highly extol, in the Lord, the most serene King of Portugal, who besides the other great Services done by himself and Progenitors, to the Commonwealth and Christian Faith, has likewise deserved well of King David, by having entered into an Alliance with him, and having procured your being sent with these Letters to the Pope. What remains is, his Holiness will endeavor to the utmost of his Power, so far as the great distance that is betwixt their Countries will permit, so to satisfy the desires of the said King, as to make him sensible of his being in the Place of a most dear Son in Christ, and in the Affection and Esteem of his Holiness, and the Holy Apostolical See, no less than other Christian Princes. And his Holiness will treat with the Ambassador of Portugal and you concerning these Affairs, and will by his Letters and Nuncio’s Return an Answer to all that your King as desired.

Zaga Zaba having nothing else to do at Lisbon, and being willing to ingratiate himself with that Court, by representing the Habassin Church as agreeing with the Roman in the Chief Doctrines wherein the Reformers contradict her; did put Pen to Paper, and drew up the following Account of the Religion, Customs, and Rites of his Country.

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 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 Son; so likewise the Holy Spirit is neither first nor last, but they are Three Persons in One God, who seeth, and is seen by no-body; and who by his only Council created all things. The Son did of his own accord, the Father being willing, and the Holy Ghost consenting, descend from his highest Habitation, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit in the Womb of the Virgin Mary; who was adorned with a double Virginity, the one Spiritual, the other Carnal; he was born without any Corruption, his Mother, Mary, remaining a Virgin after her delivery; and by a Miracle, and a secret Flame of the Divinity brought forth her Son Jesus, without blood, and without pain; who was perfectly Innocent, and without Sin; being perfect God, and perfect Man; and having only one Aspect, he grew by degrees as an Infant, sucking the Milk of the Virgin Mary, his Mother; and coming to Thirty Years of Age, he was baptized 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 whipped, and scourged, and crucified: He languished and died for our Sins, and by his Death overcame Death, and the Devil; and by his lively Agony dissolved our Sins, and bore our Infirmities: By the Baptism of his Blood, that is, his Death, he baptized the Patriarchs, and Prophets, and descended into Hell, where the Souls of Adam and his Sons were, as also his own Soul, which was from Adam, which Soul Christ received from the Virgin Mary, who by the power and splendor of his Divinity, and the strength of his Cross, broke the brazen fiery Gates of Hell, binding Satan with Iron Chains, and rescuing Adam and his Sons. All these things Christ did, because he was full of the Divinity; and the Divinity it self was with his Soul, as it was also with his most holy Body, which Divinity gave virtue to the Cross, and was what he always had, and will have for ever, in Trinity and Unity in common with the Father: Neither did Christ, during the time he was in the Flesh, ever want the Divinity and Dignity thereof for one moment. He was buried, and on the third day Jesus Christ himself, the Prince of the Resurrection, the most sweet Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ the Prince of the Priests, Jesus Christ the King of Israel, did with great power and strength rise, and after having finished all things which were foretold by the holy Prophets, he ascended with glory into Heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of the Father, and will come with glory, carrying a Cross before him, and in his hand a Sword of Justice, to judge the quick and the dead, of whose Kingdom there shall be no end. I believe one Holy Catholic and Apostolic 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 through 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 Catholic and Apostolic Church of the East and West, where the Name of Our Lord Jesus Christ is; the Power of which Church is in St.

Peter, as is also the Kingdom of Heaven, with which he can open and shut, bind and loose, and who shall sit with the other Apostles, his Companions, upon Twelve Seats with honor 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 honor, 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, through Our Lord Jesus Christ, I do hope to obtain the salvation of my Soul: I do furthermore acknowledge the Roman Pontiff to be the first Bishop and Pastor of all the Sheep of Christ. I do likewise observe and obey all Patriarchs, Cardinals, Archbishops, and Bishops, of whom he is the Head of the Ministers of Christ.

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

I come now to explain the Discipline, Doctrine, and Law, which the Apostles, assembled together at Jerusalem, did lay down in the holy Books of Synods and Canons, called by us Manda Abethlis, those Books of the Law of holy Church are Eight in number; concerning which, having had some discourse with several Learned Men here in Portugal, I never met 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 crucified 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 as Festivities in honor 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 those 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 honor 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 honor: 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 honor of the said Blessed Virgin; and a day in every Month in honor of Christ’s Nativity, which is always the 25th of the Month; and a day likewise in every Month to be observed in honor 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 honor and devotion, seems to be plainly contrary to God’s 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 favor that was showed 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 custom, 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, 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 shortening 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, 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 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, showeth us our sins, which Law, without Christ, 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 through Adam, and do live through 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 murderers, and idolaters, and every one who loveth and maketh a lie.

It is constituted by the holy Apostles, 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 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 dispense with them, which he does sometimes, to eminent Persons, and when it is for the Public 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 Ecclesiastics as well as Secular ought to have their own lawful Wives. Our Monks, notwithstanding this, do not marry, and neither Laics 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 Adultery, Murder, 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 Ecclesiastic, 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, 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, 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 shoes 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 shoes, 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 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, 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 rouse thee? He manifested himself likewise to Moses in the Figure of a flame of fire on mount Sinai; and in the likeness of a 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 and 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; 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 certify 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 entreated Solomon to Consecrate his Son Meilech King of Ethiopia, 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 Ethiopia, 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 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 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 descended 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, 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 Christened, 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 through 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; 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 ourselves 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 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 us, 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 show 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 on 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 Desert, 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 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 Worshiped by his People with divers rites, and an holy and uncorrupt Faith.

Furthermore, 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 ar 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 rejoiceth 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 taste 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 Extreme Unction are not reckoned Sacraments among us, neither are they in use in our Church, as I see they are in the Roman.

We do furthermore 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, and the New of Thirty five; which Canon, or Number of Books, we have expressly 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 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, and in Wheaten and Unleavened Bread; so that if we confess our selves daily, we do daily receive the Sacrament, as well Laics as Ecclesiastics. The Sacrament of the Eucharist is not kept in our Churches, as it is here in Europe; neither is it at any time Administered to the Sick, until after they are recovered. All among us Laics, as well as Clerks, do receive the Sacrament at least Three times a Week; which is never received any where 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 Labor; for the Church hath no Tithes, it has Lands which are Cultivated by the Priests and 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, 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 showed 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 Chapel, 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 entereth 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, 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 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 eateth 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 Country 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 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 Caesarea to Cornelius, a holy Man, fearing 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 remembered 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 through the whole Earth: Now this Vision, wherein things clean and 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 worshiped 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 advisable for all Doctors and Preachers to teach high and sublime things of this Linen Cloth which was showed to Pete, 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, because 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 Hermit, who 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 Neighbors; 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; 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 Countrymen 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; 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, denied 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 Heretics; 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 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 a 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 on 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 lie betwixt 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, in order to expel the Enemies of the Cross of Christ out of the Mediterranean Countries, of 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 S.

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 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 Endeavors 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; who having received notice, and the Presents that are sent to the Holy Sepulchre by the Emperor, do straightways choose 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, 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 Honor. 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 Bishoprics, 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 Murderers.

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 falsely reported to be in our Language: It is John Belul, and in the Chaldee, John Encoo, or Precious or High John: Neither is he ever called, as Matthew falsely 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 extremely submissive to his commands. He 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, though 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 Battles, 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 [sic] 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 Caay, that is, the Beam of the 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 Country, 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 Country, 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 labor, 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 extremely 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 known to all European Christians; and if you should at any time happen to go to Rome, I must entreat you to Salute the Pope, Cardinals, Patriarchs, Archbishops, Bishops and all the other Worshipers 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 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 entreat 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 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 received 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, albeit Zaga Zaba discovers himself to have been piqued, by the Portuguese Clergy having teased him as they did about his Religion, and to have disputed himself into some warmth upon several Ceremonial Points; yet as to the doctrines wherein the Roman Church was at that time contradicted by the Reformers, namely, the Three great ones, of the Pope’s Supremacy, Transubstantiation, and Purgatory, it is visible that to ingratiate himself with the Pope and the King of Portugal, and to make his Court the better, he did both stretch his Conscience, and sacrifice his Resentments to the Public 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 Countryman 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 Prester 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 Prester 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 color for its having been a constant Title among them.

But while David’s Ambassador was thus detained at Lisbon, 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 Neighbors, Heathens and Mahometans; so natural it is for people to overvalue any new and untried advantage, and to expect much more from it than it is capable of yielding; so his Infidel Neighbors, 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, 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 Battle before he was reinforced by the Portuguese Troops; which though they did not come in several years after, were expected by every Monsoon. 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, retired to the Mountains, where he skulked 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 profaning them by converting them into Mosques wherever he came.

David seeing his Empire in imminent danger of being totally conquered, 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 and declared Successor to the Abuna, began his Journey for Rome, over land; and being arrived at that Court in the year 1538, was graciously received by Paul the IIId. who did not only allow his Habassin Orders to be valid, but did furthermore confirm his Nomination to the Patriarchate of Ethiopia.

So that whatever it is that hinders the Popes from allowing the Orders of the Church of England to be good, unless their Infallibilities will contradict one another, it cannot be what they pretend, to wit, either the Heresy of her first reformed Bishops, or their not having been three to consecrate; since in this case, the Consecration of a Bishop by a single Heretical Bishop was allowed by the Pope to be valid. But England is England, and Ethiopia is Ethiopia, and Policy may not allow that they should be both treated alike.

Bermudes having dispatched his own Business at Rome, which was all that was to be done at that Court, which seldom or never takes the expense of any Missions, or holy Wars upon itself, 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 honor of the whole expense 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, he threw the Ambassador Zaga Zaba into Prison, loading him with Chains, in which he intended to carry him home, had not the King interceded for his Liberty.

The Patriarch Bermudes having, as it is said, 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 Battle; but however this were, in the progress of the War, which lasted from 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, 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 Neighbors, or to make them jealous of them.

Upon Claudius’ coming to the Crown, 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 surprised a Mahometan Prince, whose name was Amirizmon, and defeated him in a pitched Battle, he recovered from 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 Battle, wherein he beat him to that degree, that he forced him to retire to a remote mountainous Country called Zaa, only with 70 men in his Company; Cabelo Oanguel the Queen-Mother, 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 Galleys in the Port of Suez, 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 honor 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 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, 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 honor 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 Vasco da Gama, the Discoverer of the Indies.

The Portugueses say, The Council of War agreed to send 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 Country 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 done the work of 4000 Stout men; the common fault both of the Portuguese and Spanish Writers; who by their Romantic way of magnifying the Feats of their Countrymen, do render the truth of the whole of them suspicious.

On the 9th of July 1541 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 with them 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, endeavored 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 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 Bahurnagays, where they were entertained with all the dainties the Country 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, and to be immediately under his own Command; the Captains were John O Assonso, Manuel de Curnha, Humphrey da Abreu, and Francis Velha; Curnha and Velha were dispatched immediately with their Companies to wait upon the Empress with Gama’s Compliment 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 and having mounted a Mule richly equipped, she marched with her Portuguese Guard towards Gama, 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 Volleys: The Empress to do Gama the greater honor, Unveiled 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 Valor and Conduct would raise hem 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 extremely 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 Bahurnagays 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, 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 joined by 2000 Habassins, he Marched toward the Emperor in as good order as the nature of the Country 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 Country about, he had put a Garrison 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, which they did only by Marching through 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 Portuguese be baffled in that attempt, as considering the Strength of the Place and the Garrison, 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 Garrison behind them, that the Empress was overcome by them, and gave her consent to its being Attacked.

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 Garrison:

It had Three Entries which were all strongly fortified both by Art and Nature; The Chief of them was called Amba Canet, 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 Scimitars to defend them.

Gama after having strictly Surveyed it, judged it the best way to make an Assault upon all the Entries at once; and according charged Francis Velho, and Manoel de Cunha with the First, and John de Fanseca, and Francis d’Abrew, with the Second; who had each of 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 played some time upon the Entry, they afterwards fell pallmall 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, 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 Garrison 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 Portugueses 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 honor to visit it, assuring her that she might now safely do it; there being not one Mahometan left alive upon it; the Empress was overjoyed at the News, and having magnified the Portuguese Valor 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, 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 Vasconcelho, 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 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 Country, 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, but was notwithstanding that intercepted by Granhe; from whom, upon Palm-Sunday, he received a Message, telling him, That he wondered at his having the Impudence to come as he did into his Kingdom with a Handful of men, for which, though 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 Armor.

Gama treated the Messenger civilly, presenting him with a Silk Vest and a Medal, bidding him tell his Master 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 Lion 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 Catholic Faith, had sent him with some Troops to restore him to his Empire, which though they were but few in number, yet he did not doubt but that they were enough to fight the greatest Armies of one who had been so wicked, as without any reason or color 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. 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 honors 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 such desperate people, would be to starve them; which he reckoned would be easy for him to do, they being at that time but 350 fighting Men, whereas his Army consisted of 15000 Foot, and 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. 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 Breastwork to be run up within Musket-shot of them, from behind which he for some days 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.

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, keeping 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, 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 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, the noise whereof neither his Men nor Horse could bear, he retreated for eight days together into a Mountainous Country, 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 Galleys 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 hindered by the Empress, who protested against coming to a Battle before they had their whole Army together, and with much ado persuaded him to expect the Emperor 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 neighboring 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, That it was absolutely necessary for him to make himself Master of all the Passes of that Country, 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 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 Garrison much stronger 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 Country; the Jew who was a 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, 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 Pieces 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; 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 Battle 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-short 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, Sallied out to demolish 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, and in one of them was himself Wounded: When night came on, the Empress and 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 well-disciplined an Army: Gama was put into such a rage by the motion, that he drew his Sword, and brandishing it, cried 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 Countrymen 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 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 Battle; 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, ordered his Head to be chopped off in his presence; at which the Turks, who designed 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 murdered, 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 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 Countrymen; to whose Romantic 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 Honor.

After this Rout, the Empress and Patriarch retreated to the strong Mountain Gama had made himself Master of a little before; 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 Battle, being strongly urged to it by the Portugueses, who though 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 come and join the Gross; but that not 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 Battle 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, 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, 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 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 Portuguese 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: His men when they saw him fall from his Horse, instead of seeking to avenge 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 Scimitar 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 Gama’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, 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 Valor: 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, and demanded greater Rewards than were just, or than the Emperor could conveniently give them; or whether it was the Patriarch’s teizing [teasing?] the Emperor instantly to declare himself a Roman-Catholic; 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 of Portugal, that whensoever he should be restored to the peaceable possession of his Empire, he would immediately declare himself a Roman-Catholic, 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 worshiping 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 Portugueses 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 Roman-Catholic, 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 Heretic, 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 show 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 Country 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 favor, 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, 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, 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, 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 labored day and night to obtain that Province for his Friars; and that he might interest himself therein with the better grace, he begged leave solemnly of the Pope to go into Ethiopia 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 honor, 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 employed in it; and having the Nomination of them left to himself, he named one John Nunes Baretto a Portuguese to go Patriarch, and Andrew Oviedo a Spaniard, and Melchior Carneira 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 him, pitched upon that number, that the Patriarch and his twelve Companions might represent Christ and his twelve Apostles: Upon Ignatius Nomination of the Missionaries, the Pope’s Bulls for Authorizing them were dispatched to Lisbon; the Bull of the Patriarch Elect was as followeth: Julius Bishop, The Servant Of The Servants Of God, To My Beloved Son John Elect Of Ethiopia, And Of All The Kingdoms Subject To Precious John The Illustrious Emperor Of Ethiopia, Health And Apostolical Benediction. WHEREAS we have been lately solicited in your Name, which to us and our Brethren is very acceptable; we with the Council of our said Brethren have by our Apostolical Authority, promoted you to the Patriarchal Church of Ethiopia, and of all the Kingdoms belonging to our beloved Son in Christ, Precious John, the Illustrious Emperor of the said Ethiopia, which is at this time in a manner destitute of the Consolation of a Pastor; Making and Constituting you by the said Council and Authority, Patriarch and Pastor thereof during your Life; or for so long as you shall keep the Charge, Government, and Administration of all the Affairs Spiritual and Temporal of the said Church; as we do also Constitute our Beloved Son Andrew, Elect of Hieropolis, and Melchior Elect of Nice, your Coadjutors, with full, free, and entire faculty, power and authority, to make, treat, exercise, and procure all things in general, and every thing in particular, which do of right and custom belong to such Coadjutors, from this time forward in all matters of Jurisdiction, and after they are consecrated, in all matters of Order likewise; and in case of accidents, we have provide that the said Elects, Andrew and Melchior, shall after a certain form or manner be successively Pastors and Patriarchs of the said Church; and we have sent you by a certain Messenger your Pall, which is the Ensign of the perfect power of the Pontifical Office, taken from the body of the blessed St.

Peter, which was desired of us in your behalf with that instance as is fitting, and as was signified by you, after the manner and form as was therein declared, and as is more amply contained in our Letters. And we having considered the great distance the said Church from the Court of Rome, and how difficult a thing it is to come from thence hither, and how great and dangerous either by Sea or Land the Voyage is; and being for that reason desirous, so far as we are able with a good Conscience, to ease you and your Successors, the Patriarchs of Ethiopia, and of all the Kingdoms belonging thereunto, of such a Journey; we do grant to you, and the said Elects, Andrew and Melchior, upon their ceasing to be Coadjutors, and to all your other Successors of the said Patriarchal Church of Ethiopia, and the Kingdoms thereunto belonging for all times to come, the privilege of wearing the foresaid Pall, within the Church of Ethiopia, and all the Kingdoms thereof, upon the Festivities of Easter, Whitsuntide, and Christmas; as also upon those of Circumcision, Epiphany, and Ascension of our Lord; as also upon the Feast of Corpus Christi, St. Stephen, St. John, Palm-Sunday, the Thursday and Saturday in the holy Week, and of the invention of the Cross, and of John the Baptist; and on all the days of the Apostles, and on the Three Festivities of the Blessed Virgin, and on All- Saints-day, and on the days of the Consecration of the Chief Churches under their jurisdiction, and on the days whereon you ordain Priests, or Consecrate Bishops; and if it should so happen, which God forbid, that the said Pall should either be left by the way, or be stolen, or should be any other way embezzled, you may in that case make and bless such another Pall, which you and your Successors, by us instituted, may use as is above prescribed; you shall likewise cause a Cross to be carried before you in all places of your Province.

When the Archbishops and Bishops of the said Province shall be Elected by our beloved Sons, the Chapters of Churches, or according to the custom of the place, but so, that it shall always be in your power to supply all defects if any should happen to be in the Forms of their Elections, and be approved of, and Confirmed, and Instituted by you, they shall then be obliged with all possible expedition to intimate their Election, Confirmation and Institution to the Apostolical See, taking an Oath of due fidelity to it, in the form hereafter prescribed; and having given the customary obedience, shall send the said Oath likewise to the said See.

And you being assisted by the said Andrew and Melchior, Elects, if they are present, or otherwise you, they not being to be had, or they being out of the Office of Coadjutor, may, being assisted by two lawful Priests ordained according to the custom of the Church of Rome, until such time as you can have two Bishops lawfully Consecrated, in which case you must be assisted by two Bishops, and not by two Presbyters, Consecrate said Archbishops and Bishops so Elected, Confirmed and Instituted, they having first presented to you, or to others, their Letters, certifying their Election, Confirmation and Institution, as also the form of the Oath of obedience that they have taken: And the Archbishops thus Consecrated, after they have the Pall given them, may use all the insignia of Archbishops, as the Bishops so ordained may likewise all those of Bishops, and may likewise consecrate the holy Oil, and confirm and confer holy Orders, and perform all the other Offices appertaining to a Bishop, and may likewise respectively exercise the ordinary power, and whatsoever is proper and customary for Archbishops and Bishops to exercise; you may also give to Archbishops thus Consecrated, the Pall, which is the sign of Pontifical Perfection, which they shall use after the manner above prescribed; you may likewise divide and distinguish the Provinces and Dioceses of the said Archbishops and Bishops, which have not hitherto been divided; and may also grant Licenses to all such as you shall judge fit to Preach and Declare the word of God to the People; and if they are Priests, to administer all the Sacraments, excepting those of confirmation and holy Orders, and to Consecrate Altars, with all their Ornaments, together with the Sacerdotal Vestments, and all other things save Chalices and Patens; you may likewise absolve all persons whatsoever within your Province, or that are any other way your Subjects, by a Diocesan, as well as a Patriarchal right, from all manner of Sins, and Excommunications which they may have incurred, and from all Suspensions, Interdicts, and other Censures and Ecclesiastical Penalties how great soever, nay, though of that number which are reserved by the Bulla Caena Domini, enjoining them healthful penances in all such cases in proportion to the nature of their faults; you may likewise Communicate faculties to Bishops, to absolve in all such cases as you or the Patriarchs of Ethiopia for the time being shall judge convenient; and if it shall be thought fit, you may by your self dispense with all persons as to any irregularities they have contracted by Bigamy, provided it was not true; or Homicide, so it was not voluntary; which when they are so, must never be dispensed withal but on great occasions, and for the public good, and for want of Age also, and with any of the other impediments to holy Orders, or the exercise thereof; as also as to the Sacrament of Matrimony in whatsoever degree of Affinity or Consanguinity Spiritual or Carnal, those only excepted which are prohibited by the Divine Law; and Spiritual Affinity in Matrimony shall never be contracted betwixt the Godfather and Godmother, and their Godchildren; you may also commute Vows into any pious work, provided they be not the solemn Vows of Religion and Chastity.

At three times in the Year, to wit, Christmas, Easter and Whitsuntide, you may grant plenary indulgences to all People of the said Province, who being contrite have voluntarily confessed their Sins, obliging them before you grant them, to Fast, and devoutly to beseech God in behalf of all the faithful of the Roman Church; and on any other days you may grant Temporary Indulgences and Remission of Sins, which must never exceed the term of Ten years; you may likewise give license to your Friars to read Heretical Books, and may at your pleasure unite, annex, and incorporate Ecclesiastical Benefices into Churches or other Pious and Religious places, for the Spiritual or Temporal advantage of the Neighbors; and may erect and found general Universities and Colleges, wherein People may take all Degrees of Master and Doctor; and likewise Hospitals for the Poor, the Sick, and Strangers, Male and Female; as also Monasteries and Colleges for Boys and Girls, and Orphans; in all which, works of Piety and Charity may be exercised: You may either in your Person, or by your Deputies, visit with a Plenary Jurisdiction all the said Universities, Colleges, Hospitals, Monasteries, and all other Religious Houses of what Order or Sex soever, and reform them as well in the Head as in the Members; and Chastise, Correct, and Punish all that shall be found faulty, and may remove them from one place to another. You may also, if you find it necessary, found Religious Houses of both Sexes, and approve, disprove, or extinguish such as are already founded, or may reduce divers Religions to one, and reform their Constitutions, by either adding to them, or taking from them, as you shall think fit in the Lord. You may give License to the poor, Religious, or not Religious, to beg and desire Alms in the name of any Saint. You shall furthermore in our Name, and in that of the Holy See, declare to the people of your Province, the Faith of the Roman Church, and which are the Canonical Scriptures that they ought to hold and follow in every thing: You must likewise condemn the writings which the Roman Church rejects and condemns; and must determine and declare to them which Ecclesiastical precepts do oblige them under the penalty of a mortal sin, and which do not. You may further by your Authority, so that nothing be changed that is decreed by the Divine and Natural Law, make Orders concerning all matters which are of positive right, even so far as Excommunications, Suspensions, Interdicts, and other Ecclesiastical Sentences, Censures, Penalties, and Irregularities, which any may have incurred upon the account of such matters, declaring which are obligatory, and which are not, until such time as the Apostolical See shall otherwise order. You may also grant Dispensations concerning all such matters, and may Legitimate Bastards, and others that have any defect in their Birth.

You must create a Notary, who by the Apostolical Authority may see all the matters executed, which can be done by any Legate de latere, or Nuncio of the said See. You may also make Compositions with any People for Ecclesiastical Fruits or Revenues that have been unjustly received, and employ the Money to some Pious use. Finally, you may lawfully and freely do and execute all things in general, and every thing in particular, that appertains to the Edification and Salvation of Souls, or that are seasonable, until such time as you shall receive an answer concerning them from the said See; and to you, our son John elect, in case the said Andres, and Melchior, or either of them should happen to die before you, we do by these Presents, and the said Apostolical Authority, grant a Faculty, and a Plenary and Free Power, freely and lawfully to Name and Elect one or more Coadjutors, who shall succeed one another in the said Church of Ethiopia, and the Kingdoms thereunto belonging, and to Institute and Consecrate them Bishops and Successors, obliging them to intimate their Election, Institution, and Consecration to the said See, in the manner aforesaid, and to take an Oath of Fidelity and Obedience thereunto, as is above prescribed, and by Letters to acquaint the said See therewith: All which must be done with the Approbation of the Council that is to be erected for the handling of all weighty Affairs, and which you shall hereafter Constitute. All Constitution and Apostolical Ordinances, and Reservatories, though of Catholic Churches, or of the Patriarchal Church, though confirmed by Oath, or Apostolical Confirmation, or by any confirmation, Statues, Customs, or any other way to the contrary notwithstanding. Given at St. Peters in Rome, on the 17th. day of February, in the year of our Lord 1554. in the 5th. year of our Pontificate.

The Bulls of the three Elects being come to Lisbon, the King looking upon it as the greatest honor that had ever been done to Portugal to have a Patriarch consecrated in it; 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 honored 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 Chapel of a Convent, and that by two Titulars, and the Poorest Bishop in Portugal, makes me suspect that the great Prelates were not over-well pleased with this upstart Order leaping so soon into such high Dignities.

For about the time of this Promotion, and which it is like enough might contribute something towards it, there was a most terrible storm raised both in Spain and France against the whole Order of the Jesuits.

Don John, Archbishop of Toledo, 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 Sorbonne 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 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 labored 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 extremely 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; during which time he lived for the most part at St. Rocks, the House of the professed Jesuits at Lisbon, of whose Chapel 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 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 Masseus, 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-Catholics to have been a Spurious Brat of the Eighth or Ninth Century, That God did expressly 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 at Goa, sent one James Dias Oprestes, joining Father Gancalro [sic] 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. 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 public 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 to 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 sound 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 with out sending us so much as any thing of a Compliment: So that I do not know what would have become of us, had not an honorable 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 Portuguese that was much in his Favor, 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, 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 show how little reason his people had to call us of the Roman Communion, Heretics; and to affirm that we were worse than Mahometans; and being informed that the Habassins had a Book among them, written by the Schismatics and Heretics of Alexandria, from whence they have their Abuna’s, having paid a Tribute to the Turk for that privilege, Entitled, 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 likewise charged with divers Errors, I begged 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 at 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 the 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 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 Catholic Church was divided into four Chairs, and that they had from the beginning been subject to one of them: I replied, 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. 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 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 showing it to his Mother, and Brother, 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 denied it to him, that he called him Mahometan, and Heretic, 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 favor 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 Style 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, for fear lest 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 eating 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 from Reason; 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 through 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 Country, besides that they belong to Schismatics, have no Altars accommodated to our Service, wherever we were, we carried an Altar with us to celebrate on.

While I was in one of these places, I received a Compliment from a Prelate of a great Monastery of Monks of the Order of St. Anthony, and one likewise from a 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 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, 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 public; 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.

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 murdered, 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, and that they were forced to make use of art, to vacate a Province for him; which, as it was no good beginning, so their Ethiopic 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 murdered 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, 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 in the same College. But the poor old Patriarch, the Jesuits know best by what accident, was dropped in the Voyage, in the solitary