More tidbits to play with (stolen from http://listserv.indiana.edu/scripts/wa.exe?A2=ind9409B&L=orthodox&D=&H=&T=&O=&F=&P=10861)
PORTUGUESE arrived in Ethiopia in the 1400s. They played an important role in defeating the great Somali conqueror AHMED THE LEFT-HANDED, who nearly destroyed the Empire. They then attempted to colonize and Catholicize the country they had saved from Islam.
SUSENIOS, emperor in the early 1600s, converted to Catholicism under Jesuit influence and persecuted the Orthodox who resisted him. This eventually provoked a back-lash; Orthodoxy (although somewhat Catholicized) was re-asserted and the country closed to foreigners.
THEOLOGICAL CONTROVERSIES of all kinds erupted in the wake of the Jesuits; the Adoptionist and other ancient heresies were reinvented and gained influential supporters. The Emperor JOSHUA convened councils to re-assert Orthodox teaching.
THEODORE: In the 1700s the Empire decayed into feudal microstates. These were re-united in the 1800s by a Robin-Hood like bandit-chief of royal blood, who was crowned under the name Theodore. In Ethiopian tradition, a King Theodore is supposed to appear to battle the Anti-Christ, so this was a messianic sort of name; Theodore later took on even more ambitious titles, implying equality with God. Rejected by the Church, he provoked a disastrous war with Britain which destroyed his empire and and led to his own suicide. He is, nevertheless, the builder of the modern state, a very great and tragic figure.
PORTUGUESE arrived in Ethiopia in the 1400s. They played an important role in defeating the great Somali conqueror AHMED THE LEFT-HANDED, who nearly destroyed the Empire. They then attempted to colonize and Catholicize the country they had saved from Islam.
SUSENIOS, emperor in the early 1600s, converted to Catholicism under Jesuit influence and persecuted the Orthodox who resisted him. This eventually provoked a back-lash; Orthodoxy (although somewhat Catholicized) was re-asserted and the country closed to foreigners.
THEOLOGICAL CONTROVERSIES of all kinds erupted in the wake of the Jesuits; the Adoptionist and other ancient heresies were reinvented and gained influential supporters. The Emperor JOSHUA convened councils to re-assert Orthodox teaching.
THEODORE: In the 1700s the Empire decayed into feudal microstates. These were re-united in the 1800s by a Robin-Hood like bandit-chief of royal blood, who was crowned under the name Theodore. In Ethiopian tradition, a King Theodore is supposed to appear to battle the Anti-Christ, so this was a messianic sort of name; Theodore later took on even more ambitious titles, implying equality with God. Rejected by the Church, he provoked a disastrous war with Britain which destroyed his empire and and led to his own suicide. He is, nevertheless, the builder of the modern state, a very great and tragic figure.
