Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church - Jesuit Interim

Jesuit Interim

Little else is known of church history down to the period of Jesuit influence, which broke the connection with Egypt. Union with the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria continued after Arab conquests in Egypt.

Abu Saleh records in the 12th century that the patriarch sent letters twice a year to the kings of Abyssinia (Ethiopia) and Nubia, until Al Hakim stopped the practice. Cyril, 67th patriarch, sent Severus as bishop, with orders to put down the practice of polygamy and to enforce observance of canonical consecration for all churches. These examples show the close relations of the two churches concurrent with the Middle Ages. Early in the 16th century the church was brought under the influence of a Portuguese mission.

In 1439, in the reign of Zara Yaqob, a religious discussion between Abba Giorgis and a French visitor had led to the dispatch of an embassy from Ethiopia to the Vatican; but the initiative in the Catholic missions to Ethiopia was taken, not by the Holy See, but by the church in Portugal, as an incident in the struggle with the Muslim Ottoman Empire and Sultanate of Adal for the command of the trade route to India by the Red Sea.

In 1507 Matthew (or Matheus) an Armenian, had been sent as Ethiopian envoy to Portugal to ask aid against Adal. In 1520 an embassy under Dom Rodrigo de Lima landed in Ethiopia (by which time Adal had been remobilized under Ahmad ibn Ibrihim al-Ghazi). An account of the Portuguese mission, which remained for several years, was written by the chaplain, Francisco Álvares.

Later, Saint Ignatius Loyola wished to essay the task of conversion, but this did not happen. Instead, the pope sent out Joao Nunez Barreto as Patriarch of the East Indies, with Andre de Oviedo as bishop; and from Goa envoys (followed by Oviedo) went to Ethiopia. After repeated failures, some measure of success was achieved under Emperor Susenyos, but not until 1624 did the Emperor make a formal declaration of communion with the then pope, Urban VIII. Susenyos made Catholicism the official state religion but was met with heavy resistance and, in 1632 had to abdicate in favour of his son, Fasilides, who promptly returned Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity as the official religion of the country. He then expelled the Jesuits in 1633, and in 1665 Fasilides ordered all Jesuit books (the Books of the Franks) be burned.