Gibbon's The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire
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Chapter XLVII: Ecclesiastical Discord.
Part V.
A more important conquest still remained, of the patriarch,
the oracle and leader of the Egyptian church. Theodosius had
resisted the threats and promises of Justinian with the spirit of
an apostle or an enthusiast. "Such," replied the patriarch, "were
the offers of the tempter when he showed the kingdoms of the
earth. But my soul is far dearer to me than life or dominion.
The churches are in the hands of a prince who can kill the body;
but my conscience is my own; and in exile, poverty, or chains, I
will steadfastly adhere to the faith of my holy predecessors,
Athanasius, Cyril, and Dioscorus. Anathema to the tome of Leo and
the synod of Chalcedon! Anathema to all who embrace their creed!
Anathema to them now and forevermore! Naked came I out of my
mother's womb, naked shall I descend into the grave. Let those
who love God follow me and seek their salvation." After
comforting his brethren, he embarked for Constantinople, and
sustained, in six successive interviews, the almost irresistible
weight of the royal presence. His opinions were favorably
entertained in the palace and the city; the influence of Theodora
assured him a safe conduct and honorable dismission; and he ended
his days, though not on the throne, yet in the bosom, of his
native country. On the news of his death, Apollinaris indecently
feasted the nobles and the clergy; but his joy was checked by the
intelligence of a new election; and while he enjoyed the wealth
of Alexandria, his rivals reigned in the monasteries of Thebais,
and were maintained by the voluntary oblations of the people. A
perpetual succession of patriarchs arose from the ashes of
Theodosius; and the Monophysite churches of Syria and Egypt were
united by the name of Jacobites and the communion of the faith.
But the same faith, which has been confined to a narrow sect of
the Syrians, was diffused over the mass of the Egyptian or Coptic
nation; who, almost unanimously, rejected the decrees of the
synod of Chalcedon. A thousand years were now elapsed since
Egypt had ceased to be a kingdom, since the conquerors of Asia
and Europe had trampled on the ready necks of a people, whose
ancient wisdom and power ascend beyond the records of history.
The conflict of zeal and persecution rekindled some sparks of
their national spirit. They abjured, with a foreign heresy, the
manners and language of the Greeks: every Melchite, in their
eyes, was a stranger, every Jacobite a citizen; the alliance of
marriage, the offices of humanity, were condemned as a deadly sin
the natives renounced all allegiance to the emperor; and his
orders, at a distance from Alexandria, were obeyed only under the
pressure of military force. A generous effort might have edeemed
the religion and liberty of Egypt, and her six hundred
monasteries might have poured forth their myriads of holy
warriors, for whom death should have no terrors, since life had
no comfort or delight. But experience has proved the distinction
of active and passive courage; the fanatic who endures without a
groan the torture of the rack or the stake, would tremble and fly
before the face of an armed enemy. The pusillanimous temper of
the Egyptians could only hope for a change of masters; the arms
of Chosroes depopulated the land, yet under his reign the
Jacobites enjoyed a short and precarious respite. The victory of
Heraclius renewed and aggravated the persecution, and the
patriarch again escaped from Alexandria to the desert. In his
flight, Benjamin was encouraged by a voice, which bade him
expect, at the end of ten years, the aid of a foreign nation,
marked, like the Egyptians themselves, with the ancient rite of
circumcision. The character of these deliverers, and the nature
of the deliverance, will be hereafter explained; and I shall step
over the interval of eleven centuries to observe the present
misery of the Jacobites of Egypt. The populous city of Cairo
affords a residence, or rather a shelter, for their indigent
patriarch, and a remnant of ten bishops; forty monasteries have
survived the inroads of the Arabs; and the progress of servitude
and apostasy has reduced the Coptic nation to the despicable
number of twenty-five or thirty thousand families; ^148 a race of
illiterate beggars, whose only consolation is derived from the
superior wretchedness of the Greek patriarch and his diminutive
congregation. ^149
[Footnote 148: This number is taken from the curious Recherches
sur les Egyptiens et les Chinois, (tom. ii. p. 192, 193,) and
appears more probable than the 600,000 ancient, or 15,000 modern,
Copts of Gemelli Carreri Cyril Lucar, the Protestant patriarch of
Constantinople, laments that those heretics were ten times more
numerous than his orthodox Greeks, ingeniously applying Homer,
(Iliad, ii. 128,) the most perfect expression of contempt,
(Fabric. Lux Evangelii, 740.)]
[Footnote 149: The history of the Copts, their religion, manners,
&c., may be found in the Abbe Renaudot's motley work, neither a
translation nor an original; the Chronicon Orientale of Peter, a
Jacobite; in the two versions of Abraham Ecchellensis, Paris,
1651; and John Simon Asseman, Venet. 1729. These annals descend
no lower than the xiiith century. The more recent accounts must
be searched for in the travellers into Egypt and the Nouveaux
Memoires des Missions du Levant. In the last century, Joseph
Abudacnus, a native of Cairo, published at Oxford, in thirty
pages, a slight Historia Jacobitarum, 147, post p.150]
-
The Coptic patriarch, a rebel to the Caesars, or a
slave to the khalifs, still gloried in the filial obedience of
the kings of Nubia and Aethiopia. He repaid their homage by
magnifying their greatness; and it was boldly asserted that they
could bring into the field a hundred thousand horse, with an
equal number of camels; ^150 that their hand could pour out or
restrain the waters of the Nile; ^151 and the peace and plenty of
Egypt was obtained, even in this world, by the intercession of
the patriarch. In exile at Constantinople, Theodosius
recommended to his patroness the conversion of the black nations
of Nubia, from the tropic of Cancer to the confines of Abyssinia.
^152 Her design was suspected and emulated by the more orthodox
emperor. The rival missionaries, a Melchite and a Jacobite,
embarked at the same time; but the empress, from a motive of love
or fear, was more effectually obeyed; and the Catholic priest was
detained by the president of Thebais, while the king of Nubia and
his court were hastily baptized in the faith of Dioscorus. The
tardy envoy of Justinian was received and dismissed with honor:
but when he accused the heresy and treason of the Egyptians, the
negro convert was instructed to reply that he would never abandon
his brethren, the true believers, to the persecuting ministers of
the synod of Chalcedon. ^153 During several ages, the bishops of
Nubia were named and consecrated by the Jacobite patriarch of
Alexandria: as late as the twelfth century, Christianity
prevailed; and some rites, some ruins, are still visible in the
savage towns of Sennaar and Dongola. ^154 But the Nubians at
length executed their threats of returning to the worship of
idols; the climate required the indulgence of polygamy, and they
have finally preferred the triumph of the Koran to the abasement
of the Cross. A metaphysical religion may appear too refined for
the capacity of the negro race: yet a black or a parrot might be
taught to repeat the words of the Chalcedonian or Monophysite
creed.
[Footnote 150: About the year 737. See Renaudot, Hist.
Patriarch. Alex p. 221, 222. Elmacin, Hist. Saracen. p. 99.]
[Footnote 151: Ludolph. Hist. Aethiopic. et Comment. l. i. c. 8.
Renaudot Hist. Patriarch. Alex. p. 480, &c. This opinion,
introduced into Egypt and Europe by the artifice of the Copts,
the pride of the Abyssinians, the fear and ignorance of the Turks
and Arabs, has not even the semblance of truth. The rains of
Aethiopia do not, in the increase of the Nile, consult the will
of the monarch. If the river approaches at Napata within three
days' journey of the Red Sea (see D'Anville's Maps,) a canal that
should divert its course would demand, and most probably surpass,
the power of the Caesars.]
[Footnote 152: The Abyssinians, who still preserve the features
and olive complexion of the Arabs, afford a proof that two
thousand years are not sufficient to change the color of the
human race. The Nubians, an African race, are pure negroes, as
black as those of Senegal or Congo, with flat noses, thick lips,
and woolly hair, (Buffon, Hist. Naturelle, tom. v. p. 117, 143,
144, 166, 219, edit. in 12mo., Paris, 1769.) The ancients beheld,
without much attention, the extraordinary phenomenon which has
exercised the philosophers and theologians of modern times]
[Footnote 153: Asseman. Bibliot. Orient. tom. i. p. 329.]
[Footnote 154: The Christianity of the Nubians (A.D. 1153) is
attested by the sheriff al Edrisi, falsely described under the
name of the Nubian geographer, (p. 18,) who represents them as a
nation of Jacobites. The rays of historical light that twinkle
in the history of Ranaudot (p. 178, 220 - 224, 281 - 286, 405,
434, 451, 464) are all previous to this aera. See the modern
state in the Lettres Edifiantes (Recueil, iv.) and Busching,
(tom. ix. p. 152 - 139, par Berenger.)]
Christianity was more deeply rooted in the Abyssinian
empire; and, although the correspondence has been sometimes
interrupted above seventy or a hundred years, the mother-church
of Alexandria retains her colony in a state of perpetual
pupilage. Seven bishops once composed the Aethiopic synod: had
their number amounted to ten, they might have elected an
independent primate; and one of their kings was ambitious of
promoting his brother to the ecclesiastical throne. But the
event was foreseen, the increase was denied: the episcopal office
has been gradually confined to the abuna, ^155 the head and
author of the Abyssinian priesthood; the patriarch supplies each
vacancy with an Egyptian monk; and the character of a stranger
appears more venerable in the eyes of the people, less dangerous
in those of the monarch. In the sixth century, when the schism
of Egypt was confirmed, the rival chiefs, with their patrons,
Justinian and Theodora, strove to outstrip each other in the
conquest of a remote and independent province. The industry of
the empress was again victorious, and the pious Theodora has
established in that sequestered church the faith and discipline
of the Jacobites. ^156 Encompassed on all sides by the enemies of
their religion, the Aethiopians slept near a thousand years,
forgetful of the world, by whom they were forgotten. They were
awakened by the Portuguese, who, turning the southern promontory
of Africa, appeared in India and the Red Sea, as if they had
descended through the air from a distant planet. In the first
moments of their interview, the subjects of Rome and Alexandria
observed the resemblance, rather than the difference, of their
faith; and each nation expected the most important benefits from
an alliance with their Christian brethren. In their lonely
situation, the Aethiopians had almost relapsed into the savage
life. Their vessels, which had traded to Ceylon, scarcely
presumed to navigate the rivers of Africa; the ruins of Axume
were deserted, the nation was scattered in villages, and the
emperor, a pompous name, was content, both in peace and war, with
the immovable residence of a camp. Conscious of their own
indigence, the Abyssinians had formed the rational project of
importing the arts and ingenuity of Europe; ^157 and their
ambassadors at Rome and Lisbon were instructed to solicit a
colony of smiths, carpenters, tilers, masons, printers, surgeons,
and physicians, for the use of their country. But the public
danger soon called for the instant and effectual aid of arms and
soldiers, to defend an unwarlike people from the Barbarians who
ravaged the inland country and the Turks and Arabs who advanced
from the sea-coast in more formidable array. Aethiopia was saved
by four hundred and fifty Portuguese, who displayed in the field
the native valor of Europeans, and the artificial power of the
musket and cannon. In a moment of terror, the emperor had
promised to reconcile himself and his subjects to the Catholic
faith; a Latin patriarch represented the supremacy of the pope:
^158 the empire, enlarged in a tenfold proportion, was supposed
to contain more gold than the mines of America; and the wildest
hopes of avarice and zeal were built on the willing submission of
the Christians of Africa.
[Footnote 155: The abuna is improperly dignified by the Latins
with the title of patriarch. The Abyssinians acknowledge only
the four patriarchs, and their chief is no more than a
metropolitan or national primate, (Ludolph. Hist. Aethiopic. et
Comment. l. iii. c. 7.) The seven bishops of Renaudot, (p. 511,)
who existed A.D. 1131, are unknown to the historian.]
[Footnote 156: I know not why Assemannus (Bibliot. Orient. tom.
-
p. 384) should call in question these probable missions of
Theodora into Nubia and Aethiopia. The slight notices of
Abyssinia till the year 1500 are supplied by Renaudot (p. 336 -
341, 381, 382, 405, 443, &c., 452, 456, 463, 475, 480, 511, 525,
559 - 564) from the Coptic writers. The mind of Ludolphus was a
perfect blank.]
[Footnote 157: Ludolph. Hist. Aethiop. l. iv. c. 5. The most
necessary arts are now exercised by the Jews, and the foreign
trade is in the hands of the Armenians. What Gregory principally
admired and envied was the industry of Europe - artes et
opificia.]
[Footnote 158: John Bermudez, whose relation, printed at Lisbon,
1569, was translated into English by Purchas, (Pilgrims, l. vii.
-
7, p. 1149, &c.,) and from thence into French by La Croze,
(Christianisme d'Ethiopie, p. 92 - 265.) The piece is curious;
but the author may be suspected of deceiving Abyssinia, Rome, and
Portugal. His title to the rank of patriarch is dark and
doubtful, (Ludolph. Comment. No. 101, p. 473.)]
But the vows which pain had extorted were forsworn on the
return of health. The Abyssinians still adhered with unshaken
constancy to the Monophysite faith; their languid belief was
inflamed by the exercise of dispute; they branded the Latins with
the names of Arians and Nestorians, and imputed the adoration of
four gods to those who separated the two natures of Christ.
Fremona, a place of worship, or rather of exile, was assigned to
the Jesuit missionaries. Their skill in the liberal and mechanic
arts, their theological learning, and the decency of their
manners, inspired a barren esteem; but they were not endowed with
the gift of miracles, ^159 and they vainly solicited a
reenforcement of European troops. The patience and dexterity of
forty years at length obtained a more favorable audience, and two
emperors of Abyssinia were persuaded that Rome could insure the
temporal and everlasting happiness of her votaries. The first of
these royal converts lost his crown and his life; and the rebel
army was sanctified by the abuna, who hurled an anathema at the
apostate, and absolved his subjects from their oath of fidelity.
The fate of Zadenghel was revenged by the courage and fortune of
Susneus, who ascended the throne under the name of Segued, and
more vigorously prosecuted the pious enterprise of his kinsman.
After the amusement of some unequal combats between the Jesuits
and his illiterate priests, the emperor declared himself a
proselyte to the synod of Chalcedon, presuming that his clergy
and people would embrace without delay the religion of their
prince. The liberty of choice was succeeded by a law, which
imposed, under pain of death, the belief of the two natures of
Christ: the Abyssinians were enjoined to work and to play on the
Sabbath; and Segued, in the face of Europe and Africa, renounced
his connection with the Alexandrian church. A Jesuit, Alphonso
Mendez, the Catholic patriarch of Aethiopia, accepted, in the
name of Urban VIII., the homage and abjuration of the penitent.
"I confess," said the emperor on his knees, "I confess that the
pope is the vicar of Christ, the successor of St. Peter, and the
sovereign of the world. To him I swear true obedience, and at
his feet I offer my person and kingdom." A similar oath was
repeated by his son, his brother, the clergy, the nobles, and
even the ladies of the court: the Latin patriarch was invested
with honors and wealth; and his missionaries erected their
churches or citadels in the most convenient stations of the
empire. The Jesuits themselves deplore the fatal indiscretion of
their chief, who forgot the mildness of the gospel and the policy
of his order, to introduce with hasty violence the liturgy of
Rome and the inquisition of Portugal. He condemned the ancient
practice of circumcision, which health, rather than superstition,
had first invented in the climate of Aethiopia. ^160 A new
baptism, a new ordination, was inflicted on the natives; and they
trembled with horror when the most holy of the dead were torn
from their graves, when the most illustrious of the living were
excommunicated by a foreign priest. In the defense of their
religion and liberty, the Abyssinians rose in arms, with
desperate but unsuccessful zeal. Five rebellions were
extinguished in the blood of the insurgents: two abunas were
slain in battle, whole legions were slaughtered in the field, or
suffocated in their caverns; and neither merit, nor rank, nor
sex, could save from an ignominious death the enemies of Rome.
But the victorious monarch was finally subdued by the constancy
of the nation, of his mother, of his son, and of his most
faithful friends. Segued listened to the voice of pity, of
reason, perhaps of fear: and his edict of liberty of conscience
instantly revealed the tyranny and weakness of the Jesuits. On
the death of his father, Basilides expelled the Latin patriarch,
and restored to the wishes of the nation the faith and the
discipline of Egypt. The Monophysite churches resounded with a
song of triumph, "that the sheep of Aethiopia were now delivered
from the hyaenas of the West;" and the gates of that solitary
realm were forever shut against the arts, the science, and the
fanaticism of Europe. ^161
[Footnote 159: Religio Romana ...nec precibus patrum nec
miraculis ab ipsis editis suffulciebatur, is the uncontradicted
assurance of the devout emperor Susneus to his patriarch Mendez,
(Ludolph. Comment. No. 126, p. 529;) and such assurances should
be preciously kept, as an antidote against any marvellous
legends.]
[Footnote 160: I am aware how tender is the question of
circumcision. Yet I will affirm, 1. That the Aethiopians have a
physical reason for the circumcision of males, and even of
females, (Recherches Philosophiques sur les Americains, tom. ii.)
-
That it was practised in Aethiopia long before the
introduction of Judaism or Christianity, Herodot. l. ii. c. 104.
Marsham, Canon. Chron. p. 72, 73.) "Infantes circumcidunt ob
consuetudinemn, non ob Judaismum," says Gregory the Abyssinian
priest, (apud Fabric. Lux Christiana, p. 720.) Yet in the heat of
dispute, the Portuguese were sometimes branded with the name of
uncircumcised, (La Croze, p. 90. Ludolph. Hist. and Comment. l.
-
c. l.)]
[Footnote 161: The three Protestant historians, Ludolphus, (Hist.
Aethiopica, Francofurt. 1681; Commentarius, 1691; Relatio Nova,
&c., 1693, in folio,) Geddes, (Church History of Aethiopia,
London, 1696, in 8vo..) and La Croze, (Hist. du Christianisme
d'Ethiopie et d'Armenie, La Haye, 1739, in 12mo.,) have drawn
their principal materials from the Jesuits, especially from the
General History of Tellez, published in Portuguese at Coimbra,
1660. We might be surprised at their frankness; but their most
flagitious vice, the spirit of persecution, was in their eyes the
most meritorious virtue. Ludolphus possessed some, though a
slight, advantage from the Aethiopic language, and the personal
conversation of Gregory, a free-spirited Abyssinian priest, whom
he invited from Rome to the court of Saxe-Gotha. See the
Theologia Aethiopica of Gregory, in Fabric. Lux Evangelii, p.
716 - 734.)
Note: The travels of Bruce, illustrated by those of Mr.
Salt, and the narrative of Nathaniel Pearce, have brought us
again acquainted with this remote region. Whatever may be their
speculative opinions the barbarous manners of the Ethiopians seem
to be gaining more and more the ascendency over the practice of
Christianity. - M.]
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