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both in peace and war, with the immoveable refi. CHAP. dence of a camp. Confcious of their own indigence, the Abyffinians had formed the rational project of importing the arts and ingenuity of Europe ; and their ambaffadors at Rome and Lif bon were inftructed to folicit a colony of smiths, carpenters, tilers, mafons, printers, furgeons, and phyficians, for the use of their country. But the public danger foon called for the inftant and effectual aid of arms and foldiers to defend an unwarlike people from the Barbarians who ravaged the inland country, and the Turks and Arabs who advanced from the fea-coaft in more formidable array. Æthiopia was faved by four hundred and fifty Portuguese, who difplayed in the field the native valour of Europeans, and the artificial powers of the mufquet and cannon. In a moment of terror, the emperor had promised to reconcile himself and his fubjects to the Catholic faith; a Latin patriarch represented the fupremacy of the pope's; the empire, enlarged in a tenfold proportion, was fuppofed to contain more gold than the mines of America; and the wildeft hopes of avarice and

158

157 Ludolph. Hift. Æthiop. 1. iv. c. 5. The moft necessary arts are now exercised by the Jews, and the foreign trade is in the hands of the Armenians. What Gregory principally admired and envied was the industry of Europe-artes et opificia.

158 John Bermudez, whofe relation, printed at Lisbon, 1569, was tranflated into English by Purchas (Pilgrims, 1. vii. c. 7. p. 1149, &c.), and from thence into French by La Croze (Chriftianisme d'Ethiopie, p. 92-265.). The piece is curious; but the author may be fufpected of deceiving Abyffinia, Rome, and Portugal. His title to the rank of patriarch is dark and doubtful (Ludolph. Comment. N° 101. p. 473.).

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CHAP. Ecal were built on the willing fubmiffion of the Chriftians of Africa.

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Million of

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But the vows which pain had extorted, were the Jefits, forfworn on the return of health. The Abyffinians ftill adhered with unfhaken conftancy to the Monophyfite faith; their languid belief was inflamed by the exercife of difpute; they branded the Latins with the names of Arians and Neftorians, and imputed the adoration of four gods, to thofe who separated the two natures of Chrift. Fremona, a place of worship, or rather of exile, was affigned to the Jefuit miffionaries. Their kill in the liberal and mechanic arts, their theological learning, and the decency of their manners, inspired a bar. ren esteem; but they were not endowed with the gift of miracles 159, and they vainly folicited a reinforcement of European troops. The patience and dexterity of forty years, at length obtained a more favourable audience, and two emperors of Abyffinia were perfuaded that Rome could enfure the temporal and everlasting happiness of her votaries. The first of these royal converts loft his crown and his life; and the rebel army was fanc tified by the abuna, who hurled an anathema at the apoftate, and abfolved his fubjects from their oath of fidelity. The fate of Zadenghel was revenged by the courage and fortune of Sufneus, who afcended the throne under the name of Se

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159 Religio Romana... nec precibus patrum nec miraculis ab ipfis editis fuffulciebatur, is the uncontradicted afsurance of the devout emperor Sufneus to his patriarch Mendez (Ludolph. Comment. No 126. p. 529.); and such assurances thould be preciously kept as an antidote against any marvellous legends.

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gued,

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fion of the emperor, A. D.

1626.

gued, and more vigorously profecuted the pious CHAP. enterprise of his kinfman. After the amufement of some unequal combats between the Jesuits and his illiterate priests, the emperor declared himself a profelyte to the fynod of Chalcedon, prefuming that his clergy and people would embrace without delay the religion of their prince. The liberty of choice was fucceeded by a law, which impofed, under pain of death, the belief of the two natures of Chrift: the Abyffinians were enjoined to work and to play on the Sabbath; and Segued, in the face of Europe and Africa, renounced his connection with the Alexandrian church. A Jefuit, Al- Conver phonfo Mendez, the Catholic patriarch of Ethiopia, accepted in the name of Urban VIII. the homage and abjuration of his penitent. "I con"fefs," faid the emperor on his knees, "I con"fefs that the pope is the vicar of Chrift, the fuc"ceffor of St. Peter, and the fovereign of the "world. To him I swear true obedience, and at "his feet I offer my perfon and kingdom." A fimilar oath was repeated by his fon, his brother, the clergy, the nobles, and even the ladies of the court: the Latin patriarch was invested with honours and wealth; and his miffionaries erected. their churches or citadels in the moft convenient stations of the empire. The Jefuits themselves deplore the fatal indifcretion of their chief, who forgot the mildness of the gospel and the policy of his order, to introduce with hafty violence the liturgy of Rome and the inquifition of Portugal. He condemned the ancient practice of circumcifion,

CHAP. which health rather than fuperftition had first inXLVII. vented in the climate of Ethiopia 16. A new

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baptifm, a new ordination was inflicted on the natives; and they trembled with horror when the moft holy of the dead were torn from their graves, when the moft illuftrious of the living were excommunicated by a foreign prieft. In the defence of their religion and liberty, the Abyffinians rose in arms with defperate but unfuccefsful zeal. Five rebellions were extinguished in the blood of the infurgents two abunas were flain in battle, whole legions were flaughtered in the field, or fuffocated in their caverns; and neither merit, nor rank, nor fex, could fave from an ignominious death the enemies of Rome. But the victorious monarch was finally fubdued by the conftancy of the nation, of his mother, of his fon, and of his most faithful friends. Segued liftened to the voice of pity, of reafon, perhaps of fear; and his edict of liberty of confcience instantly revealed the tyranny and weakness of the Jefuits. On the death of his father, Bafilides expelled the Latin patriarch, and restored to the wishes of the nation the faith and the discipline

160 I am aware how tender is the question of circumcifion. Yet I will affirm, 1. That the Æthiopians have a phyfical reason for the circumcifion of males, and even of females (Recherches Philofophiques fur les Americains, tom. ii.). 2. That it was practifed in Æthiopia long before the introduction of Judaism or Christianity (Herodot. 1. ii. c. 104. Marfham, Canon. Chron. p. 72, 73.)"Infantes circumcidunt ob confuetudinem non ob Judaifmum," fays Gregory the Abyffinian priest (apud Fabric. Lux Chriftiana, p. 720). Yet, in the heat of difpute, the Portuguese were sometimes branded with the name of uncircumcifed (La Croze, p. 80. Ludolph. Hift. and Comment. I. iii. c. 1.).

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opia were now delivered from the hyenas of the "Weft;" and the gates of that folitary realm were for ever fhut against the arts, the science, and the fanaticism of Europe 1.

161 The three proteftant hiftorians, Ludolphus (Hift. Æthiopica, Francofurt. 1681; Commentarius, 1691; Relatio Nova, &c. 1693, in folio), Geddes (Church History of Æthiopia, London, 1696, in 8vo), and La Croze (Hist. du Christianisme d'Ethiopie et d'Arme- . nie, La Haye, 1739, in 12mo), have drawn their principal materials from the Jesuits, especially from the General History of Tellez, published in Portuguese at Conimbra, 1660. We might be furprised at their frankness; but their most flagitious vice, the spirit of perfecution, was in their eyes the most meritorious virtue. Ludolphus poffeffed fome, though a flight, advantage from the Æthiopic language, and the personal conversation of Gregory, a free-spirited Abyffinian priest, whom he invited from Rome to the court of SaxeGotha. See the Theologia Æthiopica of Gregory, in Fabricius, Lux Evangelii, p. 716-734.

XLVII.

Final expulfion of the Jefuits,

A. D. 1632, &c.

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