Cap. xciv.—Of the fashion and things of this church of the Trinity, and how the Prester sent to tell the ambassador to go and see the church of his mother, and of the things which happened in it.
The following day the Prester sent to call us and conduct us to the above-mentioned church, and he was already in it. This church is large and high, and the walls are of white stone hewn masonry, and with good tracery on the walls. However, they do not fix the upper woodwork upon the walls, because they could not support it, from not being linked and bound one with another, that is to say the stones and corner stones, but they are laid one above another, without any going all through the walls: though, at first sight it looks well to anyone who does not know what is inside. It has the principal door lined with plates of metal like that of the church of St. George, which we left behind us; and in the midst of this plating are stones and false pearls well set. On the top of the wall, over the principal door, are two effigies of our Lady very well made, and two angels of the same fashion, all done with the paint brush, and they say that they were painted by a friar, who learned by himself, and I saw this friar. The church has three naves in the body of the church raised on six supports. These supports are of masonry in pieces. A third nave outside, which is closed and covered in like a cloister and almost like part of the church, is raised upon sixty-one high wooden props, like very tall masts; upon these props rests the woodwork, almost flat, of very thick planks. There were suspended all round the tower sixteen curtains that could be drawn, of the length of the stuffs, which were all very rich brocade, and each curtain was of sixteen pieces of stuff. The Cabeata went about showing us these things. When we had seen all, the Prester sent to ask what we thought of these things, works and stuffs. We answered that it seemed to us very good, and that it looked as it should do, seeing to whom it belonged. Then he asked if they could send him lead to cover this church. The ambassador said that everything that His Highness might wish for, the King of Portugal would send to him in abundance, as His Highness would see, because all metals were in his possession. From this place we set out with the Prester to his tents, he in his curtain, and we on our mules, without any more ceremonies. The tents were close to another church of the same form as this, only that it was smaller. When we arrived and dismounted close to the tent, the Prester sent to tell the ambassador that we should go and see the church of his mother, which was close to the tents. We went there, and certainly it is well made for its size. Here they told us not to find any fault with it, because the Prester’s mother was so fanciful that if we found any fault with it, or said that it was not so good as that of her son, that she would order it to be thrown down and to be constructed afresh. When we had seen this church, and while we were still in it, the Prester sent to say that, since we had much gold in Portugal, why did we sell rich stuffs to the Moors for gold? The ambassador replied that the expenses of the King of Portugal and of his captains and fleets were so great, on account of the many wars they continually waged with the Moors, in many parts, that if they did not trade, they would not be able to endure them, especially as these expenses and wars were a long way off from the kingdom of Portugal, from which succours had to come; and as they went so much by sea they carried with them merchandise, and to some they sold and from others they took, and by this means they supplied a part of the expense. To this there was no answer, but he then sent word to show us in the church two large door curtains, very rich with figures, and he asked where those stuffs were made. He was told that all those were made in Christendom, and not in any other part. Upon this he sent to ask if they would send him many of those, and he would send much gold. The ambassador replied that if His Highness wrote to the King of Portugal, that he would send him as many as he wished for. At this they came with another rejoinder saying, what had we brought him? The ambassador answered that he had brought him that which he had given him, that is to say a valuable sword, and a gold-mounted dagger, and two cannons with their chambers and balls and powder, and four cloths for hanging on walls, and some handsome cuirasses, and that this had been given him by the Captain-major of India, and that he did not send these things except as a sample; and that if it pleased him he should write to the King of Portugal, and he would send him as much as he desired. They came with another addition, saying, that it was the custom of all those who had sent ambassadors to these countries to send many goods, and so they had always done to his predecessors, and that we had come and had brought nothing. The ambassador replied to this, that it was not the custom of the King of Portugal and of his captains, when they sent embassies or messages to other kings and great lords, to send any presents, except out of friendship: rather, on the contrary, all those sent things to him to make him their friend: and if the captain-major of India had sent him those presents, he had sent them to serve him, and not on account of any such custom; nevertheless, the King of Portugal had sent to the Prester by another ambassador who died in Camaran, more than a hundred thousand cruzados in goods, and he had sent them as to a brother, and not from custom or obligation. With regard to what His Highness said, that the King of Portugal had sent him many things and that they had not presented them, he had already many times sent to tell him that he would see by the captain-major’s letters what he had sent him; and how what the King of Portugal had sent had remained in India, and also he could know by the factor and clerk who came with them, because the affairs of such sovereigns are conducted by factors and clerks. And although they sent factors, the Portuguese were not accustomed to act falsely, but to deal with great truth in all that was charged or commanded to them, and he had told him the truth several times, and if he chose to believe it he might believe it, and if not, let it be as His Highness commanded. And His Highness should know that the ambassador had come by order of the great captain-major of the King of Portugal who governed the Indies, and the manner in which he had come had been such as was usual for going to all kings and emperors: and that His Highness should not send to say to him that which was not usual among the Portuguese, but rather should dismiss him, for he wanted to go because the time had arrived. The Prester sent to say that if we had come in the times of the preceding kings that they would not have done us any honour such as he had done us, unless we had brought them much goods. The ambassador replied that, on the contrary, many injuries had been done to us in his countries, and robberies, stealing whatever we had, and that there did not remain to us clothes, nor the goods we had brought for our maintenance, and that if we died in this country we should all go to Paradise as martyrs, on account of the affronts which we had met with and experienced, for already they had attempted three or four times to kill us in his countries, and that we endured all with patience, for the love of God, and of the King of Portugal, to whom we belonged: and that the King of Portugal had done other honour to Matheus, because he said he was the Prester’s ambassador. Withal he entreated him to despatch us, that we might go and give an account of that which we had been commanded, because the Portuguese were not accustomed to lie, but to do and speak truth. To this came an answer that neither the Portuguese nor the ambassador told lies, but that Matheus had been a liar, and that he well knew the honour which had been done to him by the King of Portugal, and his captain in India, as soon as he arrived there, and that we should not be angry, and we should soon be despatched, with much satisfaction to ourselves, and that we should go in peace to dine.
Cap. xcv.—How Prester John sent to tell those of the embassy and the Franks to go and see his baptism, and of the representation which the Franks made for him, and how he ordered that I should be present at the baptism, and of the fashion of the tank, and how he desired the Portuguese to swim, and gave them a banquet.
On the 4th day of the month of January Prester John sent to tell us to order our tents, both that of the church and our own, to be taken from this place to a distance of about half a league, where they had made a large tank of water, in which they were to be baptized on the day of the Kings, because on that day it is their custom to be baptized every year, as that was the day on which Christ was baptized. We took thither a small tent for resting in and the church tent. The next day, which was the vigil of the day of the Kings, the Prester sent to call us, and we saw the enclosure where the tank was. The enclosure was a fence, and very large, in a plain. He sent to ask us if we intended to be baptized. I replied that it was not our custom to be baptized more than once, when we were little. Some said, principally the ambassador, that we would do what His Highness commanded. When they perceived that, they came back again with another message to me, asking what I said as to being baptized. I answered that I had been already baptized, and should not be so again. They still sent word that if we did not wish to be baptised in their tank, they would send us water to our tent. To this the ambassador replied that it should be as His Highness ordered. The Franks and our people had arranged to give a representation of the Kings,[181] and they sent to tell him of it. A message came that it pleased him, and so they got ready for it, and they made it in the inclosure and plain close to the King’s tent, which was pitched close to the tank. They gave the representation, and it was not esteemed, nor hardly looked at, and so it was a cold affair. Now that it was night they told us to go to our tent, which was not far off. In all this night till dawn a great number of priests never ceased chaunting over the said tank, saying that they were blessing the water, and about midnight, a little earlier or later, they began the baptism. They say, and I believe that such is the truth, that the first person baptized is the Prester, and after him the Abima, and after him the Queen, the wife of the Prester. They say that these three persons wear cloths over their nakedness, and that all the others were as their mothers bore them. When it was almost the hour of sunrise, and the baptism in fullest force, the Prester sent to call me to see the said baptism. I went and remained there till the hour of tierce, seeing how they were baptized; they placed me at one end of the tank, with my face towards Prester John, and they baptize in this manner.
The tank is large, the bottom of it in the earth, and it is cut very straight in the earth, and well squared; it is lined with planks, and over the planks waxed cotton cloth is spread. The water came from a rivulet through a conduit, like those to irrigate gardens, and it fell into the tank through a cane, at the end of which was a bag that was full; because they strain the water which falls into the tank; and it was no longer running when I saw it: the tank was full of blessed water, as they said, and they told me that it contained oil. This tank had five or six steps at one end, and about three fathoms in front of these steps was the dais of Prester John, on which he sat. He had before him a curtain of blue tafetan, with an opening of about a span, by which those who were baptized saw him, because he was with his face to the tank. In the tank stood the old priest, the master of the Prester, who was with me Christmas night, and he was naked as when his mother bore him (and quite dead of cold, because it was a very sharp frost), standing in the water up to his shoulders or thereabouts, for so deep was the tank that those who were to be baptized entered by the steps, naked, with their backs to the Prester, and when they came out again they showed him their fronts, the women as well as the men. When they came to the said priest, he put his hands on their head, and put it three times under the water, saying in his language, “In name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit”: he made the sign of the cross as a blessing, and they went away in peace. (The “I baptize thee”, I heard him say it.) If they were little people they did not go down all the steps, and the priest approached them, and dipped them there. They placed me at the other end of the tank, with my face looking to the Prester, so that when he saw the backs, I saw the fronts, and the contrary way when they came out of the tank. After a great number of baptized persons had passed, he sent to call me to be near him; and so near that the Cabeata did not stir to hear what the Prester said, and to speak to the interpreter who was close to me: and he asked me what I thought of that office. I answered him that the things of God’s service which were done in good faith and without evil deceit, and in His praise, were good, but such an office as this, there was none in our Church, rather it forbade us baptizing without necessity on that day, because on that day Christ was baptized, so that we should not think of saying of ourselves that we were baptized on the same day as Christ; also the Church does not order this sacrament to be given more than once. Afterwards he asked whether we had it written in books not to be baptized more than once. I replied, Yes, that we had, and that in the Creed, which was made at the Council of Pope Leon, with the three hundred and eighteen bishops, about which at times His Highness had questioned me, it was said: “Confiteor unum baptisma in remissionem peccatorum.” Then they said to me that such was the truth, and so it was written in their books; but what were they to do with many who turned Moors and Jews after being Christians and then repented, and with others who did not believe well in baptism, what remedy would they have? I answered: For those who do not rightly believe, teaching and preaching would suffice for them, and if that did not profit, burn them as heretics. And so Christ spoke, and St. Mark wrote it: “Qui crediderit et baptizatus fuerit salvus erit, qui vero non crediderit condemnabitur.” And as to those who turned Moors or Jews, and afterwards of their own free will recognised their error, and asked for mercy, the Abima would absolve them, with penances salutary for their souls, if he had powers for this, if not, let them go to the Pope of Rome, in whom are all the powers. And those who did not repent, they might take them and burn them, for such is the use in Frankland and the Church of Rome. To this there came the reply, that all this seemed to him good, but that his grandfather had ordained this baptism by the counsel of great priests, in order that so many souls should not be lost, and that it had been the custom until now; and he asked if the Pope would concede to the Abima to hold these powers, and how much it would cost him, and in how much time could they come. I answered him that the Pope desired nothing except to save souls, and that he would esteem it fortunate to send to him, the Abima, with such powers, and that it would only cost him the expenses of the journey, which would not be much, and also the letters of his powers: and that they could go and come through Portugal in three years: and by the road of Jerusalem, that I did not know it. To this there came no answer except that I might go in peace to say mass. I said it was no longer time for saying mass, that midday was long passed. So I went to dine with our Portuguese and the Franks.
This tank was all closed in and covered over with coloured tent cloths, so well that more could not be said, and so well arranged, with so many oranges and lemons, and boughs suspended and so well disposed, that the boughs, oranges, and lemons appeared to have grown there, and that it was a well ordered garden. The large tent which was over the tank was long and ...,[182] and above covered with red and blue crosses of the fashion of the crosses of the order of Christ. This day, later in the afternoon, Prester John sent to call the ambassador and all his company. The baptism was already ended, and His Highness was still within his curtain where I left him. We entered there, and he at once asked the ambassador what he thought of it. He replied that it was very good, although we had not got such a custom. The water was then running into the tank, and he asked if there were here Portuguese who could swim. At once two jumped into the tank, and swam and dived as much as the tank allowed of. He enjoyed greatly, as he showed by his looks, seeing them swim and dive. After this he desired us to go outside and go to one end of the enclosure or circuit; and here he ordered a banquet to be made for us of bread and wine (according to their custom and the use of the country), and he desired us to raise our church tent and the tent we were lodging in, because he wished to return to his quarters, and that we should go in front of him because he was ordering his horsemen to skirmish in the manner in which they fight with the Moors in the field. So we went in front of him, looking at the said skirmish. They began, but soon there came such heavy rain that it did not allow them to carry out the skirmish which they had begun well.[183]
Cap. xcvi.—How I went with an interpreter to visit the Abima Mark, and how I was questioned about circumcision, and how the Abima celebrates the holy orders.
Next day after the baptism I went to visit the Abima Marcos, whom as yet I had not spoken to, nor seen, except at the baptism, when he was half dead with the cold, and I could not speak to him there. He rejoiced greatly at my visit, and would not give me his hand to kiss it, but rather wished to throw himself on the ground with demonstrations of kissing my feet. When we were seated both together on a bedstead, the beginning of our conversation was to give thanks to God for bringing us together. Then he began to speak of the great pleasure he had received from what they had related to him of what I had said on several occasions, and from what he had seen had passed with me at the baptism, and from the great clearness with which I had spoken the truth in the presence of the Prester, which he would not believe from him, the Abima, because he was alone; and that if he had a partner or two, who would assist him in speaking the truth, he would withdraw the Prester from many things and errors, in which he was with his people. Upon this there came in a priest of his, a white man, son of a Gibete, that is, a white man born in this country. This one asked why we were not circumcised, since Christ had been so. I answered that it was true that Christ had been circumcised, and that he chose it in order to fulfil the law which was in force at that time, and in order not to be accused before the time of being a breaker of the law: and afterwards it had been commanded to cease circumcision. This priest next said that he was the son of a Frank, and that when he was born his father would not have him circumcised, and when he was already twenty years old and his father had died, he had gone to bed entire, and in the morning found himself cut smaller: how would that be since God no longer would have circumcision. I answered him that it would be a great lie, because although God had not forbidden circumcision, yet he would not be sufficiently worthy nor so holy, that God should have wrought a miracle for him, and from imperfect to make him perfect: and if it was so as he said, that he went to bed entire and found himself cut, the devil must have cut him to make a mockery of him. The Abima, with as many as were in the house, were seized with much laughter, and the Abima rejoiced much; and this priest, from this time forward became much my friend, and came every day to our mass, and was very friendly with the Portuguese. The Abima sent for wine and fruit, and sent with me to our tents much bread and wine and a cow. On the 8th day of January the Abima Mark conferred orders, and I went to see their manner of giving them, and it is as follows. They pitched a white tent in a large plain without inhabitants, where there were quite five or six thousand people to be ordained. The Abima arrived upon a mule, and I with him, as I came in his company, and many others who came with him. In the midst of these people he made a speech from his mule in Arabic, which one of his priests translated into Abyssinian. I asked the interpreter that I brought with me what the Abima said. He told me that he said if there was anyone here who had two wives or more, even though one was dead, that he was not to become a priest, and that if he did become a priest, that he excommunicated him, and held him to be accursed by the curse of God. Having made this speech he went to sit on a chair in front of the said tent, and before him sat three priests on the ground with several books in their hands, and others which ruled the office; and they made all sit down, as many as were to be ordained, squatting,[184] that is to say, upon their heels. This in three very long rows, and each row ended at the three priests who had the books. And there they examined them a very short examination, for each one did not read more than two or three words: then they go to one who stands behind these with a vase of ink and a stamp like a seal, and he puts this stamp on the flat of the right arm. Then they rose from where they came, and went to sit in the middle of the plain in a clump, in which sat all those that had been examined, and there were very few who did not pass. When this examination was ended, the Abima went into the tent and sat on the said chair. This tent had two entrances, and they put all the examined persons in a line, one before another, and they passed before the Abima, entering by one door and going out by the other: when they passed before him, he put his hand on their head, and said words which I did not understand, and so there did not remain one for whom this ceremony was not done. Here he took a book in his hands and read a piece for himself, and held a cross in his hand, and made with it the sign of the cross over them. This ceremony being concluded, a priest who was with the Abima went out to the door of the tent, and read from a book something like an epistle or gospel; then the Abima said mass, which was not more than as much as one might say the psalm Miserere mei Deus three times. And he gave the communion to these priests, who were two thousand three hundred and fifty seven, all mass priests: because the mass priests are ordained by themselves, and the deacons by themselves on another day: and the Abima told me that the deacons were ordained in all the orders as far as deacon, like St. Stephen. And later I saw men ordained zagonais and priests of the mass all in one day, and this several times, because he conferred orders almost every day, and always in great number, because they come to him from all the kingdoms and lordships of the Prester, for there is no other who ordains these priests. They are not put down in a register, nor do they carry a letter, or other certificate of their orders; and as to the number which I named, which was 2,357, I did not count them, but I asked the person who had the charge, and he told me this number, and certainly it seems to me that it would be true. As to the orders of zagonais,[185] I will relate where I saw them and was present at them.