ETIOPIA

ETHIOPIA. – An inland state of northeastern Africa, embracing, together with the true Ethiopian highlands, some of the bordering regions, with an area estimated at around 1.1 million sq. km.

SUMMARY:

I. Geography

II. History

III. Literature

IV. Theology

V. The Ethiopian Rite

VI. Christian Antiquities.

I. GEOGRAPHY.
The highland, intersected by deep valleys, is divided into well-defined and usually isolated regions; from the low marginal lands (which), with a tropical climate, are largely covered by forests but often unhealthy, one passes to the higher regions (dega, above 2,400 and up to 4,500 m.), where summers are cool and winters relatively harsh, through intermediate mountain territories (1,800–2,400 m.; called weina dega), whose temperate or subtropical climate, with slight temperature variations and abundant rainfall, makes them more habitable. Most of the country is best suited for pasture (cattle, sheep, horses, and mules), with scattered cereal (wheat, millet, maize, barley) and industrial crops (coffee), while in the lower plains the forest is interspersed with a variety of crops yielding durra, cotton, tobacco, etc.

Mineral resources are not lacking (platinum, gold, rock salt), but they play only a modest role in the country’s economy. The deficiency and difficulty of communications are the greatest obstacle to the development of Ethiopia, which the brief Italian occupation (1936–41) had given a formidable impetus. Unfortunately, the recent war has set back, and perhaps compromised, this promising development.

Of the 10 million inhabitants living in the country, about one-third are Abyssinians (from the Eritrean border to the Ausa), one-third Galla (southern part of the highlands), and the remainder Somali, Sidama, Negroes, and Negroids. The ancient Ethiopian language, Ge’ez, is preserved by the Coptic Monophysite Church, to which the Amhara and Tigrinya peoples belong; from it derives Amharic, which is the official language, and the Tigrinya dialects. Islam is widespread among the Galla and prevalent among the Somali and Danakil; pagans are also numerous.

The capital, Addis Ababa (160,000 inhabitants) in Shewa, and Harar (25,000 inhabitants) in the region of the same name, are the most important urban centers.

The Empire of Ethiopia is a hereditary monarchy with very ancient origins, which, in its modern form, leads to a feudal administration of semi-dependent territories governed by kings (negus) and vassals (ras).

II. HISTORY.
SUMMARY:

1. The dawn of Christianity in Ethiopia

II. The dependence of the Ethiopian Church on Alexandria

III. The situation in Ethiopia until the 7th century and the influence of the Syrians

IV. From the decline of the Aksumite kingdom to the first Solomonids (end of the 13th century)

V. The Solomonids up to the Muslim invasion

VI. The crisis of the 16th century and the mission of the Jesuits

VII. From the restoration of Monophysitism to the end of the Union controversy in 1878

VIII. Recent times in Eritrea and Ethiopia

IX. Catholic missions.

I. THE DAWN OF CHRISTIANITY IN ETHIOPIA

Christianity, to which Ethiopia has remained faithful for sixteen centuries, has been the fundamental factor in the political and cultural history of that African region. Already the southernmost limit of the territories of the preaching of St. Mark in East Africa, Ethiopia, after the fall of Christian Nubia in the 14th century, remained a Christian island surrounded on all sides by Muslims. The struggle to preserve political independence was therefore, in Ethiopian history, identified with the defense of the Christian Church against Islam.

This explains, for example, why in Amharic astamana means both “to convert” (and this is its etymological meaning) and “to subject” (politically), a new meaning assumed in history. For this reason, too, from a cultural point of view, Ethiopia, although an African country geographically cut off from Mediterranean cultural currents, has always maintained, through Christianity and its own Christian Church, the closest contacts with the countries of the Near East (and often also with the West), so that Ethiopian culture reveals itself more and more as having developed on the margins of the Mediterranean world. In this sense, it can be said that Christianity gives Ethiopia its historical individuality.

Small Christian communities already existed at least in the first decades of the 4th century A.D. in the commercial emporia of the Kingdom of Aksum, which, through its port of Adulis, had both the starting point for its maritime communications with the opposite Arabian shore of the Red Sea and a staging post on the trade route between the Greco-Roman world and India. The beginnings of the spread of Christianity in Ethiopia are precisely linked to this situation.

The only source for these events is Rufinus, who in a passage of his Ecclesiastical History (PL 21, 478–79) recounts how two Syrian boys, Frumentius and Aedesius, shipwrecked on their return voyage from India, were reduced to slavery by the king, whose trust they later gained. After the king’s death, Frumentius, having become minister to the queen regent, “took care” and “from that moment on he negotiated with the Roman Christians and obtained permission to build churches and celebrate rites.” Later, when the young king came of age, Frumentius and Aedesius returned to the Mediterranean. Aedesius went back to Tyre, where the historian Rufinus himself later met him. Frumentius, however, went to Alexandria, saying “it is not right to conceal the Lord’s work,” and informed St. Athanasius of his successes (“for he [Athanasius] had recently been ordained priest”). St. Athanasius himself consecrated Frumentius as bishop of the new mission.

Rufinus wrote in 403 and had spoken with Aedesius himself. But he does not name the country to which his narrative refers. This is only revealed by comparison with a contemporary document: the letter that Emperor Constantius wrote shortly before 356 to the two brothers, lords of Aksum, Aizanas and Sazanas. This letter is preserved in the Abbey of St. Anthony (PG 25, 656–657); in it, the Emperor urges the Aksumites to send back to Egypt the bishop Frumentius, who had been ordained by Athanasius, so that he might submit to the (pro-Arian) patriarch George, who was devoted to the Emperor.

These Western documents correspond to the Aksumite inscriptions; the largest group of these indeed refers to King ‘Ezana, who, according to protocol, declares himself the son of Mahrem unconquered by any enemy (Mahrem is the Mars of the South-Arabic paganism imported into Aksum). In his most recent inscription, however, King ‘Ezana abolishes the reference to the pagan god and invokes the power of the Lord of heaven, who is in heaven and on earth, the conqueror of all. The conversion of the Aksumite sovereign to Christianity therefore took place during the reign of ‘Ezana. As for chronology, it suffices here to recall that Athanasius was elected bishop of Alexandria on 7 June 328 (the consecration of Frumentius as the first bishop of the Ethiopian region, according to Rufinus, took place shortly after); and that the pro-Arian bishop George, to whom Frumentius was to submit according to the Emperor Constantius’ letter, took office on 24 February 357 (and fled from Alexandria at the end of August 358).

II. The dependence of the Ethiopian Church on ALEXANDER to 'EZANĀ. The perspective of this period was established by the reasons why Frumentius, although he was a Syrian, went to present himself in Alexandria rather than Antioch; and, having received episcopal consecration from St. ATHANASIUS, thus placed Ethiopia under the jurisdiction of the Alexandrian patriarch. These reasons have been sought in possible pre-existing hierarchical ties between the Greek-Roman Christian communities of Adulis (and the nearby regions) and the neighboring episcopal sees of Egypt. That the Alexandrian see sought to assert its jurisdiction over the communities along the maritime route to the Indies is quite natural, especially when one recalls that this route began at Clysma in the Gulf of Suez, in territory this side of Rhinokolura (al-'Aris), a boundary that had become traditional between Alexandria and Antioch. But above these historical reasons, one must certainly take into account a substantial fact from the religious point of view: namely, the serious crisis that, in the heat of the struggle waged by St. ATHANASIUS against the Arian heresy, then divided Alexandria from Antioch. It therefore seems natural that St. Frumentius should have sought the intervention of St. ATHANASIUS for the Ethiopian churches rather than resorting to the Arian-leaning circles of Antioch.

III. CHRISTIANITY IN ETHIOPIA UP TO THE 7TH CENTURY. THE INFLUENCE OF THE SYRIANS. Once an episcopal see was established in Ethiopia, dependent on Alexandria—though entrusted from the beginning to a prelate from outside the country—the Christian faith, after the conversion of the sovereign, became the official religion of the Kingdom of Aksum. It has been suggested that 'Ezānā’s decision may also have been influenced by the desire to please the Emperor of the East; however, the very letter of Constantius, mentioned above, attests to Aksum’s independent stance toward the Roman Empire on religious matters.

The ties with Egypt appear temporarily strengthened at the time of the Council of Chalcedon, if one accepts a recent conjecture that identifies one of the Eastern "framiarii" as the bishop of Coptos and Adulis (Coptos being modern Qift in Egypt). From the 5th century comes the bishop MOSES of Adulis, whose brief account of a journey to India is preserved in the Book of Alexander the Great by Pseudo-Callisthenes.

At the beginning of the 6th century, the solidarity of Ethiopian Christianity with the Christian communities of southern Arabia was affirmed by the expedition of King Kālēb Elia Abba to avenge the Christians who had suffered a violent persecution at Nagrān (Yemen). Cosmas Indicopleustes witnessed the departure of the expedition from Adulis (in the early years of the reign of Emperor Justin I [518–27]) and mentions it in his Christian Topography. The Ethiopian intervention resulted in the conquest of Yemen, which lasted from 525 to 672, and had notable consequences, including the expedition of the Ethiopian lieutenant Abraha toward Mecca in the famous "Year of the Elephant" (*‘Ām al-Fīl*), which linked these Ethiopian figures to the traditional Meccan celebration of the Ka‘bah and thus to the earliest Islamic period (Muhammad was born in Mecca in 570).

Meanwhile, the first signs appear of a curious role that distant Ethiopia came to assume: namely, as a place of refuge and, at times, preservation for dissidents whose presence had become impossible in the Near East. Thus, Longinus, sent to evangelize the Nuba, encountered in ‘Alwah in 580 some Aksumites who had fallen into the fantastic heresy of Julian of Halicarnassus, declaring that Christ suffered His Passion in an impassible and immortal body (John of Ephesus, *Ecclesiastical History*, IV, in *Corpus Script. Chr. Or.*, *Scriptores Syri*, 3rd series, III, Louvain 1936, p. 239 [trans. E. W. Brooks, p. 180]). Alongside these visionaries, the existence of Melitian communities in Aksum has also been conjectured, insofar as the liturgical dances—so singularly opposed in the Ethiopian Church—have been linked to a purificatory rite of the Melitians described by Theodoret (PG 63, 425).

A similar movement led to the immigration into Ethiopia of a number of monks from Syria who adhered to Monophysite belief. This immigration is traditionally recalled in local lore, for example, in the story of the Nine Saints, whose Acts—though compiled much later—preserve references to their origins in the Eastern Roman Empire (Rome) and to names of persons or places in Syria. This influx of propagandists was probably not the sole cause of the Ethiopian Church’s adherence to the doctrine of Dioscorus, since it is highly likely that, without explicit adherence, this shift occurred as Monophysitism prevailed in the Alexandrian patriarchate. Nevertheless, the contacts fostered by this immigration certainly contributed to making the Ethiopian Church’s position on the Christological question both active and polemical.

That, moreover, an internal missionary effort was still necessary in Ethiopia during the 6th and 7th centuries is evidenced not only by hagiography, which recounts the deeds of monks and the conversion of pagans; the same need is reflected in the introduction of Christianity, which, having begun as the religion of the sovereign, required a work of diffusion and apostolate. The same ‘Ezānā designates the Divinity with the periphrasis “Sion of heaven and earth,” a designation that recent studies have traced to a similar periphrasis in South Arabian inscriptions, where, however, it is not indicative of Christianity but rather of a vague monotheism. Later, the Divinity is designated in Ethiopia (and still today) by the name *Egs’abaher*, “Lord of the Earth,” not without some reference (at least in popular psychology) to the victory of the one God of Christianity over *Beher*, one of the principal pagan deities in Ethiopia. Similar significant ambiguities persist even at the end of the 7th century, when the Ethiopian translator of Sirach renders the name of the deity in two passages (Eccl. 31:8; 37:2) as *‘Astar*, that is, the well-known Semitic pagan deity Astarte.

IV. FROM THE DECLINE OF THE AKSUMITE KINGDOM TO THE EARLY SALOMONID DYNASTY (END OF THE 13TH CENTURY)

This is followed by the long period of decline of the Kingdom of Aksum (7th–12th centuries), the shift of the capital to central Ethiopia, in the region of Lāstā, under the Zāguē dynasty, until in 1270 the center of the Ethiopian state moved even further south with the subsequent Salomonid dynasty, which originated politically in the land of the Amhara. Of this period of Ethiopian medieval history, there are still very few reliable documents, and its history remains largely obscure, also because the study of monuments (and particularly that of the churches of Lalibālā in Lāstā) is still in a very early phase. Nevertheless, from the point of view of religious history, it is possible to highlight some important facts that have been securely established:

1. The Ethiopian Church continued to depend hierarchically on the patriarchate of Alexandria. The metropolitan of Ethiopia was chosen and consecrated by the patriarch and held office for life. Upon the death of a metropolitan, the Ethiopian sovereign sent an embassy to Egypt to request a new metropolitan, offering gifts of homage to the patriarch. The metropolitan of Ethiopia was always an Egyptian, not an Ethiopian. This practice is justified by a (spurious) canon of the Council of Nicaea (canon 42 in the Ethiopian compilation), later included in the *Nomocanon* of Ibn al-‘Assāl (mid-13th century), a juridical compilation for use by the Coptic Church of Egypt.

The evangelization of the pagan countries of the East was further intensified by the transformation of the Kingdom of Aksum, a descendant of the South Arabian kingdoms, into a state that had now taken on a distinctly Ethiopian character and extended into the African highlands. The Acts of some Zāguē kings, considered saints by the Ethiopian Church, and the legendary figure of the apostle of the south, Gabra Manfās Qeddus, preserve for us, albeit faintly, echoes of this activity.

2. Islam arose in the 7th century; and while the Ethiopian sovereign, a victorious champion of the religion of the one God in Arabia itself, entered Muslim tradition as the generous host of Muslims forced to flee to the African shore from the persecutions of pagan Arabs, on the other hand, the Muslim expansion historically obstructed Ethiopia’s communication routes with the West. By forming Muslim petty states along the eastern African coasts and later on the Ethiopian highlands themselves, it forced the neguses into a long and bloody struggle that would last until modern times. In this sense, within the Christian Kingdom of Ethiopia, for centuries the fierce defense of the country’s independence coincided with the heroic religious existence within the Ethiopian Church against Islam. Thus, the national character of Ethiopian Christianity and its significance in the life and structure of the country must be assessed historically.

3. Once the Muslim empire was established, Ethiopia’s contacts with the other Eastern Christian communities and with the West continued, albeit reduced, through only two channels: Egypt, by virtue of the aforementioned link with the patriarchal see, and Jerusalem, where, because of pilgrimage to the Holy Places, an Ethiopian community was formed. This community, whose presence is documented only from the time of the Fifth Crusade, secured the right to its own chapel in the apse of the basilica of the Holy Sepulchre. As early as 1237, the Ethiopian monk Tomano, seeking consecration as metropolitan of Ethiopia, provoked an incident between the patriarch of Antioch, Ignatius II, and that of Alexandria, Cyril III. The presence of Ethiopians in the Holy Land brought the first news of the distant African Christian sovereign to Europe, news that would later help stimulate the bold enterprises of navigators.

V.

I. SALOMO-NIDI UNTIL THE MUSLIM INVASION

The Solomonic dynasty continued, indeed intensified, the struggle against the Muslims in Ethiopia. The sultanate of Scio fell in 1285, and its territory was largely annexed to Christian Ethiopia; the sultanate of Ifat, which succeeded Scio, was soon after defeated under the reign of the negus ‘Amda Sejon I (1314–44) in a difficult campaign. The victories won by Dawit I (1328–1417), Jeshaq (1414–22), and Zare’a Ja‘qob (1434–68) led the Ethiopian state to its greatest external expansion and to good conditions of internal political consolidation. This new situation of Ethiopia also had consequences for the history of the Church during this same period. The characteristics of this period were:

1. The metropolitan, an Egyptian appointed by the Alexandrian patriarch, stood at the head of the Ethiopian Church, although under the reign of Zare’a Ja‘qob there were covert hints of some Ethiopian aspiration for a national metropolitan. In 1439 the patriarch unusually sent two known metropolitans and a bishop to Ethiopia, all Egyptians, and this gesture along with more frequent special missions regularized relations with Alexandria.

Meanwhile, however, a hierarchy of the regular clergy had gained influence; in an earlier period it had recognized the supremacy of the abbot of St Stephen’s at Hājq. This recognition was aided by the personality of Abbot Iyasus Mo’a (of the second half of the 13th century), later venerated as a saint by the Ethiopian Church. Later, as the capital of the Solomonic dynasty moved southward into the region of Scio, the abbot of the Scian monastery of Dabra Libānos replaced that of Hājq at the head of the regular clergy (first half of the 15th century). The abbot of Dabra Libānos, in his new capacity, took the title of ečagč and asserted and maintained his authority over the Ethiopian monasteries, a power he retained for five centuries down to the present, not without struggles against the crown and opposition from the northern monasteries, which claimed descent from Eustathius (Ewostātewos), a 14th-century monk venerated as a saint in Ethiopia.

2. The period under discussion was rich in theological disputes in Ethiopia, disputes that agitated the Church there with serious consequences. First of all, the three major heresies: that of Mount Zion, the Mikaelites, and the Stefanites. The first heresy, in the form of a denial of the feast of Mount Zion, appears already documented, albeit vaguely, at the end of the 14th century, and was directed against the Eucharistic institution itself. The Mikaelites, disciples of Za-Mika’el, contemporaries of Zare’a Ja‘qob (first half of the 15th century), based themselves on a false interpretation of “Deum nemo vidit unquam” (Jn 1:18) to argue that God has no human form but only the form that He alone knows. Hence they denied or at least interpreted allegorically the creation of man “in the image and likeness of God” (Gen 1:26–27). Moreover, the Mikaelites maintained that it was impossible to represent the formless Trinity in three distinct Persons and therefore recognized in the Trinity “three names, but one Person, one hypostasis, one image.” Thus, according to their opponents at least, by refusing to see in the Trinity anything more than three names, the Mikaelites adhered, albeit unwittingly, to the heresy “of Mount Zion,” namely the denial of the Eucharist, since they could not admit transubstantiation (in which bread and wine are changed into the Body and Blood of the Son through the descent of the Holy Spirit invoked upon the Father and the Son in the epiclesis of the Eastern liturgies).

The Stefanites, on the other hand, “refused to venerate Mary and the Cross of her Son.” This heresy, which earned its adherents the name Sara Mārjām (“enemies of Mary”), was harshly repressed by Negus Zare’a Ja‘qob, though traces of it persisted into the reign of Na‘od (1449–1508).

VI. THE CRISIS OF THE 16TH CENTURY AND THE MISSION OF THE JESUITS

This period of prosperity in Ethiopia was followed in the 16th century by the greatest crisis of the Ethiopian state due to the Muslim invasion led by the “left-handed” (Amharic: Grāḥ), Imām Aḥmed ibn Ḥabban, and the subsequent victorious campaign of the emir Nūr ibn Muḥāmid, who defeated and killed Negus Claudio in battle in 1559. Following the Muslim onslaught, which in a few years led to the occupation of almost all of Ethiopia, came the invasion of the Galla (pagan), who, advancing from the southern regions still inhabited today by the Borana tribes, managed to subjugate both Christians and Muslims of Ethiopia, exhausted by their long conflict. The resistance, truly heroic in every sense, against the Muslim threat led Ethiopia to seek the intervention of Portugal, which after its great maritime discoveries at the end of the 15th century had entered into relations with Ethiopia. The military valor of the Portuguese and the glorious martyrdom of Cristóvão da Gama (son of Vasco), their first commander in Ethiopia, beheaded by order of the “left-handed” on 20 August 1542 at the age of 26, strengthened the ties between the two countries; and at the same time Ethiopia maintained active relations with the Holy See, notably from the pontificate of Clement VII (who solemnly received in Bologna in 1533 the Portuguese Francisco Álvares, ambassador of the negus) to that of Paul III. Meanwhile, after the death in 1530 of the metropolitan MÀRQOS, an interesting and adventurous figure of the Portuguese expedition, João Bermudes, attempted to have himself recognized as metropolitan both by the Ethiopian sovereign and by the Holy See. However, in 1555 the first group of missionaries from the Society of Jesus departed from Lisbon for Ethiopia, led by Fr. Andrea Oviedo, a Castilian; St. Ignatius of Loyola addressed to them his *Recuerdos que podían ayudar para la reducción de los reynos del Preste Juan y la unión de la Iglesia y religión cathólica*, a fundamental document that also reveals with admirable prudence and discretion the delicate understanding of Eastern psychology. The arrival of the Jesuit mission constitutes a pivotal event in the religious and cultural history of Ethiopia. After a difficult period of struggles and hardships under the patriarchate of Oviedo (d. 9 July 1577) and even more so in the following two decades, when only three missionaries remained (Manuel Fernandez, Antonio Fernandez, and Francisco Lopez) and had to endure the harshest living conditions, the mission was revitalized with the arrival (on 26 April 1603 at Massawa) of Fr. Pedro Páez, also a Castilian. This extraordinary figure—missionary, scholar, and explorer—achieved his greatest triumph through his apostolate, persuading the negus Susenyos to declare his adherence to Catholicism, as the negus himself announced in a letter dated 3 July 1614 to Fr. Claudio Acquaviva, Superior General of the Jesuits. This union lasted until 1632, when a political uprising led by Fasiladas, son of Negus Susenyos, forced the sovereign to abdicate, and the monophysite doctrine was then reinstated by decree of the new ruler.

During this period of severe political and religious crisis, the Ethiopian Church had to rely even more on the particular resilience of its regular clergy. The monks’ experiences during the Muslim invasion—forced to migrate from region to region while evading enemy troops but resolute in supporting the country’s resistance (the monastery of Dabra Libānos itself was burned and destroyed by Muslims in July 1530)—the vigor of the abbots (*eāga*) of Dabra Libānos, such as ‘Enbāqom (c. 1515–26), an active translator of works from Arabic-Christian literature, and Giovanni I, who fell alongside Negus Claudio in the battle of 23 March 1559 against the Muslims; and, in general, the fervent and disciplined activity of the monks all contributed to elevating the position of Ethiopian monasticism. This historical situation also made the Ethiopian regular clergy the principal opponent that the Jesuit mission had to confront in internal debates. In this line of conduct, further emphasized by the two *cūgū* Zā-Wangēl (1612–23) and Batra Giyorgis, his successor, one can easily discern—at least initially—a continuation of the historic tendency of the regular clergy and its head (attested since the 14th century) to acquire from the non-Ethiopian metropolitan (first Egyptian [Monophysite], later European [Catholic]) a significant share of hierarchical authority.

VII. From the Restoration of Monophysitism to the End of the Polemic on the Unction in 1878

From the mid-17th century until the contemporary era, Ethiopia fell into a prolonged isolation, a consequence of the crises already mentioned. This political decline of the country, which—with the exception of a few attempts by rulers such as Iyasu I (1682–1706) and Bakaffa (1730–55)—barely maintained its formal independence, ultimately concluded with the reign of the energetic Tewodros II (1855–68), who, though often by force of arms, succeeded once more in unifying the state. With Yohannes IV (1872–89) and Menilek II (1889–1913), contacts with Europe were reopened, as 19th-century colonial expansion had now brought Europeans to Ethiopia’s very borders.

The two centuries under discussion were dominated, from a religious standpoint in Ethiopia, by the polemic of “the Unction” and “the Union,” a theological dispute (which repeatedly spilled into political conflict) that shaped the very life of the Ethiopian Church. One of the key arguments used by Catholics in discussions with Monophysites in Ethiopia was the *zēvonù* (utopic: the virtue of abasement) of the Incarnate Word, with obvious references to Scripture passages (particularly Phil. 2:6–10; Rom. 5:10; Heb. 2:9; Acts 3:15) interpreted as relating to human nature. Hence the importance of Acts 10:38 and the strict value to be attributed to the Unction (“God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power”). As the debate continued, two opinions emerged: that of the *Unctionists* (with the formula *ba-qēb‘at walda bābrej*, “through the Unction [Jesus was] the Son consubstantial [with the Father]”, proclaimed in 1645) and that of the *Unionists* (proclaimed in 1663). The Unctionists argued that the union of the Word with flesh in Christ was effected precisely when “God anointed him with the Holy Spirit and with power,” drawing a parallel with transubstantiation as it occurs (in the Ethiopian liturgy) when, through the epiclesis, the Father—invoked together with the Son—sends the Holy Spirit to transform the eucharistic species. The Unction of the Holy Spirit, inasmuch as it makes the Word and the flesh (*wā qūaṣ*) one, is thus the essential operation for our redemption. The Unionists, by contrast, held that the Incarnation occurs and becomes operative by the Word’s own power, not through the intervention of the Holy Spirit, who is equal to the Son in the mystery of the Holy Trinity. The Unction (of Acts 10:38) was merely a “mark of honor,” intended to restore to the unity of the Incarnate Word the dignity that human nature had lost through original sin. Consequently, in the heat of the polemic, the Unionists were accused by their adversaries of being “Arians” for allegedly diminishing the dignity of the Word in comparison with the Holy Spirit; conversely, the Unionists were derisively labeled “Nestorians” because their positions tended toward a less rigorous Monophysitism.

The controversy became further complicated by extraneous factors, such as the traditional rivalry between the northern monasteries (of Tigray), ardent Unctionists, and the southern monasteries, particularly Dabra Libānos, which supported the Unionist doctrine. Later, in 1769, the abbot Enoc (Hēnok) of Dabra Libānos had published under his patronage a pamphlet (entitled *Kārra* “Knife,” whence his followers were called *Kārroē*, almost “Knifists”) that formulated a new doctrine on the cited passage from Acts: “The Son, consubstantial with the other two Persons of the Trinity, does not receive from them separately what He already possesses in His divine nature; therefore He is at once the Anointing One, the Anointed, and the Anointing.” This new doctrine led to the deposition and excommunication (by the metropolitan) of Abbot Enoc and the condemnation of the aforementioned pamphlet.

At the beginning of the 19th century (between 1798 and 1803), the ancient dispute took on two new forms: that of the two births (Amharic: Hulusi ledati), promoted by the northern monks already called unzionisti and in fact, according to them, «the Son had two births: that from eternity from the Father and that from the Virgin Mary, in which, it is said, at the very moment of the Nativity, the Union of the natures took place through the unction of the Holy Spirit (pure unzionisti) or through the unction of the Son Himself» (Kärroë, «cutters»). The other doctrine, called that of the three births (Amharic: Sost ledati), promoted by the monks of Dabra Libünoes and generally in the south, declared that «the Son had three births: that from eternity from the Father; that from the Virgin Mary; and the third when the Flesh of Jesus, at the moment of its union with the Word, received the «grace» of the Holy Spirit, thus becoming primogenitus omnis creaturae. This «grace» (by which Jesus is called in Amharic yāng lā’āmmari) makes Him «the son of grace» (Son of grace) is not to be understood in the Augustinian sense, but as a divine yāng for the humanity of the son of Mary who was about to be born at the point where this humanity was about to be totally united with the divine nature of the Word. In this sense, «Grace» was a new interpretation of the doctrine of the Unction understood as «honour», «glory», as has already been seen, supported by the monks of Dabra Libünoes.

The long struggle came to an end, through the intervention of the negus Giovanni IV, at the meeting of Boru-mēdā in May 1878, when the sovereign, with his well-known violence of temper, declared himself in favour of the doctrine of the two births in the formulation of the kärroë and the ēngē Teofilo, then incumbent at Dabra Libünoes, was forced to adhere to that doctrine. Even today, moreover, in the Ethiopian theological schools the polemical arguments against the doctrine of the three births, which has been defeated, are taught.

VIII. 1 RECENT TIMES IN ERITREA AND E. — During the most recent times, instead, the hierarchical question has been the most discussed in E. Already the negus Giovanni IV, taking up what he had done this year, realized what had been said...

The negus Giovanni IV, who had been said to have done this speech...

The negus Giovanni IV, who had been made to do this speech...

(from M. Rikki, Vite ica Abessinica Saha, Bertino 1945, p. 41)

ETHIOPIA — Biblical literary sciences
in the Ethiopian Church.

Three centuries earlier the negus Zare'a Jā'qob, in 1878, obtained from the Alexandrian patriarch, in addition to the metropolitan, also three bishops, although all of them were Egyptians. After the death of the metropolitan Matteo in December 1926, the party known as the «black jackets» (Amharic: tequr kot), the «young Ethiopians», raised the question of an Ethiopian metropolitan. The Ethiopian Church, at the beginning, maintained, on the whole, an attitude of great prudence and rather cold reserve towards these requests for innovations in its age-old institutions. The discussions lasted more than two years, both in E. (between the «young Ethiopians» and the conservatives) and with the patriarchate of Alexandria. In the end, in June 1929, a compromise was reached, according to which the Alexandrian patriarch appointed a new Egyptian metropolitan for E., Labuna Cirillo, but at the same time instructed the episcopal consecration of four Ethiopian prelates, to whom was added, a few months later, the abbot of Dabra Libünoes, head of the regular clergy in E.

Eritrea was then removed from the jurisdiction of the metropolitan of E. and, by an agreement concluded between the Italian government and the Alexandrian patriarchate, was declared directly subject to the see of Alexandria.

This regime lasted until December 1936, when, after the Egyptian metropolitan of E., Cirillo, withdrew following the annexation of E. to Italy, an assembly of the Ethiopian clergy convened in Addis Ababa elected as metropolitan one of the Ethiopian bishops already consecrated in Alexandria, the abuna Abrehām. After the death of abuna Abrehām in 1939, he was succeeded by a second Ethiopian metropolitan, abuna Johannes. When E. was occupied by the British in 1941, the Ethiopian metropolitan was deposed and the Egyptian metropolitan, Cirillo, returned to office. But new difficult negotiations between the Ethiopian government and the Alexandrian patriarchate led to a new compromise in July 1948, by which the patriarchate, while consolidating and recognizing once again the bond of hierarchical dependence of the Ethiopian Church on the see of Alexandria, for the first time admitted the principle of choosing the metropolitan of E. from among the native bishops of that State.

The fate of Eritrea is still undecided, because the agreement of 1929 was considered implicitly lapsed with the appointment of the metropolitan Abreham in December 1936, Eritrea having been recognized as coming under the jurisdiction of that metropolitan, for which a bishop was even appointed. The decision on the political destiny of Eritrea has since been postponed by the peace negotiations in Paris until today, and therefore the problem of the (Monophysite) hierarchies also remains open.

For the bibliography see below I: LETTERATURA.

Enrico Cerulli

IX. CATHOLIC MISSIONS

After the first and second missions of the Jesuits, it can be said that an abyss opened up between Ethiopia and Rome. There were, however, attempts by some missionaries, especially Franciscan Capuchins and Friars Minor, to whom the Holy See entrusted the enterprise, but they failed at the outset and the few who managed to set foot in the forbidden kingdom paid for their audacity with their blood (thus the two French Capuchins, Agatangelo and Cassiano, were martyred on 7 August 1638).

It was only the Lazarist G. Sapeto who managed to enter Ethiopia and settle in Adua (1838), winning the welcome of the people and the local clergy; through an embassy, missionaries were requested from Rome: thus in 1839 the first true mission was established under the title of Apostolic Vicariate of Abyssinia. The indefatigable Italian Lazarist Giustino de Jacobis, first shepherd of the mission, immediately founded a seminary for the indigenous clergy, from which, in 1854, as many as 15 priests emerged. The work was carried out only among the schismatics of Tigre and Adua and almost 5,000 conversions were obtained.

With the martyrdom of the first indigenous priest (Abba Guebre Michael, 1885), with the exile of De Jacobis and his death (1860), following the persecution of the emperor Theodore, that first missionary experience came to a close.

Meanwhile a new mission had been created, following the request of the French explorer A. d'Abbadie, namely the Apostolic Vicariate of the Galla (30 April 1840), entrusted to the care of the Italian Capuchin Friars Minor. Guglielmo Massaia (later a cardinal) was the great apostolic and pastoral figure of that mission; only after wandering for 6 years did he reach the territory entrusted to him (1852). But his apostolic work was carried out especially among the Kaffa, and, as a unique example in missionary history, he created a travelling seminary from which 10 indigenous priests emerged. Following the persecution of the Nega Teodoro and the suppression of the religious orders in Italy, those two missions passed to the respective French families of nationality (in 1863 the vicariate of the Galla; in 1865 that of Abyssinia). Massaia, however, took the lead of the French confreres and worked for 11 years in Shoa, from which he was expelled during the persecution of Giovanni IV (1876). In 1881 his successor, Fr. Taurin Chagne, settled in Harar: the attempts to return to Shoa were in vain and they suffered new persecutions, especially at the hands of the schismatics who remained. Schools and a leper colony were founded. In 1915 Mother Marie-Bernard founded the Congregation of Indigenous Sisters.

The Vicariate of Abyssinia, entrusted to the French Lazarist Fathers, was reorganized, and a seminary was established for the indigenous clergy. In 1894, part of its territory was detached to form the Apostolic Prefecture of Eritrea (v. ERITREA). In 1913, the Apostolic Prefecture of Kaffa was erected and entrusted to the Consolata Institute.

After Italy’s occupation of Ethiopia (1936), a cardinal commission studied the reorganization of the missions in Ethiopia. Following these studies, seven decrees were issued (cf. AAS, 29 [1937], pp. 357–366); an Apostolic Delegation was created with nine missionary jurisdictions, including five vicariates: Eritrea, Addis Ababa, Gimma, Harar, and Mogadiscio, and four prefectures: Dessie, Gondar, Neghelli, and Tirai. By a decree of 13 February 1940 (AAS, 32 [1940], pp. 467–70), the Apostolic Prefectures of Endeber and Hosanna were added. The northern territory of the Apostolic Vicariate of Addis Ababa falls under the jurisdiction of the Sacred Congregation for the Oriental Church, while the rest remains under the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith.

From this new organization, the zeal of the missionaries in Ethiopia promised great fruits, but the Second World War swept everything away: some missionaries were expelled, others interned or imprisoned.

In 1947, the Holy See appointed a new Apostolic Delegate. In conclusion, it can be said that since 1838, the missionary effort in Ethiopia, though not entirely fruitless, certainly did not achieve the hoped-for results. The moral difficulties are immense; the missionaries have always clashed both with a schismatic nation—where the people, clergy, and civil authority are united—and with an altered form of Christianity. The extreme resistance of the Ethiopian schism is due to the cohesion of three forces: the people’s distrust of their traditions, the hostility of leaders steeped in prejudices against Catholicism, and the opposition of the dominant clergy, attached to their position and property.

III. LITERATURE

Summary:

I. General Characteristics

II. Patristics

III. Apologetics

IV. Dogmatics and Ascetics

V. Canon Law

VI. Hagiography

VII. Apostolic and Miscellaneous Writings.

I. GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS

Ethiopian literature is, for the most part, religious in subject matter, with the principal exception of the Royal Chronicles, which, however—until the contemporary era—were also the work of ecclesiastics. It can also be said that Ethiopian literature is essentially one of translation, a generalization that holds true in broad outline, though in various periods original works by Ethiopian authors do exist. Many translations, moreover, are reworked versions and thus reveal interesting aspects of Ethiopian psychology. Translations were generally made, in an earlier and more ancient period, directly from Greek; in a later period, from Arabic.

It has been doubted whether, beyond these two, there were also direct translations from Greek, a claim that has not yet been proven for any work; any contrary indications have been explained by the bilingual (Coptic-Arabic) nature of the manuscripts of certain books used in the Coptic Church.

Below, the principal works of Ethiopian religious literature are surveyed, divided by category. The Scriptures were translated into Ethiopic from Greek: the New Testament, according to preliminary research, follows the Syro-Western version (rather than the one in use in the patriarchate of Alexandria), a fact considered evidence of the intervention of Syrian monks who emigrated to Ethiopia. The Scriptures, however, underwent multiple revisions at the hands of the metropolitans. It is highly desirable that scholars take up research on the Ethiopic Scriptures.

II. PATRISTICS

Ethiopian schools preserved three anthologies of writings by the Holy Fathers (all intended to defend Monophysite doctrine):

1. *Orellias* (St. Cyril). It includes three treatises by St. Cyril of Alexandria (*De recta fide ad Theodosium*; *Posthocueticus ad Reginas*; *Quod Christus sit unus*) and a collection of 25 homilies attributed to various Fathers (from the Council of Nicaea to that of Ephesus). The texts were translated from Greek.

2. *Timoteo Ebro*. It comprises two pastoral letters by Timothy Aelurus, Patriarch of Alexandria, addressed to his faithful in Gangra and to the city of Constantinople. The letters are accompanied by extracts from the Fathers and a summary (by Timothy Aelurus himself) of the acts and definitions of the Council of Chalcedon. The Greek original of the letters is lost to us; Timothy Aelurus survives only in this Ethiopic version and in Armenian (with fragments in Chinese).

3. *Confessio Patrum* (Arabic: *I'tirâf al-ubâ'*). A compilation of patristic passages from St. Irenaeus to the Alexandrian patriarch Christodulus (1047–77 AD). The collection was translated from Arabic into Ethiopic, probably in the first half of the 16th century. In Ethiopic, it bears the title *Ḥaymanotä Abaw* (*Fides Patrum*) and has held the greatest importance in theological instruction from the 16th century to the present.

III. APOLOGETICS

In the 16th century, polemics against Muslim religious propaganda were the subject of a work by the abbot ‘Enbāqom (of Dabra Libānos), entitled *Anqasā Amīn* (*Gate of Faith*). Later, various polemical treatises defending Monophysitism were composed by Ethiopian ecclesiastics during their disputes with the Jesuit missions; such were *Mazgaba Ḥaṣāw* (*Book of Faith*), *Sarana nafs* (*Refuge of the Soul*), and *Fekkārē Mäläkot* (*Exposition of Divinity*). To this same category belong the two books of the negus Zärʿa Yāʿqob (1434–68): *Mazgaba Bärkän* (*Book of Light*) and *Mazgaba Miläd*, in which he combats not only local Ethiopian heresies but also the lingering traces of paganism still prevalent at the time.

IV. DOGMATICS AND ASCETICS

The original Ethiopian work on heresies, entitled *Mazgaba Məṣṭir* (*Book of Mystery*), was composed in the early 15th century by Giyorgis of Sagla. A characteristic feature of religious literature, however, is the abundance of dogmatic treatises (most of them in question-and-answer form, as catechisms) composed by Ethiopian ecclesiastics during and after the Jesuit mission. These works, which clarify the doctrine accepted in the Ethiopian Church, were prompted by the impulse of contact with the Catholic world, which led to reflection on the fundamental truths of the Faith. They are written, in greater number, in the vernacular (Amharic) rather than in Ethiopic. Such catechetical translations have been preserved to this day. Translations from Arabic include *Mazgaba Ḥawā*, an encyclopedia of moral theology (Arabic itself being a translation of the original Greek by the Palestinian monk Nikon of the 11th century); and *Talmud* (*Disciple*), another treatise *De haeresibus* translated from Arabic by Giyorgis, disciple of Anthony the Syrian. Both treatises entered Ethiopia in the second half of the 16th century.

A special place is held by the so-called *Books of the Monks* (*Mazgaba Mänakāsāt*), which also reached Ethiopia through Arabic versions: *Fukāsiyos* (*Philoxenus*) on monastic life, by the author Philoxenus of Mabbug (6th century); *Mārī Fāsīq* (*Blessed Isaac*), i.e., the third book of the ascetic works of Isaac of Nineveh (Syriac, 6th century); and *Arāgārī Manfasāwī* (*Old Spirit*), an ascetic treatise by the same author (also 6th century), John of Dalyatha.

V. LAW

The two great collections of canons, the “Siondo” (Sēnodos), translated from Arabic into Ethiopic perhaps at the end of the 13th century, and the “Didascalia” (Didascalia), which has preserved for us also the so-called Canons of St Ippolito Romano, were later completed by the translation (again from Arabic) of the Nomocanon of Ibn al-Asāl, which in Ethiopic received the title of Fetha Nagast (in Leggi dei re) and was legendarily attributed to the Fathers of the Council of Nicaea.

VI. HAGIOGRAPHY

A most singular work is the Ethiopic book of the Miracles of Mary (Taʿamra Mārīyām), consisting of a collection of narratives more Western than Eastern, formed (12th century) in northern France and later enriched with Italian and Spanish contributions. This collection was translated from French into Arabic in the Latin East between 1237 and 1289; and with the addition of other narratives relating to Syria, the Holy Land, and Egypt it reached Ethiopia, where it was translated from Arabic into Ethiopic at the end of the 14th century. From the reign of Zareʿa Jāʿqob onwards, readings from this book have been ritual in the Ethiopian Church. Numerous are the Acts of Saints translated into Ethiopic from Greek, such as the Life of St Paul the Hermit and the Life of St Anthony, the work of St Athanasius; and for the most part from Arabic, such as the Acts of SS Quiricus and Julitta, martyrs; of St Cyrus the Physician; of St Basilides; of St Barbara; of St Athanasius, etc. But rich also is the original hagiographical literature: from that relating to the greater saints of the Ethiopian Church, such as the Acts of Takla Hāymānot, the Acts of Eustathius, those of Gabra Manfas Qeddus, those of the “nine saints,” and the cycles relating to local saints of the individual provinces, such as that of the region of Lāsta, seat of the Zāguē dynasty (Acts of King Lāblāla; Acts of King Naʿakweto Laʿab; Acts of King Jāmrhāna Krestos; Acts of Queen Masqal Kebrā), or that of the region of Lake Tānā (Acts of Jāfqeranna Krestos; Acts of Batra Maryām; Acts of Krestos Samrā; Acts of Zamada Maryām).

The Ethiopian Synaxarium is a translation, made from Arabic in the 14th century, of the Synaxarium of the Coptic Church; but many notices relating to Ethiopian saints have been inserted, some of which are not without importance for local history.

VII. APOCALYPTIC AND VARIOUS WRITINGS

The Ethiopians’ predilection for apocalyptic writings has meant that Ethiopian literature has received (and in some cases is the only one to preserve in the Christian East) many works of this kind. Among them are cited: the Apocalypse of St Peter; the Vision of Mary; the Qalēmentos, a collection of pseudo-Clementine writings; the Testament of Our Lady; the Book of the Testament; the Wisdom of the Sibyl; the Epistola Apostolorum; the Apocalypse of Scemute; the Apocalypse of Abba Na-bjūd; the Fekkār Yāsus, “Declaration of Jesus” (cf. food and of the earth, an original work by the Ethiopian Bahājla Mikʾāl of the 15th century, which has disparate sources not yet well studied).

For the Ethiopic versions of the Bible, see: ALESSANDRA D'EGITTO: 3. Storia del patriarcato di Alessandria; COPTI.

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V. DOCTRINAL CONTROVERSIES.

2. Monophysitism

The Ethiopian Church has always refused to accept the definition of the Council of Chalcedon. Some maintain that this refusal occurred at the end of the 5th century with the arrival of Byzantine monks; others prefer a date after 637. In any case, they refuse to use the Christological formula “One Person in Two Natures.” But to what extent does their monophysitism extend? According to the Jesuit missionary Fr. Paez, followed by ancient Catholic writers, the Ethiopians profess a true monophysitism. According to modern scholars, their monophysitism would be merely nominal. Indeed, Zareʿa Jāʿqob already renewed at his time the condemnation of the Euchites; and Claudius, in his Confession, does not hesitate to say: “Regarding the two natures (of Christ), they, according to our doctrine, do not exist separately, but united into one, without confusion, however, or alteration.” Indeed, the Catholic Ethiopian priest Abba Jalou-Socqaur is of the opinion that there does not even exist among them a nominal monophysitism or Severianism; it all reduces to the linguistic impossibility of expressing themselves, since the term Bahrij = “nature” also has the meaning of Hālāta = “essence.” Among the consequences of monophysitism in Ethiopia must be counted the dispute over the Anointing of Christ (see above; 2, History).

3. Anthropomorphism

By the middle of the 15th century the opinion was already rooted among the Ethiopians that God has a human form like ours, since He made man in His own image. Against this, the priest Za-Mikāʾēl intervened, followed by a certain Gamaliel and several others, who proclaimed “God has no face.” In 1449 they were condemned by the Council of Amhara, presided over by Zareʿa Jāʿqob, who proposed the formula: “The Father has no other form than the human. The Son has no other form than that of the Father. The Holy Spirit has no different form than that of the Father and the Son.” This is the formula that is repeated down to the present day in Ethiopian catechisms.

4. Mariology

The Ethiopians have always been ardent devotees of the Virgin Mother of God. They even use, at the feasts of the Virgin and that of St Dakieso (St Ildefonso of Toledo), a special marine amphora, of which an ancient text published in 1937 by Abba Tekle Semharaj is known, and the text still in use has been translated and commented on by S. Euringer. In this amphora, as in the very rich marine iconography, the privileges of the Virgin are asserted, namely her Divine Maternity, her Coredemption, her fullness of Grace, her Assumption into heaven in body and soul, her perpetual Virginity, and also in a fairly clear way her Immaculate Conception.

In the field of Mariology, the dispute over the cult of the Madonna is famous, in which the doctors of Tigre taught: “To the Mother of God belongs honour and glory, and to her Son (sa-la-Walda) belongs adoration.” The monks of Dabra Libanos in Scioa, on the other hand, maintained: “To the Mother of God, like to her Son (sa-la-Walda), belongs adoration.” The words “sa-la-Walda” and “sa-mela Walda” became like the standards of two opposing armies, which fought fiercely until John IV, at the Council of Wello (1878), prescribed that all should hold to the opinion of Tigre.

V. THE ETHIOPIC RITE.

The Ethiopic rite is a branch of the Coptic rite; it differs only in the general traits of its physiognomy and in certain details.

### I. GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS

A certain exuberance, a youthful spontaneity, and a naive search for novelty emerge, produced by an indiscriminate accumulation of traits through imitation of strange ways of dressing and behaving that sometimes cause disorder. All this is due less to a less reflective level of culture than to the absence of central control. Some of the opening prayers of the Mass are not taken from the Eucharistic liturgy of the Coptic rite but from the ne- nedizionale reserved to the bishop; at the first incensation, there are four prayers instead of the one in the Coptic rite; the Oratio post Evangelium is recited before the Gospel; in the hours of the Divine Office, there are two or three dismissal prayers before the final prayers. The deacon wears on his head a *tira*, a gift from the kings and queens of the country; the liturgical dance, still in use for solemn feasts, gives processions a particular character, no less than the accompaniment of singing with sistra and the beating of feet.

A notable feature is the influence of Judaism, which came with the Solomonid kings (from the 13th century onward), an influence that is evident in the internal construction of the church: a small, enclosed central edicule containing the altar represents the *sancta sanctorum*, which only the priest may enter; around it is a circular space separated from the rest of the church, where only the clergy and singers may stand; the faithful therefore see nothing of the Eucharistic liturgy and often remain outside. Jewish influence is also seen in the celebration of Saturday, even to the point of regarding it as a sacred day, as in the amphora of St. Athanasius, and in the numerous allusions to the Old Testament and its patriarchs. For sacred vestments, cf. T. M. Samhârâj, *De indumentis sacris ritus Aethiopici*, Rome 1930.

### II. PARTICULAR CUSTOMS

Nineteen anaphoras are known for the Mass; the ordinary one is that of the Holy Apostles, drawn from the *Traditio apostolica* of St. Hippolytus. In many anaphoras, the words of consecration are defective due to an excessive desire for clarity. Since vines do not grow in the country, the Eucharistic wine is prepared by soaking grape berries in water and then pressing them. At Baptism, milk and honey are given to the newly baptized. The unction of infants has fallen into disuse.

There exist or have existed in different regions three types of *orologion*, in addition to the Coptic one.

The rite includes a rich variety of liturgical hymns. For the *deggwâ*, a kind of antiphonary for the whole year, attributed to Jared, cf. C. Conti Rossini, *Aethiopica*, II, in *Riv. Studi Orient.*, 10 (1923-25), p. 515. For the *marigta māryām*, cf. A. Grohmann, *Aethiopische Marienhymnen*, Leipzig 1919. To the calendar and the synaxarion was added the "proper" of Ethiopian saints in the 16th–18th centuries.

The chant and music of the Ethiopian liturgy have no relation to those of other Christian liturgies and are little studied and little known: cf. E. Wellesz, *Studien zur aethiopischen Kirchenmusik*, in *Oriens Christ.*, 9 (1920), pp. 4-106, with the observations of S. Euringer, ibid., 10-11 (1923), pp. 151-54.

**

### VI. EARLY CHRISTIANITY

The Habasat, a people of southwestern Arabia who migrated to Ethiopia during the kingdom of Saba, established a powerful state there that reached a high degree of civilization, artistic development, and remarkable technical organization, as evidenced by the monuments of the pagan era still extant in Aksum. When and how the kingdom passed from the paganism of South Arabian type to Christianity is not precisely known, but it must have occurred in the second quarter of the 4th century and through the work of missionaries sent from Syria. The first bishop known is Frumentius, consecrated by Athanasius of Alexandria, thus after 328; but the account of his deeds, as transmitted by Rufinus, is too infused with folkloric motifs to be considered a secure historical document. The Syrian origin of the mission is, however, confirmed by the considerable number of Ethiopian terms relating to religion, the Church, or the liturgy that derive from Syriac, and even more so by the architectural type of the earliest Christian religious monuments in Abyssinia. These are found along an ancient road that starts from the port of Adulis, follows the Hadda valley to ascend the plateau, and passes through Qāḥaytō, Tahōnda, Kaskasē, Yeḥā, and reaches Aksum. Our knowledge of Aksumite monuments is far from satisfactory: almost everything we know is gathered in the great publication of the German archaeological mission (which, however, focused mainly on pagan monuments), except for Adulis, where incomplete excavations were carried out by the Paribeni-Gallina mission and the Swede Sundström.

Despite this limited documentation, the earliest type of church is fairly well defined. It is essentially a rectangle, since the apse never projects but is hidden behind the eastern wall; the sanctuary consists of an apse enclosed between two chambers, following the most widespread Syrian type. The apse is always square or rectangular, according to a type widely diffused in Syria, except at Adulis, where it is semicircular in the eastern basilica and horseshoe-shaped in the northern one; this latter form has parallels in Syria at the church of Burg Hēdar (eastern church), at the western church

of pilasters built up and no longer monolithic and supporting the arcades, a completely new feature, with the sanctuary formed of three chambers, of which the two side ones communicate only by means of arcades with the central one, which is covered by a small cupola. Another important novelty is that the central nave is raised above the side ones and receives direct light. Arcades on pilasters, a cupola and direct lighting of the nave are three characteristics indicating new influences on Abyssinian architecture. A small cupola over the sanctuary is also found in the church of Garmandu Mariam, which seems to be of the same period. But the most important monuments of the Zagué period are the rock-hewn churches, constructed in a very special way, namely by isolating by means of a wide trench a block of rock in the stone bed and working it not only internally but also externally, so as to give it the complete appearance of a built-up edifice. Rock-hewn churches are found in many parts of the Christian world (in Cappadocia mainly), but the method of isolating the rock block and working it externally as well is found only in India, several centuries before the execution of the Zagué churches. It cannot be excluded that this idea came from there, but only the idea, inasmuch as, both in plan and in decorative and constructive forms reproduced, the Zagué churches clearly show the persistence of axiomatic traditions. And the people who accomplished the technical feat of cutting, decorating, transporting and erecting the great pagan stelae of Aksum demonstrate with these churches that they had preserved late into their skill of execution. From the point of view of plan, these churches present the most varied forms. With the axiomatic structure are connected the churches of Emanuel, of Libanos and of Maria or Lalibela, that of Bilbala Chrichos and of Mascale Chrichos; that of the Saviour of the World at Lalibela also has five naves; without the tripartite division of the western part is the church of the Four Animals near Bilbala Ghiorghis. Other churches present a simpler form, without the triple division of the sanctuary, such as the churches of S. Michael and of Mercury at Lalibela and the church of Bilbala Ghiorghis. A quite special form is presented by the church of S. George at Lalibela, which is cruciform, a structure not found at all in Egypt but represented in Nubia by a church at Tamit. Several of these churches are surrounded by an external portico on pilasters running round them completely, which is found only on two or three sides. Generally arcaded on pilasters, they present matronei in the churches of Maria, of Emanuel and of Libanos at Lalibela. That of Emanuel has a small cupola over the sanctuary. The church of Golgotha at Lalibela also presents sculptures of saints (life-size) under arcades and an altar with the representation of the four animals of the Evangelists in human figures with the heads of the lion, the bull, the eagle and the angel: unique examples of medieval Abyssinian sculpture. Churches of the same type as those of Lalibela are also found at Wogoro in Tigre and much further south at Yakkà Mila'el near Addis Ababa and at Adadi Mariam south-west of this city. These churches of the Zagué period represent the point of maximum artistic and technical development reached by the Abyssinians.

With the fall of the Zagué and the advent of the Salomonids, there is a very great decline, so great that it is no longer a question of architectural art but simply of constructions used for religious purposes. There must also have taken place at this time a profound transformation from the liturgical and ritual point of view, inasmuch as the church assumes new forms, having no relation to those of previous periods. The origins, the modalities and the reasons for such transformations have not yet been elucidated.

The apse disappears, both as a liturgical concept and as an architectural form: the religious sacrifice is performed within a rectangular little chamber provided with doors on three sides except the eastern one, which are always kept closed during the function, so that this is hidden from the view of the people, who are not admitted into the chamber itself. This stands in the centre of a building which may take two different forms. In the first case it is rectangular, so that between the outer walls of the chamber (which is the Sancta Sanctorum) and those of the building enclosing it there is only a more or less wide ambulatory running round on all four sides: a form which genetically may be compared with the ancient structures derived from the Mazdean fire-temple and all its derivations or with the Jewish temple of Jerusalem. Examples of this type of church are found at Abba Liguà of Aksum, at 'Enda Qaddus Mikk'el of Ceffa, 'Enda Gorgis of Fremona and in the transformation of the ancient pagan temple of Yebà. In the second case the chamber of the Sancta Sanctorum stands instead in the centre of a round building, sometimes consisting of a simple round enclosure, but in the larger churches it has also two concentric ones. This is the most widespread type, which must not be without relation to the indigenous tukul. In both cases the constructive technique is very rough, timber prevailing in II.
All the medieval and modern churches generally have their walls covered with paintings, executed directly on the plaster in the Zagué period (of older ones we know none) or on canvas nailed to the wall in recent times. The oldest paintings known to us are those of the church of Maria at Lalibela with decorative motifs, among which the double-headed eagle of Hittite origin, widespread in the painting of Central Asia and thence spread throughout the world. In the Zagué church of Imraha we also have painted wooden panels from a ceiling with types closely connected with forms of southern India. For sculpture in low relief, besides the examples already mentioned of the church of Golgotha at Lalibela, we must mention the carved wooden panels of the church of Debra Damo and those formerly in the demolished church of Asmara and now in the local museum. There are also very numerous examples of richly ornamented liturgical metal furnishings, among