tion, it is hard to saye: but that it maye bee thought that the bloudy and beastly tyranny of the Turkes especially aboue the reast, incomparably surmounteth all the afflictiōs and cruell slaughters that euer were sene in any age, or read of in any story:  

In somuch that there is neither history so perfect, nor writer so diligent, who writyng of the miserable tyranny of the Turkes, is able to expresse or comprehend the horrible examples of their vnspeakable crueltie and slaughter exercised by these xij. turkish Tyrannes, vpon poore Christen mens bodyes, within the compas of these latter iij. hundreth yeares. Wherof, although no sufficient relation can be made, nor nūber expressed: yet to geue to the reader some generall gesse or vewe therof: MarginaliaTwo thynges to bee noted in the Turkes: how many victories they haue got, and howe cruelly they haue vsed their victorie.let vs first perpende and consider what dominions & Empiers, how many countreys, kyngdomes, prouinces, cities, townes, strong holdes and fortes, these Turkes haue surprised and wonne from the Christians. In all whiche victories, being so many, this is secondly to be noted, that there is almost no place, whiche the Turkes euer came to and subdued, where they did not either slay all the inhabitauntes thereof, or led awaye the most parte thereof into such captiuitie and slauery, that they continued not long after alyue: or els so lyued, that death almost had bene to them more tolerable.

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Lyke as in the tyme of the first persecutions of the Romane Emperours, the saying was, that no man could steppe with hys foote in all Rome, but should treade vppon a Martyr: so here may bee sayd, that almost there is not a towne, citie, or village in all Asia, Grecia, also in a great part of Europa, and Aphrica, whose streetes haue not flowed with bloud of the Christians, whom the cruell Turkes haue murthered. Of whom are to bee sene in historyes,  

heapes of souldiers slayne, of men and wemen cut in peeces, of children sticked vppon poles and stakes, whom these detestable Turkes most spitefully (and that in the sighte of their parentes) vse to gore to death: some they dragge at their horse tayles and famishe to death: some they teare in peeces, tyeng their armes & legges to iiij. horses: other some they make markes to shote at: vpon some they trye their swordes, howe depe they can cut and slashe, as ye before haue read, pag. 892. The aged and feable they tread vnder their horse: wemen with childe they spare not, but rippe their bodyes, & cast the infants into the fire, or otherwise destroye thē. Whether þ^e Christians yelde to them, or yelde not, all is a matter. As in their promises there is no truth: so in their victories there is no sense of manhode or mercye in them, but they make hauocke of all.

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MarginaliaEx Marino Barlesso de Scedr. ex pugnat. lib. 2.So the Citizens of Croia, after they had yelded, and were all promised their lyues, were all destroyed and that horribly. In Mysia, after the kyng had geuen hym selfe to the Turkes hande, hauyng promise of lyfe, Mahumete the Turke slue hym with his owne handes. The princes of Rasia had both their eyes put out with basens redde hoate set before them. Theodosia, otherwise called Capha, was also surrendered to the Turke, hauyng the lyke assuraunce of lyfe and safetie: and yet cōtrary to the league, the Citizens were put to the swoorde and slayne. At the winnyng and yelding of Lesbos, what a number of young men and children were put vpon sharpe stakes and poles, and so thrust thorowe: MarginaliaEx Michael. Soitero. lib. i. de Bellv Pānonico. fol. 515.At the wynnyng of the Citie of Buda,  

what tyranny was shewed and exercised agaynste the poore Christians, whiche had yelded them selues, and agaynst the two Dukes Christopher Bisserer and Ioānes Tranbinger, cōtrary to the promise and hādwrityng of þ^e Turke, is to be sene in the story of Melchior Soiteras, de Bello Pāno.

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The lyke also is to bee read in the story of Bernardus de Breydenbach, MarginaliaEx Bernardo de Breydenbach Decano Eccl. Magūt.who writyng of the takyng of Hydruntum, a Citie in Apulia, testifieth of the miserable slaughter, of the young men there slayne, of old men troden vnder the horse feete, of matrones and virgines rauished, of wemen with child cut and rente a peeces, of the priestes in the Churches slayne, and of the Archbyshop of that Citie, MarginaliaThe superstitious vse of the materiall crosse.who beyng an aged man and holdyng the crosse in his handes, was cut asonder with a woodden saw. &c.  

The same Bernardus also writyng of the ouerthrowe of Nigropontus, otherwise called Chalcides, an. 1471.   describeth þ^e lyke terrible slaughter, which there was exercised: MarginaliaVid. supra pag. 881.where the Turke, after his promise geuen before to the contrary, most cruelly caused all the youth of Italy to be pricked vppon sharpe stakes: some to be dashed agaynst the hard stones, other some to be cut in sonder in the middest, and other mo with other kindes of tormentes to bee put to death: MarginaliaEx Bernar. de Breydenb.in so much that all the streetes and wayes of Chalcides did flow with þ^e bloud of them whiche were there slayne. In whiche history þ^e fore sayd writer recordeth one memorable example of maidenlychastitie, worthy of all Christians to be noted and commēded. MarginaliaA notable example of maydenly Chastitie.The storie   is told of the Pretors daughter of that citie, who beyng the onely daughter of her father, & noted to be of an exceding singular bewtie, was saued out of þ^e slaughter, and brought to Mahumete the Turke, to be his concubine: But she denyeng to consent to his Turkishe appetite and filthenes, was commaunded therwith to be slayne and murthered, and so dyed she a martyr, kepyng both her faith and her body vndefiled vnto Christ Iesus her spouse. Ibid. The lyke crueltie also was shewed vpon them which kept the castle, and afterward yelding them selues vpon hope of the Turkes promise, were slayne euery one. What should I speake of þ^e miserable slaughter of Methone, & the Citizens therof dwellyng in Peloponesus? who seing no other remedy but nedes to come into the Turkes handes, set the barne on fyre where they were gathered together, mē, wemen, and children: some wemen also with child voluntarily cast them selues into the sea, rather then they would susteine the Turkes captiuitie.   MarginaliaVid supra. pag. 883.Vid. pag. 883.

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MarginaliaThe miserable spillyng of Christen mēs bloud by the wretched Turkes.Miserable it is to behold,  

long to recite, incredible to beleue all the cruell partes and horrible slaughters wrought by these miscreantes, agaynst the Christians throughe all places almost of the worlde, both in Asia, in Aphrica, but especiallye in Europa. Who is able to recite the innumerable societies and companies of the Grecians martyred by the Turkes sword in Achaia, Attica, Thessalia, Macedonia, Epirus, and all Peloponesus? besides the Ilande of Rhodes and other Ilandes, and Cyclades adiacent in the sea about, numbered to. 52. of the whiche also Pathmos was one, where S. Iohn beyng banished, wrote his reuelations. Where did euer the Turkes set any foote, but the bloude of Christians there, without pitie or measure, went to wracke? And what place or prouince is there almost through the worlde, where the Turkes either haue not perced, or are not like shortly to enter? MarginaliaA brief recitall of Christē townes and fortes wonne of the Turke in Europe.In Thracia, & through all the coastes of Danubius, in Bulgaria, Dalmatia, in Seruia, Transyluania, Bosna, in Vngaria, also in Austria, what hauocke hath bene made by them, of Christē mens bodyes, it will rue any Christen hart to remember. At the siege of Moldauia, at the wynnyng of Buda, of Pesta, of Alba, of Walpo, Strigonium, Soclosia, Tathe, Wizigradnm, Nouum Castellum in Dalmatia, Belgradū, Varadinum, Quinquecclesie: also at the battaile of Verna, where Ladislaus kyng of Polonie with all his armye almost, through the rashenes of the Popes Cardinall, were slayne: at the wynnyng moreuer of Xabiacchus, Lyssus, Dinastrū: at the siege of Guntza, and of the faythfull town Scodra, where the number of the shotte agaynste theyr walles, at the first siege therof, were rekened to. 2539: likewise at the siege of Vienna, where all the Christian captiues were brought before the whole armye and slayne, & diuers drawen in peeces with horses: MarginaliaThe crueltie of the Turke agaynste the Citizens of Constantinople.
Vid. supra pag. 880.but especially at the wynnyng of Constantinople aboue mentioned, pag. 880: also at Croia, and Methone, what beastly cruelty was shewed, it is vnspeakable. For as in Constantinople, Mahumet þ^e dronkē Turke neuer rose from dyner, but he caused euery day, for his disport. 300. christian captiues of the nobles of that Citie to be slayne before his face: MarginaliaThe crueltie of the Turke agaynste the prisoners of Methone.
Ex Leonico Chalcondyla de rebus Turcicis. lib. 10.So in Methone,   after þ^t his captaine Omares had sēt vnto him at Cōstātinople v. hundreth prisoners of þ^e Christians, the cruell Tyranne cōmaunded them all to be cut and diuided in sonder by the midle, and so beyng slayne, to bee throwne out into the fieldes.

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MarginaliaA straunge and a prodigious wonder of a brute beast towarde a dead Christian body.Laonicus Chalcondyla, wrytyng of the same story, addeth moreouer a prodigious narration (if it bee true) of a brute Oxe, whiche beyng in the fieldes, and seyng the carcases of the dead bodyes so cut in twoo, made there a lowed noyse after the lowyng of hys kynde and nature: and afterwarde commyng to the quarters of one of the dead bodyes lyeng in the fielde, firste tooke vppe the one halfe, and then commyng agayne, tooke vppe likewise the other halfe, and so (as hee could) ioyned them both together. MarginaliaMore humanitie sene in a brute beast then in the Turke.Whiche beyng espyed of them that sawe the doyng of the brute oxe, and meruelyng thereat, and worde beyng brought therof to Mahumet, he commaunded þ^e quarters agayne to brought, where they were before, to proue whether the beast would come agayne: Who fayled not (as the author recordeth) but in lyke sorte as before, takyng þ^e fragmentes of the dead corps, layd them agayne together. It foloweth more in the author, howe that Mahumete beyng astonyed at the straunge wonder of the Oxe, commaunded the quarters of the Christen mans body to be interred, and þ^e Oxe to be brought to his house, and was much made of. Some sayd it to be the body of a Venetian: some affirmed, that he was an Illyrian: but what soeuer he was, certaine

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