Video Lesson

Learning Competencies: After learning this lesson, you will be able to:

• criticize the imposition of Catholicism;
• evaluate the effect of the introduction of the new creed;
• appreciate the ruler who brought an end to the bloodshed caused by the
  new faith.

Brainstorming Questions

• What do you understand by religious or doctrinal controversy?
• Who was the most successful Catholic priest? Why was he successful?

Key terms and concepts

After the end of the supremacy of Adal over much of the Ethiopian region in 1543, Portugal and the Pope of Rome wanted to convert the Ethiopian king and his people to Catholicism. Portugal allegedly claimed that, in return for military assistance, King Libne Dingil have promised in his 1535 letter to the king of Portugal to give a third of his kingdom and to be converted, together with his people, to Catholicism.

Survivors of the Portuguese troops stayed in the country. In the meantime, Jesuit missionaries came to Ethiopia as fathers, patriarchs and bishops, their ultimate goal being to convert the people to Catholicism. The Jesuits were members of the Society of Jesus, founded in Spain in 1540 by Saint Ignatius of Loyola as part of the Counter Reformation Movement.

On having understood the arrangement made in Europe for his conversion, King Gelawdewos wrote a letter of objection to the Portuguese governor of India. The governor, on his part, sent a young Catholic priest by the name Rodríguez to Gelawdewos so as to
persuade him. Soon after his arrival, the young Jesuit priest openly criticized the Orthodox Christian practices such as circumcision, food taboos, fasting and the observance of Saturdays as heresies. However, Gelawdewos rejected the demand for his conversion and Rodriguez returned to Goa (India).

The Portuguese made another attempt to meet their objective by sending a bishop by the name of Andre de Oviedo from Goa. The bishop arrived at the court of the monarch in 1557 and made repeated attempts to convert Gelawdewos. But Oviedo failed to convince the king. Indeed, the king wrote a book called “Confessions of Gelawdewos,” in which he defended the practices of the Orthodox faith.

After the death of Gelawdewos in 1559, Oviedo moved to the north and joined Bahire Negash Yeshaq, who had rebelled first aginst King Minas, and then Sertse Dingil. Later, he went to Goa, and died in 1597 without any success in his mission. In 1603 a new bishop named Pedro Pa`ez arrived at Massawa. But, before he reached the royal court, Ya`ekob was deposed and replaced by Ze Dingil. Ze Dingil was fully aware of the political problems faced by his predecessors. Therefore, he was determined to get rid of the disloyal soldiers and their commanders, as well as the clergy, whom he thought were the sources of the weaknesses of the monarchy. When Pa`ez understood this attitude of the king, he
directly told Ze Dingil that if he agreed to be converted to Catholicism, he could get Portuguese military assistance with which he could deal with his enemies, and consolidate his political power. Soon Ze Dingil began to take measures like banning the observance
of Saturdays to satisfy the demands of Pa`ez.

However, Pa`ez advised the king to be cautious, and not to take hasty measures that might lead to failure. Whatever the case, Ze Dingil had already been suspected of being secretly converted, and consequently, he faced strong opposition from the Orthodox Church, which accused him of being converted to Catholicism. In the civil war that followed, Ze Dingil was killed in 1604. In the same year, Ya’ekob was restored to power, and Pa`ez continued the same deal with him, but Ya`ekob was killed in 1607.

Ya`ekob was succeeded by Susinyos (r.1607-32). The reign of Susinyos saw the success of the long effort of the Jesuit bishops. Pa`ez was particularly successful in converting many influential dignitaries of the kingdom, including King Susinyos. Just like his immediate predecessors, Susinyos leaned towards Catholicism in order to get Portuguese military assistance. Therefore, the Jesuits got freedom to preach and recruit converts even in the court itself. The first important convert was Susinyos’s brother, Ras Si’ile Kristos, who was publicly baptized in 1611, followed by many others.

Beginning in 1612, a series of public debates on Catholic principles were held in the court. The debate was chaired by Susinyos himself. In the debate, the Catholics were represented by Si`ile Kristos. In the meantime, the Orthodox Church practices such as circumcision, fasting on Fridays and Wednesdays and the observance of Saturdays as Sabbath days were condemned as heresies. The Orthodox clergymen who stood against
Catholicism also faced mistreatment in the court. All these measures brought about the rebellion of the peasants headed by the clergy and the nobility. In 1622, Susinyos himself was officially converted to Catholicism and made Catholicism the official state religion. A few months later, Paez died. In June 1625 Alfonso Mendez arrived to Ethiopia.

The first peasant rebellion against Susinyos and Catholicism broke out in 1617, and from 1626 to 1632 Susinyos fought many battles. This was mainly because of the hasty imposition of the new religion on the peasants. Besides, many of the long established Ethiopian Christian practices were banned. For these reasons, both the peasantry and the clergy joined the rebellion to defend their religion.

Eventually, Susinyos came to understand that he could not suppress the opposition easily. In the meantime, the Portuguese soldiers and firearms which he had hoped to obtainfrom Portugal failed to arrive. Therefore, he realized that he had simply incurred the enmity of his people and the clergy in vain. He understood that in an attempt to build a strong and peaceful government using Catholicism, he was leading the country to a bloody civil war. So, after his last battle that took place in 1632, he decided to abandon Catholicism. In the same year, he abdicated in favour of his son, Fasiledes, whose first measure was the restoration of the Orthodox Church to its former position. In the reaction that followed, many Catholic converts were killed. The first victim was Ras Si’ile Kristos, who was publicly hanged. In 1632, Fasiledes also ordered the expulsion of the Jesuit missionaries from the country.

The doctrinal controversies mentioned above endangered the Orthodox Church in the subsequent centuries. The religious controversy also had a long-term consequence on the foreign relations of the Christian highland kingdom. It was believed that the bloody civil war was caused by the interference of external forces. Therefore, to avoid similar problems in the future, Fasiledes made an alliance with the Muslim states on both sides of the Red Sea. He signed treaties with the Imams of Yemen and the Pashas of Swakin and Massawa, who agreed to prevent or report the coming of any European to the Christian highland kingdom. Thus, Fasiledes introduced the closed-door policy, which was to continue until the beginning of the 19th century. During this long period of isolation, only two Europeans succeeded in reaching the Christian court at Gondar. They were the French physician named Charles Jaques Poncet (1699) and the Scottish traveler, James Bruce (1769-71).