Volume Three—Chapter Eleven.
The Conversion of Ethiopia.
In the year 330 after the birth of our Saviour, Meropius, a merchant of Tyre, having undertaken a commercial voyage to India, landed on the coast of Ethiopia, where he was murdered by the barbarians, and his two sons, Frumentius and Edesius, both devout men, being made prisoners, were carried as slaves before the Emperor. The abilities, the information, and the peaceable demeanour of the brothers, soon gained not only their release, but high office in the court; and living in the full confidence of the monarch until his decease, and subsequently under the protection of the queen-mother, they soon secured the good-will of the entire nation. The work of conversion was commenced, and having proceeded with wonderful rapidity and success, a thriving branch was shortly added to the great Eastern church.
Bearing the happy tidings, Frumentius appeared in Alexandria, where he was received with open arms by the patriarch Athanasius. Loaded with honours, and consecrated the first bishop of Ethiopia, a relation was thus happily commenced with Egypt, which has remained firm and friendly to the present day, and throughout fifteen centuries has bestowed upon a Coptish priest the high office of Patriarch Abuna of the Ethiopic church.
On his return to the country of his hopes, Frumentius found that the spark of life had spread rapidly throughout the gloomy darkness of the land. Baptism was instituted, deacons and presbyters appointed, churches erected, and a firm foundation laid whereon to establish the Christian religion in Abyssinia. Frumentius was deservedly honoured with a favoured niche in the annals of her church history, and, under the title of “Salama,” formed the subject of high praise to all the sacred poets of Ethiopia.
“Hail him with the voice of joy, sing praises to Salama,
The door of pity and of mercy and of pleasant grace;
Salute those blessed hands bearing the pure torch of the Gospel,
For the splendour of Christ’s church has enlightened our darkness.”
During the succeeding century, priests and apostles, men of wonderful sanctity, flocked into the empire from all parts of the East, and miracles the most stupendous are related in the legends of those days. Mountains were removed, and the storms of the angry ocean stilled by the mere application of the staff. The adder and the basilisk glided harmless under foot, and rivers stayed their roaring torrent, that the sandal of the holy man should remain unstained by the flood. Aragáwi raised the dead—the fingers of Likános flamed like tapers of fire—Samuel rode upon his lion; and thus the kingdom of Arwé, the old serpent of Ethiop, was utterly overthrown.
The Abyssinians now became subtle casuists and disputants. Abstruse doctrines were propounded, and speculative theories largely indulged in; and the generation passed away ere the knotty points had been satisfactorily determined, how long Adam remained in Paradise before his fall? and whether in his present state he held dominion over the angels?
In the year 481, the celebrated council of Chalcedon lighted up the torch of misunderstanding regarding the two natures of Christ. The Eastern church split and separated in mortal feud, and the Saracen pounced upon Egypt, rent and wasted by discord and distraction. The Abyssinians, denouncing the council a meeting of fools, concurred in the opinion of the Alexandrian patriarch. The faith of the Monophysite was declared to be the one only true and orthodox, and the banished Dioscorus received all the honours of a martyr.
“The kings of the earth divided the unity of God and man,
Sing praises to the martyr who laughed their religion to scorn.
He was treated with indignity, they plucked out his flowing beard,
Yea, and tore the teeth from his venerable face;
But in heaven a halo of honour shall encircle Dioscorus.”
But during the ensuing oppressions and exactions of the Moslem, the successor of Saint Mark could barely retain his own existence in Egypt; and Ethiopia, his remote charge, now nearly isolated from the remainder of the world, rested for the next ten centuries a sealed book to European history, preserving her independence from all foreign yoke, and guarding in safety the flame of that faith which she had inherited from her fathers.
The reign of the ascetics succeeded to that of disputation, and men lacerated their bodies, and lived in holes and caves of the earth like wild beasts. Tekla Haïmanót and Eustathius were the great founders of monkery in the land. An angel announced the birth of one, and the other floated over the sea, borne in safety amidst the folds of his leathern garment. Miracles still continued to be occasionally performed. Sanctity was further enhanced by mortification of the flesh, and austerity of life was highly praised and followed by the admiring mob. The original discipline of the anchorite was severe in the extreme. He was to be continually girt around the loins with heavy chains, or to remain for days immersed in the cold mountain stream—to recline upon the bare earth, and to subsist upon a scanty vegetable diet.
Monasteries were at length founded, and fields and revenues set apart for the convenience of their inmates; and although a visiting superior was appointed to check corruption and punish innovation or transgression, the asperities of the monastic life gradually softened down. The Etchéguê, or grand prior of the monasteries, preferred the comforts of a settled abode to wearisome tours and visitations. Further immunities were granted to all loving a life of ease and spiritual licence; and the commonwealth had to deplore the loss of a large portion of her subjects, who neither contributed tax, nor assisted in military service.
Thus converted at an early period of the Christian age, Ethiopia spread her new religion deep into the recesses of heathen Africa. Extending her wide empire on every side, the praise of the Redeemer soon arose from the wildest valleys and the most secluded mountains. From the great river Gochob to the frontiers of Nubia, the crutch and the cowl pervaded the land. Churches were erected in every convenient spot; and the blue badge of nominal Christianity encircled the necks of an ignorant multitude. The usual wars and rebellions arose, and schisms and sects fill up the archives of ten centuries with all the uninteresting precision of more civilised countries. But still the church flourished; the patriarch was regularly received from Alexandria, and a long list of ninety-five Abunas flows quietly through the dull pages of Abyssinian record, from the time of Frumentius the First, until the days of the venerable Simeon, who, whilst gallantly defending the faith of his fathers, was barbarously murdered by the European partisans of the Italian Jesuit.
The rise of the Mohammadan power in Arabia, and the rapid spread of Islamism, first circumscribed the limits of the empire, and begirt it round with foes. But although the nation was now called upon to repel the fierce assaults both of the heathen and of the fanatic followers of the false prophet, the measure of her oppression was not filled until the cup had been deeply drained of the converting zeal of European priesthood. The usual horrors attendant upon religious war were then painfully undergone, and the blood of her children was unsparingly poured out. Nearest and dearest relatives rallied under opposite standards; and the same cry of destruction rang from either host, “The glory of the true faith.”
The zeal of the Jesuit has seldom been displayed in more glowing colours, or in more decided defeat, than in the attempts so perseveringly made to draw within the meshes of his net the remote church of Ethiopia. And although the means employed are to be justly condemned, still that ardour must be the theme of the high praise of all, which impelled old men and young to dare the difficulties and the dangers of a rude uncivilised land, with exposure to the prejudices of a people as bigoted as themselves in the cause of their religion.
But the wily system of establishing rival orders and monasteries of mortification—of snapping asunder domestic ties, and of collecting together bands of discontented enthusiasts—well served the interests of the Catholic faith; and there were always to be found obedient servants to bear instructions to the farthest corners of the earth;—men who relinquished few comforts or enjoyments on quitting their austere cells, who were prepared at all hazards, and in all manners, to carry into execution the will of their superiors, and who gloried in the alternative of erecting an eternal fabric in honour of their order, or of obtaining the crown of martyrdom.
The custom of ages had, however, struck too deeply into the heart of the Abyssinian. The power of the officiating clergy was paramount in the land. All the passions and the prejudices of the multitude were too firmly enlisted in the cause of ancient belief; and degraded as was the Christianity of the country, its forms and tenets were not more absurd, and not less pertinaciously supported, than those Romish innovations which were so fiercely, though so ineffectually, attempted.
The soft wily speech and the thunder of excommunication were alike disregarded. Treachery and force were both tried and found equally unavailing. Blood flowed for a season like water, and the sound of wailing was heard from the palace to the peasant’s hut; but the storm expended itself, and finally passed away; and after the struggle of a century, the discomfited monks relinquished their attempts upon the church of the Monophysite, without leaving behind one solitary convert to their faith, and bearing along with them the loud maledictions of an exasperated nation.
Volume Three—Chapter Twelve.
The Court of Prester John.
During the darkness of the middle ages, the church of Abyssinia had fallen into complete oblivion; but about the commencement of the sixteenth century rumours were whispered abroad of a Christian monarch and a Christian nation established in the centre of Africa; and the happy news was first brought to the court of Portugal that a Christian church still existed, which had for ages successfully resisted, among the lofty mountains of Abyssinia, the fierce attacks of the sanguinary Saracen.
In the year 1499, Pedro Covilham succeeded in reaching Shoa, where he was received with that favour which novelty usually secures; and although the stranger was prevented by the existing ancient laws from leaving the kingdom, the quest had been successfully performed. The first link was re-established of a chain which had been broken for ages; and shortly afterwards the glories of Prester John and his Christian court were fully disclosed, to abate the intense anxiety that reigned in the heart of every inhabitant of the West.
In due process of time an Abyssinian ambassador made his appearance in Portugal. Unbounded delight was experienced by King Emanuel, and every honour was lavished upon Matthew the merchant of Shoa. All believed that the Abyssinians were devout Catholics, and that a vast empire, estimated at four times its actual extent, was about to fall under the dominion of the Roman church. A mission on a great scale was fitted out—the journey was safely accomplished—and excited fancy rioted for a time in the description of palaces and fountains which never existed, and pomp, riches, and regal power, utterly unknown in the land.
Missions continued from either court during the succeeding forty years. An alliance was formed. Men learned in the arts and sciences were despatched to settle in Abyssinia. Zaga Zaba arrived in Lisbon, invested with full powers to satisfy the interests of both countries, temporal as well as spiritual. But the difference of faith was now for the first time understood. The bitter enmity of the Roman creed stood prominently to view; and the envoy, after studying the details of the Catholic doctrine, and refusing to subscribe a similar contract on behalf of his church, was unscrupulously put to a violent death in a Portuguese prison.
The first flattering ideas regarding the religion of the country being thus found erroneous, the delusion respecting the extent and power of the mighty empire was next to fall to the ground. The Galla were now streaming in hordes from the interior, and Graan, the Mohammadan invader, was carrying fire and sword throughout the country. The dying Coptish patriarch of Abyssinia was prevailed upon to nominate as his successor John Bermudez, a resident Portuguese; and, hurried by the king, this priest proceeded, without loss of time, to seek military assistance from the courts of Rome and Lisbon.
Schemes of ambition flitted over the minds of the first conquerors of India, and an alliance with Ethiopia seemed highly desirable as a handle for further acquisition in the East. But dilatory measures delayed the arrival of the Portuguese fleet until the suing monarch had been gathered to his fathers; and it has already been seen that Christopher, the son of the famous Vasco de Gama, anchored in the harbour of Massowah at a time when the new Emperor Claudius was sorely pressed to sustain himself upon the throne of his ancestors. The opportunity was not neglected by the archbishop to reduce the heretic Church to the fold of the Roman see; and a series of attempts were commenced, equally to be deplored from the mischief which they created, and the unworthy means that were employed during the struggle.
The signal service rendered by the Portuguese troops in the ensuing wars, the total rout of the Galla and the Moslem, with the slaughter of their invading leader in battle, placed Bermudez in a position to demand high terms from the reinstated monarch. The conversion of the emperor to the Roman Catholic faith and the possession of one-third of the kingdom, were imperiously proposed, and scornfully rejected. Excommunication was threatened by the proud prelate of the West, and utterly disregarded by King Claudius, who retorted that the pope himself was a heretic. Open hostilities broke out; and although the superior discipline of the Europeans for a time gave them the advantage, they were at length separated by a wily stratagem, and hurried to different quarters of the kingdom; and Bermudez being then seized, was conveyed in honourable exile to the rugged mountains of Efát.
Although much blood and considerable treasure had been thus fruitlessly expended, the conversion of Ethiopia was far from being forgotten in Europe; and the spark of hope was further kept alive by an Abyssinian priest, who asserted, on his arrival in Rome, that the failure of Bermudez had entirely arisen from his own absurd and brutal conduct, and that the utmost deference would be paid to men of sense and capacity. Ignatius Loyola volunteered to repair in person to re-unite the Ethiopic and Roman Catholic churches; but his talents being required for more important objects, the pope refused the desired permission to the great founder of the society of Jesus, and thirteen missionaries from the new order were chosen instead. Nunez Baretto was elevated to the dignity of patriarch, and André Oviedo appointed provisional successor.
At that period the navigation of the Red Sea was rendered dangerous by numerous Saracen fleets; and the patriarch, deeming it inexpedient to hazard his own valuable person in the perils of the voyage, reposed quietly at Goa, whilst a deputation headed by Gonsalvez Rodrigues, a priest of secondary rank, was despatched in advance, to ascertain the capabilities of the route, and the sentiments of the reigning monarch.
The Emperor Claudius little relished the arrival of these monks, and Rodrigues entirely failed in every attempt at conviction on the points at issue—that the pope, as representative of Christ upon earth, was the true head of all Christians, and that there was no salvation out of the pale of the Catholic church. Dismissed with the reply that the people of Ethiopia would not lightly abandon the faith of their forefathers, the monk retired to work upon the mind of the monarch by the brilliancy of his controversial writing; but a lengthy treatise on the true faith produced no happy result, and the envoy, disgusted with his reception, returned shortly afterwards to Goa.
The spiritual conclave was plunged into consternation by the untoward intelligence; and after much mature deliberation it was resolved, that the dignity of the patriarch, and of the great King of Portugal, could not be exposed to the consequences attending the ill favour of the Emperor of Abyssinia; and that therefore the prelate should still remain the guest of the Bishop of Nicea, whilst the daring and restless Oviedo, with a small train of attendants, attempted the business.
Arriving in safety, the Jesuit experienced a most friendly reception from the Emperor Claudius; and although the letters of recommendation from the pope were received with mistrust and impatience, the habitual mildness of the monarch restrained him from any overt act of oppression. Deceived by this calm behaviour, the bishop, during a second audience, was sufficiently foolhardy to represent, in the most insolent language, the enormous errors under which the Emperor laboured, and to demand imperatively whether or not he intended to submit himself to the authority of the successor of Saint Peter, and thus remove the heavy obligation under which his empire already groaned. King Claudius replied that he was well inclined towards the Portuguese nation—that he would grant lands and settlements in his country—that permission would not be withheld to the private exercise of the religion of the West; but that as the Abyssinian church had been for ages united to the charge of the patriarch of Alexandria, a subject of such serious alteration must be canvassed before a full assembly of divines.
Indignant at what he termed Ethiopian perfidy, but still buoyed up with the faint hope of realising his object, Oviedo changed his mode of attack, and addressed a laboured remonstrance to the monarch, written in the hypocritical tone of false friendship, earnestly entreating him to recall to his remembrance the assistance rendered by Europeans to his afflicted country, and the many promises made by his sire in the day of his urgent distress; imploring him at the same time to preserve a stern vigilance upon the evil influence of the Empress and of the ministers of state; “for in matters of faith the love of kindred must give way to the love of Christ, and in similar situations the nearest relation often proves the bitterest enemy to the salvation of the soul.”
This insidious reasoning was, however, vainly expended upon the intelligent Claudius, and served but to turn his heart further from the Roman and his cause. The offer of a public controversy on points of disputed faith being shortly afterwards accepted, the Emperor entered the lists in presence of the assembled court, and by his clear knowledge of the Holy Scriptures, utterly defeated the subtilties of the Italian priest; and thus, notwithstanding the conviction of the Portuguese missionary that by supernatural aid he had triumphantly refuted all the arguments urged by his illustrious antagonist, it was fully decreed by the Abyssinian conference, that neither king nor people owed any obligation or obedience whatsoever to the church of Rome.
Still Oviedo was far from being reduced to silence. Treatise after treatise was published on the controversy, to confound the minds of the Ethiopians. The errors of the Alexandrian faith were fiercely attacked in every form and fashion; and the superior beauties of the Catholic religion fully expounded. But no advantage resulted. Rejoinders and confutations followed fast from the insulted clergy; and the bishop, furious at the thoughts of his futile exertions to gain a footing in the country—entertaining no hope of making one single convert, whether among prince or people—resolved upon a last effort in the struggle. On the fifth of February, 1559, he issued his spiritual ban over the land, proclaiming that the entire nation of Abyssinia, high and low, learned and ignorant, having refused to obey the church of Rome—practising the unholy rite of circumcision—scrupling to eat the flesh of the hog and the hare—and indulging in many other flagrant enormities—were delivered over to the judgment of the spiritual court, to be punished in person and goods, in public and in private, by every means the faithful could devise.
But the folly of issuing this curious rescript without any means of enforcing it was fully appreciated; and the tyrannical conduct of the bishop did but serve to strengthen the Emperor in the bonds of his own faith, finding, as was observed by an historian of the times, “that popery and its wiles were the more dangerous and reprehensible, as the veil was withdrawn from before the spirit of her tenets.”
There is every reason to believe that the succeeding invasion of the Adaïel was procured through the treacherous designs of the Jesuits, but the event again proved disastrous to their cause. Although the revenge of the baffled bishop was allayed in a torrent of blood, yet the death of the mild, moderate, and liberal Claudius, who perished on the battlefield, shed a baneful influence on their ensuing efforts; and the sceptre devolved into the hands of his brother Adam, a haughty and vindictive prince, who is depicted in Portuguese records as “cruel and hard of heart, and utterly insensible to the beauteous mysteries of the Catholic faith.”
Swearing vengeance against the Latins, to whose treason he attributed the murder of his brother and the ruin of his country, the new monarch seized all the estates which had been granted to the Portuguese for rendered service, and threatened the bishop and his colleagues with instantaneous death if they presumed to propagate the errors of the Romish church; and on a humble remonstrance being attempted, in the violence of his wrath, he rushed upon the missionary with a drawn sword, vowing to immolate him upon the spot. “The weapon, however,” say the holy fathers, “dropped miraculously from his impious hand,” and for a season the last extremity of vengeance was exchanged for a system of vile durance.
Portuguese troops in the meantime arrived from Goa, and the Bahr Negásh, “the lord of the sea-coast,” bought over by the gold of India, and stirred up by the wily emissaries of the viceroy, assembled his forces in rebellion. Marching with his European allies to the capital, he defeated and slew the Emperor in a pitched battle, and rescued the Jesuit missionaries from their unpleasant captivity.
Warned by former difficulty and distress, the worthy fathers now assumed a more modest and humble demeanour, and were allowed to settle again in their old haunt of Maiguagua, where they remained for a time unmolested by the new Emperor Malek Sáshed, who inherited all the horror of his father to the Catholic creed, although tempered by the mildness of his uncle Claudius. But the jealous monks had not yet relinquished their hope of advancement, and bending to the pressure of the times, the deep plot was veiled under the garb of passive obedience. The most pressing solicitations were despatched to Goa for assistance; and the dauntless Oviedo pledged himself with six hundred staunch Europeans to convert, not only the empire of Abyssinia, but all the countries adjacent.
The scheme, however, did not suit the politics of the day; and in 1560 the bishop received an order from the head of his society to repair forthwith to his more promising charge in Japan. Loth to abandon all his favourite projects of ambition in the country, and utterly reckless of truth, he addressed the most specious letters to the pope, holding out a certain prospect of prostrating the church of Ethiopia before the apostolic throne, whilst to his immediate superior he dilated upon the richness of the land, and the mines of pure gold which he falsely asserted to exist in every province of the kingdom. But his artful motives were thoroughly pierced by the more wily successor of Saint Peter; and vessels soon after arrived on the coast of Africa, to convey the reluctant fathers to the monastery of Saint Xavier, in Goa.
Volume Three—Chapter Thirteen.
The Religious War.
Miserable indeed appeared the chance of conversion; and after a fierce struggle of thirty years, there remained not one priest of the Romish faith to administer the sacraments to the numerous European settlers and descendants in the country. Even the Jesuits themselves lost heart for the time; but the zeal of Philip the Second stirred the dying embers, and fresh candidates for strife, honour, and martyrdom, were soon in the field.
Peter Pero Pays and Antonio de Montzerado, disguised as Armenian merchants, first attempted the perilous undertaking; but being wrecked upon the Arabian coast, they were recognised as Christian ministers, and languished during seven years in a Moslem dungeon.
Goa next poured forth her priests to the ineffectual contest. In seeking the promised land, Abraham de Georgis was discovered in Turkish garb on the island of Massowah, and the governor swore by the holy Prophet, that, since the káfir had donned the attire of the true believer, he should also adopt the tenets of the true faith, or die the death of a dog. But the Jesuit clung to his creed, and suffered accordingly; and, shortly afterwards, Jean Baptiste being detected in assumed costume, by the Turks of Comera, he also shared the same fate as his immediate predecessor, in the thorny path of martyrdom.
Thus even the road itself seemed to close, and all intercourse was denied with a country wherein the presence of Europeans was neither desired nor permitted; and which would have been suffered to remain unmolested, had not exaggerated ideas of its wealth still pervaded the imagination of all classes throughout the western world.
Don Alexis de Menezez, the zealous Archbishop of Goa, who had already with fire and sword propagated Christianity throughout Malabar, now entered the lists, and his sagacious and discerning mind selected the vicar of Saint Anne as a fit tool for the execution of his project. Melchior Sylva, a converted Brahmin, might, from his colour and language, pass through the Turkish wicket. His zeal was great as that of his superior, and the valuable presents whereof he was made the bearer, might prove a bait sufficiently tempting to lure the simple Abyssinian into a fresh connexion.
The intelligence of his safe arrival, and of the gracious reception of the presents, again roused the ardent spirit of the order of Jesus; and Peter Pays was quickly ransomed from the Arabs, and despatched with a full train of priests to Ethiopia, where he arrived in September of the year 1603.
Superior in every respect to his predecessors, this missionary, instead of attempting to carry his measures by force and overbearing insolence, sought the softer path of insinuation; and whilst his extensive knowledge and plausible address proved strong recommendations in his favour, many circumstances also conspired to forward his views. The country was in a most unsettled state, and the assistance of a few Portuguese troops could turn the scale of war. The condition of the church was low and miserable. Eighty years of incessant strife and distraction had crushed the very name of learning and literature. Few persons were to be found who could read, write, or dispute. Ignorant and unworthy men filled every sacred office; and the ancient defenders of the Alexandrian faith had been swept away on the battlefield.
Amidst wars, and rumours of wars, Peter quietly settled with his followers at Maiguagua. Schools were opened, and the wonder ran through the land, that youths of tender age could refute the most learned sages of the wilderness of Walkayet. The curiosity of Za Dengel, the temporary occupant of the throne, was excited, and Peter, with his erudite pupils, was summoned to the court.
Prompted by the hope of obtaining assistance from Portugal, this weak prince, under an oath of secrecy, immediately embraced the religion of his guest. But his time was fully occupied in the more worldly object of strengthening himself upon a throne to which he had been elevated by his evil genius; and the falling away from the faith of his forefathers being at length whispered abroad, a rebellion was the consequence.
The approaching storm having been perceived by the monk, he withdrew from court before the burst of a revolution, which for some time crushed his every hope of success. The Emperor was slain. New aspirants strove for the ascendency; and war reigned for a season throughout the entire land.
Confident in the near approach of Portuguese troops, which had been requested when Sylva carried to India the tidings of the first conversion, Peter now resolved upon the bold game of espousing the weaker party, and thus gaining a firmer hold in event of success. The expected reinforcements did not, however, arrive in time; and the defeat and death of his protégé was followed by the advancement of the pretender Susneus to the throne of the empire.
Notwithstanding his appearance as a declared partisan in the opposing ranks, Peter’s abilities as an architect now created a fresh diversion in his favour. The novel idea of a two-storied edifice engrossed the thoughts of the reigning king; and men flocked from the remotest parts of the country to gaze upon a fabric of stone, which was considered to be one of the wonders of the world. A missionary possessing the varied abilities and acquirements of Pays could not be long in gaining ascendency over a rude and illiterate monarch; and by address and perseverance he had soon effected that which the threats and violence of his predecessors had vainly attempted during a long course of years.
Ras Sela Christos, brother to the Emperor, was the first-fruit of the harvest. Partaking of the holy supper with the Latins, he publicly embraced their religion, and many chiefs and nobles followed his illustrious example. Crowded assemblies were held, in which the eloquence of the Jesuits entirely bore down the feeble efforts of the ignorant and uncultivated natives. The holiness of life which was strictly preserved among the neophytes and proselytes of the Catholics, added to the impression entertained of their wisdom; and the introduction of useful arts, raised the glory of the fathers still higher in the land; and the prospect of the aid of disciplined soldiers from the West overturned the last remaining scruple in the mind of the monarch.
An edict was published interdicting all persons from holding office who were not well inclined towards the Latin religion; and severe punishments were threatened for the promulgation of ancient doctrines. Assistance was solicited from Rome and Lisbon; and the work of European persecution favourably commenced, by scourging with whips all those stubborn monks who refused to forego their ancient belief.
Abba Simeon, the Abuna, repaired to the court to remonstrate with the Emperor on the scandalous interference with his prerogatives in convening meetings and authorising debates upon ecclesiastical matters; but his pride was timely soothed by the royal assurance that all had been undertaken for the benefit of true religion, and that the subject should be fully discussed in his own presence. Again the subtilties and dialectics of the missionaries prevailed; and the total defeat of the Patriarch and his clergy was followed by a second more severe ordinance, awarding the penalty of death to all who should henceforth deny the two natures of Christ.
Wonderful was the sensation created by this severe edict, so diametrically at variance with the mild spirit of religion, and with all the ancient usages of the land. Aware of the feelings of the strong party at court, as well as of the entire body of the people, the Abuna placarded on the doors of the chapels an excommunication of all who should accept the religion of the Franks; and the monarch, irritated by this resistance, published a manifesto, “That his subjects should forthwith embrace the Catholic faith.”
This served as the signal-trumpet for the fight. All classes armed themselves in defence of their religion; and Aelius, the king’s son-in-law, placed himself at the head of the malcontents in Tigré.
Not yet thoroughly prepared for the struggle, the Emperor found it convenient for a time to temporise, and requested one further debate, which was to prove final between the disputants. The mild Abuna listened to the proposal, and accompanied by a large train of monks appeared in the royal camp, whilst the Jesuit and his colleagues advanced into the arena from the opposite side. The controversy was renewed, and raged fiercely for six days; but disputes in religion are seldom adjusted by the reasoning of the doctors, and the parties withdrew mutually incensed against each other.
One further effort was made to restore the disturbed harmony. The Empress Hamilmála, and many of the courtiers, with tears implored the king to desist from his undertaking; and the patriarch and the clergy, throwing themselves prostrate on the earth, embraced his knees, and entreated him to turn a deaf ear to the poisonous insinuations of the deceitful Jesuits, and graciously to allow his subjects to remain faithful to the religion of their forefathers. But the heart of the monarch remained closed to the prayer. The Abuna quitted the court, plunged in the deepest distress, and a bloody war ensued, which shook the empire to its foundation.
When Aelius fully understood the last resolution taken by his father-in-law, to defend the Catholics and their religion, he publicly appealed to the people of Tigré, and proclaimed that all who were disposed to embrace the Jesuitical faith might repair to the deluded Emperor, whilst those who held to the ancient belief should forthwith gather under his standard. Finding himself shortly afterwards at the head of a large army, he marched towards the royal camp, resolved to establish the received doctrine of the land, or to perish in the attempt.
Abba Simeon, who had attained the venerable age of one hundred years, joined the army of the defenders of the Alexandrian faith; and in giving them his patriarchal blessing, assured the soldiery that all who should fall in the combat died the death of the martyr, and would receive the reward in heaven. The desired effect was produced, and the hearts of the entire force burned with one eager zeal to meet the accursed enemies of their religion.
On the appearance of the inflamed force a reconciliation was attempted, and the daughter of the Emperor was made the bearer of terms to her rebel lord. Her tears and entreaties were, however, totally disregarded. The impetuous youth prepared for instant attack; and the princess had barely time to regain her father’s tent, when hostilities were commenced.
The soldiers of the viceroy rushed furiously upon the royal encampment, and Aelius succeeded in forcing his way, at the head of a small body of troops, to the very pavilion of his father-in-law. But he was here struck from his horse by a stone, and stabbed upon the ground. A panic seized the army of the fallen leader, and the rabble, casting away their arms, fled in all directions.
The aged Abuna found himself alone and deserted in the same spot which he had occupied during the attack. His years and high clerical bearing disarmed the violence of the Abyssinian soldiery; but a Portuguese partisan at length threw himself upon the patriarch, and, regardless of his white and venerable hairs, transfixed him with a spear. A frightful massacre ensued; and the heads of the principal leaders of the unsuccessful rebellion were exposed on the gates of the capital as a bloody warning to the seditious.
Volume Three—Chapter Fourteen.
Temporary Submission to the Pope of Rome.
Strengthened by this signal victory, other points of the Alexandrian creed were attacked in succession; and the time of the Jesuits was fully occupied in the translation into Ethiopic of sundry dogmatical treatises on subjects of disputed faith. But the barbarism of the language was despised by most—the Latin interpolation abhorred as magic by all—and a furious paper controversy raged for a time; until the Abyssinians becoming scurrilous, the wrath of the monarch was again roused, and he issued a severe edict, wherein the people were forbidden from celebrating the Jewish Sabbath, which from time immemorial had hitherto been sacred.
The inhabitants of Begemeder flew to arms; and people from all parts of the country, groaning under the yoke of foreign oppression, poured in to join the standard of rebellion which Joanel had reared on the plains of his government. A horde of Galla, delighting in the confusion, offered their assistance, and the most haughty conditions were speedily conveyed to court from a large assembly in arms.
Again the most earnest entreaties were employed to induce the emperor to compromise; but influenced by the words of the Jesuits, he called together his principal chieftains, monks, and learned men, and in their presence solemnly declared that he would defend the Catholic religion to the last drop of his blood; adding, that it was the first duty of his subjects to obey their legitimate monarch. Energetic measures were forthwith agreed upon, and, at the head of a large array, the king proceeded in person to the war. Joanel, finding himself too weak to contend in the plains, withdrew to the inaccessible mountains, where a blockade by the royal troops soon caused a scarcity of provisions. His forces gradually deserted, and he himself escaping to the Galla, was pursued, betrayed, and put to death.
This reverse sustained by the defenders of the old cause did not, however, intimidate the inhabitants of Dámot, a province situated on the borders of the Nile; for scarcely had the emperor reached his capital, when the population rose en masse, with the determination of dethroning a monarch who so basely truckled to a foreign yoke, and of driving from the land the authors of its distraction. An army of fourteen thousand warriors was speedily organised; and monks and hermits, burning with zeal in the cause, emerged from the cave and from the wilderness to join the fast-swelling ranks.
Ras Sela Christos marched against the rebels, but desertion considerably thinned his troops; and he confronted the enemy with barely one-half the numerical strength of their formidable array. Governor of the province, and greatly beloved by the people, a proposal was tendered to him, that if he would only lend his assistance in burning the monkish books and hanging the worthy fathers themselves upon tall trees, he might be seated upon the imperial throne of his ancestors. But the general, despising the offer, and resting confident in the firelocks of the Portuguese, rushed to the attack. The combat raged fiercely for a time. Four hundred monks, devoting themselves to death, carried destruction through the royal host; but the tide of victory set at length in his favour, and after a fearful carnage on either side, he found himself master of the field.
Great rejoicings at court followed the news of this success. Peter declared that Heaven, by the extermination of his enemies, had given the desired sign that the Roman Catholic should be the religion of the land; and the emperor, who, partly from fear of his subjects, and partly from dislike to relinquish his supernumerary wives and concubines, had not as yet publicly professed the Latin religion, now openly embraced the faith, and confessed his sins to the triumphant Jesuit.
A letter containing the royal sentiments was published for the benefit of the nation:—“The king henceforth obeys the pope of Rome, the successor of Peter, chief of the apostles, who could neither err in doctrine nor in conduct; and all subjects are hereby advised to adopt the same creed.” And the missionary, who now reasonably imagined that the work was satisfactorily concluded, wrote to the courts of Rome and Lisbon, requesting that a patriarch and twenty ecclesiastics might be immediately sent to the vineyard; adding, that “although the harvest was plentiful, the labourers were but few.”
These happy and unlooked-for tidings were received by Philip the Fourth of Spain. Mutio Vitelesi, the general of the Jesuits, offered to proceed in person, but the pope refused permission, as he had done in the case of his predecessor Loyola; and Alphonso Mendez, a learned doctor of the society of Jesus, was inaugurated at Lisbon with all the customary solemnities.
After suffering much difficulty and delay in his passage, the Portuguese patriarch at length arrived on the Danákil coast with a large train of priests, servants, masons, and musicians. The same greediness and cupidity were experienced amongst the savage Adaïel that the traveller finds at the present day—baseness and avarice having stamped their character for generations; but the troubles of a weary march were soon forgotten in the cordial reception which awaited the party at the royal camp; and the day was finally fixed when the homage of the king and of the country should be rendered to the Pope of Rome.
On the 11th of February, 1626, the court and the nobles of the land were assembled in the open air. Two rich thrones were occupied by the monarch and his distinguished guest, and a surrounding multitude gazed upon the imposing ceremony in silence. “The hour is come,” exclaimed Mendez, “when the king shall satisfy the debt of his ancestors, and submit himself and his people to the only true head of the church.” A copy of the Gospel was produced, and the monarch, falling upon his knees, took the oath of homage. “We, King of the kings of Ethiopia, believe and confess that the Pope of Rome is the true successor of the Apostle Saint Peter, and that he holds the same power, dignity, and dominion, over the whole Christian church. Therefore we promise, offer, and swear sincere obedience to the holy father Urban, by God’s grace Pope and our Lord, and throw humbly at his feet our person and our kingdom.”
As the emperor rose from his position, Ras Sela Christos, suddenly drawing his sword, shouted aloud, “What is now done is done for ever; and whoso in future disclaims the act, shall taste the sharp edge of this trusty weapon. I do homage only to true Catholic kings.” The monks, clergy, and noblemen followed the example of their superiors; and the assembly was closed by a public edict, proclaimed through the royal herald, that all Abyssinians should, under pain of death, forthwith embrace the Roman religion.
Palaces and revenues were set apart for the ministers of the new faith; seminaries for youth were established throughout the country, and baptism and ordination went on in peace. The success of the Jesuits increased rapidly, and many thousand souls were enrolled, who had been converted from the delusions of the Alexandrian creed.
The trial of two years failed, however, to convince the nation of the benefits of the new religion; and the emperor and patriarchs could not deceive themselves in the fact, that the cause advanced rather in appearance than in reality. Missionaries who entered the native churches were found murdered in their beds; the most disparaging stories were everywhere circulated regarding the holy fathers, and more particularly on the representation of scriptural performances at the Paschal feast, when demons being introduced by the Romans upon the stage, the spectators rushed simultaneously from the theatre, exclaiming, “Alas! they have brought with them devils from the infernal regions,” and the tale spread like wildfire through the land.
Nothing daunted by the unfortunate fate of Aelius and Joanel, Tekla Georgis, another son-in-law of the emperor, with a large body of the discontented, rose to defend the religion of their forefathers. Burning the crosses and rosaries, together with a Jesuit priest who fell into their hands, the party rapidly increased, and the emperor was compelled to march an army to quell the insurrection. The rebels were completely routed by Rebaxus, the viceroy of Tigré, and all who fell into his hands, men, women, and children, were barbarously massacred. Georgis and his sister Adera concealed themselves in a cave during three days, but were at length discovered and brought before the irritated emperor. Condemned by the advice of the Jesuits to be burned to death as a heretic, Georgis was allowed by the monarch publicly to solicit the patriarch to be admitted into the Roman church; but it being afterwards considered politic to imagine that his intentions were insincere, the unfortunate prince was hung in front of the palace in presence of the whole court; and his devoted sister, fifteen days afterwards, suffered the same fate upon the same tree, notwithstanding that the most strenuous efforts were made to save her life by the queen and by all classes of society.
To increase the dread effects of his tyranny, the emperor now issued a manifesto, that even as he had punished with death the obstinacy of his own son-in-law, so would he of a surety not spare any who in future committed a like transgression. The remarks of the worthy missionary Antoine, regarding this execution, will show the spirit which animated the fathers in their course of persecution, so novel in the annals of Abyssinia, and so contrary to the mildness of the Christian faith. “He who reads with attention the history of Ethiopia, will observe, that at no previous period was such ardent zeal displayed for the honour of religion, and a direct miracle, indeed, must have induced the emperor to hang his own son-in-law in the blessed cause.”
Dazzled by the success that had hitherto attended their measures, the patriarch and his colleagues now plunged headlong into proceedings which eventually proved disastrous to their cause. Excommunications were lightly launched in civil disputes, and the soul of every counsellor of the state was committed to the devil if he dared to question the authority of the foreign priest. Conspiracies were hatched against the imperial person; and the body of a distinguished non-conforming ecclesiastic, which had been interred within the walls of the church, was exhumed by order of the Portuguese prelate, and thrown to the wild beasts—an action which raised the indignation of the ethiopians to the highest pitch against a set of men “who had ever the words of religion in the mouth, but who, after persecuting the living, denied even to the dead that repose which neither Pagan nor Mohammadan ever disturbed.”
The detestation of the fathers and their religion daily waxed stronger in the hearts of all. Their great patron, Ras Sela Christos, was deprived of power and property for seditious attempts; and the bold mountaineers of Begemeder at length seized their long spears to uphold the faith of their ancestors. The viceroy was driven from the province, and Meleaxus, a youth of royal blood, appointed defender of the ancient religion, and leader of the armed host of peasants who flocked to his standard from all parts of the country, but especially from Lasta, the seat of the bravest warriors of the land.
To quell this insurrection, the Emperor assembled in Gojam an army of twenty-five thousand men, and attacked the insurgents among their strongholds. His troops were, however, repulsed at all points with the loss of many officers and men, and he was reluctantly obliged to retreat to the plains. Deputies followed from the victorious camp, to supplicate him to take pity upon his subjects, and to dismiss those evil-minded strangers who had so long oppressed Abyssinia. The royal army was in no heart or condition to renew hostilities. Rumours went through the land that angels sent from heaven had proclaimed the restoration of the ancient religion; and in the general excitement the king perceived that his own authority would be fatally compromised unless some concessions were made.
The patriarch was nevertheless inflexible; and letters were at the same time received from Rome, instigating the emperor to combat stoutly with his rebellious subjects, and extending to Ethiopia the general absolution of the great year of Jubilee. But the unhappy inhabitants laughed the offer of this indulgence to scorn, and were utterly unable to comprehend by what authority the pope held in his possession the keys of the kingdom of heaven.
Volume Three—Chapter Fifteen.
Expulsion of the Jesuits from Ethiopia.
The civil war continued, meanwhile, to rage with great expenditure of life, and with alternate success on either side. Enticed into the plain, the enemy were generally worsted by the royal troops, but among the recesses of their native rocks the mountaineers had always the advantage. No sign of intended submission could be observed; and the monarch, becoming suspicious of the Jesuits, who were erecting forts and strongholds under the guise of churches and residences, lent a favourable ear to the entreaties of his subjects.
A second remonstrance was penned, wherein he forcibly set forth to the Portuguese bishop, “that the Roman religion had not been introduced into the country by the miracles or the preaching of the fathers, but by royal edict and ordinance, in opposition to the wish of the entire population; and that the prelate must devise some milder measures for the furtherance of the true faith.”
Foreseeing a heavy storm in case of refusal, Mendez reluctantly complied with the proposal of a modified church code, under the restriction that no public manifesto should announce the change, which must be gradually and silently introduced. The ancient liturgy and the ancient holydays were thus restored, and the celebration of the Jewish Sabbath once again permitted.
But the concession was insufficient, and came too late to pacify the turbulent mountaineers of Lasta, who had been altogether victorious during the war. They would listen to no modification of their first demand; but imperatively insisted upon the complete re-establishment of their ancient ecclesiastical institution, together with the expulsion of the foreigners from the land.
The liberty and the customs of highlanders are seldom invaded with success; and a religion detested by the common people cannot, without much difficulty, be introduced by the prince. Weary of so many rebellions, and murders, and excommunications, the king, in his advanced age, began to view with an unfavourable eye the firebrand authors of these disturbances. Suspecting his brother and the patriarch of seditious views—offended by the contumacy of his subjects, and the increasing diminution of his own authority—disgusted with the present state of affairs, and apprehensive of future events—he now seriously bethought him of restoring the church to its original footing. But the rebellion must, in the first instance, be quelled; and having with this view concluded an alliance with the Galla, he marched towards Lasta.
Twenty thousand peasants, confident of victory, descending from their mountains, rushed into the plain to meet the royal force. The two armies for a time remained in sight in that still calmness which precedes the earthquake. At length the Galla cavalry dashing at speed on the crowded masses of the enemy, threw them into complete confusion—a fierce combat lasted until the going down of the sun—and the field of battle was left covered with eight thousand bodies of the insurgents.
Throwing themselves prostrate before the triumphant monarch on this scene of carnage, the vanquished peasants expressed their grief in the following lively terms:—“Who are these men,” they asked with groans, “whom you now behold bathed in blood? Are they Moslems, or Pagans, or even the enemies of the kingdom? No, they are Christians—they are all thy subjects, knit together by the most tender bonds of blood, friendship, and affection. Those warriors who now lie lifeless at thy feet, would, under a better government, have proved the bulwarks of thy throne, and the terror of those very men by whose hands they have fallen. The very heathen blush at thy cruelty, and call thee renegade for having abandoned the religion of thy fathers. Cease, O emperor! in mercy cease to prolong a struggle which must end in the downfall of the throne, and the ruin of all religion in the land!”
The empress also mingled her tears with the groans of the wounded petitioners, and adjured the king for the love of God, and in the name of future generations, to take pity upon his subjects, and desist from preparing a sepulchre for himself and for his family. “What have you gained by this battle?” she exclaimed. “You have introduced into the kingdom hordes of pagan Galla, who detest yourself equally with your religion; but futile will be your attempt to establish in Ethiopia a form of worship which is unknown to the greater part of your people, and to the remainder is known only to be resisted to the last drop of their blood.”
These representations sunk deep into the heart of the emperor; and instead of proceeding in triumph to his capital, he retired to a secluded spot to give vent to his feelings, and bewail the loss he had created. The Galla troops were dismissed; and having collected all the principal monks and clergy, he announced his resolution of allowing the nation to return to the faith of their forefathers.
Immediately on this intelligence, the patriarch hurried with all the Jesuit fathers to soothe the ruffled mood of the monarch. “I had fondly imagined,” exclaimed Mendez, “that we were the victors, but behold we are the vanquished; and the rebels, routed and put to flight, have obtained all that they desire. Call to mind how many fields thou hast won with the assistance of God and the Portuguese, and remember that thou didst embrace the true faith of thine own free will. We have been sent unto thy charge by the Pope of Rome, and by the King of Portugal. Beware of irritating great potentates to just indignation. They be indeed far off, but God is nigh at hand; and thy apostasy will defile thy name and that of thy nation, and will leave an everlasting tarnish upon the Lion of the tribe of Judah, which now glitters in the standard of Ethiopia.” On the conclusion of this harangue, all threw themselves at his feet, and entreated an immediate order to execution, rather than a confirmation from his lips of the rash resolution that he had taken.
Retaining a too lively recollection of the streams of blood that had been poured out upon the plains of Lasta, the emperor quietly allowed the Jesuits to arise, and unmoved by their earnest prayers and entreaties, replied shortly, “that his adherence to the Catholic faith had already caused the slaughter of a great portion of his subjects, and that he would have no further dealings whatever with their doctrines.”
The film fell from before the eyes of the discomfited monks. The friends of the Alexandrian faith, rallying round the throne, united their utmost efforts to strengthen the emperor in his resolves; and the rumour spread abroad that on the feast of Saint John the Baptist the ancient religion was to be re-established throughout the land. Thousands assembled in the capital on that day to assist in the ceremony; and, although temporarily disappointed, the event clearly proved that this act of justice could no longer he safely delayed.
Every art and stratagem was still resorted to by the patriarch to put off the evil day; but the Emperor, roused at length by the harsh and uncompromising character of the Jesuit, fiercely exclaimed, “Has, then, the sceptre departed from mine hand for ever?”—and the royal trumpets suddenly sounded through the streets of Gondar, as the herald announced the following proclamation to the empire:—
“Listen and hear! We formerly recommended to you the adoption of the Roman Catholic creed, on the firm conviction that it was the only true one; but numbers of our subjects having sacrificed their lives for the religion of their ancestors, we henceforth accord its free exercise unto all. Let the priests resume possession of their churches, and worship the God of their forefathers. Farewell, and rejoice.”
It is not possible to describe the rapture with which this welcome edict was received. The praises of the Emperor resounded from every quarter. The rosaries and the chaplets of the Jesuits were tossed out of doors, and burned in a heap. Men and women danced for joy in the streets, and the song of liberation burst from the lips of the disenthralled multitude.
“The flock of Ethiopia has escaped from the hyenas of the West.
The doctrine of Saint Mark is the column of our church.
Let all rejoice and sing hallelujahs,
For the sun of our deliverance has lighted up the land.”
Thus perished the hopes of a mission which, for craft and cruelty, has been seldom equalled in the annals of time. Whilst Rome must indeed have been prompted by no ordinary motive to persevere so pertinaciously in a work of conversion, through all the horrors of banishment and martyrdom, the unworthy means resorted to by the dauntless but unsuccessful agents employed in the enterprise, have left an indelible stain upon the page of her history.