NEW EMPIRE OF ABYSSINIA. 59 



II. 



It is well known that, for more than fourteen centuries, the Abya- 

 sinian people have professed an oriental Catholic form of worship, 

 into which, the interruption of communications with the rest of 

 Christendom, has allowed many superstitions of a Coptic and Judaic 

 character to enter, which have deceived travellers as to the real origin 

 of this religion. The invasion of Egypt by the Mahommedans, in 

 making of the church of Alexandria (from which that of Abyssinia 

 hierarchically arose) an oppressed church, degenerate and barbarous, 

 bad the most disastrous influence upon the Upper Nile. Since the 

 abouna or head of the Abyssinian church must, canonically, receive 

 his investiture at the hands of the Patriarch of Alexandria, and, 

 since the great regulator of the Abjspinian church, in the eleventh 

 century, Saint Thekla Haimanot, had decided that the abouna should 

 always be a foreigner, — probably in order to avoid nepotism on the 

 pa,rt of the great feudal families, — there resulted therefrom a state of 

 affairs easily foreseen. The Abyssinian clergy, generally learned 

 and curious in theological studies, who would certainly have invented 

 scholasticism had it not already existed, found themselves subordi- 

 nated to ignorant and haughty monks from dismal Coptic monasteries 

 where fifty years ago they still prepared eunuchs for Mahommcdan 

 harems. The Danubian principalities have had for one hundred and 

 fifty years, their political phanariots ; Abyssinia had, for seven cen- 

 turies, its religious phanariots, quite as dangerous, nevertheless ; for 

 they completely stunted intellectual progress, then quite possible on 

 the banks of the Nile, especially in theology, legislation, and national 

 history. The Portuguese, who saved the Ethiopian monarchy in the 

 sixteenth century, brought the Jesuits in their train, who by dint of 

 pride, unskilfulness, and bloody follies, lost the finest position ima- 

 ginable. The nation rose against them and against the imbecile and 

 ferocious king whom they had moulded in every feature to cement 

 their tyranny ; and it is to the remembrance of this, still an object 

 of horror to the Abyssinians, that we must attribute their distrust 

 of Europeans, and, above all, of the missionaries who have visited 

 them for thirty-five years. 



Protestantism had taken the initiative, about 1830, and sent to 

 Gondar the Eev. Samuel Gobat, a Swiss missionary, since called to 

 the bishopric of Jerusalem. It grieves me to speak severely of a man 

 whose good intentions and personal morality are beyond all suspi- 



