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Contents contributed and discussions participated by cheese_thabiso

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Thabiso Ntombela

shared by cheese_thabiso on 26 Apr 23 - No Cached
  • against Islam. In this latter endeavour they sought firstly to find a sea route to the land of the Christian Emperor of Ethiopia,1 and secondly to convert to Christianity the non-Islamic peoples they might meet in the course of explorat
  • Such objectives were in turn integrated with the political and commercial interests of the Portuguese government by the consideration that a people converted to Christianity would in all ways be more open to their influence than would one with whom their contacts were confined solely
  • Misinterpretation of imperfect intelligence was from the beginning a notable characteristic of the Christian effort to convert Benin.
  • ...10 more annotations...
  • uese government had abandoned the Benin factory, are obscure. A genuine interest in Christianity cannot be wholly discounted, but there is little in the previous or subsequent history of Benin to suggest that it was the principal motive
  • . At the time the Oba was hard-pressed by rebels or foreign enemies,4 yet was unable to gain the advantage of the redoubtable European weapons because the Portuguese, from prudence and papal prohibitions on the sale of arms to non-Christians, had taken care that no arms should fall into the hands of the Binis. Both obsta-
  • cies could be overcome by conversion to Christianity.
  • Missionaries the King of Portugal readily promised and arranged that they should return to Benin with the envoys, taking with them all the necessar) vestments, altar furnishings and books.4 Arms he refused to send until the Oba should prove the sincerity of his professed inclination to Christianit
  • ...Therefore, with a very good will we send you the clergy that you have asked for; they bring with them all the things that are needed to instruct you and your people in the knowledge of our faith. And we trust in Our Lord that He will bestow His grace upon you, that you may confess it and be saved in it - for all the things of this world pass away and those of the other last for ever. We earnestly exhort you to receive the teachings of the Christian faith with that readiness we expect from a very good friend. For when we see that you have embraced the teachings of Christianity like a good and faithful Christian, there will be nothing in our realms with which we shall not be glad to favour you, whether it be arms or cannon and all other weapons of war for use against your enemies ; of such things we have a
  • great store, as Dom Jorge your ambassador will inform you. These things we are not sending you now, as he requested, because the law of God forbids it so long as you are....
  • , the Oba sent his own sou with those of some chiefs to be baptised and taught to read by the missionaries. Reading lessons - probably with catechisms in Portuguese - progressed very satisfactorily, according to Pires. The Ob i also gave orders that a church should be built in Benin City for the priests. Whether this was done is open to doubt, for although Benin tradition insists that Roman Catholic churches were built in the city, and even the sites are indicated with some precision,4 there is no documentary evidence for the existence of churches there
  • . Even if the mission reached Benin, it met with no recorded success. Nor for another twenty years did the Portuguese make any further attempt to convert the Oba and his people. Such Christian influence as persisted in Benin during this time was confined to a handful of Binis and slaves who had been converted while in the service of the Portug
  • sland. On their arrival e
  • 1538, they discovered that Christianity was not entirely extinct in Benin. GregorioLourenço was still alive. Also the Oba held captive a number of Christains, including some described as "kings", and one named Afonso Anes whom he employed to teach boys the art of read
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