prosperitie, victories, authoritie and power, should bee reiected and despised of God, seyng there is no power and authoritie, but by the ordinaunce of God? Albeit therefore, the power of the Turkes hath bene, for these two hundreth yeares, of greater force, then anye other Monarchy of the worlde besides: MarginaliaNo Imperiall dignitie in all the Turkyshe dominions.yet is there no Imperiall dignitie to bee estemed in that Turkishe tyranny: but amongest those nations onely, where the heauenly doctrine of the Gospell is preached, and other disciplines necessary for the Churche of God, and the common life of man, mainteyned and regarded: where the lawes of God, and other honest and ciuill ordinaunces agreable to the same, do flourish and reigne: where lawfull iudgement is exercised: where vertue is honoured and rewarded: where sinne and wickednes is punished: where honest families are mainteined and defended.

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These things are not regarded amongest the Turkes, the enemies of the sonne of God, and all lawfull Empyres: MarginaliaThe description of the Turkes vnordinate Empyre.because they dissolue & reiect all godly societies, honest discipline, good lawes, policies, righteous iudgementes, the ordinaunce of matrimonie, and godly families  

. For what hath þ^e Empire of þ^e Turkes bene hetherto, but most deadly, cruell, & perpetuall warre, to worke all mischief, destruction and desolation? to subuert good lawes, Cities, kingdomes, policies, and to enlarge their cruell power and dominion? The staye and strength wherof, is not loue and fauour procedyng of vertue and iustice, as in lawfull and well gouerned Empyres: but feare, violence, oppression, swarmes & infinite thousandes of barbarous and most wicked people, ministers of Satans malice and fury. Which kynde of dominion and tyranny hath ben condemned by the voyce of God, many yeares agoe: MarginaliaEzech. 39.
Apoc. 20.the testimonies whereof the Lorde would haue to remayne in the Churche, least the godly being moued with the power and successe therof, should fall away and forsake the sonne of God. Wherefore, let vs not seke for any Imperiall state in that barbaritye: but let vs be thankefull, & acknowledge the great benefite of God, for that he hath reserued to vs certeine remnauntes of the Romaine Empire: and let vs call vpon him dayly with harty petitions and grones, and with zeale and loue to þ^e house of God, þ^t this Turkish power, ioyned with the malice of Satan agaynst the sonne of God, preuaile not against the poore congregations and litle remnaunt of his Churche, MarginaliaThe christen kyngdomes & churches destroyed by the Turkes, are a warning for vs whom God hath yet spared.as it hath hetherto done agaynst those stronge and noble Christian kingdomes & Churches, where now we see the Turkish tyranny to reigne, and Satan to haue taken full possession: Whose state was once farre better then ours is now, and more like to continue without such horrible ouerthrowes and desolation. Oh that we might forsee a litle, the great daunger that hangeth ouer our heades. For though the Turke semeth to bee farre of, yet do wee nourishe within our owne breastes at home, that may soone cause vs to feele his cruell hand, & worse, if worse may be: to ouer runne vs: to lay our land wast: to scatter vs amongest the infidels, the enemyes and blasphemers of the sonne of God. MarginaliaFoure principall familyes of the Turkes.Now, although these. iiij. families aboue mencioned, lõg cõtinued together in bloudy warres and deadly hatred, yet one of them passed the rest in all cruelty and tyranny, and subduyng the other. iij. families, tooke vpon hym the gouernement alone, MarginaliaThe familye of Ottomannus.and so became the first Monarch or Emperour that reigned among them, called Ottomanus, of whom all that reygned after hym, were called Ottomanni. Who succedyng orderly of hys lyne, haue occupied the same dominion and seate of the Turkes, from the yeare of our Lord. 1300. vnto this present tyme: which haue bene to the nūber of. xij. Of the whiche. xij. in such order as they liued & reigned, I intende (Christ so permitting) seuerally & compendiously, something to entreat, briefly abstractyng out of prolixe and tedious writers, such spe-cialties, as for vs Christians, shal be chiefly requisite to be knowen.

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MarginaliaOttomannus the first Emperour of the Turkes.THis Ottomannus  

was at the first, of poore estate and obscure amongest the common sorte of men, cõming of a base progenie & of rusticall parentes: but through hys valiantnes & actiuitie in warre, he gotte hym a great name amongest the Turkes. For hee beyng a man of fearce courage, refusing no labour and delightyng in warre, and gatheryng together by great subtiltie, a multitude of common souldiers, began to make warre, and by conquestes and victoryes, to aduaunce hym selfe and hys familie. Firste hee began to robbe and spoyle with a great bande of rouers, and afterward he attempted to set vpon all men. Neyther did he vexe and destroye the Christians onely, but set vppon his owne nation also, and sought all occasion to subdue them wholy vnto hym   . MarginaliaInward warre among the Turkes.For nowe the princes and captaines of the Turkes, inflamed with ambition & desire of rule, began to fall out and contende among thē selues, in so much that they fell to domesticall & inward warre, with all the power they coulde. MarginaliaThe comming vp of Ottomannus.Ottomannus hauyng this occasion, very fitte and meete to accomplishe that whiche he long had sought for, gatheryng vnto him all such as he thought to be geuen to robbing and spoylyng, and set all vppon mischief, in shorte tyme began to grow in authoritie, & first set vpon certeine townes, as he saw oportunitie to serue him: Of which townes, some he tooke by force, some by yeldyng, other some he spoyled & ouerthrew, to terrefie the rest, thus laying the first foundation of his risyng. In the meane tyme, þ^e discorde whiche was among the Christians, was no small aduauntage to this Ottomannus, by occasion wherof, MarginaliaBithinia, Natolia, Ancyra, Sinope, Sebastia, subdued.he within. x. yeares space, subdued Bithynia, and all the prouinces about Pontus: Also Natolia, whiche comprehendeth all the dominiõ of the Grekes within Asia: Ancyra a Citie in Phrygia: Sinope a citie in Galatia: and Sebastia a Citie in Cappadocia: and thus still preuailyng, he encreased in short tyme, to a myghty power, eyther through the secrete iudgement of God agaynst that nation, or els because God would haue them so farre and so cruelly to preuaile, for the punishmēt of the synnes of other nations, lyke as it was Prophecyed before, that such a kyngdome there should be of Gog and Magog. MarginaliaEzech. 38.This Ottomannus, after he had reigned. 28. yeares, in þ^e yeare of our Lord. 1327   . dyed, and departed to hys Mahumet, leauing behinde hym three sonnes, of whom Orchanes being the youngest, killed hys two brethren, whilest they were at variaunce betwene them selues   .

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MarginaliaOrchanes the second Emperour of the Turkes, after Ottomannus.ORchanes  

, the yongest of the sonnes of Ottomannus, after he had slayne his. ij. brethren, tooke the regimēt of þ^e Turkes after his father. Who, after he had drawen to him the hartes of the multitude, such as had their dispositions set vpon the licentious life or warre, conuerted his power further to enlarge his fathers dominion, MarginaliaMysia, Lydia, Lycaonia, Phrygia, Caria, Prusia, Nicia, Nicomedia, Christē Cities subdued of the Turkes.wynnyng & subduyng Mysia, Lydia, Lycaonia, Phrygia, & Caria: all which coūtreys, beyng within the compasse of Asia, vnto þ^e sea side of Hellespontus, and the sea Euxinus, he added to the Turkishe Empire. Also he wanne Prusia, whiche was the Metropolitane Citie of Bithynia, whiche then hee made the chief seate of the Turkes Empire. Besides these moreouer he conquered Nicea, & got Nicomedia: all which were before Christian Cities and regions. MarginaliaCiuill warre among the Grecians.And yet all this could not make the Christian princes in Grecia, to cease their ciuill warres, & to ioyne and accorde among them selues: Such debate and variaunce was then betwene Cãtacuzenus, on the Grekes part, and Palæologus the Emperour of Constantinople  

Commentary     Close

In 1341, a civil war broke out in the Byzantine Empire between two rival candidates for the imperial throne: John VI Kantakouzenes and John V Palaiologos. Kantakouzenes allied with Orhan and was successful. Further warfareensued in 1352 between Palaiologos and Kantakouzenes's son Matthew., who again called on Orhan for aid. In return for these interventions, the Ottomans were allowedto establish themselves on the Gallipoli peninsula.

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. By reason wherof, the Turkes ayde was sent for out of

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