When a Metropolitan dies, the king sends an embassy to Cairo, with gifts for the Khedive and governor, asking for a successor. On several occasions of late the Abyssinians have threatened to shake off their ancient subjection under the Coptic Patriarch. The Government has approached the Armenians and the Jacobites with a view of getting bishops ordained by them; stranger still, lately they seem to accept the advances of Orthodox Russia not unwillingly.[1] However, a schism from the Copts has not yet happened. Among the holy men of Egypt there is no undue ambition for the honour of being Abūna. On the contrary, they do all they can to avoid it. In the past we hear of a monk being caught, ordained by force, and carried off to Abyssinia under a strong guard. The reason of this is that Abūna never sees his fatherland again. He must end his days an exile in what, even to a Copt, is a barbarous land. The flesh-pots of Egypt may not seem very attractive to us (in the case of a Coptic monk), but they seem more desirable to them than exile in Gondar. One of the many disadvantages of this system is the long period of sedes vacans. It used to take about two years after the death of one Metropolitan before his successor entered the capital.[2] The new Primate is received with great pomp when he enters the country, and is escorted by the king, nobles, clergy and soldiers to the palace where he is to reside. Umbrellas form a great feature of Abyssinian processions. Abūna alone has the right to one of cloth of gold held over him. He alone crowns the Negus, administers the sacrament of Holy Orders to bishops, priests and deacons,[3] consecrates churches and altars, and rules all the
- ↑ Stranger because the Armenians and Jacobites are fellow Monophysites. But communion with the Orthodox would mean a change of religion. It would be very interesting if, after all this trouble for fifteen hundred years, a whole Monophysite Church accepted Chalcedon, because the Copts will not give them a small convent in Jerusalem.
- ↑ Renaudot: Lit. Orient. Coll. i. 418. When at last he arrives Abūna has to learn two foreign languages.
- ↑ This seems strange; but all authors seem to agree that no other bishop is allowed to ordain even priests and deacons (e.g. Gondal: Le Christianisme au pays de Ménélik, p. 18). If so, one may ask what is the good of them. But I suspect that this idea comes from the frequent periods in which Abūna was the only bishop in Abyssinia. Now that he has suffragans (p. 311), I think that they may ordain their priests and deacons, as do Coptic bishops.
