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 Ada?el 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.