received every year forty thousand crowns); yet, when Pope Alexander was compelled to send Gemes to Charles VIII., the French king, as a pledge, he, being hired by the Turk, caused Gemes to be poisoned at Terracina.

Moreover, it appears that this Alexander taking displeasure with Charles the French king, about the winning of Naples, sent to Bajazet the Turk, to fight against Charles.

Munsterus declaring the history of Gemes something otherwise, saith that he was first committed by the Rhodians to the French king. And when Alexander the pope, through his fraudulent flattery, got him out of the hands of the French king into his own, then by his means Gemes afterward was poisoned, as is before expressed.

To these poisoning acts of the pope, let us also add his malicious wickedness, with like fury exercised upon Antonius Mancinellus, a man of excellent learning, because he wrote an eloquent oration against his wicked manners and filthy life, with other vices; he therefore commanded both his hands and his tongue to be cut off, playing with him, as M. Antonius the tyrant before did with M. Cicero, for writing against his horrible life. At length, as one poison requires another, this poisoning pope, as he was sitting with his cardinals, and other rich senators of Rome at dinner, his servants unawares brought to him a wrong bottle, by which he was poisoned, and some of his cardinals who were about him.

In the time of this Pope Alexander also it happened, that the angel, which stood in the high top of the pope's church, was beaten down with terrible thunder. After this pope, succeeded Pius III., (A. D. 1503.) After whom came Julius II., a man so far passing all other in iniquity, that Wigelius, and such other of his own friends, are compelled to say of him, "that he was more given to war and battle, than to Christ." Concerning the madness of this man, it is most certainly known, that when he was going to war, he cast the keys of St. Peter into the river Tiber, saying, that as the keys of St. Peter would not serve him to his purpose, he would betake himself to the sword of St. Paul.

Of this Julius it is certainly reported, that partly with his wars, and partly with his cursings, in the space of seven years, as good as two hundred thousand christians were destroyed. First, he besieged Ravenna against the Venetians, then Servia, Imolia, Faventia, Forolivium, Bononia, and other cities, which he got out of princes' hands, not without much bloodshed. The chronicles of John Sleidan make mention, that when this Julius was made pope, he took an oath, promising to have a council within two years; but when he had no leisure, being occupied with his wars in Italy among the Venetians, and with the French king, and in Ferraria, and in other countries, nine of his cardinals departing from him, came into Milan, and there appointed a council at the city of Pisa; among whom, the chief were Bernard, Cruceius, William Prenestinus, Francis, Constantine, with others; to whom also were added, the proctors of Maximilian the emperor, and of Charles the French king. So the council was appointed (A. D. 1511) to begin in the kalends of September. The cause why they called this council was, that the pope having broken his oath, gave no hope of having any council; and also because there were other crimes of which they had to accuse. Their purpose was to remove him out of his seat, which he had procured through bribes and ambition. Julius hearing this, commands, under great penalties, that no man should obey them, and himself calls another council against the next year, to be begun the nineteenth day of April. The French king understanding that Pope Julius had joined with the Venetians, to take their part against him, assembled a council at Turin, in the month of September; in which council these questions were proposed.

Whether it was lawful for the pope to wage war against any prince without cause?

Whether any prince in defending himself, might invade his adversary, and deny his obedience?

To which questions it was answered, that the bishop ought not to invade, and also that it was lawful for the

king to defend himself. Moreover, that the pragmatical sanction was to be observed through the realm of France, and that excommunications ought not to be feared, if they were found to be unjust. After this the king sent to Julius the answer of his council, requiring him either to agree to peace, or to appoint a general council somewhere else, where this matter might be more fully decided. Julius would do neither of these, but forthwith accursed Charles, the French king, with all his kingdom. At length at Ravenna, in a great battle, he was overcome by the French king, and at last, after much slaughter, and great bloodshed, and mortal war, this pope died the twenty-first day of February, A. D. 1513.

If it were not that I am afraid of filling this volume with foreign histories, when I have professed chiefly to treat of Acts and Monuments done here at home, I would add after these popes something also of the Turks' history, of their rise and cruel persecution of the saints of God, to the great peril of Christendom; yet there are certain causes which necessarily require their wicked proceedings, their cruel tyranny, and bloody victories, the ruin and subversion of so many christian churches, with the horrible murders and cap. tivity of infinite christians, to be made known, as well to this our country of England, as also to other nations.

The great victories of the Turks, and the want of success of our men fighting against them, may admonish and teach us, following the example of the old Israelites, how to seek for greater strength to encounter with these enemies of Christ than hitherto we have done. First, we must consider that the whole power of Satan, the prince of this world, goes with the Turks, to resist which no strength of man's arm is sufficient, but only the name, spirit, and power of our Lord Jesus the Son of God going with us in our battles, as among the old Israelites the ark of God's covenant and promise went with them also fighting against the enemies of God. For so are we taught in the scripture, that we christian men have no strength but in Christ only. Whether we war against the devil, or against the Turk, it is true what the scripture saith, "without me you can do nothing." There is no power to stand against the devil, or to conquer the world, unless our faith only, to which all the promises of God (touching salvation) are annexed, beyond which promises we must not go, for the word must be our rule. He that presumes beyond the promises in the word expressed, goes not, but wanders, he cannot tell whither. Neither must we appoint God how to save the world, but must take that way which he hath appointed. Let us not set God to school, nor comprehend his Holy Spirit within our knowledge. He that made us without our counsel, did also redeem us as pleased him. If he be merciful, let us be thankful. And if his mercies surmount our capacity, let us therefore not resist but search his word, and thereto apply our will, which if we will do, all our contentions will be soon at a point. Let us, therefore, search the will of our God in his word; and if he wills his salvation to stand free to all nations, why do we make merchandise thereof? If he has graciously offered his waters to us, without money, or money's worth, let us not hedge in the plenteous springs of his grace so freely given us.

And if God has determined his own Son to stand alone, let us not presume to mix with his majesty any of our trumpery. He that brings St. George or St. Dennis as patrons to the field to fight against the Turk, leaves Christ (no doubt) at home. Now how we have fought these many years against the Turk, though history keeps silence, yet the success declares. We fight against a persecutor, being no less persecutors ourselves. We wrestle against a bloody tyrant, and our hands are as full of blood as his. He kills Christ's people with the sword, and we burn them with fire. He observing the works of the law, seeks his justification by the same, the like also do we. But neither he nor we seek our justification as we should, that is, only by faith in the Son of God.

And what marvel then, our doctrine being almost as corrupt as his, and our conversation worse, if Christ

fight not with us, fighting against the Turk? The Turk hath prevailed so mightily, not because Christ is weak, but because Christians are wicked, and their doctrine impure. Our temples are polluted with images, and our hearts with idolatry; our priests sin before God in adultery, being restrained from lawful matrimony. The name of God is in our mouths, but his fear is not in our hearts. We war against the Turk with our works, masses, traditions, and ceremonies, but we fight not against him with Christ, and with the power of his glory, which if we did the field were won.

I do believe, that when the church of Christ with the sacraments thereof shall be so reformed, that Christ alone shall be received to be our justifier, all other religions, merits, traditions, images, patrons and advocates set apart, the sword of the christians, with the strength of Christ, shall soon vanquish the Turks' pride and fury. But of this I will treat more largely in the process of this history.

As to the time when this sect of Mahomet first began, history does not fully consent, but it is generally reckoned from his flight from Mecca, (A. D. 622), which they call the Hegyra, and in the eleventh year of Heraclius the emperor of Constantinople.

In this all writers agree, that this damnable Mahomet was born in the country of Arabia, bordering on the east part of Judea, (A. D. 571.) His father was an Arabian of the tribe of Koreish, and his mother was an Ishmaelite, which Ishmaelites being a people of Arabia, were called the Hagarens, which term Mahomet afterwards turned to the name of Saracens. Of this wretched Mahomet mention was made before, where we shewed, how he making himself the highest prophet of all other, yet denies not Christ to be an holy prophet, and next to him, and Moses also to be another. Moreover, he denies not Mary the mother of Christ to be a virgin, and to have conceived Christ by the Holy Ghost: affirming further, that Christ in his own person was not crucified, but another called Judas for him. He greatly commends John the son of Zachary for a chaste man, when he himself permits a man to have four wives, and as many concubines as he is able to find, and saith that whereas Christ and other prophets had the gift given them to work miracles, he was sent by force of the sword, to compel men to his religion.

The prodigious vanities, lies, and blasphemies contained in his law, called The Alkoran, are rather to be laughed at than recited.

It is thought that Sergius, a Nestorian, assisted Mahomet, in contriving this Alkoran, and so it appears by the scope, which especially tends to this end, to take the divinity from the person of Christ, whom he grants notwithstanding to be a most holy man, and also that he is received up to God, and shall come again to kill antichrist, &c.

Moreover, this ridiculous Alkoran is so intermingled with mixtures of the Christian, Jewish, and the Gentile laws, giving such liberty to all the lusts of the flesh, setting up circumcision, abstaining from swine's flesh, and Jewish washings, and so much stands upon father Abraham, that it is supposed by some that this filthy Alkoran was set out in the days of Mahomet, but that certain Jews had some handling also in the matter, and put it out after his death.

After Mahomet had thus seduced the people, teaching them that he came not by miracles, but by the sword to give his law, and that they who will not obey it must either be put to death, or else pay tribute (for so are the words of the Alkoran); and after he had gathered the strength of the Arabians about him, which Arabians had then occasion to rebel against the emperor, because their stipends were not paid them by the emperor's officers, he began to range with force and violence in parts of Syria, and subdued Mecca, then Damascus, and further increasing in power he entered Egypt, and subFrom thence he turned against the Persians. Chosroes, the king of Persia, encountered him with a powerful army, and overthrew the Saracens, and

dued the same.

put Mahomet to flight. Of these Persians came the Turks, who afterward joining with the Saracens, maintained them against the christians.

After the death of this beast, (A. D. 632), who, as some say, was poisoned in his house, he was succeeded by his father-in-law, Abubeker, who took upon him the government of their followers, and got the city Gaza, and besieged also Jerusalem. He reigned two years at

Damascus.

After him followed Omar, who conquered a great part of Syria, Egypt, and Persia.

The fourth king of the Saracens, after Mahomet, was Otman, then followed Ali the son-in-law of Mahomet, and after him Mahuvias, or Moawiyah, who, after a siege of seven years, obtained the christian city of Cesarea; also overcame the Persians, and subdued that country to his law.

Thus the wicked Saracens, in the space of thirty years, subdued Arabia, got Palestine, Phoenicia, Syria, Egypt, and Persia.

Not long after Heraclius, emperor of Constantinople, succeeded Constans his nephew, who, in the sixteenth year of his empire, fighting unluckily against the Saracens in Lycia, was overthrown by Mahuvias, A.D. 657, The Saracens after this victory spoiled all Rhodes.

These cursed Saracens, in these great victories and conquests, were not without domestic sedition and divisions, yet the princes of the Saracens, then called Sultans, had in their possession the government of Syria, Egypt, Africa, and of a great part of Asia, about four hundred years, till at length the Saracen king who ruled in Persia, fighting against the Saracen of Babylon, sought aid of the Turks to fight with him against the sultan of Babylon. The Turks by little and little surprised the sultan of Persia, and not long after usurped the kingdom of Persia ; and this is the first beginning of the Turkish dominion.

But

These Turks, after they had thus overcome many countries and provinces, and made their power large and mighty both in Asia and Europe, began to divide their kingdoms and countries among themselves. when they could not agree, but with deadly war contended for the bounds of those kingdoms and dominions, four of the principal families conquering and subduing all the rest, parted the whole empire among themselves. And yet they also were not contented, but fell to such cruel hatred, contention, war, and slaughter (no doubt by the just judgment of God against his blasphemous enemies), that there was no end of it, until the remnant of the ancient Turks was utterly rooted out.

These four families, with their captains and armies, about A.D. 1330, went raging throughout all Asia and Europe, and every one of them conquered some part of the countries where they passed.

The causes of these great invasions and victories, were the dissension and discord, falsehood, idleness, unconstancy, greedy avarice, lack of truth and fidelity among christian men of all states and degrees, both high and low. For by the wilful defection and backsliding of the christians, the Turkish power exceedingly increased, in that many desiring the licentious life and liberty of war and allured with the prosperous success of things, forsook the church of God, and made themselves oudslaves to Mahomet and his devilish sect, both because liberty is delightful to all men, and partly also because as fortune favours, so commonly the wills of men incline. And again, such as are profane and without the fear of God (of whom there is an infinite number in the church) in all ages are wont commonly to judge of religion, according to the success of realms and kingdoms. For many, not only for the variety of opinions, but also for the diversity of events and fortune among men, have inquired, and do inquire whether there is any church of God distinct from other nations, what it is, and where it is; especially as the greatest part of men, both in the old time when the four monarchies flourished, was ignorant of this doctrine, which is peculiar to the church alone, and now also the barbarity of Mahomet prevails and reings in the most part of the world. And how

stands this with man's reason, that a small number, both miserable and also feeble and broken with many battles, should be regarded and loved of God, and the other flourishing in all wealth, prosperity, victory, authority, and power, should be rejected and despised of God, seeing there is no power and authority, but by the ordinance of God? Although therefore the power of the Turks has been, for these two hundred years, of greater force than any other monarchy of the world besides, yet is there no imperial dignity to be regarded in that Turkish tyranny, but among those nations only, where the heavenly doctrine of the gospel is preached, and other disciplines necessary for the church of God, and the common life of man maintained and regarded, where the laws of God, and other honest and civil ordinances agreeable to the same, flourish and reign; where lawful judgment is exercised; where virtue is honoured and rewarded; where sin and wickedness is punished; where honest families are maintained and defended.

These things are not regarded among the Turks, the enemies of the Son of God, and all lawful empires, because they dissolve and reject all godly societies, honest discipline, good laws, politics, righteous judgment, the ordinance of matrimony, and godly families. For what has the empire of the Turks been hitherto, but most deadly, cruel, and perpetual war, to work all mischief, destruction, and desolation? To subvert good laws, cities, kingdoms, policies, and to enlarge their cruel power and dominion? The stay and strength whereof is not love and favour proceeding of virtue and justice, as in lawful and well governed empires; but fear, violence, oppression, swarms and infinite thousands of barbarous and most wicked people, ministers of Satan's malice and fury. Which kind of dominion and tyranny has been condemned by the voice of God many years ago; the testimonies whereof the Lord would have to remain in the church, lest the godly, being moved with the power and success thereof, should fall away and forsake the Son of God.

Wherefore, let us not seek for any imperial state in that barbarity; but let us be thankful, and acknowledge the great benefit of God, that he hath reserved to us certain remnants of the Roman empire; and let us call upon him daily with hearty petitions and groans, and with zeal and love to the house of God, that this Turkish power joined with the malice of Satan against the Son of God, prevail not against the poor congregations and little remnant of his church, as it has hitherto done against those strong and noble christian kingdoms and churches, where now we see the Turkish tyranny to reign, and Satan to have taken full possession. Whose state was once far better than ours is now, and more likely to continue without such horrible overthrows and desolation. O that we might foresee a little the great danger that hangs over our heads! For though the Turk seems to be far off, yet do we nourish within our breasts at home, that which may soon cause us to feel his cruel hand and worse, if worse may be; to overrun us; to lay our land waste; to scatter us among the infidels, the enemies and blasphemers of the Son of God.

Now, although these four families above-mentioned long continued together in bloody wars, deadly hatred, yet one of them passed the rest in all cruelty and tyranny, and subduing the other three families, took upon him the government alone, and so became the first monarch, or emperor, that reigned amongst them, called Ottoman, of whom all that reigned after him were called Ottomans, who succeeding in the order of his line, have occupied the same dominion and seat of the Turks, from A. D. 1300, to this present time, to the number of twelve, of which twelve, in such order as they lived and reigned, I intend (Christ so permitting) severally and compendiously shortly to treat, briefly abstracting, out of prolix and tedious writers, such particulars as for us christians shall be briefly requisite to be

and obscure among the common sort of men, coming of a base progeny, and of rustic parents; but through his valiantness and activity in war, he got him a great name among the Turks. For he being a man of fierce courage, refusing no labour, delighting in war, and gathering toge ther by great subtlety a multitude of common soldiers, began to make war, and by conquest and victories to advance himself and his family. First, he began to rob and spoil with a great band of rovers, and afterward he at tempted to set upon all men. Neither did he vex and destroy the christians only, but set upon his own nation also, and sought all occasion to subdue them wholly to him. For now the princes and captains of the Turks, inflamed with ambition and desire of rule, began to fall out and contend among themselves, insomuch that they fell to domestic war, with all the power they could.

Ottoman considering this occasion very fit and meet to accomplish that which he had long sought for, gathered to him all such as he thought given to robbing and spoiling, and set them upon mischief, and in a short time he began to grow in authority, and set upon certain towns, as he saw opportunity. Of which towns some he took by force, some by surrender, others he spoiled and overthrew to terrify the rest, thus laying the first foundation of his rising. In the meantime, the discord which was among the christians was no small advantage to this Ottoman, by occasion whereof, he within ten years' space subdued Bithynia, and all the provinces about Pontus; also Natolia, which comprehends all the dominion of the Greeks within Asia; Ancyra, a city in Phrygia; Synope, a city in Galatia; and Sebastia, a city in Cappadocia : and thus still prevailing, he increased in a short time to a mighty power, either through the secret judgment of God against that nation, or else because God would have them so far and so cruelly to prevail, for the punishment of the sins of other nations.

This Ottoman, after he had reigned twenty-eight years, died A. D. 1328, leaving behind him three sons, of whom Orchanes, being the youngest, killed his two brethren, whilst they were at variance between themselves.

II. ORCHANES after he had slain his two brethren, took the government of the Turks after his father, who, after he had drawn to him the hearts of the multitude, such as had their dispositions set upon the licentious life of war, applied his power further to enlarge his father's dominion, winning and subduing Mysia, Lydia, Lycaonia, Phrygia, and Caria; all which countries, being within the compass of Asia, to the seaside of Hellespont, and the Euxine sea, he added to the Turkish empire. Also he won Prusa, which was the metropolitan city of Bithynia, which then he made the chief seat of the Turks' empire. Besides these, he conquered Nice, and got Nicomedia; all which were before christian cities and regions. And yet all this could not make the christian princes in Greece to cease their civil wars, and to join and accord among themselves. By reason of which the Turk's aid was sent for out of Asia to help our christians one to kill another, and at length to get all those parts of Europe from them both. Orchanes, after these victories, when he had reigned two-and-thirty years, was struck, some say, with a dart in the shoulder, at the siege of Prusa. The opinion of others is, that fighting against the Tartarians, where he lost a great part of his army, he was there also slain himself, (A. D. 1359.)

known.

THE TWELVE GREAT EMPERORS OF THE TURKS.