346 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



the decline. Nineteen years of this mofl. active mifllonary^ 

 and the death of three kings, had advanced it only fo fac 

 as to be embraced publicly by one of them; after Paez's 

 death, in fix years it fell, though fupported mofl llrenuoudly 

 by a king prodigal of the blt)od of hisfubjects in this caufcj 

 by a patriarch fent from Pome, and by above 20 very zeal-* 

 Qus and adlive milTionaries ; and, as far as my forefight caa 

 carry me, it. is fo entirely fallen, that, unlefs by a fpecial mi- 

 racle of Providence, wrought for that purpofe,JtL never wiU 

 rife again. 



The king's renunciation of the Alexandrian faith was^ 

 followed by a very ftrong, or rather violent manifefto, and 

 we need not be at a lofs to guefs whom he, employed to 

 draw it up. h begins by aflerting the fup^-emacy, of. tlie 

 church of Rome, as the fee of St Peter ; it mentions the 

 three firft general councils, which condemned Arius, Mace- 

 donius, and Neftorius ; next quotes the council of ChaU 

 cedon, as the fourth general council, as having juftly con- 

 demned Diofcurus ; but fays not a, word of the council o]f 

 Ephefus, which the Abyffinians receive inftead of that of 

 Chalcedon ; infifts largely upon the two natures in Chrift ; 

 then, leaving the patriarchs of Alexandria, it attacks not the 

 dodrine, but the morals of the Abunas,.fent from Alexandria 

 into Abyflinia/, accufes the ecclefijiilicsin generalof fimony and 

 paying money to the Abuna for their ordination, (a well-, 

 founded part of the charge) which I fear continues to this day. 



The Abuna Marcus was, it is there faid, convia:ed by So- 

 cinios, or Melee Segued, of a crime of fuch .. turpitude that 

 the name of it fliould never ftain paper. He was degraded 

 ai^dhinifliedto.the iflandof Dek. His fucceiTor Chriftodulu^ 



had 



