nobody ever took it into their heads to tax either Greek or Armenian with a repetition of baptism.
Monsieur de Tournefort[1], in his travels through the Levant, gives you a figure of the Greek priest, who blesses the water in a peculiar habit, with a pastoral flail in his hand.
But, besides this, various falsehoods have likewise been propagated about the manner of baptism practised in Abyssinia, all in order to impugn the validity of it, and to excuse the rash conduct of the Jesuits for re-baptising all the Abyssinians, as if they had been a Jewish and Pagan people that never had been baptised at all. The violation of this article of the creed, or confession of Nice, was a cause of great offence to the Abyssinians, and of the misfortunes that happened afterwards. The whole of the Abyssinian service of baptism is in their liturgy. The Jesuits had plenty of copies in their hands, and could have pointed out the part of the service that was heretical, if they had pleased; they did not pretend, however, to do this, and their silence condemns them.
As for the idle stories that are told of the words pronounced, such as,—"I baptize you in the name of the Holy Trinity,"—"In the name of Peter and Paul,"—"I baptize you in the water of Jordan,"—"May God baptise you,"—"May God wash you," and many others, they are all invented by the Jesuits, to excuse the repetition of baptism in Abyssinia,which
- ↑ Tournef. tom. i. p. 111.
