tangled by Castriotus, that he was forced to geue battaile:MarginaliaAmurathes ouercome by Scanderbeius. In the which battaile he was so vãquished, and most part of his armye slayne, that for grief and sorrow conceaued, he fallyng into a rauyng sickenes, was transported out of his pauilion vnto Adrianople, and there in fury and madnesse dyed, after he had reigned. 34. yeares. Which was about the yeare of our Lord. 1450.

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MarginaliaIanizari among the turkes. This Amurathes first  

ordeined the order of the Ianizarites. Which were the men children of such Christiãs as he conquered & tooke captiue: whõ he forced to renounce þ^e faith of Christ, wherin they were baptised, and brought them vp in Mahumetes law, and exercised thē in the same feates of warre as he did his owne people: & after þ^t they came to mēs estate, he named them Ianizari (that is to say) souldiours of a straunge countrey, and made them to garde his parson. They weare on their head in stead of an helmet, a white attire made of the grossest sort of woll, and is so manifold about their head, that it can not be pierced with a sword. It hangeth downe on the backe with a tayle, and before on the forehead it is garnished with gold and siluer. They were wont to vse bowes and launces in the fielde, but now they vse dagges as our horsemen do.

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At the first institution there were but. 8000. in their garrison, but now they be twise so many. This of all bondage and seruitude that the Christians suffer vnder the Turke is most intolerable & greatly to be of all true Christians lamented.MarginaliaA lamētable slauery of Christen mens children vnder the turke. For what can godly myndes behold more to their grief, then to see their children pulled from the fayth of Christ, wherein they were baptised, and by whose bloud they should eternally be saued, and to be instructed and nourished with the blasphemous doctrine of Mahumet, and to be professed enemyes of Christ and his Churche, to make warre agaynst heauen, and to perish euerlastyngly? And finally what a lamentable thyng is it, to see and behold our owne children borne of our own bodyes, to become our mortall and cruell enemyes, and to cut our throtes with their owne handes? This seruitude of mynde is farre greater then death it selfe. Which if our Princes would well consider, it would cause them the rather to agree, and bende their whole force and power agaynst this cruell enemy.

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MarginaliaMahumetes the ix. turke after Ottomannus. AMurathes left  

behind him iij. sonnes, Mahumete borne of the daughter of Despota, prince of Seruia, beyng. 20. yeares of age. The ij. sõne called Turcines. The iij. named Calepinus.MarginaliaThe tyranny of Mahumetes in murtheryng his brethren. This Turcines beyng an infant, and but. 18. monethes old, was strangled at the commaundement of the Turke, by his seruaunt Moses, himselfe beyng there present and beholdyng the horrible murther. And when Moses the executour of the murther had desired him not to pollute his handes with the bloud of his brother: he aunswered that it was the maner of all the Ottoman Turkes, that all the other brethren beyng destroyed, none should be left alyue but one to gouerne the Empire. Wherefore Moses was commaunded by the tyraunt, there presently and in his sight to kill the infant. This horrible fact whē the mother of the child vnderstood, she crying out and almost mad for sorrow, cursed the tyraunt to his face. But he to mitigate the rage of his mother, at her request beyng desirous to be reuenged vpon the executour of her sonnes death, deliuered the sayd Moses bounde into her handes: who then in the presence of of the tyraunt, thrust him to the hart with a knife, and openyng his side, tooke out his lyuer and threw it to the dogges to be deuoured.

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The thyrd sonne called Calepinus, which was but. vj. monethes old, the foresayd Amurathes his father commended to the custody of Halibassa one of his Nobles.MarginaliaHalibassa a traytour to his maister. Who to gratifie and please the tyraunt, betrayed the infant & brought him vnto him, and therupon he at the tyraunts commaundement was strangled.MarginaliaHorrible paracide of the abhominable turke. Some affirme that in the steade of Calepinus, an other child was offered vnto the tyrãt, and that Calepinus was conueyed to Constantinople, and after the takyng of Constantinople, was caryed to Venice and then to Rome to Pope Calixte, where he was baptised, and afterward came into Germany to Fridericke the Emperour, and there was honorably enterteined and kept in Austriche duryng his lyfe.MarginaliaGods prouidēce cã fetch out of the deuils mouth whom he liste to saue. Where note how the mercyfull prouidence of God, whom he lyst to saue, can fetch out of the deuils mouth.MarginaliaNote here Gods punishment vpon the betrayer of innocēt bloud. And note moreouer touchyng the foresayd Halibassa the betrayer of the infant, how he escaped not vnreuenged: For Mahumet vnderstandyng him to be a man of great substaunce and richesse, thorough forgyng of false crimes, with great tormentes put him to death to haue his richesse: for this tyraunt was geuen to insatiable auarice.  

Thus this bloudy Mahumete began his regiment with horrible murther, after the example of other cursed tyrants his predecessours.

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Although this Mahumete notwithstanding that he came of a Christen mother beyng the daughter of Despota prince of Seruia, and by her was brought vp and instructed from his childhode in the preceptes of Christian religiõ and maners: yet he soone forgetting all, gaue himselfe to Mahumetes religion  

, and yet so, that he beyng addicted to neyther Religion, became an Atheiste, beleuing and worshippyng no God at all, but onely the Goddesse of good Fortune, irridyng and mockyng the myndes & iudgemētes of men, which beleue that God by his prouidence, gouerneth and regardeth the state of humaine thinges on earth.

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After that  

thys Mahumete heard of the victories and conquestes of other hys predecessours, and had vnderstandyng how Baiazetes lay 8. yeares about Constantinople and could not winne it: he dispraysing Baiazetes, & disdaynyng that so long tyme should be spente about the siege therof, and yet no victory gotten bent all his study & deuise how to subdue the same.MarginaliaMahumete first setteth vpon Athens. But first hauing a priuye hatred agaynst the City of Athens, and hauyng hys handes lately embrued with the bloud of hys brethren: thys murthering Mahumete first of all taketh hys viage to subuert and destroy the Citie aforesayd   , beyng a famous schole of all good learnyng and discipline.MarginaliaThe fury of Mahumete the turke agaynst the Citie and schole of Athens. Agaynst the which Citie he did so furiously rage for the hatred of good letters, that he thought he ought not to suffer the foundation thereof to stand, because that citie was a good nourse & fosterer of good Artes and Sciences.MarginaliaAthens destroyed. Wherefore he commaunded the Citie to be rased and vtterly subuerted: and wheresoeuer any monumentes or bookes could be found, he caused them to be cast into durtye sinkes and the filthyest places of the Citie, or put to the most vile vses that could be deuised for extirping and abolishyng of all good literature. And if he vnderstoode any to lament the case and ruine of the noble place, those he greuously punished and put to death.

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Thus the famous and auncient schoole of Athenes beyng destroyed and ouerthrowne, he returned hys armie and power into Thracia, where in all hast he gathering his power together both by sea and by land,MarginaliaThe siege and taking of Constantinople. wyth a mighty multitude compassed the Citie of Constantinople about, and began to lay hys siege agaynst it, in the yeare of our Lord. 1453 and in the 54. day of the sayd siege it was taken, sacked, and the Emperour Constantinus slayne. As touching the crueltie and fearcenes of the Turkes in gettyng of this Citye, and what slaughter there was of men, women & children, what calamitie and misery was there to be seene, for somuch as sufficient relation, wyth a full description thereof, hath bene made before.MarginaliaVide supra pag. 684. pag. 684. it shalbe superfluous now to repeate the same. This onely is not to be omitted touching three principall causes of the ouerthrow of this city:MarginaliaThree causes speciall noted in the winning of Constantinople. wherof was þ^e first the filthy auarice of those Citizēs, which hyding their treasures in the ground, would not employ the same to the necessary defence of their Citye. For so I finde it in story expressed, that when the Turke, after the takyng of the Citye, had found not so much treasure as he looked for, suspectyng wyth hymselfe (as truth was) the treasures and riches to be hydden vnder the ground cõmaunded the earth to be digged vp, and the foundations of the houses to be searched: where when he had found treasures incredible, what (quoth he) how could it be that this place could euer lacke munition and fortification, which did flow and abound wyth such great riches as here is, & plenty of all thynges?MarginaliaEx Ioanne Ramo lib. 2. rerum Turticarum. The second cause was the absence of the nauy of þ^e Venetians, which if they had bene ready in time, might haue bene a safegard agaynst the inuasion of the enemyes. A third cause also may be gather vpon occasion incident in stories, eyther for that the Citye of Constantinople, xv. yeares before, dyd yelde to the Byshop of Rome, as is before to be sene,MarginaliaVid supra pag 675. pag. 675. or els because (as in some wryters it is euident) that Images were there receaued and maynteined, in their Churches, and by the Turkes the same tyme destroyed.

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Ioannes RamusMarginaliaEx Ramo. wryting of the destruction of this citye, amongest other matters maketh relation ofMarginaliaAn image of the Crucifixe in Cõstantinople. the Image of the Crucifixe, beyng there in the high temple of Sophia: which Image the Turke tooke, and wrytyng thys superscription vpon the head of it: hic est Christianorum Deus. i. thys is the God of the Christians, gaue it to hys souldiours to be scorned, and cõmuandyng the sayd Image with a trumpet to be caryed through all hys armye, made euery man to spitte at it most contumeliously.MarginaliaWhat offences be geuen to the infidels by Images in Christian Churches. Wherein thou hast (good reader)  

by the way to note, what occasion of sclaunder and offence we Christians geue vnto the barbarous infidels by thys our vngodly superstition in hauing Images in our temples, contrary vnto the expresse commaunde-

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