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406 Tiffi AFRlCAN ORIGINSOF Tiffi MISSIOANITQUA very first moment. Two African Christian kingdoms played a major part in mo– bilizing papa! interest in Kongo and thus in launching the Capuchins on their costly and sacrificial enterprise. By seizing the imagination of papal strategists, Ethiopia was the first Afri– can kingdom to summon Christian Europe to a joint endeavour. In the early fifteenth century, when the papacy was to re-establish itself in Rome after the period of exile in Avignon, Ethiopian rulers and monks were seeking to strengthen their tenuous contacts with western Europe. Already in 1402 an embassy from King Dawit was received in Venice. They brought rare and ex– pensive gifts, four leopards, a large pearl and aromatic gums, and they took back with them a group of artisans and probably a silver-gilt chalice2. Five years later Ethiopians were reported in Bologna, and also subsequently at the Council of Constance which recognised Martin V. This pope, who took the risky yet momentous decision to return to Rome, gave safe-conduct passes to three Ethiopians in 1418. King Yishaq in 1428 sent to Alfonso V in Valencia an am– bassador, who received a warm and fruìtful response, about which the pope was kept informed by Cardinal de Foix who reported that Yishaq had seventy– two rulers subject to him ofwhom sixty were Christian 3• These persistent contacts were but a prelude to the impact made by the Ethiopians at the Council of Florence in 1443. This encounter, it has been plausibly argued, was directly responsible for Portuguese interest in the lands of Prester John, providing a strong, and perhaps at times even a predominant, motive for the further vigorous exploration of Africa's Atlantic coast4. Early Ethiopian attempts to establish dose contacts with European Christendom reached a high-point under King Zara Ya'qob. Following bis defeat in 1445 of the Muslim ruler of Ada!, Zara Ya'qob sent an embassy to Europe which was received by Pope Nicholas V in 1450. Tue embassy was given books and "scripturi!', an unusual specific which, de Witte suggested, might indicate some theological documents setting out Catholic positions, and early in 1451 Nicho- 2 Taddesse Tam.rat, Church and State in Ethiopia 1270-1521, Oxford 1972, 257. See also, M. E. Heldman, A chalicefrom Venicefar Emperor D(IJJJit of Ethiopia, in Bul/etin of Schooi of Orien– taia11dAfrica11 Studies 53 (1990) 442-445. 3 R. Lefevre, Presenze etiopiche in Italiaprima dei Concilio di Fim1ze del 14 39, in Rassegna di studi etiopici 23 (1967-68), 5-26; C. de la Roncière, La déro11verte de l'Afrique a11 M'?Ye11 Age, Cairo 1924-7, II, 115s. 4 F. M. Rogers, O S011ho de rmidade mire cristaòs ocidentais e orientais 110 sécrtlo XV, Bahia 1960; Id., The travels of the Infante Dom Pedro of Portrigal, Cambridge Mass.1961; Id., The q11estfar BtlStem Christimzs. Travels a11d mmol{rin theAge of Dùcovery, Minneapolis 1962.