For these reasons
he despatched some of his chiefs, with Monsignor de Jacobis, an
Italian nobleman and Roman Catholic bishop at Massowah, to Egypt,
to obtain a bishop for the Abyssinian see; [Footnote: According to
the rules of the Abyssinian Church, the bishop must be a Coptic
priest ordained at Cairo. The expenses required for the consecration
of a bishop amount to about 10,000 dollars] and in order to secure
for himself such a powerful weapon as the support of the priesthood,
he incurred the heavy expense required for the consecration of an
Abouna. De Jacobis made strenuous efforts to have a bishop anointed
who would favour the Roman Catholics; but he failed, as the Patriarch
chose for that dignity a young man who had received part of his
education at an English school at Cairo, and whose views were more
in favour of Protestantism than of the Copt's long-standing adversary,
the Church of Rome.
Andraos, this young priest, was only in his twentieth year. When
informed that he must leave his monastery and the companionship of
the monks his friends to proceed to the distant and semi-civilized
land of Habesch, he firmly declined the honour proposed for him.
He requested his superiors to fix their choice on a worthier man,
declaring himself unfit for the dignity so suddenly thrust upon
him. His objections were not admitted, and as he still persisted
in his refusal, the superior of the convent put him in irons; wherein
he should remain, he was told, until he agreed to obey the head of
the Coptic Church.
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