388 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



fidential fervants, who killed him privately, to prevent his re- 



cantation. 



SociNios had again taken Gojam from Sela Chriflos; 

 which laft difgrace fo afFe«fted him, that he defired to retire 

 and live as a private man in that province. 



The king, having now no other enemy, all his attention 

 was employed in preparing for a campaign againll Melca 

 Chriflos of Lafta. But, as he found his army full of difafFec- 

 ion, it was propofed to him, before he took the field, to con- 

 tent them fo far as to indulge the Alexandrians in fome 

 rites of the old church ; and a proclamation was according- 

 ly made by the king, " That thofe who chofe to obferve 

 " the Wednefday as a faft, inftead of Saturday, might do it;" 

 and fome other fuch indulgences as thefe were granted,, 

 which were underftood to affeft the faith. 



As foon as this came to the ears of the patriarch, he 

 wrote a very fliarp letter to the king, reproving him for the 

 proclamation that he had made ; adding, that it was an en- 

 croachment upon the office of the priefthood, that he, a 

 layman, fhould take upon him to dire(5l in matters merely 

 ecclefiaftical. He warned the king, moreover, that God 

 would call him to the very llridleft account for this prefump- 

 tion, and reminded him of the words of Azarias the chief 

 prieft to kingUzziah, and of the punijQiment of leprofy that 

 followed the king's encroachment on the ecclefiaftical func- 

 tion ; and infifled upon Socinios contradiding his proclama- 

 tion by another. 



Socinios 



