Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	christian_a	faith_n	good_a	1,015	5	3.3065	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A58159	A collection of curious travels & voyages in two tomes ... / by John Ray ...	Ray, John, 1627-1705.; Rauwolf, Leonhard, ca. 1540-1596. Seer aanmerkelyke reysen na en door Syrien t́ Joodsche Land, Arabien, Mesopotamien, Babylonien, Assyrien, Armenien, &c. in t́ Jaar 1573 en vervolgens gedaan. English.; Staphorst, Nicolaus, 1679-1731.; Belon, Pierre, 1517?-1564.	1693 (1693)	Wing R385; ESTC R17904	394,438	648

always to be found in the Temple of Mount Calvaria And also how these and many other Strangers are treated by the Turkish Emperor as by their chief Head to whom they generally are subjected and his Officers IN the Temple of Mount Calvaria live Christians of several Nations as Latins or Italians Abyssins Graecians Armenians Georgians Nestorians Syrians Jacobites c. which for the most part are Priests and Friers which are of so different Opinions in many Articles of Faith that many of them might sooner be reckon'd amongst the Superstitious and Hereticks than Christians wherefore each of them have their peculiar Habitation and Chapel that they may perform their Devotion undisturbed by one another The Turkish Emperor also lets them alone and doth not at all trouble them for their Religion nor endeavour to bring them over to the Mahumetan Religion and Alcoran and is very well contented to receive his Yearly Tribute which is exactly demanded as it cometh to be due I have seen many of them in the Temple to go up and down in their peculiar Habit and once I did attend at their Devotion so that I easily passed away the time that the Turks kept us Locked up in it Their Pilgrims resort thither Yearly chiefly against the great Feasts or Holy Days in great Numbers to see the holy Places not only from the Eastern but also from the Western Countries These that are under the subjection of the Sultan which they are almost all of them except the Latins and Abyssins must pay him Yearly the fourth part of all their Revenues He that hath four Olive Almond or Quince-Trees must yield one of them to be the Emperors So in their Harvest every fourth Sheaf is also his their Harvest beginneth in the beginning of April and endeth in May as you may see Deut. chap. 16. vers 9. Seven weeks that is from Easter to Whitsonday shalt thou number unto thee begin to number the seven weeks from such time as thou beginnest to put the sickle to the corn Besides this Imposition they have another that is They must pay Yearly for every Head that is Male the Poor as well as the Rich one Ducat and sometimes two chiefly when the Sultan intendeth to go to War with the Christians then he beginneth to lay these Taxes upon them a Year before-hand and hath it Gathered in He that hath not wherewithal to pay it is forced either to sell one or the other of his Children to perpetual Slavery or else to give one of them to the Grand Turk according to his liking to be his own for ever And what is more he sendeth every 4th or 5th Year through all his Dominions his Emissaries viz. Wallachia Servia Bosnia Albania Colchid c. to fetch away every third Son of his Christian Subjects and they always chuse that which they like best and so they bring together a great Number and call them Azanoglans and give them to the Janizaries to be their Servants These have in some chief places their Exercises from their Infancy that in time they may be fit to be made Officers and Commanders in time of War In this the Turks exercise great Cruelty and Pride they spare no Body for if a Christian doth possess some small matter of Riches he must either keep it very privately or else with a great deal of discretion say That it is all belonging to his Emperor and him So if the Grand Signior hath occasion for any thing of theirs whatsoever it must be granted him without any refusal But what a trouble and heart-breaking this must be to the poor Parents not only to have their Children that are free by Nature forced to such a Brutal way of Life and Education but what is more taken away from Baptism to Circumcision from the Christian Congregation and Faith into a severe Slavery and Superstition wherein they are brought from their Duty to their Parents into a mortal enmity against them and their other Relations every Christian may with himself consider The Turks where there is choice take them that are single and young because they being still infirm and but slightly grounded in their Faith they are the sooner seduced chiefly if they are Instructed in their Mahumetan Laws and Educated therein for a while for then they soon forget their own Faith and grow in theirs and so as they grow up in Years they also grow in their Malice and become to be worse than they themselves as daily Experience doth sufficiently testifie Of the same stamp are also these Christians that after they have been taken Prisoners in the War turn Mamalucks which they call in their Language Haracs and are Circumcised These are free from all Imposition as well as the Turks save only the Tenth but dare not go away without their Masters leave upon pain of Death if they are taken they are according to their Law without any Tryal Sentenced and Condemned to be burnt And these also are confirm'd and obdurated in their impious and base Life that they forget God and themselves never think of coming home again to hear the Gospel Preached or to see their Friends and Relations again Yet the Prisoners are not so very much pressed by the Turks to deny their Faith and turn except there should be found one or more great Persons among them for such they always use to press more and endeavour to turn them one way or other and promise them great Preferment if they will declare for their Religion for they are in hopes that if they could perswade them a great many more of the little ones would also come over with them If such are perswaded by them and turn they are entertained by the Turks very Honorably and called Tscheleby that is Gentlemen and endued with great Revenues but yet they do not easily confide in them or put any Trust into their hands and do not esteem such inconstant and faltering Men in their Heart although they carry themselves very friendly before their faces for they make account That he that will easily deny his Religion will also betray his Prince and Country if occasion should serve I have known in these Countries some Slaves whom their Masters that bought them as their Servants did very much press to be Circumcised but when they did mightily resist and excuse themselves and say That they could not admit thereof with a safe Conscience and if by force they should take away their Prepuce and Circumcise them that notwithstanding all that they could not Circumcise their Hearts and therefore they desired them not to trouble themselves any further with them they were for all that ready and willing to serve them honestly and faithfully to the utmost of their power So their Masters have been satisfied with this Answer and have pressed them no more But if it should happen that a Christian should be taken in one of their Mosques for they as unclean Men are forbid to come there or should dispute

would have been more and have encreased if the Towns that lie above it on the Euphrates and Tigris and chiefly Mossel which formerly went by the Name of Nineve had not sent them great Supplies as did also those of Carahemit c. which Supply they have also almost always at any other time occasion for for their cultivated Grounds are chiefly in Mesopotamia where they have almost none at all so that there groweth not enough to maintain themselves wherefore the two Rivers are very necessary to them not only to provide them with Victuals as Corn Wine Fruit c. but also to bring to them all sorts of Merchandices whereof many Ship-loads are brought in daily So that in this Town there is a great Deposition of Merchandices by reason of its commodious Situation which are brought thither by Sea as well as by Land from several Parts chiefly from Natolia Syria Armenia Constantinople Haleppo Damascus c. to carry them further into the Indies Persia c. So it happened that during the time I was there on the 2d Day of December in 74. there arrived 25 Ships with Spice and other precious Drugs here which came over Sea from the Indies by the way of Ormutz to Balsara a Town belonging to the Grand Turk situated on the Frontiers the furthest that he hath South-Eastwards within Six Days Journey from hence where they load their Goods into small Vessels and so bring them to Bagdet which Journey as some say taketh them up Forty Days Seeing that the Passage both by Water and Land belongeth both to the King of Arabia and Sophi of Persia which also have their Towns and Forts on their Confines which might easily be stopt up by them yet that notwithstanding all this they may keep good Correspondence with one another they keep Pigeons chiefly at Balsara which in case of necessity might soon be sent back again with Letters to Bagdet When loaden Ships arrive at Bagdet the Merchants chiefly those that bring Spice to carry through the Desarts into Turky have their peculiar places in the open Fields without the Town Cresiphon where each of them fixeth his Tents to put his Spices underneath in Sacks to keep them there safe until they have a mind to break up in whole Caravans so that at a distance one would rather believe that Soldiers were lodged in them than Merchants and rather look for Arms than Merchants Goods And so I thought my self before I came so near that I could smell them Some of these Merchants that came with the same Ships came directly to our Camp and among the rest a Jeweller which brought with him several precious Stones viz. Diamonds Chalcedonies which make incomparable Hafts to Daggers Rubies Topazes Sapphirs c. the two first whereof he had procured in Camboya and most of the rest in the Island of Zeylan whereof he shew'd us several very fine ones The Merchants bring these along with them in great Caravans and keep them very close and private that they may not be found out at the Custom-Houses and be taken away from them which the Bashaws do constantly endeavour with all their Might and Power For the Turks do not love that Precious Stones should cost them Money for they are extraordinarily covetous wherefore you find but a few among them but if they can have them without cost after the aforesaid manner they love them dearly and keep them in great Esteem In the room of them other Stones are sent into the Indies again Corals Emralds which are bought best in Aegypt Saffron Chermes-berries and several Sorts of Fruit as Cibebs Dates which are there so pliable and Soft that you may pack them together in great lumps as they do Tamarinds Figs Almonds and many others which I cannot now remember and also several Sorts of Silks and Turkish Handkerchiefs But above all fine Horses whereof they send Abundance into the Indies by the way of Persia but more by the way of Ormutz wherefore the King of Portugal received yearly a good Sum of Money for Custom viz. Forty Ducats for each which the Merchants pay very freely because that those that import Horses as I am informed pay but half Duty for their other Goods at the Custom-Houses and sell them besides with good Profit Some of these Horses are also sent because of their Beauty and Goodness into Syria Natolia and to us into Europe where they are sold or presented to Princes and other great Persons of Quality They feed there Horses in these Countries chiefly with Barly and Straw so as it is broke by their Threshing-Waggons which they hang about their Heads in Sacks as they do also about Asses rather than give it them in Mangers as we do For want of Straw they sometimes litter them with a fine loose Earth which they afterward throw by in heaps to make it clean again to serve another time When among other Merchants Christians arrive from our Countries at Ormutz which happeneth very seldom all those of them that have been any ways afflicted by Turks Arabians or Jews must appear before some certain Officers of the King of Portugal appointed for that purpose and make their Complaints to them of what hath happened to them or what Damage they have suffered or received and in Case they should omit any thing they are themselves severely punished If then it appeareth that one of them hath been cheated of his Money immediately some Merchants of the same Nation although innocent and knowing nothing of it are flung into Prison where they must remain until they have made Satisfaction to the utmost Farthing and are besides severely punished for an Example to others that they may take warning But if a Christian should be murthered and they come to know of it then Three or Four of them more or less according to the Manner of the Fact must suffer and lose their Lives for every Christian From thence it cometh when Merchants of many Nations are going into a Ship in order to go to the Indies by the Way of Ormutz where they must land upon Penalty of Confiscation of all their Goods that when first they put off they look strangely upon one another and take great notice of or mind one another much and say very little or nothing not making themselves known fearing that something may be had against them and this endureth so long untill they are gone half the way then they begin to be acquainted Further I understood that the King of Portugal's Governour in the Indies hath already to make himself strong and the more able for a War made several of the chiefest and powerfullest Indians Knights or Noblemen to the Number of 5000 and hath sent many Jesuits to reform these Countries to propagate their Religion and to institute there the Spanish Inquisition The Indians are lank in Body brown in their Colour well shaped and of a very good Understanding Wherefore Persons of Quality and Merchants love to buy them