words of Hildegardis, Brigitte, and other prophetical men, hath these words: Si vera sint carmina & vaticinia D. Hildegardæ, & Brigittæ, Sybillarum Germaniæ, & Bardorū fatidicorū, qui ea quæ nostro æuo completo vidimus, longo ante tempore nobis cecinerunt: Agrippinensis Colonia, nolimus, velimus, Turcarum caput erit. &c.MarginaliaA prophesie. That is, if the sayinges and prophesies of Hildegarde, of Brigitte, and of other propheticall persons be true, which beyng foretold long before, we haue sene now in these our dayes accomplished: the towne of Colene will we, nill we, must needes be the head Citie of the Turkes. &c.

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And this I write not as one pronouncyng agaynst the Citie of Rome, what will happen, but as one fearyng what may fal. Which if it come to passe (as I pray God it do not) then shall the Pope well vnderstand, whether his wrong vnderstanding of the Scriptures, & his false flatteryng glosers vpon the same, haue brought him.

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MarginaliaA caueat to the bishop of Rome, if he be wise. Wherfore my counsaile is to the Pope, and all his Popish mainteyners and vpholders, to humble themselues, and to agree with their brethren by tyme, lettyng all contention fall: lest that while the Byshop of Rome shall striue to be the highest of all other Byshops, it so fall out shortly, that the Byshop of Rome shalbe founde the lowest of all other Byshops or peraduenture no Byshop at all.

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Whereunto also an other cause may be added, takē out of Hieronimus Sauonarola, who prophecieth  

that one shall come ouer the Alpes like vnto Cyrus, and destroy Italy. Wherof see more, pag. 707.

MarginaliaEx Paulo Iouio. This Solymannus, if he be yet a lyue,  

hath now reigned. 46. yeares, who began the same yeare, in the which the Emperour Charles the v. was crowned, whiche was. an. 1520. & so hath continued by Gods permission, for a scourge to the Christiās, vnto this yeare now present. 1566. This Solyman by one of his cōcubines, had his eldest sonne called Mustapha. By an other concubine called Rosa, he had foure sonnes, Mahumet, Baiazetes, Zelymus, and Giāger. Of the which sonnes, Mustapha and Gianger were slaine (as ye heard before) by þ^e meanes of their own father.

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And thus much concernyng the wretched tyranny of the Turkes out of the authours here vnder written.

MarginaliaAuthors of the Turkes stories

Laonicus Chalcondila.	Isiodorus Rutherus.
Nicolaus Euboicus Epise.	Marinus Barletus.
Saguntinus.	Henricus Penia
Ioan. Ramus.	De bello Rhodio.
Andræas a Lacuna.	Melchior Soiterus.
Wolfgangus Drechslerus.	Paulus Iouius.
Ioan. Crispus.	Ioan. Martinus Stella.
Ioan. Faber.	Gaspar Peucerus. &c.
Ludouicus Viues.	Nicolaus a Moffen
Bernardus de Breyden-	Burgundus.
bach.	Sebast. Munsterus.
Mityleneus Archiepise.	Baptista Egnatius.
Sabellicus.	Barthol. Peregrinus.

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MarginaliaPersecution vnder the turkes HEtherto thou hast heard (Christian Reader)  

the lamētable persecutions of these latter dayes, wrought by the Turkes agaynst the people and seruauntes of Christ. In the readyng wherof such as sitte quietly at home, & be farre from ieoperdy, may see what misery there is abroad, þ^e knowledge and readyng wherof, shall not be vnprofitable for all Christians earnestly to wey & consider, for that many there be, which falsely deceauyng themselues, imagen that Christianitie is a quyet and a restfull state of lyfe, full of pleasure and solace in this present world, when in deede it is nothing lesse, testified by the mouth of our Sauiour himselfe, who rightly definyng his kyngdome, teacheth vs that his kyngdome is not of this world, premonishing vs also before, that in this world we must looke for affliction, but in hym we shall haue peace. Examples hereof in all partes of this hystory through all ages are plentuous and euident to be sene,MarginaliaComparison betwene the persecutions of the primitiue churche and of the latter Church. Whether we turne our eyes to the first. x. persecutiōs in the primitiue Church duryng the first iij. hundreth yeares after Christ: or whether we cōsider the latter iij. hūdreth yeares in this last age of the Church, wherein the poore flocke of Christ hath bene so afflicted, oppressed, & deuoured, þ^t it is hard to say whether haue bene more cruell against þ^e Christiās, the infidell Emperours of Rome in the primitiue age of the Church, or els these barbarous Turkes in these our latter tymes of the Church now present.

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MarginaliaThree speciall enemies of Christes Church. Thus from tyme to tyme the Church of Christ almost hath had litle or no rest in this earth, what for the heathen Emperours on the one side, what for the proude Pope on the other side, and on the third side what for the barbarous Turke: for these are and haue bene from the begynnyng, the three principall & capitall enemyes of the Church of Christ, signified in the Apocalips by the beast, the false Lambe, and the false Prophet, from whom went out three foule spirites like frogges, to gather together all the kynges of the earth to the battaile of the day of the Lord God almighty, Apocal. 16.  

MarginaliaThe cruelitie of the furious turkes described. The crueltie and malice of these iij. enemyes agaynst Christes people hath bene such, that to iudge which of them did most excede in crueltie of persecutiō, it is hard to say: but that it may be thought that the bloudy and beastly tyranny of the Turkes especially aboue the reast, incomparably surmounteth all the afflictions and cruell slaughters that euer were sene in any age, or read of in any story:   In somuch þ^t there is neither history so perfect, nor writer so diligēt, 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 tyraūts, vpon poore Christen mens bodyes, within the cōpasse of these latter iij. hundreth yeares. Wherof, although no sufficient relation can be made, nor number expressed: yet to geue to the Reader some generall gesse or vewe thereof:MarginaliaTwo things to be noted in the Turkes: how many victories they haue got, & how cruelly they haue vsed their victories. 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 which victoryes, beyng so many, this is secondly to be noted, that there is almost no place, which the Turkes euer came to and subdued, where they did not either slay all þ^e inhabitaūts therof, or led away the most part therof into such captiuitie and slauery, that they continued not long after alyue: or els so liued, that death almost had bene to them more tolerable.

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Like as in the tyme of the first persecutions of the Romane Emperours, the saying was, that no mā could steppe with his foote in all Rome, but should tread vpon a Martyr: so here may be 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, whō the cruell Turkes haue murthered. Of whom are to be sene in historyes,  

heapes of souldiers slaine, of mē & womē cut in peeces, of children sticked vpō poles & stakes, whō these detestable turkes most spiteful (and þ^t in the sight of their parents) vse to gore to death: some they drag at their horse tayles & famish to death: some they teare in peeces, tyeng their armes and legges to foure horses: other some they make marks to shoote at: vpon some they trye their swordes, how deepe they can cut and slash, as ye before haue read, pag. 728. The aged & feable they treade vnder their horses: womē w^t child they spare not, but rippe their bodyes, and cast the infantes into the fire, or otherwise destroy them. Whether the Christians yeld to them, or yeld not, all is a matcer. As in their promises there is no truth: so in their victories there is no sense of manhode or mercy 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, & were all promised their lyues, were all destroyed and that horribly. In Mysia, after the kyng had geuen himselfe to the Turkes hād, hauyng promise of life, Mahumete the Turke slue him 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 like assuraunce of lyfe and safetie: and yet cōtrary to the league, the Citizens were put to the sword and slayne. At the wynnyng & yeldyng of Lesbos, what a number of young men and children were put vpon sharpe stakes and poles, and so thrust through?MarginaliaEx Michael. Soitero. lib. 1. de Bello Pānonico. fol. 515. At the wynnyng of the Citie of Buda,  

what tyranny was shewed and exercised agaynst the poore Christians, which had yelded themselues, and agaynst the two Dukes Christopher Bisserer and Ioannes Tranbinger, contrary to the promise and handwrityng of the Turke, is to be sene in the story of Melchior Soiteras, de Bello Panno.

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The like also is to be 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 mē troden vnder the horse feete, of matrones & virgines rauished, of women with child cut & rent 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 mā 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 the like terrible slaughter, which

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