his consort had adopted opposite conclusions on the great subject, the discussion of which so greatly divided the Christian world; and as the zeal of the latter was not less active than that of the emperor himself, she propagated her favourite views from the Danube to the borders of Sennaar. It was recommended to her to bring within the pale of the church all the black nations who dwell beyond the tropic of Cancer; a pious undertaking, in which she soon found herself emulated by her husband. Rival missionaries were accordingly despatched at the same time; but the empress, from a motive of love or of fear, was more effectually obeyed; and the orthodox priest was detained by the gov ernor of the Thebaid, while the King of Nubia and his court were hastily baptized into the faith of Eutyches. The tardy envoy of Justinian was received and dismissed with honour; but when he denounced the heresy and treason which had been perpetrated in defiance of his master, the negro prince was taught to reply, that he would never abandon his brethren, the true believers, to the persecuting agents of the Synod of Chalcedon. During several ages the bishops were named and consecrated by the Patriarch of Alexandria as late as the twelfth century the profession of the gospel was preserved; and at the present day we can still trace, along the banks of the Upper Nile, the ruins of Christian churches, or of temples which had occasionally been employed for that purpose, and even a lingering respect for ceremonies of which the real import has ceased to be understood. The Nubians, assailed by the Moslem and deriving no aid from their parents in the faith, gradually relapsed into the state of paganism; and at length some tribes of them, who maintained an intercourse with Egypt, exchanged the New Testament, which they had not been able to read, for the Koran, whose success they were taught to identify with the proof of a Divine commission.

There is reason to believe that the same emulation which distinguished the imperial couple in behalf of the Nubians was not less efficient in regard to Abyssinia. The industry of the lady was again successful; and the pious Theodora had the satisfaction of establishing in that kingdon the tenets and discipline of the Jacobites, a sect who held the doctrine of the one nature. But we find from the history of John Malala, that the zeal of the emperor, so far from

being deemed intrusive, was invited by the ruler of Ethiopia. This annalist informs us that the king of the Axumites, when he had obtained the victory over the Arabians, despatched two of his relations with two hundred followers to Alexandria, for the purpose of soliciting from Justinian that a bishop and some holy men might be sent to instruct his subjects in the mysteries of the Christian faith. The emperor being informed of those things by Licinius, his viceroy at Alexandria, gave an order that the ambassadors should be allowed to make choice of whomsoever they pleased; and they accordingly chose John, the almsgiver of St. John in Alexandria, a good and pious man about sixtytwo years of age, and took him, then a bishop, together with several holy men, to their country to Anda, or Ameda, their king.*

But the army of Elesbaan, the same who is called Anda by the chronographer just quoted, could not support the cause of the believers on the opposite side of the gulf, and hence a path was left open for the introduction of a new religion. If a Christian power, says a great writer, had been maintained in Arabia, Mohammed must have been crushed in his cradle, and Abyssinia would have prevented a revolution which has changed the civil and religious state of the world.t

In following the current of events, as they respect the ecclesiastical affairs of Ethiopia, we have to lament the total absence of historical facts from the sixth to the middle of the fifteenth century. Coming down to the reign of Zara Jacob, who ascended the throne about 1434, we find that a convent for Abyssinians had already been founded at Jerusalem, of which this pious monarch greatly increased the endowments. A similar privilege was also obtained at Rome; a fact which of itself gives some probability to the assertion of certain Dominican authors, who record that an intercourse had been occasionally maintained between the pope and the sovereign of Axum. We present to our readers a single specimen of the correspondence which the negash negashi, or king of kings, thought proper to carry on with the monks in the holy city:

* Joan. Malal. Chronographia, p. 168, quoted by Mr. Salt in his Tra vels in Abyssinia, p. 467.

Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. ix. p. 309, &c.

"I, Zara 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 tributes arising from it for two years, which amounts to a hundred ounces of gold, towards your food and raiment; and do give it to the monastery of Jerusalem, that it may be a memorial of myself and of our Lady Mary, and for the celebration of her feasts; to wit, that of her nativity on the 1st May, that of her death on the 22d January, and that of her translation on the 15th August; as also of the feasts of her Son, our Lord Jesus, on the 29th 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 you shall furthermore keep a lamp burning for me in the sepulchre of our Lord, and another in the entry thereof; and so on the right side one, and on the left another; also at the place of his burial three; three at the monument of our Lady Mary in Gethsemane; and at the place where Mary Magdalene saw him one; and in our chapel, three; one also at Bethlehem, where our Lord was born; and another at the place on the Mount of Olives where our Lord ascended. Let them all be 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, so let your prayers and benedictions be with me through all ages. Amen."

His majesty adds the following postcript, which seems to import more than meets the eye:

"My beloved, do not you offer to say, Light descendeth only upon us, that your glorying in yourselves be not in vain; since you know that evil attends glorying, and blessing humility."

The reign of Zara Jacob is further remarkable for the part which his clerical representatives acted in the Council of Florence. At his desire a number of priests were sent by the Abba Nicodemus, not only to protect the interests of the church of Abyssinia, but also to make known to the Sovereign pontiff the sound views on religion which were still entertained in the country celebrated for the pious

docility of the Ethiopian treasurer. These missionaries, however, adhered to the opinion of the Greeks on the longdisputed topic of the procession of the Holy Ghost, which, as every one has heard, created a schism between the Christians of the East and of the West. This embassy was thought of sufficient consequence to be made the subject of a painting in the Vatican; to which work of art we are principally indebted for our knowledge of the fact, that such a deputation had been sent from Eastern Africa to the centre of Italy. We may add, that from this time forward the Roman communion possessed a certain influence in Abyssinia, and disputes on doctrinal points occasionally exercised the ingenuity of the court as well as of the professional orders.

Although the established religion was that of the church of Alexandria, a variety of superstitions prevailed in different parts of the country. On the coast of the Red Sea, and in the low provinces adjoining to the kingdom of Adel, the greatest part of the inhabitants were Mohammedans; and the convenience of trade had induced these enemies of the Christian creed to settle in many villages throughout the high country, especially in Wogara and the neighbourhood of Gondar. In Dembea, in the rugged district of Samen, and near the sources of the Nile, a species of sabaism still gave exercise to the devotional feelings of the people; while some, who had either failed to keep pace with the progress of their countrymen or had anticipated a more advanced stage of improvement, offered up their adoration to the cow and the serpent. The king, offended at a debasement so gross and irrational, ordered these rude worshippers to be seized and brought before him. Sitting in judgment, with the heads of his clergy and the principal officers of state around him, he had the satisfaction to hear all the culprits capitally convicted and ordered for execution. A proclamation from his majesty immediately followed, declaring that all persons who did not carry upon their right hands an amulet with these words, "I renounce the devil for Christ our Lord," should forfeit their personal estates and be liable to corporal punishment.*

This expedient of Zara Jacob-the adoption of a heathenish practice to effect a Christian object-might have been

• Bruce, vol. iii. p. 260.

justified by the principle stated by St. Paul, that the whole Jewish system of rites and ordinances was added to the patriarchal religion, "because of transgressions;" that is, it was imposed upon an idolatrous people to prevent them from rushing into the more flagrant usages of gentile wor ship. But it is probable that the zealous monarch knew not the full bearing of the precedent to which we have now alluded.

The close of the fifteenth century was disturbed by the revival of opinions similar to those which had been approved by the Council of Chalcedon. An assembly of the clergy was called, and those who denied the true faith were either put to instant death, or exposed without food or clothing to perish on the tops of the highest mountains.

The intercourse with Europe which marked the beginning of the following age led to a new series of events in the Abyssinian church. The Portuguese, who by their valour and superior arms defeated the designs of the Mohammedan states, claimed the right of giving counsel to their allies in the important article of religion. No progress, however, was made towards this object till the arrival of Paez at the close of the sixteenth century. This able Jesuit, repairing to the monastery at Fremona, made himself master of the Geez language in the first instance, after which he began to teach others; and so great was his success in this undertaking, that the fame of his acquirements reached the ears of the king, whose name was Za Denghel.

In the year 1604, accordingly, Peter, attended by only two of his young disciples, presented himself at court, which was then held at Dancaz. He was received by his majesty with great honours, to the deep mortification of the native monks, who could not fail to anticipate on his side a still more important triumph. In a dispute held next day before the sovereign, Paez thought it enough to produce the two boys as his only advocates for the Catholic faith, and as fully qualified to silence all the theologians in Abyssinia. The result corresponded to his expectation, and did not fail to establish his influence to a greater extent than ever in the eyes of the royal family. Mass was then said agreeably to the usage of the church of Rome, which was followed by a sermon, among the first preached in that country,-so far surpassing in elegance and purity of diction any thing yet