[43] De la Jonquière, p. 34. A similar contrast was made in 1605 by Richard Staper, an English merchant who had been in Turkey as early as 1578: “And notwithstanding that the Turks in general be a most wicked people, walking in the works of darkness … yet notwithstanding do they permit all Christians, both Greeks and Latins, to live in their religion and freely to use to their conscience, allowing them churches for their divine service, both in Constantinople and very many other places, whereas to the contrary by proof of twelve years’ residence in Spain I can truly affirm, we are not only forced to observe their popish ceremonies, but in danger of life and goods” (M. Epstein: The Early History of the Levant Company, p. 57. London, 1908.) [↑]
[44] Macarius, vol. i. pp. 183, 165. Cf. the memorial presented by Polish refugees from Russia to the Sublime Porte, in 1853. (Gasztowtt, p. 217.) [↑]
[45] “Alii speciem sibi quandam confixerunt stultam libertatis … quod quum sub Christiano consequuturos se desperent, ideo vel Turcam mallent: quasi is benignior sit in largienda libertate hac, quam Christianus.” (Ioannis Ludovici Vivis De Conditione Vitæ Christianorum sub Turca, pp. 220, 225.) (Basileæ, 1538.) “Quidam obganniunt, liberam esse sub Turca fidem.” (Othonis Brunfelsii ad Principes et Christianos omnes Oratio, p. 133.) (Basileæ, 1538.) Ubertus Folieta, a noble of Genoa, writing about 1577, says, “Sæpe mecum quaesivi … qua re fiat, ut tot de nostris hominibus ad illos continenter transfugiant, Christianaque religione eiurata Mahumetanæ sectæ nomina dent.” (De Causis Magnitudinis Turcarum Imperii, col. 1209.) (Thesaurus Antiquitatum et Historiarum Italiæ, curâ Joannis Georgii Grævii, tom. i. Lugduni Batavorum, 1725.) [↑]
[46] Turchicæ Spurcitiæ Suggillatio, fol. xvii. (a). [↑]
[47] Blount, vol. i. p. 548. [↑]
[48] Scheffler, §§ 51, 53. [↑]
[49] Dousa, p. 38. Busbecq, p. 190. [↑]
[51] Thomas Smith, p. 42. Blount, vol. i. p. 548. Georgieviz, p. 20. Schiltberger, pp. 83–4. Baudier, pp. 149, 313. [↑]
[52] Alexander Ross, p. ix. Baudier, p. 317. Cf. also Rycaut, vol. i. p. 276. “On croit meriter beaucoup que de faire un Proselyte, il n’y a personne assez riche pour avoir un esclave qui n’en veüille un jeune, qui soit capable de recevoir sans peine toutes sortes d’impressions, et qu’il puisse appeller son converti, afin de meriter l’honneur d’avoir augmenté le nombre des fidèles.” Thomas Smith relates how the old man who showed him the tomb of Urkhān at Brusa “ingenti cum fervore, oculis ad Cælum elevatis, Deum precatus est ut nos ad fidem Musulmannicam suo tempore tandem convertere dignaretur: Hoc nimirum est summum erga nos affectus testimonium, qui ex isto falso et imperitissimo zelo solet profluere.” (Epistolæ duae, quarum altera De Moribus ac Institutis Turcarum agit, p. 20.) (Oxonii, 1672.) [↑]