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Yohannes I Of Ethiopia




Yohannes was appointed '''' by a council of the senior dignitaries of the Empire, at the encouragement of the noble Blattengeta Malka Krestos. The council then imprisoned the other sons of Fasilides on Mount Wehni , continuing the practice Fasilides had revived.

Due to the violent religious controversy that Catholic missionaries had caused in Ethiopia under the reign of his grandfather Susenyos , he acted harshly towards Europe ans. In 1669 , he directed Gerazmach Mikael to expel all of the Catholics still living in Ethiopia; those who did not embrace the beliefs of the Ethiopian Church were exiled to Sennar . Six Franciscan s sent by Pope Alexander VII to succeed in converting Ethiopia to Catholicism, where the Jesuits had failed 30 years before, were executed during his reign.

As a result, he favored Armenia n visitors, whose beliefs also embraced Monophysitism , and were in harmony with the Ethiopian Church. These included one Murad, who undertook a number of diplomatic missions for the Emperor; and in 1679 , the Emperor Yohannes received the Armenian bishop Yohannes, bearing a relic of Ewostatewos .

The growing friction between the competing doctrines of the Sost Lidet and the Wold Qib had grown severe enough that in the last year of his reign Yohannes called a Synod to resolve the dispute. At the synod, the Emperor was convinced to embrace the Sost Lidet doctrine, which was supported by the monks of Debre Libanos , but opposed by both the followers of Ewostatewos and Yohannes own son Iyasus , who after the synod attempted to flee his father's kingdom. The conclusions of this synod were revisited once Iyasus became Emperor, at a synod he called in 1686 .Budge, pp.406f, 410f.


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FURTHER READING

  • Richard K. P. Pankhurst. ''The Ethiopian Royal Chronicles''. Addis Ababa: Oxford University Press, 1967.