Gojam, a province always inveterate against any thing that bore the smallest inclination to the church of Rome, declared against the king; and, before he went to join his associates, the traitor, Za Selassé, in a conference he had with the Abuna Petros, proposed to him to absolve Za Denghel’s subjects and soldiers from their oaths of allegiance to their sovereign. The Abuna, a man of very corrupt and bad life, very hearty in the cause, and an enemy to the king, was staggered at this proposal; not that he was averse to it, because it might do mischief, but because he doubted whether any such effect would follow it as Za Selassé expected; and he, therefore, asked what good he expected from such a novelty? when this traitor assured him, that it would be most efficacious for that very reason, because it was then first introduced: the Abuna forthwith absolved the soldiers and subjects of Za Denghel from their allegiance, declaring the king excommunicated and accursed, together with all those that should support him, or favour his cause. I must here observe, that, though we are now writing the history of the 17th century, this was the first example of any priest excommunicating his sovereign in Abyssinia, except that of Honorius, who excommunicated Amda Sion for the repeated commission of incest. And the doubt the zealot Abuna Petros had of its effect as being a novelty, which fact the Jesuits themselves attest, shews it was a practice that had not its origin in the church of Alexandria. Neither had these curses of the Abuna any visible effect, till Za Selassé had put himself at the head of an army raised in Gojam. The king was prepared to meet him, and ready to march from Dancaz. Za Denghel immediately marched out into the plain of Bartcho, and in the way was deserted, first by Ras Athanasius, then by many of his troops; and, by this great desertion in his army, found the first effects of the Abuna’s curses, insomuch, that John Gabriel, a Portuguese officer of the first distinction, advised the king to retire in time, and avoid a battle, by flying to strong-holds for a season, till the present delusion among his subjects should cease. But the king, thinking himself dishonoured by avoiding the defiance of a rebel, resolved upon giving Za Selassé battle, who, being an able general, knew well the danger he would incur by delay. It was October 13th 1704 that the king, after drawing up his army in order of battle, placing 200 Portuguese, with a number of Abyssinian troops, on the right, took to himself the charge of the left, and called for Peter Paez to give him absolution; but that Jesuit was occupied at a convenient distance in Tigré, by his exorcisms destroying ants, butterflies, mice, locusts, and various other enemies, of much more importance, in his opinion, than the life of a king who had been blindly, but directly conducted to slaughter by his fanatical preachings.