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ABYSSINIA. To-day the Abyssinians are governed as they were in the time of St. Athanasius, by a special delegate, who is practically the vicar of the Coptic Patriarch of Alexandria, and is locally known as Abouna, or Abou-Salama, "Father of Peace." He has the sole right, throughout Ethiopia and in perpetuity, of anointing the Negus "King of Kings"; of consecrating bishops, of ordaining priests and deacons, of blessing altar-stones, of superintending theological instruction, and of settling, as a last court of appeal, disputed or difficult questions of dogma, morals, and discipline. The law of Ethiopia demands that the Abouna shall always be a foreigner, an Egyptian, whom the Negus obtains, or rather buys, from the Khedive and the Coptic Patriarch of Cairo, the alleged successor to St. Mark in the See of Alexandria. Immediately after obtaining his episcopal consecration, and his primatial jurisdiction, the Abouna sets out for Ethiopia, with no hope of return; but lands and large revenues ensure him a comfortable existence there. The Itchagué, or Ethiopian Archbishop, is the second religious personage in Abyssinia. The Ethiopian primate is forbidden by the Patriarch of Alexandria to consecrate more than seven bishops, but there are a considerable number of secular and religious clergy, recruited with little discretion, and deplorably ignorant. The Ethiopian Church has, in addition to the priests and monks, an intermediate class, the Deftaras, or literati, who duty it is to preserve, interpret, and apply the written law, a vast collection of ordinances of the Lower Empire, modified and altered by the Copts in order to ensure the supremacy of the See of Alexandria over the whole of Ethiopia. The liturgical language is the Gheez, a mixture of Greek and Arabic.

Since the settlement of the Italians at Massowah and on the shores of the Red Sea, where they have founded the colony of Erythræa, Abyssinia has been divided into three missionary divisions. The Vicariate of Abyssinia, entrusted to the Lazarists, and comprising Tigré, Amhara, and Gondar, contained, in 1904, 4,000 Catholics, two churches, two chapels, six Lazarist priests, and four native secular priests, with more than sixty seminarians studying Gheez at Alitiena. The Prefecture of Erythræa, in the charge of Italian Capuchins, comprises the entire colony of that name, and contains 14,000 Catholics, thirty-three churches, and fifty-one priests, nine of whom are Capuchins. The Vicariate of the Gallas, in the kingdom of Shoa, and among several tribes independent of the Negus, contains 18,000 Catholics and twenty churches. It is administered by twenty Capuchins, French for the most part, and eight secular priests. There are in Abyssinia, 200,000 Mussulmans, with much influence in the country, and filling the most important positions at court; 100,000 Pagans, and 50,000 Jews. The only Protestants who have succeeded in gaining a foothold in Abyssinia during the nineteenth century are the missionaries of the Swedish National Society, who, however, may only labour in Erythræa, where they have two principal centers, at Moncullo, near Massowah, and at Geleb, as well as certain stations in Cunana land and in the province of Hamasen. Their statistics give them 380 church members. The Catholic apostolate in Abyssinia must always exercise a courageous discretion and an unfailing mildness. The missionaries will have to contend for many years against the Eutychian fanaticism of the monks, and the quarrelsome nature of the inhabitants. Moreover, the frequent political revolutions of the past give little hope of settled peace and continued security.

—The Galla, or Oromo, race in the south has been the terror of Abyssinia ever since the sixteenth century. The importation of European rifles, as well as the dissensions among the Galla tribes gave an opportunity (1870) to Menelik, King of Shoa, to undertake the conquest of all the colonies of the Oromo nation as far as Lake Victoria-Nyanza and Uganda. This conquest was not achieved until more than thirty years after the time it was undertaken.

In 1846, Gregory XVI appointed as vicar apostolic to the Galla missions Father William Massaia, an Italian Capuchin, formerly tutor to King Humbert. The new prelate belonged to the Order of St. Francis, which was the only one that succeeded (1636–1752) in introducing Catholic priests into Abyssinia. The few apostles who braved the schismatics, however, were all martyred. The first Franciscan missionaries were beheaded at Suakin, and Blessed Agathange of Vendóme and Cassianus of Nantes were ignominiously hanged (1638). More than a century later (1752), three other were stoned to death in a public square of Gondar. From this time, Abyssinia, as if barred from the rest of the world by a wall of iron, was an impenetrable region for the Church, and it was almost a century later that Mgr. Massaia landed at Massowah to undertake to reanimate the old faith of the Ethiopians. In the disguise of a merchant, under the constant espionage of the mercenaries of the Abouna-Salama and Theodoros, now welcomed by certain chiefs, again attacked by a frenzied crowd, often bound and condemned to death, he always contrived to escape. He left Abyssinia to go to France and England, where he conferred with Napoleon III and Queen Victoria. Having received from them important help in his work, he returned to his mission, in September, 1853. On his arrival, he compiled a Galla dictionary, translated the Bible, converted a prince of Lagamara, vaccinated a hundred people daily during a smallpox epidemic, and once more fell into the hands of Theodoros, who put him in chains. Mocked and flouted by the populace, he was thrown into a hut open to the four winds of heaven. His patience, however, won the esteem of Theodoros, who released him. Having been summoned by Menelik, the young King of Shoa, he gained his affection and aroused in him an admiration of the Catholic religion. "You have saints," said the king to the bishop, "and that is a wonder which neither my priests nor my deptera [doctors] can accomplish." After a fruitful apostolic mission of thirty-five years among the Galla tribes, Mgr. Massaia was created a Cardinal by Leo XIII, and died in 1889, leaving 10,000 Christians in the country.

The British Counsel, Walter Plowden, a hardy adventurer, frequently gave the Negus Theodoros such timely assistance as led to his success in several wars. Plowden was assassinated, however, and his successor, Captain Charles Duncan Cameron, failed to establish a good understanding with the African emperor. Suspected of having had an understanding with the Musselmans of Egypt, who had just defeated