XLVII. bite pa triarch, A. D. The CHAP. torture of the rack or the ftake, would tremble and fly before the face of an armed enemy. pufillanimous temper of the Egyptians could only hope for a change of mafters; the arms of Chofroes depopulated the land, yet under his reign the Jacobites enjoyed a fhort and precarious refpite. The victory of Heraclius renewed and aggravated the perfecution, and the patriarch again escaped Benjamin, from Alexandria to the defert. In his flight, Benthe Jaco. jamin was encouraged by à voice, which bad him expect, at the end of ten years, the aid of a 625-661. foreign nation, marked like the Egyptians themfelves with the ancient right of circumcifion. The character of these deliverers, and the nature of the deliverance, will be hereafter explained; and I shall step over the interval of eleven centuries to obferve the prefent mifery of the Jacobites of Egypt. The populous city of Cairo affords a refidence or rather a fhelter for their indigent patriarch, and a remnant of ten bishops: forty monafteries have furvived the inroads of the Arabs; and the progrefs of fervitude and apoftafy has reduced the Coptic nation to the despicable number of twenty-five or thirty thousand families *48 race of illiterate beggars, whofe only confolation is derived from the fuperior wretchedness of the ; a 148 This number is taken from the curious Recherches fur les Egyptiens et les Chinois (tom. ii. p. 192, 193.), and appears more probable than the 600,000 ancient, or 15,000 modern, Copts of Gemelli Carreri. Cyril Lucar, the proteftant patriarch of Constantinople, laments that those heretics were ten times more numerous than his orthodox Greeks, ingeniously applying the moλa xev dexades devorato 01x010 of Homer (Iliad ii. 128.), the most perfect expref fion of contempt (Fabric. Lux Evangelii, 740.). Greek Greek patriarch and his diminutive congrega- CHAP. tion 149. XLVII. ABYSSI NIANS BIANS. VI. The Coptic patriarch, a rebel to the Cæfars, VI. THE or a flave to the khalifs, ftill gloried in the filial obedience of the kings of Nubia and Ethiopia. AND NUHe repaid their homage by magnifying their greatnefs; and it was boldly afferted that they could bring into the field an hundred thousand horfe, with an equal number of camels 150; that their hand could pour or restrain the waters of the Nile ""; and the peace and plenty of Egypt was obtained, even in this world, by the interceffion of the patriarch. In exile at Conftantinople, Theodofius recommended to his patronefs the converfion of the black nations of Nubia "52, from the tropic of 149 The hiftory of the Copts, their religion, manners, &c. may be found in the Abbé Renaudot's motley work, neither a tranflation nor an original; the Chronicon Orientale of Peter, a Jacobite; in the two verfions of Abraham Ecchellenfis, Paris, 1651; and John Simon Affeman, Venet. 1729. These annals descend no lower than the xiiith century. The more recent accounts must be searched for in the travellers into Egypt, and the Nouveaux Memoires des Miffions de Levant. In the laft century, Jofeph Abudacnus, a native of Cairo, published at Oxford, in thirty pages, a flight Hiftoria Jacobitarum, 147. post 150. *150 About the year 737. See Renaudot, Hift. Patriarch. Alex. p. 221, 222. Elmacin, Hift. Saracen. p. 99. 151 Ludolph, Hift. Ethiopic. et Comment. 1. i. c. 8. Renaudot, Hift. Patriarch. Alex. p. 480, &c. This opinion, introduced into Egypt and Europe by the artifice of the Copts, the pride of the Abyffinians, the fear and ignorance of the Turks and Arabs, has not even the femblance of truth. The rains of Ethiopia do not, in the increase of the Nile, confult the will of the monarch. If the river approaches at Napata, within three days journey of the Red Sea (fee d'Anville's Maps), a canal that should divert its course would demand, and most probably surpass, the power of the Cæfars. 152 The Abyffinians, who still preserve the features and olive Complexion of the Arabs, afford a proof that two thousand years are not CHAP. of Cancer to the confines of Abyflinia. Her de, XLVII. fign was fufpected and emulated by the more orthodox emperor. The rival miffionaries, ä Melchite and a Jacobite, embarked at the fame time; but the empress, from a motive of love or fear, was more effectually obeyed; and the Catholic priest was detained by the prefident of Thebais, while the king of Nubia and his court were haftily baptifed in the faith of Diofcorus. The tardy envoy of Juftinian was received and difmiffed with honour; but when he accufed the herefy and treafon of the Egyptians, the negro convert was inftructed to reply that he would never abandon his brethren the true believers, to the perfecuting minifters of the fynod of Chalcedon ". During feveral ages, the bishops of Nubia were named and confecrated by the Jacobite patriarch of Alexandria: as late as the twelfth century, Christianity prevailed; and fome rites, fome ruins, are ftill visible in the favage towns of Sennaar and Dongola **. But the Nu not fufficient to change the colour of the human race. The Nubians, an African race, are pure negroes, as black as thofe of Senegal or Congo, with flat noses, thick lips, and woolly hair (Buffon, Hift. Naturelle, tom. v. p. 117. 143, 144. 166. 219. edit. in 12mP, Paris, 1769). The ancients beheld, without much attention, the extraordinary phænomenon which has exercised the philofophers and theologians of modern times. 153 Affeman. Bibliot. Orient. tom. i. p. 329. 154 The Chriftianity of the Nubians, A. D. 1153, is attefted by the sheriff al Edrifi, falfely described under the name of the Nubian geographer (p. 18.), who represents them as a nation of Jacobites. The rays of hiftorical light that twinkle in the history of Renaudot (p. 178. 220-224. 281–286. 405. 434. 451. 464.) are all previous to this æra. See the modern state in the Lettres Edifiantes (Recueil, iv.) and Bufching (tom. ix. p. 152-159, par Berenger.). XLVII. bians at length executed their threats of returning CHAP. to the worship of idols; the climate required the indulgence of polygamy, and they have finally preferred the triumph of the Koran to the abafement of the Crofs, A metaphyfical religion may appear too refined for the capacity of the negro race yet a black or a parrot might be taught to repeat the words of the Chalcedonian or Monophyfite creed, Abyffinia, Christianity was more deeply rooted in the Church of Abyffinian empire; and, although the corre- A. D. 520, fpondence has been fometimes interrupted above &c. feventy or an hundred years, the mother-church of Alexandria retains her colony in a state of perpetual pupillage. Seven bishops once compofed the Ethiopic fynod; had their number amounted to ten, they might have elected an independent primate, and one of their kings was ambitious of promoting his brother to the ecclefiaftical throne. But the event was foreseen, the increafe was denied; the epifcopal office has been gradually confined to the abuna '55, the head and author of the Abyffinian priesthood; the patriarch supplies each vacancy with an Egyptian monk; and the character of a stranger appears more venerable in the eyes of the people, lefs dangerous in those of the 155 The abuna is improperly dignified by the Latins with the title of pa riarch. The Abyffinians acknowledge only the four patriarchs, and their chief is no more than a metropolitan or national primate (Ludolph. Hift. Ethiopic. et Comment. 1. iii. c. 7.). The feven bishops of Renaudot. (p. 511.), who exifted A. D. 1131, are unknown to the hiftorian, VOL. VIII. Bb monarch. XLVII. tuguese in CHAP. monarch. In the fixth century, when the schism of Egypt was confirmed, the rival chiefs, with their patrons, Juftinian and Theodora, ftrove to outstrip each other in the conqueft of a remote and independent province. The industry of the emprefs was again victorious, and the pious Theodora has established in that fequeftered church the faith and difcipline of the Jacobites 56. Encompaffed on all fides by the enemies of their religion, the Ethiopians flept near a thousand years, forgetful of the world, by whom they were forgotten. The Pot- They were awakened by the Portuguese, who, Abynia, turning the fouthern promontory of Africa, appeared in India and the Red Sea, as if they had defcended 1550, &c. through the air from a diftant planet. In the first moments of their interview, the fubjects of Rome and Alexandria obferved the refemblance, rather than the difference, of their faith; and each nation expected the most important benefits from an alliance with their Chriftian brethren. In their lonely fituation, the Ethiopians had almost relapsed into the favage life. Their veffels, which had traded to Ceylon, fcarcely prefumed to navi gate the rivers of Africa; the ruins of Axume were deferted, the nation was scattered in villages, and the emperor, a pompous name, was content, A. D. 1525 156 I know not why Affemannus (Bibliot. Orient. tom. ii. p. 384.) fhould call in queftion these probable miffions of Theodora into Nubia and Æthiopia. The flight notices of Abyffinia till the year 1500 are fupplied by Renaudot (p. 336-341. 381, 382. 405. 443, &c, 452. 456. 463. 475. 480. 511. 525. 559–564.) from the Coptic writers. The mind of Ludolphus was a perfect blank, both |