November 22, 2018

The Conversion to Christianity

By Stuart Munro-Hay

The primary evidence for the conversion of Ethiopia in the reign of Ezana in the fourth century is found in the king’s own inscriptions and coins. In the former (Ch. 11: 5), the locations used to express his devotion to the gods are altered to Christian forms. The coins also abandon the disc and crescent symbol and replace them with a cross or several crosses, and a cross is even found on one of Ezana’s inscriptions written in the Epigraphic South Arabian script, on the reverse of a Greek text which opens with Christian phraseology (Schneider 1976ii). An important feature of the coinage, already briefly noted (Ch. 9: 3), is that Ezana’s Christian issue in gold with the name written Ezanas is of the weight in use before the reform of the Roman currency by Constantine the Great in 324AD. His next issue, on which the name is written as Ezana, followed the new pattern.

Jesus’ disciple Philip and the Meroitic Ethiopian

This means that at some time relatively close to 324, Ezana had already decided to proclaim his new faith on his coinage. Even if we imagine that coins of the earlier weight might have been issued at Aksum for a few years after Constantine’s reform, we still have a very early date for the conversion of Ezana and the appearance of the cross on Aksumite coinage (Munro-Hay 1990). This `official’ conversion of the king is confirmed by Rufinus (ed. Migne 1849: 478-80), a contemporary Latin writer, who derived his information from Aedesius of Tyre, who had been a prisoner and servant in the royal household at Aksum with Frumentius, the future bishop. Since Rufinus’ account is so important for the history of Christianity in Ethiopia, it is given here in full in translation;

One Metrodorus, a philosopher, is said to have penetrated to further India in order to view places and see the world. Inspired by his example, one Meropius, a philosopher of Tyre, wished to visit India with a similar object, taking with him two small boys who were related to him and whom he was educated in humane studies. The younger of these was called Aedesius, the other Frumentius. When having seen and taken note of what his soul fed upon, the philosopher had begun to return, the ship, on which he traveled put in for water or some other necessary at a certain port. It is the custom of the barbarians of these parts that, if ever the neighboring tribes should report that their treaty with the Romans is broken, all Romans found among them should be massacred. The philosopher’s ship was boarded; all with himself were put to the sword. The boys were found studying under a tree and preparing their lessons, and, preserved by the mercy of the barbarians, were taken to the king. He made one of them, Aedesius, his cupbearer. Frumentius, whom he had perceived to be sagacious and prudent, he made his treasurer and secretary. Therefore they were held in great honor and affection by the king. The king died, leaving his wife with an infant son as heir of the bereaved kingdom. He gave the young men liberty to do what they pleased but the queen besought them with tears, since she had no more faithful subjects in the whole kingdom, to share with her the cares of governing the kingdom until her son should grow up, especially Frumentius, whose ability was equal to guiding the kingdom — for the other, though loyal and honest of heart, was simple.

The standing figures of the twelve apostles acts as a frontispiece for a collection of texts called the Synodicon, the proceedings of the early church councils, which set out the agreed principles of the Christian faith. The first text (right) is the Order of the Apostles. The twelve apostles form a link between Jesus and the early church. The apostles came to be seen as part of the inspired foundational stage of Christianity. The symbolism of the twelve apostles also emphasised the continuity of the early church with the twelve tribes of Israel.

While they lived there and Frumentius held the reins of government in his hands, God stirred up his heart and he began to search out with care those of the Roman merchants who were Christians and to give them great influence and to urge them to establish in various places conventicles to which they might resort for prayer in the Roman manner. He himself, moreover, did the same and so encouraged the others, attracting them with his favor and his benefits, providing them with whatever was needed, supplying sites for buildings and other necessaries, and in every way promoting the seed of Christianity in the country.

When the prince for whom they exercised the regency had grown up, they completed and faithfully delivered over their trust, and, though the queen and her son sought greatly to detain them and begged them to remain, returned to the Roman Empire. Aedesius hastened to Tyre to revisit his parents and relatives. Frumentius went to Alexandria, saying that it was not right to hide the work of God. He laid the whole affair before the bishop and urged him to look for some worthy man to send as bishop over the many Christians already congregated and the churches built on the barbarian soil. Then Athanasius (for he had recently assumed the episcopate) having carefully weighed and considered Frumentius’ words and deeds, declared in a council of the priests: `What other men shall we find in whom the Spirit of God is as in thee, who can accomplish these things?’ And he consecrated him and bade him return in the grace of God whence he had come. And when he arrived in India as bishop, such grace is said to have been given to him by God that apostolic miracles were wrought by him and a countless number of barbarians were converted by him to the faith. From which time Christian peoples and churches have been created in the parts of India, and the priesthood has begun. These facts I know not from the vulgar report but from the mouth of Aedesius himself, who had been Frumentius’ companion and was later made a priest in Tyre (Jones and Munroe 1955: 26-7).

Debre Damo-church built Under Emperor Ezana,

Rufinus’ story is simply told and involves no incredible miracles or impossible situations. The two youths, Frumentius and Aedesius, and their kinsman Meropius were apparently all Tyrians with Greek names and education (Pétridès 1972). The lapsing of a RomanoEthiopian treaty resulted in their captivity and servitude in the Aksumite royal household. On the death of the king (Ousanas Ella Amida?; see Ch. 4: 5) Aedesius and Frumentius were given freedom to leave if they wished, but chose to remain in the country. Frumentius being appointed to look after state matters by the queen regent took the opportunity to encourage Christians in the country where he could. King Ezana, on attaining his majority, assumed control of the administration; he may already have been converted by Frumentius and Aedesius, but no mention of this is made. In any event, they departed for the Roman world to return home. However, when Frumentius went to Alexandria to report on the progress of Christianity in Ethiopia, and to ask for a bishop for Aksum from Athanasius, the patriarch, he was himself chosen and consecrated, in about 330AD, and so returned to Aksum again as its bishop. This founded the custom of receiving a bishop from the patriarchs of Alexandria which continued until our own time (Munro-Hay, The Metropolitan Episcopate of Ethiopia, and the Patriarchate of Alexandria, 4th-14th centuries, forthcoming).

The custom had its advantages. From the point of view of the Alexandrine patriarchs, it kept the Aksumite kingdom within the sphere of influence of the see of St. Mark, with the Nubian kingdoms of Nobatia, Alodia, and Makoria and the Libyan Pentapolis. The patriarch retained the right, established by Athanasius’ consecration of Frumentius, to select a bishop for Ethiopia’s metropolitan see. Eventually, the system whereby the bishop has chosen had to be a Coptic Egyptian monk, no native Ethiopian being eligible, became accepted. As far as the Ethiopian ruler was concerned, this meant that he had as local head of the church a foreigner, probably almost completely ignorant of the conditions prevailing in the country, and even of its language; in short, one whose interference in local politics was likely to be minimal, and who could offer little rivalry to the king’s decrees. It is not certain when this arrangement became institutionalized, but it was later `established’ by an apocryphal canon attributed to the Council of Nicea. At times all did not work out so well. On one occasion a metropolitan or abun arrived with forged credentials and, since the distance to Alexandria was great and the journey difficult, it took time before the imposture was detected. Another problem arose when a king and metropolitan fell out, and the patriarch refused to send a new abun. It was the absence of Abuns and the quarrel with the Patriarchate which was piously believed to have caused the punishment delivered by the mysterious `Queen of the Bani al-Hamwiyya’ about whom an unnamed Ethiopian king wrote to king Girgis II of Nubia in the tenth century (Ch. 4: 8).

1. Introduction

2. Legend, Literature, and Archaeological Discovery