The Falashas: The Forgotten Jews of Ethiopia, by David Kessler
Today's date is: 5/12/2025
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The Falashas: The Forgotten Jews of Ethiopia, by David Kessler
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| mission landed on the Red Sea coast a short while before Massawa was occupied by the Turks, with whom, astonishingly, the bishop soon made common cause. In 1603 a far abler missionary arrived in the person of the Spanish Jesuit Pero Pais, who rapidly gained influence at the Ethiopian court. When Susneyos had firmly established his authority, Pais 'began working systematically and adroitly by teaching Ethiopian children, by building churches, by dangling before the king the prospect of a military alliance with Spain, always on condition that he would submit himself and his country to the Church of Rome'.(1) By degrees Susneyos succumbed to the Jesuit propaganda and after Pais's death in 1622 he came under the influence of his less diplomatic but no less enthusiastic successor, Alphonso Mendes, who was also a Jesuit. The latter succeeded in persuading the emperor to make a public confession of his adherence to the Roman Church and he attempted to have the country converted by force. Mendes insisted that such Jewish practices as circumcision and the observance of Saturday as a day of rest should be prohibited. This also implied the renunciation of the traditional monophysite faith and the acceptance of the authority of the Pope. The Falashas were not the only victims of the Jesuits' mania. Heavy penalties were inflicted on those who refused to work on Saturday. Bruce records that one of the principal generals at the king's court was 'beaten with rods and degraded from his employment for observing the Jewish Sabbath' while a certain monk had his tongue cut out for maintaining his faith in the monophysite doctrine of the oneness of the nature of Christ. (2) The country became disaffected, revolts broke out and after severe fighting Susneyos finally decided to abandon the Jesuits and to abdicate in favour ofhis son Fasilidas (Basilides) (1632-67), who immediately banished the missionaries, first to Fremona in Tigrai and then from all Ethiopia. The ignominious failure of the Jesuit mission was ascribed by Bruce to the lack of enthusiasm for the adventure by the King of Spain and Portugal who, he thought, was more concerned with other foreign conquests, and failed to support the Jesuits with armed force, leaving Susneyos 'to the prayers of Urban VIII, the merit of Ignatius Loyola, and the labours of his furious and fanatic disciples'. (3) The expulsion of the Jesuits and the restoration of the monophysite faith protected the country from foreign intervention and avoided the worst excesses of the Inquisition, which, among other things, (1) ibid., p. 82. |
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