3 88 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



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

 cantation. 



Socinios iiad again taken Gojam from Sela Chriflos; 

 which laft difgrace fo affected him, that he deiired 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 againft Melca 

 Chriflos of Lalta. 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 Wednesday as a fail, inflead of Saturday, might do it;" 

 and fome other fuch indulgences as thefe were granted,, 

 which were underflood to affect the faith.. 



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

 wrote a very fharp 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 prieflhood, that he, a. 

 layman, fhould take upon him to direct, in matters merely 

 ecclefiaflical. He warned the king, moreover, that God 

 would call him to the very flrictefl account for this preemp- 

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

 prieft to kingUzziah, and of the puniihment of leprofy that 

 followed the king's encroachment on the ecclefiaftical func- 

 tion ; and infilled upon Socinios contradicting his proclama^ 

 tion by another* 



Socinios 



