continued to the present time through fifteen centuries; and the office of Patriarch of the Ethiopic Church is still bestowed upon a Coptish priest, who receives his appointment and consecration from the Patriarch of Alexandria. The Abyssinian Church appears to have remained in a state of general peace and prosperity while Numidia, Carthage, and other African provinces, were convulsed by the faction of the Donatists. Neither do they appear to have taken any part in the tumults and dissensions arising from the Arian and Sabellian controversies. On the contrary, they were counted by the most rigid as a church of orthodox Christians, until the commencement of the seventh century, when they embraced the Eutychian sentiments, in consequence, it is said, of the exhortations addressed to them by the doctors of that sect who resided in Egypt.[7] About the same time, the Saracens subduing Egypt and all the adjacent countries, Abyssinia became isolated from the rest of the world. During the many centuries that ensued, Christianity, though not without adulteration, was preserved in this ancient empire, and the solemn observance of the seventh day unchangeably continued. Toward the close of the fifteenth century, the Portuguese, through their brilliant career of maritime discovery, succeeded in opening a communication into the country of the Abyssinians, who were found observing the rites and professing the doctrine of their ancient faith. Rome, inflamed with a bigoted zeal to extend the sphere of her spiritual triumphs, early took advantage of so favourable an opportunity to establish a mission in this remote quarter of the globe. Accordingly, John Bermudez, one of the most enterprising and crafty of the sons of Loyola, was despatched into Abyssinia, and in order to give his mission a certain appearance of dignity, he was consecrated patriarch of that people by the Pope. According to his own accounts of the matter, he found them sunk in the most deplorable state of heresy and ignorance, observant of Judaical rites and ceremonies, and unacquainted with the ritual and worship of the true church. As Bermudez was accompanied by an embassage from the Portuguese court, who expressed the most solicitous regard for the Abyssinian monarch, that prince, hoping to derive some signal advantage from such powerful succours, that would enable him to terminate successfully a war in which he was at that time engaged with a neighbouring prince, received them most graciously, and everything seemed for a time to presage the most happy termination of the mission. But their sanguine expectations were doomed to disappointment, and though they were several times reinforced, and neither pains nor expense were spared in the prosecution of their enterprise, it became ultimately apparent to all that the Abyssinians were not to be engaged to abandon their ancient faith, and the Jesuits becoming weary of such fruitless endeavours, relinquished the enterprise and returned to Europe.