Theological Controversies.

Ever since the arrival of the British Embassy in Shoa, the king’s attention had been occupied with controversies, which, during a period of sixty years, have perplexed the Abyssinian divines. The doctrines which His Majesty conceives to be most conducive to salvation are, unfortunately, diametrically opposed to the historical facts and clear evidence of the Gospel; but as summary deposition and confiscation of property is the sure meed of heresy, he bids fair in due process of time to promulgate a most curious creed of his own.

At the expense of a bloody civil war, Gondar, with Gojam, Damót, and all the south-western provinces of Amhára, have long maintained the three births of Christ—Christ proceeding from the Father from all eternity, styled “the eternal birth;” his incarnation, as being born of the holy Virgin, termed his “second or temporal birth;” and his reception of the Holy Ghost in the womb, denominated his “third birth.” The Tigré ecclesiastics, on the other hand, whose side is invariably espoused by the primate of Ethiopia, deny the third birth, upon the grounds that the reception of the Holy Ghost cannot be so styled—the opinions of both parties being at variance with the belief of the Occidental churches, which, on the evidence of the Gospel, believe that our blessed Saviour received the Holy Ghost at his baptism in his thirtieth year, immediately prior to the commencement of his preaching.

Further, the Gondar sectarians assert that Christ received the Holy Ghost by the Father, whilst those of Tigré affirm that, being God himself, he gave the Holy Ghost unto himself. This creed has obtained for the latter faction the opprobrious epithet of Kárra Ha?manót, “the Knife of the Faith,” in allusion to their having lopped off an acknowledged scriptural truth.

Asfa Woosen, grandsire to Sáhela Selássie, being assured by his father confessor, a native of Gondar, that in event of his embracing the doctrine of the three births, the district of Morabeitie, already conquered by Emmaha Yasoos, but not at that period completely annexed to Efát, should be permanently secured to him through the spiritual influence of the church, adopted it without hesitation. Until within the last few years the belief was limited to the monarchs of Shoa; but the hospitality of the reigning sovereign attracting to his dominions numerous visitors from the north and west of Abyssinia, the latent flame was quickly fanned; and the dispute reaching a great height, was at length brought before the despot, who put an end to it by issuing a royal proclamation, under the solitary tree at Angollála, “That he who should henceforth deny the three births of Christ, should forfeit his property, and be banished the realm.”

Aro?, a eunuch from Gondar, shortly disseminated another curious doctrine, which asserts that the human soul possesses knowledge, fasts, and worships in the womb, and immediately on separation from the body renders an account on high. On the recent nomination of the Alaka Wolda Georgis to be head of the Church, and of Kidána Wold to be the Alaka of Debra Libanos, three monks set out to Gondar for the purpose of denouncing them, as being opposed to this creed. Ras Ali, erroneously concluding that they denied the three births, sent to Sáhela Selássie to inquire how it happened that he had seceded from the faith of his forefathers by the appointment of the two individuals in question. Hereat th............