248 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



religion would be tolerated but that of the church of 

 Rome. 



GojAM, a province always inveterate againft any thing 

 that bore the fmalleft inclination to the church of Rome, 

 declared againft the king ; and, before he went to join his 

 aflbciates, the traitor, Za SelafTe, in a conference he had with 

 the Abuna Petros, propofed to him to abfolve Za Denghel's 

 fubjecfls and foldiers from their oaths of allegiance to their 

 fovereign. The Abuna, a man of very corrupt and bad life, 

 very hearty in the caufe, and an enemy to the king, was 

 ftaggered at this propofal ; not that he was averfe to it, be- 

 caufe it might do mifchief, but becaufe he doubted whether 

 any fuch efFedl would follow it as Za Selaffe expecT:ed ; and 

 he, therefore, afked what good he expected from fuch a 

 novelty ? when this traitor afllired him, that it would be 

 moft efficacious for that very reafon, becaufe it was then 

 iirft introduced : the Abuna forthwith abfolved the foldiers 

 and fubjedls of Za Denghel from their allegiance, declaring 

 the king excommunicated and accurfed, together with all 

 thofe that lliould fupport him, or favour his caufe. 



I MUST here obferve, that, though we are now writing 

 the hiftory of the 1 7th century, this was the firft example of 

 any prieft excommunicating his fovereign in Abyffinia, ex- 

 cept that of Honorius, who excommunicated Amda Sion for 

 the repeated commiffion of inceft. And the doubt the zea- 

 lot Abuna Petros had of its eifetflr as being a novelty, which 

 fa6t the Jefuits themfelves atteft, fliews it was a pradlice that 

 had not its origin in the church of Alexandria. Neither had 

 thefe curfes of the Abuna any vifible effed:, till Za Selaffi^ 

 had put himfelf at the head of an army raifed in Gojam. 



4 The 



