certain of his chief Counsellors and they altogether favouring the Roman Catholicks would give them of the Religion no certain Answer whereon to rest they therewith much discontented as our of hope to be by them relieved and in gâ—â—aâ— fear to be by their Adversaries as Enemies â—nto â—he State oppressed layd their heads together and after good Deliberation taken what were best for them to do both for the safety of themselves their Wives Children and Religion they by a general consent of themselves appointed the fourth of May to hold a general meeting of them of the Religion in the new Court at Prague there to consult of all matters concerning the bâ—siness of Religion And yet in the mean time openly in Parliament protesting by the Mouth of Wentceslaus Bodouiisius a Baron of Bohemia Them to have appointed this Assembly for the Emperors good and for the common quiet of the whole Realm as also for the better informing of the Emperour of all Matters and to provide that the Emperour and the Kingdom might not through the means and perswasions of those his evil Counsellors be brought into extream Peril and Danger Immediately after the States of the Religion with all speed dispatched their Ambassadors unto King Matthias the Elector Palatine the Duke of Saxony and the Duke of Brunswick to request them by their intercession to become Mediators for them unto the Emperour for the obtaining of the free Exercise of their Religion which in all points agreed with the Confession of Augusta and which long before was exhibited unto Maximilian the Emperour and by him allowed Now in the mean time these the States of the Religion were by some for these their proceedings commended but by other some not only blamed but also accused of Rebellion against the Emperour and the State. But the matter being declared unto the Emperor he complaining unto himself of the inconsiderateness of his Counsellors to maintain his Authority caused the Parliament then in hand to be prorogued and to seem of himself to grant that which he could not well withstand commanded by a Decree that same very day to be appointed for the concluding of that Article of Religion on which the States themselves had before appointed for their Assembly to be holden in the new Court at Prague Notwithstanding which Decree many troublesome Spirits publickly set forth other their Conceits in Writing to far other purpose grievously therein reprehending the States of the Religion for that of themselves they had appointed a day for their Assembly into the new Court at Prague Which as they said was nothing else but in a rebellious manner to rise against the Laws of the Kingdom and the Authority of their lawful Prince and therefore advised them to forbear from making any such Assembly as was by them appointed Hereof arose great troubles even under the Emperours nose in Prague the chief City of Bohemia they of the Religion not daring to trust the Roman Catholicks neither they them being still ready upon every false report or vain â—urmise to go together by the ears until that the Emperour for the staying of these Troubles and the avoiding of farther danger was glad to cause it to be openly proclaimed in the new Court at Prague That his Imperial Majesty having received and understood the Apology of the States now did abrogate that his Edict published against them but a few days before and now by this his new Edict did account all the States of the Religion for his faithful and well beloved Subjects and as of them unto whom the right of the Kingdom and the King's Oath belonged as well as to all other States of the Kingdom And that he also had those the same States excused in that they for the good of his Majesty and of the whole Kingdom had appointed their Assembly in the new Court at Prague and that therefore he denounced them in so doing not in any thing to have done any thing contrary unto his Majesty And that he appointed the five and twentieth day of May for the general Assembly of Parliament to be holden in the Castle of Prague for the ending of the Article concerning Religion and the reforming of other the publick Grievances of the Common-weal yet with this proviso That the said States should safely and quietly come unto the said Parliament without entertaining of any foreign Souldiers as that his Majesty should also not by himself nor any other for pay entertain any or suffer any foreign Souldiers to come into the Kingdom Which the Emperours Edict being proclaimed the States of the Religion having made their publick Prayers and sung certain Hymns and Psalms unto the Glory of God for the good success of their business left the new Court at Prague and returned every man home to their own Houses to make themselves ready to come unto the Parliament to be holden at the appointed day But the day appointed for the Parliament being come and the Emperour still delaying the matter the States of the Religion weary of such long delays and in doubt to be therewith deluded as having not received from the Emperour any such answer as whereon to rest the third of Iune offered unto the Emperour a short writing concerning their Grief and farther purpose to this effect They had as they said expected and well hoped that regard being had not only of so many requests of so great and most noble Princes made in their behalf but even of the Emperour's promise also made unto them both in the general Assembly of the States the last year and in the late Precept of the Emperour 's also they should at length have received such answer unto their Petition concerning the free Exercise of their Religion as whereon they might have safely rested Which for that it had not been yet done they referred the doing thereof unto God and future time imputing the blame thereof not unto his Imperial Majesty but unto the unquiet and troublesome Natures of some as well the Ecclesiastical as Temporal Magistrates and Persons But forasmuch as they meant not longer to be deluded by their Enemies and much less to be defrauded of his Majesties Royal Promise which was now unto the World known they had thought good to offer and present unto his Majesty a Writing conceived in the Bohemian Tongue according unto which they desired to be secured concerning the free Exercise of their Religion most humbly requesting his Majesty to accept of the same and at length to satisfie their requests Which if it might not be granted the Emperour's Majesty having more respect unto the troublesome Clergy-men and some other his evil affected Counsellors than to the faithful States and Subjects of his Kingdom that then they would rest themselves upon the Decree made in the Assembly holden in the year 1608 and upon the last Edict of his Majesty yet with this solemn Protestation That seeing they had by certain Information understood much Warlike Preparation
but especially in Bavaria to be made and divers Consultations in many Places to be holden against the States of the Religion his Imperial Majesty and the other his faithful Counsellors thereof not knowing which might tend unto the Ruine and Destruction both of his Majesty and of the whole Kingdom they themselves would take upon them the defence thereof and do their endeavour that furnished with Men and Arms they might to the uttermost of their power defend him their Sovereign together with themselves and the whole Kingdom against the Force and Invasion of their foreign Enemies In the mean time while these things were thus in doing an Ambassador came from the Duke of Saxony to Prague to intreat the Emperour for the States and for the granting of them the free Exercise of their Religion the Ambassadors of the States of Silesia forthwith following of them also who in like manner requesting also of the Emperour to have the liberty for the free Exercise of their Religion by him confirmed unto them promised their most ready help and aid unto the States of Bohemia if need should so require But the States of Bohemia having from day to day in vain expected answer from the Emperour turning themselves unto their former Resolution for the defence of themselves and of their Religion forthwith raised a great number both of Horse and Foot whom with their well-known Captains and Commanders they brought even unto the City of Prague Howbeit at length viz. the eleventh of Iuly the Saxon Ambassador earnestly solliciting their Cause and urging their request they according to their desire received answer from the Emperour by Letters from his Majesty written to this effect He gave all Men as he said to understand and by these his Letter witnessed to eternal Memory That after that all the free States of his Kingdom of Bohemia which in the receiving of the Lord Supper participate the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ under both kinds his faithful Subjects had in the Assembly holden in the Castle at Prague in the year 1608 in all humility requested That it might be lawful for them to hold and freely to Exercise their Religion according to the Confession of Augusta as some call it exhibited unto his Father Maximilian the Emperour of most happy Memory and by him unto the said States allowed and that he then and at that time by reason of other most weighty business for which that Assembly was then called and such as could suffer no Procrastination or delay had thought it good to deferr the allowing and ratifying of this their Petition unto this present Assembly of Parliament and that the same States now again assembled incessantly renewing this their former Petition and having thereunto joyned also the request and Intercession of certain Noble Personages had requested to be therein satisfied and that he with his Counsellors would consult how Provision might be made for his Subjects in the Kingdom of Bohemia as well Commucating under both kinds as under one now at length to have effected the same Wherefore seeing that his Will and Desire was that both in these and future times Peace and Quietness might for the increasing of the Kingdom be preserved and kept amongst his Subjects of all the three Estates of the Kingdom of Bohemia communicating as well under the one as under both kinds that both parties might freely and without any impediment or let have the free Exercise of their Religion whereby they were both in hope to obtain everlasting Salvation And to the intent that Accomplishment and Satisfaction might in all points be made as well according unto the breaking up of the Assembly of Parliament in the year 1608 as to the performance of his own Precept of late published whereby he hath acknowledged and even yet acknowledgeth those same Estates communicating under both kinds and subscribing to this Confession for his faithful and loyal Subjects unto whom the Rights and Immunities of the Kingdom of Bohemia belonged He by the common consent of the Counsellors and other Magistrates of the Kingdom did determine That his Subjects communicating both under one and both kinds should friendly and peaceably live together without wronging or reviling of one another and that upon the Pain and Penalty in the Law set down to be inflicted upon them that should otherwise do And moreover seeing that they which communicated but under one kind enjoyed the free Exercise of their Religion in all points throughout the Kingdom of Bohemia that he gave leave and commanded that they also which communicated under both kinds viz. all the States of the Religion with all such as embraced the Confession of Bohemia sometime exhibited to Maximilian the Emperour his Father in the Parliament holden in the year 1575 and now again to himself presented should every where and in all places of the Kingdom have the free Exercise of their Religion without the let or interruption of any to retain the same until a general Union of Religion and an ending of all Dissention and Controversies might be made Moreover That He did grant unto the States of the Religion this Favour That they should have the lower Consistory at Prague with Power to conform the same according to their own Confession That they might lawfully make their Priests as well in the Bohemian as German Tongue and set them over their Churches without any let of the Arch-bishop of Prague That he did also restore unto them the University of Prague which for many years ago belonged unto the States of the Religion under both kinds giving them Power again to open the same to furnish it with grave and learned Men of their own Confession to beautifie it with good Laws and to appoint certain of their own Company and Profession for Governours and Defenders as well of the Consistory as of the University whom so by the States appointed and chosen he without any stay or delay or other instruction or information than they should from the States receive would confirm in that their Office and pronounce them for the lawful Defenders yet so as that if he being letted by other greater business cannot perform the same within the space of fourteen days they shall nevertheless continue Defenders and as well enjoy the charge of the Office committed unto them as if they had been therein by him confirmed and that one or other of their number being dead it shall be lawful for the States to chuse others in their Places And if that beside the Churches which they now hold they would build other more or erect more Schools for the instructing of the Youth it shall be lawful for them freely and without any let so to do as well in the Cities as in the Country Towns and Villages And forasmuch as in some of the Cities of the Kingdom of Bohemia Men of both Religions dwelt together he therefore did will and command That for the preservation of Peace and Quietness
who being come at divers times one after another were all with peculiar Letters dismissed from Prague the 29 th of November Unto the first of which Ambassadors Letters were given of this purport ZInel Chan Beg whom your Majesty hath sent Ambassador unto Vs we have willingly seen and received and given him Audience in declaring of such things as he had from you in charge It is unto Vs both acceptable and pleasing that your Majesty hath regard so friendly to salute Vâ— and so carefully to seek to joyn in Amity and Friendship with Vs whereby your Majesty much bindeth Vs unto the like desire of mutual love and friendship and that Wâ— again on our parts should be ready to perform such things as may be unto your Majesty pleasing and that we should with for nothing more than that our Friendship should daily more and more be confiâ—med and for the common Good of Vs both for many years preserved wherein We for our parts will not be wanting Whereas your Majesty with great Courage hath undertaken and with so happy success of Victories continued your Wars against the Turk whereof you had so just cause We from our hearts in your behalf reioyce â—s all other Christians worthily do and We ourselves are thereby much animated valiantly and constantly to proceed in our Wars which we now so many years have made with the same Enemy nothing doubting but that God the revenger of wrong will so prosper the honourable Endeavours of your Majesty as that you shall not only recover such things as have been wrongfully taken from you but also weaken and destroy the Power of that perfidious Enemy Which that it may the better be brought to pass We also renew our Wars raise greater Forces and by our Ambassadors and Letters exhort and incite the greatest Christian Princes and Potentates to extend their Power against this our common Enemy and thereby to give fitter opportunity and occasion unto your Majesty for the better proceeding of your Affairs in Asia The course of our notable Victories which we have in few years past obtained against the Turks the Tumults and Troubles which the Turks have by secret devices raised in Hungary have somewhat hindred howbeit we hope by Gods permission that all things shall shortly be again restored unto their former estate so that we may wholly without let turn our selves with our Power against the Turks Yet in the mean time we have thus much prevailed with the King of Spain as that he hath already set forth a Fleet unto the borders of his Territories to distract his Forces the prosperous Success of which Fleet we daily expect We have also moved the Pope that he should also give Aid in this common Cause and excite other Princes also to do the like which he with great Endeavour doth But concerning such things as shall hereafter happen We shall by Letters and Ambassadors certifie your Majesty as occasion shall require as at this present we had appointed to send unto you the Baron of Dohna a famous and noble Gentleman who all things being ready for his Iourney suddenly dyed and would now have sent another had not the unexpected change of the Affairs of the Muscovites otherwise dissuaded Vs we having no other way but that at this time to send into Persia. For concerning this great Prince who is now reported there to reign what his mind is or how he standeth affected we have as yet no Experience In the mean time We so desire a perpetual and firm Friendship to be established betwixt Vs and your Majesty with a certain secure and free Commerce that if your Majesty which We wish shall extend your Victories unto the Sea your Subjects may have free Access and Traffick unto all our Kingdoms and Dominions We also thank your Majesty That you so kindly entertain the Christians into your Kingdoms and grant to them to have the free exercise of their Religion as also for that you have sent your Ambassadors unto the King of France although without wished Success whereby We easily gather your Majesties great Care and Circumspection every way As concerning them whom your Majesty hath sent unto Vs they have diligently and faithfully performed their Duty so that they have deserved Praise and Favour both here and in Persia whom we much Commend unto your Majesty to whom in all things We offer our greatest Love and Affection Unto the Second Ambassador were also given Letters from the Emperour to this effect WHilst We were yet busied in the dispatch of Zinel Chan Beg your Majesties former Ambassador in the mean time Methi Culi Beg another Ambassador of yours came unto Vs whom we have courteously entertained and graciously heard by whose Speech as also by your Majesties Letters We have with exceeding great Pleasure understood both your friendly Greeting of Vs as also of the happy Success of your Affairs against the Turks since the departure of your former Ambassador together with your kind Affection towards the Christians in those Parts One of the Servants also of our Ambassador which dyed by the way hath reported unto Vs how courteously our said Ambassador was by your Majesty received and how you have shewed your self affected against the common Enemy which was unto Vs a thing both acceptable and pleasing Vnto both which your Embassies the more solemnly to answer We had appointed again to send an honourable Embassage unto your Majesty had not these Lets and Impediments hapned which in our Letters given unto your former Ambassador are declared But so soon and as often as may be We will endeavour either by Letters or by Ambassadors more at large to manifest our Love and Affection towards you Wherefore we greatly desire that your Majesty may continue in perfect Amity with Vs and valiantly proceed in subduing of the common Enemy We on our part being ready to perform all things whereby we may testifie unto you the desire we have for the preservation of our mutual Love and Friendship as also of our Endeavours in our Wars against him God Almighty long preserve your Majesty in Health and make you still Victorious against the common Enemy Unto the Third Ambassador were likewise Letters given from the Emperour of this purport WHereas Jus Bassi Hassan Beg your Majesties Ambassador unto the French King came this way at the same time that other two of your Ambassadors were here present with Vs we received him with the same Courtesie wherewith we received them making stay of him until that they might all three be together dismissed And because that his Embassage was undertaken for the furtherance of the common Good although it wanted the wished success yet We have thought it good to give thanks unto your Majesty therefore and in most friendly manner to greet you by this your said Ambassador whom we highly commend unto you for that for the time he here stayed in our Court he so behaved himself as that he well deserved both
either part freely exercising their Religion and obeying their Priests should by no means either hurt or trouble them on the other part and much less to hinder them to bury their dead in their Churches or Church-yards with the ringing or tolling of the Bells or go about to turn any Man from his Religion of what state or condition soever he be whether he dwell in the City or in the Country Town or Village or by force to draw them to their Opinion or to take their part For that he only respected that Peace and Quietness might be kept and that mutual Love might still grow amongst all the three States Unto which end and purpose that He for himself and his Heirs and the Kings of Bohemia his Successors in the Faith and Word of a King did grant and promise unto the States of the Religion unto whom this common Peace of Religion as they call it belongeth as to a principal member of the Empire all these things to be for ever inviolably kept the Ecclesiastical and Temporal Persons whosoever in vain resisting so that no contrary Precept or Edict should either by himself or any other his Heirs or Successors be published against the States of the Religion or being published by any should be accounted effectual and strong especially seeing that he by these his Letters pronounceth all the Edicts hitherto published against these the States of the Religion to be void frustrate and of none effect Neither would that any thing of those which were done by the States of the Religion whilst they sought for the Confirmation of this Article concerning Religion should for ever be layd to their charge or by any man by way of reproach objected unto them And that therefore he straightly charged and commanded all Magistrates and such as bare rule in Bohemia to the uttermost of their Power to protect and defend all the three States together with them of the Religion and neither themselves to trouble them nor suffer them to be by any others for the Exercise of their Religion molested or troubled For that he and other the Kings of Bohemia his Successors would most severely chastise all such as should offend against these his Majesties Letters which to be for ever remembred he would cause the same to be enrolled in the publick Records of Parliament whether such Offenders were Ecclesiastical or Temporal Men to be sharply punished as the Troublers of the Common Peace This was the sum of his Majesties Letters which he caused to be publickly set up in the Castle of Prague the thirteenth of Iuly that it might be to all men known this Article of Religion which was the first of the Articles in this Parliament propounded to be concluded and agreed upon according to the Mind of the States of the Religion and so their Requests to be in all points satisfied Who forthwith thereupon the fifteenth day of Iuly caused the first publick Sermon according to the Confession of Augusta to be preached in the German Tongue in a Church of them of the Religion which had for a long time before been shut up At which time they also sent unto the Elector of Saxony to send unto them certain learned men for the setting up of the University and the governing of the Consistory at Prague And yet for all this the Ambassadors for the States of Silesia still earnestly labouring with the Emperour for the Liberty of Religion to be granted to the said States and the rest of the Inhabitants of the Province the States of Bohemia refused in any wise to dismiss their Souldiers whom they had mustered near unto Roggenson until the Silesians were of their request in that point satisfied offering also unto the Emperour a large Libel of the Griefs of them the said States Now it may be that some having read so much as is before written concerning these late Troubles about the free Exercise of the Refoâ—med Religion but especially in Bohemia Austria Moravia and Silesia may deem the same both tedious and beside our purpose unto whom indeed it is not written but rather unto such as who together with my self the Wars betwixt the Christians and the Turks ended and the Peace concluded as is aforesaid desire yet to know in what state those frontier Countries stand which being the greatest Bulwarks on that side of Christendom and the chief Territories of the House of Austria are the peace being either expired or otherwise broken off most subject unto the Fury of the puissant Enemy as nearest unto him and so like soonest to feel of his great Force and Power prefixing unto it self neither bounds nor measure so long as there is any thing farther Against whom the Christian Emperour had no other Forces of his own to oppose more than such as he could raise out of the Reliques of Hungary and the aforesaid Frontier Countries All together but weak helps against so puissant an Enemy as never cometh into the field but with a world of Men following of him but yet much weaker being as now of late they were every one of them apart divided in themselves about matters of Religion the incurable malady of the Christian Estates and Common-weals the heavy and lamentable effect whereof too much of late appeared in the loss of Strigonium won by the Turks with a far less Army than ever the Grand Seigniors Lieutenant General was wont to come into Hungary withal and yet the Christian Emperour by reason of the revolt of the Hungarians upon a discontentment about the Exercise of their Religion not able of himself to relieve the distressed City of Strigonium or yet to put an Army of any strength into the Field for the defence of the rest of his Cities or Territories So weak are even the greatest Princes their Subjects being among themselves in Minds divided But not to stray farther the Turks Ambassador in the mean time with a notable train of an hundred and fifty Turks coming from Vienna the one and twentieth of September and there having saluted and with great Gifts presented the King set forward toward Prague where he was by the Citizens and certain Noblemen of the Emperours Council the twelfth of October honourably received and the nineteenth of the same Month admitted unto the Emperours Presence first presented unto him from the Great Sultan his Master a rich Tent of divers colours most curiously wrought with fair Orient Pearl of great value and then four couragious Horses all furnished with most rich and sumptuous furniture He presented unto him also certain Turkish Weapons set and garnished with pretious Stones and a Princely Turks robe such as they use at their Marriages glistering with Gold and precious Stones with divers other rare things of less value together with which he delivered unto him the Great Sultans Letters and withal desired the Confirmation of the Peace before made for twenty years to be now again renewed Unto which Ambassadour Letters were afterward delivered from the
Blood and Treasure as all Germany as well as Hungary has felt the fatal effects of it So that Men are apt to look back with Indignation on the Authors of these Troubles and to think them worthy of the extreamest Punishments that have brought their Country to such Ruin and Desolation The greatest part of which Censures will without doubt fall upon the Protestants whose Arms have wanted even Success that popular justification and whose Cause labours under two such fearful appearances as a defection from their Prince and the joyning with the Common Enemy of Christendom tho' perhaps a considering Man will be apt to reâ—lect on that Cruel severity which forc'd them to take shelter in the Arms of an Infidel at least he will see a fatal instance of the unhappy Conâ—equences of driving Men to Despair by subverting their Laws Liberties and Religion I shall therefore give an impartial Account of the Causes that exasperated the Protestants of Hungary to this degree and leave them to the Readers judgment either to be condemn'd or acquitted And therefore let us hear what Account the Protestant Writers give of this matter when the Protestant Religion began first to insinuate it self into Hungary under the Reign of King Lewis it met there with the same fate it did in other Countrys viz. Opposition and Persecution But this King unhappily engaging himself in a War against the Turks fell in Battle and leaving no Heir Male the Hungarian Nobility were divided in the choice of a Successor one part Electing Iohn Zapolya Vaivode of Transilvania and the other Ferdinand the first But Iohn dying soon after his Election Ferdinand remain'd in sole possession of that Kingdom who the better to gain the affection of his Subjects granted free exercise of Religion to Cassovia Bartphia Eperias Leuchenia and Libinia the five free Towns of upper Hungary and afterwards to several of the Towns of lower Hungary besides the same Priveleges which he gave to divers of the Nobility Notwithstanding which there being several Commotions and Disturbances on account of Religion still remaining in the year 1606. at the Pacification of Vienna made between Rodolph Emperor and King of Hungary and Stephen Botscai-Kis-Maria in the first Article it was said That as to the business of Religion that notwithstanding the first Constitutions and the last Article of the year 1604. according the Resolution taken by his Imperial Majesty All the Inhabitants and Persons of what Order or Condition soever within that Kingdom as well the great Lords as the Cities and Privileg'd Towns immediately belonging to the Crown or upon the borders of that Kingdom as likewise all the Soldiers of Hungary shall have free and entire Liberty of Conscience without being troubled or molested Nevertheless without prejudice to the Roman Catholick Religion so that that Clergy the Churches and the Temples of the Catholicks may remain in the State wherein they are without Violation or Molestation And that those which had been taken by one side or other should be restor'd to their lawful owners Afterwards the Emperor Matthias himself explain'd that Clause nevertheless without prejudice to the Rom. Cath. Religion by assuring them That it was put in upon a good design and that it only meant that neither Party should be disturbed in the exercise of their Religion This liberty was afterwards often confirm'd as you may see in the Grievances presented to the Emperor which are affix'd to the end of this History The now Reigning Emperor Leopold solemnly confirm'd this Article at his Coronation Vide the sixth Condition in the Imperial Patent running thus Ordered That the exercise of Religion granted to the States of Hungary according to the Constitution of Vienna and those Articles establisht before our Coronation shall remain entirely free as well for the Barons Lords Gentlemen as free Cities and all Orders and States of the Kingdom of Hungary as likewise for the Towns Villages and Hamlets that will accept of it so that no Person of what Condition soever shall be hinder'd in the exercise of his Religion in what manner or under what pretence soever Given in the Royal Citadel of Posonium Iune the 25 th 1655. In despight of all these Edicts made in favour of the Protestants the Clergy especially the Jesuits had so much interest in the Court of Vienna as to get a Manifest publish'd there and Entitled Truth declared to all the World or a Treatise wherein is proved by three Argument that his Caesarean Majesty is not obliged to tolerate the Lutheran or Calvinist Religion in the Kingdom of Hungary Writ by George Barzon titular Bishop of Waradin Priest of the Society and Councellor to his Sacred Majesty The first Argument was drawn from three Conditions under which the liberty of Religion was granted at the Pacification of Vienna The first That it should be without prejudice to the Protestant Religion which Condition being impossible ought to pass for nothing The second That the Clergy and the Catholick Churches should remain in their former Condition without being toucht which was violated by Bethlem and Ragotski The third That what was taken either by one side or the other should be restor'd which the Protestants had not perform'd To this was answered That it did by no means follow that if one Condition or Clause was lookt upon as impossible and so null that the whole Treaty should be so also and besides that the Emperor Matthias himself had explain'd the Condition by declaring that it was not to be made use of for the ruining of that liberty which was granted That whatsoever Bethlem or Ragotski had done this Liberty was notwithstanding confirm'd by the Edicts and Ordinances of the Emperor That if it had been so that Protestants who being daily provok'd by the Papists had gone a little too far yet the innocent ought not to suffer That the Destruction of Temples which were made use of during the Troubles only regarded those that Botskai had taken in the War and not such as had been for a long time in their Hands The second Argument is That this liberty was not establisht by the unanimous consent of the States of the Kingdom to whom it belongs to make Laws with the Consent and Approbation of his Majesty and consequently that those Articles ought to be abolisht But it was urg'd that this was extreamly injurious to those Kings who had confirm'd and ratify'd them and who no question were not so ignorant of the rights of the Kingdom of Hungary That when this Affair was manag'd at Lintz 1645. Tho' the Arch-Bishop of Strigonium George Lippai and some seculars opposed it yet Count Palfy President of the Chamber and divers Catholick Lords consented notwithstanding that opposition so that the Affair being extreamly hindred by that Arch-Bishop and his adherents the Protestants were upon the point of complaining to his Majesty had they not been stopt by the Declaration that was made that they voluntarily subscribed to the Articles of
of whatsoever State and Condition or in whatever part of the Kingdom excepted according to the 1st Article in the year 1608. published before the Coronation a free Exercise of their Religion in general is granted and also that none of the said Inhabitants shall any wise be disturbed for the future in the free Exercise of their Religion on the severe punishment that is expresly set down in the 26th Article of the Diet of Sopron Notwithstanding which when the said Protestants of Cassovia and Epperies would have freely us'd and enjoy'd their Right Establish'd by His Majesty s Warrant and continu'd their way of Worship as also the Instruction of their Youth within the said Cities and their Walls as places provided by the above-mention'd Articles and formerly us'd and allow'd they were not only not admitted but severely prohibited and hindred by the Magistrates and Clergy of these Cities nay sent away and Banish'd till this time to the fore-specified places in no wise convenient for them as if they were Strangers and wholly incapable of the Common Liberties of the Kingdom Wherefore in this Point also Relying on the Gracious Resolution of His most Sacred Majesty and the Articles he has been pleased to make with us We do most Humbly implore a lawful Restitution and firm Establishment of the free exercise of our Religion in its former State according to the said Article 1 st Anno 1608 viz. within the Walls of the said Cities We also submissively beg that till we have a convenient opportunity of Building and Erecting new Churches Schools and Parishes which by reason of our great Poverty and the vast Taxes and Contributions to the present War we are not able now to perform it be graciously granted to us that we may anew freely enjoy the said exercise of Religion in certain private and convenient places and have Schools for the Instruction of Youth Thirdly Though the indifferent and common use of Bells and Burials was every where permitted as well to the Protestants as Catholicks by these express words of the 26 th Article of the Diet of Sopron The free use of Bells and Burials is left to the Catholicks of those places as well as to those of the Helvetian Confession and of that of Ausbourg Which nevertheless the Catholick Magistracy and Clergy of Cassovia and Epperies have fully deny'd and do still deny the said free use of Bells and Burials to the Protestant Inhabitants of the said Cities forbidding them with most severe Threats to perform the usual Ceremonies of Burials within the Walls of the said Cities notwithstanding the gracious resolution of His most Sacred Majesty made to the illustrious States of the Kingdom in the Diet of Sopron December the 10 th Anno 1681. So that we earnestly desire the common use of Bells and Burials for the Protestants as well within as without the City Walls free from any molestation or disturbance conformable to the Pious Grant of His most Sacred Majesty Fourthly It is evident also that by Vertue of the general clause inserted in the end of the so often mention'd 26 th Article in these words Provided always That the Laws of the Kingdom confirm'd by the Royal Charter be not hereby prejudiced The standing Laws of the Kingdom concerning the Ecclesiastical Revenues of those of the Helvetian Confession and of that of Ausbourg were left in force and consequently any Arbitrary proceedings forbidden especially such as against the instinct of Nature tend to the enriching of some Persons to the Damage and Wrong of othes Nevertheless the Roman Catholick Magistrate and the Clergy of Cassovia and Epperies by their own Authority and by Force have taken and appropriated to themselves all the pious Legacies and Gifts left by Will through the pious zeal of the Protestants for the use of Protestant Churches and Schools viz. in Cassovia four Houses standing within the Wall of the said City one of which the Magistrate has sold and alienated to the illustrious Michael Domeczki a Garden and certain Plow Lands lying in the Territory of the same City as also a Vineyard formerly called Varghaszóló lying in the Territory of Tokai And in Epperies certain Vineyards likewise lying in several Territories of Upper Hungary together with their Revenues actually retaining the same for their own use and for the most part turning them into prophane uses against the 11 th and 14 th Articles of the year 1647 to the great injury and damage of the Protestants Wherefore in this Case also the Protestants appealing to the aforesaid Laws and Constitution of the Kingdom do lawfully require that all the pious Legacies and Church Lands violently taken away and retain'd from them who are the right Owners be restor'd together with their Revenues according to that Rule of Common Justice Render to every one his own Fifthly It is certain likewise that for the paying of the Protestant Ministers and of the Catholick Curates it was evidently enough provided not only by the often mentioned 26 th Article in these words Nevertheless the Catholicks shall not be obliged to pay any thing to the Ministers of the Protestants nor the Protestants to the Curates of the Catholicks But also by the 11 th Article of the year 1647 in these words Let no Protestant be obliged to pay any thing to the Catholick Curates nor the Catholick to the Protestant Ministers Nay in the following 12 th Article of the said year 1647 are contained these words Concerning any use whatever of the Ministerial Functions but where the Protestants have no Parishes let them pay the Ministers that they employ as the Catholicks are to pay their Catholick Curates and where hitherto the Protestants did pay nothing to the Catholick Curates they shall not be obliged hereafter to pay any under any pretence whatsoever nor the Catholicks to the Protestant Ministers Which words together with these of the same 12 th Article concerning the Revenues of Schools but in any place whatsoever the Catholick Curates and the Protestant Ministers shall receive the Revenues of Schools from their respective Followers only Establish this positive Law and Constitution that the Protestants pay the Protestants and the Catholicks the Catholicks Notwithstanding this the Protestants are forced maugre themselves to pay the Catholick Curates whilst not only a Weekly allowance together with other perquisites is constantly paid to the Catholick Curates by the Magistrate out of the publick Purse wherein the Protestants put most being three for one Catholick but also the Revenues of Schools are adjudged and paid to the same Catholick Curates and with the greatest injustice deny'd to the Protestant Ministers and School-Masters Therefore they demand with all Submission and Justice that the Protestant Ministers and School-masters be allow'd out of the publick Purse a Salary equal with that of the Catholick Curates or that neither of the Parties be paid out of that Fond but each by their respective Followers according to the intention of the before mention'd Articles
Articulos adhuc ratos fore benignissime resolvisset eosdem Status quoque Ordines ad mentem Paternae resolutionis Cleri aliorum secularium Catholicorum contradictione non obstante pro renovatis priori firmitati restitutis â—â—nsâ—ndos acsi in quantum hactenus ineffectuati vel verò per aliquos abusus ab una aut altera parte medio tempore introductos violati fuissent suae debitae executioni tempore eorundem conditorum Articulorum vel expost occupatorum aut reoccupatorum impendendae restaurationi utprimum demandandos esse statuerunt Pacifications Viennensis Ann. 1606. Articuli Primi Continentia haec est QUantum itaque ad Religionis Negotium attinet non obstantibus prioribus pro tempore Constitutionibus Publicis sed neque Articulo postremo Anno 1604. cum is extra diaetam sine Regnicolarum assensu adjectus fuerit propterea etiam tollitur deliberatum est Ut juxta Serenissimae Caesariae Regiaeque Majestatis priorem Resolutionem ad quam se Regnicolae in sua Replicatione referunt nimirum Quod omnes singulos Status Ordines intra ambitum Regni Hungariae solum existentes tam Magnates Nobiles quam liberas Civitates Oppida Privilegiata immediatè ad Coronam spectantia Item in Confiniis quoque Regni Hungariae Milites Hungaros in sua Religione Confessione nusquam numquam turbabit nec per alios turbari aut impediri sinet Verum omnibus praedictis Statibus Ordinibus Regni liber Religionis ipsorum usus exercitium permittetur absque tamen praejudicio Catholicae Romanae Religionis ut Clerus Templa Ecclesiae Catholicorum Romanorum intacta libera permaneant atque ea quae hoc disturbiorum tempore utrimque occupata fuere rursum eisdem restituantur Anno 1608. Articuli Primi ante Coronationem editi de Ne Negotio Religionis tenor talis est QUantum itaque ad Primum Constitutionis Viennensis Articulum attinet deliberatum est per Status Ordines Inclyti Regni Hungariae ut Religionis Exercitium tam Baronibus Magnatibus Nobilibus quam etiam Liberis Civitatibus ac Universis Statibus Ordinibus Regni in suis Fisci bonis item in Confiniis quoque Regni Hungariae Militibus Hungaris sua cuique Religio Confessio nec non Oppidis Villis eam sponte ac libere acceptare volentibus ubique liberam relinquatnr nec quisquam omnium in libero ejusdem usu ac exercitio quoquam impediatur Quin imo ad praecavenda inter Status Ordines aliqua odia dissensiones ut quaelibet Religio suae Professionis superiores seu superintendentes habeat statutum est N. B. Ut utposterior hic Articulus primus Ann. 1608. Ann 1618. Articulo 77. renovatus Ann. 1622. tempore Ferdinandi 11. Imperatoris Regio diplomati per Generales Regni Constitutiones Conditione 6 clariori sensu insertus Ann. 1625. Artic. 22. Ann. 1630. Artic. 33. Ann. 1635. Artic. 29. identidem tam idem Articulus quam etiam praedeclarata Conditio sexta suo vigori restituti Ann. 1638. memorata Conditio 6. diplomatis Regij Ferdinandi 11. similiter diplomate Regio Ferdinandi III. Imperatoris aeque Conditione 6ta per expressam de verbo ad verbum confirmata Ann. 1647. Artic. 5to novo diplomate Regio Pacificationis cum Illustrissimo Principe Transylvianiae Domino Georgio Ragoczy conditae diversisque aliis subsequentibus uti 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14. Articulis quod ad diversos casus stabilitus Ann. 1649. Artic. 10. Ann. 1655. Artic. 18. qua praeattacta pacificatio Rakocziana qua praespecificati Articuli Anno 1647. pariter ratificati Denique Anno 1659. moderni Imperatoris Leopoldi Regio insimul diplomate Publicis quoque Regni Constitutionibus Articulo 1. indito Conditione similiter 6ta per omnia ut in prioribus Ferdinandorum II III. Imperatorum diplomatibus Verbo Regio ratihabitus esset his nihilominus non obstantibus omnes praevij hi Articuli Conditiones diplomaticae omni sua firmitate privati sunt Exercitio Religionis Evangelicae contra omnes Sanctiones Articulares publicas Regni Constitutiones sacra item Regia diplomata in ipssisimo Exterminio jamnum effectivè versante Most Sacred Imperial and Royal Majesty Most Gracious Sir ALthough we have already made it appear to Your most Sacred Majesty year 1681. and to the Ministers of Your most Imperial Court year 1681. that many Injustices were done to us in the Year 1681 against the clear and evident Grants of the 25 th and 26 th Articles of Sopron Humbly solliciting this full Year and a Half the Observation of the same and the Redressing of the Grievances of our Evangelical Religion yet because it is daily Reported that by Virtue of Your Majesty's Commissions appointed last Year and before through Hungary nothing was Ordered against the full intent of the said Articles and that we desire more than is granted in them We thought it our Duty to justify both our Complaints and our repeated Requests the reather because the Worthy Ministers of Your Imperial Court have often assur'd us that without any delay or difficulty we should be maintain'd in the clear Grants of the said Articles of Sopron in order to which we shall set down here as in a kind of Table the very words of the said Articles together with our Requests against the Misintepretation of the said Articles either by Your Majesty's Commissioners or by other Persons under pretence of fulfiling the same and the Decisions made thereupon by that means we shall shew Evidently that the said Articles were Infring'd to our great prejudice and that our Requests are most Just. The XXV ARTICLE runs thus AND because his Majesty intending the Peace and general Quiet of the Kingdom was pleased also to come to a Gracious Resolution upon the business of Religion therefore the States of the Kingdom insert the said Resolution in the Articles I. And Principally whereas the free exercise of Religion granted in the year 1606. by virtue of the Peace of Vienna has been disturbed in part during these Troubles therefore the first Article of the said Peace being hereby confirm'd the same free exercise of Religion is granted to every Person and every where in the Kingdom according to the first Article made before the Coronation in the year 1608. Provided that the Privileges of Lords of Manors be not hereby prejudiced Hereupon we require in the Article's own words that the same free exercise of Religion as was disturbed in part during the Troubles and before the Troubles did include Evangelical Ministers or Preachers be granted to every Person and every where in the Kingdom not excepting the free Cities Towns and Villages which make the fourth State since they are expresly comprehended in the aforesaid Article made before theCoronation in the Year 1608. II. A free Return in the Kingdom and a free exercise of
recompence this Imperial Royal Favour with all sort of Happines from above Deliver'd to His Sacred Majesty at Aix la Chapelle upon his going to Vienna the 24 th day of April in the year 1689. Your most Sacred Majesty's most Humble and Faithful Subjects the Deputies of the Evangelicks in the Counties Cities Towns and Frontiers of Upper and Lower Hungary about the Business of their distressed Religion The First Article of the Peace of Vienna in the Year 1606. AS to the Business of Religion notwithstanding the former publick Constitutions and the last Article of the Year 1604 which was made without the Diet and the consent of the Subjects and therefore is annulled it is granted That according to his Imperial Majesty's former Resolution to which the Subjects refer themselves in their replying all and each State of the Kingdom of Hungary as well the Peers and Noblemen as the free Cities and the Privileged Towns belonging immediately to the Crown and all the Hungarian Soldiers in the Frontiers shall any where and at any time profess and exercise their Religion without any Disturbance either from His most Sacr'd Majesty or from any Person whatsoever a free exercise of Religion being hereby granted to all the said States of the Kingdom Provided always That the Roman Catholick Religion be not thereby prejudiced That the Roman Catholick Clergy Churches and Chappels remain free and unmolested and that what has been taken from them in these Troubles be restor'd The First Article made before the Coronation in the Year 1608. concerning Religion COncerning the first Article of the Treaty of Vienna it is resolv'd by the States and Orders of Hungary that the Exercises of Religion shall be left free not only to the Noblemen and to the Inhabitants of the free Cities but also to the Hungarian Soldiers in the Frontiers of the Kingdom of Hungary and to all the Farmers and Peasant that will freely accept the same nor shall any of 'em be disturbed in the free Exercise of Religion but to prevent any effect of hatr'd and dissension between Roman Catholicks and Protestants It is Order'd That each Party shall have a Superior or Surperintendant of his own Profession Although this last first Article of the Year 1608 was renew'd in 77 th Article of the Year 1618 inserted in the General Constitutions of the Kingdom by Order of the Emperor Ferdinand the Second in the Year 1622 restor'd to his Force by the 22 d Article of the Year 1625 by the 33 d Article of the Year 1630 and by the 29 th Article of the Year 1635 confirm'd in the 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 and 14 th Articles of the new Treaty of Peace made with George Ragoczy Prince of Transilvania in the Year 1648 Ratifyed both in the aforenamed Articles of 1649 and in the 10 th Article of the Year 1649 and in the 18 th Article of the Year 1655 made at Rakocziâ and lastly confirm'd again and inserted in the Constitutions of the Kingdom by Order of Leopold the present Emperor in the Year 1659 yet notwithstanding all these the said Article remains without Force and the Exercise of the Protestant Religion is wholly exterminated against the Articles and the publick Constitutions of the Kingdom as well as against the Sacred Imperial Letters Patent And yet all this contributed little towards a Peace for the Results of this Diet concerned none but the good and quiet Men and such as were zealous for the Settlement and Peace of their Country Whilest Tekeli and others of that Spirit whose Minds were possess'd with virulent Malice and Ambition were plotting and contriving the means to set up their own Authority and give themselves into the Hands of the Turks rather than to the Power of their Sovereign Prince of whose natural Clemency thô they were well assur'd yet they suspected and fear'd his Councils which being chiefly influenced and directed by Jesuits and the Spirit of the Clergy could never be reconciled in any tollerable manner to the Protestant profession Thus whilest things were Negotiating in the Diet Tekeli besieg'd Kalo which surrendr'd at discretion with little or no resistance and Prince Apafi joyning with some Parties of the Malecontents laid Seige to Zatmar with an Army composed of Transilvanians Moldavians Turks and Malecontents of Hungary all which acted in four separate Bodies being well provided with Cannon and all sorts of Ammunition and Provisions so soon as Apafi had form'd his Siege he put forth a Manifest or Declaration which he caused to be privately stolen into the Town and there dispers'd signifying that out of Christian piety and compassion to the miserable state of that Kingdom he had left his Country and Dwelling with no other intent than only to cause their Churches to be restor'd to them with a free Liberty of Conscience and Exercise of Religion and that their Estates which had been confiscated for the sake of their Religion and defence of their Rights and Privileges might be again restor'd to them To which he added many Solemn Protestations that he had no other end nor intention than the welfare and happiness of the Kingdom Farther also he said that he had a power sufficient for this Enterprise being well seconded by the Grand Seignior and acted by his Commission and that the Succession to the Principality was promised unto his Son to whom besides the Forces with him he had left a Guard of 20.000 Men. Having made thus much known to the Inhabitants of Zatmar he vigorously proceeded in the Siege having received a Recruit of 8000 Men from the Pasha of Buda being a Detachment from 40.000 which were Encamp'd before the place whereof he was Governour And thô with these Forces the Town of Zatmar was taken yet Serini who Commanded the place retiring into the Castle or Citadel he so well defended the same that Apafi was forc'd to raise the Siege and march away burning several Towns year 1682. and taking a Thousand Prisoners in his Retreat The raising of this Siege was variously interpreted and so ill taken by the Turks that Complaints were made thereof against Apafi at the Port. But it was no time now to make alterations or disturbances in Transilvania Towards the end of this year the Emperor being desirous to Crown the Empress at Oedembourg sent a Convoy of 500 Huâ—sars 100 Heyduks and 500 Cuirassiers to fetch the Crown of St. Stephen from the Castle of Presburg where it is always lodg'd which being brought thither the Empress was Crown'd Queen of Hungary with great Solemnity And that this Ceremony might be performed with the more order and security a Cessation of Arms was agreed with Tekeli for six Moths And to make appear how propitious this day of Coronation was like to be Count Caprara fell on the Rear of Apafi s Forces as they were retiring into their own Country took all their Baggage and entring into Transilvania burn'd five Castles and divers
of this Victorious Nation of latter times wherein we are to make a longer stay as more pertinent unto the dangerous estate of the present time It fortuned that whilst Cutlu-Muses and his Sons supported by the Sultan Axan their Kinsman thus mightily prevailed against the Christians in the lesser ASIA on the one side and Melech with his Cousin against the Egyptian Chaliph in SYRIA on the other side that one Peter a French Hermit moved with a devout zeal according to the manner of that time went to visit the Sepulchre of our Saviour with the other holy Places at JERUSALEM who coming into SYRIA then for the most part possessed by the Turks and Sarasins diligently noted by the way as he travelled the Manners and Fashions of these barbarous Nations their Government their Cities their Power and Strength but above all the grievous Miseries of the poor oppressed Christians that there lived in most miserable thraldom among them without hope of release all which he in the habit of a poor Pilgrim at liberty safely viewed in the midst of these Miscreants being withall a little low hard-favoured Fellow and therefore in shew more to be contemned than feared yet under such simple and homely Feature lay unregarded a most subtil sharp and piercing wit fraught with discretion and sound judgment still applying to some use what he had in his long and painful travel most curiously observed He cometh to JERUSALEM and performing his devotions there saw the grievous misery of the poor devout Christians so great and heavy as that greater or more intollerable could none be wherewith not a little grieved he entred into a deep discourse thereof with Simon the Patriarch and Abbot of the Monastery of the Christians there before built by certain Italian Merchants and with the Master of the Hospitalers by whom he was fully informed thereof as of whatsoever else he required After much grave Conference it was at length agreed upon amongst them that the Patriarch and the grand Master should in their own and the names of the other oppressed Christians write their Letters unto the Pope and the other Christian Princes concerning their Miseries and to crave their Aid for the Recovery of those holy places out of the hands of those cruel Infidels of which Letters the devout Hermit promised himself to be the trusty Carrier and of their Petitions the most careful Solicitor Whereupon the Patriarch and grand Master in the name of the poor oppressed Christians wrote their Letters unto this effect We the Citizens of the holy City and Country-men of Christ Iesus daily suffer those things which Christ our King suffered but once in the last days of his mortality We are daily buâ—fetted scourged and pierced every day some of us are brained beheaded or crucified We would fly from City to City unto the remotest parts of the Earth and remove out of the middle of that Land where our Saviour wrought our Redemption to lead a poor exiled and vagrant life were it not impiety to leave the Land sacred with the Birth Doctrin Death Resurrection and Ascension of our Saviour without Inhabitants and Priests and that there should first lack such as would indure Death and Martyrdom than such as would inflict the same and that there should not be such which would as willingly die for Christ as in battel so long as there were any that would fight against them These things truly we most miserably suffer yet was there a time when as our Ancestors feared no such thing either to themselves or their Posterity And now perhaps the Christian Kingdoms of the West live likewise without the least suspicion of fear but let them be moved by our example and Testimony The strength of the Turks is daily increased and ours diminished The continual gaining of new Kingdoms giveth them courage They have already devoured the whole World in hope The Forces of the Turks are fiercer and stronger than the Forces of the Sarasins their Policies deeper their Attempts more desperate their Endeavours greater and their Success fortunater Yet have the Sarasins attempted both Romes they have besieged Constantinople and have wasted not only the sea coasts of Italy but even the heart of the Land also Then why should the kingdoms of the West presume themselves to stand in safety and out of all peril when as the chief fortresses of the world have been so endangered What may the rest of Christendom promise unto it self seeing that Jerusalem the seat and spectacle of the Christian Religion hath been besieged taken sacked rased and triumphed upon Seeing that of the Christian profession remain but the poor and weak reliques in comparison of the ancient whole entire body This land which is dayly besprinkled with our blood yea the blood it self crieth out for revenge And we your most humble suppliants prostrate at your feet call upon the help aid mercy faith and religion of you most blessed Father of the Kings Princes and Potentates Christians not in name and profession only but in heart soul and spirit Before the tempest thunder before the lightning fall upon you avert from you and your children the storm hanging over your heads defend us your poor suppliants deliver your religion from most wicked and accursed slavery You shall in so doing deserve immortal fame and God shall requite your so great valour in this world with terrestrial kingdoms and in the world to come with eternal bliss whose sacred inheritance you shall have defended from the rage of hell With these Letters and plenty of other secret instructions the devout Hermit returning into Italy and coming to Rome delivered his Letters unto Urban the second of that name then Pope with a full discourse of the miseries of the Christians under the Turkish Thraldom which he had seen at Ierusalem and other places as he travelled requesting his holy care for the redress thereof with whom he so prevailed that shortly after he calling a Council at Claremont in France among other things propounded the misery of the poor oppressed Christians at Ierusalem as an especial matter to be considered of And having caused the aforesaid Letters directed unto him and the other Christian Princes to be openly read in the Council whereunto three hundred and ten Bishops were then out of divers parts of Christendom assembled with the Embassadors of all Countries much moved the whole Assembly to compassion at which time also the Hermit whose flowing Eloquence fully countervailed what wanted in his feature standing up in the midst of the Council delivered his message in the name of the afflicted Christians with their heavy groanings and tears which as they could not be in Letters expressed so were they not hardly by the religious Hermit as by him who having but lately seen both the misery of the men and desolation of the places and at the heart touched with the grief thereof so lively represented as that it moved the whole Assembly
him that by the help of his own Favorites and the countenance of Boniface Marquess of Mont-Ferrat who even then was come with a great Power into Syria he extorted from the Nobility whatsoever he desired But seven months were scarce well passed but that this young King Baldwin was dead and buried poysoned as was reported by his Mother for the desire she had of the Kingdom her self whose death she with all secrecy concealed until she had obtained of the Patriarch and other Princes of the Kingdom that Guy her Husband might be proclaimed King. So by her means it was so wrought that upon one and the self same day the young King Baldwin was buried by his Uncle and Guy the Count Crowned This young King Baldwin by reason of his tender years and short Reign is of some not reckoned amongst the Kings of Ierusalem howbeit seeing he was by his Uncle and the Princes of that time thought worthy of the Kingdom let him also have his place amongst the rest as the Eighth King of Ierusalem When Guy was thus possessed of the Kingdom the Count of Tripolis seeing himself out of all hope of the Government and highly therewith discontended did what he might by all means to cross the doings of the King whose sick and aspiring mind Saladin prickt daily more and more forward promising him his helping hand whensoever he should need which courtesie the Count desirously embraced For now the fatal period of the Kingdom of Ierusalem grew fast on and all things tended to destruction discord reigning in every place which Saladin well perceiving after that he had compacted with the Count by Messengers sent of purpose invited the Turks Sarasins and Aegyptians as men agreeing in one and the same Religion generally to take up Arms in so fit an opportunity of the discord of the Christians assuring them of great prey and spoil besides the Honour of the Conquest The City of Ptolemais was the place by him appointed where all this Power should meet whether such a multitude of the barbarous Mahometans partly for the hatred of the Christian Religion partly for the hope of the rich spoil which Saladin had promised them came flocking out of all places that in short time there was met together about fifty thousand Horsemen besides an infinite number of Foot and unto such as could not safely pass by the borders of Ierusalem to them the false Count gave safe conduct by the Countries of Tiberias Nazareth and Galilee All the Power of the Infidels thus assembled Saladin laid siege unto the City of Ptolemais which the Templars and the Knights Hospitallers had notably fortified and strongly manned as before unto them given by the Kings of Ierusalem to defend against the Infidel and therein now were both the Masters of both those honourable Orders with the whole flower of the Knights of their Profession Unto this City Saladin gave a most terrible Assault upon May-day in the morning in the year 1187. which was by the Christians notably defended year 1187. and the Enemy with great slaughter still beaten down In the heat of this Assault the two great Masters sallied with certain Troops of their most ready Horsemen assailed the Enemies Camp and bearing down all before them raised there a great tumult and by and by turning upon the backs of them that were assaulting the City made there an exceeding great slaughter Insomuch that Saladin dismaid first with the confusion in his Camp and now with the sudden danger behind him was glad to give over the Assault and to turn his whole Forces upon them where was fought a most bloody and terrible battel Amongst others that there fought the Count of Tripolis now an Enemy unto God and his Country disguised in the habit of a Turk notably helped the Infidels and meeting with the great Master of the Knights Hospitalers unhorsed him who surcharged with the weight of his Armor and oppressed with the multitude of his Enemies there died Nevertheless such was the valour of these worthy men and new Succour still coming out of the City that Saladin having in that battel and at the Assault lost fifteen thousand of his Turks was glad with the rest to betake himself to flight Neither was this so notable a Victory gained by the Christians without blood most part of the worthy Knights Hospitalers being together with their grand Master there slain Saladin by this Overthrow perceiving that by open Force he should not be able to do much against the Christians thought it good unto his Forces to joyn also Policy Wherein the false Count of Tripolis was the man he thought best to make choice of as his fittest Instrument to work by Him he compacted withall to seek for grace at the King of Ierusalems hands as of his dread Soveraign and after so long discord to sue to be reconciled unto him as now weary of the Turks Amity with whom he should make shew to be utterly fallen out At which time also to give the matter the better grace Saladin of purPose with a great Army came and besieged Tiberias a City of the Counts Jurisdiction for the relief whereof the traiterous Count craved Aid of the King and the other Princes of the Sacred War. Who with an Army though not great yet very well appointed came according to his desire and encamped near unto the Fountain of Sophor where they had not long stayed but that they met with the huge Army of the Turks being in number one hundred and twenty thousand horse and one hundred and sixty thousand Foot with whom they joyned a most sharp and terrible battel which by reason of the extremity of the heat of the weather it then being the twelfth of Iuly and the approach of the night was again given over both Armies as if it had been by consent retiring The next day the battel was again begun wherein the Turks by the treason and shameful flight of the false Count of Tripolis gained the Victory In this Battel Guy the King himself with Gerard Master of the Templars Boniface Marquess of Mont-Ferrat and divers others Men of great mark were taken Prisoners And to say the truth in this Battel was broken the whole Strength of the Christians in the East The Christian Commonweal by the Treason of the false Count thus betrayed unto the Infidels Saladin without any great resistance had the Cities of Ptolemais Biblis and Berithus delivered unto him in all which places he used his Victory with great moderation not enforcing any Christian more than the Latines to depart thence but suffering them there still to remain as before yielding unto him their obedience with such Tribute as he had imposed upon them With like good fortune he within the space of one Month took all the Port-towns betwixt Sidon and Ascalon alongst the Sea-coast excepting only the ancient City of Tyre unto the City of Ascalon also he laid Siege by the space of nine days but
so notable an Expedition But whilst they there stayed somewhat long the Plague arose among the Germans whereof in short time after both the Lantgrave and the Bishop died with many of the other best Souldiers The Emperor himself was upon his way as far Malâ—a upon the further side of Peleponnesus where falling desperately sick of a Burning-Fever and put back with contrary Winds he returned again to Brundusium and there stayed a great while after Then began the Pope again to fret and fume and to cast out his Excommunications against the Emperor as if it had been Thunder and Lightning accusing him of Perjury Infidelity and many other grievous Crimes of all which the Emperor was ready to have cleared himself in an open Assembly of the Princes of Germany to have been holden at Ravenna had it not been by the Pope and the Troubles of Lombardy disturbed Nevertheless he by open Protestations and Writings fully answered all the Popes unjust Accusations wherewith he had been so hardly charged and yet desirous to perform the Expedition by him taken in hand having set all things in good Order and put himself again in a readiness he set forward from Brundusium in August in the year 1228. leaving the Charge of his Territories in Italy under the care of Reynold Duke of Spaleto The Pope displeased for that the Emperor at his departure had neither reconciled himself nor taken his leave of him and deeming therein his Excommunications and Fulminations to be contemned and set at naught fell into such a rage and choler that he forbad all the Christian Forces that were in Syria to follow him or to yield to him their Obedience and writ Letters also unto the Sultan not to come to any agreement with the Emperor or to yield unto him any part of the Holy Land which Letters the Sultan afterwards sent unto the Emperor Neither yet so contented immediately after his departure ran upon his Kingdom of Naples and so filled all Italy with Troubles Nevertheless the Emperor happily arriving at Ptolemais was there honourably received of the Christian Forces notwithstanding the Popes Threats and Cursings Of whose arrival Sultan Meledin having Intelligence and loth to draw so mighty an Enemy as was the Emperor upon him by his Embassadors offered him most honourable Conditions of Peace which before he would accept of he by convenient Messengers sent unto the Pope to have his consent and approbation But such was his rage as that he would not suffer the Messengers to come into his presence or vouchsafe to read the Emperors Letters being brought unto him but like a mad man presently rent them in pieces All which Indignities the Emperor nevertheless took in good part and concluded a Peace with the Turks for ten years upon these conditions First That he should be anointed and accounted King of Ierusalem then That the holy City with all the Land of Palestine should be delivered unto him thirdly That he might at his pleasure fortifie the Cities of Nazareth and Ioppa fourthly That all such places as were sometime in the Power of Baldwin the fourth King of Ierusalem and taken from him by Sultan Saladin should be restored and last of all That all Prisoners on both sides should be set at liberty without Ransome So the Peace concluded the Emperor with his Army came to the desolate City of Ierusalem and there upon Easter-day with great Solemnity was Crowned King thereof year 1229. in the year 1229. And so having repaired the Walls of the City with certain Churches fortified Nazareth and Ioppa and furnished them with strong Garrisons and appointed Raynold Duke of Bavaria his Lieutenant in Syria he with two Gallies only returned into Italy Ever since which time the Kings of Sicilia have been also called Kings of Ierusalem and have oftentimes born the Arms of both Kingdoms The next year Pope Gregory in despight of the Emperor Frederick year 1230. more than for any Zeal to the Christian Religion did by the Dominicans and Franciscans two Orders of Friers but then lately erected as by his Trumpeters stir up a wonderful number of zealous and devout Christians almost in every part of Christendom to take upon them the Cross as they termed it the cognisance of such as had by Vow bound themselves to take up Arms against the Turks and Sarasins for the Recovery or Defence of the Holy Land. These devout men met together in great number under the leading of Theobald King of Navar Almericus Count of Montfort Henry Count of Champaigne and others too long to rehearse of purpose stirred up to trouble the ten years Peace before concluded betwixt the Emperor and the Turks in Syria set forward and after long travel passing the Strait of Bosphorus not far from Constantinople into Bithynia came to the River Sangarius and there stayed a while to refresh themselves Afterwards passing through Galatia and so from Country to Country through the lesser Asia they came at length unto the Straits of the Mountain Amanus a part of the Mountain Taurus which they found before taken by the Turks and the Sultan of Iconium Himself not far off incamped with a strong Army Nevertheless the valiant Count of Montfort which had the leading of the Vantguard couragiously marching forward by plain force opened the passage of the Mountain having slain or put to flight the Turks appointed for the keeping thereof the King of Navar in the mean time though in vain assailing the Sultan in his Camp who fearing the great Power of the Christians kept himself within his own strength and would not stir Wherefore the King seeing it to no purpose there longer to stay dividing his his Army into three parts left the Sultan and followed after the Count placing his Baggage in the midst and thâ— best of his Souldiers in the rereward But whilst they thus march up the great Mountain the Turks better acquainted with those passages were still at hand assailing them sometime behind sometime on the one side sometime on the other as they saw occasion and at length taking them at an advantage in a great Plain set upon them now before almost spent with hunger and travel and there slew of them an exceeding great number But by the coming on of the night the battel was broken off and the Christians repairing unto their Ensigns passed the Straits and so at length arrived at Antioch having lost by the way the greatest part of the Army with all their Wealth their Victuals and most part of their Horses the remnant yet left having a little refreshed themselves were by Sea transported to Ptolemais from whence they were afterward by the Templars conducted to Gaza where they lay and of the spoil of the Country greatly enriched themselves As for any other great matters they were not able of themselves to take in hand and help of such â—â—rces as the Emperor had before left at Ierusalem and other places they could have none having express
should thereby have followed after them The Christians perceiving their flight without resistance entred the City and being strangers did what they could to quench the fire and to save that which the Inhabitants themselves would fain have with fire destroyed and so afterwards found great abundance of Riches with plentiful store of all manner of Victuals wherewith the Souldiers both inriched and refreshed themselves This so happy and unexpected a Victory happened unto the Christians about the beginning of October in the year 1249. Sultan Meledin himself discouraged with the loss of so strong a City offered unto the French King for the redeeming thereof and to have peace at his hands more Territory in Syria and the Land of Palestine than the Christians had of long time before which large Offer was by the French especially by the Earl of Arthois the Kings Brother proudly rejected and Alexandria the most famous Port and Metropolitical City of Egypt further demanded to the great discontentment of the Turks and Sarasins In these troubles died Meledin the old Sultan a man not much beloved of his people in whose stead Melech-sala or Melexala as some call him a valiant and couragious Prince well beloved of his Subjects and but even then returned out of Syria and Arabia where he had been to crave Aid of the other Mahometan Princes was chosen Sultan Which Princes especially the Sultan of Damasco although they had not of long been at any good accord amongst themselves or with the Egyptians yet in this common danger of their Superstition which by the loss of Egypt was like to be greatly weakned they joyned hands together and so sent him great Aid The new Sultan thus strengthened drew nearer unto the Christians which then lay encamped not far from Damiata and had with them a hot skirmish wherein he was put to the worse and so with some loss glad to retire But the Christians the next day in hope of like success sallying out again were overthrown with ten times more loss than was he the day before and so fain to fly unto the Camp. By which Victory the Sultan encouraged began now to conceive better hope of the success of his Wars and by stopping the passages both by Water and Land to provide that no Victuals could without great peril be brought either unto the City or the Camp insomuch that at length Victuals began to grow scarce in both whereof the Sultan was not ignorant as being thereof throughly informed by such Fugitives as for want or other causes oftentimes fled out of the French Camp into his Winter thus passing and want still increasing it fortuned that the Governor of the great City of Caire upon the fortune whereof depended the State of the whole Kingdom a man not evil affected unto the Christian Religion and in his heart highly offended with the Sultan for the death of his Brother by him wrongfully executed by secret Messengers perswaded the French King to come on with his Army to the City the Regal seat of the Sultan promising him to deliver it into his power with full instructions what he had in all points to do for the gaining thereof Whereupon the King who had before of himself purposed the same exploit but now filled with a greater hope assembled together the greatest Forces he was able to make At which time also he sent for the Earl of Salisbury with the rest of the Englishmen who for many proud indignities offered them by the French especially by the Earl of Artois the Kings Brother whereof they could have no redress were gone to Ptolemais without purpose to have any more served in those Wars but now being sent for by the King with promise of better usage and honourable recompence for the wrongs past returned again into Egypt there to do their last endeavour With whose coming the King strengthned but more by the new supplies brought unto him by his Brother Alphonsus out of France leaving the Duke of Burgundy with a convenient Garrison with the Queen his Wife Odâ— the Popes Legate and divers other great Ladies in Damiata he himself set forward with his Army towards Caire Of whose coming the Sultan hearing and loath upon the Fortune of one Battel to adventure his whole Estate offered by his Embassadors to restore unto him all the Land of Palestine with a great summ of Mony for the defraying of the charges of those Wars and all the Prisoners he had taken so that he would redeliver unto him the City of Damiata and joyn with him in League and Amity Which fair offer for all that the French King by the perswasion of the Legate and others refused So the King marching still on was to pass an Arm of the great River Nilus the Sultan on the other side still ready with his Army to stay his passage which he had thought to have made by a Bridge of Boats prepared for the same purpose but better conducted by a Fugitive Sarasin unto a Foord before to him unknown sent his Brother Robert Earl of Artois with the third part of the Army before him accompanied with the Master of the Templars and the Earl of Salisbury with their Followers Who passing the River at the aforesaid Foord suddenly assailed the Turks in their Tents the Sultan being then absent in solemnising one of their prophane Feasts and put them to flight With which Victory the French Earl above measure encouraged would needs on forwards as if he would himself alone have carried away the glory of the whole Conquest Whom for all that certain of the ancient Templars better acquainted with the manners of that deceitful Nation than he and better considering also of their own Ability and Strength perswaded him to content himself with the Honour he had already got and not to proceed any further in prosecuting of the Enemy until the coming of the rest of the Army especially in that desperate estate of the Enemy wherein he was to win or lose all Unto whom the proud Earl in great despight replyed that he would prosecute his Victory and follow his good fortune calling them Dastards and Cowards opprobriously objecting unto them the common Fame whereby it was commonly reported That the Holy Land might long since have been again united unto the body of the Christian Common-wealth but for the foul collusion of the false Templars and Hospitalers with the Turks and Infidels With which reproachful Speech the Master of the Templars not without cause moved answered for himself and his Fellows That he should when he would and where he durst display his Ensigns and he should find them as ready to follow as he was to go before them The Earl of Salisbury also willing to stint this strife perswaded Earl Robert not to be so wedded to his own opinion but to listen to the grave and wholsome Counsel of the Templars being men of great experience and so turning unto the Master of the Templars began likewise with gentle words
and was afterward by Othomans commandment most cruelly cut in pieces within the view of his chief Castle which Othoman afterwards subdued with all the Country thereabouts The other Christian Princes and Captains saved themselves by flying into strong Holds farther off The Prince of Bithynia the chief Author of this War fled into the strong City of Prusa which the Turks now call Burusa whither Othoman not long after led his Army in hope to have won the same but finding it not possible to be taken by force began presently at one time to build two great and strong Castles upon the chief passages leading to the City which Castles he with great industry finished in one year and in the one placed as Captain Actemeur his Nephew in the other one Balabanzuck both men of great courage and skilful in feats of War and in this sort having blocked up the City of Prusa so that little or nothing could without great danger be brought into it he subdued the most part of Bithynia and so returned home leaving the two Castles well manned with strong Garrisons under the charge of the Captains before named Othoman returning home to Neapolis honourably rewarded his Souldiers according to their deserts establishing such a quiet and pleasing Government in his Kingdom that People in great number resorted from far into his Dominions there to seat themselves whereby his Kingdom became in few years exceeding populous and he for his politick Government most famous And so living in great quietness certain years being now become aged and much troubled with the Gout his old Souldiers accustomed to live by the Wars abhorring Peace came to him requesting him as it were with one voice to take some honourable War in hand for the inlargement of his Kingdom with great chearfulness offering to spend their lives in his service rather than to grow old in idleness which forwardness of his men of War greatly pleased him and so giving them thanks for that time dismist them promising that he would not be long unmindful of their request But yet thinking it good to make all things safe at home before he took any great Wars in hand abroad thought it expedient to call unto him Michael Cossi the only Christian Captain whom for his great deserts he had at all times suffered to live in quiet with his Possessions as it were in the heart of his Kingdom and by fair means if it might be to perswade him to forsake the Christian Religion and become a follower of Mahomet and so to take away all occasion of mistrust which if he should refuse to do then forgetting all former Friendship to make War upon him as his utter Enemy Whereupon Cossi was sent for being perswaded by the Messenger that Othoman had sent for him because he had occasion to use his wonted faithful Counsel and Service in a great exploit which he had intended as he had oftentimes before Cossi thinking of nothing less than of that which ensued came accompanied with such Souldiers as he thought to use in that service But coming unto Othoman and understanding the very cause why he was sent for and seeing danger eminent on every side kissing Othomans Hand after the manner of the Turks requested him in courteous manner to enter him in the Principles of the Mahometan Religion which he promised ever after to embrace And so saying certain words after Othoman he turned Turk to the great displeasure of God and the contentment of Othoman and his Nobility For which his revolting Othoman presently gave him an Ensign and a rich Robe tokens whereby the Mahometan Sultans assure their Vassals of their Favour and the undoubted possession of such Land and Living as they then hold Oftentimes after this Othoman for the contenting of his Souldiers invaded the Countries bordering upon him took many strong Castles and Forts subdued the most part of Phrygia Misia and Bithynia and other great Regions unto the Euxine Sea and being now very aged and diseased as is aforesaid with the Gout and thereby unable to go into the field in person himself oftentimes sent his Son Orchanes against his Enemies who to the imitation of his Father atchieved many great enterprises Othoman his Father yet living Now happily might the considerate Reader and not without just cause marvel what dead sleep had overwhelmed the Greek Emperors of those times first Michael Paleologus and afterwards his Son Andronicus both men of great Valour and still resiant at Constantinople thus to suffer the Turks not Othoman for he as yet bare no sway but others the sharers of Sultan Aladins Kingdom to take their Cities spoil their Countries kill their Subjects and dayly to incroach upon them in the lesser Asia and especially in Bithynia so near unto them and as it were even under their Noses But let him with me here as in a most convenient place but breath a little and consider the troubled State of that declining Empire now hasting to an end and he shall plainly see the causes of the decay thereof and how like an old diseased body quite overthrown and sick to death it became at length a Prey unto the aspiring Turks Michael Paleologus having by great treachery obtained the Greek Empire and by rare fortune recovered also the City of Constantinople from Baldwin the Emperor as is in the former part of this History declared fearing the power of the Princes of the West but especially of Charles King of Sicilia then a Prince of great Fame and Power whom he knew Baldwin the late Emperor ceased not to solicite for the restitution of him again into his Empire and to have also joyned with him a near bond of Affinity by marrying his Daughter unto Charles his Son to avert this danger and to intangle Charles with troubles near home by his Embassadors offred unto Gregory the Tenth then Bishop of Rome to unite and conform the Greek Church unto the Latine and to acknowledg the Bishops Supremacy in such sort as that it should be lawful for any man to appeal unto the Court of Rome as unto the higher and most excellent Court of which his offer the Pope gladly accepted promising to perform what he had before requested for the keeping of Charles otherwise busied But when it came to the point that this reformation and alteration of Religion in the Greek Church should be made Ioseph the Patriarch to begin withall gave up his place and shortly after forsaking the City retired himself into a Monastery near unto the Straight of Bosphorus where he at quiet devoutly spent the rest of his life The rest of the Clergy also discontented with this innovation in their Sermons openly inveighed against it perswading the People not to receive it crying out That now was come the time of their trial the time of their Martyrdom and the time wherein they were to receive the glorious Crown of their painful sufferings insomuch that great tumults were thereupon raised and
his elder Brother Solyman being dead a little before his Father This Amurath with greater zeal than any one of the Turkish Kings advanced the Mahometan Religion and had therein wonderful Success In the beginning of his Reign he gathered a great Army out of all parts of his Kingdom to Prusa purposing to pass over Hellespontus to invade the Christians in Thracia But understanding that the other Mahometan Princes in Asia had combined themselves against him he was thereby inforced to leave his former determination for Europe and to turn his Forces upon them In which Wars he mightily prevailed against them and returned with Victory to Prusa But having so subdued those Confederate Princes he the next year after prosecuted his Wars before intended against the Christians in Europe For which purpose having levied a strong Army in Asia he passed over to Callipolis accompanied with his Tutor whom the Turks call Lala Schahin whose grave advice and counsel he most followed in all his weighty Affairs being at that time one of his chief Counsellors From Callipolis he marched to the Castle of Benutum which was by composition yielded unto him From thence he went to Tzurulus where the Christians gave him a sharp encounter but in the end he won the Town and carried away the Victory And so proceeding farther took divers other small Castles and Towns in that part of Thracia which of the ancient Roman Colonies was then called Romania and now of the Turks Rumilia namely Mesine Burgos and others whereof some he utterly rased and into the rest put strong Garrisons At this time also Chasi-Ilbeg and Eurenoses two of his most valiant Captains took certain Forts standing upon the River Meritza in ancient time called Hebrus whereby they much troubled the Inhabitants of the Country thereabouts Wherewith the Captain of Didymotichum offended gathered his Souldiers together intending to have intercepted the great Captain Chasi-Ilbeg in which Attempt he lost most of his Followers and was himself there taken Prisoner For whose Ransom and certain other Conditions the Citizens of Didymotichum yielded the City unto the Turks Shortly after Amurath sent his Tutor Lala Schahin to besiege Hadrianople now called Adrianople but in ancient time Oâ—estias of whose coming the Christians hearing encountred him upon the way and fought with him a great battel wherein many were on both sides lost but in the end the Christians being put to the worst retired again to the City Of this Victory Schahin sent News unto Amurath with certain of the heads of the slain Christians who thereupon sending Chasis and Eurenoses before he himself with a great Army followed after to the Siege of Hadrianople of whose coming the Governor of Hadrianople understanding fled secretly out of the City by night to Aenus The Citizens seeing themselves so forsaken of their Governor yielded their City unto Amurath in the year of our Lord 1362. The taking of these strong Cities in Thracia especially of Didymotichum and Hadrianople is by some of the Turks own Histories otherwise reported which because it is neither improbable nor disagreeing from the subtil dealings of the Turks and of themselves also received I have thought good to set down as their own Historiographers report the same The Turkish King Amurath had as they say and as truth was in the beginning of his Reign concluded a Peace with the Christians of Thracia during which Peace the Governor of Didymotichum intending to fortifie his City with new and stronger Fortifications against the Assaults of the Turks entertained all the Masons Carpenters and other Workmen he could by any means get which Amurath understanding secretly caused two hundred good and lusty Workmen and Labourers to come out of Asia to offer their Service unto the Governor who gladly entertained them using their help in that his great and hasty Work. Which thing some of the wiser sort of the Citizens disliking wished the Governor to beware of those Asian Workmen as by them suspected But he presuming upon the Peace made with Amurath and considering they were but base Workmen and no Souldiers had the less care of them nevertheless using their work all day he commanded them to lodge without the Walls of the City every night Amurath understanding that these Workmen were thus by the Governor entertained sent for the valiant Captain Chasis-Ilbeg and requested him with thirty other good Souldiers disguised as poor Labourers to go to Didymotichum to seek for Work and in doing thereof to espy if any opportunity might be found for the surprising of the City Chasis with these thirty according to Amurath his direction coming as poor men lacking Work found entertainment at Didymotichum where they carried stones morter and such like things ever shewing themselves very diligent in their work Chasis with vigilant eye still awaiting what might best serve his turn for the surprising of the City When night was come the Turkish Workmen and Labourers after their accustomed manner and as they were by the Governor appointed went out of the City into the Suburbs to their Lodgings from whence Chasis secretly departing in the night came to Amurath and shewed him how one of the gates of the City might upon the sudden be taken if it would please him to place a sufficient number of Turks in ambush near unto the City to joyn with him and the other Turkish Labourers when occasion should serve Which being resolved upon Amurath sent him back again to put this his device in execution So Chasis returning to Didymotichum brake the matter to so many of the Asian Workmen as he thought convenient fully instructing them what was to be done The next day according to his appointment the Christians being then at dinner these Turkish Workmen and Labourers fell at words among themselves and from words to fained blows in which counterfeit Brawl and Tumult they suddenly ran to one of the Gates of the City fast by as was before appointed and there laying hands upon the Warders Weapons as if it had been to defend themselves against their Fellows suddenly set upon those Warders being in number but few and then at dinner also and so presently slew them which done they opened the Gate of the City and let in the other Turks which lay in wait not far off who with great celerity entring the City presently took the same and there put the chiefest of their Citizens to the Sword sparing the rest of the meaner sort The City of Rhodestum of the old Writers called Rhâ—destum was by Amurath his commandment in this time of peace by sudden assault given in the night by the Lord Eurenoses taken also With this foul dealing and breach of League yet in force the Christians hardly charged Amurath who turned it over to the unruliness of his Captains and Men of War whom he threatned with great severity to punish and to give the better colour that it was done without his privity he had fained himself sick all the
lay at the Town of Aegiolus in Galatia in great security having about him but a small Power for that he fearing no danger had at that time dispersed his Army to seek after Pillage abroad in the Country Mahomet taking hold of this opportunity marched thither with great celerity and suddenly setting upon Cara Dulet overcame him In which Conflict Cara Dulet himself was shot through the Head with an Arrow and slain and his Army utterly discomfited Mahomet returning back to Amasia with Victory refreshed and rewarded his Souldiers yet no less careful for the safety of his Kingdom than before Shortly after he was advertised that Cubad Ogli with a great Army laid hard Siege to the City of Caesaria in Capadocia and was like in short time to take it if it were not speedily relieved By taking of which City that Tartar Prince was like to make a great Entrance to the hazarding of the whole Country Wherefore Mahomet having his Army always in readiness marched day and night with such speed to Caesaria as that he was upon Cubad Ogli before he was aware of his coming and there slew most of his Souldiers and put him with the rest to flight After that he returned into Cubad Ogli his Country in Pontus and grievously spoiled and destroyed the same at which time he also by force won the strong Castle Peltae in the Confines of Phrygia Immediately after that Inael Ogli another of Tamerlanes Captains which at their pleasure without let forraged all the Countries of the lesser Asia during the time that Tamerlane made his abode within the Turks Dominions upon the sudden entred into Capadociâ— with an Army of twenty thousand fighting men killing the Inhabitants and spoiling the Country before him so that the people for fear left their dwellings and fled into the Woods and Mountains to hide themselves from his fury Whereof Mahomet hearing was therewith exceedingly grieved and wrote unto him as followeth Sultan Mahomet unto the Prince Inall Ogli WHereas without any just or Lawful Cause or any War proclaimed you have invaded Our Kingdom and cease not cruelly to kill Our Subjects by God committed to Our Protection and to spoil their Wealth and Labours to the great disturbance of the Mahometan Commonweal and make no end of your malice and cruelty you do therein quite digress from the Manners and Laws of the true Mahometans or right Believers For if thou wouldst not only be accounted but indeed be a true Musul-man thou shouldst forthwith depart out of my Kingdom with thine Army thou shouldst not thus shed the innocent blood or without cause thus wrong my people but forasmuch as thou knowest not what beseemeth thee neither wilt listen unto good Counsel but wilfully proceed in thy wicked purpose falsly perswading thy self this my Kingdom to be destitute of a lawful Inheritor and therefore dost so great Wrong and Injury unto the Defenders of the true Mahometan Religion I would thou shouldst know that I with my so often Victorious Army will shortly by the Power of God come against thee and in plain Field according to thy deserts chastise thee Therefore whilst thou yet maist reclaim thy Self and proceed not too far in thine obstinacy too late Repentance did never man yet good Thus much We thought good to advise thee that thou shouldst not be ignorant of Our purpose but mightest so better consider and dispose both of thy self and thine affairs In the year after the departure of the great Prophet Mahomet 806. Unto which Letters Inall Ogli returned this Answer in writing Prince Inall Ogli to Mahomet WHy dost thou Mahomet with such Letters provoke me why dost thou so uncivilly taunt me being thy self but a Boy and in truth a very Child It beseemeth thee not to have entred into these Countries or to lay hands thereon wrongfully gracing thy self with the Title of a Sultan Neither is there any cause why thou shouldst complain that I should lie in wait or seek after thy Life thy Kingdom or any thing that thine is I challenge unto my self this Kingdom but none of thine out of which it is reason for thee as a wrongful intruder of thy self to depart whom otherwise I will forthwith thrust out and joyn the same unto the rest of my Territories Wherefore except thou without delay get thee packing and cease to oppose thy self against my designs I denounce unto thee all the Calamities of War and wish thee with speed to prepare thy self to battel for that I mean shortly to meet with thee This year of our great Prophet 806. Shortly after Mahomet according to his promise meeting with this Tartar Prince by plain force overthrew him and had of him a notable Victory The like good hap he had also not long after against Coster Ogli and Kiupeck Ogli two other Tartarian Captains at the Castle of Chara-chizar and the Plain of Artuck-Ova And hearing that one Mesites a Turk had fortified himself in the Ruins of Sebastia and from thence spoiled the Country round about he sent Bajazet one of his Bassaes against him who in short time took him and brought him bound unto him by whom he was adjudged to die But seeing in the man an invincible courage and contempt of death at such time as he should have been executed moved therewith he gave him his pardon for which he ever after continued unto him faithful and did him great Service Mahomet having many times thus vanquished the stragling Tartarian Princes which had sought the spoil of his Country became thereby famous amongst the great Commanders of Tamerlane his Army insomuch that the bruit of his name came at length to Tamerlanes Ear yet lying in the lesser Asia who as he thought it not worth his Greatness and Labour himself in Person to go against so great an Enemy so he thought it not good or convenient quite to neglect him but by some other means if he could to overtake him For which purpose he began to speak many times very honourably of him highly commending his great valour and forwardness in so tender years And calling for Bajazet told him what great commendation he had heard of his Son Mahomet and that he was therefore very desirous to see him where if he found that true which was reported of his great Vertues he would bestow one of his Daughters upon him in Marriage with many other great Preferments and therefore willed Bajazet to write unto him Not to doubt to come unto him to the great good both of himself and his Father Which thing Bajazet at the first doubting the worst requested Tamerlane not to believe that of his Son being yet very young and not worthy of so great a Favour Nevertheless partly perswaded by Tamerlane his Protestations and importuned by him that might now command him he with an evil will wrote to his Son Mahomet to such effect as Tamerlane required With which Letters and others of like purport from himself with many rich
all hope have with a notable Slaughter overthrown them vanquished them and put them to Flight Neither is there any men in the World whom they more fear and stand in dread of than you whom though in number but few they have by their dayly Slaughter and Losses learned no less to fear than if you were many And noâ— to trie the uttermost of their power they are come with their innumerable Legions but are not for that of you any thing the more to be feared than before seeing that we all bear Arms under the conduct of the most mighty God and are by dayly Victory long Expeâ—ience and approved Valour taught what we are to dare besides that the greatest part of their Army is of common Souldiers Slaves or rude Country Pesants or men by force by them compelled more than the Janizaries are no good Souldiers among them the rest as men enforced serve them for fear and against their Wills and they by their Cowardise brought into that Bondage and Slavery What Greeks Macedonians or Sclavonians soever are sent to their Aid for asmuch as they are not yet revolted from the Christian Faith deem them not to stand for them but for us they long for us the Revengers of their Wrongs and for you as victorious Conquerors in this War they have given unto the Turks their Names but unto us their Hearts and Power and pray heartily for our Victory wherefore you ought so much the more valiantly and couragiously to fight by how much greater you see the Victory the Honour the Prey before your Eyes We are not to fight for other Mens Houses and Altars but for our own so our present necessiâ—y requireth in such sort that if we our selves deliver not our selves and bear our selves upon our wonted hope and valour we shall this day be enforced to endure the greatest misery that men may possibly First the loss of our Goods and Substance the Captivity of â—ur Children the deflowring of our Daughters the ravishing of our Wives the slaughter of our Parents the burning of our Houses and Churches and that which worse is than all this the scorn of our Saviour Christ Iesus and his Saints whose images you shall see in despight broken or dragged in the dirt or moulten and converted into other prophane uses all Religion trodden down and God himself if it were possible with violence and despair driven out of our Hearts if we stand not manfully unto it as becometh worthy Champions God is able with his little Finger if he so will forthwith to destroy all the Turks in the World but seeing he hath committed unto our right Hands the defence of his name he first maketh proof of our Courage and Valour that finding the same faithful and ready he may strengthen and defend it with his own right Hand He never yet forsook any faithful or devout man neither will our Saviour Christ be wanting unto you if you be not wanting to your selves in the power of his Name which is above all Names he shall â—read down his rebellious Enemies and exalt the Righteous that put their trust in him Moreover the causes that they and we combat for are divers and our hopes much stronger They fight for their Prophet a most prophane man Author of all Impiety for Spoil and Prey for the destruction of Nations and Countries for other Mens Kingdoms for the inlarging of their Dominions and Territories for worldly Praise and Glory But we contrariwise bear Arms for the Saviour of the World for our Faith and Religion for the Christian Common-Wealth for our Native Country for our Wives and Children for our Fortune and State than which nothing can be more excellent more commendable or honourable What reward is laid up for them in Heaven which have worthily protected or delivered their Country or laid down their Lives in defence of their Faith and Religion Neither having often proved are we ignorant that God will never forsake them that honour fear and serve him Whereby fâ—llow Souldiers you may plainly perceive how far your hopes are beyond theirs Believe our Saviour promising unto you an eternal reward and shew your Fidelity and Valour unto God and your Country together Wherefore seeing without the power of God we can do nothing before the signal of Battel be given I beseech you Collonels Captains and Lieutenants by your effectual and Christian Exhortations in your Regiments and Companies to encourage your Souldiers valiantly to fight the Lords Battel and for the present every man by taking a little Earth in his Mouth to prepare himself according to the necessity of the time as it were to the receiving of the Lords Supper so having cleansed your Souls embrace you one another plight your mutual Faith with your right Hand and a Kiss and make a perpetual Covenant among your selves none of you to forsake one another in this holy Battel but for your Religion and Country valiantly to fight it out even to the last man. And a little refreshing your selves with a short repast as you stand upon the signal given thrice calling aloud upon the mighty name of Christ Iesus fight with the like Valour and Courage so near as you can that he in the Agonie of Death fought for your Redemption and Liberty which that you will willingly do I request and charge you this for our Saviours sake for the Love of our Country and for the Faith you owe both to God and Man. I also pray and beseech you so to fight as men resolved either to gain a most glorious Victory whereof I doubt not or else if it should otherwise chance this day to purchase unto your selves a blessed life in the Kingdom of Heaven not to sup in Hell with the Turks but with the blessed Wights in Heaven for Christ Iesus our Saviour will be alwaies present with us who believe me and so hope will this day not only deliver us out of the Hands of the Turks but to our immortal Glory lode us with the rich Spoils of our Enemies and so in safety bring all home again with much Ioy and Triumph The Bassa on the other side likewise encouraged his Souldiers putting them in remembrance of their former Victories exhorting them not to degenerate from their worthy Ancestors and themselves by whose great Valor the Glory and Empire of the Turks had been so mightily increased and unto whom their great Prophet Mahomet the Interpreter of the gods had foretold the Empire of the whole World to be by all the gods allotted and had by divine inspiration prophecied that antient and stately Nation in time to become the terror of the World the scourge of the Wicked and Commander of all Nations He farther declared unto them what an increase of Kingdoms they had got in that short time since which they first passed over into Europe and filled them with the hope of a great Spoil promising unto them that should in the Battel valiantly behave themselves not only the
Wherefore for God his Cause I request you above all things to continue the Christian League and with your happy and victorious Forces to march forward into Macedonia and Thracia as is before by you with the other Christian Princes your Confederates agreed In conclusion having much spoken of the Authority and Power of the great Bishop he in his Name disannulled the League whatsoever by the King made with the Turk and absolved him with the rest whom it might concern from the Oath they had given and the Promise they had made Which so well contented both the King and the rest that there was now no more question of the Oath or of the lawfulness of the War but a Decree made for the continuation of the League with the other Christian Princes their Confederates and for the prosecution of the Wars against the Turks as was with them before agreed whom they could now say they were not to forsake and to leave them as a Prey unto the Turk their greedy Enemy now for nothing more in danger than for that at their request they had taken up Arms in their quarrel Unto which unfortunate Decree both the Despot and Huniades the chief Authors of the late Peace betwixt the King and Amurath easily consented the Despot induced with the great hope he had conceived of the good success of the War and Huniades with the desire of the Kingdom of Bulgaria promised unto him by Uladislaus and by fair Charter also as some said assured unto him Of this the Kings Resolution for the breach of the Peace with the Turks notice was with all speed given unto the Constantinopolitan Emperor and Francis the Florentine Cardinal then lying with a Fleet of seventy Gallies at the Straits of Hellespontus for fear lest they hearing of the former concluded Peace should alter also or else quite desist from their former purposes In the mean time whilst these things were yet in plotting the Turk ignorant hereof according to his promise had withdrawn all his Garrisons out of Servia and other places before agreed upon in the late concluded Peace restoring the same unto the Despot and others the lawful Owners although it was not done at the very prefixed day at which it should have been done In which time also he set at liberty great numbers of Captives and amongst the rest the two blind Sons of the Prince of Servia faithfully performing whatsoever he had before upon his Religion promised in the League with the Christians before concluded so desirous he was of Peace with the Hungarians Howbeit Uladislaus by the Counsel of Huniades detained to his own use certain of the strong Holds in Servia for which cause George the Despot ever afterwards bore a secret grudge against Huniades Now as King Uladislaus having by the perswasion of Iulian the Cardinal renounced the League betwixt him and Amurath was preparing his Forces the fame of the Epirot Prince Scanderbeg was also by the recovery of his Fathers Kingdom of Epirus out of the Turks hands and by the late Overthrow of Alis Bassa grown great every one speaking of him honour and praise Wherewith Uladislaus moved and reasonably perswaded what a furtherance it would be unto his haughty designs aiming at no less than the utter overthrow of the Turks Kingdom in Europe if he might unto his own great preparations joyn also the strength of that so fortunate a Prince by the consent of his Nobility with all speed dispatched away his Embassadors with Letters unto him certifying him of his honourable purpose for the rooting out of â—he Turks and in that common cause praying his Aid against such a dangerous and dreadful enemy The purport whereof here followeth Vladislaus King of Hungary and Polonia unto the noble Scanderbeg Prince of Epirus greeting IT may be that some good hap hath deferred this our late Congratulation until this present to the intent we might at this time together with you rejoyce in the double success of your Prosperity first for the happy recovery of your Estate and then for that the same hath by your wisdom and valour of late been so notably defended Wherefore in this we rejoyce not only in your behalf but in the behalf of all good Christians that it hath pleased God of his goodness by your valour to have given so great an increase and comfort unto the Christian Commonwealth for as much as amongst others our great Evils the loss of the Albanian people hath not been to be accounted the least at such time as John Castriot a worthy Prince your Father oppressed by Amurath and by the ungrateful Destinies taken out of this world had neither the means to leave unto you his Kingdom and Scepter as unto his Son then living in his Enemies Power either was able yet otherwise to provide for his Affairs And would to God this your Father most happy in such a Son might have till now lived whose felicity had in that surmounted all others if he might have seen you before his death For as you seem unto me above all other Princes in the World without offence be it said most accomplished with all the good Graces and Perfections both of body and mind so are you indowed also with a certain divine and wonderful Fortune under the good Conduct whereof not only the whole Kingdom of Epirus may think it self in security but all the rest of the other Nations also lately by the detestable fraud and violence of the Othoman Kings dismembred from the Realm of Macedon may also recover the former beaâ—ty of their ancient Laws and Liberties For to say nothing of those things which even from your Childhood having continually made you envied have herâ—tofore purchased unto you an immortal Fame and Glory even amongst the Barbarians themselves what can be more glorious than this Victory which as we have heard and believe you to your singular admiration have obtained by the overthrow and uâ—ter discomfiture of Alis Bassa with his so great and mighty a Power But now O Scanderbeg God so appointing it who in his deep and secret Wisdom hath reserved you unto these so dangerous times for the Publique Good and Comfort of the Christian Commonweal there offers it self unto you an object of far greater Glory with a fair and fit occasion for you to revenge your self of all the Wrâ—ngs and Injuries both new and old by Amurath the Turkish Sultan done not in private to the person of your self only but unto the whole State and Kingdom of Epirus also and not the domestical and civil Miseries of your own Country only but the Publique Calamities also and those approbrious Disgraces done against the Christian Faith and Religion in general now oppressed I will not say extinguished and that is if you with your victorious Forces will succâ—ur us in this extremity of our Affairs not yet altogether desperate Hereunto do all the Princes of Hungary and Polonia and all other men of courage invite you
wonderfully even to the astonishment of the World increased and extended their Empire But of them more shall be said hereafter This great King was whilst he lived of his Subjects wonderfully beloved and no less of them after his death lamented He was more faithful of his word than any of the Turkish Kings either before or after him by Nature melancholy and sad and accounted rather politick than valiant yet was indeed both a great dissembler and painful in travel but wayward and testy above measure which many imputed unto his great Age. He had issue six Sons Achmetes Aladin Mahomet Hasan otherwise called Chasan Urchan and Achmetes the younger of some called Calepinus three of whom died before but the two youngest were by their unnatural Brother Mahomet who succeeded him in the Turkish Kingdom even in their infancy in the beginning of his Reign most cruelly murthered Christian Princes of the same time with Amurath the Second Emperors Of the East John Palaeologus 1421. 24. Constantinus Palaeologus 1444. 8. Of the West Sigismund King of Hungary 1411. 28. Albert the Second King of Hungary and Bohemia 1438. 2. Frederick the Third Arch-Duke of Austria 1440. 54. Kings Of England Henry the Fifth 1413. 9. Henry the Sixth 1422. 39. Of France Charles the Sixth 1381. 42. Charles the Seventh 1423. 38. Of Scotland James the First 1424. 13. James the Second 1436. 29. Bishops of Rome Martin the V. 1417. 13. Eugenius the IV. 1431. 16. Nicholas the V. 1447. 8. Qui riâ—i inÌ„uumeros populos tot regno lot urbes Solus eâ— immensi qui timor orbis â—ram Me 〈◊〉 quaecunque rapit mors improba sed sum 〈◊〉 â—xcelsa duclus ad astra tamen 〈◊〉 Aleâ—â—â—nder non me suit Anibal et non Eâ—deriâ— Auâ—oniâ—s tot licet ille Duces 〈…〉 Danaos domuique feroces 〈…〉 populâ—s Sauromatas que truces Pannonius sensiâ—â—â— antum surgebit in armis Vis meaâ—quâ—e latio cognita nuper erat Arsacidae sensere manus has sensit Arabsque El mea suâ—t Persae cognita tela duci Mens fueral bellâ—re Rhodum superare superbam Italiam sed non fata dedere modum Hei mehi nam rapuit mors aspera quaeque sub alto Pectore â—onâ—ideram rertit et hora brevis Sic hominum faâ—lus perâ—unt sic Stemata Sicque Imperium atque qurum quicquid et Orbis habet I who to kingdomes Cities brought their fate The terrour of the trembling world of late Yield to the greater Monarch Death but am Yet proud to think of my immortal fame Greater than Alexander once was I Or him that Camps of Romans did destroy I vanquisht the victorious Greeks and I Destroyd Epyrus and fierce Tartary From mighty Me th'Hungarians had their doome And the report reacht y e proud walls oâ— Rome Th'Assyrian and Arabian felt my hand Nor could the Persian my dread power withstand Ore Rhodes and Italy I designd to ride But fate the progress of my aimes denyd Ai me grim Death and one unlucky houre Has baffled all my thoughts and boundless power So haughty man and all his hopes decay And so all sublunary gloryes pass away The LIFE of MAHOMET The Second of that NAME The Seventh KING and First EMPEROR of the TURKS For his many VICTORIES sirnamed The Great THE report of the death of old Amurath the late King was in short time blown through most part of Christendom to the great joy of many but especially of the Greeks and other poor Christians which bordered upon the Tyrants Kingdom who were now in hope together with the change of the Turkish King to make exchange also of their bad Estate and Fortune and the rather for that it was thought that his eldest Son Mahomet after the death of his Father would have imbraced the Christian Religion being in his Childhood instructed therein as was supposed by his Mother the Daughter of the Prince of Servia a Christian. But vain was this hope and the joy thereof but short as afterward by proof appeared For Mahomet being about the Age of one and twenty years succeeding his Father in the Kingdom in the year of our Lord 1450. year 1450. embraced in shew the Mahometan Religion abhorring the Christian but indeed making no great reckoning either of the one or of the other but as a meer Atheist devoid of all Religion and worshiping no other God but good Fortune derided the simplicity of all such as thought that God had any care or regard of worldly men or of their actions which graceless resolution so wrought in him that he thought all things lawful that agreed with his lust and making conscience of nothing kept no League Promise or Oath longer than stood with his Profit or Pleasure Now in the Court men stood diversly affected towards the present State the mighty Bassaes and others of great Authority unto whom the old Kings Government was never grievous inwardly lamented his death doubting lest the fierce Nature of the young King should turn to the hurt of some of them in particular and the shortning of their Authority in general as indeed it shortly after fell out But the lusty Gallants of the Court weary of the old King who in hope of preferment had long wished for the Government of the young Prince were glad to see him set upon his Fathers Seat. And the vulgar People never constant but in unconstancy and alwaies fawning upon the present exceedingly rejoyced in their young King. The Ianizaries also at the same time according to their accustomed manner took the Spoil of the Christians and Jews that dwelt amongst them and easily obtained pardon for the same whereupon he was by the same Ianizaries and other Souldiers of the Court with great Triumph saluted King. Which approbation of these men of War is unto the Turkish Kings a greater assurance for the possession of their Kingdom than to be born the eldest Son of the King as in the process of this History shall appear so great is the power of these masterful Slaves in promoting to the Kingdom whichsoever of the Kings Sons they most favour without much regard whether they be the eldest or not This young Tyrant was no sooner possessed of his Fathers Kingdom but that he forgetting the Laws of Nature was presently in person himself about to have murthered with his own hands his youngest Brother then but eighteen Months old begotten on the Daughter of Sponderbius Which unnatural part Moses one of his Bassaes and a man greatly in his favour perceiving requested him not to embrue his own hands in the blood of his Brother but rather to commit the execution thereof to some other which thing Mahomet commanded him the Author of that counsel forthwith to do So Moses taking the Child from the Nurse strangled it with pouring water down the throat thereof The young Lady understanding of the death of her Child as a Woman whom Fury had made past fear came and in her rage reviled the Tyrant to
upon the matter to shew our selves prest and ready to fall to agreement with him according as shall stand with his good pleasure and liking Truly this were good plain dealing but it will not serve our turn Argos is already taken from us and he maketh open War upon us wherein he doth but prove our courage and try how long we will put up these Injuries If we will quietly disgest these he will then confidently and without fear proceed further but if we shall as best beseemeth us valiantly resist him he shall be glad of such rest as we shall give him and when he knoweth not well which way to turn himself shall be as glad as we to lay down Arms and to seek for Peace whereas if we shall do otherwise I fear we shall repent our selves when it will be too late It is reported that as soon as he was come into Peloponnesus he went himself in Person unto Euboea to view the City of Chalcis And going a second time out of Peloponnesus sounded the depth of the passage and came within the sight of the City of purpose to have assaulted it if he had found opportunity at which time he himself rid over that strait of the Sea betwixt Booetia and Euboea with his Horse and curiously viewed in what place he might most conveniently pass over with his Army to besiege the City Verily these are the most manifest signs of War whereby any man may sufficiently prove that he hath long since resolved so soon as he is ready to make War upon us Whilst we are yet dreaming in the midst of our long Consultations he will proceed in the Wars he hath begun and cutting us short augment his own Dominions Then will he blame his Lieutenants and Captains as Authors thereof but still be doing that best serveth his purpose And whilst no man opposeth himself against him his Power daily increasing he will do the best he can suddenly to swallow us up being unprovided For he may easily raise great Forces that by sufferance of others maketh himself of great strength there where he had before no footing Shall we then say that we have no Wars with this encroaching Tyrant Some I know feed themselves and others also with vain hopes saying That he will never turn his Forces upon us nor ruinate our Estate although he might at ease do it Wherefore say they let us refrain from Wars and use our peace and quietness yet omitting nothing in the mean time that shall be needful for our safety But forasmuch as it plainly appeareth unto all mâ—n by that which is before said That he hath already indeed proclaimed War against us invading our Countries surprising our Cities and killing our people Whether think you it more expedient or profitable for us to sit still and suffer our Dominions to be taken from us or rather by open War to make the barbarous King know the greatness of our Power and Strength For if we shall enter into open War we being in Arms sufficiently provided for all Events and with careful eye attending all his Attempts shall easily avoid both himself and all his devices who if he be suffered to run still on forward with his prosperous success people will daily more and more fall unto him in hope to live the better as his Friends For which cause I think it better to prefer an Honourable War before a doubtful Peace As for delay it hath hurt many great States and our selves most of all whereby we have in some sort betrayed the Empire of Grecia with the woful Emperor himself when as this Tyrant battered the Walls of Constantinople for our Traffique was much holpen by the Grecians whom we then left to themselves After that we despised and rejected the pitiful Complaints of the Princes of Peloponnesus who with tears craved our Aid and now we see that famous Country lost and fallen into his hands through our sloth and negligence Of late when as the King of Bosna humbly requested our Aid and promised fully to requite our courtesie and whatsoever else we should do in his behalf we suffered his Kingdom to be lost and himself to be cruelly murthered of the Turks For all these things by us thus neglected we cannot escape the infamous report of all the rest of the Nations in Europe but that they will say That we for the greedy desire of Trade and filthy Gain have forsaken and for our parts betrayed whole Kingdoms and Nations agreeing with us both in Manners and Religion and to have stood still looking on until they were subdued and brought into Thraldom by the Turks Wherefore in few words to shut up the matter If we should joyn in League with the Hungarians and enter into Arms we should so be able to keep our own whereas if we shall use delays and hunt after Peace we shall in short time see that he will suddenly devour us being unprovided and wrest from us all our Provinces and Territories which border upon him And therefore it is in my opinion best to send our Embassadors into Hungary with a great mass of Mony to stir up that warlike Nation into the fellowship of this War. And beside the Navy we now have in readiness to put to Sea as many more Ships and Gallies as we are able The great Bishop also is not to be forgotten but by all means to be drawn as a chief man into this War. Besides all this we must do what we can to raise up Rebellion against the Turk in Peloponnesus which will be no hard matter to bring to pass For if the Peloponnesians rise in Arms with one of their poor Princes which revolted from the Turkish King and forsaking all that they had adventured themselves into all manner of peril and danger what think you they will do if they shall see so great Forces coming both by Sea and Land against the Turkish King It were good also that we should send two thousand Italian Horsemen into Peloponnesus to animate the People who when they shall see us thus to proceed will undoubtedly presently revolt from the Turks and yield themselves with their Country unto us from whence we may most commodiously vex and molest this Tyrant for there is no where better entrance into his Kingdom than by the way of Peloponnesus So that joyning in League with the Hungarians we shall beset him on every side they all along the River Danubius and we out of Peloponnesus Let us not therefore sit still with our hands in our bosoms suffering our Countries to be taken from us and our Subjects made Bondslaves to the Turks but encouraging them by our example animate them to take up Arms and valiantly to resist the cruel and barbarous Tyrant The greater part of the Senate moved with this grave Senators Speech decreed without delay to make Wars and to send their Embassadors to the Pope the King of Hungary and other the Christian Princes their Neighbours to
dreadful unto his Neighbour Princes gave to him his only Daughter Despina in Marriage by such Alliance to strengthen himself against the Turkish Tyrant if need should require At which Marriage it was agreed That Usun-Cassanes should in the right of his Wife enjoy all the Kingdom of Pontus after the death of Calo Ioannes her Father and of David his Brother and that Despina should so long as she lived have the free Exercise of her Christian Religion By this Woman Usun-Cassanes had a Daughter called Martha whom I willingly remember for that she was the Mother of Hysmael afterwards the great King of Persia commonly called Hysmael the Sophy of whom more shall be said hereafter in the Life of Selymus Usun-Cassanes honoured with this Marriage and strengthened with this new Alliance ceased not after his wonted manner daily to encroach upon his Neighbour Princes and proceeded so far that at length he began to lay hand upon a part of Armenia which was then part of the Dominion of the Persian King. Zenza whom some call Tzokies which was indeed the name of his Father reigning then in Persia by his Embassadors admonished and in short commanded Usun-Cassanes to hold himself content with his own or at least with that he had already wrongfully taken from others and not to presume to come within the bounds of his Dominion threatning otherwise to take him as an Enemy to his State and to turn his Forces upon him With which Embassage Usun-Cassanes being much offended gave the Embassadors no entertainment but commanded them with speed to get them out of his Kingdom and to tell their Master That he would shortly himself in person come and debate the matter with him face to face With which proud Answer from so mean a Prince the Persian King moved levied such an Army for the invading of him as was thought to have been sufficient to have subdued a far greater Prince and so appointed set forward toward Armenia Usun-Cassanes much inferiour to this great King in Wealth and Number of Men but not in Haughtiness of Mind and Valiantness of Courage stayed not to expect the coming of so puissant an Enemy but full of hope set forward to meet him and by great journeys sought to come upon him before he could have any knowledge of his coming yet had he then in his Army scarce one man to ten but all armed with couragious Hearts and conducted by a most fortunate Chieftain which feared nothing So holding on his way at length he met with a great Army of the Persians with whom he presently joyned Battel and after a long and cruel Fight overthrew them in the plain Field with such a Slaughter as might well have weakned the Forces of a right great Kingdom The great King more inraged than discouraged with his overthrow raised a far greater Army than before the very Strength of his Kingdom resolving now not to send any more his Lieutenants but to go in person himself against so desperate an Enemy All things being in readiness he set forward and at length met with the Armenian Prince whom he found as ready to give Battel as he was at the first So being both desirous to trie their fortune they joyned battel wherein the Persians were again discomfited and put to flight and more of them slain in that Battel than were brought into the Field in the first Army Zenzes the Persian King was there slain with Usun-Cassanes his own hand and Cariasuphus his Son taken Prisoner whom the Armenian Prince used with the greatest honour could be devised giving unto him the Honour and Title due to the Persian King taking to himself the bare name of the Protector of the Persian State. Which he did only to please the Persians and to keep them quiet until he had got some more assured possession of that Kingdom But after he had in the two former Battels broken their greatest Strength and then under the colour of a peaceable Governor got into his power the regal City of Tauris with the rest of the Cities and strong places of that great Kingdom and that all men had him now in great reverence and admiration for his great vertues he secretly dispatched out of the way the poor titular King his Prisoner the last of the Posterity of the mighty Tamerlane and took upon himself the highest place which admitteth no Partner Whilst this restless Prince was thus tumbling in the World and not yet well setled in his new gotten Kingdom Mahomet the Turkish Emperor no less ambitious than himself had scornfully rejected the Embassadors and Presents which Usun-Cassanes had sent and having shamefully put to death David the Emperor of Trapezond his Allyance had converted all the Kingdom of Pontus which Usun-Cassanes of right claimed as his Wives Dowry into the form of a Province and so united it to the Turkish Empire Which so manifest a wrong Usun-Cassanes in the newness of his so late atchieved greatness durst not adventure to address but after that he was surely seated and had with the course of time overcome all dangers at home being daily prickt forward with the remembrance of the former injuries still suggested by the importunity of his Wife Despina and the sollicitation of the Venetians to whom he had by solemn promise bound himself he determined now to take the matter in hand and to try his Forces upon his proud Enemy the Turkish Emperor Hereupon he raised a great Army and being well appointed of all things necessary passing through Armenia toward Pontâ—s near unto the River Euphrates was encountred by Mustapha Mahomets Eldest Son a young Prince of great hope and Amurath the great Bassa of Romania whom Mahomet fearing such a matter had sent before with a strong Army out of Europe to joyn with such Forces as Mustapha had already raised in Asia so to withstand the invasion of the Persian These two great Commanders Mustapha and Amurath joining Battel with Usun-Cassanes were by him in the plain Field overthrown where Amurath the great Bassa himself with thirty thousand Turks were slain Mustapha with the rest of the Army by shameful flight saving themselves Now when Mahomet understood that Amurath was slain year 1474. and his Army discomfited he was therewith exceedingly troubled but purposing to be thereof revenged gave order into all parts of his Dominions for the levying of new Forces so that at the time by him appointed was assembled a great and mighty Army of 320000 men Usun-Cassanes in like manner was in the Field with an Army nothing in number inferior unto his Enemy These two Mahometan Kings drawing after them â—heir huge Armies met together near the Moâ—ntains of Armenia where at the first encountâ—â— one of the Turks great Bassa's was slain with 40000 Turks With which hard beginning the proud Tyrant was so daunted that he could hardly be perswaded to prove his fortune any further but contenting himself with that loss was about to have retired and
of the Christian Religion Whereby it came to pass that this Martha her Daughter instructed by her Mother became a Christian also who now married by her Father unto this precise Hypocrite Haider Erdebil in short time bare him a Son called Hysmael whom she so much as she could trained up in the Principles of the Christian Religion Whereby it came to pass that afterwards when he had by rare fortune obtained the Kingdom of Persia he always during his life had the Christians in good regard and never found fault with their Religion Haider thus graced with the marriage of the great Kings Daughter Martha only for his rare Vertues and Purity of Life as was commonly supposed grew now into far greater Credit and Estimation of the People than before So that his doctrine and opinions began to be generally received and the number of his Followers so greatly augmented that Iacup succeeding his Father Usun-Cassanes but lately dead began to have the Power and Credit of Haider his Brother in law in suspect and to distrust lest the Persians who secretly favoured the remainder of the Posterity of their ancient Kings should assemble together under the colour of this new Superstition and raise some dangerous Rebellion before he were well setled in his Seat. For he was not ignorant that Asembeius Usun-Cassanes his Father had but by Force and Policy usurped the Kingdom having killed Moloonchres the lawful King whereof there arose two Factions some favouring the Usurper and othersome the poor remainder of the descent of their ancient Kings of the race of Tamerlane For which causes Iacup as he was of a suspitious and troublesome Nature and above measure jealous of his State nothing regarding the near Alliance or reputed holiness of his godly Brother in law caused him suspecting no such matter to be secretly murdred and so having struck off his Head with Fire and Sword persecuted all the Professors of that new Doctrine so to deliver himself for ever of that his vain and needless fear Hysmael the Son of Haider who was afterwards called the great Sophi of Persia being then but a Child as it were by fatal Destiny escaped the Fury of his cruel Uncle Iacup and fled into Hyrcania unto one Pyrchales his Fathers Friend who then ruled in a small Territory near unto the Caspian Sea. Amongst many others of the Disciples and Followers of Haider which in that cruel Persecution were glad to flie for safeguard of their lives the two before named Chasan Shelife and Schach Culi afterwards sirnamed Cuselbas in outward shew both of Vertue and Learning not inferior unto their Master flying that dangerous Tempest and passing over the River Euphrates came into Armenia the lesser and there took up their dwelling at the great Mountain Antitaurus at the foot whereof the broken Rocks have divers dark and obscure Caves made partly by Art and partly by Nature which place is of the Inhabitants called Teke-Ili whereof divers Historiographers I know not whether deceived by the name of the place or else wittingly transferring the name of the place unto the man that lived therein have called this Schach Culi who of the two proved of greater fame by the name of Techellis by which name we will also from henceforth call him A thing heretofore much used amongst the religious and also some of the Children of great Princes who oftentimes bare the names of the places where they were born or where they most lived This place is both wholesome and exceeding pleasant for the variety of Fruits and lively Springs wherewith the Plains adjoyning are continually watered and the Mountains at all times of the year garnished Here Shelife with his Companion Techellis having separated themselves far from the Company of men and given themselves wholly to a contemplative life for divers years lived most straitly and austerely contenting themselves with such things as the Earth of it self afforded them without seeking for better These Hypocrites were first seen and afterwards acquainted with the Shepheards and Heardsmen living upon the Mountains and in process of time with the rude Husbandmen and Country People who wondring at their strait and devout kind of life relieved them with all things necessary Yea Bajazet himself hearing of their austere and devout manner of living sent them yearly six or seven thousand Aspers as his Alms given them upon Charity and Devotion But afterwards when they began to tell Fortunes and as it were by the way of divination to prognosticate of things to come the Rural People held them for more than men and conceived of them a firm opinion that they were some divine Prophets And so were by the Country People first drawn into the Country Villages and afterwards as if it had been against their Wills into the Cities where they had in short time filled all the Country far and near with the admiration of their fame But after they began to publish their new phantasied Doctrine concerning the true successor of their great Prophet Mahomet they wanted not their new fangled followers as had Haider their Master before amongst the Persians who had them in singular Reverence perswaded now by them that they should be condemned for ever if they did not as they were by them taught give the honour of the true succession of their great Prophet only to Haly and him only to reverence and call upon next unto the great Prophet himself When they had thus with their often Sermons and blinded Prophecies seduced the People and in short time won great Credit amongst the Vulgar sort of themselves too much given to Novelty and Superstition they commanded their Disciples and Followers to wear upon their Turkish Hats a red Band or Ribband whereby to be known from others that were not of their profession Of which red Bands or Ribbands they which professed this new Superstition were and yet are over all the East part of the World called by the name of Cuselbassas which is to say Red Heads Hysmael also living in exile most earnestly embraced that new Superstition which Haider his Father had before taught in Persia but with far better Fortune and Success For as soon as he was grown to mans Estate he following his Fathers manner of life and being by nature wonderful eloquent comely of person exceeding wise and of an invincible Courage was of the rude Vulgar People accounted of more like a god than a man so that he grew to be of great fame and power amongst those barbarous People with whom he lived And not the base and vulgar sort only but divers Noblemen also and others of good reputation once allured with the Novelty of his Doctrine the more to manifest their good Will towards the Author of their sect after they had forsaken their old Superstition ceased not as the manner of men is to commend him in the highest degree of Vertue and Honour And he himself as yet but a youth altogether bending his Wit
of fence and such other Teachers who carefully instructed them being shut up in their Schools in all manner of feats of Activity where after they were become able to bend a strong Bow and taught cunningly to Shoot Leap Run Vault Ride and skilfully to use all manner of Weapons they were then taken into pay and received into the number of the Kings Horsemen or Mamalukes and such of them as proved cowardly or unapt were made slaves unto the rest So that they seeing all honour credit and preferment laied up in martial prowess did with all diligence and courage imploy themselves to military Affairs and therein so well profited that oftentimes they which at the first were but bare and base slaves of the meanest of the Mamalukes by many degrees of service rise at length to the highest degrees of Honour All these Mamalukes were the Children of Christian Parents from the time of their Captivity instructed in the Mahometan Superstition for no Man born of a Mahometan Father or of a Jew could be admitted into the number of the Mamaluke Horsemen which was so straitly observed that the honour of a Mamaluke Horseman never descended unto the Sons of the Mamalukes yet might they by Law inherit their Fathers Lands Possessions and Goods by which reason the Sons of the Sultans themselves never succeeded their Fathers in the Kingdom Hereby also it came to pass that many Christians of loose life or condemned for their notorious offences flying thither and abjuring the Christian Religion and suffering themselves to be Circumcised being Men meet for the Wars grew by degrees to great Honour as did Tangarihardinus the Son of a Spanish Mariner who by his forwardness and industry grew into such credit and authority with Campson the great Sultan that almost all things were done by his advice and counsel and was divers times by him imployed in most honourable service being sent Embassador both to Bajazet the Turkish Emperor and to the State of Venice about matters of great importance Yet his impiety escaped not the hand of God for at length by the envy of the Court he was brought into disgrace thrust out of his place and cast into prison where he loaded with cold Iron most miserably died Neither was it to be marvelled if the Mamalukes were grown to that excess of wealth forasmuch as the Egyptians and Syrians being miserably by them oppressed were not suffered to have the use either of Horse or Armor neither admitted to any matters of counsel but being impoverished and brought low with heavy impositions and daily injuries of the Mamalukes gave themselves wholly to the Trade of Merchandise Husbandry and other mechanical Occupations over whom the Mamalukes had power and command as imperious Masters over their Servants and would with greater insolency than is to be believed abuse the poor Country People beating and spoiling them at their pleasure and not so contented Ravishing their Wives and Daughters without redress The Egyptians a People in ancient time much renowned for their valour and prowess were by their masterful slaves kept in this miserable thraldom and slavery about the space of three hundred years For after the declination of the Roman Empire that rich Country falling into the Government of the Constantinopolitan Emperors the Egyptians soon weary of the proud and avaritious Sovereignty of the Greeks called in the Sarasins by whose help they expulsed the Greeks and after chose the General of the Sarasins for their King after whose name the Egyptian Kings were of long time called Caliphs as they had of ancient time been called by the names of Pharo and Ptolomey The last of these Caliphs Reigned at such time as the Christians under the leading of Godfrey and Bohemund passing as Conquerors through Asia and Syria erected the Kingdom of Ierusalem He being invaded by Almericus sixth King of Ierusalem and finding himself too weak praied aid of the Sultan of Syria who sent him Sarraco a valiant Captain with a strong power to aid him but Sarraco no less unfaithful than couragious treacherously slew the Caliph in whose aid he came and took upon himself the Kingdom After Sarraco succeeded Saladine his his Brothers Son who utterly extinguished the name and authority of the Caliphs in Egypt whom Sarraco had yet left as high Priests This Saladine oftentimes vanquished the Christian Armies in Syria and Iudea and at length quite overthrew the Kingdom of Ierusalem as it is in the former part of this History to be seen Saladine dying left the Kingdom of Egypt to his Brother whose posterity successively reigned of long time there until the time of Melechsala This Melechsala last of the freeborn Kings and of the posterity of Saladine had great and mortal Wars with the Christians wherein having lost most of his best Souldiers and reposing no great confidence in the Egyptians thought good to strengthen himself with a new kind of Souldiers meer slaves bought for Mony. For at that time the Tartars breaking into Armenia and Cappadocia and overrunning the People called Comani joyning upon Cappadocia made general spoil of that People as of Prisoners taken by Law of Arms. Of this base People Melechsala for a little Mony bought a great multitude which he transported into Egypt and furnished them with Arms by whose prowess he not only defended the Frontiers of his Kingdom but also besieged Lewis the French King in his Trenches not far from Damiata called in ancient time Heliopolis or Pelustum and shortly after in plain Battel took him Prisoner as is long before declared But in the pride of this Victory Melechsala was by the conspiracy of these his new Souldiers slain in whose place they set up one Turqueminius a desperate Fellow of their own Company honouring him with the Title of the great Sultan of Egypt Turqueminius of â— base Slave now become a great Monarch after the manner of Men forgetting his old Companions which had so highly promoted him and having them in great disdain was by one of them called Clotho suddenly slain for which Fact he was by those base Souldiers his Companions chosen Sultan in his place who for the short time of his Reign did much for the confirming of that servile Monarchy yet was he at length slain also by Bandocader sometimes one of his fellow Servants who also succeeded him in the Kingdom After him in long order succeeded many valiant Men of the same servile state and condition whom for brevity I wittingly pass over Amongst the rest Caitheius of whom we have before spoken in the life of Bajazet was for wealth and martital prowess most Famous who according to the manner of his Predecessors did with greater bounty and care maintain that servile Government than any of them who had before him Reigned in Egypt and was for his notable Government and noble Acts justly accounted amongst the greatest Princes of that Age. After whose death great troubles arose in that servile Monarchy about the Succession
great applause and consent of all there present chosen King. To whom forthwith Petrus Perennus came and presented the ancient Crown of the Kingdom of Hungary which was in his keeping made after an homely fashion of pure Gold with which the lawful Kings of Hungary used alwaies to be solemnly crowned It is reported that it was the Crown of Stephanus first King of Hungary and was by an ancient Custom alwaies kept in the Castle of Vicegrade And so Iohn the Vayvod was orderly crowned and consecrated by the hands of Paulus Bishop of Strigonium lately chosen instead of Ladislaus Salcanius slain in the Battel at Mugace and by the hands of Stephanus Brodaricus Bishop of Vacia whom he chose for his Secretary And unto Americus Cibachus he gave the honour of the Vayvod of Transilvania being but a little before chosen Bishop of Veradium In his preferment he was greatly holpen unto the Kingdom by the Nobility which followed him out of Transylvania men of great account both in Peace and War amongst whom descended of the Hungarian Blood were chief Stephanus Verbetius Paulus Antandrus Gregorius Peschenius Nicholaus Glessa and Ianus Docia But whilst this new King is in this sort busied in rewarding his Friends and strengthning himself in his Kingdom he was advertised that Ferdinand his Competitor of the Hungarian Kingdom was chosen King of Bohemia who out of the old controversie betwixt Mathias Corvinus and Fredericus the Emperors great Grandfather alledged great claim unto that Kingdom derived from the time of Ladislaus who was reported to have been poisoned at the time of the solemnization of his Marriage through the ambition and malice of Georgius Pogibracius who affecting the Kingdom of Bohemia shortly after obtained the same And now it seemed that the time was come wherein Ferdinand made greater with the Kingdom of Bohemia and strengthned with the power of his Brother Charles the Emperor not forgetting his Right might upon good ground lay claim unto the Kingdom of Hungary unto him as he pretended of right belonging ever since the time of Albertus the Emperor Neither did Ferdinand beside the strength of Austria and Bohemia want the furtherance of divers of the Princes of Hungary having in his Court many of unquiet Spirit half Fugitives desirous of change which envied at the Vayvods Royal Preferment as if it had been taken from themselves more worthy thereof than he by the rash and tumultuous favour of the Vulgar People For besides Bator who in most Mens judgment might most worthily have required and obtained the Kingdom there were others also almost of like Nobility and Valour as Valentius Tauraccus Stephanus Maylatus Ianus Scala Gasper Scredius Baltasor Pamphilus and Ferentius Gnarius to whom also was joyned Paulus Bachitius born in Servia a valiant Gentleman who being entred into the Mahometan Religion to avoid the Turkish Slavery got away unto the Christians and hardly escaped from the Battel of Mohatchz By the perswasion of these Noblemen Ferdinand of his own disposition ready enough to claim his Right especially a Kingdom and trusting unto his Strength in Austria Bohemia Rhetia Stiria and Carynthia marched directly towards Buda With whose coming Iohn the new King being wonderfully troubled as a man beset with want of all things having neither sufficient Strength whereupon to rest in his new got Kingdom neither any great assurance of the Fidelity of his Subjects like enough either for fear or of their natural inconstancy to fall from him determined not to abide the coming of his Enemy to Buda but exhorting his Captains to follow him although he were glad to depart and give place to his evil Fortune for a time with such Power as he had brought with him out of Transylvania and such other as he could otherwise levy he passed over the River to Pestum and not daring any where thereabouts to rest by long marches passed over the River Tibiscus and there encamped at Tocai which was a strong Castle upon the further side of the River His departure being known Ferdinand marching on obtained Buda without resistance where he staid a while and consulted with his Captains Whether he should pursue his flying Enemy or not But it was quickly resolved That the discouraged Enemy was to be speedily pursued before he should gather greater strength or enter into greater Policies Wherefore Ferdinand committed all his Army unto the Nobility of Hungary his Friends whom we have before named who marching with all speed possible came to the River Tibiscus where passing over upon a Bridge made of Boats which they brought with them in Waggons for that purpose they came with Ensigns displaied unto the Castle of Tocai where the King lay with his Army in order of Battel But terrified with the suddain coming of his Enemies and debating with his Captains of the greatness of the danger took a course unto himself rather safe than honourable for his Captains desiring nothing more than to joyn Battel and in manner contemning their Enemies perswaded him to withdraw himself a little out of the Battel and to keep him out of danger and if things fell out otherwise than well to reserve himself unto his better fortunes as for themselves they would most resolutely fight against those traiterous Fugitives forasmuch as it were great dishonour for them being Hungarians a warlike People by nature to refuse Battel being offered by the Enemy Amongst the Chieftains of the Kings Army Ferentius Bodo an old Captain of great experience and courage was chief to whom the King delivered his Ensign with his own hands and he with great skill ordered his Battel for the number of his Souldiers he himself stood in the main Battel with the Hungarians placing the Transylvanians in the Wings In Ferdinands Army Valentinus Turaccus led the main Battel with the Hungarians under Ferdinands Ensign strengthned on the one side with Troops of Horsemen out of Syria and on the other with the Horsemen of Austria But Paulus Bachitius according to the manner of the Turkish Wars wherewith he was well acquainted with a Company of Light-Horsemen lay close in ambush in a convenient place for that purpose a good distance off against the left Wing of the Enemies Army ready as occasion should serve to take his most advantage It was not greatly needful for the Captains to use any perswasions to encourage their Souldiers ready enough of themselves to fight The great Ordnance once discharged the Armies came fast on and joyned Battel where the Wings of both Battels fought with divers fortune The Styrian Horsemen were not able to endure the force of the Transylvanians but were put to the worse And on the other side the left Wing of Bodo his Army consisting for most part of raw and unexpert Souldiers was by the Horsemen of Austria overthrown At the same time both the main Battels being almost all Hungarians fought with equal courage and that so eagerly as seldom had been seen a
his Gallies taken in token of which Victory he sent part of the rich spoil there taken with the Admirals Ensign as a Present unto Solyman whereby he became famous in the Turks Court but much more after he had repulsed Auria from Cercenna and taken two great Genoway Ships which were coming to Auria loaded with Men and Munition the loss whereof filled the City of Genoa with much sorrow All things sorting thus according to his desire and his name become no less terrible in Spain Italy Sicily and the Islands of the Mediterranian than it was in the greatest part of Africk Solyman grieved with the loss of Corone Patras and the Castles upon the Straits of Lepanto taken from him by Auria Himerales his Admiral being shamefully put to flight by the Counsel of his Bassaes but especially of Abraham the chief Bassa sent Embassadors unto him to Algiers offering him the greatest honours of his Court and to make him Admiral of all his Fleet if he would forthwith repair unto Constantinople for why he was the only man in all mens judgments who for his years and great experience at Sea as well as for his invincible Courage and Glory of his late archieved Kingdom was to be compared with Auria and to be opposed against the Christian Fleet. Sinas a great man in Solymans Court was with this Embassage sent and speedily trasported to Algiers by Mangalis a famous Pyrat then Governor of the Rhodes who at his landing was honourably received by Barbarussa and audience given him Barbarussa understanding the cause of his coming was exceeding glad thereof presently conceiving no small hope of obtaining the Monarchy of Africk if he might once come to Solymans presence and at large shew unto him the state of Africk and power of the Christians with their continual discord amongst themselves Wherefore without further delay committing the protection of his Son Asanes then about eighteen years old and the Government of his new gotten Kingdom to Ramada and Agis two of his nigh Kinsmen and assured Friends of whose Fidelity he doubted not he with forty of his own Gallies in most warlike manner appointed set forward with Solymans Embassador towards Constantinople where by the way he met with a Fleet of Genoway Ships bound for Sicily for Corn which after a sharp and cruel fight he took and burnt After that landing by night in the Country of Elba not far from Naples he suddenly surprised Rhium a rich City where loading his Gallies with the Wealth thereof and carrying away with him all the Inhabitants into Captivity he arrived at Constantinople in the year 1533 where he was by the great Courtiers brought to Solyman of whom he was joyfully received if it were but for the Presents which he gave him which were fair Boys and young Maidens sumptuously apparrelled Eunuchs and wild Beasts of Lybia as Lyons Leopards and such like But after he had certain days discoursed at large with the great Bassaes of the State of Africk the strength of the Christians and how the Wars were to be managed he was afterwards by them seldomer sent for and offering himself into their Company was hardly admitted for Envy the inseparable Companion of growing honour had quickly overtaken him in the Court so that many men letted not openly to say It had not been the fashion of the Othoman Kings to prefer Pyrats the worst kind of Thieves to the honour of their great Admiral and that there wanted not neither ever would want men both vertuous and valiant in the Turks Court which could with great honour maintain and augment the glory of the Turkish Empire both by Sea and Land whereas he had against all right and conscience by shameful Treachery intruded himself into another mans Kingdom in Africk and there persecuted the Mahometan Princes and People being of no Religion himself as one that was born of a renegat Greek and from his youth lived as a merciless Pyrat and common Enemy of Mankind By which Speeches Barbarussa perceived in how evil time Abraham Bassa his best Friend and by whose means he was sent for was absent from Court who at that time was gone to Comagena and wintered at Aleppo with purpose as Solymans Forerunner with the first of the next Spring to pass over Euphrates against the Persian After long suit and much expectation Solyman answered Barbarussa by Ajax and Cassimes two of the great Bassaes That all the matter concerning him should be referred to the discretion of Abraham the chief Bassa for that he was by his Counsel especially sent for into Africk wherefore if he did expect any thing he should repair unto him in Syria that according to his grave judgment all things might be ordered Barbarussa thus rejected into Syria although he well perceived that it tended to his no small disgrace yet in hope by sufferance to obtain another Kingdom seemed contented with the answer and resolved forthwith to take upon him that long and painful journey which the old King lustily performed and so posting by Land through Asia the less and travelling over the Mountain Amanus then covered with deep Snow came in dead time of Winter to Aleppo in Syria where he was honourably received by the great Bassa and heard at large to his so good contentation and liking that he deemed him of all others the fittest to command the Turks Power at Sea and to that purpose writ commendatory Letters in his behalf to Solyman wishing him for his sufficiency to place him as the fourth with the other three Bassaes of his Counsel After Barbarussa was again arrived at Constantinople with these Letters and that it was once known how effectually the chief Bassa had commended him to Solyman it was a wonder to see how on a suddain the face of the Court was changed upon him every man either for Friendship or Flattery began now to speak of his praises and to extol his worthiness who was now in all mens mouths but Barbarussa so great was the Power and Authority of the chief Bassa that being absent yet was his approbation of all men accounted sufficient to prefer whom he pleased and his Letters Laws to the rest of the Court. Barbarussa had brought with him from Algiers one Roscetes the Elder Brother of Muleasses King of Tunnes who wrongfully driven into exile by his younger Brother had lived certain years at Algiers but now by the perswasion of Barbarussa was come with him to Constantinople to crave aid of Solyman against the oppression of his Brother Him Barbarussa oftentimes shewed unto the great Bassaes and in his discourses with them concerning the Conquest of Africk set him out as a most fit instrument for subduing of the Kingdom of Tunes as a man whom the People more affected than they did Muleasses the Usurper After long deliberation and consultation had with the Bassaes concerning the invasion of Africk Barbarussa now admitted unto the presence of Solyman
he hath done for him alone I challenge to persecute as my proper and peculiar Enemy both for the remembrance of the harms we have received at his hands and for the despight I have at his fame who once taken out of the way the Seas shall be open only to you and your Fleets And believe me he that shall be able to command the Seas shall easily also subdue the Kingdoms by Land. But Solyman who after the manner of wise Princes used well to consider and afterwards with ripe Judgment to resolve of such matters as he had with attentive ear hearkned unto commending Barbarussa for his forwardness in his service for that time brake up the Counsel Not long after a Decree was made according to Abraham the great Bassaes advice That Barbarussa should be joyned as fourth with the other three chief Bassaes of Solymans Counsel and be made great Admiral so that all the Islands Ports and People all alongst the Sea Coast through out Solymans Empire should be at his command and that it should be lawful for him to take up such Mariners and Souldiers for service at Sea as pleased him in what place soever This being solemnly proclaimed Solyman with his own hand delivered him a Scepter and a Sword willing him by worthy deeds to perform what he had promised After which Ajax and Cassimes the two great Bassaes with the Captain of the Janizaries brought him with exceeding Pomp from the Court to the Navy at which time was carried before him all the tokens of his new obtained honour And towards the maintenance of that War at Sea he had delivered unto him out of Solymans Treasures eight hundred thousand Ducats and eight hundred Janizaries Barbarussa sped of that he desired staid not long after at Constantinople but departing out of Helespontus with eighty Gallies and certain Galliots shaped his course towards Italy leaving Amurathes a Sea Captain with twelve Gallies to transport Solyman and his Army ready to set forward against the Persian over that narrow Sea into Asia Who after he had so done overtook Barbarussa at Methone who holding on his course to Africk and suddainly passing the Strait betwixt Italy and Cicily brought a great fear upon both the Countries but passing by the Bay of Hippona alongst the Coast of the lower Calabria he set upon the Town of Saint Lucidius called in ancient time Tempsa which although it stood upon a Rock and was reasonably well walled yet such was the violence of the Turks Assault that it could not be defended but was taken with so much more hurt to the Inhabitants for that the Maior of the Town to keep the People from flying away had lockt up the Gates on the other side of the City from the Enemy From thence he with rich Spoil and many Prisoners went to Citarium where he had learned of his Prisoners a Fleet of Gallies was in building This Town forsaken of the Inhabitants for fear he took without resistance ransacked it and burnt it where he also fired seven Gallies not yet altogether finished But after he was come with his Fleet as far as the Island Capri within the sight of Naples such a terror was struck into the minds of all that dwelt alongst that Coast That it was thought if he had landed and gone directly to Naples the Neapolitans would for fear have abandoned the City But holding on his course he came to Prochita which he took and rifled so passing by the Port of Cajeta which he might easily have taken he came to Spelunca a Town in the hithermost part of the Kingdom of Naples They of the Town dismaied with the suddain arrival of so great a Fleet yielded the same without resistance The Enemy entring the Town took twelve hundred Prisoners Pelegrinus a chief man amongst them of Spelunca was fled into the Castle him Barbarussa commanded to yield which if he would presently do he promised to let him go free but if he should stand upon his defence he threatned in short time to make him repent his foolish hardiness with the utter destruction both of himself and the Town The fearful Gentleman without delay came out of the Castle and fell down at his feet who according to his promise gave him his liberty and with rare courtesie restored to him his Wife his Son and Niece whom he had taken Prisoners who received them with many tears falling from their Eyes for joy The same night also two thousand Turks came from the Fleet through the rough and bushy Mountains to the City Fundi ten miles distant from Spelunca in the uttermost Borders of the Kingdom of Naples conducted as was thought by certain Italians of that Country who a few years before taken at Sea and overwearied with the heavy burthen of the Turkish Slavery had revolted to the Mahometan Religion But such was the suddainness of their coming and their celerity in entring the City that Iulia Gonzaga the Paragon of Italy and the chief prize which they sought after had scarce time to get to Horse half naked and so with much difficulty to escape into the Mountains It is reported that Barbarussa which thing he himself afterwards seemed not to deny moved with the fame of her incomparable Beauty and wonderful perfection desired exceedingly to have taken her as a Present for Solyman The Citizens were for most part either slain or taken Prisoners by the Turks who loaded with the Spoil of the City returned again to the Fleet. Another part of Barbarussa's Fleet came to Tarracina which the Turks took forsaken of the Inhabitants who for fear were all fled into the Mountains except some which for age or sickness could not shift for themselves whom the Turks slew and spoiled the Churches Barbarussa thus scouring along the Coast of Italy and news thereof daily brought to the City of Rome struck such an exceeding terror into the minds of the Citizens that it was verily thought if he had come a little further to Ostia they would generally have forsaken the City But he having well performed his promise made to Solyman for vexing the Christians and before resolved of a greater matter he had to do when he had watred at Pontia passed over into Africk with such celerity that he was arrived there before it was thought that he was departed from the Coast of Italy For Barbarussa to deceive Muleasses King of Tunes and to take him unprovided had given it out that he would burn and spoil the Coasts of the Christian Countries especially of Italy Liguria and Spain in revenge of the harm done by Auria at Corone and Patraâ— Which thing Muleasses the rather believed understanding his proceedings upon the Coast of Italy The Venetians having also at the same time at great charges prepared a great Fleet did in some part lessen Muleasses fear That Barbarussa would imploy his Forces for Africk for then what should the Venetians have needed to have made so great and
too wise men is pretended to your haughty mind ever desirous of Honour and Fame But I as a blunt man understand not this high point of Wisdom abounding with Glory which in the very course thereof cutteth in sunder the sinews of Victory and is never by politique Generals admitted into their Camps In which doing as I wish you more fortunate than your Ancestors who have united eighteen Kingdoms to this your Empire so would I not have you more wise than they for what can be a more unwise part than always to play the unwise man that is to say always to be careful of other mens Affairs and in mâ—an time oftentimes to endanger his own Estate his Health his Wealth his Honour You have satisfied and that in my opinion plentifully the duty both of Charity Fidelity and if it must needs be so of Honour and Glory also if it be to be gotten rather by Courtesie Clemency and Lenity than by the invincible strength of wise Policy and the constant resolution of a Martial Mind for by those instruments and none other have worthy Vertues always promoted and supported the Othoman Kings Wherefore let those vain shews as seemeth unto me of counterfeit honour delight the minds of idle and sloathful Kings assuredly they never pleased your armed Ancestors but after the Enemy was quite overthrown the Triumph made and the Trophies of Victory erected But let this be as best pleaseth your high Wisdom and Iudgment whereunto the greatest Wits gave place Truly I if I well foresee the chances of War and the assured events of things will not follow that manner of Counsel which the pleasure of my mind perswadeth me unto when as necessity which ruleth all things presently forceth me and sheweth me a far better Course The Hungarians above all other things notably warn us not to trust them who infamous for their unconstancy after Revolt and Treachery are still at variance amongst themselves and their banished men are continually setting on the Germans to invade the Country and the weak power of the Queen and the Child is not such as may withstand so near and so mighty an Enemy so that another mans Kingdom must of necessity be defended by our help which may not be less than a strong Army without our great peril To be brief every year to take in hand so long an expedition of so great labour and travel with an Army furnished with Horsemen Footmen Artillery and a Fleet of Ships for defence of another man as commonly we do seemeth to me meer madness neither do I think it to stand with the Majesty of the Othoman Emperors thus to be moved every year at the request of a puling Woman crying for help except you think it more profitable and honourable to maintain a defensive than invasive War Wherefore in my opinion it is best to turn this Kingdom so often conquered and defended by Law of Arms after the manner of your Ancestors into the form of a Province the Queen I would have sent to her Father and the Boy her Son brought up in your Court at Constantinople and there instructed in our Religion the Nobility of the Country I wish to be slain and their Castles rased and the notable Families which bare the bravest minds to be carried away out of all parts of the Country into Asia as for the base multitude I would have kept under with good Garrisons to till the ground and inhabit the Cities By this only means mighty Solyman shall both the Hungarians perceive themselves conquered and the Germans glad to forbear coming into Hungary unless they will rashly and unfortunately hazard both Styria and Austria But Solyman thinking it good to do sacrifice before he would resolutely determine of so great a matter entred into Buda with his two Sons Selymus and Bajazet the thirtieth of August in the year 1541. and there in the Cathedral Church dedicated to the Virgin Mary being before by his Priests Purified after the manner of their Superstition sacrificed the first Mahometan Sacrifice in Buda Shortly after he as it were moderating the opinions of his great Counsellors provided out of them all both for his own security and honour and published a Decree the fatal Doom of that flourishing Kingdom whereunder it yet groaneth at this day That Buda should from that day be kept with a Garrison of Turks and the Kingdom converted into a Province of the Turkish Empire and the Queen with her young Son should presently depart the City and live in Lippa in a fertile and quiet Country beyond the River of Tibiscus which something to comfort her was near unto the Borders of her Father Sigismund his Kingdom to be safely conducted thither with all her Wealth and Jewels by his Janizaries Wherefore the Queen and her Son according to this Decree with Tears and Mourning detesting in her heart the Tyrants perfideous dealing which necessity inforced her then to dissemble departed from Buda constrained by the Turks to leave behind her all the Ordnance in the Castle and City with all other the Warlike Provision and Store of Victual The Noblemen went with her also who although they went sorrowful for this woful and unexpected change of things yet were they very glad of their Liberty and Safety whereof they had for the space of three days despaired Only Valentinus was kept in safe custody in the Camp because he was a Martial Man of greatest power amongst the Hungarians and besides that much hated of the Turks for the hard pursuit of Cason and his Horsemen slain at Storamberg in Austria Thus the Royal City of Buda fell into the hands of the Turks whereupon not long after ensued the final ruin of that Kingdom sometime the strong Bulwark of Christendom but lost to the great weakning of the Christian Commonweal which may justly be imputed to the Pride Ambition and Dissention of the Hungarians amongst themselves and the calling in of the common Enemy the due consideration of whose only coming might well have sufficed to have made them agreed Whilst these things were doing at Buda King Ferdinand expecting the event of this War at Vienna and hearing of the shameful loss of his Army and that the General deadly wounded was fled to Comara and that Solyman Fame encreasing the evil News was coming towards Vienna sent Leonardus Velsius who never liked of the Siege of Buda to Comara to stay the further Flight of the Souldiers and to gather together so well as he could the dispersed Reliques of the scattered Army and to comfort again the discouraged men with the hope of new Supplies and of Pay. And somewhat to stay Solyman who as it was thought would suddainly come to Vienna he sent Count Salma and Sigismund Lithestain a noble and grave Counsellor his Embassadors with Presents and new Conditions of Peace to Solyman The Presents were a high standing Cup of Gold after the German fashion curiously set with Stones and a
distressed Prince and the rather for that in the mean time all things were seriously plotted that might tend to his destruction Which were no sooner grown to their full ripeness but there was of purpose a motion made That such a multitude as followed this young Prince lay so close together that there was not in one place Victual sufficient for them and that it was therefore more convenient to have them billited in the Country thereabouts which would be more commodious as well for the better victualling of them as for divers other purposes also Truth was that Tamas the Persian King far unlike his noble Father Ismael stood in doubt left he brought up a Serpent in his Bosom Yet there were many which thought that it was not the Persians mind at first to have destroyed Bajazet but to have been thereunto enforced by the practice of some of his Familiars and Followers who not regarding the courtesie of the Persian King nor the Laws of Hospitality perswaded Bajazet to thrust him out of his Kingdom whereof there was many evident Tokens And among other things it was told King Tamas that one of Bajazets chief Captains should say What mean we Why stay we to kill this heritical King and to possess his Kingdom For we shall no doubt by his Treachery all come to destruction And that upon such occasion the King was constrained to condescend to a device more necessary than honourable Bajazet had no great power but most of them were valiant Men and Souldiers of great experience ready to adventure upon any thing of whom the Peâ—sian not without cause stood in some fear He knew his Kingdom to be neither ancient nor yet well assured as gotten by his Father by the counterfeit shew of a reformed Religion and who could assure him but that amongst so many Nations over whom he Lorded that there were many weary of the present State and so desirous of novelties Unto whom nothing could chance more fitting than the coming of Bajazet a noble and valiant young Gentleman and that more was desperately set that as yet he himself might of right rather seemed in the power of his Guest than he in his and that therefore he was to alter the matter and not longer to entertain him as his Guest but to coupe him up as a most dangerous wild Beast Which to do the easiest way was to disperse his power and so to take him unawares for that he could not without much Bloodshed be openly taken in the midst of his strength especially by the dainty Persian of long time not used to War and as yet not come together against Bajazets Souldiers Men of great activity and experience So was the matter cunningly imparted unto him for the dispersing of his Forces and all the Commodites to ensue thereof alledged which Bajazet might not well gainsay although many of his wise Followers Men of great reach did shrewdly suspect the sequel But what could he refuse upon whom necessity lay so heavy Where no other hope was left Where he lived as it pleased another Man and that again too where once to doubt of the fidelity of his Hoast might be imputed to him for the greatest Treachery So these most valiant Souldiers the poor Princes faithful Followers never again to see one another are dispersed into divers Country Villages and bestowed where the Persians thought good Not many days after at a time pickt out for the purpose they in number few and dispersed in a strange Country were enclosed by many and slain their Horses Armor Apparel and whatsoever else became a prey unto the Murtherers At the same instant was Bajazet and his Sons cast in Bonds also and that to his greater grief as many report taken as he was sitting merrily at Dinner at the Kings Table The Persian King seemed to have foreseen much in this his hard dealing with Bajazet as if that he being a valiant and couragious young Prince and much better Souldier than his Brother should have succeeded his Father in his Empire much trouble and peril might have grown thereby both to himself and his Kingdom and that it stood far better with the safety of his Estate that Selymus a Man wholly given to voluptuousness and ease should reign over the Turks in whose time he might as it were promise unto himself all peace and security and therefore it was thought that he would never let Bajazet go alive out of his hand but rather make him away in Prison as if he had there died for melancholy and grief Well he was assured that after he had slain his Followers and imprisoned himself and his Sons he would never be Friends with him that had so notably wronged him Bajazet thus shamefully imprisoned Messengers ran continually too and fro betwixt the two old Princes Solyman and Tamas Amongst the rest the Persian King sent a solemn Embassador unto the Turk with Presents namely curious Tents costly Carpets an Alcoran containing the Mysteries of their Superstition and certain strange Beasts The cause of his coming was pretended to be for a reconciliation to be made between Solyman and his Son which Embassador was honourably entertained and feasted by the great Bassaes. Now was poor Bajazet in small hope of life his cruel Father still craving to have him delivered into his hands to be slain and the Persian yet denying to deliver him and seeming to defend him but not as was thought altogether faithfully Solyman left no means unattempted to have wrung him from the Persian sometimes he spake him fair putting him in mind of his League wherein it was agreed That they should both have the same Friends and the same Enemies otherwhile he terrified him with great words and denouncing of War except he would deliver him his Son he furnished with strong Garrisons all the Frontiers of his Dominion towards Persia he filled all Mesopotamia and the Banks of the River Euphrates with Souldiers especially with them of his own Guard and such as he had before used in the Battel against Bajazet over whom commanded Mehemet Bassa the third of the Visier Bassaes and Selymus the Beglerbeg of Grece for Selymus was soon weary of the Field and so betime returned home he also incited the Georgian People to take up Arms against the Persians who wisely answered That they had not such confidence in their own strength as to provoke King Tamas but let Solyman himself come with his Army and when they saw him present in the Field then they knew what they had to do and that he should then well see that they wanted neither discretion nor valour And because he would leave nothing unproved he made shew as if he would in person himself have gon to Aleppo in Syria and so have on that side invaded the Persian neither was the Persian King altogether out of fear having to his cost many times proved what Solyman was able to do But the unwillingness of the Souldiers and
Majesty of a Kingdom as then when Richard the First King of England passing that way with his Fleet for the relief of the Christians then distressed in the Holy Land about the year 1191 was prohibited there to land and certain of his People by force of Tempest there cast on Shore were by the Cypriots either cruelly slain or taken Prisoners which barbarous violence King Richard took in so evil part that he there by force landed his Army and rested not until he had taken Isaac the King Prisoner and subdued the Island The King he sent in Chains of Silver to Tripolis there to be kept in close Prison the Kingdom he kept a while in his own hand which not long after he gave or as some say exchanged with Guido the titular King of Ierusalem for which cause the Kings of England for a certain time afterwards were honoured with the Title of the Kings of Ierusalem This Kingdom by many descents came at length to Ianus Son of King Peter who in the year 1423 was by Melechel a Sultan of Egypt taken Prisoner but afterwards for the ransom of an hundred and fifteen thousand Sultanins was set at liberty and restored to his Kingdom paying unto the Sultan and his Successors a yearly Tribute of forty thousand Crowns This Ianus left a Son called Iohn who after the death of his Father married the Daughter of the Marquis of Mont-Ferrat after whose death he married one Helena of the most noble House of the Paleologi in Grecia by whom he had one only Daughter called Carlotte but by another Woman a base Son called Iames. This King Iohn was a Man of no Courage altogether given to pleasure and according to the manner of his effeminate education shewed himself in all things more like a Woman than a Man which Helena his Wife a Woman of a great Spirit quickly perceiving took upon her the Soveraignty and whole Government of the Realm gracing and disgracing whom she pleased and promoting to the Ecclesiastical Dignities such as she best liked abolishing the Latin Ceremonies and bringing in them of the Greeks and took such further order as pleased her self in matters of State concerning both Peace and War her Husband in the mean time regarding nothing but his vain pleasure whereby it came to pass that all was brought into the power of the Greeks the Queens Friends Now the Queen her self was much ruled by the Counsel of her Nurse and the Nurse by her Daughter so that the People would commonly say The Daughter ruled the Nurse the Nurse the Queen and the Queen the King. The Nobility ashamed and weary of this manner of Government by general consent of the People sent for Iohn the King of Portugals Cousin-German whom some call the King of Portugal to whom they gave Carlotte the Kings Daughter in marriage with full power to supply that want of Government which was in King Iohn his Father in Law. He taking the Authority into his Hands quickly reformed the disordered Kingdom as well in matters concerning Religion as civil Policy The Latin Ceremonies were again restored and the Government of the Daughter the Nurse and the Queen brought to an end But the mischievous Daughter doubting the Countenance of the young King perswaded her Mother as she â—endred her own Life to poison the King. Which thing the wretched Woman by the consent of the Queen Mother as was reported in short time performed and so brought that noble Prince well worthy longer life unto his untimely end whereby the Government was again restored unto the Greek Queen who in the name of her weak Husband commanded again at her pleasure But above all the Nurse and her Daughter insulted upon the young Queen Carlotte which she not well brooking grievously complained thereof to Iames her baâ—e Brother requiring his help for redress thereof who not long after slew the Nurses Daughter not so much in revenge of the wrong by her done unto his Sister as to prepare a way for himself for the obtaining of the Kingdom grieving inwardly that she or her Husband should be preferred before himself Which thing Helena the Queen quickly perceiving perswaded the King her Husband to cause his base Son to enter into the orders of Priesthood and so to become a Churchman thereby to cut off all his hope of aspiring unto the Kingdom which the King at her instance did and made him Archbishop of Nicosia In the mean time Carlotte by the perswasion of her Mother and the Nobility of the Country married Lewis Son to the Duke of Savoy who being for that purpose sent for came with all speed to Cyprus After that the Queen-Mother and the old Nurse desiring nothing more than to revenge the death of the Nurses Daughter upon Iames now Archbishop devised first how to thrust him out of all his â—piritual Promotions which were great and afterward quite banish him the Kingdom Hereupon the Queen wrote Letters against him to the Pope to have him disgraded for that he being a Man base born with his hands imbrued with innocent Blood was unworthy of holy Orders Which Letters by chance came to Iames his hands who inraged therewith accompanied with a number of his Friends and Favorites suddenly entred the Court slew such of his Enemies as he found there divided their Goods amongst his Followers and as King possessed himself of the Regal City In this Broil the Greek Queen Helena died and shortly after her Husband also All things being thus in an hurly and out of order certain of the Nobility for redress thereof sent for Lewis the Husband of Carlotte as for him to whom that Kingdom in the right of his Wife most justly belonged who upon his arrival was of all sorts of Men joyfully received and welcomed as their King. Iames the Usurper understanding before of the coming of Lewis and perceiving the inclination of the People towards him fled with divers of his Friends to Alexandria to crave aid of the Egyptian Sultan in whose Court he found such Favour as that he was by the Sultans commandment Royally apparelled and honoured with the Title of the King of Cyprus which he promised for ever to hold of the Sultans of Egypt as their Vassal and Tributary At which time the Sultan also by his Embassadors commanded Lewis to depart the Isle who by all means sought to have pacified the Sultan declaring unto him his rightful Title yet offering to pay unto him the wonted Tribute and to allow unto Iames a yearly Pension of ten thousand Ducats during his life But all in vain for Iames still present in the Sultans Court and wisely following his own suit at last concluded with the great Sultan who thought it more honour to make a King than to confirm a King and receiving of him a great Army returned into Cyprus where in short time he so distressed Lewis that he was glad to forsake the Island with his Wife and to return into his Country
of the War and for ever to hold his Kingdom of the King of Spain as his Vassal and Tributary Which his request well considered of and the matter thought of no small consequence for the safety of the Christian Countries lying over against that part of Africk to have so dangerous an Enemy removed Don Iohn the year following in the beginning of October by the commandment of the King of Spain his Brother year 1573. departing from Drepanum in Sicilia with an hundred and five Gallies and forty Ships arrived the next day about noon at Guletta where the Gallies of Malta came unto him and shortly after Iohn Andreas Auria the Admiral with nineteen more and Columnius the Popes Admiral with fourteen more all well appointed At his arrival at Guletta he understood by Amida and the Governour the whole estate both of the City and of the Kingdom of Tunes and that the Turks and Moors terrified with so great a Fleet were about to forsake the City Wherefore having well viewed the place he the next day after landed his Forces about four miles from the City and sent two thousand five hundred Footmen before the rest of the Army to the City who found it all desolate the Turks and Moors being before for fear fled some to Caravana some to Biserta who entring without resistance came to the Castle wherein they found two hundred Moors who said they kept it for Amida their King but yet would by no means suffer the Christians to enter All which was forthwith made known to Don Iohn who then because it was almost night would not move but early the next morning set forward with his whole Army and entring the City before abandoned by the Inhabitants and so coming to the Castle found nothing therein but great store of Oil Butter and Wood. Amida the late King by the commandment of Don Iohn all this while staied at Guletta But whilst Don Iohn was yet at Tunes news was brought to him the thirteenth of October That the Turks Garrison before fled out of Tunes with divers Moors coming to Biserta were there kept out by the Citisens and not suffered to enter for which cause they began to burn and spoil the Country thereabout Whereupon the General sent Tovares the Captain of Guletta thither with part of the Army who encountring with those Turks overthrew them and had the City by the Citisens peaceably delivered unto him The Kingdom of Tunes thus easily once again recovered from the Turks Don Iohn throughly informed of the faithless and cruel dealing of Amida the late King and that in detestation of the Christians and their Religion he had already had intelligence with the Turks and procured the death of some of the Christians gave this definitive sentence upon him being yet in the Castle of Guletta That forasmuch as he had long time been the author of great discord and endless troubles in that Kingdom and had most unnaturally deprived Muleasses his Father first of his Kingdom and afterward of his sight and in like manner tyrannised over his natural Brethren the rightful Heirs of that Kingdom whereby the Turks had taken occasion both to invade and possess the same he should therefore by the commandment of the King of Spain be carried Prisoner with his two Sons into Sicilia there to remain for ever Which heavy doom he taking most grievously and yet crying out for mercy was forthwith thrust into a Gally and with his Wife and Children transported into Sicilia there to live in perpetual Exile The just reward of his merciless and unnatural dealing with his Father and Brethren God no doubt requiting him with the like measure he had before measured unto them After that the King of Spain so commanding Mahomet Amida his elder Brother and right Heir of that Kingdom was appointed King in his place who departing from Guletta to Tunes was received as King and there by solemn Oath promised for ever to be the King of Spain his Vassal and to do whatsoever he should command There was before departed out of Tunes forty thousand Moors who now came and offered their supplication to Don Iohn that they might again return and live with their new King which their request being easily granted they in great numbers every day returned into the City Shortly after 1500 Turks with 3000 of those wild People which some call Arabians some Alarbes sore troubled all the passages about the City who were at last by the Christians overthrown and 150 Christians whom they had taken Prisoners rescued After that Don Iohn by the advice of his most expert and skilful Captains commanded a strong Castle to be built in the middle way betwixt Guletta and Tunes and for the performing thereof left Gabriel Serbellio with 2000 Italians and Calazar a Spaniard with other 2000 at Guletta And so having performed that he came for and disposed of all things as he thought best returned again into Sicilia A grief of griefs it is and sorrow almost unconsolable when worthy actions most happily begun sort not to such happy end as was in reason hoped for The greatest and most famous Victory of all Ages gained against the Turk seemed to have lightned the Christian Common-weal and great hope there was that the Christians falling into unity amongst themselves would by an happy exchange make the Turkish Empire the Seat of their Wars and to turn into the Turks Dominions the terror slaughter and other calamities of War which had so many year afflicted the Christian Common-weal But by how much the more the joy was amidst such daily calamities and tears so much greater was the sorrow so great an hope to be come to nought and Men to be so blinded with the darkness of envy and disdain that they could not so much as think with what dishonour and danger of the Common-state they should shrink from so just so honourable and so needful a service including in it self the general good of all Christendom When posterity shall consider what things might then have been done and the devices whereby the common cause was overthrown it will worthily blame and greatly lament so notable a Victory and fit opportunity sent as it were from Heaven for the effecting of great matters to have been let slip and passed over so lightly regarded This made that they who before had reposed all their hope in Arms had now no other confidence or hope of their welfare but in concluding of Peace Truly the Venetians both spoke and thought honourably of King Philip as of a most faithful just devout and honourable Prince yet greatly blaming his Officers and others of great authority about him as Men more regarding their own private than the good of the Christian Common-weal In these perplexities of the Venetians King Philip promised them to set forth a greater and stronger Fleet against the next year and to be sooner in readiness with all his Forces and warlike Provision and so to help
River Nyester who passing over if they shall bring with them any Slave or Bondman out of Polonia he shall be sent back again The Shepherds if they will transport their Sheep into the Iurisdiction of the King of Polonia shall not so do without the leave of the Polonian Governours before whom they shall also number their Sheep of whom if any shall be lost the Governours shall cause them to be sought for and to be restored unto the Shepherds as also to pay for their Hay The Zauzij Janizaries or Posts shall not dare in time of Peace or War to take any Horses from the Polonian Merchants or other the Kings Subjects coming into our Kingdom The Palatines of Moldavia in whatsoever condition they have been towards the former Kings of Polonia they shall now also still so be hereafter The thirtieths and customs of both parts shall continue in their old manner and not be encreased The Polonian Kings Subjects and Merchants as well Armenians as of any other Nation whensoever they shall enter into Moldavia or any other part of our Empire shall not travel by uncertain and unknown but by the common and high ways wherein if they shall suffer any loss or harm either in their goods or persons the doers of such wrongs shall be sought for and severely punished Which Merchants shall be suffered without any molestation quietly to come and go having payed their thirtieths and no Merchant to be troubled for anothers debt If any the Polonian Kings Merchants or Subjects be willing for ready money to redeem and carry away any slave taken out of the Polonian Kingdom and yet professing the Christian Religion the Iudges shall in no case withstand them neither presume to take them from them or again to redeem them But if any of such slaves have received the Turkish Religion they shall not be again demanded by the King of Polonia Such slaves as have not received the Turkish Religion if after a certain space they shall be set at Liberty by their Masters and in the Letters Testimonial of their Liberty it shall be declared that they have received the Turkish Religion yet shall they not by the Iudges be therefore detained In the City of Burusa the Polonian Merchants having payed their usual thirtieths shall not be farther pressed with any other unusual payment My will is also that the Territories at this present in the possession of the King of Polonia as hereafter to be by him taken from the Muscovite or any other the Christian Princes to be comprized within this League and so to be Royally by him possessed And for the confirmation of the articles and conditions in these our Letters of Confederation contained I swear by the power of the most Mighty God and of his most Holy Prophet and by the most clean and pure Spirits of all the Prophets That for all the days of my life and so long as nothing shall on the behalf of the King of Polonia be done contrary to the Peace and League nothing shall also on my part be done contrary unto the same Witness the Almighty the upright Iudge and discerner of mens actions From Constantinople the year of the Holy Prophet Mahomet 985 the 14th of the Month Cziemassi Eumel and of Christ 1577. This League betwixt these two mighty Princes Amurath and King Stephen thus concluded and after the death of Stephen by Sigismund the Third which now reigneth renewed as it hath been ever since to the Polonian Kingdom for the time commodious so hath it as with an Adamantine band so bound that most famous Kingdom as that in the hardest distresses of the Christian Common-wealth and most indeed concerning it self it hath afforded no more help than hath the Members farther off which is I rue to say it none at all as in these late and present Wars betwixt the Christian Emperour and the two last Turkish Sultans it is too plainly to be seen wherein had it in due time given but such reasonable helps as it might well have spared much no doubt might have been done for the repressing of the common Enemy and the recovery of the greatest part of that is lost of Hungary but thus bound standeth as a dead Member serving to no use more than to the more speedy destruction of it self together with the rest of the sick Body For what assurance it can have in this long I must needs say but evil assured Peace is well to be seen in the great Consultation of this great Sultan Amurath with his Bassa's after the Persian War for the invading of Christendom the Polonians for all this League so solemnly constrained were nothing the more regarded but laid in the same balance with the least and preserved only by the Providence that all governeth which leading the Turk against the Christian Emperour their Neighbour hath given them that Peace they were otherwise hardly to have looked for Unto whom for all that having to his endless praise maintained a long and most chargeable War they have not lent any great help or friendly hand yet lying themselves still in the Lyons mouth and like enough to be the next God grant I be therein deceived that is to be of him devoured But leaving these the heavy conceits of a melancholy Mind and ominous forebodings of that I wish not to return again toward Persia Amurath his greatest care Amongst many the ambitious Competitors for the managing of these Turkish so great designs was the great Bassa Mustapha even he who in the reign of the late Emperour Selymus conquered Cyprus carrying thence together with his Victory perpetual Infamy for his faithless and cruel dealing with Bragadine the worthy and renowned Governour of Famagusta appointed General of the Turks Army into Persia and authority given him to provide whatsoever he should think needful for so great a War. And Commandment given unto the Bassaes year 1578 and other Commanders of the greatest part of the Turkish Empire Eastward that they should themselves with their Souldiers of all sorts bound by their perpetual Annuities to go to the War in the beginning of the Spring this Year 1578 repair to Erzirum a City of Cappadocia bordering upon Armenia there to attend the command of their new General Who having his dispatch from Constantinople and for fashion sake conducted by most of the Court over the Straight to Scutari and from thence passing thorough the Countries of Amasia and Sivas in the very beginning of Summer arrived at Erzirum and there stayed untill such time as his People Victuals Artillery and other his necessary Provision was come thither From whence he departed for Siruan having first taken a diligent survey of his whole Army mustering the Souldiers of every Nation by themselves namely of the Mesopotamians twelve thousand of the Assyrians and Babylonians fourteen thousand of the Syrians two thousand of them of the lesser Asia now comprehended under the name of Natolia ten thousand of the Iews and Philistims
by performing all the parts both of a good Captain and valiant Souldier he by true Valour enforced them at length to retire back again into the Woods from whence they came having in this Conflict slain fourteen of them with his own hand About this time was a Spy taken in the Imperial Camp one of Botscay's chief men discovered by one coming from Cassâ—via to Eperia which knew him who by Basta's Commandment apprehended and upon torture examined and confessing what he had done was for his good service hanged and afterward quartered to the Terrour of others attempting the like The Turks this year were not much fortunate in their Wars Hassan the Visier Bassa and their General against the Christians in Hungary having in vain as is before declared besieged Strigonium and with all his Forces done nothing worth the remembrance and Cicala Bassa their other General against the Persians in the East being with all his great Power by the Persian King overthrown and put to flight and the City of Babylon now called Bagdat taken and was first at Prague the two and twentieth of October reported by the Secretary of the Vayvod of Valachia sent thither in Ambassage from his Master unto the Emperour and afterward confirmed by an Ambassador sent from the Persian King himself unto the Emperour who having audience told his Majesty how that the King his Master was not ignorant of the great and difficult War by him now for many years maintained against the Turkish Sultan with whom although he for his part might have lived in Peace and Amity yet that moved with the Zeal which one Prince ought to have to the relief of another he had taken up Arms against him so to avert some part of that heavy War from his Majesty even upon himself and that he had already obtained many great and notable Victories and Conquests against him and recovered a great Territory wrongfully before taken from the Persian Kings his Predecessors by the Turkish Sultans and that now he was of nothing more desirous than to joyn in a perpetual League and Amity with his Majesty that so in a most strong Confederation combined together they might never afterward be dissevered or ever make Peace with the Sultan without one anothers Knowledge and Consent And further That for his part he was minded never to give over the War so happily by him begun until he had driven him even into his Imperial City of Constantinople so that his Majesty would on his part do the like by continuing of his present Wars it being not possible for the Turks to hold out against them both and the only means to abate his greatness and to assure them in their Estates requesting him withal to send back with him some grave man his Ambassadour with sufficient Authority and Instructions to conferr about these Matters with him that so knowing and understanding one anothers Mind the League and Confederation betwixt them might the more easily and commodiously be made and concluded Neither were the Turks busied with these forreign Wars only against these so great and mighty Princes in Places so remote and far off but unto these were joyned their own intestine and civil Wars and Troubles also the Rebels being yet up in the lesser Asia and the Bassaes of Aleppo and Damasco two of the most famous Cities in Syria and both of them men of great Place and Command of late up in Arms one of them against the other insomuch that they had brought the matter to be tryed by the Sword in the plain Field where the Bassa of Aleppo in a great and bloody Battel overcome and flying unto his own City was by the Bassa of Damasco pursued thither and so straitly by him besieged with an Army of thirty thousand men that in fine he was glad to reconcile himself unto him and to make his Peace by yielding unto whatsoever the other Bassa his Enemy pleased to demand of him as being thereunto driven by the Extremity of Famine which then reigned in the City as also for that he had lost a great number of his Men whom he had sent secretly out of the City to seek for Victuals being all slain by the Bassa of Damasco's Souldiers With which so great matters the Bassaes of the Court who had the managing of the State under the young Sultan were much troubled he himself as was fittest for his years in the mean time dilighting himself with the Pleasures of the Court and much rejoycing at the Birth of his first begotten Son who was born about that time The Revolution of time had now thus brought this year to an end year 1605 the Troubles of Hungary and Transilvania yet still more and more so increasing as if that those most miserable Countries had by the just and heavy Judgments of God been now appointed unto their last and utter Ruine and Destruction the Causes of their so great Miseries proceeding not so much from the Turks their Enemies as from the natural Inhabitants themselves who in Minds divided both in Religion and Affection some of them continuing in their Allegiance unto the Emperour and othersome following the Ensigns of the Rebel Botscay did both unto themselves and to their Country more harme in a little time than had the Turks in many years before Of which so dangerous a Dissention and of the harms thereof insuing Belioiosa left by Basta as his Lieutenant was reported to have been the first and chief Authour For whereas the year before the Bishops and other Clergy-men in an assembly of them at Possonium had without the Knowledge of the Nobility and States of Hungary published a decree by them there made for the burning or perpetual banishing of all such as were of the reformed Religion in Hungary and that the States of that Kingdom understanding thereof and solemnly protesting against the same under the Seal of the Lord Palatine had publickly affirmed with just Arms to defend themselves if they should for their Religion be called into question or troubled and had again repeated the same their Protestation at Galset Yet Belioiosa nevertheless in the mean time by cunning seising upon the reformed Churches at Cassovia would not suffer the Citizens of the reformed Religion there to have any Sermons in their own private Houses or so much as to read on the holy Bible Neither any whit moved with the former Protestations of the Nobility and States had taken unto himself all the Lands and Goods of them of their Religion in Cassovia not suffering them to bury the Bodies of their dead within the City near unto the Monasteries And requesting to have borrowed of Botscay certain thousands of Crowns and thereof by him denied caused his Souldiâ—â—s to ransack two of his Castles and â—o â—poil hiâ— of all the Wealth and Treasure he â—ad theâ—ein For which Indignities and Injuries 〈…〉 caused open Proclamation to be 〈…〉 he would give unto every Haiduck
that would serve him four Crowns a Month pay with all the booty that they could get Whereupon six thousand Haiducks which then served under Belioiosa forthwith revolted unto Botscay their number increasing daily But after that unto this extraordinary pay Pallas Lippa his Lieutenant had also joyned the Protection of the reformed Religion it is wonderful to say how the Haiducks by heaps resorted unto him and how the People in all parts of Hungary generally favoured him and his Quarrel being in all places whereas he came ready to joyn hands with him against the Imperials The Turks and Tartars also both with Men and Money furthering him in all his doings whose help he refused not Whereof proceeded all the aforesaid Miseries both in Hungary and Transilvania with many other worse than they which together with the beginning of this year took their beginning and encrease also Unto which so great Troubles still more and more encreasing Basta not able by force to give remedy sought by Lenity and fair Perswasions to have eased the same by Letters oftentimes advising even Botscay the chief Rebel himself to change his Mind to lay down Arms to disband his Forces and to perswade with the rest of his seditious followers to submit themselves unto the Emperour and to return again unto their wonted Obedience Whereunto he at length answered That if the Government of all Transilvania might be left unto himself alone if a natural Hungarian born might be still chosen Lieutenant General in Hungary if none but such as were Hungarians born should have the government and command of all the Garrisons in Hungary if the Wallon and French Souldiers might be shut out of Hungary if the natural Hungarians born might from thenceforth be regarded and provided of their pay if it might be lawful for every man to have the free Exercise of his Religion if the Authours of these Troubles might be delivered unto the Hungarians to be punished if the Emperour himself in Person should come and be present at the Parliament at Presburg if the German Garrison Souldiers should still keep themselves within the Places whereunto they were appointed without making of any Excursions into the Towns or Villages near unto them or hurting of the poor Country-men he could then be content to come to such a good Agreement for Peace With which offer he sent two of the Rebels his Followers unto Bassa who not liking thereof returned them back again without concluding of any thing But while things were thus in talk some of the Haiducks in the mean time with a number of Tartars joyned unto them in seeking after Booty surprised Gokara a Town over against Strigonium where having slain certain Germans which had the keeping of the Place and rifled the Town as they were about to set it on fire by the coming over of the Governour of Strigonium with his Garrison they were inforced to forsake the place and again to retire This loss received at Gokara was again by our men requited by the taking of Palantwar a good Fortress of the Turks after a long and cruel fight taken by Captain Bathian Commander of the Imperial Troops on this side of the River of Danubius whereinto a number of the Turks being retired were there together with the Garrison Souldiers all slain and amongst them divers men of great account who but some few days before were come thither Which Fortress the Captain caused to be forthwith razed because it should no more stand the Turks in stead for the annoying of the Christians The Turks about this time had a purpose to besiege Vacia a City not far from Vicegrade on the other side of Danubius a Place which still did them great harm and stood the Christians in great stead The Garrison of which Place was part Germans and part Hungarians as the rest of all the Garrisons in the Imperial Towns of Hungary were Of which the Turks purpose for the siege the treacherous Haiducks there in Garrison having got understanding conspired to deliver unto them the Place and yet not so contented to joyn thereunto a Treason more bloody and treacherous than was the betraying of the Town for finding themselves by farr too strong for the Germans in Garrison in the Town with them they fell upon them fearing no such matter and slew most part of them the rest saving themselves by speedy flight to Strigonium and so afterward according to their former pretended Treason delivered the Town unto the Turks joyning with them and the Tartars and directing them for the more easie spoiling of the Christians and the Country thereabout The taking of this City of Vacia had in short time called together great numbers of the Turks and Tartars out of all Places of the Realm who together with the Haiducks made a great and puissant Army to the Terrour of the Christians not then able to hold the field against them and the incouraging of the Turks thus holpen even by the Christians themselves to the destroying of one another With this Army they turned from Vacia to Gokara with a purpose from thence to have passed over the Danubius upon the Ice and to have surprised Strigonium Which Exploit they had once before attempted against the base Town being then by the Christians repulsed and beaten back with their great and small shot out of the Town as now they were again Howbeit that seeing the number of their Enemies daily more and more to increase they in Strigonium stood more in doubt of a second siege than they had done of the first whereof we have before spoken The Report of these so great Troubles and of the general revolt of the discontented Haiducks in Hungary much troubled and grieved the Christian Emperour who both in respect of his Honour and of the safety of his Estate raised what Power he might out of his Provinces thereabout and levied great sums of Money from his Subjects taking a Ducket upon every House in Austria being then in great fear of these Miseries and Mischiefs so fast spreading and still more and more increasing and approaching that way Unto whose Forces already on foot had the Aid promised from the King of Spain the Pope the Princes of Italy and Germany with six thousand Footmen and two thousand Horse out of Bohemia been in time joyned they might have made a sufficient Army under the Conduct of Basta the Emperours Lieutenant to have repressed both the attempts of the Enemy and the Insolency of the rebellious Haiducks All or most part of which Aid this year failing and Basta with his small Forces much weakened with Wants and the Extremity of Winter and not able to keep the Field the Enemies still increasing both in number and strength and without fear of any to encounter them at their Pleasure roaming up and down began now to draw near unto Vicegrade a good and strong Town of Hungary standing upon the side of Danubius about the mid way betwixt
we have before of him written having before obtained Letters of safe conduct from the Arch-duke came now again with his Wife also to Vienna there more at large to conferr upon the Articles for a Peace to be concluded with such as were on the Emperours behalf for that purpose deputed Where coming to conferr and talk upon the matter he was so crossed by Nicholas Bishop of Vienna who hitherto had been present in Council together with the rest of the Commissioners a great enemy unto the Peace in respect of the Article concerning the Liberty of Religion he was I say by him so crossed as that there was no hope of any thing to be for the common quiet concluded so long as he was there present For which cause he on both sides and of all men desirous of the Peace disliked was in the Arch-duke's name willed no more to come into the Council for the disturbing of the Peace In which Negotiation for the concluding of the Peace Illishascius had taken such pains in travelling to and fro betwixt the Arch-duke then lying at Vienna and Botscay with the States of Hungary then lying at Cassovia and so debated the matter on both sides that all things being as good as agreed upon for a full conclusion of all matters he himself together with George Humanoius Francis Magot Sebastian Tockell Stanislaus Turson and others with two hundred Horse and two and thirty Waggons in all four hundred Persons the Seventh of September came to Vienna with fifty Hussars following of them Shortly after whose coming the Treaty for Peace was earnestly begun with often Messengers passing to and fro betwixt Vienna and Cassovia to Botscay lying then very dangerously sick untill that all the Articles of Peace were near about the Fourteenth of September fully on both parts agreed upon most difference arising about the Article for the free Exercise of Religion For although it was before declared that men might have the free Exercise of Religion yet the Hungarians recalling that general word of Religion unto a particularity would needs have it set down that men might have the free Exercise of those Religions which are at this day called the Lutheran Calvinian And Romish Religion neither would they conclude any Peace until they were of their Request in that point satisfied Which Peace so concluded the next day after the Deputies for the Hungarians sent an Ambassador to the Visier Bassa at Buda to certifie him of all their Proceedings and to request him not as yet to attempt any thing for the disturbing of the Peace now the Articles whereupon the Peace was concluded were these FIrst That from thenceforth it should be lawful for every Man throughout the Kingdom of Hungary to have the free Vse of his Religion and to believe what he would 2. That if the Hungarians so thought good they might chuse a Palatine for their Governour and that in the mean time the Arch-duke Matthias should no more vse the Title of a Governour but of a Viceroy 3. That the Crown of Hungary should still be left in the Emperours keeping 4. That the Bishops that were nobly descended in Hungary and had Lands of their own should from thenceforth be admitted into the Council but the other Bishops not so to be received 5. That Botscay for himself and his Heirs Male should for ever hold Transilvania 6. That the same Country of Transilvania should be still subject unto the Kingdom of Hungary 7. That for his Arms he should bear three Royal Crowns and three open Helmets 8. That he should no more afterwards stile himself Prince but Lord of part of the Kingdom of Hungary 9. That they should pay the Haiducks their Wages which had levied them 10. That the Harms done on both sides should for ever be forgotten 11. That Bohemia Moravia Silesia Lausnisium and Austria should not only with their Letters and Seals confirm the Articles but also Swear at Vienna to keek the same so far as should concern them 12. That the Hungarians should likewise send some to Vienna who in their behalf should with their Letters Seals and Oaths confirm and ratifie these Articles 13. That the Assembly of the Estates of Hungary should be referred untill a more convenient time for them 14. That all these things being done this Agreement should be publikely confirmed and enrolled in the Records of the Kingdom of Hungary 15. That it should be lawful for the Hungarians by their Ambassadors to invite the Princes of the Empire to the approving and confirming of these Articles Which fifteen Articles were on the Emperours part subscribed by Trausam Mollart Sigifrid Pruner Lichtenstein and Kreuberge and on the part of the Hungarians by Illishascius Peter Erkod George Turso and Sigismund Forgat and others The twentieth of September following the Ambassador for the Hungarians and of Botscay being admitted unto the Presence of the Archduke Matthias obtained of him Pardon for the forepassed Rebellion and all that was therein done unto whom Security for the same was afterward given by the Provinces thereby also to assure them that they should not be therefore afterwards troubled But yet for all that was before done the Title of the Prince of Transilvania was left unto Botscay for Term of his Life who feeling his Sickness daily to increase would oftentimes say That he could willingly die so that it might please God before his Death to give him leave to excuse himself of his Rebellion before the whole Roman Empire And so about the end of September all the aforesaid Ambassadors for the Hungarians and Botscay being assembled into the Castle of Vienna together with the Emperours Council and certain other Noblemen of the Provinces belonging unto the Emperour received every one of them the Articles of the Peace copied out and fair written in Parchment which done they returned every one to his own dwelling But Illishascius went from thence to Neuhuse to be present at the Peace to be afterwards made with the Turks also from whence he afterwards writ Letters unto the Visier Bassa to request him not as yet to attempt any thing against the Emperours Provinces but peaceably and quietly to expect his Commissioners which were shortly to come unto him But in the mean time whilst this Peace was thus in concluding certain Tartars at Constantinople in their Insolency set fire upon a certain Jews House whereof arose such a terrible Fire as burnt not only many Houses but a great number of the Jews themselves also the barm there done being esteemed at forty hundred thousand Duckats In which Tumult and Noise of the People runing too and fro and quenching of the Fire the Great Sultan having a fall from his Horse was thereof for a while sick The Turks of Canisia also having conspired with the Captain of the lesser Comora came to have surprised the same But the Garrison Souldiers there having before had a Suspition thereof suffered so many of the Turks
that good was not in vain to spend his cost and time any longer the fifth of May dismissed the Assembly and returned home as did all the rest of the Electors and Princes Deputies no one Article that was propounded being so much as once reasoned of but all left undecided so small care was there of the common good either for the raising of Money for the withstanding of the Turks and Rebels or for the Reformation of Justice the Necessity of both either on the one side or the other so hardly urged and yet in Conclusion be neither respected or regarded Whilst the Diet to no purpose as is aforesaid was by the Arch-duke Ferdinand holden at Ratisbone Marthias the Arch-duke with a grait Train following of him came in the mean time to Presburg where he was with much Joy and Triumph received the Garrison Souldiers in order standing on both sides the way as he went unto the Castle Napragius the Bishop of Rab with an eloquent Oration welcoming of him in the presence of certain of the Hungarian Nobility who had gone out as far as Hainburg to meet him and now also honourably welcomed him much rejoycing at his coming The next day the Arch-bishop and Cardinal of Strigonium with a notable Train of Hungarian Gentlemen came to Presburg who forthwith received into the Castle and having saluted the Arch-duke conferred with him of many things in this Assembly to be consulted of In the mean time Illishascius that Noble Hungarian of whom we have so often spoken arrived there also with twelve Coaches ninety Harquebusiers and forty Hungarian Horsemen going before him and three hundred Haiducks which had attended upon him being at the Gate dismissed So the chief of the Hungarian States being come the Consultation was begun the three and twentieth day of Ianuary where when as the Arch-duke had propounded unto the Hungarian Nobility what things they were especially to consider of it was by them answered The Haiducks before their coming out to have determined not one whit to depart from the Articles the year before propounded and agreed on at Vienna nor to admit any limitation at all of them so that for the appeasing of the Tumults of the Haiducks there was no need of any new Consultation but only to confirm such things as was then and there consulted and agreed upon From which their Resolution when as the Hungarians were not to be removed and being grieved with the scoffing at of certain of the Clergy thereupon refusing in any wise to make their appearance as they were commanded before the Cardinal in the Castle were about again to depart making a solemn Protestation themselves to be guiltless of such harms as should thereof afterwards ensue it was at length on all parts agreed upon That the whole matter should be committed unto ten chosen out of the Hungarian Counsellors and ten more of the Counsellors of Austria to be consulted and determined of By whom being met all together the eight and twentieth day of Ianuary in the House of Illishascius it was concluded That seeing that Peace and Quietness in those Countries of Hungary and Austria could not otherwise be made that those Articles and Conditions concerning which no Agreement could the year before be made in the Treaty at Vienna being quite left off and neglected the rest of the Articles which were there agreed upon should be still entirely observed and kept and that it should be lawful for every man to have the free Exercise of his Religion Which thing the Commissioners of Austria by a special Writing there confirmed unto the Hungarians Whereby they declared themselves after long and mature deliberation to have perceived not only by the true relation and report of the Hungarians but also by their own experience unto how great Inconveniencies the whole Kingdom of Hungary hath of long been exposed as well for the Wars it hath had with the common Enemy of the Christians as for divers the civil Tumults and Seditions therein and that therefore they not willing that such harms should in those Countries again increase and grow to the infinite effusion of Christian Blood after the Articles of Pacification agreed upon at Vienna saw no other better Remedy for these so great Inconveniencies than that all Parties should still hold themselves contented with the same Articles of Pacification concluded and agreed upon in the said Assembly at Vienna And that therefore they had decreed those Articles to be sincerely and inviolately kept and promised unto the States of Hungary to give their Aid for the defence of these Articles against all their Enemies being ready to give good reason thereof before God the Church the Emperour Rodolph the Arch-duke Matthias and his other Brethren and all the House of Austria as the Necessity of those Countries should seem to require hoping also that the States of Hungary would rest themselves likewise in that Pacification of Vienna and the assurance thereof in all points observing the same and that they would always give their ready Help and Aid unto the Countries of Austria against their Enemies in like manner All which things thus agreed upon and determined Letters of Confederation were in the Name of Matthias the Arch-duke and of all as well the Ecclesiastical as Temporal States of Hungary and Austria to this purpose written That whereas for the appeasing and suppressing of the Tumults and Seditions which the Haiducks by the Instigation of the Turks had of late not doubted to raise for the concluding of Peace with the Great Sultan they were met together at Presburg and therein altogether busied to devise how the Kingdom of Hungary with the Countries adjoyning might from Destruction be delivered in the Christian Religion preserved and from wasting and spoyling whereunto they had hitherto been exposed saved upon mature Deliberation had as well in the Name of them that were present as of them that were absent made such a Confederation and League That if hereafter it should fortune any detriment of War to be by any man made or done unto the Hungarians or the Countries thereabout for the aforesaid Articles of Pacification which they had determined religiously to keep that they would forthwith with their united Forces come to Aid their Confederate Brethren and together with them to live or die With these Letters signed and sealed with the hand of the Arch-duke and of the Noble Men there present the first of February Illishascius with George Turson were sent unto the Tumultuous Haiducks who had now appointed their Messages to be sent unto the Sultan and the Tartar Cham to crave their Aid to disswade them from such their purpose and to perswade them to quietness threatning them withal That if they would not hearken unto such honest Conditions they should all together and at once be set upon and oppressed by the whole Power of the States The Assembly at Presburg thus ended Matthias the Archduke returning to Vienna and
Horse-men of Vienna each of them consisting of two hundred Horse were all entred into the City and afterward fifteen hundred of Bucheime's Horse-men and the aforesaid eight Ensigns of Germans going before and the Emperour's Counsellors following them the King himself with the Arch-duke his Brother and all his Train set forward and passing over the Bridge whereon three triumphal Arches were most sumptuously erected he was by three thousand Citizens of Vienna gallantly apparelled and armed with much thundering of the great Ordnance and Vollies of small shot most magnificently received divers other Triumphs and Sports to manifest the Joy of the People being there made also which for brevity sake we pass over But being gone a little farther he was by the Senators of Vienna on Horse-back received under a rich Canopy borne up by six of the ancientest of the said Senators and so brought to Saint Stephen's Church whither he was no sooner come but that lighting from his Horse he was there received by the whole Clergy and under a Canopy brought into the Church where after Service done he was wâ—th like Triumph and Magnificence through divers other triumphal Arches brought to the Castle the great Ordnance on all sides still thundering off from the Castle the Walls and Bulwarks of the Town But these Triumphs and Solemnities ended shortly after whenas they began to consult about such things as concerned the good Government of the Kingdom of Hungary and the crowning of the King and that the Protestant States of Austria in many Places began to Exercise their Religion according to the manner of the Confession of Augusta and that the Ministers began openly to Preach in the Churches there Leopold the Arch-duke and Bishop of Passavia coming to Vienna with Melinus the Popes Nunâ—â—o but a little before come to Prague with Cardinal Forgatsius and the Bishop of Vienna with earnest and importunate solliciting of the King obtained from him a Commandment That that Exercise of Religion should be again abrogated the Churches shut and publick Preaching forbidden Which thing forthwith brought forth new stirs and troubles in Austria For the Protestant States forthwith calling a Counsel among themselves by general consent refused by Oath of Loyalty and Allegeance to bind themselves unto the new King until they had of him obtained the liberty for the free Exercise of their Religion and combining themselves together resolved even with the loss of their Lives and Goods to maintain the free preaching of the Word and the Exercise of their Religion according to the Confession of Augusta and to that end commanded all their Subjects and Tenants to be ready in Arms that need so requiring every thirtieth man tenth or fifth might be press'd to come forth unto the Wars But having sent a Supplication unto the King whereunto 180 of the Nobility had set their hands and receiving no answer but that they should desist from their purpose and without delay to make their appearance to take the Oath of their Allegeance unto the King they forthwith the fourteenth of September going to Horne by Letters sent unto the rest of the Roman Catholick States protested themselves to be clear before God and the whole World of all the evils and mischiefs that were afterward to ensue if those States not regarding the appeasing and ending of those Troubles or the safety of them their Country-men should take their Oath of Allegeance unto the King. And so forthwith raising an Army lest upon the sudden they should be at Horne oppressed they began by all means to provide for their Affairs But the report thereof coming unto the States of Bohemia and Moravia their Neighbours they were from them given to understand that they would become Intercessors for them unto the King and yet not to be wanting unto them at their need as occasion should require In the mean time Letters were brought from Constâ—ntinople to Vienna declaring King Matthias's Embassadors having audience with the Great Sultan to have in an Eloquent Oration on the King's behalf promised religiously to keep the Peace of late made betwixt him the Othoman Emperour and the Hungarians and afterward in the King's name to have offered his Presents unto the Sultan and he in the presence of his chief Bassaes to have received them But when he came to request the Government of Transilvania he would in no wise thereto consent but gave the same to Gabriel Bathor with commandment unto the Bassa of Buda for the establishing of him in this Principality About the beginning of October the Counties of Trautseme and Furtsenburg were from King Matthias sent unto the Protestant States at Horne and shortly after them Maximilian the Arch-duke followed also who although they with most glorious promises sought to appease them and by all means to draw them to take the Oath of their Allegeance yet could they with them no whit prevail without granting of them the free Exercise of their Religion But the sixteenth of October the Catholick States not expecting the consent of the Protestant States at Vienna took the Oath of Allegeance unto Matthias the new King of Hungary the great Ordnance in the mean time thundering off with Drums and Trumpets in every place of the City sounding and the rest of the day being with great Feasting Triumph and Solemnity spent King Matthias having thus at Vienna received the Oath of Allegeance of the Catholicks shortly after departing thence the twenty second of October coming to Presburg was there by the Nobility of Hungary received and brought into the City with ten thousand Souldiers which States afterwards viz. the sixth of November offered in writing unto the King certain Articles whereof they desired to be by him assured most of which Articles were drawn out of the Pacification made at Vienna the twenty third day of August in the year 1606 the chief effect whereof was this That the free Exercise of Religion should be permitted unto all Men in all the Cities and Towns of Hungary not so much as that City excepted wherein the King should be resident That no German Captain should be suffered in any the strong Forts of Hungary but that the strong Towns of Rab Comora Vivaria and others should be committed unto the Government of natural Hungarians born That the Crown of Hungary should still be kept in Hungary and committed to the keeping of temporal Men That first and before all other things a Count Palatine should be chosen That the King himself should always reside in Hungary or if not that the Palatine should in his absence have full power with the Counsellers of Estate of Hungary to determine and conclude of all things and that the King should therewithal hold himself contented That no publick Office should be bestowed upon any but upon such natural Hungarians as had of their Country well deserved nor permitted unto any for Money That no Jesuits should be suffered in the Kingdom neither that
concluded betwixt them and afterwards concluded at Prague where among other Articles it was concluded that forasmuch as Necessity did chiefly require that a Peace should be concluded and inviolably kept with the Turk therefore a new Ambassie should be sent to the Grand Seignior from all the confederate Kingdoms and Provinces and that Bethlem Gabor should take upon him the chief care of that business but yet in such sort as the Bohemians and incorporated Provinces should send their Ambassadors with the Hungarians and bear their shares of all that should be disbursed as well for the Presents as for the Ambassadors Charges In Iune following Bethlem Gabor went to an Assembly of the Estates of Hungary at Neuhusal where he propounded divers heads unto the States That he desired nothing more than to restore the Kingdom of Hungary so miserably afflicted to Liberty and that they might enjoy their Religion and Priviledges That he had spared no cost for the lawful defence of the Country and for a Testimony that he desired Peace he had refused the Crown which the Estates offered him at Presburg That the ground of Peace was to maintain the League which they had begun with the Bohemians That he had always desired Peace with the help of other Princes so as it were sincere and without Fraud or Deceit for the obtaining whereof he had assisted his Confederates miserably afflicted That he knew for certain the Emperour desired not Peace but War having suffered the Cossacks to enter into Hungary and to spoil many Places with Fire and Sword and denied passage for the Ambassadors of Bohemia and Austria for this cause they were not now to treat of Peace but of War and to consult how it might be begun and maintained for the levying of Money which is the sinews of War for the furnishing of their Forts upon the Frontiers and for the speedy sending of Ambassadors to the Turkish Emperour lest being engaged in an intestine War there might be some attempts made upon those bordering Forts Having delivered his Mind unto the Estates there came divers Ambassadors thither from Bohemia Austria Silesia and Lusatia Venice Poland and Turky The Venetian Ambassador was content their Common-wealth should enter into the League and the Turk made offer to conclude a perpetual League with them On the five and twentieth day of August Bethlem Gabor Prince of Transilvania was proclaimed King of Hungary by the Palatine at the instance of the Turkish Ambassador and with the consent and applause of most part of the Estates of the Country After which he levied a great Army of thirty some say fifty thousand Horse and Foot and made many Ensigns with divers Emblems and Devices which being known the Protestants of Vienna with the Consent of the Emperour wrote unto him humbly entreating him to spare the City and Country for their innocent Wives and Childrens sakes but in the mean time all the Citizens were commanded to make Provision of Victuals for six Months There came News to Constantinople of a strange Apparition or Vision which was seen at Medina Talnabi in Arabia whereas Mahomet their great Prophet was buried to visit whose Tomb the Turks use to go in Pilgrimage but they must first go to Mecha which is some few days Journey off and there they take a Ticket from the Grand Seigniors Beglerbeg else they are not allowed to go to Medina This Vision continued three Weeks together which terrified the whole Country for that no Man could discover the truth thereof About the twentieth of September there fell so great a Tempest and so fearful a Thunder about Midnight as the Heavens were darkned and those that were awake almost distracted but the Vapours being dispersed and the Element clear the People might read in Arabian Characters these words in the Firmament O why will you believe in Lies Between two and three in the Morning there was seen a Woman in white compassed about with the Sun having a cheerful Countenance and holding in her Hand a Book coming from the North-west opposite against her were Armies of Turks Persians Arabians and other Mahometans ranged in order of Battel and ready to charge her but she kept her standing and only opened the Book at the sight whereof these Armies fled and presently all the Lamps about Mahomets Tomb went out for as soon as ever the Vision vanished which was commonly an hour before Sun rising a murmuring Wind was heard whereunto they imputed the extinguishing of the Lamps The antient Pilgrims of Mahomets Race who after they have visited this Place never use to cut their Hair were much amazed for that they could not conceive the meaning of this Vision only one of the Deruices which is a strict religious order amongst the Turks like unto the Capuchins among the Papists and live in contemplation stepped up very boldly and made a Speech unto the Company which incensed them much against him so as this poor Priest for his plain dealing lost his Life as you shall hear The sum of his Speech was this That the World had never but three true Religions every one of which had a Prophet first God chose the Jews and did Wonders for them in Aegypt and brought them forth by their Prophet Moses who prescribed them a Law wherein he would have maintained them if they had not been obstinate and rebellious and fallen to Idolatry whereupon he gave them over and scattered them upon the face of the Earth Then presently after he raised a new Prophet who taught the Christian Religion This good man the Jews condemned and crucified for a seducer of the People not moved with the Piety of his Life his great Miracles not his Doctrine Yet after his Death the preaching of a few Fishermen did so move the Hearts of Men as the greatest Monarchs of the World bowed to his very Title and yielded to the command of his Ministers But it seems they grew as corrupt as the Iews their Church being dismembred with the distinction of the East and West committing Idolatry again by setting up of Images with many other idle Ceremonies beside the corruption of their Lives so as God was weary of them too and not only sent divisions among them but forsook them dispossessing them of their chiefest Cities Hierusalem and Constantinople yet God is still the Governour of the World and provides himself of another Prophet and People raising our great Mahomet and giving way to our Nation so as no doubt we shall be happy for ever if we can serve this God aright and take Example by the fall of others But alas I tremble to speak it we have erred in every point and wilfully broken our first Institutions so as God hath manifested his Wrath by many evident signs and tokens keeping our Prophet from us who prefixed a time to return with all happiness to his People so as there are now forty years past by our account Wherefore this strange and fearful Vision
that the Factories should be transferred again over to Tripoli in Soria a place formerly â—requented by our Merchants but by reason of the danger and inconvenience of that Port the Trade was transported to the Scale of Scanderoâ—n This alteration the Tefterdar pretended to have been granted to the Merchants at their earnest Petition and promise to the Grand Signior of payment of 13000 Dollars Yearly for discharge and maintenance of those Guards which were requisite in that place for safety of the Coast and defence of the Caravans which pass with Merchants goods to Aleppo but time and corruption of the Ministers had deprived the Grand Signior of the benefit of that duty And this he urged with the greater instance and eagerness knowing that the Scale of Scanderoon being prohibited the Hattesheriff whereon consisted the priviledg of the Merchants and their sole security must consequently fall and they forced to a new agreement On this occasion our Lord Ambassador had Audience with the Vizier and insisted on that point of our Capitulations which gives us liberty to Trade in any part of the Grand Signiors Dominions and therefore to consent to be restrained or confined to any particular place was to assent to a breach of the Capitulations which was out of his power and only to be dispensed with by his Master the King of England and the Grand Signior by whom they were established and to connive or assent to the breach of one particular clause was to hazard the loss and breach of the whole year 1666. for that our Capitulations to use the Turks saying are like a string of Beads of which when one link is broken the others drop off To which the Vizier replied that the Scale of Scanderoon was open and clear as before for the English Trade but because the Tefterdar and Customer pretended that the Grand Signior was put to great expences for maintenance of a Watch and Guard at that Port which was only in respect to the security of the Merchants Goods Orders shâ—uld be given for taking away those Officers as unnecessary and insignificant to the publick Service no Guards having ever been in that place the Embassador judged his business to be granted and so thanked the Vizier and departed But not many days after the Tefterdar procured a Command for shutting the Scale of Scandeâ—oâ—n and transporting the Factory to Tripâ—li which Command was rather intended to affright our Nation into some composition than really to be put in execution as appeared by the sequel for the Tefterdar better considered than to bring so great an Odium upon himself from the whole Country and City of Aleppo and to enforce the Embassador to have recourse to the Grand Signiors own person for redress of an abuse of so high a nature in derogation of his Imperial Capitulations Howsoever it is observabâ—e in the transaction of all this business that it is dâ—fficult to bring a corrupt Turkish Minister to Juâ—â—â—ce or punishment meerly for breach of our Capâ—tulations or in respect to any difference or abuse offered to Christians unless the complaint be â—ccompanied with Presents or Money which are most prevalent Arguments in the Turkish Court and in this case I really believe that had three or four thousand Dollars been offered as a reward for bringing the Customer to capital punishment the complaint had found acceptance and honourable success for default of which the Cause was starved and naked and carried no fire or heat in those aggravations with which it was represented It is lâ—kewise observable that business in the Turkish Court doth not always find that dâ—â—patch or expedition as is generally believed in â—hâ—istendom unless it come accompanied with the interest of the Ministers themselves and then it is transacted in a moment which otherwise languishes with delays and will never want excuses to defer it Anno 1666. Hegeira 1077. WE shall begin this Year with the strange rumour and disturbance of the Iews concerning Sabatai Sevi their pretended Messiah which for being most principally acted in Turkey may properly belong to the History of this time and place which therefore for delight of the Readers I shall here insert for though it may have been elsewheâ—e published yet being an issue of my Pen I may lawfully now own it and annex it to this Hiâ—tory in respect of that near coâ—erence it may have therewith and that many other particulars have been added thereunto which succeeded until the Death of this Sabatai According to the Predictions of several Christian Writers especially â—f such who comment upon the Apâ—calypse or Revelations this year of 1666. was to prove a year of Wonders of strange Revolâ—tions in the World and particularly of blessing to the Iews either in respect of their Conversion to the Christian Faith or of their Restoration to their Temporal Kingdom This opinion was so dilated and fixt in the Countries of the Reformed Religion and in the heads of Fanatical Enthusiasts who dreamed of Fifth Monarchies the down-fall of the Pope and Antichrist and the greatness of the Iews insomuch that this subtil people judged this Year the time to stir and to fit their Motion according to the season of the Modern Prophecies Whereupon strange reports flew from place to place of the March of multitudes of People from unknown parts into the remote deserts of Arabia supposed to be the Ten Tribes and a half lost for so many Ages That a Ship was arrived in the Northern parts of Scotland with her Sails and Cordage of Silk navigated by Marriners who spoke nothing but Hebrew and with this Motto on their Sails The Twelve Tribes of Israel These reports agreeing thus near to former Predictions put the wild sort of the World into an expectation of strange accidents this Year should produce in reference to the Iewish Monarchy In this manner Millions of people were possessed when Sabatai Sevi first appeared at Smyrna and published himself to the Iews for their Messiah relating the greatness of their approaching Kingdom the strong hand whereby God was about to deliver them from Bondage and gather them from all the parts of the World. It was strange to see how this fancy took and how fast the report of Sabatai and his Doctrine flew through all parts where Iews inhabited and so deeply possessed them with a belief of their new Kingdom and Riches and many of them with promotion to Offices of Government renown and greatness that in all places from Constantinople to Buda which it was my fortune that Year to travel I perceived a strange transport in the Iews none of them attending to any business unless to wind up former Negotiations and to prepare themselves and Families for a Journey to Ierusalem all their Discourses their Dreams and disposal of their affairs tended to no other design but a re-establishment in the Land of Promise to Greatness and Glory Wisdom and Doctrine of the Messiah whose Original Birth and Education is first to be recounted
Nehemiah was contented to be Ben Ephraim the afflicted and poor Messiah and Sabatai was well enough contented he should be so but that Nehemiah accused him for being too forward in publishing himself the latter Messiah before Ben Ephraim had first been known to the World. Sabatai took this reprehension so ill either out of pride and thoughts of his own Infallibility or that he suspected Nehemiah being once admitted for Ben Ephraim would quickly being a subtle and learned Person perswade the World that he was Ben David would by no means understand or admit of this Doctrine or of Ben Ephraim for a necessary Officer And thereupon the Dispute grew so hot and the Controversie so irreconcileable as was taken notice of by the Iews and controverted amongst them as every one fancied but Sabatai being of greater Authority his Sentence prevailed and Nehemiah was rejected as Schismatical and an Enemy to the Messiah which afterwards proved the ruine and downfal of this Imposture For Nehemiah being thus baffled and being a Person of Authority and a haughty Spirit meditated nothing but revenge to execuâ—e which to the full he took a Journey to Adrianople and there informed the chief Ministers of State and Officers of the Court who by reason of the gain the Turks made of their Prisoner at the Castle on the Hellespont heard nothing of all this concourse of People and Prophecies of the Revolt of the Iews from their obedience to the Grand Signior And taking likewise to his Counsel some certain discontented and unbelieving Cochams who being zealous for their Nation and jealous of the ill consequences of this long continued and increasing madness took liberty to inform the Chimacam who was Deputy of the Great Vizier then at Candia that the Iew Prisoner at the Castle called Sabatai Sevi was a lewd person and one who endeavoured to debauch the minds of the Iews divert them from their honest course of livelihood obedience to the Grand Signior and that therefore it was necessary to clear the World of so factious and dangerous a Spirit The Chimacam being thus inform'd could do no less than acquaint the Gr. Signior with all the particulars of this mans condition course of life and Doctrine which were no sooner understood but a Chaouse or Messenger was immediately dispatched to bring up Sabatai Sevi to Adrianople The Chaouse executed his Commission after the Turkish fashion in haste bringing Sabatai in a few dâ—ys to Adrianople without farther excuse or ceremony not affording him an hours spâ—ce to take a soleâ—n farewel of his Followers and Adorers who now were come to the vertical point of all their hopes and expectations The Grand Signior having by this time received divers informations of the madess of the Iews and the pretences of Sabatai grew big with desire and expectation to see him so that he no sooner arrived at Adrianople but the same hour he was brought before the Grand Signior Sabatai appeared much dejected and failing of that courage which he shewed in the Synagogue And being demanded several questions in Turkish by the Grand Signior he would not trust so far to the vertue of his Messiahshâ—p as to deliver himself in the Turkish Language but desired a Doctor of Physick who had from a Iew turned Turk to be his Interpreter which was granted to him but not without reffection of the standers-by that had he been the Messiah and Son of God as he formerly pretended his Tongue would have been loosed into Eloquence and perfection of Languages But the Grand Signior would not be put off wiâ—hout a Miracle and it must be one of his own chusing which was that Sabatai should be stripped naked and set as a mark to his dextrous Archers if the arrows passed not his body but that his flesh and skin was proof like Armour then he would believe him to be the Messiah and the Person whom God had designed to those Dominions and Greatness he pretended But now Sabatai not having Faith enough to stand to so sharp a tryal renounced all his Title to Kingdoms and Governments alledging that he was an ordinary Cocham and Jew as others were and had nothing of priviledge and virtue above the rest The Grand Signior notwiâ—hâ—tanding not wholly satisfied with this plain conâ—ession declared â—hat having given publick scâ—ndal to the Professors of the Mahometan Religion and done dishonour to his Soveraign Authority by pretending to withdraw from him so considerable a portion as the Land of Palâ—stine his Treason and Crime could not be expiated without becoming a Mahometan Convert Which if he refused to do the Stake was ready at the Gate of the Seraglio to impale him Sabatai being now reduced to his last game and extremity not being in the least doubtful what to do for to dye for what he was assured was false was against Nature and the death of a mad man Replied with much chearfulness that he was contented to turn Turk and that it was not of force but of choice having been a long time desirous of so glorious a profession he esteemed himself much honoured that he had an opportunity to own it first in the presence of the Grand Signior And here was the Non plus ultra of all the bluster and noise of this vain Impostour And now the Reader may pause a while and contemplate the strange point of consternation shame and silence to which the Iews were reduced when they understood how speedily their hopes were vanished and how poorly and ignominiously all their fancies and promises of a new Kingdom their Pageantry and Offices for Devotion were past like a tale or a midnights dream And all this was concluded and the Iews sunk on a sudden and fallen flat in their hopes without so much as a line of comfort or excuse from Sabatai more than in general to all the Brethren that now they should apply themselves to their callings and seâ—vices of God as formerly for that matters relating to him were finished and the sentence past The News of Sabatai turning Turk and of the Messiah to a Mahometan quickly filled all parts of Turky the Iews were strangely surprised at it and ashamed of their easiness of belief of the arguments with which they had perswaded others and of the Proselytes they had made in their own Families Abroad they became the common derision of the Towns where they inhabited the Boys houâ—ed after them coining a new word at Smyrna Pouftai which every one seeing a Jew with a finger pointed out would pronounce with scorn and contempt so that this deceived People for a long time after remained with confusion silence and dejection of spirit And yet most of them affirm That Sabaâ—ai is not turned Turk but his shâ—dow only remains on Earth and walks with a white head and in the habit of a Mahometan but that his Body and Soul are taken into Heaven there to reside until the time appointed for accomplishment of these Wonders And this
EMPIRE CONTINUED From the Year of Our Lord 1676 to the Year 1686. By Sir Roger Manley Knight year 1676 THE History of the Turkish Empire having been transferr'd to us by Mr. Knolles very methodically and well and continued by the deserving Pen of Sir Paul Rycaut to the Year 1676 being the Twenty eighth of Sultan Mahomet the Fourth now reigning We have as well by inclination as to satisfie the desires of some Friends thought fit to prosecute so landable a Design by extending the History of that great Monarchy to our present Times And though we may be defective in skill for so Eminent an Undertaking we shall notwithstanding add Industry to our Endeavours and compensate our Failings by the candour and ingenuity of our Narrative Achmet the great Visier being dead in his way to Adrianople was succeeded by Kara Mustapha his Brother-in-Law aged about fifty and who had exercised the Office of Caimacan for many years The Grand Seignior to indear him the more to him married him to one of his Daughters though very young not exceeding five years of age according to the custom practised by the Sultans to be rid of their Daughters betimes which are always numerous by reason of the multiplicity of their Concubines and by this means to ease themselves of the Expence which they are obliged to be at in maintaining them according to their Quality In the same Month of Ianuary the strong Garison of Canisia having drawn out a Party to attack the Isle of Sexin allarmed all Croatia by their Military Executions exacting Contributions and pillaging and burning such places as did not submit to their tyranny The Turks of Newhausel did also ravage the Countrey on their side as far as Frystat But before we enter upon this stage of War it may be requisite to say somewhat of the Troubles of Hungary which preceded and their causes and how the Infidels came to be Principals in a War of Religion between Christians The Kingdom of Hungary being subdivided into Counties as in England or Communities have right to send their Deputies to the Dyets or Conventions of the Estates which ought to be summoned every three years according to the Laws of the Kingdom year 1676 This Assembly is composed of the Clergy the principal Lords the Gentry and the said Deputies of the Counties In hath the right of choosing a Palatine who ought to be an Hungarian according to the priviledges of the Nation and to have the intire direction of War and Justice The great Lords have â—o great Authority over their Vassals that they are look'd upon as so many lesser Sovereigns in their several Territories They have also great Revenues which inables them upon occasion to raise considerable Bodies of Men the People in general being strong active and valiant but covetous vindicative and inconstant The great Employments of the Kingdom were also invested in the Natives and no Strangers were to be imposed upon them or Foreigners enquarrered amongst them all which the Emperour upon his Election to the Crown was obliged to observe by the solemnity of an Oath But on the other side there being very many Arrians Calvinists and Lutherans in the Countrey they added to the aversion the Natives have to the Germans having been as they thought too severely used by them complaining that they were hindred in the free Exercise of their Religion their Churches violently taken away from them and their Ministers forced from their Duty It was farther complained that the Grandees of the Kingdom were not permitted to injoy their Priviledges of which one was That none of them should for any Crime whatsoever be convened before any Iudges but those of their own Nation Notwithstanding all this as the Emperour had sworn to maintain their Priviledges he had likewise promised to defend their Country which could not be done against the Insults of so powerful an Enemy as the Turk without an Army and those strangers living ill with the Inhabitants and they again shutting their Towns against them occasioned infinite Violences and Disorders on both sides which Repugnancy was the source of all the Troubles in Hungary The Emperour beginning to suspect the fidelity of the Hungarians by reason of the obstinacy wherewith they refused to lodge his Troops began seriously to think of securing the Kingdom to himself which being perceived he augmented by that Precaution the hatred which the Nation had conceived against him which was re-doubled by the refusal of his Generals to withdraw their Troops out of their Fortresses These Grievances did so far agitate these Spirits already jealous and dissident that they at length resolved to shake off a Yoke that seemed so insupportable Many great Lords by their particular Interest were glad to entertain this aversion which might serve for the Execution of the Designs they had already formed And thus the Spirit of revolting did insensibly diffuse it self through the whole Kingdom and the general aversion grew to that height that they of the Religion said openly that they would rather live under the Domination of the Turks than the Tyranny of the Germans whilst one of their Preachers did dare maliciously to insinuate That these Infidels would at least grant them the liberty of their Religion whilst the Dutch would rack their Consciences under pretence of reforming them The Emperour being informed of these murmurings thought it expedient to secure the Lower Hungary and so strangle the Rebellion in its birth Their reiterated pressing to have the German Troops removed out of the Kingdom gave him just cause of jealousie and besides he would not lose the expence of all his toyls and those vast charges he had been at in fortifying the Frontier places and entertaining Armies capable to oppose the Invasions of the Turks Finally he judged it absolutely necessary to reduce a Nation to their duty that gloried in their disobedience to his Orders being a King is no farther a Sovereign than whilst he obliges his Subjects to pay obedience to the Laws and his Commands And thus in short we have shewed the cause of this Revolt which yet lasts on both sides and though perhaps this digression may seem foreign to some yet being the Turks have been so mainly concerned as to become Parties in it we thought it reasonable to subjoyn it to their History And now to come nearer to the matter in hand we will say somewhat of the Maxims of these Infidels which will give us some light into their Policies And first it is a fundamental one to keep their Men perpetually imployed for Idleness ingenders indigested Humours in the Politick as well as the Natural Body which renders it infirm Another Maxim is that they do never imploy their Forces more than in one War at one time unless against weak Princes Nor do they desire to continue long in Arms against the same Enemy unless constrained by their constancy to the â—nd they may not grow too warlike and expert but leaving them by Treaties and
their Sovereign The Truth is the Palatines and great Men of the Kingdom being weary to see the Crown as it were Hereditary in the House of Austria made use of the pretence of Religion to stir up the People and oblige them to take Arms for defence of their Liberty both Spiritual and Civil And this aversion was the true Cause of the War. The Emperour was no less dissatisfied with the Turks for General Kops having sent complaints to the Bassa of Waradiâ— for that he had given Quarters to the Hungarians in Places which depended on his Government the Bassa told him That he look'd upon them as Passengers who paid for what they took for their subsistance and that consequently he could not look upon their Reception into his Territories as any violation of the Peace The Hostilities betwixt the Imperialists and the Turks did still continue notwithstanding their Negotiations Five hundred Christian Horse commanded by Azos Benas advancing towards Erlaw were cut in pieces by the Infidels Another Party commanded by Collonel Wolping was likewise defeated by a Detachment from the Garrison of Newhausel with the loss of above 200 the Commander being also much hurt A few days after this Encounter the Bassa of that City dyed which occasioned an Accident which did well-nigh make a rupture betwixt the Emperour and the Port. The Imperialists had unadvisedly attack'd the new Bassa which the Grand Seignior did send to Newhausel and defeated his Convoy consisting of 200 Horse by way of Reprisal as they gave out for the Damages which had been done them by the Garrison of that Place without considering that this new Governour had had no share in these Violences The Bassa of Buda sent his complaints of this Affront to the Imperial General with threats that he would acquaint his Master with it and exact satisfaction by all the ways imaginable And they did so for drawing out strong Parties from the Garrison of Erlaw and Waradin they resolved to revenge the Insult done to the Bassa of Newhausel and marching towards Sando near Butrac which they pillaged they returned with above 200 Prisoners Count Wourmb the Emperour's General demanded Justice for this Violence from the Bassa of Buda but received no other answer but that what was done was by way of Reprisal During these Traverses Count Paul Wesselini dyed who had Commanded the Army of the Malecontents with great success but is succeeded by Count Tekeley young yet wary and brave who to this day heads the however broken discontended Party The Emperour who knew that the greatest force of Tekeley's Army came from Transilvania would divert Abaffi by re-establishing the Party of Pedipold who had formerly contested for the Sovereignty of that Principality To this end he obliged that Prince to send four Deputies to Constantinople to implore the protection of the Grand Seignior but the Visier caused them to be put into the Castle of the seven Towers which extremely surprised the Emperour's Resident who had orders to Negotiate that Affair joyntly with them The Emperour being informed hereof sent Monsieur Iullies with secret Instructions to the Port but he dyed by the way which did not a little trouble his Imperial Majesty being all this Envoy's Papers fell into Count Tekeley's Hands who drew no small advantage from the lights he received by them Hoffman Secretary of State returning from Constantinople was stopped at Belgrade being the Bassa of that Place refused to furnish him with necessaries for the continuation of his Journey But the Emperour having dispatch'd an Express to the Bassa of Buda to complain of this incivility he obtained what he desired Being upon his departure from Belgrade he was informed that the Great Visier was arrived upon the Banks of the Danube with a great Army and design to enter into the Province of Vkraine to fight the Muscovites he sent to demand Audience of him but this Minister returned him for answer That he should have it at Constantinople when the Campaign was ended Many and great were the Encounters betwixt the Imperialists and Malecontents the latter being for the most part successful who also ravaged Moravia being assisted by 2000 Tartars and Austria it self under the Command of Collonel Iosua sometimes a Priest known by the Name of Father of Ioseph who turning Protestant raised 6000 Men at his own Charges and joyning with the Malecontents grew formidable even to the Gates of Vienna But the Imperialists had also their turn and Count Esterhasi Governour of Papa attacked 2000 Janizaries and 500 Spahies near Vesâ—ren He took several Prisoners and amongst them some Agas As this Action might cause a Rupture if mis-represented betwixt the two Empires his Imperial Majesty dispatch'd a Courier to the Port to inform the Grand Seignior with the particulars of this Combat year 1679. The constancy of the Malecontents and their Intelligence with the Turks did not a little disquiet the Emperour but he was more troubled when he heard that these Infidels were upon the point of agreeing with the Muscovites which would put them into a Condition to turn all their power against him He thought he could not do better than to divert them by obliging the King of Persia to break with them and therefore sent the Baron of Meierburg to Hisâ—ahan to negotiate that Affair The Diet of Transilvania being held at Clausenburg the Grand Seignior as well to secure his own Interest as being dissatisfied with Prince Abaffi's Conduct sent the Bassa of Waradin with a strong Army to preside at that Assembly But things being accommodated betwixt them to the satisfaction of the strongest the Transilvanian and the Bassa's bordering upon his Principality who had been at the Diet had no other thoughts but of deliberating with the Deputies of the Hungarians of the means how to assist them The Emperour being advertised hereof sent Doctor Ferling to Constantinople to endeavour to penetrate into the Intentions of that Monarch and hinder that the Bassaes should not succour the Rebels There was also some under-hand dealing with the great ones of the Party to make their particular Peace with the Court. Amongst others the Proposition being made to Palaffi Imbre he found so little security in it that to shew his Companions he would never accommode himself with the Emperour he treated with the Bassa of Buda to deliver all the Places that were in his power into his hand and possession the which also he put in Execution tho' his Castle of Devin was in the mean time invested by Count Strasoldo before the Turks could enter it and together with the City forced by him 500 of the Garrison being made Prisoners The Grand Seignior to shew the esteem and satisfaction he had of the Person of Abaffi sent him a Sable as a token of his Favour and gave Orders at the same time to all the Bassaes of Hungary to send Troops and Forces as oft as he should require them being absolutely resolved to assist the Malecontents which he also
not to be disjoyned they therefore offer'd them Concessions they durst not have hoped for at the beginning of the War. They would yield to the Emperor all Hungary as far as the Drave to the King of Poland Caminiec and all Podolia and restore to the Venetians the Kingdom of Candia on condition they would part with what they had gained in Morea FINIS THE PRESENT STATE OF THE Ottoman Empire CONTAINING THE MAXIMS OF THE Turkish Polity The most Material POINTS of the MAHOMETAN RELIGION Their SECTS and HERESIES Their Convents and Religious Votaries Their MILITARY DISCIPLINE With an exact Computation of their Forces both by Sea and Land. In Three Books By Sir PAVL RYCAVT late Consul of Smyrna and Fellow of the Royal Society LONDON Printed by I. D. Anno MDCLXXXVII To the Right Honourable HENRY Lord Arlington His Majesty's Principal Secretary of State. MY LORD AFTER five Years residence at Constantinople in Service of the Embassie of the Earl of Winchelsea my ever honoured Lord and this my second Journey from thence by Land into my own Country I judged it a Point of my Duty and of my Religion too to dedicate this following Treatise as the Fruits of my Travels Negotiations and Leisure in those remote Parts to the Noble Person of your Lordship as that Votiva Tabula which many both in Ancient and Modern Times after some signal Deliverance or happy Arrival at their desired Port use to offer to their Gods their Saints or their Patrons And truly my Lord this Discourse treating chiefly of the Turkish Polity Government and Maxims of State seems naturally to appertain to the Patronage of your Lordship whose Faculties of Wisdom and Vertue have given you the Blessing of your Prince's Favour and the Reputation as well Abroad as at Home of an Eminent and Dexterous Minister of State. It were a great presumption in me to offer any Observations of my own in the Courts of Christian Princes to the Test of your Lordship's Experience and Judgment who not only is acquainted with the Customs and Manners but penetrates into the Designs and knows the Cabinet-Councils of Neighbouring Principalities with whom our divided World may possibly be concerned but perhaps without disparagement to your Lordship's profound Wisdom or over-value of my own Abilities I may confidently draw a rude Scheme before your Lordship of the Turkish Government Policies and Customs a Subject which Travellers have rather represented to their Country-men to supply them with Discourse and Admiration than as a Matter worthy the Consideration or Concernment of our Kings or our Governors It hath been the happy Fortune of the Turk to be accounted Barbarous and Ignorant for upon this Perswasion Christian Princes have laid themselves open and unguarded to their greatest Danger contending together for one Palm of Land whilst this Puissant Enemy hath made himself Master of whole Provinces and largely shared in the rich and pleasant Possessions of Europe This Contempt of the Turk on one side caused the Emperor to be so backward in opposing that Torrent of the Ottoman Force which in the first Year of the late War broke in upon him and the suspicion of Designs from France on the other altered the Resolutions and Councils of the Emperor for prosecution of the War which then running favourably on the Christians part was no less than with the astonishment of the whole World and of the Turks themselves on a sudden understood to be clapt up with Articles of a disadvantagious Peace admiring to see the Emperor give a stop to the Current of his Victories and relinquish the Game with a lucky Hand But this will seem no Riddle to those who penetrate Affairs with the same Judgment that your Lordship doth and consider the unfirm Condition the House of Austria was in by a daily expectation of the Death or fall of so main a Basis of it as the King of Spain and the Division amongst the Princes of the Empire the League of the Rhine the Freneh Practices to make the Duke of Enguyen King of Poland and the extravagant Demands of the French and Rhinish League for Winter-quarters and places of Strength not only in Hungary but also in Styria and the adjacent Places and at the same time look on the Factions in Hungary and a considerable Army of French in the Bowels of Germany who were supposed in those Parts to have rather come with Design to overawe the next Diet and force the German Princes to elect the French King for King of the Romans than with sincere and simple Intentions of opposing themselves to the Enemy of the Faith For then it will appear that the best use the Emperor could make of his good Success was Moderation in Victory and Reconciliation with his powerful Enemy And hereupon Earl Lisle being dispatched for Extraordinary Ambassador from his Imperial Majesty to the Grand Signior though the Turk was elevated with the thoughts of the Necessity the Christians had of a Peace did yet so happily manage his Charge and Employment as created in the Turks an extraordinary Reverence towards his Person and obtained such Honours and Treatments from them as the Turkish Court never bestowed before on the Emperor's or an other Christian Ambassador extorting this Complement from the Great Vizier That he was more satisfied the Emperor had sent so brave and illustrious a Person than if he had sought to reconcile his Affections with an hundred thousand Dollars more of Present And to do justice to this worthy Person he hath brought a Reputation to the British Nation above any in our Age whose Vertues and Industry have acquired the highest Trusts and Preferments in Foreign Parts and done the same Honour to his King under whom he was born a Subject as to the present Emperor and his Ancestors under whom he is and hath always been a faithful Minister having deserved so eminently for saving the whole German Empire from the Treason of Wallestein by hiw own single Act of Bravery a Story notoriously known to all the World as can never in gratitude be forgot by that Nation nor want its due Record and Place in the History of that Country The Speculation of what is contained in this following Discourse may seem unworthy of your Lordship's precious Hours in regard of that Notion of Barbarity with which this Empire is stiled yet the knowledg hereof will be like a Turquoise or some other Jewels set within the Rose of those many Gems of your Lordship's Wisdom and Vertues This Present which I humbly consecrate to your Lordship may be termed Barbarous as all things are which are differenced from us by diversity of Manners and Custom and are not dressed in the Mode and Fashion of our Times and Countries for we contract Prejudice from Ignorance and want of Familiarity But your Lordship who exactly ponderates the Weight of Humane Actions acknowledges Reason in all its Habits and draws not the Measures of Oeconomy or Policy from Eternal Appearances or
of his Sister Periaconcona himself murthered ib b. The Italians left by the Emperour for the Aid of King Ferdinand in his Wars in Hungary arise in mutiny 420 b. eight thousand of them forsake their Captains and return into Italy 421 b. Julia Gonzaga a fair Lady of Italy put in great fear by Barbarussa 432 a. Julian the Cardinal sent by Pope Urban to appease the dissention in Hungary and to stir up the Hungarians against the Turks 187 b. his effectual speech in Parliament to perswade the War 187 b. cunningly perswadeth King Uladislaus to break the honourable and solemn League he had before made with Amurath 198 a. disanulleth the League absolving the King and the rest from their Oath before given to Amurath 199 a. himself slain 203 b. K. The KIngdom of Hungary by Solyman converted into a Province of the Turkish Empire 481 a. The King of Spain's Edict for the banishment of the Morisques or new Christians 899 a. The King of Fez besiegeth Morocco and is defeated 914 a. The Knights of Malta crave Aid of Garzias the Viceroy of Sicilia 543 a. his cold answer 544 b. Komara besieged by Sinan Bassa 734 b. Koppan surprised by the Christians 706 a. L. LAdislaus a Child crowned King of Hungary at Alba-Regalis 177 a. Lazarus Despot of Servia becometh tributary unto Amurath the First 134 a. purposing to make war against Amurath craveth Aid of the King of Bosna 136 b. in a mortal battel overthrown in the Plains of Cossova and slain 139 a. League betwixt the Turks and Hollanders 916 b. Leopold the Arch-duke his proceedings in Bohemia 897 b. Lepanto yielded to the Turks 312 b. Letters Of Achmet Bassa to Collonitz concerning a Peace 821 b. of the Bassa of Buda to Collonel Althem 835 a. another 844 a. of Hassan the Visier and of Begedes Bassa to the German Soldiers besieged in the Castle of Vicegrade 859 a. of Collonitz to a certain Nobleman concerning the Troubles in Hungary 861 a. of Botscay to the Nobility and States of Hungary 862 a. from a Citizen of Vienna declaring the miseries of Hungary 864 b. of the German Emperour to the Persian King 873 a. from the Persian to the Spaniard 881 a. of Confederation betwixt the States of Austria and Hungary 885 b. of the Emperour to the Reformed States of Bohemia for the free exercise of their Religion 894 b. from Sultan Achmat to the Emperour and his answer thereunto 923 a. from Sultan Osman to the French King 949 a. to the King of Great Brittain 951 a. from Halil Bassa to the English Ambassador ib. b. from the King of Great Brittain to Sultan Osman 966 a. from the Grand Seignior to the King of Great Brittain 968 a. Lewis the Eighth of that Name the French King making an Expedition into the Holy Land is by the malice of Emanuel the Greek Emperour therein much hindered 24 b. he besiegeth Damasco where by the envy of the other Christian Princes he was enforced to raise his siege and so to return home into his Country 25 a. Lewis the Ninth the French King making an Expedition towards the Holy Land arriveth 〈◊〉 Damieta 71 b. 72 a. taketh the City forsaken by the Turks 72 b. with his whole Army overthrown and himself taken Prisoner 74 a. undertaketh a second Expedition toward the Holy Land with his Sons and most of his Nobility 83 a. overthroweth the Moors and besiegeth Tunes ib. b. falleth sick of the bloody flix and dieth ib. b. Lewis the Eleventh the French King giveth Aid unto the Venetians against the Turks 314 a. Lewis King of Hungary with an Army of five and twenty thousand fondly goeth against Solyman being two hundred and sixty thousand strong 405 a. overthrown in his flight drowned in a ditch 406 a. Liscanus the covetous Spaniard dealeth uncourteously with Perenus 495 a. himself in like sort served and merrily stripped of his wealth by Halis Captain of the Ianizaries 499 a. Lissa taken by the Turks and the bones of Scanderbeg digged up and by them worn for Iewels 290 b. Lodronius encourageth his Soldiers 461 a. jested at by an old Soldier ib. a. â—lain and his Head with the Heads of two other Captains in a Silver Bason presented to Solyman at Constantinople 462 a. Losses of the Turkish and Polish Armies in Sultan Osmans's Expedition against them 963 a. Lugaze a strong place delivered to Basta 828 a. M. MAhomet the First sendeth spies into Tamerlane's Camp 160 a. becometh famous in Tamerlane's Court 161 a. in battel overthroweth his Brother Isa 162 a. honourably buried the body of his Father Bajazet at Prusa 163 a. again overthroweth his Brother Isa supported by his Brother Solyman 163 b. giveth him a third overthrow together with the other Mahometan Princes his Confederates 164 a. besieged by his Brother Solyman in Amasia 165 a. upon report of his Brother Musa's evil Government goeth against him into Eutope 167 a. overthrown flieth back again into Asia ib. b. cometh again into Europe 168 a. besiegeth Hadrianople ib. b. overthroweth his Brother Musa in battel and causeth him being taken Prisoner to be strangled 169 a. wholly possesseth the Othoman Kingdom both in Europe and Asia ib. b. oppresseth Orchanes his Brother Solymans Son and putteth out his Eyes 170 a. taketh the Caramanian King and his Son Prisoners ib. a. enforceth the Valachian Prince to become his Tributary ib. a. dieth at Hadrianople 171 a. his death cunningly concealed by the three great Bassa's ib. a. he worthily accounted the restorer of the Othoman Kingdom almost quite overthrown by Tamerlane ib. b. Mahomet the Second sirnamed the Great an Atheist of no Religion 229 a. murthereth his Brethren ib. b. reformeth the Turks Common-wealth ib. b. subdueth Mentesia 230 b. winneth Constantinople 236 a. solemniseth his Feasts in Constantinople with the Blood of the Grecian Nobility 237 a. notably dissembleth his hatred against Caly Bassa ib. b. first Emperour of the Turks 238 a. amorous of the fair Greek Irene ib. b. with his own hand striketh off her Head 240 b. besiegeth Belgrade 243 a. wounded and carried away for dead 244 a. falsifieth his Faith with David the Emperour of Trapezond 245 b. seeketh to entrap Wladus Prince of Valachia ib. b. in danger to have been slain by Wladus Dracula his Ganymede 247 a b. his Letters to Scanderbeg 262 a. sueth to Scanderbeg to have the League renewed betwixt them 266 a. cometh himself in Person to the Siege of Croia ib. forsaketh the Siege of Croia 274 b. breaketh his faith with Paulus Ericus Governour of Chalcis 276 b. he is no less troublesome unto the Mahometane Princes than to the Christians 278 a. cometh himself to the Siege of Scodra 284 b. notably encourageth his Captains and Souldiers to a generall assault 285 b. melancholy for the repulse of his men 287 a. blasphemeth 289 a. curseth Epirus and so returneth to Constantinople 290 b. by Mesites Palaeologus one of his great Bassa's besiegeth the Rhodes 291 b.
air and address and the vivacity of her Spirit and fluency of her Language thought nothing difficult for her to obtain but missing thereof for Reasons best known to the Emperor who judg'd it not good policy to add greater Authority to a person who was Vice-King of Croatia and possess'd already more Power and Interest than he could willingly afford him the Lady was forc'd much against her Nature to acquiess in a denial but not being able to suppress the violent commotions of her Spirit she openly breath'd out her menaces against the Emperor and finding an humor in the People generally inclin'd to a Revolt easily perswaded her Son-in-Law Prince Ragotski and the other principal Nobles of Hungary to enter into an Association and Conspiracy against the Emperor The first thing they did was to complain of the German Garrison in Tokai and being assembled at Zemblin they fent their Deputies to represent unto the Emperor that according to the Laws and Privileges of that Kingdom all their Forts and Places of Strength ought to be Garrison'd with no other than Soldiers of their own Country That the Protestants receiv'd all sorts of ill treatment and discountenance their Churches were taken away and not restor'd as was promis'd and agree'd besides several other Aggrievances which they laid before the Emperor supplicating his Imperial Majesty to grant them ease and redress therein according to the Constitutions and Privileges of that Kingdom which his Majesty at his Coronation had Sworn to maintain To all which the gentle and sweet temper of his Imperial Majesty and the sense of his Conscience was inclin'd to yield a benign and gracious Answer had not Father Emeric a Jesuit and his Confessor instill'd other Principles and Motives into his Mind giving him to understand that it had always been the Prerogative of the Kings his Predecessors to dispose Garrisons in all places of that Kingdom consisting of such Nations as he should judge most for the safety and security thereof And that whereas at present the Hungarians were inspir'd with an humor of Rebellion and Revolt there was no reason to trust or confide in them but in the Germans only whose Loyalty and Duty was sufficiently known and approv'd by his Majesty Farther he added that the Hungarians had in the late War against the Turk suffer'd Waradin to be lost and at the Battle of St. Gothards upon the River of Raab had appear'd in such small numbers for defence of their Country as if they had intended to have betray'd it had it not been for the German and other Foreign Forces the whole Kingdom had become a Prey to the Turks With such Discourses as these the Deputies were entertain'd and dispatch'd away without other satisfaction at which the Nobles and People were so displeas'd that they gave a stop to the Payments they had begun to make towards building the Forts and cut all the Germans in pieces which they found quarter'd about the Country and particularly they kill'd forty Soldiers of the Regiment of Spaar near Xants the which piece of Blood and Slaughter was again return'd by the Germans and Force repell'd again by Force So that now all was open defiance War and Massacre To carry on the Great Designs in hand the Malecontents assembled at the Castle of Kivar upon the Frontiers of Transilvania about two Leagues distant from Ghibania where the Gold and Silver Mines arise The Principal Persons there present were Ladislas Giulaf Gabriel de Kende Benedict Seredey Ionas Veradt the Calvinist Minister of Cassovia also Derus Bansi General of the Transilvanian Forces Ianos Betlem the Chancellor Michael Talha Governor of the Frontiers with some others where a League was form'd between the Hungarian and Transilvanian Protestants to drive and expell the Germans out of the Kingdom to demolish Zatmar and to arm themselves in defence of their Religion In this accord the Wife of Prince Apafi appear'd extreamly zealous being a Woman of a Masculine Spirit a fierce Protestant and one who had a hand in all Matters whilst her Husband apply'd himself to Hunting and to the Conversation of Learned Men. In the mean time Count Nadasti having fail'd in his late Treason against the Emperor contriv'd to Poyson him at a Magnificent Banquet which he had prepar'd for him at which the Persons present were the Empress the two Imperial Princesses Prince Charles of Lorain with all the Court. The fatal Dish prepar'd for the Emperor was a Pidgeon Pye which he extreamly lov'd but God preserv'd his Sacred Person by means of the Lady to the Count who being endow'd with greater Sentiments of Honour and Religion than her Husband beseech'd him on her knees to desist from so black and so detestable a Wickedness but not being able to prevail upon him she Order'd the Cook to set another Pye of the same fashion before the Emperor in the place of that which was poyson'd of which he having eaten without any hurt Nadasti apprehended the dealing of his Wife therein and least the Cook should discover the Secret he kill'd him the same day with his own hand Count Serini tho' he was contriving all this time yet it was not in Matters of so black a nature as these He entertain'd several Conferences with Count Tassembach a Person of as Ambitious and unsetled an humor as any whatsoever year 1669. and ready to enter into any League and Conspiracy with the other Malecontents And in fine after many Consultations he concluded it necessary to engage the Turks with them in the whole Enterprize But lest it should come to be discover'd to the Emperor 's Resident at Constantinople by the openness of the Turks who can keep no Secret it was resolv'd that the Matter should be Negotiated by the Transilvanians who being already Subject to the Turks and under their protection might with less suspicion propose this Treaty This Overture being made to the Turks they immediately embrac'd it being an Offer which at the first sight appear'd very advantageous but then the next Condition requir'd by the Chimacam who was Kara Mustapha the Grand Vizier being then at the Siege of Candia was That in Consideration of the aid and protection which the Grand Seignior was to give unto the Hungarians they were to become his Tributaries in the same manner and on the same Conditions as the Transilvanians were This Demand tho it seem'd hard to the Hungarians yet they resolv'd to pursue their Design and accordingly sent their Agents to the Vizier at Candia hoping by the lenity and moderation of his Nature to obtain more easie terms than those demanded by the Chimacam and in the mean time to notifie their intention of Revolt unto all the World they caus'd a Standard to be erected with two Scymeters died with Blood and a Crescent or Half Moon over them The Grand Vizier being then labouring at the Siege of Candia and in a doubtful Condition of Success was not willing
Commission and accordingly besieged Chiacatorno and so streightly pressed it that Serini and his Brother-in-Law the Marquis Frangipani were forced to escape and abandon the City and leave it with all that was dear and precious to them for a Prey to their Enemies And so issuing forth by a secret Sally Port year 1670. with about 30 other Persons of quality with intention to submit and lay themselves at the Feet of his Imperial Majesty they unfortunately committed themselves to the guidance and direction of Count Keri who pretending great Friendship to them received them into his Castle with 5 or 6 Servants pretending that he could not receive or entertain a greater number for want of Furniture or Conveniences fit for their better Accommodation So soon as these two Lords with their Servants were within the Walls of the Castle Keri caused the Bridge to be drawn up and his Soldiers to stand to their Arms and placed Guards in all parts and avenues of the Castle The two Counts tho' very sensible of the Treachery of Keri yet dissembled their resentments thereof and suffer'd themselves to be carried Prisoners without any resistance to Vienna where they were at first Lodged in the Suburbs in the Convent of Augustin Friars from whence they were carried to the Swan Inn where they stay'd until towards night and then were separated and carried to divers places Serini was conducted to the House of Baron Ugart Lieutenant Colonel of the Regiment then in Garrison at Vienna and Frangipani to the House of Count Daun Major of the Town where they were both so civilly treated that they were not sensible of being under any restraint â—eing visited by all the Persons of Note and Quality in Town but by degrees the crouds of Visitants became thin and addresses faint and cold which were sure Indications of some thing evil intended against them For tho' his Imperial Majesty out of his natural Clemency was graciously disposed to have pardoned them yet having his Spirit exasperated by such as had a mind to enter into their confiscated Estates Process was made against them and things carried on to the highest Severity In the mean time Count Herberstein Governour of Carolstadt seized on all the places belonging to Serini and Frangipani without much difficulty or opposition only at Coade the Governour refused to surrender upon Summons but instead thereof display'd two Bloody Flags on the top of a high Steeple and return'd answer That he would be buried in that place before he would tamely yield it up and betray the charge committed to him which accordingly followed the same Evening for by that time Herberstein had by Force of Arms made his Entry into the Town and Castle where taking the Governour and seven other Officers he hanged them up wrapped in the same Red Flaggs which they had so lately display'd Thus were the measures of the Malecontents broke for some time and the whole Party discourag'd The Emperor on the other side prepares for War and raises a considerable Army The Duke of Brandenburg offers himself to serve in Person against the Rebels the Duke of Saxony had already Commanded 600 Horse 400 Dragoons and a thousand Foot to march for the Service of the Emperor under the Command of the Great Marshal Christian Ernest a Captain in those days of great Reputation The Count de Vaudemont offer'd moreover to contribute to his assistance with several Troops of Lorrainers but his Imperial Majesty being provided with a sufficient force of his own Subjects civilly refused their offers intending to reserve the same for times of extream and more pressing difficulties for 't is the policy of Wise and Cautious Princes never to admit Stranger Forces into their Dominions without a violent necessity to which the Emperor was not reduc'd because as yet the Turks had not joyn'd their Forces with the Armies of the Malecontents Howsoever both sides were in motion and big with Design one against the other Ragotski was preparing to Besiege Tokai and Zatmar and the Imperialists were making a Bridge of Boats near Presburg to open a passage into the upper Hungary Count Sporke in the mean time with some Troops of Horse defeared a Party of 2000 Hungarians killing 300 on the Place and taking ten Colours with the loss only of nine Men. Ragotski also receiv'd a Repulse before Tokai and Zatmar which tho' blockt up by him for some time yet having receiv'd late Recruits both of Men and Provisions they refus'd to surrender at his Summons which put him out of all hopes of prevailing against those Places And with these and the like Successes the Spirits of the Malecontents becoming more low and debased Ragotski the Chief of the Association enterâ—ain'd thoughts of submitting to the Emperor and to make his way more easie thereunto he freely set Count Staremberg at Liberty wiâ—h the other Officers whom he had deâ—ained Prisoners desiring them to interceed with his Imperial Majesty for his Pardon And farther to evidence a true Repenâ—ance for his late defection and real inâ—entions to return to his due obedience he rais'd the Siege from before Tokai and caus'd his Forces to march into Transilvania and particularly he employ'd Count Colonitz who had been his Prisoner with others to Negotiate in his behalf at the Court of the Emperor But this Count not being able to obtain other than ambiguous and general Answers from the Emperors Council it was not thought safe for Ragotski to rely on those terms and methods which had before fail'd in the Cases of Serini and Frangipani And therefore the Princess his Mother to play a surer Game and to take off all jealousie engaged in the name of her Son that he should receive into all places of his jurisdiction such Garrisons as the Emperor should please to impose upon him and maintain them at his own Charge Thus did the Troubles of Hungary seem to incline towards a Composure caus'd indeed by the evil directions of the Emperor's Council who to introduce an Arbitrary Power into a Free Kingdom and to make that Crown Hereditary which was Originally Elective and to force a Religion on them contrary to their Principles and Consciences had taken away their Churches and places where they assembled to serve God and compell'd them to receive German and Foreign Garrisons into all places and Fortresses of strength within that Kingdom So that if any thing may be said in defence and excuse for a People who rebel against their Prince year 1670. certainly the Hungarians had all those Arguments which might be deduced from the Topicks of Law Natural Liberty and Self-preservation to plead for them But notwithstanding this submission of Ragotski to the Emperor by which the Troubles seem'd in some measure to abate and the Malecontents to lay their Arms and Pretensions down yet still the Animosities were high and the minds of those who were Loyal and well-affected to the Emperor griev'd and afflicted to see their poor Country
over-run and harass'd with German and Foreign Souldiers wherefore in a sense thereof they sent their Deputies to the Emperor representing their Fidelity and constant Allegiance to his Majesty from which they had never suffer'd themselves to be sedâ—c'd and therefore they humbly pray'd that they might not be number'd with the guilty nor their Towns and Lands made a prey to the Liberty and Licentiousness of Soldiers In case any of their Country-Men had offended they ought to be legally Cited before the Tribunals of Justice but to make his Loyal Subjects equally noxious with the Disobedient was a Severity unagreeable to the known Clemency of his Imperial Majesty But all the moving Language which the Deputies could use in behalf of their Principals avail'd little for General Sporke being recruited with a considerable Army which General Heister had brought out of Bohemia was Commanded with all expedition to march into Hungary the appearance of which not only troubled the Hungarians but alarm'd the Turks who assembling in great numbers about the Quarters of Kanisia dispatch'd several Messengers one after the other to Vienna to know and to be satisfy'd of the Reasons and Causes which mov'd the Emperor in a time of Peace to send so considerable an Army to lodge and encamp on the Frontiers of the Grand Seignior's Country In like manner the Pasha's of Newhawsel and Agria being alarm'd with the near approach of this Christian Army prepar'd for a Defence and withal sent a Chiaus to General Sporke to assure him that the Grand Seignior had resolved not to assist or afford Aid unto the Malecontents nor to enter on the Emperor's Lands or to do any thing to the infringment or violation of the Truce some few years before concluded And on the other side the Chiaus told General Sporke that the Grand Seignior did conjure him to let him know the Causes and design which moved the Emperor to appear with a Force so considerable and in the times of Peace so unusual on the Frontiers To which the General returned answer That the Emperor his Master had no design or intention to pass the Limits of his Dominions or to act any thing towards a Rupture or to the Infringement of the Peace between him and the Grand Seignior and that the Commission he had received from the Emperor was only to suppress the Rebellion of his own Subjects who had taken up Arms against him And thus much he supposed to be lawful without any concernment of the Grand Seignior therein With these assurances the Chiaus departed and Suspicions and Jealousies seem'd to clear up on the side of the Turks And herewith did the Clouds in all quarters seem to disperse for a while For Ragotski who was chief of the League being brought into favour by the intercession of his Mother and all things accommodated by a Treaty which he held wâ—â—h the Prince of Holstein and General Heister a Passport or Writing of Safe Conduct was sent him by the Emperor and all the Offences and Crimes which were past were pardoned and forgiven to him And Ragotski on the other side that he might make a Return agreeable to so much Goodness and Clemency of the Emperor published his Edicts in all parts of his own Dominions forbidding his Subjects to Rise in Arms or to favour the Cause of the Malecontents either directly or indirectly upon pain of losing their Noses or Ears or being more severely proceeded against by Punishment of Death year 1670. Ragotski had thus wisely made his peace with his Sword in his Hand whil'st poor Serini and Frangipani had partly by their own Fears ill Conduct and Treachery of others fallen into the power of their Enemies With whom at first they received a kind Treatment and hopes of being set at Liberty with restitution to their Estates Dignities and Privileges But afterwards time discovering many private Practices which at first were unknown and lay concealed the Chief Ministers of State for the Reasons before mentioned and to make some Examples of the Emperor's Indignation for the late Revolt perswaded his Caesarean Majesty to proceed against them by Impeachment of High Treason which when Serini perceived he wrote an Expostulatory Letter to the Emperor to this purpose That tho' the Hungarians had much to say for themselves in regard to their Laws and their Country which Nature and Religion obliged them to dâ—fend And tho' the Provocation was high when the House of Austria labour'd to make that Kingdom Hereditary which was originally Elective and to subvert the Laws and Liberties of the People who were by their Constitutions free as any Nation of the World and to introduce upon them Tyranny and Oppression with the loss of their Privileges and Religion yet he would not justifie himself upon any of those Topicks but rather insist on his Innocence and Avow that he did never Enter into any League with the Turk nor take up Arms against his Sovereign against whom neither by himself or his Subjects he had committed any act of Hostility but to the contrary had blindly obey'd the Commands of his Imperial Majesty the which appear'd by the Negotiation of Father Forstal in his behalf by whom he sent his only Son for a Hostage and with him a blank Paper that the Emperor might inscribe therein what Articles and Conditions he judged fit moreover that he had enjoyned his Son-in-Law Prince Ragotski to submit unto the Emperor at a time when he was at the Head of an Army and possessed the Narrow passes leading to the Mountains and other advantageous places of great importance He deny'd all Intercourse and Correspondence with the Turks unless it were with intention to betray them and that when they tempted his Faith and Fidelity to the Emperor with large offers of reward he discover'd all to the Count of Rothal to whom he Read the very Letters which were sent to him and held no Treaty with any but what he had made known to his Imperial Majesty He highly insisted on the promises made him by the Baron Oker Lord Chancellour who assured him that the Disgrace into which he was fallen should serve to raise him to higher Dignities and that Prince Lubkovitz had in the presence of Baron Oker promised him great rewards in case he could take off Prince Ragotski his Son-in-Law from the disaffected Party Which he had accordingly done and so well succeeded therein that immediately upon the Receipt of his Letter Ragotski had set Count Staremberg at Liberty and entirely submitted himself with all his Forces to the Will and Devotion of his Majesty After all which and much more that he could alledge in justification of himself he might reasonably hope that his Majesty who was a Prince of unparallell'd Clemency would deal with him after the generous Example of Julius Caesar who burnt the Letters of Pompey and Scipio without Reading tho' thereby he might have discover'd the Names and Plots of all the Conspirators against
propriarum usu insimul interdictis funeratione verò demortuorum Evangelicorum nisi Plebani Catholici eatenus prout Baptismatum Copulationum Sacramentorum Officio ritu opera uti vellent ad disrepectuosa quadriviorum compitorum campepestrium loca amandata totali integro actuali Articularis Ecclesiae Helvetio Evangelicae beneficio esset orbatum quare plenariam sui praemissorumque occupatorum ablatorum prohibitorum omnium realem restitutionem redintegrationem vi praespecificati Articularis indulti jure merito expeterent Par ratio Oppidi Jafzbrinij Oppidi Comarom Non sine animi dolore conquererentur quoque cives incolae stipendiarij item Milites Hungarici Confinij Comaromiensis Augustanae Helveticae Confessionis Quod posteaquam vigore Articuli 26. Diaetae Soproniensis ubi idem Confinium perexpressun denominaretur tam liberam publicae Religionis exercitij praxin quam Templorum etiam ac Scholarum Parochiarum pacificam adepti fuissent ac in iis imperturbate fine laesione Catholicae Religionis perstitissent utque dum Artic. 1683. ob fatales belli tumultus insperatam Oppidi Conflagrationem Ministris eorundem Evangelicis una cum civibus hinc inde dispersis tale liberum Religionis exercitium quodammodo intermitti contigisset jamnunc annis fatis clementioribus supervenientibus ubi virtute praescripti Articuli 26. idem publicum Religionis suae exercitium reassumere Ministros suos Ecclesiasticos reducere voluissent intervenientibus Excellentissimi D. Comitis à Hoffkircher dicti Confinii Commendantis loci Cleri contradictionibus id effectuare in praesens usque nullatenus permissi imo de die in dies gravioribus minis absterriti totali Religionis suae exercitio inhibiti privati sunt pro uti talem inhibitionem ulterius quoque praeattacti D.D. Catholici practicaturi tribus abhinc mensibus circiter ad pulsum tympani per plateas Confinij factum etiam ad circumjacentia loca egressum Evangelicis pro peragenda devotione sua sub incaptivatione aliis gravibus poenis severissime interminati sunt prohibitis etiam precibus in privatis alias aedibus peragi solitis Hinc non absimiliter pro Articulari sui praemissorumque restitutione redintegratione supplicarent His Accederet Inferioris Hungariae Possessionis Hodos nuncupatae Praedicantem Evangelicum Samueleni Riczkey dictum non obstantibus Protectionalibus ex intimo Consilio Bellico eidem Possessioni gratiose elargitis hinis vicibus per homines Celsiss Rever D. Archiepiscopi Strigoniensis esse expoliatum omni supellectili domestica privatum ultimum etiam in prsona 22 praeteriti mensis Martij captum Posoniumque ad aedes Archiepiscopales in carceres deductum ubi dire dure tractatur nonnisi sicco pane squalida aqua emaceratur Similiter superioris Hungariae Possessionis Totthfalu Praedicantem Evangelicum per Naghybaeniarensis Residentiae Patrem Iesuitam Ravasz vocatum captum vinctumque ad carceres Szatthmarienses deduci curatum ubi etiamnum detineretur miserrime tractaretur Diaetae Posoniensis Ann. 1687. Articulus XXI In negotio Religionis renovantur Articuli 25 26 Ann. 1681. cum interjecta Declaratione LIcet quidem in Negotio Religionis Augustanae Helvetiae Confessioni addicti Articulis 25 26 novissimae Diaetae Soproniensis oppositam iisdem per reclamationem suam abutentes ipso facto eorundem beneficij participes esse desiissent propter bonum nihilominus domesticae unionis pacis internamque Regni tranquillitatem cum sua Majestas Serenissimae ex gratia clementia sua praecitatos Articulos adhuc ratos fore benignissime resolvisset eosdem status quoque ordines ad mentem Paternae resolutionis Cleri aliorum secularium Catholicorum contradictione non obstante pro renovatis priori firmitati restitutis censendos acsi in quantum hactenus ineffectuati vel verò per aliquos abusus ab una aut altera parte medio tempore introductos violati fuissent suae debitae executioni tempore eorundem conditorum Articulorum vel expost occupatorum aut reoccupatorum impendendae restaurationi utprimum demandandos esse statuerunt THE GRIEVANCES Of the two Imperial and Free Cities of Vpper Hungary Cassovia and Epperies wherein are Contain'd the Injuries done to all the Protestant Citizens and Inhabitants of the three Ranks as well in their Civil Liberties against the 25th 26th and 41st Articles of the Diet of Sopron An. 1681. together with their Demands FIRST It must be allow'd that in the 26 th Article of that Diet year 1681. by the Special Favour of His most Sacred Majesty 't was expresly Ordain'd in these very Words But in other parts 't is Order'd according to His Majesty's Gracious Resolution that Places be appointed for the Building of Churches and Schools and Erecting Parishes for the Conveniency of those of the Helvetian Confession and of that of Ausbourg That instead of the Churches Schools and Parishes taken from the Protestants there should be Assign'd them by Commissioners appointed from His Majesty commodious and convenient Places and that without any Restriction even in the Cities of upper Hungary according to the literal and genuine sense of the Clause of the said Article which saith Furthermore in the Free and Mountain Cities as also in all the Cities of upper Hungary are Places to be allow'd for the Building of Churches and Schools and Erecting Parishes Nevertheless in the beginning of Ianuary in the year 1687. His Majesty's High-Commissioners appointed with so much Clemency in upper Hungary were so far in their proceedings from satisfying either His Majesty's pious Resolution or the true and clear intent of the Article that even in contempt of them all and in compliance with their own false Glosses they did assign to the Protestants inconvenient and undecent places without the said Cities which have no Suburbs and consequently very remote in the Fields to the evident exterminating of the free Exercise of our Religion from the said Cities Wherefore we do constantly insist on the most Holy Resolution of His Majesty as it is declar'd in the express'd words of the Article before alledg'd and by vertue thereof do humbly implore that instead of the inconvenient appointed Places such others as shall be both commodious and free from all Civil Taxes or Contributions according to the intention of the 8 th Article An. 1647. and the 12 th An. 1649. in the above-mentioned Cities and within the Walls of the same without any Ambiguity since the before-cited 26 th Article includeth the inward not the outward parts of the Cities be granted and assign'd to us the true and lawful Citizens and in no wise deserving so unjust a Banishment from the midst of the Cities Secondly 't is also undeniable that in the 25 th Article immediately foregoing the Gracious Resolution of His Most Sacred Majesty is declar'd in these very words To all and every one through the Kingdom no Protestant Inhabitant
Sixthly Every body knows that by Vertue of the 25 th Article not only a free return and stay in the Kingdom is granted to the Banisht Ministers and School-masters but also a free exercise of their Religion and Profession and by Vertue of the following 26 th Article it is Order'd That amongst the imperial and free Cities of Upper Hungary Cassovia and Epperies shall be appointed and establish'd places for the publick and free exercise of the Protestant Religion and that hereafter no Subject shall be disturb'd in the free exercise of his Religion under the pain expressed in the 8 th Article of the 6 th Decree of Uladislaus Nevertheless the Magistrate of Epperies on the very Festival Day of St. Bartholomew the Apostle in the Year 1688 last past dar'd deprice the Protestant Church of Epperies establish'd by the Articles of their Ministers and with great dishonour expel all the Protestant Ministers of the three Nations out of the said City and its Territory without letting them know any cause of so injust an usage or shewing them any Warrant of His most Sacred Majesty for it pretending only an unheard of Title of Lord of the Manor which cannot be admitted among Civilians since they enjoy equaly with the Magistrate the common civil Liberty nor amongst Clergy Men who enjoy a special Liberty nor can it in any wise be taken by Magistrate whose Office is but for a year to the great diminishing of His most Sacred Majesty's Authority and the Contempt of the before mentioned Articles Wherefore they humbly beg that the innocent and unjustly Banish'd Protestant Ministers of Epperies be restor'd and may perform as before their Ecclesiastical Duties and that both the Protestant Ministers of Cassovia and those of Epperies employ'd either in Preaching or in Teaching Schools present or to come being always presented by the right Patrons may live quietly and safely in their own or hir'd dwelling places which they have or shall have within the Walls of the said Cities Seventhly No body that knows the Law will deny but in the beginning of the aforesaid 41 st Article of the Diet of Sopron where the Common Liberties and Privileges of the imperial and free Cities are confirm'd and besides the there mention'd Laws and Articles of the Kingdom made in several places are renewed it is expresly ordain'd That the same Laws and Articles be strictly observed both by the Chambers and the Officers of the Army and by any other person whatsoever so that they viz. the same imperial and free Cities be no way disturbed by any one in their free right to chuse a Civil Magistrate nor in any other Privilege Nevertheless the modern Magistrate of the said Cities against the Prohibition contain'd in the 83 th Article of the Illustrious Chamber of Scepusium in the year 1647 out of meer private hatred against our Religion was pleased to take upon him such a Power as to degrade and turn out of their publick Dignities and Civil Employments all the Senators of Cassovia and Epperies and several other Protestant Officers well deserving and qualified for publick Offices and Civil Dignities against the evident Constitution of the aforesaid Article and of those that are cited in it but especially of the 13 th before the Coronation in the year 1608 of the 44 th in the year 1609 and of the 12 th in the year 1649 to the most evident prejudice of the Common Liberties and Civil Privileges and to the considerable oppression of the Protestant Citizens and in the room of the said Senators and Protestant Officers the said Magistrate has put Catholick Citizens either less fit or wholly unacquainted with the Affairs of the said Cities and more minding their private concerns to the damnifying and even undoing of the said Cities Wherefore we require with the deepest Humility First That the free right of chusing the Civil Magistrate and other Officers which hitherto has been so disturbed and wholly taken away from the Protestants against the positive Laws of the Kingdom made in the Illustrious Chamber of Scepusium belonging properly and only to the Sworn Citizens of the same Cities and as well to the Protestants as to the Catholicks be restor'd and maintain'd in its former State and in no wise any more disturbed by any one under the pain mention'd in the renewed and aforesaid Articles Secondly That in order to maintain a Civil mutual Union and put out any Fewel of Division and Hatred a free Election be made of the same Magistrate and other Officers out of the well deserving and well qualified Sworn Citizens without any difference of the Catholick and Protestant Religion and that the Employments and any Civil Dignities whatsoever be indifferently and equally conferr'd and bestowed so that the Catholicks and Protestants promote mutually one another to publick civil Honours according to the intention of the aforesaid 13 th Article of the year 1608 before the Coronation and of the 44 th of the year 1609. Thirdly That in order to observe a just equality of Turns and procure the publick good of the Cities it be graciously granted that the Offices of Judged and Tribune be by Turns and promiscuously exercised for a year according to the intention of the aforesaid Articles and of the 12 th in the year 1649. All the Protestant Citizens and Inhabitants of the three Nations of the Free and Imperial Cities Cassovia and Epperies The Grievance of the Protestants of the Free and Imperial City of Carpona IT is not without a great deal of Grief that all the Noblemen and Gentlemen all the Auxiliary Forces and hired Soldiers of both sorts and all the Protestant Inhabitants and Citizens of Carpona think it their Duty to Represent to Your most Sacred Majesty that altho' according to Your most Sacred Majesty's Resolution inserted in the 26 th Article of the Diet of Sopron Anno 1681. Among the places of the Kingdom which were to be appointed for the Building of new Churches and Schools and Erecting Parishes for the conveniency of those of the Helvetian Confession and of that of Ausbourg the same City of Carpona is particularly named and established to be one of the places where the free exercise of Religion should entirely and quietly be enjoyed as it may be seen in these words In the Division before the Mountains at Leva Carpona and Tulekin Nevertheless Your Majesty's High Commissioners appointed in the year 1688 last past in the Mountain Cities being come to that of Carpona whereas according to the intention of the aforesaid Article and of Your Majesty's Gracious Resolution and Declaration contain'd in it instead of the convenient Churches and Schools and Parishes which were from the Protestants of the Confession of Ausbourg they should have appointed other convenient and fit places and left the Protestants in the quiet Possession of them according to the intention of the 19 th Article in the year 1647 did on the contrary turn the Protestant Ministers and School-masters out of
their Offices and with severe Threats forbid both all the Protestant Noblemen and Gentlemen all the Soldiers of the Garison as well as all the Inhabitants and Citizens to continue the Exercise of Religion which had been enjoy'd in the same place from time out of Memory and was confirm'd by the Articles as we have already said till your Majesty's further Resolution were known to the great prejudice of a Spiritual Exercise which suffers no delay and to the diminishing of the Right granted to the Protestants by the Articles and confirm'd by Your Majesty's Favour Therefore they do wholly Rely on the Articles and Your Majesty's Grant and Humbly beg that not only convenient and fit places within the Walls of the said City be appointed to them for the Building of Churches and Schools and Erecting Parishes but also that they may have a Free Exercise of Religion together with the common and indifferent use of Bells and Burials according to the aforesaid 26 th Article of Sopron and as they had formerly The Grievances of the Imperial and Free Protestant Cities Veterozolium Breznobania and Libethbania ALL the Protestants of the same Imperial and Free Cities set forth their most lamentable Case in respect of Religion that whereas they should noy be hinder'd to enjoy at least in private the free Exercise of Religion granted by the Articles of Sopron to all and every where in the Kingdom without excepting any part of it and less the fourth State which comprehends all the Imeprial and Free Cities of the Kingdom belonging properly to the Crown through His Imperial Majesty's Favour according to the clear and evident explication of the 1 st Article made before the Coronation in the year 1608. and confirm'd in the 25 th Article of Sopron but rather by virtue of the following 26 th Article of Sopron which speaks in general of the Cities and by way of instance names only two of each sort viz. of the Mountain Cities and of the Free Cities His Majesty's High Commissioners appointed in the year 1688. should also have appointed them commodious and convenient places for the building of new Churches and Schools and erecting Parishes yet they have obtain'd nothing On the contrary the Ministers have been turn'd at and expell'd by the High Commissioners and the Protestants have been most severely forbidden by the same to exercise their Religion in private or to go to any Neighbouring place where their Religion is Exercised Moreover against the express grant of the 11 th and 12 th Article in the year 1647. maugre the Protestants and by force the said High Commissioners have assign'd and appropriated all the Proper Revenues of Schools and Churches to the Catholick Curates which they have brought in and have very few Followers in the Cities of Veterozolium and Breznobania and but one in Libethbania In fine the said High Commissioners did by all means and do still compell without distinction all the Protestant Inhabitants and Citizens especially the Trades and Handy-craft-men to Ceremonies contrary to their Religion therefore the said Protestants humbly beg the same Liberty of Religion as is granted in the Articles and enjoy'd in other Cities since these in no wise deserve a worse case and that there may be assign'd them convenient places for the building of new Churches and Schools and erecting Parishes The Grievances of the Free and Imperial Cities St. George Bazinga Tyrnaw Szakoliza Kussegh and Rust. THese Free and Imperial Cities do also lament and set forth their desolate Case and great Unhappiness in respect of Religion that whereas according to the genuine Sense of the Articles of Sopron made in the behalf of Religion its free Exercise is granted to every one and every where in the Kingdom they should not be hinder'd to enjoy at least in private the said free Exercise of Religion but by Virtue of the 26 th Article of Sopron which speaks in general of the Cities Places should have been appointed them for the Building of Churches and Schools and Erecting Parishes yet they have obtain'd none of the premisses but on the contrary have been forbidden to exercise any way their Religion their Ministers have been expell'd and forbidden to come any more into the said Cities it is prohibited under the sorest punishment to frequent the places where there is Exercise of Religion to go thither to have Children Baptiz'd or to receive the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper and to send for Protestant Ministers to Sick and Dying Persons in a word the whole Exercise of the Protestant Religion is forbidden against the sense of the aforesaid Articles and the Protestants are compell'd to Ceremonies contrary to their Religion therefore they humbly beg that they may enjoy the same Benefit as is granted in the Articles and have places appointed them for the Building of Churches and Schools and Erecting Parishes as well as the other Cities since that Privilege is equally granted to all and therefore the case of some ought not to be worse than that of others The Grievances of the Free and Imperial Cities Trenschin and Modra THese two Free and Imperial Cities complain with a great deal of Sorrow that by Virtue of the 26 th Article of Sopron the Lords Commissioners did indeed assign to them places for the Building of Churches and Schools and erecting Parishes and grant them the free Exercise of their Religion but with such Limitation and Restraint as take away many things essentially requisite and necessary for the said exercise of Religion and are directly contrary to the genuine intention of the Articles as First The Lords Commissioners did lessen the Number of the Protestant Ministers and forbid others to be put in their room after their Death Secondly They did forbid all the Protestants to whom a free Exercise of Religion is granted by Virtue of that General Clause of the 25 th Article to every one and every where in the Kingdom to frequent the Neighbouring Churches and perform in them any duty of Religion Thirdly They did forbid the Ministers to Visit the Estrangers were they never so Sick. Fourthly They did Order that the Handy-craft-men and common sort of People should be compell'd under severe punishment to Ceremonies contrary to their way viz. To walk with the Catholicks in Procession and carry processional Trophies Fifthly They did forbid the Protestant Ministers to go and Administer Baptism or perform other Ceremonies in the Neighbouring Towns. Sixthly They did appoint that there should be no petty Schools but such where Children could Learn only to Read and to Write The Grievances of the Counties of Vpper Hungary Semlin Abavivar Unghwaar Saraz Tornaw c. and of all the Protestant Noblemen and Gentlemen living in the Mountain Towns of the Principality of Tokai THe same Protestants are forc'd to Represent to Your Most Sacred Majesty that although in the following words of the 26 th Article of Sopron but in other Counties as in those of Salawar Vesprim Saraz Moramoruss Abavivar Sellia
Religion is granted also to all the Ministers and School-masters that are either Banish'd or Kept out of their Employments by reason of certain Deeds of Reversion the same Deeds being hereby made void and of no effect From thence it follows evidently that the Ministers and Schoolmasters are to be restor'd from their Exile to their respective Professions and may live freely in any City Town or Village of the Kingdom performing the Duties of their Religion and Profession and that no more Deeds of Reversion can be requir'd from them since such Deeds are condemned in the Article III. And no Hungarian Subject shall be disturbed any way hereafter in the free Exercise of his Religion These words no Hungarian Subject exclude undoubtedly any Exception the meaning plainly is that no Ecclesiastical or Civil Person no Nobleman no Citizen nor Peasant ought to be disturbed in the free exercise of Religion and no Body will deny but that an exercise of Religion can in no sense be term'd free unless there be Ministers that officiate in it IV. None of the Helvetian Confession and of that of Ausburg shall be compelled to any ceremony contrary to his Religion The generality of these words confirms the foregoing i.e. that no Nobleman nor Gentleman no Citizen nor Peasant ought to be compelled The XXVI ARTICLE V. MOreover the Churches that have been Built by those of the Helvetian Confession and of that of Ausbourg and whose Members are not yet reconciled to the Catholick Church shall be assign'd to them by certain Commissioners Hereupon we require that those Chappels and Churches be deliver'd and assign'd to us whose Members are not yet reconciled to the Catholick Church of which sort many would be found in the Counties of Lypcze of Owar c. VI. It is order'd also according to his Majesty's Gracious Resolution that in other places the same Commissioners assign places to build Churches and Schools and erect Parishes for the conveniency of those of the Helvetian Confession and of that of Ausbourg Hereupon we require that instead of the inconvenient and undecent places which are assigned out of Cassovia and Esperies in Upper Hungary others be appointed within the Walls as also in all the Free and Royal Cities where there is convenient and large espaces since thus much is signifi'd by the words which will be set down lower Fig. 9. VII But in other Counties as in those of Salawar of Vesprim of Saraz of Moramoruss of Abavivar of Sellia of Semlyn of Ugoza of Bodrogh of Tornaw of Komorra of Barzod of Sachsag of Novigrad of Zolnock of Hewecz of Pesth Pelicz and Soldth united of Unghwar of Chege and of Zatmar since the Evangelicks are actually in possession of almost all the Churches there the same Churches are left for the use of the actual possessors of them Hereupon we require that the Evangelicks may recover and undisturbedly possess all the Churches which were possessed by them in the aforesaid Counties when the Article was made and which for the most part are now taken from them against the said Article VIII The same is granted in the Frontier Towns of the Kingdom viz. to those of Zentgrod in the division near Canisa of Tyhany Vasony Papa Vesprim Raab and Comorra in the division of Raab of Leva Carpen and Tuletin in the division before the Mountains and of Putnock Onod Zendro Tokai Calo and Zatmar in the division of Upper Hungary By vertue of this Grant the Evangelicks that live in Maromaruss Carpen Tokai and in any other abovemention'd Frontier Town ought to enjoy the same free exercise of Religion and use the same Churches as they did in those Towns when the Article was made IX Furthermore in all the free and Mountain Towns as in Trenschinmodra Cremnicz Novizolium and in all the Cities of Upper Hungary places shall be assign'd likewise for Churches Schools and Parishes What more direct and clear can be concluded from these words but that in the free Cities such as are Cassovia Epperies Leuschovia Bartpha Cibinium Kesmurkim Nagybania Presburg Tyrnaw Zakoliza Bazinium Modra St. George Kussegh Rust and in the Mountain Towns such as are Novizolium Veterozolium Carpen Schemninizium Cremniczium Libeten Breznow Baka Bela Vibania c. for the modifying of which two of each sort viz. of the free Cities and of the Mountain Towns are brought as instances with a certain distinction or specification used before convenient places for Churches Parishes and Schools must be assigned not out of the Walls which were to restrain the Article but in the very middle of the Cities and Towns according to the genuine and literal meaning of the words of the aforesaid Article X. Finally the Churches which are actually possessed by those of the Helvetian Confession and of that of Ausburg shall be still for their use as before together with the Parishes and Schools and their Revenues that they may live in peace and quiet but the same free use of Bells and Burials is left to the Catholicks in those parts as to them This confirms evidently the above written seventh Point and signifieth that the Churches which the Evangelicks were actually possessed of should remain for their use together with the Revenues Parishes and Schools the Bells and Burials remaining common for the use of both Parties XI Nevertheless the Catholicks shall not be obliged to pay any thing to the Ministers of the Evangelicks nor the Evangelicks to the Curates of the Catholicks according to the meaning of the 11 th Article Ann. 1647. This cannot be clearer nor better Commented upon than by the confirmed 11 th Article which runs thus The Evangelicks shall not be obliged to pay any thing to the Catholick Curates nor the Catholicks to the Evangelick Ministers And by the following 12 th Article yet more plainly in these words But where the Evangelicks have no Parishes let them pay the Ministers that they employ as the Catholicks are to pay their Catholick Curates and where hitherto the Evangelicks did pay nothing to the Catholick Curates they shall not be obliged hereafter to pay under any pretence whatsoever Nor the Catholicks to the Evangelick Ministers Add to this the words of the aforesaid 12 th Article in the year 1647 concerning the Revenues and Pensions of the Schools But in any place whatsoever the Catholick Curates and the Evangelick Ministers shall receive the Revenues of Schools and Pensions from their respective followers by which most evident constitution of the Articles the Evangelicks are freed and discharged from paying any thing to the Catholick Curates and to this positive Law we desire to adhere XII All the Peers and Noblemen that live in the Kingdom have Liberty to Build and Endow Oratories and Chappels according to their respective profession of Religion in their usual places of Residence Hereupon we require that Noblemen may have Oratories and Chappels according to their respective professions of Religion in their usual dwelling places as the same was practised in many Counties after
in case either of these Parties be hard pressed by the Enemy so that the Aid and Assistance of the others be necessary they shall leave their present Designs and apply themselves to the Relief of the Party oppressed That this War be carried on by way of Diversion that is That the Emperor endeavour to conquer and subdue all the Forts and strong Holds in Hungary the King of Poland to recover Kaminiec Podolia and Ukrania and the Venetians the several Towns Fortresses and Islands which they have lost That so soon as these Articles are signed that the several Covenants herein contained be put into immediate Execution That all Christian Princes be invited to enter into this League and especially the Czar of Moscovy That this League shall not be understood to prejudice any other League made with any other Prince particularly That lately concluded between the Emperor and the King of Poland Thus did the Senate of Venice after Mature Deliberation for that Republick did never act rashly enter into the Confederacy with the aforesaid Allies against the Turks The many Insults and Avanias with which the Grand Vizier and others did daily oppress them of which at the beginning of this History we have given some Instances and the difficult Circumstances they lay under by these hard Task-masters who were continually drawing and forcing Mony from them upon false pretences without which they always threatned War were just Grounds and Reasons for breaking that Peace which was concluded with them after the loss of Candia in the year 1668. This happy League was farther improved by Applications to the Czars of Moscovy who had not long before signified unto the Court of Poland their inclinations to enter into this Alliance to forward which the Baron of Zerowski was dispatched into Moscovy and in his way thither by Poland to take Blumferg with him being both Commissionated to Sollicite the Czars for their Assistance and Union with the other Confederates The like Addresses were made to the Princes of Italy who being encouraged and warmed by the late prosperous Successes were ready to contribute all the Force and Aid within their Power The City of Rome moved by the Exhortations and Examples of the Pope did chearfully Concur and the Cardinals Princes and Prelates did all Contribute immense Sums for carrying on this Holy War And the Pope did not only Issue forth liberally Monies out of his own Coffers but sent Forces which were raised in his own Dominions and Territories to joyn with the Imperial Army in Hungary Thus did all things according to the usual course of Nature Concur towards the Prosperity of the Christian Affairs for Mankind naturally sides with the uppermost and strongest side and are ready to depress and beat down the weak and dejected Party Nor did the Emperor only endeavour to fortifie and strengthen his side by united Interests and Alliances but to weaken his Enemies by with-drawing from them the Malecontents who were their Associates and the first Incentives to this War The Successes of the Emperor had damped the Spirits of the Malecontents in such manner that they began now to believe the Turks were vincible and that they had put their Trust in a feeble Arm of Flesh which could not Defend them and engaged their Interest with a Party from which they could promise themselves no Security or Redress Wherefore seriously laying aside their former ill Principles many of the Counties and Cities began to Capitulate and desire to have their Aggrievances redressed upon which they promised to submit unto the Emperor's Pleasure and return to their Obedience But this good Humour being not general amongst all the Malecontents but confind to some few Cities and Counties no Capitulations or Articles were Signed or Concluded so that notwithstanding their good Intentions the Imperialists made Havock of them in all Places and the Turks hearing of their Inclinations to return again to their Obedience to the Emperor and of the Steps they had made towards it Treated them in all Places like Enemies with Fire and Sword so that miserable was the State of this poor People who were become Obnoxious to both Parties they had been the Original causes of the Mischief and were likely to Perish in it But the Clemency of the Emperor Commiserating their unhappy Condition Published an Act of General Pardon to all the People of Hungary who had been mislead and debauched from their Duty and Allegiance to their lawful Sovereign Dated at Lintz in the Month of Ianuary 1684 whereby a Door was opened to a Treaty and Pardon offer'd to all such who were desirous to return to the Protection of his Imperial Majesty and to renounce their dependance on the Turks This Edict was affixed in all publick Places as Church-doors and the Market Crosses and dispersed in all the Frontier Garrisons being Written in the Latin and the Hungarian Tongues that none might pretend ignorance thereof The direction was in this manner To all the States and Orders as well Prelates Barons Nobles as to all Free and Royal Cities Counties and People and to all Persons whatsoever none excepted within the Kingdom of Hungary In the first place The sad and deplorable Condition of that Kingdom being bewailed caused by civil and intestine Discords which evil and perverse Spirits had raised and by their evil Perswasions had deluded many Thousands of poor Innocent Men to Sacrifice their Lives and Fortunes to their Lust and Revenge and even to joyn and unite themselves with the Turks who were the ancient and irreconcilable Enemies to the Kingdom of Hungary and the Christian Religion And tho' His Imperial Majesty having been thus highly provoked by the Rebellions and Outrages of the People and by the Power of his Victorious Arms might justly exempt and reject them from all Pardon Yet his gracious Clemency prevailing he doth once again offer his Mercy to as many as before the end of February next ensuing shall renounce and abandon the interest and party of the Malecontents and union with the Turks and repair to Presburg where Commissioners shall be appointed to receive them and to deliver out Pardons to them taking a new Oath of Allegiance to their King with assurances to remain for ever as good Subjects in perfect Loyalty and Obedience to his Majesty which being perform'd such as are of the Nobility shall be restor'd to their Honours Dignities and Estates And in case any such have formerly enjoy'd Honours and Places of Trust their Case shall be consider'd by the Commissioners who are to make Report thereof unto the Emperor who will be ready in such Cases so to Act as shall be most suitable to the Royal Service Such Soldiers as having been seduced by their Commanders to leave and relinquish the Imperial Army shall return again to their Duty and to their Colours shall have the same Post allotted to them as formerly and shall be received again into the
to fall much short of the Quota and of a reasonable Calculation attributed the Default thereof to the negligence of the Musselims or Deputy-Governours to the Pashas for which some of them were punished with Death and others being affrighted hereby used all the Tyranny and Force imaginable to compel the poor People unto the Wars to which many of them going with much unwillingness stole aside and never came so far as the Camp. Howsoever it was impossible but that out of so vast a Tract of Ground as is the Ottoman Empire consisting of many Kingdoms and Principalities there must be some out of every part who having Courage enough to sacrifice their Lives for their Religion and Country came in and united themselves with the Camp and these thô inferiour to the numbers designed and expected yet composed an Army very formidable and such as was able to bid defiance to the Forces of Germany Howsoever the Turks did not think fit to trust so much to their Arms but that they would first assay and try if it were possible to put an end to the War by a fair Accommodation The Person appointed to manage this Treaty was Shitan Ibraim as yet Vizier of Buda a Person as we have before-mentioned of refined Parts and good Address and a Courtier fitted for such a Negotiation In pursuance of this Design this Vizier wrote Letters of Complement to the chief Ministers of State at Vienna acquainting them of the Grand Seignior's Inclinations to a Peace And thô it had never been the Custom of the Sultans to be the first Promoters of Peace or to ask it before it was offered or begged yet such was the Clemency and Compassion of this Emperor and his desire to stop the Effusion of Human Blood that contrary to the Dignity of his Sublime Station raised above the Throne of earthly Kings he would now condescend so low as to be the first who should make this Religious Motion in order unto which he desired that a Pass-port should be sent him for a Chiaus who was an Armenian by Nation and as I think by Religion a Christian freely to pass and repass and to carry the Proposals and to Treat thereupon The Pass-port was accordingly sent and the Armenian conducted to Comorra where being taken rather for a Spy than an Ambassadour he was so closely confined and guarded that he complained of his Restraint to be contrary to the Laws of War and Nations at length he was guarded to Vienna where he was detained under Custody with as jealous and watchful an Eye as when he was at Comorra Howsoever the reception of this Chiaus became the Subject of much Discourse and Talk in the City and gave occasion to the World to censure as if the Emperor had designed to make a Peace under-hand without the Privity and Concurrence of the Allies The Audience of this Chiaus was deferred for some time until it was promoted and hastned by the Envoy from the Prince of Transilvania then residing at that Court and by him at length conducted to the presence of the President of the Council to whom he delivered the Propoposals and Articles of Peace The which after mature Examination seemed to be projected with such Sagacity and Subtlety without sincere and open Terms that they were generally concluded to be Fallacious and not to be Grounds for a faithful and lasting Peace And so in fine the Armenian was dispeeded back with this Answer only That the Emperor could not conclude a Peace without the Concurrence of the King of Poland and the State of Venice the true Allies and Confederates with the Emperor by which Answer the Minister from Apafi Prince of Transilvania being assured of the Emperor's Resolutions to continue the War changed the Tenure of his former Memorials and in his Master's Name proposed that he might remain in a Condition of Neutrality thinking it more secure to remain as a Friend to both sides rather than by adhering to one to rise or fall according to the dubious fortune of War. But if we look into the Winter-quarters before we Treat of the Feats of War which were Actions most fit for the Summer Season we shall find the Imperialists and Bavarians so miserably in want of all Provisions and of things necessary for the sustenance of Human Life That one would wonder how it were possible for these Men to be so soon recover'd and made fit for new Services and Fatigues For such was the Famine in the Lower Hungary that the Inhabitants were forced to Abandon their Dwellings and Fly for Bread into the Town of Buda where they were entertained for Day-labourers to Repair the Fortifications with the Wages of eight pence a Day two pounds weight of Bread and a pint of Wine In the Emperour's Country a Bushel of Wheat which in the times of Peace was worth no more than ten Groats was now advanced in price to Eighteen shillings In Presbourg the Streets were cover'd with famished and dying People the Soldiers were either Dead or Languishing or had deserted their Colours A Pestilence as is natural followed the Famine and Cattle died of the Murrain The Island Schultz which used to be the Granary of the Upper Hungary was now in a Starving condition and the Inhabitants forced to Eat Roots and the Barks of Trees Nay this Misery and Desolation extended even to Vienna it self where in the Garden of the Archbishop two Women were seen to Eat the Raw-flesh of a Horse lately Dead But for a remedy to this Epidemical Calamity the Emperor who is the Common Father of his People caused great quantities of Corn to be brought from all the Neighbouring Countries round about but the Ways were so broken by the great Rains and Marching of Armies and heavy Carriages that the People were brought to the last extremity before the supplies arrived Notwithstanding this great want of Provisions even to a Famin and the Snows and Rains which fell in abundance with Cold Weather of the Winter General Schultz with a Body of Four thousand German Horse and Dragoons and some Companies of Hussars maintained a Blocade round Newhausel To Relieve which Count Tekeli and the Pasha of Agria were particularly encharged with the Commission Tekeli had 6000 Men which he had drawn from the Frontier Garrison and the Pasha had Four thousand which were all his own Troops General Schultz being informed of their motion fell upon them with such bravery that he put them to a total Rout without much loss or fighting and took most of their Provisions and Baggage which were designed for the Relief of that place Howsoever Tekeli made a second adventure for the Succour of Newhausel and with a Party of Three thousand Horse he made way for a Convoy of Three hundred Carts laden with all sorts of Ammunition and Provisions with as many Horse each carrying a Sack of Meal to enter into the Town In the strength and encouragement of which
Azem then such of his Retinue as were thought by his Excellency deserving that Honour The Ceremony being over his Excellency returned in the same manner to his Palace where was prepared a sumptuous Entertainment for all that accompanied him On the 16th of February N. S. the Turkish Ambassador had Audience of the Emperor and was conducted to the Palace The Emperor received him in the Council-Chamber seated on his Throne under a rich Canopy and attended by his Principal Ministers of State and other Persons of the first Quality The Ambassador when he entred the Room made a low Reverence another in the middle of the Chamber and the third near the Throne He went up the Steps of the Throne presented his Credentials and laid them on the Table that was before the Emperor and then returned to the Place where he made his Speech in his own Language containing an Assurance of the Sultan his Master's Friendship and sincere Intentions strictly to observe the Treaty between the two Empires lately concluded which being interpreted by the Sieur Della Torre the Emperor commanded Count Caunitz Vice-Chancellor of the Empire to return an Answer which he accordingly did in High Dutch and the same was Interpreted to the Ambassador by the Sieur Della Torre Then the Ambassador ordered his Steward to bring in the Grand Signior's Presents a List of which he laid upon the Table with a Letter from the Grand Vizier and going once more up the Steps to the Throne kissed the Border of the Emperor's Robe his Attendants at the same time making a very low Reverence After which the Ambassador withdrew walking backwards while he was in the Emperor's Presence and making three Reverences in like manner as when he came into the Room and was reconducted to his House and nobly entertained A LIST of the Presents presented to the Emperor by the Turkish Ambassador A Large Tent or Pavillon very richly adorned with Testons of Gold Embroidery the Staves finely gilt and painted A Plume of Red and White Feathers set with 52 Diamonds great and small A Bridle covered with Gold and enamelled with Red and White set with 531 Diamonds and 338 Rubies the Bit Curb and other things belonging thereto all of fine Gold. A pair of Stirrups of Gold set with 128 Diamonds and 204 Rubies A Housse wrought with Flowers in Gold richly set with Rubies Pearls and Emeralds A great Silver Mace inlaid with Gold and set with 16 Rubies and 25 Emeralds with Straps to hang it up by made of Red Brocado Silk embroider'd with Pearl Emeralds A red Velvet Saddle embroider'd with Pearl Emeralds and Gold. A Velvet Saddle-Cloth embroider'd with 3 Gold Roses A Sumpture-Case of Scarlet Cloth embroidered with Gold. A Bridle covered with Gold enamelled with dark Blue the Bit and other Appurtenances of Gold the whole set with 112 Emeralds 381 Rubies and 49 Diamonds A pair of Silver-gilt Stirrups A Housse embroidered with 26 Roses of Pearl and Coral A Velvet-Saddle wrought with Gold and Silver A Velvet Saddle-Cloth embroidered with three golden Roses A Sumpter-Case of Scarlet Cloth embroidered with Flowers of Gold. A Piece of Amber weighing 89 Ounces Fifteen Bezoar Stones Ten Lumps of Musk. Two Pieces of Cloth of Gold. Two Pieces of Red Sattin wrought with Gold. Six Pieces of very rich Gold Brocado Four Pieces of Silk Brocado wrought with Gold. Ten Pieces of fine Callico called Duezarhi Thirty five Pieces of fine Callico commonly called Imperial Twenty Pieces of fine Callico wrought with Gold. Four Persia Carpets wrought with Gold. Four other Carpets of Turky-work A Dun-coloured Horse of Turcomania A Bay Horse of Turcomania A Light-dun Horse of the Country called Beideleugh A Bay Horse of Arabia Two Silver Chains to fasten Horses to the Stall A Silver Trough for the Horses to drink in Two Leopards covered with Clothes of Persia Brocado and tied with Silver Chains Particulars of the Presents which the Emperor by his Ambassador gave to the Grand Seignior THirty-six Seiket Cups with Covers and Sotto Coppe Twelve Ewers and Basons six of which were gilt Ten hanging Clocks in Silver emboss'd Frames Eight great Clocks in form like the Pedestal of a Pillar and the Clock-work in the middle A curious inlaid Cabinet Abundance of very rich Brocades A great oval Looking-Glass in a square inlaid Frame A great Silver Fire-Pan alla Turca 1 ½ foot high from the ground curiously wrought and very substantial A Silver Screen six foot high very solid and the top made like a Schollop Shell A Fire Hearth alla Franca the Bars of which were of polished Steel the fore part of it of Silver at each end it had a pyramid of Silver and in the middle a great Ball. A pair of Tongs Fire-Shovel and Proger of polished Steel with Silver Heads Twenty-four Silver Sconces with Looking-Glasses in the middle of them Two great Silver Tables alla Turca at least an Ell in Diameter Twelve gilded Tumblers Two great Silver emboss'd Dishes at least 7 foot in Diameter Two great gilded Ewers and Dishes of the same bigness Six great Silver Flower-Pots Six standing Lamps emitting Branches like those in our Churches A Silver Fountain 8 foot high in Foliage-work Two Frank Tables and two pair of Stands very prettily inlaid Two standing Clocks the Cases of which were of the same Work. A great Looking-Glass set about with Stones of divers colours having a Dial-Plate in the middle of it and the Figures ingeniously cut The Last Account of Count TEKELY TEKELY was a Count of the Kingdom of Hungary and one of the most Ancient Families thereof and one of the most Zealous Professors and Assertors of the Protestant Religion which caused him to joyn with the Turks through the whole Course of the last Wars of which we have given an ample Account in the due places of this History whereby appear the great Services which this Noble Person did them and how ill and barbarously they sometimes used him I have particularly instanced how this present Sultan being at Belgrade where having occasion for this Tekely's Services he sent a Capugi-bashee or two to fetch him thither from Constantinople where he had Lodged himself for Recovery of his Healâ—h being informed by the Physicians at Constantinople that the Air of that City was much better than that of Adrianople The Officers who are sent from the Grand Seignior to execute any of his Commands do commonly perform them without any Consideration or Ceremony or Respect to the Person to whom they are sent and so they did to Tekely whom finding in his Bed labouring under a grievous Fit of the Gout they rudely forced him to arise and without any Remorse threw him into a Waggon and hurried him away to Belgrade to receive such Commands as the Grand Seignior had to employ him in and on all Occasions as the hopes of a Peace appeared the Neglects put upon him did daily increase It is commonly the Humour of the Tâ—rks after they have done with
not before the time by him prefixed devour the Reliques of the Greek Empire And it were to be wished that the Christians of our time also by their example warned would at length awake out of their dead sleep who of late hath lost unto the same Enemy not the Castle of Zembenic or the City of Callipolis but whole Kingdoms as Hungary and Cyprus and are still fair in the way I say no more for grief and foreboding of evil fortune But again to our purpose Solyman having made this prosperous entrance into Europe and there got strong footing by speedy Messengers certified his Father what he had done and that it was expedient for him with all speed to send unto him a great supply of men of War as well for the sure defence and keeping of those Castles and Forts by him already gotten as for the further invasion of the Country This message was wonderful welcome unto Orchanes and whereas many Families of the Sarasins at that present were come into the Country of Carasina to possess the Dwellings and Places of them which in hope to better their Estate were before gon over into Europe all these Sarasins he commanded to pass over into Europe likewise which they did accordingly seating themselves for a time in the Country near to Callipolis In the mean time Solyman omitted no opportunity to enter further into the Country winning small Forts and Holds and still peopling the same with his Turks And on the other side they of Carasina passed over into Europe placing themselves as it were in a new World. For which cause and for the great desire they had to extend the Turkish Dominion and Religion they refused no pains of War so that all things at that time prospered with the Turks and went backward with the Christians In the time of these Wars not far from Callipolis was a little Castle called Congere the Captain whereof was by a Greek name called Calo Iohannes a valiant and painful man this Captain continually molested and troubled the Turks which lay on that side of Callipolis under the leading of Ezes-Beg many of whom he slew and took Prisoners as he could find them at any advantage Solyman much angred herewith by crafty and secret Espials learned a certain time when he was gone out of his Castle to do some exploit upon the Turks Whereupon he presently so beset the Castle with Souldiers that he could by no means return thither but he must first fall into their hands and for more assurance placed others also in by-ways lest he should by any ways escape The Captain ignorant of all this prosecuted his enterprise and having taken a Turk Prisoner thinking to return to his Castle was hastily pursued by Fazil-Beg for which cause making the more haste he suddenly fell into the danger of the Turks laid in ambush where his men were all slain and himself taken and brought before his own Castle and had there his head presently struck off whereupon the Castle was forthwith by them that were therein having now lost their Captain surrendred and Chazi Ili-Beg a valiant Captain of the Turks placed therein who from thence never ceased to trouble the Country even to the Walls of Dydimotichum as did Solyman also out of Callipolis Thus in the space of one year the Turks got strong footing in Europe possessing divers Castles and Towns with the Country about them which Solyman gave in reward unto his Captains and Souldiers as appeareth by the Graves and Tombs of Ezes-Beg and Fazil-Beg the two which first came over into Europe which are there yet well known About this time it fortuned that as this Martial Prince Solyman was for his disport hawking in the Fields of Bolayre on Europe side galloping in to his Falcon was with his Horse overthrown in a ditch of which Fall he being sore bruised shortly after died The news of his death being brought to Orchanes his Father gave unto him then being sick just occasion of great sorrow so that within two months after he died also being fourscore years old when he had raigned thereof 31 years and died about the year of our Lord 1359. Some Histories report otherwise both of his death and of the time wherein he lived as that he should be slain in a Battel against the Tartars or as others write with an Arrow at the Siege of Prusa in the year of our Lord 1349. But Ioannes Leunclavius in his History collected out of the Turks own Chronicles whom we follow as most probable reporteth it as before This Orchanes was wise courteous and bountiful more ingenious than his Father in devising warlike Engins He built divers Princely Churches Abbies Colledges and Cells and was in his superstitious Religion very zealous in so much that he appointed Pensions to all such as could in the Church say the Book of Mahomets Law by heart and appointed competent maintenance for all Judges of his Courts because they should not take any thing in reward of his Subjects for the perverting of Justice He greatly inlarged his Kingdom in Asia and not content to be inclosed with the Seas of Euxinum and Hellespontus set fast footing in Europe which some attribute to his Son Amurath He was to the Christians always a most mortal Enemy and so died FINIS Christian Princes of the same time with Orchanes Emperors Of the East Andronicus Paleologus the younger 1325. 29. John Paleologus 1354. 30. Of the West Lewis the Fourth of Bavaria 1314. 32. Charles the Fourth Son to John King of Bohemia 1346. 10 Kings Of England Edward the Third 1327. 50. Of France Philip Valois 1328. 22. John Valois 1350. 14. Of Scotland Robert Bruce 1306 24. David Bruce 1341. Bishops of Rome John the XXII 1317. 18. Benedict the XII 1335. 7. Clement the VI. 1342. 12. Innocent the VI. 1354. 10. †AMVRATHES PRIMVS TERTIVS TVRCARVM REX 1350. Saevus Amurathes animo dum maxima versat Discordes Groecos sternere marte parat Totus et intentus sines extendere Regni Europam penitrans obvia quoeque rapit Attoniti trepidant nimia formidine Thraces In medio quorum Sceptra superba locat Hinc Moesos premit ille feros miserumque Dynasten Cossovi in Campis obruit atque necat Sed non longa fuit sceleris tam dira voluptas A servo coesus condidit ense ferox Sterne Amurath new thoughts resolves upon With armes divided Greece to overrun And wholly bent to enlarge his narrow bounds Europe invades and all he meets confounds The too too timorous Thracians stand amaz'd To find his Scepter in their bowells plac'd The fierce Bulgarians did his fury quell And at his feet their noble Despot fell At last the ponyard of a little Slave Taught him what short liv'd pleasures Tyrants have The LIFE of AMURATH The First of that NAME Third King of the Turks And the great AUGMENTOR of their Kingdom AMurath the younger Son of Orchanes succeeded his Father in the Turkish Kingdom
remedy unto the present danger and avert the miserable Calamities now hanging over them and even ready to fall upon their heads The Protestant States they said to be content to put the Controversie to be decided and composed by certain grave and wise Mâ—n to be chosen Arbitrators on both parts yet with this Condition That for the space of fourteen days no Hostility should on either side be used that the Inhabitants both above and beneath Amisum should be comprised within this Truce that such as were kept in durance for their Religion should be set at liberty and that all High-ways and Passes should be from all Ambushes and other dangers cleared Unto which their request the King condescending gave leave unto the States of Moravia upon the most equal Conditions they could devise to compose and end all matters who so laboured in this business betwixt the King and the Protestant States of Austria that at length viz. the twelfth of March a Pacification was made betwixt the King and them his Subjects Leopold the Arch-duke Melinus the Popes Nuntio the Bishop of Vienna and other great Men of the contrary Religion and Faction seeking in vain to have letted the same the chief Articles and points of which Pacification were these That the Nobility in their Castles and Towns as also in their Houses in the Cities should for themselves and their People have the free Exercise of their Religion That the free Exercise of Preaching might be used in the three Churches at Iserâ—dore Trihelsuincel and Horne That other Churches shut up might again be opened by three of the Romish and three of the Reformed Religion and the free Exercise of Religion in them used That Counsellers and other publick Officers should from thenceforth indifferently be chosen of men of both Religions but that such Offices as were hereditary should so still remain That the Election of Magistrates and otherpublick Officers in Towns and Cities should from thenceforth be made by the Magistrates and Citizens themselves and not to be nominated from the Court as hitherto they had been That no Church should hereafter be shut against either part but their own Churches to be left unto them both quietly to use That the Towns-men and Citizens in their Towns and Cities should from thenceforth have power to make choice of their Ministers and Preachers and that for them it should be lawful to visit the Sick and to administer unto them the Lords Supper That the Oath of Allegeance should be taken of them of the Reformed Religion in like manner as it had been betaken of them of the Romish but yet not with the same Ceremonies of the Romish Church all union and confederation with them to be had to be taken away that all grudging hatred and quarrel should be on both sides forgiven and for ever forgotten Wolfgang of Hoffkirch Voltsogius and others removed and put from their Offices for not taking the Oath of Allegeance being again received into Favour and restored into their Places That it might be lawful for the Towns and Cities above Amisum to have the free Exercise of the Reformed Religion in their Suburbs and Hospitals It was not long after this Pacification so made but that King Matthias the seventeenth of May going to Lintz with three hundred Horse was there with eight Troops of Horse-men and fifteen Companies of Foot by the States sent forth to meet him most honourably received and by three triumphal Arches brought into the City where he received of the States of the Religion the Oath of their Obedience which with much Joy Triumph and Feasting performed he the seven and twentieth of the same Month again returned to Vienna The aforesaid States of Austria in the mean time with great zeal continuing the free Exercise of their Religion at Horne a great multitude of People daily resorting unto the Sermons there made they of the Romish Religion much grieving and fretting thereat The King himself also being come to Vienna put divers Romish Catholicks out of their Offices and placed those of the Reformed Religion in their rooms to the great discontentment of many About this time the Bassa of Agria notwithstanding the Peace had for the sum of twenty thousand Crowns before hand paid secretly compacted with one Andrew Drake to have the strong Town of Fileck in the upper Hungary delivered unto him Which the Traytor had intended as he himself confessed to have performed by setting of the House wherein he himself dwelt by night on fire unto the quenching whereof the Garrison Souldiers resorting his purpose was in the mean time to have secretly let in the Turks and so to have delivered the Town into their Hands But this his so wicked a purpose in good time discovered and by him confessed he was therefore as he had well deserved alive cut in four pieces a just reward for his foul intended Treason The Bassa of Buda also contrary to the Treaty of Peace about the same time went about to have exacted the Oath of Allegeance of above four hundred Country Villages of the Christians being not comprised within the foresaid Treaty But as the Turks for their part were secretly plotting how to encroach upon the Christians and to do them harm so the Haiducks on the other side in great numbers gathered together in the upper Hungary began here and there to molest and trouble the Turks until they were by their Superiours commanded to desist from so doing for disturbing of the Peace Now about this time also Illishascius the County Palatine of Hungary died at Vienna a man much beloved of the Hungarians his Country-men and now by them no less lamented for whose dead Body was with great Honour afterward conveyed from Vienna unto his own Territory in Hungary and there with all funeral Pomp buried with his Ancestors In whose stead George Turson was afterward by the general consent of an hundred and fifty of the Hungarian Nobility chosen County Palatine of Hungary and so with the universal and solemn Acclamations of the People saluted And now the Troubles for Religion were scarcely well ended in Austria as is aforesaid but that the like or rather worse b%gan forthwith even for the same quarrel to arise in Bohemia the Hussites as they call them most earnestly importuning the Emperour for the free Exercise of their Religion or rather for the taking away of certain grievances done to their Religion and the Roman Catholicks even at the same time leaving nothing unattempted which might serve to bring them of the Religion into hatred with the Emperour and others sitting at the Helm of the Government of the Estate and so to frustrate whatsoever the Emperour had in the general Assembly of the States the last year granted unto them of the Religion for the free Exercise and Advancement thereof The composing of which Controversie tending unto the rending in sunder of the whole Kingdom when as the Emperour had referred unto
Enemies Country and by such Actions as these both Nations were ready to break forth into an open Rupture With these hopes and encouragements the Malecontents betook themselves again to their Arms under the Command of Erdedi Petrozzi Succhai Kende Zepeti and several other Lords and Persons of power and interest in their Country The time appear'd favourable and advantageous to their enterprise for the Walls of most of the Towns weâ—e then beaten down and the old Works slighted with design to Rebuild and make them stronger according to the new way and manner of Fortifications Provisions were also wanting in most of the Garrisons and the German as well as the Hungarian Troops were in Mutiny for want of pay And this was the time which the Malecontents chose to put themselves in Arms and renew the War. At the beginning whereof being 12000 strong they gain'd the Passage of Teyllas year 1673. and advanced as far as Cassovia which they blocked up and Defeated five Troops of Dragoons under the Command of Lieutenant Colonel de Soyer and by the advantage of a dark and a rainy Night cut them to pieces the Lieutenant Colonel only with some few of his Soldiers making an escape into Cassovia After this Success they proceeded to Esperies and took it without much loss by the Cowardice of the Officer which Commanded it and in divers other Skirmishes worsted the Imperialists The Emperor having received advices of this new Insurrection immediately dis-speed-General Kops with an Army of 10.000 Men into Hungary to which were 4 or 5000 Men more joyned under the Command of Count Esterhasi and Valentine Balassi composed almost all of Horse and of Men true and loyal to the Emperor's interest Such an Army as this could not remain long without Action both Parties desiring to come to an Engagement which soon afterwards happened at the Passage of Branitza where Colonel Smith and Count Palfi who led the Van-guard charged the Malecontents who defended some narrow Passes with so much valour that they killed a 1000 of them on the place besides many others who were wounded and taken Prisoners with the loss only of 15 or 16 Soldiers After this Defeat the Malecontents marched by the way of Serentz year 1673. about two Leagues distant from Tokai and invested Zatmar but a Sally being made out of the Town by Lieutenant Colonel Staremberg who Commanded there in Chief they were forced to raise their Siege with the loss of several Colours and many Prisoners Likewise General Kops and Spankau pursued them so closely at the Heels that with great loss and difficulty they were enforced to pass the Theyss Divers places at the same time surrender'd as the Castle of Meges and the Town of Nagibania the which places were dismantled and their Walls thrown down And as the Imperialists were towards the end of the year returning to their Winter quarters they met a party of 500 Horse belonging to the Malecontented party of which they killed 300 on the place and took divers Prisoners one of which was the Son of Succhai one of the Chief Leaders of the Rebel party Thus whil'st it went ill in all places with the Malecontents the Popish Clergy took courage to assert their right to divers Churches and Chapels which they pretended to belong unto them and to those of their Religion and by force of Arms took possession of them which they held until such time year 1673. as that the Protestant party became strong enough to eject them and executed this design without much opposition in all the Countries of Nitria Trenschin Turoz Stranian Lippovia and in several Towns and Villages of the Mountains where they set up and exercised the Popish Religion with all the Rites and Ceremonies to the great Scandal and Displeasure of the Hungarians Particularly in the Month of Iune at a Town called Senetz the Curate of the Parish was zealous to celebrate in a publick and solemn manner the Festival of Corpus Christi and to carry the Sacrament in Procession Which Feast happening to be on a day when a Fair was held at that Town which brought a great concourse of People thither the Priest fearing some affront from the Multitude desired the Governour of Branitz to afford him a Serjeant and 12 Soldiers to accompany the Sacrament and defend it from the violence and prophaneness of the Hereticks Which being granted as the Priest was carrying the Sacrament in Procession he was assaulted by the People and killed by them together with the 12 Soldiers which were sent for his Guard. So soon as Count Staremberg had news of this Sacrilegious Murder he marched to the Town with his own Regiment and several Troops of German Horse for punishment of the Authors of this abominable wickedness which he executed with all the Rigour and Severity imaginable for the pillaged and burned their Houses and put every one to the Sword excepting those who saved their Lives by escaping into the Woods After all these Defeats and many others given to the Malecontents and this vast effusion of Blood it might well be imagin'd that an end would have been put to this War which had neither a setled Council nor a Fund of Money nor an Interest of great Men to support it Howsoever such was the force and power which the Preachers used in their Sermons to the People inciting them to a Defence of their Religion the Exercise of which the Emperor as they said had determined to take from them that they resolved to die in the maintenance thereof being perswaded that their Friends and Companions who had already sacrificed their Lives in that Cause were real Martyrs and had obtained the Crown which was laid up in Heaven for them Nor were the Protestants only in the mind to Wage a War but even the Roman Catholicks also who being moved by another Principle of defending the Privileges and Freedom of their People thought it their Duty to rise up and assert the Cause of their native Country and Nation For tho' they owned all Duty and Obedience to the Emperor yet being but an Elective King and one to whom the People had sworn Allegiance on Condition that he should maintain them in the ancient Rights and Prileges of that Kingdom they held themselves no longer obliged thereunto after he had violated all their Laws and absolutely subverted the ancient Fabrick of their Government which he had apparently done in three instances First In quartering German Soldiers in the Country and Towns with intent to over-awe and govern them by an absolute and an arbitrary Power Secondly By imposing a Vice-King upon them constituted solely by the Imperial Commission in lieu and place of a Palatine who according to the ancient Constitutions was to be elected by a Diet composed of the several Estates of that Kingdom And Thirdly Instead of such a Diet the Emperor was pleased to erect a Sovereign Council consisting of such Members as
he himself did think fit to nominate and appoint over which the Vice-King was as Chief Commissioner to preside And thus the Parties of both Religions being disgusted and animated to Fight pro Aris Focis for their Laws their Country and Religion Fury and Despair served them in the place of Counsel Money and other Nerves and Sinews of War So that when one party was cut off another arose in greater numbers and like Hydra's increased the more by being destroyed Amongst which appear'd a bold Fellow nam'd Striâ—iniski who pretended to be sent by the Governors fo the Mountain Towns calling himself Duke Iohn and with his own name signed and issued out Commissions and dispersed them every where as if he had been the Sole and Sovereign Prince of that Country Many persons adher'd to him and followed his Standard looking on him as a bold and a daring Fellow who seldom gave quarter to any much less to Jesuits and Priests to whom he never showed mercy whensoever any of that character fell within his Power The which was again revenged by Count Strazoldo in such cruel manner without distinction of persons either of guilty or innocent that the Imperial Council taking notice thereof sent their Orders to him to uâ—e better moderation in his future actings and to treat the Hungarians with more gentleness which tho' he observed in respect to the Sword of his own Souldiers who were forbidden to Massacre or shed their Blood yet being directed to take and bring them before the Courts of Justice by which a speedy Sentence was passed and some were condemned to be hanged some be quarter'd others to be empaled this way of process seemed much more cruel and sâ—vere than a speedy Execution by the Sword of the Soldiery ANNO 1674. Tho' the Grand Seignior had not as yet publickly own'd the cause of the Malecontents howsoever the Pasha's and Officers had receiv'd private Instructions to countenance and favour their Causâ— without open â—eâ—unciations of a War and many Turks in hopes of Plunder and Booty habited themselves in the Hungarian fashion and joyn'd with their Troops and several parties of Turks in great numbers pretending that the Christians in a Hostile manner had made Incursions within their Territories came openly to revenge them and march'd as far as Schentha from whence they carried away an Hungarian Gentleman with 7 Soldiers Upon this Advice Lieutâ—nant Colonel de Soyer with his Dragoons and Hussars Sallied out of the Town to the rescuâ— of the Prisoners but being surpriz'd by 5 Companies of Turkish Foot who issued out of an Ambuscade where they had conceal'd themselves Soyer himself was kill'd with 2 Liâ—utenants 1 Ensign 4 Sâ—rjeants and 80 common Soldiâ—rs The Garrison of Newhawsel encourag'd with this Success continu'd their Incursions along the River of Waagh and made some dâ—predations but being pursu'd by the Hussars and Heydukes of Comorra they were forc'd to surrender 200 Head of Cattle together with all the Booty and Plunder they had taken Thus whilst Matters succeeded with various Successes but most commonly in favour of the Emperor both Parties acted their Cruelties upon each other the Malecontents as often as the Priests fell into their hands they us'd them but very scurvily they buried one of them alive of others they cut off their Noses and Ears and hanged or strangled others In punishment of which the Emperor Order'd the Vice-King to drive the Protestant Ministers out of his Dominions and to seize upon all their Churches to the use of the Catholicks and not to suffer them to meet or exercise their Religious Worship therein In pursuance of these Orders the Bishops of Colonitz and Iavarow seiz'd upon all the Churches Schools Livings and Benefices whatsoever belonging to the Protestant Clergy within their Diocesses And the Archbishop of Strigonium Primate of that Kingdom cited all the Protestant Ministers to appear before him and put many of them to the Question forcing them to confess who those were who for the two last years were the chief Incendiaries of Seditions and Authors of the Rebellion Nor were the smaller sort of the Malecontents only persecuted but some of the great Men and chief Ministers in the Emperor's Court were suspected and accused of correspondence and intelligence with the Rebels The Prince Lubkovitz President of the Council was suspected and accus'd but whether that jealousie arose from the near alliance in Blood he had with the Family of Serini or from malicious Informations is uncertain howsoever his Secretary by Order of the Emperor was put to the Torture and tho' therein he confess'd nothing which could accuse or reflect on his Master yet he was treated as a guilty person and all his Estate real and personal in Austria and Bohemia were seiz'd and confiscated to the use and benefit of the Emperor Count Souches had the like misfortune to have his Fidelity and Loyalty suspected but in regard nothing could be prov'd against him he was commanded to leave the Court and retire to his Government of Waradine or some other part of his Estate The Son also in resentment of this hard usage of his Father abandon'd the Court and all the Offices he enjoy'd therein ANNO 1675. At the beginning of this year the Turks began more openly to assert the Cause of the Malecontents making their Incursions as far as Freystadt within the Neighbourhood of Presburg forcing the People to do Homage and pay Contributions to the Grand Seignior and for default thereof they burnt many Villages and committed other acts of Hostility The Malecontents at the same time defeated a great part of a Croatian Regiment under the Command of Colalto By which and the Advices that the Turks were assembled in a Body of 14000 Men within the Neighbourhood of Newhawsel the Emperor fearing lest they should joyn with the Malecontents convened the chief Lords and Gentlemen of Hungary at Presburg to which place he sent Count Siaki to tender them Conditions of an accommodation of which Prince Apafi frankly offer'd himself to be the Mediator At this Assembly some of the more moderate Men who were desirous to bring Matters to a good understanding represented unto their Companions the ruine and destruction which must necessarily ensue from a Civil War and tho' the exercise of their Religion ought to be dearer to them than their Lives and to be preferr'd before all earthly benefits yet the same Religion taught them not to rebel against their Prince or make Wars for the sake thereof whose foundation and design was peace much less could they justifie the engaging the Turk therein unless whilst they profess'd themselves Protestants they acted like Mahometans But these and many other things were spoken in vain to Men who were possess'd with a Zeal for their Religion year 1675. and with an Opinion that they were Martyrs who died in defence thereof And in regard those of them who were in Hungary were not able