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 inqu