BOOK VI

SECTION II

INTERRUPTION OF THE ALEXANDRIAN SUCCESSION IN
ABYSSINIA.

 

TWELVE years had elapsed since the departure of the Portuguese ambassador with Zaga Zaab. The Court of Lisbon was now comparatively indifferent as to the friendship of the Emperor of Abyssinia, since the Portuguese no longer passed through his territories on their way to their Indian possessions, having learned by experience that the passage round the Cape was not so dangerous as it had been long imagined. It would appear that since the conquest of Cairo by Selim, no communication had passed between the Coptic Patriarch and the Catholic of Abyssinia. To Chail VI had succeeded John XII and John XIII : it was probably the former, who, during the successes of Gragne, presided in Egypt. In the Catholic Church, Gregory V had been the successor of Philotheus, and himself was succeeded by Joachim.

With this Patriarch, a little more light is shed over the history of the Church : we emerge from the darkness of the two or three last centuries, and tread on firmer and firmer ground. Towards the beginning of his Patriarchate, poison was administered to him by some Mahometan enemy : he is said to have made the sign of the Cross, and to have received no harm. His Patriarchate must have lasted many years : he is said to have attained the age of one hundred and twenty; and for the last eighty to have abstained from flesh.

King David, as we have seen, was not averse from the Roman faith; and finding the Abuna Mark unable, from age and infirmities, to manage the affairs of the Church, he prevailed on him to consecrate Joao Bermudez, one of the Portuguese who had been detained in Abyssinia, his successor. By this method, the King probably hoped to obtain a warmer interest in the friendship of the European princes, from whom alone he could, as it appeared, hope for deliverance from Gragne. Bermudez signified his perfect acquiescence, if the Pope should allow of the scheme; he was accordingly ordained Abuna by Mark, and then determined on a journey to Rome, to obtain a ratification of the act from the Chair of S. Peter. The King had no objection to this journey : on the contrary, he ordered that as soon as his business at Rome was concluded, Bermudez should hasten to the Court of Lisbon, and discover what had become of the embassy dispatched so many years previously thither. Bermudez was well received by Pope Paul III, who not only ratified the appointment which he had received to the metropolitical Chair of Axum, but, in the plenitude of his power, elevated him to the Patriarchate of Alexandria : a grievous act of schism. It was at this time felt by the Roman Court to be a matter of considerable importance, that Eastern nations should acknowledge the Primacy of S. Peter, which was called in question by the religious movement of the West : and it was doubtless owing to this feeling that the consecration of Bermudez, undoubtedly irregular, was so quietly acquiesced in by the Roman Pontiff. Bermudez, at a later period, composed a history of his own proceedings and adventures, which is still extant, and which throws much light on the history of the times. From Rome he proceeded to Lisbon, where Zaga Zaab was, at his solicitation, thrown into prison on a charge of faithlessness to his master, in suffering the negociation for so long a time to be protracted. The chaplain Alvarez had, previously to this time, presented the letters of David to the Pope at Bologna, where the Emperor Charles V then was : a well-timed act, though it appears to have had little influence on the Emperor. A violent illness detained Bermudez in Portugal for a year : he then embarked in the India fleet, and arrived in that country in 1538. Here he was received with the greatest honor both by the Viceroy and the Bishop of Goa: but the death of the former threw another impediment in the way of his return to Abyssinia. For Don Stephen de Gama, the succeeding Viceroy, was at first unwilling to give any assistance in the enterprise : till, at length, the magnificent accounts given by Bermudez of the wealth and power of David, tempted the indolence of that chief, and he not only gave orders for the preparation of an armament, but resolved to accompany the Patriarch in person.

A.D. 1510. Death of David

While these events were in progress, new calamities had befallen Abyssinia. A Mahometan chief, named Mudgid, attacked and took the almost impregnable fortress of Geshen, in which the greater part of the royal family had taken refuge. These all fell victims to his fury; and David, having filled up the measure of his misfortunes, was shortly after summoned from the world.

Claudius, who succeeded him, was hut eighteen years of age, but had been wisely and tenderlv iustructed by his mother, Sabel Wenghel, sometimes called Helena. The Mahometan chiefs entered into an alliance for the purpose of crushing this young prince; but Claudius, by a successful attack on one of the confederates, struck terror into the league, and, in a proportionate degree, elevated the hopes of his own subjects. He offered battle to the allies, which they declined; and, in the Easter of the following year (1541), ensnared one of its most powerful chiefs into an ambuscade, and cut his army to pieces.

Meanwhile Don Stephen de Gama and the Portuguese squadron had anchored in the Bay of Masuah; and in spite of the resistance of the Mahometan governor of Arkeeko, who boldly declared that the King of Adel was now Lord of all Ethiopia, they took that place, and sent the head of the Infidel as a present to Sabel Wenghel.

Men were now enrolled for the Abyssinian service; four hundred and fifty musqueteers were the complement allowed by the King of Portugal; and the difficulty lay in making a suitable selection, every one being anxious to have a share in the glory of the undertaking. Don Christopher de Gama, youngest brother of the Viceroy, was appointed commander : and Don Stephen, having received the blessing of Bermudez, stood out to sea, and sailed for India.