"Imprudentia Maxima": Fray Manuel de Asunción y su Crítica de la Actuación de los Jesuitas en Etiopia

A long historiographical tradition considers the Jesuit mission's failure in Ethiopia as a result of the rigidity, intolerance, and narrow-mindedness of the missionaries of the Society of Jesus and its leadership. This article wishes to state that this opinion was already present in Catholic circles before it circulated to wider audiences through the work of Scottish-born authors Michael Geddes and James Bruce during the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century. Apparently, this criticism includes in its background the rivalry between the various religious orders. The text presented in this article is a short epistle directed to the authorities of the Sacra Congregatio de Propaganda Fide in 1637, which accused the Jesuit missionaries of having acted with a great degree of recklessness and intolerance toward the local Church's ancient customs. The article analyzes the document's contents, placing them within the religious and historical context in which they were formulated.