THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 359 



This great extenfion of civil jurifdiclion, and '.he large 

 itrides it took to annihilate the civil power, the encroach- 

 ments it made upon the prerogative of the king, till now fu- 

 preme in all caufes ecclefiaftical and civil, the more than 

 regal, the more, if poffible, than papal pride of the patri- 

 arch, began to be felt univerfally, and it was feen to be in- 

 tended to lefTen every order of government, from the king 

 to the loweft officer in the province. From this time, there- 

 fore, we date the decline of the Catholic intereft in Abyfli- 

 nia. The firft blow was given it by the king himfelf, not 

 with a view to deftroy it, for he was a fmcere Catholic upon 

 principle, but to controul and keep it within fome bounds, 

 as he found there was no order could otherwife be main- 

 tained. 



He defired the patriarch to permit the ufe of the ancient 

 liturgies of Ethiopia, altered by himfelf in every thing 

 where they did not agree with that of the church of Rome. 

 With this the patriarch was obliged to comply, becaufe 

 there was in it an appearance of reafon that men mould 

 pray to God in a language that they underflood, and which . 

 was their own, rather than a foreign tongue of which they 

 did not underftand one word. This was thought fo obvi- 

 ous in Ethiopia as not to admit any doubt. But the order 

 and practice of the church of Rome was juft the contrary ; 

 and this wound was a mortal one ; for no fooner was the 

 permiflion given to ufe their own liturgies, than all the A- 

 byffinians embraced them to a man, and went on in their 

 old prayers and fervices without any of the patriarch's alter- 

 ations. 



To 



