1843.] and the Abyssinian Church. 711 



from the Pope were received with mistrust and impatience, the habitual 

 mildness of the monarch restrained him from any overt act of oppression. 

 Deceived by this calm behaviour during a second audience, the Bishop 

 was sufficiently fool-hardy to represent, in the most insolent language, 

 the enormous errors under which the Emperor laboured, and to demand 

 imperatively, whether or not he intended to submit himself to the autho- 

 rity of the successor of St. Peter, and thus remove the heavy obligation 

 under which his empire already groaned ? King Claudius replied, that 

 he was well inclined towards the Portuguese nation ; that he would grant 

 them lands and settlements in his country ; that permission would not 

 be withheld to the private exercise of the religion of the West ; but that 

 as the Abyssinian Church had been for ages united to the charge of the 

 Patriarch of Alexandria, a subject of such serious alteration must be 

 canvassed before a full assembly of divines. 



Indignant at what he termed Ethiopian perfidy, but still buoyed up 

 with the faint hope of realizing his object, Oviedo changed his mode 

 of attack, and addressed a laboured remonstrance to the monarch, 

 written in the hypocritical tone of false friendship ; earnestly entreating 

 him to recall to his remembrance the assistance rendered by Europeans 

 to his afflicted country, and the many promises made by his sire in the 

 day of his urgent distress, imploring him at the same time to preserve a 

 stern vigilance upon the evil influence of the empress, and of the 

 ministers of state; for in matters of faith, the love of kindred must 

 give away to the love of Christ, and in similar situations, the nearest 

 relation often proves the bitterest enemy to the salvation of the 

 soul. 



This insidious reasoning was, however, vainly expended upon the intel- 

 ligent Claudius, and served but to turn his heart further from the Roman 

 and his cause. The offer of a public controversy on points of disputed 

 faith being shortly afterwards accepted, the emperor entered the lists in 

 presence of the assembled court, and utterly defeated the subtleties of 

 the Italian priest by his clear knowledge of the Holy Scriptures ; 

 and thus, notwithstanding the conviction of the Portuguese Missionary, 

 that by supernatural aid he had triumphantly refuted all the arguments 

 urged by his illustrious antagoinst, it was fully decreed by the Abyssinian 

 conference, that neither king nor people, owed obligation or obedi- 

 ence whatsoever to the Church of Rome. 



