Paul and the other:

the Portuguese debate on the circumcision of the Ethiopians*

ANDREU MARTÍNEZ D’ALÒS-MONER

Why do you circumcise? This is the question that the Jesuits posed with
insistence to the Ethiopians during the approximately 80 years they spent in
the country, as frequent references in their massive written production at-
test. Concerned by a practice that was in clear contravention of practices
found in Catholic Europe, the Jesuits spared neither ink nor ideas in finding
an explanation for, and in attempting to eradicate, it. Since then, other mis-
sionaries, and also historians, have continued to address the same question.1
In both cases, be it a missionary interrogating the native or a historian con-
fronting the Ethiopian traditions, the underlying assumption has been that
such a practice did not belong to a Christian country like Ethiopia: why
keep these Mosaic elements if the Gospel was crystal clear about the aboli-
tion of the “Old Law”?
In this study I shall not take the path traced by the Jesuits and other mis-
sionaries, and followed by many scholars, when trying to understand “non-
Christian” features of Christian Ethiopia. Instead, I will start by inverting
the very sense of the question that the Jesuits, and their successors, posed
with so much insistence: why were the missionaries so troubled by this rite?
Why did it represent such a central problem as to rank first in the long list of

*
I am grateful to Denis Nosnitsin and Gianfrancesco Lusini for helping me to
find material during the initial stages of this research. I would also like to thank
late Prof. Sevir Chernetsov for his insightful comments on the presentation from
which this paper is drawn.
1
Historiographically this issue has, with rare exceptions, been addressed with
reference to the perdurance of Judaic elements in the Ethiopian Orthodox tradi-
tion. Hence, rather than understanding the practice per se, historians have fo-
cused on searching for its origins in Biblical times, repeating the methods and
ideas first put into practice by the Jesuits. This can be seen in the seminal article
by EDWARD ULLENDORFF, “Hebraic-Jewish Elements in Abyssinian (Monophy-
site) Christianity”, Journal of Semitic Studies 1, 1956, 216–56 and, more re-
cently, in KIRSTEN STOFFREGEN PEDERSEN, “Is the Church of Ethiopia a Judaic
Church?”, Warszawskie Studia Teologiczne 12, 2, 1999, 203–16. An approach
more tamed is that of MAXIME RODINSON, “Sur la question des ‘influences
juives’ en Ethiopie”, Journal of Semitic Studies 9, 1964, 11–19.
 Paul and the other: The Portuguese debate …

Ethiopian “errors” that the Portuguese compiled during the 16th century?
How did this rite spark the religious mission of conversion? In other words,
how was the “Circumcision Problem” born and how did it become the main
missionary/western concern about Ethiopia?
In second place, I will analyse the debate on circumcision as it
evolved in the mission. I propose to demonstrate, not only how central
the question of the rite was in the missionary praxis, but also the very
limits of the Jesuit missionary discourse, always hesitating – and not
only in Ethiopia – between an accomodatio and an impositio, between
the word and the sword.
The theological-cultural approach that I follow does not exclude nor in-
tend to invalidate other perspectives regarding the Jesuit Ethiopian mission.
It is evident that so complex a phenomena cannot be explained through
reference to one aspect alone, important it may be.2 However, neither the
political nor the local context3 can fully explain why Ethiopian Christianity
became a problem only in the 1530’s, and not earlier, since at least from the
times of Alfonso V of Aragon (1396–1458) Catholic Europe had been in
close contact with this kingdom. Nor can these political factors help to un-
derstand why a new and poorly experienced religious order – the Society of
Jesus was approved in 1540, only 15 years before the mission began – was so
quickly dispatched to redress the Ethiopian “problem”.

The Preste or the making of an otherness

Europe “discovered” the circumcision of the Oriental Christianities well
before the Portuguese and the Jesuits placed it in the spotlight. The nu-
merous travellers that at least since the 13th century had reported on
Ethiopian Christianity did not leave this feature unnoticed. Cerulli’s
work on the Ethiopian Palestinian community includes numerous Euro-
pean travel accounts that refer to it. The earliest seems to have been a

2
For an introduction to the geopolitical and colonial context see ANDREU MARTÍNEZ
D’ALÒS-MONER, “The Jesuit Patriarchate to the Preste: Between Religious Reform,
Political Expansion and Colonial Adventure”, Aethiopica 6, 2003, 54–69, here 67–69.
3
Although the role played by the Ethiopian kings in fostering the Jesuit mission
is still a matter of debate, it does seem futile to value evenly the few letters these
kings sent to Europe and the immense economic and political effort that the Jes-
uit mission represented for the crown of Portugal. In this sense, Conti Rossini is
right to argue that “L’Abissinia, dunque, allo stato delle cose, sembra essere
stata cercata, non avere essa cercato”; CARLO CONTI ROSSINI, “Portogallo ed
Etiopia”, in: Id., Relazioni storiche fra l’Italia e il Portogallo; Memorie e docu-
menti, vol. 18, Roma 1940, 323–59, here 326.

32
 Andreu Martínez d’Alòs-Moner

letter dated 1217 from the French Benedictine monk Jacques de Vitry.
Vitry pointed to circumcision as one of the distinguishing elements of
the different “barbarian peoples who some people call Jacobites”,4 a
term under which the Ethiopians were often placed. In 1237, the Do-
minican prior in Jerusalem, Philip, wrote that the Egyptians had, among
other errors, the “practice of circumcision in the form of the Saracens”.5
Around 1335, the Augustinian Jacopo da Verona would praise the devo-
tion of “Nubiani et Jabeni [Ethiopians]”, remarking, however, that they
practised a triple baptism: baptism by circumcision, baptism by marking
the front with fire and baptism by water.6 Later, the Italian merchant
Brocchi da Imola, who in 1482 was in the court of Eskender (1478–94),
mentioned that the Ethiopians justified this practice as a tradition, a
reminder of what Christ and his disciples did7 – an idea that would re-
appear at the time of the Jesuit mission. In 1504, an Itinerary to the
Holy Land spoke of a “terre ethiope” – probably Ethiopia – noting that
circumcision and baptism with “ferro ignito” were practised.8
In these early, mostly Italian, travel accounts circumcision did not
seem to have enjoyed a particularly problematic status. The Renaissance
European traveller was surprised to find this rite in a Christian nation –
that is why he wrote it down – but, as with Brocchi da Imola, he also
provided and somehow accepted the Ethiopians’ own justifications.9 As
for the theological discussions held during the Council of Florence, al-
though already focused on this issue, they had little influence; the lan-
guage of the Papal chancellery was symbolically impressive and gran-
diloquent, but rarely effective beyond the Catholic oecumene.
With the active involvement of the Portuguese in Ethio-European di-
plomacy and the presence in the see of Rome of figures like the Medici
Pope, Leo X, who were well aware of the possibilities opened by the

4
“Barbarae nationes quorum alios Jacobitas appellant”; ENRICO CERULLI, Etiopi
in Palestina: Storia della comunità etiopica di Gerusalemme, vol. 1, Roma 1943,
55–56, 60.
5
“Aliis erroribus circumcisionem ad modum Sarracenorum addentes”; CERULLI,
Etiopi …, 69–70.
6
CERULLI, Etiopi … , 131–32. A later reference in the same work, 217, 225.
7
RENATO LEFEVRE, “Riflessi etiopici nella cultura europea del Medioevo e del Rinas-
cimento (Seconda Parte)”, Annali Lateranensi 9, 1945, 331–444, here 428.
8
IOANNES DE HESSE, Itinerarius Ioannis de Hese presbyteri a Hierusalem …,
Parisiis 1504, 5r.
9
An attitude that can also be observed in Alvares; see FRANCISCO ALVARES, Ver-
dadera informação das terras do Preste João das Indias [1540], ed. by Neves
Águas, [Portugal] 1989, ch. 22.

33
 Paul and the other: The Portuguese debate …

zealous Iberian monarchs, took place a dramatic shift. Concern for this
issue increased, and so did the active involvement of the Portuguese and
the Ecclesiastical hierarchies. In a 1514 Bull by Leo X, in which the Pope
praised and encouraged D. Manuel I, king of Portugal, and his contacts
with Ethiopia, a shift towards intolerance is already manifest. The Pope
stressed that the Christianity of the Ethiopians followed in many aspects
the true faith. But he emphasized in three different paragraphs that be-
cause the Ethiopians practised circumcision their faith was not fully
correct, and that this practice was unequivocally to be removed.10
The concerns of the Pope regarding this issue would soon become
those of the Portuguese court. In fact, after the exchange of embassies
between Portugal and Ethiopia in 1520 and 1527 Lisbon would outdo
Rome in religious zeal, taking the lead in the circumcision cum Ethio-
pian dossier to which Leo X’s Bull already hinted. These two embassies
marked an important turning point in Portuguese diplomacy vis à vis the
Solomonic monarchy. It was the Ethiopian embassy of 1527 that
brought to Lisbon the monk Saga Za Ab. His strong personality and
especially the growing Catholic fundamentalism in the Iberian courts
turned his visit into something other than a pure diplomatic encounter.
As various documents recorded, and as the account published a decade
later by Goes well shows, Saga Za Ab suffered in the court a de facto
inquisitorial process. The priest had little time to admire the beauties of
the cosmopolitan capital for he was confronted by two guardians of
Catholic orthodoxy, the Bishop of San Thomé, Diogo Ortiz de Vilhegas,
and Dr. Pedro Margalho, professor of Theology at the University of
Lisbon. Having been received less than honourably and treated like a
detainee, Saga Za Ab spent most of the time explaining to them why
Christian Ethiopia was such an “anomaly”.
When reading Saga Za Ab’s plea written, as a desperate response to this
sudden trial,11 it is easy to conclude that such an “anomaly” came to the fore

10
LEO PAPA X, Bull Oratores Magestatis, 1514 in: Visconde de Paiva Manso (ed.), Docu-
menta historiam ecclesiae habessinorum illustrantia, t. 2 (Levy Maria Jordão [ed.], Bullarium
Patronatus Portugalliae Regum …, 3 vols. and Appendix, Olisipone 1868–79), t. 1, 108–09.
The same message was repeated in the form of a Brief: “Verum considerantes circuncisio-
nem, quam adhuc servant, Baptismatis institutione sublatum desideramus apud eos, quibus
pro inde duximus consulendum ad animarum periculum evitandum, penitus aboleri”; Brief
of Pope Leo X to D. Manuel, 1514, in: VISCONDE DE SANTAREM et al. (eds.), Corpo Diplo-
matico Portuguez…, Lisboa 1959–69, vol. 1, 250.
11
The text begins “Haec sunt, quem de fide, & religione apud nos Aethiopes habentur,
& observantur” and was published as the main part of DAMIÃO DE GOES, Fides, re-

34
 Andreu Martínez d’Alòs-Moner

because of the presence of what in 16th-century Portugal – and Spain – was

not only seen as a deviation, in the sense given by Leo X, but the sign par
excellence of Judaism and Islam: circumcision. The Ethiopians were explic-
itly accused of being “Judaeos et Mahometanos”12 because they were cir-
cumcised (the Sabbath issue played a role, but it was, I would contend, a
minor one) and Saga Za Ab’s admirable and resolute defence of his Church
and his people proved incapable of changing the minds of those who, in any
case, had little will to compromise. The “deviated” Christianity of Pope Leo
X was, by an intensification in the religious zeal of a peripheral European
power, becoming a heresy or, even worst, the mark of a “judaising” nation.
In the background of this shift in perception lay the political-religious
processes that were changing the face and the corps of the European monar-
chies, especially those found at the periphery of the continent. First, the
Protestant schism was splitting the continent creating a dialectic of religious
intolerance and enforcing the centralisation of both the political and the
religious spheres. A concrete product of this process was the appearance in
Lisbon of a new political figure: the cardinal infante. Half-way between the
political decision-making core and the ecclesiastical hierarchy, the cardinal
infante was not only a symbolically powerful figure, he also held immense
operative powers to give momentum to a religious agenda that had always
remained an ideal in Catholic Europe. Not by chance, the cardinal infantes
played a significant role in the issue of the circumcision of Ethiopians.
Second, the Christian societies of Portugal and Spain revealed during
these years their worst anti-Judaic and anti-Islamic impulses: between
1500 and 1600 these two countries expelled all their “oriental” popula-
tions.13 The West – or at least, its Iberian military avant-garde – was

ligio, moresque sub imperio Pretiosi Ioannis …, Lovanii 1540. Although Isabel
Boavida has rightly objected that part of its content may have been rearranged by
Goes himself, there is little doubt on the Ethiopian authorship of the text as a whole;
ISABEL BOAVIDA, “Damião de Góis e ‘a frase caldaica e etiópica’”, in: Congresso In-
ternacional Damião de Góis na Europa do Renascimento, Braga 2003, separata, 736–
37. On 24 April 1534 as a probable date of composition see GEORG SCHURHAMMER,
Die zeitgenössischen Quellen zur Geschichte Portugiesisch-Asiens und seiner Nach-
barländer …, Rom 1962, doc. 164.
12
GOES, Fides …, 84.
13
Other scholars have also suggested relating Portuguese foreign policy towards
Ethiopia with the local anti-Judaic developments in the Iberian Peninsula: see
MERID WOLDE AREGAY, “The Legacy of Jesuit Missionary Activities in Ethiopia
from 1555 to 1632”, in: Aasulv Lande – Sven Rubenson – Getatchew Haile
(eds.), The Missionary Factor in Ethiopia: Papers from a Symposium on the Im-
pact of European Missions on Ethiopian Society. Lund University, August 1996,

35
 Paul and the other: The Portuguese debate …

seeking then to build a homogenous identity around the ideas of a single

race – this is the period that developed the concept of pureza de sangre
‘purity of blood’ – and a single faith – Roman Catholic. This necessarily
went hand in hand with the rejection of the oriental heritage represented
by peoples that for centuries had been part of Iberian societies. It is with
this Orient, which Europe was beginning to imagine as its – internal or
external – antagonist, that Ethiopia, or better, a circumcising Ethiopia,
was also to be identified.
At the end of Saga Za Ab’s “process” the circumcision of the Ethiopi-
ans had already become an affaire d’Etat. In July 1541, the inquisidor
geral and cardenal infante D. Henrique,14 one of the two cardinal broth-
ers of King João III, in a well-known episode, banned the circulation in
the kingdom of Goes’ book. According to him “the awareness of Saga
Za Ab’s text would reinforce the ‘new Christians’ in their heresies”,
Goes having “trusted way too much” the Ethiopian envoy, who was
qualified as “bad and immoral”.15
Henrique’s brother, D. Alfonso, made perhaps a more decisive con-
tribution to the advance of the debate. His letter addressed to the Ethio-
pian ruler and dated 153916 marks a seminal moment in the religious
mission that would only unfold some 20 years later with the active en-
gagement of the Jesuits.17 Another important dimension to the letter is

Frankfurt am Main 1998, 31–56, here 35 n. 4. Less sceptical on this issue is

ANDRÉ FERRAND DE ALMEIDA, “Da demanda do Preste João à missão jesuíta na
Etiópia: A Cristiandade da Abissínia e os portugueses nos séculos XVI e XVII”,
Lusitania Sacra 11 (2ª série), 1999, 247–94, here 294.
14
D. Henrique’s (1512–80) biography is of high interest for the history of Portu-
guese India and for the Jesuit Ethiopian mission: in 1539, at the creation of the
new tribunal, he becomes inquisidor geral do reino; in 1540, is archbishop of
Evora; in 1552, he is apostolic envoy in Portugal and in 1559 he founds the Jesuit
University at Evora; between 1562 and 1568 he is regent, and later member of
the Conselho de Estado; for a brief period, from 1579 to his death, he was king
of Portugal; JOQUIN VERRISSIMO SERRÃO, “Henrique, Cardeal D.”, in: Joel Ser-
rão (ed.), Dicionario de História de Portugal, Lisboa 1979, vol. 3, 190–92.
15
Letter of Infante D. Anrique to Damião de Goes, Lisbon, 13 December 1541; I
quote from a German translation, in SCHURHAMMER, Die zeitgenössischen
Quellen …, n. 869.
16
D. Alfonso to Lebna Dengel, Lisboa 20 March 1539, in: CAMILLO BECCARI (ed.),
Rerum aethiopicarum scriptores occidentales inediti a saeculo XVI ad XIX, vol.
10, Romae 1910, 5–18.
17
MARTÍNEZ, “The Jesuit …”, 59. This has been previously indicated by MERID
WOLDE AREGAY, “The Legacy …”, 36; and LEONARDO COHEN, “Los portugue-
ses en Ethiopia y la problemática de los ritos ‘judáicos’”, Historia y grafia 17,

36
 Andreu Martínez d’Alòs-Moner

the central place D. Alfonso reserved for St. Paul. Besides a brief refer-
ence to the Council of Florence and to St. Lucas (Acts 15), Paul is the
sole theological authority the cardinal referred to, and his most popular
Epistles – Hebrews, Corinthians, Galatians and Ephesians – are cited at
length to illustrate the wrongdoings of the Ethiopian church with re-
gards to circumcision, the Sabbath and rebaptism.
This aspect of the letter is even more intriguing if one takes into account
the fact that some of the ideas expressed by the cardinal, at least those re-
lated to circumcision, are actually less Paul’s own, than a borrowing from St.
Thomas Aquinas and St. Augustine.18 Perhaps D. Alfonso did not directly
quote these authorities because it threatened to make a negative impression
to an Oriental Christian. Alfonso might have turned to Paul in search of a
common language, one that an Oriental and anti-Chalcedonian Orthodox
could agree with and understand. In Paul he was certain to find the highest
authority and one his opponent would recognise. After all, Saga Za Ab had
made extensive use of the Apostle during his Lisboan trial.
But there is of course more than pure strategy in Alfonso’s text. St.
Paul was not used merely as an Apostolic authority. Nor did he serve
uniquely to provide a common language. Paul was a figure of crucial
importance for the issue that was being raised: he was the Apostle of
“non-circumcision”, of the anti-Sabbath. Paul was, in other words, the
figure best suited to approach the “Judaic”, or deviated Christianity,
that the Portuguese believed the Ethiopian faith to be. Alfonso’s Pauline
discourse was not an isolated phenomenon. His words and approach
were, in fact, much in tune with the prevailing beliefs in Portugal and in
its newly acquired colonies.

The “Society of Paul”

The 16th century enjoyed its totemic figures: probably St. Augustine, but
also St. Thomas Aquinas and even the pagan Aristotle all fit this role.
However, none seem to have enjoyed the wide-reaching presence and
the relevance of St. Paul. The first years of the Reformation drew im-
mensely on the Apostle and on the (re-) interpretation of his Gospel.

2001, 209–40, here 229.

18
The idea that the Church only tolerated practices from the Old Law because it
was confident that in time they would disappear was expressed by Augustine
and then restated with force by ST. THOMAS AQUINAS, Suma theologica, tr. by
Lawrence Shapcote, Chicago ca. 1990 (2nd ed.), 2–1, Quaestio 103/4.

37
 Paul and the other: The Portuguese debate …

The reformers found in his Epistles a well of inspiration – and of quota-

tions – to push forth the primordial idea of a mercy-oriented Church as
opposed to one oriented by works. In their demand for a primitive
Christian message, the reformers used Paul against the Scholastics,
whom they accused of having distorted Christ’s true message.
According to an acknowledged expert of this century, the French Refor-
mation was inaugurated in 1512 by Jacques Lefèvre d’Etaples’ Latin com-
mentary on St. Paul.19 On the other side of the Rhine, Martin Luther also
took the Apostle as his favourite. He developed some of his most important
theories from a meticulous exegesis of Romans, Galatians and Hebrews, the
second being the main basis for his theory – of wide-reaching consequence –
on justification by faith.20 John Calvin also made broad use of Paul’s Epistles,
ever present throughout the four books of the Institutionis Christianae Re-
ligionis, and inaugurated his preaching in Geneva with an interpretation of
Romans and Corinthians, which later appeared in a printed form.21
In the Catholic world the Apostle was also of enormous importance.
Partly due to the Reform’s “appropriation” of the Scriptures and of their
renewed exegesis on Paul’s Epistles, and partly to the expansion and the
encounter with the pagans in both Indias, his figure assumed a new élan
within the Church. A look at the heads of the Church reveals an inter-
esting coincidence: between 1534 and 1605 three Italian cardinals, Ales-
sandro Farnese, Giovanni Pietro Caraffa and Camillo Borghese, chose
to be named after Paul on receiving the Papal tiara.22 But more than in
the upper echelons of the Church, it was in the shifting and expanding
borders of the Catholic world, and above all within a new religious or-
der, that the ideas of the Apostle found full expression.
The Jesuit order, approved in 1540, incarnated more than any other
Catholic movement Paul’s 16th-century revival. The Jesuit ministry and vo-

19
Emile Doumergue, quoted in WILLIAM BARRY, “John Calvin”, in: The Catholic
Encyclopaedia, internet edition, http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/ (January
2005).
20
See MANFRED SCHULZE, “Luther, Martin”, in: Biographisch-Bibliographisches
Kirchenlexikon, vol. 5, Herzberg 1993, col. 447–82. By way of annecdote, it can
be said that Luther also named his fifth son, born in 1533, after the Apostle.
21
FRIEDRICH-WILHELM BAUTZ, “Calvin, Johannes”, in: Biographisch-Bibli-
ographisches Kirchenlexikon, vol. 1, Hamm 1990, col. 866–89.
22
Paul III and Paul V, it shall be noted, played a prominent role in fostering the mis-
sionary projects of Portugal and the Jesuits. Paul IV, not precisely a Pope friendly to
the Jesuits, was a missionary figure himself, having co-founded the Theatine order;
see JOHN W. O’MALLEY, The First Jesuits, Cambridge MA – London 1993, 306–09.

38
 Andreu Martínez d’Alòs-Moner

cation was, as one contemporary Jesuit figure wrote, profoundly close to the
Apostle.23 The famous fourth vote, defined in the “Fórmula” approved by
Jules III,24 was a clear commitment to the Apostolic ideals of spreading the
faith, and a sign of the order’s readiness for action. The texts of the Apostle
were – mirroring the Protestants – the order’s favourites in preaching and
lecturing, activities for which they soon became renowned in Europe and
overseas.25 If Romans enjoyed a privileged place, all of the Pauline Epistles,
from Colossians to Galatians, were read, learned by heart, and transmitted.
The Jesuit historian John O’Malley referred to a passage from the diary of
Jerónimo Nadal, one of the leading figures in the first generation of Euro-
pean Jesuits, with the self-posed imperative: “Study Paul!”26 Something that
was more than fulfilled,27 as a close look at the Jesuit epistles both in Europe
and India testifies.
Paulism gained momentum with the Iberian expansions. Francis-
Xavier, whom the king of Portugal had entrusted in 1539 with the not
inconsiderable task of evangelising the Orient, met at his arrival in Goa a
newly-found institution destined for great success, the Colegio de Santa
Fe, later known as Colegio de São Paulo, after its consecration on 25
January 1543, the day of the conversion of the Apostle. He and his fel-
lows were rapidly entrusted with the College, took over its apostolic
goals,28 and turned it into a missionary centre with continent-wide influ-

23
Nadal cited in O’MALLEY, The First …, 73, 271, 349.
24
There the Jesuits declared – not unaware of what was developing in India and
America – to be ready to go “anywhere in the world we are asked to go; to the
Turks, or any other unfaithful, to those lands called the Indias, to the countries
of heathens, schismatics or Christians”; my translation from the Spanish text,
“Fórmula del Instituto aprobada por Julio III”, in: IGNACIO DE LOYOLA, Obras,
ed. by Candido de Dalmases – Ignacio Iparraguirre – Manuel Ruiz Jurado, Ma-
drid 1997, 455–60, here 457.
25
O’MALLEY, The First …, 107–09; further references to the Jesuit inclination for
the Apostle in this excellent work are 73, 271, 349, 362.
26
O’MALLEY, The First …, 109.
27
See GEORG SCHURHAMMER, Franz Xaver, sein Leben und seine Zeit, vol. 2/2: Asien
(1541–1552), Freiburg 1971, 318; vol. 2/3.: Japan und China, 1549–1552, Freiburg
1973, 513, n. 70. For references of Loyola to the Epistle to the Romans, see LOYOLA,
Obras, 718–19, 748, 856. On the first arrival of Pauline texts in India, see
SCHURHAMMER, Franz Xaver …, vol. 2/3, 447. The references to Paul are constant
and frequent both in the Jesuit correspondence in India and in Ethiopia, as a quick
look into the published material attests; IOSEPHUS WICKI (ed.), Documenta Indica,
Romae 1948 (Monumenta Historica Societatis Iesu 70 seq.); BECCARI, Rerum …
28
“…To teach the faith to the people of these lands and of different nations and,

39
 Paul and the other: The Portuguese debate …

ence. Thanks to such successes Francis-Xavier himself would later be

renamed the Apostle of the Orient.29
The model of the “Pauline” Goan College was successively repro-
duced everywhere. In the New World, in 1554 São Paulo de Piratinga
was founded, the basis for the future Brazilian metropolis. Further to
the east, another “Pauline” college, São Paulo in Macao, was established
in 1572.30 Where the first was to target the Western Indians, the second
trained most of the priests who would lead one of the most promising
missions in Early Modern times, to Japan. With means and following
standards that matched those in Europe, these colleges also produced
the first indigenous conversions. Thus, the celebrated Japanese Anjirô,
the son of a Samurai family, baptised 20 Mai 1548 with the name Paulo
de Santa Fe (“Paul of the Holy Faith”).31 The same name was given to
the head of the Jogis from Ormuz at his conversion in 1550 at the hands
of the Dutch missionary, Gaspar Barzeo.32 These were symbolic acts,
but also signs of the Pauline spirit with which 16th-century evangelisa-
tion was embued.

once well instructed in the faith, to send them back to their place [naturalezas]
to spread what they learned”; “Fue fundado para que ahí fuesen enseñados en la
fe de los naturales de estas tierras, y de estos que fuesen de diversas naciones de
gentes; y después que fuesen bien instruidos en la fe, mandarlos a sus naturalezas
para que fructificasen en lo que eran instruidos”; SAN FRANCISCO XAVIER, Car-
tas y escritos de San Francisco Javier, ed. by Felix Zubillaga, Madrid 1996, 95,
also 94 n. 4. The history of the College is itself interesting since it was originally
founded not by the Jesuits but by a Goan congregation, the Congregation of the
Holy Faith. However, Francis-Xavier was rapidly entrusted with the place and
his Order built a new college, São Paulo novo, a school for generations of mis-
sionaries. Thus, although the main actors, the Jesuits were not alone in bringing
Paul to India; see SCHURHAMMER, Franz Xaver …, Bd. 2.1: Asien (1541–1552),
Freiburg 1963, 231–39.
29
The Imago Primi Saeculi (1640), the book that commemorated the first centen-
ary of the order, gave official expression to this by comparing Loyola to St. Pe-
ter and Xavier to St. Paul; MARIA CRISTINA OSSWALD, Jesuit Art in Goa between
1542 and 1655: From ‘Modo Nostro’ to ‘Modo Goano’, Ph.D. thesis, European
University Institute, Florence 2003, 173.
30
Although it only properly became a college in 1594; MANUEL TEIXEIRA, Macau
no seculo XVI, Macau 1981, 30.
31
SCHURHAMMER, Franz Xaver …, vol. 2/2, 234; FRANCISCO XAVIER, Cartas …,
1996, 223, n. 57.
32
SCHURHAMMER, Franz Xaver …, vol. 2/3, 417–18, 417 n. 124; ID., Die zeit-
genössischen Quellen …, n. 4538.

40
 Andreu Martínez d’Alòs-Moner

You, circumcisers!
It was in this context that a profoundly Pauline order, the Jesuits, was
chosen to face a similarly Pauline problem, the circumcision of the
Ethiopians. Only after the appearance of Loyola and his peers, who
were earnestly incorporated into the political-religious machinery of the
Portuguese and Castilian courts, could what Leo X and the two cardinal
infantes posed as an imperative need be put into practice: to purify their
Ethiopian ally of its Judaising practices. But how were the Jesuits to deal
practically with this task? What did they bring to the zeal of the two
cardinal infantes?
The Society of Jesus offered this project first and foremost a method
and an organisation without equal: the Jesuits liked, more than any other
existing religious order, to move, to speak and to discuss. Their identity
relied on a philosophy of interaction and pragmatism. In fact, the suc-
cess of Jesuit expansion, to be paralleled only by the earlier Nestorian
proselytism in India and China, can be attributed to their ability to
“speak” the local languages.33
Accordingly, with them the Portuguese attitude towards the Ethio-
pian “heresy” changed in style. The inquisitorial tone of D. Henrique –
he was, after all, responsible for bringing the Holy Office to Portugal
(1539) and Goa (1560) – was abandoned, the clumsy prose of D. Alfonso
set aside. Paul, however, remained in the background as the main ideo-
logical figure. With the Jesuits a tamer approach and a more sophisti-
cated and intelligent language was put to use.
In his famous instructions to the missionaries destined for Ethiopia,
Loyola speaks of “hazerse querer”, “tomar familiaridad”, “procuren
poco a poco”, “moderar con suavidad”, “reducir suavemente”.34 In other
words, a call for subtlety, patience, moderation, consistency, teaching.
The Ethiopians had to be educated from top to bottom, starting with the
Preste and the nobility and continuing with the lay people, so that the
“abusos” would slowly die.35 But this approach showed its limits pre-

33
On the Jesuit missionary approach see the “Septima Parte Principal” of the
Constituciones, in: LOYOLA, Obras …, On early hints to accomodatio in the
thought of the founder see, for instance, Letter of Loyola to Broet y Salmerón,
Roma September 1541, in: LOYOLA, Obras …, 751–53.
34
Loyola in: CAMILLO BECCARI (ed.), Rerum Aethiopicarum Scriptores Occiden-
tales Inediti a Saeculo XVI ad XIX, 15 vols., Romae 1903–17, vol. 1, 240, 243,
249.
35
Ibid. 242–43.

41
 Paul and the other: The Portuguese debate …

cisely in dealing with Ethiopia’s “Judaic” heritage, a fact little com-

mented by scholars usually admiring Loyola’s sweet and delicate tone.
As Beccari skilfully noted, Loyola seems to have initially hesitated over
the issue of circumcision,36 but soon acquiesced to what the Italian histo-
rian calls “l’opinione comune”, that is to say, the impossibility of toler-
ating this rite. An “opinione comune” that continued to be endorsed at
his death by the Jesuit decision-makers. In an internal document of the
Order, Francisco de Borgia, third vicar-general (1565–72), wrote that
“the circumcision practised by the Ethiopians, Abyssinians, is not lawful
even if practised in imitation of Christ”.37 A statement which was a
straightforward denial of the Ethiopian own justifications that accounts
like Brocchi da Imola’s and especially Saga Za Ab’s had brought to
Europe. Towards the end of the century, Alessandro Valignano (1539–
1606), the powerful visitador and architect of the Oriental missions,
wrote, in a similar tone:
These Abyssnians are Christian, even though they host many Judaic
ceremonies, with which they mix and confuse our faith, being neither
Christian nor Jewish, as together with baptism they circumcise and
next to keeping the Sunday they also keep the Sabbath, and use ritual
washing and do not eat pig and finally observe many Judaic rites and
ceremonies.38
Circumcision and the Sabbath were, thus, in the eyes of the Jesuits,
abusos substanciales, ‘major abuses, deviations’ that, contrary to the
minor ones, like fasting and corporal (penitential) exercises, could not be
tolerated. These were practices that made Ethiopia – in Valignano’s own
words – neither a Christian nor a Judaic nation, but one living in a limi-
nal and ambiguous stage. It is because of this perception of Ethiopian

36
Ibid. 79, note 3; see also a passage proning tolerance removed from the final
draft, LOYOLA, “Minuta …”, ibid. 237–54, here 242, note 4.
37
“Circumcisio qua nunc utuntur Aethiopes, Abyssini, non licet etiamsi fiat ad
imitandum Christum”; A RCHIVIUM ROMANUM SOCIETAS JESU, Fondo Gesuitico,
Censurae Opinionum – F.G 656 A–I, “Opiniones praescripta à S. Francisco de
Borgia”, 1565, 15v, § 6–7.
38
“São estes abexyns christaos, aynda que tem muytas cerymonias judaycas, com
as quaes mysturão e confundem nossa fee, de tal maneyra que, nem são christãos
nem judeus; porque juntamente com o baptismo se cyrcunsidão, e guardão como
o domyngo tambem o sabado, e usão de levatoryos, e não comem carne de por-
que, e finalmente observa[m] muytos ritos e cerimonyas judaicas”; ALESSANDRO
VALIGNANO, Historia del Principio y Progreso de la Compañía de Jesús en las
Indias Orientales [1542–64], Roma 1944, vol. 2, 319. The emphasis is mine.

42
 Andreu Martínez d’Alòs-Moner

Christianity as a liminal Church, one that had not yet managed to fully
implement – or understand – the Apostolic message(s), that the famous
practice of accomodatio used elsewhere in coping with all sorts of “pa-
ganisms” and religious ambiguities could not be implemented.
With their intolerance of circumcision the Jesuits were, hence, not
only accomodating Portuguese “public opinion”, as Beccari, not without
exculpatory intentions, asserted. They were, in fact, being faithful to a
religious ontology that was both profoundly dogmatic – the Christian
truth was to be found through clear, analytical, scientific definitions –
and intrinsically Pauline, and henceforth anti-Mosaic; an ontology
where neither theological ambiguity nor “Oriental” sacrificial ritualism
had a place.
Given such an ideological background, the conflict that the first
shipment of missionaries to Ethiopia provoked does not come as a sur-
prise. As is well-known, mestre Gonçalo and the bishop Andrés de
Oviedo, who arrived at the Ethiopian court in 1555 and 1557 respec-
tively, confronted the king over those “major deviations” that were al-
ready so popular in European and Indian religious circles. After a first
round of debate, Oviedo, in a letter to king Galawdewos, clearly sum-
marised – with the help once again of the Apostle – both the main ob-
jective and the method of the mission:
… since faith is only one, as S. Paul says in Ephes. 4 “Unus Deus, una
fides, unum baptisma”, it is unreasonable that among Christians there
is a diversity of faiths, but all have to feel the same in the matters of
faith and nobody can be against Christ’s Gospel; … and if they realize
that we are not mistaken, they have to follow the truth of the faith in
one conformity, according to what S. Paul says in I Cor. 1 “Ut id ip-
sum dicatis omnes, et non sint in vobis schismata” and not to imitate
the traditions of the forefathers if they are contrary to the truth.39
The official Ethiopian response – which was all too clear in Galawde-

39
“… Siendo la fe de Cristo una sola, como dize S. Pablo ad Ephes. 4 «Unus Deus,
una fides, unum baptisma», no es razón que entre los cristianos haya diversidade
de ella, sino que todos sientan una misma cosa en las cosas de la fe, y nadie tenga
contra el Evangelio de Cristo; … y si vieren que no estamos errados, deven
seguir la verdad de la fe en una conformidad, segun que dize S. Pablo I Cor. I,
«Ut id ipsum dicatis omnes, et non sint in vobis schismata», y no imitar los
costumbres de los pasados, si son contrarios a la verdad”; Letter from Oviedo to
King Gälawdewos, 22 June 1557, in: BALTASAR TELES, Historia da Etiopia
[1660], Lisboa 1989, ch. XXVII. The emphasis is mine.

43
 Paul and the other: The Portuguese debate …

wos’s Confessio40 – was to close the court to the missionaries and to as-
sign to them the much humbler task of serving the Ethio-Portuguese
half-caste living in the northern borders of the kingdom.
It took the Jesuits some forty years to get back to the Ethiopian high-
lands. Around 1604 a second mission was again opened. By then the order
had not only the experience of Oviedo’s setback but had also reached greater
maturity, intellectually, and as an organised body with missions in every
corner of the world. It was then that, in the hands of skilled priests, the Japa-
nese, Chinese and Indian missions blossomed. Under the guidance of superb
missionaries like Paez, Manoel de Almeida and António Fernandes, the
Ethiopian mission fell short of achieving the long coveted redução ‘reduc-
tion’ (i.e. conversion) of Ethiopia.41
By then, in contrast to the unique role they played in cardinal Alfonso
and Oviedos’ imagination, circumcision and the other “Judaic” practices
were part of a broader spectrum of “errors” that – as the missionaries saw it
– Ethiopian Christianity had been breeding throughout the centuries it re-
mained separated from Rome. A number of new debates now took centre
stage: the marriage of priests, the quality of eucharistic wine, the polygamy
of the nobility, the levirate, menstrual taboos, or the unique nature of
Christ.42 The latter, it is to be noted, had surprisingly – given the well-known
non-Chalcedonian status of the Ethiopian Church – been ignored in previ-
ous Ethio-Portuguese discussions. What happened then with the old debate
on circumcision?
Leonardo Cohen, who studied the Jesuit perception of the “Judaic
rites”, has shown how despite the skills of the second round of mission-
aries the Jesuit attitude towards the Ethiopian “Judaic” practices re-
mained one of “absolute intolerance”.43 Neither Paez, who in histo-
riographic literature is often portrayed as the “tolerant” face of the mis-
sion, nor Manoel de Almeida or Mendez, to mention just those who left
the most written evidence, differed in their views from Oviedo or cardi-

40
Gälawdewos’s Confessio is translated in LINO LOZZA, “La Confessione di
Claudio re d’Etiopia”, Rassegna di Studi Etiopici 5, 1946, 67–78; see Lozza’s
comment, 71; COHEN, “Los portugueses …”, 233.
41
For a statistical appraisal of the mission as a whole see HERVÉ PENNEC, Des
jésuites au royaume du Prêtre Jean (Éthiopie): Stratégies, rencontres et tentatives
d’implantation (1495–1633), Paris 2003, chs. 2, 3.
42
A generous list of the Ethiopian “errors” appears in AFFONSO MENDEZ, Expe-
ditionis Aethiopicae, in: Beccari, Rerum … vol. 8, ch. VI: “Abassinorum contra
religionem catholicam errores”.
43
COHEN, “Los portugueses …”, 235.

44
 Andreu Martínez d’Alòs-Moner

nal D. Alfonso. All three dedicated at least one chapter in their major
works to the topic, and continued to see circumcision, the Sabbath and
dietary prescriptions as obvious Judaic superstitiones, embarrassing re-
mains of the old Law that had to be extirpated.44
The missionaries’ position was indeed reinforced with the expansion of
the mission and the contact with non-Christian peoples, like the animist and
also circumcising Oromo (“Galla” in the texts). With the presence of the
same rite in two different contexts – Christian and gentile – the missionaries
put into practice, as Cohen has shown, a theological dialectic that was also at
work in other missionary areas. They came to distinguish between “señal de
religión” (Christian circumcision) and “costumbre de nación” (gentile cir-
cumcision).45 This was certainly a pragmatic move, since in an enterprise too
ambitious for their limited resources and time it was crucial to orient the
strategy and to focus on what was believed to be essential. Yet, why was
circumcision practised by Christians more essential and therefore more
harmful than that carried out by gentiles? Why did the Jesuits turn down
each of the justifications with which the Christians keenly provided them46
and, inversely, demand none from the gentile Oromo? Why could one cir-
cumcision be accommodated and the other not?
In Western Christian history, circumcision had become, through a double
movement of denial and sublimation (spiritual circumcision=baptism) en-

44
The principal references to circumcision in the most relevant works are (quoted
as in original text): PÊRO PAIS, História da Etiópia, Porto 1945–46, Liber II, cap.
VIII; MANOEL D’ALMEIDA, Historia de Ethiopia a alta, Romae 1907 (Beccari,
Rerum …, vol. 5), Liber I, cap. XIV; Liber III, cap. III–V; Liber VI, cap. VI;
MENDEZ, Expeditionis …, Liber I, cap. VI; Liber II, cap. XXII, cap. XXVI;
EMMANUEL BARRADAS, Tractatus tres historici geographici, Romae 1906 (Bec-
cari, Rerum …, vol. 4), Tractatus II, cap. XLVII; TELES, História …, Liber I,
cap. XXXVII; JERÓNIMO LOBO, Itinerário e outros escritos inéditos [ca.1668], ed.
by M. Gonçalves da Costa, Barcelos 1971 cap. XVI.
45
COHEN referring to Almeida and Paez’s arguments; “Los portugueses …”, 237–39.
46
From Saga Za Ab’s Confessio to the last of the Jesuit texts, the Ethiopians seem to
have been keen in taming the missionary reprobations. Thus, as Cohen showed, Ga-
lawdewos justified circumcision as a “costumbre de nação”, a meaningless tradition;
an explanation that, if probably inspired by the Portuguese’s own theology (the mul-
tiple references to St. Paul match, for instance, D. Alfonso’s letter), also recalls vividly
a capital Ethiopian text, the Fetha Nagast; IGNAZIO GUIDI (tr.), Il “Fetha Nagast”, o
“Legislazione del re”; Codice ecclesiastico e civile di Abissinia, Roma 1887–89, ch. LI.
Another contemporary native explanation was that the rite was practised “por fermo-
sura”, i.e. for aesthetic reasons. For the latter reference, PAIS, História …, Liber II,
cap. VIII; and ALMEIDA quoted in COHEN, “Los portugueses …”, 238.

45
 Paul and the other: The Portuguese debate …

forced by St. Paul, one of the defining elements of Western ontology. This
rite came to be perceived not as one among many “religious” rites, but as the
primordial and most important rite; the practice which, in other places and
in other forms to the spiritual, non-sacrificial form, constituted a major
challenge to an ontology perceived as “catholic”, i.e. universal. Accordingly,
the “theological readjustment”47 that the Jesuits had employed within so
different missionary areas, a readjustment that “saved” the pagan (or heretic)
rite by placing it within the field of “culture” (costumbre de nación), could
not be applied. “Neutralising” circumcision by way of “culture” could just
not be carried out, because this rite – or, to be precise, its denial – was too
central to the missionary’s own ontology. What could be, nonetheless, at-
tempted was to imagine a degenerate version of the Mosaic (authentic) rite.
This, I would contend, is what was done with the Oromo cum pagan cir-
cumcision.
The gentile Oromo, inferior in the Western theological mindset that
privileged the three monotheist religions over any pagan cults, were repeat-
edly “exculpated” because they practised this rite “by mere contact, so the
others [Christians, Muslims and Jews] could not blame them by calling them
uncircumcised”.48 They circumcised ignoring the “true” meaning of the rite,
and – allegedly – forced by the “true” circumcising religions. In other words,
the pagan Oromo were perceived as “wrong doing”, but not harmful. Be-
cause they were not part of the “Apostolic club”, Oromo circumcision was
neither efficacious nor “religious”, but a hollow practice. However, the tol-
erance shown towards them was a long way from modern missionary dis-
courses on “inculturation” and native agency of the Lord’s word(s). Less
than tolerating, the Jesuits were demonstrating Pauline patience, confident
that this empty and senseless practice would in time and with the mission-
ary’s own persuasion vanish. After all, once the surrounding and “true”
circumcisions had been abolished by the action of the missionaries, the gen-
tiles would no longer feel compelled to adopt or keep “heresies” in which
they allegedly had never believed.49

47
I borrow Cohen’s useful term, ibid. 240.
48
“Por la vecindad y para que los otros no los injurien llamándolos incircuncisos”;
Almeida, quoted in COHEN, “Los portugueses …”, 238.
49
This “mechanism” was also used for other circumcising “pagan” (neither Christian
nor Muslim) nations. The “Botonga” from Mozambique, a tribe that Jesuit mission-
aries visited in 1560, had their circumcision “approved” because: “ficou dum mouro
homrrado que há tempos foy ter ahi, mas elles não tem lei de mouro nem mais culto
divino que os mocarangas… e parece que estes abusos e outros, como nao sao
fundados en ruim disposiçao do entendimento aserqua de idolos, nem tem homens

46
 Andreu Martínez d’Alòs-Moner

Now it is clearer why circumcision in a Christian context appeared a

much more serious challenge to the Jesuit project of redução. In the
missionaries’ imagination, the Ethiopians shared with the missionaries a
similar religious status due to their Christianity. They did not have,
therefore, the excuse of ignorance or dullness, which the gentile Oromo
were allowed to have. The Ethiopians had, unlike the Oromo, not “bor-
rowed” but “inherited” the rite and were, henceforth, well aware of
their wrongdoing. Circumcision was seen as part of their religious
genotype, a practice attached to an identity that, as Almeida said, “…
never got fully rid of Judaism”.50
It was the perception of Ethiopian Christianity as “genetically” – and
not, as the Oromo, “culturally” – “Judaic” that made it an issue of the
highest importance and that was to orient the profound Scriptural, or
rather Pauline, praxis of the mission. Because of Ethiopian Christianity’s
“ambiguous” nature, the Ethiopian mission demanded a perfect mastery
of the Scriptures and the use of a theological dialectic that elsewhere –
India, Japan, China – might not have appeared so pressing. In this light
we have to interpret the most relevant aspects of the second missionary
period, which I will now briefly summarise.
First, Ethiopia was the destination of several of the most-learned mem-
bers of the Portuguese, Castilian and Indian provinces. Thus, although ex-
cellence in learning was a general pattern among all the Jesuits professed to
the four vows, the sophisticated education of the Ethiopian missionaries is
remarkable. Mendez, Paez, Manoel de Almeida, Luis de Azevedo, Apolinar
de Almeida, Barradas, Lobo, were all trained in theology, some with leader-
ship experience in Jesuit learning centres. Oviedo had been rector of the
colleges of Gandia and Naples, Azevedo of the college of Tana and Manoel
de Almeida of Baçaim, both in India, and Mendez chair of Holy Scripture at
the University of Evora. To them was entrusted the difficult task of con-
vincing the Ethiopians, with words and theological erudition, of the truth
and primacy of Roman dogmas.
Next, was the ambitious programme of translation into GeŸez and
Amharic of the most prominent works of a science that the Jesuits –
especially Spanish Jesuits – had helped to revive: Patristic exegesis. Thus,

que lhe tratem do culto dos idolos como os mouros casises, paresce que lhos tirarão
azinha e com pouco trabalho com ajuda de Deus”; Letter of P. G. da Silveira to S.I.
Sociis Goanis, Mozambico 9 August 1560, in: WICKI, Documenta …, vol. 4 (1557–
1560), Romae 1956 (Monumenta Historica Societatis Iesu 78), document 77, here 591.
50
“Os christãos… nunca largarão de todo o judaismo”; ALMEIDA, Historia …, cap.
XIV.

47
 Paul and the other: The Portuguese debate …

between circa 1615 and 1625 the missionaries embarked on the transla-
tion of the commentary to the Epistle to the Hebrews by Ribera, those
to the Romans by Toledo, and the monumental Commentary to the
four Gospels by Maldonado.51 Such a programme, it should be recalled,
had roots in the first mission, for at the time of Bishop Oviedo attempts
were made to introduce the printing press into the country.52
Finally, a corollary to that scriptural offensive was the use of “textual
criticism”. In a recent study, Leonardo Cohen has shown how Mendez
and Paez attempted to appropriate the memory of one of Ethiopia’s
most important saints, and to reread his life and miracles, in expurgating
all positive references to circumcision.53 Such a model was, I would sug-
gest, also applied in a broader context than the purely literary. Thus, the
use of a “diffusionist” model in explaining circumcision was applied, not
only to the Oromo, but also at times to Christian Ethiopians. The Jesuits
would claim that this rite was an import from Alexandria and that
Ethiopian Christianity had been in its origins Catholic.54
But neither theological dialectics nor the attempts to lay the blame on
Alexandria diverted the Jesuits from their determination to terminate
the practice of circumcision from this (Christian) land. Once the mis-
sionaries attained some executive power with the arrival of the Patriarch
Alfonso Mendez, one of the first actions they carried out was to extend
the ban on circumcision to the entire Christian population, the Catholic
converts being supposed already to have abandoned this rite.55 This ban

51
Letter of P. Paez to the Father General, Gorgora 22 June 1616, in: BECCARI, Rerum
…, vol. 1, 347–55, here 352–54. In the same letter, it clearly appears that St. Paul –
whose Epistles were also translated – was a leading reference in the ministry that the
Jesuits carried out at Susenyos’ court; ibid. 353. On the translation of European texts
– mainly Spanish – by the Jesuits, see Cohen’s contribution in this book.
52
FRANCISCO RODRIGUES, Historia da Companhia de Jesus na Assitencia de Por-
tugal, Porto 1945–46, Tomo I: A Fundação da Província Portuguesa, 1540–1560,
vol. 2: Tribulação – Colégios – Missões, 537, n. 3.
53
LEONARDO COHEN, “The Ethiopian Christianity as Heresy: The Development
of the Concept in the Portuguese and Jesuit Sources”, paper presented at the
th
XV International Conference of Ethiopian Studies, Hamburg 2003, 7–8.
54
MANUEL BARRADAS, Il Tigrè: descritto da un missionario gesuita del secolo
XVII, ed. by Camillo Beccari, Roma 1912, ch. XIII (XLVII in the original);
MENDEZ, Expeditionis …, ch. XXVI; TELES, Historia …, ch. XXXVI.
55
The question of the circumcision of the Catholic converts (mainly living in the
two main residences of Fremona and Gorgora) is a recurrent preoccupation in
the Jesuits texts and was likely one of the central topics in the seminaries for
children. Around 1620 one of the children studying in the Jesuit seminary of
Fremona quotes St. Paul to say that circumcision is not accepted because it is a

48
 Andreu Martínez d’Alòs-Moner

was later submitted to the Congregatio de Propaganda Fide, which, in

turn forwarded the issue to the Inquisition. In 1638 the Holy Office
declared the rite superstitious and therefore intolerable; and, through the
slow working of Vatican bureaucracy, the decision was confirmed on 20
June 1866.56

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