EASTERN CHURCHES. 



231 



is he not a man in every respect like yourself? Is 

 his dignity superior to yours ? Nevertheless, has he 

 not treated you like a criminal ? and has he not, be- 

 fore letting you go, exacted from you the assurance 

 that you would not take part any more in the affairs 

 of those of your children who reside in India (Mala- 

 bar), and whose ancestors were converted to the true 

 religion by the missionaries of pur holy Church? 

 You live under the yoke of the cardinals and the rever- 

 end fathers (the Dominicans of Mosul) ; you have put 

 yourself in their hands, and have delivered to their 

 power your people and all your patriarchate, and 

 shift from yourself to them the care of administering 

 it. You, monseigneur, who know all this and the 

 manner in which it has been done, ought not to have 

 written us a letter so prolix in words and so scant of 

 ideas, for we have quite decided not to abandon the 

 religion which we have received from the holy Apos- 

 tles to embrace yours, which would be to change 

 pure gold for iron. We will never permit to be in- 

 troduced into our holy temples of worship images 

 and statues, which are nothing but abominable and 

 impure idols. Whatl shall we attribute to God a 

 mother, as you dare to do? Away from us such 

 blasphemy ! Away from us the detestable heresy of 

 Apoilinarius, which holds that Divinity has suffered ! 

 These doctrines are contrary to the teachings of the 

 holy books ; we cannot admit them. May it please 

 God, monseigneur, that we may see you, laying aside 

 the raise religion you profess, return to our ancient 

 and true faith ! All this I say with friendly feeling 

 toward you, and to recognize the interest you mani- 

 fest for me, and not with a heart insensible to the trou- 

 bles which afflict the Church of Christ through the 

 fault of its chiefs and its Pontiffs. But enough of 

 this for your lordship. 



(Signed) SIMEON, Patriarch of the East. 



Works on the Nestorians. A. d'Avril, Etude 

 sur la Chaldee Chretienne (Paris, 1864) ; P. 

 Martin, La Chaldee (Rome, 1867). 



4. The Copts. The United Presbyterian 

 missionaries at Osiout, Egypt, relate a signifi- 

 cant incident, that the Coptic Bishop of Cairo, 

 who is Patriarch and Metropolitan of Egypt, 

 visiting them, did not hesitate to confess pri- 

 vately that he was at heart a Protestant, but 

 was unwilling to say so publicly. About a 

 dozen leading men of Osiout, who are not will- 

 ing to wait on the service of the missionaries, 

 meet every night, and on Sunday afternoons, 

 and spend three hours each time in the study 

 of the Bible, under the guidance of a convert 

 of the mission. 



5. The Abyssinians. The large number of 

 works which have appeared in 1868 and 

 1869 on Abyssinia, not only add to our 

 knowledge of the political history and the 

 present condition of that country, but also 

 shed much light on the history and the condi- 

 tion of its church, which has heretofore been 

 almost unknown by the remainder of the 

 Christian world. Thus Dr. H. Blank, one of 

 the released captives, publishes, in his work on 

 Abyssinia, a biography of the late head of the 

 Abyssinian Church (Abuna Salama), who died 

 on the 25th of October, 1867, after a long and 

 painful illness. This biography is of the greater 

 interest, as at the close of the year 1869 his 

 see was again to be filled, and as the time is 

 undoubtedly near when the isolation of the 

 Abyssinian Church from the remainder of 

 Christendom will cease. We give a few ex- 



tracts from this biography, as an important 

 contribution to the recent history of the 

 Eastern Churches : 



Abyssinia had been for years without a bishop. 

 Priests could no more be consecrated, nor new 

 churches dedicated to Christian worship, as the ark 

 could not contain the tabot blessed by the bishop of 

 the land. Has Ali, although outwardly a Christian, 

 and belonging to a converted family, had still too 

 many connections among the Mussulman Gallas, his 

 true friends and supporters, to care for more than an 

 apparent profession of the state religion, and troubled 

 himself very little about the inconvenience to which 

 the priesthood was subjected by the long-continued 

 vacancy of the bishopric. 



Dejatch Oubie was at that time the semi-indepen- 

 dent ruler of Tigre. From the position of a simple 

 governor he had gradually risen to power, and now 

 at the head of a large army strove for the title of Bas. 

 Though still on apparent terms of friendship with 

 Eas Ali, even to a certain degree acknowledging him 

 as his superior, he was all the while underhand ex- 

 erting his influence to overthrow the Eas's power in 

 older to reign in his stead. For these reasons he dis- 

 patched some of his chiefs, with Monsignor de Jaco- 

 bis, an Italian nobleman and Eoman Catholic bishop 

 at Massowah, to Egypt, to obtain a bishop for the 

 Abyssinian See ; and, in order to secure for himself 

 such a powerful weapon as the support of the priest- 

 hood, he incurred the heavy expense required for the 

 consecration of an abouna. De Jacobis made strenu- 

 ous efforts to have a bishop anointed who would 

 favor the Eoman Catholics, but he failed, as the Pa- 

 triarch chose for that dignity a young^ man who had 

 received part of his education at an English school 

 at Cairo, and whose views were more in favor of 

 Protestantism than of the Copt's long-standing ad- 

 versary, the Church of Borne. Andraos, this young 

 Driest, was only in his twentieth year. When in- 

 formed that he must leave his monastery and the 

 companionship of the monks his friends, to proceed 

 to the distant and semi-civilized land of Habesch, he 

 firmly declined the honor proposed for him. He re- 

 quested his superiors to fix their choice on a worthier 

 man, declaring himself unfit for the dignity so sudden- 

 ly thrust upon him. His objections were not admitted, 

 and, as he still persisted in his refusal, the superior 

 of the convent put him in irons ; wherein he should 

 remain, he was told, until he agreed to obey the head 

 of the Coptic Church. 



Andraos gave in ; and, having been duly anointed 

 and consecrated Bishop of Abyssinia, under the title 

 of Abouna Salama, with all the pomps and ceremo- 

 nies proper to the occasion, started shortly afterward 

 in an English man-of-war, reaching Massowah in the 

 beginning of 1841. 



Dejatch Oubie received him with great honors, 

 added numerous villages and large districts to those 

 the hereditary possession of the bishops, and made 

 every endeavor to attach the bishop to his cause. He 

 succeeded even beyond, his expectations. Abouna 

 Salama, instead of needing the persuasions of Oubie 

 to join him in the overthrow of Eas Ali, proposed 

 the attempt. Through his influence Oubie concluded 

 an alliance with Goscho, the ruler of Godjam. The 

 two chiefs agreed to march on Debra Tabor, attack 

 Eas Alij wrest from him the power he had usurped, 

 and divide the government of Abyssinia, confirming 

 the bishop's alleged rights to a third of the revenue 

 of the land. 



being answerable for his fidelity, 

 the bishop with all respect, fell at his feet, and im- 

 plored him not to listen to the calumnies of his ene- 

 mies, assuring him that the Church had no more 

 faithful son than himself nor any more willing to 

 comply with the holy father's wishes. The bishop, 

 now on friendly terms with all parties, and all but 



