modern Abyssinia. The characteristic of its history is a great distrust and fear of Europeans and European missionaries. No doubt they thought that the Portuguese meant eventually to annex their country; maybe this idea was not altogether wrong. Their Church is their nation; they do not want either to be interfered with by Europe. So there have been repeated laws forbidding missionaries of any other religion to come into the country.[1] The accounts of the Portuguese aroused considerable interest in this ancient kingdom. A number of missionaries, both Catholic and Protestant, tried to approach Abyssinia. In times of slack discipline they succeeded; but always, as soon as they began to make converts, they were driven out again. These missionaries never succeeded in forming rival Churches to the State religion; they are only important inasmuch as they brought back accounts of the country. Peter Heyling from Lübeck, the first Protestant missionary, came in 1634 and made a vain attempt to preach his religion. In the early 19th century the Church Missionary Society made a great effort. James Bruce travelled in Abyssinia in the years 1768-1773, and wrote an account of the country.[2] He persuaded an Abyssinian monk to translate the Bible into the modern language (Amharic); this was published by the British and Foreign Bible Society.[3] In 1830 the C.M.S. sent Samuel Gobat[4] and Christian Kugler; they were followed by C. W. Isenberg and Ludwig Krapf. The mission had to be abandoned by the year 1850. In 1858 a Protestant missionary society at Basel made an equally unsuccessful attempt.
We shall describe the Catholic missions in our next volume. They alone, in spite of enormous difficulties, remain in the country and have a seminary in which they educate a native Catholic clergy. But the Catholic mission is still very small. Practically there is no tolerance in Abyssinia.[5] There is a colony of the ubiquitous Jews between Aksum and Gondar. The great danger is Islam, which surrounds the Ethiopic Church on all sides. Many tribes
- ↑ Already in the Middle Ages they had a law that no foreigner who entered Abyssinia should ever return home.
- ↑ Travels in Abessinia, London, 1790.
- ↑ Not complete.
- ↑ Afterwards Anglo-Lutheran Bishop of Jerusalem (1845-1879).
- ↑ There is now one small Swedish Lutheran mission, under Dr. Adolf Kolmadin, on the frontier, in the Italian colony Eritrea.
