Mendez had, likewise, ordered those to be re-baptized, who, in compliance with the will of the emperor, embraced the religion of Rome, as if they had formerly been the votaries of Paganism, and their worship a system of idolatry. They were also compelled to renounce the observance of the seventh day. This the Abyssinian clergy regarded as a most shocking insult to the religious discipline of their forefathers, and quite as provoking as the violence and barbarity exercised upon those who refused to submit to the Romish yoke. Besides his arbitrary and despotic proceedings in the church, Mendez excited tumults and dissensions in the state, and with an unparalleled spirit of aggression and arrogance, encroached upon the prerogatives of the crown, and even attempted to give law to the emperor himself. Many circumstances, indeed, concur to favour the opinion that he entertained the design of subverting the liberties of the empire, and rendering it an appendage of the Portuguese crown. At any rate, the kingdom became torn to pieces by intestine commotions and conspiracies, and though obliged to carry on his machinations in secret, he filled the court with cabals which lasted until the death of the reigning monarch, in 1632. Basilides, the son and successor of the former, deemed it expedient to free the country from such troublesome guests, and accordingly, in 1684, he banished Mendez, with all the Europeans belonging to his train, from the Abyssinian territories, commanded all his subjects to return to the religion of their ancestors, and forbid the worship of images, or the observance of the first day. He likewise requested the Patriarch of Alexandria to send them a new abuna, with which request that dignitary complied.[8] The condition of the Abyssinian church at this time was most deplorable. The reign of the Jesuits, though short, had been attended with blighting and fatal consequences. It had been their aim to overthrow in the minds of the people all respect for the moral law and the revealed word of God, and to establish in its place a preposterous veneration for the authority of the fathers, and the canons of the church. Nor was this all; superstition had immeasurably increased, and its accompaniments, vice and ignorance, everywhere prevailed.