Abyssinian Church made her formal submission to the see of Rome. The emperor and the (Roman) patriarch took their seats in the great hall of the palace; and, after a sermon on the text, "Thou art Peter, &c.," a solemn abjuration of the Alexandrian faith was made by the Court; excommunication was then pronounced on the contumacious, all native priests were forbidden to officiate till licensed by the patriarch, the subjects of the emperor were commanded to embrace the Romish faith, and to denounce all those who should still adhere to the ancient religion. A large estate and palace on the lake of Demba was provided for the new patriarch; a college was erected for sixty students, and the work of subjugating Abyssinia to the Church of Rome seemed to be accomplished. But appearances were deceitful. The missionaries who attempted to say mass were attacked, and two of them were found murdered in their beds; and again, a son-in-law of the emperor, Tecla George, placed himself at the head of an insurrection. To prove his sincerity he put to death his own chaplain who refused to abjure the Roman faith. Chrystos, a bigoted papist, was despatched with an army against him; the rebels were completely routed; George and his sister Adela fled to a cave, where, after three days' concealment, they were discovered, and brought before the emperor. George was condemned to be burnt as a heretic; but recanting, was hanged; and the same sentence was executed on his sister, on the same tree, a few days after. These barbarous proceedings, instead of crushing the native spirit, roused the Abyssinians to vengeance, and deepened their hatred to Rome. Insurrections and executions followed, till at last the emperor himself, perceiving how entirely severity had failed, proposed some measures of toleration. The patriarch was alarmed, "Your highness," said he, "has been misled by wicked counsellors, who, under the pretence of toleration, have in view nothing short of the entire extirpation of the Catholic Church from Abyssinia." The patriarch, however, was obliged to give his consent to the retention by the Abyssinians of such of their ancient customs as did not militate against the Roman faith; but with the condition that this indulgence should not be publicly avowed. About the same time, A.D. 1630, letters were received from the pope in which he encouraged the emperor to persevere in the faith, and announced a jubilee for the Abys

sinian Church.

The latter was received by the Abyssinian people with derision. The authority which the pope claimed of pardoning their sins especially, became the subject of their scorn. Another rebellion, quenched at last by a bloody victory, ensued. The emperor's troops slew eight thousand of his peasantry, who willingly forfeited their lives rather than abandon their religion. But still the stedfast, independent spirit of Abyssinia was not vanquished. The empress herself addressed a passionate remonstrance to her infatuated lord; imploring him, as he feared God and valued his own reputation, to forbear this merciless destruction of his subjects. The Alexandrians remonstrated. "You see, sir, how many dead bodies lie before you. Are they Mahomedans and heathens? No, sir, they are Christians to a man; your own subjects; men endeared to us by the strongest ties of relationship and blood. Sire, the very heathens and Mahomedans blush at our cruelties; and brand us with the name of murderers and apostates. Forbear, we entreat you, to persevere in a contest which must terminate in the overthrow of your religion and yourself." In short, the emperor was subdued by the firmness of his people. On the 20th of June, 1632, the Roman patriarch, accompanied by the Jesuits, waited upon him and obtained an audience. He made a passionate appeal to the feelings of the sovereign; and conjured him in conclusion, either to support the Church or to behead himself and his comrades on the spot. He made answer that he had done everything in his power for the catholic faith, that he had now scarcely left to him either subjects or a kingdom, and that he could do no A proclamation was issued permitting the Abyssinians to return to the religion of their fathers. It is impossible to describe the raptures with which it was received everywhere. The old Alexandrian party immediately followed up their triumph; they obtained another proclamation, in which every subject of the empire was commanded to return to the ancient faith. The Jesuit mission was at an end; and with it the hopes and prospects of the Church of Rome. The Roman patriarch abandoned Abyssinia in 1633.

From this period nothing further was known of Abyssinia till the travels of Mr. Bruce about 1763, which served rather to excite than gratify the curiosity of Western Europe. He related (and though questioned at the time the report has been subse

quently confirmed) that so late as the year 1750 the Society of the Propaganda had sent a fresh mission of three Franciscan friars, who penetrated as far as Gonda, where they rose into great favour with the emperor, the queen-mother, and many of the principal noblemen. "We promised ourselves," says father Remedio, who styles himself vice-prefect of Ethiopia, in a memorial of his mission laid before the pope in 1754,-" we promised ourselves a copious harvest; the emperor having already destined me for his ambassador to the apostolic see, for the advantage of the catholic faith in his kingdom: when lo! the enemy of the human race excited against the king, and against us, a great rebellion among the people, insomuch that the archbishop Gofto, fearing to lose his emoluments, threatened to excommunicate the king and all the people, if he did not immediately expel us out of the kingdom. In a word, during the night, not only the furious populace, but also many monks more outrageous than the populace, cried out to the king, rang the bells, and demanded our expulsion with loud cries and threats of death. The emperor awakened and confounded by such an uproar, on the 2nd of October sent for us to an audience, and communicated to us the painful intelligence that we must depart. We practised every means in our power to regain the favour of the emperor and appease the people, but all being in vain we determined to return." Bruce found the Abyssinian Church in a state of great ignorance, but as he brought home with him a complete copy of the Scriptures in the Ethiopic language, it was reasonably surmised that the means and elements of a reformation lay hid within it. Little more was known till the year 1809, when Mr. Salt explored Abyssinia under the direction of the British government. He described both the nation and its religion as fast verging to ruin. The Galla and Mosleim tribes around, he says, are daily becoming more powerful, and there is reason to fear in a short time the very name of Christ may be lost among them. And to Mr. Salt the honour is due of having been the first to urge the wisdom of sending Protestant missionaries to a nation which had, at so very early a period, received the Christian religion; which cherished and defended it against secret and open enemies, and which still maintains it, not pure indeed, but as the national faith. But it was not till 1827 that any active In that year Dr. Gobat, the present

measures were taken.

Anglican bishop of Jerusalem, accompanied by Mr. Isenberg, was deputed by the Church Missionary Society on a mission to Abyssinia. Their labours and those of their successors were continued till 1842, when the mission was finally withdrawn through the adverse influences of the Church of Rome, and the opposition of the Abyssinian priesthood. The present state of the Abyssinian Church, with regard both to doctrine and practice, will be gathered from the following statement, for which we are chiefly indebted to bishop Gobat's journals.

The Christians of Abyssinia are at present divided into three parties, so inimical to each other that they will not partake of the sacrament in common. A single point disunites them, a refinement upon the Monophysite doctrine with regard to the two natures of Jesus Christ. It is difficult to understand, still more to explain, these differences; the discussion of which would belong to a theological treatise. They all agree, as indeed do the whole of the Eastern Churches without exception, that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father, and not from the Father and the Son. They baptize infants, but not before the boys are forty days old and the girls eighty, and as soon as an infant has been baptized the communion is administered to him. Mr. Salt describes a baptism at which he was present, and the ceremonial appears so singular that we shall copy his own statement. The officiating priest was habited in white flowing robes with a tiara, or silver-mounted cap on his head, and he carried a censer with burning incense in his right hand: a second of equal rank was dressed in similar robes, supporting a large golden cross, while a third held in his hand a small phial containing a quantity of consecrated oil, which is furnished to the Church of Abyssinia by the patriarch of Alexandria. The attendant priests stood

round in the form of a semicircle, the boy being placed in the centre, and our party ranged in front. After a few minutes' interval, employed in singing psalms, some of the priests took the boy and washed him all over very carefully in a large basin of water. While this was passing a smaller font, called me-temak (which is always kept outside of the churches, owing to an unbaptized person not being permitted to enter the Church), was placed in the middle of the area filled with water, which the priest consecrated by prayer, waving the incense repeatedly over it, and dropping into it a portion of the meiron, or conse

crated oil, in the shape of a cross. The boy was then brought back, dripping from head to foot, and again placed naked and upright in the centre; and was required to renounce" the devil and all his works," which was performed by his repeating a given formula four separate times, turning each time towards a different point of the compass. The godfather was then demanded, and on my being presented I named the child George, in honour of his present majesty, when I was requested to say the belief and the Lord's Prayer, and to make much the same promises as those required by our own Church. The head priest afterwards laid hold of the boy, dipping his own hand into the water, and crossed him over the forehead, pronouncing at the same moment "George, I baptize thee; in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost." The whole company then knelt down, and joined in reciting the Lord's Prayer.

The Abyssinians also practise an annual ablution, which they term baptism, and which they consider necessary to wash away the defilement of sin. The priests receive the Lord's Supper every day, and always fasting; besides priests and monks, scarcely any but aged persons and children attend the communion. They call the consecration of the element Mellawat. At Gondar Bishop Gobat found no person that believed in transubstantiation. In Tigrè there are some who believe in it. The wine is mixed with water. They consider fasting essential to religion; consequently their fasts occupy the greater part of the year, about nine months; but these are seldom all observed except by a few monks. The priests may be married men, but they may not marry after they have received orders. The priesthood is very illiterate, and there is no preaching at all. The Abyssinians prostrate themselves to the saints, and especially to the Virgin; and, of all Christian Churches, are, we believe, the only one that practise circumcision. When questioned on the subject, they answer, that they consider circumcision merely as a custom, and that they abstain from the animals forbidden in the Mosaic law, but only because they have a disgust to them; but Dr. Gobat observed, that when they spoke upon these subjects without noticing the presence of a stranger, they attached a religious importance to circumcision, and that a priest would not fail to impose a fast or penance on a man who had eaten of a wild boar, or a hare, without the pretext of illness. In short, their religion con