During the second half of the sixteenth century and the beginning of the seventeenth Jesuit
missionaries attempted to convert the Ethiopian Christian Empire to Catholicism. The present
book is a detailed research on the methods by which the missionaries sought to spread
Catholicism and the manner that the Ethiopian society responded. This work sheds light on the
Jesuit preference of spreading Catholicism from top to bottom. The Jesuits believed that
gaining control over positions of power and key positions was the right formula for success
and therefore the missionaries tried to overtake the Ethiopian ecclesiastical hierarchy sever
the traditional connection with the Alexandrian Coptic Church and replace it with a connection
with the Roman Catholic Church. Still acting as a new force in the Ethiopian arena the
Catholic religion did more than play a mere political part. The present work reveals other
aspects of the encounter and conflict between the Ethiopian and the Catholic Churches. It shows
that the Jesuits tried to develop an Ethiopian Catholic culture and for that purpose they
preached argued with Ethiopian clergymen and translated Latin and Portuguese texts into the
Ethiopian language.
